Original Smac Game

-Contact- · February 26, 2002, 20:27

Hosting Original Smac Game
All players welcome
First come first serve
I am playing University so don't even think about it

ICQ: 54939685
E-mail: space_entity@hotmail.com

Game rules suggestions?

Contact

John Paul Jones · February 26, 2002, 22:27

Peacekeepers.
johnpauljones@oceanfree.net
Preferred options (flexible):
Transcend Level.

duMa · February 27, 2002, 00:50

Greetings!

We have another interested party!

JPJ's rules look good, though I'd prefer blind research. It's not 100% necessary, but preferred.

Gimme the Believers... might be interesting to try.

modowd724@hotmail.com

(recently started two other games... am I going to be overwhelmed this time next year?)

Dreifels · February 27, 2002, 05:55

I'm in (so far still possible)
Prefer Gaia
I suggest not to play in Transcendent but in Library as that will slow the game a lot, don't try to make same settings in a PBEM as you prefer to play in a single user game normal. Your enemies not the AI is but other human players and so the difficulty is reduced to fighting against worms and such for all then. At last the game will be much slower in development and may need much more than 250 years then.
Dreifels@gmx.net

SPasmofiT · February 27, 2002, 06:06

I get the Hive!
spasm@xnet.ro

Look forward to hearing from you.
Let's stick to 4 players!

I prefer non-blind research. That's a favorable option only for the believers.

Maybe Accelerated Start, or one of those special setups by Googlie.

knowhow2 · February 27, 2002, 07:04

Well with SPas, you're actually 5 players................

but never mind me

-Contact- · February 27, 2002, 12:46

PLayers:

Me: Uni
John Paul: PK
Duma: Believers
Dreifels: Gaia
Spas: Hive

I want a quick game so I think we should keep it down at Library.
Bigger the map, bigger the fun!

Worms, I think should be rare, again a fast game.
I want flexible start locations off and spoils on.

We can generally decide all this at the start up.

Shall we wait for 2 more or just get some comps which are NO fun to play with.

SPasmofiT · February 27, 2002, 13:11

Let's start. 5 playes already means fewer turns per day. Too slow. In a game I'm taking part, PHNC, we had something like 4 turns/day sometimes.

Maybe someone should ask Googlie to be our moderator. He has some nice maps/scenarios. The best game I've played!

Dreifels · February 27, 2002, 13:42

pls set "look first", the AI most times makes terrible starting city positions, i.e. just so that a good bonus field is one field outside the city.

With 5 we may start if you like.

Tom201 · February 27, 2002, 15:33

Hi,
Im interested too

Havent played Smac multi yet, but alot against the AI and Hotseat with a friend, so Im a easy victim for u - maybe

Some Questions I hope I got that right:
- Its a classic ac game means without the addon right?
- This is supposed to be a PBEM game which works similar too a hotseat? (sending the saves per eMail around)
- Its expected to do 4 turns/day? (ok for me)
- I have the german 4.0 version I hope thats compatible with yours?
- How long does a usuall PBEM match take? (I assume a few month?)

Ok when Im welcome, Im in

I would take the Morgans
(Hive is sparta and already taken? otherwise I would take them :P)
eMail: Tom201@gmx.de

Looking forward to the game
Tom

Googlie · February 27, 2002, 15:44

I'll gladly set the game up.

Currently you have six players (knowhow2 - do you want to play Morgan?)

Contact: - UoP
JPJ: - PKs
DuMa:- Believers
Dreifels: - Gaians
Spas:- Hive
Tom201: - Spartans (you did say you'd prefer them if not taken)

I can make a decent Morgan as an AI if you like - not a pushover, but not so strong as would eliminate a human player

thoughts?

Do you want it CMN'd?

G.

duMa · February 27, 2002, 15:44

Vvelcome to the boards, Tom201

- Classic AC means no Alien Crossworlds, which is the add-on, yep. You should have Version 4 though!

- PBEM works the same way as hotseat, but you can't peek over your opponent's shoulder

(though... I'm still too new to know what PBEM stands for)

- 4 turns/day? Probably not. 1 turn per day if we're lucky. I'd like to set that with a gavel. 1 turn per day, everybody! I can say it and it happens most of the time, but people go on vacation and die now and then, so delays are expected.

- German 4.0... I have no clue. I'm sure someone else is answering this thread as I type.

- Usual PBEM game? Unsure as well. I'd assume at least a year. Again, someone else can answer that one.

On a note of my own, will we have a CMN? Googlie would be good, yes. Qantaga did another game of mine and he seems good too. We'll have to lure someone here

heehee, thanks Googlie. Y'snuck in seconds before this posting hit the board

Googlie · February 27, 2002, 15:48

Quote:

Originally posted by duMa
(though... I'm still too new to know what PBEM stands for)

Play By E-Mail

G.

knowhow2 · February 27, 2002, 15:48

seven human players requires full attention to work. sadly I can't give that kind of attention to another game

duMa · February 27, 2002, 15:54

Footnote: Quite a multi-national game. Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Romania, Netherlands, USA and Alpha Centauri (nice internet connection, Dreifels!).

Googlie · February 27, 2002, 16:04

Suggested Title:

It's a Capitalist's World

(i.e. - Morgan might have a chance at winning !!)

This will be a SMAC v4.0 game

Difficulty level is Librarian, tweaked (see below)

Players, in turn order, are:

Dreifels: Gaians
SPasmofiT: Hive
-Contact-: University
Tom201: Sparta
duMa: Believers
John Paul Jones: Peacekeepers

The AI faction will be a somewhat tweaked Morgan

World is 50% to 70% water, huge planet, average everything else (rare worms disadvantages the Gaians).

Game conditions are:

all winning conditions - on
do or die - on
look first - on
tech stagnation - no
spoils of war - no
directed research
intense rivalry - no
no unity survey
random scattering of Unity pods
No random events
all other custom conditions - no

(Ironman off - this allows a player to save a game in mid-turn if interrupted, and resume later. With ironman checked he can't do that)

other conditions:

Morgan will start with his HQ's already built and a couple of goodies to help him along in the mid game where the AI generally fall behind (I wish there were some way to make them dormant until a certain number of turns had passed, or an appropriate tech was dicovered, but ah, well, we can't be that precise)

Suggested play rules (Forum Wars set)

• Communications - none till contact, obtain commlink, or build Empath Guild
• Total freedom in Design Workshop (upgrades anytime, during turn or on-field,
• Retro-engineering - OK, except for using the probe rover chassis before discovering Doc. Mobility
• SE switches "quickies" forbidden - (obviously you can experiment to see what effect various SE choices have, but cannot change, play moves, then change back in the same turn)
• Council notification - immediate broadcast to all players (Post in the thread and e-mail to all immediately by player who has called elections, citing candidates and votes. After each player's turn, post in the thread the running totals)
• Stockpiling in Qs anytime - OK
• Crawlers Upgrade anytime - OK
• Probe actions: Must choose vendetta option when probing other players, rebuke if a pactmate (OK to probe teammate at any time)
• Using the AI - Cannot use the AI to bribe on council votes nor to demand withdrawal of units
• Cannot use the right click feature for multiple drop moves to extend range (ie limited to 8 tiles unless owning the Space Elevator SP)
• Cannot use the 'set waypoint' feature for automatic worm hunting/lifecycle enhancements
• Must 'Accept' or 'Decline' an offered Pact or Treaty that the other player has indicated 'Accepted' before exiting the diplo box and playing the turn (i.e. no accepting pending treaties/pacts *after* declaring vendetta in the same turn )
• Cannot use the F4 feature (or the bases feature of the F2 screen) to change an infiltrated faction's workers to specialists

Do these look acceptable?

Googlie

Tom201 · February 27, 2002, 16:14

Jop rules are ok for me.

Tom

SPasmofiT · February 27, 2002, 17:02

Fine by me. Let's roll.

duMa · February 27, 2002, 17:28

Looks good to me too.

The only (probably unsolvable) item of note is turn order and geographical location optimization.

Dreifels - Gaians - Alpha Centauri
SPasmofiT - Hive - Romania
Contact - University - Canada
Tom201 - Sparta - Netherlands
duMa - Believers - Sweden
John Pau Jones - Peacekeepers - Ireland

After analysation, it looks relatively good, all except for the variable location of Dreifels. If he's in NA, then there is a potential turn lag as it goes from NA to Europe back to NA, then hangs around in Europe for 4 turns.

Anal? Babbly? Or just fascinated to be in Europe? Dunno. Dead end thought. Game on!

Googlie · February 27, 2002, 17:53

I just took the turn order from the game sequencing. Being SMAC, there'd be no wierd graphics if we didn't follow the usual order, so changes can still be made (am in playtest mode right now, but it's not a big deal to change)

G.

duMa · February 27, 2002, 18:00

Colours would be mucky though. Up to Dreifels if he wants t'be the blue Gaians and SPasmofiT to be green Hives (sounds painful).

Dreifels · February 27, 2002, 18:10

Alpha Centauri is where your CD is ;-))
Means no lag in transmitting
serious: Germany

The other points:
- a CMN wouldn't be wrong
- Council notification: should be made one round *before* it is called
- difficult to control rules are F4, right click feature, hope all will respect that nevertheless

Suggestion: when sending a sav (please compressed) then also sned an empty email with only the topic "sent [filename]" and name the file always as [next player/receiver]-year.sav so that no wrong file opening/deleting happens by accident.

all other is fine.

Btw, if you look for ready maps to use, there are some at http://mitglied.lycos.de/smac/maps_here.html indifferent size which you maybe like to use.

Btw 2: Mix of different language versions doesn't make any problem as long as all have patch 4 installed.

Dreifels · February 27, 2002, 18:13

Quote:

Originally posted by Googlie
I just took the turn order from the game sequencing. Being SMAC, there'd be no wierd graphics if we didn't follow the usual order
G.

In SMACX you also don't have wrong/mixed colors if you watch the settings and files right. There you also can mix what you like.

Dreifels · February 27, 2002, 18:26

Do I see that right:

Dreifels - Gaians - Alpha Centauri - Dreifels@gmx.net
SPasmofiT - Hive - Romania - gabrielm@fx.ro
Contact - University - Canada - space_entity@hotmail.com
Tom201 - Sparta - Netherlands - Tom201@gmx.de
duMa - Believers - Sweden - modowd724@hotmail.com
John Pau Jones - Peacekeepers - Ireland - johnpauljones@oceanfree.net
-
Googlie - linfrew@aol.com

fine, now we have all

SPasmofiT · February 27, 2002, 18:44

gabrielm@fx.ro

Googlie · February 27, 2002, 18:52

linfrew@aol.com

googlie@mybc.com

Googlie · February 27, 2002, 21:41

Playtest went well - Morgan will be no pushover, but I don't think he'll corner the energy market before 2300.

Am just waiting for Contact to send me his free tech choice, then we're underway (as I play essentially the first turn - moving nothing for you six players - to get the Morgan bases built and give the governors their instructions, I am prompted for the Uni's tech.)

G.

Googlie · February 27, 2002, 23:24

This game has now started.

The turn reporting thread is at:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=43566

G.

duMa · February 28, 2002, 00:05

Quote:

Originally posted by Dreifels
Suggestion: when sending a sav (please compressed) then also sned an empty email with only the topic "sent [filename]" and...

Hmm... I'm not so sure I understand this part. I recieved a blank email this morning (as all of you did) reporting that the turn was sent... but isn't that what the Turn Tracking Thread is for? Enlighten me please. Thanks!

Dreifels · February 28, 2002, 00:18

well, at last it's similar. But 2 differences:
a) you can control where it sleeps or if it in nirwana. Optimal is if all make an email to all layers *including themselfe* and as this then is to send at same time when the sav is send, all can control nerby when it arrives.
So it's more precise.
b) it's more easy. To send such an email takes less time thanlogin here, search the thread, identify, post, send, the more, as sometimes it's not easy (like now) to get access here, if the Internet routing is busy or something else.
c) reading here to control if/when the other have send their file needs much more time, and If we really can be so fast that we reach 3-4 turns/day it will mean either, there are postings too late in bundle, or, you need more time to read/post here than for palying your turn.