Solstice AI challenge

[Chaos Theory]

5 factions successfully landed from the Unity: Morgan and his cronies, Yang and his trusting laborers, Aki Zeta-5 and the remnants of the Unity research crew, Svensgaard and the remnants of the Spartans, and against all odds, Miriam and those in the damaged 7th landing pod.

Over the first twenty years on Planet, Morgan and Yang met and formed a business alliance, with Morgan carefully developing Yang's laborers' initiative without inducing any desire for freedom, and with Yang training Morgan's followers in asceticism.

Svensgaard claimed the infinite seas and started preying on Morgan's commercial transports. In return, Morgan has sent some decoy transports, rigged to explode when boarded.

Miriam has decided that Yang and Aki Zeta-5 are abominations for their inhumanity and must be wiped off the face of Eden. She's not too fond of Morgan, either, for being a demon's ally. Svensgaard has carefully avoided attacking Miriam's transports, content to not be a target of her fanaticism.

Aki Zeta-5 has more or less carved out a peaceful niche for herself and her followers, but now is threatened by Miriam. In response to that, she has allied with Yang, on the principle that her enemy's enemy is her friend.

In the year 2120, Foreman Domai in Laborer's Throng successfully revolted against Yang's rule and formed the Free Drone faction. Although the base was quickly reconquered, with nerve gas, Domai and his fellow laborers fled to a remote region of Planet to found Utopia.

Domai views Aki Zeta-5 as dangerous, with her conflicting notion of Utopia, but has found a friend in Svensgaard, a fellow freedom-lover.

Taking advantage of the disruption caused by Domai, Asa Wright, head of Quality Assurance in Morgan Industries, capitalized on a plan she had been working on since Planetfall. She and some fellow hackers stole all of Morgan's technology and incited drones throughout his empire, while smuggling out supplies with which to found a freer, more cooperative society.

Roze's actions of course made enemies of both Yang and Morgan, but her love of Democracy has drawn some of Miriam's wrath, as well.


You will play Roze, with the following turn order:
Miriam
Yang
Sven
Morgan
Aki
Domai
Roze


The modes of victory will be:
Transcendence (but only if the AI does not have the Voice of Planet - no stealing the win from the AI!)
Destroying what all of the other factions hold dear (this will be apparent in the scenario)
Diplomatic
Economic (but first you must crush Morgan)
Cooperative victory is disabled


Whenever you capture an enemy HQ, you have a choice:

1. Return it to its original owner, or
2. Let your probe teams go to town with mind control probes on the faction leader who lives there. Burn down the base to complete the ravaging of his mind. The victim will become unable to experience that which he loves. The faction will hate you for the rest of its life, but will (hopefully) fight less effectively from then on.


Thanks to Dilithium Dad for the Ultimate Builder Map which I tweaked for this scenario.


Other odd features:
The power graph is broken. You do have an aversion to power...
The AIs have new abilities, some secret, some not. Find out for yourself.

Edit: Updated challenge with fix to Roze's techshare ability and faction files.

[Enigma_Nova]

So I'm fighting against 3 accelerated start factions with boosted starts and special abilities?

GREAT fun. Where's my nervestapler?

[Illuminatus]

Special abbilities like increased fanatic bonus

[Chaos Theory]

The AI factions, while boosted, aren't superhuman. You should be able to beat them with effort, but they shouldn't roll over like the normal AI.

[Enigma_Nova]

The last time I checked, Cyborgs -were- superhuman, CT.

[Chaos Theory]

Fine, but then you get to be superhuman, too, by playing a 1337 |-|4><0r, right?

[Illuminatus]

Clue: leave them alone and they will leave you alone too (mostly). I like this.

[Chaos Theory]

Well, I didn't like that feature, so from your feedback and my testing, I pointed the AI more at the player

Also, I'll be making a vanilla SMAC version of this, but I'm also lazy and have been putting that off.

[Illuminatus]

I will have to replay it again. Also, it was tricky, but possible to completely outran AI in techs.

[Enigma_Nova]

Pssht.
Infiltrate everyone and sell out the commlinks, then sit back and let the tech roll in.

[Chaos Theory]

That only works if they like you well enough to talk to you.

[Enigma_Nova]

Oh my god, you didn't set them -all- to attrocity vendetta, did you?

[Chaos Theory]

No, absolutely not. That would be unfair to the player, since diplomacy is part of the game. However, in some testing, I did have trouble getting some of the AIs to respond on the commlink.

[Chaos Theory]

Optional faction files attached, for the datalinks entries. Don't peek at them or you'll spoil some surprises!

Edit: attachment deleted - the faction files are in the attachment in the first post

[H0bbes]

I can't get anywhere with this game. Miriam always comes over and smashes me with about a thousand units. Anyone else care to take a look in these holidays?

Hobbes