BC4S turns

[JAMiAM]

MY2183 sent to the Spartans.

[JAMiAM]

MY 2184 to Spartans.

[MariOne]

While many aspects are just a matter of personal taste, other settings may alter the behavior of the game, so we should seriously agree on the less automated setting.

One was mentioned by JAM,

odds before attacking

if you leave it on, who doesn't want it will just have to bother one more click.
if you switch it off, another player might find himself in a battle while he wanted to check his odds before deciding.

the same for:

always investigat monolyths

I often wait to upgrade unit that way till they already have some morale level. Or I need to bring a unit along a road to a given location, without stopping by a monolith.
Already twice, I forgot to verify the state of monoliths flag, and I lost two units, coz they were stopped on their escape from worms by an automatic monolith halt!!!
That's like someone changes the rules of the game you're playing without warning you!

[JAMiAM]

Mea culpa, Mario. I turned that on, a couple of times, since I usually upgrade morale earlier than most. Besides, when you're mindworm farming around the monoliths with two or three boils, that's a hell of a lot more than one extra click of the mouse. But, in the interest of you not losing any more of your units to worms, I'll leave it as you choose.

Would a gift of 40 energy credits, ameliorate our little problem here?

Also, anybody that uses calculate odds before combat is a wimp! Just my two cents.

JAMiAM
[This message has been edited by JAMiAM (edited July 07, 1999).]

[JAMiAM]

MY 2185 sent to the Glorious Spartan Federation.

[JAMiAM]

M.Y. 2186 to the Spartans.

[JAMiAM]

M.Y. 2187 sent to Duke Veracitas.

[JAMiAM]

M.Y. 2188 sent to Spartans.

[MariOne]

While I wait for the turn, I'll contribute with my 0.02 Euros too, precious JAM (do you recall the "coiny lingo" interlude in some turn thread here? If not, I saved it...).

I use to check for game settings before I begin my PBEM turns, but sometimes I forget. It would be fair that each one sets his preferred ones when he begins his turn, but since we all play many games, and some come back to you after some days and after many other turns taken, the less irreversible, even if more tedious, setting should be left in the savefile.

I don't like to confirm my odds when I singleplay. But for the above reasons, in MP I like to concentrate on thinking to strategy, tactic or management, and don't want to waste time checking where the base zone extends to, or calculating by mind all the modifiers which will be involved in a battle. Hence I like to make extensive use of all the informative (visual and math)supports I can get, I then put my decisions in the game.
Here we should take all the time we need to make the best decisions our skill allows us, it's in the nature of mail games (I used to do mail-chess). If you can beat us all playing just by instinct, kudos to you. I didn't thought a PBEM was a matter of "bravery" .

MoSe
- wanting to overwhelm you with tedium, did you try playing "Stars!"?

PS: it's not a dogma, but you know that by statistics it should be wiser to monolith_upgrade after you already gained some easy first steps morale, reserving it for the harder_to_obtain top ranks.
[This message has been edited by MariOne (edited July 18, 1999).]

[MariOne]

2189 Univ >> Morgan

(I ALWAYS forget to edit my title to Rector!)

[JAMiAM]

M.Y. 2189 to the Glorious Spartan Federation.

---
MoSe,

Please don't tell me you lost more units. I am sorry. I realized the error of forgetting to reset, after I sent it on. I will leave the preferences as you guys desire. I would then like to make one request at this point. Can we set the fog of war to be on? For all of the same reasons as you previously mentioned, obviously.

Regarding the morale upgrades from monolith debate. I play a much different style of game than most. I usually try to upgrade my morale earlier, rather than later. This is because, I feel, that a higher probability of a unit surviving combat the first time is more important than a possible "higher quality" upgrade later. If the unit gets killed by mindworms or a sneak attack, because its morale was 12% less than it could have been, it will never get to the higher levels, anyway. And, since I'm usually a defense minded builder, and (usually) don't go instigating wars, my troops don't get all of the opportunites to get the mid range morale upgrades in the early game. Even when my CC's and Bioenhancement Centers, et cetera come on line and my troops are built with higher morale, my upgrade priorities usually don't change.

There... in typical Morganite generosity, your purchase for 0.02 euros has returned 0.03 in change.

JAMiAM

[MariOne]

"For all of the same reasons as [I] previously mentioned, obviously", Fog of War is a nonsense in PBEMs, unless you like to play chess blind AND by mail. Or play football with a blindfolded quarterback. Do you expect us to remind what was in the shadows that we saw 5 turns and two weeks ago? But that at least is a feature that you can spot out obviously, so no danger to overlook it.
I could easily re-put FoW on when I save. But then I'll expect to find it OFF when I open my turn. Or if I have to set it off when I begin, then the same will have to do by himself who likes to have it on.

By saying that it wasn't a dogma, I inteneded exactly what you further exposed. Still, I think the matter can be weighed differently according to personal preferences. It's all a matter of probability, actual figures and time available. And even if you're peaceful (as I am), you yourself said that you perform intensive mindwormfarming, and there morale_upgrade gambling plays a major role.

MariOne

(meta-post: maybe your comments were all in jest (SP?), you were up to set me on; and maybe my reply was in the same attitude, I pretended to bite the bait. And maybe this comment...}...}...}

[This message has been edited by MariOne (edited July 18, 1999).]

[MariOne]

2190 Univ >> Morgan

[JAMiAM]

M.Y. 2190 to the Spartans.


MoSe,

Actually, given your desire for information, and such, I expected you to like "Fog of War." Keep in mind that you don't see anything with it off that you can't see with it on. It just graphically remainds you of EXACTLY what you can see. It may not be as pretty on the eyes, but is is more helpful.

Or, were you just being meta-confused? Not really confused on the reality level, but hoping to get me to think that you really don't know what the hell you're talking about, so that I would underestimate you. How many layers to this onion? And, will we all cry, when cut to its core?



JAMiAM
The Firaxian Psychophant

[Mongoose]

Looks like he got you there, MoSe.

Not only that, but he is absolutely correct on the fog of war issue.