New game - pbem sign up

Mart · February 26, 2008, 17:42

Hi,

We have recently few new threads that intend to start a new pbem game. To keep things organized, we can all post in this thread and setup games appropriately.

Please post here writing also:
- game type: SMAC or expansion SMAX
- your installed patches, most recent SMAC is 5.0 SMAX is 2.0, I can post links to explanation about it.
- your time zone - important in SMAX - makes the game faster
- preferences of the game, like map size, cloud cover, native life, etc.
- preferred faction/s.
- preferences with whom you would like to play, i mean maybe you have a group of players and you want together play one game, you maybe bring here a team of players, just need to have a CMN.

And welcome to Apolyton!

aarghhh · February 26, 2008, 19:32

Game Type: SMAC
Patched: Yes
Time Zone: EST
Game Preference: Normal, I don't care too much as long as its not too weird.
Preferred Faction: UoP, Gaia, Spartan
I would prefer a free for all, but I'm happy to do teams as well.

florin79c · February 26, 2008, 23:43

Hey i can join your game

I prefer PK, but i'm willing to take Hive

if you want me to set up the game , let me know and i'm sure Mart will CMN

drow21 · February 27, 2008, 13:57

can i join if your setting one up

game type : either smac or xmac
patched: yes
time zone: GMT
Game preferance : any
i dont mind if its ffa or teams ill be hive or spartan

Mart · February 27, 2008, 17:08

3 or 4 players can make a good and fast game. you can wait for another person.
When more players come, we can setup another game

florin79c · February 27, 2008, 17:34

so we wait for a 4th

bachmann1234 · February 28, 2008, 01:28

SMac
5
eastern
No preference
No preference
No preference

Mart · February 28, 2008, 04:59

The first game can be:

-Aarghhh - University
-Drow21 - Hive
-Florin79c - PK
-Bachmann1234 - any, so - Morgan

I would recommend map size no larger than standard. I can enhance AI for more interesting challenge. What do you think?

florin79c · February 28, 2008, 08:18

drow21 · February 28, 2008, 09:17

how about cba and the other one thats not normally allowed? the one that gives infiltrators?

florin79c · February 28, 2008, 10:23

Standard multiplayer rulse:

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.

A player may not trade technologies with other players

Copters cannot attack bases

Players agree NOT to trade technologies between themselves or with AI in any arrangement, e.g. also tech for energy etc

aarghhh · February 28, 2008, 13:26

Couple quesstions.

I don't really get the copters and tech trading rules. Are they to prevent some kind of abuse? Does no scatter mean there are going to be no pods? No random events means no viruses, worms, nutrient shortfalls, etc?

Who goes first? And when do we start?

Mart · February 28, 2008, 14:16

Originally posted by aarghhh
Couple quesstions.

I don't really get the copters and tech trading rules. Are they to prevent some kind of abuse?

These rules are additional and they are not due to game bugs or exploits, well maybe copters one.

- Copters:
During many years of playing it has been found out, that they are somewhat overpowered. Copters can attack multiple times, e.g. fusion copter can have 9 move poits, it can attack up to 9 times. Even if you fly it several tiles, then you still get several attacks. Often one copter can kill multiple base defenders. When having appropriately prepared bases (aerospace complexes, sensors, AAA units with good armor, good morale) then copter may be not sufficient to defeat even one unit. Mostly though copters easily conquer bases. This rule is to give a faction better defenses and require from a player more effort to conquer.

-Tech trading rules.
Florin prefers to play without tech trading. You can discuss if you want this rule or not. There should be though a rule preventing trading bases with the AI on a basis "a base for a base", AI does a bad decisions there.

Does no scatter mean there are going to be no pods?

Yes, there will be no pods on the map. Some players find them very much unbalancing the game. Note, that some factions have pods as beneficial more than others. Spartans are indicated as such faction. They start with rover and with higher morale they have greater chance of survival in case of mindworms. Maybe other things too, need to check strategy stuff...

No random events means no viruses, worms, nutrient shortfalls, etc?

Yes, those random events, both positive (like +1 mineral in one base) and negative (-1 mineral in a base) for a faction will be off.

Who goes first? And when do we start?

This needs to be setup yet. If you like factions I proposed.
Bachmann1234, are you ok with Morganities?
It may take several days or more to discuss the game, agree on settings, create map, test it and hopefully there will be no restart. SMAC has its issues - it's not Civ4 after two years of patching. Not to mention CMNs make errors...
Considering, that you will invest your time like months into playing such a game, it is worth this several days to spend to better prepare it.

aarghhh · February 28, 2008, 16:15

I talked with him about it today, he should post his own opinions on it though. This is his first time playing alpha centauri, so Gaians might be easier for him. He wants to play a builder race, and morgan can be difficult to play as.

Any tips that you could give us would be appreciated, as you are probably much better than both of us.

Some more miscellaneous questions,
Aren't players always informed when probe team action was unsuccessfully taken?

How can we frame other factions for probe team actions if we have to tell them what we did?

Do we still have to tell them if we used cloaked probe teams?

Are there no mind worms? Do mind worms still occur from pops? Do IoDs still land mind worms?

Mart · February 28, 2008, 17:07

Originally posted by aarghhh
I talked with him about it today, he should post his own opinions on it though. This is his first time playing alpha centauri, so Gaians might be easier for him. He wants to play a builder race, and morgan can be difficult to play as.

Yes, Gaians is a good faction to start.

...
Some more miscellaneous questions,
Aren't players always informed when probe team action was unsuccessfully taken?

SMAC Academy gives a buglist. More like additionaly list of certain features, link is here:
http://www.civgaming.net/smac/academy.shtml
and see:
26. When engaging in a probe team operation against another human faction, a window appears asking whether the victim wants to "declare vendetta" or "let off with a stern warning" - if treatied or whether to "cancel pact" or ""let off with a stern warning" - pacted. This window is appearing during the wrong player's turn. It is the one doing the probing not the victim who gets the screen and makes the decision. Etiquette dictates that the prober should choose "declare vendetta" or "cancel pact" unless prior approval has been received from the victim to choose something else. (MoSe)

How can we frame other factions for probe team actions if we have to tell them what we did?

Do we still have to tell them if we used cloaked probe teams?

Good question! Let me check how the game exactly works there...

Are there no mind worms? Do mind worms still occur from pops? Do IoDs still land mind worms?

Mindworms will be there, appearing in fungus.
Only there will be no pods that would give additional mindworms.

An additional note. If you are going to have one of the first or the first multiplayer pbem game, that would be more an adventure one, maybe play with the pods. They really give the game some flavor. The same goes for random events, have them in the game. Have more interaction with AI, maybe I will give very little enhancements to them, so it won't be a big hassle for you, just enough to keep things interesting.

florin79c · February 28, 2008, 20:37

Originally posted by Mart
An additional note. If you are going to have one of the first or the first multiplayer pbem game, that would be more an adventure one, maybe play with the pods. They really give the game some flavor. The same goes for random events, have them in the game. Have more interaction with AI, maybe I will give very little enhancements to them, so it won't be a big hassle for you, just enough to keep things interesting.

Guys dont get me wrong

No scatter : No - means not to activate No scatter units function

There for we will have pods, i like pods

Random events i dont like, but we can put that to vote. We are 4 players so you still have a chance, but i still dont like random events

aarghhh · February 28, 2008, 21:13

Is there any use for building a biology lab if there are no random events?

Mart · February 28, 2008, 21:19

yes, biology lab gives you morale to mindworm units and +2 research points, that get some bonus multiplications.

There is somewhere old version 3 SMACX strategy guide for download by Velocyrix. Version 4 (or 5) is for purchase and is revised. The ver. 3 has still a lot of basic and useful info.

vyeh · February 28, 2008, 21:39

Vel's guide is available at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/SMAX-Guide-Chr...4251978&sr=1-4

drow21 · February 29, 2008, 07:57

im not keen on random events either

Mart · February 29, 2008, 12:06

Originally posted by florin79c

No scatter : No - means not to activate No scatter units function

I mistook that too. it's double negative...

I think I can start making a map for 4 players and 3 AI.
map will be with pods. It will be SMAC game ver. 5.0

And factions for the moment:

Gaians - Bachmann1234
Hive - Drow21
University - Aarghhh
Morgan - AI
Spartans - AI
Believers - AI
PK - Florin79c

I will give you 3 colony pods and 3 scouts for more interesting early turns.

florin79c · February 29, 2008, 14:01

ok, thx mart

drow21 · March 3, 2008, 15:15

when will this start?

Mart · March 4, 2008, 11:59

We will start with the settings that are discussed so far. Let me complete the scenario. You can pm me your preferred password. If not, I will assign one for you and pm it to you.

Mart · March 5, 2008, 16:54

I plan to add few units to pre-defined list, to spice the game a bit.

A special addition, 2 unity supply droids for each player. They are low cost (1 mineral row vs. normal 3) crawlers. Cannot be built and since only 1/3 cost of the first regular supply, they give little advantage when using for Secret Projects. They are the best for early crawling of additional resources.

More full data of additional units is here:

Probe Cruiser, Cruiser, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 000000000000000000000000
XX Missile, Missile, Conventional, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Orbital, 8, 000100000000000000000000
Unity Supply Droid, Infantry, Supply, Scout, 10, 1, 0, Disable, -1, 101000000000000000000000
AA Team, Infantry, Laser, Scout, 1, 0, 0, MilAlg, -1, 000000000000000100000000
AA Foil, Foil, Laser, Scout, 6, 0, 0, MilAlg, -1, 000000000000000100000000
SAM Team, Infantry, Laser, Scout, 4, 0, 0, DocAir, -1, 000000000000000000100000
Mobile SAM, Speeder, Laser, Scout, 4, 0, 0, DocAir, -1, 000000000000000000100000

Probe Cruiser makes AI to use sea probing.
XX Missile, a chemical warhead. AI may use it later in the game.
Unity Supply Droid, as described above cannot be built, you get some in the start only... AI also.
AA two units, I found that declaring them makes AI use this ability more often. It's more difficult to use needlejets and copters against AI. Later, they are redesigned to better armors by the game.
SAM Team and Mobile SAM, in the games I was using the rover version, AI could effectively destroy planes that I left above their territory.

These new units can give you new experience in the game, if you haven't met these designs previously.

drow21 · March 5, 2008, 17:59

sounds fun my email is spookyghosty AT gmail DOT com

florin79c · March 5, 2008, 19:05

ok, let's give this a try

aarghhh · March 5, 2008, 22:28

Yay, game will start soon! Bachmann and I have spring break, next week so we might be away for a day or to, on the day we travel bach home. We have internet at home though so it should be fine.

Mart · March 6, 2008, 05:23

I'm testing the game now.
Apart from usual details that need fixing, I'd like to take a closer look, how AI develops. My concern is that they may be too strong for a beginner game. Give me one more day...

It might seem strange, as AI generally doesn't compete well in smac, but once I enhanced AI too much in the game I played - I barely survived a long AI campaign against my faction, and I played Spartans...