Secundus' Factions Mod v1.7

[Secundus12]

I am occupied at the moment and postponed for nearly half month. I will try to get back to it as fast as I can.

No rush, take it easy. Take care of your health and prevent burnout.

(Only 3 is playable without diplomacy description) (I hate writing description D: )

You can slowly work on it, just copy the most appropriate diplo xml for now and edit it later like I did. You can also generate sentences with AI now. Can't really help you there, I only have experience generating images with AI.

Rework idea: Now they are more competitive to be able to swap their equipment according to their needs. But -25% minerals might nerf too hard...

Maybe, only way to find out is to play a full game. If the nerf is too strong, replace with reduced production from workers. Normally, I don't use sniper and artillery weapons since it costs too much in either production or credits but -100% refit cost might be viable but the +50% unit upkeep might negate that bonus though. Anyway, I still think it is doable. Atleast, it is not tax malus.

Rework Togra
(Probably still weak...)

In base game, ATV seems weak in my opinion? Honestly, I barely played vanilla and only play blackarchon mod and now my mod. Both of our mods increased ATV power. Still, it is useful for nabbing ruins and scouting the world earlygame. With the tech already unlocked and increased production, you can pretty much atv rush and knock out nearby factions easily and you can easily snowball into a powerful position with both research and production boosted. I think Reworked Togra is extremely powerful like you intended.

Rework ecologic
(RIP +5% research per forest, RIP +1 movement +1 sight+100% healing inside self territory)

I just tested sight add and movementMultiplier, it doesn't work in territory controlledByPlayer which is strange since it works without the territory controlledByPlayer condition.

You might be able to implement +1 movement and +1 sight in forests if you edit
Forest Feature xml like I did in ResearchBonus0/Observatory Feature xml for the Slavic Federation.

I'm not sure about the +100% healing inside self territory, it's not easy to test this.

Rework Diplomatic
Rework idea: I really don't know how to buff diplomacy.

Yeah, the diplomacy is really weak in this game.

Try adding standingMultiplier add and standing add to every faction xml for Diplomatic faction. Currently in my mod only University-Cyborg and 40kOrders have such relation value of 0.4. But even then, it is not guaranteed that they get along. I seen the orders to go to war with each other and University-Cyborg to form and break alliance every now and then. If you double it or even more, maybe the AIs are less likely to attack you and allow you peacefully build up with the chance of achieving Allied Victory with your allies. Maybe increase 50% trades to 100% for good measure.

Rework fanatic

Not much to say other than the ideas are good. Along with the rework ecocomy faction, they have also a good chance of achieving economic victory with their tax bonus.

Rework solar dynasty
Rework idea: Hive, but probably too broken.

Yeah, maybe increase pollution and decrease morale even more if you want balance them. Alternatively, decrease food from farmers instead.

My Space marines (Imperium)
Welcome, your trooper based factions)

Eh, not hyperspecializationed enough for infantry in my opinion. It's a mix of Spartans and Believers bonuses if you exclude +100% units cost, +25% research, and +1 movement infantry and tanks. The ATVs will probably become obsolete since the tanks now have the same movement as ATVs unless you value the extra sight ATVs have. I tend to use ATVs to quickly move between my cities for defense and if I see a nearby vulnerable hostile cities, I invade them. Tanks for conquering heavily defended cities. As for mechs, they are too slow for invasions in my opinion but their power is great for defending cities.

Hm, this given me a vague idea for a esoteric faction where their infantry, navalcraft and aircraft have sight and while the civilians (colonizers and workers), ATVs, tanks, and mechs have no sight at all.

Mechanical Vatican (Fanatic mech necromancer factions from my favourite weeb gacha game)

Which gacha though? I'm kinda interested in playing a new gacha.
With machine gods walk on the earth and Reanimate undead vehicles bonuses, the mech might be unkillable even without residing in cities with defensive buildings.

Dwarf

Interesting, I thought about adding a Dwarf faction too in the past. And with the same increased power worker units though not necessary for the dwarf faction. It was a terraforming faction that I sadly couldn't form a coherent lore idea.

Rapture

Hm, maybe replace the trooper with a watercraft? To easily nab ocean ruins though if the game drop them in a landlocked location, then gg no re. You can't force certain factions to spawn in coasts like in Civ 5. Also when you acquire a tile with an ocean ruin in it, it disappears and you don't gain anything.

Or perhaps a Karkinos with Xenomorph Pheropod device instead? So the Rapture can be versatile and incentivised to hunt oceanic aliens. Plus some bonuses like no unit upkeep, increased movement in water to escape leviathans and power too for aquatic aliens. Unlike landbased native aliens that can respawn with alien hives, the oceanic aliens don't respawn unless during the eclipse.

Morning star mercenaries

With +100% tax, this is the most economic faction there is. I'm not sure about the mineral bonus and malus, I think it pretty much evens out.

Dragon castle

Some really interesting ideas here! I'm not sure if selling price applies when you trade resources in market tab or to when disbanding units and buildings though. Need to test this in my spare time...

The -50% tax might be too punishing unless counterbalanced by Import parasite. Though I don't really know how the trade/research pacts works that well. You can't really build up a decent army unless it is primarily composed of Dragon Knights or city buildings, the upkeep will hinder them.

Abyssal Demon - evil ecologic (Still in theory crafting)
Fungus civilizations: (RIP - 1 pollution from fungus)

Really a tragedy. I have the same idea too when I first started modding. You can try your luck asking in Steam Pandora: First Contact forums if -1 pollution from fungus is possible. I know Xilmi is the forum mod there and might answer.

Overall, once your mod releases I'm interested in trying the new Dwarf and Dragon castle factions against the other new factions. And then another game with only the unbalanced original factions.

Note to self: Experiment with adding bigger text submod...

[Guinevere94]

Check mod db. I uploaded there right now.

https://www.moddb.com/games/pandora-first-contact

This is the first time I upload something, so it's kinda of silly with wrong image or something....

Rapture comes from the idea of bioshock game. It's about using former to build a tiny island in the middle of ocean or surrounding yourself with ocean by turning everything into water.

Mechanical Vatican come from a gacha game named Iron Saga. Remove always heal.

I removed pollution and minerals bonus from morning star so he would always worried only the low minerals.

Add 25% growth to dragon castle.

My space marines is about the fear for rival where their tanks and trooper can pop ups anywhere with overwhelming 150% power....

For some reason -food/minerals bonus always apply twice in the game. So -25% become -25% on top of another -25%.... And become something -55%....

Dwarf is 25% minerals bonus... forgot to change the script.

Not sure if I want to debuff solar to 100% pollution.... Sounds like it's unstoppable pollution......

About buffing infantry.....I think it's impossible to make a faction with decent infantry.... simply because better units are too cheap. The unit settings is rotted to the root so it's gonna be reworking the entire combat unit stat....

(Re-edit one day later...)

I think about the unit stat. Could rework tanks and watercraft hp to same with infantry, but abuse the mechanics of weapons and attributes, making rock paper scissors more impactful. And since flamethrower and sniper are infantry only so could make it more decent like infantry's laser...(If not working on lower unit hp, there's another way: increase tank/ship cost by 50% or 100%...)

Anyway some new blink of ideas:

(Your idea)Buffed artillery/sniper Faction: I already thought of this the moment I see Tau faction.... Because they have weak physics but decent perception. -12.5% power but +37.5% power when equipped with ranged weapon... If not tau, then probably elves? Or a unique faction that has weak melee and rely on range artillery to weaken enemy before engage.

Kamikaze bomb:
- -90% power but +300% power when attacking

Necron(Warhammer 40k):
-When found their first city, spawn a bunch of colonization era (white) units.
-All Combat types colonization era (white) units cannot move, except workers and colonizer.
-Unit cost +999999%, refit Cost -100%.
-Worker unit +300% power
-Can only make units through limited unique advancement, which only limited to Necron.
- +100% habitats

Thousands son chaos space marines/Wizard:
-A few unique operation and unique operations building that's only for thousands son/wizard. Full rely on operations for combat.
-weaker units

Some fun operations idea: operations that spawn units?

(Another day of idea.....)

Ok I suddenly think about, we don't have to go through all the units rework. Just create a new trooper3, technology colonization era sub tier 1, has same stat and cost as a tank, then set trooper1 and trooper2 same stat and cost with the tanks in the same era.

New Faction lore, Biopunk world where resources is very few, so the civilization developed a new tech using Bone and flesh. They got a type of artifact servants called homunculi. This civilization found a way to escape weak flesh by merging their souls into something.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3H_ayWPssuc

Then Ork factions idea:
+8 morale
+400% experience earn in combat
Weaker units

[Secundus12]

Check mod db. I uploaded there right now.

https://www.moddb.com/games/pandora-first-contact

This is the first time I upload something, so it's kinda of silly with wrong image or something....

Nice, just downloaded it. Will play with it once I have some free time and share my thoughts then.

The page looks fine to me, just missing the banner image.

Rapture comes from the idea of bioshock game. It's about using former to build a tiny island in the middle of ocean or surrounding yourself with ocean by turning everything into water.

Oh interesting, I heard about it but never played the game though. I also do the same with pangaea map games colonizing the oceans too. Only disadvantage though is the deep oceans do not have resource features (aquatic mexallon, etc) like near the coasts or inland.

My space marines is about the fear for rival where their tanks and trooper can pop ups anywhere with overwhelming 150% power....

Accurate to 40k lore.

For some reason -food/minerals bonus always apply twice in the game. So -25% become -25% on top of another -25%.... And become something -55%....

Very strange, it shouldn't do that. Did you install at "C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Roaming\Proxy Studios\Pandora Beta" ?

About buffing infantry.....I think it's impossible to make a faction with decent infantry.... simply because better units are too cheap. The unit settings is rotted to the root so it's gonna be reworking the entire combat unit stat....

I still think it is viable though. Only one way to find out is once I started working on it.

I think about the unit stat. Could rework tanks and watercraft hp to same with infantry, but abuse the mechanics of weapons and attributes, making rock paper scissors more impactful. And since flamethrower and sniper are infantry only so could make it more decent like infantry's laser...(If not working on lower unit hp, there's another way: increase tank/ship cost by 50% or 100%...)

Sounds interesting but I feel like it is a rather big undertaking.

(Your idea)Buffed artillery/sniper Faction: I already thought of this the moment I see Tau faction.... Because they have weak physics but decent perception. -12.5% power but +37.5% power when equipped with ranged weapon... If not tau, then probably elves? Or a unique faction that has weak melee and rely on range artillery to weaken enemy before engage.

Decent ideas here! I have nothing else to add haha.

Necron(Warhammer 40k):
-When found their first city, spawn a bunch of colonization era (white) units.
-All Combat types colonization era (white) units cannot move, except workers and colonizer.
-Unit cost +999999%, refit Cost -100%.
-Worker unit +300% power
-Can only make units through limited unique advancement, which only limited to Necron.
- +100% habitats

Pretty cool, close to my fallen empire faction and Isard Empire ideas though I can see them suffering from attrition unless you increase the unique unit advancements.

Thousands son chaos space marines/Wizard:
-A few unique operation and unique operations building that's only for thousands son/wizard. Full rely on operations for combat.
-weaker units

Some fun operations idea: operations that spawn units?

Sounds cool, the hard part is thinking up operation ideas. Yes you can spawn units using operations, tested it before so go wild with it!

On a related note, there is also a dummied out operation I found in operation localization file named Planetary Gate operation that teleports all units from source to target territory. Maybe you can recreate this using Drop Pod operation as a base? And feel free to copy the fungus and anti-fungus that create and destroy fungus feature in the SMAC Immersion submod for your own use.

(Another day of idea.....)

Ok I suddenly think about, we don't have to go through all the units rework. Just create a new trooper3, technology colonization era sub tier 1, has same stat and cost as a tank, then set trooper1 and trooper2 same stat and cost with the tanks in the same era.

New Faction lore, Biopunk world where resources is very few, so the civilization developed a new tech using Bone and flesh. They got a type of artifact servants called homunculi. This civilization found a way to escape weak flesh by merging their souls into something.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3H_ayWPssuc

Then Ork factions idea:
+8 morale
+400% experience earn in combat
Weaker units

The only limitations for these is lack of appropriate models especially for the Orks since it is rather immersion breaking if the faction units is well human and not orky. In the base game, Trooper1Shock model is not used so you can use that for trooper3 model. I tried making increase/decrease experience earn in combat faction ability but I don't know the correct format to and I looked around several xml files too so this might not be possible? Maybe you succeed where I failed though.

Also I might help you write custom diplomacy lines for the dwarf, dragon, thousand son factions eventually. Expect cliches like grudges going in the book and stuff like that. I would probably upload it to mediafire and you can download it to install to your mod.

For more specific factions like Mechanical Vatican or Morning Star Mercenaries is tall ask since I never play Bioshock and Iron Saga but Project Morningstar looks interesting, I might watch that eventually.

[Guinevere94]

If you enjoy writing custom diplomacy, you can tell me which you enjoy. Please, don't do it if you are not enjoying it.

Uploaded infantry buff patch, trooper 1 shock technology available at colonization era. Delay all trooper tech to subtier 1, But their strength and cost are same as tanks in same era.Working on infantry patch only 15 minutes from nothing to complete lol.

Well I am actually confusing about adding new factions to overkill mod because factions in this mod are meant to be broken, so I can't fit weak faction in it....I might create a new mod which using different units stat with not too broken factions.....

Btw I take entire week to think about the units rebalance, it's hard... I make 2 versions of weapon part. Second version is when I realised too much power might cause faction power bonus to be useless... (Weapon part is incomplete yet because I run out of ideas....)

Trooper 0: 2hp
Shock trooper 1: 2hp 3move - colonization era - tech subtier 0
Trooper 1: 4hp
Trooper 2: 8hp 3move
ATV0: 2hp
ATV1: 4hp
ATV2: 8hp
Tank0: 4hp, basecost +50%
Tank1: 4hp, attribute=light, basecost=Tank0
Tank2: 8hp 3move
Aircraft0: 4hp 3move, basecost +50%
Aircraft1: 4hp 6move, basecost +50%
Aircraft2: 8hp 9move, basecost +50%
Ship0: 4hp 4move, basecost +50%
Ship1: 8hp 3move, basecost +50%
Ship2: 16hp 4move, basecost +100%
Mech0: 8hp, basecost +50%
Mech1: 16hp, basecost +100%
Mech2: 32hp, basecost +150%

Automatic 0: Sub Machine gun
Version 1: +25% vs bio, -25% vs mech
Version 2: --

Automatic 1: Assault Rifle
Version 1: +50% vs light, -50% vs flying
Version 2: +25% basepower, +25% vs light -25% vs heavy

Automatic 2:
Version 1:
Version 2:

Missile 0: High Explosive Missile
Version 1: +25% vs mech, -50% vs flying
Version 2: --

Missile 1: Target Seekers Missile
Version 1: +50% vs mech, +25% vs fly, -50% vs bio, -25% vs heavy
Version 2: --

Missile 2: Stealth Guided Missile
Version 1: --
Version 2:

Flame 0: Flamethrower
Version 1: +100% vs bio, -50% vs mech
Version 2: +25% basepower, +50% vs bio, -50* vs mech

Flame 1: Acid Launcher
Version 1: +100% vs mech, -50% vs flying
Version 2: +25% basepower, +50% vs mech, -50% vs flying

Flame 2:
Version 1:
Version 2:

Sniper 0: Sniper Rifle
Version 1: -50% basepower, +25% vs bio, -25% vs mech
Version 2: --

Sniper 1: Recoilless Rifle
Version 1: -25% basepower, +25% vs mech, -25% vs bio
Version 2: --

Sniper 2: Gauss Accelerator
Version 1: --
Version 2: +25% basepower

Cannon 0: AP Rifled Bore
Version 1: +100% vs heavy, -50% vs light
Version 2: +25% basepower, +75% vs heavy, -50% vs light

Cannon 1: Calamity Smooth Bore
Version 1: +75% power, -125% vs flying
Version 2: +25% basepower, +50% power, -100% vs flying

Cannon 2:
Version 1:
Version 2:

Artillery 0: Basic Artillery
Version 1: -75% basepower, 2 range Splash, -100% vs flying
Version 2: --

Artillery 1: Artillery Flak
Version 1:-50% basepower, 3 range Splash, -100% vs NOattribute=flying, +300% vs flying
Version 2: --

Artillery 2: Long Range Artillery
Version 1: -75% basepower, 6 range Splash, -100% vs flying
Version 2: --

Flak 0: Defensive Flak
Version 1: -50% vs NOattribute=flying, +200% vs flying
Version 2: --

Flak 1:
Version 1:
Version 2:

Flak 2:
Version 1:
Version 2:

Laser 0: Intercept Laser
Version 1: +50% basepower, -50% power when attacking
Version 2: --

Laser 1: Overcharge Laser Cannon
Version 1: -50% power, +200%% power when attacking
Version 2: --

Laser 2:
Version 1:
Version 2:

Btw these ideas are for fun, might be different version I work into. (As you can notice, it's hard to deal with heavy and flying on early era.)

Anyway you want to check this out. I can now create a faction with "first strike" from device (haven't test other yet like artillery attribute or agile attribute). Secret is simple, just (attribute) (attribute name = first strike) (/attribute) like you put it in units/weapon/device, just put that in factions and it work!!!

[Secundus12]

If you enjoy writing custom diplomacy, you can tell me which you enjoy. Please, don't do it if you are not enjoying it.

Well, the factions I mentioned before haha. I'm done with the Dwarf faction diplomacy text, next would be the Dragon faction. For the thousand sons faction I have vague idea of Magnus the Red and even more vague idea of the legion so I will probably write very generic chaos diplomacy text.

Here the mediafire link for the Dwarf diplomacy text.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/flcjfmxe ... f.zip/file

Uploaded infantry buff patch, trooper 1 shock technology available at colonization era. Delay all trooper tech to subtier 1, But their strength and cost are same as tanks in same era.Working on infantry patch only 15 minutes from nothing to complete lol.

Btw I take entire week to think about the units rebalance, it's hard... I make 2 versions of weapon part. Second version is when I realised too much power might cause faction power bonus to be useless... (Weapon part is incomplete yet because I run out of ideas....)

Yeah, but keep at it! Maybe add bonus power when attacking cities to one of these weapons? I never used the Fort feature that can be built by Formers too so perhaps Version 2 of Artillery grants bonus power when attacking while in Fort feature? I also seen a old post where someone added a flame weapon to formers for defense.
viewtopic.php?t=48654

Can't help with the weapon names I'm not a weapon enthusiast nor read science novels either.

Btw these ideas are for fun, might be different version I work into. (As you can notice, it's hard to deal with heavy and flying on early era.)

That's good. It's going to be a fresh air for Pandora players. And would encourage players to try different strategies.

Anyway you want to check this out. I can now create a faction with "first strike" from device (haven't test other yet like artillery attribute or agile attribute). Secret is simple, just (attribute) (attribute name = first strike) (/attribute) like you put it in units/weapon/device, just put that in factions and it work!!!

That's cool. I played Pandora this long yet I haven't used that device so I can't really weigh if it is balanced or not. That device is endgame, my games tends to end around late tier1. I only used Deadlock Elusion Field since I tends to play defensively.

[Guinevere94]

Say.... How do you make a ship flying on the sky? I already make it a flying unit but his model just sailing on the water or the land. It's already a flying ship but it's kind of weird because the model just stick to the ground.

Btw the overkill mod is near finished, just wait for your diplomacy script of dragon. Asking AI to help out on other scripts and it works wonder. 8 new factions (Not thousands son, but it's in another very big project).Only adding new factions if something new faction lore is in my mind.

I got 2 new big projects in my mind. 1 big and 1 very big. Let's keep it secret XD. Probably do the smaller project first.

(Edit: btw any suggestions for balancing? Could edit it before I submit the version 1.0)

Meanwhile I buff space marines and dragons so units cost is only increase by 50%. Add summon abilities to mechanical Vatican.