My Hypothesis on Commerce and Interest in Early Designs for SMAC's Factions

[Bertilak]

My hypothesis, based on coding decisions in SMAC and SMAX, indicate bonuses for commerce rates and calculations for commerce income might have replaced increases for interest rate and calculations for interest income. INTEREST, #, described in the faction rules, provides either a percentage bonus or penalty based on the faction's current energy reserves at the start of a turn. INTEREST, 0, provides a flat one bonus per base in calculations for economy output and one energy credit per turn per controlled base. Factions start with zero interest and receive a set starting value with values from Interest. Six technologies, COMMERCE, and Economy can increase commerce rates in stock SMAC, so perhaps technologies with increases in commerce rates and high scores in Economy originally increased factions' interest rates instead of the factions' commerce rates. Income from commerce appears on the budget screen for each faction, and the game, immediately before the display for income from commerce, can produce an unfinished section for the script.txt with "faction energy bonus."

Other players on Alpha Centauri 2 mentioned the unusually severe penalties for Morganites in the final stock game and Morganites' sufferance from poor performance in the AI's control. Morganite's poor performance in the AI might arise from late decisions for changes in the Morganite's bonuses from interest into commerce. Commerce provides a more balanced bonus for human players in accumulation of energy credit reserves and prevents excessive defensive strategies. Limited income from commerce, however, frequently precludes the AI's accumulation of significant reserves of energy credits, and significant reserves of energy credits influence certain AI behaviors in diplomatic discussions and production of probe teams. The Morganites, potentially in a beta design, might have focused on a slower and defensive strategy over the recommended more expansionist strategy in the final stock game.

[Nexii]

Ancedotal, but I have noticed AI Morgan plays very well with interest bonus across many games. They tend to accumulate credits for interest and sometimes get the economic victory.

-1 SUP and -3 POP definitely makes Morgan the weakest faction if you mod to stifle ICS cheese. Giving them back an interest bonus is something I've done lately. There aren't a lot of other benefits that suit them that aren't taken up by other factions already.

[Buster's Uncle]

Interest, for sure, can make a custom faction a monster if it can use the money.