Opinions desired

[Hydro]

Question to you all.

I’m in a PBEM as Cyborgs. The other player is Morgan. The AI players are the aliens Beep and Bloop, Hive, Spartans, and Believers (a nice crowd, eh?).

Anyway, it was a Time Warp game and I ended up with PTS. That is a good SP, and I’ve built 13 bases as of 2168 with 2 more pods on the way. I’m Borging my way to the top! Hehe.

The question is about SE. To date I’ve been exploring and trying to contact other factions. I found Morgan, the Hive, and Caretakers. I’d love to go FM, but the unrest caused by my 3 exploration foils will kill their home bases. I currently am at none/planned (I’ll switch to Dem after the 2 bases are established in 2170).

So, should I disband my explorers and go FM? I could then build foil probes and continue exploration, but that would take at least a decade or two since I’d have to deal with drone control with new facilities (holo domes; most RC and crèches are built) and then build expensive foil probes. I don’t have IA yet (we’re doing semi-directed research), so I may decide crawlers are more important than exploration soon when I do get it. Or, do I hold off and stay Dem/Planned and try more exploration? Right now I’m leaning toward Dem/FM around 2171.

Hydro

[smacksim]

Yeah, that is tough when you must consider scrapping explorers to run FM. Considering you aren't going to be running Green, your foils won't be bringing spoils in the form of IoDs, so that lessens their loss a little. This comes up a lot with the Pirates who can do their initial exploration rapidly. Personally I just explore with transports and take the losses from IoDs until I can run Green and capture a few IoDs as independent explorers. But all the solutions really require pre-planning for running a Free Market.

In the case where you already have the explorers out there, too far to re-home to a specialist base, but not far enough to have met anyone, I'd keep exploring and pop pods constantly. There's a good chance you'll have the foil duplicated, making the duplicate independent, or you'll pop a unity foil/transport which will also be independent, especially far from home. As soon as 1 or 2 of your foils has found a replacement, then make the switch to FM. Or perhaps make it earlier and change workers to doctors at their home bases.

With the PTS you are nicely balanced against the Cyborgs growth. This can account for the lost workers at those bases.

Just one player's opinion,

Smack

[Hydro]

There are no pods to find since we had pod scattering by landing area only, so the only advantage in exploration is finding other factions for tech trading and trade deals.

As another stipulation of this PBEM we aren't allowed to solicit tech from the AI, only when they ask us.

I have a foil built already, and it is taking probe teams to **ahem** check out the competition. Probe teams can make good land explorers, too.

Hydro

[jtsisyoda]

Is it ethical to ask for advice about a PBEM in progress?

[smacksim]

Originally posted by jtsisyoda
Is it ethical to ask for advice about a PBEM in progress?

Always good to keep in mind. Seems to me like that would depend on the players involved. True strangers, yeah, it would seem a little weird to ask for advice in public. Then again, the opposition could do the same, or the player could take the opposite of what everyone suggests.

[Hydro]

Ethical? Absolutely. The other member of this PBEM visits Apolyton and can see anything I post. Moreover, we write up all of our activities in a turn-by-turn storytelling of our adventures as we role-play our factions. We post our fan-fiction over in the Fiction forum, if you’re interested. In the last PBEM (#8: Hive-Sparta) I also posted my password and turn every 25 years so interested readers could see how we were doing, and ‘see’ what the dialog was about. Obviously I trust my PBEM partner not to abuse the game. MasterBuilder is an honorable guy. This PBEM (Morgan-Cyborg) is our ninth.

Hydro

[Commy]

Go green economy. True, if you have blind research, and you don't have ethical calc, you'll end up with -3 growth from the cyborgs, but in my honest opinion, it's worth it.

[livid imp]

Personally I believe that exploring is overrated. FM can earn you the very techs you would be trading for. Since both I2 (FM) and Plan Nets (probes) are on the IA bee line this really should be a no brainer. I would scrap your gun foils and build probe foils and stay in FM as long as you can. Plus any faction that is difficult to reach by sea, is a candidate to have their research "borrowed". The AI never sends over enough troops by transport to be a major threat. By the time they do, enough time will have gone by you can get a truce.

As far as going Green.....IoDs are very nice, but I rarely find enough AAs to make up for the money and tech a +2 Econ gives you. And -3 growth? No way, still too early to cap off growth IMO.

Just my 2 cents

[Chaos Theory]

I'm inclined towards FM over exploration, especially since you've met some opponents, but it's of course hard to judge the tradeoffs without having played the game.

[Hydro]

Update: switched to FM in 2172. All my foils were scrapped. I still don’t have IA (no B-lines since we’re using semi-directed research), and the nasty Morganite PBEM player won’t be reasonable in selling me IA or Gene Splicing. The idiot GIVES them to the Caretakers to get them to leave him alone (for a while), but refuses to trade even up for High Energy Chemistry or Nonlin Math to allow him to defend himself.

I’ve met the Believers, who are very far away from me (and that is a good thing) and the Hive, who is a neighbor on a largish island. He’s been infiltrated, but I’m taking no chances and have defenses and a strike force of probes and impact rovers on my western coast in case he comes calling. Still unaccounted for are the Spartans and Usurpers.

The nice thing about Cyborgs and Dem/FM is that my efficiency is +4. That means I can have 19 (!!) bases with PTS (size 3 each) before bureaucracy drones become an issue. So, I’m going to continue to Borg my way to the top.

The Caretakers have been shooting up the power graph, evidently pop booming since their pop shot ahead of mine. Their tech is the best, too, since the stupid Morganite player has been giving Marr all his tech.

Maybe I should steal the tech from the cowardly Morganite. Would serve him right, and I’m not getting any trade out of our friendship treaty anyway. And what is he going to do about it since he doesn’t have Doct: Flex, any weapons tech, or armor besides synthmetal? The Morganite wants my world map and comm frequencies gratis, or thrown in for free with a tech exchange. He can go pound salt.

Oh, and there are no Unity pods since we selected pod scattering at landing site only. That reduces the importance of exploration since there are no juicy Artifacts to be found.

Hydro

[jtsisyoda]

Well if your opponent gave the Caretakers IA, just make sure the Caretakers give it to you as well. *cough* probe foils *cough*