How essential is CMNing?

[Alinestra Covelia]

I got my cousin into this game and now he wants a PBEM game with me. We both have SMAX.

How essential is it for us to have a CMN set stuff up? I remember there being a bug about difficulty levels for the different factions.

[florin79c]

If you dont get the help of a CMN, you will find yourself at a half of a game that you dont like for diferent resons.

[bdanv]

you can start the game on TCP/IP and the continue it on PBEM. this way you can be sure all factions are on the same difficulty level.
but if you really want fair starting positions, then you should ask a for a CMN

[vyeh]

There seems to be a bug when setting up multiplayer games using multiplayer game/multiplayer scenario.

I just tried setting up a game using multiplayer game/new multiplayer game with two factions in the first and second slot and there was no problem.

When I tried it with all seven factions, slot #5 did not have transcend difficulty.

When I tried it with two factions, slots 1 and 5, slot #5 did not have transcend difficulty.

For a casual game with your cousin, you could try setting up a couple of trial games on your machine using slots 1 and 2 for humans. In the trial games, if you are at transcend, you can use both colony pods for each faction to build a size 2 base, then check the psych readout in the base control screen. If you see one worker and one drone as the unmodified line (assuming you aren't playing the PK with the one talent per 4 workers, in which case you'll se one talent and one drone), then you are at transcend.

For a level other than trancend, you'll have to play both sides (don't set the passwords) until you can get a society model, say by researching information networks, planetary networks, which allows planned. You can then go into social engineering and see that the switching cost is the same for both factions.

Assuming you just want to play casual games with your cousin, this should prevent problems with the two players having different difficulty levels. My experience is that the bug causes one or more players to be at the librarian level than at transcend level.

If you were planning to play at the librarian level anyway, you don't have a problem.

CMNing is useful for many of the players here because a CMN can hold passwords. If a player drops out, the password can be sent to a replacement player. A CMN can also make sure that the start positions are reasonable.

In your situation, I don't think a CMN is essential.

[St Jon]

The greater the number of players the more important having a CMN is regarding password holding. PBEM's can last a very long time and there is every chance someone will drop out before the finish.

Fairness of start point is a mega-issue at Transcend in SMACX. A random map can land you in touching distance of one of the Aliens and, as I'm sure you know from SP, can lead to a very short game indeed. Even if you survive you'll be cranking out military to save your skin while others are off exploring and founding new bases.

Last thing is that unless you know all the players well enough to trust rule enforcement becomes very hard. If you have made agreements not to use loopholes in the game mechanics, or even intended features which unbalance the game, you need a CMN to arbitrate. I've never encountered it in SMAC, though I have in other games by PBEM, but you can find yourself in a game with an outright cheat. You really do need a CMN then who knows the P/W's and can examine the saved games to prove the matter one way or the other.

All these disappear if it's just a casual 1v1 with your cousin at low difficulty.

[florin79c]

Thing is there are some balanced maps on this forum, you can use them to get a even start. This is the only thing that is necesary if you play a 1vs1 game. I, personaly prefer TPC/IP when i play a 1vs1. As for rules, sins you are just 2, you can plan them as you go along with the game.

Enjoy

[Mart]

When I tried it with all seven factions, slot #5 did not have transcend difficulty.

When I tried it with two factions, slots 1 and 5, slot #5 did not have transcend difficulty.

...

When creating multiplayer scenario important is to "force difficulty level"
In SMAC Academy it is mentioned:
Now repeat, but choose Scenario rules. These are specific to that scenario you are creating. You can tinker with pod contents, etc, but the only one you want to definitely flag is “force current difficulty level” (especially if you are creating a multiplayer scenario - if you omit this, only the starting player will be at that difficulty level, all others will default to Librarian)

Link to the page:
http://www.civgaming.net/smac/acad_scened.shtml

I was advised by Rubin to flag this for all 7 factions in the game. Also, I have impression, AI plays much better on Transcend, and this is not only cheating, but somehow AI seems to "think" better...

[vyeh]

When creating multiplayer scenario important is to "force difficulty level"

I wasn't creating a scenario, then creating a multiplayer game from the scenario.

What I was doing using New Multiplayer Game. I was trying to see if Ali could use that method to play a casual game with her cousin.

For my setup (Mac and all), I discovered that going into the scenario rules for each faction and toggling the "force current difficulty" wasn't enough.

What worked was setting difficulty level to transcend for each faction.

After recreating a game that was 25 turns in, for the second game I was very careful to check SE switching cost after temporarily giving each faction The Will to Power (so they could switch to Thought Control).

[Mart]

This is one of the most critical issues for multiplayer, this difficulty level thing. It looks like omited stuff, but so much affecting the game.
As Bdanv says, tcp/ip game should solve the problem, only that you need 2 comps connected to do it.
When starting from one comp, it looks like problem occurs so often, that it's better to create a scenario with correction, so CMN seems necessary, unless it's a sandbox game.
--------
Actually, I remember that someone told me, the game defaults to librarian difficulty. But from your tests Vyeh, it looks like when it does that is not very clear.

[vyeh]

I know it was librarian difficulty in the game I had to fix, but that was from generating a multiplayer game from a scenario.

What I looked at was when you started the application, then "Multiplayer Game" then "New Multiplayer Game" rather than start application, "Multiplayer Game", "Multiplayer Scenario".

I wanted to see if Ali could have a casual spur of the moment 1 v. 1 game with her cousin without having to wait for a CMN.