Name the #1 thing SMAC2 should have!

[wgabrie]

Originally posted by BonehoardTaffer
Each box should come with an action figure of one of the faction leaders.

Why stop there? Add in a Faction Logo sticker as well.

[The diplomat]

Originally posted by BonehoardTaffer
Each box should come with an action figure of one of the faction leaders.

Now there is an excellent idea.

Put me down for a Deirdre and Santiago action figure.
Imagine the possibilities!

[JokerFish]

Hmm...here's a few suggestions.

1. Improved AI. I'd want completely customizable behavior for units, via a scripting language. This would obviously be a feature reserved for advanced players, so better auto-AI would come into play for novice or non-scripters.

2. Better workshop interface. Unit design is a pain in the backside because it's difficult to see how the unit that's being design compares to existing units. In addition, the upgrading process seems a bit "awkward". Also, I'd like the lists to refresh in real time when I edit names and I'd like the workshop to keep custom names from one generation to another.

3. Ability to have ALL factions in the same scenario. I'd like to see Univ/Angels/Cyborgs vs. Care/Gaia/Cult vs. Pirates/Drones/Spartans.

4. Larger upper limit on map size. This would be necessary if all 14 factions are enabled.

[vitamin j]

You all got me thinking, and I remembered some ideas I'd like to see:
1) A revised system for crawlers, where you couldn't cash them in for mins at all. Reactor level (say, reactor *2) would determine the max quantity of a resource that they could work. And lose the never-used (by me anyway) convoy fuction. This would tie in nicely with...
2) A more detailed supply system, where you could stockpile mins and nuts, perhaps for trade (commodities market anyone?), maybe just for transport between your own bases. This would make your transports useful for something besides units, and would allow greater flexibility in resource organization. Instead of needing a native crawler to bring nuts to your base in the Great Dunes, you could bring them in with transports. This would give the notion of keeping your shipping lanes open some real teeth. And could relate to...
3) While I'm not familiar with Civ or its sequels, I have read a review of Civ 3, from which I learned that there are various types of resources in Civ, particularly "mineral"-type resources. Perhaps something similar could be done in SMAC, where different units or facilities required a particular type of mineral to build or maintain.
4) Speaking of maintenance, I'd like to see some sort of energy requirements for units, particularly military units. I like the SMAC support system for the most part, but it can get ridiculous... Support up to base size for free?!?

Just a couple things I've thought about over time...
Now everyone just click your heels together three times and say "There's no game like SMAC..., there's no game like SMAC..."

[MattyBoy]

Not the first to write this, but it was my immediate response:

Put that MOM battle screen into SMAC.

Otherwise, just the obvious things like little things - tweaks to the AI as mentioned by Blake and Ned last year (smarter terraforming, more focus on building) and weaken those supply crawlers (crawl at 50% efficiency perhaps?).

It would be cool to get some smart programmers to make a really good AI editor. Then you would come to Apolyton after a couple of years and pick up a much better AI than the game authors could have written by themselves.

[TresXF]

@ jokerfisch

Larger upper limit on map size

what do you mean? in my smac i can define the map as large as i want. ever played on a 300*300 or bigger? do you use the latest patch? there should be an option to define your map size.

but it would be a lonely game (even with 14 factions)...

[James Adams]

I think that SMAC2 need to have Factions spilts when a smaller factions captures the Capital of a bigger factions like Civ2.

Also, I think there should be more factions.

One faction (can't not think of Name) which just wants to control everything.

Another faction which wants to control the planet and to settle the rest of the galaxy.

Any other Ideas for faction are welcome!

[Sandman]

A realistic growth rate that is based on more than just food production. You could tie this in with an age structure to your population; to begin with you have tons of young adults and middle-agers. Unless you get your birth rate up by say, building creches, you'll be left with a load of grandpas with no-one to look after them.

How about a death rate as well, with different causes of death listed as stuff like accidents, infection, radiation, old age, and conflict? Beat back on the different death rates by having different social policies and building different improvements.

[johndmuller]

#1 Thing for SAMC-II = Actual Existence instead of wishful thinking .

Can you hold your breath a reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllly long time?


Other things for SMAC-II:

1) - A highly customizable AI, with lots of settings and possible variations. At the extreme, the ability to program your own where the game calls your subroutine to take the AI's turn, passing the subroutine the game data that the AI would "know" at that point in hte game and getting back a set of move instructions, etc. that constitute the AI's "turn" from your subroutine.

2) - A more simultaneous "turn" system, perhaps something phased, like submitting moves for a turn and then having all the uncontested moves accepted and some kind of resolution system for the contested ones. Alternatively, the turn order could vary (perhaps the players who are behind could go first - or just have a better chance of going first) and/or have a global resolution phase for production/research/whatever so that turn order would not effect ResearchCost or who got SP's, etc.

[GeneralTacticus]

More intelligent AI - They should know when to co-operate and when to be nasty, and also be more capable of *SMART* treachery - no more '2 base faction 1-1-1 unit sneak attacks 50 base faction 24-12-3 unit'.

A kind of strategic resources system - you have the basic resources, nuts, mins, energy, plus fungus, and u can use facilities to turn them into things like medical supplies, synthetic fossil fuels, and luxuries like better food, etc. Also make it possible to build and sell weapons rather than units, and to send your troops to other factions 'on loan', until they've finished their current war.

A happiness system you can interact with. Say you get Drone Riots somewhere, and your Security Advisor tells you that Drone leader X wants you to do Y to end the riots. Or you can use propaganda to try and persuade people to support you more.

Ability to share resources between bases without using crawlers.

Global support model - should need mins AND energy, but you can burn the one to replace the other.

turns that take up a month not a year, with tech advancment and building slowed a bit, and pop growth reduced a lot.

Have each pop point divided by 10 or something, speed up the growth, and have each one do less, but allow multiple pop points to work the same square.

More uses for chemical and biological warfare.

A Council with more proposals, that can also vote to demand an end to a certain war or impose sanctions on someone.

A trade system that ties factions together more; currently Morgan will want to keep everyone polite so he can make stacks of money off trading with them, but he should also be able to make the threat of ending trading, and if he does, i should hurt the other guy too.

Improved combat system.

Have a system where if you have too many units, your pop goes down cos of everyone who is in the army.

Allow units to be 'deactivated', no longer usable but also no longer taking up support costs (or not as much), that can be reactivated when neccesary (this should cost a turn though).

[SITS]

Some ideas that have yet to be mentioned:

1) Intergrated Winzip support - so that MP turns are zipped and can be read by the program

2) An option that emails the finished turn for you and doesn't shut the game down as soon as you play it

3) An option to see what land will be affected if you raise or lower it and a hotkey that shows you what ground can have a borehole

4) I like the idea of culture from CIV3 and I think it could be added to SMAC2

5) I hate the idea in CIV3 of not being able to cash in your 'crawlers' for a wonder but it does make it more realistic

[mrdynamic]

How about a slower ascent to transendance. I never get to use to cool units with anti-grav struts or gravships, and I can usually get the two final projects completed in 2 turns using energy credits alone. ---And that was with tech-stag on!

[Earwicker]

How about a system under which the effects of certain facilities vary depending upon the Faction you're playing? For example, the Consciousness gets +2, +1, +1 from recycling tanks; Gaian units get +1 morale from Centauri Preserve, etc. A combination of positive and negatives. Although it could get confusing (and really mess with the datalinks' description of base facilities), it would further differentiate the factions from one another and how they are played.

Along the same lines, tech costs that vary according to factions and/ or their SE choices. Conquer techs cost more for Deirdre, less for Miriam, and vice versa. Also, the Transcendance tech should have double or triple cost - it is more than just ANY tech, and turns per tech is down to 1 or 2 by that point. That might help us savor the gravships and singularity lasers a little longer.

[wgabrie]

Fixed research points for techs. Level 1 techs should always be cheaper, no matter when you research them.

[Drone Riot]

Originally posted by Sikander
Consider the fact that I have seen a lot of very intelligent people take years to develop very sophisticated methods of play in SMAC via this forum.

err.... smac isnt that old kid. More like a couple of years - give or take a few extra months.

[knowhow2]

Originally posted by Drone Riot


err.... smac isnt that old kid. More like a couple of years - give or take a few extra months.

maybe sikander was referring to mission years

[GeneralTacticus]

Have your SE settings afect how long it takes to develop certain techs, e.g. Power speeds up Conquer research but slows Build, Green speeds up Explore research...

Have it so that when you have a high rating in one of the categories, it has an effect after you switch SE, so if I stay in Planned/Wealth for 100 years and have a lot of industry, when I go to Green/Power for a war, then I already have a massive industrial base. Having a negative rating would stop improvement in that area.

[vitamin j]

Thank you SITS, I meant to say that...

Drone Riot:
"years"="couple of years"

[gwillybj]

Originally posted by Sandman
... you'll be left with a load of grandpas with no-one to look after them...

Isn't that what the Recycling Tanks are for?
Yang seems to think so...

[gwillybj]

I would like to see more artwork for the various Special Abilities. Trance already has that little eyeball-thingy. Super Formers have those pointy things sticking out and Fungicidal Tanks are clearly visible. Drop, Grav, and Repair have artwork. I think Amphib Pods are pictured (not sure).

Why not have artwork for all of them? A satellite dish for Deep Radar. Antennae for ECM. Three different kinds of cannon for Arty, AAA, and SAM. A swirly-colored helmet for Empath and swirly-colored armor for Trance (somehow combined with any regular armor). Solid black armor for Cloaked. Sparkly armor for Blink. Additional caviar for Police, Carriers, and Subs. A symbol of some kind for Trained, Secure, and X.

Also, put the faction's logo on the unit somewhere, like on infantry's chest, rovers' front deck, etc.

[GeneralTacticus]

Better looking unit graphics - the infantry right now look like they're pushing their guns forward on a treadmill. They should have them carrying them on their shoulders, slung across their backs, etc.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by aaglo


This is good idea. How about the battle system from Master of magic (ok, who doesn't know about this game?). Units could be stacked, and all units in a square would take part in action. But this increases the "micromanagement". Imagine a battle taking some 30 minutes, when on SMAC the same batlle would take one minute. This feature could also be an option (like in MOO2).

This feature was optional in MoM.

I like the idea of tactical battles, they are fun, and give you an opportunity to build the army that you use in combat. The only downside (apart from time used) of tactical combats on a smaller map is that it adds a huge amount of advantage for the player. I liked MOO2, but honestly I never came close to losing that game at impossible, in large part because I could win battles against pretty heavy odds. Admittedly, it was fun to do so.

[The diplomat]

I think the music could be changed as well. It could be so much better. I am sure an artist could come up with some good sci-fi music.

[mrdynamic]

Space transport Units .... So a faction can also colonize nearby Moons.

[k.k.fly]

more of faction planet-trading system.

If you are Morgan Industries with money, you may buy military stuff from the Hives. Human Hive have option to put what quantity and what kind of stuff he is willing to sell on the market (nobodies wants to sell best weapons they got) And go Spartan Federation for hiring well-trained mercenaries and soldiers. Pay The Lord's Believers for sending missionaries to reduce drones riots. Go to Peacekeeping Forces to attract specific talents, The University of Planet for better well-equipped research facilities aka as nerds, and Gaia's Stepdaughters………..I dunno man, have conversation with the planet?

Money (energy) will not be the only currency for trades. As you can put your faction’s advantages mention above onto the markets.

[Guynemer]

My wish list for SMAC 2 incorporates some of Civ 3's improvements into SMAC's better overall presentation--

Strategic & luxury resources--a fantastic idea from Civ 3, though the resources would probably have to be changed to fit into the scifi setting.

Culture--another great idea from Civ 3. (Border-wise... tone down the culture flipping in conquered cities.)

Improved AI--not that the current AI is bad, but improvement is always a good thing.

More SE choices--make sure they're balanced, however. If implimented, would open the door to...

More (human) factions!

Improved graphics--but don't go overboard. Limited graphics opens up memory for AI, etc. Plus, the current graphics "fit", as do nearly all the movies. Update the movies as far as technology, but don't tinker with the content needlessly.

Ability to involve all factions in one game.

Civ 3's "bargaining table", with SMAC's more numerous diplomatic choices. (But lose or alter the diplomatic adviser in the corner of the screen... bloody jerk gives everything away.) And while we're at it, more diplomatic choices in general, including Council Resolutions. And, perhaps outside the Council, the ability to negotiate with more than one faction at once, i.e. organize a three- or four-member pact at the same time.

For the love of all that is holy, keep all the "flavor." The quotes, the speech, the descriptions, the movies, the music... the "interludes" could be improved, but that's about it. This is where Civ 3 is SORELY lacking. It's nowhere near as immersive as SMAC.

Tighten up the unit workshop--in general, it's great, but it's quirky and difficult to use at times.

Lose the alien factions. They just never did it for me. I don't think you need the explanation for the artifacts & obelisks... keep it mysterious.

A touch more balancing. In general, this was done well, but a few units/SPs are too overpowering, at least for as early as they come in the game. Some factions could use balancing as well.

[Flubber]

Here's one idea I thought of:



The ability to build a dam or a dike to retain the sealevel where it is-- This could either be a former function that could hold the square at its altitude for a specified period or a base facility that protected the city radii. I hate that the way to "save" one tile often involves landlocking a seaport.

Perhaps simpler would be the ability to choose to raise land only a half level. A 500m raise of an endangered square would (usually) not lift it above 1000m and therefore not require altering the whole coast

[Hydro]

1) Make terraforming make more sense. For instance, if your raise land you don’t get the dirt for free – somewhere else in your empire loses some elevation in proportion to what you are building (and the cost is proportional to the distance this material has to be moved). Likewise for lowering land. Eliminate drill to aquifer – won’t work, even with a far-out, blow-your-mind technology. Introduce the concept of ecological disruption (really, really bad eco damage) when you undertake these nasty bits of Planetsculpture. After all, wouldn’t you object to someone taking a big gouge out of your face? I’m sure Planet doesn’t like it all that much…

2) Fix the eco damage formula. As I understand it, the more you pollute (and get ‘pops’) the more you are inoculated against future ecodamage. What? So, if I pollute more, Planet will allow me to pollute more still? Bargain! I suggest that the formula be structured the other way around – if you hurt Planet then Planet will be less forgiving in the future. Also, make eco friendly structures count only for the city their in, since I understand they count for ALL cities. This seems a little strange (although it gives a big advantage to builders and hybrids). If I have garbled the eco description I hope someone will kindly correct me…

3) Tone down some of the more unbalancing Projects, like HSA and Cloudbase.

Hydro

[MattyBoy]

The AI should seek out strategy forums on the net and eavesdrop on them as follows:
1) Find posters that yield an immediate flood of responses whenever they post:
e.g: Vel: "Hey, I just sneezed"
disciple1: "congratulations"
disciple2: "nice boogie, man!"
disci...
2) Parse whatever they say and modify AI tactics to suit.
3) Reverse-engineer a summary of the new AI behaviour and post it in a reply that proclaims that this new method is invincible.
4) Fine tune by repeating steps 2) and 3) until the thread is quiet for a week.
5) Generate an AI patch.

PS: No disrespect intended to Vel. I am still eternally grateful for your strat guides.

[Mr. President]

Someone mentioned more human factions: I really think the last thing Alpha Centauri needs is more factions! Most of them are completely objectionable anyway; do we want to increase the number of lunatic leaders who wouldn't last ten minutes in a real country? (I only like Morgan because he's a capitalist, Marr because he's a fascist, and Deirdre because she's attractive. Well, more attractive than Zakharov, anyway.)