Game Discussion, Turn 2121 - 2140

[Zeiter]

So, wait, can we start talking to the Data Angels now? Woohoo! They must have bought our commlink from Yang. Should we partly re-imberse them? Maybe give them 15 ECs, assuming they bought the commlink for 25? I think that would set a good first impression. Did we ever decide who would be our foreign ambassador? Kassiopeia, I believe, right? Should we PM a member of the Data Angels? If contact has been legitimately made, then I say yes.

I would try to get Yang to demand a withdrawl. That would save us a lot of time, and it would get our rover back home where it could be used for drone duty.

[Dis]

And we must decide what we're going to do with the Angels. Ally or possible target?

[Zeiter]

I think it really depends on how close they are. So until we can locate their position, I would suggest being somewhat cooperative with them. A treaty would be great, I think. A pact, though, I would not feel comfortable with.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Maniac
When I opened the turn, the diplomacy window with the Angels appeared, empty.

I too am confused. Why were you expecting anything in the window? What window do you mean - the diplo box? Had we contacted them last turn? (You can check if they have our commlink by seeing what is against their name in out commlink table `(eg, informal truce means that they have our link but haven't yet treatied or pacted )

Rolling Thunder reached the northern tip of our continent and started heading back. To the pod on (64.12)?

I'd go along with that

Sounds like it was a decent turn

EDIT: Ah, I now see. The angels were "sending" us something

I suspect they were doing what I do - seeing what techs they had that we didn't, and deleted the techs but forgot to end the commlink session.

Do the lookup as described above - if the `angels appear just as a name, like `morgan and the `gaians, then they have not got our commlink.

[Kassiopeia]

I keep having the diplo window from the Angels show up for no discernable reason in WWAW too - I try to tell them there's nothing I can trade for all that lavish tech, yet they seem to be pushing it at me

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Dissident
I could post screen shots, but my spartan cities are yellow. How do I get rid of that?

As this question pops up once in a while, I've just written a little article about it for the Survivalist's Guide.

How to fix wrong faction colours?

An often asked question by officer students at Olympus Academy is: "How do I get every faction's colours right in my strategy simulator?" As this issue has caused many students a headache, the Junta has decided to include a solution to this problem in our official Survivalist's Guide, to ensure everyone survives our Academy safely and without permanent trauma.

The answer is as follows.
Go to the "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" directory in your PNN (personal network node) and find the file "Alpha Centauri.Ini". Open it. Scroll down to the bottom. You should see a list of seven faction names. These determine the graphics of the factions in the simulation you're running. Problem is when you open a scenario or multiperson simulation, this list doesn't update. Instead IIRC it keeps the faction graphics of the last normal single person sim you ran.

To circumvent this problem, there are two methods:

Before opening eg a multiperson simulation, first start up a new single person sim with the same factions in the same order as in the multiperson sim. Immediately quit the SP sim. Now the correct graphics are saved in the ini-file and you can savely open the MP sim.

The second method is manually changing the list in the Alpha Centauri.Ini file. For the official tactical real-world simulations, you have to copy this list over the incorrect one in your ini file:

Faction 1=GAIANS
Faction 2=HIVE
Faction 3=UNIV
Faction 4=ANGELS
Faction 5=MORGAN
Faction 6=SPARTANS
Faction 7=PEACE

Now everything should be fine and you won't any longer mistakenly shoot Gaians while thinking they're Hiveans.

We at the Academy Board hope this little tutorial has been of use to you. For any further questions please contact our Secretariat of Officer Training.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Dissident
I tried contacting Lal. First he demanded doctrine: flexibility. I did request nonlinear in return, but no dice.

Lal and Zak have Nonlinear Mathematics! Pity we don't have any probe team + transport taskforces there yet to eg steal all of Zak's juicy techs.

Originally posted by Zeiter
I would try to get Yang to demand a withdrawl. That would save us a lot of time, and it would get our rover back home where it could be used for drone duty.

Sounds good. IIRC that's possible in diplomatic negotiations right? Ask a withdrawal, and then the AI says "only if you withdraw too." (Or they declare vendetta )

[Dis]

Originally posted by Googlie

I too am confused. Why were you expecting anything in the window? What window do you mean - the diplo box? Had we contacted them last turn? (You can check if they have our commlink by seeing what is against their name in out commlink table `(eg, informal truce means that they have our link but haven't yet treatied or pacted )

I'd go along with that

Sounds like it was a decent turn

EDIT: Ah, I now see. The angels were "sending" us something

I suspect they were doing what I do - seeing what techs they had that we didn't, and deleted the techs but forgot to end the commlink session.

Do the lookup as described above - if the `angels appear just as a name, like `morgan and the `gaians, then they have not got our commlink.

it doesn't show anything about an informal truce (for any of the human factions for that matter)

it also seems we the angels do not have contact with the university and peacekeepers (that is to be expected)

[ChairmanSlick]

i was just checking out the pre-send and i thought u might want to know that i was chatting to zak. and he wanted yang's comm, which i sold to him for 20, then he demanded flex and i said in return for non-linear and he said "good enough for me" -- i tried it a second time, where i didn't sell him the comm first and he accepted also!!!

i think this is what we are researching now?? and it'll mean we get to carry over the research points, and research a higher tech at no greater lab points required if we were so inclined ... something to keep in mind anyway.

(when i clicked change research goal : these techs appeared == progenitor psych, social psych, industrial base, and biogenetics... all kinda crappy techs : (

Another interesting point:

We have no tech which we can give to hive as gifts. ie. we got no techs which they don't already have.

Zak. has all of our techs, (after i had traded flex.)...ie. flex is the only tech he doesn't have.

and Lal doesn't have Flex. and thats it.

Hope this helps-

[ChairmanSlick]

One other thing which i think we should keep in mind is our future tech path.

Morgans, Gaians, and Angels, + Hive

all these factions will all lean towards the usual build tech path. Ie. eco. eng. env. eng. particularly the humans. I think that it might be a good idea to lean towards the knowledge (white) path. Primarily this should be achieved by concentrating our tech stealing efforts on Lal + UoP, since they will be the ones who will be researching things such as Optical Computers, polymorph. software WAY before the humans will. I even think that the humans will refrain from trading for these techs with UoP + Lal because it will slow them down from the build techs.

(so what can we achieve from this u might ask?)

well, it is my opinion that if we keep this in mind.. *of course we do not need to do this to a massive sacrificing extent*, then we will have a V. Good chance of getting the hunter Seeker Algorithm. and we can probe rape everybody!!!

Other than this, i think that we should try and save the alien artifact for a SP we REALLY need rather than Weather Paradigm. Such as The Planetary Datalinks, which is potentially only a few techs away, and can on the way get us intellectual integrity (police units). I think in a game like this one... planetary datalinks, hunter seeker algorithm, and to a lesser extent the planetary energy grid are the 3 most imporant SP for our context.

[ChairmanSlick]

oh, i forgot to mention, if we stear towards cyberethics, then this will directly lead to hunter seeker, if we can steal some techs of UoP, LAL, ie. Advanced mil. algs, optical comps. Poly, Adaptive doctrine. From my experience these are priority picks for UoP and LAL! we can get these all prior to 2150, usually this is around the time UoP and Lal are really concentrating on these techs...

[Zeiter]

And then that would set us up for a quick sprint to fusion power, which would more than compensate our industry penalty because of the cheaper units, and our army would undoubtedly be the most feared on the planet.

So, what's happening in turn 2131?

[Maniac]

This is:

Midturn Battle Report MY 2131

• Again got the Angel diplo window...
• SC2 completes scout patrol, which moves to OA. SC2 production set to former.
• Chiron Knights pop pod. They discover nutrient resources and... another Battle Ogre MK1 !!! How to move these units further?
• SCC Invincible also pops the pod and gets, as usual, an Isle of the Deep. We don't know the location of the IoD because all the fungus, so do I suppose correctly we should flee to the fungus-free east?
• Tomcat-1 completes crater farm near SC2.
• Tomcat-2 completes road between OA and SC1.
• Tomcat-3 starts planting forest near SC4.
• Warwag moves into SC3.
• Alien Artifact further approaching our bases.
• Rolling Thunder moving back south, following a route east of Mount Taygetus.
• R-112 moves two tiles north, back into Hive territory.
• To-do list:
  Finish movement of Chiron Knights, SCC Invincible, second Ogre (Fiona?).

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Primus Pilus
1) Probe Team sth to get Yang datalinks

That's the plan.

2) Build cheap Probe Foil to infiltrate other factions

Do you consider probe foils cheap at the moment? Have you read the discussion regarding probe foil versus trannie filled with probes?

3) Continue expansion along Hive coast asap

IIRC the next CP from SC3 is meant for building a base on the Rio Grande. So perhaps we could use the next CP from SC4 to send to the Hive border?

Originally posted by ChairmanSlick

Thanks for the info ChairmanSlick!!

So what does everyone think regarding Nonlinear Mathematics?
And what to research next after NonlMath? Problem here is of course, besides the not-so-useful Progenitor Psych, there's nothing we can research that we couldn't steal from the probably nearby Zak.

[Zeiter]

So what does everyone think regarding Nonlinear Mathematics?

I say we slow our research to a snail's pace and concentrate on econ production for a while. Then we can possibly rush a transport in the east coast base, and get probe teams over there very soon. Even with allocations at 60-10-30, we'll get NLmath before we get a chance to probe it. Of course, Zak has a lot of other techs too, so our probe teams will be very busy these upcoming decades, I predict.

IIRC the next CP from SC3 is meant for building a base on the Rio Grande. So perhaps we could use the next CP from SC4 to send to the Hive border?

What about using the next CP from SC3 to found on the craterbase north location? Then the next CP can go up to the Rio Grande Delta position. And I agree, we could definitely use the next CP from SC4 to found the base down by the fungal pass.

Again got the Angel diplo window...

That's very odd. Perhaps they're trying to use a little psych ops to try to make us curious about what is going on so that we'll end up buying the commlink.

Chiron Knights pop pod. They discover nutrient resources and... another Battle Ogre MK1 !!! How to move these units further?

The only logical thing to do with these units right now is to use them for drone control duty. We could maybe use the rover to explore other continents via a transport later on. BTW, just to clarify, Ogres get +1 police power, do they not? That means, theoretically, we could police 4 units in a single city.

I agree, move SCC Invincible east. Perhaps we can use Tomcat-1 to plant another crater farm, especially if we plan to found a Craternorth base soon. As for Chiron Knights and Fiona, I would suggest getting them back to the homeland as quickly as possible.