my alpha.txt changes

[Illuminatus]

X ability should stay but me much more expensive (at least that how I solve it in my underway mode).

Never use Solar Collectors - forest + +2ECO works fine and later they are tree farm and hybrid forest upgrades. Don`t forget Boreholes, Aquifers, etc. Solar is pretty much pointless to me but that may be just my stile.

[Gluegun]

Read this thread...

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83937

Sometimes I use an Energy Park to give one city 208 energy every turn... hehehe...

[Illuminatus]

[eyes opening wide]
Thanks Gluegun - never thought of it.
Gotta try that NOW!

[johndmuller]

Originally posted by Gluegun
What else?

Get rid of the "X" ability...
Get rid of the Empath Guild...
Move the "infinite AA's can be cashed in here" secret project up WAY early...

What exactly is your problem with the Empath Guild?

IMhO, it serves more a balancing function than an unbalancing one.

Infiltration is real inportant in games with other human players; it is a real handicap if your opponent(s) have infiltration and you don't. When people are concerned about infiltration and make a point of protecting themselves from being infiltrated, then the Governor's auto-infiltration can be rather unbalancing. With the EG, there is the opportunity for someone else to have infiltration. (Of course, getting the EG can go a long way toward becoming Governor, but one can hope that the rest of the human players will be aware of all this and seek to keep the EG holder from the throne.)

The extra votes from the EG can also serve as a counterweight to the political clout of Brother Lal, who will otherwise (without the EG in the game) perhaps have too good an inside track on the Governorship (and it's exclusive infiltration abilities).

[Maniac]

Also, without the Empath Guild, the beeline to Secrets of the Human Brain has become neglected in my experience.

[gwillybj]

Gluegun wrote...
I've been reading some of the other mods, and I've been thinking...

*Should Crawlers be disabled 100%?
*Should special, "slow" hovertank Transports that can carry extra troops (maybe 2? 3?) become available and be one of the "auto" units at a certain technology?
*Should some fast naval probe teams become available before the fast ship tech normally is available?
*Should something be done to get rid of the "forest and forget" strategy, like in the Torture mod or the Snac mod? Any suggestions as to whats the best way of doing that?

And later wrote (in part)...
Also, in your changes, you have colony pods set to "clean" ... a human player would simply take away this ability to get them to be cheaper early on, and thereby gain a turn advantage over the AI...

obstructor replied...
First: absolutely
Second: yes
Third:maybe not
Fourth: perhaps - constant forest seeding gets little boring.

Thought struck me - when is the last time someone actually built a solar collector?

All my games are solitaire.
Crawlers: Disable them or just don't use them. I use them. I do not abuse them. For example, a Rocky Mineral-Special Roaded Mine gets a crawler if it is outside the base radius. If it is inside it gets a crawler only until a worker is available, then moved to another space or transfered to another base (I use specialists only when I have to, such as for drone control, or no tiles left for workers). I never use them to rush any production of any sort. I have seen the AI use them for both harvesting and rushing.
Heavy Hover-Transports: Sure, why not?
Fast Naval Probes: Sure, why not?
Forest and Forget: Just don't.
Solar Collectors: Since I don't F&F, there are Solar Collectors all over the place.
Clean Colony Pod: I preset the cost equal to a standard Fission-Powered Colony Pod. There is no advantage to making a non-clean version. You are only hurting yourself because it then requires Support.

[Gluegun]

gwillybj, since I, uhh, suck at modifying my game, do ya think you could put some of these changes (and maybe even some of the changes from snac) into your mod? that'd be neato!

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Gluegun
gwillybj, since I, uhh, suck at modifying my game, do ya think you could put some of these changes (and maybe even some of the changes from snac) into your mod? that'd be neato!

I don't think you suck at modifying the game, nor do I think that gwillybj thinks you suck either. Essentially what I think is that you have created a varient of SMAC(X) that you enjoy playing, and gwillybj has expressed his opinion on the matter as well. From my perspective, continue to playtest your changes, and see where the strengths and weaknesses of your changes lie. Currently I am enjoying playtesting gwillybj's huge map while using my tweaked alphax.txt file, which is throwing up all sorts of problems not encountered in regular SMAC(X): essentially its synergy in reverse!
Regardless, extrapolations from the base Alpha Centauri game are where I think the future of the game lies, and if you have found your own extrapolation from the original SMAC(X), then you are opening new doors for SMAC(X).


D

[gwillybj]

Darsnan wrote...
I don't think you suck at modifying the game, nor do I think that gwillybj thinks you suck either...

I certainly didn't come up with all the stuff here in one sitting! There are far more discarded ideas than those few that were included. I detailed where (and in some cases why) the edits are so others could see how easy it really is to make adjustments.
When you have an idea, make the edit. Then test it, several times, on different types of maps if possible. Some changes completely ruin the game on small maps, but work quite well on larger maps. Some changes are ideal for small and standard maps, but make larger maps pointless.
Eventually you will have customized the game in so many ways, as the original creators openly invited you to do, that it may be barely recognizable. That is a very good thing! Let no one stifle your imagination!
I'm not saying I won't help you if you ask. Of course I will, as will anyone else here just as they continue to help me. But I'm also hoping you'll select a limb and climb out on it, stand up and shout out your story in your own words. And remember that it is only a game. The key word is
FUN!

[Darsnan]

Re: my alpha.txt changes

Originally posted by gwillybj
I made these changes in alpha.txt to make my games last longer and to incorporate several ideas discussed in this forum. In this post, I tried to briefly describe the changes and give some thread references. The second post shows the actual changes, and the ZIP attached there is my alpha.txt and these two essays.
The way I play, a "short" game takes at least a week and many games last a month. I like it this way. I don't care about "fast transcendence" or "high score". I want a long epic novel, not a quickie short story. These changes make that possible. Some changes cause effects that are readily seen, other changes are "because I wanted to ".

Good Stuff! I think a lot of my modifications are for the same reasons listed by gwillybj above.
Attached are my ongoing modifications to my alphax.txt file, with the below synopsis' for each alteration as to why I have made the change. The list is sequential, meaning that it follows the same order as the various Sections in the alphax.txt file.

#RULES Section

1. Changed the artillery numerator/ denominator value to 15/8. This makes artillery (one of the AI's favourite early game units) much more effective.

2. Changed airdrop range from 8 to 6. Makes the chop and drop approach slightly more difficult.

3. Base size to support Specialists: 6. Humans are much more adept at utilizing Specialists than the AI.

4. 10% combat penalty for attacking from lower elevation. From personal experience I'd say the percentile should actually be higher, but 10% works.

5. Max damage to units in base/ bunker: 80%.


#TERRAIN

1. Forests take 5 turns to plant. Penalizes the humans slightly for the "forest and forget" approach.

2. Boreholes take 28 turns to build. Since the AI doesn't build them, then lets make it more difficult for the human to build them.


#RESOURCEINFO

1. Improved sea squares give a 2,2,3 (instead of a 2,1,3).

2. Borehole squares give a 1,6,6. In actuality, assigning these numbers gives boreholes a 3,6,6! The reason I do this is I pre-plant a bunch of boreholes around a map I generate, and then play on. With this modification the AI will then utilize boreholes, and will get a nice mid-game boost when the mineral and energy restricting techs are discovered.


#CHASSIS

1. Decreased range for aircraft by -2 squares/ turn. Here again I'm making the "chop and drop" approach more difficult.

#ABILITIES

1. Nerve Gas pods have been moved to Retroviral Engineering. Why did I do this? Because the Progenitors paid me a heap of EC's to make this change....

2. Deep Pressure Hulls are moved to Doc: Init. The AI will build a few of these, but I thin it would be really fun to have subs available for PBEM's!

3. Carriers available with Doc: Air. Ditto the statement above for carriers.

4. Note: I do not recommend activating the Heavy Transport ability. All the AI does is build a bunch of these units and move them around from base to base. Very disappointing.


#UNITS

This is the most fun Section to play in, as you can build just about any unit you want and put it into this area. It is also the only Section of the alphax.txt file that is imprinted onto a game. FYI.

1. Unity Submersible. If you build your own maps as I do and want to plant the Unity wreckage in water, then simply replace the Mining Laser line with the following:

Unity Submersible, Foil, Laser, Scout, -1, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 00100000000000000000000000000

In the attached file I have changed the Unity Wreckage to that of a Progenitor spaceship, complete with "Battle Ogre Mk 0".

2. Cruiser Probeships. Googlie's idea, and I highly recommend you adding them to your personal alphax.txt file!

Cruiser Probe Ship, Cruiser, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000000

3. Scud Missiles. A weapon that no 3rd world despot should be without!

Scud Missile, Missile, Conventional, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Viral, 7, 00000100000000000000000000

4. ICBM's. I haven't actually tested this in-game yet, but it looks like fun!

ICBM, Missile, Planet Buster,Scout, 0, 0, 0, HAL9000, -1, 01000000000000000010000010000

5. Units pre-built in for CMN's use:

5A: Scud Launcher: a CMN puts one of these on a 1 tile island, and you've got a nice airbase reserved for whatever Faction the unit was built for. Excellent for disrupting a seabourne invasion force!

Scud Launcher, Speeder, Transport, 8-Res, 3,10, 4, Disable, -1, 00100000000000000010000000

5B: Speeder CP: facilitates the early game as the speeders can move 2 tiles a turn, resulting in second (and 3rd) base placement occuring much sooner. Note to CMN's: you still need to place at least one original CP for each Faction, or else the game will crash (essentially the program "looks" for a Faction's CP, and if it doesn't find at least one of the original version, the program goes off into coders oblivion....

Speeder CP, Speeder, Colony Pod, Scout, 8, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 00000000000000000000000000

6. 8th Faction units: nothing has been more fun and interesting to me than giving the Sealurks and IoD's the Marine Detachment capability! All through a game I am always amazed at what comes floating out of the fungus at me! This is especially true when a cruiser transport is "captured", and all the on-board units are then converted to the 8th Faction as well! I've also given the Spore Launchers a speeder chassis, and have cloaked both the Spore Launchers and MW's, as well as given them clean reactors. I've also given the Fungal Towers the AAA and ECM capabilities in an attempt to turn them into pseudo-cities for the 8th Faction.


#FACILITIES

1. Tree Farms take 16 turns to build, and Hybrid Forests take 30. Again, trying to offset the human's advantage with the forest and forget strategy.

2. Aerospace Complex takes 12 turns to build.



Essentially, in a nut shell, the alphax.txt I am working on is a mod for SMAX, and it is a continuation of the game beginning in MY 2492. However, a lot of the ideas in the attached file I pulled off of here at 'poly, as well as other sites such as CGN, and are good ideas for anyone that is looking for a challenge, or a SMAX game with a different feel.
Have fun!


D

[GeoModder]

Lot's of changes, some comments.

I prefer to have deep pressure under silksteel alloys, it's not that easily available then and is feels better to add it to a tech that gives better tensile strength to materials.

Have you ever tried to give probe teams to the '8th faction'? That could be hilarious, I think. Players probed all the time and no real measures can be taken against it.

Something else: in a scenario I'm preparing with a modified alphax.txt I tried to make mobile airbases. The essence was to build spaceships where planes and missiles can dock for a turn, and then fly further. A flying carrier thus. The weird thing was that I could let it work for a human player (the right number of moves (12), plane refueling), but that the AI was only able to move such a unit 1 move a turn.

Something else I'm experimenting with is having a 'disabled' grav unit with the planetbust capability
The purpose is to simulate a real asteroid strike from the 8th faction.
By testing it works out fine, and it is really fun to see how ALL AI's vehemently start attacking native units whereever possible after such an 'asteroid' strike.
Off course, bigger chance to lose important bases that way...

Did you ever thought of making a scenario were the normal native units are changed to the 3 kinds of ogres?
Some sort of terminator game that would be

[Illuminatus]

Originally posted by GeoModder


Something else I'm experimenting with is having a 'disabled' grav unit with the planetbust capability
The purpose is to simulate a real asteroid strike from the 8th faction.
By testing it works out fine, and it is really fun to see how ALL AI's vehemently start attacking native units whereever possible after such an 'asteroid' strike.
Off course, bigger chance to lose important bases that way...

It works!?!?! You mean you managed to give a planetbuster unit to native AI???

[GeoModder]

It really works, and can be a real piss off for any player

And the beauty of it is that you can't search and destroy all PB's you find. Those native PB's can pop up anytime anywhere, and stay in the air as long as they want.

I wonder how many players would stay FM if that unit becomes standard...

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by GeoModder
I prefer to have deep pressure under silksteel alloys, it's not that easily available then and is feels better to add it to a tech that gives better tensile strength to materials.

Makes sense! I think that that is another good tech to give the "Submersible" Ability to. I did it for Doc: Init primarily because of the MCC SP' having a sub in it, so I think the original assumption was to have the "Submersible" ability available here.

Have you ever tried to give probe teams to the '8th faction'? That could be hilarious, I think. Players probed all the time and no real measures can be taken against it.

Look in my February CGN Challenge thread - I posted pics.

Something else: in a scenario I'm preparing with a modified alphax.txt I tried to make mobile airbases. The essence was to build spaceships where planes and missiles can dock for a turn, and then fly further. A flying carrier thus. The weird thing was that I could let it work for a human player (the right number of moves (12), plane refueling), but that the AI was only able to move such a unit 1 move a turn.

"Domai's Cloudbase". I built this in my October CGN Challenge, with the following spec's:

Cloudbase, Gravship, Transport, 3-Res, 7, 0, 4, Thresh, 0, 00000000000000000010000000

I had the same results as you. After conferring with Rubin who also playtested the unit, why we are of the opinion that the number zero icon in the "units.pcx" image file was orignally designed for this unit (a.k.a. "Domai's Cloudbase", as seen in the "Cloudbase Academy" SP movie), but that the AI would have to have been significantly re-coded in order for it to use the units properly, as all they do is shuffle the units around from base to base (same problem with the "Heavy Transport" Ability btw). When Rubin and I discussed this, we agreed that what you are encountering is some hardcoding that was put in place that essentially says "If the Gravship Chassis is mated to a Carrier ability, then reduce airspeed to one tile/ turn".

Something else I'm experimenting with is having a 'disabled' grav unit with the planetbust capability
The purpose is to simulate a real asteroid strike from the 8th faction.
By testing it works out fine, and it is really fun to see how ALL AI's vehemently start attacking native units whereever possible after such an 'asteroid' strike.
Off course, bigger chance to lose important bases that way...

Now that is impressive! Can you post the unit specs for me, as well as the scenario you created for this? This I'd love to see! Right now I am playing with beefing up the Fungal Towers by giving them AAA and ECM. I've also tried to give them Heavy Artillery, but this doesn't seem to work. The other item I'm working on is replacing the initial set of CP's with "Escape Pods", but more on that later....

Did you ever thought of making a scenario were the normal native units are changed to the 3 kinds of ogres?
Some sort of terminator game that would be

In my Halloween CGN Challenge I did something similar, replacing the native lifeforms with "zombies" from various Factions, to include "Alien Battle Ogres", "Zombie Hive Artillery", and of course "Pirate Ghostships"!

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by obstructor


It works!?!?! You mean you managed to give a planetbuster unit to native AI???

Any unit can be given to the 8th Faction by a CMN. Also, if IoD's and Sealurks are given the "Marine Detachment" Ability, they can then commandeer other seagoing vessels, to include transports laden with units. Nothing worse than sending an Invasion Force out on a Cruiser Transport, and having it commandeered and sent right back at you by the 8th Faction.