Secundus' Factions mod

[Secundus]

Adds 12 new factions: the Order of Sacred Rose, Kerrigan's Zerg Swarm, North Sea Alliance, Al Falah, American Reclamation Corporation, House Atreides, Black Heart Kabal, Slavic Federation, People's African Union, Pan-Asian Cooperative, Kavithan Protectorate, and Chungsu to the game.

I also merged my mod with blackarchon's SMAC factions mod and made some changes.

Screenshots

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Changelog v1.0 - Initial Release

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Edited all SMAC factions diplomacy lines for better immersion to the best of my ability.
Added SMAC factions desc in Compendium/Data Links.
Amplified all SMAC factions welcome audio.
SMAC portraits upscaled with AI.
Renamed Hive to Human Hive.
Renamed John to Arthur.
Fixed typo in Planet's Cult Tamed Xenomorph Drone localization.

Changelog v1.1

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General
Readded Nerve Stapling operation since I accidentally deleted it.
Added Transport attribute to transports
Added AmphibiousFormer attribute to amphibious formers
Edited ConvertNative for Cult of Planet faction ability
Edited Edited Flame0, 1, 2 for Sacred Rose faction ability
Edited Fungus and WaterFungus to add missing conditions for Kerrigan's Zerg Swarm faction ability
Added North Sea Alliance, Al Falah factions from Beyond Earth

North Sea Alliance
Common heritage as naval powers: Naval units have +25% more power
Hydroengineering Corps: +1 mineral from Aquatic Mexallons and Oil Fields, +1 food from Panspermia Reeds
Benthic Auger: +1 mineral from coasts, +2 minerals from oceans
Neglected Army: Land units have -10% less power
Begins with Naval Transportation Logistics

Al Falah
Resurgent, united, and fiercely independent: +25% more power when defending
Brave New World: Upon founding their first city, gain +4 morale for 60 turns in all cities
Strategic Supply Network: -25% upkeep for all units
Generation Ship Colonists: Begins with Colony Ship Dismantling

American Reclamation Corporation
Corporate Espionage: +50% movement and +1 sight for all espionage units
Dropship Module: Starts with an extra Colonial Trooper
Planetary Scanner: 3 free satellite scan
Begins with Espionage

Sacred Rose
Changed faction ability: Increased alien aggression from +20% to +40%, +25% more power with flamer weaponry, +25% healing rate increase for Infantry, no longer have reduced building costs for training buildings
Changed faction color grayer to make them visually distinct from University of Planet

Kerrigan's Zerg Swarm
Fixed Roxara's Moon city localization
Changed faction color to violet to make them visually distinct from Divine Ascension

Pirates
Amphibious Former doesn't start with Gauss armor anymore.
Reduced debuff from -20% credits from taxes to -10% credits from taxes
Changed standingMultiplier sub from Angels to NorthSeaAlliance
No longer begins with Analytical Dynamics
Coasts now only provides +1 food
Oceans now only provides +1 mineral
Naval units now have +50% more movement
Trained for life at sea: +50% more power for embarked units and Amphibious Formers
Edited OpenBorders and WithdrawalAccepted dialogues.

Cult of Planet
Increased faction aggressiveness from 0.70 to 0.75
Removed standingMultiplier add to Spartans
Added standingMultiplier sub to Morgan
Changed faction ability: -10% credits from taxes, 10% worse prices, Xenomorph Pheropod device reduce power by -25% less, native units have +25% more power and -50% less upkeep
Now begins with Xenomorph Pheropod instead of Holographic Projections
Now begins with a Tamed Xenomorph Drone equipped with Xenomorph Pheropod device

Spartans
Slighty edited Praise dialogue.
Removed standingMultiplier add to Cult of Planet
Added standingMultiplier sub to Morgan
Added -10% growth penalty
Reduced building costs for training buildings

Data Angels
Removed standingMultiplier sub to Usurper
Added standingMultiplier sub to Morgan
No longer begins with Quantization
Changed faction ability: Espionage units have +50% more power, have -50% less upkeep and have -25% reduced production cost, reduced infiltrating power from +40% to +20%, changed starting unit to Covert Agent.

Gaians
Changed faction ability: removed +40% credits from taxes, added +25% food from farmers, reduced Nutrients gained in fungus and water fungus squares by 1, removed starting former, Land units move through forests as if it is Road
Now begins with Synthetic Fertilizer

Cybernetic Consciousness
Added standingMultiplier sub to Cult of Planet
Removed standingMultiplier add
Changed faction ability: Increased research from scientists from +40% to +50%, -75% less upkeep for all buildings

Changelog v1.2 - Current Release

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General
Readded the Readme in archive since I accidentally deleted it
Made clearer faction ability descriptions
Diplomatic bonuses from The Ambassadors and Peacekeeping Forces now apply to Manifold Caretakers and Usurpers
Diplomatic bonuses from The Peacekeeping Forces now apply to vanilla factions

House Atreides
Desert Power: +25% power for units in deserts and savannas
Windtraps: +2 food from deserts and +1 food from savannas
Spice Mining Operations: +10% credits from taxes
Well-paid Military: +10% unit upkeep
Small, Elite Force: Begins with Rigorous Regiment researched

Black Heart Kabal
Black Stain of the Webway: -25% standing in diplomatic negotiations, units can enter the borders of other factions without an open border agreement but can be attacked even when not at war. Even when allied, allied units can still attack units of this faction
Large-scale Raids: +50% power for units outside own borders, and -25% power for units inside own borders
Depraved: -2 morale
Impossibly Intricate Web of Intrigue: Begins with Espionage researched

Slavic Federation
Cosmonaut Legacy: -33% cost and upkeep for recon satellite and orbital bombardment uplinks
Civilian Observatories: +1 sight on cities and observatories
Raw Materials Stockpile: Upon founding their first city, gain +40 minerals
Central Planning: +10% <icon texture='Attributes/Production'/> cost for buildings

People's African Union
Umoja:  +25% food from farmers
Social Safety Net: +10%  growth, -10% credits from taxes
Pioneering Spirit: -10% cost for Colonizers
Sensitivity Training: +10% cost for military units

Pan-Asian Cooperative
Thousand Hands: -25% cost for formers
Public Works: -10% cost for buildings
National Land Management: -10%  pollution
Feed the People: -25%  food from farmers

Kavithan Protectorate
Doctrine of Oneness: +2 morale
Central Health Authority: -75% cost for all growth buildings
Self-Reliance: +10% better prices
Reverence for Third Mother: -25% power against native units, -10% production from workers

Chungsu
National Science Foundation: +2 research in every city
Surveillance State: -75% cost for panopticons
Wet Teams: +100% power for all defending espionage units
Signing Bonus: +25% purchase cost
Stock Awards: +10% upkeep for all buildings

Sacred Rose
Changed faction ability: Increased alien aggression from +40% to +50%, replaced Religious Tithes with Forward Bases that reduces colonizer's cost by -25%
Changed faction picture

Kerrigan's Zerg Swarm
Changed faction ability: added penalty No Extrenal Trade: +50% worse prices

American Reclamation Corporation
Changed faction ability: added penalty Executive Compensation: +10% unit upkeep
Changed insult to this faction

Al Falah
Fix typo in TerminateTradingPact
Changed faction ability: added penalty Social Welfare: -10% credits from taxes, decreased upkeep for all military units from -25% -20%

Gaians
Fix typo in peace offer
Replaced icon since the rose doesn't properly appear ingame
Changed Nature Pathways to Treedancers

Cult of Planet
Improved faction ability description

Peacekeepers
Fix typo in CondemnAccepted

Nautilus Pirates
Changed DemandTribute and TradingPactTerminated text
Changed faction ability: Life of Adventure: +50% movement for all naval units now also apply to Amphibious Formers on water

Human Hive
Changed faction ability: increased worse prices from +40% to +50%

Morgan Industries
Changed faction ability: no longer starts with extra credits, with Reinforced Steel Plates, increased all trading pacts profit from +40% to +50%, replaced -2 habitat with +10% upkeep and production cost for all habitat and morale buildings, -75% cost building costs for economic buildings

Terra Salvum
Now begins with Xenology researched

Imperium
Edited faction description that they begins with Field Training researched

The Ambassadors
Now begins with Espionage researched

Divine Ascension
Now begins with Holographic Projections researched

Future plans:

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Apparently it is possible to nullify fungus pollution malus for a faction ability. I would appreciate help in coding this.
Add more factions.
Continue editing SMAC factions diplomacy lines.
Might add new techs and buildings from SMAC or rename vanilla techs to SMAC appropriate ones.
Might rebalance and change SMAC factions.
Might rebalance and change my factions.
Add localization in other languages.

Download
Mediafire - SecundusFactionsv1.0 + SMACeditedv1.0
Mediafire - SecundusFactionsv1.1 + SMACeditedv1.1
Mediafire - SecundusFactionsv1.2 + SMACeditedv1.2

Installation
Download and extract this file to the following path: "C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Roaming\Proxy Studios\Pandora Beta" (or "C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Roaming\Proxy Studios\Pandora" if you aren't using Pandora Beta)
Note: You won't be able to see this folder with the Windows default settings - you have to enable "show hidden files" before.
Pro tip: Hit <Windows>+R on your keyboard, then enter "%appdata%" and press Enter - this will get you faster to "C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Roaming\"!

Crashes Help:
Add Pandora.exe, PandoraServer.exe, autorun.exe to the exception list of your antivirus.
Run Pandora.exe, PandoraServer.exe, autorun.exe as an administrator.

Credits:

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pandora.fandom.com for modding information.
alphacentauri.fandom.com for factions desc.
alphacentauri2.info/wiki for examples on SMAC factions diplomacy lines.
blackarchon, Monaldinio for SMAC factions mod, installation instructions.
mp3cut.net/change-volume for amplify audio.
zyro.com for image upscaling.
Windows Movie Maker, online-video-cutter.com, ezgif.com, cloudconvert.com for converting images for the game.

Notes: Compatible with Xilmi ai mod. I highly recommended it! You can find it on Pandora: First Contact - Discussions - pinned thread - Suggested Mods/Community Patch on Steam.

[MysticWind]

This project looks absolutely fantastic! I always thought Pandora would lend itself well for modding, the way the devs made it how everything is a customizable XML file was very perceptive and true to how moddable SMAC is. Glad to see that the Pandora community still exists! Where do you guys congregate, anyway?

[Secundus]

This project looks absolutely fantastic! I always thought Pandora would lend itself well for modding, the way the devs made it how everything is a customizable XML file was very perceptive and true to how moddable SMAC is. Glad to see that the Pandora community still exists! Where do you guys congregate, anyway?

Thank you for kind words! Indeed Pandora is pretty moddable but there are still some hardcoded mechanics though. Like no aquatic cities like in SMAC, increasing or decreasing resource yields (other than food and minerals) in certain tiles controlled by specific factions, custom maps. There is also a lack of documentation in adding new unit models to the game. Someone with adequate knowledge and skills should be able do it. But other than that, it's pretty great! I believe that Discord is the most active place, second is Steam community, third is the forums.

I'm also looking forward to reading more of your interesting lore posts!

[MysticWind]

I stumbled upon a different attempt to import SMAC/X factions into Pandora, though it's just a reskin. More interesting are the expanded terrain modifiers for Pandora, which look amazing. Seems like that mod might be defunct though, so I wonder if there's a more recent attempt to do that. (SMAC could have benefited from more terrain types too...)

But other than that, it's pretty great! I believe that Discord is the most active place, second is Steam community, third is the forums.

Thanks for letting me know! What server are you referring to on Discord, maybe the official Proxy Studios one?

[Secundus]

I stumbled upon a different attempt to import SMAC/X factions into Pandora, though it's just a reskin. More interesting are the expanded terrain modifiers for Pandora, which look amazing. Seems like that mod might be defunct though, so I wonder if there's a more recent attempt to do that. (SMAC could have benefited from more terrain types too...)

Expanded terrain modifiers is doable though not the pictures. I can probably include an optional addon for that in future updates. On a related note have you seen modified terrain textures from this german Pandora forum? Interesting stuff, you can make Pandora more alien-like and less Earth-like similar to what I seen in Beyond Earth workshop with these biome mods, Superbiome - Seas Of Fire, etc. You can use Google Translate page or Google Chrome Google Translate feature to read it in english.

Perhaps I can translate it and post it here with proper credits as a useful source to modders.

There is also an AAR there too if you interested though I haven't read it yet.

Thanks for letting me know! What server are you referring to on Discord, maybe the official Proxy Studios one?

Yep. You can find the discord link on Steam Pandora: First Contact - Discussions - pinned thread - Join us on Discord thread.