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Inspired by the work done on Aldebaran, I had a bit of a potter around the unmodded version of SMAX. My aim was to try and rebalance the SE values to offer more choices and difficulties when social engineering, as there were certain choices which seemed rather underpowered. I also wanted to modify the future society values and move them further down the tech tree as I always found the game was effectively over by the time I reached them. Here is what I came up with; please comment, as I'm trying to come up with a more balanced version of the game, and other viewpoints will help with this . . .
SE Politics
Police State - No change
Democratic - No change
Fundamentalist - +2 Probe, +2 Morale, -2 Research
The only change I made here was increasing Fundy Morale by +1 to make it a valid choice in the face of a potentially crippling -2 research penalty. Now it becomes a very attractive choice for all out war. Police state and Democratic I've found to be already well balanced so I left them alone.
SE Economics
All unchanged. The often overwhelming advantage of free market is negated by an alternative method of gaining +2 economy as will be explained below. Once FM ceases to be such a neccesity then economics becomes much more interesting.
SE Values
Power - No change
Knowledge - No change
Wealth - +1 Economy, +2 Industry, -2 Morale
I always had problems with the SE values choices, nearly always going for knowledge (research being imo the most important aspect of the game), and switching to power during wartime. Wealth seemed essentially useless unless playing Morgan and trying to avoid free market. To that end I increased Wealths industry bonus to +2, giving it a well-needed shot in the arm, and also making a planned/wealth strategy suddenly very attractive. I toyed with the idea of removing the +1 efficiency bonus for knowledge, but left it as it is for now.
SE Future Society
Cybernetic - +2 Efficiency, +2 Research, -3 Police
Eudaimonic - +2 Growth, +1 Economy, +1 Industry, -3 Morale
Thought Control - +2 Police, +1 Morale, +1 Probe, -3 Support
Cybernetic preq - Optical Computers
Eudaimonic preq - Environmental economics
Thought control preq - Neural Grafting
My thinking here was to have these choices arive when they could still have an impact on the game (and to finally give a reward for researching optical computers!). Obviously this meant making them all less powerful.
Cybernetic loses its +2 planet bonus, and remains an excellent, almost overpowering choice if drones aren't an issue. I have been playtesting on a high difficulty level though, where the police hit is a BIG problem, without the +2 economy reward offered by FM.
Eudaimonic is changed quite a bit. Obviously +2 economy would be gamebreaking, so that has now become +1. This, combined with wealth is a new way of getting +2 economy for non-Morganites, with the counterbalance being the havoc wreaked on your morale. To further balance this choice, industry is lowered while the morale penalty is increased, although +2 growth remains, offering an alternate route for pop-boomers.
Thought control is toned down rather than radically altered - morale and probe bonuses are decreased, meaning thought control is no longer on its own enough to overpower the enemy, although it remains a powerful offensive choice.
There you have it. The changes are in many cases subtle, but my goal was not to rewrite what the player does in social engineering, only to make all choices of roughly equal worth, and to bring modified versions of the future society choices into the main game to add some variety. Any comments, or ammendments?
SE Politics
Police State - No change
Democratic - No change
Fundamentalist - +2 Probe, +2 Morale, -2 Research
The only change I made here was increasing Fundy Morale by +1 to make it a valid choice in the face of a potentially crippling -2 research penalty. Now it becomes a very attractive choice for all out war. Police state and Democratic I've found to be already well balanced so I left them alone.
SE Economics
All unchanged. The often overwhelming advantage of free market is negated by an alternative method of gaining +2 economy as will be explained below. Once FM ceases to be such a neccesity then economics becomes much more interesting.
SE Values
Power - No change
Knowledge - No change
Wealth - +1 Economy, +2 Industry, -2 Morale
I always had problems with the SE values choices, nearly always going for knowledge (research being imo the most important aspect of the game), and switching to power during wartime. Wealth seemed essentially useless unless playing Morgan and trying to avoid free market. To that end I increased Wealths industry bonus to +2, giving it a well-needed shot in the arm, and also making a planned/wealth strategy suddenly very attractive. I toyed with the idea of removing the +1 efficiency bonus for knowledge, but left it as it is for now.
SE Future Society
Cybernetic - +2 Efficiency, +2 Research, -3 Police
Eudaimonic - +2 Growth, +1 Economy, +1 Industry, -3 Morale
Thought Control - +2 Police, +1 Morale, +1 Probe, -3 Support
Cybernetic preq - Optical Computers
Eudaimonic preq - Environmental economics
Thought control preq - Neural Grafting
My thinking here was to have these choices arive when they could still have an impact on the game (and to finally give a reward for researching optical computers!). Obviously this meant making them all less powerful.
Cybernetic loses its +2 planet bonus, and remains an excellent, almost overpowering choice if drones aren't an issue. I have been playtesting on a high difficulty level though, where the police hit is a BIG problem, without the +2 economy reward offered by FM.
Eudaimonic is changed quite a bit. Obviously +2 economy would be gamebreaking, so that has now become +1. This, combined with wealth is a new way of getting +2 economy for non-Morganites, with the counterbalance being the havoc wreaked on your morale. To further balance this choice, industry is lowered while the morale penalty is increased, although +2 growth remains, offering an alternate route for pop-boomers.
Thought control is toned down rather than radically altered - morale and probe bonuses are decreased, meaning thought control is no longer on its own enough to overpower the enemy, although it remains a powerful offensive choice.
There you have it. The changes are in many cases subtle, but my goal was not to rewrite what the player does in social engineering, only to make all choices of roughly equal worth, and to bring modified versions of the future society choices into the main game to add some variety. Any comments, or ammendments?
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