SMAX - The Will to Power - mod

[bvanevery]

Details 1 AM withdrawl

1 AM withdrawl

Ok the AI is not really making much of an effort to fight me.  I don't really see a point in continuing.  Clearly I will stomp Lal.  Soon enough I'll get The [sic] Clinical Immortality and probably can gain Supreme Leader eventually.  I've probably been far too worried about the capabilities of the other factions, the whole game.  I don't need many of these SPs that I lavishly built.  Nor many of the advanced weapons.  My X String Copters were not that great because even with +3 PLANET and the Dream Twister, they don't do that well against Spore Launchers.  I should have not been cheap and made them Empath X String.  Or had an artillery plan.  I had lotsa artillery marching down the rails, just a pile of scrap, but they never got used on offense.  Gravships are the one true weapon to use with rails as they can move pretty much the length of the system, and they can also take cities.

My original "perfect circle" probably didn't even need to be as big as I made it.

Somehow, I imagine doing better.

With my -1 INDUSTRY, nukes are in a cost progression: Fission 32, Fusion 26, Quantum 21, Singularity 16.  In the case of nukes, it actually makes no sense that they get cheaper.  At a minimum, they should all cost the same.  Possibly, their cost should increase.  Although another reality is, I think you're pretty much always going to know Singularity by the time you know nukes. 

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

In my own mod, I don't have as precise a control over costs.  So I had to do things with the cost halvings of the fission fusion quantum singularity progression.  Although there is some stiffness to my SP costs, it's not remotely as onerous as in your mod.

I didn't mean to do a fine tuning yet. Maybe I can just change the cost of missile and payload to adjust it. Usually it works fine.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

For some reason the turn counter didn't advance between turns.  I'm still in MY 2327.  I've seen this problem before.  I don't know what causes it.

Does reloading the game helps? Closing and restarting program? Does it offer you to save with correct year in savegame?

[bvanevery]

I just tried downloading the original save, from the post before I reported the bug.  I downloaded to a non-game directory.  I started up SMAC, picked load game, picked the original save.  Then chose End Turn.  Got the dialogue about how I haven't moved all my units yet, said yeah sure bite me.  Interim turn period begins.  I just hit Proceed a bunch to get through it.  At the end of it all, it's still exactly the same year.

Try it yourself.

[bvanevery]

Details sorta circular

sorta circular

MY 2195 is when I acquired fungicidal tanks.  I started near the Monsoon Jungle, which unfortunately got an earthquake and a lot of fungus popped all over it.  I killed various fungal towers around my small empire, to make room for where I would soon put my cities.  I figured that someday, I'd free up the jungle.  All of my cities are going vertical except Dawn of Planet, which is still the designated colony spawner.  I've moved my capitol to The Edicts, on the water in the jungle.  The Spartans unfortunately finished the Merchant Exchange faster than I was expecting.  I threw most of my Artifacts at the Human Genome Project, since it's more valuable.  That's pretty much my standard opening lately.

This will be a smaller "circular" empire than last time.  I'm not sure what questions of game efficiency I'll be answering.  I'd like to invade someone if that makes sense.  I don't see myself waiting around "in fear of" anyone like last game, since the AI didn't prove terribly good at fighting back.  I'm also wondering whether nukes are the cheap game finish I imagine them to be.

I've not made any social engineering choices.  Green would slow my population growth.  Mitigating that with Democratic, would harm my PLANET rating.  Hmm although I suppose I'd still be +1 PLANET ahead of where I am now.  Didn't think of that for some reason.  Didn't have any problem remembering that last game.

[bvanevery]

Details war of extermination

war of extermination

MY 2236, war breaks out with the Usurpers.  They were previously my allies, but they soured when I changed to Democratic Green.  I've been allied with nearly everyone.  2 of them were already at war with the Usurpers and I'd been refusing to join in.  Once the Usurpers finally aggressed at me, I got the Spartans to join the fray.

Their declaration of war, happened to coincide with me finishing the Xenoempathy Dome.  So, I will totally fry them with mindworms.  They will have good morale from Fundamentalist, but they have the -1 PLANET disadvantage.  Maybe I'll go Fundamentalist myself, to get to +4 PLANET.

Since I built the Human Genome Project pretty early, I've felt at ease affording some Genejack Factories in a few places.  I've got enough to crank out some Secret Projects.  Other cities, I'm growing more to be economic and research centers, since I have already established an industrial base.

This will be the end of colony expansion for awhile.  I've only kept 1 city, Dawn of Planet, providing colony pods most of this time.  Budget wise, I'd wait until exploration gave me in excess of 400 credits, then I'd rush something.  Typically a Recycling Tank if minerals in a city had reached 6, or a Hab Complex if population had reached 4.  If nothing else, I'd rush a colony pod.

I never did settle any more of the Monsoon Jungle.  Having Fungicide Tanks, is not the same as having made enough Formers to do the job.  Eventually it will happen, but in the future, I will not look at big patches of fungus as any kind of immediate opportunity.  It takes too long.

I meant to colonize the Manifold Nexus, as it was unoccupied and available with sufficient sea lift.  However it was also far away.  Exploring the last big continent to pop its supply pods, seemed like a higher priority.  My original intent was to decide "what to do next" after finishing exploration.  Meaning, after popping almost every supply pod on the map.  But my neighbors the Usurpers had other ideas.

[Rocky]

I made a screenshot of the Datalinks info for the Habitation Dome, but the screenshot ended up wrong. There are two errors in the first two lines. I post the description below:

"Eases population growth beyond defalut limit 14.
The limit can be modified faction settings and SP's."


I recently started playing your mod. It's very different experience from vanilla AC but I'm enjoying it. It's fun to re-learn the mechanics and technology tree.

[bvanevery]

Details donated air force

donated air force

MY 2274.  I've wiped out most of the Usurper land cities, and a few sea bases.  The task force on land was 1 X Chaos Speeder, 1 ECM Silksteel unit, and a lot of mindworms.  Mindworms alone couldn't have done it, but the assistance of even 1 chemical weapon was absolutely brutal.  Trance Scouts of course can't stand up to them.

Details the mighty core

the mighty core

As I neared the last remnant of Marr's empire, I got an annoying level of resistance from Chaos Artillery.  It caused me to take wounds, retreat, and regroup.  I can't honestly say that I'd favor armored speeders though, as they're so much more expensive.  That armor also becomes worthless after you've attacked someone and taken wounds.

We were in sunspots for awhile, so I lost the habit of talking to my allies.  Eventually they lifted, but I still didn't check in.  I got the impression that they've gotten somewhat farther ahead on tech.  However I've had no reason to care, as my existing equipment and techniques have worked just fine.  I didn't even build any new units for awhile, I just kept on working on things like Tree Farms and Genejack Factories.  Even Habitation Domes, for lack of anything better to do.  I have 1 city with a Command Center and it would make the occasional X Chaos Speeder.

The Usurpers sent an annoying counter force towards me.  I had plenty of home defense, it's not like my cities were in any way threatened.  But it diverted my attention from the act of killing cities.

Then my allies started giving me planes.  At first they gave them in such a way that they would immediately crash, which wasn't at all useful.  Finally the Spartans put 3 of them in one of my cities.  The results were devastating, as those advancing unarmored Usurper artillery pieces, can't stand up to them.  Nor is a Trance Scout enough of a city garrison.  If I'd had my Elite speeder in range of that city, it would be obliterated now.  But the Usurpers had diverted my attention.

Backed with planes, and 2 more X Chaos Speeders, and a scouting hovertank on the way, and a Probability infantry, the 2 middle cities will soon be gone.  That leaves the 3 far cities on the coast.  I can't imagine them holding up.  By the time those are gone, I may have the Maritime Control Center completed.  Then it's a matter of wiping the Usurpers out of the ocean.

The moral of this story is Trance Scouts are not an empire.  The AI needs to spend less time colonizing, more time building up a real productive capacity, and more expenditure on real garrison units.  The Trance Scout spam everywhere idea only works when an enemy is very distant on the map.  Or when the nearby enemy is just as incompetent, i.e. not a human player, not me.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I made a screenshot of the Datalinks info for the Habitation Dome, but the screenshot ended up wrong. There are two errors in the first two lines. I post the description below:

"Eases population growth beyond defalut limit 14.
The limit can be modified faction settings and SP's."

Thank you for noting. I am a quick typist.
😢

Note 1.
Feel free to edit these text documents in GitHub for further changes if you are up to co-authoring but don't feel bad if you don't. I'll fix this one myself.

Note 2.
I think this needs to be reworded as the whole mechanics about it is not simple yes/no as was in vanilla. I may use yours and all other forum folks help to set it right. The first sentence does not quite catch it.

Code: [Select]

Helps base grow faster by improving living conditions.
^Eliminates population limit GROWTH penalty.
^Default limit without this facility is {7} (alterable by faction settings).
^
^Base with this facility gets GROWTH bonus below the limit.
^GROWTH bonus = min(3, limit - population)
^
^Base without this facility gets GROWTH penalty approaching the limit.
^GROWTH penalty = max(0, population - limit + 3)


I recently started playing your mod. It's very different experience from vanilla AC but I'm enjoying it. It's fun to re-learn the mechanics and technology tree.

Yeah. The mechanics change is there. As for tech tree I tried to stick to vanilla more or less in latest versions.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I just tried downloading the original save, from the post before I reported the bug.  I downloaded to a non-game directory.  I started up SMAC, picked load game, picked the original save.  Then chose End Turn.  Got the dialogue about how I haven't moved all my units yet, said yeah sure bite me.  Interim turn period begins.  I just hit Proceed a bunch to get through it.  At the end of it all, it's still exactly the same year.

Try it yourself.

OMFG! This is just a hilarious vanilla bug. However, I cannot say "I cannot believe it" because I can by encountering tons of such bugs before.

Here is how to reproduce it. Try it on vanilla game for example.

• Have needlejet not in base or airbase.
• Have it moves not completely spent so it is still able to move but do not press space on it so it is does not finish its move.
• Force end turn by Ctrl-Enter.

There is probably other ways to trigger it without force end turn but this one is simplest.

With these conditions program falls through and quits turn upkeep routine immediately discarding huge amount of standard per-turn actions.

[bvanevery]

Huh.  Buster's Uncle had hinted at such exploits a few years ago, and said he was a master at them.  But I never bothered to find out specifically what he meant.  I think he said he could take an infinite amount of time in the game, if he wanted.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

It will probably beneficial for him to share them so they can be patched.

[bvanevery]

Who says he wants them patched??

Details vanquished on land

vanquished on land

MY 2300.  I finally crushed Courage: To Question.  My X Chaos Speeders were unable to do it.  They merely inflicted wounds, and the Usurpers kept responding with artillery fire.  It took a long, long time to walk my artillery all the way over there.  What finally broke their back was Conventional Missiles.  I'm making those in inland cities that have finished building everything else.  I'm not bothering with advanced labs.  The Gaians have a ton more tech than I'll ever research, and I'll easily get it one way or another.

I've also chased them around in the ocean destroying weak bases.  I've made no real concentrated effort to wipe out the Usurpers.  Mostly I've built Hab Domes and Hybrid Forests, to try to grow more.  It's sorta working, but it's not dramatic.  I'm still only Democratic Green and haven't made any other social engineering choices.  I didn't want the Cybernetic police penalty, as I'm still on campaign.  Power is terribly politic given I have the Spartans and Pirates as both allies and neighbors, but I sure don't need -2 INDUSTRY to complete Hab Domes.  So I've just kept going with what works.

I figure, CMs and Sealurks until the Usurpers are all gone.  Then I can decide "what to do".  I think my allies the Gaians and the Spartans are at war with each other now.

[bvanevery]

Details cheap partial payment

cheap partial payment

Note that partial payment comes pretty close to circumventing the rush penalty.  If I want to ensure 0 turns to complete, I have to pay 2x as much.   Allowing 1 turn to complete has very little risk in most circumstances.  Something could happen that disrupts the working of the squares, like an interloping mindworm, or a flood.  Other than that though, it just gets done.

[bvanevery]

Details sturdy weak spore launchers

sturdy weak spore launchers

MY 2315.  This is all that's left of the Usurpers.  How is it that Spore Launchers defend themselves so well from just about everything?  I've noticed even in the original game and my own mod, that they're just about the best Conventional Missile defense you could ask for.  They do great against my attacking Sealurks, even though I have +3 PLANET and they have -1 PLANET.  That ain't right.  And they stand off my Chaos ship guns, giving better than they get.  It has taken brute force and attrition to wear the things down.  Finally once they crack I'm able to apply the right units to the right targets, and thereby mop up what's left of pitiful defenders.  Sometimes I manage to get a chemical weapons hit against a conventional unit, but mostly bases are wiped out by obliteration.

Otherwise I'm starting to just spend money on SPs, for lack of anything better to do.  My allies have been in and out of war with each other.  I think we're entering a period of relative peace, and lately they've been listening to my requests to call off their wars.  Deirdre is the tech leader.  I haven't wanted to talk to her much lately about giving me some tech, for fear of her asking me to get into a war.  But I think I don't have that problem now.