Alien Waterworld turn reporting thread

[Googlie]

This is a SMAX game

Difficulty level is Transcend, tweaked (see below)

Players, in turn order, are:

Mermaids (Gaians) - FlameFlash ( flameflash@mac.com )
Seamen (Drones) - Mongoose ( jlnader@mindspring.com )
Gunrunners (Sparta) - GeneralTacitus ( anguniven@hotmail.com )
Disciples (Cult) - knowhow2 ( lawalan@hotmail.com )
Merchants (Morgan) - Shai-Hulud ( janne.huttunen@kolumbus.fi )

AI are the Aliens, untweaked for this somewhat experimental game (in my test runs they played reasonably well as aquatic factions)

Aquatics (Caretakers)
Nautilists (Usurpers)

World is 70% to 90% water, huge planet, average everything else

Game conditions are:

all winning conditions on
do or die on
look first on
tech stagnation - no
spoils of war - yes
directed research
intense rivalry - no
no unity survey
random scattering of Unity pods
No random events
all other custom conditions - no

Suggested play rules (the Forum Wars set)

• Communications - none till contact, obtain commlink, or build EG
• Total freedom in Design Workshop (upgrades anytime, during turn or on-field,
• Retro-engineering - OK, except for using the probe rover chassis before discovering Doc. Mobility
• SE switches "quickies" forbidden - (obviously you can experiment to see what effect various SE choices have, but cannot change, play moves, then change back in the same turn)
• Council notification - immediate broadcast to all players (Post in the thread and e-mail to all immediately by player who has called elections, citing candidates and votes. After each player's turn, post in the thread the running totals)
• Stockpiling in Qs anytime - OK
• Crawlers Upgrade anytime - OK
• Probe actions: Must choose vendetta option when probing other players, rebuke if a pactmate (OK to probe teammate at any time)
• Using the AI - Cannot use the AI to bribe on council votes nor to demand withdrawal of units
• Cannot use the right click feature for multiple drop moves to extend range (ie limited to 8 tiles unless owning the Space Elevator SP)
• Cannot use the 'set waypoint' feature for automatic worm hunting/lifecycle enhancements
• Must 'Accept' or 'Decline' an offered Pact or Treaty that the other player has indicated 'Accepted' before exiting the diplo box and playing the turn (i.e. no accepting pending treaties/pacts *after* declaring vendetta in the same turn )
• Cannot use the F4 feature (or the bases feature of the F2 screen) to change an infiltrated faction's workers to specialists

Passwords have been sent to all, and 2111 has gone to FlameFlash

Good luck all,

Googlie

[knowhow2]

Where can I find the files for the "tweaked factions"? I gahter you have to download them to be able to play.

[FlameFlash]

Turn recieved at 12:09AM today, will play after work.

Subscribing to thread now.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by knowhow2
Where can I find the files for the "tweaked factions"? I gather you have to download them to be able to play.

K2: you can download the ones you need for this game at:

http://googlie2.tripod.com/rynnsgallery/id10.html

Cheers

G.

[knowhow2]

Originally posted by Googlie


K2: you can download the ones you need for this game at:

http://googlie2.tripod.com/rynnsgallery/id10.html

Cheers

G.

G: should I put all the files in the facs-map or different places?

[GeneralTacticus]

actually my e-mail is angusniven@hotmail.com
You misspelt it.

EDIT: Damn, I misspelt it too . Edited to correct it.

[Googlie]

GT:

I've edited the opening post, but I don't understand - didn't you get the password and the explanation re stockpiling energy?

G.

[GeneralTacticus]

Actually I did get it, but I just thought we should correct it.

[Mongoose]

Originally posted by FlameFlash
Turn recieved at 12:09AM today, will play after work.

Subscribing to thread now.

Some odd shift, I suppose?

[FlameFlash]

Nope, that's when the send time was... should have clarified... turn sent on to you, mongoose.

[Mongoose]

2111 sent to GT.

I need 72 labs to discover a tech (two to start, Ind. Base & Doc:Flex) Does this sound right? WOW! 30 years at current output! Long time to go without formers, and ecology wasn't an option. *shakes head* Maybe I can change next turn. It's not like I have a lot of accumulated labs to lose!

[knowhow2]

I'll be out of town from the 27th till the 2nd (5 days). Can't play any turns during that time since I got no lap top or any other access to computers. Sorry about the dealy. Real Life.

[FlameFlash]

@ Mongoose. Well, if you and I run into each other I'll happily trade my ecological information for something on your part! I've already got formers in production Why do you think I asked for the mermaids?

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Mongoose
2111 sent to GT.

I need 72 labs to discover a tech (two to start, Ind. Base & Doc:Flex) Does this sound right? WOW! 30 years at current output! Long time to go without formers, and ecology wasn't an option. *shakes head* Maybe I can change next turn. It's not like I have a lot of accumulated labs to lose!

Partly a function of having another tech (doc flex)

But formers aren't so useful in a waterworld for the first thirty or forty turns - you need skimships, land colonypods and trannies (to get them there) - at least that's what I found in the playtests

G.

[Mongoose]

Well G., all I can say is that you play aquatic factions much differently than I do.

In standard SMAX, when playing Pirates, I try not to build land bases until after developing impact weapons. (Exception being if I really have to stake a territorial claim on land in the base radius of my first couple of bases.) Also helps to have biogenetics. Seabases have the benefit of having an inherent recycling tank without the requisite tech. Downside, of course, is the extra 4 rows of minerals have to be in the initial investment, rather than getting a contribution from the newly founded base.

It needs ecology to build seaformers. No seaformers-> no tidal harnesses-> no energy--->no tech. Energy specials and monoliths aren't all that common.

Funny thing. After posting the turn passage notification, I fired up a SP game using the factions we have in this one in their proper order. (Killed two birds with one stone this way, the game generated the properly configured AC.ini file without my intervention with the text editor, which I saved and can use with this game henceforward.) My initial tech cost for the same Seamen faction in that proto-game was only 46 labs. Only difference is that that game started in 2101, so I guess the Aliens haven't landed yet. Don't recall if the Disciples are yet in game.


Hmm. I wonder if the Unity wreckage will still yield all the starting locations.

Edit: Just noticed this map is huge. Pretty sure I ran my 'test' on only a large map. I'll have to re-test.