Game Discussion, Turn 2121 - 2140

[Googlie]

Hmm - since we almost had zak's scouts stumbling around north of Olympus Academy (if I'd headed north with Rolling Thunder instead of popping the pod we'd have missed him) he could have waltzed into an undefended base.

Maybe we need to get scout patrols (at least) in all bases pretty soon. I'd hate to lose one of our precious bases to neglect.

So maybe we use those ten free minerals at Olympus Academy to instabuild a scout but still go for that prototyped recon rover at SC2 (after visiting a monolith, as Zeiter says, it'll be Elite, with 3 movement points)

I'll hold on to the turn in midplay stage to give the Euros some input time tomorrow morning, before I finalize anything

[Googlie]

Edited by Googlie as this version of the midturn was not used

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
Maybe we need to get scout patrols (at least) in all bases pretty soon. I'd hate to lose one of our precious bases to neglect.

So maybe we use those ten free minerals at Olympus Academy to instabuild a scout but still go for that prototyped recon rover at SC2 (after visiting a monolith, as Zeiter says, it'll be Elite, with 3 movement points)

My first choice for Olympus Academy would be a former, but lacking that, personally I'd go for production of a Probe Team as suggested. If we'd want to garrison that base against Zak surprise visits, we can always move the SC2 elite recon rover there in 4 turns or so.


Btw, little base worker proposal:
How about switching SC2's second worker from the 2-1-0 rolling & rainy tile to the 1-2-1 crater tile? It would give us an extra lab and mineral. Since IIRC we don't plan on building a CP in SC2 in the near future, delaying growth a bit would be useful too.

[Zeiter]

We're not in vendetta with anyone, so the only way that we'd lose a base is by a mindworm, or I guess if an AI got a wild idea and surprise attacked us, but that seems unlikely. So, a former or probe team sounds good for OA. Once we get a road network in place, our rovers will be able to defend multiple cities at once.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Zeiter
Once we get a road network in place, our rovers will be able to defend multiple cities at once.

That's why I'd prefer to have some more formers in the future.

[Googlie]

Status of the 2125 turn:

Maniac is playing from that first midsave onwards (ie we are treating my subsequent playing as exploratory talks with the AI, as permitted under the AI-negotiations simultaneous play rule

[Maniac]

Edited by Googlie as this version of the midturn was not used

[Zeiter]

Awesome. It should be a while before anyone else contacts Zak, especially since nobody else has doc:flex yet. The fact that Zak was able to contact us was almost pure luck, as he must have popped a trannie and for some reason stumbled on over to our continent. Although depending on where Lal is, the others could contact him and get Zak's comm through that route.

A cloned rover? Man, our luck lately has almost been too good. A monolith, meeting Zak, a mineral resource and now a cloned rover. Hmm...I guess it's all right, though. I assume the mods are aware of all of this.

I guess drone problems won't be as big of an issue with the extra rover.

[Kassiopeia]

I assume the mods are aware of all of this.

They aren't. Drogue is still injured and Method has specifically stated that we should approach him if we want to get a judgement on a matter. I think we should inform him of what's happened; I would have preferred consulting him first before replaying.

I have a very bad feeling about this. We haven't only redone AI negotiations, we've redone a pod pop. Not that we had a reason to, since it was a monolith the first time, but still. Then again, we couldn't have done a midturn save since popping the pod is necessary to get in touch with Zak. Hm.

I hope disbanding the new rover will be enough if Drogue, err, Method thinks foul play has taken place.

[Method]

right then, give me a little while on this one. I think that if repopping a pod is necessary to redo communications, then not redoing communications would be the best way to avoid this kind of situation.

[Kassiopeia]

From the rules:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=117456

It is allowed to build a turn simulator, where you can test out battle results or strategic plans years in advance. It is also allowed to use parallel turns of the official game to test out AI diplomacy (with the exception that you can't accept AI world map offers or trades) or some innocent internal affairs orders (crawler & former movements etc). However it is NOT allowed to use the official game turns to play ahead by eg testing out battle orders, scouting with units, or for example moving your probe units to check the probe cost of something and only then decide whether or not you're going to probe it.
In clarification:
Any exploring, military trials or probe actions, is not allowed. Testing former orders and AI diplomacy (without accepting any deal) is allowed. For anything else, check with Drogue before hand.

Now, I don't really see a clause that really allows what has happened. Do any of you? Googlie? Maniac? We didn't test out map trades though, that must be said.

[Method]

oh, and kind of an important one here. I need to know where both the new and old rover are supported.

[Zeiter]

Well, in case the redo isn't allowed, here are some upsides to our previous course of action:

*We have 20 extra ECs.
*We have a good shot at getting Lal's commlink next turn.
*We still have a shot at selling Lal's commlink to Yang for 25 ECs (if Zak and Yang haven't traded already)
*If the Morganites get Zak's commlink through Yang and trade something like IA for gene splicing, that means that all we have to do is probe IA (and gene splicing) from Zak instead of having to try that with a human faction.
*If Yang gets Lal's and Deidre's commlink, then he'll call elections, and then the fun will really start! With us being the #1 human team in the powercharts right now, we might have considerable leverage and intimidation power towards the other factions that we might not have had later.

It didn't seem like Zak or Lal were going to be willing to trade much to us exclusively anyways, so I guess the lost opportunity to be the "tech broker" wouldn't really be a big deal. And if we contact Lal next turn, we can still trade plan nets for ECs.

So, there would still be a lot of positives, and actually, we can't say that this scenario is any worse. It would appear to be slightly worse, but you never know how things will play out.

This is all in case the redo is overturned, of course.

It's been nothing but smooth sailing for the mods so far. It's about time we give them a test, make sure they haven't fallen asleep at their posts.

Edit: BTW, I noticed the rule thread has been topped in the general forum. That's sure gonna make the other teams wonder.

[Method]

Originally posted by Zeiter
Edit: BTW, I noticed the rule thread has been topped in the general forum. That's sure gonna make the other teams wonder.

That's really more of a general "I'm watching you, *hint* *hint*" than anything else. It's not directed at anyone in particular.

[Googlie]

well, we did execute a "trade" of sorts in the midgame I advanced when we chatted in the Command center - Yang's commlink to Zak in exchange for 20 ec's (although it's in a slightly different category as regards "trades" in that the AI will never volunteer a human's AI as a trade in a PBEM (we, the human players, have to ask the AI for it)

If popping the rover clone is contentious, I have just replayed from the original midsave on my laptop, and mirroring every move, popped a minerals special instead of that original monolith. I'd regard that as a "worse" pop (in that the original healed our rover to 100% efficiency)

So it's available as an official turn if Method is uncomfortable with allowing that rover to continue (of course he could just rule that Maniac disband the cloned rover, and then it wouild be the same save as I have).

G.