story reasons for only one special project

[Commy]

True, Ascetism is a philosophy, not a technology, but technology is needed in order to enforce and construct such a philosophy...while certain individuals may believe in ascetism, in order to spread the idea to a whole population requires technology, science of the human brain, human psychology, heck, even trial and error to see if ascetism can truly be embraced when Morgan and Santiago are right next store to you...

Civ 3 is a good example of such a thing...the "technology" Monarchy requires Polytheism. Why? Because without the belief of Gods, Monarchy wouldn't work. The fact that the "King" is chosen by or is a descedant of the Gods requires the idea that Gods exist in the first place...

Or, how about Fascism? The basis of this government is nationalism, national identity...with nationalism, the whole idea of fascism falls apart...

While I don't necessarily agree that Fascism should be it own tech (just as I don't think Ascetic Virtues needs to be its own tech), technology is required in order to construct the idea...does a rocket engine require the knowledge of the wheel? No, but the wheel is needed to construct the tools needed to construct the tools needed to construct the rocket.

[SynthetGod8]

Okay, let's consider the Ascetic Virtues. Planetary Economics is the required tech to build it. It would seem that, in the face of increased industrial might, rampant consumerism, and increased materialism, a faction, particularily Hive, Believer, Spartan, Cult, even the University, might want to reject things like consumerism and capitalism. The members of the faction with the Ascetic Virtues would be less focused on individual wealth and the aquistion of it and more on improving their own faction and, ultimately, the entire human race. The results of which, as presented by the game, are that people don't mind living close together in less than exclusive conditions. That is, the largest home size would be much smaller. Things like drinking water, food and cleaning services might be centralized and not in as many people's homes. The tolerance for Police I don't quite understand. Maybe it's the huge amount of public indoctrination involved in implimenting the Ascetic Virtues (so why not include a part about no rioting or something?), it could be that people become more likely to accept that an army is needed to defend their way of life (that is, against rampant capitalism and those violently opposed to Asceticism).

So, the Ascetic Virtues might be a philosophy, but to get the entire faction's population to accept it would require a huge amount of resoruces to produce media spreading the messages, to construct and/or reorganize schools to teach the Virtues to students, to reorganize the entire economy so that it can still compete in a (now) planetary economy. If everyone in that faction needs less of everything (especially luxury items) to be happy and are happy to be working in mines, factories or other industries that produce only useful and practical products, then the faction now wields increased industrial and economic exporting might.

Although, I'd like to see someone explain how the Morganites would benefit from or incorperate the Ascetic Virtues from a story p.o.v.

[Straybow]

OK, I'll give that a try. In a faction like Morgan the Ascetic Virtues are implemented through a Heinleinesque system of military service bequeathing public privileges such as sufferage. This is extended to secondary education in military schools being seen as preferable to indulgent public schools. Thus service itself is venerated and outcry from military units outside borders reduced. The public who do not choose service see the value of patience, not seeking emotional gratification through rioting, etc.

Police themselves are effectively made military reservists, and beyond that many social services are performed by military personnel (Corp of Engineers for roadbuilding and other infrastructure). A larger percentage of the populace lives in the limited space and privacy that comes with military service.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by binTravkin
Why then people still try and invest big money to replicate it?
Just because someone built a computer in a garage?
Nope.

AFAIK, the Chinese isn't trying to replicate Silicon Valley per se. It's just used as a convienent moniker to denote a place where you have a high concentration of techies and geeks with a kind of management style similar to the companies in the Valley.

As far as I see it though it's an obsolete model. The Web replaced all. You can communicate and socialise with people from every corner around the globe in real time without leaving your home, and form groups that will get work done because they strike it off.

This is the future.

[Frankychan]

But isn't the Ascetic Virtues and the Morganics mutually exclusive? I mean, I hate to focus mostly on the A.V. but I think I understand this Sp more than the other ones.

The basic Morganite ideology is wealth and materialism whereas the A.V. preaches...erm...asceticism. But then again, I can sort of see how it could be adapted into a quasi-Morganite doctrine. Lower vs. Upper class distinction or whatever.


But things like the Space Elevator are also troubling...okay, so that would be an actual construction...but why would it prevent another faction from building their own S.E.?

[SynthetGod8]

Nothing actually prevents another faction from building the Space Elevator... except cost. There would also be many technical problems to overcome that the building faction might not be willing to hand over. Besides, the Drop-anywhere ability is soon made obsolete. A militant or research orientied faction might decide to look for a 'better' way to Drop-anywhere. A builder faction might decide that it'd be cheaper to pay the Elevator-controlling faction a fee to launch their sats. Instead of building another Elevator, the other factions might decide that they will just spend the resources elsewhere. It's a bit of a stretch, really. I think, for the most part, this Project is a matter of game balance (but would it really unbalance the game if everyone could build one?).

What I'd like to see would be the results of the destruction of the Space Elevator. Remember the Mars books? 64,000 km of Space Elevator fell and circled the planet 2.5 times, doing massive damage to the bases that lay in its path... although it was mostly the city at the base of the Elevator that took most of the damage, since Mars wasn't that populated. I'd like to see this effect in AC2, if a faction destoys the city that builds the Elevator. Or maybe make it a special Probe Team action (maybe require like 4 or 5 teams at once to increase the odds to 50%). Then *whoosh* there's a trench that circles the planet, 1/4 loss of pop in all cities along the path and destroys all improvements.

You know what'd be cool too? If Boreholes (or maybe just Boreholes under construcion) could be Probe targets too. Team hijacks the Former, it digs too deep and creates a mini-volcano that causes all kinds of chaos. Maybe it could only be done 1 or 2 turns before the Borehole is to be finished. Either that or use the combination of a Team and a Former on an existing Borehole.

Okay, I'm done.

[Commy]

[SIZE=1]You know what'd be cool too? If Boreholes (or maybe just Boreholes under construcion) could be Probe targets too. Team hijacks the Former, it digs too deep and creates a mini-volcano that causes all kinds of chaos. Maybe it could only be done 1 or 2 turns before the Borehole is to be finished. Either that or use the combination of a Team and a Former on an existing Borehole.

This, for a long time, has puzzled me...

Let's look at earth for a moment...the deepest mine, tunnel, whatever, that I know of is some mine in Russia, about 6 miles deep....and yet we have sent satellites into space, past Jupiter and Saturn, beyond our solar system...heck, there is more progress on building a colonizing spaceship than there is digging big holes to the core of the earth...

So I have to ask...on a planet like Chiron that has even less resources, how can humans possibly manage to build boreholes and deep 1000km mines, and yet, not be able to build simple satellites...after all, history shows space flight is a lot easier than digging boreholes...we have space flight, and yet we're still waiting for those boreholes...

[#endgame]

Simple.

Research Gene Splicing, then Ecological Engineering.

[Lazerus]

On the subject of special projects, is there a way to add extra projects into the game by editing the alphax.txt or are they hardcoded and only the set ones are allowed ??
something like cost 1500 mins, free tree farm at all bases (still grossly overpowerful i know, just an example)
Also if it is possible, can the same be done for adding more facilities ?

[GeoModder]

The SP's are hardcoded, no possibility to include more, or change existing ones properties. The cost of the existing ones can easily be changed tho.

[Commy]

Originally posted by Lazerus
On the subject of special projects, is there a way to add extra projects into the game by editing the alphax.txt or are they hardcoded and only the set ones are allowed ??
something like cost 1500 mins, free tree farm at all bases (still grossly overpowerful i know, just an example)
Also if it is possible, can the same be done for adding more facilities ?

There are some SPs that could be added more than once...the supercollider and theory of everthing for example, have exactly the same advantages IIRC...also, the Bulk Matter Transmitter (which actually increases minerals by 50%, it does NOT add two) wouldn't be a bad SP to have multiples of...you can add more SPs, just, they will all have the same advantages...

[Lazerus]

cool, 8 super colliders at a base lol

[GeoModder]

@commy: care to show us how this is possible? SP's are hardcoded AFAIK. (or do you mean giving similar names to SP's with the same properties?)

[binTravkin]

He was thinking that Theory Of Everything anf Supercollider give the same effect, thus you effectively double and SP.

[GeoModder]

Essentially, they do that.

Oh man, am I tempted to reorganize the tech tree again.