The Secrets of Alpha Centauri's AI Social Effect Selection

[Nexii]

PROBE is a tough SE because it might not be the best name for what it's really describing. And sometimes it's sort of a double edged sword. A great AI algorithm or technology might both assist probe offensively and make a faction more vulnerable. More broadly I see it as how good a faction is at espionage, and secondarily its resistance to propaganda. Which might be two seperate things lumped in

I still say negative probe for the borg. Using Star Trek, Data shut down the borg cube with a probe type attack to sleep. Their assimiliation is represented by TECHSTEAL, they have to conquer and capture to get tech. They aren't good at being sneaky on their own, too collectivistic to have individual spy operatives.

[bvanevery]

Data shut down the borg cube with a probe type attack to sleep.

Selective observation.  Seven of Nine stuck her hand into someone's neck and turned them into a borg.  Being "probed" is quite literal there!  Even talking about the borg as a SMAC-like society is not meaningful.  This is a race that conquered much of the galaxy, with very few species they ran into that could resist them.  They're at a level of social organization and conquest waaaaaay beyond any faction or race depicted in SMAC.

Like when you are God, you can afford not to notice flies buzzing around.  Usually.  Humans ended up assuming the role of a virus, in the borg collective body.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Thank you for researching that. Didn't understand what is it about, though. Are you saying that certain PC faction predispositions amplify the SE effects for them???
Can you share exact location of this in the code?

[Bearu]

Thank you for researching that. Didn't understand what is it about, though. Are you saying that certain PC faction predispositions amplify the SE effects for them???
Can you share exact location of this in the code?

Each of the faction files contain a set of values for the BUILD, EXPLORE, DISCOVER, CONQUER, and FIGHT AI values of a faction. This comes from the stock game for the Human Hive:
Human Hive, The Despot, Hive, M, 1, Yang, M,  1,  1, 0, 1, 0,
The Hive possesses a mandate emphasis on FIGHT = 1, CONQUER, and BUILD. This means the AI for the Hive receives a modifier for positively or negatively selecting for Social Models in the social engineering screen after other modifiers in each section with these positive or negative values of INDUSTRY X 3, PROBE X 2, SUPPORT X1.75, X1 for ECONOMY, GROWTH, MORALE, RESEARCH, POLICE, and X.5 for PLANET, TALENT, and EFFIC.
This means the AI for the Hive receives for the Planned Social Engineering Model three times the points in the INDUSTRY Value, regular points for the GROWTH value, and one half the negative points for the EFFIC Value (This value is 0 in the stock game due to the Hive's IMMUNITY to EFFIC effect). The AI in SMAX selects Social Models based on the sum of points collected based on the output of values for each social model compared to each other output for social models in a category and collectively for the whole table. The AI mandates modify the points from each Social Effect calculated in each Social Model.


005B4A43: The start of the location for the movement of the address values for the BUILD, CONQUER, DISCOVER, and EXPLORE values from each faction file into local arguments for future calculations. The game mostly checks these local arguments for whether the values are either zero or not zero.
The Address locations for each social effect are:
005B4804: Start of Faction File AI Mandate Modifiers for ECONOMY
005B4CF4: Start of Faction File AI Mandate Modifiers for SUPPORT
005B4E80: Start of Faction File AI Mandate Modifiers for MORALE
005B4F0F: Start of Faction File AI Mandate Modifiers for EFFIC
005B4FCF: Start of Faction File AI Mandate Modifiers for GROWTH
005B50AF: Start of Faction File AI Mandate Modifiers for POLICE
005B5128: Start of Faction File AI Mandate Modifiers for TALENT
005B51C4: Start of Faction File AI Mandate Modifiers for PLANET
005B524F: Start of Faction File AI Mandate Modifiers for RESEARCH
005B5242: Start of Faction File AI Mandate Modifiers for INDUSTRY
005B5430: Start of Faction File AI Mandate Modifiers for PROBE


I hope this answers your questions on the AI's selection of Social Engineering Models based on the Positive and Negative Social Effects inside the Social Engineering Models and the effects of modifiers on these point totals.
.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Thanks, man. Very interesting info.