Yet another modding

[Brumec]

Hi!

Me and my pals are considering some Crossfire modding just for the sake of refreshing this aged but marvelous game. Hazy idea is to make the game more "realistic" in the sense of real-world social engineering impact and civilization building and also to make AI more challenging especially in mid and late game. So, if someone is interested in commentig our ideas, he/she is welcome to do so in this thread.

By the way, we are playing with Scient's unofficial patch.

So:

1. No more deus ex machina AKA secret projects (helps AI because of crawlers, too "wondruous" anyway).
2. Smaller bonuses and penalties for each faction.
3. Forests 1-1-1 (makes farm-mine combo better, +2 for minerals was unrealistic).
4. No ordinary missiles (AI does use them, but humans use them much better). Busters, tectonical and fungal missiles are OK and are used.
5. Psi bonus +20% per planet countering new SE rules for Market.
6. No more pop-booming, except via Golden Ages - it's anyway silly to achieve real-world pop-boom with some predefined "how to" manual - it just doesn't work like that. Also, AI does Golden Ages.
7. Put all factions' interests to 1, set Hive & Miriam to aggresive, Spartans & Lal to erratic, others to peaceful.
8. Put naval probes in predefined units so that AI builds them.
9. No more clean reactors - despite any scientific advancement, it's just silly to think that any military will not need some kind of logistic support. Also counters Free Market SE.
10. No more free facilities (except, maybe, for Crossfire faction).

SE tables:
Democracy: +efficiency, +1 talent, +growth, -police
Police State: --efficiency, +support, ++police, +probe
Fundamentalizm: -efficiency, -talent, +morale, +police, ++probe, -research
Free market: ++economy, --support, -police, --planet
Planned: -economy, -efficiency, +support, +growth, +industry
Green: ++efficiency, -growth, ++planet
Wealth: +economy, --support, --morale, +industry
Knowledge: +efficiency, ++research, --probe
Power: -economy, ++support, ++morale, -industry
Cybernetics: ++efficiency, --police, +planet, +research
Eudaimonia: +economy, +growth, +industry, -morale
Thought Control: -economy, --support, +morale, ++police, ++probe

Original Factions:

1. Gaians: +planet, +efficiency, -morale, CentEco, free former, autocapture first worm, pref: Green, aversion: Free Market
2. Morgan: +economy, -police, -growth, -support, IndBase, pref: Free Market, aversion: Planned. Penalty: power. No other restrictions.
3. University: +research, -probe, InfNet, free tech, +20% psi combat, pref: Knowledge, aversion: Fundamentalizm. No free Nodes, but also no more drone problems.
4. Believers: +support, +probe, -research, SocPsych, fanatic attack +25%, pref: Fundamentalizm, aversion: Knovledge
5. Sparta: +morale, +support, +police, -industry, DocMob, free prototypes, pref: Power, aversion: Wealth.
6. Peacekeepers: +support, -efficiency, Biogen, population +2, pref: Democracy, aversion: Police State. No more extra talents ot anything else.
7. Yang: +growth, +industry, -economy, DocLoy, robust: efficiency, pref: Police State, aversion: Democracy. Still quite powerful.

What do you think, especially for Gaians (no +1 fungnutrient, but no -2 growth for green and some bonuses for psi combat via SE rules) and University (I feel they might be now too weak, despite effective +1 planet in combat)?

Spartans are closest to the original, changing one morale for one support.

Morgan can't run Power without a lot of penalties and that also seems logical (merchants and industrialists do not do well with militaristic approach).

Yang is still ultimate badass, but can't easilly get +2 economy and suffers more from inefficiency.

Miriam is more in the public domain... :-)

Lal doesn't attract intellectual elite (which neither do present-day UN), but has greater support and still +2 population.

Opinions?

P.S. There was actually a lot of thinking about real-world SE choices and their compatibility with SMACX and hard-coded faction behavior, but I'll write them if someone is interested so that this post doesn't become too long.

[Quadhelix]

SE tables:
Democracy: +efficiency, +1 talent, +growth, -police
Police State: --efficiency, +support, ++police, +probe
Fundamentalizm: -efficiency, -talent, +morale, +police, ++probe, -research

The main problem that I have with this is that Police State and Fundamentalism are too similar here: both boost Police and Probe at the expense of Efficiency. Each has its own side benefits, but the point remains.

Free market: ++economy, --support, -police, --planet
Planned: -economy, -efficiency, +support, +growth, +industry
Green: ++efficiency, -growth, ++planet

It looks like Free Market has received a significant boost: running Fundamentalist politics negates its Police penalty, while running Police State would mostly negate the Support penalty while more than negating the Police penalty.

Wealth: +economy, --support, --morale, +industry
Knowledge: +efficiency, ++research, --probe
Power: -economy, ++support, ++morale, -industry

Just as Free Market has been buffed, so too does it seem that Wealth has been nerfed. The +1 energy/square comes at +2 Economy, and the only faction that can get that without running Free Market is Morgan, and you've already given him enough penalties for that.

I did notice that most factions could run Wealth+Eudaimonic to get the +2 Economy, but unless there is a tech tree change that you haven't noted, Wealth is going to go through most of the game with several fairly crippling penalties it doesn't deserve. Perhaps Eudaimonic could have a Research penalty (inspired by SMAX's Free Drones) or something.

Cybernetics: ++efficiency, --police, +planet, +research
Eudaimonia: +economy, +growth, +industry, -morale
Thought Control: -economy, --support, +morale, ++police, ++probe

I'm somewhat curious why you've nerfed Eudaimonic so heavily; I can understand the desire to avoid the possibility of a faction reaching +4 Growth (which would translate to +6/Pop Booming with Children's Creches), and possibly the reduction to Economy (to keep various factions from running Eudaimonic to get +2 Economy), but what about the Industry cut?


Also, it looks like the buttons for Fundamentalist politics, Planned economics, and Thought Control future society would be rather cluttered.



By the way, I really like the Economy penalties for Thought Control and Power: it keeps players from running those to negate penalties of Free Market.

Sparta: +morale, +support, +police, -industry, DocMob, free prototypes, pref: Power, aversion: Wealth.

Actually, one idea that I had was replacing the Spartan's Industry penalty with a Support penalty; this would, to an extent, reflect the Spartan's dependence on a small number of well trained units, rather than a large army.

Peacekeepers: +support, -efficiency, Biogen, population +2, pref: Democracy, aversion: Police State. No more extra talents ot anything else.

Since the Peacekeepers are supposed to be a diplomatic faction, +Support doesn't really fit.

Yang: +growth, +industry, -economy, DocLoy, robust: efficiency, pref: Police State, aversion: Democracy. Still quite powerful.

Just FYI, the original Yang couldn't get +2 Economy without running Free Market and (vanilla) Eudaimonic at the same time (he had and innate -2 Economy penality). Your Yang can do it by running Free Market and Wealth.