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My Torture Mod Version: SP
hi all,
here are the changes I made that fall under the recent discussion of Torture Modifications for SMAC/SMAX. note that the following changes only make sense when considering all my changes to alphax.txt and my play style. please bear this in mind as you read. and thanks to everyone for the input over the last 2 years to help me arrive at a bigger and better SMAC game!
I have only played SMAC in SP mode on huge maps for almost 2 yrs (since the beginning). maybe one day I will do a MP game.... the tech tree is altered slightly. attack techs are pushed farther out to balance the armor techs. supply and clean abilities are gone and sats are moved up slightly. infrastructure is rewarded slightly more by abilities and maintenance costs. there are more pre-defined units to help the poor AI use new unit abilities, plus the SP changes below. misc items are from the SNAX pack, like reduced terraforming turns, sea sensors. slight tech tree changes, moving abilities, units and SP down the top tree for meaningful usage. slowed down tech advance. my ideas are from Shinings SNAX mod from last year, Vel, this forum and my own experience.
several probs (IMO) I noted in SMAC:
a. SPs too early in tech tree
b. overly powerful SPs
c. cheap SPs
d. weapon too early and fast compared to armor
e. computer player not imaginative with new unit development
f. supply crawlers/foils too powerful
g. Clean ability unbalances game
h. few rewards to building infrastructure -- momentum players overly emphasized
i. late mid-game to end-game weak
instead of one huge post, I will break it down into specific sections. this first one will cover SP.
some changes are directly from Vel, Qual, Korn, etc discussions in the Overpowered SP threads while others are tweaks from my own game frustrations.
first of all, I chickened out on the tech% number. the suggested number was 30% IIRC, but I am currently testing at 75%. after a few games at this number, tech advance is still too fast. at the 100-yr mark, Wealth, 9 cities, I get a tech advance every 11 turns without trying too hard. I am gonna start testing at 50% next....
the overpowered SP are no surprise to folks on this forum -- Cloning Vats, Empath Guild and Cloudbase Academy. I tried increasing the mineral costs, but this doesn't offset their benefits. therefore I disabled them.
several SP arrive too early. Human Genome moved to Gene Splice. Weather Paradigm moved to EnvEco as this caused a serious imbalance at Ecology. Virtual World moved to OptComp -- now empires must deal with drone probs another way for a while.
some of the late-game SP I moved down the tree a bit to make them more useful in the game. the other changes increased the cost. my rule-of-thumb was empire-wide effects cause cost *3, others were cost*2. for example, WP and VW have empire effects and Maritime Control has global abilities, thus cost*3.
I have playtested most of these for months. see the attached file for a diff of the original and new alphax.txt.
here are the changes I made that fall under the recent discussion of Torture Modifications for SMAC/SMAX. note that the following changes only make sense when considering all my changes to alphax.txt and my play style. please bear this in mind as you read. and thanks to everyone for the input over the last 2 years to help me arrive at a bigger and better SMAC game!
I have only played SMAC in SP mode on huge maps for almost 2 yrs (since the beginning). maybe one day I will do a MP game.... the tech tree is altered slightly. attack techs are pushed farther out to balance the armor techs. supply and clean abilities are gone and sats are moved up slightly. infrastructure is rewarded slightly more by abilities and maintenance costs. there are more pre-defined units to help the poor AI use new unit abilities, plus the SP changes below. misc items are from the SNAX pack, like reduced terraforming turns, sea sensors. slight tech tree changes, moving abilities, units and SP down the top tree for meaningful usage. slowed down tech advance. my ideas are from Shinings SNAX mod from last year, Vel, this forum and my own experience.
several probs (IMO) I noted in SMAC:
a. SPs too early in tech tree
b. overly powerful SPs
c. cheap SPs
d. weapon too early and fast compared to armor
e. computer player not imaginative with new unit development
f. supply crawlers/foils too powerful
g. Clean ability unbalances game
h. few rewards to building infrastructure -- momentum players overly emphasized
i. late mid-game to end-game weak
instead of one huge post, I will break it down into specific sections. this first one will cover SP.
some changes are directly from Vel, Qual, Korn, etc discussions in the Overpowered SP threads while others are tweaks from my own game frustrations.
first of all, I chickened out on the tech% number. the suggested number was 30% IIRC, but I am currently testing at 75%. after a few games at this number, tech advance is still too fast. at the 100-yr mark, Wealth, 9 cities, I get a tech advance every 11 turns without trying too hard. I am gonna start testing at 50% next....
the overpowered SP are no surprise to folks on this forum -- Cloning Vats, Empath Guild and Cloudbase Academy. I tried increasing the mineral costs, but this doesn't offset their benefits. therefore I disabled them.
several SP arrive too early. Human Genome moved to Gene Splice. Weather Paradigm moved to EnvEco as this caused a serious imbalance at Ecology. Virtual World moved to OptComp -- now empires must deal with drone probs another way for a while.
some of the late-game SP I moved down the tree a bit to make them more useful in the game. the other changes increased the cost. my rule-of-thumb was empire-wide effects cause cost *3, others were cost*2. for example, WP and VW have empire effects and Maritime Control has global abilities, thus cost*3.
I have playtested most of these for months. see the attached file for a diff of the original and new alphax.txt.