Announcing TurboSMAC!

[Alinestra Covelia]

I've arrived very late to the SMACreation scene. What is Modman?

[#endgame]

Modswapping utility that I wrote about 1/2 a year ago and got largely ignored. Powered by good old dos batch (sadly no mac or linux version because I'm nub with respect to those OS'es).

*Points at http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...hreadid=118976*
for more info.

[Kataphraktoi]

you can edit forests output in SMAX,dunno about SMAC.i have it working perfectly,with hybrid forests+free market they only give 2 energy not 3

[DilithiumDad]

I thought ModMan was for MAKING mods, not swapping them. Live and learn, I guess. From reading the post you pointed to, I'm still not clear on what it does.

At this point, TurboSMAC comes entirely from altering a single file, alpha.txt. I think people can handle renaming a single file.

For total makeovers like Aldebaran and the StarWars mod, ModMan is a must.

[DilithiumDad]

It turns out that reducing forest energy is not ncessary, because fungus becomes a competitive alternative now after Environmental Economics, which now gives +1 energy from fungus. So I will jsut delete it from this version and form the future TurboSMAX.

[#endgame]

Originally posted by DilithiumDad
I thought ModMan was for MAKING mods, not swapping them. Live and learn, I guess. From reading the post you pointed to, I'm still not clear on what it does.

At this point, TurboSMAC comes entirely from altering a single file, alpha.txt. I think people can handle renaming a single file.

For total makeovers like Aldebaran and the StarWars mod, ModMan is a must.

Er.. ModMan stands for "Mod Manager" so anything that swaps something, even a single .txt is a valid target.

The referred thread is mainly bug reporting and where I post new versions. Put simply, ModMan is a mod swapper to prevent all the 'by hand' changes usually required.

[Straybow]

Hmmm, never thought of allowing forest in sea before...

[DilithiumDad]

Others have done it --have named it "mangrove" --there are trees that grow in briny estuaries on earth.

[#endgame]

The other option would be to make kelp do something more than food, as it's currently just an expanding farm.

[Quezacotl06]

I find halving mineral and food and techcosts makes the earlygame non-existent. Not too big an issue, imo

[DilithiumDad]

A balance of small boosts are better than halving everything. A modest cut to mineral costs (-20%), a larger cut in nutrients for growth (-30%), a boost in tech speed (+33%) combined with increased resources from farms, solar collectors, recycling tanks and bonus squares speeds things up nicely. Another important factor is half-price colony pods and transports. Also, formers automatically come on a rover chassis with synthmetal armor at no extra cost. This really speeds up early terraforming and formers can also serve as an additional mobile defense early on.

The mod is designed for PBEM, to speed up e-mail games without a lot of tinkering by the game host.

[eisdead]

Alright I've play around with this for a while, here is my current feedback:

Overall, change the NONE future sociality to +2 industry, -1 growth, -1 moral

Fundamentalism seems overpowered. I like the additional MORALE s and dampening of the RESEARCH penalty in exchange for less TALENTS, but the +2 to GROWTH pushes it way over the top. I'd consider dropping it all together or dropping it down to just +1 GROWTH. That way democracy still remains semi-unique

Drop the –PLANET from Power. --RESEARCH is enough for this one.

Knowledge also seems a bit to giving. I'd drop the + PLANET. The +2 RESEARCH in your new system is already profound Perhaps just make it +3 RESEARCH and drop the extra TALENTS.

I found myself using a new type of tactic in TurboSMAC, mainly what I call the Super Hovertank Push. The idea is that using the newly enhanced resources of this mod, I go IotD huting while building a fleet of 8/3 hovertanks, grab the command center and xenoempathy dome. Then just drop the Hovertanks in the fungus and its game over for the most part. Usually everything is elite by this time, (fundamentalism/green/knowledge)

But yeah, this mod is extremely fun

[DilithiumDad]

Originally posted by eisdead
Alright I've play around with this for a while, here is my current feedback:

Overall, change the NONE future sociality to +2 industry, -1 growth, -1 morale

Interesting idea! I guess that morale has become too high with the ++MORALE with Fundamentalism, and with Power being more viable? Another idea would be scale back Fundamentalism's morale benefit to the original +MORALE.

Fundamentalism seems overpowered. I like the additional MORALE s and dampening of the RESEARCH penalty in exchange for less TALENTS, but the +2 to GROWTH pushes it way over the top. I'd consider dropping it all together or dropping it down to just +1 GROWTH. That way democracy still remains semi-unique

Fundamentalism seemed overpowered to me, too, but when I actually used it as an SE setting it didn't convey an overwhelming advantage. It does help the AI Miriam quite a bit, though. From what you are saying, Fundamentalism may still be popular with only +1 bonus to morale. I want to keep the ++GROWTH because Fundamentalism and Democracy should be equal for population growth. Note that you need a Golden Age for pop booming on Fundy/Planned or Demo/Planned but with the -TALENT penalty it will be tough to get a Golden Age under Fundy. So it balances.

Drop the –PLANET from Power. --RESEARCH is enough for this one.

Surprised to hear this. Most people would find --RESEARCH to be much less of a penalty than --INDUSTRY (ironically making military units unaffordable!). Thus, I added another minor penalty, -PLANET. This is much less severe than the Free Market penalty! I think Power is quite viable as it is.

Knowledge also seems a bit to giving. I'd drop the + PLANET. The +2 RESEARCH in your new system is already profound Perhaps just make it +3 RESEARCH and drop the extra TALENTS.

The ++RESEARCH is from the original. Perhaps it could be scaled back to +RESEARCH. Most people stuck with Wealth unless at war, remember. In TruboSMAC, Power will be the wartime value. Knowledge should be peacetime value, not Wealth. The +PLANET is important because you need anotheer path to positive PLANET rating before Cybernetic comes along, with the new emphasis on psi combat.

I found myself using a new type of tactic in TurboSMAC, mainly what I call the Super Hovertank Push. The idea is that using the newly enhanced resources of this mod, I go IotD huting while building a fleet of 8/3 hovertanks, grab the command center and xenoempathy dome. Then just drop the Hovertanks in the fungus and its game over for the most part. Usually everything is elite by this time, (fundamentalism/green/knowledge)

I use lots of hovertanks when I play TurboSMAC! Forget rovers! Xenoempathy Dome is very powerful in this mod. I expect to see a lot of competition to build it first in TurboSMAC PBEM. But still, a hovertank rush is far less manic than a chop & drop romp & stomp.

But yeah, this mod is extremely fun

Great feedback!! Be sure to sign up for the TurboSMAC PBEM Tournament, coming soon!

[scanner_red]

SMAX

Sounds great. I am going to try it. What about using it in SMAX? Will that work?
Great idea.

[DilithiumDad]

TurboSMAX is definitely the next step! I am studying up on the alpha.txt differences. First I want to start the TurboSMAC tournament.