SMAX - The Will to Power - mod

[bvanevery]

I've been tinkering with the Cyborgs: 

TECHSHARE, 1, ... SHARETECH, 1,

Why both?

[MercantileInterest]

The wiki page makes it sound like you need both for the ability to function.

[bvanevery]

It has to be wrong information.  Data Angels in original game have only TECHSHARE.  I just checked it.  I've had Data Angels in my mod with only SHARETECH for possibly 3 years of playtesting now.

In fairness, the wrong information is given in alphax.txt:

Code: [Select]

;   SHARETECH   = Gain any technology known to # other players
...
;   TECHSHARE   = When used with SHARETECH, requires one to be spying on the other
;                 factions (by probe, Empath Guild, Governor, or Pact). Parameter is ignored.
I'll make a correction to the wiki.

[esch1lus]

AI is not using sea formers while expanding like crazy. Is it  part of the mod or rather a bug? (I posted the same question in reddit, I don't know if you're active in that platform)

https://ibb.co/tzbnD6v

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Can you be more specific in "not using sea formers"? Do you not see them building any sea formers at all? Like all tiles around sea bases are undeveloped? That is not what I observed in test runs. Please send me a save to look at. How consistent is this? Did you observe it for all AI factions every time you play?

I am on reddit but don't scan it often. Where did you post it?

The picture indeed looks strange. I don't see any formers there both sea and land. Can you send me a save?

[bvanevery]

Does WTP get rid of sending units home when a Pact ends?  Miriam just got huffy with me because I wasn't interested in war with the Hive.  She cancelled our Pact, but I still have this Scout wandering right through her territory.

Details Pact cancelled unit still in territory

Pact cancelled unit still in territory

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

The only thing I did on the matter is sending sea units to the right ports - WHEN they are sent by engine.
I didn't explicitly disable sending them or not sending them.

For your question I may say that there is a complex computation logic to understand whether unit has to be sent home after pact cancellation. It involves not only unit being in territory but also distance to pact faction bases. So sometimes it may for sure send units home when they are NOT in territory. Don't remember if opposite may happen.

[bvanevery]

Never in any stock binary game, have I seen my unit in the other faction's land territory, fail to be sent home.  This is a bug.

The point of course is so that you can't break your Pact and then immediately wail on your erstwhile ally, right inside their own territory.

I was eventually asked to Withdraw that unit.  It got sent home.  The appropriate logic is somehow not firing when the Pact is broken.  Broken by Miriam BTW, not me.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Yes. That may be a bug. Send me your save and version #.

[bvanevery]

The save was already attached with the screenshot.  Version is 277.

[bvanevery]

Why did I bother to make an expensive probe cruiser with Algorithmic Enhancement and armor, if it dies just trying to infiltrate the opponent's datalinks?  Is this some kind of multiplayer bias, that it's supposed to be hard to do that?  Pretty sure infiltration is one of the low risk missions in the stock binary.  Did all the mission difficulties get redone?  Probe teams don't seem to be so much reusable.  My PROBE rating is 0, and I've got the Enhancement, and that ship came from a Naval Yard.  It was Disciplined.

Miriam's Fundamentalist only, so +3 PROBE.

Details what's the point

what's the point

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

https://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2761.0

Chance of successful escaping RISK 1 mission is less than 100%. So probe can die escaping sure mission. Don't tell me you haven't seen your probes dying after infiltration before!
AE increases probability but not to 100%.

The only change I made is for Introduce Genetic Plaque. Vanilla: RISK 1, WTP: RISK 3.
probe_action_risk_genetic_plague=2

Elite probes with AE are extremely reusable. They complete RISK 2 mission and survive with 84% probability.
Positive PROBE increases probe morale = higher chances. Naval Yard does not affect probes. COC does.

Of all people you should know (or be able to lookup) these numbers!

[bvanevery]

Of all people you should know (or be able to lookup) these numbers!

I hate probes almost more than any other thing in the stock game.  I don't spend time memorizing tables of things that I hate.

I am surprised that survival rate for not so well trained probe teams is that bad.  I won't bother to Enhance a merely Disciplined unit in the future.

This is also the 1st time I've ever paid to get Algorithmic Enhancement, in any game I remember playing.  There's no need for it in the stock game.  You just build the Nethack Terminus.

[bvanevery]

Details so many mindworms

so many mindworms

Ok I'm finally just grossed out by the number of mindworms that have come at me.  This is fairly different from previous WTP play that I remember.  More like stock binary.  Ocean levels rising all over the damn place, although not so fast that any of my stuff is underwater yet.  I have had a reasonably nice road system messed up by rivers changing course though.  And good God, the number of fungal pops.  I've only got Genejack Factories and -1 PLANET, wth?  Maybe this is actually more eco-damage than stock binary.

It would be manageable if I knew I was in for this, and had planned accordingly.  As is, I sorta half-managed it.  I built the number of Trance units that I thought would be reasonable for having a few pops, then things subsiding into pretty much normalcy.  And I also had a fair number of cheap cannon fodder units that I was going to try to throw at one of my neighbors as a screen.  But... everyone got sidetracked having to do garrison duty against the never ending fungal pops.  I thought I saw 68 eco-damage in one of my cities at one point?

I thought my cities were only like 25 minerals, but the SUPPORT rules could be throwing me off.  Hmm, my worst city is more on the order of 40 minerals.  Just half of it is getting chewed up by SUPPORT.

Other factions are accused of doing serious eco-damage.  It's not just my bad.

I've been trashing the sea bases of nearby jerk factions.  They just spawn them and don't put any good defenses on them.  After awhile this starts to feel like busywork.  I've tried doing my usual "force a Truce" thing as long as they don't have any techs I want.  If they do, then I steal, watch their outrage, and trash another fairly helpless sea base.  If my ally Lal says he wants war with someone, I go trash them, then do a Truce.

This isn't getting me anywhere though.  It feels completely pointless.  How many cities would I have to continue to churn in this manner, to make some kind of progress?  What does progress even mean?

Begging off.  I've got like 2k credits I don't even know what to do with.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Does WTP get rid of sending units home when a Pact ends?  Miriam just got huffy with me because I wasn't interested in war with the Hive.  She cancelled our Pact, but I still have this Scout wandering right through her territory.

Details Pact cancelled unit still in territory

Pact cancelled unit still in territory

OMG. Damn. That was my stupid bug (copy/paste - not updated). Thank you for discovering it. Fixed!