Miriam shall have Knowledge, but robots GO HOME

[bvanevery]

For version 1.15 of my mod, I'm hammering one of the last nails into the coffin of anti-Christian bias.  The Believers shall be able to choose Knowledge!  In my mod, Knowledge isn't quite as knowledgeable as in the regular game.  It's +EFFIC +RESEARCH +PLANET -PROBE -POLICE.  Isaac Newton will finally sleep soundly in his grave.  I also don't want Miriam to miss any Planet hugging eco-Nazi fun.

The Believers instead will no longer be able to choose Cybernetic future society.  The lore of the game is that it's clearly anathema to the Believers.  Against God's plan, against all that is human, yadda yadda.  Over the long haul, this is actually a worse penalty as in my mod it's ++EFFIC ++RESEARCH -PROBE -POLICE.  However in midgame, the Believers will be able to do ok research with Knowledge.

[Green1]

The character of Miriam really is a product of her time.

A few years before AC's day, the fundies were in the middle of an all out assault on gaming. Dungeons and Dragons books were burned and banned. Ex-Wicca and petacostal circuit preacher James Todd (who was later discredited) claimed such books were Satanic manuals. Steve Jackson Games got raided by the FBI for a hacker game.

Yes, there was internet back then but it was all expensive per minute services, BBS boards, and dial up. If you were not rich, a comp sci student, or lived in a major city you could not hear rebuttals to this garbage nonsense. Instead you got Patricia Pulling on the Today Show and Tom Cruise in Mazes and Monsters. Jack Thompson would show his face every time some kid shot himself or other people.

The wargamer crowd, while not the brunt of the assault, suffered a bit of collateral damage since Dnd had wargamer roots and video games themselves were attacked by prominent people looking for a scapegoat for bad parenting and mental illness.

SMAX is a period piece written at the end of a great moral panic.

I don't blame them for doing it. However, I do agree that not being able to take knowledge was a bit harsh.

You aren't getting to be psych chaplain on the Unity if you are one of those zealots that hates all knowledge but the Bible.

Good call.

[Green1]

One more thought on Miriam. In the SMAX alternate history timeline, the southern US succeeded and formed a theocracy. I am assuming it was based on Southern Baptist theology because that was the most common religion circa 1990s in the South.

Baptists are peculiar in the fact they are Democratic. If the congregation does not like a religious figure, they can vote them out. Does not matter if you are over 5 megachurches or a small church out in the boondocks with 12 members. You can preach hate as long as everyone else does, but if the lay people's views shift you lose members, tithes, and will get voted out if you do not adjust your message.

I can also see how Miriam got on the ship. Back in that day, most space ship production, testing, and launches came from the southern US. Important components of the Unity's outer structure were probably welded at Michaud in New Orleans. Testing was probably done at Stennis in Mississippi. Some of the launches were done in Florida with controllers in Houston. Makes sense with that expertise they would have people to place on the ship. As much as Zack or Yang probably rolled their eyes.

But... I ramble. I think Miriam is one of the more fascinating 4x characters in Wargaming history next to Nuclear Gandhi and Civ 4's Montezuma.

[bvanevery]

I don't think I'm prepared to make her not go Fundamentalist when the AI plays her.  If the Believers are not Fundamentalist, I think they cease to be the Believers.

I already softened what Fundamentalist is.  It's only -RESEARCH, and it becomes like a Police State with +POLICE +MORALE +SUPPORT -ECONOMY.  Police State and Fundamentalist are deliberately supposed to be six of one, a half dozen of the other.  You can have +POLICE or +MORALE.  You can have -EFFIC or -RESEARCH.  Factions get bent out of shape about doing one or the other, cuz, reasons.  I have never seen any operative difference between a Fundamentalist society and a Police State in real life.

In contrast, with Democratic you get --POLICE.  No police to keep people calm at all.  You can't gain POLICE with either an Economic or a Values choice.  You can get ++POLICE from a Thought Control society.  No faction has any POLICE bonus; Yang gets IMPUNITY to Police State but otherwise no bonus.  I made sure that nobody can top Yang under any circumstances.  The Spartans, in particular, were demoted.  Basically going Democratic means you're giving up the use of police.

I'm also giving the Believers MINDCONTROL immunity.   In the original game, being Fundamentalist and thereby gaining ++PROBE was a core mechanic.  It rendered the Believers immune to enemy mind control actions.  I got rid of the "worse research, better probe teams" game mechanic, in favor of "it's another kind of police state".  I went through a period where Police State was supposed to have the better probe teams, but it didn't work out.  Needed to have ++POLICE for Police State to actually be worth bothering with.  Couldn't give too many bonuses for 1 social engineering choice, so out it went.  Miriam retained a +PROBE but that's not worth didly squat by itself in the real world.  I came to realize, I nerfed the Believers a bit too hard, there was nothing interesting about the faction anymore.  In fact they had become the worst faction in the game, the new low standard for putting a "kick me" sign on their back.  MINDCONTROL immunity will give them a reason to be worth playing, despite the research limitation.

"Fundamentalist sux" became especially apparent when I changed the Cult of Planet into a Fundamentalist faction with IMMUNITY to its negative effects.  So like, why would anyone want to play Miriam now?

I took SUPPORT bonuses away from both of them, making the gaining of SUPPORT totally a mix and match property of social engineering choices.  You pick {Police State or Fundamentalist}, {Planned}, and {Power} to get your +++SUPPORT.   Lal will choose Democratic when the AI is playing him, but a human can choose Fundamentalist.  Only Morgan is restricted from using Planned.  The Gaians won't choose it when the AI is playing them because it's against their ideology.  Otherwise though, everyone can and will do it.  Nobody's restricted from using Power, as I made Roze an evil brain hacker.     The Pirates and the University won't choose it when the AI is playing them.  So that's only 1 faction that can't get support equal to base size; Morgan will just have to build The Living Refinery and gain the ++SUPPORT.  5 AI factions won't do it in practice; maybe more if I look carefully over their secondary compulsions, but I deliberately eliminated most of those, so that they wouldn't be stuck without choices.