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I found some kind of alien pod and it said to bring it home and plug it into a network node but when I got it there it just wanted to use it to boost production of a prototype so I have to tell it to do nothing every turn until I discover or build network nodes I guess? And the OP said gaians are good at capturing mind worms and I caught one so I marched it home to start a research quest like I was playing xcom or something but it doesn't want to get researched so then I was telling both the mind worms and the alien pod to do nothing every turn and I got bored. Is a captured mind worm just a pet you can fight other mind worms with?
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Oct 29, 2014 21:21
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Strange Matter posted:The real messed up thing is that Kilkakon put an insane amount of work changing pretty much every single thing about SMACX to create Lost Eden, but he can't get anyone to play it for obvious reasons. I remember talking about this sorta thing in the Skyrim threads a long time ago. Joe Average, who has a wife, kids and job, can't devote the time and effort it takes to bring forth the sweet mod he's thought up. On the other hand we have Melvin McSpergerson, who hasn't left his mommy's basement in ten years. He can devote fifty hours a week to learning the intricacies of a particular game, but the resulting mod will showcase his many sexual fetishes.
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Oct 29, 2014 21:22
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Tollymain posted:speaking of which strange matter i really want to try out your custom factions, how balanced are they against the actual game? any recommendations for other fairly serious factions/sets that fit the tone of the base game? Also I'm planning on doing some tweaks in the near future regarding their bonuses based on some further playtesting, mainly buffing the Chrysalites and Technocrats and slightly nerfing the Pilgrims. As far as other factions that fit the tone of the base game, that's a bit harder than you'd expect to find. A lot of Faction modders like to create hugely powerful factions, chiefly as challenges to play against. A popular set is Jarlwolf's, which is what you'd get if you filtered SMACX through the lens of a dyed in the wool scandanavian communist. For the most part his factions have huge bonuses and penalties and are supposed to be balanced against each other, not the base game. Jarlwolf, however, is probably the single best base modder in the community, and for the most part his base graphics blow everyone else out of the water in terms of attention to detail. Each of his factions even has a different model for the Perimeter Defense/Tachyon Field. BlueFlux also has a set that is largely "what if historical figures like Ronald Reagan, Adolf Hitler and Tim Cook were faction leaders? Also Rome, for some reason." They seem fairly balanced against the core game, but thematically....not so much. There's also two alien factions that were designed specifically for challenge games: The Annihilators and The Exterminatus, which are insanely aggressive and have overwhelmingly powerful stats. The guys at Alpha Centauri 2 pretty much built them because they became so good at the game that they needed new challenges. AC2 also hosts a huge collection of factions from The Network Node, which was a website from the 90s which cataloged Factions and created graphics for viewer submissions. A lot of them are dumb gimmicks but it does offer a lot of variety when it comes to more factions. It's also the home of The Antimind, the first legendarily unbeatable alien faction. However, all that being said not a lot of modders seem to go after the tone of the original game when they make factions. I think my set is probably one of the few that really even tries.
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Oct 29, 2014 21:22
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Krinkle posted:I found some kind of alien pod and it said to bring it home and plug it into a network node but when I got it there it just wanted to use it to boost production of a prototype so I have to tell it to do nothing every turn until I discover or build network nodes I guess? And the OP said gaians are good at capturing mind worms and I caught one so I marched it home to start a research quest like I was playing xcom or something but it doesn't want to get researched so then I was telling both the mind worms and the alien pod to do nothing every turn and I got bored. Is a captured mind worm just a pet you can fight other mind worms with? "H" is the hotkey to make units hold position, and that will put the artifact to sleep until you get a node. Captured mindworms are just free units, yes. The advantage to mindworms is that they use Psi combat, which works differently from every other combat in the game. If at least one unit in a fight has psi combat, then the fight will always be psi, the attacker will always have 3 strength (modified by promotions) and the defender will always have 2 strength (modified by promotions). So an ultra-strong skullfuckotron tank that's Green will get killed just as hard by the lowest-level (equal to green) mindworm boil as your starting scout patrols. Later on you can get special unit components that let you build humans with psi combat (which also gives them an extra bonus when fighting mind worms, iirc) and if you're a bunch of tree-huggers you can also build mind worms later. President Ark fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Oct 29, 2014 |
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Oct 29, 2014 21:24
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Krinkle posted:I found some kind of alien pod and it said to bring it home and plug it into a network node but when I got it there it just wanted to use it to boost production of a prototype so I have to tell it to do nothing every turn until I discover or build network nodes I guess? And the OP said gaians are good at capturing mind worms and I caught one so I marched it home to start a research quest like I was playing xcom or something but it doesn't want to get researched so then I was telling both the mind worms and the alien pod to do nothing every turn and I got bored. Is a captured mind worm just a pet you can fight other mind worms with? Hint: play University. Free node at every base. There are two things you can do with Mind Worms; smash face, and capture more Mind Worms. If you can get to 3+ planet and you're on a big continent with medium or abundant native life, you can't lose once you get rolling.
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Oct 29, 2014 21:25
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Mind worms can also use xenofungus as roads, which is pretty dang strong in the early game when people are just barely getting started and xenofungus heavily impedes movement for everything else.
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Oct 29, 2014 21:29
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Krinkle posted:I found some kind of alien pod and it said to bring it home and plug it into a network node but when I got it there it just wanted to use it to boost production of a prototype so I have to tell it to do nothing every turn until I discover or build network nodes I guess? And the OP said gaians are good at capturing mind worms and I caught one so I marched it home to start a research quest like I was playing xcom or something but it doesn't want to get researched so then I was telling both the mind worms and the alien pod to do nothing every turn and I got bored. Is a captured mind worm just a pet you can fight other mind worms with? Pods can be used to unlock a free tech in a base with a Network Node building (available from Information Networks, Discover 1). Or it can be used to rush prototypes (stupid, don't do this), or Mind worms are sweet, use them to fight stuff. They treat fungus as roads, take no penalty for attacking with a fraction of a move remaining (normal units cannot), and can heal to full in fungus squares (normal units are capped to 80% repair outside of base squares). Even if you just take your worm and use it to fight other worms, you'll capture enough to build an army, and any worms you don't capture will give you credits when you kill them. Strange Matter posted:As far as other factions that fit the tone of the base game, that's a bit harder than you'd expect to find. A lot of Faction modders like to create hugely powerful factions, chiefly as challenges to play against. A popular set is Jarlwolf's, which is what you'd get if you filtered SMACX through the lens of a dyed in the wool scandanavian communist. For the most part his factions have huge bonuses and penalties and are supposed to be balanced against each other, not the base game. Jarlwolf, however, is probably the single best base modder in the community, and for the most part his base graphics blow everyone else out of the water in terms of attention to detail. Each of his factions even has a different model for the Perimeter Defense/Tachyon Field. Holy poo poo that Imperium is utter insanity. +2 Economy and effectively constant pop boom? 
PittTheElder fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Oct 29, 2014 |
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Oct 29, 2014 21:48
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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PittTheElder posted:Holy poo poo that Imperium is utter insanity. +2 Economy and effectively constant pop boom?
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Oct 29, 2014 23:03
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mindworms are also great for popping pods because of the fungus move bonus and because native life generally ignores them (so when you get 8 mature boils surrounding you it isn't the end like if you were idk a rover). they're great at converting more native units because a) they are hugely less likely to be attacked by natives (so you get a chance to convert nearly every unit it meets). also, when moving through fungus each move has a chance to spawn mindworms. with 3 moves in fungus, that's three times the conversion opportunities. captured natives are also really great because they tend to be independent of your bases (so they don't cost you support minerals). tldr mindworms are great, and also cute/cuddly
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Oct 29, 2014 23:36
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By popping pods do you mean those brown things that the game said were from old earth but look like mud balls on the map?
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Oct 29, 2014 23:44
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the rusty disk/cylinder things yes. they're basically huts/ruins from civilization; they can give you money, a free tech, a free unit (usually super basic rovers or transports), an artifact, a commlink frequency (9 times out of ten you encounter that faction in the flesh in the next 3 turns anyway  ), a monolith, a surprise fungus friend (warning: friendship hurts), a fungal bloom (3x3 square centered on you becomes xenofungus), wormhole/tidal wave (unit is teleported to a nearbyish location), an earthquake (a mountain appears underneath you), a copy of your unit because space magic, autoterraforming for nearby squares, or a free hurry for a unit or facility being built at a nearby base.this list is very long and also incomplete but basically pop as many pods as you can, they are a small risk for a lot of potential gain. also i think they have often have bonus resources hidden under them
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Oct 29, 2014 23:54
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Also, pop sea pods with transports so you can get artifacts/rovers from them.
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Oct 30, 2014 00:19
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Tollymain posted:this list is very long and also incomplete but basically pop as many pods as you can, they are a small risk for a lot of potential gain. also i think they have often have bonus resources hidden under them Unless you're grabbing it with a worm or it's your first pod(first pod can't be bad I'm pretty sure), pods in fungus tend to have worse outcomes so leave them until you are comfortable with losing the scout, imo.
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Oct 30, 2014 00:42
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Tollymain posted:tldr mindworms are great, and also cute/cuddly quote:As the writhing, teeming mass of Mind Worms swarmed over the outer perimeter, we saw the defenders recoil in horror. "Stay calm! Use your flame guns!" shouted the commander, but to no avail. It is well known that the Mind Worm Boil uses psychic terror to paralyze its prey, and then carefully implants ravenous larvae in the brains of its still-conscious victims. Even with the best weapons, only the most disciplined troops can resist this horrific attack.
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Oct 30, 2014 01:01
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In my games I almost never capture mindworms/worm rush, because I always take Free Market or Planned and never play Gaians. gently caress the planet. It is a blank clay that I will bend to my will with terraformers. Purity forever. 
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Oct 30, 2014 02:19
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Why did the Gaians have such a hard-on for murdering the Spartans in the fiction? You'd think they'd be low on the hit list.
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Oct 30, 2014 02:52
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clearly deirdre was insanely jealous of santiago's record streak at attaining the coveted "planet's best neighbor" award
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Oct 30, 2014 03:27
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I was doing good. I was friends with the nerds and the spartans. Everybody wanted to trade with me. I voted in democracy and was making a good profit. Then gaians sail up and say I have to pay a tax for not being green enough and I told her no thank you and then she ganked my alien pod. Random research will clearly never get to where I can build a network node, how do I force research to hit network nodes?
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Oct 30, 2014 04:26
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Krinkle posted:I was doing good. I was friends with the nerds and the spartans. Everybody wanted to trade with me. I voted in democracy and was making a good profit. Then gaians sail up and say I have to pay a tax for not being green enough and I told her no thank you and then she ganked my alien pod. Random research will clearly never get to where I can build a network node, how do I force research to hit network nodes? When you start a new game there's an option to tweak the rules of the game. In there you'll be able to turn off 'blind research'. Blind research is a neat feature and it's cool if you've played the game a bunch and want to make it interesting, but I think most people just turn it off.
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Oct 30, 2014 04:38
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Blind research is the best.
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Oct 30, 2014 04:40
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The network node technology is in the pool of techs that have no prerequisite. It's a DISCOVER tech, so if you focus on DISCOVER you should get it pretty quick. If you get the other DISCOVER 1 tech, don't fret too much because that tech unlocks a very useful early-game base facility too 
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Oct 30, 2014 04:41
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or you could start over without blind research
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Oct 30, 2014 04:41
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If I turn off blind tech it's off forever, I guess, and I'd have to read this horrifying tech web that even zoomed in I can't read? I'll just restart and hope for better luck.
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Oct 30, 2014 04:45
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Seriously, it's not as hard as you're making it out to be! I learned to play this game when I was, like, 12 or 13 years old.
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Oct 30, 2014 04:59
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Pvt.Scott posted:Why did the Gaians have such a hard-on for murdering the Spartans in the fiction? You'd think they'd be low on the hit list. In the backstory stuff the Spartans try to Space Mutiny the unity, and I think Santiago threatens Dedrite directly. Dedrite getting the last laugh is very fitting.
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Oct 30, 2014 05:44
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Krinkle posted:If I turn off blind tech it's off forever, I guess, and I'd have to read this horrifying tech web that even zoomed in I can't read? I'll just restart and hope for better luck. Don't worry about prereading the tech web too much. If you're playing on a low difficulty you don't need to play optimally, just explore the game naturally and the tech will make plenty of sense. The technology types (DISCOVER and CONQUER and such) are fairly self-explanatory. Blind research is sort of like raging barbarians, you don't toggle it on and off during play, you turn it on/off during setup.
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Oct 30, 2014 06:47
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Krinkle posted:I was doing good. I was friends with the nerds and the spartans. Everybody wanted to trade with me. I voted in democracy and was making a good profit. Then gaians sail up and say I have to pay a tax for not being green enough and I told her no thank you and then she ganked my alien pod. Random research will clearly never get to where I can build a network node, how do I force research to hit network nodes? Press Control-R, set your research priorities to only Discover. Although I'd say Blind Research probably isn't a great choice for a first timer (although it's probably on by default )Who are you playing as?
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Oct 30, 2014 08:01
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HappyHelmet posted:We used to do play by email on here, but I don't think anyone has done one in a long time. There's a lot of house rules you need to have in place because the game is pretty buggy in multiplayer, and I think people got tired of the hassle. Also there was some drama among the more regular players, and a few people ended up quitting.
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Oct 30, 2014 08:04
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Tollymain posted:Don't worry about prereading the tech web too much. If you're playing on a low difficulty you don't need to play optimally, just explore the game naturally and the tech will make plenty of sense. The technology types (DISCOVER and CONQUER and such) are fairly self-explanatory. Blind research is sort of like raging barbarians, you don't toggle it on and off during play, you turn it on/off during setup. Also do blind research at least in your first game. It really feels like your scientists are discovering all this insane new technology. I think the coolest video game experience I ever had was my first play through (only 3 or so years ago) and hearing all the quotes and reading about all the insane techs for the first time while realizing I could literally sink my enemies city's under the ocean.
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Oct 30, 2014 10:18
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Sardonik posted:In the backstory stuff the Spartans try to Space Mutiny the unity, and I think Santiago threatens Dedrite directly. Dedrite getting the last laugh is very fitting. Well, that seems like a petty and horrible reason to secretly send mind-rape worms towards settlements full of people. Why not just assassinate Santiago or whatever? Deidre sounds like an rear end in a top hat.
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Oct 30, 2014 10:59
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PittTheElder posted:
A few times as gaians, once as science, this time I tried to be the economist.
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Oct 30, 2014 11:00
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PittTheElder posted:Although I'd say Blind Research probably isn't a great choice for a first timer ...because first timers know the optimal tech paths already?
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Oct 30, 2014 11:09
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I tried to change two social things at once and got drone riots up the rear end. My middle city turned orange while the others were yellow and the spartans were staring at it. Did they quell my drone riots? Is that why I pay them protection money because I assumed it was just them being a thug and pushing the economists around?
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Oct 30, 2014 11:54
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Assuming you aren't, since you're just starting build terraformers and just tell them to fully automate and they'll improve all your bases. Build lots of them
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Oct 30, 2014 12:14
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Krinkle posted:I tried to change two social things at once and got drone riots up the rear end. My middle city turned orange while the others were yellow and the spartans were staring at it. Did they quell my drone riots? Is that why I pay them protection money because I assumed it was just them being a thug and pushing the economists around? The Spartans can't do anything to help you with your drone problem, they're just being enormous douchebags. What society models did you change from/to? I'm guessing you moved to Free Market, right? It's a powerful tool for generating energy (2+ ECON means +1 energy in every space a city works, which is huge), but you have to know exactly what you're doing or else drones and mindworms are going to wreck you Drones have a few solutions. Recreation Commons and Hologram Theatres are both early game base facilities that straight up eliminate up to 2 drones each (also, your first hologram theatre will give you one of the most amazing quotes in the game, it's hilariously hosed up). The Human Genome Project and the Virtual World are both good early secret projects for preventing or dealing with drone problems too. If your POLICE social effect is at least -1, you can garrison units in your bases to get rid of drones. The amount of units you can use as police depends on how high it is; if it's 3+ each unit has double the effect! Conversely, if your POLICE is -3 or below, military units away from your territory actually generate additional drones. If a base outputs PSYCH, its workers can become talents, which prevent drone riots as long as they are at least equal numbers. Every 2 units of PSYCH converts a city worker to a talent; if you have no regular workers left, every additional 2 units of PSYCH converts a drone into a regular worker. You can get PSYCH by either increasing its slider from 0% on the SE window and/or taking a worker away from the tile it's working and making it into a specialist that gives your base additional PSYCH (doctors, empaths, thinkers and transcends all give PSYCH) and/or by building facilities that increase PSYCH output (this is usually percentile, meaning you have to have at least 10% funding for PSYCH to get their effects). anyway that's it for my  ing for now.
Tollymain fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 30, 2014 13:06
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A regular mindworm just ate my commando scout rover. 
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Oct 30, 2014 13:24
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Pvt.Scott posted:A regular mindworm just ate my commando scout rover. 3:2 for ground psi combat, and the maximum bonus from morale is +50%. The attacker is almost always going to have the advantage on open ground. ( )Actually, worms attacking into a fungus square get a +50% boost, don't they?
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Oct 30, 2014 13:50
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Omobono posted:3:2 for ground psi combat, and the maximum bonus from morale is +50%. The attacker is almost always going to have the advantage on open ground. ( I know they have some significant bonus. I like that the mindworms are terrifyingly dangerous, I was just sad to see the pluckiest little rover go. He got all those promotions from miraculously facerolling a bunch of other mindworms.
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Oct 30, 2014 14:45
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Pvt.Scott posted:I know they have some significant bonus. I like that the mindworms are terrifyingly dangerous, I was just sad to see the pluckiest little rover go. He got all those promotions from miraculously facerolling a bunch of other mindworms. Richard Baxton piloted his Recon Rover into a fungal vortex and held off four waves of mind worms, saving an entire colony. We immediately purchased his identity manifests and repackaged him into the Recon Rover Rick character with a multi-tiered media campaign: televids, touchbooks, holos, psi-tours-- the works. People need heroes. They don't need to know how he died clawing his eyes out, screaming for mercy. The real story would just hurt sales, and dampen the spirits of our customers. Morgan Stellartots Keynote Speech, "Mythology for Profit"
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Oct 30, 2014 15:19
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Pvt.Scott posted:Well, that seems like a petty and horrible reason to secretly send mind-rape worms towards settlements full of people. Why not just assassinate Santiago or whatever? Deidre sounds like an rear end in a top hat. From the perspective of the Unity officers, Santiago's faction is made up of a small cadre of fascists who led the catalysing action that led to the complete collapse of the Unity mission. They destroyed humanity's last chance at a unified future, and if I recall correctly, they all blame the Spartans (plausibly but almost certainly incorrectly) for the assassination of the Captain. As such the blame falls not on Santiago alone, but her whole faction of "mutineers and traitors", and it's implied there are only about fifty of them, looking to create a society in which everyone is a soldier. However, there's some conflict between the quotes from the game and the official novels. In the quotes from the game, it is strongly implied (though not actually explicitly said) that the Secret War was the complete destruction of Sparta by Gaian controlled mind worms. However, in the novels, the Spartans (and indeed the whole of humanity) get destroyed by the Believers' use of singularity planet busters. As such, all there really is to go on in the game's story is the quotes, which tell us precious little about why the Gaians fought the Spartans, beyond what we know about the emnity between the Spartans and everyone else.
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Oct 30, 2014 15:54
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