New PBEM: Custom Faction Battle

[Senethro]

Only the Drones are super-Drones :P
Drones could be running Demo in addition to FM/Wealth, can pop-boom at will, won't get worm-raped due to psi combat penalty, won't be drowning under b-drones, have 1 less drone anyway.

On a Large map at -2 effic a base 4 tiles away horizontally will lose ~25% energy. A base 4 tiles away diagonally will lose 40% energy.
Strangers are unable to pop-boom at will without huge penalties. In fact, they may have a 20-40% growth penalty compared with most factions over an extended period of time.

And have you ever tried -4 efficiency? No base outside your HQ makes any energy. I hope you weren't too attached to all those facilities you build

[Kataphraktoi]

Which is why i changed that to FM consider though, you only need demo+planned for a FEW turns, to popboom. you could simply allow your econ to stall, then start it up. consider that with another 10% industry, base facilities would also get a temporary boost

chreches at most bases would be a good idea,mitigating effic loss somewhat. i do not think 20% loss of energy at 4 tiles compares to a 20% drop in research and no research for 10 turns.

-2 effic does not give more b-drones btw. 0,-2, or -50000 efic all give the same bdrones

and a good point lazerus has, using specialists. dont they avoid the effic in SE screen somewhat? so plannedwealth could still work, or maybe even better

the more i think about it,the stronger this facttion gets

[Lazerus]

why not just have +5 industry from planned/wealth and make specialists with ur constant popboom, now thats more scary then your FM lol

[Lazerus]

dont they avoid the effic in SE screen somewhat? so plannedwealth could still work, or maybe even better

They avoid effic problems completely

[Senethro]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi
Which is why i changed that to FM consider though, you only need demo+planned for a FEW turns, to popboom. you could simply allow your econ to stall, then start it up. consider that with another 10% industry, base facilities would also get a temporary boost

chreches at most bases would be a good idea,mitigating effic loss somewhat. i do not think 20% loss of energy at 4 tiles compares to a 20% drop in research and no research for 10 turns.

-2 effic does not give more b-drones btw. 0,-2, or -50000 efic all give the same bdrones

and a good point lazerus has, using specialists. dont they avoid the effic in SE screen somewhat? so plannedwealth could still work, or maybe even better

the more i think about it,the stronger this facttion gets

Yes, but they would be losing ecs as well as research due to the lower effic.

Specialists need a base size of 5 which will be really easy to get with no growth bonuses! And if you wanted to run Planned/Wealth with specialists you would have to dedicate a bunch of bases to technicians and energy banks if you wanted multiplicative facilities in any other bases!

Laz: -4support means 2 min upkeep per unit. Watch those formers disband...

[Kataphraktoi]

regardless if its OP or not, the factions chosen by the other players are not top of the line, and that faction is at least tier2

[GeoModder]

Well, if someone wants to make himself a target from turn 1 for all the other players it's his choice eh?

[Lazerus]

Laz: -4support means 2 min upkeep per unit. Watch those formers disband...

Crawl plenty of minerals, go in demo only when ready and imagine when they get clean reactors

[Kataphraktoi]

although we could play with that and see what happans

[Senethro]

Originally posted by Lazerus


Crawl plenty of minerals, go in demo only when ready and imagine when they get clean reactors

Thats like saying the solution to the Believer's lack of research is to make an energy park. Its correct, but everyone else can do it, everyone else can do it better, everyone else can do it first!

What about 66% of normal Psi combat and -2Probe as well :P

[Kataphraktoi]

Someone must have missed the 'Cumulative Turn Advantage with Crawler Fleets' Train

[H.Humpel]

Originally posted by Senethro
H.Humpel, I'm not sure you're reading the factions you're proposing :/

Well of course I do....

Ghandi Indian's are right out and I don't feel the need to supply an explanation.

Yeah... I had that feeling too, that they are a bit far off :/.

The Strangers... seem close to being balanced in terms of their ability to win but look to me to have only the...
I'm going to disallow them on the basis of being rigid and unfun.

Well, that is exactly what I meant with "being hard to compare/balance if thing are getting a bit extreme".
What I find is that a lot of people in here are giving tips about "how to balance" a faction, but - more or less - they all look the same to me. It's like no-one wants to live with or give some extreme values a try. Probably because things are harder to compare and to handle, but take a look around in this forum here for "balanced" factions and you will hardly find any with a value greater than +/-2.
But for me this is the point where things are getting interesting. I have played ACAX and the "standard factions" for a few years and I don't see a lot of sense and fun of playing another "slightly changed" HIVE/GAIAN etc.
Furthermore I am not that "I will have to use a calculator to maximize my game-play" player. Personally I don't see any fun in this way of playing either and I like to play more 'on a gut level' and I 'do not mind' getting wiped off easily - although I like winning, but the fun and playing part is much more important to me - (that's why I wanted to try the Rangers, even if they do not have any chance to win).
As a "green" (meaning: I love planting trees and going for Green economy as fast as possible, if it is for the better or not) and "expanding" player it will be pretty hard for me to deal with (looking at the Strangers):

-2 EFFICIENCY: {Maintaining controll of large groups is hard}
-1 SUPPORT: {Maintaining controll of a human army takes a lot of resources}
Extra DRONE in every 3 citizens: {Humans tend to revolt against Strangers}

even though the "benefits" (+3 INDUSTRY and +1 POLICE and especially Immunity to Mind Control) aren't too bad .

The Votes... well, I thought they would have been -50%, too, but taking a look at the Rules:

TECH, Psych, SOCIAL, +++INDUSTRY, SOCIAL, +POLICE, SOCIAL, --EFFIC, SOCIAL, -SUPPORT, DRONE, 3, VOTES, 1/2, MINDCONTROL, 0

... well, I don't think 1/2 will work , but I guess it should be +50%, which IS pretty much.

Anyway... I hope you can see my point and intention.
But I don't think I will find any faction I want to play that you are going to accept, so... what the ***, just pick/create one for me. It's going to be fine with me anyway . I just want to play a new (to me) faction!

[Senethro]

H. Humpel: Marid'd Agrarians...?
#DATALINKS1
^LEADER: {High Councillor Wren Norbury}
^BACKGROUND: {New Zealand Agronomist; Unity Terraforming Engineer}
^AGENDA: {Planned society; Harvest of Planet}
^TECH: {Centauri Ecology}
^

#DATALINKS2
^+1 POLICE: {Populace feels secure with citizen militas}
^+2 GROWTH: {Nutrient surpluses and high-yield farms}
^-1 INDUSTRY: {Limited space for factories}
^-25% base penalty when attacking: {Lack of aggressive military paradigm}
^Robust EFFICIENCY: {Communal values; Emphasis on family}
^GROWTH penalty doubled for GREEN economics: {settlers find co-habitating with fungus difficult}
^Formers receive free fungicidal tanks upon discovery of Synthetic Fossil Fuels
^{May not use Free Market economics}

[H.Humpel]

OK... if no-one else wants/wanted to play them... it's fine with me .

[Senethro]

So if we're splitting into 2 games ideally of 4 people each we have enough for 1 and a half games.


Chaunk CMNing:
Geomodder's Atlanteans
Senethro's Pacificans
Kata's Zionists ( what is their real faction name?)
Darsnan's Kra'Lek
(1 aquatic AI, 2 terrestrial AIs?)


Darsnan CMNing:
Flubber's Judici
H. Humpel's ???

Are Chaunk or Lazerus (who seems to be hanging about here a lot!) interested in joining Darsnan's game?