The Altera Centauri collection has been brought up to date by Darsnan. It comprises every decent scenario he's been able to find anywhere on the web, going back over 20 years.
25 themes/skins/styles are now available to members. Check the select drop-down at the bottom-left of each page.
Call To Power 2 Cradle 3+ mod in progress: https://apolyton.net/forum/other-games/call-to-power-2/ctp2-creation/9437883-making-cradle-3-fully-compatible-with-the-apolyton-edition
Whoops! I forgot to upload the modifyed palette onto the aquatic graphic file! D'OH! Oh well, I sent the corrected version to Smack and here is the palette file for those of you who suffer from the pink-square syndrome when modifying graphics.
I will be happy to playtest. Actually I would have beta tested the mod as well, but I only just now got around to reading this thread. My apologies. I had seen the thread before and meant to read through it but always got caught up in something else.
I have avoided reading your detailed design notes (though I did follow some of the technical discussions on proposals to get the AI to play better) and I have not read any of the associated fiction.
Please let me know which material(s) it would be good for a prospective first timer to read in prepartion for game play.
Ah good, I could use the help as my other beta-testers have evaporated
At this point I've really two last goals with playtesting: Make sure there is nothing further I can improve with the AI (and I'm pretty sure it's as good as it gets. I just got thumped in a Thinker-level game), and improve the scenarios in any way I can.
The nice things is, you don't need to read anything to play. Most of the potential bugs are worked out, and the game auto-loads the correct factions, graphics, helptext, and whatnot. I would highly reccomend reading Kassiopeia's story Aldebaran on the Fiction threads, and you might want the plot-outline to get the idea behind the scenarios.
I will need your email, (send to Rmontalbon@aol.com) and indicate whether you want me to send along the now-finished faction graphics. They're about 1-2megs zipped. The game itself is about 60k zipped. I will of course include a readme about installation.
And The News from Aldebaran:
Kassiopeia finished the blurbs.txt for techs. I'm working on the facilities, etc. I'll be travelling a lot this week, but hope to finish the background for the Interludes at least. We can still expect some form of finished product early next week.
Originally posted by Smack
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.
You probably don't have one of the copies of the game which came with a poster - the poster makes the meaning of this obvious. Your conjecture is correct - it is purely aesthetic. Basically if a tech has no prereqs then it's a level 1 tech; otherwise its level is one greater than the level of its highest-level prerequisite. So Info Networks is a level 1 tech, Planetary Networks has Info Networks as a prereq so it's level 2; Bio-Engineering has Neural Grafting (level 4) and Gene Splicing (level 3) as prereqs so it's level 5 (4+1). The Datalinks display automatically calculates this for you, taking any changes you've made to the tech tree into account.
The Conquer/Explore/Discover/Build is from the AI preferences for the tech. If you open the alpha.txt file and go down to #TECH, you'll see that in the line for Biogenetics are the numbers 0,3,2,2.
Those stand for power, tech, wealth, growth. Since the tech is the highest, the Datalinks will display Biogenetics as a Discover tech.
So knowing that a tech is "Build 10" tells you something about the tech, but it doesn't actually do anything.
Thanks for clearing that up. I hadn't even thought that the game engine would pick up on which AI-Influencer is strongest and use that, but I see now that you are correct, it does, how marvelous. Largely I've just ignored this as the AI Influencers I use are often counter-intuitive.
The Conquer-Discover-Build-Explore series has been changed to use the slot 'Discover' for 'Planet' with a focus on a mix of conventional weapons/armor at a slightly better strength/cost ratio at the expense that they come a little slowly. Also, Native units and Psi combat in general falls on this line.
Aldebaran News:
Slow week. I'll be travelling a lot but will try to mop-up with the various changes and completions as I go.
I've been continuing to tinker with the 'All-Pacifist' vs. a mix of AI strategies, and have at this point fallen back on a position of all-erratic (between aggressive and passive) factions. While the factions no longer build as miraculously as the All-Pacifist [-1, 0, 1, 1, 1] approach, they are no longer as abuseable in the realm of tech-trading and pacting. It's not the tradeoff I would liike, but I'll include a couple special scenarios later on that will use the All-Pacifist approach combined with (possibly) pacted and human-hating AI factions. Those are the very toughest games.
Nonetheless, the All-Erratic AI's do remarkably well, now that they are sufficiently boosted with bonuses to Support, Industry, and a few other things . I can barely keep pace on Thinker level.
If anyone else was looking for a beta at this point, you can email me as above, but otherwise I'm going to slow the pace down a bit on development. I'd like to really polish the scenarios and take care of a few other projects before it's released.
Thanks again to all the wonderful teamwork: Kassiopeia, Blake, Cybergod, Velociryx, the Network Node, Tokamak, and others.
With a recent illness and travel I havn't had the chance to do much work on finishing this monster project. I don't expect to get a chance to do any serious work until the end of this coming weekend.
Kassiopeia and I are putting the finishing touches on the 'fluff' department, which in this case means the 'techlongs.txt' and 'interludes.txt'.
Beyond that, it's done. Sure, I might tweak the scenarios a bit, but everything has come together.
Latest Changes Made: if anyone's following this!
Added a few more psi-units to the game
Added a true 'Superformer'
Used the unused icons for some special units
Created 'Leader Units' to represent the actual physical leader of each faction
-these are currently unused but I'll eventually use them in a scenario
-killing these units does nothing in regular play, but this can be made as a
-scenario objective..ie 'Kill the leader of said faction and it's game over for them'
Polished the text for the factions
Incorporated Cybergod's excellent faction graphics
Preparing for the release.
Let me reiterate here that there will be two versions of the game:
1. Aldebaran.novice : Plays around the difficulty level of SMAC
2. Aldebaran.veteran: Will crush anyone... ....just kidding. It is actually the reccomended version as it's tougher, but only impossible on Transcend (and just maybe beatable there).
There will also be graphical and non-graphical versions of each game (the non-g using the original graphics).
There are at this point 4 sequential scenarios that were developed in conjunction with the plot and storyline of Kassiopeia's 'Aldebaran' story.
The Network Node will host the downloads, but I will mirror with my own site, and possibly I'll post the non-graphics version here on Apolyton (the Graphics are too big otherwise).
That's the news....Smack is in Computer school...watch out world
Aslo the gods are impotent against men's stupidity --Frederich Shiller
In my vocabulary the word "Impossible" doesn't exist --Napoleon Stella Polaris Development Team -> Senior Code Writer (pro tempore) & Designer
We're just about done beta-testing here, but the public beta is soon (gads, I keep saying that) to be released. If I get delayed again, I'll make sure you and Scipio get the Beta's.
First of a series of posts outlining the changes in Aldebaran.
List of Changes from SMAC to Aldebaran
Part I: Alphatext
#General Parameters
4,2 for artillery damage, instead of 3,2 - makes arty useful
9 nutrient cost multiplier instead of 10 - faster growth
65 percent of standard tech rate - techs are slower to develop
3 minimum base size for specialists - instead of 5. Makes specialists more important.
3 Drones induced by Genjack Factory - instead of 1. This factory, called the Direct Control Unit in Aldebaran appears earlier and helps the AI while being prohibitive to most human players.
12 Population limit without hab dome - instead of 14.
100 percent cost to prototype air units - reflects the difficulty of flight in a thin, caustic atmosphere.
4,3 Psi combat offense-to-defense ratio for AIR units defending - instead of 1,1. Slight modification to make PSI better at handling air units.
40 Intrinsic Base Defense - instead of 25. All around help.
25 percent bonus for attacking from a higher elevation - instead of 0. Hills are important and combat now takes them into consideration.
10 percent penalty for attacking from lower elevation - instead of 0.
35 percent bonus to infantry vs. base - instead of 25.
40 percent bonus to fanatic attackers - instead of 25. Not used.
40 percent bonus to trance defending vs. Psi - instead of 50. Narrows the gap.
40 percent bonus to empath attacking vs. Psi - instead of 50.
80 percent penalty to air-superiority units vs. ground units - instead of 100.
50 percent bonus to attacking ships in port - instead of 100. Just because.
15 percent bonus per planet rating for Psi units - instead of 10. Further emphasizes benefits of going Green.
40 percent penalty to retooling production - instead of 50. Just silly.
8 mineral retool exemption - instead of 10. Not so many free minerals.
10 turns between councils - instead of 20. Call the council every 10 years.
10 minerals for harvesting forest - instead of 5. Slight improvement for this strategy.
6 max territory from base - instead of 8.
(see techtree for techs that have global effects)
100 percent possible damage for arty vs. units in the open - instead of 99.
Game from 2300-2700, 2800 - instead of 2100-2500, 2600.
#TERRAIN
Terraforming depends on different techs. Also, added sea-bunkers, sea-soil enrichers, and sea-sensors, called Minefield, Xenophagii, and Sonar Net, respectively. Note that 'Xenophagi' and 'Xenophagii' are place-holder names for what was 'Soil Enricher' and I need better names.
Terraforming Costs:
Farms 3 instead of 4
SoilE 10 instead of 8
Forest 3 instead of 4
Fungus 4 instead of 6
ClearF 4 instead of 6
Borehole 18 instead of 24
Aquifer 10 instead of 18
Raise/lower 10 instead of 12
Level Terrain 6 instead of 8
#RESOURCE INFO
Bonus squares: Mineral and Energy bonuses are 3 instead of 2
Recycling Tanks: 1, 2, 2 instead of 1, 1, 1 bonus.
Improved Sea: 2, 2, 3 instead of 2, 1, 3.
Monolith: 2, 3, 2 instead of 2, 2, 2.
Borehole: 0, 5, 7 instead of 0, 6, 6.
#WORLDBUILDER
300 instead of 256 additional land from land selection: x0, x1, x2.
4 instead of 1 hills base number.
3 instead of 4 plateau basic size.
6 instead of 8 plateau modifier.
12 instead of 8 rivers base.
21 instead of 15 deep water modifier.
10 instead of 15 plains modifier.
15 instead of 10 beach modifier.
35 instead of 25 peaks modifier.
#TECHNOLOGY
Just different.
#CHASSIS
Infantry: Can carry 2 units instead of one, if equipped with transport.
Speeder: As above.
Hovertank: Can carry 3 units instead of one, if equipped with transport.
Foil: Moves 7 instead of 4. Note, appears later than Cruiser.
Cruiser: Moves 5 instead of 6. Cost reduced to factor 4 instead of 6.
Needlejet: No changes.
'Copter: Moves 6 instead of 8. Can carry 3 units instead of 1. Cost factor 9 instead of 8. Note, appears in limited versions early, then released as chassis later.
Gravship: No changes.
Missile: Moves 10 intead of 12.
Secret Projects: Names and Costs Vary. Note also that the AI influencers are different. No notes here besides the HGP as an example. Generally more expensive, more projects available early, and more appealing to the AI. Because the AI can 'cheat' and switch out of a project to build a unit or anything, then switch back at no penalty, this generally gets them to start work on many projects and use this 'cheat' more often.
Different factions. Note that in Smax, this is the table you need to change. For those with just SMAC, you reload the player version while in-game at the startup menu. A player version has the same name minus the 'AI' bit at the end. See the README.
#PROPOSALS
Council proposals are available at differing times.
#NATURAL
Garish Crater, Crater
Mount Smack, Volcano
Moniker Jungle, Jungle
Uranium Flats, Uranium
New Euxine, Sargasso
The Henge, Ruins
Bad Dunes, Dunes
Freshwater Sea, Fresh
The Blake, Mesa
Apolytonia, Canyon
Planet Gass, Geothermal
Silicon Ridge, Ridge
Builders Bane, Borehole
Manifold Nexus, Nexus
Note, many of these are 'placeholder' names until I figure out better ones. If you think of any, let me know!
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