README FOR CUSTOM FACTION: "The Syndic"
=======================================

Please feel free to send comments or suggestions regarding this
faction to the author, don brodale (brodale@humanitas.ucsb.edu),
as he is very keen on learning what others think of his first
creation for SMAC ... :)

I think this is a viable faction, but I can only play so many games
of SMAC [and with my particular slant on gameplay] and in order to
bring this faction into balance with those laready present in the
game, the work of many hands is required. Thanks in advance for your
interest in (at least) downloading the file.

- d.brodale, 14 April 1999


My posted to the SMAC "Game" Forum on 12.04.199:


Rather than browsing the forums (boy, am I behind?), I took a little time out to put
together faction based on a novel by C.M. Kornbluth, *The Syndic* (1953). Actually,
the novel itself would be an interesting four-sided scenario (Syndic, Mob, NAG,
Natives), but anyway ...

Realizing that I haven't much time to test the faction in the short-term (and that
more hands = less work in re-balancing the faction) I thought I might offer the
work-in-progress to any interested in giving the faction a working over.


Here are some of the particulars:


THE SYNDIC

Leader: Don Edward Falcaro

Let the social scientists play with their theories. With brilliant hindsight some of
them tell us that more than a dozen civilizations have gone down into darkness before
us. I see no reason why ours should not go down into the darkness with them, nor do I
see any reason why we should not meanwhile enjoy ourselves.

   -- F.W. Taylor,
      "Organization, Symbolism, and Morale"


Faction Characteristics:

+ 1 ECONOMY: There is always a price to a satisfied vice
- 2 EFFICIENCY: Poor bookkeeping permits widespread graft
- 1 POLICE: Ethos of self-interest and freedom of choice

Service Orientation: Free recreation commons; 5% energy reserves deduction.
Content Population: Units and bases immune to Mind Control.
Opulent, not Decadent: No morale penalty to social valuation of Wealth.
Open Society: May not form Police State; Fundamentalism penalties doubled.


Aggression: Pacifist
Priorities: Build, Explore
Starting Tech: Social Psychology
Agenda: Wealth (Values)
Aversion: Police State (Politics)

In theory, The Syndic fill one [E+B] of the "unused" unary or binary EDBC combinations,
to fill out *that* chart, and their SE objectives place them at odds with both the Hive
[~ Mob in the novel] and the Spartans [~ NAG in the novel] - further filling out the SE
chart. In case any have read the novel (I highly recommend it), the full SE set for the
Syndic [there] appears to be: Democracy / Planned / Wealth, with the possible inclusion
of Eudaimonia.




Faction File History:
=====================
11.04.1999 - Syndic faction file [*.txt] completed.
13.04.1999 - Syndic graphic sets completed.
14.04.1999 - Faction file sent to ApolytonCS for distribution


-----

   d.brodale
   brodale@humanitas.ucsb.edu