Since -2 Research is such a harsh penalty

[GeoModder]

A lot of religions have been violent at some stage in their existence. But regarding your question, I guess the creators wanted to point out that violence is not restricted to our nowaday fanatic believers of a certain religion.

[Mart]

christian fundamentalism? one of the most dangerous in our present world in my oppinion. The biggest danger is that many people do not wish to admit that, they just say about it "impossible".

Do we already deviate from the alpha centauri topic here?

[GeoModder]

Hey, you were the one asking the question.

What was the topic again?

[Impaler[WrG]]

Free Recreation Commons with every Base, powerfull and it makes sense if your a religious zealot what is the FIRST thing you build? Duuu a church, and the population goes their to hear the....

"THOUTH SHAL"

Remember the quote by Lal "The entire character of a base can be absorbed in a quick trip to the recr commons" He describes the very different styles of recreation the factions used, Casinos for Morgan, Parks for Gaians, Cathedrals for Belivers

[Senethro]

I was lately wondering in attaching a nodrone, 1 to Fundy and a +1 talent to Green would make for more early game utility. Personally, I still believe the nodrone, 1 would be better suited to the Believers rather than the Drones, if mostly from a point of view of balance.

[Chaos Theory]

You can't attach NODRONE, 1 to any SE category. Police and talent are about it (effic affects b-drones and energy for psych, econ affects energy for psych).

[Senethro]

I'm aware of that, but perhaps something can be done for any hypothetical SMACmod for Civ4. Greater flexibility of what can be altered in SE would be useful I'm sure.

[Chaos Theory]

Then why settle for NODRONE? Perhaps Fundamentalist could grant a phantom police unit, in the same way as the Self-Aware Colony. Maybe one unit per base could quell an additional drone. Perhaps drones are quelled only if you haven't discovered certain technologies such as Intellectual Integrity.

Hopefully, SE settings will be able to affect anything that any other aspect of the game can - SE categories, faction abilities, facilities, and so on. Having an appropriate SE category grant TALENT, 4, and having that stack properly with any other TALENT effects, would be very nice.

[Senethro]

I was mostly thinking in terms of making the Fundy government situationally useful like Fundy was in Civ2, quelling all drones everywhere. I was having visions of Believers with high nutrient terraforming in Fundy/green/wealth going on a rampage.

[Chaos Theory]

Well, they can do that reasonably well already. Fundy quelling all drones would be ludicrously powerful, considering much of the strength of Police State is its ability to tackle drones. Hell, you could probably research better in Fundy/FM than in Demo/FM - no need to build rec commons, worry about pacifism, invest in psych, or fiddle with specialists. Don't model individual SE choices after entire Civ governments, since Fundy/FM doesn't exist in Civ.

[Ghidorah]

Fundy is a great SE choice as it is, I reckon. It's just not a set'n'forget setting like Wealth. And a fairly brief switch to fundy for a builder faction probably won't hurt any more than the efficiency penalty of planned or PS, and can be of huge benefit.

Honestly, I don't really think -2 research is such a huge penalty as everyone makes out. The twenty-odd years without formers at the start is by far the worst part of it, IMHO - after that it's not terribly long before you stop even noticing it, if you beeline for your important techs and probe or trade yourself the others. You won't be an early tech leader (although Domai can catch up damn fast even without trade or theft), but a tech deficit is much more easily made up than an industrial, terraforming or infrastructural deficit. A -2 research faction that started with Centauri Eco would do just fine, I reckon.