Looking for rookies for an SMAX game

[Hoek]

I am a rookie myself, but I would really like to play a multiplayer SMAX game. I'm looking to start it by the end of the month. I will host the game, and we can negotiate various rules, the maps, factions and what-not. I need to know by next friday (the 20th) who's in. If there are 4 people, we'll go with that, if there are 7, we'll go with that. Anybody interested?

PS: When I ask for rookies, I don't mean necessarily people who have never done it, but rather those who have little experience.

[Lord_Icewind]

hi

I would like to come in...I like to play as pirates with 70-90% of ocean coverage my time zone is +1 GMT..what's yours?

[Hoek]

My time zone is GMT -5:00, and I'd like to play either as the Peacekeepers or the Cyborgs

[Tubok]

Multiplayer Game

I'm interested in a game. Have posted a similar message. Are you talking a live game... or via email? Would like to play a live game...but may be a bit difficult to co-ordinate it due to different time zones and all. Also, I live in Manchester, New Hampshire (USA) and the time zone here is -5:00 Eastern Time I believe. I believe the ocean coverage should be as close to 50 - 50 as possible. IF the coverage was 70 - 90%, I would too like to play the Pirates (have done so against the computer) but that provides an unfair advantage to the other players. If I can't play as the Pirates (not a problem) I would like to play as the Gaians. also with the rules of stealing tech when conquering a base, and with no Unity Survey having been done. Makes for a more interesting game. No Tech Stagnation. other than that... the default options are cool. This would be my first multiplayer game (have only played against the PC before).

[Hoek]

extending deadline

well, since there is so few responses, I will extend the message another few days (until this friday @10:00pm EST (3:00am GMT, saturday)

[vomitus]

Count me in

Hey, I'm dying to play an Alpha Centauri game. I'm not a rookie, but who cares? You need more players and I'm dying to play multiplayer. I'm at GMT -8 (California, USA). I typically play any faction. I'll probably play the Gaians. One of the alien factions would be cool so I can commit atrocities with impunity.

[Hoek]

Critical Mass

Okay, we have enough people now...so first things first: when do we start?

I suggest 5:00pm GMT on Saturday....this gives our west coast friend a decent hour to wake at and gives us enough time to start a real game.

I think that map size should be determined largely by the number of players we have.

Question: do you guys want to include any other AI factions to fill all 7 slots, or do you want it to be completely a human affair?

I guess we should also get moving on assigning factions
I'd like to take one of these:
Peacekeepers
Caretakers (if we play with aliens)
Cyborgs

It seems that both Icewind and Tubok are interested in the Pirates, and it also seems like the Gaians are up for grabs. Votimus...if you wanna play the Usurpers, I could take the Caretakers

I think I'd prefer the land-water ratio not to be so high...50-50 is preferable to 10-90.

Can we agree on some rules?
here are the rules I propose:

no tech stagnation
no survey
pod scattering
blind research
no bludlust option
factions don't come back once killed
...? can't think of any more

for the map:

size:
4-medium
7-large
dense cloud coverage
average erosion
50-50 land-water
native life: low or medium
can't think of any more options right now


whaddya guys think?

[Tubok]

Multiplayer Game

Let me see.... I live in Manchester NH, so that'd be what time where I am? Looks like it'd about 8pm or so I think. Any of you have Yahoo or MSN Messengers or ICQ? If we all used the same one, then it'd be easier to catch all online at same time. My info is:

Yahoo = b_k_roberts
MSN = Donald Duck (email is same as yahoo... b_k_roberts )
ICQ# = 1281662

Your rules seem fine with me. I say let the PC play the other characters if we don't get enough humans to play. If we play SMAC I prefer the Gaians, If we play SMAX I prefer the Pirates... but as a secondary choice I could play Santiago or Data Angels (in that order). Size of world can still be big...if you all want... can't we "save" the game if/when we get tired...to continue next time we all are on-line?

[Hoek]

I live in EST also....I only have AIM, unfortunately

[Tubok]

time to play

So, 5pm GMT is what time in EST? 8pm? Sounds good to me. How will we know we're on-line at that time then? call me dumb but as this is my first time player like this...don't know how we'll all connect. Do a search for existing games thru the multiplayer otpion or what?

[Hoek]

I'm not quite sure...I think it's possible to do TCP/IP...I'll give you guys an address

no, 5pm GMT means 12pm EST (we're 5 hours behind General Median Time)

[Tubok]

making contact

One other way to for us all to connect.... is (at about the agreed upon time) to go into the Multiplayer options (which I've experimented with) and choose the internet option... the TCP one, and then "search" for a game. So, all we need is somebody to "Host" the game (who was going to?) and have the game's options setup. There is also a little chat screen there, that we can talk until everybody shows up.

As I've just recently re-located to Manchester due to my Job transfer, I shouldn't be working Saturday.....and if I am not.... I should be online most likely a 1/2 hour or more before Game time.

Then depending upon how many show up, then we can decide how large to make the world. I think (not sure) that we can even save the game if/when we get tired and want to resume another day.

I may be stating the obvious to some of you.... but as this is my first on-line game... it's all new to me.

[vomitus]

my opinion on how the game should be handled

Here's what I think:

Rules:

There should be no alien factions whatsoever. The Drones and Angels should not be used by the computer. A human playing them is ok. The reason for this is because the Drones can capture your cities without even being there and it takes away from the human vs. human aspect of the game. The angels can be a repository of technology for human players.

Planet:

* Standard size (this allows us to have quicker human interaction. perhaps large would be better to allow us to build a reasonable empire before meeting)
* 50-70% ocean
* average erosion
* rare natives (rare is easier for humans; i'd personally prefer average natives but rare allows us to start quicker)
* dense clouds (again, dense is made to allow us to build quicker)
* librarian difficulty (too easy a difficulty makes tech come too fast)
* standard rules with these exceptions: don't restart eliminated players, no unity scattering. With the normal unity pod scattering, the Pirates have a colossal advantage


There should be only 1 instance of a faction. In other words, no two players can play the same faction.

My choices for a faction to play are in this order: Gaians, Hive, Peacekeeper. That is, if another player absolutely must play the Gaians, then I'll play the Hive and so on.

There should be 2 computer enemies. They should be chosen in this order: Cultists, Believers, Morgan, Hive, University. So if someone is playing the cultists and morganites, the computer enemies are believers and hive. Simple enough, yes? I chose those factions because they are reasonably weak. The cultists are actually the most powerful militarily of the humans at the start of the game. Later in the game, they are kind of weak. The reason I chose 2 computer enemies instead of 3 is so that we can concentrate on the human vs. human aspect. I suppose we could just use 1 computer enemy or none but I think that it would be more interesting with 2.

My email address is vFoUmCiKtSuPs@mAuMtMaEnRtSworld.com. Remove all the capital letters to get my email address. We should all share email addresses.

As far as contacting each other goes, probably the best thing we can do is to simply agree upon a time to meet and the IP of the machine to connect to. We can use my machine if you guys want. I have DSL and a 700 MHZ chip so it should run smoothly. If you guys want to communicate online, we can use my mud. After logging into the mud, we can send messages to everyone. The mud is at telnet://pl.inetsolve.com:2000. The mud option may not be the best though. I simply would prefer to not get into the instant messaging thing. I've avoided becoming a part of that for all these years and I want to keep it that way.

[vomitus]

another thing

I'm willing to get up at 7 am Saturday which is 3 pm GMT. Also, I'll post some instructions for using the mud in the event that anyone actually wants to use that option. The mud is for combat but it also has plenty of chat capabilities. It's essentially a chat room that you adventure and fight in.

[Tubok]

Times

ok, unless between now and Saturday, a more difinite time is setup up, I will connect to the internet at about 5pm GMT (12pm EST) and do a search of available games. Hopefully whoever is playing Host (agreed upon prior to game time) will have the game initially setup. My email address is: b_k_roberts@yahoo.com , and I check it quite often, and will check it right before I search for a game...to get an IP number. The rules everybody has mentioned is fine by me... so far. I also think there should be at least 2 PC players (if not enough humans want to play). Guess as far picking characters, this si the order I wish to have:

SMAC = Gaians, Santiago, Peace Keepers
SMAX = Pirates, DataJacks, Cyborgs

Length of game? Hmmm. IF we do a Huge world (for example) and need to stop playinging for whatever reason, can the game be saved for a later day to be resumed?