Modding Beyond Earth to Alpha Centauri

[Buster's Uncle]

I love your avatar - did you make that?

[lilgamefreek]

Yup! I was trying to design something that evoked a mission patch for the Unity Mission. The patch for STS-131 ended up being a fantastic sample. I needed the logo for the civilopedia pages that come with my mod. This community was a big source of help in designing a matching leaderhead for John Garland as well!

[BlaneckW]

Do you have a page with a more in-depth accounting of the in-game design?

Also, consider changing Hive ideology to Legalism as per the GURPS RPG detail (unless this is made a civic or given homage elsewhere).  And to help advance my conspiracy to advance education and sinolize politics.  Of course, I guess asceticism might be more descriptive for some people. 

[lilgamefreek]

You can click on the images to go to pages with more info on individual factions! I'm considering changing the names on most of the -isms. They started as a thing that I ended up not sticking with and I feel they could be given more character with more descriptive titles.

[BlaneckW]

OK, so no changes yet other than factions.

[lilgamefreek]

Just the human factions for now. My core interest in Alpha Centauri has always been the social commentary tied into the game's systems. Most of this was driven by the diverse cast and abilities of the original factions. I figured it would be good to start where my interests lie and play be ear from there. I can't promise I'm planning a total conversion. Once I'm done with the factions, next would probably be the social engineering system.

[Geo]

You should link your steam workshop page in your signature here.

[lilgamefreek]

No one else really seems to put things in their signature. I always try not to stick out too much when I'm somewhere new.

[Buster's Uncle]

He's right; go ahead and link your steam workshop.

[MercantileInterest]

One of the main benefits of modding from Beyond Earth is that the technology, units and infrastructure would not need much alteration. It's already a science fiction setting. Factions and social engineering would be the first concern. Lilgamefreek's custom factions look like they capture the AC gameplay styles quite well.

[MercantileInterest]

Doubt this is at all easy, but any chance of setting up sea bases? See you've done the Nautilus Pirates.

[Geo]

Looks like lilgamefreak already answered that one on his steampage: something along the lines sea cities should be a stand alone mod first before anything else is build/added around this core.

[lilgamefreek]

Yes, though to answer the question here more directly, I think it's certainly possible. There is an existing Civ5 mod that adds sea colonies and from my experience modding BE is not significantly different. It is something I might tackle once I'm done with the factions and social engineering system. I'm planning to save any special interaction between the systems until then.

[lilgamefreek]

Hey everyone. I've been slowly working at a couple of things over the past month and am excited to share and get feedback on what I've been doing!

In terms of releases, all of the human factions from SMAC and SMAX are out and playable. You can check them out here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=366626684

Alongside that, I have an Ocean City mod that I had mostly developed alongside the Pirates but chose to polish and release separately:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=417114784

But what I'm most excited about is Social Engineering, which I've been grinding out the UI and code for a couple weeks at this point. It's still very early (nearly an entirely blank slate), but I'm just starting to flesh out the gameplay and am really looking for feedback and ideas on it!

Here's the current look of the screen:


All art assets are temporary, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't share your ideas and opinions. The big changes to note are that the depth-kickers (the bonuses you earn for investing heavily in a tree) are being changed to "shortcomings" and I've changed some of the names of the choices based on feedback. I've renamed Democratic to Pluralist, Power to Dominance, and Knowledge to Progress.



As you can see here, player's can still select virtues in competing trees with an appropriate warning in the tooltip. The AI currently obeys these exclusions, but since it cannot intelligently switch between them, it is forbidden to do so.



Popup when the player tries to switch trees. Largely adapted from Civ5 though I have a large amount of control to change it. When the player selects yes, they lose all the policies in the competing tree but don't earn any free ones. I'm getting a weird bug where, when I give the player many free policies, only 1 of those policies will increase the culture cost of the next virtue, affording the player a strange "double-jeapordy" scenario. I am still investigating a fix as well as exploring alternatives such as designing the system and its virtues so that it might be worth it for player's to give up 4-5 virtues to switch a tree.



Finally, the aversion system is in play. Leaders with an aversion cannot select virtues from that tree, both player and AI. The vanilla sponsors each have an in-character aversion to a particular social choice. The system is extendable to modded-sponsors as well. Sponsors can have no or even multiple aversions. The AI will not select virtues from their aversion. I am currently at an impasse for having aversions and its partner preference system affect diplomacy and opinions, and have been exploring whether there are any dummied out civ5 diplo modifiers to be taken advantage of.

Because I've reached a block on the diplomacy modifiers and have otherwise accomplished everything else, I'm starting to flesh out each tree and it's playstyle. Here are my current guiding thoughts for each category and each tree that I am using as a guiding theme as I figure out the virtues.

Politics helps manage the will of your citizens and cities.

• Police States offer tools for managing the unrest caused by large societies, maximizing the amount of growth that can be earned from limited resources and services. This is all done at the cost of civil harmony, and Police States receive fewer benefits when society is prosperous.
• Pluralism accelerates societal growth as ambitious individuals settle new lands or raise new families. So many opinions makes it difficult for pluralist societies to support causes through organized action.
• Fundamentalist societies rely on loyalty and conviction. The larger a following the society has, the more powerful it becomes. Unerring loyalty hurts the society's ability to innovate however, particularly in the field of research and scientific advance.

Economics develops your state’s resources, infrastructure, and economy.

• Free Markets are unrivaled in their ability to adapt to economic changes. Such flexibility makes it an all-around good choice. However, Free Market require a stable political climate and unrest is often extremely disruptive.
• Planned economics attempts to overpower economic forces with rationale and logic, pouring resources into growth and industry for long-term benefits rather than short-term profits. Because a Planned economy struggles against its natural course, it is often bogged down with inefficiencies.
• Green economics focuses on community health and sustainable economic growth. Green economics maximizes profits earned per unit resources rather than net profits and ensures there remains enough for preceding generations. This makes it slower to grow than other economic plans.

Values guide the heart of your people, determining where their priorities lie.

• Dominance is about strength and independence, whether it be over other states, countrymen, or fellow neighbors. Those who work for another’s benefit are looked upon with disdain, making jobs in industry and labor undesirable.
• Progressive societies are concerned with the mark left on the universe by humanity as a whole. Aspects such as culture and science, which advance all people, are their focus. Their relaxed views make Progressive societies more open to infiltration however.
• Wealth focused societies exalt the individual's ability to produce for himself. Such societies are excellent at business and at turning resources into usable materials. A Wealth focused society's nature to only think for themselves makes individuals unwilling to fight for others.

Diplomacy informs your interactions with the rest of the world.

• Aggressive diplomacy confers benefits best used on foreign soil. The actions of Aggressive societies often strain relationships with foreign powers and can shake its member's belief of the legitimacy of their government.
• Cooperative diplomacy is best when relationships between foreign powers are peaceful. Cooperation brings better trade and bonuses to both partners. Cooperation falls apart when there is no one to cooperate with and can unintentionally launch rivals into stronger positions.
• Defensive diplomacy creates states that are difficult to crack or infiltrate. Whether fighting to maintain a lead or for survival, being Defensive is the best method of protecting a society's interests and assets. They suffer from an inability to assert themselves in international matters however.

Your thoughts on the usefulness, appropriateness, and accuracy of any of these is super appreciated as always!

[BlaneckW]

I appreciate the work, but why work within the context of monolithic sets?  China doesn't use a pure planned economy or pure free-market, and a closer examination of Miriam reveals a pluralism within the context of the Theocracy itself.  The "web" idea really should have been applied more to civics than technology.  One could meander farther than that into more detailed ideological questions than simply systemic representations, but that seems fairly basic.  Of course I suppose it's ultimately question of stats.