New Multiplayer Game

[Minute Mirage]

I would have preferred Transcend difficulty, since I assume everyone has already played on that level in single player. I can't remember the last time I've played on any other level, so I'm quite unfamiliar with Thinker. I'd also have liked Spoils of war to be off, but that's not such a big deal.

[Googlie]

Originally quoted by Fosse
I have a question about the probe action rules... I assume that the box you refer to only appears when the probes get caught

No - the box appears after any probe action, whether successful or unsuccessful, and unless the action attempted was infiltration only (which is always successful anyway) the rules require the person doing the probing to declare vendetta on the person who has been probed (it's a PBEM bug - this message should rightfully be given to the one being probed, but a programming error gives it to the wrong faction)

Originally posted by Net Warrior
As Morgan, Spoils of War is going to put me at a serious disadvantage, isn't it

No more so than, say, the University, or any other researching faction - all it means is that when a faction conquers another's base it receives a choice of techs that the conquered faction has that the conqueror doesn't. If this box were unchecked, then only tech trading or probe acxtions would yield techs from one to another. (So if, for example, Morgan attacked and captured a Uni base, Morgan would get a tech from the Uni (assuming that the Uni were out-researching Morgan at that point)

So I don't see it as giving any advantage to a particular faction - unless you mean that as Morgan usually runs Dem/FM/Wealth then military actions outside the borders cause severe drone problems? But other factions can run those combos as well, and the answer usually is to build a Punishment Sphere base to which you home your expeditionary forces, navy and offensive airforce.

Originally posted by Minute Mirage
I would have preferred Transcend difficulty, since I assume everyone has already played on that level in single player

It can be set to transcend. I had interpreted some participants' comments to imply that they were relatively new to SMAC itself, but on re-reading I see that they are just saying that they are new to the wonderful world of Multiplayer SMAC.

So consider this a mini-poll:

Q1: Should spoils of war be on or off?

Q2: Should the difficulty level be transcend?

Googlie

[Minute Mirage]

Originally posted by Googlie

So consider this a mini-poll:

Q1: Should spoils of war be on or off?

Q2: Should the difficulty level be transcend?

1: Off

- Get your filthy hands off my beloved tech!

2: Yes, transcend is the only way to go, IMO.

[rsfarrell]

Questions and a warning

As to difficulty, I like trans. It's what I'm most practiced at, and therefore where I'm most comfortable managing drones.

With regards to spoils of war: if you are building probe teams agressively, I can't see that it makes a great deal of difference whether you can steal tech or not. Once you've killed all the military units in a base, you can probe it to your heart's content anyway. Clearly it favors attacking players a little bit. Given that we've all played plenty of SP, and that SP tends to be a builder's game, I think it would be fun to tilt the game a little towards the other end of the spectrum.

Finally, some bad news; I downloaded v5.O, while running Windows ME, and my whole system self-destructed. It took me a day and a half to get Explorer up and running, and, as of now, I can't run SMAC. I hope to fix the problem tomorrow, before it holds things up. If I can't, and everybody else is ready, I'll bow out; I don't want everybody waiting on me.

Good luck and see you on Chrion!

[Net Warrior]

I agree with MM:
1. off
2. yes

...but I have no problem going along with the majority.

Net Warroir

[Minute Mirage]

Re: Questions and a warning

Originally posted by rsfarrell

I hope to fix the problem tomorrow, before it holds things up. If I can't, and everybody else is ready, I'll bow out; I don't want everybody waiting on me.

With seven players I'd say we're going to get a long game, so I personally don't care if we have to wait a bit to get started.

[Fosse]

Spoils off, Transcend difficulty. I agree with Minute Mirage... we can wait a touch longer.

[Googlie]

Well, with 4 votes in it's unanimous at Transcend level and spoils of war off.

And I'm not sure if all 7 players need to be on version 5.0 when it's PBEM. I thought it was just synchronized IP play that needed that.

(I'm running 5.0 and I'm sure that some of the PBEM's I've set up don't have all players running it. Either that, or when starting a game using the scenario set-up (where the gameplay files of the creator are embedded in the saves) this overrules the player's settings.)

Oh - and to make those first few turns a little more interesting, I'll set everone up with an extra two colony pods and scouts (so that, eg, the Gaians start with 4 pods and 3 scouts and Sparta with 4 pods, 2 scouts and a rover). This just gets the early game going a little bit better, can lead to earlier contact between factions and generally makes those first ten to fifteen turns a little more meaningful

G.

[Fosse]

Sounds better than pressing 'enter' for two weeks! Thanks Googlie.

[FlameFlash]

Q1: Should spoils of war be on or off?

On

Q2: Should the difficulty level be transcend?

Nah.

And players better not need the same version or else I'm already doomed to not be able to play.

<- Has a Mac after all.

[Googlie]

Playtesting has gone well, and I'll start sending out passwords and turnplay instructions (for those not too fammiliar with PBEMs)

I've started a turn reporting thread Turns of 7-up

G.

[FlameFlash]

Many thanks Googlie!

[rsfarrell]

Good news, computer fixed.

[Googlie]

Great news!!

I'm just waiting for Minute Mirage to advise me of his free tech and then we're rolling

(I thought I had solved the problem of having to select the tech in a scenario start, but that only worled for SMAX)

G.

[FlameFlash]