Alpha(x).txt editing

Originally from the The SMAC Academy, by Rubin and Darsnan. See also: New_alphax_variables_in_Yitzi's_patch

The purpose of this Alpha/x Guide is to describe how you can edit/change the various sections of the alpha(x).txt document for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Alien Crossfire (SMACX). Furthermore we hope to inspire and encourage you to edit and customize these sections, tweak the game - and maybe some day present your work to other players.

About the alpha(x).txt file

In a nutshell, the alphax.txt file is the set of rules by which SMACX plays (the game reads these rules at startup). Change the rules, and you change how the game plays, accordingly. And because some of the alphax.txt gets imprinted onto any PBEMPlay By Email games generated, then the ensuing game(s) can then take on a myriad of directions, limited (almost) only by the imaginations of those editing the files and playing the games! However, it is best if all players use both the same SMACX version and identical alphax.txt files. Some sections in the alphax.txt file are not 'carried over' in a PBEM, though (the issue is still unresolved). Of course, you always have the option of using multiple alphax.txt files -- one for each different game, but it'll take you some extra time to copy and paste the particular alphax.txt file into your main SMACX folder. Note: Scenarios can be set up in a separate folder including a modified alphax.txt file. This prevents normal gameplay from being affected.

The alphax.txt file is divided into several sections (48 in total), each one addressing a specific aspect of/contribution to the game, and so this guide will mirror the alphax.txt in that it will also be divided into corresponding sections. The discussion is sequential, meaning that this guide begins at the start of the alphax.txt document, and proceeds through it, addressing each section as it proceeds. Opening your alphax.txt and following along with the ensuing discussion is encouraged, but not necessary.

About the Guide

The following discusses, in detail and with examples, 12 sections of the alphax.txt document. The huge amount of editable parameters and their effects on the game make a complete Alpha/x Guide almost impossible. This Alpha/x Guide is simply the foundation, and we are completely open to building upon this foundation by adding more information from our readers. We recognize that more work can be done to flesh this document out more, and we are actively seeking feedback in these areas (going public with this partial guide is part of it). We hope the examples presented here sum up the basics (and hopefully a bit more) of how to tweak your SMACX gaming experience --- open up some doors for people who want to either experiment with or change the parameters of their 'same old' version of SMACX.

To help identify comments/tips/tricks and bugs regarding the alphax.txt, we've introduced color codes - additionally this color indicates an editable parameter. You'll also find code text displaying a variety of rules, e.g. custom units, custom rules etc. The idea is to make it easy to just copy and paste this code into your own alphax.txt. A color code is applied to the title:

Custom additions

; Custom additions: You can copy the text in these lines and paste it into your alphax.txt

Bug fixes

; Bug fixes: You can copy the text in these lines and paste it into your alphax.txt

Code boxes are just excerpts from the alphax.txt file. If you've forgotten the format of the alphax.txt, these boxes are intended as a quick reminder.

Alphax.txt examples: These lines contain illustrative excerpts from the alphax.txt

About the alpha(x).txt annotation

# (number sign): The different sections can be identified by a # at the beginning of the section, e.g. #RULES, #RESOURCEINFO, #UNITS etc. -- the first being the #RULES section.
; (semicolon): Whenever a ; is used before some information, the game will not use that information. This kind of information is considered to be only helpful notes to navigate through your alphax.txt file. It may be a good idea to add an 'information line' or two at the beginning of your modified alphax.txt file to indicate that this particular set of rules has been changed, e.g.:

Custom information

; Custom 'AI Probe Cruiser' alphax.txt: Added Probe Cruiser to #UNITS section to improve the AI

; Modified 'date' by 'name'

(space): Do not use the TAB key when editing -- always use the spacebar. The game ignores the spaces, making spaces only important to ease navigation in the alphax.txt.
, (comma): Is used to separate fields of information.
$ (dollar sign): Used to indicate a text string used by the game.
(line break): The game reads the rules 'line by line' -- except if a line begins with a semicolon -- so make sure you do not use a 'line break' within a line. There are, however, a few options to add additional lines/entries to the rules.

WARNING!

Before you start editing your alphax.txt file, be sure to have a backup copy of the original alphax.txt file. Because it can be easy to lose track of what has been edited in your alphax.txt, or perhaps because a bug is not realized until much later, it can be very frustrating trying to track down the problem in a defective alphax.txt. It is much easier to start fresh, with the original alphax.txt, and paste in your edits that you know work, as opposed to hunting and poking, hoping to fix your problem.

Keep in mind that editing your alphax.txt -- even a single parameter -- may have huge impacts on the game. Feel free to experiment, but don't be surprised if your game suddenly becomes a whole new experience -- be it good or not so good! :)

#RULES

The #RULES section is a catch-all area for items that don't categorically fall into other areas. They include areas such as the movement rate along roads, nutrient intake per citizen, psi combat, technologies allowing terrain improvements, artillery damage equations and starting/ending years. It is a fairly simple task to edit the #RULES section. Most of the parameters are 'stand-alone' parameters, i.e. they are not dependent on parameters elsewhere in the alphax.txt. It is not too difficult to imagine the results of changing the normal ending year, population limits or the frequency of global warming, etc.

3, ; Movement rate along roads

Determines the number of squares a unit can travel along roads using a single movement point.

Comment: You can simulate a heavier gravity planet by decreasing this number. Setting the value to 2 decreases the base movement rate for units to 2 squares (2 squares for Infantry, 4 squares for Speeders, 6 squares for Hovertanks) while traveling along roads.

2, ; Nutrient intake requirement for citizens

Determines how many nutrients are needed to support 1 population/citizen in a base.

3,2 ; Numerator & Denominator for artillery fire damage

Determines the damage inflicted by artillery bombardment of units. Increasing the first number makes artillery hit harder.

Comment: Currently the artillery bombardment equation is set to a "3, 2" ratio, which condensed down gives a 1.5 to 1 advantage for the attacker. Because this offensive advantage can be easily nullified by defensive advantages such as forests, open ground, etc., why increasing the offensive advantage to a 1.75 to 1 will increase the effectiveness of artillery fire. Simply change the 3,2 to a 7,4.

2, ; Max artillery range (larger will break multiplayer)

8, ; Max airdrop range w/o orbital insertion

10, ; Nutrient cost multiplier

This indicates the number of nutrients per row in the nutrient window (city screen). Increasing or decreasing this value makes bases grow slower or faster, respectively.

Comment: On Tiny and Small maps, the number of nutrients in a game row are 8 and 9 respectively, rather than 10. This never applies to custom sized maps -- even if they happen to be the same size as the built-in Tiny and Small maps.

10, ; Minerals cost multiplier

This indicates the number of minerals per row in the production window (city screen). This affects actual costs (in rows) of units and facilities (including Secret Projects). Increasing or decreasing this value makes everything more expensive or less expensive, respectively.

Comment: On Tiny and Small maps, the number of minerals in a game row are 8 and 9 respectively, rather than 10. This never applies to custom sized maps -- even if they happen to be the same size as the built-in Tiny and Small maps.

100, ; Technology discovery rate as a percentage of standard

1, ; Limits mineral increase for mine without road in square

-1, ; Nutrient effect in mine square (0 or -1)

Comment: You cannot increase the output of a mined square without also increasing the output of farms and solar collectors. The problem is that the 'mine-farm combo' is used extensively by the AI -- this effectively makes the AI easier to beat. However, you can set this value to zero to help the AI's output of terraforming.

5, ; Minimum base size to support specialists

1, ; Drones induced by Genejack factory

7, ; Population limit w/o hab complex

14, ; Population limit w/o hab dome

50, ; Extra percentage cost of prototype LAND unit

50, ; Extra percentage cost of prototype SEA unit

50, ; Extra percentage cost of prototype AIR unit

3,2, ; Psi combat offense-to-defense ratio (LAND unit defending)

1,1, ; Psi combat offense-to-defense ratio (SEA unit defending)

1,1, ; Psi combat offense-to-defense ratio (AIR unit defending)

10, ; Players' starting energy reserves

25, ; Combat % -> intrinsic base defense

0, ; Combat % -> attacking along road

Bug: This item is broken. If you give it any value other than zero, all attacking ground units will get the bonus (or penalty) in every land battle regardless of whether they are in reality attacking along a road (from a road square into an adjacent road square). It could be attacking from a non-road rocky forest square into an adjacent non-road rocky forest square and it would still get the road attack assessment.

0, ; Combat % -> for attacking from higher elevation

Increase the number to receive a bonus for attacking from a higher elevation with ground units. There are 4 different levels of elevation: ground level (0-999m), medium elevation (1000-1999m), high elevation (2000-2999m) and very high elevation (3000-3500m).

Comment: Try setting this value to 12. This enables a different set of strategies when building new bases --- and especially defending the bases and possible entry points. It also makes conquering new territory quite different if your opponent has troops almost like your own. Note: The AI does NOT seem to be particularly aware of this, so changing this value actually hurts the AI. Works well with the same value in the next line. See next entry.

0, ; Combat penalty % -> attacking from lower elevation

Increase the number to receive a penalty for attacking from a lower elevation with ground units. There are 4 different levels of elevation: ground level (0-999m), medium elevation (1000-1999m), high elevation (2000-2999m), very high elevation (3000-3500m).

Comment: Try setting this value to 12. See previous entry.

25, ; Combat % -> Mobile unit in open ground

0, ; Combat % -> Defend vs. mobile in rough

25, ; Combat % -> Infantry vs. Base

50, ; Combat penalty % -> attack after airdrop

25, ; Combat % -> Fanatic attack bonus

50, ; Combat % -> Land based guns vs. ship artillery bonus

25, ; Combat % -> Artillery bonus per level of altitude

50, ; Combat % -> Trance bonus defending vs. psi

50, ; Combat % -> Empath Song bonus attacking vs. psi

50, ; Combat penalty % -> Air superiority unit vs. ground unit

100, ; Combat % -> Air superiority unit vs. air unit

50, ; Combat penalty % -> Non-combat unit defending vs. combat unit

50, ; Combat % -> Comm Jammer unit defending vs. mobile unit

100, ; Combat % -> Bonus vs. ships caught in port

100, ; Combat % -> AAA bonus vs. air units

25, ; Combat % -> Defend in range of friendly Sensor

10, ; Combat % -> Psi attack bonus/penalty per +PLANET

50, ; Retool percent penalty for production change

2, ; Retool strictness (0 = Always Free, 1 = Free in Category, 2 = Free if Project, 3 = Never Free)

Bug: If set to 3 the game overrides automatically to 2. Thus you cannot set the retool strictness to Never Free.

10, ; Retool exemption (first X minerals not affected by penalty)

20, ; Minimum # of turns between councils

5, ; Minerals for harvesting forest

8, ; Territory: max distance from base

20, ; Turns to corner Global Energy Market

CentPsi, ; Technology to improve fungus squares

CentPsi, ; Technology to ease fungus movement

CentEmp, ; Technology to build roads in fungus

Neural, ; Technology to allow 2 special abilities for a unit

Gene, ; Technology to allow 3 nutrients in a square

EcoEng, ; Technology to allow 3 minerals in a square

EnvEcon, ; Technology to allow 3 energy in a square

Gravity, ; Technology to allow orbital insertion w/o Space Elevator

EcoEng2, ; Technology for +1 mining platform bonus

PlaEcon, ; Technology for economic victory

1, ; If non-zero, probe teams can steal technologies

1, ; If non-zero, humans can always contact each other in net games

1, ; If non-zero, humans can always contact each other in hotseat/email games

50, ; Maximum % damage inflicted by arty versus units in base/bunker

99, ; Maximum % damage inflicted by arty versus units in open

100, ; Maximum % damage inflicted by arty versus units at sea

1, 1 ; Numerator/Denominator for frequency of global warming (1,2 would be "half" normal warming).

Comment: If you use "giant" worldsizes (approaching or over 200 or more squares each way), consider raising this value to at least 5,4 or even as high as 7,4. Incredibly destructive terraforming and/or high Industry tend to not trigger global warming as early on those giant maps as on the various given worldsizes.

2100 ; Normal starting year

2600 ; Normal ending year for lowest 3 difficulty levels

2500 ; Normal ending year for highest 3 difficulty levels

Comment: A more casual, less aggressive, solo-player who chooses Techstag might want to increase this by 100-300 to avoid having many games interrupted by forced retirement.

1 ; If non-zero, obliterating a base counts as an atrocity

10 ; Size of base for subspace generator

6 ; Number of subspace generators needed

#TERRAIN

The #TERRAIN section is the first section which breaks out the various items and descriptions it is responsible for into a line, separated by commas. This section is all about the different terraforming features in the game. This section can be greatly re-shaped, especially if your interested in pursuing a game shaped around a specific terrain aspect - i.e. you can either "gift" or penalize terrain enhancements depending on how you want the game to respond. Examples would be if you wanted to cultivate water improvements, you'd enable Sea Buoys and Sea Boreholes, whereas on a world dominated by land you'd enable Mag Tubes much sooner.

#TERRAIN
Farm,          None,    Kelp Farm,       None,    4, Cultivate $STR0, f, F
Soil Enricher, EcoEng2, Soil Enricher,   Disable, 8, Construct $STR0, f, F
Mine,          None,    Mining Platform, None,    8, Construct $STR0, M, M

TERRAIN parameters

Farm, None, Kelp Farm, None, 4, Cultivate $STR0, f, F

This is simply the name of the land based terraforming improvement. You can rename any of the terrain improvements.

Farm, None, Kelp Farm, None, 4, Cultivate $STR0, f, F

This is the technology prerequisite upon which the land based terraforming improvement becomes available. This refers to the technology id code in the #TECHNOLOGY section. If set to none your formers will always be able to perform this option. If set to disable this improvement cannot be performed.

Farm, None, Kelp Farm, None, 4, Cultivate $STR0, f, F

This is the name of the sea based terraforming improvement (the ocean version of the land improvement). Again, you can rename any of the terrain improvements.

Farm, None, Kelp Farm, None, 4, Cultivate $STR0, f, F

This is the technology prerequisite upon which the sea based terraforming improvement becomes available. This refers to the technology id code in the #TECHNOLOGY section. If set to none your sea formers will always be able to perform this option. If set to disable this improvement cannot be performed.

Farm, None, Kelp Farm, None, 4, Cultivate $STR0, f, F

This is the build time - the number of turns it takes a single former to build the improvement.

Farm, None, Kelp Farm, None, 4, Cultivate $STR0, f, F

This is the terraform order description showed when you order your formers to build the improvement -- as shown in the right-click menu and in the small info window (bottom left). Note that the $STR0 is a ' text string reference' referring to the name of the improvement. We highly advice you not to edit the $STR0.

Farm, None, Kelp Farm, None, 4, Cultivate $STR0, f, F

The is the order letter shown in the small 'tag' just above your former when it is busy improving the terrain. This helps you to quickly identify exactly what type of improvement is being built. We've not found any ways to change the actual key mapping. Comment: Farms and Soil Enrichers share the same letter, so do some of the other improvements. You can change these to different letters for an even quicker identification of your former work.

Farm, None, Kelp Farm, None, 4, Cultivate $STR0, f, F

This is the keystroke description as shown in the right-click menu. This is simply a way to present the shortcut key for the improvement. Again, we've not found any ways to change the actual key mapping.

Enabling sea terraforming features: Several of the terraform options are disabled by default -- typically the ocean versions of the land based improvements. It is possible to enable these features. However, these new improvements may not work properly in the game, e.g. missing improvement graphics (e.g. Sea Bunker) or useless effects (e.g. Sea Tubes and Aquifer). Soil Enrichers are not available as an ocean improvement.

Example: An example of modification in this section would be if you wanted to enable your sea formers to build ocean based Boreholes - the Sea Borehole. First change the sea based technology prerequisite. Ecological Engineering is a good choice since normal Thermal Boreholes become available with this technology. The Thermal Borehole line should look like this:

Thermal Borehole, EcoEng, Sea Borehole, EcoEng, 24, Construct $STR0, B, Shift+B

You can customize the helpx.txt for the in-game help menu to display information on your new Sea Borehole.

Example: You want to enable Sensor Buoys (Sea Sensors) in order to increase your naval sighting range (unlike land bases sea bases do not receive a +25% defense bonus from any sensors). Find the entry for the Sensor Array. Replace it with the following modification:

Sensor Array, None, Sensor Buoy, None, 4, Construct $STR0, O, O

You can customize the helpx.txt for the in-game help menu to display information on your new Sensor Buoy.

#RESOURCEINFO

The #RESOURCEINFO section deals with how much of each resource is available for each of the items described in this section. Note that this section is not embedded in a saved game file. In normal squares, the nutrient, mineral and energy values are determined by the temperature, rainfall, rockiness, etc. of the square. This section allows you to edit the output of special squares (e.g. special/abundant resources, monoliths, base squares or forests). Unfortunately, you'll find some annoying restrictions to editing these parameters -- especially the 'improved land' entry.

#RESOURCEINFO
Ocean Square,    1, 0, 0, 0,
Base Square,     2, 1, 1, 0,
Bonus Square,    2, 2, 2, 0, * Mineral +1 if mine present
Forest Square,   1, 2, 1, 0,
Recycling Tanks, 1, 1, 1, 0,
Improved Land,   1, *, *, 0, "*" columns are ignored entirely
Improved Sea,    2, 1, 3, 0, * Mineral +1 with Advanced Ecological Engineering
Monolith,        2, 2, 2, 0,
Borehole Square, 0, 6, 6, 0,

RESOURCEINFO parameters

Bonus Square, 2, 2, 2, 0, * Mineral +1 if mine present

This is the square identifier/name. You probably do not want to edit this parameter (what this parameter actually does is still undocumented). Here is a short explanation of the square identifiers:

Ocean Square: Determines the output of a 'plain' sea square. This makes some sense to have this editable parameter because sea squares are not affected by factors such as rainfall and temperature. Cumulative with special resources.
Base Square: This determines the output of a base square. These values may actually be higher in the game if the base is placed upon a river or abundant resources. Cumulative with Recycling Tanks.
Bonus Square: Determines the extra added output from nutrient, mineral and energy bonus squares (abundant resources). Cumulative with rivers.
Forest Square: Determines the output of a forested square. Cumulative with rivers and special resources.
Recycling Tanks: Determines how much of each resource is added to the base square output in a base with Recycling Tanks present.
Improved Land: This parameter differs from all the others in that only one value can be changed. This value represents all three resources. Note that temperature and rockiness have influence on the actual output of improved land squares. Cumulative with rivers and special resources.
Improved Sea: Determines the added output of sea improvements. Cumulative with special resources.
Monolith: Determines the output of Monoliths. Cumulative with rivers.
Borehole Square: Determines the output of boreholes. Cumulative with special resources.

Bonus Square, 2, 2, 2, 0, * Mineral +1 if mine present

The square's nutrient output.

Bonus Square, 2, 2, 2, 0, * Mineral +1 if mine present

The square's mineral output.

Bonus Square, 2, 2, 2, 0, * Mineral +1 if mine present

The square's energy output.

Bonus Square, 2, 2, 2, 0, * Mineral +1 if mine present

This parameter is unused by the game, but must be zero (0). Leave it as it is.

Bonus Square, 2, 2, 2, 0, * Mineral +1 if mine present

This is a description of in-game mechanics. It is editable, but it shouldn't be changed because it is important to know. We suggest you leave it as it is.

Alternative forest output:

Reducing the productivity of forest squares, can make other terraform options more attractive. Often players just plant forests and let them spread. Combined with Tree Farms and Hybrid Forests forests provide a high output of nutrients, minerals and energy -- even better when on a special resource. Since the AI seldom plants forest, reducing the forest output helps to even the odds -- especially in single player games. On arid, fungus plagued worlds these reduced forests are still quite attractive. Edit the Forest Square entry to look like this:

Forest Square, 1, 1, 0, 0,

You can of course experiment with different values.

Enhanced sea:

An example of modifying this section would be if you wanted to give the Improved Sea an additional mineral:

Improved Sea, 2, 2, 3, 0, * Mineral +1 with Advanced Ecological Engineering

Again, you can experiment with different values.

#WORLDBUILDER

This section controls the finer points of the world builder - the settings used by the random map generator. The values are automatically scaled based on the size of the world.

384, ; Land base (Seeded land size of a standard world)

256, ; Land modifier (additional land from LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)

12, ; Continent base (Base size of a land mass seed)

24, ; Continent modif. (Increased size from LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)

1, ; Hills base (Base # of extra hills)

2, ; Hills modifier (additional hills from TIDAL selection: x0, x1, x2)

4, ; Plateau base (Basic plateau size)

8, ; Plateau modifier (Plateau modifier based on LAND selection: x0, x1, x2)

8, ; Rivers base (Basic # of rivers)

12, ; Rivers rain mod. (Additional rivers based on RAIN selection)

14, ; Solar Energy (Latitude DIVISOR for temperature based on HEAT) Smaller # increases effect of HEAT selection

14, ; Thermal band (Latitude DIVISOR for thermal banding) Smaller # widens hot bands

8, ; Thermal deviance (Latitude DIVISOR for thermal deviance) Smaller # increases randomness

8, ; Global Warming (Latitude DIVISOR for global warming) Smaller # increases effect of warming

5, ; Sea Level Rises (Magnitude of sea level changes from ice cap melting/freezing)

5, ; Cloudmass peaks (Size of cloud mass trapped by peaks)

3, ; Cloudmass hills (Size of cloud mass trapped by hills)

1, ; Rainfall coeff. (Multiplier for rainfall belts)

15, ; Deep water (Encourages fractal to grow deep water)

10, ; Shelf (Encourages fractal to grow shelf)

15, ; Plains (Encourages highland plains)

10, ; Beach (Encourages wider beaches)

10, ; Hills (Encourages hills x TIDAL selection)

25, ; Peaks (Encourages peaks)

1, ; Fungus (Fungus coefficient based on LIFE selection)

If you want fungus on your random maps, increase this number. On a standard map with abundant life forms, a value of 5 covers the entire planet in fungus (except deep sea and 2-3 land squares). A value of 2 is still producing a lot of fungus - ½ the map. Note that rare life forms only produce fungus in the New Sargasso, the Ruins and at the poles.

3,6,12,18,24 ; Ratio (Continent size ratios)

These numbers determine the continent size ratios of the different map sizes. By default you can choose between five different planet sizes (tiny, small, standard, large and huge planet). You may edit these values. However, you need to add (or remove) a value if you change the number of planet size choices in the #WORLDSIZE section. Important: The number of values in this parameter must be the same as the number of worldsizes in the #WORLDSIZE section!

Adding a Giant Planet (part 1 of 2): The custom size option in the game does not allow for planet sizes bigger than 256x256. This is part one of an example of exceeding this limit and how to add an extra planet size to the selection screen. Simply add an extra ratio value to the existing ones (36 in this case) - for a total of six values:

3,6,12,18,24,36 ; Ratio (Continent size ratios)

Note that you need to edit the #WORLDSIZE section for this to work.

36 ; Islands (Higher # increases island count)

Notes: The pre-set values in that section are pretty much what you want to leave alone. I tried various changes in a lot of them but never got the results I was hoping for, so I put them all back to the original. Since I sometimes spend a week or more tweaking the random-generated maps anyway, I didn't see any reason to have a fit about the pre-sets.

#WORLDSIZE

This section simply details the x and y axis parameters of any maps you decide to generate using the random map generator -- as shown in the random map selection screen in the game.

#WORLDSIZE
5
Tiny planet|(early conflict), 24, 48
Small planet, 32, 64
Standard planet, 40, 80
Large planet, 44, 90
Huge planet|(late conflict), 64, 128

WORLDSIZE parameters

Tiny planet, 24, 48

This is the selection description as shown in the random map selection screen in the game.

Tiny planet|(early conflict), 24, 48

This is the size of the y-axis: The height of the world.

Tiny planet|(early conflict), 24, 48

This is the size of the x-axis: The width of the world.

The number 5 just below #WORLDSIZE is the entry number corresponding to the number of world size options. This value must match the number of following entries (selections) in this section (i.e. Tiny planet etc.). It must also match the exact number of values in the Continent size ratios line in the #WORLDBUILDER section!

Adding a Giant Planet (part 2 of 2): Add this line after the last entry and increase the entry number by 1:

Giant planet|(over 256x256), 360, 360

Note that you need to edit the #WORLDBUILDER section for this to work. Maps this big tend to slow down the game.

800x600 Resolution comment: Adding more lines pushes some off the screen at 800x600 resolution, so you use that and want a Giant planet of different dimensions, you have to change an existing world size in alpha.txt before starting the program rather than adding a new one.

Warning: Adding additional sizes may mess up multiplayer games.

#TECHNOLOGY

#TECHNOLOGY
Biogenetics,          Biogen, 0, 3, 2, 2, None, None, 000100000
Industrial Base,      Indust, 2, 1, 3, 0, None, None, 000000000
Information Networks, InfNet, 0, 3, 2, 1, None, None, 000000000

TECHNOLOGY parameters

Biogenetics, Biogen, 0, 3, 2, 2, None, None, 000100000

This is the name of the technology as shown throughout the game. Changing the name of the technology does not affect gameplay.

Biogenetics, Biogen, 0, 3, 2, 2, None, None, 000100000

This is the technology id code used as a reference throughout the alphax.txt file. Whenever a prerequisite technology is required it is the technology id code you'll have to enter in order to refer to the correct technology. Important: If you change this id code remember to change all references to this id throughout the alphax.txt -- and in any faction text file that has it.

Biogenetics, Biogen, 0, 3, 2, 2, None, None, 000100000

These represent the Conquer, Discover, Build and Explore values of the technology -- in that order. Note that these values are -- probably -- used to determine the AI's research priorities and the likely discoveries you'll get when playing with 'blind research'. The higher value of these determines the category of the technology (e.g. Biogenetics is a Discover technology).

Biogenetics, Biogen, 0, 3, 2, 2, None, None, 000100000

These two fields determine the first and second technology prerequisites. These refer to the technology id code mentioned above. If both are set to none the technology does not require any prerequisite technologies in order to be researched. If the technology requires one prerequisite technology, the first field lists the prerequisite technology (the id code -- e.g. InfNet) and the second field reads none. Most technologies have two technology prerequisites, hence both fields contain a technology id code. If both fields are set to disable the technology is unavailable in the game.

Biogenetics, Biogen, 0, 3, 2, 2, None, None, 000100000

Binary special tech flags. Each of these numbers (0 or 1) represent a special aspect of the technology (see Special Tech Flags below). A 0 (zero) means that the special aspect is turned off and a 1 (one) means that the aspect is turned on. Some of these aspects -- if turned on -- show up on the 'research breakthrough' screen in the game (lower right) -- others don't. Currently, our information on and testing of the effects of these binary flags are unfortunately insufficient to state anything conclusive.

Special Tech Flags

100000000 = Increases NUTRIENT production in fungus
010000000 = Increases MINERALS production in fungus
001000000 = Increases ENERGY production in fungus
000100000 = Increases intrinsic defense against gene warfare
000010000 = Allows gene warfare atrocity
000001000 = Reveals map
000000100 = Increases commerce income
000000010 = Improves Probe Team success rate
000000001 = "Secrets": first discoverer gains free tech