validating Thinker mod's cost_factor in the .ini

[bvanevery]

The purpose of this thread, is to play a test game meticulously tracking whether the cost_factor setting in Thinker mod's thinker.ini works like it's supposed to.

Based on a test game, I have reason to believe that it doesn't, in some circumstance at least.  I made the following change to the settings, in order to have the AI play with no bonuses or penalties on Transcend difficulty:

Code: [Select]

; Set AI cost factors for mineral/nutrient production for each difficulty level respectively.
; All other difficulty level modifiers remain unaffected by this setting.
cost_factor=13,12,11,10,8,10
; Changed Transcend from 7 to 10.  AI is too competent at colonizing and resource management.

I know I started a game with this setting, and verified that all the AI factions were indeed getting rows of 10 nutrients for growth, and 10 minerals for production.  All seemed well.

Then I started the test game I actually played.  I did not verify anything at the beginning, because I didn't have infiltration with anybody, and I wanted to play the game properly.  I do not remember if I ever verified things early in the game.  The Usurpers started right next to me and seemed to do relatively poorly, so I assumed the minerals and nutrients were set to 10.  I played it a lot yesterday, doing a writeup as I was playing.  Eventually I got tired, went to bed, and saved my game.  I also may have saved and loaded once or twice due to some gameplay save scumming stuff.

Today I noticed that the nutrients and minerals were actually set to 7, as though the cost_factor had been ignored, or possibly reset.  Theories:

• It never worked in the game I played, and I just didn't notice?  Odd because it did work at the beginning of a different game.  Could it have to do with entering the app for the 1st time, vs. restarting a game from the menus?
• It did work, but stopped working when I saved and loaded?
• It stopped working for a seemingly random, fairly devious reason?

I am now remembering, I changed game save directories at one point, because I wanted to see whether eco-damage was the same in Thinker mod as in the stock binary.  It was; mission accomplished.  I wonder if this could have affected the path to thinker.ini somehow?  Like if it doesn't believe thinker.ini is available due to directory shenanigans, does it resort to default values?

I can't remember if I continued playing from that save or not.  Anyways, onwards to the test, to make sure diagnosis does not depend on memory.

[bvanevery]

The test I was actually trying to do, is to see how Thinker mod does when it isn't given any special production or nutrient boost ala Transcend.  I'm testing this in combo with my own SMACX AI Growth mod, not the stock alphax.txt or faction.txt files.

Quite apart from Thinker mod or my mod, the game gives a huge cheating pass to the AI on eco-damage.  A human player on Transcend will suffer catastrophic losses from doing too much eco-damage, and the AI will get the lightest of slaps on the wrist.  I've verified in another thread that there's at least a 3X difference in eco-damage done.  This doesn't matter with the stock binary, because the AI doesn't know how to terraform all that effectively.

Thinker mod totally changes that, giving the AI the knowledge and capability of the worst kind of supply crawler and borehole abusing minimaxer.  A lot of eco-damage should get done with such a strategy, were a human to do it.  That's why we humans don't do it.  But the AI gets a pass, and now with Thinker mod, it's turned into this huge, amplified cheat for the AI.  It's pretty much the golden path through the game now.  You either adopt a strategy like this yourself, or you die.

Thinker mod is also really good at early colony spreading.  Too good.  In my mod, I nerfed the Aliens so that they are no more powerful than other factions.  Yet, because they start with 3 colony pods instead of 2, in Thinker mod they are usually ending up with 18 cities when other AI factions have 12.  There is some debate about whether starting resources were just more favorable in the cases I observed, so I'll be paying attention to that too.

The excessive colony spreading should be solved easily enough: set cost_factor to 10 rather than 7.  AI nutrient bonus goes away.  Thinker mod might make the colonists scurry better, and they could still do well, but it should be "fair" compared to human play.  Instead of just suffering through a game where I know the AI was given huge boosts, that really really mattered at the beginning of the game.

With colony spreading and production normalized, I want to see if the eco-damage cheat is still a huge problem or not.  Does the AI stomp me, because it doesn't have to pay for all its polluting factories?  (Kinda like negotiating currency valuation with China.)  Or do they merely have an advantage, and it's in the realm of the acceptable?  I was trying to find out, when I ran into the problem of whether cost_factor was working at all.

For my test game, I will take a random faction.  Before, I chose Cha Dawn to maximize my PLANET rating and save me eco-damage, but I'm thinking that's not actually necessary now.  I will play against the Pirates, the Caretakers, the Usurpers, and 3 other random factions.  I want those 3 in the game as they benchmark important things.  In my mod, when combined with Thinker mod, the Pirates are clearly the economic runaway.  They are Passive and focus on Wealth.  They just sit back and rake in all those delicious sea mineral bonuses they get.  No need to conquer anybody when you've got a moat and inherent wealth like that!  The Aliens, they test whether starting with 3 colony pods instead of 2 is game breaking under Thinker.

[bvanevery]

I start the game "cold".  Freshly loaded into RAM.

After doing so, I think to check my "Alpha Centauri.ini" file for any weird save path.  It has:

Code: [Select]

Latest Save=C:\GOG Games\Thinker and AI Growth\saves\Cha Dawn of the Planet Cult, 2206That's normal.  That's the directory I made for combining both Thinker and my AI Growth mod.

Huge map.  30%..50% land mass, using my world generator settings.  Such maps never have small islands, are mostly continental in shape, and have large oceans in case Pirates are in play.  Average settings.  Transcend difficulty.  cost_factor in thinker.ini is 10:

Code: [Select]

; Set AI cost factors for mineral/nutrient production for each difficulty level respectively.
; All other difficulty level modifiers remain unaffected by this setting.
cost_factor=13,12,11,10,8,10
; Changed Transcend from 7 to 10.  AI is too competent at colonizing and resource management.

I draw the Spartans.  Pirates, Caretakers, Usurpers, Cyborgs, Peacekeepers, and Hive are in play.  Based on previous experience I'm expecting the Cyborgs to be weaker than the others, but otherwise I really couldn't tell you.  I'm still living with the consequences of rebalancing the factions in my mod.  Those others could all be strong factions.

The Spartans only get +2 MORALE in my mod, no other bonuses.  However they also don't get any penalties.  On larger maps, if they start out isolated it's the worst case really.  They have no advantage for sitting back and making a good empire.  They need to find a victim.

So, if I thought I was going to ape Thinker's play style and cough out boreholes and supply crawlers, well we'll see how it really goes.  I think it's going to be logistics dependent.  I could certainly take over someone else's nicely constructed boreholes.

Before I make any move I save my game, in case I need to check it later.  Attached.

[bvanevery]

MY 2157.  I have been completely isolated.  My high MORALE has been useful for exploration, and I've made a lot of money, but I don't have much of anything to spend it on.  I don't need to rush Colony Pods because I'm much more limited by the speed at which I produce roads and terrain improvements.  I've started building Rover Formers to make roads faster and lower my SUPPORT costs.

This turn I finally popped a comm frequency from a supply pod.  It's for the Pirates.  They offer a Pact if I go to war with the Usurpers.  I have an ulterior motive for saying yes: I want to see how many nutrients and minerals are in a row of Svensgaard's cities!  This is the quickest way.

It doesn't hurt that I need a lot of his techs as well.  In my mod the Spartans have a pure Conquer focus by default, and I kept that, to see how it would go.  Lately I've started feeling a need for a Recreation Commons though.  We trade, and he thinks I'm a weakling, so he even gives me a tech for free.  Ironically, the one thing I don't get out of him is Social Psych!

Details friendly pirates to the east

friendly pirates to the east

Looks like I would have contacted him soon anyways.  Now let's see what his nutrients and minerals look like.

Details aarg me hearty minerals

aarg me hearty minerals

Nutrients are correct, 10 per row.  Minerals are at 9 per row.  They are Democratic Capitalist Survival, which gives +0 GROWTH and +1 INDUSTRY, so that's also correct.

Now I save the game.  Everything is working correctly right now.  Attached.

[bvanevery]

To test the "saves ignore it" possibility, I select Menu.. Game.. Start New Game.  This is a warm start, the game is still running.  I load my game.  I check Safe Haven again:

Details aarg save me minerals

aarg save me minerals

Still working.

Now I quit SMAC completely.  I start the game "cold" again.  I load my game.  I check Safe Haven:

Details aarg I eats me spinach

aarg I eats me spinach

Still working.  So it doesn't appear to be anything as trivial as a start, save, or load issue.  I guess now I just wait and see, checking on the nutrients and minerals every so often.  Maybe the whole problem was triggered by my save / load interaction with a different SMAC installation.  If so, that's not worth chasing down, as nobody would be doing that regularly in the real world.  I will refrain from trying to perform that experiment for some time, in favor of just playing this test game.

[bvanevery]

MY 2161.  The Pirates trade a tech with me, then cut me off before I can ask him to do it again!  So I still don't have Social Psych.

MY 2162.  More mindworms keep coming up from the south.  They badly wounded my Ogre and they trashed one of my Formers.  Belatedly I realize I just traded for Centauri Empathy and am Trance capable, so it's time to cough out a lot of Trance Scouts.

MY 2164.  Svensgaard sells me Biogenetics for 100 credits and then cuts me off.  This is a groaner!  I didn't even get a chance to make him give me the Caretaker commlink frequency for free.

MY 2166.  I get the commlink frequency out of him.  The Caretakers talk, then just declare war on me without preliminaries.  They are adjacent to the Pirates, just east of them.  For now I won't bother Svensgaard about it, as he may get a map out of them.  Also, the Caretakers are in no position to do anything to me.  They'd have to go through sea, then land.  Or else cross the north pole.

MY 2169.  !@#$#!$@!!  Now he won't sell to me because he's working on the Weather Paradigm.  You idiot, I don't care about that, I want Social Psych!  Well maybe there's a Police State in my future.  Yeah, that's what I'm seeing.  I go Green to prepare for the hit in Justice it'll give me.  I also need to do much more exploring.  I think I'm alone on this continent except for 1 Pirate base.

MY 2171.  I capture my 1st Isle and my 1st Spore Launcher.

MY 2172.  A 2nd Spore Launcher destroys my 1st and wounds my Synthmetal Speeder, but I capture a mindworm.

MY 2174.  He trades me Field Modulation for my Adaptive Doctrine.  Both are C2 techs.  I'm never gonna learn Social Psych.

MY 2183.  Svensgaard gives me the frequency of the Cyborgs.  We sign a Treaty but they won't trade any techs.  They sell me the frequency of the Peacekeepers.  They sell me C3 Applied Physics, which in my mod is a strength 3 weapon.  But... unbelievable, they do not know Social Psych!  They're the freakin' Peacekeepers and have an Explore, Conquer research focus.  How do they manage to not know this?

Details I'd walk a mile for a Nexus

I'd walk a mile for a Nexus

I discover the Manifold Nexus some distance south of me, seemingly in unclaimed territory.  Guess I'm heading there.

[bvanevery]

MY 2188.  I sign a Pact with the Cyborgs.  This gives me another set of cities to check the rows on.  Yep, 10 minerals and nutrients per row.  Government is Frontier Simple Survival.

Details gonna run through the jungle

gonna run through the jungle

MY 2193.  A dimensional gate dropped me in the Monsoon Jungle.  It appears to be unclaimed.

[bvanevery]

MY 2197.  I finally gain Social Psych from a supply pod.

MY 2210.  I sign a Pact with the Peacekeepers, simply because he's willing to do it.  I'm a Police State and not planning to change soon.  I get a map of both Peacekeeper and Hive territory.

Details Pirate land bridge

Pirate land bridge

MY 2217.  The Pirates have used the Weather Paradigm to build a land bridge directly to Caretaker territory.  I now have a direct invasion route.  I will need to build a rail to push troops that way though.  I've completed a rail to all of my cities except 1 outlying one, and that's almost done.  I've already started building a lot of Rover Formers for lack of anything else to do.

On the graph, the Pirates are more than twice as strong as everyone else.  Everyone else is roughly equal.

[bvanevery]

MY 2225.  I steal the tech for the Ascetic Virtues from the Caretakers, and I complete it.  Now I have +3 POLICE, double police effectiveness!

MY 2230.  I steal the tech for the Xenoempathy Dome from the Caretakers, and I complete it.

MY 2236.  I complete the Neural Amplifier.

MY 2238.  I decide to go Democratic, since I'm really only throwing probe teams at the Caretakers to mess up their Perimeter Defenses.  I don't actually want to take any of their cities, and I stole all their techs.  I'm not sure how much longer I'll do Green.  It's been profitable, and it's how I trashed a few Caretaker cities, but I am the Spartans and could be doing chemical warfare on the Aliens.  I've almost run out of continental supply pods to pop.

Doing a nutrient and minerals check, everything is still working.

5 AM, going to bed!

[bvanevery]

Details no daycare in paradise

no daycare in paradise

MY 2245.  My Peacekeepers get an inherent +2 GROWTH for their faction alone.  They have chosen Democratic Socialist Survival, which gives another +2 GROWTH for Socialist.  So in cities without a Children's Creche, they have +4 GROWTH, and show rows of 6 nutrients.  They also show the correct number of minerals, 10 per row.

Details Peace is booming

Peace is booming

Cities with a Children's Creche have 5 nutrients per row.  Since the net GROWTH for the city is +6, I was wondering why it wouldn't be 4 nutrients per row.  It looks like GROWTH bonuses are capped at +50%, per the table in alphax.txt.  What I'm actually looking at, is a population boom.

Details who has got the power

who has got the power

In my mod, Peacekeeper population booms are by design.  That's one of their major faction weapons, and in my playtesting over the past several months, it hasn't resulted in imbalance.  Luscious Pirate kelp is probably still more powerful!  In this game the Peacekeepers are the nominal #2 faction after the Pirates, but they're not rated much better than the Hive and the Cyborgs, who are tied for #3 and #4.  I'm at #5.  The Caretakers are a diminished #6, and the Usurpers a scrawny #7.

Details kelp or slurry

kelp or slurry

The Pirates are not pop booming.  They simply have that much food.  Thinker mod might be doing a better job of balancing minerals vs. energy in Pirate cities.  The stock binary tends to obsess about minerals.  The Pirates have chosen Democratic Socialist Wealth, giving them +2 GROWTH.  With a Children's Creche in a city it becomes +4.

[bvanevery]

MY 2250.  I complete the Maritime Control Center.  Everyone's working on Tree Farms.

I'm just hassling the Caretakers, gradually wearing down 1 of their cities, and destroying the Perimeter Defenses of the rest.  The latter may soon cease as I think I've trained all my probe teams to Elite.  I'm not going to waste Elite teams on meager operations like this, as my teams only start out Hardened.

Unfortunately my buddy Svensgaard signed a Treaty with the Caretakers.  I could bug him about attacking, but it's not strictly necessary.  They're still at war with the Usurpers, who are slightly eating up the Caretakers from the other side.  The Pirates are a land buffer between the Caretakers and myself, so I have a completely free ride, just attacking with a stack of mindworms guarded by an ECM 3-Pulse unit on a Monolith.  It's a rather slow, non-chemical way of degrading the Caretakers.  If I didn't have anything better to do, I'd make chemical weapons to wipe them out, but I've got Tree Farms to build.

MY 2252.  I infiltrate the Usurpers.  I wasn't paying good attention to the Secret Project races, and neglected that they're building the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm.  I send an Elite team to steal Advanced Military Algorithms, which is the tech for that in my mod.  There's a lock on the base, but I have a 75% chance of success and don't lose my team.

Now I could choose Power.  However I don't really feel like pissing off the Pirates by choosing that.  Not yet.  It would be rational to take all of the Pirates land bases away though, since they're touching my empire.  At present though, I'm building Tree Farms, have only Trance Scouts on defense, and the Pirates are Magnanimous towards me.  Heck, maybe I'll stop messing with the Caretakers and go for Wealth.  Er, except I can't do that.  The Spartans aren't allowed to choose Wealth.  Hmm ok maybe I really should invade then!

I also research Industrial Automation.  In my mod it's partially a Conquer tech, as it gives the Skunkworks.  It also of course gives supply crawlers, and in my mod it allows Boreholes to be built as well.  That's because the quote for the tech talks all about boreholes.

Svensgaard has already got the tech, but nobody else does.  Looking at his cities, I don't see any boreholes yet.  I send an independent Scout to march around his empire and get a better look at everything.  If this AI built rails, I'd just zip a probe team around and then come back home, but this AI doesn't build rails.  So it's a little manual exploration with a unit that isn't doing anything for me, but that I don't care to lose.

Going Capitalist would get the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm done faster, due to the +1 INDUSTRY bonus in my mod.  It would also help with money.  I can't really use supply crawlers to finish it because I've got all those Tree Farms in production.  Svensgaard completes it in 10 turns and that's not counting if he decides to use supply crawlers.  The Cyborgs complete in 14 and 23 turns.  The Usurpers are not a serious contender at 30 turns.  I need 28 turns without Capitalist, but I know how to use money and shift production around in ways that the AI does not.

Looks like it's a good idea to speed this up, so I go Capitalist and accept that my mindworm exploration rampage is over for now.  Credits jump from 77 to 115 per turn.  Now I need 22 turns to complete.  I rehome a Trance Scout so that I'm not paying any SUPPORT.  My production in that city is merely 12 minerals, not all that special.  It's a Secret Project I started a long time ago, anticipating the need for something like this.

[bvanevery]

MY 2253.  I save scum and replay my turn out of disbelief at how badly my previously tough mindworms do.  Yet another Sensor Array I need to bring down before I can do any damage.  The Usurpers finally killed the Caretaker city I spent all that time weakening.  Perhaps my mission was accomplished.  I will still march these remaining units around and make trouble though.  If they can actually harm anything anymore.

Pirates need 8 turns to complete the HSA.  Some of my Tree Farms complete, so I start supply crawlers in 3 cities.  I need 19 turns and have 455 credits.  I would need 880 credits to rush.

MY 2254.  The Caretakers surprised me by slaying my ECM 3-Pulse unit with multiple attacks, then destroying my 4 mindworms.  Surprising that they didn't do it earlier.  Maybe I got too close to a city that had enough of a reserve in it.  Oh well, now I don't have to care about what's going on over there!  Let them slog it out with the Usurpers, they won't be doing anything that bothers me ever again.

This game is pretty much proof that starting with 3 colonists, isn't any major advantage for the Aliens, at least when cost_factor is at parity with the human player.  The Aliens are in last place.

Svensgaard needs 7 turns.  I need 832 credits and only have 536.

MY 2255.  I popped a pod that I think gave a pile of credits.  With only 1 supply crawler used, I spend 636 credits to rush the HSA.  Capitalism works!

MY 2256.  I complete the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm.  Now what?  Guess I could make a lot of Hovertank Formers and build a rail all the way to the Manifold Nexus.  I just don't have it in me to try to kill the Pirates.  I don't like backstabbing an ok ally.  Maybe just wait until he's not ok, like if I choose Knowledge eventually.  Ok, first things first.  I'm going to put some proper ECM 3-Pulse garrisons everywhere, so that Svensgaard can't do anything funny.

Details are boreholes boring

are boreholes boring

I do finally see a Pirate borehole.  I have 3 extra Supply Crawlers.  Wouldn't it be funny if they went and used mines and condensers that the Pirates built but aren't using?  I'm doing it!

A more seriously passive aggressive strategy with your "friends", is to plant fungus on them.  Unlike pillaging, the game fails to understand it as a hostile act.  So arguably, it's an exploit.  My own ethics on this sort of thing, is I'm willing to do it to someone I only have a Truce with.  I think if we have a Treaty or a Pact, that's straight up cheating.  Now, isn't it cheating even with a Truce?  Well, debatable.  It's perfectly legal to camp on someone's square and deny them the ability to use the resources, under a Truce.  Planting fungus is like a camp you can walk away from, that's how I see it.

I'm gonna let my Pirate ally "roll on" with his borehole thing, until such a time as he actually becomes a problem with me.  I pretty much have to roleplay being a backstabber, like if I decide I'm going to be a thoroughly evil douchebag Chairman Yang from the very beginning of the game.  The Pirates don't currently pose any kind of direct threat to me.  Sure they're ahead, but graphs can be misleading that way.  I've played plenty of games with AI faction leads like this and I've snuffed them anyways when I wanted to.  Things change real fast when you start taking over their cities.

[bvanevery]

MY 2256.  Good grief, I've got 17 Artifacts socked away.  I could be the tech leader if I wanted to.  In case of any strange calamity, I distribute these more evenly between my cities.  I've only got 12 cities, so I couldn't cash them all right now even if I wanted to.

Instead, I talk to the Cyborgs.  They give me Orbital Spaceflight, thinking I'm weak, or really cool, or something.  Well I won't forget that generosity!  In my mod this also comes with Missile Launchers, so even more useful.

Maybe looking a little weak, is actually useful?

I talk to the Pirates.  They sell me Doctrine: Air Power and Cyberethics for 125 each.  So I could do Knowledge now.  I'm not going to.  With allies like this, and tech being sold this cheap, why bother?  Let them figure it out, I'll just build Secret Projects at the last minute.

MY 2257.  I just realized that Svensgaard sold me Cyberethics without having completed the Virtual World.  Why did he do that?  Well, whatever, time for me to build it!  Seems I can win these races.  Thinker AI isn't exactly cutthroat about this.

Svensgaard sells me the Longevity Vaccine.  That gives Genejack Factories.  I often don't bother with those, but I might this game.

MY 2258.  I destroy an empty size 1 Caretaker sea base with an Isle.  Then we sign a Treaty.  They're still at war with my allies the Cyborgs and the Hive, but I don't have to talk to either of them all that much.  The Hive will eventually dump me for my Democratic tendencies anyways.

MY 2260.  I infiltrate my ally the Peacekeepers.  It was a long way by boat, but Cruisers in my mod have movement 8.  Foils have movement 5.

MY 2261.  Using mostly supply crawlers and a tiny bit of money, I rush the Virtual World.  That was easy!  I've decided to build the Genejack Factories.  If they make people unhappy, it's an excuse to found new cities.

Yang wants me to declare war on the Caretakers again, and I refuse.  Yang wanted me to loan him money, and I refused.  Yang ended his Pact with me before I could get a word in edgewise.  Not that big a deal, it was inevitable and he's the farthest away from me on the map.  Come to think of it, I haven't infiltrated him.  Something for that 1 Destroyer Probe Team to do.  Another long ocean haul, even farther than the Peacekeepers.

Svensgaard declared war on the Cyborgs at some point.  I didn't realize that.  I loan the Cyborgs money.  I get them to call off their war against the Caretakers.   They sign off.  I didn't even get to ask them about what I really wanted, Gene Splicing.

I get Svensgaard to call off the war with the Cyborgs.  This time I buy Gene Splicing from him for 225 credits.  I do have more money now, since it was much easier to get the Virtual World done than I was expecting.

[bvanevery]

MY 2262.  Having completed the Virtual World, I'm also at tech parity with all other factions.  I could leap ahead at will.  What I will actually do, is wait until I have enough money and production to bang out a Secret Project, typically around 1000 credits.  Then I'll cash an Artifact if I haven't gained a tech to make a SP with it.  Wet, lather, rinse, repeat until all Secret Project are us!

MY 2263.  I gain some instantly completed factories from popping pods out in the ocean.

Details what have I done to deserve this

what have I done to deserve this

MY 2264.  I got a couple of fungal pops, but looks like only 2 life forms.  A volcano also erupted.  42 eco-damage from that, good grief!  I will switch to Socialist because I still want to keep growing into these new Tree Farms for a bit.  It will also make counterattacking the mindworms not suck too badly, even if it isn't Green good.  That drops the eco-damage to 21.  I scoured the fungal squares and found 2 more mindworms, one of them quite large and hard for me to kill.  But kill it I did, at the loss of one scout rover.  Time to make some empath units!

So, here we see that what I experience for eco-damage, and what the AI experiences, isn't fair.  It remains to be seen if this is a problem for me or not.  I will note, I haven't drilled a single borehole.  Nor have I built a single mine on a square that doesn't have a resource special.  I avoid building mines until the very last, for exactly this reason.  It starts to become ok when you've got Hybrid Forests, and I don't have those yet.  All I've done is build 2 Genejack Factories, admittedly with more to come.  I usually don't do that for the reason you see now, but we'll see how bad it gets.  It has changed my behavior, I did feel compelled to go Socialist.  If I get whacked again I guess I'll go Green.

I've got some money, so I rush all remaining Tree Farms.

[bvanevery]

MY 2266.  I research Silksteel Alloys.  The Pirates and the Cyborgs have both researched Nanominiaturization, which makes the Nano Factory available.  I have 764 credits, 79 income, and I don't want my Genejack Factories finishing any faster than necessary, so I think it's time to pop some Artifacts.  I'm looking for a Secret Project to build.  Yes I could steal the tech from the Pirates, but given that I've got 19 Artifacts, it's really not worth jeopardizing our Pact over.  Yes I could save scum it until my mission hoodwinks him, but I don't feel like cheating my way through this.

Centauri Psi and the Pholus mutagen.  Yes I can do that!  Good timing.

MY 2268.  I rush it with cash, some of it from popping sea pods.

MY 2274.  Lal wants war with the Cyborgs and I refuse.  He terminates our Pact!  This has the benefit of teleporting an Artifact and a scout rover home.

MY 2276.  I get the Cyborgs to stop their war with the Peacekeepers, and I buy Fusion Power from them.  That puts me a bit behind on money.  I'm really not making enough under a Socialist government, so I go back to Capitalist.  Income jumps from 40 to 118.  I have 9 eco-damage in 2 cities, otherwise no issues.  I guess the Pholus Mutagen was useful.  I have a full pile of Trance AAA 3-Res units guarding everything now, and the Neural Amplifer, so I should be ok.

I checked the cost_factor stuff and everything looks normal.

Going to bed.