SMACX AI Growth mod

[bvanevery]

Thanks for the test info.  Do they happen to say "Radar Transport Foil" or "Radar Destroyer Transport" ?  Are they unarmored Transports with Deep Radar on them?  I put these 2 predefined units in 1.26.  If the AI is making excessive numbers of those, then it could be my bad.

If it's making armored Transport units though, then that's just the AI doing as it does.  It might be due to excessively cheap Foil and Cruiser costs.  They're going up a bit for 1.27, and the movement is going to increase.  I will keep my eye peeled for whether I see excessive Transports, as it is kind of baffling and annoying to witness.  Of all the possible spamming strategies, I think I'd rather see it spam something more obviously combative.

[vonbach]

The AI does and always has loved to spam transports. Especially for sea bases. You have to turn off transports for the governor or sometimes
it will spam them until you run out of minerals.

[davcapoccia]

I am seeing some regular Destroyer Transports and Transports Foils, but mostly the AI is spamming Radar Transport and Heavy Transport foils.

[bvanevery]

For 1.27 I've removed the Heavy Transport predefined unit, on the premise that the AI doesn't actually need the extra capacity for anything.

I wonder if I allowed armed transports, if that would improve the situation any.  Although, that might be impossible.  Yeah, every chassis has a defined transport capacity.  You still need a Transport module for it to actually become a transport, and that precludes a weapon.  The Isle of the Deep is coded as a special case.  Yeah, I can have one kind of predefined armed transport in the game.  I'm not going to give up the Isle of the Deep to have something else.

[vonbach]

Armed transports would be awesome. Have you ever tried to make SAMs? Surface to air missiles. Basically a conventional missile that targets aircraft.

[bvanevery]

In 1.27 I'm changing the missile chassis so that it doesn't use fuel.  It will have unlimited range if you move it enough turns.  I thought I'd give it a movement of 30 squares/turn.

If I made a SAM, I think I'd want it to be a lot cheaper than a typical Conventional Missile.  A SAM needs to be at least as cheap as a plane to be worth using.  Otherwise you'd just use an Interceptor.

I'm concerned that if I make any kind of SAM, the AI won't really use it against planes.  It'll start pestering me by shooting at my units on the ground.  I don't like being spammed by the AI that way.  It's not a problem in my mod currently because Conventional Missiles are expensive enough that the AI doesn't produce very many of them.

A really weak SAM that can't do anything against armored ground units, might work.  But I'm not sure I can have a really weak SAM and a regular strength Conventional Missile at the same time.  They both would be using the same conventional warhead.  I can experiment with increasing the "Air Superiority vs. Ground Unit" penalty tremendously.  I wonder if affects attacks against ships?

I can also only make Fission predefined units.  A SAM would need to be strong enough to take down a Fusion aircraft.  Otherwise it would be a bit silly in my mod.  If it wasn't effective against a Quantum aircraft, I think I could live with that.

[vonbach]

I made a SAM once in one of my mods but I honestly don't remember how.

[Mart]

I remember, AI had problem using land SAM units. Human player can use them, AI was behaving weird, it "thought" to be it a plane.
Also, land unit would not attack a needlejet above sea tile, but on land tile it was ok.
There might be more weird things, but I do not remember now.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

bvanevery,
I was thinking about better tree structure and analyzed yours and mine as examples. Certainly there are more approaches to that including completely chaotic box version. Do you mind me polluting your thread with picture and findings and opinions? It seems to belong this more as I am thinking about switching to your structure and thus analyzed and compared it to mine.

Fission Armor structure: each level technology depends on one technology from the below level and one from two level below. Level 1 technologies do not depend on anything and level 2 technologies depend only on level 1. The opposite is also true. Each technology allows exactly two other technologies. Each level has six technologies. These rules apply up to level 12 something. Above that number of technologies per level decreases as they all converge to a single target.

AIG structure: each level technology depends on two technologies from previous level. Number of technologies per level is not fixed. Number of technologies allowed by each technology is not fixed.

Below are two charts for technology appearance time. There is an average value and min-max those depict boundary of standard deviation (60% of the cases). The wider standard deviation the more often and more stronger appearance time in specific game can deviate from the average value. Technology values do not change this picture much. The order of technologies may change slightly but deviations stay about the same.

As I guessed initially, the AIG structure is much tighter in a way that it prescribes more or less narrow path of research. I was thinking to use this structure but now I am reluctant due to this exact consequence. I believe it'll narrow the field of stealing and trading techs. Not completely, of course but to some extent.
Instead, I narrowed down tech per level to six thus effectively channeling research but leaving some room for selective beelining and variety for trade/steal. I have 12 levels by 6 techs in each + 3 more levels narrowing down to the top level technology.

Tried to apply 1+1=2 structure to my tree (picture #3). Quite expected result. It became tighter.

[bvanevery]

Ok sure give it a go.

I'm still testing my 1.27.  I am experiencing a most curious phenomenon.  I have pushed so many techs to earlier in the tree, down to Tier 2 and even Tier 1, that the tree is now quite broad at the beginning.  This makes it entirely possible to completely miss certain key techs at the beginning.  For instance I'm approaching midgame and have not learned how to do probe teams.  I don't think anyone else has either!  My Planetary Networks is merely a Conquer 2 tech, there are no Secret Projects in the way, nothing to stop anyone from learning it.  A lot of factions simply haven't learned it, just due to all the other Conquer techs they could be learning instead.

Maybe it's because only 2 factions have a pure Conquer focus: the Spartans, and the Usurpers.  Explore, Conquer is the most common AI research pattern, with one Discover, Conquer and I can't remember if there's a Build, Conquer.  I think what happens is, the techs that are Explore, Conquer hybrids tend to get researched first.  That's positive in some ways, because it means mindworms and new chasses get researched.  But it leaves some of the weapons development impoverished, with probe teams being considered an early pure Conquer weapon.

I could consider a probe team to be mildly Discover oriented, because you can steal techs with it.  However adding a Discover component isn't going to help most factions research it.  Only the Cybernetic Consciousness and the University have Discover as part of their focus.  Also, the Discover part of the tree is deliberately bottlenecked by a pure D1 Information Networks.  Most factions will never research it themselves, they will either trade for it, or find it in a supply pod eventually.  That's how I got it in my current test game, after a long time.

If the AI were in the habit of stealing money with probe teams, I could call it partly a Build tech.  But it isn't, so I'm not going to call it that.  And probe teams definitely don't help with Exploring much, as they're fragile.

So I guess this interesting phenomenon is here to stay.  I can't put it any earlier in the tree.  The whole problem is I've put everything earlier, that I wanted earlier.  There's just a whole lot of stuff that's coming sooner rather than later.  Something gets randomly pushed to later, just by accident.

So, I've managed to discuss tech tree structure.  The other major thing I haven't tested, is air combat with longer range Needlejets, and earlier orbital insertion warfare.  At the rate my game is going though, it may not really come that much earlier.  That's part of why I've moved it up.  It's like I've taken my tree, assigned a heavier weight to all the stuff that I want to come earlier, then given the tree a huge shake.  All the heavy bits fall down to the beginning of the tree.  It's almost like I've got a heavy sack of steel ball bearings on a table, maybe with 1 hand still holding the bag up.

I guess I've inadvertently achieved blind research.  You really don't know what mix of early abilities you're going to get.  If you're used to "well I'm gonna get my this and then a this and then I'll do that", it's likely to be derailed.

[ChaDawnFanatic]

I have a small issue. I cannot see the replays of any of my games. There's just a black screen. Is there anything I can do? Replays are interesting and informational. I miss them.

 

[bvanevery]

Nothing to do with my modding, there are no settings for that.  You could try the PRACX binary patch.  I can't remember if it changes alphax.txt at all.  It shouldn't do that, because it's just for graphics not gameplay.  I think it modifies Alpha Centauri.ini with additional settings. 

I'm not sure I even know how to replay a game.  I will look at 2 different installations and see what happens.

Well, actually just 1.  I tried it on my SMACX AI Growth mod installation, version 1.27 still under development.  I activated the Scenario Editor, then selected View Replay.  It worked just fine on my installation.  I am using the GOG version on Windows 10.  Generally when people have had problems, I've recommended they use this version and problems have often gone away.  YMMV.

[ChaDawnFanatic]

Thank you! 

[bvanevery]

Did one of the things I said, solve the problem?

[bvanevery]

CHANGELOG
Changed from version 1.26 to 1.27:

*SOCIAL ENGINEERING NAMES:
- Free Market: renamed to Capitalist.  The lore of the game has always referred to it as such.
- Planned: renamed to Socialist.  The lore of the game clearly refers to Socialism, if not by name.  The name change is to stop people from conflating the modern Socialist concept with the behavior of historical Communist regimes.  In the game's terminology, the latter were Socialist Police States.  Democratic Socialist countries are readily observed in the First World today, i.e. France, Sweden, when a Socialist party wins an election.  This can't happen in some countries; for instance, the USA is always Democratic Capitalist because of its two party system.
- EFFICiency: renamed to JUSTICE.  Changed flavor text in social engineering table to match.  'Efficiency' is a bad label because it just connotes 'betterness' without giving a clear description of what is supposed to be better.  The main player visible effect of this choice is to make more people happy as one's empire gets bigger.  The secondary effect is loss of credits due to corruption.  JUSTICE covers both social justice, i.e. making people happy, and rooting out corruption.  It provides clearer guidance on what one is going to get out of a particular political choice, i.e. you're not going to get JUSTICE from a Police State.  Rather, POLICE are used to repress unhappy people. 

*SOCIAL ENGINEERING EFFECTS:
- Police State: moved to E2 Biogenetics.  Now gives +2 SUPPORT and -2 JUSTICE.  When combined with Power, this is going to be how most factions get free unit support up to the size of the base.  It costs money and requires cruelty.
- Democratic: moved to B2 Industrial Base.  Now gives +1 ECONOMY and +1 JUSTICE.  GROWTH bonus removed.  Free Market was overpowered when it had +2 ECONOMY, so I moved half of it here.  A lot of repression can still happen under a Democracy, so the JUSTICE bonus is modest.  Moving GROWTH from Democratic to Socialist, makes it easier for undemocratic factions to pop boom.
- Fundamentalist: now gives -1 JUSTICE.  The moral system is deemed to be not quite as bad as a Police State, as people who share the dominant ideology are well treated.  Mainly though, this is to provide a play mechanical difference.  I might get rid of Fundamentalist in a later version of this mod.  It has always duplicated and confused the concept of a Police State.
- Capitalist: moved to B2 Synthetic Fossil Fuels.  Now gives +1 ECONOMY, +1 INDUSTRY, and -3 PLANET.  JUSTICE bonus removed.  POLICE penalty removed.  Capitalists don't care about social justice.  They care about getting rich and will exploit anyone or anything needed to get there.  Industry does actually work better when a pro-Capitalist government is in power.  I wanted to stiffen the PLANET damage some, it was kinda weak compared to the unmodded game.  Capitalists have no objection to using police forces to repress people.  Aversion to police repression is a trait of Democratically minded people.
- Socialist: moved to E2 Adaptive Economics.  Now gives +2 JUSTICE, +2 GROWTH, and -1 ECONOMY.  INDUSTRY and SUPPORT bonuses are removed.  Socialism tries to make more people happy and it costs money.  It doesn't make industry work especially well, nor does it magically pay for maintenance.  With the GROWTH incrase, this becomes a major part of how a faction will pop boom.
- Green: moved to E2 Centauri Empathy.  Now gives +2 PLANET.  ECONOMY bonus removed.  I've gone back to the idea that this is about chucking out the mindworms.  A better Economy can now be obtained by going Democratic at the same time.  JUSTICE remains +1.  It is not as high as a Socialist economy because people will be controlled and marginalized if they're damaging the planet in any way.  Environmentalism is first and foremost planet-centric, not people-centric.
- Power: now gives +1 MORALE, +1 PROBE, -2 GROWTH, and -2 JUSTICE.  INDUSTRY and ECONOMY penalties removed.  There are lots of ways to increase the morale of a unit, and PROBE has been a bit impoverished in this mod.  GROWTH is penalized because people are getting killed in wars and purges.  Tyrannical empires aren't interested in justice.  Industry and economy really shouldn't suffer during a war mobilization, if anything they'd get better.  Just look at the USA in WW II.
- Knowledge: now gives +2 RESEARCH.  PLANET bonus removed.  PROBE penalty removed.  The University often became a pseudo-Gaian faction, and I don't think that improved the game.  I'm tired of Knowledge meaning you get probed.  Why wouldn't Knowledge make you better at cryptography algorithms?  More than anything though, having vulnerability to probes is a tiresome game mechanic.  Probes are overpowered as is.
- Wealth: removed JUSTICE bonus.  Removed PLANET penalty.  MORALE is now -2.  Rich people don't care about justice, they just convince people to get rich and join the country club.  The stiffer MORALE penalty makes this more of a tradeoff with a consequence, like in the original game.  It also gives PLANET friendly factions a way to make money, if they want to forego conventional forces.
- Cybernetic: now gives -2 POLICE.  PROBE penalty removed.  It really doesn't make any sense that Cyborgs would be more vulnerable to probes.  The POLICE increase picks up the slack from Capitalist not having a POLICE penalty.  It is possible to reach the maximum of -5 POLICE by choosing Democratic, Knowledge, and Cybernetic.
- Eudaimonic: added +2 JUSTICE bonus.  Removed ECONOMY bonus.  This is essentially futuristic socialism that works pretty well.  It's not going to make anyone rich, but people will be happier, it won't lose money, and more stuff will be produced.
- Thought Control: unchanged.

*FACTIONS:
- Believers: removed GROWTH bonus.  Added +1 MORALE.  Set AI personality to Aggressive.  Even if they don't choose to be Fundamentalist, I want them to be more threatening.  It's pretty easy to get GROWTH from Socialism in this version, so GROWTH doesn't mean much as a bonus.
- Cult of Planet: removed IMPUNITY to Fundamentalist.  Added IMMUNITY to RESEARCH going below 0.  I want the Cult to suffer the new -1 JUSTICE effect from Fundamentalist.  This can work out better for them in the late midgame if they chose Thought Control.
- Cybernetic Consciousness: JUSTICE bonus reduced to +1.  Cyborgs are not presumed to simply be "better at everything".
- Data Angels: now starts with Planetary Networks, so can build probe teams immediately.  Starts with 1 probe team.  Added +1 ECONOMY.  Changed personality to Passive.  Removed Conquer research focus, leaving only Build focus.  Added secondary compulsion to pursue ECONOMY.  The Data Angels need to make more money to be more effective with mind control.  The only conquer tech they actually need is a probe team.  Since it does not enable them to make any Secret Projects, nor any social engineering choices, they are given it immediately.  They will acquire large numbers of Conquer techs through SHARETECH, so they really don't need to research any of that themselves.  It's not to their advantage to make much war, they can frame more people if they're at peace.  They should sit back and make as much money as they can without getting into unneeded conflicts.  Roze is a reject from the Morganites so having an ECONOMY bonus fits the game's lore.
- Morganites: removed JUSTICE bonus.  Capitalists such as Morgan are interested in making money, not legal or social justice.  Greasing palms is considered ok.  "I felt compelled to have them nerve stapled" makes this pretty clear in the game's lore.
- Free Drones: reduced NODRONE to 1.  Added +1 JUSTICE bonus.  May now use Green economy.  Cannot use Police State.  The Free Drones are essentially proto-Socialists who freed themselves from the tyranny of factions like the Hive.  Eudaimonia is basically futuristic Socialism that actually works and has no disadvanatage, save lack of willingness to warmonger.  Factory workers that inevitably pollute is a stereotype that ignores modern notions of Environmental Justice and intersectionalism.  Do people really believe that coal miners in, say, West Virginia, are incapable of understanding what pollution does to the lungs of the working class?  A lot of factions now have Politics confrontations, but that's ok because we play with 14 factions and only 7 are in the game at a time.  Democratic vs. authoritarian behavior is a key theme of the game, and FREE Drones are clearly on the anti-authoritarian side of that ledger.  They're NEVER going back to their former masters, and revolting cities know that about them.
- Hive: now gets +1 POLICE.  Removed IMPUNITY to Police State.  Removed GROWTH bonus.  Democratic no longer gives GROWTH, so the Hive doesn't need to be compensated for its inability to use Democratic.  Researching Police State takes time, and benefits that are available at the beginning of the game, are better than benefits that one has to wait for.  Rather than make Chairman Yang magically immune to Police State problems, I make his method explicit.  He's just better at suppressing people!  When he gets Police State he'll be at +3 POLICE, making his police twice as effective as anyone else's.  Everyone else needs the Ascetic Virtues to get to this level of police effectiveness.
- Peacekeepers: now gets +1 JUSTICE.  Lal is always trying to do the right thing for humanity.
- Pirates: may not choose Thought Control future society.  They value the freedom to roam the waves.

*EXPLORE CHANGES:
- Children's Creche: moved to E2 Biogenetics.
- Biogenetics: set power=3, tech=0, wealth=0, and growth=4, making it an E2 tech.  Children's Creche gives a morale bonus and reduces vulnerabilty to mind control.  Police State gives a SUPPORT bonus, but penalties for ECONOMY and JUSTICE, creating no wealth.  POLICE makes people happy.
- Adaptive Economics: now an E2 tech.  Set power=0 and wealth=0.  It has no military application.  Socialist economics gives a JUSTICE bonus but an ECONOMY penalty, thus producing almost no wealth.
- Centauri Empathy: set power=0, tech=3, and wealth=0.  Lifecycle improvements shall be considered Explore, not Conquer.  Biology Lab gives tech.  EFFIC bonus can be worth money, but SUPPORT penalty penalizes production, so not much wealth.
- Centauri Genetics: set power=3, wealth=0, and growth=4.  Mindworms shall be considered Conqer-ish.  It no longer gives Green, so no wealth.  Having growth=5 creates too much of a beeline effect for Explore.
- Ethical Calculus: now an E3 tech.  Set power=0 and wealth=0.  It only makes people happy.
- Hab Complex: moved to E3 Ethical Calculus.
- The Planetary Transit System: moved to E3 Ethical Calculus.
- Intellectual Integrity: now an E3 tech.  Set power=0 and wealth=0.  It only makes people happy.
- The Ascetic Virtues: moved to E3 Intellectual Integrity.

*DISCOVER CHANGES:
- Information Networks: set growth=0.  A bread crumb to get to Biology Lab is no longer needed.
- Biology Lab: moved to E2 Centauri Empathy.
- Secrets of the Human Brain: now a D2 tech.  Set power=0, tech=4, wealth=0, and growth=0.
- Cyberethics: now a D4 tech.
- The Virtual World: moved to D4 Cyberethics.
- Knowledge: moved to D4 Cyberethics.
- Thinker: moved to D4 Cyberethics.
- Applied Relativity: now a D5 tech.  Set tech=4 because every Discover tech gives some major benefit and this one isn't particularly special compared to the rest.
- Nanohospital: moved to D5 Pre-Sentient Algorithms.
- The Universal Translator: moved to D5 Pre-Sentient Algorithms.
- Pre-Sentient Algorithms: now a D5 tech.  Set power=0, tech=4, and growth=3.  Nanohospital makes people happy.
- Digital Sentience: now a D6 tech.  Set wealth=2.  The Cybernetic JUSTICE bonus can make some money but it's not worth wealth=3.
- The Network Backbone: moved to D6 Digital Sentience.  Following the theme of allowing Discover stuff to be learned earlier.
- Unified Field Theory: now a D7 tech.  Set tech=4 and wealth=3.  Every Discover tech gives some kind of advantageous research facility, so no reason to set tech=5 for this one in particular.  The Corporate Lab is not as good as various Build facilities.
- Secrets of Creation: now a D10 tech.

*EARLIER BUILD SECRET PROJECTS:
- The Planetary Energy Grid: moved to B4 Environmental Economics.
- Environmental Economics: set growth=3.  It now gives the Planetary Energy Grid, not the Ascetic Virtues.
- Planetary Economics: set wealth=4.  It no longer gives the Planetary Enegy Grid.
- The Longevity Vaccine: moved to B4 Bio-Engineering.
- Bio-Engineering: set growth=3.  The Longevity Vaccine can make people happy.
- The Space Elevator: moved to B6 Eudaimonia.
- The Living Refinery: moved to B7 Industrial Nanorobotics.
- Matter Editation: now a B9 tech.  Set power=0 and growth=0.  Now increases MINERALS production in fungus.  It no longer gives Clinical Immortality.
- Nanoreplicator: now costs 30 and maintenance 5, because it comes before a Quantum Converter.
- Quantum Converter: now costs 36 and maintenance 6.
- The Bulk Matter Transmitter: moved to B10 Quantum Machinery.

*EARLIER WORLDWIDE COMBAT:
- Foil chassis: now has movement 5 and cost 3.
- Cruiser chassis: now has movement 8 and cost 6.
- Needlejet chassis: now has movement 10 and cost 10.
- Gravship chassis: now has movement 12 and cost 12.
- Missile chassis: movement reduced to 30, but range is now unlimited.  No longer uses fuel.
- Copter chassis: removed from the game, except for Locusts of Chiron.  No longer uses fuel.  Its multiple attacks are too powerful, and it's pretty useless when its speed is reduced.
- Locusts of Chiron: now based on Copter chassis instead of Gravship chassis, so that it can remain a fairly slow air unit.  Multiple attacks aren't that helpful for Psi combat as attacking units typically take lots of damage.  Even Demon Boil mindworms with a +40% Psi attack advantage can get surprisingly chewed up attacking a mere Scout.
- Orbital Insertion: now available with C7 Advanced Spaceflight.
- Graviton Theory: now a C7 tech.

*INCREASED ABILITY COSTS:
- Heavy Transport: moved to C1 Doctrine: Flexibility.  Now costs 2.  If the player wants to spend a lot more production to get a ship with bigger capacity, I say let 'em.  In the real world, moving lots of units around on ships simply doesn't matter.
- High Morale: now costs 2.  Shouldn't give offensive advantages cheap.
- Soporific Gas Pods: now costs 3.  This offensive debuff messes up the carefully orchestrated balance between weapons and armor.  It's like getting 1..2 weapon levels higher than normal.  Also the AI never builds them, so it's a human player's exploit.
- Drop Pods: now costs 2.  Earlier orbital insertion makes them more advantageous.
- Fuel Nanocells: moved to C5 Mind/Machine Interface.  Now costs 2.
- Dissociative Wave: now costs 3.  Offensive debuffs need to cost more to keep the game from being ruined.  At least this one isn't that useful in practice, because infantry gets the biggest bonus attacking cities, and there's no such thing as an anti-infantry defense.
- Antigrav Struts: now costs 2.
- Blink Displacer: moved to D15 Threshold of Transcendence.  Now costs 4.  There is no point in having a progression of weapons and armor all the way to strength 30 if this is simply going to ruin it.  This is a toy to be played with when the game is effectively over anyways.

*DEFENSIVE BEGINNING:
- Intrinsic Base Defense bonus: increased to +50%.  I want bases to be a refuge for defenders, and to mean something if someone has gone to the trouble of establishing them.
- Infantry vs. Base bonus: removed.  In a test game, I had a Disciplined Spartan Scout defending Sparta Command, get destroyed by a Green University Scout.  I don't think that should ever happen.
- Perimeter Defense: moved to C1 High Energy Chemistry.  AI factions need to be able to get a defense going against possible invaders.
- Applied Physics: now a C3 tech.  I tried making it a C1 tech, but that allowed factions to overrun nearby defenseless factions.  Later offense is better for AI growth.
- Laser: now has strength 3 and cost 3. 
- Heavy Artillery: moved to C3 Applied Physics.  It isn't that necessary for defending against early ships.  Other ships can be used against ships.
- The Citizens' Defense Force: moved to C3 Advanced Subatomic Theory.

*CONQUER CHANGES:
- Nerve Gas Pods: moved to C1 High Energy Chemistry.  If anyone wants to wipe out the Aliens, it's available.
- Deep Pressure Hull: moved to C2 Adaptive Doctrine.  I think the AI cheats and can see all units anyways, in which case this isn't an interesting tech.  If a human player wants to play with this, they can.
- Field Modulation: now a C2 tech.
- Doctrine: Loyalty: now a C2 tech.  Set power=4.  Don't make it special compared to other Conquer techs.
- The Command Nexus: moved to C3 Polymorphic Software.
- Retroviral Engineering: now a C3 tech.  I had way too many C4 techs.  If someone wants to do early gene warfare, I say why not.
- Covert Ops Center: moved to C4 Advanced Military Algorithms.
- The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm: moved to C4 Advanced Military Algorithms.
- 2 abilities per unit: moved to Industrial Automation.
- Industrial Automation: set power=3.  The Skunkworks is important for new military unit designs, and 2 abilities per unit helps with some military units.
- The Neural Amplifier: moved to C4 Neural Grafting.  It might be interesting to have Psi defense techs not all be in the Explore path, so that PLANET friendly factions can't just cakewalk everyone else.
- Bioenhancement Center: moved to C4 Neural Grafting.
- Neural Grafting: now a C4 tech.  Set wealth=0 as it doesn't give 2 abilities per unit anymore.
- Mind/Machine Interface: now a C5 tech.  Set growth=3 as Fuel Nanocells extend range.
- Nanominiaturization: set wealth=3 and growth=0.  The Nano Factory gives 50% discount on unit upgrade costs.  It doesn't give Fuel Nanocells anymore.
- Missile Launcher: moved to C6 Photon/Wave mechanics.  Even though the lore doesn't make sense, it's a pure conquer tech and others are Explore or Build hybrids.  I want to keep pure Conquer techs together in one place.
- Self-Aware Machines: now a C6 tech.
- Sentient Resonance: set growth=3 because Resonance weapons and armors help Psi combat.
- Controlled Singularity: set power=3 because it gives the Black Hole Gun.

*EARLIER DIPLOMATIC VICTORY:
- Homo Superior: set power=3, making it an E6 tech.  Thought Control does as much to keep people happy as it does for conquest, and an Explore tech is needed at Tier 6.  This can guide the Peacekeepers better to the Empath Guild.
- Paradise Garden: moved to E9 Biomachinery.
- Clinical Immortality: moved to E9 Biomachinery.
- Biomachinery: now an E9 tech.  Set power=3, wealth=3, and growth=4.  Winning the Governorship is worth money.  No longer gives the Cloning Vats.

*LATER CLONING VATS:
- Super Tensile Solids: now an E8 tech.  Set power=0, wealth=0, and growth=5 because it doesn't give the Space Elevator or Habitation Dome anymore.
- Sky Hydroponics Lab: moved to E8 Super Tensile Solids.
- Habitation Dome: moved to E8 Super Tensile Solids.
- The Cloning Vats: moved to E10 Matter Transmission.
- Matter Transmission: now an E10 tech.  Set power=4, wealth=0, and growth=5.  No longer increases MINERALS production in fungus.  The Cloning Vats grow the population endlessly and make Power and Thought Control have no penalties.  Psi Gates are the last form of transportation.  It no longer gives the Bulk Matter Transmitter.

*PREREQS:
- changed many prereqs for continuity of research foci.

*PREDEFINED UNITS:
- Marine Scout: removed.  They were meant to attack coastal cities that only have Scouts defending them, but I've never seen the AI do it.
- Submarine Probe Team: removed.  The faster Cruiser chassis is more expensive, making a Deep Pressure Hull not a good choice.
- Destroyer Probe Team: added in its place.  It's cheaper.  It relies on speed rather than invisibility.
- Cruiser Colony Pod: removed.  The faster Cruiser chassis is more expensive, making it not a good choice.  The Foil chassis is now faster, so ordinary Sea Colony Pods should work fine.
- Heavy Transport Foil: removed.  The AI doesn't actually need the capacity for anything.
- Rover Former: removed.  It was giving away a Speeder chassis prototype too quickly.
- Light Artillery: removed.  Heavy Artillery now comes with C3 Applied Physics.  A pea shooter isn't that useful by then.
- Clean Fungicidal Formers: removed.  The tech to have 2 abilities is no longer a prereq for B4 Bio-engineering.
- Clean Fungicidal Sea Formers removed.
- Radar Transport Foil: removed.  The AI probably cheats about where other units are anyways.  The game clutters the Workshop with non-radar designs even when this is available.
- Radar Destroyer Transport: removed.
- Clean Scout: removed.  By the time a Clean Reactor is available, building a mere Scout is probably not useful.  Telling the AI that it can build these, is probably just wasting a small amount of its production time.
- Police Scout: removed.  The AI doesn't use them as police, it just marches them around in the wilderness.
- Trance Colony Pod: moved to C4 Bioadaptive Resonance.  Added 3-Res armor.  A colony pod with only Trance suffers the -50% non-combat penalty.  It is not tough enough to stand up to mindworms, making it a waste of production.  However with 3-Res armor it no longer suffers the non-combat penalty and has a total of +75% against mindworm attacks.
- Unity Air Supply: takes the place of the Unity Scout Chopper.  Uses a Needlejet chassis, has a supply pod instead of a gun, and Deep Radar.
- Cloaked Laser Speeder: new predefined unit, available with C4 Nonlinear Mathematics.

The attachment limit per post is 5, and I eventually ran out of room at the top of the thread.  Consequently, this becomes the new home of version 1.27.  It was downloaded 141 times before I moved it here.