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Originally posted by Hydro
MA - verbose is right. Our 6th PBEM ended with 450 pages of 'prose' (to use the term very loosely), and a Word file that was 1.6 MB. So it is much more than pushing formers around; the story is the objective. Since, in my opinion, that is SMAC’s strength then a dialog-oriented PBEM seems natural. What is odd is that it isn't (always) competitive, either. We cooperated if it is in character, which is the point...there is the one part of standard PBEM that I don't like: if you don't rush to extermination (nerve gas, PBs) you are toast. It makes Planet a vicious place.
MA - verbose is right. Our 6th PBEM ended with 450 pages of 'prose' (to use the term very loosely), and a Word file that was 1.6 MB. So it is much more than pushing formers around; the story is the objective. Since, in my opinion, that is SMAC’s strength then a dialog-oriented PBEM seems natural. What is odd is that it isn't (always) competitive, either. We cooperated if it is in character, which is the point...there is the one part of standard PBEM that I don't like: if you don't rush to extermination (nerve gas, PBs) you are toast. It makes Planet a vicious place.
A faction leader in the hypothetical framework of the game has more to worry about then what the flesh-and-blood player behind the screen concerns himself with; e.g. pushing formers and rovers around and b-lining to Industrial Automation. He/she must concern with the well-being of his citizens, cultural growth vs. "guns-and-butter" policy, tackling the problems and challenges of native life head-on as if encountering them for the first time (whereas us jaded SMACers barely blink at that first boil in the xenofungus), how much fraternizing with the enemy is acceptable, and if the faction leader is practicing what he/she preaches or is merely a hypocrite. In most "normal" games the player is absolved of this conscientious approach to play simply from the lack of checks and balances! Is the game code going to care if you're Morgan running Green or Lal running Fundamentalism?
That's why I've always enjoyed your published PBEM accounts for embodying all this. Coming off as genuine when facing problems you're dealt with time and time over requires creativity; after all, once a man has changed the relationship between himself and his environment, he cannot return to the blissful ignorance from whence he left. Motion, of necessity, requires...oh there I go again.
Anyway, Masterbuilder's main computer is still toast (his wife decided to load XP and Linux and then play with the configuration - bad idea; the bios is crispy). Luckily he does have a laptop or I'D be toast and in terminal SMAC withdrawal.
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