Modding to Favor Breeding Native Life

[DilithiumDad]

The creators of SMAC clearly intended players to do a lot of breeding of native life. There are many facilities that increase the life cycle of native units (Bio Lab, Bioenchancement Center, Centauri Preserve, Temple of Planet) and many secret projects that enhance the breeding of native life. But how many of us ever use this feature, especially in multiplayer? You may see an occasional locust of chiron late in the game but they are obsolete as soon as real gravships appear.

Why don't players breed native life? Two reasons. One is cost --it's much cheaper to build conventional units. The second is fragility. Native units are strong on offense, but weak on defense. Any low-morale scout can take out a mind worm due to attacker's advantage. Another minor drawback of native versus conventional units is that sea and air native units lack the free deep radar ability that conventional sea and air units get.

All these problems can be eliminated by tweaking three lines in the #UNITS section of alpha(x).txt. I lowered the mineral cost of worms, isles and locusts to 2, 3 and 4 rows of minerals, respectively. I also gave each native unit two special abilities: trance and deep radar. Note that this does not affect wild or captured native life, only those bred in captivity.

Mind Worms, Infantry, Psi, Psi, 1, 2, 0, CentEmp, 3, 000000100000000000000010
Isle of the Deep, Foil, Psi, Psi, 7, 3, 4, CentMed, -1, 000000100000000000000010
Locusts of Chiron, Gravship, Psi, Psi, 4, 4, 0, CentGen, -1, 000000100000000000000010

These changes work well with another boost to psi units, increasing the influence of the Planet rating on psi combat, found in the #RULES section. I like to increase to bonus/penalty from 10% to 15%. A further increase to 20% is unbalancing.

15, ; Combat % -> Psi attack bonus/penalty per +PLANET

[DilithiumDad]

Strategic implications

In play testing, the changes work as expected. Cheap worms and isles become the preferred scouting units on land and sea. Even with trance ability, native units are still somewhat fragile. Their low cost makes up for this. Excellent cannon fodder units.

Of course, if you can manage to get the Neural Amplifier secret project, we're talking a whole different ballgame. Neural amplifier and trance ability (now free for all bred natives) stack with each other: 1.5 x 1.5 = 2.25-fold increase in psi defense. Add the intrinsic base defense and a sensor, and now worms can actually defend bases!

Border patrol: worms and isles are the perfect sentries, epsecially now that they have deep radar ability and can heal in fungus.

Advance shock troops: Now part of a balanced conquering force. Great for initial engagement and softening defenses and also for mopping up. Radar ability for bred mind worms makes them great for leading the charge, especially if there is fungus on the invasion route.

Counterstrike: This is probably the best use for bred mind worms. Leave a few mind worms lurking in the fungus around your empire. If you are suddenly attacked, these worms can spring out of the fungus and easily retake lost bases. Also because they are cheap they can be made in a single turn in most bases, so they are the top choice for repelling an invading army.

[Kirov]

Sounds like a very good idea. I'm going to test it over the weekend.

BTW, how can I insert probe cruisers in the alpha.txt? I tried to to do it myself, but sth strange happens with it. Could you give me the appropriate line?

[DilithiumDad]

#UNITS section from "turbo-SMAC"

You have to change the first line of #UNITS also. The first line of #UNITS must be equal to the number of units you want to be pre-designed.

I find it works quite well. Miriam in particular fills the seas with probe foils and loves to mind control your sea bases!

Here is the #UNITS section I am working with. It also includes a Jet Transport unit:

#UNITS
17
Colony Pod, Infantry, Colony Pod, Scout, 8, 0, 0, None, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Formers, Infantry, Formers, Scout, 9, 0, 0, Ecology, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Scout Patrol, Infantry, Gun, Scout, 3, 0, 0, None, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Transport Foil, Foil, Transport, Scout, 7, 0, 0, DocFlex, -1, 000000000000000000000010
*Sea Formers, Foil, Formers, Scout, 9, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 000000000000000000000010
Supply Crawler, Infantry, Supply, Scout, 10, 0, 0, IndAuto, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Probe Team, Speeder, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, PlaNets, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Alien Artifact, Infantry, Artifact, Scout, 12,20, 0, Disable, 2, 000000100000000000000010
Mind Worms, Infantry, Psi, Psi, 1, 2, 0, CentEmp, 3, 000000100000000000000010
Isle of the Deep, Cruiser, Psi, Psi, 7, 3, 4, CentMed, -1, 000000100000000000000010
Locusts of Chiron, Gravship, Psi, Psi, 4, 4, 0, CentGen, -1, 000000100000000000000010
Unity Rover, Speeder, Gun, Scout, 3, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 000000000000000000000010
Unity Scout Chopper, 'Copter, Gun, Scout, 4, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 000000000000000000100010
Unity Foil, Foil, Transport, Scout, 7, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 100000000000000000000010
Cruiser Probe Ship, Cruiser, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 000000000000000000000010
Probe Foil, Foil, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocFlex, -1, 000000000000000000000010
Air Transport, Needlejet,Transport, Scout, 7, 2, 4, DocAir, -1, 000000000000010000000010

[GeoModder]

Native life breeding is only one of the emphasisses a player can follow. And don't forget the ability of produced native life of having no upkeep costs when in fungus.

One can see them as 'weak' compared to more regular units in the game, but players have a tendency to create a mix of good pure defense and pure attack units, which give those there own inherit weakness as well. So I can't really agree with you here.

[DilithiumDad]

Well, based on 5 years of reading this and other boards where people have described their single-player experience and playing quite a bit of multiplayer, I'd say native life breeding is a very rarely used feature. It's true that it may be somewhat underutilized. When the game first came out, there was a lot of interest in the Green Conquest strategy, which was prominently featured in the Primus Guide. But there the emphasis was always on capturing support-free wild worms rather than breeding your own. In multiplayer, Green Conquest is a losing strategy. Once "chop & drop" became widely known and copied, Green Conquest virtually disappeared.

But the strategy has always been there. It can come to life just by reducing the mineral cost of breeding natives so they are cheaper than conventional units instead of being far more expensive, plus adding Trance and Deep Radar abilities. Having these abilities on bred human-controlled native life forms works with the storyline quite well by the way.

[GeoModder]

Oh, I'm not disagreeing with giving them abilities (perhaps even unique for every sort of native life). It's simply so that making them cheaper/better won't change many players habits ingame as long as the chop -and drop technique is used. That would be better tackled as well together with some extra abilities on native life.

[Darsnan]

In my February SMAX CGN Challenge I gave different NL's various Special Abilities: Cloaks for the land units, and Marine Detachments for the sea-going units, as well as some other goodies.
Not to go too in-depth here, why I felt that these enhanced units really assisted the "Green" Factions, but were very detrimental to the balance of the game for "non-Green" Factions, especially Morgan.
DILITHIUMDAD: what Factions did you use during playtesting you mods? I'm curious, as from extensive playtesting for PBEM's and Scenarios the Factions chosen can greatly influence how each Faction then plays in response. Also regarding your comment about PBEM players rarely employing NL's, especially Locusts: I just ended a PBEM (Lost Secrets) where I had a sizeable Locust army that I employed as a shield against my enemies. However, other than that one instance, why I do have to agree with you that NL's are rarely used in the later game.


D

[gwillybj]

Yes! I was greatly disappointed by the weakness and expense of breeding natives.
I voted with a solo-play viewpoint, since that's the only way I play. I'll likely try your adjustments in my next game.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by gwillybj
Eurytion Mining Colony: 165°C dayside, 165°F nightside

However if I'm not mistaken why that particular asteroid is transitioning into "winter" mode now, where the opposite extremes will be experienced. Sure hope you packed your winter underwear, gwillybj!
btw since you play SP mode only would you be interested in playtesting my next CGN SP Challenge? It would allow you to enjoy a game more difficult than the average computer generated set-up, as well as give me feedback as far as your own unique observations regarding the game.

D

[DilithiumDad]

Darsnan:

I tested it on regular SMAC, normal 7 factions. My idea is to make an "ideal" mod using alpha.txt changes only and not altering the factions at all, since this would upset the balance.

"cloak" and "marine detachment" are too strong. Trance makes the units tougher but they are still easy to kill. Deep radar adds value, especially for mind worms. With free deep radar, you will definitely want to breed some mind worms.

These abilities do not favor Green factions all that strongly. Remember that captured natives do not have these abilities. The reduced cost and added abilities just make them more worthwhile to build. Indirectly, having mind worm and isle of the deep breeding going on greatly increases the value of the "+1 lifecycle" secret projects and facilities.

One number you do have to be careful with is the psi combat bonus per unit of Planet rating. The game default is 10%, which is too low, leading people to ignore Planet rating except for worm capture. 15% is good but 20% creates an overwhelming advantage for Green factions. Free Market becomes really tough, especially for Miriam (-80% to psi combat? Good luck! . )

[Kirov]

Well, from 2 SP games (Lal on large, Spartan on huge, both abundant NL) I can say 3 things:

- now NL is cheap. VERY cheap
- Radar ability is extremely useful and now I can't imagine NOT using NL, say instead of sensors
- trance ability works strangely - it is not used when other player attacks me, but actually when I attack indigenous MW with my MW ONLY. I thought that Trance is used in each PSI combat, but apparently it can be used only if the attacker uses PSI attack (e.g. is a MW).

I didn't even add the greate bonus to PSI combat (I forgot about it) and MWs already seems to be strong, maybe too strong. I'll think about it, but I'd change this Trance ability and increase the cost of units.


BTW, DD, are you still with us in my MP game or not? You didnt give a word for 2 weeks...

[DilithiumDad]

What do you mean by too strong? I would consider it too strong if it became the equivalent of chop&drop -unstoppable near-instant conquest. If you mean that bred mind worms usually win, that's true. But one thing about psi combat is that the attacker almost always takes some damage. Which means that it will lose a counter-acttack. So you need to have many units. Not that different from an infantry attack.

The best use for bred native life is as cheap counter-attack units against an invading human player with superior tech.

What multiplayer game? I'm not aware of any surviving games that I'm in here at Apoloyton. Just CGN17 and Hive-in-the-middle2 over at ACOL.

[Chaos Theory]

Trance and empath are not normally available to psi-defense and psi-attack units, respectively. Perhaps the game code does not properly handle the case when this rule is changed.

[Darsnan]

Actually try having the NL units attack each other (i.e. NL vs NL). I believe it works then, but only under that condition. I have given Fungal Towers AAA as well as ECM, and these both work, but the arty function doesn't.

D