Turns of SMACDatAss

[KrysiasKrusader]

Following is everything that I am aware that has happened concerning the Spartan - Hive contact; pact; and call for election. This has all been checked and verifyed several times over.

- 2199: Fromage mistakes a probe foil (probably a Believer one) for one of my units. He contacts me by e-mail saying we made contact. I assumed it was legit (actaully it never crossed my mind that it wasen't), so I never bothered to check. My mistake, that (hopefully) shouldn't happen again.

- 2200: We treated. I don't remember who sent the offer in the diplomatic box (I think it was me), but we obviously both agreed to it.

- 2201: Fromage offers me a pact in the diplomatic box, I accept. I sent him Planetary Networks ( I have this in an e-mail).

- 2202: I sent him Industrial Automation (indirect evidence suggested from an e-mail I have).

- 2203: I may have sent him another tech (I can't remember).

- 2204: I probably sent him Sythetic Fossil fuels (I can't remember either, but it would fall in with our strategy). Myself, claw919, Fromage, and DilithiumDad start passing around everybodies comm. freq.'s to each other.

- 2205: Comm. freq.'s pass around completed. Election called by the P.K.'s.


So that's the story...

I would like to thank all the people who helped in finding out what happened.

EDIT: Corrected from new evidence.

[DilithiumDad]

If we go back to 2200 before the erroneous pact and tech trades were made, there will be no need for disbandment of units or other such strageness.

[Mongoose]

I must retract a remedy I suggested in error.

Hive possession of Secrets of the Brain predates the Spartan relationship...it must have been IceCube's tech fromm the beginning. There is no need to disband trance units.

Likewise, CDS, Hive has had High Energy Chemistry for as long as I know about. No action need be taken in regard to any plasma armoured units.

[DilithiumDad]

Well, I thought something was fishy when I sas that the Spartans had a pact with the Hive, and when I asked for the Hive's commlink they were unable to produce it and pass it to me. You may have noticed that I went around to every other faction begging for the Hive's commlink, as that was the "missing link" for my being able to call elections.

I'm sure no one will believe me, but I'm not sure how I got the Hive's commlink. In 2205 I couldn't call countil and the next turn (2206) I could. I had two windows saying "so-and-so has accepted our diplomatic efforts" but of course with no details as to what was traded. I had thought it was from the Spartans, but maybe not.

I have my saved game files through 2198. I suggest we jump in the time machine and go back to the turn that the erroneous pact was formed. Granted, we all have knowledge that we did not have in 2200 or 2201 (location of unity pods, unexpected drones popping up, random events, etc.). It will be interesting to see how things turn out when everyone has forknowledge of what is to be.

[smhfan86]

I thought we had found the problem.

You and Fromage signed a pact and you sent him techs before you had made contact, which explains why Mong could still offer you the Hive comm, and the Hive your comm, and why it never showed pact in your profiles, even though you two were clearly getting energy from the pact.

Fromage, u did not kill 7 of my mindworms, more like 2 or 3 at most.

And you've got plenty more trance units than you claim.

[Mongoose]

We have found a problem, KK. Your pact with Hive is illegal. Only you and Fromage could prove or assert otherwise, and we have heard from both of you. Neither of you has made the assertion that it should stand.

My patience runs at a low ebb between the pact, DD's sly election call, being castigated for an attitude when objecting to all of this and your bedamned winking smilies.

[KrysiasKrusader]

Alright Guys. Let's relax a bit here, eh?

No-one is trying to pull any fast moves here, and the turn is held till we can figure this out.

Something went astray somewhere between 2199 and the present turn. This has been localised to some action(s) between; me, claw919, DilithiumDad, and Froimage. We are working on it now. But I still have to hear from a couple of people.

Mongoose and smhfan86...
Before we find 'solutions', let's find the 'problem' first. No? Then we will take appropriate measures to rectify the situation.

All we are accomplishing presently, is creating one big ker'schmozle in the tracking thread

Let's all have a little patience...

[Fromage]

You really had quite a army then. I thought when I killed about 6-7 mind worms, it would have slowed you down a bit. I had no idea that one trance unit / two cities would stop any assault.

Anyway, you will have a decent chance again when I will downgrade those units.

[smhfan86]

the reason why you haven't seen any more of my mindworms, is cuz I pulled them back, realizing they were no use against your newly acquired trance units.

if KK hadn't given you all those techs, including secrets, be assured, I woulda brought them down on you instead of pulling them back.

[Fromage]

Smhfan86, if I remeber correctly, I have destroyed all of you mind worms with speeders or scout infantries. No trance unit or any unit with plasma armour has never seen any combat. I only used those units that were in my cities in 2199.

Probe teams, I have used only one of those in last turn. If we replay 2206, there haven't been no probe teams in action.

[Fromage]

If I replay 2206, I haven't given any techs or com frequencys to anyone. So Spartans or anyone else didn't get anything out of the pact, so IMHO they shouldn't get any sanctions.

About my Hive then, I can chance planned to simple and dowgrade the trance units. That's ok.

Anyway, it has been clear from the first turn I played that Hive won't be alive much longer. When Mongoose attacked and now these sanctions, you propably shouldn't worry too much about this. Couple of Hive cities with scout infantries propably won't affect much on the overall situation.

[smhfan86]

Personally, I don't think Mong's suggestions are harsh enough.

The techs obtained turned the tide completely for Fromage, turning him from nothing, to a nasty military juggernaught.

Probe teams, planned for hive, trance, energy, SFF, Hi Energy Chem(combined with free perimeters), etc, make him much more powerful than he ought to be.

I find it difficult to continue, but will if harsh enough punishments and compensation are made, possibly even going back several turns, but even in that case, KK and Fromage will simply seek each other out quickly to make actual contact.

[Mongoose]

Originally posted by MariOne


- without any of the two possessing the EG, if someone (namely Mong) can offer Hive's commlink to KK, this is conclusive proof that KK lacks Hive's Frequency, THUS that also Hive lacks KK's Frequency, and that neither could legally contact each other in-game, not even mentioning sealing any deal or exchange or entertaining any relationship.

- OTOH, even if you play with the default setting that displays all human commlinks in a pbem before contact, this setting does NOT allow to call the 1st council, and the factions do NOT gain True Frequencies (*required* to call the 1st council) just by talking, *not even* when one of the two does it legally thatnks to the EG (which is not the case here anyway).
You're STILL required to actually have all the *True Frequencies* to call the 1st council.
THUS, if DD could call the 1st council, this is ALSO conclusive proof that he HAD obtained all the required True Frequencies when he did it, "SOMEHOW", but anyway legally. Because you can't gain a frequency "illegally"... except in a trade with someone you couldn't legally talk with, but this is up to DD to clarify and rule out.

- The only way I see the illegal Hive-KK contact having influenced the election, is by Hive having (illegally) passed DD's freq to KK or viceversa KK having passed DD's freq to the Hive.
Unless this happened, the benefits spawned by the illegal contact (Pact, trades, etc...) and the procedural issue about the elections, are two separated issues, and the right to call the election itself is not under question. my emphasis added here

...snip...

Cheers!
MoSe

EDITed just a couple of unreadable typos... (I left the readable ones in

Point taken, MariOne. There are two issues here:

1) the illegal pact
2) the legality of the acquisition of the Hive commlink by DD

If (2) cannot be proved, the turn will have to be replayed from DD's 2205 when he called the election.

Assuming that legality can indeed be proved, we must address the consequences of the illegal pact.

Commlinks aside for the time being, the consequences of this pact are conmmerce for Sparta and Hive, techs that either may have obtained from the other and units that might have been built or SE choices that might have been taken after being enabled by those techs.

The commerce issue and derivative research and ec is perhaps the easiest to remedy, albeit not perfectly. I believe this pact to have been consumated in the Hive 2202 turn. This is now the fifth turn that commerce has been accruing to Hive and Sparta that should not have been. I disagree with Dave about either of the two having to make monetary payments to other factions. Nobody should profit from this pact; spreading the profit merely rewards more players for the illegality. I suggest that the Hive-Sparta relationship be downgraded to truce by mutual action of the two players in the diplomacy window. If it cannot be set to
truce, then to treaty. If it can be set to truce, then that status should not be altered until 5 turns after such alteration can legally be done. If it can only be set to treaty, then future alteration must wait a sum of 10 turns plus a turn for every turn between now and the legal turn. In case that is confusing...if this election can transpire now, the legal turn becomes the Spartan 2206. The treaty would have to be maintained until the Spartan 2216, when it could be upgraded to Pact. If this election cannot take place now, let us assume that Sparta makes actual contact with Hive in 2209. If so, the legal turn becomes the Spartan 2210, the pact gets downgraded to treaty now, in 2206 and the treaty can be upgraded to Pact in the Spartan 2224 turn. Were the number of bases and the energy production of those bases frozen at current levels , this would closely equalize the gross commerce flows to each party over the time frame. Since number of bases and energy production change over time, the effect will not be so equal to what should have been...consider it a penalty for disregarding the contact rule.

The tech passage issue is much trickier. Techs cannot be unlearned. If the election is permissible this turn, only actions taken in the interval between 2202 and now are at issue. Most important is the Hive acquisiton
of planetary networks and their subsequent switch to PLANNED and construction of probes and the Hive acquisition of Synthetic Fuels and Secrets of the Human Brain.

The remedy I sugest for this may seem harsh, but here it is:

All probes of both Hive and Sparta are to be immediately dibanded in the open, without mineral accrual to any object under construction. It takes two to tango, as the saying goes, and KK should well have known he didn't have contact. It is fitting that he pay some penalty as well as Fromage. Hive, of course, is prohibited form constructing any probes until after he can legally obtain Planetary Networks, which would be next turn if this election goes forward. Furthermore, Hive must immediately change his Economic SE from PLANNED to SIMPLE, selling whatever facilities are necessary to make the change. He should replay the 2206 so as to accomplish that change in this turn.

All Hive units with trance ability must be immediately upgraded to non-trance designs or disbanded. Further trance units cannot be built until Brain can be legally obtained. The same for Missile units, though Fromage hadn't begun construction of any as late as his 2205, so any alteration to construction choices for those units can be accomplished at no cost when he replays the 2206.

I am willing to accept slight alterations in this, but only slight ones. I suggest MariOne might act as arbiter in the case we cannot reach agreement.

[MariOne]

Sorry if I interlope where I don't belong, but I'm killing time away as in mid August nothing happens at work, and my attention was drawn to this thread, which I presume originated smhfan's commlinks thread in this forum.

I just offer my humble .02€ CMN expertise, without any comment on the assumptions/intentions/suppositions you all had about real or virtual contacts, and not wanting to step in the least in the way of the official CMN here.
Many of the players here know me anyway one way or the other (hi Fromage, I'm your CMN MoSe @ACOL, I guess you indirectly mentioned me about the "other game" e-mail council broadcasting... ).

- without any of the two possessing the EG, if someone (namely Mong) can offer Hive's commlink to KK, this is conclusive proof that KK lacks Hive's Frequency, THUS that also Hive lacks KK's Frequency, and that neither could legally contact each other in-game, not even mentioning sealing any deal or exchange or entertaining any relationship.

- OTOH, even if you play with the default setting that displays all human commlinks in a pbem before contact, this setting does NOT allow to call the 1st council, and the factions do NOT gain True Frequencies (*required* to call the 1st council) just by talking, *not even* when one of the two does it legally thatnks to the EG (which is not the case here anyway).
You're STILL required to actually have all the *True Frequencies* to call the 1st council.
THUS, if DD could call the 1st council, this is ALSO conclusive proof that he HAD obtained all the required True Frequencies when he did it, "SOMEHOW", but anyway legally. Because you can't gain a frequency "illegally"... except in a trade with someone you couldn't legally talk with, but this is up to DD to clarify and rule out.

- The only way I see the illegal Hive-KK contact having influenced the election, is by Hive having (illegally) passed DD's freq to KK or viceversa KK having passed DD's freq to the Hive.
Unless this happened, the benefits spawned by the illegal contact (Pact, trades, etc...) and the procedural issue about the elections, are two separated issues, and the right to call the election itself is not under question.

Having taken the daring freedom to disturb you and mingle with your own private affairs, I am of course now obliged to offer you any service you should require me... but I trust you're able to sort out your issues on your own, in which case glad if I have been of any help.

Cheers!
MoSe

EDITed just a couple of unreadable typos... (I left the readable ones in

[Mongoose]

Dave, there is also the issue of more techs than I can count having been passed to Hive. Also, the research derivative of the commerce.

I don't want to address remedies yet...I'm very depressed acbout all this.