Question about growth and editing factions

Illuminatus · January 8, 2004, 15:51

I am building a mod and I am trying to create a faction that doesnot experience natural growth in any way except via building The Cloning Vats. Therefore I am interested is there a maximum to number of minuses in faction txt file? I tried putting -10 growth for that faction but game crashes.

Help?

Mr. President · January 8, 2004, 17:13

Unless I am much mistaken, -3 Growth is the maximum negative rating you can have. Decreasing the number beyond this has no further effect.

Illuminatus · January 10, 2004, 15:02

I know what minus three growth does, but I want to make sure that any combination of SE changes +Childrens Creche + Golden Age won`t start natural growth with that faction.

In the meantime I was partially able to solve this but game still randomly crashes after some point.

The Mad Monk · January 11, 2004, 21:25

Well, what you have to do then is make GA difficult as well -- better throw in a -3 ECON, just to make sure.

Illuminatus · January 13, 2004, 14:49

Quote:

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Well, what you have to do then is make GA difficult as well -- better throw in a -3 ECON, just to make sure.

Why?
Setting -8 growth would work as well. Why would I give it a eco penalty (althrough I was thinking about eliminating commerce)? Forgot to mention - they also have Punishment Spheres in every base - so no GA. Perhaps a -6 Growth would work.

Illuminatus · January 13, 2004, 14:50

Is it possible to disable commerce for human factions - sth like giving them a freefac Energy Grid but they still don`t count as aliens?

Illuminatus · January 13, 2004, 14:51

At least thirty people viewed this and still no useful informations. Seems I overestimated Apolyton modding community.

The Mad Monk · January 13, 2004, 19:44

By the way -- if they don't grow at all, how do they get new colonies?

Illuminatus · January 16, 2004, 15:43

They do not get new colonies - they conquer it or rather assimilate it (wooops - yes I am doing a complete redone of the Borg - every custom Borg faction I found is simply bad). I guess it will be a human based faction after all since computer will probably just try to build CP for eternity.

Impaler[WrG] · January 16, 2004, 16:11

Well their are a few things you could do.

Prevent them from taking SE settings that give growth like Democracy or Planned or Eudiamonic.

Edit the Alpha to lower Growth bonuses on the above (but that would affect all factions unfortunatly)

Incresse growth penalties on SE settings they are likly to pick such as Green or Freemarket (unfortunaly aplies to everyone), also the NONE future society can be given any desired set of penalties which are inescapable untill the late game.

Diable the Childrens Creech in the Alpha Text (unfotunatly this will aply to everyone but could be compensated for)

Lastly just give them a wopper of a negative growth rate, I dont know how far down you can go before you crash the game though.

And lastly...

Who ever said the Borg couldn't grow their population without assimilation?? You have probably been watching too much Voyager inwhich it seems EVERY single Drone was assimilated, this is just rediculus ofcorse. If you ever saw the TNG epidode that first introduced the borg would have seen an episode that quite clearly shows the Borg Babies. It says that the borg start out purely biological (I assume their gestated in a tank though) and are then imediatly fitted with implants at "birth" and accumulate more and more as they grow eventualy becoming fully augmented cyborgs.

So their is no acurate basis for your asertion that the Borg would not experience any natural population growth.

Illuminatus · January 16, 2004, 16:37

Aah a fellow Star Treker! Hurray! First of all, Borg in ST:Voyager act like worst imbeciles I have ever seen. They are unable to assimilate a single ship traversing through a quadrant full of unassimillated species. They have strength in numbers, advanced tehnilogy and overall tactical advantage and a single ship starts a resistance movement, raids a cube, and manaeges to collapse entire transwarp network - not mentioning killing one queen (possibly two) and wreaking chaos through CYCon wooops collective conscious.
In first part of the The Best of Both Worlds, if I am correct, Borg does not want to assimilate humanity, but rather to enslave it, as Locutus pointed out, "Your life will accomodate to serve us."
Since many changes are frequent in Star Trek (I too prefered breeding drones) and they are introduced painlessly (in ST:NG Borg does not use assimilation tubules for example, and there is no mentioning of the useless Queen concept until the movie - why does a collective conscious need someone to basicaly rule over them pardon "direct them i give order to chaos"), I think that the most recent data is "correct". Do you perhaps remember energy barrier at the edge of our galaxy as in ST:OS?

Ahem back to topic.
Thanks to Impaler for first constructive answer! Three cheers for Impaler!

As for his help all first four things have been rejected basically from the start. I decided for a giant penalty, as I say in first post, but the problem is that after 50 or so turns game crashes. End. Also in SMAC this is hundred or so turns but in SMAX no more than 50.

Is it possible to disable commerce for human factions - sth like giving them a freefac Energy Grid but they still don`t count as aliens?

I would be really grateful if someone can answer this question?

Impaler[WrG] · January 16, 2004, 17:21

Sorry I am drawing a complete blank on how the Alien Energy Grid thingy works, as I never liked the Aliens at all and wish they have never been included in the Game (along with Cult of planet which is just a rip off of the Gaians

)

I suspect the crashes may have something to do with a role over of the Growth value. Their is somekind of bug common with the Angels if they get too much Probe rating it rolls over and becomes negative, perhaps some kind of similar thing is happening with your Borg, try reducing the penalty and see what happens. Also try to notice if any paticular action is triggering the crash like a Social Enginering change perhaps?

The Mad Monk · January 17, 2004, 07:51

At this point, I think you're just going to have to settle for slow growth.

Illuminatus · January 17, 2004, 15:04

Haha - just endured for almost 150 turns! Reinstalled SMAX and volla! I may solve it in next few days.

Sovereign · January 21, 2004, 16:30

Hi there, Obstructor.

I used to do some modding for SMAC/X. But it has been so long I forgot how to do it. I guess I have to fire up SMAC/X again sometime soon.

But problem is, I'm having too much fun with Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and Call of Duty at the moment.

Anyways, about the "Borg"... I believe that they had to have growith somewhere. They had to start as a civ somewhere, and even the best asslimators have to have a start somewhere.

I liked the TNG version of the Borg. That was one kick-ass villian / enemy civ. Too bad that the writers decided to pussify the Borg in Voyager. Heck, my pet Alaskan Husky could have written a better Voyager series than the "official" Voyager writers. TNG had better stories and more interesting ideas / morals to explore.

Just had to vent my feelings. (end of OT rant)

Good luck in fixing up your mod's Obstructor. If I do manage to play SMAC again, I'd be glad to give you a helping hand if you plan on any other mods in the future.

Illuminatus · January 21, 2004, 18:12

I am having fun with ACDG and SW:Kotor and not having fun with some educational assignements.
Currently all work on my mod is halted.

Illuminatus · January 24, 2004, 14:14

Solved problem! But another is at hand. When I try any of custom faction graphics the unit status layout is transparent. This is very annoying. Help?

Maniac · January 24, 2004, 18:35

Quote:

Originally posted by obstructor
Solved problem!

How did you do it?

Quote:

But another is at hand. When I try any of custom faction graphics the unit status layout is transparent. This is very annoying. Help?

Have a look in the left lower corner of your borgfaction.pcx. Does it show the faction, text, border and vehicle colours there like it does for all other factions?

Sovereign · January 27, 2004, 13:19

Glad to hear the "borg" problem is solved.

Illuminatus · January 27, 2004, 14:17

And works with -13 growth

GeoModder · January 29, 2004, 22:06

Quote:

Originally posted by obstructor
Solved problem! But another is at hand. When I try any of custom faction graphics the unit status layout is transparent. This is very annoying. Help?

If the unit status layout is transparent, are your basenames and/or baseflag transparent as well?

At a time I went through hell to find a neutral color on the sea background, but couldn't find it for the base flags. If you know how to do that, I would be gratefull to know this trick

Anyway, for your problem. Do you mean the small unit screen in a base screen? Or I'm I mistaken?

johndmuller · January 30, 2004, 05:16

obstructor,
The SMAX color schemes are defined in the bottom left of the FactionName.pcx file. SMAC didn't use this system (as the factions were fixed and I suppose hardwired to the standard color schemes), so there are some faction.pcx files out there with nothing in that space - that will get you that semi-transparent look (it would be appropriate for a faction like the Angels who specialize in spying

). I haven't done this myself, but have looked into it on a few occasions - I understand that it is as 'simple' as duplicating that area from a SMAX faction.pcx file into yours. I assume that one could set new colors by changing the interiors of those little boxes. This all presupposes that you have the appropriate software and knowhow to properly edit one of those files (I understand that inserting the correct palette is an important element also) - but you most likely know more about this than I do. I believe that there are some older (and some not so old) threads in this forum that at least touch on how to do this. Once you figure it out, perhaps you could share your exact method with us as IIRC, the instructions I have seen to date often presuppose a substantial familiarity with the necessary technique.

Sovereign · January 30, 2004, 16:54

I think there's free trial versions of Photoshop or PaintShop Pro around that might help with this graphic stuff. I remember downloading a free trial version so I could use it to modify my Civ3 graphics.

This might work with SMAC. But again, it has been almost forever since I played it, so I'm not sure exactly. I'm just an friendly spirit trying to help.

Illuminatus · January 30, 2004, 17:01

Thank you for friendly suggestion - will try this at later date.