Next ACDG: alphax.txt modifications

[GeneralTacticus]

WAAAAAAAAY too powerful. You'd never need anything but sea bases once you had them - drill as many as you can fit in, and put kelp farms everywhere else. Ridiculously high energy output, lots of minerals, and masses of population.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by buster
2) The best weapon against drop & chop is distance. Being able to drop in does not help much if the opponent is too far away to drop to. Thus one way to counter the overpowering effect of choppers without radically changing their properties is simply to play on a very large map with islands that are well over 8 squares apart each faction starting on a seperate island.

This hasn't been polled, but I hope we'll be playing on a large map at max. IMO the bigger the map is, the weaker the Spartans and other momentum factions are, so eg a huge map with large distances between the humans would give the builders an "unfair" disadvantage.

Besides that in my opinion it is more the drop than the chop factor that makes drop & chop so succesful. Doing drop & chop with needlejets only is not much different from doing it with choppers you just need some more.

But if you need more of them, it'll take longer to build up a sufficient attack force, giving other factions some time to set up an effective defence, and thus not making the rush to MMI and who gets it only a few years before the rest so important.

That you are toast if you are an egghead next to a couple of industrial factions and they get MMI before you do should come as no surprise and is not something to be fixed. What needs to be fixed is the fact that you managed to be an egghead and be late anyway. Not being so is what the game is all about.

That's of course a large part of the truth, but it's IMHO too simple to wave away any attempt of modification & game improvement just like that. The game designers are also mere humans with flaws who couldn't test everything extensively, so it's not as if the game is "perfectly balanced". Though "Just deal with it." is of course a valid response to such game characteristics/inbalances, it's also an equally valid response to try to change the situation and make MP games into something more interesting than a mere race to MMI and the consequential slugfest.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Maniac


This hasn't been polled, but I hope we'll be playing on a large map at max.

IMHO too simple to wave away any attempt of modification & game improvement just like that. The game designers are also mere humans with flaws who couldn't test everything extensively, so it's not as if the game is "perfectly balanced". Though "Just deal with it." is of course a valid response to such game characteristics/inbalances, it's also an equally valid response to try to change the situation and make MP games into something more interesting than a mere race to MMI and the consequential slugfest.

We've been playing the same game for what, 6 years now? We should have learned all of the games weaknesses and tendencies by now, eh?
From my perspective why with the realization that the base unmodified game does typically progress along inherent tendencies (because we have played it so many times, and we do understand it extremely well), why having the ability to modify the game via the alpha(x).txt file as well as using a streamlined map that takes into account the typical tendencies of players and AI's, why it can force players into shifting their gameplay in response, exploring avenues they had no reason to previously, making them think, or question their traditional responses when confronted with the usual choices. This then opens up new vistas for the game, and I think makes the game more enjoyable than just playing the same old base game that we know what to do in each circumstance encountered.

My $0.02 on the subject.


btw I know that my name has been mentioned for setting up the next ACDG game, and am wondering if this has been decided or not yet. np either way, but if it has been decided, then if it can be posted accordingly, then I can either move on to other projects or take a more active roll in how the game is being set up.


D

[GeoModder]

Poll!!! Jam, what are you waiting for?!!

[Snowflake]

I tend to agree with Jamski on this point, that no major changes should be made. The main exception that I will be looking for is changes that will fix known bugs such as the DA probe rating bug.

[Illuminatus]

If we do not reduce power of chop and drop tactic, I will strongly opt for huge map.

[GeoModder]

That I'm opposed of. This DG the map was barely large, and Planet didn't get filled.

[Illuminatus]

Only 60 years elapsed.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Darsnan
We've been playing the same game for what, 6 years now? We should have learned all of the games weaknesses and tendencies by now, eh?
...and I think makes the game more enjoyable than just playing the same old base game that we know what to do in each circumstance encountered.

I agree. A strategy game should be more than repeating the same old routine over again.

btw I know that my name has been mentioned for setting up the next ACDG game, and am wondering if this has been decided or not yet. np either way, but if it has been decided, then if it can be posted accordingly, then I can either move on to other projects or take a more active roll in how the game is being set up.

I'd like you to be the next ACDG creator if you're interested. Unfortunately we haven't even decided on some basic things (such as the map size) yet and (having learned from how the ACPSG ended after all my efforts ) I don't want to create the necessary polls myself.

Originally posted by obstructor
I will strongly opt for huge map.

In that case I'd like to opt for a world without any fungus.

[Illuminatus]

Originally posted by Maniac
In that case I'd like to opt for a world without any fungus.

Why don`t you just ask us to dissolve then?

[Maniac]

obs, I wasn't being serious. It was my answer to your suggestion to play on a huge map. The Spartans being a momentum faction, we could then also ask "Why don`t you just ask us to dissolve then?"

[Illuminatus]

I wasn`t serious too. I just tested how you will react.

You will opt for smaller, while we will opt naturally for bigger - question is what the Angels and Morgan want.

[GeoModder]

/me let slip that the Angels agenda is not open for public yet.

[Jamski]

I get poll making shall I?

-Jam

[GeoModder]

You allowed be.

For map size, I guess?