SMAC Fac Pack

[MysticWind]

Here's what he sent me- actually, it looks like there's some differences between the faction.txt files here compared to the one that's currently on AC 2, (these appear to be older), but it also contains alpha.txt (not sure if it's different from the game), blurbs.txt, Script.txt, the modified tech text files, and all of the placeholder art. I think we could either diff between the two sets to determine which faction text files should be used, and merge all of the unique files. (The current AC 2 archive from Yahoo! Groups also contains some extra lore files that should be kept, and maybe we could add the faction summary I pasted as a text file as well.)

Thanks so much for your help and interest in this!

[nweismuller]

Hello, everybody, nweismuller here, the person who originated the SMACFacPack concept and one of the two developers back in the day (along with a consultant who wrote the majority of the Anarchist quotes and basenames).  I'm glad to see continued interest in the FacPack, and will be glad to answer questions.  Yes, the FacPack was designed for SMAC, not SMAX; notable because it involves a somewhat modified tech tree with a few changed dependencies and two entirely new technologies, along with the modifications to the effects of early Social Engineering.  I'm certainly available for any questions if needed, and would be delighted if other people's efforts help bring the mod into a complete state.

[DrazharLn]

Would one of you two like to combine the two packs into one collection with the best bits of each? MysticWind, it sounds like you've already done the thinking for it.

Then either you or I can upload this improved pack to the downloads section.

[MysticWind]

Would one of you two like to combine the two packs into one collection with the best bits of each? MysticWind, it sounds like you've already done the thinking for it.

Then either you or I can upload this improved pack to the downloads section.

Sure thing! Here it is.

[nweismuller]

I'm away from my primary PC, so I can't give a comprehensive comparison, but I can say that the changes in alpha.txt were significant, aiming at a rougher early game, a slight weakening of forests, some reshuffling of tech requirements, delaying sea bases, removing supply crawlers and nerve gas... (Supply crawlers being open to significant exploitation, nerve gas just being... honestly not super-plausible as such a boost in effectiveness when military experience on Earth is that the military effectiveness of gas weapons is limited, and that's on a planet where breathing apparatus isn't necessary just to stay outdoors.)

An incomplete list of changes includes: Base nutrients output of forests dropped to 0, Stockpile Energy now requires Industrial Base, Informal Politics, Simple Economics, and Survival Values all have minor social engineering penalties attached, Knowledge Values are attached to Intellectual Integrity, Nerve Gas and Supply Crawlers are removed, Colony Pods are removed as a selectable payload from the unit designer, and premade colony pod designs were made for infantry, rover, foil, and hovertank chassis, with the sea colony pod's prerequisite set at Nanometallurgy, two new techs (Plasma Dynamics and Life Extension) were added, with Eudaimonia now notably requiring Life Extension instead of Will to Power (along with some other shifts in the tech tree), Non-Lethal Methods got shifted to Ethical Calculus, and doubtless other changes I can't recall off the top of my head.  If people are curious about either lore or basic design intent behind mechanical changes in the full mod, I'd be glad to answer questions.

Design originally foundered on the lack of an art team that could work with the file formats involved; the eventual plan was to have portraits and logos for all factions, new icons for Plasma Dynamics and Life Extension, and voice acting for all tech and facility quotes.  techshorts.txt is mostly fixed up, but I've noticed there's a couple of incomplete bits and errors for tech tier references in techshorts.txt.

Honestly, not bad in scope for a project that stemmed, originally, from me messing around with designing the Chiron Cartel as a direct replacement for Morgan Industries in my personal games.  Then that led to designing Unicorp, and everything sort of spiralled out of control from there.

[DrazharLn]

Sounds like an interesting project, nweismuller

Thanks, MysticWind!

What are the .tmp files and the FACTIONNAMEvals.tmp files about? Do they need to be there?

I wonder if overviews.txt, raw back story.txt and yahoo_group_summary.txt, and the credits file could be combined into one readme_smacfacpack.txt or similar? Any objections?

Would either of you like to finish up those incomplete bits in techshorts.txt?

[DrazharLn]

Also, I see that there's no credit for the art. I don't have software to view pcx on this machine, so I haven't seen the ones in these zips, but if you're not satisfied with them you could pick some out from the large collection we've got here or talk to BUncle.

https://alphacentauri2.info/My%20Custom%20Factions/Custom%20Factions.htm
https://alphacentauri2.info/My%20Custom%20Factions/Custom%20Factions3.html

[nweismuller]

The .tmp files probably don't need to be thre; I just saw them in my own install and bundled them out of an abundance of caution.  There's no art credit because the current art used is literally just using files from the original game or SMAX as placeholders.  Those files I'd have to review; raw back story in particular, as the name implies, is very much not a complete version of what it should be and should probably be revised at some point.

As noted before, the project eventually foundered because we had nobody to do art, and we were getting very close to 'complete' on the part we could do.  One thing that never did get addressed- the Cartel works well enough for intent in base SMAC, but with our changes to early Social Engineering, it's stuck with -4 SUPPORT until it can change Politics from Informal.  That, testing indicates, is just too crippled, and I never came up with a satisfying solution.

Edit: I can probably review techshorts- or it techlongs?  I think it may actually be techlongs- at some point; just not today.  A notable change in script.txt is that there were edits to the reactions to social engineering choices to fit the character of the leaders in SMACFacPack; Marie du Lac, for instance, criticises Democracy as undermining military discipline and undercutting the mission.  I think the Preservers reactions are still relatively similar to the old ones, but if I can get a hold of Adam, maybe I can see if he's satisfied with that.

[Buster's Uncle]

As far as faction art - if you go to page three of the custom factions site Draz linked above, it may be feasible to look over the art goodies, chose one from column A, one from column B, describe what you want, and it wouldn't be a big job for me to assemble into a faction graphic...

[nweismuller]

OK, looking over the material that was proposed to be collected into a readme... 'Yahoo group summary' and 'raw backstory' are the same material; the Yahoo group summary is just lightly edited down, both ultimately originating from one informal conversation I had with Sarah Hanson explaining the basic concept.  I'd want a chance to review that extensively, and neither should probably end up in a readme.  The overviews and credits are both worth packaging into a readme, but the overviews need to fix CEO Young Kwan-Yong's name from his earlier version of 'Kim Young'.  I think what I'd like to do for faction art is finding somebody who can actually do appropriate portraits and logos, and package them with selected city art from the canonical factions- much happier, for my part, with the canonical faction city art than the city art on that one image.  I can sit down and do some actual edits once I'm back at my main PC.

[MysticWind]

Apropos of nothing, would you consider changing Young Kwan-Yong to a female character? Not much reason other than to slightly balance the faction set’s gender ratio more towards the original SMAC’s. Though I do suppose it’s amusing how SMAC and the Fac Pack both have male East Asian collectivists but one with corporate trappings and the other have a pseudo-Maoist-Legalist dross.

[nweismuller]

Here's a first pass at a readme for the project, combining credits, faction overviews, and a brief introduction to what the project actually does.  I'll look into formulating an actual backstory file at some point that isn't just a copied informal conversation introducing the basic idea to a friend, and that makes some points of the backstory more clear.

[MysticWind]

Should this thread be moved to or mirrored to the Modding subforum for more discussion there by modders?

[nweismuller]

This isn't even in a usable format as part of the PCX files, but I give you the sum total of the actual art work that was done on the mod in its day- the concept design for the Chiron Cartel logo.  (Unless you count the modified palette file, which set the proper colors for the different factions, in conjuction with alpha.txt.)

[nweismuller]

Reviewing what I have in the mod, I have three points on design issues I'd like to discuss with people.

First, the Cartel's -3 SUPPORT, as noted, actually works fine in standard SMAC; where it runs into issues is with the -1 SUPPORT from Informal Politics.  -4 SUPPORT, it turns out, is crippling.  Reducing the SUPPORT penalty to -2 honestly makes the Cartel too good, I think, once it can swap from Informal Politics; I'm not entirely sure how to square this circle.  Any thoughts?

Second, looking over the Loyalist and Anarchist traits, I wonder if I should swap their MORALE and PROBE bonuses- on a conceptual level, maybe it would be better for the Loyalists to have the best conventional forces and the Anarchists have good terror and infiltration tactics?  Thoughts on balance and concept there?

Third, I've begun to consider what I want to do about art for the factions.  I believe what I want to do is recycle base graphics from SMAC/SMAX factions (Morgan bases for the Cartel, Free Drones bases for Unicorp, and Spartan bases for the Loyalists are, frankly, perfect, just off the top of my head); but I'm hoping that somebody with the art chops in the modding community here can do portrait and logo work for the factions.  I'd like to formally request any artists in the mod community who are willing to contribute to the project.

Not strictly a 'design' note, but I've been working up a proper backstory file that's... better than the one drawn from that old conversation with Sarah Hanson.  I'll be ready to submit it for feedback after I get to talk with Adam Gieseler to get help with writing up one paragraph about the Preservers; I hope that people can provide feedback when I do so.

Thanks to everybody for their continued interest in a project I thought long since dead!

Edit: one more point; I'd want to actually write up the alien faction diplomacy text in the faction files to actually be customised to the factions, rather than the 'straight copies of other factions very mildly edited by some unknown user'.  This was never a priority, because the factions were never intended for use alongside alien factions- SMACFacPack was always conceptualised as a complete replacement of factions.