My next mod

[mikejohnson1]

Hey all

I'm working on my new modpack SMACX2. I currently have planned, 20 new factions (got to love SMACX, 21 factions allowed in your load list!! Actually ten of them are the factions from my SMAC2 modpack, albeit with some SMACX enhancements to them.

As with the last mod I will include new units, and try to combine some of the enhancements made by other modpacks throughout the net. In SMAC2 I included some of Shining1's enhancements as well as AlexanderIII's Advanced Hydromechanics mod. BTW those were excellent mods. I also included some of the new base graphics that were floating around the net.

The mod will hopefully be done sometime in January, don't have much time to work on it now, finals.

But when the mod is near completion will any of you be willing to help playtest it? I didn't have any playtesters for SMAC2, and I already found some minor faults in the mod.

Thanks to anyone whose interested.

BTW my SMAC2 modpack is ready for download if you want to try it.

You can download it
here

Also my site is merging with three other civ sites. I wont be able to work on the new site right away, finals. But soon I will move my files to the new site.


[This message has been edited by mikejohnson1 (edited December 11, 1999).]

[mikejohnson1]

Mod update:

20 Factions

SMAC2 Factions
Johnson Federation-Computerization
Hammond Utopia-Utopian Society
SAC-Planetary Government
Gangemi Order-Imposing Order
Fluent Nexus-Security, Probe Operations
Cool Clique-Glory and Power
Jock Clique-Rule of the strong
VanScoy Collective-Transcendence
Tambra's Sisters-Divine Rule
Hagen INC-Industry

SMACX2 Factions
Hirsch Aristocracy-Rule by the wealthy elite
Following of TLC-TLC's Cult following
Society of Darkness-Using planet's power for evil
The Horde-Genetically engineered cybernetic super army
Stephanie's Rebellion-Terrorist overthrow of Planet's Governments
Guild of Knowledge-Peaceful Research
Agrarian Push-Harmony of nature, rejection of technology
Aminah CorpExtensive Terraforming
The Borg-assimilation of Planet
Species 8472-Destruction of the Borg

New Intristic Units]
Psi Patrol
Needlejet Colony Pod(Unit created for AI purposes)
Mark IV Buster Bomb-Land Based Planet Buster
Mark V Buster Dreadnought-Sea Base Planet Buster
VX Poison Gas Missle-Conventional Missle armed with nerve gas
Needlejet Probe-Spy plane, great unit, and the AI seems to use them as well!!

And more units.


Scenarios included:
Three scenarios in the Armageddon epic:
Part 1: Armageddon/ArmageddonX-total war on Planet
Part 2: Return to Earth: After the devastation of Armageddon, the Gangemis return to Earth and find several new factions in control there
Part 3: The wrath of Kefka: On Planet, still recovering from Armageddon, Kefka's cult of Darkness rises

And the series will continue on in other scenarios released separately!!

[mikejohnson1]

Progress so far, I'm working on my SMACX2 factions, and including some SMACX abilities in my SMAC2 factions.

As for the new units, the needlejet probe works remarkbly well. The AI seems to make large use of these units. There are some bugs with it though. For example you can't bribe land bases or land units if your spy plane is over water. It says only probe teams with the amphibious pods ability can do that. I guess the simplest answer to that problem would be to give amphibious pods to the needlejet probe. But I'm having trouble giving special abilities to units in Alpha.txt.

The Needlejet Colony pod is another great unit. Sure any human player could design needlejet c-pods in the workshop, but the AI doesn't. Now thanks to my intristic needlejet colony pod, the AI constructs these wonderful units. I might include a Gravship Colony Pod as well.

The PSI patrol was construted for AI reasons as well. In my SMAC2 and SMACX2 modpacks, some factions start with the technology centauri psi, but they don't build psi units in the early game as the AI. But now with the PSI patrol they do. The VanScoy Collective and the Dark Society factions will be forces to reckon with in the early game.

The sea Planet Buster and the Buster Bomb, work perfectly, the AI constructs these bad boys, and the human player can manually update their reactors in the design workshop. Use of them still counts as an atrocity.

The VX Poison Gas Rocket is the unit that's giving me the most trouble. I'm still having trouble adding special abilities to units in Alphax.txt. So I can't get the nerve gas pods onto the unit.

Hopefully I'll have a beta for the mod out by the 6th of January, so people can play test it.

[Jasonian]

Nice work there!

Just because we don't respond doesn't mean we're not reading...

[Jasonian]

Nice work there!

Just because we don't respond doesn't mean we're not reading...

[mikejohnson1]

Yes, it's the same Kefka. One of my factions is called the Society of Darkness. At first I decided to stick in FF2's Golbez, but then I thought Kefka would be a better choice since he was truly evil, while Golbez really wasn't evil.

I'm wondering if Sephiroth would be a better choice for the Dark Society leader. The reason I chose Kefka is because I found a relatively good picture of him on the net, but haven't found a nice pic of Sephiroth's face.

[Xuenay]

I looked at your "Scenarios included" list.. Is "Kefkas Cult" the same as Kefkas Cult in Final Fantasy 6/3?

[Kamchak]

Sephiroth wasnt evil, he just had a severe split personality disorder which led to insanity. One of my real life friends came up with a massively complicated and intricate conspiracy theory (strictly within FF7) that seems illogical if skimmed, but fits into the plot perfectly if you read the whole thing. Anyway, it had a lot to do with Sephiroth's irreverant, hunchbacked clones and psychological instability. Since he wasnt really evil, you couldnt but him in charge of a truly malignant faction. My idea for throwing Sephiroth in would be something like a Fundamentalist/Green/Knowledge/Cybernetic, aggressive terraforming Transcendant faction with ++morale, -effic, -support, -growth, impunity to Fundamentalist, and some sort of Psi combat bonus. Seemed logical when I got the idea. If you REALLY want to go hog wild with the Final Fantasy villans, why not throw in ExDeath from FFV while youre at it? Police State/Power/Planned/Mind Control,-industry, --planet, +growth, -efficiency, aggressive, conquest victory, free prototypes...Must I go on?

"Lets have a Chocobo faction! The background music shall be the Mambo de Chocobo, the leader shall be Boko...*trails off into a lengthy diatribe about the potential faction's persona*

Kamchak was Here

[mikejohnson1]

Update:
New faction: Atlantis Consortium, another econmic faction, this one starts at sea.

My plans: to make the AI smarter, and the game harder. There are just so many things that you can do that the AI cant. Needlejet colony pods, custom probe teams. I already included the new units and the AI constructs them, but I haven't seen the AI use the needlejet colony pod to build new bases.

I also wnat to create greater diversity between the factions, some factions will have an excellent chance at certain victories, but an impossible chance at others. For example the Dark Society cant win a diplomatic victory, unless they pull in enough votes from other factions, and it's hard for them to become governor. They suffer economicly, but have excellent Psi power.

The Aliens: Yes I'm unoriginal, I used the Borg and species 8472, but I'm trying to make the Borg as unique as possible, by recreating their collective. At the beginning of the game they start out as individuals separated from the hive, but as they rediscover their tech, they gradually redevelop their collective. Also I'm trying to recreate their method of gaining knowledge, by assimilation. Species 8472, will have excellent growth and psi abilities, but their unfamiliarity with our universe hinders them economically.

Use of freefac to create both pros and cons for the factions: the borg will recieve free punishment spheres with the discovery of Advanced military algorithms, bringing order to choas, but decresing individual thought. The Hagen Industry faction will recieve free Genejack Factories with the discovery of Retroviral engineering. Dramatically increasing mineral production, but adding an extra drone at every base, and creating a tremendous explosion of ecological damage (haven't playtested that to see how difficult that is)

Also I made several factions have vote advantages, instead of just one. one faction has triple votes, while three others have double votes, while this means that some factions will tend to dominate the council, it does make it a bit more challenging for some factions to win election. Winning the governorship will be something you will have to put a lot of energy into, and you may not win the first election. And even the vote enhanced factions have a difficult time winning with all the other vote enhanced factions running around.


Also I'm experimenting with the freeabil command, I've got some free abilities to work while others don't seem to work. Also I haven't gotten the Techsteal ability to work at all.

One last thing, the new busters work, but the torpedo planet buster can't attack land bases as a buster. But it can destroy a base by impacting against a sea unit around the base, I wrote that off by saying that land based defenders attempt to destroy the incoming torpedo, and the torpedo dfends itself with automated defenses. The land based buster works, but it can't be updated to a higher readtor, it must stay fission.

[SEE]

Originally posted by mikejohnson1 on 01-09-2000 02:41 AM
One last thing, the new busters work, but the torpedo planet buster can't attack land bases as a buster. But it can destroy a base by impacting against a sea unit around the base, I wrote that off by saying that land based defenders attempt to destroy the incoming torpedo, and the torpedo dfends itself with automated defenses.

Are you using the PB warhead, or did you just set the unit plan to 5 (the PB number)? The version in my mod uses Gun as the weapon with a unit plan of 5 to act as a PB.
[This message has been edited by SEE (edited January 10, 2000).]

[mikejohnson1]

Version 2 of my SMAC2 modpack is ready. In addition to my SMACX2 modpack, I am creating a new units mod, that will incorporate all of my new units into regular SMAC and SMACX.

[TeknoMerc]

mike,

i have been using some of your unit suggestions in SMACX (patched), like Psi Patrol, Amphib/Probe Fighters, VX missle. they are great and the AI is tougher to beat!

btw, here is the list of unit abilities for SMACX (patched). this will *not* work for SMAC, since it has two less abilities. in the #UNITS list, just set one of the 26 bits for the desired unit ability. if anyone can figure out what ability #25 does, please let me know.

; 1 Dissociative Wave
; 2 Soporific gas
; 3 slow
; 4 police
; 5 repair
; 6 nerve gas
; 7 hvy transport
; 8 trance
; 9 blink
; 10 clean
; 11 artillery
; 12 trained
; 13 fungicidal
; 14 secure
; 15 empath
; 16 grav
; 17 ecm
; 18 aaa
; 19 carrier
; 20 sub
; 21 sam
; 22 drop pods
; 23 amphib
; 24 cloaked
; 25 ???
; 26 super former

i also created an Atlantis sea faction to compete with the Pirates. i will post the text later today.

TeknoMerc

[mikejohnson1]

My Unit Mod is finished, and it's ready for download at my site http://www.geocities.com/mikejohnson99/CivEmpire


It includes all the units of the SMAC2 V2 modpack as well as the Doctrin: Destruction technology that allows Planet Busters.

As for my SMACX2 modpack, I'm still working on it, it will get done eventually.

[mikejohnson1]

TeknoMerc, is it even possible to add SMACX abilities to new units, as far as I can tell there are only enough zeros in the unit area for the original SMAC abilities.

[TeknoMerc]

mike,

the abilities i previously listed for SMACX are all possible, as i created units with each and tested. of course, #25 was a mystery....

according to my files, units in SMAC have 24 zeros and SMACX have 26 zeros, if my memory serves. note that SMACX-only abilities (soporific gas) DO work. try it and let me know.

TeknoMerc

[This message has been edited by TeknoMerc (edited March 20, 2000).]

[mikejohnson1]

Okay I'm going to try to rush out the beta for my SMACX2 modpack soon. Note this mod will not be complete, it will contain
incomplete faction graphics(missing symbols). The mod will be playable. I'm also planning a few new factions for the mod in
addition to the twenty that are already in it. I have a airpower faction planned, plus a naval faction(another sea faction, that I'm
trying to make different from the Pirates). An alien sea faction. And an agricultural faction. Note that these factions will not be included in the beta, I haven't even started them yet.

------------------
MJ's Web Empire
MJ's Home Page.
Reviews site
Discussion Forum for Civ, college talk and general discussion.
Civilization Empire SMAC, Civ2, CTP.

[mikejohnson1]

What do you think of thes faction characteristics:

Dark Society (Kefka Faction)

Stating Tech: Centauri Psi
^+2 PLANET: {Devoted to promoting native growth}
^-1 ECON: {Money will be irrelevant once godhood is attained}
^-COMMERCE: {Kefka is an insane criminal, and no one wants to trade with his faction}
^Enhanced Psi abilities, 50% increase
^Cant run for elections: {The other factions don't trust Kefka's insane plans}
^Free BROOD PIT with discovery of Centauri Genetics
^Mind Worms do double police duty: {Fear and reverence for native life}
^{May not make Democratic choice in Social Engineering}

Unbalanced, overpowered, what do you think?

------------------
MJ's Web Empire
MJ's Home Page.
Reviews site
Discussion Forum for Civ, college talk and general discussion.
Civilization Empire SMAC, Civ2, CTP.