Turns of Democracy in Peril

[johndmuller]

MY 2147 to Tai Mai Shu - Peacekeepers

TMS: It will be interesting to see how that works in this game.

Darius: Unfortunately, the tech cost hit will probably come when you start researching the next tech.

Darius: If you get the WP, perhaps we can trade support costs somehow so that TMS & I can get the benefit of a few good formers to work on boreholes/condensors/mirrors where your MM wouldn't be too onerous. For example, in addition to providing formers for you to own and operate in our behalf, we could send a crawler for you to take possession of and then send back to nice places we would set up where they would provide resources for you. It sounds a bit cumbersome, but I imagine we can come up with a scheme that works without too much inconvenience or inequity.

[Tai Mai Shu]

MY 2147 to Darius

[Darius]

I sent the turn to John last night, but his email bounced it back. I am trying to resolve with him.

What does "MM" mean?

[johndmuller]

MY 2148 to Tai Mai Shu - Peacekeepers

Darius: Micro-Management as in the relaying and execution of orders to the WP-enhanced formers in this case.

[Googlie]

2148 (and password) has been sent to knowhow2

[knowhow2]

hey guys!
darius and I have been in the same game before and another one beside this one so I would say that we sort of know eachother. And johnmuller I haven't have the pleasure to play against/with before but I've seen and read a lot of your posts at general so you're no stranger in that point of view. anyway I'm glad to join this game.

so some update would be great and any tips on how we're suppose to play this one I would appreciate.

anothe thing.although my faction obviously is PK, all my bases and my comm link picture shows Spartans and you, darius shows PK instead of drones and you, john shows UoP instead of Morgan why is that?

turn to darius

[Darius]

Hello, knowhow, good to see you again. I hope you last longer in this game than you did in AXT049.

The icons are mixed up because this game was created as a scenario. Apparently, this is a bug in SMAC. You will notice a different icon each time you open a turn.

We three are working together against the AI. Googlie has set up this game to make the AI more challenging. I'll have to play my turn to try to remember what we are working on right now.

Darius

[johndmuller]

Welcome knowhow2, your nick is kind of similar to Tai Mai Shu's, so that makes you a fitting replacement.

I presume you've gathered that this is a cooperative game and that we are all pactmates against Googlie's souped up AI's, who are likewise pacted and highly likely to stay pacted and gang up on us any day now. We have not yet physically encountered an AI units, but some of their base perimeters are visible in our explored areas and Darius has been accosted on the commlinks and is officially in Vendetta with at least one of them.

We don't have any special insight into what TMS was doing with the PK faction, although given the way he has snychronized each base's development so well, I thought he might be planning a pop boom soon, if that's possible.

We have been exchanging tech and sort of coordinating research; if you haven't already read the thread, be prepared to find too much discussion about tech cost and the risks and benefits of working on the same tech as someone else. Some of that dialogue was in e-mails insteead of the thread, but the gist of it is that we are aiming for Fusion, Doc: Air Power and Restriction-Lifting, as well as AdMilAlgs (Clean) and MMI (Choppers) which share some of the others' prereqs. We agree in general on the research goals, but between our own personal preferences and the particular techs the game happens to offer, we have probably not been following whatever the optimal path would be.

Basically we always offer our "maps" to each of the others in a pre-accepted trade offer each turn along with any techs that may have been requested. There is a trade off between the (increased) tech cost (due to having more techs) and having the prerequisites for the desired new research items. Of course, some of the techs have immediate value in themselves. Anyway, our protocol is that you can feel free to offer suggestions about who should research what and you can also feel free to make your own choice as to what to research next in your own faction.

I have attempted to keep track of who has what techs and this is what I think the current situation is:
-We all have all the level 1 techs except Progen Psych which none of us has;
-We have all the level 2 techs except Field Mod and PolyM SWare and Hi Energy Chem. Of these, Darius alone has Doc: Loyalty and the PKs additionally do not have Doc: Flex and Secrets of the HB;
-Of the other techs, we all have Gene Splicing and Ind Auto;
-I am researching Neural Grafting (2153)
-Darius is researching Hi Energy Chem (2150)(really 2149?)
-Knowhow2 is researching Ecol Engineering (2151)(really 2150?)
-I think that there is a bug which gives me incorrect years for the factions after me in turn order so I think the second estimate is more accurate).

Knowhow2, if you want a tech from us, just put it in the thread and/or the turn (or separate) e-mail and/or inside the game in the trade dialogue area. You should think about the next tech you want in case you need us to give you a prereq for it; TMS might have been following the restriction-lifting path and aiming for Env Econ, but feel free to make up your own mind.

Please let us know if you want any more info.

I will need your e-mail address to send you the turns.
Mine is johndmuller@msn.com
Darius' is stephen.roy@snet.net or stephen_roy@hotmail.com; I haven't been sending turns to him, so I'm not sure of his preferences.

Again, welcome aboard; hope we all enjoy it.

[Darius]

Excellent summary John, thanks.

For the record, I want people to use my stephen.roy@snet.net address . I only use Hotmail to access my home email when I'm at work or away. And knowhow2s' address is lawalan@hotmail.com .

I detected and destroyed a Cybernetic probe team in my territory. That means they have ships in the water, so watch out. It also means I am in Vendetta with two factions now. Time for us all to bulk up our defenses.

I will finish High Energy Chemistry next turn. Could one of you please give me Gene Splicing (pre-accepted), then I can start on Synthetic Fossil Fuels next. From there it will be a short hop to Doctrine: Air Power.

I have completed the Weather Paradigm. Here's what I was thinking regarding formers. (Knowhow2, we have been planning that whoever gets the WP would operate formers in the other players' territories for their benefit.) You could build a clean former and transport it over to one of my bases, where I would take ownership of it. I would then transport it back to your territory and operate it in accordance with your orders. Alternatively, I could start construction of a clean former, and you could give me EC's to rush-build it.

I expect to complete the Human Genome Project next turn. Two AI factions were working on it, so I rushed it to prevent them from getting it.

Turn 2149 to John.

Darius

[johndmuller]

MY 2149 turn to knowhow2.

(acck! I sent you the wrong file in my email; unzipped too . Sorry.
The correct file is "Democracy-Morgan-to-Lal, 2149.sav" There is a text note with it, but I duplicated it in the correct email, so you can skip the wrong one (Democracy-Morgan, 2149) if you haven't already wasted the time downloading and trying to open it.

Darius, I believe you already have Gene Splicing. I don't think we have the tech for "Clean" (bio-engineering) yet either. Where did you encounter the probe (a land probe?); on your East coast?

Good to be back to this game.

John

[Darius]

"Darius, I believe you already have Gene Splicing." Hey, you're right. My chart was out of date. I probably got this tech during a turn I played at work. I opened an old turn to check this out, so there may be a reload message.

"I don't think we have the tech for "Clean" (bio-engineering) yet either. " I know. Sorry, I meant later, after we get it.

"Where did you encounter the probe (a land probe?); on your East coast? " Yes, a land probe. On my north coast, kind of across from your Channel Overlook base.

"Good to be back to this game." And how!

[knowhow2]

Thanx Jonh! (and Darius) for the crystal clear update. For now I guess I will continue what my predeccessor was doing namely building lots and lots of crawlers before going for any SPs (beside I think someone contructed the WP cause the option for it wasn't there anymore)

I'm sorry I didn't put more time into this turn but I just returned home from a long night (nightlife) and tired as I am I thought I just play the the turn swiftly (consider I almost don't have any troops and things to move around or explore), I just rush build some crawlers and one single rec com. I probably could look up where the WP went but I leave it to you guys to find out (unless one of you already build it - and Darius, I didn't quite catch the clean former idea - does it mean that the person WITH the WP still would be controlling the former but terraform where ever the other person wants or do you transfer the former over to the other person? because the latter doesn't make things better, does it?)

I do have one more important question. Do we have to play it clean or are we allowed to play it dirty (=nervegas, nervestapling and so on) to win?

turn to darius

and I'm very pleased to get the opportunity to try out one of this special MPs. I'm sure we'll make a great team.
Watch out Yang & co!

[knowhow2]

oh and John, i didn't have any problem with the files you sent cause I didn't see them until they all arrived so no sweat.

[Darius]

Knowhow2, as I said before, I have the Weather Paradigm. That is why it makes sense for me to operate my formers in your territory. They would have to belong to me for this idea to work.

I have completed High Energy Chemistry (level 3 armor). I'm going to start upgrading my defenders accordingly. Let me know if you want it. I'm working on Synthetic Fossil Fuels now.

I also completed the Human Genome Project. I'm now working on the Command Nexus as part of my denial strategy.

Turn 2150 to JDM.

[johndmuller]

MY 2150 turn to knowhow2

Darius, you're doing great with the SPs; I had bought into Googs pessimism about getting them, but maybe they are doable after all. Too bad about your tech cost, but I guess that's the price you pay for having all the techs.