An old PBEM for you...

alexx · October 16, 2007, 04:48

Just kiddin'

It's just another NEW pbem

I seek 3 players who are frequently online (So we can do at least1-2 turns a day)

Anyone interested?

Alexx

bdanv · October 16, 2007, 05:49

I can do 1 turn every day.

alexx · October 16, 2007, 05:54

Hi bdanv. OK, I can count you in.

Let's wait for two more ppl.

P.S. I've sent you e-mail - I want to join your online smac group

florin79c · October 16, 2007, 07:51

Hi. I'm in. Setup the game, rules and everything. I want to play PK

bdanv · October 16, 2007, 09:47

Originally posted by florin79c
Hi. I'm in. Setup the game, rules and everything. I want to play PK

Well, for the setup, I think we need a CMN...

Mart · October 16, 2007, 21:35

i can CMN

alexx · October 17, 2007, 02:17

Thanks mart.
We need balanced standard map for four players.

mmontgomery · October 17, 2007, 09:09

I am online all the time, and can easily do 1 turn per day, sometimes 2 depending on when the turns arrive.

I would prefer Hive, Morgan, or University, depending upon how we are settting the game up.

alexx · October 17, 2007, 15:41

OK, we got four of us. Let's get this game going.
Guys, do you want to play smac or smacx ?

PS
mmonty, what's your email?

mmontgomery · October 17, 2007, 21:16

My email is michael@montgo.us at home, and mmontgomery@slb.com at work. It is best to send the turns to both addresses, so that I can respond faster, since due to firewalling, I can't check my home email at work, or my work email from home.

While at work, I can take a few minutes and do short turns when they come in. Once the turns get longer, I can only do them at my lunch break. This only affect 9-5 central time. Otherwise, I can respond right away.

I prefer the rules of SMACX myself.

My preferred setup is:

Preference.. | Settings

Map size | Large
Ocean | 50-70%
Erosion | Average
Life | Average
Clouds | Dense
Difficulty | Transcend

Transcend | On
Diplomatic | On
Economic | On
Cooperative | On
Do or Die | On
Flexible start | On
Tech stag | Off
Spoils of war | On
Blind research | Off
Intense riv | Off
No survey | On
No scatter | Off
No rnd events | On
Time Warp | Off
Iron man | Off
Rand person | Off
Rand social | Off

If Cybernetic Con is in the game, then turn spoils of war OFF to avoid negating their special.

Of course, just because these are my preferences does not mean that we have to use them. But some of the setting do affect my preferred race. For example, if Native Life is ABUNDANT, then I prefer Gaia. If No scatter is ON, then I prefer Morgan. Otherwise, my preference is Hive, Morgan, and University, in that order.

alexx · October 18, 2007, 02:40

I'd like smacx too..
Bdan, florin... can you play smacx??
what's your time
(i'm in Poland GMT +1)

bdanv · October 18, 2007, 03:00

Smax is ok. I want the Gaians and abundant life forms, or Drones if is medium everything. I'm GMT+3 right now, but it will change to GMT+2 from October 29.

bdanv · October 18, 2007, 03:13

alexx · October 18, 2007, 05:54

I vote for coop, but only when it's 2v2
No 2v1v1
(two secrets allies team up against one player not allianced with other)

bdanv · October 18, 2007, 06:11

If Cybernetic Con is in the game, then turn spoils of war OFF to avoid negating their special.

It is a SMAX game so I think that we should keep spoils of war off if we have Aki on the game (even if AI).

I agree with 2v2 cooperative.

bdanv · October 18, 2007, 08:59

florin79? what about your preferences?

florin79c · October 18, 2007, 10:41

quote:
Preference.. | Settings

Mmonty | bdanv

Map size | Large | Standard
Ocean | 50-70% | 50-70
Erosion | Average | avg
Life | Average | abundant
Clouds | Dense | dense
Difficulty | Transcend | transcend

Transcend | On | on | on
Diplomatic | On | on | on
Economic | On | on | on
Cooperative | On | off | off
Do or Die | On | on | on
Flexible start | On | on | on
Tech stag | Off | off | on
Spoils of war | On | off | off
Blind research | Off | off | off
Intense riv | Off | off | off
No survey | On | on | on
No scatter | Off | off | off
No rnd events | On | on | on
Time Warp | Off | off | off
Iron man | Off | off | off
Rand person | Off | off | off
Rand social | Off | off | off

florin79c · October 18, 2007, 10:46

Btw, if we play Smacx can i play Pirates??? If not then i take Peacekeepers...... strange right?

PS: I dont need an answer from Bdanv, cose i know he will not agree

alexx · October 19, 2007, 11:17

My proposition is this: I will create random smacx map, and we will start to play. Is that ok?

Fractions
Alexx - Morgan
Bdanv - Drones
Florin - PK
Mmonty - Hive

AI fractions will be classic SMAC (no Aki, or aliens)

mmontgomery · October 19, 2007, 13:17

I think the factions will make a good game. I would rather play without any AI factions at all. They are typically cannon fodder for the closest human opponent. Even though all of the factions are SMAC, we need to use SMACX to play if everyone has it. There was one very important update in SMACX for Hive, immunity to efficiency. There is also an update for SMAC with this, but not everyone installs it. Hive cannot be played effectively without this update. So if everyone is OK with playing SMACX, great. Otherwise, I will switch to University.

mart7x5 offered to CMN. We should take him up on it, if he is still available. mart7x5, can you CMN our game?

If not, we should find some other CMN. Senethro CMNed the lasted game I was in, and created a great map. We could see if he is available.

From my experience, random maps are far from balanced. Some people will just be out of luck from the start. A good CMN will create a balanced map for a fair start. Usually, they make the map interesting by adding river networks, reducing fungus around the starting areas, scattering around a few good resources and such, for a quicker start.

It would be best if the CMN set up the turn order going to the west, i.e. decreasing GMT time. I am in US Central Time zone, GMT-6, so I would probably go last. Alexx is GMT+1. bdanv is GMT+2. Florin79c, what time zone are you in?

Finally, we need agreement on the settings and rules. For rules, I can repost something Senethro wrote up, and see if everyone is OK with it. For settings, it seems like the concensus is:

Map size: Standard
Ocean: 50-70
Erosion: Average
Life: Abundant
Clouds: Dense
Difficulty: Transcend

Transcend | On
Diplomatic | On
Economic | On
Cooperative | Off
Do or Die | On
Flexible start | On
Tech stag | Off
Spoils of war | Off
Blind research | Off
Intense riv | Off
No survey | On
No scatter | Off
No rnd events | On
Time Warp | Off
Iron man | Off
Rand person | Off
Rand social | Off

Did I get this right?

mmontgomery · October 19, 2007, 13:27

MULTIPLAYING RESTRICTIONS (written by Senethro, I think). Is everyone OK with these?

Restrictions - general gameplay:

- 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.

Contentious issues

- A player may not insert stockpile energy into the build queue after the production of a military unit. Due to a bug in the game, should you put stockpile energy into the queue, you will get the benefit of the extra energy on the same turn as production of your military unit.

- 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.

- A player may not use build queue manipulation or other loopholes to hurry production at a cost that would be lower than directly hurrying the item that one intends to build.

- A player may not use build queue manipulation or other loopholes to build something you could not directly add to the build queue.

Mart · October 19, 2007, 15:44

I can CMN.
Florin you wanted to play Pirates, why not to take this faction?

As for the settings, as I understood your preferences:

Code:

Map size:	Standard
Ocean:		50-70
Erosion:	Average
Life:		Abundant
Clouds:		Dense
Difficulty: 	Transcend

Transcend | 	On
Conquer|	On
Diplomatic | 	On
Economic |	On
Cooperative |	- ?

Do or Die |	On
Flexible start	On
Tech stag |	On - 2:2
Spoils of war |	On - 2:2
Blind research|	Off
Intense riv |	Off
No survey |	On
No scatter |	Off
No rnd events |	On
Time Warp |	Off
Iron man |	Off
Rand person |	Off
Rand social |	Off

In 2 cases there was 2:2 voting, but I wrote the way Alexx chose - he started the game.
Cooperative victory - you may never be able to ensure 2 vs. 2 alliances, unless they are fixed in the scenario editor (forced pacts) You may consider such game.
Otherwise cooperative will be off.

The most important is now if Florin wishes to play Pirates - that is needed to prepare the map - sea factions are very much different than land ones.

Also important: if there is going to be no AI, influences map preparation - I will not have to design special places for them. Please vote on that too.

And when we have abundant life - Bdanv you preferred to play Gaians.

alexx · October 19, 2007, 16:16

As for me all is OK, also Floring go ahead with Pirates if you want.
Bdanv, what you say?

alexx · October 19, 2007, 16:17

PS.
I would be better to turn AI off. Just us four...

bdanv · October 19, 2007, 19:10

Originally posted by alexx
As for me all is OK, also Floring go ahead with Pirates if you want.
Bdanv, what you say?

No problem with that.

bdanv · October 19, 2007, 19:23

Also important: if there is going to be no AI, influences map preparation - I will not have to design special places for them. Please vote on that too.

No AIs works for me too.

And when we have abundant life - Bdanv you preferred to play Gaians.

Yes, I'll take the Gaians.

Cooperative victory - you may never be able to ensure 2 vs. 2 alliances, unless they are fixed in the scenario editor (forced pacts) You may consider such game.

Anybody for alliances? I think not. But let's hear the others too.

MULTIPLAYING RESTRICTIONS (written by Senethro, I think). Is everyone OK with these?

Ok with these. What about retroengineering (using rover chasis from probe unit) ?

mmontgomery · October 20, 2007, 02:41

Originally posted by mmontgomery
... But some of the setting do affect my preferred race. For example, if Native Life is ABUNDANT, then I prefer Gaia. If No scatter is ON, then I prefer Morgan. Otherwise, my preference is Hive, Morgan, and University, in that order.

1. With abundant alien life, I prefer Gaia also. If we are going to have abundant life, perhaps no one should have Gaia.

2. I feel that factions like Hive that are weak on research are really killed with tech stagnation on. If I am not Gaia, then I would like to be University if tech stagnation is on. Otherwise, if alien life is normal, and tech stagnation is off, keep me with Hive.

How strongly do people feel about having tech stagnation on? It tends to make a much longer game in my experience.

3. As for the tie on spoils of war, I will change my vote to no spoils of war.

4. I vote for no AI.

5. I vote for No cooperative victory.

6. I vote for no retroengineering.

7. I prefer not to have Pirates in the game, but not strongly enough to deny someone their favorite faction. So if you want Pirates, fine.

alexx · October 20, 2007, 04:24

1. ok, no gaia, mmonty is Univ

I can agree with rest of your votes, just let this game start

mmontgomery · October 20, 2007, 09:44

Florin79c, what time zone are you in? I think it would be best for game speed if the turn order were set up moving to the west.

Also, do you want Pirates? What is your vote on the other issues?

Once we hear from Florin79c, we can start.