Faction for the new SP DG? *discussion*

[Makahlua]

Because we don't want to have a poll with all 14 facs listed, do we? From Googlie in another thread :

Hmmmm
Morgan, with a prebuilt energy park crawling with crawlers, each in a bunker defended by a 1/8AAA/1*3 unit, marked as objectives (so the AI doesn't muck about with them) and lurking for 100 years
So you'd have to survive to 2220 to see Morgan corner the market (or take out his HQ first)
In a permapact (but not submissive/master) with .......
Marr, with Roze in submission (who, of course, starts with everyone infiltrated), and the alphax.txt putting nervegas' prereq as Secrets of Creation(so that you get it just 2 techs before the AI can enable the Progenitor Battlefleet via Singularity Mechanics ...... oh, and give the Aliens a subspace generator pre-built in six bases, so that they just have to have these bases by size 10 and research Singularity to summon the fleet. Or maybe set it at size 15, but give Marr AV so that he's not hanging around for Super Tensiles)
That's 3 AI
What else ...
Oh - also have Morgan permapacted with his buddy .....
Lal, set up as a master with Deirdre and Dawn as submissives, give Lal the EG and CI, give Dee the PTS and the HGP, and start Cha in the Jungle and give him the CV and LV. Set Lal up for a co-op victory as El Supremo.
What have I missed?
Sounds like a challenge? - survive against the Energy King, the Alien battlefleet and Lal's Emperor complex. Turn off conquest victory so that Transcendence is really the only option for the human team
That's prolly too difficult, but something doctored along these lines might give a few surprises
G.

So Morgan, Marr, Rose, Dee, Lal, and Cha Dawn could be taken - and I imagine H'minee's out for this one so that leaves us with:

Pirates - I'm enjoying them in the team game, but against those pairings? Well I suppose it -could- work, since the AI's usually make lousy navies (but if G. makes it you know he'd fix that lol)

Hive - Hummm, might work quite well; I've been 'god-mode' observing an SP game where it basically down to Sparta and the Hive - and the Hive can replace losses faster, if the AI was better at naval invasions, Santiago would be in deeper trouble. I expect the PB's to start flying anytime now! But anyway! My point was witha good start, the Hive might be just the thing against those proposed juggernauts.......

Uni - Tech is always good, looks like the VW is still for grabs which is a -big- thing for Zak; with a healthy industry, and hopefully a nice tech lead they might could pull it off as well - and if Transcend is the victory goal, research would -really- be needed

Spartans - But then again, if Lal dominates the council and we end up fighting -everybody- a little extra oomph in our military might be good. That extra morale and free prototypes could win by a hairs breadth

CyCon - Uni + techsteal ....... not a bad one either. Growth would be slower, but the right SE choices (Demo/Planned) would help mostly solve that - and the cloning vats would do the rest

Believers - Sparta - resonable tech rate......ick. I tihnk we'd end up spending a lot of resources probing to keep up/get slightly ahead - but it could be fun RP (the one true Savoiurs of Planet! )

Drones - Ooooh. Heavy industry with a slight tech penalty but we could churn out replacements fast, as well as build the SP's a lot faster ..... maybe we should ask Buster for some pros to this one

Soooo. Your thoughts?

[Vander]

For me, it boils down to either the University or the Drones. I think it's whether we want a tech boost or an industry boost. If it trancendence victory, I'd lean to the University.

[Drogue]

I don't know. The Uni would be cool, but I'd rather go for the Hive and create some carnage love (if we keep the others back from victory by conquest, we can transcend) or go with the CyCon's and go for the simple research->destroy tactics That way we don't need to choose between research and war, we can do both

[Corellion]

Either University or Pirates... and maybe the Drones or Hive. Given that I usually play good research factions, a change might be nice.

[Maniac]

The previous game was mainly a builder's game. So let's do something entirely else now: the Spartans! Or how about playing a game with all aquatic factions?

[Vev]

An all aquatic believer holy war!

[Googlie]

and tinker with the alphax.txt to make naval units weapons and armor less costly - finally see some outstanding naval battles maybe??

[foolish_icarus]

If its an issue of power, perhaps pick a less heavy hitting fac and don't boost the AI facs to such an extreme level. Interesting RP choices would be Morganites, Spartans, University, potentially Datajacks or Gaians/Planet Cult.

The Aquatic game would be interesting also, though perhaps difficult to balance correctly.

[Kody]

I think Googlie did an aquatic mod.

That would be interesting.

[Archaic]

I could go for an Aquatic Game, though I'd want the rules file altered so that ships could be built a lot less expensivly.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Kody
I think Googlie did an aquatic mod.

Yes - you can find them here

[MrWhereItsAt]

Reading Makahlua's first post I instantly latched onto the Drones - we could just SWAMP our enemies in units instead of having a few high-tech units!
That said, I can't help but see the number of people wanting an Aquatic game - thus Pirates perhaps?

Although if we wanted an ALL aquatic game (all ocean?) then perhaps we want to play as someone other than the Pirates, making them the KAI to take down.

[Makahlua]

I do remember aquifying the uni one time and having them run away with tech, since in SMAX the ocean is pretty good for nuts and energy, which of course equals tech With an all or mostly water map, the land will be premium for minerals, ocean doesn't do well in that respect unless you get some specials or the fossil fuel ridge. At least not early on - later with multupliers it gets better but nothing compared to a forest base with boreholes

[Method]

right, i want the hive. go evil!

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
and tinker with the alphax.txt to make naval units weapons and armor less costly - finally see some outstanding naval battles maybe??

Good suggestion.
If editing the alphax.txt is allowed, may I suggest changing the Industry penalty for Power from -2 to -1? It might make that SE choice a bit more valuable than now.

Edit: Btw, how would you decrease weapon & armour cost? Decreasing the cost of ALL weapons and armour, or decreasing the cost of the naval chassis?