Would anyone be up for a SMAC/SMAX succession game? If so, we just need to decide:
Faction
One of the Original 7 (Miriam, Santiago, Yang, Dierdre, Lal, Zakharov, Morgan)
or one of the other ones (not aliens!)
World Settings
Normal/Huge Map of Planet?
Or a randomised Custom World?
SMAC or SMAX?
Current plan is Librarian difficulty (could go up to Thinker if requested, Transcend only if we're feeling suicidal), Blind Research, possibly Pods Off to avoid giving the game to Santiago, swap out every 20 turns. I note that the first 20 turns really will not amount to much, so I'll be doing them. 20-40 and 40-60, however, will make or break the game.
Original Factions in Brief
+ The Lord's Believers/The Conclave (Miriam)
Fundamentalist technophobes. Awful research, cannot take the Knowledge value, and are slightly offensive to Planet itself. Saving graces are high probe value (making them excellent at subterfuge), easy to support armies and 25% attack bonus if they initiate combat. Miriam must move quickly, and accept that she will never be ahead in the tech game. For her, the best defence is the best offence.
+ The Spartan Federation (Santiago)
Militaristic survivalists. Excellent morale bonuses, free prototypes, tolerance for police, but industry takes a hit. Cannot take Wealth as a value, which does not hurt her as much as you think. Santiago has the most balanced of the more militaristic factions, not necessarily forced onto the offence or defence, and with enough potential energy in the mid-game to be able to keep up in the tech race.
+ The Human Hive (Yang)
Brutalist police state. Excellent growth, industry, tolerance for police. Cannot take Democracy. You will never have energy playing Yang, and unless you play the middle game well you are screwed. On the other hand, during the early and mid game you are the king of industry, and you rarely have to waste money on keeping your people happy. Additionally, you can play defensively as every one of your cities is an underground bunker, so you get free perimeter defences!
+ Gaia's Stepdaughters (Deirdre)
Mind-raping eco-warriors. Ridiculously efficient, so they can support large empires, and Planet loves them, so they can support a surprisingly large industry for their anti-polluting ways. On the other hand, they really hate policing, and they have weak ordinary morale. Deirdre doesn't need to play the tech game as far as militaries are concerned. Instead, she can just capture an army of horrifying mind-worms to slaughter her enemies. The only reason she is not unbeatable is her aversion to the Free Market, robbing her of the wealth of energy she needs to roflstomp the rest of the world.
+ The United Nations Peacekeeping Force (Lal)
The 'good' guys, and the most balanced faction. The Peacekeepers suffer from a very slight penalty to efficiency that limits their horizontal expansion, but with free talents every four citizens and an extra two citizens' space on hab complex limits (the first barrier to vertical expansion) they can grow tall indeed. Lal cannot run a Police State, but why would he need to? Balance is the watchword of this faction, and Lal's victory or defeat depends upon his player. As a nice touch, he also has double votes for Planetary Governor!
+ The University of Planet (Zakharov)
Mad scientists, or at least unethical ones. In opposition to the Peacekeepers, the University suffers an extra drone every four citizens (making vertical expansion hard), and their data security is just plain awful, leaving them utterly open to attack by probe teams. They can't go Fundie either, which would cover their probe vulnerability at the cost of nullifying everything they stand for. They have but a single advantage, and played well this will make them the all-knowing gods of Planet: Science! Each University base has a free Network Node (+50% science production!), +2 base Research increases that by another 20% for a 70% boost, and when they eventually get the Knowledge value (putting their probe resistance into the toilet) they get nearly double the bang for every energy buck they put into research. The trick, of course, is turning all that fancy knowledge into tangible things.
+ Morgan Industries (Morgan)
The Megacorp! Morgan's citizens are fat and in love with the material, so their quarters are so huge that hab complex limits are reduced by 3 - small enough that before hab complexes Morgan can't even support specialists! Gross domestic expenditure also limits the size of Morganite armies as well. Morgan can't run Planned, so executing population booms is as hard for him as it is for Yang (and with his hab limits, it isn't worth bothering), which really favours a thin expansion route early on. If Morgan runs Free Market (and why would he not?) his police rating will drop into the toilet, and if he runs Wealth as well his morale will sink like a stone. So why play Morgan? Energy! Morgan is the living god king of energy, and just at the start every base produces an extra tick of energy every turn. With Market, this multiplies to every square. Morgan can build up enough money to rush-build whole Secret Projects at a time, and with a probe fleet in play he can buy out whole enemy armies and cities as well.
