Marid Audran's SMAX Mod

[Marid Audran]

Hello Apolytoners,

I've attached my personal modifications to SMAX*. This is my way of giving back to the community with warm and sincere gratitude for their camaraderie and feedback. This particular mod has been literally years in the making with various incarnations on my computer, as I've regularly "retired" from the field of playing SMAC/X, only to return a year or two later when the "itch" must be scratched. A lot of thought went into these modifications, culled from years worth of backlog from the Alpha Centauri forums, both recent and buried in the archive. Without further ado I will present my mod to you, and in the next few posts include the readme from the archive so that you'll know what you're getting into!

Walk with Planet,
Marid Audran

*Scroll foward several posts for the mod, attached, in two parts.

[Marid Audran]

Marid Audran's SMAX Mod

Introduction:

A game with as much lasting strategic appeal and addictive gameplay as Sid Meier's Alpha Centaur/Alien Crossfire naturally attracts a devoted following, and among those is the tinkerer who dares to "improve" upon the tried and true formula. Shopworn and frayed at the edges through innumerable years of dissection and "proved" in-game strategies, SMAC/X it manages to attract those who would resurrect some life in the single-player experience. The primary purpose of my mod is doing so via "coaxing" the beleaguered AI into opting for choices better tailored to their particular predilections in-game, and giving the AI a helping hand along the way. Of course, one may simply opt to add +4 Industry/Support/Research/Morale/Police to the faction files, give them pre-terraformed boreholes, condensers, ecchelon mirrors, free facilities, and play with double-blind research/tech stag. However, my aim with this mod has been to avoid such artificial extremes, and instead focus on the intangibles of game balance to bolster the AI's decision-making skills whilst retaining that random, mysterious element indigent to every fresh single-player game of SMAX.

My Mod is not as ambitious as Maniac or Darsan's full-conversion SMAX mods, with a wholesale restructuring of the game mechanics & factions, nor is it an attempt to grind down the player with steep handicaps to overcome like Velociryx's "Torture Mod." I do not wish to weave a new game out of old cloth, but merely tinker with existing rules in order to present a more equinaminous, balanced game, and try to throw a wrench into existing strategies in order to preserve a sense of innovation. In that spirit my changes are more on par with shining1's SMAC mod, or gwillyb's alpha.txt alterations, and I'd prefer to view my mod as more of a glorified patch, like SMAX Version 3.0 It still *feels* like very much the same game, however there have some not unsubstantial changes along the way to adapt to. In general, I'm more interested in juggling the tech tree insofar which tech unlocks what, Social Engineering, overhauling the SMAX factions, rebalancing some weaponry, facility/SP costs, and pre-designed units, than altering the basic algebra in the "Rules" section of the alphax.txt, which I feel is mostly fair & balanced, and more to the point, I'm comfortable with.

+++++ What the Mod alters: +++++

Terraforming: Farms and solar collectors now require Centauri Ecology to build. Mines now require Ecological Engineering. Formers require *no* technology to build from the onset and can build roads and plant forests immediately. All factions now start with a free former, (sea or land-based). Sea formers may still cultivate kelp farms and remove fungus without Centauri Ecology, but mining platforms & tidal harnesses still require it. Leveling terrain (clearing rockiness) now consumes six rather than eight turns.

Formers are so important a unit that I didn't feel it fair to deny any faction from building them from the onset. Of course, Centauri Ecology will *still* need to be researched to reap a former's full basic range, however the AI may now put off researching it and not necessarily seal the fate of their respective economy. This change exists to encourage the AI to pre-seed forests in their territory which will grow and multiply as the game progresses. The benefits of forests are obvious to all SMAC/X veterans. These changes also dissuade the AI from ruining their terrain with the atrocious farm/mind combination, mines being disallowed until Ecological Engineering, which is required for mines to be of use in any event. These changes do not apply to *sea terraforming*, since terraforming at sea is a far simpler matter (seeding kelp is even more a no-brainer than seeding forests), one that even the AI cannot foul up.

Social Engineering: Police State now brings: +2 Police, +2 Support, -1 Economy, -1 Efficiency.
Theocratic* : +2 Probe, +1 Morale, +1 Police, -2 Research.
Democratic: +1 Growth, +2 Efficiency, -2 Support.
Green: +2 Efficiency, +2 Planet, +1 Talent per base, -1 Growth.
Planned & Free Market: Unchanged.
Power: +2 Support, +2 Morale, +1 Police, -2 Industry.
Knowledge: +2 Research, +1 Efficiency, -1 Police, -2 Probe.
Wealth: +1 Economy, +1 Industry, -2 Morale, +1 Drone per base.

*Fundamentalist was renamed "Theocratic" simply because I thought it fit the rest of the SE naming scheme better, whereas "Fundy" always seemed more a throwback CivII label.

There are certain SE choices that have long been the focus of derision and neglect from the SMAC/X community, as well as ones the AI has a lamentable weakness for choosing, regardless of how detrimental they may be to their economies. To beef up Theocratic and Power, +1 Police has been added. To tame the gross efficiency problems of Police State it was reduced with an Economy penalty in its stead. Democracy has been tamed to only +1 Growth, a significant change as now a population boom cannot be achieved by Demo/Planned/Creches alone. Knowledge can no longer be run scott-free with a "dormant" downside and has an added police penalty. Wealth has been tamed somewhat by having an extra drone per base as a result. Green has been bolstered by halving its growth penalty and netting the use of a "talent" in each base instead. Free Market & Planned remain unchanged due to their intrinsic value. Planned has a worthy competitor in Green, all the same, Planned alone has the highest rate to GROWTH rates in the society tables, but also the highest inefficiency. It is now possible for the AI to field an army with Theocratic/Free Market/Power without massive drone riots. Most human players balk at this SE combination due to the energy loss from inefficiency and the industry squeeze, but the AI is often drawn towards it.

Manifold Anthropology: This is the renamed "Progenitor Psych." In this mod the alien factions have been excised, and the storyline reflects it. The progenitors were here once-upon-a-time, but are an exotic, little-understood species in Chiron's scientific community (not the tiresomely bellicose Umber Hulks they are in SMAX proper). What is known is the progenitor remarkable innate aptitude with dealing with the "psionic" assaults of Planet's native life, and the trance ability, discovered from alien artifacts and records (later re-modified for human use) reflects this. On the gameplay front, Progenitor Psych was such a superfluous tech that even the AI put off researching it as long as possible. Hoping to rectify this, the "trance" unit ability is pulled from SotHB and now arrives with this tech, greatly increasing its value, and is also a stepping-stone to acquiring trance 3-res troops, the ultimate psi combat defender.

Weather Paradigm: This early SP is very sought-after, and as such, should reflect its build cost. 25 rather than 20 in minerals.

Planetary Datalinks: Moved to Planetary Networks. Another scorned SP. Human players are rarely behind in tech enough for its effects to make a difference, ipso facto, it's built usually to "deny" AI players' rights. Moved to the early SPs the Datalinks may now be worthing building, especially for a faction like the Believers, and cost is 20 rather than 30 in minerals.

Virtual World: Moved up to Cyberethics. Arguably the most coveted SP early game won't be lessoned in worth coming later. Free holotheatres (which have expensive upkeep) are always bliss. Make Zak struggle a little longer for this one. Cost is increased to 35 instead of 30 minerals.

Citizen's Defence Force: Made a tad cheaper; its worth is dubious vis-a-vis other SPs this level at the tech tree. Perimeter Defences are really only good at border bases, so unless your entire faction is one big border to hostile neighbors, one usually pumps minerals into a different project or simply builds Perimeter Defences in those specific bases. Cost is 25 instead of 30 minerals.

Holotheaters: Moved to Optical Computers. Done to put some incentive in researching a typically "dead" intermediary tech, and to continue to tame Planetary Networks.

Planetary Transit System: Moved to Doctrine: Mobility. An often snubbed SP due to its relative lateness in the game versus a time when it'd be really useful. By the time 3rd-tier techs roll around most of the important primary bases have already been founded, and further colonization with a pop-3 base of all drones due to inefficiency will be of little boon to those who don't have an immediate way to suppress them and some decent terraformed squares in the base's vicinity. PTS is now available among 1st-tier techs to jump-start colonization campaigns for those who put in the effort, and costs 20 rather than 30 in minerals.

Robotic Assembly Plant: Moved to Industrial Automation. There are no less than four mineral amplifiers in-game, but three of them come too late to make much difference; before I always built Genejack Factories (and sometimes not even them). Here's an alternative. There's still considerable appeal in Genejacks (albeit three tech lines up) because they're cheaper to build and cheaper to maintain (2 vs. 4 credit upkeep). It's a decision betwixt cost-efficiency and early industrial boost. Gives the AI a chance to bootstrap their mineral production. Cost of facility changed from 20 to 12.

Sealurk: Moved to Bioadaptive Resonance. Great little unit, better at ramming sea bases than Isles of the Deep; pity they're available so late.

Rough Terrain: Now grants a 25% defensive bonus against rovers. If rovers gain 25% attack bonus in open terrain, the opposite should be true to better rein these things in, both in an offensive capacity with the dreaded early-game "rover rush," and in a defensive capacity as the human player often heads off an invading AI army "at the pass" so to speak, destroying advancing infantry at a choke point with its own rovers.

[Marid Audran]

Ascetic Virtues: Moved to Adaptive Economics. It switches places with...

Planetary Energy Grid: ...which is moved to Planetary Economics. This powerful free-fac SP reaps an infrastructure benefit almost par to the Virtual World, so it doesn't hurt for it to switch places with another SP a tier up. I also think the tech assignment of these two makes more sense. Cost for Ascetic Virtues is the same; PEG is 35 rather than 30 in minerals.

Thermocline Transducer: now costs 10 rather than 8 minerals. Sea bases produce so much energy as it is that this facility should cost more.

Aquafarm: Moved to Advanced Ecological Engineering with an increased mineral cost to build of 12 vs. the old 8. I felt aquafarms were always available too early for anyone to care, and those who *were* inclined to care, too easy to build and cause ballooning sea bases. Now pushed back mid-game, with a corresponding mineral cost, for those who really want to invest in the GROWTH of their sea empires, since pop-booming has been tamed.

Citizen: Thinker: Moved to Applied Relativity. Mostly to give a small boost to another "dead tech," since they come a little late to compete much with empaths and engineers as they are now.

Crawlers: I had to come to this one eventually, didn't I? Whether the problem is upgrading these buggers to ostentatious configurations in order to illegally cash them in for an incongruent value in minerals, crawling resources beyond the realm of taste and fairness to the AI, often basing whole ECONOMIES on the things, or building SPs within one turn, all without need for support, they are a "broken" unit. Even if one argued that they aren't game-breaking, the AI can never learn how to use them properly. Moved to Industrial Nanorobots, as a result. Now one must make bases more self-sufficient on their own terrain, and put more thought into building SPs, as each base will be in for the long haul (one of the better features in CivIV). I moved them into late game, rather than abolishing crawlers altogether, for the sake of speeding along late-game SP, including Voice of Planet and Ascent to Transcendence, so that the game doesn't proceed interminably.

Clean reactors: Moved to Nanominiaturization. One of the most coveted unit abilities in the game now takes a little more work to obtain. This deters the neutering of the SUPPORT society effect until later. The poor AI doesn't understand the benefits of alleviating SUPPORT with a massive military so the player must also deal with it until late-game, especially now that he can't simply "fix" a flagging mineral production by pumping out a few support-free crawlers. Bio-Engineering loses a little of its luster, but you'll still want it for Retroviral Engineering and--

Citizen: Engineer: This specialist moves to Bio-Engineering, mostly to prop up the absence of clean reactors. Fusion Power is also powerful enough as it is!

Hab Complexes: Bumped to Silksteel Alloys. With the tweaked growth society effect in SE trimmed and pop-booming as a phenomenon reined in, I've delayed the construction of this facility, both in the spirit of taming the ultra-coveted Industrial Automation and coaxing tech research along different lines.

Treefarms: One of the most highly lauded facilities in SMAC/X. A boon to one's economy, psych production, and if one uses forests to any great degree, culling resources. This one should cost more for all the benefits it reaps. Cost is 15 rather than 12 minerals, thus more expensive than say, the Robotic Assembly Plants.

Advanced Naval Algorithms. Velociryx often remarked about the navy being the "weak leg" of SMAC, primarily because the carrier & repair bay abilities were available so late in-game to the point that Needlejet Carrier dreams are a moot issue. Now they're available earlier to make those cruisers more menacing, with the arrival of this new tech [C6], one that requires Doctrine Air Power and Initiative both. Subsea Trunkline also moves to this tech. Advanced Naval Algorithms is now a prerequisite for Nanometallurgy.

Cloudbase Academy: Moved to Advanced Spaceflight. An extremely sought-after SP for obvious reasons; +2 movement rate to all air units, instant access to any goodies satellites produce for all bases, as well as free Aerospace Complexes. Vel goes on to say it's obscenely unbalanced. Short of removing it completely, I've decided to bump this SP two tiers, and out of MMI's bloated clutches. Cost is 50 rather than 30 minerals.

Tachyon Field: Moved to Photon/Wave Mechanics. Boosts another weak intermediary tech, and fortifies typically overmatched defences in-game, which can't help to stand against hordes of Fusion and Shard troops.

Hunter-Seeker Algorithm: Cost increased to 35 instead of 30 minerals, for obvious reasons.

Algorithmic Enhancement: and

Nethack Terminus: Both moved to Probability Mechanics. This unit ability, and this wonder, are meant to prevent the Hunter-Seeker Algorithim from "shutting down to probe game entirely" but tend to come a bit late, particularly Nethack, to make much of a dent anyway. Here, within arm's reach of Pre-Sentient Algorithims, puts anyone at risk.

Cyborg Factory: Bumped to Biomachinery. Another highly coveted mid-game SP, as with Cloudbase, doesn't hurt being bumped a notch. Wait 'til the "full integration of man and machine" takes place tech-wise until one can build this. Cost increased to 45 vs. 40 minerals.

Cloning Vats: Bumped to Homo Superior. A game-breaking SP to some, so it should be a delayed until a paradigm for the "ubermensch of the future" is developed and Santiago mass produces her Spartan brood.

The Universal Translator: Transferred over to Centauri Psi. For the world of me I don't understand why this wonder is paired up with Homo Superior, especially since it (purportedly) has to do with unlocking the language and culture of Chiron, the xenofungus, and progenitor artifacts. It makes more sense in tandem with a Centauri tech of the same tech tree level.

Fuel Nanocells: Moved to Nanometallurgy, to round out the now denuded tech, which represents this and the Deep Pressure Hull.

Nanoreplicators: Moved to Industrial Nanorobotics, mostly to fill the void that Robotic Assembly Plants left.

Bulk-Matter Transfer: Moved to Matter Compression. Previously this SP was a hazard for most players, breaching numerous eco-pops and various ecological hell. You typically built it for the SMAC score, and nothing else, very very late in the game. Now, depending on the state of your mineral production by this point, this SP may have a place.

Fungus production: Centauri Genetics and Centauri Psi switch their fungal production boons (CentGene now reaps the nutrient and CentPsi reaps the mineral). Bioadaptive Resonance now gleans an extra mineral in fungus squares. Secrets of the Manifolds gleans an extra energy & extra nutrient in fungus squares. Matter Transmission, Temporal Mechanics, and Threshold of Transcendence have these effects removed (when it's wholly irrelevant). Let a "fungus economy" choice, something that only happened accidentally due to one too many "pops" late-game from eco-damage, be a little more palatable earlier on for certain factions.

Plasma Shards: Moved to Super Tensile Solids, and assigned an attack value of 14. I've always thought weapon values in-game exponentionally outweighed and dwarfed defensive values in-game. Plasma Shards are a perfect example of weapon values at their mid-game zenith without even needing to research Silksteel Alloys. And with special abilities like Soporific Gas Pods and Dissociative Wave, things have become tougher than ever for the defenders. I've had plenty of games where, depending on the tech lines being researched, Impact, Gatling, Missle, and Chaos weapons have all had their fair shake and dominance. But Fusion rarely sticks around when Plasma Shards are so close, and Tachyon Bolts are totally redundant. Moving Plasma Shards up fills the gap between Tachyon and Quantum Lasers a bit more meaningfully and gives Fusion and Tachyon a bit more shelf life.

Copters: Movement range HALVED (four from eight). This bloated unit's dominance of Chiron's skies is now tamed to something a little more civilized, especially since the mineral cost to produce is still the same.

[Marid Audran]

SMAC Factions: For all intents and purposes, unchanged. I've always respected how they were originally designed and balanced. Mostly they're cosmetic changes to the text files (making sure Yang is immune to PS and that the "Theocratic" aversions/preferences are correct) reflecting changes of the mod. The lone exception are Morgan's hab limits: Pushed to 5, since he has an even harder time now with Habitation complexes pushed to Silksteel Alloys.

SMAX Factions: Here I take issue with most of factions as a matter of course, due to balance overall and balance vis-a-vis alterations in this mod. As previously stated I've excised the progenitor factions from this mod, and in their stead placed two custom factions of mine: The Agrarians of Ceres, and La Marchand Marine. From the Datalinks:

Agrarians:
^An army marches on its stomach, and so do the workforce, politicians, and scientists. Agriculture is society's cardinal advance, its necessary virtue, the difference betwixt "civilization" and "nomads." In a virgin world, history will repeat itself. The most civilized shall fill the bellies of the hungry, and Planet with her children.
^
^ -- High Councillor Wren Norbury,
^ "A Cultivator's Journal"

#DATALINKS1
^LEADER: {High Councillor Wren Norbury}
^BACKGROUND: {New Zealand Agronomist; Unity Terraforming Engineer}
^AGENDA: {Planned Society; Harvest of Planet}
^TECH: {Centauri Ecology}
^

#DATALINKS2
^+2 GROWTH: {Nutrient surpluses & High-yield farms}
^+1 POLICE: {Populace feels secure with citizen militias}
^-1 INDUSTRY: {Limited space for factories}
^-25% assault penalty: {Lack of aggressive military paradigm}
^Robust EFFICIENCY: {Communal values; emphasis on family}
^Double penalty for GREEN economics: {settlers find cohabitating with fungus difficult}
^All formers receive free fungicidal tanks upon discovery of appropriate tech
^May raise/lower terrain at half cost {superior terraformers}
^{May not use Free Market economics}

The Agrarians are sort of a hybrid of the Hive and the Gaians. They share the communistic ideals of the former and the terraforming know-how of the later, though the lack both military-industrial ambitions and eco-sensitivity. The former they start with is fungicidal. One unique feature of the Agrarians are their ability to have a pop-boom with demo/planned/creches, something now denied of any other faction. However, this faction is not without their cons.

Mercantile
^"While Svensgaard indulges in his Jules Verne and Bluebeard fantasies, the real power of Chiron's oceans remains untapped. Beneath Chiron's fungal expanse is a cornucopia of energy, the envy of even Morgan from his gilded terraces! All that's needed are the right tools and proper industries. Do you, as I, dare to dream?"
^
^ -- Fleet Admiral Etienne Peraud,
^ "Merchants at Stern" Lecture

#DATALINKS1
^LEADER: {Admiral Etienne Peraud}
^BACKGROUND: {8th French Republic; Ex-Peacekeeper Admiral}
^AGENDA: {Oceanic Energy Monopoly}
^TECH: {Industrial Base, Doctrine: Flexibility}
^

#DATALINKS2
^+1 ECONOMY: {Aquatic Conglomerate}
^-1 GROWTH: {Long merchant expeditions away from families}
^125% TECH COST: {Cramped labs; grants at a premium}
^150% Hurry cost: {Difficult to network industries at sea}
^Extra DRONE per five citizens: {Exploitive labor practices}
^Penalty doubled for PLANNED: {Regulated economies breed mass smuggling}
^2% INTEREST on energy reserves: {Windfall from aquatic loans}
^50% More votes in planetary elections: {PK Officer Corps charisma}
^Bonus mineral from shelf squares, sea former/colony pod prototype costs waived, may eventually terraform trench squares: {Nautilus roots in French Navy}
^{May not run Police State in Social Engineering}

Morgan on the sea. I've found the "Mercantile," faction, as they're known, to be a very interesting experience; much wealth, yes, however drone problems, the gratuitous penalty running PLANNED, and increased research/rush buy costs tames them a wee bit. Not the cakewalk it may seem at first.

Now onto the other SMAX human factions (all other features/bonuses/penalties of these factions remain unaffected unless specified):

The Data Angels now have +1 Support, +1 Probe (remedy probe over-roll bug). They experience DOUBLE the penalty running police state, and have a 20% defensive penalty. They start with Planetary Networks.

The Cybernetic Consciousness now have -1 Support instead of -1 Growth. They start with Information Networks.

The Free Drones now have -1 Planet, and a 200% cost modifier to PROBE activities.

Cult of Planet: -2 Economy. No Industry penalty. Robust RESEARCH. Start with Manifold Anthropology.

I've always disliked the SMAX factions being stronger factions on average than the original seven. Considering, collectively, these factions' flimsier pretexts for coming about as “splinters” (with the exception of the Pirates) I thought it particularly unrealistic, not to mention unfair. With the absence of the Progentiors there is no longer a need for them to be “beefed up.” They no longer start with two techs. The other changes came about as a result of numerous playtesting, both human and completely automated games with 7 AIs. This was done to ensure all were pretty much on the level with one another. I also wanted to have all the SOCIETY effects (Police, Support, Industry, etc) to be used so that all of the factions fill unique mixing and matching them up. I've updated the datalinks, in all cases, to reflect these changes.

Pre-Designed Units: I have included quite a few. Whilst some are for the sake of ease (“Fungicidal Formers, Mind Worm Eradicator”), most are there to nudge the AI into building them. The AI tends to experiment with all sorts of unit abilities and I've come across some novel combinations, but two that it doesn't seem to understand are “clean” and “police”. I've moved up clean reactors, so that they aren't available until a post-fusion era anyway (and one cannot pre-design fusion reactor based units in the alphax.txt), however police is another problem since the AI loves waging incompetently managed wars under free market, among its other failings. I've fixed the price of Plasma Police Guards, Silk Police Guards, Mind Worm Garrisons at cheaper-than-usual mineral cost to better encourage the AI to build them in its bases. I've added Probe Foils, Probe Cruisers, and Police Infantry to round up the pre-designed ensemble. All of these units are available, pre-designed, before all the requisite tech is required to build them (excepting 3-res Trance Guards). I implore the player to act in “good faith” when it comes to these pre-designed units, and to refrain from building them until you've acquired Intellectual Integrity or Planetary Networks, as the case may be, in the same spirit of “good faith” that a player doesn't manipulate the AI by gifting them a worthless base and then probing their datalinks to death, fudging on SE settings before engaging in diplomacy, and other unscrupulous methods.

AI Priorities: In each faction text file there is a priority tag for Aggression, Conquer, Discover, Wealth, and Explore, denoted as 1 or 0. (or 1, 0, -1 in the case of Aggression). If the tag is 1, the AI is invested in the area, if 0 it's not. The five agendas influence how often the AI will declare war, honor treaties, what's built regularly in bases, and what tech lines they will preferentially research. A tagged Conquer means the AI primarily builds military units and thus wraps up most of their mineral production in support costs, paralyzing their economies, so I've tagged this to 0 for most of the factions. War-mongering factions (1 in Aggression) will build a military army anyway, so there's no need to believe Miriam or Yang will be peacenik builders for this mod. In fact, they may be more dangerous mid-game, because their bases actually have a strong energy/mineral base! A tagged Wealth agenda is most important for encouraging the AI into building formers and facilities, so this is tagged 1 for most of the factions. Miriam, Yang, & Santiago are all aggressive. Lal, Deidre, and Morgan are peaceful. Zak is borderline. Cha Dawn is aggressive. Norbury is peaceful. The other SMAC factions are borderline.

Cosmetic Changes: I have tinkered with the power/tech/wealth/growth values of some of the individual techs along the tree. Cyberethics, for instance, know is dominant in its “Tech” value, instead of the old “Wealth” value, and appears white rather than beige upon discovery. I haven't done this with too many techs, just a few to better reflect the ability/facility/SP assignments, it's a subtle effect. As for the “mood” adjectives in diplomacy I have changed “noncommittal” to “receptive,” since I believe it to be very ambiguous exactly why “noncommittal” is a warmer mood than “ambivalent.” The “reputation” adjectives also have a slight alteration: Scrupulous has been omitted. Dependable has been bumped up; the rep level between dependable and ruthless is “noncommittal,” which I believe is more apt here than in the diplomacy mood menu. The “Might” adjectives are also changed. Wanting corresponds to modest, Facile now corresponds to feeble, Pathetic now corresponds to wretched. Just an aesthetic preference. Also to that end, the helpx, techshort and techlong.txt files have also been polished up to better reflect the changes in the mod so that the datalinks are up to date.

Observations: I've found that the AI plays much better with these modifications. I've seen forests and well-connected road networks across the board, and factions that often stall or drove themselves economically into the ground by mid-game, like the University, Morgans, Miriam, Cult, perform much better. As a result of the forests, the AI now builds Tree Farms regularly, and also takes pain to build Robotic Assembly Plants, which in turn contribute to their mineral and energy output. The AI also makes great use of the pre-designed police units, taming drone activity, and I've seen them use SE choices like Green and Police State, whereas before it barely touched either. Makes for a much more balanced early-to-mid-game experience. Certain tech bee-lines beforehand which were du jour, such as Industrial Automation, MM/I, Doc:Air, etc, no longer reign quite as supreme before. This has influenced much of my own personal SP strategy.

That's it! I sincerely hope you enjoy the changes in my mod, and may find them enjoyable in your game. It has with mine, as I don't play virgin SMAX any longer. Install everything directly into your SMAX directly and nature should take its course.

Final Note: Every txt file I've altered I've included a backup of the "old" version, circa 2.0 SMAX, for easy reversion if you're so inclined (these are in part 2). Alternatively, you can pick & choose what you want, or continue to tweak the alphax.txt to your liking. I don't want to enforce anything the player feels he can't easily undo or redesign.

Marid Audran,
June 2007

[Main_Brain]

How to download? The Link in the First Post doesnt lead to a File (or i cant see it)

[vyeh]

Missing words

Originally posted by Marid Audran
Formers require *no* technology to build from the onset.

Forests and/or roads?

[Marid Audran]

Part one contains the revised faction files, alphax and other documents, and the custom faction Agrarians:

[Marid Audran]

Part two contains the backups to all altered .txt files, and the custom faction La Marchand Marine (Mercantile). Note: If you don't download and extract part two, you will need to change the "Mercant" heading in the alphax.txt under #NEW FACTIONS to something else.

[Hydro]

Great to see some tinkering with SMAX!

A few comments:

Terraforming: mostly makes sense. But, although I can understand the reasons it seems strange that you have to get Eco Eng to construct mines but can construct mining platforms without restriction.

SE: nice changes, especially with demo and police. The -1 eco may be a true killer for very early societies, for whom most of their energy comes from their home bases. When bases get bigger it will be less of a problem since there is a bigger energy base. It does seem symmetrical since this is the Hive’s penalty. A -2 eco for the PS Hive might be a challenge, but that is the penalty for PS. Green seems very powerful now, however, since the benefits far outweigh the -1 Growth. Maybe adding -1 industry to Green makes sense? Police/Green/Power can be used for an empire since the efficiency is at least nominal. Also, nice to see Wealth toned down with +1 drone.

Pop booms: will be hard to get and will cost you, which is good. The AI rarely pop boomed (except by accident), and is one of the features that human players could use to their advantage.

Algorithmic Enchancement – seems to be missing text after the “and”. Also, did you mean ‘enhancement’?

Hydro

[Marid Audran]

Hydro,

Yes, sure did. The joys of an incautious spellcheck, my bad.

There is no missing text after AE, the text after Nethack applies to both items, I just formatted everything to make it a more readable, itemized list.

Green is more powerful, yes, and now I've seen the AI use it, but not more than Free Market or Planned, which in any case both have unique features one cannot attain with Green. I'm a big green nut myself (was even before tweaks), but I admit if I want loads of cash or sheer pop/industrial boost (especially since, pop-boomless, bases will be growing at more fixed, gradual rates), I'll have to sustain FM or Planned.

Of course if you disagree, or anyone else, I encourage just entering the change yourself. Playability via preference should be key.

The Mining Platform/Mine incongruity is a necessary evil, in my opinion, because similarly restricting mines at sea to EcoEng would heavily cripple sea production to the point that seafaring factions would be at major disadvantage. Sea bases only have two forms of terraforming to a landbase's multitude of options.

Thank you for your comments!

[Max1]

Thank you for posting this mod. I tried it out over the weekend, and it's definitely making the game more balanced.

I played four games so far, all on Thinker level.

The first one was as Gaians, right on the edge of the Monsoon Jungle. My development was slower than could be expected, but Monsoon Jungle was still too powerful a benefit, so it quickly became obvious that I was going to win.

The second one I played as Spartans, had a lot of territory to expand to, and so tried to reach Tree Farms ASAP, but before I was able to, The Hive ate all its neighbours and came for me from across the world with attack 6 rovers. I had no answer to that and conceded.

The third one so I played as the University, ended up sharing a small continent with Morgan, whom I successfully blocked in, and was finally able to execute the Tree Farm rush. However, to my horror, this was not much help - the AIs were easily keeping up with me in the mid-game, and it took me much longer than usual to establish my dominance.

Finally, the last game I played as Peacekeepers, and ended up sharing the world with University, Morgan, Agrarians, Domai, Roze, Santiago and Planet Cult.

Domai, Morgan, Zakharov and me were all running Demo/FM/Knowledge, and these AIs were doing quite well for themselves.

So, overall the mod is doing well in making the mid-game more interesting. I liked the addition of the Robotic Assembly Plant, though I'm not entirely sure how well the AI handles it. Still, it sees much more use now. Moving the Virtual World later means there is a phase where the drones become a much larger pain.

Once again, thanks for the mod!

[Marid Audran]

Thank you Max1, this feedback is most encouraging, as experiences on par with yours are what I was aiming for. I've similarly found AI keeping tech/production parity longer into mid-game myself. Combined with Blake's 'ol faction switchero challenge, it's very formidable.

[Selador]

Great work, Marid! Your post is giving me the itch to play again...

I love most of the changes you've made here, in fact, I implemented quite few of them before in my own SMAC mod from years ago (maybe I'll see if I can dig it up...). As I recall, the changes with respect to formers and crawlers were almost identical to mine, and the result was very promising indeed. Moving the Robo Assembly Plants to IndAuto is another important change you've made which I highly recommend.

I'm a SMAC purist, in that I dislike a lot of the changes SMAX brought to the game, like the overpowered factions. The Original Seven were a much better thought-out and balanced group, in my not-so-humble opinion. I especially hated the alien factions. Ugh. I always thought they turned an otherwise brilliant and compelling storyline into a cartoony, sci-fi cliché. So you can see how I'd be happy read that you've eliminated them from the game! If I were to make a SMAX mod, this would be the first thing on my to-do list.

Hopefully I can try the mod out and give you some detailed feedback on these changes. At first glance I don't see any major problems, except this:

Planetary Transit System: Moved to Doctrine: Mobility. An often snubbed SP due to its relative lateness in the game versus a time when it'd be really useful. By the time 3rd-tier techs roll around most of the important primary bases have already been founded, and further colonization with a pop-3 base of all drones due to inefficiency will be of little boon to those who don't have an immediate way to suppress them and some decent terraformed squares in the base's vicinity. PTS is now available among 1st-tier techs to jump-start colonization campaigns for those who put in the effort, and costs 20 rather than 30 in minerals.

This is not a good idea, IMO. The PTS is an extreemly unbalancing project as it is in the hands of a skilled human player. In fact, I would suggest moving it up the tech tree, not down, or possibly disabling it altogether. A human player acquiring the PTS this early will ICS the planet into oblivion in relatively short order. This change will break the game.

Aside from that, this mod looks great. Thanks for sharing.

[Slammer64]

Very nice mod, but since I run the Loki Games Linux version I had to do some conversion of it. Nothing major, just run the text files through dos2unix conversion and change the case since *Nix-based systems are case sensitive. One question though, are the *.tmp files necessary? I had to change the runtime permissions to get them to work.

[Marid Audran]

Slammer: You can probably make do without them. The .PCX & .txt files are the primary ones. The .tmp files are probably indigent to one's personal computer settings.

Seldaor: Thank you very much for your interest. Similar modders think alike. I've updated the mod slightly so that all the factions (with the lone exception of the University), land or sea, start with only one tech. I think this is only fair. More importantly, sea formers now must research Centauri Ecology to construct mining platorms and tidal harnesses, but may cultivate kelp farms "tech-free". Before, it was as if the sea-factions started with three free techs due to the loosened restrictions with formers. Now it is no longer so.

In regards to PTS: Your arguement is a cogent one, however ICSing is one of those "dishonorable" tactics against the AI that I strive not to use, among others I've mentioned. Besides the strategy's egregious abuse as a surefire AI-killer, I think ICSing is a terrible eyesore on the landscape. I restrain myself, therefore, with self-imposed restrictions with base spacing, like four squares horizontally or vertically, or three diagonally, not overlapping more than 3, etc. This was one of the changes that I think Civ IV did correctly (though in that game's case I think was a little extreme).

I look forward to your personal report and feedback with gameplay experiences. If you or anyone else has some helpful suggestions please make them. One thing that has been nagging my mind is Hab limits; if Hab Complexes are now bumped to Silksteel is 7 enough? Should it be 8? 9? Or remain at 7 to encourage those who really want it to research the neglected left-paths of the tech tree? (which was my original intent)

Happy SMACing, all!