"Mysteries of the Pentagon" turn tracking thread

[Darsnan]

This is the turn tracking thread for the PBEM called "Mysteries of the Pentagon". Settings for the game are as follows:

Game: SMAC
World size Huge
Water 50 to 70
Errosion Weak
Alien life normal
Standard rules
Difficulty Thinker

Turnage is as follows:

linux134 - Gaians
shawnmmcc: Hive
ForesterSOF - Morgan
t_ras - Spartans
Fosse - Peacekeepers

CMN - Darsnan

TheUniversity and the Believers are played by themselves.

Premise for the game: once safely ensconced on Planet each of your Factions' communications equipment pick up a strange broadcast emanating from somewhere else on Planet. After your crypto-analysts are able to decipher the message you realize it is some sort of alien distress beacon! Further, the signal is still playing realtime images from the site of origin, which is a roughly "pentagon" shaped island in the middle of Planet! Although there is no sign of the living amongst the ruins, your Factions all realize that taking control of the Ruins left by the mysterious alien civilization, or at the very least denying them to your rivals, must become an important milestone if you are to succeed on Planet!


First turn has been sent to linux134. Good Luck to All!

D

[linux134]

I've sent the save to shawnmmcc

[Fosse]

Can we get the e-mail addresses posted in the top thread? It makes things easier when doing diplomacy than having to dig up the old threads.

Good luck to all.

[ForesterSOF]

We can just use the PM function for each person for now. Plus this would reduce email trafic by 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent.

[t_ras]

my email: (martin_t@netvision.net.il)
I think I might have taken the right fanction for this kind of game (at least once in my PBEM life it had to happen!)

[Fosse]

Well, I meant for e-mailing the turns.. I don't think you can attach saves to a PM.

my e-mail is kylebenanderson@hotmail.com

[Mr. Harley]

my email shawnmmcc at insightbb dot com - I have to get my password from Darsnan, turn will be fowarded asap after that.

[Darsnan]

password sent.

[Mr. Harley]

2101 to Morgan

[linux134]

My email is l i n u x 1 3 4 @ y a h o o . c o m. without the spaces of course.

[ForesterSOF]

turned

[t_ras]

turned on
sorry for reload, ForesterSOF offered pact as morgan and i thought he was AI so I accepted and right after that I recalled morgan is ForesterSOF so I had to replay.
for any one that doesnt know - we are not allowd to have any diplomatic relations (or any other relations ) till we actualy meet (or meat ) each other in the game.

[t_ras]

Join staff action log, end of 2101 by planet time:

Our army seems to have landed in a relatively fertile land (at least will do for now) and our valiant scouts had immediately begun searching the area and leading the base units.
The moral of the soldiers is high and they are eager for more challenging missions. Spatially after some kind of alien artifact (seems to be some kind of monument) they discovered made them fill even more secure of their weaponry.

Bravely we came to this new world and bravely we’ll die!

General T_ras , Chief of joined staff , Sparta Command

[Fosse]

Perhaps it would be good to go over the traditional PBEM rules, and decide now on any "house rules" we might want to adopt. We seem to have a few players who are in their first game (or in my case, second or third).

Does anybody know a link to one of the accepted rule lists?

[t_ras]

here is a set of rules (all the standard) posted by Buste in CGN:

http://www.civgaming.net/forums/showthread.php?t=700


I think it will do.

though it is a litle long so I'll present here the basiscs:

1) no communications between factions till met in-game.
2) no "stockpile energy" in qeue after units (someone discovered in another game i'm playing that the bug is not only ofr militayr units I think).
3)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.
4) A player may not accept a bribe from another player's AI during council sessions.

this are the main but there are many others, please have a brief reading of it.

[Fosse]

Thanks t_ras!

Originally posted by t_ras

3)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.

Clarification: If the probe action goes undiscovered (ie, you don't get the "Vendetta/cancel/ignore) option, does the probe action still have to be reported?

[t_ras]

yes, allways!

[ForesterSOF]

Then why did I have the com for them?

[t_ras]

its allways like this in PBEM. cant be made otherway...

[Fosse]

Thanks for the clarification. I'll have the turn sent on as soon as I'm home from work.

[Fosse]

Turn sent to Linux

[linux134]

Stuck in school right now. Turn will be sent when I get home. In about 5 hours. Sorry to hold up play.

[ForesterSOF]

Been looking at ACEdit 2.0 and have found out how to reduce available comm to 1 and replace/reorder factions.

Now to find out how to change the ini so no comms available.

Update:

Since the Commfrequency is put to 0 in the factions txt I am guessing that in the begining they can ony talk to themselves.

[t_ras]

interesting....I'll try it next game

[Mr. Harley]

Folks, I'm not sure on that probe bit - if it's undiscovered, or someone shoves blame onto you, I would think you DO NOT have to report it. We'll have to double check with Darsnan.

On the Stockpile Energy Bug, I had started using it for non-unit production after reading some strategy guides after I finally went online about a year ago. Just had a game where a misunderstanding had come up - so I ran the scenario editor. If you build a facility or a SP, you get the same extra energy if you do or don't use the Stockpile Energy option. So simply never use it unless you are truly rushing energy, it either a) makes no difference ( after facilities) or b) is cheating. Hope that clarifies.

[t_ras]

this are standard PBEM rules (exactly quoted).
I'm don't remember exactly right now the reason for the probing issue but I know it conbinced me when I heard of it...

[Mr. Harley]

I think the probe issue is - if you are given a choice of a reaction you must choose vendetta.

With some games if pactmates you choose censure, or some such.

[Fosse]

It is worth some looking into, and I'll do a search when I'm not bone tired.

As I recall, in the event that the probe action is discovered, the player you've done it to will never learn about it unless he is told, because of a flaw in the PBEM system. So the "tell them when you probe them" thing was added so that people cannot probe rape with impunity.

I would propose a house rule whereby we must declare Vendetta if the option is presented, and in that case alert the victim of the nature of the probe action that was discovered. However, if a probe action goes undiscovered, then count your blessings and keep your covert actions covert.

Natrually, unless we all agree then we should either default to "standard" rules or let the CMN weign in.

Regardless of our probe rules, I'll enjoy playing with you guys when this game starts to heat up.

Regards,
Fosse

[t_ras]

I'd rather stick to standard rules

[ForesterSOF]

I would vote to stay standard rules.