Anyone want to start a rated SMAC game?

[Misotu]

Well, I know this is slightly draconian, but I'm going to impose a time limit for responses here. A six-person game needs to move, because it is inherently pretty slow.

So anyone who has not responded to my two emails after 48 hours, I will assume is in complete agreement with the proposed settings.

After that, we should be able to move on quite quickly.

[Qantaga]

Misotu,

This is shaping up very nicely thanks to your direction.

The only player I am a little nervous about is cpt.slick. Has he replied to you by e-mail? (I am guessing that he has not, based on your previous post). I noticed we haven't heard from him in quite awhile in this thread.

One of the big appeals for me in this game is the 7-player aspect and we will definitely need active players to keep it from dying an early death.

Do you think we should advertise for someone else to fill his spot if we don't hear something from him soon?

[Solver]

Mis, you've done nice job. All good by me, but: for rated games, score isn't emailed to CMN. It's posted to the thread, then someone accumulates it and posts to the SMAC PBEM Ratings thread.
Otherwise, you're right, and it's all fine.

[Viriato]

It looks like the map issue is resolved. With Levelisk's vote that makes 4 players for the large map (me, Qantaga, Theohall and Levelisk) against 2 for the standard map (Dinoarms and Solver).

As for the spoils of war I think Solver and I were the only ones stating a preference: off. The others just said that thy don't mind wether it's on or off.

Please correct me if I'm wrong about this.

About the reliability of players I think we should have at least 2 replacement players in case someone drops out.
So assuming that cpt. slick still wants to play we'll need 2 more players willing to play this game.

[SITS]

I just coming late to this thread but I'm willing to offer myself as a reserve if needed...

[Misotu]

OK, thanks everyone.

Settings
Unless I hear strong protests from anyone, I am going to create a game along the lines of my original post with the following changes:

Large map
Stealtech when conquer base off

Dinoarms emailed me to say that average lifeforms is OK by him. He has a preference for weak erosion and dense cloud, but since no-one else has expressed a preference for these I propose to continue with standard settings.

Players
Haven't heard from cpt.slick, so it looks like he may not be around at the moment. If we don't hear from him by the time I create the game and set passwords, I will put SITS in his place - this will give cpt.slick a couple more days to get in touch.

Thanks to SITS for offering himself as a reserve. SITS, can you post your email address to the thread please, or send it to me at misotu@hotmail.com

Substitutes
I think we'll be OK with one sub, SITS, for now. I'm willing to act as a temporary sub for anyone who is away for a while, or if someone drops out. In my experience, finding replacement players isn't too hard on this board, usually only takes a day or two.

Ratings
Thanks for this Solver. Sounds like I don't have to do any work at all, so that's cool by me I'll leave it to you guys to organise who will collect the data.

Information still required
The last thing I need from you all is your preferred password, if you have one. If I don't hear from you, I'll assume that you're happy for me to allocate a password to you.

Solver I still need your time zone please? If you can give it to me relative to GMT that will be great, thanks.

As soon as I have all this, I believe that I'm ready to set up the game!

[SITS]

My email is tony@tlafave.demon.co.uk

Just let me know if I'm needed...

[cpt.slick]

HI, sorry i haven't replied in awhile but the site was down or some ****.

N e way

this is my first Pbem so i'm not sure what u mean by playing time...

however i can usually play after dinner most days

i'm est + 10

err.. and the password - why the hell would i tell u the password?? : D

[Misotu]

u would tell me the password b cos otherwise i will allocate 1 to you n e way.

When I set the game up, I set everyone's password and then I keep a note of them all. It means that if someone drops out, a new player can take over and I can also sub for anyone who is not around for a while ... If you don't have a preference, I can just give you a password if you like.

Bit concerned though because I've sent you a few emails and you haven't responded to any of them. The email address I have for you is: sgtslick@hotmail.com

Is this your correct address or should I be using something else?

[dinoarms]

Bated Breath

Hmmm...Alas the beginning of a slew of polite yet impatient posts?

[Qantaga]

Hello dinoarms,

I believe we have two issues to resolve before the game can begin. Forgive me, Misotu if I am speaking out of turn and please correct me if I am wrong.

I think the issues are:

1. I am not sure if we have a valid e-mail address for cpt.slick. He has not responded (AFAIK) to any e-mails sent to that address and, obviously, we can't start the game until we have a good e-mail address for him.

2. I am not sure if the turn order can be changed in SMAC. Misotu is trying to set the game up by time zones so that it will flow better from player to player. However, she may not be able to change the order and we may be at the mercy of our chosen faction's order in the game, regardless of time zone.

Once those two issues are resolved (of course, the major issue being cpt.slick's e-mail), we should be ready to go.

[dinoarms]

Qantaga


Cool. It's in Misotu's hands now. Do we have some subs waiting in the wings should CptSlick prove unprepared?

I would trade factions to speed the game up. But I'm kinda getting attached to Miss Born Again as I continue game simulations.

Have you read Vel's guide Qantaga?

[theohall]

1) Yes, there is a player waiting in the wings.

2) Though Qantaga and I are both new to Apolyton, Vel's Guide is the reason we are here. A search for SMAC Guides led me to this site and I've been lurking, sometimes posting ever since. In addition to becoming somewhat addicted to the PBEM format.

[dinoarms]

SMAC Guides

Theohall

Are there any other guides available remotely comprable to Vel's?

[theohall]

Nope

Prima's stinks and gets formulas availabe in the Datalinks completely wrong.

Other net guides don't even go into the economic aspects of the game and tend to focus more on conquering.

If you've read Vel's Guide and understand the concepts, playing against someone who has relied on other resources won't even be a challenge.