Disable P-busters & pop-booming?

[thorwahl999]

Been playing SMAC and SMAX for 2 years or and and im still loving it. Since Civ 3 didnt live up to my (and possibly others) expectations im gonna start playing SMAX again. Love the game, but would really like to disable 2 of the most unbalanced features, ie pop-booming and planetbusters (when i get either i know i have won the game regardless of AI opponents ranking). Anyone around who knows how or even if this could be done? Ive been tinkering around with the alphax/alpha.txt files, but these seem to be hardcoded features (i could be wrong).
Sure hope someone knows how this could be figured out..

Thorwahl

[yavoon]

for pop booming u can make it exceedingly hard to get a combined +6 growth. if yer in smax this can get tricky, but u'll figure it out. its ok if eudamania and the vats still let you boom, cuz those are way past the critical point in the game. but if u wna take vats out, just make its prerequisite tech will to power, or something really high.

same w/ planet busters, make the missile chasis require will to power, eud, or some really high tech. effectively taking it out. I think u can also disable them, but I've never done that cuz I"m lazy.

[thorwahl999]

Thanks for the quick response
I'll try those things - i think ill make future tech a prereq for planetbusters and cloning vats. I can refrain from booming using social engineering which is only fair since the AI never does it. Cloning vats if different tho since the AI DOES like to build that.

Thorwahl

[Basil]

You can considerably reduce pop booming by changing a few lines in alpha.txt/alphax.txt:

Change:
10, ; Nutrient cost multiplier
to
9, ; Nutrient cost multiplier

And change:
Frontier, None,
Police State, DocLoy, ++POLICE, ++SUPPORT, --EFFIC
Democratic, EthCalc, ++EFFIC, ++GROWTH, --SUPPORT
Fundamentalist, Brain, +MORALE, ++PROBE, --RESEARCH
to
Frontier, None, -GROWTH
Police State, DocLoy, ++POLICE, ++SUPPORT, --EFFIC, -GROWTH
Democratic, EthCalc, ++EFFIC, +GROWTH, --SUPPORT
Fundamentalist, Brain, +MORALE, ++PROBE, --RESEARCH, -GROWTH

If you do this, it's also good to change Green to:
Green, CentEmp, ++PLANET, ++EFFIC, -GROWTH


Using these settings, your population growth will be unchanged under most SE settings. SE combinations like Demo/Planned still give you the fastest population growth, but they don't cause population booms. So this change makes pop booms hard without artificially causing you to avoid SE settings which should reasonably be good strategies.

(Edit: You can also give the Cloning Vats tech prerequisites of Disable, Disable, which will cause it never to be built.)

[Ned]

I'm not so sure about the AI not pop booming. It seems that the AI LAL does it all the time because he often runs Demo, Planned and has Creches in most of his bases.

Ned

[T-hawk]

Don't forget the other requirement for a pop boom -- FOOD! The AI Lal can meet the Growth conditions for a pop boom (although I seem to see him in Free Market more often than Planned) but won't have the food to take advantage of it. The computer doesn't build condensors, doesn't rush Hybrid Forests, and loves to ruin good rainy/rolling squares with mines (-1 food).

I've disabled booming in my games by simply setting Demo, Planned, and Eudaimonic to +1 growth instead of +2 (and Green to -1) and moving the Cloning Vats to Threshold of Transcendence (so I can still build it for the score.)

I hadn't thought of changing the nutrient cost multiplier, but that's a good idea to even out the differences between growth settings. (Set it to 9 and with +1 growth, it's still 9.)

As for Planet Busters, you can simply disable the planet buster in the weapons/modules list in alpha.txt by setting its prerequisite technology to Disable. Interestingly, the game uses Attack Strength = 99 to indicate a unit is a planet buster -- if you set, say, Impact to strength 99 and put it on an infantry unit, that infantry will cause a planet bust when it attacks. I _think_ you can set Planet Buster's strength to something other than 99 and you just get a really strong conventional missile. (Not sure how any of this affects the "I see you have planet busters" diplomacy.)

[Flubber]

I am probably just lazy but I never see the need to alter the files if I find a tactic is unbalancing in my hands versus the AI. It is much simpler to impose self-handicaps such as

1. I may NEVER build planet-busters even if the AI does-- and the AI probably will if you do not alter the attributes

2..Creches and Golden Ages are not permitted and I may not build the CV-- ta da no pop booms--


These two rules limit the human but leave these tactics as possibilities for the AI. I have played with other self-handicaps like

1. No crawlers
2. No probes at all- or no bribing AI units or basesif I do allow probes
3. Limiting the number of SE changes to a fixed number per game ie 1,2,3-- (gets interesting when you realize you are "stuck" with your SE choices for the rest of the game-- really focues you on the SE-- ) Its not much of a limitation for Yang but for the rest it can be interesting

and many many more. Literally any tactic that you think is too strong or unbalancing against the AI-- Don't use it !! The challenge is to find different ways to win.


Lots of people fiddle with the files to make the game harder but I find that by following restrictions you can still make the game a lot of fun.

[thorwahl999]

Yeah, i love the game but at the same time feel its a bit too complex for the poor wittle AI
In my games i never allow myself choppers, supply crawlers or reloading (Ironman). Playing at transcend against the custommade superfactions which keeps the fun in the game during late midgame and early endgame. Reason i dont like planetbusters is that when you're able to build orbital def pods you have won the game. On another note.. thats usually HOW i end my games - too lazy to conquer the entire world and i dont like trancending since it cuts the game too short. Normally (when i get tired if the game) i set all cities to produce planetbusters and sink the rest of the world beneath the sea Never liked pop booming tho since its just plain to easy to get a crushing lead over the poor AIs when using it

Thorwahl

[Rex Little]

i never allow myself choppers

The idea that choppers are some kind of all-powerful unbalancing feature keeps coming up in SMAC discussions, and I don't understand it. In my games, by the time I'm building choppers the computer is building AAA units; if my chopper attacks one of those, either it loses outright, or wins but is weakened so much that it has to refuel before risking another attack. I think I get more bang for the buck with needlejets/penetrators.

[Flubber]

Rex

you are right that choppers are not a "super unit" that automatically mows down everything but the attributes of long range and multiple attacks can make them quite valuable. The chopper hits with the same force as the equivalent needle and can press its attack mutiple times. Once you accept that a chopper is expendable, you can do a whole lot of damage through suicide runs at vulnerable bases/ units. Consider a cheap impact chopper can wipe the AIs entire former fleet and cherry pick any unarmoured troops. Down to 10% health and facing an armoured guy . . . self destruct the guy or destroy and improvement as a last act of bravado.

As for the AI and its AA units, I often find that the AI does not upgrade across the board. So cracking the AA defender means the rest are easy meat for following choppers--Often one chopper can take out the AA guy, another wipes out remaining defenders and ground/drop troops move into the base, then the helos follow to avoid end of turn damage.

The only area where I find the needle superior is in its ability to provide air cover for ground troops but this can be feeble indeed in the face of SAM weapons.

[yavoon]

I'll try any # of schemes to make the ai better. I'll limit myself artificially, but if I can exchange that artificial limit for a rules limit in the .txt I usually do. its just idealogical, seems corny the other way.

in the end, I have fun by playing almost all my games in a challenge type setting. they're just normal games, but I exchange the start locations w/ friends and it plays out like a Golf match. since none of my schemes have yet to yield an ai strong enuff to beat me, outside of miriam getting the monsoon running over 4 other factions by year 60 and coming at me w/ 40 4-3-1 units in year 80.

[yavoon]

as for the chopper guy,s ince I luv double posting. choppers to me are an extremely unbalancing unit. maybe not end all. but if u fight for super efficiency, u usually make choppers, and units to capture bases. now if that doesn't tell u something about how good the chopper is.

choppers just annhilate ur non superior air defense unit. all ur impact rovers, formers, crawlers, probes, nething w/o AAA and not in a base w/ an aerospace complex.

[Rex Little]

Consider a cheap impact chopper can wipe the AIs entire former fleet

I don't want to wipe out the AI's formers. The improvements they make will belong to me when I take over its bases.

[Ned]

Rex, Disassociative Wave neutralizes AAA and restores the Chopper to a super weapon. Ned

[Method]

ned you took the words right out of my mouth. i was just going to say: "so i guess you guys don't use WAVE then" because i guess that would as you said restore it to a "super unit". so i guess you don't allow the Cloudbase Accademy then either because its automatic +100% in all bases againts air. BTW are aerospace complexes and AAA cumulative or can you only have 1 or the other?

but while we're talking about WAVE, ned i was just thinking about your "run green/wealth during war and use native units" thing. the WAVE PSI chopper is unstoppable then because it fizzles trance (esp with twister). im to lazy to find/recover that thread so i'll post it here.