Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => Modding => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on April 08, 2012, 09:54:50 PM

Title: What's not working here?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 08, 2012, 09:54:50 PM

I've noticed that the Cannibis League, a novelty faction that was one of the very first custom factions I tarted up the art for, doesn't get the fugus bonuses it's supposed to.  I don't think that's my doing, but I can't swear I haven't forgotten making some adjustment to get it to run at all, as I often did with old factions when I was starting out.  Here's the stats:

#CANNABIS
Cannabis League, The Stoned, Cannabis League, M, 2, Shaggy, M, -1, 0, 1, 1, 1,
  TECH, Ecology, TECH, Biogen, SOCIAL, +MORALE, FACILITY, 3, TALENT, 4, SOCIAL, -EFFIC, SOCIAL, --POLICE, SOCIAL, --PROBE, SOCIAL, ++PLANET,  FUNGNUTRIENT, 2, FUNGMINERALS, 1, FUNGENERGY, 1, IMMUNITY, MORALE, IMPUNITY, Green
  Economics, Green, PLANET

This is someone else's work, and the .txt files are not my thing.  Can anyone set me straight?

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: ariete on April 09, 2012, 05:00:45 PM

I don't konw but I take the opportunity here to make a question > why if a custom faction have marine detachment ability when it discover the relative tech (adaptive ... i don't remember) all units, and lands unit too, have marine wrote between parenthesis example

Trance Garrison
(trance, Marine)

and again: somethimes i start the game with a faction who have uncorrectly +1planet, so i must restart the game and it's all ok, then when i load the game just started is correct

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: Kilkakon on April 10, 2012, 08:27:05 AM

I know the answer to your problem, BUncle. There are two types of faction bonuses. The majority of faction bonuses have a limit of 8 of any of them. I forget which ones count towards this limit and which don't (I know for a fact that TECH and SOCIAL does) but seems to be the likely reason why your fungus bonuses aren't applying.

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 10, 2012, 01:46:22 PM

Too many bonii?

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: Kilkakon on April 10, 2012, 01:50:19 PM

Yep. :) You'll see mine all stick to that limit pretty well...

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: ariete on April 14, 2012, 08:42:50 PM

Quote from: Kilkakon on April 10, 2012, 08:27:05 AM

The majority of faction bonuses have a limit of 8 of any of them.

you want mean 8 ''bonuses'' total each custom faction (included tech, social, ability,...)??

however i use low bonuses for every faction i edit (maybe it's a defect), i don't think super faction is cool to play

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: ariete on April 16, 2012, 12:24:25 AM

somewhere i had readed there are problems if you play together smac factions and smacx factions in a game
the solution should be put the right background colour (smacx violet) as background of smac factions
anyone can confirme this??

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 16, 2012, 04:22:14 AM

It doesn't matter whether you use the the hot pink of SMAC or or the purple of SMAX, or both - both work in both versions.  I've gone to some trouble to test this a few months ago.

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: ariete on April 16, 2012, 02:11:43 PM

so i can play a single game with both factions (smac and smax) without a risk of crash bug during the time plaied

and for the bonuses ... i don't understand if the roof of 8 is for all (tech, facility, ability, fungus bonus nutrient ...)

i hope to have a correct use of this thread, i see 'what doesn't work here' so i think to put my questions on doesn't work ... for not leave dead the thread after the relative answer to your specific question, i hope not to do a mistake

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 16, 2012, 03:14:46 PM

There is a limit of eight.

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: ariete on April 16, 2012, 09:15:22 PM

ah ok.
relative to the first question i pose in this thread: sometimes (i don't know why) my custom faction start with +1 planet, if i restart game it doesn't happen. Last times it doesn't happen. It's possible that problem linked when i changed colours faction i don't make the usual steps (level trasparency, copy and paste in a defaultblank pcx) and i had just save overwrite (but trasparency bases are correct during the game).

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 16, 2012, 11:22:41 PM

No way the faction art has anything to do with it.

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: Davyboy on May 09, 2012, 12:43:48 PM

Quote

however i use low bonuses for every faction i edit (maybe it's a defect), i don't think super faction is cool to play

No defect.

Unless it cripples the Faction when the AI plays it. Or makes it too unbalanced (such as the developer's note regarding giving the Pirates -1GROWTH to slow them up a bit). It's all a dance act really as you well know, I'm sure...

From my POV, all this freefac and freetech stuff weakens the game in some respects because the creator (small 'c') runs the risk of creating alien-like uber-human factions. Nothing wrong with that -- but keeping some sense of balance is important; in SMAC for example, there's no PEG or CA so building Energy Banks and Airbases are a requirement that (rightly) drains resources into the Build / Economy areas which generally mutes conflict for a while.

Don't get me wrong -- the very LAST thing I'm doing is "having a go at you". If you can create 7 facs that 'balance' like the 'original 7' I'm with you all the way.

I wouldn't care if they're all clones of the most aggressive trash that we already have. I'll still try playing them as Deirdre (and maybe spot you a colony pod handicap too, for my cheek!!)  :)

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: NewAgeOfPower on June 18, 2012, 02:46:54 AM

I've managed to squeeze in 9 faction bonuses, the name just has to be short. For example, Tech, 5, saves characters over Tech, IndAuto... Reducing total number of characters is the way to go.

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: gwillybj on January 16, 2013, 05:33:55 PM

Quote from: NewAgeOfPower on June 18, 2012, 02:46:54 AM

I've managed to squeeze in 9 faction bonuses, the name just has to be short. For example, Tech, 5, saves characters over Tech, IndAuto... Reducing total number of characters is the way to go.

from alphax.txt: ; TECH = Free technology at start. Parameter is either a tech id (e.g. "CentEmp") to indicate a specific technology, or a number (e.g. 2) to indicate a number of player-selected technologies.

So, "Tech, IndAuto" gives IndAuto as a free tech, and "Tech, 5" gives the player his own choice of 5 techs at the start.

I think you knew this; I just thought to post it for clarity.

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: gwillybj on January 16, 2013, 05:45:00 PM

Quote from: ariete on April 14, 2012, 08:42:50 PM

Quote from: Kilkakon on April 10, 2012, 08:27:05 AM

The majority of faction bonuses have a limit of 8 of any of them.

you want mean 8 ''bonuses'' total each custom faction (included tech, social, ability,...)??

however i use low bonuses for every faction i edit (maybe it's a defect), i don't think super faction is cool to play

Here is a list that was posted at another forum quite some time ago. My notes in []:

Limited options [you can have no more than 8 of these]:

Specified free tech (TECH, Ecology)
FACILITY
FREEFAC (SMAX)
UNIT
SOCIAL
ROBUST
IMMUNITY
IMPUNITY
PENALTY
FUNGNUTRIENT
FUNGMINERALS
FUNGENERGY
VOTES
REVOLT (SMAX)
NODRONE (SMAX)
FREEABIL (SMAX)
PROBECOST (SMAX)
OFFENSE (SMAX)
DEFENSE (SMAX)


Unlimited options [you can have any number of these, but only one of each, depending on how generous or crazy you want to get]:

MORALE
PSI
RESEARCH
TALENT
DRONE
ENERGY
INTEREST
COMMERCE
POPULATION
HURRY
TECHCOST
SHARETECH
TECHSHARE (SMAX)
Unspecified free tech (TECH, 1)
TERRAFORM
MINDCONTROL
FREEPROTO
ALIEN (SMAX)
AQUATIC (SMAX)
COMMFREQ
FANATIC
WORMPOLICE (SMAX)
TECHSTEAL (SMAX)

[note you can have both TECHSHARE and TECHSTEAL]
[you can even have an AQUATIC FANATIC ALIEN faction]

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: ariete on January 16, 2013, 08:33:07 PM

thanks for the exhaustive response gwilly

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: gwillybj on January 16, 2013, 08:58:43 PM

Looking at the first post, the Cannabis League has the following abilities listed:


Limited: 13 (5 have to go!)

TECH, Ecology,
TECH, Biogen,
FACILITY, 3
SOCIAL, +MORALE,
SOCIAL, -EFFIC,
SOCIAL, --POLICE,
SOCIAL, --PROBE,
SOCIAL, ++PLANET,
IMMUNITY, MORALE,
IMPUNITY, Green
FUNGNUTRIENT, 2,
FUNGMINERALS, 1,
FUNGENERGY, 1,


Unlimited: 1 (it can stay, even with the 8 you choose to keep from the limited list)

TALENT, 4

Title: Re: What's not working here?
Post by: Kilkakon on January 17, 2013, 08:08:44 AM

Thanks very much! I remember that list but couldn't remember where it was.