Votes in the Planetary Council

[gwillybj]

A long time ago (May 23, 2001), at a site over that-a-way (http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/19348-Council-Votes), the question was asked by RichardY

Does anyone know if there is a formula for calculating the number of Council Votes? I can't find any reference in the mannual. If there is already a thread posted on the forum please advise me.

Replies were given by Clear Skies

There's no set number of council votes. Every faction just gets more and more as they expand & grow.

and Method

there isn't one. for every unit of pop u have you get 1 vote(plus sp's etc)

That last is not quite true. The manual does talk about how votes are given to the factions, on page 132

In votes for Planetary Governor (and later, in votes for Supreme Leader), each faction is given a variable number of votes in council depending on its population. The voice of a larger, richer faction counts for far more than the voice of the small and weak.

My question is, since the code has been looked over so much lately, has anyone found how the calculation is done to award votes? It is not "one man, one vote" at all. Looking at my current game, no obvious pattern jumps out with regard to population, wealth, commerce, etc., and votes.

[Geo]

If memory serves me, there's 2 secret projects and 1 social ability that can multiply a faction's votes: Clinical Immortality, Empath Guild, and the Peacekeeper double votes ability.

Beyond that, I'm at a loss.

[Buster's Uncle]

At least at the beginning, votes are easy to calculate: faction pop + any bonus...

[Nexii]

As BUncle said, council votes are the sum of the population of all your bases.  For example if you have three cities at size 6, 4, and 3 you will have 13 total votes.

[gwillybj]

It is "1 population, 1 vote" early, but we are in the Quantum Reactor part of the techtree (I won't explain all that is going on).

Faction1 has 925 votes with 1884 population
Faction2 has 462 votes with 1365
Faction3 has 582 votes with 1305
Faction4 was eliminated
Faction5 has 2781 votes with 2072 population and the Empath Guild (1854 votes without it, possibly only 927?)
Faction6 has 571 votes with 1296
Faction7 has 865 votes with 1312

Total votes 6186, total population 9234

 

[Geo]

This is in SMACX?

Now you made me curious enough to open up an endsave of the SMAC game I finished last night, and check the votes count.

[gwillybj]

Yes, this is SMAX, with nothing changed in the alphax.txt regarding votes.

[Geo]

Just checked my SMAC game (Kyrub's latest patch) game, and the population counts comes even with the vote count after Empath, Clinical, and Peacekeeper surplusses. Mind you, in my game only 428 population came into count, which added to 652 votes.

Just to verify, you get more votes then there is actually population for each surviving faction, except for the faction owning the empath guild which experiences the reverse effect?
And this is the GOG version of SMACX, with nothing from Scient, Kyrub, or Yitzi?

[Petek]

@gwillybj,

How are you determining pop? Are you actually adding up the pop of each base, using the figure given in the F8 screen, or something else? I find that the population given in the F8 screen becomes inaccurate as the game progresses. I've looked at several of my games and in all cases found that the Planetary Council votes corresponded to the total base pops, considering SPs and faction traits when applicable.

[gwillybj]

Yes, I'm using F8 for the population. I'll have to add them all up.
For the Votes, I'm using the Planetary Council button, then right-clicking each faction for its details.
I'll need some time; it's a huge map and we're well along...

[gwillybj]

Well, I feel like the total Dunce
13 years playing this game and active on the forums, I should have learned long ago to check my work before posting.

Faction1 = 1014 pop & votes
Faction2 = 492
Faction3 = 593
Faction4 = 0
Faction5 = 2358 pop *1.5 = 3537 votes
Faction6 = 604
Faction7 = 873

Total is, indeed, 5934 population, 7113 votes!
imagine that

What, then, are the "Population" points shown in the F8 scores? I've always relied on that screen to inform me...

[Buster's Uncle]

Yitzi?



gwilly, I want you to know that I notice and enjoy the sig changes...

[Geo]

What, then, are the "Population" points shown in the F8 scores? I've always relied on that screen to inform me...

That's, AFAICS, the score computed for your population. I don't know how the games computes that number. Perhaps colony pods are counted as well or something.

[Nexii]

I see discrepancies as well.  It's some sort of bug - if you destroy all bases the surplus population score remains.  May have something to do with phantom superdrones/talents?

[Yitzi]

May have something to do with phantom superdrones/talents?

Only if it was based on regular drones/talents.