Seeking input on custom mod for SMAC PBEM

[DilithiumDad]

Hi! I am in the early stages of working on a mod designed to improve PBEM. Here is the thread:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=122950

The goals of the mod are to:
1. Speed up the early game, which can be boring and take months without expert acceleration by a CMN.
2. Reduce the "strong get stronger, weak get weaker" tendencey of the midgame, as people go into pop booming, monopolizing secret projects, and rapid chop & drop conquests.
3. Remove the tendency of the first person to reach airpower to win automatically.
4. Bring cool units like hovertanks and gravships earlier in the game so they can actually be used. Make missiles more useful.
5. Restore builder versus conquerer balance (favoring builder and defense over offense).
6. Slow the endgame.
7. Boost the AI, at least a little bit.

[fluxionman]

Re: Seeking input on custom mod for SMAC PBEM

Originally posted by DilithiumDad
The goals of the mod are to:
1. Speed up the early game, which can be boring and take months without expert acceleration by a CMN.

Move more options to techs lower on the tech tree so that players begin with more options. Decrease the nutrient cost requirement to speed base growth.

2. Reduce the "strong get stronger, weak get weaker" tendencey of the midgame, as people go into pop booming, monopolizing secret projects, and rapid chop & drop conquests.

Give all factions a techshare of 4. Increase the cost of SPs. Move Tachyon Field back so that it's available earlier to make bases harder to blitz. Increase penalty for attacks after airdrop to discourage rolling assaults.

3. Remove the tendency of the first person to reach airpower to win automatically.

Increase AAA bonus. Reduce air superiority vs. ground percentage. Reduce needlejet movement and increase reactor values, so that units start slow but get faster later in the game.

4. Bring cool units like hovertanks and gravships earlier in the game so they can actually be used. Make missiles more useful.

A minor redesign of the tech tree can bring hover and grav units forward. I find missiles more useful when their range is increased, and their attack value and cost reduced. They then become effective for long-range bombardment but do not replace direct attacks.

5. Restore builder versus conquerer balance (favoring builder and defense over offense).

Increase intrinsic base defense, sensor defender bonus, infantry vs. mobile in rough bonus.

6. Slow the endgame.

Create some custom techs to spead out later discoveries (grav, singularity, Voice of Planet, et. al.).

7. Boost the AI, at least a little bit.

Heh. Good luck. Designate an AI faction (or two), give it an early-game advantage (such as a support bonus), and let it get ahead before human players take over.

[DilithiumDad]

Great Minds think alike!

Originally posted by fluxionman

Move more options to techs lower on the tech tree so that players begin with more options.

Moved bunker to polymorphic, hovertank to superconductor, and gravship to nanominiturization. Other suggestions?

Decrease the nutrient cost requirement to speed base growth.

Done! Reduced nutrient row size to 8.

Give all factions a techshare of 4.

So far I am trying to do all the changes in alpha.txt to avoid changing every faction file. Techshare reduces the incentive to build your own research facilities and works against builders, anyway.

Instead, I increased research rate by 33%.

Increase the cost of SPs.

Done! Most valuable ones doubled in cost, while less popular ones like Xenoempathy Dome I left alone.

Move Tachyon Field back so that it's available earlier to make bases harder to blitz.

I thought about this but it might be unbalancing with all the other defense boosters. Instead, I drastically reduced the cost of Tachyon Fields. But it probably wouldn't hurt to move it from level 6 armor tech to level 4 armor tech (Silksteel).

Increase penalty for attacks after airdrop to discourage rolling assaults.

Done! Increased from 50% to 66%.

Increase AAA bonus.

Done! Increased from 100% to 125%. Also, redcued cost for AAA on units with high armor and increased cost on units with high weapon.

Reduce air superiority vs. ground percentage.

Done! Decreased from 50% to 25%. Also eliminated non-combat penalty, since formers are weak enough.

Reduce needlejet movement

Done! Decreased from 8 to 6. Reduced 'copter from 8 to 5.

and increase reactor values, so that units start slow but get faster later in the game.

Intriguing idea. Increase quantum reactor from 3 to 4 and increase singularity from 4 to 6? Would that work?

A minor redesign of the tech tree can bring hover and grav units forward.

I didn't want to change the tech tree itself, because that would be too much of an adjustment for people. I just altered the tech required for the chassis.

I find missiles more useful when their range is increased, and their attack value and cost reduced.

Increased range from 12 to 14 and cut cost in half, check. But I INCREASED attack from 18 to 24 rather than reducing it. The reason is that with greater defense bonuses for bases and sensors, people would get frustrated with "indestructible" units. Now just about anything can be destroyed with a missile or artillery followed by missile. I don't find that a problem because missiles are single use.

They then become effective for long-range bombardment but do not replace direct attacks.

I want to see people using a mix of units instead just chop & drop.

Increase intrinsic base defense, sensor defender bonus, infantry vs. mobile in rough bonus.

Done! Increased defense bonus from 25% to 50% for both instrinsic base and sensor, added mobile in rough defense of 25%, and also reduced terraformer turns required to build a sensor to 2. I also added sea sensors, but I understand they work as detectors only and do not provide defense bonus.

Create some custom techs to spead out later discoveries (grav, singularity, Voice of Planet, et. al.).

This is a good idea. "Advanced Singularity Mechanics" for example. Would require editing the datalink entry, though, wouldn't it?.

Heh. Good luck. Designate an AI faction (or two), give it an early-game advantage (such as a support bonus), and let it get ahead before human players take over. [

That last one would require editing the faction files. But one idea I had was to designate three factions as AI-only and limit humans to 4 choices. Nominations for AI-only are:

Believers (most unpopular)
Hive (relatively unpopular but best AI faction)
University (too popular and overpowered in human hands)

The super-AI factions could all be given a preference for police state politics, which would make them ally with Yang (leader of the AI gang) and hate the humans, who would mostly be running Demo.

[fluxionman]

Moved bunker to polymorphic, hovertank to superconductor, and gravship to nanominiturization. Other suggestions?

Mag tubes can also speed development.

and increase reactor values, so that units start slow but get faster later in the game.

Intriguing idea. Increase quantum reactor from 3 to 4 and increase singularity from 4 to 6? Would that work?

It would work, but of course reactor values apply to all units, so you'd have to examine all movement rates and shift them accordingly.

Increased range from 12 to 14 and cut cost in half, check. But I INCREASED attack from 18 to 24 rather than reducing it. The reason is that with greater defense bonuses for bases and sensors, people would get frustrated with "indestructible" units. Now just about anything can be destroyed with a missile or artillery followed by missile. I don't find that a problem because missiles are single use.

They then become effective for long-range bombardment but do not replace direct attacks.

I want to see people using a mix of units instead just chop & drop.

I'm not sure how this eliminates the "chop and drop" - you made missiles cheaper, more deadly, and have a longer range. If I were playing under this scenario, I'd load up sub carriers with missiles (Polaris subs, if you will), bombard the enemy from sea, then airdrop units on him. Why risk ground units when missiles can take out enemies even behind a tachyon field?

Increase intrinsic base defense, sensor defender bonus, infantry vs. mobile in rough bonus.

Done! Increased defense bonus from 25% to 50% for both instrinsic base and sensor, added mobile in rough defense of 25%, and also reduced terraformer turns required to build a sensor to 2. I also added sea sensors, but I understand they work as detectors only and do not provide defense bonus.

Sea sensors work for detection, but they don't show up on the map. If you convert land improvements to sea, and they don't have their own sprite, SMAC doesn't draw them.

Create some custom techs to spead out later discoveries (grav, singularity, Voice of Planet, et. al.).

This is a good idea. "Advanced Singularity Mechanics" for example. Would require editing the datalink entry, though, wouldn't it?.

You can use the empty slots to add techs, and they will show up on the tech tree just fine. There are even generic "lightbulb" graphics to go with them. You edit techlongs.txt for descriptive text in the dialog that opens when you discover the tech, techshorts.txt for the briefer description, and blurbs.txt for the accompanying quote. You could leave those files alone, I suppose, and those areas in the game would just be blank.

That last one would require editing the faction files. But one idea I had was to designate three factions as AI-only and limit humans to 4 choices. Nominations for AI-only are:

Believers (most unpopular)
Hive (relatively unpopular but best AI faction)
University (too popular and overpowered in human hands)

The super-AI factions could all be given a preference for police state politics, which would make them ally with Yang (leader of the AI gang) and hate the humans, who would mostly be running Demo.

The Believers definitely get my vote for SMAC's "punching bag" faction.

If you go into the faction files to change the SE preferences, you might as well boost the starting values for those factions, if you want a challenge. Or give them more starting funds or more techs.

Sounds like you've made most of the changes necessary to achieve your goal of speeding up the game. Whether or not you've leveled the playing field in the mid- to late-game remains to be seen. It's hard to prodict what will happen that far from the start based simply on alpha.txt settings. I've got a custom mod I'm trying to set up as PBEM, and in most cases the "evil AI" faction jumps out to a big lead only to be crushed by mid-game. But in testing I've found that sometimes it doesn't, for no other reason than the AI forgot to take advantage of the head start I gave it.

[DilithiumDad]

Originally posted by fluxionman


Mag tubes can also speed development.

True, but they are a double-edged sword because a conquerer can use them too. The AI builds them everywhere as soon as they are available, and that makes 3-turn faction conquest a snap. It's better to have bunkers first, which halt hostile movement along your tubes.


It would work, but of course reactor values apply to all units, so you'd have to examine all movement rates and shift them accordingly.

Increasing quantum and singularoty reactor values might be unbalancing, because it would too tough to battle quantum reactor units with fusion reactor units if it was 4:2 instead of 3:2. We want to avoid invincible "uber-units". So I will leave the reactor values alone.

I'm not sure how this eliminates the "chop and drop" - you made missiles cheaper, more deadly, and have a longer range. If I were playing under this scenario, I'd load up sub carriers with missiles (Polaris subs, if you will), bombard the enemy from sea, then airdrop units on him. Why risk ground units when missiles can take out enemies even behind a tachyon field?

Airdrops cannot occur at sea. You can't drop from a carrier. You need an airbase or a colony. Carriers come quite late and subs even later. Carriers are seldom used, and the reduced air range and enhanced missiles would make carriers very powerful. That's something I want. Also, increased use of amphibious invasions with marines!

Sea sensors work for detection, but they don't show up on the map. If you convert land improvements to sea, and they don't have their own sprite, SMAC doesn't draw them.

I can live with that. Presumably it still shows on the information screen for that square?

You can use the empty slots to add techs, and they will show up on the tech tree just fine. There are even generic "lightbulb" graphics to go with them. You edit techlongs.txt for descriptive text in the dialog that opens when you discover the tech, techshorts.txt for the briefer description, and blurbs.txt for the accompanying quote. You could leave those files alone, I suppose, and those areas in the game would just be blank.

Thanks for the tip! I will add two generic techs before the Threshold of Transcendence: Advanced Temporal
Mechanics and Advanced Secrets of Creation. This will slow the endgame rush.

The Believers definitely get my vote for SMAC's "punching bag" faction.

If you go into the faction files to change the SE preferences, you might as well boost the starting values for those factions, if you want a challenge. Or give them more starting funds or more techs.

That's the idea. Make super-factions only for AI. Starting funds don't help because the AI never spend them wisely. A morale boost on the SE table will assure that they aren't total pushovers. Morale will be more important in this mod, because the +25% for +morale is multipled by 1.5 for instrinsic base defense and 1.5 for sensor so 1.25 x 1.5 x 1.5 = 2.81-fold increase in defense for each level of morale!

Sounds like you've made most of the changes necessary to achieve your goal of speeding up the game. Whether or not you've leveled the playing field in the mid- to late-game remains to be seen.

What I'd really like to see is more come-from-behind victories and more reversals of fortune, because that's what keeps the players in the game even when their power bar is low.

It's hard to prodict what will happen that far from the start based simply on alpha.txt settings. I've got a custom mod I'm trying to set up as PBEM, and in most cases the "evil AI" faction jumps out to a big lead only to be crushed by mid-game. But in testing I've found that sometimes it doesn't, for no other reason than the AI forgot to take advantage of the head start I gave it.

One thing you need to do is add an interest in growth. Otherwise they stop expanding and just sit there waiting to be captured.

[B]For my mod, I will test out the alpha.txt changes on my own or maybe with the help of some volunteers, and then think about making the three "evil AI" factions.