Ideas for new SMAC (a purely recreational thread)

[Sigma]

I'm sure that all of us have our own individual ideas as to what a new Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri 2 should be about, and how it should play. I'm sure a lot of you have done exactly what I've done-- put your thoughts down into a document, just to see them on the page. I thought it would be fun to share those ideas and see what you all think, as well as to see how they differ or are in line with your own ideas.

So, to heck with it, I'm letting my brain spill out. These ideas are in all sorts of different orders but are going to be grouped together roughly by theme. I'm adding to my document all the time during free minutes I get at work, so it's an ever expanding, living thing. Let me know what you think.

This thread is just for fun, the stuff I'm talking about here is, I'm sure, way outside the reach of moddability.

Tau Ceti

Planetary Features:

Meteor Impacts: The planet is surrounded by a cloud of meteoric debris that frequently impact the surface. These impacts can be positive or negative-- they can damage facilities and square improvements, but they can also seed the planet with rare minerals and elements. Major impacts can even lead to gold rushes where factions attempt to be the first to exploit the new resource.

Lesser meteor impacts lead to the creation of Wastelands, which carpet the planet in irregular patterns. Wastelands impede navigation but offer well defended positions for entrenched units. Any existing tile has the potential to be converted into a Wasteland, destroying at least one improvement on it. Bases are not destroyed by small impacts but can be damaged.

Coral: Coral is Tau Ceti’s equivalent to xenofungus. These massive formations crosscross the planet in seemingly random patterns. The colonists don’t seem to know exactly what it is-- the assumption is that it’s some kind of plant or animal matter, though some come to believe that it is the ruins of an ancient civilization. The Spiders (see below) seem to tend to it, and some will violently react to attempts to destroy or exploit it. Different narratives in the story explore what the Coral really is-- ultimately it is found that the Coral is a remnant of an older civilization, one that attempted a form of Transcendance via Quantum Tunneling, but something went wrong and the Coral is all that is left. The vast debris field surrounding the planet is revealed to be a result of this failed attempt, and is the remains of one of the world’s lost moon.

Natives: The native lifeform of Tau Ceti are a race of arachnids, simply called Spiders. The average Spider is approximately half the size of an adult human. They are intelligent but relatively primitive, and are arranged into tribal communities. The Spiders communicate through a combination of vocalizations and electromagnetic fields, which they can also use to emit light and change color. This ability also allows them a form of telepathy at close range via remote transcranial magnetic stimulation, which they use for communication as well as for combat. Humans are particularly susceptible to this form of combat-- the spider’s EM fields scramble communications and disable or negate sophisticated weaponry, necessitating the development of new forms of close range combat.

In combat, Spiders are arranged into groups via the following tiers (with human morale equivalents):

• Thin Pack (Very Green)
• Pack (Green)
• Hunting Pack (Disciplined)
• Swarm (Hardened)
• Heavy Swarm (Veteren)
• Horde (Commando)
• Plague (Elite)

The natives sort of occupy a role as an eighth faction. They are not a part of conventional diplomacy, and you can never have a permanent relationship of peace or war-- rather your relationship is in large part dictated by your Planet/Ecology rating. The better your rating, the more likely the Spiders are to help you, and vice versa.

Spider Colony is a specific tile type. Spider Colonies function like Bases, where your units can either attack or enter them, depending on your relationship with the Spiders. When you approach a Spider Colony you are given the option to either attack or enter the colony. If you attack, that colony will become hostile no matter what. If you enter the Colony may force you into combat or it may let you in, which can give you rewards like resources and such. Colonies will recharge their bonuses after a while, so it helps to have frequent contact with friendly colonies.

Spider Colonies within the perimeter of your base can grant you resources depending chiefly on your Planet score. Hostile Spider Colonies can also generate units that will attack your units and bases or destroy improvements you’ve planted.

GAME MECHANICS

Bases and Colonies: Human settlements come in two forms: Bases and Colonies.

Bases are small outposts that occupy a single tile. A base has a hard size cap that it can never exceed. Bases can gather and convoy resources to another base or to a Colony, or they can contribute towards the growth of the faction. The scope of a base’s production is limited by what kind of base it. There are three kinds of bases:

• Military- Military bases can construct combat units and combat facilities and provide defensive bonuses to the surrounding area
• Production- Production bases gather resources and send them to another base. Each Production base can only supply one kind of resource per turn, and any resource that they supply is resources that they can’t use for their own upkeep and production. The further away a Base is from the Colony that it is supplying, the more resources are lost in transit.
• Science- Science bases generate Lab points. Science bases generate points based either perpetually, or via production queues. The perpetual research works similarly to Stockpile Energy, i.e. resources are translated into general lab points each turn. Queued research works similar to facility construction, except that once a research project is completed it can then be started again. Queued research generates more points upon completion than perpetual research, but its lab points are targetted based on the four Tech types. It also only generates its points upon completion, and changing gears midproduction will lead to delays.

All types of bases can also construct Facilities to improve their construction and creature comforts, and there are certain facilities that can only be built by Bases.

Colonies are large settlements that are built on a single tile, but can grow to occupy a space as big as nine tiles (or seven, if the game uses Hexes, as is likely). Colonies occupy the same role as Bases do in SMACX, however there are both limitations placed on them and liberties alloted them to expand gameplay potential.

Facility Slots: A Colony can only have as many facilities as it can staff and support. In SMACX, facilities are limited purely by their upkeep costs, which for many players barely even factors in beyond the midgame. In Tau Ceti, the number of facilities that a colony supports is determined by its Population and existing Infrastructure. This makes it basically impossible for a single colony to have every facility, which will lead to three outcomes:

• Players must further prioritize which facilities they need to build, and when
• Less essential facilities will be treated as the luxuries that they are
• Colonies will take on character based on what facilities they have

This last point is critical. A problem with bases in SMACX is that because they all have the same facilities, bases eventually become interchangeable. By forcing players to decide what facilities to build in their bases, bases will take on their own character and be identified by more than just their name and strategic location.

Districting: After a colony reaches a certain size, say when it covers three tiles, you are given the ability to assign its tiles into Districts. A colony must always have a Command district, which governs its administration, but beyond that Districts can include:

• Habitat: These residential districts help you expand your Colony’s growth and population. Colonies will still grow without Habitat Districts, but at a slower rate.
• Commercial: Commercial districts primarily improve your income as well as general citizen contentment
• Industrial: Industrial districts enhance your colony’s production
• Martial: Martial districts are for improving the defense of your colony. Since attacking a large colony involves taking it one district at a time, a well positioned Martial district can vastly improve your odds of survival.
• Prestige: Prestige districts is where all of your monuments and vanity projects go

The application of Districts is such that certain facilities, and even certain projects,  can only be built if you have the prerequisite district in your Colony.

Overall, the game is designed for Factions to have fewer Colonies, but for there to be more to do in those colonies than before. Bases supplement Colonies to give the player a better ability to expand his territory and influence.

MILITARY: Focus here is on improving strategic options by enhancing player management of units and groups.

Stacking Mechanics: A single land space has the capacity to be occupied by up to six units. However, different Chassis types have different Size levels:

• Infantry: 1
• Rover: 2
• Hovertank: 3

Therefore, you can stack 6 Infantry units in a space, or 3 Rovers, or 2 Hovertanks, or any combination thereof which adds up to no more than 6.

Group Movement: Units stacked together into a single space can be Grouped together so that they move all at once. The rate of movement for the Group is set by the slowest unit. So a Group with 1 Hovertank, 1 Rover and 1 Infantry would move at the speed of the Infantry unit.

Group Combat: When one Group attacks another, the combat strength of each unit is assessed and then the units are paired off according to the tactic that the Attacker chooses:

• Target Strong: Units strengths are directly paired, so that the Strongest Attackers target the Strongest Defenders, the Weakest Attackers target Weakest Defenders
• Target Weak: Unit strengths are inversely paired, so that the Strongest Attackers target the Weakest Defenders, and vice versa.

If one Group has more units than the other group, the surplus units will support either the Strongest or Weakest unit in their Group, depending upon which Tactic is being used

Air and Naval Grouping: Movement through Air spaces and Ocean spaces works the same way, as does combat.

Artillery Shelling and Bombing: Shelling (both ground based and naval) and Bombing is given increased importance by enabling those attacks to damage Base and Colony Infrastructure, and weakening the Defender’s ability to adequately hold their position. This enhances the importance of Naval combat, as naval weaponry can hit inland positions for significant damage, making Naval Defense more important. This also retunes the importance of aerial combat, lowering its impact against ground units to make room for the Bombing function.

[vv221]

A shame you're not a game developer, I would pay good money for this game

[kyrub]

Excellent concepts, Sigma.
My favourite is the "facility slots" feature. I love it when games set limits and force you to reconsider your choices, that is sadly rarely implemented, or, should I add, very rarely implemented well.

Not very fond of large colonies, that just seems like a flavour thing. It could make wars a bit more interesting if well done. "Natives" remind of Indians in old Colonization game, that would be really fun to have here.

[Buster's Uncle]

Geo's got the Tau Ceti name claimed for something he's been working on for about a year, BTW...

Beta Lyrae is claimed by Darsnan, also - those two are all the star systems/names I can think of ATM.

[JarlWolf]

Could name it Tales of Chiron, or Colonization of Centauri.

Could also name it, Planet: A New beginning.

I am curious as to what you meant by settlement "character." Care to elate more?

[Sigma]

Excellent concepts, Sigma.
My favourite is the "facility slots" feature. I love it when games set limits and force you to reconsider your choices, that is sadly rarely implemented, or, should I add, very rarely implemented well.

Agreed. One of the things that tends to disappoint me most about SMAC, especially in late game, is that all bases more or less become interchangeable, except for the Superbases that are built with all the single base enhancing SPs. There's no reason why you can't have a tree farm, a biology lab, a research hospital, a robot assembly plant, in every single base, which pretty much makes those facilities not special.

Not very fond of large colonies, that just seems like a flavour thing.

Fair enough. My personal preference is for the player to have fewer Colonies than they would in SMACX, but for there to be more to do in each one. That way you spend less time setting up production Queues for your two dozen bases and more time actively managing and optimizing them.

Geo's got the Tau Ceti name claimed for something he's been working on for about a year, BTW...

Beta Lyrae is claimed by Darsnan, also - those two are all the star systems/names I can think of ATM.

Okay, I'll go with Procyon then. It's only 11 light years from Earth, and it's hypothesized that it may have a planet orbiting it. As I said, it's not like it really matters since this is mostly just for fun. It might be interesting to listen to what they're working on...

I am curious as to what you meant by settlement "character." Care to elate more?

Think about every game of SMACX you've ever played. When you think of the character of your Faction, you think of its flavor text, its social choices, and the way that you act relative with the other Factions in the game. That's one of the things that makes SMACX so great-- it's a strategy game, but you can also play it almost like a roleplaying game.

Procyon goes a step further and allows you to draw characterization from your Colonies as well. Again, think of every game of SMACX you've ever played. Look at two of your bases on the same continent. Do you view them as having their own unique identities? In real life cities have their own atmosphere and personality. You'd never mistake Seattle for Detroit, or Stockholm for Tokyo. Obviously Procyon could never have a level of Colony customization on the micro level of Sim City, but on the Macro level it could enhance your immersion compared with SMACX. You can actually go into the city on the Macro level and get a feel for what it's like. If you're playing as the Gaians, perhaps you put multiple Prestige districts into Gaia's Landing and turn it into a vast nature preserve, or maybe you stock it with Habitats and make it the center of Gaian life; then you zip over to Gaia's High Garden which is a Military powerhouse, positioned at the head of a land bridge and thus protecting your territory. Added to that, because of the Facility Slot idea, each Colony will be slightly different based on what Facilities you put into it. Heavy industrial bases wouldn't have the space for a Research Hospital, for instance.

I'll post some more concepts later today.

[Sigma]

Close Quarters Combat: Combat against Spiders requires Close Quarters Combat, due to the electromagnetic phenomena that occur in their presence which scramble communications, disable long range weaponry and induce hallucinations and psychological trauma. Like Psi combat in SMACX, CQC primarily relies upon the Morale level of the units engaging each other, as well as the presence of certain abilities or other external factors. Human units can also be given the equipment and training necessary to engaging in CQC with other Human units.

Effects of Lab Output on Coral: In SMACX, mineral output principally induced ecological damage, which would lead to the growth of Fungus within the Base’s perimeter. In Procyon, the Coral isn’t affected by eco damage (that is the chief concern of the Spiders), but it is affected by Lab Output. The higher your boost your Lab output, the more likely it is that Coral will expand into the perimeter of the base. This is due to the relationship between the Coral and the abortive singularity event that lead to the extinction of the planet’s previous civilization. At dangerously high endgame levels of Lab output, where you might be teching up every two turns, you can expect the Coral to be encroaching on your Bases and Colonies constantly, where they will start to spawn lymphomorphs, antibody like coral organisms that will attack your units and settlements. This serves to partially balance out end game super teching.

Major Events: During the course of a Campaign, the player will be presented with a number of random events that he will have to confront that have the potential to reshape the political balance of the planet. These differ from the random events as seen in SMACX (which are still in Procyon) in that a.) they are designed to take place over the course of many dozens of turns, b.) involve all active factions and c.) dealing with the events is reactionary rather than preventative. For instance, the Prometheus Virus outbreak in SMACX will cut your Population in a base unless you have a Bio Lab, which means that you can never really react to it, only attempt to prevent in.

In Procyon, the Viral Outbreak event is something to be reacted to, sort of a Scenario within the Campaign. It requires you to build Research Hospitals in any Colonies that you don’t want to be hit by the epidemic, plus a number of science bases to study the effects, and you will need to cut off contact with infected areas of the planet. Doing so successfully will give you a major Labs bonus at the conclusion of the event, while failing it will slash your population. You could take advantage of the event to weaken your competitors by sabotaging their Research Hospitals.

Each Campaign will have a certain number of Major Events (which can be switched off in the preferences) that are chosen from a much larger list when the game begins. As a result, every game will tell its own unique story by way of these events, since no two games will have the same ones. Certain Major Events may even open up new Victory conditions, Facilities or Technologies that would otherwise be inaccessible during a normal playthrough.

[Nexii]

Not sure I'd like to see a hard cap on facility #.  I think one reason for less specialization is that resources squares (boreholes and forests anyways) give about the same M/E.  Granted, farm/solar is more E slanted...but mines don't keep up lategame M.  I guess what I'm getting at is with resources being more specialized, you would make specialized bases to maximize that.  M-heavy bases with M multiplying and military facilities, and E-heavy with the labs and economy facilities.  Higher mid and late-game construction costs, coupled with higher power increases, might be another way to encourage specialization.

[Geo]

Geo's got the Tau Ceti name claimed for something he's been working on for about a year, BTW...

In my book, a name/label is only claimed if something palpable goes with it. I haven't even shown an alpha version yet, so...

[Buster's Uncle]

So get to work and post something!

[Geo]

 

[Buster's Uncle]

[ete]

I also especially like the idea of facility slots, though to be really fun it would have to have some very carefully designed facilities (especially facilities which are really good in some specific way, if and only if they are in the same base as certain other facilities (e.g. stacking a bunch of multipliers for a single resource), and at the same time there were a bunch of important but not spectacular generalist facilities (like rec commons or permin defense in AC, you can work around not having it but it's annoying/requires special effort)). That gives great rewards for different types of specialized base (even better if you can work around needing some of the core facilities and put more multipliers in), but lets you throw the basics into an outlying colony to get it set up fast at the cost of having to scrap them later for little return if you want it to be really effective. I'd also suggest making the worker cost of each facility quite fine-grained, so it's easy to balance them that way rather than fiddling with the effects.

I'm not so keen on the low limits for stacking though, maybe something with a fair amount more legroom, but I really like the tactical choices in AC for and against stacking and only being able to have a small number of units per hex/square feels artificial when the battleground is immense. With single units, you're very vulnerable to probes, but the larger your stack gets the more collateral damage you take whenever a unit on the stack gets killed. Perhaps something similar to this would work with your combat system, for example each attack did a small amount of damage to all foes on the target square, not just the target unit. This opens up more fun/hopefully tactically interesting variety in unit roles too: "splash damage" units for holding off large stacks vs focused single unit damage with precise weapons.