Axs001

Sarxis · July 15, 2001, 21:32

Here is the current roster for this AX succession game:

Anunikoba (koba@home.com)
Scipio (brperry@pacbell.net)
Commodore (jbgibson@arilion.com)
johndmuller (JohnDMuller@msn.com)
Tau Ceti (tauc@hotmail.com)
Walt (?? still need this one)
SITS (tony@tlafave.demon.co.uk)

Play 20 turns- complete your 20th turn but do not hit the 'end turn' button. Save the game at that point, zip it, and send it to the next player in line. Then post here the fact that you are done, and the game has moved onwards.

The settings are medium everything, with all conquests active, directed research, etc., Lal, thinker (for the drones). We are playing against the original factions on a standard map.

Also, as far as certain game exploits are concerened (reverse engineering, base trading, what have you) I don't have a problem with us utilizing these. Just as long as you don't do something crazy (break out the map editor), I will have no objections with the use of the 'STANDARD' exploits. But you guys decide.

If you can not play your turns (for whatever reasons), just let us know and we will skip you in the line of succession until you are able to play once again.

Good luck!

Sarxis · July 15, 2001, 21:35

AXS the first has begun! Turn sent to Scipio.

Scipio Centaurus · July 16, 2001, 00:23

2140 to The Commodore

The Commodore · July 17, 2001, 01:16

Noooooo...I played the twenty turns, and then the save went bad. Autosave wasn't working either! All that work...

I'll redo it tomorrow evening.

And I was doing so well...tripled the size of our empire, had the UoP on it's knees...

johndmuller · July 17, 2001, 10:30

Commodore,
I'd appreciate it if you could get the turn to me as quick as you can as I am going out of town Wed. afternoon for the rest of the week and would like to take my turn before I go. If you are too busy to get to it today, we could switch turns and I'd send it to you afterwards.
Thanks, John

Scipio Centaurus · July 17, 2001, 12:31

I went ahead and sent the 2140 SAV file to johndmuller and The Commodore. Maybe johndmuller can go ahead and play 2141-2160 ahead of time, just in case The Commodore can't get the turn to work on his machine by wednesday evening. But if Commodore gets the turn out, JDM could just discard the 2140 SAV file and play the 2161-80 turns instead.

Hopefully something can be worked out...

- Scipio

johndmuller · July 17, 2001, 20:23

Well, I got the 2140 turn from Scipio, played it and sent my 2160 file to the Commodore. In case his datalinks are more seriously messed up, I also sent a copy to Scipio (who may or may not approve of what I did to the empire) as a backup since I won't be around. If the Commoodore wants to go with his version of 2140-60 instead of mine for some reason, we will work it out somehow (maybe the Commodore and I will play each others files and Tau Ceti will get two different 2180 files).

I'll be back next Monday, so depending on how fast you all move along, feel free to skip me next time around if it will be holding up the game too much. I assume we will try to follow the official order next time.

The Commodore · July 17, 2001, 20:59

Ok, I'll do 2160-2180...found out the problem, BTW. I was playing the game on my own personal computer. I have the patch in this computer (the family comp), but I didn't have it on my own.

I hope that's the problem anyway. I'll be finished by 10:00CST, I beleave.

The Commodore · July 18, 2001, 12:47

Turn on to Tau, sorry for the delay.

Just FYI, you'll be able to rush-build the VW soon, and the Spartans are south, with a unity foil.

Walt · July 18, 2001, 14:01

I left my email address in the old thread in the general board, and I think Tau has it anyway, but just in case, I can be reached at

wschellin@yahoo.com

- Walt

Tau Ceti · July 19, 2001, 11:00

2200 to Walt.

I think we qualify for superpower status now. We have the Governorship, the Virtual World and the Command Nexus, and the University has been vanquished. Leader in tech and pop, and clearly overall. The future looks bright.

The Commodore · July 19, 2001, 12:42

Did you manage to make him a pet, or what?

And here I was thinking it was to late for a rover rush...

Walt · July 19, 2001, 14:58

I've just played four turns, and I have a few questions.

One: since we've completed over 100 Mission Years, am I playing 20 turns, or just 10?

Two: I'm in a position to build a SP or two (or three). Are we playing with the crawler upgrade trick, or not? I don't generally play with it, but if everyone else wants to, I suppose I could...

Third: Just FYI, I couldn't keep Zak's last remaining base on the continent without waiting for him to repopulate it, so I just killed it and expanded our borders. He still has the single sea base...

Tree Farms are growing all over, we've switched to a Wealth-motivated economy, and I'm starting to crank out formers.

I should finish up today or tomorrow and send it on...

Walt

Avenoct · July 19, 2001, 15:16

Peeks in to your game

Decided to see how you're game is faring...over on the Smac-succession game we're at 2190 after a late start. I decided to go 'Ironman' for our game, and wondered if you had done so? I like the feel so far, kinda a PBEM with really nifty turn-lengths. Ok, I'll sneak back to our game..which unfortunately ended up being entirely posted in the strategies sections...

-Smack

Scipio Centaurus · July 19, 2001, 21:41

Quote:

Originally posted by Walt
I've just played four turns, and I have a few questions.

One: since we've completed over 100 Mission Years, am I playing 20 turns, or just 10?

OK, since no one else answered I'll bite. Depends on whether you think 20 turns is too much for an evening of play. I think the point of the succession format is to allow each player to play a comfortable amount of turns in a single session and then pass off to the next player. Up to you in other words.

Quote:

Two: I'm in a position to build a SP or two (or three). Are we playing with the crawler upgrade trick, or not? I don't generally play with it, but if everyone else wants to, I suppose I could...

Again up to you. See Anunikoba's first message in this thread...

Quote:

Third: Just FYI, I couldn't keep Zak's last remaining base on the continent without waiting for him to repopulate it, so I just killed it and expanded our borders. He still has the single sea base...

Hope he's up for some cutting edge research on marine exobiology?

Quote:

Tree Farms are growing all over, we've switched to a Wealth-motivated economy, and I'm starting to crank out formers.

I should finish up today or tomorrow and send it on...

Walt

Sound like the game'll be over by the time it reaches me again!

- Scipio

Sarxis · July 19, 2001, 23:17

Smack- I didn't start this as an ironman game. Since we are not in competition with each other, I felt there was no need.

As far as the current turn lengths are concerned- if you don't want to play 20 turns, then don't; just pass the game along, stating that you decided not to play a full twenty. However, do not play more than 20, even if a player before you decided to short change him/herself, UNLESS they explicitly let you have their turns. In that event, just let us know what has transpired, and all will be well.

When I see the game again, I will see how big our civ has become, and make a suggestion on shortening the turns thereafter.

<--- Paul Shaffer?

Walt · July 20, 2001, 07:56

Sounds good. I did in fact play 20 turns. It didn't seem like too much. Managed to complete the PTS, the Energy Grid, and the Thing-that-Gives-You-Perimeter-Defenses. The Ascetic Virtues is set to complete at the beginning of 2221. I elected not to use the upgrade trick.

It's 2221, and we still haven't pop boomed. I'll leave that for someone else. Turn to SITS shortly.

Tau Ceti · July 20, 2001, 11:41

Quote:

Originally posted by The Commodore
Did you manage to make him a pet, or what?

And here I was thinking it was to late for a rover rush...

It almost was, especially as we did not have even Applied Physics yet at the start and he had a Perimeter Defense in University Base. But as he defended it with two scout rovers and one recon rover, it looked takable. So I went straight for Impact weapons and built a couple of probes - he was just too tempting a target with a large empire, on our continent, with 6 or more techs we did not have.

About two turns before I had originally intended to attack, he left UB completely undefended. That was an offer I could not resist. After that he went quickly downhill (though I had to sabotage every facility in one other city to get the Perimeter Defense there, and bought a couple of other cities). The war was over in 9 turns. He refused to surrender, though.

One event that helped immensely was Deirdre's building of the Empath Guild, followed immediately by our being elected Governor. Got probably 8 new techs and two pacts in the trading sessions afterwards.

SITS · July 21, 2001, 04:54

Sent on to Anunikobe end of MY 2239.

Here is a bit of a report...

2221 - The Ascetic Virtues
Eco damage in Temple of Sol - switched production to Hybrid Forest
2224 - Started Maritime Control Centre - Built IOD to go pod hunting netted 100 credits
2225 - Netted 200 credits from IOD
2226 - Netted 50 Credits from IOD
2227 - Tidal wave and 100 credits
2228 - Built Data Aquisition
2230 - Hive kicking Miriam's ass - Maritine Centre built
2232 - Managed by building Hybrid Forests etc to take all the supply crawlers off boreholes. SC's waste a lot of the boreholes resources whereas a worker can get both minerals and energy
2233 - Mind controlled a Gaian city - Velvetgrass Point - and got away with it. Gives us a good foothold on their island. Got a transport from a pod.
2235 - At war with Gaians - maybe it wasn't such a good idea to steal their base!
2236 - Minerals -1 for 10 turns at University base.
2238 - Struggling to hold on to Velvetgrass. Re-enforcements might come too late. Changed to Green - worried about Deirdre's MW's.

Velvetgrass was probably a bridge too far. I suspect it won't last much longer. Sorry!

There is a small island to the south of us - it might be an idea to get some colony pods on there.

Lots of boreholes and Supply crawlers around. Might want to switch back to freemarket once we lose Velvetgrass.

All in all not looking too bad....

Sarxis · July 23, 2001, 16:26

Just sent out AXS001 turn 2260. Would have sent it sooner, but my ISP was down.

Here is an update of what I have done:

Tsiolkovsky Institute has been used as a military depot. Even though I have established peace with both Deirdre and Yang, I have built many grounds units, and have them standing by for transport.

Yang is a problem, but not now. Deirdre offered us a truce after I reclaimed Velvetgrass Point (wise decision on her part).

I had started building an energy park in the northwest quadrant of our mainland. All that was done was some fungus clearing and some land raising. There is also some nutrient rich land in that area, which would be good for crawler farms.

Pacted with Morgan. He is too weak to be a threat, so I figured I would just leave him alone.

The jungle is open, and ready for colonization to the south of our mainland.

CIU- Counter Intelligence Unit (infantry chassis Probe unit for probe defense actions; just in case you were wondering).

Built up a small navy, since we have the maritime controller, and many of our enemy's bases are in the sea.

Needljets are scattered throughout the world for patrols and fast/first strike capability.

Besides these, our empire is a prosperous in all ways- good job everyone involved! Next time, though, I think we shall go with Transcend difficulty, to make it more challenging.

And, I think it is time that we consider shortening the number of turns we each take. 20 turns is a lot of work at this stage of the game. And besides that, I would like to at least see the game once more before it is over!

I suggest 12 turns for now.

johndmuller · July 24, 2001, 01:19

I'm back in town and able to play my next turn (presumably following the Commodore as in the original list).

As far as shortening the turns, its fine with me; I wonder even, if they should start out smaller, say at 10 or 15 years, or if only the first 2 or three players should play 20 (perhaps 15 for the rest of the first round, then 10 for round 2....)

Walt · July 24, 2001, 21:30

Might I suggest that we send every turn iteration to all players, just so everyone can see how we're doing, not necessarily to play it?

Scipio Centaurus · July 25, 2001, 04:52

12 turns played and game turn 2272 sent on to The Commodore.

**************

My! How our fledgling empire has grown.

Sent some war 'materials' south from Loaves & Fishes (renamed U.N. Seabase #3) to pay a social call on Sister Miriam at He Walks on Water... Ran into some Gaian units on R&R there, and since we had a truce with the Tree Lady I decided not to complete the conquest. Meanwhile, Brother Yang of the Hive took advantage of our troop deployment from U.N. Seabase #3 to launch a sneak attack and managed to capture the base. However, I liberated our beautiful sea outpost from this maniacal despot the very next turn. (I do not regard U.N. Seabase #3 as defensible against determined opposition, but I did not see that during my most recent administration).

Had a lovely chat with Dierdre about this same time and persuaded her to renew our truce by gifting her with Silksteel Armor technology. Tried to arrange a treaty with her, but was unwilling to pay her bribe - Pre-Sentient Algorithms. The very next year she launched a surprise attack at Velvetgrass (renamed U.N. Exploitation Agency). The attack failed and we still hold that (indefensible) outpost. Noticed some green air units moving into a blue base about this time - though I did not catch any message about an agreement to combine forces against us.

We had plenty of ECs saved up so I switched us to Dem/Planned/Power for rapid pop growth and a better war footing.

A couple of years later Santiago launched a surprise attack at U.N. Seabase #3, so we are now at vendetta with everyone except out dear Pact Brothers Zak and Morgan - who BTW, have generously pledged their support to us in our war efforts!

Energy park development proceeding apace with several tiles at max altitude and a couple of crawlers already suckling at the solar collectors.

Got into a 4 way race for the HSA and paid 820 ec at U.N. Headquarters to ensure our victory. Diedre was pounding U.N. Exploitation Agency with probes on an annual basis. Decided not to use crawlers to buy the SP... So natuarally about a dozen Locust swarms flew in from nowhere, destroyed a couple of crawlers and completely emptied U.N. Headquarters. Luckily there were no Locust swarms left to invade the base. I managed to restock the garrisons and save our HQ from depopulation. Curiously, the Locust attacks happened right after I brought the SP to within 1 year of completion, so if the base had lost population the SP might not have been completed. The Hive had 16 years to go for the HSA and over 4000 ec... probably enough to rush build it - which was exactly why I rush built it first.

I was working on a long term plan to beef up our frontier garrisons - a Chaos Tactical NJ (Chopper when we get MMI), Trance (maybe empath would be better?) Chaos Skimship and AAA Silksteel Sentinels assigned to every frontier outpost w/ the NJ and gunboat on alert. We should also place several tactical air units on alert near our energy park, because Locusts and enemy penetrators seems to thrive on crawlers.

One base is working up a conventional missile design. AAA Silksteel Sentinels and Trance Chaos Skimships are already built. I don't think there are any other units that need to be prototyped. Didn't design a PB, but that deficiency could be corrected at any time. ;> It would be wise to get some Orbital Defense Pods launched ASAP, as most of our opponents have access to PBs by now.

We just acquired fusion, but the others won't be far behind.

We could stand to put some more coastal seabases in a ring around our main continent. Closely spaced seabases (overlapping production zones) cut down on a lot of nonsense with enemy troops landing by transport and wreaking havoc on the countryside.

U.N. Commerce Commitee has been on infinite rover production with units being passed off to other random bases for support and then released on full auto-pilot. Might be a good idea to grab some of these and assign 'em to coastal patrol duty, especially on the west end of our main landmass.

Several bases have pop boomed near the end of my turn and most core bases now have Hab Complexes. I also placed Pressure Domes in many bases in case our cruel exploitation of Planet's resources triggers biblical flooding.

I glimpsed a green unit attacking a blue unit right near the end of my administration.

A volcano erupted circa 2268 extending the western end of the central landmass - and making it difficult for us to provide naval reinforcement at U.N. Seabase #3, BTW.

If our opponents continue their timid bahaviour it might be OK to switch back to wealth accumulation to take advantage of our 2 Pacts.

Zak and Morgan may have finally completed their latest techs so courtesy calls to investigate tech trades may be in order as well. Might be worth our effort to gift these boys with some energy credits from time-to-time just to help out their research rate.

Good luck to my successor!

- Scipio

Walt · July 26, 2001, 23:09

FYI: I'll be gone until Wednesday. If the turn gets to me way before then, skip me. If it doesn't reach me 'til Tuesday, though, just send it normally and I'll play it first chance I get when I return.

Ciao, guys. Have a good weekend.

Walt

The Commodore · July 27, 2001, 09:26

Just FYI: I'm going to be done sometime this evening. I'm sorry, I was really busy yesterday.

The Commodore · July 28, 2001, 13:55

Turn 2277 on to john. Sorry it took so long, but you'll find a MUCH bigger navy.

johndmuller · July 30, 2001, 21:18

MY 2185 to Tau Ceti (I cc'ed it to Walt so that he could get ready).

We have a decent beachhead on Gaian trerritory and they seem to be unable to put up much of a defense (which is just as well, because we are a little overextended down there). We're rediculously far ahead on the charts, but haven't really engaged the Hive or the Spartans yet. There is too much to do in our main territory, but otherwise there are no problems.

The Commodore and I only took 7 or 8 turns each - there is a lot of MM going on, especially when one has to figure out the previous players system first.

We might want to start thinking about starting another game.

Tau Ceti · August 1, 2001, 16:56

Sorry about the delay here, guys. There were some delivery problems which meant I did not get the game until today, and I just had the infamous interceptor crash wipe out a couple of turns (and they take quite long to play at the moment). I do have a save from a few years back, and will redo the turns tomorrow - it is getting late here.

What type of victory are we going for? We have easily enough votes for a diplomatic any time we choose, and if things go as they did before the crash, we whould be in Cybernetic at a rate of slightly more than 1 tech/turn at the end of my reign, so Transcendence should not be too distant either.

johndmuller · August 1, 2001, 17:16

Tau Ceti, unless you made a point of turning it off (or unless it is some kind of local-machine option) there should be an auto save file because I made a point of turning it on after getting a big scare

on my first round when I couldn't find the manual save file at first. If it is there, it might save you an hour or two.

The Commodore · August 1, 2001, 17:46

Funny, but I haven't seen my turns autosaving either. Bug?