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[Chaunk]

Are we planning on leaving the lone AI in then or eliminating them?

[Darsnan]

I prefer open comm link with your team mate from the start, as this then can lead to some different/ concerted strategies by pactmates ( I know I want to tell my pactmate immediately how I plan on playing the first 50 turns of the game, and what I plan on driving for techwise), as well as some real double entente's by our enigmatic CMN! Imagine trading world maps with your pactmate, realizing that physically "linking up" is a viable option. You and your pactmate start striving towards this goal, and lo and behold the Nexus/ Ruins/ Unity lies right between you! Happy Days! But wait, all of a sudden two other factions stumble into the Nexus/ Ruins/ Unity just about the same time as you do, trying to link up as well! And thats just one scenario of an absolute knockdown/ dragout fight that I was able to come up with: imagine what Googlie will have in store for us! Personally speaking (I played in a Googlie game "Renegades" over at CGN where it was two teams of two against each other, and we had communications with our pactmates right from the start) I imagine that even with the advantage of initial communication with your pactmate, that Googlie will easily be able to negate this advantage, as well as set traps for the unwary!
The other side of the coin is that by having the comm freq's right from the start, then nobody has reason to be concerned/ suspicious of other teams either sharing info in game, or talking offline. This is a game: lets have fun!

D

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Chaunk
Are we planning on leaving the lone AI in then or eliminating them?

If its anything like the AI Googlie put into "Teddy Bears Picnic", then I'd say yes, leave it in! The AI's power graph lead in that game is intimidating, to say the least: all 4 humans in that game are pancakes compared to the AI, and we have been "walking on eggs", so to speak, in our explorations of that Planet so far! FYI.

D

[KrysiasKrusader]

Wow what a discussion !

So what's my choice for faction again ?

If the Gains are still available, I'll take them.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by KrysiasKrusader
If the Gains are still available, I'll take them.

Gaians!!!! G-a-i-a-n-s !!!!!

Anyways, I called Gaians earlier today. FYI.

D

[KrysiasKrusader]

What !?? You always take the Gaings !

Okay, okay... I'll talk with my partner.

Back in a few minutes...

[KrysiasKrusader]

Allright, I think I've got it sorted out.

I'm gonna be representing the Planetary Government as the Peace Keepers.

Right ?

[Googlie]

So, If i have read correctly, the teams are:

Darsnan (Gaians) & johndmuller (Sparta)
Chaunk (UoP) & KK (Peacekeepers)
shadowlord3 (Hive) & Qantaga (Morgan)

It'll be a challenge to make the Believers a decent faction as I have done with TBP's Morgan, so there may or may not be an AI as the playtest dictates

Large map, average everything, spoils on, random off, all winning conditions on, team commlinks from the start.

How about monoliths? Recently, for skill games, I've been disabling techs and AA's - make you research, trade or steal the techs, and not be a random luck factor. same with AA's. They tend to favor the Gaians and Cult with their 3-tile mindworms' movement, and the Pirates and Spartans to a lesser extent with their increased mobility.

G.

[Qantaga]

Googlie, I do like the idea of you disabling techs and AAs from pods.

It would not bother me at all if you eliminated Miriam, but I trust your game judgement implicitly.

As for our factions, there is a chance that shadowlord3 and I might switch the Hive and Morgan, but I will let you know by tomorrow morning at the latest. Hopefully, that won't slow things down.

[Qantaga]

Googlie, please switch our factions around. shadowlord3 will play Morgan and I will play the Hive.

Thanks.

[johndmuller]

I like monoliths, I'm 50/50 on the AA's (I like to use them to help build SP's) and it wouldn't bother me if you got rid of the techs from pods. I likewise am willing to leave the question of Miriam up to Googlie - who seems to have the specs figured out OK as far as I can tell. Thanks, Googlie .

I edited my earlier post to include the email addresses I didn't know before, so they should all be good (assuming I didn't make any mistakes or use outdated info).

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Googlie
How about monoliths? Recently, for skill games, I've been disabling techs and AA's - make you research, trade or steal the techs, and not be a random luck factor. same with AA's. They tend to favor the Gaians and Cult with their 3-tile mindworms' movement, and the Pirates and Spartans to a lesser extent with their increased mobility.

oops - I didn't mean monoliths, I meant Unity Seed Pods

Usually I give the start position a monolith to hjelp kickstart the HQ, and often I'll plop a monolith close to a resource tile in likely base #2 and base #3 positions

And, of course, if techs and AA's are disabled from seed pods, the likelihood of popping a monolith increases as well

G.

[johndmuller]

So I guess everyone is happy with this. so Googlie, you can take it away (if you already haven't, that is ). Thanks again.

[smhfan86]

oh, oh, could i play miriam. yeah, i'll get my butt whooped, but it might be fun as, i'm sure i can cause some damage.

[Googlie]

smhfan86:

1 is a very lonely number - not sure how it would work out with 3 teams of 2 plus a spoiler.

I can do things to beef up the AI that in a human's hands would be overpowering (eg I can create for the AI a preformed energy park, give it, say 20 crawlers, as "lurkers" for, say 50 years but mark them as scenario objectives for 150 year term (so that the AI doesn't just use them as exploring scouts, which it is wont to do absent any instructions to the contrary). Thus after 50 years the AI gets at least 40 extra energy, if Environ econ hasn't been discovered, and up to 200 extra if it has. Quite a mid-game boost for the AI.

A human would just override these limitations and use the crawlers to instabuild the forst 3 SP's.

I'm sure this Team-based game will spawn others, so you'll be first on the list for TEAM #2

(What do the others think?)

G.