The Second Ship: The Second Topic

[Flubber]

Originally posted by MysticWind

Parish of Planet
“The Church of Rome has lasted two millennia. It has stood schism, heresy, invasion, pestilence, war, and scandal, and still remains a religious force to be reckoned with on Earth. Though we must admit that unfortunate mistakes have occurred, the Catholic Church of the 22nd century will be remembered as the peaceful light on Chiron.”
- Bishop Peter St. Clare, With the Grace of God
“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
- Matthew 16:18
Symbol/Insignia: The Latin cross in Europa Universalis (except the main part of the cross is exaggerated), with rosary beads in the shape of a fish behind it.
Leader: Bishop Peter St. Clare
Background: Archdeacon of St. Anselm’s Cathedral, Madrid from the Euro Union.
Agenda: Restoration of a compassionate Catholic Church on Planet against the Believer’s fanaticism.
Technology: None
+1 Efficiency (The New Vatican has been more quick to act)
+2 Growth (Still no contraceptives allowed)
-2 Support (All of the Crusaders have gone with Godwinson!)
+1 Police (But the Swiss Guard remains)
One bonus tech at beginning of game
.[/b]

I also think these guys are overpowered. Plus 2 growth is a very significant plus as is the +1 effieciency. These guys can get more bases and more pop quicker with fewer b-drones than most factions. Minus 2 support is significant early when the 10 free minerals can be a big deal but later is less significant.

I forget . . . would there be any significant downside to minus 4 support as opposed to minus 2 -- I'm just seeing these folks in Demo/FM/wealth where every base with a creche is popbooming WHILE they enjoy +3 ECON and +3 Efficiency. The police bonus even comes in to lessen the sting of pacifism. Or how about demo/FM/knowledge to keep +2 ECON and have +4efficiency and move the sliders without penalty

They just strike me as a faction that can use early growth to get a lead, some probe garrisons and crawled minerals to lessen support problems and once clean is available, you have a strong faction with ZERO negatives that matter

[Chaos Theory]

-4 support means you spend 2 minerals to support each unit.

[DarkCloud]

At first look- it seems you did a good job overall with your balancing!

For the Psions- I think it was good to get rid of the +2 support.

As for fixing the Nanomachines people- I would suggest either changing to +1 industry, or giving a -1 growth penalty to slow down the 'base boom' to encourage research.

Good luck!

[MysticWind]

I've edited the Nanomachine Technologists. Next up are Parish, then the Global Energy Exchange.

Later on I'll post the agenda/aversion/always uses for each faction.

[MysticWind]

If I balance the remaining unbalanced factions, will anyone actually read this?

[Travelerstein]

Parish Of Planet

, not really sure why this faction deserves +1 efficency, the RCC is as ponderous and bueracratric an organization that ever existed. , Hell only took them 400 years to pardon Galileo,

I think +2 growth fits

Perhaps might want to rethink support? That would imo, be one of this factions strengths, regardless of whether all the flat earth, 4000 year old universe types went with miriam. One could argue its longevity stems in part TO its wide support-not in spite of.

+1 Police, swiss guard? eh...maybe Think it should be 0 myself , HOWEVER, this might be worth considering. The swiss guard is considered one of the most effective intel services in the world atm -some would say next only to the Mossad in overall effectiveness. A + to probe would thus be far more realistic imo, given that the RCC itself at the top levels is really quite a closeted bunch and they dont give a lot away. Thats how I see this faction


Darwins Raiders

+1 Probe (Adept at stealing technology)
Starts with free unit: Unity Speeder
Need Hab Complex for bases to exceed size 3 (Against sedentary lives)
Can steal a technology when capturing a base.
15% Chance of revolting bases joining faction

Given how there desribed, the + probe (to me) seems out of place. Nomads are typified by an anti-technological mindset, nomads\raiders have little time or inclination for much else. They will steal things yes, but dont strike me as a much of a tech faction as there presented.

Free speeder is good-why not make it 2(x) 2-1-2 speeders or even 4-1-2 if possible? whould fit lot better with the roamer raider thing and make them generate a bit of an early threat.

Need Hab Complex for bases to exceed size 3 (Against sedentary lives)-kind of harsh if not offset with another advantage somewhere-also, again going back to the raider roamer thing-a raider might be a lot of things, but i hardly think sedentary is one of them. Tho small bases fit if your going for a raider faction that lives on the fringes of civilization.


Can steal a technology when capturing a base.? Can this be alpha'd? Steal tech is a game setting feature-not an expert but not sure if you can even do this?

15% chance....explain better-does this mean an opposing faction base in revolt has 15% chance to join you or the other way around?

my .02 credits

[MysticWind]

New question: What stats should I modify in order to make a faction deliberately pro-defensive measures, weak on offense?
?Also, do any of the factions above seem too similar to SMAC or SMAX ones?

[Corvi #6]

You could set a -ve OFFENSE and a +ve DEFENCE to make a 'homeguard' kinda faction... only problem is that these bonus also affect psi combat (afaik)

I think perhaps the settlers are too similar to the gains, not in ideology but de facto.

Also, I'd have to agree that most of these factions are too powerful to be balanced with the original factions. I always take the view that custom factions should be underpowered, since the flexibility to choose customised advantages and disadvantages is worth a lot on its own.

Still, so far so good. Keep it up

[Corvi #6]

gains = Gaians.

[MysticWind]

Bump just to gauge interest.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Interested. I've linked/quoted-in-part your CFC thread in the Strategist thread here.