Alpha Centauri Mod Discussion Thread

[Fyron]

less potent ECM and Combat sensors (perhaps 1% or 2% per level instead of 10%).

1 or 2 percent is meaningless. All you are doing there is forcing a lot of pointless research on the players to get to something useful. 5% per level makes a difference in combat, but not a huge one. It is where the bonuses max out that is the bigger issue.

[Hugh Manatee]

I also have an Idea, to stay true to SMAC, I think we should make shields a highly advanced tech that comes along in late game. I think we should just have different kinds of armors and such that have different special abilities(like regenerating and partial regenerating shielding for "resonance" armor, ecm, that sort of thing)until then.

What do you think of having mindworms be troops, "spacelurks"(sealurks in space) be like battle cruisers , Ilse of the Deep be Carriers, and Locusts of Chiron be like drones(uncontrollable but deadly). Also we could make spore launches like satellites or weapons platforms and Fungal towers the same.

[Chronon]

Hugh: Great ideas! I agree that shields should be a more advanced tech, and I like your ideas about various special abilities on the armors and the abilities of the mindworms, etc. No problem about taking your time on the tech trees. I'm still working on the Verduran AI, and then I'll need to do a little re-texturing for the ships as well (Thanks again, Taera). So, it will probably be a couple of weeks before I can jump in to the AC Mod.

Fyron: I'm curious, how are you approaching the issue of combat sensors and ecm in the Adamant mod? I'd love to hear your thoughts on how to make the combat results less one-sided.

Taera: On the units, I'm pretty sure that we can mod things like ecm, soporific gas pods, etc, to be part of the regular tech tree, and make them "small." Just like shields and armor work in standard SEIV - there are ship-sized and unit-sized Versions.

On a related note, I was thinking some more about planet sizes, and I think we should make oxygen rock planets larger (perhaps double: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 facilities), give them all ice planet colonization at the beginning (they're just very cold rock planets - but I think the oxygen ones should be the same size as domed because it's very difficult to build a good-sized colony there) and not have gas giant colonization technology at all (I always thought this was a real stretch for humanoid life forms).

Since ALL of the factions will need an oxygen atmosphere (even the worms and Progenitors), this will create intense competition for oxygen rock worlds, with all the other rock and ice planets being domed, leaving the gas giants and asteroids for orbital facilities and resource extraction (using the space equivalent of crawlers - which should be much more useful than they are in SEIV). The larger size of the "homeworlds" will also make ground combat and weapons platforms much more important. I always thought it was unrealistic that one escort with a missle can wipe out an entire world (as it works in standard SEIV).

So, what do you think?

PS. I imagine we can create some new planet images (Capt. Kwok's Skool of Planet design, anyone?) to look more like Planet, with red land masses instead of green.

PPS. I also don't think we should have a stellar manipulation tech area. Destroying worlds, creating stars, etc., is way beyond AC technology. Solar panels could be part of the supply tree, and I think solar sails should be more of an emergency propulsion option for when the main engines are dead (they're really only good for in-system flight, and they're very, very slow).

[ July 17, 2003, 17:25: Message edited by: Chronon ]

[Fyron]

Well, leaky armor and shields insures that the victor will come away with a lot of crippled ships (and might not even destroy all of the enemy ships in one comabt anyways, esp. with use of Structural Supports (0 kT comps with 2-6 HPs) ). I have made the standard weapon fire rate be 2 instead of 1. Combat Sensors start at 10% and rise to 35% over 6 levels (5% per level). ECM goes from 5% to 30% over 6 levels. Ship training is 1% per turn with a max of 10%. Fleet training is 1% per turn to a max of 5%. All training is system-wide, to eliminate moon stacking. Racial combat characteristics (agg and def) are expensive and can only range from 90 to 110. Cultural combat bonuses are reduced. The best is still Berzerkers, but it only gives +5% instead of +10%. Long Range Scanners give between 2% and 15% to hit bonus, so there is more you can do to get to hit bonuses. All ships have built in ECM modifiers, from high bonuses with tiny ships to high penalties with huge ships. Engines give small ECM bonuses, which get better with each engine class. Mounts are completely changed, so there are no scale mounts. The only one that increases damage done does x1.5 damage, but x2 size. It is not meant to make your ship more powerful, but for use against heavy defenses that need lots of damage per shot. Other mounts included range increasing, accuracy increasing, reinforced mounts, etc. They all have tradeoffs (often high cost, less damage, more supplies used, that sort of stuff). There is no mount that it is always better to be using.

Now, I am not sure what the overall net effect will be because I have not done much testing yet. But, that is what the Beta phase is for.

[ July 17, 2003, 19:24: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Taera]

actually Progenitors actually breathe nitrogen [edit-and so do native lifeforms - after all they're native to a nitrogen world] - notice they're not wearing atmospheric masks, if you realy want start a new game and go meet aliens - you'll get the visual decription of alien infantry in the text.

[ July 18, 2003, 00:44: Message edited by: Taera ]

[Chronon]

Thanks alot Fyron, for your thoughts on combat balance. All of those sound like great ideas, and we may want to adopt many of them here. I'll be curious to see how they work in your beta testing.

Taera: Hmm...if the Progenitors and mindworms actually breathe the nitrogen, then the would be able to live on CO2 worlds as well. Balance-wise, that might actually work out very well, because the Progenitors would have a huge advantage over everyone else. They could create lots of problems for the human player. Of course, it means if a human decides to play the Progenitors, the game would be extremely easy, but that's the way it is in AC, too.