Analysis on potential foreign policy threat(s).

[Jamski]

Originally posted by Vev
Who among the ACDG actually are seasoned veterans in gameplay not spamming?

On the Hive...
Me - for a start, Frankychan too, Tass, Voltaire?... I don't know about the rest of you (4+?)

On the Uni...
General Tactitus, Archaic... (2)

On the CyCon...
Cedayon, Drogue, Maniac, TKG, MrWhereItsAt...(5)

On the Pirates...
Hercules, Flubber, JDM...(3)

On the Drones...
Mongoose, Buster, Main_Brain, Mark13, Monkspider...(5)

That's just off the top of my head who I'm sure can really play the pants off of SMAC. There may well be others.

-Jam

[Vev]

I was worried the Hive might be lacking in experience.

[Jamski]

Well, my new poll will soon tell us all we need to know about people's SMAC experience...

-Jam

[Frankychan]

Hmmmm, IIRC Main Brain is a pretty decent player. Mongoose and Monkspider are the ones we should be worried about...especially Mongoose cause he knows his stuff.

Yeah, I've been "monitoring" the events in the main ACDG thread and it's been getting kind of ugly. I'm thinking we can make a deal with the CyCon's giving them industrial power for tech.

One thing that's troubling me is that the Pirates seem to be very quiet. I haven't seen any of their members acting overtly hostile to any faction so far. What are all of your takes on this?

[Static Universe]

I suppose the Pirates are keeping quiet because they are likely to meet up with the other factions quicker and would like to trade techs.

I assume they'll play everyone's friend until they're ready to make a move or join a coalition. For that reason, I'm not sure their in-game motivations can be trusted (They are Pirates after all... ).

Here's a list of the Pirate members (with Poly join dates and post counts). What do we know about them?

Atlantian - 05-16-03 - 57
BulMaster - 09-30-02 - 47
Deaf - 06-12-03 - 0
Dmad_aen - 05-27-03 - 21
FlameFlash - 12-18-01 - 3332
Flubber - 08-02-00 - 3079
foolish_icarus - 11-15-02 - 533
GeminiRai - 05-06-03 - 7
Hercules - 09-13-02 - 1341
Iskander - 05-19-03 - 0
johndmuller - 02-04-01 - 1512
Makahlua - 09-12-02 - 134
Mark123jansen - 08-15-02 - 77
Nax - 11-22-02 - 10
ThePlagueRat - 05-25-02 - 1389

[Static Universe]

Here's a list of the CyCon members (with Poly join dates and post counts). What do we know about them?

Bookwyrm - 03-09-03 - 47
Cedayon - 01-13-03 - 1162
Chaunk - 04-16-02 - 160
Corellion - 09-05-02 - 173
DeathByTheSword - 11-18-01 - 2249
Drogue - 10-30-02 - 2581
Maniac - 07-07-99 - 3454
Protonman - 06-05-03 - 3
Rynn: - 06-29-00 - 484
TKG - 02-15-01 - 3635

[Static Universe]

Here's a list of the University members (with Poly join dates and post counts). What do we know about them?

AdamTG02 - 08-02-02 - 424
Alex - 03-28-99 - 2339
Angryclown - 05-26-03 - 4
Archaic - 11-08-01 - 2110
Deaf - 06-12-03 - 0
Eli - 07-01-00 - 5443
GeneralTacticus - 12-06-01 - 4735
History Guy - 10-16-01 - 2276
Kingsizzle - 05-31-03 - 0
moomin - 07-15-00 - 1607
Mr. President - 07-21-01 - 2247
Nivoxz N. - 05-30-03 - 0
Timbba - 05-17-03 - 38
yeinzon - 11-13-02 - 15

[Static Universe]

And for completeness, here are the Drones again.

buster - 10-27-99 - 1208
Confuceus - 06-08-03 - 0
Kizami - 04-07-02 - 33
Main_Brain - 07-30-02 - 721
mark13 - 09-08-00 - 2126
Mongoose - 04-11-99 - 1927
monkspider - 08-05-01 - 1018
MRT144 - 10-09-02 - 51
murielwasser - 06-11-03 - 0
One eyed John - 05-22-03 - 0

---

Comrades, look at these names. These are our enemies. They could also be our friends. Who are our best choices to make contact with? Who wants us dead?

[Jamski]

I'd say there's a nice split. People-wise the Uni and the Drones are our enemies and the Cycon and the Pirates are our friends. We'll have to see how it plays out though. EVERYONE BE NICE TO THE CYCON AND THE PIRATES PLEASE

/me looks at Tass

-Jam

[Static Universe]

MRT is out there pissing off many of the other factions with his comments, so building a coalition against the Drones may turn out to be not so difficult.

If we can get Tass to direct his energies toward him...

[Vev]

Is that wise?

[Frankychan]

Information on other members.

Pirates

The most likely head of the Pirates is probably either Flameflash or Flubber. These guys have been in the AC forum for a long time and I've read many of their posts since I've been here. Johndmuller is more of a quiet person IMHO but he should be considered as a threat. Hercules and ThePlagueRat...I haven't heard too much about them so I can't give a synopsis on them.

CyCon

This is probably the most stacked team. DBTS, Drogue, Maniac, TKG including Cedayon are all "technopiles"...meaning that they most likely know all the little tidbits and what not in the game to make the game easy for them. All these guys know what to do and how to get their faction on top. I would consider this team a definite threat to us. One on one against the CyCon's and we'd probably get whupped. For these guys, I'd depend heavily on our industrial power.

Looniversity

Biggest threat is definitely Archaic...with AdamTG02 and GeneralTacticus coming in second place. Comrade Jamski knows Archaic better than I but I do know that he's a big threat. AdamTG02 is pretty good from reading his posts in the AC forums so I'd watch out for him. GeneralTacticus I'm not too sure about. But seeing as how Archaic is more autocratic than Chairman Yang, I'm betting that things aren't happy in University-land.


Even though this isn't a detailed description on the threat levels, I have a slight understanding of some of the posters. Mr. President is probably on the same level as myself so he probably contributes on what he thinks is right, but Archaic most likely has the reigns on where the University is going with GeneralTacticus right alongside him.

CyCon seems to be a stack team and I'd watch out for them. But seeing as how the "main" members don't seem to like Archaic, we might have a chance with them. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that they'll put aside their feelings for Archaic when it comes down to what's best for their team.

Since I haven't played a thorough game of SMAX, I don't know how deadly the Pirates can actually be so I can't really contribute that much.

[Jamski]

That's a pretty fair assesment of the other teams Franky. I must underline your assessment of Archaic - he always plays Uni in PBEM and IP and he wins more than he loses. I han't yet crossed swords with him, but he knows all the tricks. DANGER!

-Jam

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Vev
Is that wise?

He's probably going to do it anyway, so it would be better if we can plan in advance for it.

[Googlie]

And here are the Drone members' CGN posts (Buster owns the site) - note that some names are different there, and there are only a handful of active posters:

buster - 1652
Main_Brain (Crazy Ahmed there) - 42
mark13 - 2257
Mongoose - 1315
MRT144 - 40
Triped - 1390
Shadowlord3 (Don't know who he is at 'Poly) - 1651

G.