Announcing! Aldebaran 1.beta.1 (prerelease notes)

[Avenoct]

Doh, you're giving away da huma! That's fine. It'll be in full release soon enough (I hope!).

[Editing: News!]: Starting Seven Factions have arrived! The beta group now has an updated beta.3 release with factions, graphics, and a few other goodies. Kassiopeia (author of Homeworld over on fiction threads..among other works) is joining us to help write the background story, Cybergod has agreed to work with the graphics (and everything, thanks!), and I'm knee-deep in updating the help text. I've pretty much decided that the final release will have two versions and separate scenarios: 1. Full release with new graphics and new everything. 2. Minimalist release with graphic updates available separately. 3. The scenarios and maps of Aldebaran will also be separate. This is b/c the graphic files are pretty big, even zipped. I've already run into trouble sending the file willy-nilly over the internet around the planet Sol3. Back to work!

[Editing: More News!]: Starting factions improved and rebalanced. Aldebaran beta.4 is happenning!...is anyone testing? No pressure or anything. Also, the 'Writer's Package' is now out for background story writing, and a non-graphics-improved version is worked out. It's only 65k zipped so far. Anticipate that to grow to 120-180k with helptext, and all the other goodies. Now, to go get permission for some of the graphics.

About 'Corrupted Files'. I'd like someone to actually test that for the PC. On a mac, you simply move the alphatext, techshorts, techlongs, and any other things...ie interlude.txt that you want to change, in and out of the game Data folder. Everything works fine doing that swap. I've taken to just copying the whole data folder and simply moving the 'clean' one out and the 'mod' one in. How does this apply to a PC? If you can believe it, it's been about 7 years since I even used a PC, except at the library. I think we're going to need to figure this out soon as the total modified file list is growing by leaps and bounds. I've not actually heard of any 'corruption' yet, but let's stamp it out!

Hrm...a tech for Cybergod? How about naming the atmospheric dome? Cyberdome?

-Smack

[Blake]

A few comments, I like the new SE, seems to be many more ways to get +2 economy, and a lot more modifiers on industry. Also, am I right in saying the possibility to pop-boom is eliminated? Good move there, altough the lack of democracy or planned really makes growth slow early in the game - which should encourage the use of farms in order to boost growth.

One of the things SMAC (apparentely) offered was the ability to change rainfall patterns by raising and/or lowering terrain, altough in reality the condensor eliminated the need to alter the landscape. But I find the possibility of altering the landscape intruging, so how about making the condensor one mutha of an expensive improvment, prehaps 3 times as long to terraform, to encourage the use of farms+soil enrichers+solar, and put the condensor in it's true role - as an improvment which increases rain fall over a large area, but not a viable mass-improvment in it's own right. It would also put it in balance with the two raise terrains required in order to create a rainy area.

In the same vein to further harm the forest strategy make the soil enrichers a tad cheaper, my suggested changes in addition to the inability to pop-boom would hopefully put a considerable amount of balance between forest and other terraforming.

My schedule is basically busy all week being a full time student, I'll play a game or two in the weekend and report back.

[Avenoct]

Blake, good idea r/e the condensor..I might just use that.

Additionally, about forests...I'd toyed with the idea of going along the lines you mention in another thread r/e changing forest to 1-2-0 instead of 1-2-1, but I think, by giving the AI some reason to plant forest, to build tree farms and hybrids, etc. I'm aiming at increasing 'alternate sources' for all factions. Also, though I've not tested it through, fungus use and ocean use are vastly improved, though fungus bonuses don't come till later (though not as late as SMAC), it should also be an option and a safeguard against totally starved AI bases. Oh, I've also changed the nutrient multiplier to 12 from 10, so that limits growth too.

Pop booming: It's possible with a 'Chironian Habitat', 'Citizens' production SE, and/or golden ages. The AI will GA more often now due to access to drone-quelling.

One more thing. Did everyone recieve beta.4? I hope so, but have been have email squaks the last day or so.

-Smack, who'd love to hear ANY more feedback from the beta group!

[Edit: A general note about increasing build times. The AI is more likely to give up, or be forced to give up builds/terraforms that take a long time, due to outside pressures..drones in the base, enemies, etc.. I've even thought of making some of the SP's and facilities cheaper because of this, to increase the chance that the AI will see them through...any thoughts?]

[Second Edit: Well, in a way, it's good that I'm doing the majority of playtesting. I made a few silly mistakes that weren't obvious till later in the game. One of the major 'features' with a tech 'shrub' is that many many techs are available all at the same time, and of course the player only gets to choose one or two or three or whatever, depending on difficulty level. This is good! The AI gets more of a choice, so I can force it down certain pathways. No, it's not elegant, but it's better than some of the other choices I've contemplated. Further, I did a lot more work with terraforming, trees, and tree farms. The AI now plants 'em regularly and Tree Farms are much much easier to get. Energy restrictions were moved away, to a slightly further tech. I'm hoping this isn't too frustrating. The AI now goes for Tree Farm tech (Arbor1) pretty much about half the time it's 'available'. I'm into an exciting testing period getting the AI's infrastructure builds to work in the most efficient order. Expect, yes, Beta.5 tomorrow morning. I believe Aldebaran will be a harder game, so expect to play one level lower than you currently do. Also, if Ned happens by this thread, thanks for the Genejack idea...it got me really thinking about AI pops in and around 2140, well, in our case, 2340.--Smack ]

[Cybergod]

The following files are also need to further complete the mod:

* movlist.txt (test that apears after SP movies)
* script.txt (containting alsmost every single piece of text in the game)
* labels.txt (additional text)
* menu.txt (change the text in the menu to make it all sound more Aldebaran-like)
* possibly interlude and blurbs text files (for obvious reasons)

Smakc, I couldn't keep noticing that two unit special abilities have the same short name (the PSI enhancing ones: Buffer and... what's the other one called?) - Trance! I suggest renaming them Buffer and Psion or something.

Another suggestion - citizens! I suggest renaming them by the following:

Doctor - Surgeon? Medtech? or keep it
Technitian - Interno
Librarian - Datatech? Datajack (a bit like Data Angels)? Roboticist?

Empath - Biotech? Gene Therapist! (make it available with a genetic tech)
Engineer - High Interno
Thinker - Cyborg

Transcendi - Spiritualist

I won't be able to access my computer until I finish moving house, getting a new phoneline, renewing internet account... so I might disapear from the scene for a while.

BTW Smack, I am too sinister to have a facility named after me. Maybe, if you let me, have The Plague of Cybergod instead of Prometheus Virus?

Cybergod - logging off to finish sorting out his flat

[Avenoct]

Cybergod, thanks for the feedback! Have you actually played it yet? Ah, too bad about the timing of your move. If you could drop me a line r/e your probable schedule, that'd be great.

About the other text files: True, they all could be changed, and probably will be in the very final release. This beta run is to test the mechanics of the game and the new factions. However, Kassiopeia is busily writing and filling in the background story (did you read the plot outline in the writer's folder?), so I expect to be using lots of that for the blurbs, etc. I included the tech-shorts because they were easy and fun to change, as well as monument.txt. If you have some interest in helping along with this, I think the tech-longs could probably be written without excerpts from the story Aldebaran. They could be built upon, or tangential to the tech-shorts..tech knickers.

Psi weapons: Trance is Psi Buffer, Empath is Psi Amplifier. These are referred to by the game as 'Buffered' and 'Amplified' for units. Not confusing once you get used to it. The name 'Empath' didn't seem like a good name for an offensive capability, so I changed it, well, along with the rest of the psi-tree.

Further changes: I've been debating how far to take the renaming process. I think leaving a few things alone will be fine. This will help players coming from Smac or smax to feel they can recognize something! I'd like more opinions on that though. Certain facilities also have the same name b/c they are good names and work on Aldebaran 'as-is'. Ok, enough rambling. I have to pack for the weekend trip!

-Smack

[Kassiopeia]

Smack,

...Kassiopeia is busily writing and filling in the background story.

I am? Oh, never mind... I thought there were others
all righty, I'll have more time now when Homeworld is finished. I'll get some suggestions for it sent tomorrow. I'm planning on doing an "Arrival"-sort of fiction story explaining the beginning, for the blurbs etc. I need some clarification on different things, however, like which remnants of which faction build ships and which hitch rides... Or are you willing to let me decide on that? Plus the astronomical science I emailed you about?
And suggestions for all sorts of names and ideas are welcome.

kassiopeia15@hotmail.com

[Blake]

Seems atleast one other beta tester has had problems installing Aldebaran, so for the common good I'll post installation instructions here.

All you need to do is copy the txt files, and the .pcx files from Smack's earlier release into your SMAC folder. Ignore everything in the xtrastuf.mac folder, those files are not required.

elaboration:
Apparently the Mac version requires some files go into a data sub folder, this folder does not exist in any form on PC, and the Xtrastuf.mac files are not required, if you do copy the xtrastuf.mac files into your SMAC folder you will get errors, and the game will refuse to load. I believe that the mac files are compiled version of the .txt files, therefore if you are confused about wether a file is for the mac just open it - if it looks like garbage it is a mac file, also the mac files are a lot smaller.


Smack,
In order to prevent confusion it may be a good idea to release Aldebaran (final) in two separate zips - a windows and mac version, many people get rather confused when files are included but not required - and worse, if anyone does a simple drag'n'drop of ALL files in the zip, SMAC will refuse to load, because the mac specific files will overwrite the .txt files.

[Avenoct]

Well it's good news and bad I suppose.

Thanks for posting that Blake. I'm really at a loss as to what that 'xtrastuf.mac' thing is about. It is perhaps the 'Writer's Package' which was put in a subfolder in one of the Beta's. If you get the time over the weekend and wouldn't mind Blake, could you send me the 'bad' file, but more importantly, could you write up a short 'install directions' for the PC? I don't even know what your game folder is called, let alone where to tell folks to put the files.

In the end, I think a single download will be possible. It will be PC oriented, leaving us rare Mac users with any short-end of the stick. I've had no problem downloading any PC type files, as the mac is oriented towards working with PC files, and not apparently the other way round.

I hope everyone got the latest Beta.5. The tweaking was major in effect. I'm working on some final balancing to the factions....taking away the free Planet Labs (biology labs) from the new-gaians, encouraging the NCF Outlaws a bit (they seemed to have it tough for some reason), slightly weakening the aquatics, and the univerity-new. Further, I'll be experimenting with the various [-1, 0, 1, 1, 0] settings for the factions, to help balance their expansion vs. infrastructure builds.

As a technical question, though I both hope to answer it myself, and that it's not true, I'm wondering if the little sub-names for the techs, ie C4-Conquer 4, are at all functional. I seem to think they are redundant, in other words, just names and part of the graphics display. If they are actually used I can't see it, but it's worrisome. I believe control of what techs a faction researches is soley controlled by the 'faction influencers' as I call them, the 4 numbers appearing after a tech in the Alphatext. If anyone knows or has fooled with these sub names, let me know. I'm proceeding as if they are merely aesthetic and the evidence from my own testing supports that conclusion.

Good luck on Aldebaran, and I look forward to hearing more about your first colonies on the new world!

-Smack

P.S. Kassiopeia, I'll email you with regard to the stellar info on Aldebaran. The short answer is, if it helps with the writing, use it! If not, we can 'pretend'. Also, I've invited others to work on the background story, but you and I are the only ones currently applying ourselves to it, so the answer to that is, it's yours! Oh, and about hitching rides, etc. I think I made some comment on that in the last email, but it's up in the air, feel free to do what you like with it. -Smack

[Blake]

The weeks over, time for some serious testing

I started as syndicate on HMOP, intially I thought the immediate switch to L. Faire, for +2 economy was a bit too good, but soon decided the -2 industry made up for the increased cash.

Next suprise was when I noticed tree farms were on a level2 tech with only 1 lvl 1 pre-req, is it deliberate that they are so early? So next I researched to that. (altought the tree farms were wholfully too expensive to build at this stage of the game, so prehaps they aren't disbalanced...).
Gastric Frontiers comes in at 2439, farm planting time.

At 2451 I pop a pod and get to talk to Awen of the outlaws, he was very friendly and traded some tech to me, I can just about smell "controlled" SE now, get rid of that industry penalty then I'll be rockin'.
2453 I built my first treefarm, at my HQ, I also get a pact with the outlaws and discoverer I share the central continent with them.
2367: I make contact with skipp, who happens to be streaking ahead on the power chart... I'm 2nd though. I get the tech for STATE from him, and change to that to help my industry rating, also I built a "genejack" in my HQ and have started the greatest game, the peacemakers have already completed the dozer factory, but not much other SP activity is going.
2378: I contacted the peacemakers (courtesy of Awen), and got a pact, weee. Skipp's power is still growing, he must of got the jungle, luckly sod. Just noticed something odd, seems that "Construct kelp Enricher" has no key bound, I needed to use the menu in order to construct one.
2398: The lovers offer me tech in exchange for a pact against the galatics, I accept. Also I finally complete the greatest game, this co-incided with a switch to Controlled (had been running green), with the better industry I rush buy everything, and also get to work on chironian habitats to get some growth going.



Suggestions:
Make terraforming cheaper, by the time solars are available you already have tree farms, and possibly HF's, which means forests are very valuable, farms, solars, enrichers, echlons should be made 1/2 to 2/3rd cost, otherwise the forest n' forget strategy is by far the best.

Possibly the facilities are too expensive - I think it would play better (both for humans and AI's) if most facilities were reduced in cost a bit, this is because
A) expensive facilities come earlier
B) Growth is slower, meaning smaller bases, and longer build times.

Possibly many of the facilities have been moved back or forward without the cost being changed (yet), I would suggest the following basic changes, unless ofcourse you have an exterior motive for making the facilities expensive (also no doubt many of the facilities have already been balanced since your last release, but hopefully some of my comments will be of value in balancing the mod)

NetNode, E-Bank, reduce costs by 1 or 2 rows. (this is because smaller bases tend to produce less energy, making investment in these facilities of somewhat dubious value)
Planetlab, reduce cost by 1 row and/or remove upkeep cost.
'Genejack', 'paradise gardens': 2 rows cheaper
The Tokamat: 2 or 3 rows cheaper, reduce upkeep to 2 (this is mainly to favour the AI's because they love building drone control, which can put them at a serious turn-disadvantage)
The Planetpark, Cult of Planet: Set upkeep to 0, and make 2-3 rows cheaper. This is mainly in light of the ED research, suggesting that these facilities should be immediately scraped upon completion - which the AI is not smart enough to do. Also having them free to keep would encourage players to do so.
Centurai Habitat, Treefarm, Hybrid Forest: Leave as is.
All other facilities: Probably make them a tad cheaper.


My advice on the AI: Make it as tough as you possibly can, I say That is without sacrificing game options for the human player. If players cant hack tough AI then they can play on easier difficulty levels. If you can make an AI that can challenge the best players then you have truly achieved something.

Btw, are you going to give all factions a starting former? In my game the complete terraforming of the "university" faction was about 2 roaded forest tiles, with none at all at the HQ.

I'll delay any further test games until the next update.

[Avenoct]

Blake, glad you found that actually building the tree farm was not such a hot idea, but still, it's a bit too early in the game. It was bumped down to help give the AI some choices when it started ecodamaging. Great feedback by the way! I'm having a tough time figuring out how to make growth go a bit faster for the AI without giving them 'ugly' terraforming too early. I think I'll run some tests with 8 wide nutrient rows for base instead of 12 (10 is from original smac).

Some questions for you: If some of the terraforming options come earlier, such as solar and soil enrichers, should they still be cheaper? Ah well, it's a balancing game. I am at this point trying to encourage the AI to 'forest and forget' for the first 10-20 turns, with roads of course, but then to go back and put down some ugliforming when the techs develop. In a very strange game, the outlaws refused to learn how to farm at all, so spent the first 80 years with only trees and mines. They did well, but this certainly limited their power. All of your feedback will be useful, esp. the facilities costs. With a rapidly developing AI, infrastructure would be good for them if it were cheaper, both so they don't 'give up and switch' for war or whatever, and to give them excellent power bases for the mid-game. I'd not like it so cheap that the human player always builds every structure at every base with ease though. This takes some of the bite out of the question 'What do I build next? An Ascetics retreat, a colony pod, or a tree farm?' Well, we'll see. I'll be sending along the beta.6 very soon.

About the game toughnes. Yes, I do tend to agree. I just hope that non-veteran players can deal with the AI's expansionist tendencies and good minerals, even on the lower levels. Ah yes, it looks like the planetparks are going to have to have no upkeep, to help blunt the veteran player's tendency to build and scrap these fine facilities.

[Edit: Beta.7 sent out. Takes these things into consideration and reflects some of the work I'd been doing to get the infrastructure builds going well for the AI]
Back to work,

Smack

[Robby Boy]

Sign me up if I'm not too late.

[Tokamak]

Sorry I haven't been posting. Between real life and my own mod, I've been kinda occupied. I'll be getting my butt in gear, promise.

Quickie comment... I really liked how you've handled pop-booming. In order to boom, you have to take the Citizens choice, which has several crippling disadvantages. For once, pop-booming is a real trade-off! Great idea!

If you want to be really mean, you could lower the Citizens bonus to +2. That way, you'd have to build Creches (or Habitats, or whatever), indue Golden Age, and hobble yourself with Citizens for awhile.

Are the Cloning Vats gone? I can't remember... If not, they probably should be.

[Cybergod]

Hiya Peeps! I'm back!

Finally moved out of that hole I called my flat and moved to a much bigger and better one. And how relaxing it feels... I can almost feel my summer holiday coming...

While I didn't have internet, I did proper beta-testing and I wish to comment of moi's findings...

The Tech "Tree" :
Love it! OK, skip the unethical stuff about eugenics (selective human breeding) and things but overall, this stuff is great! It must have taken you ages to come up with all the stuff Smack! (Pot on the back) The only thing not in my liking is the tech graphics - they show up incorrectly (if there are any correct images). These need to be worked on - can I do it?

Gameplay :
It is a bit confusing and it took me a while to get around all the new features like slow growth and weird SE choices (judging from them, and from unethical concepts in the overall game itself, this mode should be renamed the Dictator Mod or something ). But Smack said that this mod should screw the "normal" stiles of play and force you to develop new strategies. Oh well, just needs a little getting used to... and not being a lazy idiot...

Factions :
Boring! The only interesting factions here are the Galactic Alliance and the Nauticons. The Syndicate is just a cheap copy off the Networknode. Zak needed a little tweaking and Planetlovers were causing ecodamage! I had a little play with the text files (sue me ) and my results are at the end of this post. Short review of the zip file:

The leader of the outlaws is now a woman! More to do with faction gender balance and make the game less bland (not all males). I am planning tweaking of the graphics soon - Smack what do you think of a Lara Croft style portrait for this faction? Surely would set some Gastronometers up and running . Zak is no longer so bonded with the Planetmind and is back to is old habits (research, of course! ) but still enjoys a smaller but still significant +25% PSI bonus! The Nauticons are now hybrid between the Believers and AX Pirates. I found the Peacenik industry bonus ridiculous and gave them an efficiency bonus instead. The Syndicate is now more cash-loving. The Planetlovers are more planet-loving . The only faction that I left untouched is the Galactic Alliance, which I feel is very well done (except their faction logo - I could've done that better).

The FANATIC bonus was overpowering (+40%) and the Nauticons have crushed the Outlaws and Peaceniks like bugs in my last game. So I lowered the bonus down to +30%. Some minnor changes to Specialists (nothing special, except giving them correct Preqs and Obsolete techs!) and made a few facilities cheaper.

Misc Comments :
I find it very hard to grow without good growth enhancing SE choices. I am not moaning or anything but I feel that the Cloning Vats can be lifesavers sometimes! I am saying this considering that the Citizen Production is the only choice that gives you GROWTH enhancers. I haven't changed anything in SE except the Utopian choice - gave it:
+2 EFFICIENCY
+2 RESEARCH
+1 TALENT
-1 ECONOMY, instead of
+3 EFFIC
+5 or something research
-1 ECONOMY

I hope Smack and the rest of you agree with my changes! Of course these are just ideas that need expansion.

- Cybergod, who is sorting out things in his new flat ...

[Cybergod]

Originally posted by Cybergod
(Pot on the back)

I am certain that that was meant to say "PAT on the back"!

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Cybergod
The Tech "Tree" :
Love it! OK, skip the unethical stuff about eugenics (selective human breeding) and things but overall, this stuff is great! It must have taken you ages to come up with all the stuff Smack! (Pot on the back) The only thing not in my liking is the tech graphics - they show up incorrectly (if there are any correct images). These need to be worked on - can I do it?

I agree with CyberGod here. The graphics tend to mess my head up too

Factions :
Boring! The only interesting factions here are the Galactic Alliance and the Nauticons. The Syndicate is just a cheap copy off the Networknode. Zak needed a little tweaking and Planetlovers were causing ecodamage! I had a little play with the text files (sue me ) and my results are at the end of this post.
[/QUOTE]

Agreement on that too... Zak had nothing quite "special", but what comes to the Nauticons I can't finde anything interesting from them either...
I thought beforehand already that Awen was a female

PS. Suggestions for new leader names (to replace ones hacked from original smac Note, faction names are untouched)

factionname, title, firstname, surname (reverse names with Primus Matsumura, Japanese/Chinese do it that way)

Peacemakers: Pacifist Shera Nehred

Nauticons: Captain Jebediah Skipp

Universality: Professor Prokhor Zakharov

Syndicate: Primus Matsumura Harada

Planetlovers: Lord Richard Brighton

Outlaws: Colonel Awen Llawella

Galactics: Empress Donatella Riley