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Being somewhat desatified the linearity of military strategy in SMAC (rover rush or chop and drop) I decided to make a few adjustments to alphax.txt . More specifically my goals were to balance the different unit types, provide for more varied strategies, and improve the realism of combat. Some ideas have been gleaned from various posts on the message boards. Id like some input and feedback in order to make a pretty general military mod that can be incorporated into other mods, or can stand alone.
1) Confine helicopters to battlefield assualt (i.e. no or limited base attack and air superiority capability).
This one has been pretty much been beaten to death. Thanks to everyone on the the original topic. Reduce movement to 4. Simple yet elegant.
2) More interesting sea combat.
Velociryx brought this up in his torture mod and like his solution: bring carrier deck and deep sea hull to doctrine initiative.
My only misgiving is that Doctrine: Initiative becomes too much of a "killer tech" with these additions. Perhaps i could move some of them to a nearby tech.
While i was at it i allowed carrier decks for land and air units (hover tank missle launchers and gravship sky fortresses
)
3) Fast units for fighting in the open and Infantry for base assualt
Give bases 50% intrinsic bonus. Compensate with 50% bonus to infantry for base attack. Also Rovers get 50% in flat and rolling and infantry get 25% in rough (representing armor's dominance in open spaces and vulnerbility in rough terrain).
4) Make artillery good for something
Aritllery has to be at least a rover to keep up with an army and still fire. Unfortunately this makes it too expensive. On top of this they dont do enough damage and cant weaken a base enough.
So i made it so that the cost of the Heavy Battery ability only increases with armor (instead of with armor and speed). Increade the Numerator/Denomenator for Artillery damage to 4,2 (from 3,2). Finally made it so that they can damage units in a base by 70%. Is this too much? Either way ill finally have a reason to use them.
5) Hovertanks come too late
Like in SNAC, move them up to monopole magnets. Makes sense in terms of game play and logically (same time as mag tubs, a similar improvement of transportation)
6) Orbital insertion makes everything else obsolete
Disable allowing orbital insertion with tech. Allow everyone to build the space elevator (make it a base facility?) but at a much higher cost (2x? 3x?) Perhaps move the tech for space elevator back as well?
7) Missles!?!?!
What to do with these things? The AI seems to use them in droves and they can be fun, but as is they are either useless (choppers can do the same thing but better) or overpowered (all you ever need to build are missles and drop troops). I personally would like to see them as more of a _tactical_ weapon rather than as a base assault or main attack weapon i.e. against a retreating rover or an annoying artillery unit behind enemy lines or a chopper that ran out of gas just out of range. To this end i dropped theyre weapon strength from 12 to 8 (enough to kill a unit with 1 armor without any problem) and reduce the price from
12 to 6. This is gonna require some extra play testing and any feed back regarding this would be extra usefull. I am also considering some changes to how the other missles work and possibly putting a support cost on ODPs and increasing the cost of building flechette defense.
7a) Reducing the cost of fungal missles.
Makes eco warfare useful and entertaining. Morgan causing too much pollution and causing global warming? Releasing demon boil sealurks right next to his base and dropping fungus on his boreholes can now be a viable planet-friendly alternative to just x-choppering him silly. Im mostly included this for the hilarious hijinks that are bound to ensue and because of the fact that fungal missles are a great idea but too expensive for practical use.
7b) Doubling the range of PBs. possibly Tectonics and Fungals
Orbital spaceflight but no ICBMs? That really doesnt make any sense. The computer has infinite range missles and that doesnt seem to break gameplay. Not increasing (possibly decreasing) the range of conventional missles so they remain a tactical weapon. We launched patriot missles at iraq in the gulf war from ships station in the persian gulf, not from bases in germany or ohio. The same idea should hold in smax.
8) Making repair bays usefull
These would be best strapped to hovertanks so they can double as ground transport. Im looking for moving them to an earlier tech, but im not sure which one. The general idea is to have a unit that can act as support/supply vehicle for a large army on the move.
9) Sealurks get cruiser chassis
Someone else suggested it. I thought it was a good idea. 6 range instead of 4 is a big plus.
10) Heavy transport
what does this do? if i activate it where should it go in the tech tree?
11) Go to sleep
Any comments/criticisms/ideas are more than welcome. If i nabbed your idea and forget to mention you, just tell me and i'll properly credit you. Thanks in advance
-Nadexander
1) Confine helicopters to battlefield assualt (i.e. no or limited base attack and air superiority capability).
This one has been pretty much been beaten to death. Thanks to everyone on the the original topic. Reduce movement to 4. Simple yet elegant.
2) More interesting sea combat.
Velociryx brought this up in his torture mod and like his solution: bring carrier deck and deep sea hull to doctrine initiative.
My only misgiving is that Doctrine: Initiative becomes too much of a "killer tech" with these additions. Perhaps i could move some of them to a nearby tech.
While i was at it i allowed carrier decks for land and air units (hover tank missle launchers and gravship sky fortresses
)3) Fast units for fighting in the open and Infantry for base assualt
Give bases 50% intrinsic bonus. Compensate with 50% bonus to infantry for base attack. Also Rovers get 50% in flat and rolling and infantry get 25% in rough (representing armor's dominance in open spaces and vulnerbility in rough terrain).
4) Make artillery good for something
Aritllery has to be at least a rover to keep up with an army and still fire. Unfortunately this makes it too expensive. On top of this they dont do enough damage and cant weaken a base enough.
So i made it so that the cost of the Heavy Battery ability only increases with armor (instead of with armor and speed). Increade the Numerator/Denomenator for Artillery damage to 4,2 (from 3,2). Finally made it so that they can damage units in a base by 70%. Is this too much? Either way ill finally have a reason to use them.
5) Hovertanks come too late
Like in SNAC, move them up to monopole magnets. Makes sense in terms of game play and logically (same time as mag tubs, a similar improvement of transportation)
6) Orbital insertion makes everything else obsolete
Disable allowing orbital insertion with tech. Allow everyone to build the space elevator (make it a base facility?) but at a much higher cost (2x? 3x?) Perhaps move the tech for space elevator back as well?
7) Missles!?!?!
What to do with these things? The AI seems to use them in droves and they can be fun, but as is they are either useless (choppers can do the same thing but better) or overpowered (all you ever need to build are missles and drop troops). I personally would like to see them as more of a _tactical_ weapon rather than as a base assault or main attack weapon i.e. against a retreating rover or an annoying artillery unit behind enemy lines or a chopper that ran out of gas just out of range. To this end i dropped theyre weapon strength from 12 to 8 (enough to kill a unit with 1 armor without any problem) and reduce the price from
12 to 6. This is gonna require some extra play testing and any feed back regarding this would be extra usefull. I am also considering some changes to how the other missles work and possibly putting a support cost on ODPs and increasing the cost of building flechette defense.
7a) Reducing the cost of fungal missles.
Makes eco warfare useful and entertaining. Morgan causing too much pollution and causing global warming? Releasing demon boil sealurks right next to his base and dropping fungus on his boreholes can now be a viable planet-friendly alternative to just x-choppering him silly. Im mostly included this for the hilarious hijinks that are bound to ensue and because of the fact that fungal missles are a great idea but too expensive for practical use.
7b) Doubling the range of PBs. possibly Tectonics and Fungals
Orbital spaceflight but no ICBMs? That really doesnt make any sense. The computer has infinite range missles and that doesnt seem to break gameplay. Not increasing (possibly decreasing) the range of conventional missles so they remain a tactical weapon. We launched patriot missles at iraq in the gulf war from ships station in the persian gulf, not from bases in germany or ohio. The same idea should hold in smax.
8) Making repair bays usefull
These would be best strapped to hovertanks so they can double as ground transport. Im looking for moving them to an earlier tech, but im not sure which one. The general idea is to have a unit that can act as support/supply vehicle for a large army on the move.
9) Sealurks get cruiser chassis
Someone else suggested it. I thought it was a good idea. 6 range instead of 4 is a big plus.
10) Heavy transport
what does this do? if i activate it where should it go in the tech tree?
11) Go to sleep
Any comments/criticisms/ideas are more than welcome. If i nabbed your idea and forget to mention you, just tell me and i'll properly credit you. Thanks in advance
-Nadexander
. Some comments:
.
). Then reduce the attack value of the warhead to 2 (remember that this is the attack value of a fission missile; a fusion missile will attack with a strength of 4), and reduce the cost of the warhead to 2. This should lead to cheap missiles against which defence is useful. Caveat: I've never tested how this might work in practice.
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