Tayta's Dystopian Faction Set [WIP]

[Tayta Malikai]

Disclaimer: Not actually guaranteed to be dystopian, depending on your point of view.

These are factions which originated from other works of mine, which I subsequently adapted to better fit the Alpha Centauri setting. Some are based on various cultural trends and ideas spotted on this side of the millennium, much like the original 7 had their roots in the years preceding it. Others were made just for the fun of it.

I originally planned to only release them once I'd exhaustively playtested all of them to ensure that they were Properly Balanced^TM, but after about a dozen games I realized that I'd become utterly bored with the singleplayer in this game: AIs tend not to make for very engaging playing partners, no matter how many buffs one gives them. I don't see myself getting back to it anytime soon either, so I figured I might as well just post them and see what people make of them.

One of the goals of this faction set was to try and promote different, more unusual styles of gameplay. From the single multiplayer playtest I carried out with Nevill's generous assistance, this goal seems to have been at least somewhat realized.

The factions were tested entirely using Nevill's alphax.txt changes against Thinker AIs and balanced accordingly, but I don't imagine they would fare much differently in a vanilla setup. For easy reference, the notable changes included the tech tree and the SE table:

Code: [Select]

Frontier,        None,
Police State,    DocLoy,  ++SUPPORT, ++POLICE,   --TALENT
Democratic,      EthCalc, ++EFFIC,   ++GROWTH,   --SUPPORT
Fundamentalist,  Brain,   ++PROBE,   +MORALE,    +INDUSTRY,  --RESEARCH     
Simple,          None,
Free Market,     IndEcon, ++ECONOMY, ----POLICE, --PLANET,   -INDUSTRY
Planned,         PlaNets, ++GROWTH,  +INDUSTRY,  --ECONOMY
Green,           CentEmp, ++EFFIC,   ++PLANET,   --GROWTH,   +TALENT
Survival,        None,
Power,           MilAlg,  ++SUPPORT, ++MORALE,   -INDUSTRY,  +TALENT
Knowledge,       Cyber,   +EFFIC,    ++RESEARCH, --PROBE,    -POLICE
Wealth,          AdapEco, +ECONOMY,  +INDUSTRY,  --MORALE,   -PLANET
None,            None,
Cybernetic,      DigSent, ++EFFIC,   ++RESEARCH, +PLANET,    ---POLICE
Eudaimonic,      Eudaim,  ++ECONOMY, ++GROWTH,   +SUPPORT,   ---MORALE
Thought Control, WillPow, ++POLICE,  ++INDUSTRY, +MORALE,    ---SUPPORT
Without further ado, let's dive in:

Monoculture

Code: [Select]

#DATALINKS1
^LEADER: {Director Mira Grant}
^BACKGROUND: {Sovereign Kingdom of Great Britain, Unity Administrator}
^AGENDA: {Homogenize humanity}
^TECH: {Doctrine: Mobility}
^

#DATALINKS2
^-1 SUPPORT: {Strict standards for military recruitment}
^+2 MORALE: {Uniformity amongst soldiers improves coordination}
^-2 PLANET: {Homogenization efforts extend to ecosystems}
^+1 INDUSTRY: {Unified production standards enable economies of scale}
^Halved costs to raise and lower terrain: {Aggressive terraforming programs}
^150% hurry costs: {Onerous bureaucratic procedures discourage fast-tracking}
^{May not use Democratic politics.}

Aggressive; Conquer, Explore; Pro-Thought ControlOne of the star factions of the set, it was supposed to feature an "angry turtle" sort of playstyle: they'd like going to war, but would have to wage it using small numbers of elite troops.

Current impression: Pretty strong. Early expansion can be a bit painful with -2 PLANET, but they have all the tools needed to wage early successful war. When I played with them, though, I found I had trouble transitioning to a peacetime economy, likely due to my heavy reliance on Police State to keep the drones in line. There's also the issue that conquering a ton of enemy bases will quickly lead to B-drones all over the place, which means no access to Golden Age. Not that it would be possible to pop-boom anyway, seeing as this faction can't use Democracy (or, in Nevill's mod, Children's Creches). These factors mean the faction risks stagnating mid game and letting others pull ahead economically.

Fun fact: this faction originally started with Nanometallurgy as well, for flavour; but Nevill's tech tree has it unlock hovertanks. This caused the faction's starting scout unit to be a 1-1-3 hovertank, which was an interesting discovery. As much fun as having early access to hovertanks was, it was clearly unbalanced, pretty much obsoleting rovers as soon as you had the resources to build them.

Omega Foundation

Code: [Select]

#DATALINKS1
^LEADER: {Galactic Empress Doctor Strangelove}
^BACKGROUND: {Western States Pact, Unity Neurosurgeon}
^AGENDA: {Galactic domination}
^TECH: {Applied Physics}
^

#DATALINKS2
^-1 ECONOMY: {Budget diverted to leader's pet projects}
^-2 GROWTH: {Anti-natalist stance}
^+2 RESEARCH: {Mad scientist leader}
^Free PSI GATE at every base: {Bases constructed over dimensional rifts}
^+1 labs per base
^{May not use Fundamentalist politics.}

Erratic; Conquer, Discover; Pro-CyberneticMy favourite pet faction of the set, and the one with the most unique playstyle. A sort of techno-guerrilla faction, their penalties are harsh, but it's all worth it for the dark powers they possess at their fingertips.

Current impression: Powerful with skilled usage. Having access to free Psi Gates in every base heavily changes the flow of the game: they enable all sorts of neat tricks like redistributing support between bases, moving police or trance units around to respond to drones or worm incursions, teleporting Colony Pods from low-pop bases to high-pop ones to circumvent the GROWTH penalty, and of course being able to instantly move units from your bases to the front lines, significantly multiplying your war potential. The tech bonuses are rather nice too, keeping you ahead of the curve despite slow growth, but the -ECON means you won't get as much benefit out of Free Market/Wealth. When I played with this faction, I found I ended up with more terraformed tiles than I was ever able to staff!

A note on using Psi Gates: they are supposed to only send or receive one unit a turn, but the latter functionality is bugged, so any number of bases can send all their units to a single frontline base, allowing you to concentrate force to an absurd degree. This was how I beat Nevill using this faction, and we agreed afterwards not to allow using it in the future.

The only downside is that this faction doesn't really function at all in AI hands, as it is incapable of using the Psi Gates. Alas.

Originally this faction started with no techs at all, but I decided to give them Applied Physics as a minor AI buff, as well as being thematically appropriate.

Edenist Republics

Code: [Select]

#DATALINKS1
^LEADER: {Prime Minister James Hector}
^BACKGROUND: {Republic of Australia, Unity Financial Controller}
^AGENDA: {Spread freedom and democracy}
^TECH: {Industrial Base}
^

#DATALINKS2
^+2 ECONOMY: {Free flow of capital}
^+2 SUPPORT: {Just-in-time supply chains}
^-1 MORALE: {Privatized military}
^-2 INDUSTRY: {Excessive contractor bloat}
^Immunity to negative POLICE: {Morally righteous}
^Extra DRONE for every four citizens: {Deregulation and austerity}
^25% hurry costs: {Angel investors}
^{May not use Power values.}

Aggressive; Conquer, Build; Pro-Free MarketHeavily channeling the End of History and Responsibility to Protect, this faction harks back to those years when free speech walked hand-in-hand with free markets. Their intended playstyle is a sort of super-Morgan that floods the world with cheap units, with ample reserves of cash to grease the wheels.

Current impression: Weak early game with a potential to transition into a strong mid game. Nevill was ever so kind as to test this one out in multiplayer with me, and even he struggled to make good use of this faction - although, in my defense, he was the one who suggested adding the -2 INDUSTRY penalty in the first place. I since buffed the faction a little, but its ability to perform remains uncertain.

I considered giving them straight-up impunity to Free Market, but I felt like that was a bit heavy-handed.

Thematically, I'm not a fan of this faction having the same -MORALE penalty that the Custodians have, but I'm not sure what to change on either side.

Metastate Alliance

(click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

#DATALINKS1
^LEADER: {Representative Aleksander Reznikov}
^BACKGROUND: {Caucasian Federation, Unity Survival Expert}
^AGENDA: {Total self-reliance}
^TECH: {Select 1}
^

#DATALINKS2
^-3 POLICE: {Rejects all forms of authority; limited power projection}
^+2 PROBE: {Extreme distrust of outsiders}
^+4 COMMERCE for Economic Victory purposes: {Sudden energy market disruption}
^Extra TALENT for every six citizens: {Omnidisciplinary culture}
^+15% defensive combat: {Dispersed formations are hard to find}
^No Planetary Council membership: {Does not recognize international organizations}
^{May not use Police State politics.}

Pacifist; Discover, Explore; Pro-PowerTaking autarkic ideals to their logical conclusion, this faction was built with one concept in mind: super-turtle.

This faction is set to work as an alien (Progenitor) faction mechanically, despite being humans in the lore. This causes some oddness in diplomatic dialogue, but it's necessary to allow them to use the unique alien traits, i.e. energy grid and not being able to participate in Planetary Councils. There's also no explanation for why they're able to achieve Progenitor Victory but whatever.

Current impression: Possibly a bit too strong. Being an alien faction, they retain their extra Colony Pod and Battle Ogre, which probably gives them too much of an advantage in the early game (although it does achieve the goal of preventing them from being ousted too early). There is also the rather nice benefit that, not having to worry about diplomatic relations with other factions, you can freely nerve gas early and often to your heart's content without penalty. -3 POLICE turned out to not be actually that bad of a penalty, back when this faction gained a talent for every 4 citizens (now raised to 6) - even then, building the Ascetic Virtues will leave you sitting pretty.

And on the flip side, the presence of an alien faction in the game prevents humans from achieving Diplomatic Victory... but they're designed to be hard to exterminate. Could be frustrating.

Utopian Community

Code: [Select]

#DATALINKS1
^LEADER: {Counsellor Katharine Solares}
^BACKGROUND: {People's Republic of Colombia, Unity Counsellor}
^AGENDA: {Maximize happiness}
^TECH: {Social Psych}
^

#DATALINKS2
^-1 EFFICIENCY: {Loose accounting standards}
^+1 GROWTH: {Free time facilitates procreation}
^-1 INDUSTRY: {Strictly limited working hours}
^75% hurry costs: {Untapped productivity can be called on in times of need}
^Free HOLOGRAM THEATRE at every base upon discovery of tech: {Workers motivated by pursuit of pleasure}
^Impunity to Planned penalties: {Universal income fosters creativity}
^{May not use Free Market economics.}

Erratic; Discover, Build; Pro-EudaimonicA faction that embraces stereotypes about socialism and welfare queens, though it soon ended up taking on a major Brave New World vibe.

Current impression: Reasonably balanced, with a strong early game. Both vanilla's and Nevill's tech trees have Planetary Networks (D2) unlock both Planned and Hologram Theatres, which lets them get to rapidly pumping out bases and filling their continent with them, not having to worry about drone control for a long time. I did find that they had money problems as they moved to the mid game, having to scrimp for every credit I could (lots of bases = lots of maintenance!), and I feared to switch out of Planned because it would pretty much cripple my INDUSTRY. But eventually, like all factions must do, I crossed the tech/energy barrier and managed to bring the faction to a win.

Planet Trading Company

Code: [Select]

#DATALINKS1
^LEADER: {Superintendent Pierre Levasseur}
^BACKGROUND: {French Sixth Republic, Unity Planetary Surveyor}
^AGENDA: {Dominate free trade}
^TECH: {Doctrine: Flexibility, Information Networks}
^

#DATALINKS2
^+2 EFFICIENCY: {Regular audits eliminate inefficiencies}
^-1 PLANET: {Views Planet as resources to be exploited}
^+2 COMMERCE: {Seasoned traders}
^75% probe costs: {Spies in every port}
^-2 standard population: {Elitist cultural tendencies}
^Free NAVAL YARD at every base: {Strong maritime heritage}
^Prototype units do not cost extra minerals: {Skilled draftsmen}
^Starts with a free Unity Scout Chopper.
^{May not use Knowledge values.}

Pacifist; Conquer, Build; Pro-WealthA faction that yearns for the good old days of European colonialism, a more enlightened age, where merchants ruled the waves and held sway over the markets of entire continents. Prideful to a fault.

This faction takes cues from the Data Angels and Sigma's House Satori, but I tried to avoid outright copying either of them. I had a hard time coming up with a decent theme for them, eventually settling on a sort of "bag of tricks" playstyle. One of the ideas was that they would be able to steal tech and units from other factions and immediately be able to put them to good use with free prototyping.

Current impression: Uncertain, probably too weak and incoherent. I never managed to have a good game with them, as AIs were constantly immediately declaring war on me at first contact and refusing to trade, likely because they considered me too weak. This included the only time I actually lost a game to AIs, when I got overrun by a massive worm-rush that wiped out over half my bases. On the other hand, in the hands of the AI (with -30% discounts on Transcend), they once actually rose to become the dominant superpower on Planet, who would've won Diplomatic Victory if I hadn't rushed to stop them. So they can't be totally awful.

Would definitely appreciate advice on this one.

The Lord's Stewards

Code: [Select]

#DATALINKS1
^LEADER: {Caliph Sarya Rivin}
^BACKGROUND: {Greater Kurdistan, Unity Cultural Officer}
^AGENDA: {Environmental syncretism}
^TECH: {Centauri Ecology}
^

#DATALINKS2
^+2 PLANET: {Responsible stewardship of their holy land}
^-2 PROBE: {Cultural assimilation goes both ways}
^+1 mineral, +1 energy in fungus: {Followers taught to live off the land}
^x2 votes in Planetary Council elections: {Mind Worms vote too!}
^Mind Worms act as double police: {Local ecosystem integrated into society}
^{May not use Wealth values.}

Erratic; Build, Explore; Pro-GreenAn attempt at a more Islamic interpretation of a religious faction, compared to Miriam's Christianity. I tried to differentiate them from the Planet Cult and Sigma's Advent Pilgrimage, eventually settling on this idea after asking some more knowledgeable people on the subject.

Current impression: Possibly a bit too strong. Their only weakness is -2 PROBE, which is largely situational and can be mitigated by making sure you have proper defenses against enemy probes. They could definitely stand to lose one of their fungus bonuses: right now those things are basically free forests in the early-to-mid game. Hard to come up with a nerf that doesn't overlap with another faction's, though.

Custodians

Code: [Select]

#DATALINKS1
^LEADER: {Colonel Fedmahn Kassad}
^BACKGROUND: {Syrian Democratic Republic, Unity Quartermaster}
^AGENDA: {Balance competitors}
^TECH: {Doctrine: Loyalty}
^

#DATALINKS2
^-1 MORALE: {Troops unmotivated and subject to coup-proofing}
^+1 POLICE: {Well-funded enforcement apparatus}
^+1 PROBE: {Paranoid and obsessed with security}
^-2 RESEARCH: {Initiative discouraged among lower ranks}
^Free GENEJACK FACTORY at every base: {Exploitative working conditions}
^Doubled Democratic penalties: {Attempts to liberalize risk military coups}
^{May not use Green economics.}

Pacifist; Conquer, Explore; Pro-Police StateThe embodiment of the classic Arab dictatorship seen during the Cold War, with a delicate balance of power masking the irreconcilable social tensions beneath. They are supposed to live it up on their minerals income, but suffer from weak troops, drone problems, poor research, and all that eco-damage eventually coming back to haunt them.

Current impression: Probably balanced? I always managed to conquer them before they really got going. Briefly playing as them left me with a newfound appreciation for nerve stapling.

They used to start with Retroviral Engineering for early gene warfare, but Nevill's mod makes gene warfare available from the start, and giving factions advanced techs really messes up the game balance.

As I said before, I'm not a fan of them sharing the same -MORALE bonus as the Edenists. They're already quite similar in a lot of ways as it is.


The current version of the factions can be found here.

(click to show/hide)

Version 3

Things to do, if I ever get around to them:

• Fix the leader graphics, so they don't look so awful scaled down.
• Source some custom base graphics, so they don't just use vanilla ones.

[bvanevery]

Well that looks like it was a fair amount of work!  Of course balancing such work, is even more work.  And it can be hard for the lay player to see why one's changes are working or not working, as it takes extensive playtesting and iteration to get to the point of balance.  My own faction balancing stuff has dragged on for 2.5 years, and even though it mostly works, it isn't quite perfectly balanced.  The expectation that the AI factions are going to challenge you, when you're so good at the game... well, my challenge is to win the game faster or more efficiently.  I know I'm always going to beat the AIs, that's inevitable.

I'll restrict myself on commentary to the Social Engineering choices.  It's the thing that others might find most readily applicable to their own modding.  Whereas taking on a set of factions, requires much more playtesting balance stuff.

I don't see why anyone would choose Police State?  +2 SUPPORT is not that valuable.  In exchange, you get a POLICE ability that is watered down by 2 unrestful drones.  Your police could make up to 6 drones happy if you use Non-Lethal-Methods, which makes the police more expensive to produce.  Ok granted, in my mod a police unit is going to cost you 30 minerals.  You don't get to do the Police Scout trick for 10 minerals.  Anyways with my usual expectations, you have 2 drones when you first make a base.  For 30 minerals you get to break even with the other Politics choices.  For 60 minerals you get to make 2 people content.  For 90 minerals you get to make 4 people content.  Well just how much did a Rec Commons and Hologram Theater cost?  There's no benefit here.

My personal opinion is that POLICE is only useful in the real world if you jack it to +3.  Then you get double police enforcement.  That's why my Chairman Yang gets a +1 POLICE rating, so he can immediately go to +3 when he figures out Police State.

I tend to forget that +2 ECONOMY is how Free Market worked in the original game.  I only do +1.  To build up an ECONOMY, you have to make choices between Democratic, Free Market, Wealth, and Cybernetic.  The penalties are spread out among those as well.

Trading off money for industry is interesting.  The opposite doesn't work, giving both at the same time!  Been there done that.  I don't have any INDUSTRY bonuses or penalties in my SE table at all.  Domai gets it as his faction ability and that's it.  I don't miss having to reshuffle my SE choices, just to get some Secret Projects done faster.  Less wear on the fingers.

Why should Power make people more talented?  That doesn't make any narrative sense to me at all.  And game mechanically, it just makes Power a giveaway choice.

[Tayta Malikai]

Well that looks like it was a fair amount of work!  Of course balancing such work, is even more work.  And it can be hard for the lay player to see why one's changes are working or not working, as it takes extensive playtesting and iteration to get to the point of balance.  My own faction balancing stuff has dragged on for 2.5 years, and even though it mostly works, it isn't quite perfectly balanced.  The expectation that the AI factions are going to challenge you, when you're so good at the game... well, my challenge is to win the game faster or more efficiently.  I know I'm always going to beat the AIs, that's inevitable.

Tell me about it. Even writing the OP for this topic took the better part of a day.

I don't see why anyone would choose Police State?  +2 SUPPORT is not that valuable.  In exchange, you get a POLICE ability that is watered down by 2 unrestful drones.  Your police could make up to 6 drones happy if you use Non-Lethal-Methods, which makes the police more expensive to produce.  Ok granted, in my mod a police unit is going to cost you 30 minerals.  You don't get to do the Police Scout trick for 10 minerals.  Anyways with my usual expectations, you have 2 drones when you first make a base.  For 30 minerals you get to break even with the other Politics choices.  For 60 minerals you get to make 2 people content.  For 90 minerals you get to make 4 people content.  Well just how much did a Rec Commons and Hologram Theater cost?  There's no benefit here.

My personal opinion is that POLICE is only useful in the real world if you jack it to +3.  Then you get double police enforcement.  That's why my Chairman Yang gets a +1 POLICE rating, so he can immediately go to +3 when he figures out Police State.

It mostly synergizes with Clean Scouts being available from the start, letting you crank out a lot of formers without getting slugged by support costs, at the point in the game when they hurt the most. The effects of -2 TALENT are not very noticeable when you're playing on Transcend and every citizen is a drone anyway due to Bureaucracy. Three Clean Scouts cost 30 minerals and suppress 3 drones, quite affordable when compared to 40 minerals for 2 drones (RecCommons) and another 60 minerals for 2 more (HoloTheatre). Combine all those and your bases will be practically drone-free!

Indeed, the main problem I had with this form of Police State was that it was so effective at suppressing drones, that when it came time to switch out of it so I could focus on economic or military pursuits, there were some serious adjustment pains to get over.

I tend to forget that +2 ECONOMY is how Free Market worked in the original game.  I only do +1.  To build up an ECONOMY, you have to make choices between Democratic, Free Market, Wealth, and Cybernetic.  The penalties are spread out among those as well.

Trading off money for industry is interesting.  The opposite doesn't work, giving both at the same time!  Been there done that.  I don't have any INDUSTRY bonuses or penalties in my SE table at all.  Domai gets it as his faction ability and that's it.  I don't miss having to reshuffle my SE choices, just to get some Secret Projects done faster.  Less wear on the fingers.

Yeah, I noticed you did that in your mod, interesting and probably sensible idea to split the ECON and POLICE penalties across different levels.

The INDUSTRY-switching exploit is a sad legacy of the vanilla game. Can't say I'll be missing it either, one of the indisputable improvements made by Will to Power.

Why should Power make people more talented?  That doesn't make any narrative sense to me at all.  And game mechanically, it just makes Power a giveaway choice.

There are arguments to be made for it narratively. The Orwellian line of thought is that military conflict forces polities to remain in touch with reality, providing a means with which to purge incompetents and allow talent to rise to the top. The US military is known for its "up or out" policies, which in theory encourages a steady turnover of fresh talent within the organization - though it can be argued that this also leads to personnel who are merely competent in their position being unnecessarily forced out, effectively an inversion of the Peter principle.

You could, of course, make the opposite argument, that over-emphasis on the military means talents who would otherwise greatly contribute to society in other areas end up being wasted on the front lines. The experience of the countries involved in WW1 comes to mind.

Mechanically, well, to be honest I never really noticed it making much of a difference. I suppose it would help a faction to achieve Golden Age, but I wasn't very good at using those before. Maybe it is a bit too strong now, but Power was always the go-to for war, and the other options remain better for peacetime anyway.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Amazing work. Have you published it in the AC2 faction gallery?

Monoculture


^BACKGROUND: {Sovereign Kingdom of Great Britain, Unity Administrator}

Unbelievable! Someone at last iconized Natalia Polonskaya as faction leader. I give you my both thumbs up just for that. 👍👍



Why she is from Britain, though? 🤔

^Halved costs to raise and lower terrain: {Aggressive terraforming programs}

Is this something configurable in faction.txt? Never knew.

Omega Foundation

Did you borrow image from this faction for your avatar or other way around?

Edenist Republics
^+2 ECONOMY: {Free flow of capital}
^25% hurry costs: {Angel investors}

Do I understand correctly this is 1/4 of normal hurry cost? If so it is exceptionally cheap to buy everything. This faction should speed build its infrastructure with +2 ECONOMY. For the same reason any INDUSTRY penalty is irrelevant to them. Isn't it the most OP one?

^-2 standard population: {Elitist cultural tendencies}

What's that, I'm sorry?

[Tayta Malikai]

Amazing work. Have you published it in the AC2 faction gallery?

I have not. How does one go about doing that?

Unbelievable! Someone at last iconized Natalia Polonskaya as faction leader. I give you my both thumbs up just for that. 👍👍

Why she is from Britain, though? 🤔

Heh, I wondered when somebody was going to recognize her. I trawled awhile for women in military uniforms before remembering Prosecutor (now Deputy) Poklonskaya's gloriously memetic existence.

There were some half-baked ideas about Brexit Britain and fond memories of the British Empire. After all, if Lady Deidre comes from Free Scotland, what happened to the rest of the UK?

Is this something configurable in faction.txt? Never knew.

Not very well, but yes. Adding the parameter TERRAFORM, 1 results in halving credit costs to raise and lower terrain. Can't configure it other than that, and I'm not  sure if it actually works.

Did you borrow image from this faction for your avatar or other way around?

The faction leaderhead came first. It was a real struggle finding something that fit the female mad scientist aesthetic I wanted.

I reused the image as my avatar here because I decided I needed one with how much I was posting, and this forum seemed too highbrow for anime girls.

Do I understand correctly this is 1/4 of normal hurry cost? If so it is exceptionally cheap to buy everything. This faction should speed build its infrastructure with +2 ECONOMY. For the same reason any INDUSTRY penalty is irrelevant to them. Isn't it the most OP one?

That is correct.

Nevill suggested this buff after he struggled hard to develop the faction with -2 INDUSTRY; apparently, +2 ECON was not sufficient to overcome such a penalty. I had it at 50% for a while, then decided at the last minute that it would be better to make the faction too strong than too weak. If it really is OP I can always just change it back.

What's that, I'm sorry?

Are you asking what the penalty means, or why they have it?

It means they can only grow up to size 5 before building a Hab Complex. It's supposed to encourage sprawling to take advantage of +2 EFFIC, but I feel like this may be a bit punitive. Like I said, open to suggestions on this faction.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Amazing work. Have you published it in the AC2 faction gallery?

I have not. How does one go about doing that?

No idea. Never did myself. I just noticed the large collection of them there and thought yours should be there too. Ask Buster's Uncle around.

Heh, I wondered when somebody was going to recognize her. I trawled awhile for women in military uniforms before remembering Prosecutor (now Deputy) Poklonskaya's gloriously memetic existence.

Japanese made her a well known manga icon at the time.

Did you borrow image from this faction for your avatar or other way around?

The faction leaderhead came first. It was a real struggle finding something that fit the female mad scientist aesthetic I wanted.

I reused the image as my avatar here because I decided I needed one with how much I was posting, and this forum seemed too highbrow for anime girls.

Cool. Didn't recognize the person/hero, though. Is there a prototype for it or is it just a random art?

What's that, I'm sorry?

Are you asking what the penalty means, or why they have it?

It means they can only grow up to size 5 before building a Hab Complex. It's supposed to encourage sprawling to take advantage of +2 EFFIC, but I feel like this may be a bit punitive. Like I said, open to suggestions on this faction.

Gotcha. I suspected that but wasn't sure about the exact term.

[EmpathCrawler]

Overall this is well thought out and good art. They all feel different from each other and from the originals.


Monoculture: Pretty good, feels coherent.

Omega Foundation: This one certainly has character but feels a bit too "silly" to me in a way that feels out of place with the rest. I also have a personal preference against the unused faction bonuses like labs that seem like beta versions of the social engineering system, but that's just me. How about this: If you want a "mad science" theme and also extra labs, give them free Biology Labs? Mind worms are very mad science.

Edenist Republics: Why the plural? I like the liberal interventionist theme of the faction. I think it's a bit too strong to give them +2 ECONOMY right off the bat, though, that I don't think the industry rating compensates for. I don't think the AI would be able to handle its SE, either.

Metastate Alliance: Love the idea of a super-isolationist, don't like the gimmicky way to achieve it in this form. You could give them a voting malus so they won't win governor elections. They probably need some kind of brake on military expansion, too, or they will become Hive-like in the hands of the AI.

Utopian Community: This one also looks sound.

Planet Trading Company: This one is tough. The hab limits hurts this faction much more than Morgan since commerce income is going to be harder to come by early on and when all your bases are tiny. And yeah there's the AI aggression issue. Free Naval Yards isn't much of a perk. Changing the faction to Aquatic might save it, but then require balancing in another direction.

The Lord's Stewards: Doesn't feel right for Kurdistan to produce a "Caliph", especially if there's some syncreticism going on here. I like the idea here, though. No other faction would accept mind worm votes!

Custodians: Good faction. Not sure about the name or precise details in the flavor text, though.

[Tayta Malikai]

Do I understand correctly this is 1/4 of normal hurry cost? If so it is exceptionally cheap to buy everything. This faction should speed build its infrastructure with +2 ECONOMY. For the same reason any INDUSTRY penalty is irrelevant to them. Isn't it the most OP one?

That is correct.

Nevill suggested this buff after he struggled hard to develop the faction with -2 INDUSTRY; apparently, +2 ECON was not sufficient to overcome such a penalty. I had it at 50% for a while, then decided at the last minute that it would be better to make the faction too strong than too weak. If it really is OP I can always just change it back.

Thinking about it, this is definitely overpowered. A 300 minerals project (+20%) could be bought for 360 credits, which is not an impossible sum to raise early on and would provide too much of an advantage. Back to 50% for now.

No idea. Never did myself. I just noticed the large collection of them there and thought yours should be there too. Ask Buster's Uncle around.

You're talking about this page, right? I'd probably have to touch up the graphics a little before asking to get on there.

Cool. Didn't recognize the person/hero, though. Is there a prototype for it or is it just a random art?

It's a Poison Ivy cosplay someone did. A friend suggested using Uma Thurman as she appeared in the infamous Batman and Robin, and while I wasn't so hot on that, it led me on the right track to find this photo. Best female mad scientist cosplay I've seen.

Overall this is well thought out and good art. They all feel different from each other and from the originals.

Thanks! I'm rather proud of the artwork, it may not be the best quality or look very futuristic, but it provides character for sure.

Omega Foundation: This one certainly has character but feels a bit too "silly" to me in a way that feels out of place with the rest. I also have a personal preference against the unused faction bonuses like labs that seem like beta versions of the social engineering system, but that's just me. How about this: If you want a "mad science" theme and also extra labs, give them free Biology Labs? Mind worms are very mad science.

Strangelove certainly does have a rather... special personality.

I did consider giving them free BioLabs, but then they wouldn't be able to build those themselves to stack the bonuses. :M
I'm also not really keen on giving factions more than one free facility. I already have to restrain myself from handing those out like candy. And it would make them a bit too similar in my eyes to Sigma's Genome Syndicate / Chrysalis Collective, which had an explicit bio-augmentation theme and -2 GROWTH to boot.
That said, mind worms are definitely something Strangelove would use, and gleefully so. So maybe. At the very least, I might include an AI-favourable version of the faction with BioLabs instead of Psi Gates.

Edenist Republics: Why the plural? I like the liberal interventionist theme of the faction. I think it's a bit too strong to give them +2 ECONOMY right off the bat, though, that I don't think the industry rating compensates for. I don't think the AI would be able to handle its SE, either.

The plural implies a more federated, voluntary union of its members sort of structure to the faction. It wouldn't do to have a big government telling bases what to do, after all.

The strength of +2 ECON is debatable (particularly since I didn't quite master playing Morgan yet :V). Yes, it provides a lot of energy, but in order to actually get that energy you need a large population to work tiles, and developing to that point will be slower because of increased mineral costs for facilities. And once you do get that population, a chunk of that energy will have to go into drone control.

You have a point when it comes to the SE: the AI doesn't really know how to handle immunities, so it has a bad habit of going Police State/Free Market, which is incredibly wasteful as POLICE doesn't go below zero anyway and SUPPORT only jumps from +2 to +3, not a big deal in the early game. I tried to get Induktio to change this behaviour, but alas, he didn't get around to it yet.
The AI does switch to Fundie if it's available though, so maybe I could provide them with the tech for free. But it's not really faction-appropriate, and giving factions buffs just to accommodate the AI is yucky.

Metastate Alliance: Love the idea of a super-isolationist, don't like the gimmicky way to achieve it in this form. You could give them a voting malus so they won't win governor elections. They probably need some kind of brake on military expansion, too, or they will become Hive-like in the hands of the AI.

I considered going that route, but the problem is that being a human faction means they benefit from commerce, which goes completely against their core concept. Attempting to give factions negative COMMERCE values seems to result in buggy behaviour.

I could give them a malus to offensive combat, maybe -20% or so? That would make it harder for them to take territory, compared to holding it - and it makes sense that they would have trouble concentrating the force needed for assaults. It also means they have a harder time proactively hunting for worms, which puts a brake on their early expansion efforts (though this only applies if planetpearls are enabled, of course).

Planet Trading Company: This one is tough. The hab limits hurts this faction much more than Morgan since commerce income is going to be harder to come by early on and when all your bases are tiny. And yeah there's the AI aggression issue. Free Naval Yards isn't much of a perk. Changing the faction to Aquatic might save it, but then require balancing in another direction.

Yeah, I might end up just removing that penalty and replacing it with another, lighter one. Honestly, the whole faction could do with a rework.

An aquatic faction might fit the theme, but those come with their own problems. I'd really rather not.

The Lord's Stewards: Doesn't feel right for Kurdistan to produce a "Caliph", especially if there's some syncreticism going on here. I like the idea here, though. No other faction would accept mind worm votes!

I am open to suggestions for alternative theme-appropriate titles.

Custodians: Good faction. Not sure about the name or precise details in the flavor text, though.

What is it that you don't like about them? I will admit that "Custodians" was something of a placeholder name that I never came up with something better for. In its defense, it does pretty much encompass what they're about: casting themselves as essential caretakers of the status quo, their citizens, and most of all the minerals.

I'll also admit that the explanations for the stats might come across as somewhat judgmental compared to the other factions. Not that I think they're wrong, exactly, and I aim to give all factions roughly the same treatment.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

It's a Poison Ivy cosplay someone did. A friend suggested using Uma Thurman as she appeared in the infamous Batman and Robin, and while I wasn't so hot on that, it led me on the right track to find this photo. Best female mad scientist cosplay I've seen.

Found it. It's Pamela Isley before she became Poison Ivy, I think?

[Tayta Malikai]

It's a Poison Ivy cosplay someone did. A friend suggested using Uma Thurman as she appeared in the infamous Batman and Robin, and while I wasn't so hot on that, it led me on the right track to find this photo. Best female mad scientist cosplay I've seen.

Found it. It's Pamela Isley before she became Poison Ivy, I think?

Yep, that's the one. A great picture, but it did not want to cooperate in being wrangled into the SMAC-friendly format.

[Buster's Uncle]

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;cat=20

[EmpathCrawler]

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;cat=20

Can't believe my silly Network Node faction from 20 years ago has its own download! 

[Buster's Uncle]

That's a whole large collection from the (deceased) Network Node site...

[EmpathCrawler]

I am open to suggestions for alternative theme-appropriate titles.

How about Qadi? It's some kind of Islamic religious judge, and it's kind of radical for a woman to have that title.

I could give them a malus to offensive combat, maybe -20% or so? That would make it harder for them to take territory, compared to holding it - and it makes sense that they would have trouble concentrating the force needed for assaults. It also means they have a harder time proactively hunting for worms, which puts a brake on their early expansion efforts (though this only applies if planetpearls are enabled, of course).

That could work!

What is it that you don't like about them? I will admit that "Custodians" was something of a placeholder name that I never came up with something better for. In its defense, it does pretty much encompass what they're about: casting themselves as essential caretakers of the status quo, their citizens, and most of all the minerals.

I'll also admit that the explanations for the stats might come across as somewhat judgmental compared to the other factions. Not that I think they're wrong, exactly, and I aim to give all factions roughly the same treatment.

I have some ideas but I don't want to be a dick and rewrite a bunch of your stuff unless you're OK with it? What do you think?

That's a whole large collection from the (deceased) Network Node site...

The AntiMind specifically was a creation of mine back in the CGN days. Looks a little evolved from what I remember, but I know that "the" Network Node made some refinements to the original faction file and that lovely lovely artwork. I'm pretty sure the "Progenitor cyborg" part was their idea, too.  Do they post here under another name or are they lost to time?

[Tayta Malikai]

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;cat=20

Ah, I see, that place. Well, looks simple enough to upload something, when I get around to it.

How about Qadi? It's some kind of Islamic religious judge, and it's kind of radical for a woman to have that title.

Interesting, although it'd be preferable if one didn't have to look up its meaning. Judge? Magister? Overseer? Arbiter?

I have some ideas but I don't want to be a dick and rewrite a bunch of your stuff unless you're OK with it? What do you think?

You're free to rewrite whatever you like in my stuff, just as I'm free to decide whether to use it or not.