Question about growth and editing factions

[Illuminatus]

I am building a mod and I am trying to create a faction that doesnot experience natural growth in any way except via building The Cloning Vats. Therefore I am interested is there a maximum to number of minuses in faction txt file? I tried putting -10 growth for that faction but game crashes.

Help?

[Mr. President]

Unless I am much mistaken, -3 Growth is the maximum negative rating you can have. Decreasing the number beyond this has no further effect.

[Illuminatus]

Re: Question about growth and editing factions

I know what minus three growth does, but I want to make sure that any combination of SE changes +Childrens Creche + Golden Age won`t start natural growth with that faction.

In the meantime I was partially able to solve this but game still randomly crashes after some point.

[The Mad Monk]

Well, what you have to do then is make GA difficult as well -- better throw in a -3 ECON, just to make sure.

[Illuminatus]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Well, what you have to do then is make GA difficult as well -- better throw in a -3 ECON, just to make sure.

Why?
Setting -8 growth would work as well. Why would I give it a eco penalty (althrough I was thinking about eliminating commerce)? Forgot to mention - they also have Punishment Spheres in every base - so no GA. Perhaps a -6 Growth would work.

[Illuminatus]

Is it possible to disable commerce for human factions - sth like giving them a freefac Energy Grid but they still don`t count as aliens?

[Illuminatus]

At least thirty people viewed this and still no useful informations. Seems I overestimated Apolyton modding community.

[The Mad Monk]

By the way -- if they don't grow at all, how do they get new colonies?

[Illuminatus]

They do not get new colonies - they conquer it or rather assimilate it (wooops - yes I am doing a complete redone of the Borg - every custom Borg faction I found is simply bad). I guess it will be a human based faction after all since computer will probably just try to build CP for eternity.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Well their are a few things you could do.

Prevent them from taking SE settings that give growth like Democracy or Planned or Eudiamonic.

Edit the Alpha to lower Growth bonuses on the above (but that would affect all factions unfortunatly)

Incresse growth penalties on SE settings they are likly to pick such as Green or Freemarket (unfortunaly aplies to everyone), also the NONE future society can be given any desired set of penalties which are inescapable untill the late game.

Diable the Childrens Creech in the Alpha Text (unfotunatly this will aply to everyone but could be compensated for)

Lastly just give them a wopper of a negative growth rate, I dont know how far down you can go before you crash the game though.

And lastly...

Who ever said the Borg couldn't grow their population without assimilation?? You have probably been watching too much Voyager inwhich it seems EVERY single Drone was assimilated, this is just rediculus ofcorse. If you ever saw the TNG epidode that first introduced the borg would have seen an episode that quite clearly shows the Borg Babies. It says that the borg start out purely biological (I assume their gestated in a tank though) and are then imediatly fitted with implants at "birth" and accumulate more and more as they grow eventualy becoming fully augmented cyborgs.

So their is no acurate basis for your asertion that the Borg would not experience any natural population growth.

[Illuminatus]

Aah a fellow Star Treker! Hurray! First of all, Borg in ST:Voyager act like worst imbeciles I have ever seen. They are unable to assimilate a single ship traversing through a quadrant full of unassimillated species. They have strength in numbers, advanced tehnilogy and overall tactical advantage and a single ship starts a resistance movement, raids a cube, and manaeges to collapse entire transwarp network - not mentioning killing one queen (possibly two) and wreaking chaos through CYCon wooops collective conscious.
In first part of the The Best of Both Worlds, if I am correct, Borg does not want to assimilate humanity, but rather to enslave it, as Locutus pointed out, "Your life will accomodate to serve us."
Since many changes are frequent in Star Trek (I too prefered breeding drones) and they are introduced painlessly (in ST:NG Borg does not use assimilation tubules for example, and there is no mentioning of the useless Queen concept until the movie - why does a collective conscious need someone to basicaly rule over them pardon "direct them i give order to chaos"), I think that the most recent data is "correct". Do you perhaps remember energy barrier at the edge of our galaxy as in ST:OS?

Ahem back to topic.
Thanks to Impaler for first constructive answer! Three cheers for Impaler!

As for his help all first four things have been rejected basically from the start. I decided for a giant penalty, as I say in first post, but the problem is that after 50 or so turns game crashes. End. Also in SMAC this is hundred or so turns but in SMAX no more than 50.

Is it possible to disable commerce for human factions - sth like giving them a freefac Energy Grid but they still don`t count as aliens?

I would be really grateful if someone can answer this question?

[Impaler[WrG]]

Sorry I am drawing a complete blank on how the Alien Energy Grid thingy works, as I never liked the Aliens at all and wish they have never been included in the Game (along with Cult of planet which is just a rip off of the Gaians )

I suspect the crashes may have something to do with a role over of the Growth value. Their is somekind of bug common with the Angels if they get too much Probe rating it rolls over and becomes negative, perhaps some kind of similar thing is happening with your Borg, try reducing the penalty and see what happens. Also try to notice if any paticular action is triggering the crash like a Social Enginering change perhaps?

[The Mad Monk]

At this point, I think you're just going to have to settle for slow growth.

[Illuminatus]

Haha - just endured for almost 150 turns! Reinstalled SMAX and volla! I may solve it in next few days.

[Sovereign]

Hi there, Obstructor.

I used to do some modding for SMAC/X. But it has been so long I forgot how to do it. I guess I have to fire up SMAC/X again sometime soon.

But problem is, I'm having too much fun with Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and Call of Duty at the moment.

Anyways, about the "Borg"... I believe that they had to have growith somewhere. They had to start as a civ somewhere, and even the best asslimators have to have a start somewhere.

I liked the TNG version of the Borg. That was one kick-ass villian / enemy civ. Too bad that the writers decided to pussify the Borg in Voyager. Heck, my pet Alaskan Husky could have written a better Voyager series than the "official" Voyager writers. TNG had better stories and more interesting ideas / morals to explore.

Just had to vent my feelings. (end of OT rant)

Good luck in fixing up your mod's Obstructor. If I do manage to play SMAC again, I'd be glad to give you a helping hand if you plan on any other mods in the future.