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Emperor
New Syracuse, Beta Prime
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Dec 2001
time: 23:01
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The Guardian of Planet
BACKDROP: In MY 2433 several factions discovered the wreckage of a Progenitor interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact, and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships had been built and sent out with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the ancient Progenitor ships star charts. The results were mixed: some scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while other scouts return with tales of planets who have degraded over the eons. Still other scouts fail to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast as they could be built.
Some of the solar systems which were settled revealed relics from civilizations which predated even the Progenitors, to include an array of stargates which augmented interstellar travel to several branches of the galaxy. One such stargate lay in the Premius star system: located approximately one AU from its primary, it was made of an unknown composite material which gave the stargate a reddish tinge. Coupled with its oblique angle to the local star, the odd protrusions which randomly protruded from its surface cast intermittent long dark shadows across its otherwise reddish surface, and thus gave the stargate its nickname: the Roulette Wheel.
There was another more ominous reason the stargate had picked up this nickname: once every so often (current calculations put it at approximately 0.000001%) the stargate misfired, and any spacecraft involved were lost forever.
One such event has just occurred: a spacechip full of settler factions bound for the newly discovered Corali system has just disappeared from the stargate without a trace. Some people wondered if the spaceship had been delivered to an undiscovered stargate somewhere else in the galaxy. Still others thought the ancient civilization which built the gates was still somewhere out in the galaxy, and every now and again they retuned this gate to deliver to them a sampling of the races which were currently using the gate system. The technicians who manned the Roulette Wheel had drawn their own conclusion: the colony ship New Hope had simply landed on unlucky 13. They marked it down as such in their logs, and moved on with preparing the next spaceship for its transit.
Guardian Hm’nee settled herself into the Prayer Seat located within the Great Communal Hall. Here, deep within the ancient chambers of the Manifold Nexus on this planet she communed with the Planet Mind, just as all of her forebearers had done since time immemorial. The Planet Mind talked to her of many things, of the history of her people, of how the Nexus had originally been an experiment, and how instead it had awakened something deeper, more enlightened on this planet. The Planet Mind also told Hm’nee of how her people had arrived here many eons ago, via the “stargate” which hung like a moon in the space above, and how her ancient ancestors, unable to reactivate the stargate to return to their own galaxy, had descended to the planet below and built this Manifold Nexus. Hm’nee closed her eyes and reached her mind out, expecting the usual communing with the Planet Mind. This time however the Planet Mind seized her awareness and transported her consciousness into space above, to show her the stargate, and something new emerging from its cylindrical maw. Hm’nee allowed the Planet Mind to direct her senses, to reach out and “taste” the new vehicle, to probe and analyze what it was. Hm’nee's senses wandered through the alien spaceship, touching this, viewing that, and determining just what itwas. What it was not was a Progenitor spaceship, Hm’nee very quickly discovered. Instead it was filled with many disparate minds, all seeking their own destiny. While some minds shared a similar attitude towards communing with planets, many other minds could only envision a planet as a resource to be used, and pillaged as needed. Hm’nee recoiled at these thoughts and withdrew her probing of the alien spaceship. These minds were poison! She began gathering the latent energy of the Nexus: it would be a simple thing to pull this spacecraft from the sky, to bring these people down to her and destroy the minds which spoke the blasphemy of pollution and waste. The energy of Planet quickly filled her, and she reached out, almost as if with her own hands, and pulled the spaceship from its orbit, drawing it down to her and her waiting minions…….
Directions
1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "GoP", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go to the subdirectory "GoP" and choose the scenario. The game will automatically load up with the Gaians.
Enjoy! 
D
 Attachment: gop.zip
This has been downloaded 19 time(s).
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Emperor
New Syracuse, Beta Prime
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Dec 2001
time: 23:01
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Observations
The alphax.txt file for this game has been heavily modified, with some of the more notable modifications as follows:
#RULES
- Base defense has been increased to 40%: since the AI is typically on the defensive, then this will assist the AI moreso.
#TERRAIN
- Farms require Centauri Ecology in order to be built.
- Solar Collectors require Industrial Base.
- Mines require Industrial Economy (I believe it was Maniac who first came up with this idea, in order to encourage the AIs to plant forests instead).
- Forests only take 3 turns to plant.
#RESOURCE INFO
- Forest squares now give 2 nutrients: this encourages the AIs to practice the "Forest and Forget" strategy (which they do quite nicely!  )
#WORLDBUILDER
- the worldbuilder section has been directly pulled from smacksim's worldbuilder mod: much better random maps IMO!
#CHASSIS
- Foil moves 3 squares
- Cruiser moves 5 squares
- Needlejet moves 6 squares
- Copter moves 5 squares
- Gravships move 5 squares, and are now available with Monopole Magnets.
#UNITS
- There are 43 units spread throughout the tech tree. Some of these I'm still experimenting with, while others have definately found their niche (you'll know which ones when you encounter them!  ). The other reason for so many is that it pears back the number of poor designs the AI builds (although it still tries to screw the pooch on occasion with crap units). Some of the units are as follows:
- Infantry chassis Former which is immediately available and is cheapened to one row of minerals: the AI puts these to good use.
- Several gravship and hovertank designs: part of this is to act as a counter to the human's use of AC and choppers. The AI builds aircraft but doesn't handle them very well (although I have gotten to employ them slightly better in this scenario), however they do a better job with gravships and hovertanks.
- Aircraft carriers: I think I finally got the flavor right for these!
#FACILITIES
- Robotic Assembly Plant is available with MMI.
- Nessus Mining Station available with Doc:Air: still can't get the AI to build orbitals in this scenario, though.... 
- Empath Guild: moved to Eudomania
- Cloudbase Academy: moved to Monopole Magnets. Because of the CBA's worth (i.e. free aerospace complex in each city), then this, along with the gravship chassis at monopole magnets, now makes for an interesting choice: does the player beeline for MMI and choppers, or does the player now beeline for Monopole Magnets?
There are other changes, but the above are the most notable IMO.
D
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quote:
Originally posted by Darsnan
There are other changes, but the above are the most notable IMO.
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What is the effect of
Speeder Formers, Speeder, Formers, Scout, 9, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 00000000000000000000000000
*Sea Formers, Foil, Formers, Scout, 9, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 00000000000000000000000000
Speeder CP, Speeder, Colony Pod, Scout, 8, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 00000000000000000000000000
I assume the "Disable" means you can give the AI's these units, but they can't be built.
What does the "*" in front of "Sea Formers" do?
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Emperor
New Syracuse, Beta Prime
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Dec 2001
time: 23:01
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First off, the Sea Former is a default unit in the alphax.txt file - I didn't touch that at all. I don't know why there is an asterisk in front of the Sea Former name.
Since you reviewed the #UNITS section of the alphax.txt file, you'll note the Speeder Formers hold the slot originally held by the Infantry chassis Formers, which is right after the CP and right before the Scout: I've placed this unit here as it makes it easier for me when placing units at the beginning of the game (CP, Speeder Former, Scout, and I'm done!). I also typically give human players a couple of Speeder CPs to speed the placement of bases #2 and #3.
D
Last edited by Darsnan on 27-05-2008 at 13:12
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(1) I notice that you have
15,7 ; Numerator & Denominator for artillery fire damage
where the normal values are 3,2. Does this mean that an attacking artillery unit does 5 times as much damage in this scenario?
(2) You also have
Thermal Borehole, EcoEng, Thermal Borehole, EcoEng, 24, Construct $STR0, B, Shift+B
Why did you enable Thermal Boreholes in the sea?
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Emperor
New Syracuse, Beta Prime
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Dec 2001
time: 23:01
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quote:
Originally posted by vyeh
(1) I notice that you have
15,7 ; Numerator & Denominator for artillery fire damage
where the normal values are 3,2. Does this mean that an attacking artillery unit does 5 times as much damage in this scenario? |
Not 5 times the damage. This is a numerator/ denominator function. The 3, 2 gives a 1.5 value the program then uses for calculating arty damage, whereas the 15/7 gives a slightly higher calculation value of 2.1 per barrage. I did this because the AI is much more inclined to use arty, so this assists the AI more than the human player.
quote:
Originally posted by vyeh
(2) You also have
Thermal Borehole, EcoEng, Thermal Borehole, EcoEng, 24, Construct $STR0, B, Shift+B
Why did you enable Thermal Boreholes in the sea? |
To a large extent I built this scenario specifically to demonstrate a lot of the things you can do to enhance the aquatic elements of the game, per my discussion in the podcast: the sinking of the Unity wreckage, Sea Monoliths, archapeligos for aquatic factions, additional aquatic units contained in the alphax.txt - all of this is contained in this game. I can't recollect at the moment if I mentioned Sea Boreholes as well, however this is another element that can enhance the aquatic dynamics of the game (and note if it had been a regular scenario I probably would not have enabled Sea Boreholes).
D
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quote:
Originally posted by Darsnan
To a large extent I built this scenario specifically to demonstrate a lot of the things you can do to enhance the aquatic elements of the game, per my discussion in the podcast: the sinking of the Unity wreckage, Sea Monoliths, archapeligos for aquatic factions, additional aquatic units contained in the alphax.txt - all of this is contained in this game. I can't recollect at the moment if I mentioned Sea Boreholes as well, however this is another element that can enhance the aquatic dynamics of the game (and note if it had been a regular scenario I probably would not have enabled Sea Boreholes). |
Readers might be interested in the work of AlexanderIII (he created the Advanced Hydromechanics patch for SNAC, both of which can be found in the Poly SMAC files (modpack) section. He describes some of his work in the following thread
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/show...=&threadid=8175
You have a line
Monolith, SentRes, Monolith, SentRes, 8, Place Monolith, ?, ?, (this is here for map editor)
Are formers able to build monoliths once SentRes is discovered?
Last edited by vyeh on 27-05-2008 at 16:57
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Emperor
New Syracuse, Beta Prime
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Dec 2001
time: 23:01
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quote:
Originally posted by vyeh
Readers might be interested in the work of AlexanderIII (he created the Advanced Hydromechanics patch for SNAC, both of which can be found in the Poly SMAC files (modpack) section. He describes some of his work in the following thread
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/show...=&threadid=8175 |
 I think Googlie's bump in '03 was his way of saying "stop pestering me!", cuz at the time I was just getting into modding the #UNITS section of the alphax.txt file.
quote:
Originally posted by vyeh
In my search, the consensus seemed to be that you couldn't get a former to place a monolith (because the command wouldn't show up in the game menu). Yet you have a line
Monolith, SentRes, Monolith, SentRes, 8, Place Monolith, ?, ?, (this is here for map editor)
I was puzzled by the tech prerequisite. In your scenario, are formers able to build monoliths once SentRes is discovered? |
Darn good question. I never playtested this, and had actually forgotten about it. I'll see when I get home tonight. From what was said in the other thread it doesn't look like you can terraform monoliths, though.
However this makes me concerned: can you check real quick in the #CHASSIS section to see at what tech the rover chassis is available?
D
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quote:
Originally posted by Darsnan
I think Googlie's bump in '03 was his way of saying "stop pestering me!", cuz at the time I was just getting into modding the #UNITS section of the alphax.txt file. |
Hopefully, you won't start bumping threads for me. I hate pure bumps. I like to read new content.
quote:
Originally posted by Darsnan
Darn good question. I never playtested this, and had actually forgotten about it. I'll see when I get home tonight. From what was said in the other thread it doesn't look like you can terraform monoliths, though. |
DilithiumDad claims that his TurboSMAC mod allowed Monoliths to be built after CentMed. See I.6 in the following post
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/show...064#post3443064
I've edited my previous post to remove the consensus comment, which you captured in quoting me.
quote:
Originally posted by Darsnan
However this makes me concerned: can you check real quick in the #CHASSIS section to see at what tech the rover chassis is available? |
Speeder,M1, Rover,M1, Defensive,M1, Skirmisher,M1,2, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, NewMiss, Dragon,M1, Enforcer,M1,
NewMiss = N-Space Compression
N-Space Compression, NewMiss, 4, 0, 2, 0, Orbital, BioMac, 000000000
Orbital Spaceflight, Orbital, 0, 4, 3, 3, DocAir, Algor, 000000000
Biomachinery, BioMac, 3, 1, 4, 1, MindMac, Viral, 000100000
Doctrine: Air Power, DocAir, 3, 0, 3, 4, Fossil, DocFlex, 000000000
Pre-Sentient Algorithms, Algor, 2, 4, 3, 2, MilAlg, Cyber, 000000010
Mind/Machine Interface, MindMac, 4, 0, 2, 2, DocAir, Neural, 000000010
Retroviral Engineering, Viral, 4, 2, 0, 2, BioEng, MilAlg, 000110000
Synthetic Fossil Fuels, Fossil, 1, 0, 2, 4, Chemist, Gene, 000000000
Doctrine: Flexibility, DocFlex, 2, 0, 1, 4, Mobile, None, 000000000
Advanced Military Algorithms,MilAlg, 3, 0, 1, 2, AdapDoc, OptComp, 000000000
Cyberethics, Cyber, 1, 3, 4, 0, PlaNets, Integ, 000000000
Neural Grafting, Neural, 3, 1, 1, 1, Brain, IndAuto, 000000000
Bio-Engineering, BioEng, 0, 2, 3, 2, Gene, Neural, 000100000
High Energy Chemistry, Chemist, 3, 1, 2, 0, Indust, Physic, 000000000
Gene Splicing, Gene, 0, 2, 4, 3, Biogen, EthCalc, 000100000
Doctrine: Mobility, Mobile, 2, 0, 0, 3, None, None, 000000000
Adaptive Doctrine, AdapDoc, 5, 2, 0, 0, Poly, DocFlex, 000000000
Optical Computers, OptComp, 2, 4, 1, 0, Physic, Poly, 000000000
Planetary Networks, PlaNets, 0, 4, 3, 1, InfNet, None, 000000000
Intellectual Integrity, Integ, 0, 1, 3, 4, EthCalc, DocLoy, 000000000
Secrets of the Human Brain, Brain, 1, 5, 0, 3, Psych, Biogen, 000000001
Industrial Automation, IndAuto, 0, 1, 4, 3, IndEcon, PlaNets, 000000100
Industrial Base, Indust, 2, 1, 3, 0, None, None, 000000000
Applied Physics, Physic, 4, 2, 1, 0, None, None, 000000000
Biogenetics, Biogen, 0, 3, 2, 2, None, None, 000100000
Ethical Calculus, EthCalc, 0, 1, 3, 3, Psych, None, 000000000
Polymorphic Software, Poly, 2, 3, 1, 0, Indust, InfNet, 000000010
Information Networks, InfNet, 0, 3, 2, 1, None, None, 000000000
Doctrine: Loyalty, DocLoy, 3, 0, 2, 2, Mobile, Psych, 000000000
Social Psych, Psych, 0, 1, 3, 2, None, None, 000000000
Industrial Economics, IndEcon, 0, 0, 5, 2, Indust, None, 000000100
Edit: I did track the tech tree.
Last edited by vyeh on 27-05-2008 at 17:36
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Emperor
New Syracuse, Beta Prime
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Dec 2001
time: 23:01
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quote:
Originally posted by vyeh
Hopefully, you won't start bumping threads for me. |
Well, as long as you don't pester me as much as I was pestering Googlie back in '03, then NP (and note that I don't think that will happen! )
quote:
Originally posted by vyeh
Speeder,M1, Rover,M1, Defensive,M1, Skirmisher,M1,2, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, NewMiss, Dragon,M1, Enforcer,M1, |
Bah! I grabbed the wrong alphax.txt file to edit when I first started building this scenario ( I think Perimeter Defenses have been moved as well)  . Anyways, these are vestiges from another project I'm working on. Note that there is a rover unit available at a level 4 tech (Doc:Init I believe), so rovers can be reverse-engineered as desired.
D
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quote:
Originally posted by Darsnan
Bah! I grabbed the wrong alphax.txt file to edit when I first started building this scenario |
What kind of scenario did you create where you have missiles (Orbital), needlejets (DocAir) and copters (MindMac) before you can build a rover?!
quote:
Originally posted by Darsnan
( I think Perimeter Defenses have been moved as well) . |
Perimeter Defense looks normal
Perimeter Defense, 5, 0, DocLoy, Disable, Defense +100%
quote:
Originally posted by Darsnan
Note that there is a rover unit available at a level 4 tech (Doc:Init I believe), so rovers can be reverse-engineered as desired. |
There is Nonlinear Mathematics, which is a level 2 tech (its prerequisites are Applied Physics and Information Networks, which have no prerequisites).
Impact Rover, Speeder, Impact, Scout, 1, 3, 0, Chaos, -1, 00000000000000000000001000
And there is always the Probe Team, which requires Planetary Networks, which needs only Information Networks
Probe Team, Speeder, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, PlaNets, -1, 00000000000000000000000000
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Emperor
New Syracuse, Beta Prime
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Dec 2001
time: 23:01
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quote:
Originally posted by vyeh
What kind of scenario did you create where you have missiles (Orbital), needlejets (DocAir) and copters (MindMac) before you can build a rover?! |
An idea I had very recently was that of generating an alphax.txt tailored specifically for the environment in which it will need to perform, with the specific intent of assisting the AI in how it plays. The first alphax.txt file I have started work on is for a waterworld (<15% land). Still a lot of work to do, a lot of playtesting before that will see the light of day (and with a lot of things I do, why I might find that this idea of how to benefit the AI doesn't pan out, and will end up on the scrap heap instead). My thought here as far as the rover chassis is that there is nothing worse than bumping into an AI waterbase and seeing it full of 1/1/2 rovers or some such, and not a transport to be found! By eliminating the rover chassis (except for some specifically crafted units such as the Amphibious Assault Rover you mentioned above) then it is my hope the AI will build units that are more advantageous for this specific environment.
D
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quote:
Originally posted by Darsnan
The first alphax.txt file I have started work on is for a waterworld (<15% land). ... By eliminating the rover chassis (except for some specifically crafted units such as the Amphibious Assault Rover you mentioned above) then it is my hope the AI will build units that are more advantageous for this specific environment.
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That explains why the impact rover has built in amphibious ability.
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I don't think anyone has been able to modify the game to get formers to create Monoliths in game.
A search found two threads addressing this issue
****
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/show...threadid=138792
This thread says even modifying alphax.txt to
Monolith, AlphCen, Sea Monolith, AlphCen, 10, Place Monolith, a, a,
one couldn't get a keystroke command ("a" or even the original "?") or a right-click menu item to command the former to place a monolith after Secrets of Alpha Centauri.
****
http://www.apolyton.net/forums/show...=&threadid=8147
In this thread AlexanderIII reported he couldn't get a menu item. No one responded to his request that anyone who had been able to produce a monolith in-game respond.
****
The following line come's from Guardian of Planet alphax.txt file
Monolith, SentRes, Monolith, SentRes, 8, Place Monolith, ?, ?, (this is here for map editor)
"(this is here for map editor)" is in the original alphax.txt file. Maybe this is more than saying that placing monoliths isn't part of the normal game. Maybe the designers are saying that you can't modify the game to place monoliths.
If anyone has actually modified a game (or played a modified game) and gotten a former to place a monolith, please respond.
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Emperor
New Syracuse, Beta Prime
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Dec 2001
time: 23:01
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quote:
Originally posted by vyeh
I don't think anyone has been able to modify the game to get formers to create Monoliths in game.
If anyone has actually modified a game (or played a modified game) and gotten a former to place a monolith, please respond. |
Sorry for not getting back on this sooner - very frenetic RL right now (getting ready for a trip to San Antonio and LA next week).
I just tried this by giving myself the Sentient Resonance tech. I noted that the tech screen fields didn't include any mention of building monoliths (which considering there is no text for it, is understandable). I then tried to have a former plant a monolith using both the "?" and the "a" after I modified the alphax.txt file appropriately: neither worked. FYI.
D
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quote:
Originally posted by Darsnan
Sorry for not getting back on this sooner - very frenetic RL right now (getting ready for a trip to San Antonio and LA next week). |
I was very careful not to pester you. Otherwise, I'm sure you would have bumped the threads I found.
quote:
Originally posted by Darsnan
I just tried this by giving myself the Sentient Resonance tech. I noted that the tech screen fields didn't include any mention of building monoliths (which considering there is no text for it, is understandable). I then tried to have a former plant a monolith using both the "?" and the "a" after I modified the alphax.txt file appropriately: neither worked. |
Did you try the right-click menu (is that what you meant by tech screen field)?
I wonder if the reason you can't modify SMAC to allow formers to build monoliths is that if that were possible, then monoliths could be destroyed by terraforming their square.
Suppose you had a scenario where forests were disabled, but you started with a bunch of forests. I bet you would still be able to destroy those forests by terraforming.
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Emperor
New Syracuse, Beta Prime
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Dec 2001
time: 23:01
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quote:
Originally posted by vyeh
Did you try the right-click menu (is that what you meant by tech screen field)? |
Yes.
quote:
Originally posted by vyeh
I wonder if the reason you can't modify SMAC to allow formers to build monoliths is that if that were possible, then monoliths could be destroyed by terraforming their square. |
Your probably right. I think that there is some hardcoding in place concerning the monoliths that is preventing them from being terraformed. I'll probably give it another more thorough attempt when I get back.
D
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Deity
Ogma in Tir Na Og
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Sep 2002
time: 04 | | |
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