PBEM: Heart of Fire GM needed, and rules discussions

[GeoModder]

In the game: Menu/Help/Show version number (ctrl + F4)

Or ingame ctrl + F4 alone.

[Snowflake]

Can somebody list the bugs that would be allowed or not allowed explicitly here so we are all clear?

[Snowflake]

Here's the rules I could find. Please add more if you are aware of others.

- A player may not restart a turn without good reason. The player should specify the reason in the game thread if he was not able to avoid reloading the turn. (Obviously, if a player has suffered some sort of crash during a turn, such a reload is unavoidable)

- A player is not permitted to establish contact with another faction prior to having met them in-game.

- If a player performs a probe team action other than to infiltrate against another player with whom (s)he is in a truce, treaty or pact, they must inform the probed player what it was they did and what they stole/sabotaged. They must also choose the 'declare vendetta/cancel pact' option when they perform the action.

- A player is not permitted to make more than one social engineering change per line, per turn. For instance, one is not permitted to start the turn in wealth, switch to power mid-turn for the extra disbanded minerals, and then switch back to wealth that same turn, getting the refund.

- A player is not permitted to use the 'demand withdrawal' feature against another player, leaving the AI the decision of whether to withdraw or not.

- A player may not accept a bribe from another player's AI during council sessions.

- A player may not perform multiple airdrops in a single turn with the same unit using the right-click menu.

- A player may not use the F4 screen when infiltrated to change an opponent's workers to specialists.

- If a player declares vendetta upon another player, either directly or indirectly, they must not accept a pending diplomatic agreement between the two factions in the same turn.

- A player may not upgrade a particular type of unit using the design workshop, and then attack with that unit in the same turn.

- A player may not make air drops using the right click "air drop to" function, when it is not possible to do so with the "i" button, ie. after already having moved or made a drop.


Bugs allowed:

- A player may insert stockpile energy into the build queue after the production of a military unit.

[GeoModder]

Mmm, the demon boil bug is not covered here?

Also, in the present DG a feature/bug came to light:
- when scrapping a Command Center in a base, and letting a unit in that base attack a stronger enemy unit (qua armor) just outside, a way higher chance of success is likely.
eg. a laser synthmetal infantry attacking a plasma steel garrison and killing it without having much damage itself with a successrate of close to 100%. It's like the +2 morale scrapped with the CC is transfered to that unit for that turn (AFAIK).

[Barinthus]

Thank you, HongHu, I was looking for that list.

I may be crazy but I recall there was a 'topped' thread containing those rules and I was going to refer you folks there but it doesn't seem to be there anymore.

[Frankychan]

damn.....all these bugs that I didn't know about.

Well, that means that I've been playing without cheating this whole time .

Thanks HongHu.

Well, rest assured that I won't be cheating. I may be an atrocity-committing, nervestapling-crazy, Apolytoner, but I'm not a cheater.

[Snowflake]

Ok add these two:

- A player can not exploit the demon boil bug by setting patrolling waypoints for a mindworm.

- A player can not use a former to accumulate teraforming while the former is in transit.

Btw I got the PBEM rule from CGN.

[Barinthus]

Ohhh I didn't think of looking there. I swore I saw it somewhere here, ah well. Seems nobody has any objections?

[Frankychan]

Nah, we seem to all be honorable ppl.

(but nervestapling and atrocities are fair game to me)

[Frankychan]

That reminds me, what if one of us commits an atrocity against our own ppl. Will the other factions automatically declare vendetta against us?

[GeoModder]

That depends on how we feel towards you ingame, off course

[Frankychan]

[GeoModder]

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[Hercules]

Originally posted by Frankychan
That reminds me, what if one of us commits an atrocity against our own ppl. Will the other factions automatically declare vendetta against us?

I don't know, but I joined two games where there were sanctions against me but not necessarily vendettas. The big downside is in not getting economy pluses
and benefitting from trading.

[Snowflake]

Yes I believe the game automatically give you a sanction, but whether you'll be at war with everybody depends on the human players.

[Barinthus]

Folks, the map's pretty much ready to roll. I only need to set some scenairo rules and do some quick playtesting to make sure factions' settings are right and so on.

Meanwhile, please visit the post with rules and settings on 3rd page. If you're fine with those, I expect to send the game file to the first player today.

[GeoModder]

Settings looking good IMO.

Just one thing for all players: the submissive issue isn't settled yet, but I suppose that that can be voted for when the game is started. (so far, 2-2)

[Barinthus]

Well, straighten out that submissive issue

Does anybody know how to disable Empath Guild SP other than changing ini files? Or shall we just do this by the honor system?

I saw no option to disable comlinks in the editor. However when I playtested the scenairo, I didn't get comlinks from other players. I remember I had to change a line in my ini file although. I had to go into alpha file and change this line:

1, ; If non-zero, humans can always contact each other in hotseat/email games

to

0, ; If non-zero, humans can always contact each other in hotseat/email games

This ensures that I wouldn't get comlinks from other human players unless I acquired it via contact, by other faction, or a pod.

[GeoModder]

If you edit the alpha.txt file anyway, change the Empath Guild line to this then:

The Empath Guild, 20, 0, Disable, Disable, Commlink For Every Faction, -2, 0, 0, 0, 0,

[Barinthus]

Wouldn't everybody have to do this to their alpha.txt files? I think it's easier just to have people just ignore it.

[GeoModder]

I think so to, it was just a tip... But it is possible to disable it in the scenario editor as well, forgot how exactly though.

Anyway, for me the game can start with the SP enabled. I know I can stay away from it.

[Hercules]

Consult Googlie, he disabled the Empath guild for the team ACDG. I have no idea.

[Kody]

Set the empath guild as built by "Aliens"

[Frankychan]

I say we just don't build it. I'm kind of wary in modifying the .txt.

[Barinthus]

Don't worry too much about the Empath Guild. I know you guys will simply ignore it in the game. I absolutely agree with you there, Frankychan - less messing with the txt file, the better.

However that line modification for comlinks is entirely optional for you guys. The advantage of making that change is that if you happen to be in a PBEM where everybody doesn't want human players to have each other's comlinks and there are AI factions and pods - you will be able to obtain comlinks via pods and trading (if it's allowed to do so) while if you already have comlinks and are 'ignoring' the fact, you will not be able to obtain comlinks via those means. You would have to wait until the actual contact with that particular human-played faction to stop 'ignoring' his/her comlink.

Just get some other issues straighten out especially that submissive one. To be honest I don't really understand what's the issue here. Is it the question of how to enforce such pact? What's wrong with the honor system and perhaps a bit of roleplaying here? If it's something else entirely, ignore me .

I've been playtesting all day and the map still needs some more tweaking. This group will make me or break me as a CMN so I want to do a good job .

[Snowflake]

For submissive pact issue my understanding is that if you surrender to somebody and he wins it will not be considered a joint victory, so it is not contradictory to the no joint victory condition. As for whether one wants to honor the surrender, I'd say let's leave it to the roleplay.

[GeoModder]

Ok, I can live with that. Just this: how close to destruction must a faction be before being allowed to surrender to his assailant?

[Jamski]

Honour, no messing with the .txt and let's go.

The rest we just play nice

-Jam

[GeoModder]

We all Transcend!!?? :eeek: Gonna be crowded up there then...

[Kody]

Open a city window
Button "edit base"
Option "edit secret projects"
Select "The Empath Guild"
Select "Set to destroyed"

Now whenever someone looks at the empath guild it says

The Empath Guild
NONE
Aliens

... I fiddled with the scenerio editor alot while learning game mechanics....