AC-Police State Game : alphax.txt modifications

[Maniac]

Some changes were suggested to the alphax.txt . Examples are cheaper ship costs, smaller penalty for Power SE, retarded air power. Other possibilities could be putting submarines and aircraft carriers earlier in the tech three. I though it would be good to start a seperate thread to discuss the possible modifications we'd want.

Does anyone know what changes Darsnan made to his aquatic alphax.txt that has been mentioned a few times?

[Snowflake]

I don't know what he did for his aquatic alphax.txt but in a pbem he made for us, anybody could build sea pods before flexibility. I don't know what was our decision about ships other than cheap ships, do we still need to research flex before being able to build all ships? Certain types of ships? If yes for some, not all, then are we allowed to retroengineering other ships?

Btw a side effect of whatever Darson had done is for me, the Hive, cent ecology was not available as the first research choice. I had to wait years to build my first former.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by HongHu
Btw a side effect of whatever Darson had done is for me, the Hive, cent ecology was not available as the first research choice. I had to wait years to build my first former.

First off, my name is Darsnan ! Secondly, I didn't do anything to the game HongHu mentioned as far as what initial techs were offered - this was simply a mechanism of the game. However, in retrospect, I think when playing against other humans, that you definately should have Cent Ecology as a choice, and if I had to do it over, I would've re-generated the game with Cent Ecology.

As far as editing the Alphax.txt file is concerned: I don't think you can modify the Penalties/ Bonuses for SE choices with the Alphax.txt file. Instead, a better option might be to modify the Faction file to give either a Penalty or Bonus to accomodate a pre-determined SE Setting path.
Chassis Cost: There is a "cost" associated with each chassis, and (theoretically, as I've never tried it) this should be able to be ammended to make specific chassis cheaper. You can also reduce the prototype penalty for specific chassis groups (i.e. land, air, and sea).
Changing pre-requisites for Abilities: np. I've changed the pre-requisites for subs and Aircraft Carriers in my basic Alphax.txt file so that subs are available with Doc: Init and Aircraft Carriers are available with Doc: AP. All other Abilities are modable in this way, as well. You can also change the perrequisites for specific Facilities, as well.
Retarding Air Power: there is an entry in the Alphax.txt file for "Speed", which corresponds to a unit's movement per turn. I assume changing this will work, although I've never tried it. However, currently I am of the opinion that changing values in this field may prove more damaging to the AI's capabilities than anything else, as I have discovered several things about the AI while playtesting my next CGN Challenge.

And speaking of my next CGN Challenge, why it is being timed to be released at the same time Rubin will be posting his "Guide to editing the Alphax.txt file" at The SMAC Academy, so if all of you can be patient a little while longer (no more than 10 days, I hope!), why you will shortly have a set of instructions for modifying your Alphax.txt files yourselves, and doing just about everything that you all had mentioned above, as well as being provided (by me, in the form of my next Challenge!) an example of just how much you can tweak your Alphax.txt file! Bwahahahahah!!!!!!


D

[Snowflake]

Originally posted by Darsnan


First off, my name is Darsnan !
D

Sorry Darsnan. I have a habit of making spelling mistakes especially when it comes to people's names. That's why I often use their positions instead, such as the marshal, dear chairman and prime functions. Even that I have been spelling marshal with double l's for quite a long time. Anyway, hopefully you'll get a government position in the ACPSG otherwise I'll try very hard not to spell your name wrong again.

As far as the initial techs, I knew you didn't do anything. But I think the fact that cent eco was not in may be a byproduct or something 'cause when I played Hive in SP games cent eco is always available. That's why I raised it here so people can be aware that there might be additional effects of modifications you do to other aspects. As for the pbem itself, it has proved to be very much fun. And the sea pod stuff although we decided we are not going to allow sea bases before flex, I was able to retroengineer a foil out of it. (Don't tell the other players.) That's why I'm now at second place in the power graph. Only next to Lal (AI! Well let's just say that he has some favorable starting conditions...)

[Maniac]

Thanks for your post Darsnan!

Your modification of moving subs to Doc:Ini and carriers to D:AP sounds good.
And I'll certainly be awaiting your next challenge.

As far as editing the Alphax.txt file is concerned: I don't think you can modify the Penalties/ Bonuses for SE choices with the Alphax.txt file.

Sure you can! Just look under the header #SOCIO in the alphax.txt. You can just change about everything you want: SE choice names, the effects, the size of the effects by adding or removing some +'s or -'s, you can use the currently unused TALENT SE factor. It all works like a charm! The only limitation I've seen is that any SE effect I give to the choices Frontier, Simple, Survival and None seem to be ignored.

[GeneralTacticus]

Originally posted by Maniac

The only limitation I've seen is that any SE effect I give to the choices Frontier, Simple, Survival and None seem to be ignored.

Really? I could have sworn I've done it successfully before...

[Phenix]

Actually being able to use subs and carriers sounds cool

[Maniac]

From Darsnan Challenge:

1. Artillery bombardment is now more lethal over its original configuration!
2. You can build Sea Sensors and Sea Boreholes!
3. Sea Mines will now produce +2 Minerals.
4. Subsea Trunklines and Thermal Transducers are available with Doc: Init.
5. The AI's will build Cruiser Probeships with the advent of Doc: Init!
6. The “Deep Pressure Hull” ability is now available with Doc: Init!
7. The “Carrier Deck” ability is now available with Doc: AP!
8. The Unity Wreckage is submerged, with the Unity Submersible replacing the Mining Laser!

3. is probably not necessary for aquatic factions. 4. neither IMHO. And I'm not sure about sea boreholes (unless it's put higher in the tech tree, Nanometallurgy perhaps as that is a useless tech without the two special abilities?).

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Maniac
From Darsnan Challenge:

Sheesh - at least post a link if your going to talk about it.


D

[Corellion]

I agree with most of them, aside from on the following points:

Sea boreholes will be too overpowered. If they're going to be in, put them much later in the tech tree (I like Maniac's idea of Nanometallurgy).
For an aquatic faction, +2 minerals for mining platforms is a bit overpowering. Besides, being aquatic, we'll have so much energy that minerals will be less important.
I think Subsea Trunklines and Thermal Transducers should be left where they are.

In other words... I pretty much agree with Maniac.

[Kody]

Sea boreholes look really really weird.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Darsnan


Sheesh - at least post a link if your going to talk about it.

Sorry.
/me tries to dodge the blizzards from DarsnanGod.