Harsh Planet mod released

[Gallagher]

It's great to see how this section of the forums has really come alive lately. With the sudden plethora of mods to SMAC, I'm not sure another one is needed, but I’m adding my own anyway. I've been working on Harsh Planet off and on for over a year now, and recently became inspired by the work of Vel and Smack and Nadexander and others to finish mine up and offer it for playtest and reactions. In the process of course, I’ve stolen a number of these other guys’ ideas, for which I offer a general thanks.

The stimulus for my work is a little different though. To be honest, I never got so good that the game ceased to challenge me (I didn't realize the power of focusing my terraforming on forests for one thing). Oh, I couldn't help but notice how inept the AI was, particularly in war, but after I won a couple of times I got bored with the game for a completely different reason. It was too much like Civ2, and not enough like science fiction.

As the game is now, Alpha C. still feels a lot like earth. Surprisingly, the entire planet is more or less equally 'colonizable.' In a long game, almost every square inch of the major continents and their surrounding seas gets settled. The population grows exponentially, in what is supposed to be a hostile environment. The concept of 'bases' hardly applies--these are clearly cities, and cities that blanket the planet. After about 200 years the place starts looking like civ2 earth with an unattractive color scheme.

And so in reaction, Harsh Planet was born. Originally started for my own personal enjoyment, it's been played and tweaked enough that I decided to go ahead and make it available. I’ll try to get it posted somewhere (any volunteers?), but for now just email me at Gallagher to get the zip file with everything. Here’s what you’re getting.

(The following is not a complete documentation of every single change I made to the game, though that will be included in the zip file in “Documentation”. This is a more general description and explanation of the modifications.)

Introduction. Harsh Planet keeps the basics of the original but imagines a more hostile, more _alien_ world. A mod, not a single scenario, it is meant to be played on random maps--but these maps will not look like any you've ever seen. Certain tradeoffs have been made to avoid a slowdown in play; in fact, you may find it plays faster than the original. Though nothing prevents multi-player, the focus has been to create a more engrossing and challenging single player game.

Backstory. Alpha Centauri was known to be rich in minerals and energy, but poor in nutrients. The original mission was to establish a dozen or so mining colonies, that would in turn send back cargo ships to earth. Needless to say, Earth erupted into war while the ships were en route, the mission splintered, and the colonists/miners were left to fend for themselves.

The colonists knew that bases could only be viable where there was sufficient water. Luckily, AC was streaked with numerous river valleys and dotted with moisture-trapping peaks, but between these fertile islands were broad expanses of uninhabitable desert. Each faction guided its ship towards its own small patch of green, knowing that if it were to survive and grow, nearby oases must come under its own, rather than its neighbor’s, control.

Though few in number, the colonists were well equipped. The mining colonies had been expected to fully functional with the latest technology in a few years. Now, that technology was to prove essential in the life or death struggle over which faction would come to dominate Alpha Centauri.

A New Planet

The primary difference between Harsh Planet and SMAX is the radically different kind of world you will explore and discover. I have extensively altered the Worldbuilder and other files in alphax.txt to create this world and yet still allow random maps, i.e. this is not a scenario with a single map. But the only way to get the effect required was for every game to begin with certain choices in the Customize Random Map menu. Specifically, these choices are Sparse Cloud Cover, Abundant Native Life Forms, and only 30-50% Ocean Coverage. All the changes I’ve made in alphax assume these selections. If you absolutely can’t stand the Mind Worms, you could go with a different choice there, but it's not recommended and the other two are necessary for the thing to make any sense at all.

Here’s what you can expect in exploring this new world:

• As pointed out above, fertile areas are reduced to islands in a sea of fungus covered desert. There are a lot more rivers and peaks than before, to increase the number of colonizable oases, but you’re centuries away from establishing anything but military outposts in the desert. ICS has been eliminated, at least in the early game
• Special Resource squares for Energy and Minerals are now worth five apiece. One effect of sparse nutrients and large bonuses for special resource squares is that some areas are truly worth going to war over.
• Your base squares only produce 1 nutrient: 1/1/1. To help the AI, other factions' bases start at 2/1/3 (which you get if you conquer).
• Recycling tanks have been disabled for the human player, unless he builds a Pressure Dome, which are now very expensive for land bases.
• Condensers and Soil Enrichers have been switched on the tech tree-Condenser at Adv.Eco.Eng. and Soil Enricher at Eco.Eng. Condenser takes longer (24 turns), Soil Enricher shorter (6). So you get some relief from the nutrient shortage relatively early, but you still can't build cities in dry areas til you get the Condenser.
• Other moisture producing terraforming (raise land, aquifers) either later, take longer, or both. Tectonic payload disabled.
• Don't expect to get around the nutrient shortages by building lots of sea bases. Though all sea bases start with 2/1/3 because of the Pressure Dome, the oceans are primarily deep water which can't be terraformed. Maps vary widely in terms of land/ocean layout.
• Forests now start out at 0/1/2, and yes, that's 1 mineral and 2 energy. This is a huge change, altering all current strategies. On the other hand, harvesting forests is now worth 10. Forests are still, I believe, crucial to a winning strategy, but their effect comes much farther into the game and requires a more balanced approach to terraforming. But who ever heard of a sci-fi story where the earthlings went to another planet and immediately started planting forests?
• Abundant Life Forms insures a constant running battle with Planet. Leaving a non-combat unit alone in a square, or leaving a base ungarrisoned, is asking for trouble unless the area has been thoroughly cleared of fungus.

On the other hand . . .

Picking up the Pace
The colonist came prepared to set up efficient mining colonies. So-

• All factions but one--that would be yours--start with a Former
• 'Factory' type facilities come earlier and are cheaper to build. Maintenance costs are increased by 1 though.
• All builds 20% cheaper. Mineral rows of 8.
• Tech advances 60% faster.

NOTE: Some players will think these adjustments, particularly the last two, are far too generous. I’ve found the trade off between fewer cities and speeded development to work out fairly well. And in contrast to Vel’s Torture Mod, I have no desire to slow the game down. One of the hardest parts of play balancing is to work out all these changes without doing just that. But that’s part of playtesting, so tell me what you think—-after you’ve played it.

Along the same lines, I’ve done something that will probably give the really expert players the heebie-jeebies. I’ve radically compressed the top of the tech tree, eliminating some 15 or so techs (mostly 10th level and above) and redistributing their benefits to what’s left as logically as I could. The zip file ships with a Word document “Tech Tree (upper levels)” which completely maps the new tree from 7th level up, including what each tech makes available. I’ve included a few of the specifics in Miscellaneous Tweaks, below.

My thinking is that as long as the different factions can compete more or less equally, speeding up the end game isn’t a bad thing.

Other ways in which the game has been made “easier”:

• Faster movement. Speeders are 3 with 2 cargo, Hovertanks (now available with Superconductor) are 4 (great for rough terrain, but expensive), Cruisers are 12! (with no increase in cost) This only makes sense for advanced naval forces, especially with the 30-50% ocean selection. Foils stay at 4, but are made cheaper as befitting coastal defense forces. They're also needed for protecting Sea Supply Crawlers.
• Minor bonuses to Specialists. They specifically address what I see as the problems that arise once you get rid of ICS--drones and research rates. So: Engineer moved up to Superconductor. Thinker is renamed Researcher and Research bonus increased +1. Psych bonuses increased +1 for Empath, +2 for Transcendi.
• Earlier and cheaper ecology bonus facilities, necessary to handle earlier high mineral productions. Temple of Planet is now at Centauri Genetics, and both ToP and Centauri Preserve have build costs reduced an additional 20%.
• Reduced effect and frequency of Global Warming.

ICS has ruled because it has so many things going for it: faster growth rate, fewer drone problems, more SUPPORT for military. While Harsh Planet makes ICS very difficult due to the complete unsuitability of much of the terrain, it also makes not doing ICS a little easier.

• Recreation Commons & Hologram Theatre mineral costs are reduced by half to ease the pain of having fewer and larger cities.
• More SUPPORT choices in SE (see below) allows more military units per city.
• Hab Dome build cost reduced to 120, moved up to Homo Superior.

Again, though these alterations make it easier for the human player, they seem to make it easier for the AI as well. So it’s a wash as far as play balance is concerned.

to be continued

[Gallagher]

A.I. Tweaks
A good transition into the next major category of changes. Here’s what’s new:

• As mentioned, AI factions get free former and more base resources (because they get free recycling tanks).
• All current AC and AX factions have been tweaked to be compatible with new SE choices (see below). In addition, I've given extra help to the weakest factions (Miriam and Fungboy) and a little extra help to three others--Peacekeepers, Cyborgs, and Usurpers. These guys are extra tough to create some truly dangerous opponents in single player.
• Crucial Adjustment! The Air Superiority penalty vs. ground units has been eliminated. This is because the AI overbuilds the Air Superiority units, crippling its air war. This change really does seem to help. The bonus vs. air has been reduced to 50%, and the ability is free for air units, though not for ground.

New SE Structure Although not really a part of the original ‘vision’, a restructured SE table has always appealed to me. If I had had any idea of how much work this was going to be it would not have been so appealing! My basic goal was more flexibility. In the original, Future Society choices came very late, radically reducing their effectiveness. Fundamentalism was rarely chosen by any faction other than Miriam, for obvious reasons. Through most of the game, Free Market was the only way to get that crucial +2 ECONOMY bonus. Overall, it seemed most players were using a comparatively few of the possible combinations.

The restructure is based completely on how the different choices interact. More extensive play testing than I can give it may reveal serious flaws, but for now this is it. Notice there are 3 choices that give a +1 Economy, allowing 3 different combinations to get to the +2 bonus. There are two PLANET bonus techs, which can really help with industrial stability. Pop booms are only possible by running Stand Down and Planned, having a Children’s Creche, and a Golden Age. SUPPORT bonuses, on the other hand, are usually paired with GROWTH penalties (if everybody’s in the military . . .). Overall, I’ve made many of the choices ‘easier’, with fewer penalties compared with bonuses. My goal, probably unrealistic, is that in the course of a typical game, every choice would be utilized at some point.

Society
Frontier—No Prerequisite, no bonuses or penalties.

Corporate--Industrial Automation.
Corporate states allow industry and business to determine the needs and
goals of the society. Production and economy thrives in this system,
but damage to Planet is unchecked and severe.
+1 INDUSTRY
+1 ECONOMY
-3 PLANET

Enlightened—Centauri Meditation
Enlightened states are governed by their citizens, leading to liberal, democratic regimes. Education and conservation are priorities, but such populations have little tolerance for totalitarian controls and the lack of patriotism leaves a weakened military.
+2 RESEARCH
+2 PLANET
-3 POLICE
-1 MORALE

#;Totalitarian—Secrets of the Human Brain
Totalitarian states are ruled with an iron fist by a single tyrant or
a small circle of generals. They enforce their rule through Big
Brother police surveillance and a well supported military. Such
measures usually have a dampening effect on their economies.
+2 POLICE
+1 SUPPORT
-1 ECONOMY

Econoics
Simple—No prerequisite. No bonuses or penalties.

Free Market—Industrial Economics
Free Market Economics turns market forces loose in your society, which produces great wealth. But citizens rendered suddenly poor by the actions unscrupulous moguls may revolt against their energy-fattened masters.
+1 ECONOMY
-3 POLICE

Planned—Planetary Networks
A semi-market economy kept in check by fierce governmental regulation,
Planned Economics promotes stable industrial and population growth, but
sacrifices efficiency.
+1 GROWTH
+1 INDUSTRY
-1 EFFICIENCY

Green—Centauri Empathy
Green Economics strive to integrate sentient progress with the needs
of the biosphere. Green economies use resources efficiently and
tend to avoid the excesses of industrial development which could
provoke Planet's native life, but industrial production necessarily
suffers and growth slows.
+2 PLANET
+2 EFFICIENCY
-1 INDUSTRY
-1 GROWTH

Budget Priority
Exploration—No prerequisites
Expansion is the all-encompassing first priority of early human or
Progenitor space colonies. Military units are assigned to exploration,
but extended tours of duty slows population growth.
+1 SUPPORT
-1 GROWTH

Military—Intellectual Integrity
Necessary to build strong, well equipped military forces. But Economic infrastructure may suffer from bloated "defense" budgets.
+2 MORALE
-1 ECONOMY

Networks—Optical Computers
Focuses on improving transportation and communication networks. Improves efficiency and tightens computer security, but necessarily decreases resources available to the military.
+1 EFFICIENCY
+1 PROBE
-1 SUPPORT

Research and Development
Prioritizes research and education. This accelerates technical advances but leaves systems more vulnerable to infiltration.
+2 RESEARCH
-1 PROBE

Military Status Sets the alert status of a nation's military forces. Replaces Future Society.

Standard—No prerequisites. No bonuses or penalties apply.

Alert—Doctrine: Loyalty
Places forces on alert status. This reduces the possibility of
infiltration, and devotes some military forces towards internal
security. Overall economic efficiency is improved through the
elimination of corruption, but tighter security tends to slow
research activity.
+2 PROBE
+1 POLICE
+1 EFFICIENCY
-1 RESEARCH

Mobilization—Nonlinear Mathematics
Conscripts most able bodied young adults into armed forces.
Devotes full resources to supporting military, with the
secondary effect of boosting weapons research, but radically
slows growth due to reduction of civilian population.
+2 SUPPORT
+1 RESEARCH
-2 GROWTH

Stand Down—Ethical Calculus
Post-war demobilizing of troops. Boosts economy and growth rates
as troops return to civilian life, but reflects a society's
reduced willingness to support large armies and can lead to
internal unrest from widespread dislocation.
+1 ECONOMY
+1 GROWTH
-2 SUPPORT
-1 POLICE

Miscellaneous Anyone who’s ever gotten into doing modifications knows that once you get started it’s hard to stop. Trying to tweak the details can be a never ending process, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to play god just a little bit more.

Defense has been bolstered a little.

• Both Base and Sensor defense bonuses increased to 40%. This is compensated by raising the Infantry attack bonus to 50%. The AI attacks with infantry anyway, so it's up to the human players to get infantry to the front
• Defending in rough vs. mobile or from higher elevation: 25% bonus
• Clean reactor is changed. It now is only allowed for ground units. But it's free for strictly defensive infantry units (Home Defense Forces) and cheap for Formers. But it's not affordable for higher attack units.
• Faster defensive terraforming: Bunkers 4 turns, Sensors 3 (and Airbases 5--I never understood why so long before).
• Flechette Defense System and Geosynchronous Pods earlier and a little cheaper
• It's harder to get Morale bonuses. All combat facilities cost an extra energy, except Bioenhancement Centers, with now cost 5/turn. Get the elite ranking through combat!
• Copter chassis disabled. I've kept the Unity Scout Copter in Units, but the Copter chassis is to expensive to build otherwise. (I've done essentially the same thing with the Supply transport unit. No more armored transports. The Unit Workshop cost figures will be accurate for use of the chassis-very high-but will not accurately show the cost of the unit-only 24 minerals [3 rows]).
• You can build Sensor Arrays in ocean squares.
• Drop Pods now cost fully twice as much.

Secret Projects have been shuffled around a little, and several of them disabled. I have been guided by the common consensus in the forum threads for these changes, and won’t go into details here. My own personal contribution is the elimination of the Cyborg and Nano Factories because I don’t like what they do to combat in the game if a human player gets them.

The satellites come earlier. Right now they come a little cheaper too, but this may not be a good idea. I like Vel’s new Rocketry techs, but since I’ve already messed with the tech tree a great deal at the upper levels I decided to try to change this within the current tech tree.

So here it is. A complete listing of every change is found in the Documentation file that comes with the zip. The changes not mentioned here aren’t as important and each of them fits in with one of the categories already mentioned. I’ve included new helpx and script files to harmonize with the new Social Engineering choices. Again, if you want to get a copy, email me at Gallagher , and give me a couple of days. ENJOY!

[Avenoct]

Congrats Gallagher! I seem to remember seeing a post about this project a long time ago? Maybe I'm imagining that.

-Smack

[Bob Morane]

Duh???
Sorry to bother, perhaps i just need glasses, but where can i find this mod???

[Gallagher]

I'll email it to you. And for anyone else interested, and not able to find my email address in the previous monster post, it's fgallag105@aol.com .

[Blake]

I like the mod so far , but have a few questions:

What world size do you tend to play? Standard? Huge?

What erosion, I assumed LOW, because on HIGH the map has literally no rainy tiles, few moist, and only scattered rocky. I know this because that's the type of map I like to play in standard SMAX.

What settings do you reccomend?
Pod scattering?
Look first? (seems like a good idea to me, considering how bad it is if your HQ doesn't start in range of a rainy / nut resource tile.)
Random events?

AI / human factions:
Are we just meant to use original SMAX factions for the human player, or did you forget to bundle in modified ones? I ask because player Hive (for example) will have no immunities, or aversions. I played factions which wouldn't be effected (Drones, Morgan, Uni).

Do you love crawlers? It seems that some sort of ugly Infinite Crawler Sprawl seems to be the path to victory, that and kelping the puddles (I lowered terrain to get more water to kelp ).

And I love those formers, cost 2, move 3 :drool: (the missing drooling smily )


Being the type of player which enjoys hostile maps, the more arid the better, the less resources the better, I like Harsh Planet, altough the extreme emphasis on crawlers is slightly disturbing. Also altough I agree abundant native life makes it more interesting (especially seeing forest wont be expanding over it for a long time..). But the AI's really get hammered, at one stage AI Roze had spore launchers harrassing every one of her bases, and they only got killed when she built (6)-1-1's. Also abudant planetpearls makes it easier too. I think I prefer a more desolate planet, where even the fungus refuses to grow.

[Gallagher]

Thanks for your response. I've been looking at my alphax and realized I made terraformers and crawlers cheaper than in the original game. I did that on purpose at one point, decided I didn't like it, and then forgot to change it back. And it's been so long since I've done any 'regular' SMAC I just forgot about it and started thinking these reduced costs were standard.' I need to change those back, which means putting a 6 under cost for a Former (instead of 3) in the #WEAPONS section and a 4 (I think--don't they normally cost 4 rows?) under cost for a Supply Crawler in the #UNITS section. My only regret is that now it costs more than double the original cost to put a clean reactor on a Former.

Nevertheless, I do like the fact you have to have crawlers to survive in this mod. What, hopefully, makes it interesting is that they're vulnerable to both enemies and to Planet, and that has to be factored into your overall strategy.

I meant for the human player to play one of the original factions. I put this into the Readme under "Starting A Game" but it's probably unclear. I'll see what I can do about making that process more clear. In essence, load the whole mod into the main directory, then load the one original faction (either SMAC or X) that you want to play. That will then overwrite the tweaked AI faction.

The AI factions do get hammered, but since they're tweaked and you're not they do very well comparitively. If you've only played with one of the factions included in the zip you've never really gotten the whole 'dilemma' of the mod since the AI factions start out with an extra nutrient and two extra energy at every base, not to mention the extra Former and all the other 'cheats.'

As far as options, they're mostly up to you. I always play with Look First for the very reason you've said. Pod scattering makes the game a lot easier, however i've always liked them (and random events) for the 'color' they give the game. I thought the Erosion choice just affected the rockiness of the map. I've always played the standard choice.

The size of the map is interesting. The adjustments to the map are 'proportional' no matter what size you play on. I like to play on Large or Huge maps. My current game on a large map though placed me far enough away from the other factions that I've been completely able (as Morgan) to get my economy cranking, solve most of the native problems, and start building up a military, all with no interference from the other factions. It's around 2250. The Hive, having wiped out 3 of the other factions, and Gaia are still both above me on the power rankings, but I suspect my tech and economy advantage is going to prevail. We'll see.

[Blake]

Thanks for your response. I've been looking at my alphax and realized I made terraformers and crawlers cheaper than in the original game. I did that on purpose at one point, decided I didn't like it, and then forgot to change it back.

No, dont change it back! I like cheap formers.
Crawlers are priced normally. Altough a fusion rover crawler available at fusion power would be nice. Boy, i really miss armoured crawlers, altough I believe your modification to the crawlers also largely eliminated the crawler upgrade / cash in for SP bug.

I meant for the human player to play one of the original factions. I put this into the Readme under "Starting A Game" but it's probably unclear. I'll see what I can do about making that process more clear. In essence, load the whole mod into the main directory, then load the one original faction (either SMAC or X) that you want to play. That will then overwrite the tweaked AI faction.

oops, I kind of skimmed over the readme and missed that (I read the full information in this thread though). Anyway, that's exactly what I did do. Btw, does this mean that all factions are allowed to run any SE choice?

The AI factions do get hammered, but since they're tweaked and you're not they do very well comparitively. If you've only played with one of the factions included in the zip you've never really gotten the whole 'dilemma' of the mod since the AI factions start out with an extra nutrient and two extra energy at every base, not to mention the extra Former and all the other 'cheats.'

I did play with original factions, at thinker level it was hardly a walk in the park, so I guess the AI's do alright. I still like truly desolate planets, altough on abudant native life dry areas do stay encrusted with fungus and highly dangerous for a long time, especially with less forest to expand over the fungus.

I thought the Erosion choice just affected the rockiness of the map.
I've always played the standard choice.

Erosion possibly has the most dramatic effect of any setting on the map, basically:
High erosion: Few tiles above 1999ft, few rocky tiles, few rolling tiles, more water. Almost no rainy tiles, few moist tiles. Not unsual to start at a location with NO moist tiles.
Medium erosion: Few tiles above 2999ft, scattered rainy tiles.
Low erosion: Many 3000+ peaks, which create many rainy valleys. Very little water. About 1/4 of tiles are rocky.


I think I'll try playing on a high erosion map, masochist settings

[vyeh]

Does anyone have the files for the Harsh Planet mod described at the beginning of this thread? I tried the email address, but it has been discontinued ...

MWs or Sunspot Activity -- very, very harsh planet indeed

[Corvi #6]

That goes ditto for me. Does anyone still have this mod sitting around on their HD?

[Harpalus]

Make that a third person who wishes they had the Harsh Planet mod. Anyone? Please? It would be greatly appreciated..

[Gallagher]

Whoa. A 'resurgent' interest in Harsh Planet. I lost some of my work on it in a computer crash years ago but I should be able to reconstruct. Thanks for the interest, I'll see what I can do.

[Corvi #6]

Cool, anything you can scrape togther will be appreciated.

[Zeggpold]

Yes, it looks very interesting!

[Zoid]

Count me in

[vyeh]

Gallagher,

As the one who started this resurgence, I'm so GLAD to see you. I tried your old email posted at the beginning of the thread and got an error message. I noticed that you hadn't posted for a long time. I even PM'd Blake, who couldn't find the Harsh Planet mod on his HDD.

My interest is in the modificatiions to the World Builder. I want to see what you did there to change Planet.

I deeply appreciate any effort you make toward reconstructing. Anything, no matter how imperfect, is appreciated. I'd rather see you post whatever you can than get discouraged at the task and give up.

Thanks again for replying.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Gallagher
Whoa. A 'resurgent' interest in Harsh Planet. I lost some of my work on it in a computer crash years ago but I should be able to reconstruct. Thanks for the interest, I'll see what I can do.

bump.

Note if you want some help with the alpha(x).txt file and/ or faction files let me know, as I have considerable experience modding both.


D

[vyeh]

I sent a private message to Gallagher, suggesting that he let us help him with reconstructing Harsh Planet.

I received a reply:

i've been doing a little work on it, esp. theworld builder as i think you suggested.
i'll post here and let you guys tinker.

Although I don't have the experience Darsnan has, I can make a first pass at implementing the changes described in the first two posts of this thread.

(And I'll be sure to post questions to Darsnan if I can't figure something out.)