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Hello gang, I've spent several days muddled in the Faction Editor and manually editing faction .txt files, and I've just put the finishing touches on a couple of hopefuls. Ostensibly they were meant as quick human replacements for the Progenitor factions (for I hate the alien inclusion in-game), but as time went on I become more and more involved in their design and factional ideology.
The first is a heavy modified faction from www.networknode.org On that site they were called the "Agri-Culture," and seemed to be based on an archaic agrarian model, like the old Mesopotania or American civilizations of earth. That got the juices stirring and after I'd tailored stat specifics to my taste I came up with the "Agrarians of Ceres."
LEADER: {High Councillor Wren Norbury}
BACKGROUND: {New Zealand Agronomist; Unity Terraforming Engineer}
AGENDA: {Planned society; Harvest of Planet}
TECH: {Centauri Ecology}
AI AGENDA: Planned
+2 GROWTH: {Emphasis on family, nutrient production}
+1 POLICE: {Populace feels secure with citizen militas}
-2 MORALE: {Lack of military paradigm}
-1 PLANET: {Large-scale terraforming ecologically disruptive}
{Formers may raise/lower terrain at half the cost}
{Free fungicidal tanks with the discovery of Synthetic Fossil Fuels}
GROWTH penalty doubled for GREEN economics: {Agrarians find fungal cohabitation aberrant}
{May not use Free Market economics}
Ideologically this faction falls somewhere betwixt the Gaians and the Free Drones: The terraforming and biological expertise of the former, the sense of communal welfare of the later. I thought they may be derived from Peacekeeper renegades and more subdued Believers members, or just Norbury's own people from the Unity.
Now the obvious hook of the Agrarians is the +2 growth, which will allow an early pop-boom, if you're so inclined. On a more general level you can potentially grow faster in the early game, and +1 police helps reign the drones in. With Demo/Planned you're in an immediate pop-boom, with creches in place you need but one of these SE choices. Ogie proposed that this faction would murder in Fundy/Planned w/Creches via probe rape, however to me the inefficiency hit would be very problematic to burgeoning drone populations, and your morale would still be -1. Other SE choices are less versitle: Police State/Planned kills your economy, and anything with Green doubles the penalty so you're reduced to a normal faction's use of the model (-2 Growth), which probably ensures a switch only after the majority of your growth has been accomplished. Free Market is disallowed, so you'll never make gobs of money. Planned (also AI agenda) is the only viable economic model for the Agrarians for awhile.
Their big trade-off, as touched upon, is the worst base morale on Planet, which can make early territorial expansions/wars with close (and especially hostile) neighbors quite difficult, ditto early run-ins with native life (morale/-1 Planet).
To reflect the agronomical nature of this faction I gave them some appropiate former bonuses. The Agrarian motto is essentially "Strength Through Terraforming," which I thought would resonate with any Builder player on here worth his weight in salt.
Since most players end up pop-booming anyway with Demo/Planned/Creches and (optional) GA, I didn't think the +2 growth would be too much of a game-breaker. I thought about +1 growth instead but compared them to the Hive and they just seemed markedly inferior. Should be an interesting faction for any dedicaded Builder/Terraforming Fanatic out there (of which they're probably legion). 
The second faction is one of my own creation, sort of the Morganites on water, put briefly. I liked the Pirates in SMAX and the idea of aquatic factions in general, and figured another seaborne one could fit the bill. However, instead of cruising the waters looking for ships to terrorize and whatnot like Sven, these guys, the "Nautilus Mercantile" actually want to make money and boast strong aquatic-based industries. The backstory I had in mind was that Etienne Peraud was Sven's Commerce Director but was disenchanted with Pirates' trade/economic policy and decided to take some like-minded economists and secede, perhaps with a few bored and adventurous contract Morganites in the bargain. Most of the SMAX fations are offshoots of others, with the exception of the Nautilus Pirates, since Sven was actually on the Unity in the first place, so I figured his own offshoot was due.
LEADER: {Admiral Etienne Peraud}
BACKGROUND: {8th French Republic; Nautilus Commerce Director}
AGENDA: {Oceanic Energy Monopoly}
TECH: {Industrial Base, Doctrine: Flexibility}
AI AGENDA: Wealth
+1 ECONOMY: {Aquatic conglomerate}
-1 RESEARCH: {Understaffed, overworked labs}
-1 PROBE: {Underpaid computer techs}
Robust SUPPORT: {Merchant expeditions must be self-sufficient}
2% INTEREST rate on energy reserves: {Trans-aquatic loans}
Extra DRONE per six citizens: {Sea-weary traders miss comforts of home}
Bonus mineral from shelf squares, waived sea former/colony pod prototype costs, may terraform improvements on trench squares: {Nautilus Pirate roots}
+1 ENERGY from fungus squares: {Mercantile attuned to xeno-energy resonance}
{May not use Knowledge values in Social Engineering}
The Pirates always struck me as Hybrid slightly erring to Momentum side of things, due to those free Naval Yards and Marine Detachment abilities. The Mercantile sacrifice those in favor of energy-raking capacity. The reserve interest struck me as an interesting gambit so I subbed that instead of Morgan's commerce bonus. Just so things don't get too carried away I gave them slightly aggravated drone problems to deal with. The Mercantile are something of a paradox in being a Builders' faction with poor research. I sort of figured with the majority of base space being used as trade warehouses, shipyards, and offshore platform assembly factories, research labs are left cramped and underfunded. Anyway, this faction may prove interesting, especially for a player who likes Morgan but is less comfortable on the water.
I haven't playtested these two factions yet, as I'm in the middle of some other SMAX games, and they're also freshly minted. Just wanted some theoretical feedback from the top of y'all's heads. Thanks!
The first is a heavy modified faction from www.networknode.org On that site they were called the "Agri-Culture," and seemed to be based on an archaic agrarian model, like the old Mesopotania or American civilizations of earth. That got the juices stirring and after I'd tailored stat specifics to my taste I came up with the "Agrarians of Ceres."
LEADER: {High Councillor Wren Norbury}
BACKGROUND: {New Zealand Agronomist; Unity Terraforming Engineer}
AGENDA: {Planned society; Harvest of Planet}
TECH: {Centauri Ecology}
AI AGENDA: Planned
+2 GROWTH: {Emphasis on family, nutrient production}
+1 POLICE: {Populace feels secure with citizen militas}
-2 MORALE: {Lack of military paradigm}
-1 PLANET: {Large-scale terraforming ecologically disruptive}
{Formers may raise/lower terrain at half the cost}
{Free fungicidal tanks with the discovery of Synthetic Fossil Fuels}
GROWTH penalty doubled for GREEN economics: {Agrarians find fungal cohabitation aberrant}
{May not use Free Market economics}
Ideologically this faction falls somewhere betwixt the Gaians and the Free Drones: The terraforming and biological expertise of the former, the sense of communal welfare of the later. I thought they may be derived from Peacekeeper renegades and more subdued Believers members, or just Norbury's own people from the Unity.
Now the obvious hook of the Agrarians is the +2 growth, which will allow an early pop-boom, if you're so inclined. On a more general level you can potentially grow faster in the early game, and +1 police helps reign the drones in. With Demo/Planned you're in an immediate pop-boom, with creches in place you need but one of these SE choices. Ogie proposed that this faction would murder in Fundy/Planned w/Creches via probe rape, however to me the inefficiency hit would be very problematic to burgeoning drone populations, and your morale would still be -1. Other SE choices are less versitle: Police State/Planned kills your economy, and anything with Green doubles the penalty so you're reduced to a normal faction's use of the model (-2 Growth), which probably ensures a switch only after the majority of your growth has been accomplished. Free Market is disallowed, so you'll never make gobs of money. Planned (also AI agenda) is the only viable economic model for the Agrarians for awhile.
Their big trade-off, as touched upon, is the worst base morale on Planet, which can make early territorial expansions/wars with close (and especially hostile) neighbors quite difficult, ditto early run-ins with native life (morale/-1 Planet).
To reflect the agronomical nature of this faction I gave them some appropiate former bonuses. The Agrarian motto is essentially "Strength Through Terraforming," which I thought would resonate with any Builder player on here worth his weight in salt.
Since most players end up pop-booming anyway with Demo/Planned/Creches and (optional) GA, I didn't think the +2 growth would be too much of a game-breaker. I thought about +1 growth instead but compared them to the Hive and they just seemed markedly inferior. Should be an interesting faction for any dedicaded Builder/Terraforming Fanatic out there (of which they're probably legion). The second faction is one of my own creation, sort of the Morganites on water, put briefly. I liked the Pirates in SMAX and the idea of aquatic factions in general, and figured another seaborne one could fit the bill. However, instead of cruising the waters looking for ships to terrorize and whatnot like Sven, these guys, the "Nautilus Mercantile" actually want to make money and boast strong aquatic-based industries. The backstory I had in mind was that Etienne Peraud was Sven's Commerce Director but was disenchanted with Pirates' trade/economic policy and decided to take some like-minded economists and secede, perhaps with a few bored and adventurous contract Morganites in the bargain. Most of the SMAX fations are offshoots of others, with the exception of the Nautilus Pirates, since Sven was actually on the Unity in the first place, so I figured his own offshoot was due.
LEADER: {Admiral Etienne Peraud}
BACKGROUND: {8th French Republic; Nautilus Commerce Director}
AGENDA: {Oceanic Energy Monopoly}
TECH: {Industrial Base, Doctrine: Flexibility}
AI AGENDA: Wealth
+1 ECONOMY: {Aquatic conglomerate}
-1 RESEARCH: {Understaffed, overworked labs}
-1 PROBE: {Underpaid computer techs}
Robust SUPPORT: {Merchant expeditions must be self-sufficient}
2% INTEREST rate on energy reserves: {Trans-aquatic loans}
Extra DRONE per six citizens: {Sea-weary traders miss comforts of home}
Bonus mineral from shelf squares, waived sea former/colony pod prototype costs, may terraform improvements on trench squares: {Nautilus Pirate roots}
+1 ENERGY from fungus squares: {Mercantile attuned to xeno-energy resonance}
{May not use Knowledge values in Social Engineering}
The Pirates always struck me as Hybrid slightly erring to Momentum side of things, due to those free Naval Yards and Marine Detachment abilities. The Mercantile sacrifice those in favor of energy-raking capacity. The reserve interest struck me as an interesting gambit so I subbed that instead of Morgan's commerce bonus. Just so things don't get too carried away I gave them slightly aggravated drone problems to deal with. The Mercantile are something of a paradox in being a Builders' faction with poor research. I sort of figured with the majority of base space being used as trade warehouses, shipyards, and offshore platform assembly factories, research labs are left cramped and underfunded. Anyway, this faction may prove interesting, especially for a player who likes Morgan but is less comfortable on the water.
I haven't playtested these two factions yet, as I'm in the middle of some other SMAX games, and they're also freshly minted. Just wanted some theoretical feedback from the top of y'all's heads. Thanks!
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