SMAX - The Will to Power - mod

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Tayta Malikai,
First, let me thank both you and Nevill again for such throughout feedback. I couldn't expect anything better. A lot of positive and negative = much to think about.
😆❗

I won't be answer everything in a single post but I'll keep reviewing it and maybe adding my reflection to some of the points periodically.


I've already replied to Nevill about game pace and that I've reverted costs of former and colony more toward original vanilla values. I've tested it myself a little and found it acceptable.

As I said before, I don't really afraid of explosive expansion at the very beginning of the game as it is indeed something quite expected and designed for. I wouldn't call it ICS as long as it is mixed up with some base development and fades out gradually as there are other development options appears with tech progress.

[Nevill]

What is the unit cost formula, currently as of v86?

I am trying to understand how armor affects the cost. A synthmetal 1-2-1 unit costs just as much as a plasma steel 1-3-1. A photon rover 1-5-2 costs as much as a probability one 1-6-2.

I thought pricing 4-1-1 and 1-4-1 units the same was the point? Yet the former costs 4 rows, while the latter is only 2. What is going on?

And yes, I see the adjusted armor values in alphax.txt. Something doesn't add up.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

https://github.com/tnevolin/thinker-doer#unit-cost-formula

There is a bug in unit cost calculation. I fixed it in upcoming version. Now checking what other versions are affected.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

# Version 87

* [fix] Unit cost were calculated incorrectly sometimes.

* Recycling Tanks now increases minerals by 50% instead of improving base tile.
* Recycling Tanks,               6, 2.
* Clean minerals = 24.
* Research is 1.5 times slower.
* Fungus yield reshuffled to give energy before nutrients.
* Weapon and armor appearance and value/cost are adjusted to match each other progression.
* Some facility costs and maintenances are increased especially later ones.
* Some SP cost are increased slightly based on increased corresponding facility cost above.
* Lower tech get preference in blind research and AI pick.


Here is the fix and some other changes. Sorry about that. The bug affected versions 80-86. I've removed them. Although, all the changes introduced in them are in latest version. They didn't disappeared.

[dino]

I understand that the ini file is becoming ridiculously bloated, but I'd still prefer if the changes like RT were optional, for the ones of us who would rather pick and choose from your mod what they like.
I'm not saying I'm against, but I'd like an option to revert to vanilla in principle, in case I find I don't like some feature.

You have these lines repeated twice in the ini file btw:
; attack and defense bonus when fighting in own territory in percents
territory_combat_bonus=50

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

# Version 90

* recycling_tanks_mineral_multiplier configuration parameter is added.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

# Version 92

* Police State,    DocLoy,   --EFFIC,     ++SUPPORT,   ++POLICE,    --PLANET. Returned --EFFIC and ++SUPPORT to it and also extra PLANET penalty. Should be a little bit more interesting like that.
* Democratic,      EthCalc,   +EFFIC,     --SUPPORT,   ++GROWTH,    --PROBE. Reduced SUPPORT penalty. It seemed too harsh especially at the beginning.
* Fundamentalist,  Brain,    ++MORALE,    ++PROBE,      +INDUSTRY,  --RESEARCH. Removed +TALENT, added +MORALE to make it more combat oriented and different from Police State drone quellying focus.
* Cybernetic,      Algor,     +EFFIC,  -----POLICE,    ++PLANET,    ++RESEARCH. More benefits and more penalties. Before it was too not interesting.
* Thought Control, WillPow, ---SUPPORT,   ++MORALE,    ++POLICE,    ++PROBE,      ++TALENT. Added extra TALENT to it. Should be an ultimate war time drone solution. It's pretty good at that but other than war it is not good for anything. So I don't think it become too OP.

Increased effects of SE models here and there to make their bonuses/penalties stronger for more distinct profile.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

# Version 94

* AI tries to kill spore launcher near their bases.
* 0,       ; Combat % -> Artillery bonus per level of altitude. Forgot to remove it earlier. I find it too cumbersome to measure altitudes of every tile around the battlefield. It is too not visual.

Ignoring spore launcher is a major drawback for AI.

[dino]

The v94 release is missing on Github.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Oops. Wrong branch. Fixed.
Thank you for catching it.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

# Version 95

* [bug] Base screen population incorrectly shows superdrones those are not on psych screen. They do not affect drone riot. This is fixed.

That annoyed me for long enough. Fixed today!

The drones and superdrones algorithms are insanely complicated. Yitzi did a good job by fixing and modifying them. It would be nice to import his changes. Unfortunately, Yitzi patch is not a pure patch. It's a mod as well. It would be a nightmare trying to merge it with this one. 😟

[lolada]

* [bug] Base screen population incorrectly shows superdrones those are not on psych screen. They do not affect drone riot. This is fixed.

Thank you! This is one of the most irritating bugs forcing me to micro more ^^.

* AI tries to kill spore launcher near their bases.

I noticed this also - this is important fix. Spore launchers bombardment ruins AI especially if it catches early colony pod in the base, AI can get stuck for many turns before getting any bases going.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Rare case: 4 runners for governors. Program cannot even list their names on the panel. I was confused at first.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

# Version 98

* Equally distant territory is given to base with smaller ID (presumably older one).

That makes the exploit of pushing border line by placing new base close to it is less effective.

I am also thinking about making territory impossible to take by placing new bases next to it as it is done in Civ2 if I remember correctly.

[MercantileInterest]

Mod looks really cool. Will try it out.

Readme says you got rid of planetpearls. Could have the Merchant Exchange restore the feature, which would make it a bit less boring of a secret project.