Custom factions: balance: advice

[Ominous Stain]

So. Custom factions. I'm pretty much inept at playing the game effectively at this point, so I thought I might ask for some advice on balancing custom factions both in general, and with specific builds, from people who understand the subtleties of the game far better than I do.

Perhaps you will criticise this idea, and that's fine, but here's the entirely unbalanced faction I've been working on recently, as concisely as I can('t):

Some kind of Earth-era AI gets injected into a computer/machine/fungus(/possibly human neurons?) hybrid during some kind of mad science experiment by University, or Consciousness, or both together. The fungus half somehow changes the way the software operates, and the resulting entity becomes a new sentience on Planet, separate from the planet's consciousness. It manages to escape the compound and begin replicating on it's own. Naturally, it has no goddamn idea what in the hell it is, so this AI-turned-organic intelligence suffers from a pretty fantastic ongoing identity crisis, and it decides to dedicate most of it's efforts toward discovering the meaning of it's existence. It also so happens that it gains access to the other faction's data networks (a result of it's computerized half), and is capable of monitoring all the data that exists on the planet at once, instantly providing access to all existing technology. It's search for meaning, however, diverts it from doing any of it's own research whatsoever. The humans and this new entity have ongoing debates over whether to accept it as a new lifeform or denounce it as just another machine.

Essentially, we're looking at a faction that would gain any tech as soon as another faction learns it, but that cannot do it's own research. I've been playing with the idea of it having an affinity for planet, since it is part fungus, a possible affinity for industry and efficiency, since it is also a machine, a slight bonus to PSI combat as a highly-cognitive and somewhat fungus-based entity... as you can see, the bonuses quickly get out of hand. So I've been experimenting with putting a heavy penalty on growth (-3/4ish), but it just doesn't quite seem satisfactory. I also wanted to deny several social engineering choices, but as far as I know you can only do so with one at a time. So I'm wondering how I can bring this faction down to size, so it doesn't become overpowered and stupid, but without leaving the original "no research points/gains all existing tech" nor the "AI-turned-organic intelligence" ideas behind.

I'm more interested in singleplayer than MP at this point, but advice on making MP factions balanced would be appreciated as well.


Naturally, if this all goes downhill, I'll probably just turn them into a faction of bloodthirsty, mind-controlling, flying robot pirate cats bent on eradicating all sentient life in the universe. Which... would be kind of awesome.

[Geo]

Welcome to Cybernetic Control, Omi Sigma Seven. ( )

Looks like the core of your custom faction would have a combination of RESEARCH, -5, TECHCOST, 999 (or something like that), TECHSHARE (or SHARETECH, the guide I have in front of me states twice the same parameter), 1, GROWTH, -3, at its core.
Its true you can only forbid one social choice outright, but you can penalize up to eight other social choices if you don't give it any other parameters like GROWTH or EFFIC.

[Yitzi]

The ability to share tech automatically, but be unable to research on its own, is an interesting idea.  Beyond that, I'd say:
+2 EFFIC.  Ditch the industry bonus; it will be replaced with a mineral bonus in fungus.
+1 PLANET.  This is sort of obvious, and will replace your planned psi bonus.
+1 minerals and energy in fungus.
-2 PROBE.  Computers are vulnerable to hackers.
-2 ECONOMY.  A philosophically-minded computer is not the best for commerce.  Ditch the growth penalty.
-2 SUPPORT.  Computers are expensive to maintain.
Give them favored Green, and aversion to whatever you want (note, however, that -2 ECONOMY makes Free Market not worth it, and Knowledge won't be of much use to them with no ability to research, so those aversions are sort of built-in.)

The result should be an interesting one to play.

[JarlWolf]

I would honestly make it so it has no real aversions: It is after all a sentient algorithm that is the fusion of organic and machine. It's not something that has any set goals in its existence other then finding out "the truth." And the truth to it could very well be anything: It could eventually view itself as a god or a servant of a god (fundamentalist) a learner/researcher, a conqueror, an egalitarian, a tyrant/safekeeper of some sort, etc.

However; I am not sure whether this faction should be ticked on the "Alien" or not. My reasoning for that is this:

It's a mishmash of organic and inorganic sentient thinking, both very alien to humans, and also alien to Progenitors even. And while it could very well be friendly with either or, I also have a feeling the existing civilizations would fear an omnipotent sentient organic machine entity.. that is not even sure what its own existence is about.

So, might be worthwhile to put that in if you want it to be a bit more hostile then normal, or at the very least ambiguous.

For something like this I'd put it's social setting either peaceful or normal: Its not going to resort to violence immediately unless provoked I feel, its searching for its identity and any party who can give it information or likewise has value to it.

[Ominous Stain]

The ability to share tech automatically, but be unable to research on its own, is an interesting idea.  Beyond that, I'd say:
+2 EFFIC.  Ditch the industry bonus; it will be replaced with a mineral bonus in fungus.
+1 PLANET.  This is sort of obvious, and will replace your planned psi bonus.
+1 minerals and energy in fungus.
-2 PROBE.  Computers are vulnerable to hackers.
-2 ECONOMY.  A philosophically-minded computer is not the best for commerce.  Ditch the growth penalty.
-2 SUPPORT.  Computers are expensive to maintain.
Give them favored Green, and aversion to whatever you want (note, however, that -2 ECONOMY makes Free Market not worth it, and Knowledge won't be of much use to them with no ability to research, so those aversions are sort of built-in.)

The result should be an interesting one to play.

This actually sounds like a pretty reasonable combination, and makes decent sense. I haven't played much with support or economy with these guys yet, and that might just rework the scales a little more effectively than before. Thanks for that, I'll give it a go.

However; I am not sure whether this faction should be ticked on the "Alien" or not.

You made some good points.

I was having trouble with the "Alien" point as well. I lean toward "Alien" a little more heavily I think just because I can't think of many scenarios where it would make sense for this entity to have an opportunity to be voted planetary governor, or supreme leader for that matter. That said, it could still be interesting from a storytelling perspective if it could, and I'm sure some factions might actually be down with that, so I suppose it's kind of debatable from that perspective. I think this is probably the last thing I'll end up finalizing.

And yeah, I think setting it to normal aggression makes more sense than peaceful, if only because setting them to peaceful would prevent a provoked response when it would actually be appropriate, even though they would otherwise be a generally peaceful faction. Assuming I'm right about the mechanics of that variable, of course.

[Dio]

As far as practically denying several social engineering choices, you could try using the PENALTY rule which doubles the negatives for running a specific social model. An example of this could be PENALTY, GREEN which would prevent a faction from running green without having either an inherent bonus of +2 GROWTH or using a social model like Democratic or Eudaimonia.