Did the Mandate for Conquer Create a Redundancy in SMAC?

[Dio]

What do you think conquer means in the context of SMAC? How does conquer interact with other features of the game? Do values for fight possess a possible replacement for conquer in SMAC?
Most features around conquer in the SMAC might possess a location in other features for build, discover, explore, and fight. Technologies for discover might incorporate the technologies for conquer, the facilities with a focus on conquer might appear in build facilities, and assignments for values in the computer player with conquer might receive incorporation into the values for fight. The replacement of conquer with values of fight might distinguish between factions with a focus on peaceful discovery, a focus on peaceful building, a focus on peaceful exploration, a focus on aggressive technological discovery and weapons, a focus on aggressive martial building, a focus on aggressive exploration, or a combination of the above features. A logical downfall for the usage of values of fight over conquer in the game emerges from possible issues with fight's role in division over zero. Fight values in the stock game possess a range of values between negative one and one. Partial replacements and mergers of values for fight with values of conquer in the stock game explain two oddities in the internal game code.
Values for fight and conquer distinguish the valuation of other mandates for the SMAC's original factions. Believers' valuation of conquer and fight distinguish the Believers’ valuation of explore from the Gaians’ and Peacekeepers’ valuation of explore, and the Hive’s valuation of conquer and fight distinguishes the Hive’s valuation of build from the Morganites’ valuation of build. The Spartans’ valuation of conquer distinguish the University's and Peacekeepers' valuations of discover from the Spartans' valuation of discover. The Peacekeepers’ valuation of fight in the stock game distinguishes the Peacekeepers' valuation of explore from the Gaians’ valuation of explore. Valuations of fight and conquer separate the factions into ruthless and aggressive factions for the Believers and Hive, peaceful factions for the Gaians and Morganites, and erratic factions for the University, Peacekeepers, and Spartans. The values for conquer in the original factions create dichotomous pairs of factions over valuations of explore between the Gaians and the Believers, valuations of build between the Morganites and the Hive, and valuations of discover between the Spartans and the Peacekeepers. Dichotomies between the values for fight also nearly match the previously mentioned dichotomous pairs of valuations on build, explore, and discover for the original factions.

PS The original distribution of fight values for factions might have included a negative two on fight for the Gaians and positive two for fight on the Hive. The section for Morale in the selection of social models among the computer player checks if a faction possesses a value on fight over one. The Hive receive a hard coded slight penalty around calculations with valuations of fight for the computer players' formation of pacts, and the Gaians receive a slight hard coded bonus in the calculations with the valuation of fight for the computer players' formation of treaties.

[bvanevery]

In my modding I ended up with a different Explore, Discover, Build, Conquer weighting for every faction.  I took them in combos of 1 at a time, 2 at a time, and 3 at a time.  You end up with 14 different combos that way, one for each faction.

I did not do similarly with Passive, Erratic, Aggressive.  Given the above combos, I tried to decide which stance of the 3 available, best suited the faction.  One rule was that factions who benefit from using military force, such as the Believes with their +25% attack, or the Spartans with their MORALE bonus, should favor aggression.  Factions with a lot of economic bonuses or who should just concentrate on researching, should sit back and be passive, avoiding wars as much as they can.  And those who were not at either extreme, were left in the middle with Erratic.

I actually made Lal passive, since he's widely accused of being a pusillanimous wimp.  Yet at the same time his research foci are Explore Discover Conquer, the latter because he's expected to keep the peace in a rough neighborhood.  In my mod all the growth techs and facilities go under Explore, as internally it's for "colonization and growth".  Build I use for things that make credits or minerals.