State of the Next Game

[Googlie]

Hmm - I haven't heard from Buster for some time - so I e-mailed him yesterday to see if he needed any help with setting up the game.

(As I recall, he said he had no problem with the map and starting positions - he'd be an equal opportunity Creator, but that he'd welcome assistance in tweaking the AI and in the mechanics of disabling SP's etc etc)

No reply as of this posting.

[GeoModder]

Ask Ytsijoda, he might know more. I readed something about holidays...

[Kody]

The narrator doesn't have to wait.

[Impaler[WrG]]

When you say "tweking" the AI do you mean preassigning hate/love for the human factions as was done last game. If so I would be strongly oposed to this as it denies a team (like the Morganites) the potential to manipulate/bribe/pact some of the AI's and makes other a free ride. Basicaly it makes the AI an even DULLER one dimentional oponent then normal. I think we should just use unaltered diplomatic stances and let the relationships evolve of their own accord. I will start a poll on this isshue if the plan is to pre-program.

Any enhancments for makeing the AI more competent or smarter in some way would be fine ofcorse.

Secondly cant we just delay projects by mutual agreement between the teams that it cant be built untill a later tec is obtained rather then by disableing them completly. That would give us more interesting options to explore but not make the projects over powered.

[Googlie]

Re hate/love relationships - no. A better option is, as you say, to let relationships develop (but maybe set the AI to "Betray" human players. that way they don't get too cosy.

But I don't think we've agreed upon the 3 AI factions yet, have we? (I chose the 3 for the minigame based on presenting the most credible threat to the human teams - well, maybe the Angels excepted.)

Current thinking is that the AI benefits most by getting access to energy as the game progresses, rather than minerals (which it just uses to churn out even more transports or useless units.

So my suggested method, rather than an energy park (which overloads it with energy in the beginning) is to give each AI faction, say, 20 - 50 energy satellites. That way they grow into the additional energy gardually, as their # bases and # pop in bases expands, and in the 2 or 3 games running with that tweak the AI actually seems to build more energy-enhancing facilities as well.

There is a technique to doing it, though, that Buster hasdn't used yet. A human faction has to be replaced, then given Orbitals, then the sats assigned to the AI factions, then that "replaced" one is deleted and the human faction re-introduced (otherwise if one of the AI factions is used, even when the tech is subsequently disabled, they still can build planetbusters and have shard weapons - URGGHH)

So I've suggested to Buster that I'll walk him thru this procedure for this next game

And I think that there is general concensus that he'll disable the Empath Guild and the Cloudbase Academy (unless we 4 human teams agree not to build either, letting the AI get them - but that just opens up an invitation for the closest human team to capture the base and get the goody, so my view is that elimination of these 2 SP's is better)

[GeoModder]

on the hate/love issue.

on the delay project construction.
A majority is for disabling 2 SP's, I suggest to respect that decision instead of starting a new poll all over again.

[Illuminatus]

Googlie, in your challenge you gave 20 OPT to each AI. Aside from the good effect (fast tech progress ), it ahd the effect that AIs had thousands and thosuands of ECs. Virtually all base takeover`s were by mind control. This might bother some people in ACDG, since probe defense shall be a big issue. But helping AIs is a good thing. Chaos Theory added also 1-3 other orbitals to AIs (depending on each faction), and it helped them also. Several nuts or mins more per turn for AI can do wonders.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
that way they don't get too cosy.

What's wrong with getting cosy?

[Snowflake]

Depending on who you are getting cosy with.

[Illuminatus]

It is funner when AI is unpredictable.

[buster]

Originally posted by Googlie
Hmm - I haven't heard from Buster for some time - so I e-mailed him yesterday to see if he needed any help with setting up the game.

Hi - just back from an 18 hour work day.

I have been extremely busy recently so have been unable until now to catch up with the scene.

I will try to read over the various agremments concerning the setup tomorrow so I get the picture of where everything is at and unless some question comes up that needs sorting out before going ahead I should be able to have a map for in a day or so.

If it is not already done (I am writing this after a very glance over recent threads) it would help if someoner would summarize the decisions made on the various involved perimeters (size, percentage water, climate settings, number of starting units (if different from the two cps + one scout I believe is default).

Additionally (as I understrand mods will be made to at least the chopper unit) a summary of the decided mods and if Googlie or Darsnan or who else will take the task could make the necesssary modifications to alphax.ini and make it to me.

You may want to post the info in some topped and modified (ie spamfree) thread for later reference so that other players can refer to it - but that is just a suggestion.

If all this is already done - sorry for this unneccessary post but at least you know I am still here. I will go to sleep now and look over the scene once I have rested.

The next days here I expect to have the time necessary to get the setup done so the game can start.

[GeoModder]

Buster, Maniac has made on the first page of this thread a summarize.

[Maniac]

I'll need to update it a little bit though.

Edit:

Changes:
Reworked the paragraph about unifications. Simply said that they are not allowed (it's a no co-op game after all), but removed all the rest about not allowing ambassadors in each other's forum etcetera.

Added this:
If a faction becomes so inactive that it can no longer normally participate in the ACDG, Codicil will be used to turn the faction into an AI. Any remaining active members are free to move to another faction.

Cloudbase Academy disabled.
Choppers are never allowed to attack bases.
---------

Please tell me if I forgot or misrepresented something. I'll change it then asap.

[Maniac]

Anyway, I agree with Impaler.
Diplomacy with the AI is already pretty boring as it is. Why make it even more boring by making it pretty much inevitable that the AI will betray and some time declare war on you? Let's leave everything open, so that we have some more possibilities for human-AI interaction!

[Googlie]

Originally posted by obstructor
It is funner when AI is unpredictable.

Well, we could have Buster randomize AI personalities

Thus you might be talking to Lal but find that he has Yang's SE choices and preferences. You won't know until you fall foul of him (well, you'd see his agenda from the profile after you met him)

That'd spice the game up (especially with the usual smax graphics bug - you wouldn't know who you were talking to!!)