Beacon Spire

[TimeTraveler]

Hi, everyone. Since 2008, I've been working on a rearrangement mod to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri that I decided to call Beacon Spire. It's basically a collection of alterations made in an attempt to enhance gameplay.

This mod is intended for vanilla SMAC. You do not need Alien Crossfire to play it. However, the faction files are SMAX-compatible.

The files are available here. Hopefully, they'll also be available via zip file soon.

Faction Agendas and Personalities:

Spoiler:

Yang's ideology is now Planned. His anti-ideology is now Green.
Santiago's anti-ideology is now Democratic.
Lal's anti-ideology is now Power. Also, Build has been added to his list of priorities.
As a result, for each faction, there are two other factions that tend to become enemies. One has an ideology you can only choose if not using your own ideology. The other has an ideology that is your own anti-ideology.
Lal and Zakharov are now pacifists. Miriam and Yang are now erratic. The other factions remain as aggressive as before, but no one is outright aggressive anymore. Even the pacifists will declare vendetta soon enough anyway.

Upward Growth Incentive:

Spoiler:

No one gets extra drones. Everyone gets extra talents (per 10 citizens for Zakharov, per 2 for Lal, per 4 for everyone else.)
Hab facilities are less expensive and population limits before getting them are higher.
Colony pods are significantly more expensive They're also faster, meaning less time is lost in choosing a site more than two spaces away.
Nutrients are more abundant in general. Even in the earlier game as farms are more effective and they, along with getting 3+ nutrients in a square, have no prerequisite.
Standard number of nutrients per row is down from 10 to 8.

Unit production dis-incentives:

Spoiler:

Units are more expensive. Especially Colony Pods and Terraformers at 12 and 9 mineral rows, respectively.
Support rates are generally lower, and not as easy to raise back up.
Clean reactors are more expensive and terraformers are no longer allowed to have them.

Secret Project Difficulties:

Spoiler:

Most secret projects are more expensive. Not so for strictly one-city projects, but ones that promote infinite city sprawl are fiercely expensive. Any project that provides a certain facility to every base now costs at least 15 times as much as the facility itself.
Costs to hurry production for all factions is doubled, lowering the usefulness of both sidestepping the industry from the start and making use of stockpile energy from other bases.
Supply crawlers are completely disabled from the game, greatly reducing the effectiveness that other bases can offer for building a project.
As an added note: no secret project is provided by a tech below level 3. The Virtual World, Command Nexus, Merchant Exchange, Weather Paradigm, and Human Genome Project have all been moved up.

Social Engineering:

Spoiler:

Every option (other than Frontier, etc.) is engineered to be as worthwhile as its competitors in both the long run and the short run. This has led to some wacky results like the support modifiers in Police State and Democratic being replaced with Planet modifiers.
Only the Morganites can get +2 Economy without Free Market, and only through a +1 Economy bonus in Eudaimonic. Wealth's +1 economy got replaced by a probe bonus.
It is impossible to pop boom through social engineering. Democratic only provides +1 Growth, and the Children's Creche and Golden Ages seem to have followed somewhat. Combine these with Planned, and one can only get as high as +5. The Spartans, the ones now with the +1 Growth bonus, can no longer run Democratic. Eudaimonic no longer provides a growth bonus. The Cloning Vats remain as both the only way to pop boom and the largest application of Biomachinery, and they are very, VERY expensive to build.
It is completely impossible to have -4 Efficiency. The lowest you can get is -3 with Lal running Police State (which is possible in this mod but very unlikely for an AI Lal).
Frontier, etc. now have traits. Most of these traits are replicated for all social choices in their respective categories. In some cases, such additions cancel out other present effects (like -1 Efficiency for all Politics running into +1 Efficiency with Democratic).
Most social choices are milder in total effect. At least in relation to the start option and each other.

Tech tree:

Spoiler:

Lots of reorganization here! Of the 77 tech advances, 49 have at least one change each to their direct prerequisites. (Transcendent Thought is one of the other 28.)
Everything leads to something of the next level, with the possible exception of Transcendent Thought.
Applications are more evenly spread, making it less worthwhile to beeline to something way ahead.
Four tech advances (Centauri Ecology, Ethical Calculus, Polymorphic Software, and Planetary Economics) are each one tech level higher than before.
By contrast, 37 of the tech advances are each at least one level lower. Transcendent Thought itself is now level 12.
The priority levels of the tech advances have been reworked, based partially on who would seek out which applications. Now, 42 of those techs are a different color.
Also, here's a little mini-chart of the tech tree layout.

Terraforming:

Spoiler:

Farms and Forests provide 2 nutrients each, but also take a little longer to set up.
Terraforming in general takes less time to build, to make up for how terraformers are more expensive. This is especially true for improvements that don't increase resources.
Condensers, Echelon Mirrors, Elevation Changes, Boreholes, and Soil Enrichers all require higher tech advances ranging from Superstring Theory to Matter Compression. Oh, and the Weather Paradigm now requires Advanced Ecological Engineering.
A lot of sea improvements also got moved up the tech tree some, but have been made more effective.
Some sea improvements that were impossible before (like Sea Boreholes) are possible now.

Unit Powers:

Spoiler:

The strengths of the weakest weapons and armors available are 2 each. Lasers and Synthmetal are now only 3/2 as effective as their no-tech counterparts.
The Fission Plant got renamed into the Electric Battery. The Fusion Reactor got renamed to the Fission Plant and now has no prerequisite. Because predesigned units automatically get reactor 1, I gave most of them Plasma Steel Armor and predetermined costs set to match their Reactor-2 counterparts.
The Quantum Chamber got renamed into the Fusion Reactor and is now the only application of Fusion Power. (Good enough if you ask me, considering the 50% hit point boost and drop in costs.)
Hovertank speed is raised from 3 to 6.
Predesigned Colony Pods and Terraformers are fast: speeders and cruisers.
'Copters are slow and Gravships are even slower. To keep Unity Choppers and Locusts of Chiron from being too slow to be effective, I gave them both Antigrav Struts.
So far, there are two ways to enter the sea before Doctrine: Flexibility. One is though a Unity Former. The other is to research Polymorphic Software first and build a probe foil Predesigned Unit.

Major non-changes:

Spoiler:

Graphics files are the same. (You're only downloading text files.)
Virtually nothing is renamed.
Only Supply Crawlers and Quantum Chambers were actually disabled. And only by name for the Quantum Chamber.

There are many other changes to things. Check out the .txt files for more details.

The amount of beta testing that I alone can do is too limited. What you can do is check out the mod and tell me if, say, something is too weak to ever be useful or so powerful that it has to be sought out early every time. Any assistance you can provide there will be much appreciated and can lead to the creation of what I hope to be a better gaming experience.

Additionally, the original version of this post is at WePlayCiv.com.

Thanks!
-TimeTraveler a.k.a. Anon Zytose

[vyeh]

Hi, everyone. Since 2008, I've been working on a rearrangement mod to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri that I decided to call Beacon Spire. It's basically a collection of alterations made in an attempt to enhance gameplay.

What were you trying to change?

This mod is intended for vanilla SMAC. You do not need Alien Crossfire to play it. However, the faction files are SMAX-compatible.

The faction files are SMAX-compatible, but the alpha.txt file would have no effect in SMAX (you would have to take the paste the changes in that file into alphax.txt).

The files are available here. Hopefully, they'll also be available via zip file soon.

It looks like they haven't changed since I downloaded them June 14. I put the 8 files in a folder "Beacon Spire," zipped it and have attached the zip file to this post.

The amount of beta testing that I alone can do is too limited. What you can do is check out the mod and tell me if, say, something is too weak to ever be useful or so powerful that it has to be sought out early every time. Any assistance you can provide there will be much appreciated and can lead to the creation of what I hope to be a better gaming experience.

Kilkakon at CivFanatics might be willing to help (he has helped hambino) if you would care to post there.

[TimeTraveler]

What were you trying to change?

Incentives for players to have fewer, more spread out bases, instead of lots of tiny bases.
Incentives against building and having lots of units (especially colony pods and terraformers)
Tech advances to be more similar in value to each other (And more of them available at a time in the mid-late game).
Higher cost and difficulty in getting secret projects.
Rebalance social engineering a bit toward making them similar in value in both the early game and late game.

The faction files are SMAX-compatible, but the alpha.txt file would have no effect in SMAX (you would have to take the paste the changes in that file into alphax.txt).

That is true. Mainly due to how the mod only really has vanilla SMAC in mind.

It looks like they haven't changed since I downloaded them June 14. I put the 8 files in a folder "Beacon Spire," zipped it and have attached the zip file to this post.

The uploads have not changed. Also, thanks for attaching the zip file. ^^

Kilkakon at CivFanatics might be willing to help (he has helped hambino) if you would care to post there.

Cool, Thanks. ^^

[vyeh]

Incentives for players to have fewer, more spread out bases, instead of lots of tiny bases.

OK. Anti-ICS.

Incentives against building and having lots of units (especially colony pods and terraformers)

9 rows for a former will make it difficult to build the first farms. (In vanilla SMAC, a former is only 2 rows.) Once you get the first former, you can start planting forests and cultivating farms.

Tech advances to be more similar in value to each other (And more of them available at a time in the mid-late game).

I don't follow.

Higher cost and difficulty in getting secret projects.

Without crawlers, it will take awhile for a base to build a secret project, even if the cost remained the same. By difficulty, do you mean no crawlers or do you mean that the tech prerequisite is greater (like the Weather Paradigm).

Rebalance social engineering a bit toward making them similar in value in both the early game and late game

Do you mean the choices are equally desirable?

Also, thanks for attaching the zip file.

^^Cool, Thanks. ^^

You're welcome on both counts.

[TimeTraveler]

OK. Anti-ICS.

Or so I should hope.

9 rows for a former will make it difficult to build the first farms. (In vanilla SMAC, a former is only 2 rows.) Once you get the first former, you can start planting forests and cultivating farms.

Hmm... Perhaps if I gave each faction a free former or two at the start of the game...

I don't follow.

When two particular tech advances are available, it isn't always such a great idea to choose one over the other. For example, Optical computers now has applications (Hologram Theaters and the Virtual World) while by contrast, Fusion Power has been nerfed into only offering a better reactor.

Also, the number of tech advances available at any particular part of the game will average at around five or six until the very late game (if you don't account for how some are omitted for some odd, hard-coded reason).

Without crawlers, it will take awhile for a base to build a secret project, even if the cost remained the same. By difficulty, do you mean no crawlers or do you mean that the tech prerequisite is greater (like the Weather Paradigm).

In some cases, both. (That Weather Paradigm now requires Advanced Ecological Engineering, by the way.) I also Increased the mineral row costs of most of the projects (especially the Cloning Vats) and increased the costs to hurry production.

Do you mean the choices are equally desirable?

I'm basically aiming for that... throughout the timeline of the game. It started when I came to realize that in many games, Free Market was quite powerful in the early game when 1 energy each on squares that originally had none meant more than facing a little ecodamage, while Green was repeatedly the best choice in the late game, where one would have lots of large, spread out bases and heavy industry. I wanted it where both options (and Planned) remained equally valuable throughout the game.

I saw that for the Social Engineering stats...
Efficiency and Planet raised in value as players face greater inefficiency at farther bases as well as more ecodamage.
Industry and Morale remained the same throughout.
Economy and Support took decline as bases got many more minerals and energy that didn't depend on good rates in either.
Research, Probe, Growth, and Police all have the potential to eventually become worthless (Transcendent Thought, Hunter-Seeker Algorithm, Cloning Vats, and Telepathic Matrix).

So I decided that apart from Free Market, each non-default social engineering option would increase Industry OR Morale OR Planet OR Efficiency... along with Economy OR Support OR Research OR Probe OR Growth OR Police. I also figured that any social choice that decreased Efficiency or Planet would pretty much need to increase the other. It's why Police State's Support bonus got turned into a Planet bonus while Free Market's Planet penalty got moved to Democratic. It's part of why Planned's Efficiency penalty turned into an Economy penalty. (The other part being that I wanted one of those options to decrease Economy and I wanted it to be impossible to choose both it and Free Market at the same time.)

You're welcome on both counts.

^^

[vyeh]

Perhaps if I gave each faction a free former or two at the start of the game...

I think one free former.

When two particular tech advances are available, it isn't always such a great idea to choose one over the other. For example, Optical computers now has applications (Hologram Theaters and the Virtual World) while by contrast, Fusion Power has been nerfed into only offering a better reactor.

Okay, but fusion reactors do offer a significant cost reduction (in particular, sea colony pods and sea formers).

Also, the number of tech advances available at any particular part of the game will average at around five or six until the very late game (if you don't account for how some are omitted for some odd, hard-coded reason).

The reason for the omitted techs is discussed in About beelining to Industrial Automation....

I'm basically aiming for that... throughout the timeline of the game. It started when I came to realize that in many games, Free Market was quite powerful in the early game when 1 energy each on squares that originally had none meant more than facing a little ecodamage, while Green was repeatedly the best choice in the late game, where one would have lots of large, spread out bases and heavy industry. I wanted it where both options (and Planned) remained equally valuable throughout the game.

That is an interesting approach.

I saw that for the Social Engineering stats...
Efficiency and Planet raised in value as players face greater inefficiency at farther bases as well as more ecodamage.
Industry and Morale remained the same throughout.
Economy and Support took decline as bases got many more minerals and energy that didn't depend on good rates in either.
Research, Probe, Growth, and Police all have the potential to eventually become worthless (Transcendent Thought, Hunter-Seeker Algorithm, Cloning Vats, and Telepathic Matrix).

If you have reached Transcendent Thought, you can end the game; so I am not sure Research becomes worthless.

So I decided that apart from Free Market, each non-default social engineering option would increase Industry OR Morale OR Planet OR Efficiency... along with Economy OR Support OR Research OR Probe OR Growth OR Police. I also figured that any social choice that decreased Efficiency or Planet would pretty much need to increase the other. It's why Police State's Support bonus got turned into a Planet bonus while Free Market's Planet penalty got moved to Democratic. It's part of why Planned's Efficiency penalty turned into an Economy penalty. (The other part being that I wanted one of those options to decrease Economy and I wanted it to be impossible to choose both it and Free Market at the same time.)

I think I see.

[TimeTraveler]

Okay, but fusion reactors do offer a significant cost reduction (in particular, sea colony pods and sea formers).

So significant that reactor 1 was renamed Electric Battery, reactor 2 was renamed Fission Plant and has no prerequisite, and reactor 3 was renamed Fusion Reactor and moved to Fusion Power. So instead of hit points doubling and costs cutting in half (to a minimum of 3 rows), hit points are going up by 50% and costs are dropping by a third (to a minimum of 5 rows). That and the reactor is still Fusion Power's only application unless you count how it still leads to Organic Superlubricant.

The reason for the omitted techs is discussed in About beelining to Industrial Automation....

I should read up on that. Thanks. ^^

If you have reached Transcendent Thought, you can end the game; so I am not sure Research becomes worthless.

Well, it'd still take a while to actually build the Voice of Planet and Ascent to Transcendence. And that's assuming that Transcendence victory wasn't disabled.

[vyeh]

Well, it'd still take a while to actually build the Voice of Planet and Ascent to Transcendence. And that's assuming that Transcendence victory wasn't disabled.

Without crawlers, you can still scrap units (losing half of the minerals) and you can still purchase minerals (at 4 ec per mineral), plus you could have a very high mineral production (see SMACX ECO-DAMAGE FORMULA REVISED! ).

[TimeTraveler]

Alrighty. I've recently updated my files with a few changes...

Morganites, Gaians, and Hive are trading anti-ideologies. (Hive would do poorly with Free Market, which no longer has a Planet penalty for Deidre to seek to specifically block out.)

Every faction now gets a free terraformer at the start of the game.

Population limits before hab complexes and habitation domes have risen from 9 and 16 to 10 and 20.

[TimeTraveler]

Without crawlers, you can still scrap units (losing half of the minerals) and you can still purchase minerals (at 4 ec per mineral), plus you could have a very high mineral production (see SMACX ECO-DAMAGE FORMULA REVISED! ).

Well, I checked and it looks like you're right about the disbanding units in bases to get half their mineral value. That could be a problem... I don't want mineral transfers from one base to another to be anywhere near as efficient as 50%.

Generally, minerals are indeed purchased at 4ec each. But for most factions I doubled the cost to hurry production. (For the Morganites, the cost is only to increase by 80%.)

Very high mineral production is what those bases may mostly rely on. Some of those projects now cost over 100 mineral rows each. The Ascent costs 720 rows in this mod so unless you have around 57600ec saved up, construction of that project will take a while.

[vyeh]

I have excerpted this thread to the CFC thread.