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Hi all, first post. Been lurking on the boards on and off for a long time but always played SP, so there wasn't all that much to ask that I couldn't find posted.
Got back to the game recently and am getting myself into a Multiplayer for the first time soon, so would like a bunch of questions cleared up that I didn't find answered to my satisfaction in older threads.
Some PBEM-technical stuff first:
1) Starting # of colony Pods
I tested some with the agreed settings to get a feel for random maps (always was a Huge Map of Planet fan), and noticed that sometimes some of the factions don't get the normal 2 Colony Pods, but only 1. I figure in MP this would be quite the crippling disadvantage, and should probably be avoided.
Anyone have a clue what causes this, and if anything can be done to prevent it happening, to save us the hassle of restarting when someone gets short-changed on Colony Pods? Difficulty is wimpy Librarian, incase that matters for starting pods.
2) Probe Bug
The problem where the wrong player gets the message after probe attacks only is an issue if the target is treatied or pacted, correct? Or does the Vendetta choice come up with neutral targets too? Also, in either case, does the choice always come up, or only if the probe team is detected?
My other big Issue: Blind Research.
The majority voted for Blind Research (I didn't.
), and I'd like some insight into how blind works, more precisely, how the 4 research priorities can be manipulated to get an at least somewhat playable tech progression (playable = crawlers. preferably before tech # ~15-20. Build priority doesn't cut it at all.). I looked over some older threads here and in the archives, but they posed as many new questions for me as they answered, or there were conflicting optinions.
Specific questions:
3) Does Blind decide from among all available techs, or from the same pool of techs that would be available in Directed under the same conditions? (Never really groked the mod3 thing, mostly did my early beelines out of now-forgotten experience of what worked and what didn't, but confirmation of this point would help nailing why the blind tech progressions suck so badly. Although I'd have to go out and understand that rule then ><)
4) How exactly are the Conquer/Discover/Build/Explore weight values from alphax.txt for each tech used to decide which tech is given? Randomly with higher chance for higher value in the chosen area(s)? Or just highest value, possibly adjusted for withheld techs as per question 3)?
5) How does picking multiple research priorities work? Are the respective weights added up before any calculations/decisions are made?
6) Do the weight values for the techs that the available techs lead to have an influence on the decision or not? If yes, how are they accounted for, just added to the candidate tech's weight or included in the choice separately, with prerequisite given instead if it is picked?
Hmm, while we are at it, might ask this one anyway about research in general, since I might need it depending on how question 3) gets answered:
7) Anyone feel like explaining the rule about withheld techs for dummies? A step by step how-to to find out which techs will be available or not would be awesome. Or point me to a thread discussing it thats light on mathematical terms (the ones I read about the issue were not. I got the basic idea, but no clue how to work it in practice.)
Sorry for the ton of questions. Help a noob out please.
Got back to the game recently and am getting myself into a Multiplayer for the first time soon, so would like a bunch of questions cleared up that I didn't find answered to my satisfaction in older threads.
Some PBEM-technical stuff first:
1) Starting # of colony Pods
I tested some with the agreed settings to get a feel for random maps (always was a Huge Map of Planet fan), and noticed that sometimes some of the factions don't get the normal 2 Colony Pods, but only 1. I figure in MP this would be quite the crippling disadvantage, and should probably be avoided.
Anyone have a clue what causes this, and if anything can be done to prevent it happening, to save us the hassle of restarting when someone gets short-changed on Colony Pods? Difficulty is wimpy Librarian, incase that matters for starting pods.
2) Probe Bug
The problem where the wrong player gets the message after probe attacks only is an issue if the target is treatied or pacted, correct? Or does the Vendetta choice come up with neutral targets too? Also, in either case, does the choice always come up, or only if the probe team is detected?
My other big Issue: Blind Research.
The majority voted for Blind Research (I didn't.
), and I'd like some insight into how blind works, more precisely, how the 4 research priorities can be manipulated to get an at least somewhat playable tech progression (playable = crawlers. preferably before tech # ~15-20. Build priority doesn't cut it at all.). I looked over some older threads here and in the archives, but they posed as many new questions for me as they answered, or there were conflicting optinions.Specific questions:
3) Does Blind decide from among all available techs, or from the same pool of techs that would be available in Directed under the same conditions? (Never really groked the mod3 thing, mostly did my early beelines out of now-forgotten experience of what worked and what didn't, but confirmation of this point would help nailing why the blind tech progressions suck so badly. Although I'd have to go out and understand that rule then ><)
4) How exactly are the Conquer/Discover/Build/Explore weight values from alphax.txt for each tech used to decide which tech is given? Randomly with higher chance for higher value in the chosen area(s)? Or just highest value, possibly adjusted for withheld techs as per question 3)?
5) How does picking multiple research priorities work? Are the respective weights added up before any calculations/decisions are made?
6) Do the weight values for the techs that the available techs lead to have an influence on the decision or not? If yes, how are they accounted for, just added to the candidate tech's weight or included in the choice separately, with prerequisite given instead if it is picked?
Hmm, while we are at it, might ask this one anyway about research in general, since I might need it depending on how question 3) gets answered:
7) Anyone feel like explaining the rule about withheld techs for dummies? A step by step how-to to find out which techs will be available or not would be awesome. Or point me to a thread discussing it thats light on mathematical terms (the ones I read about the issue were not. I got the basic idea, but no clue how to work it in practice.)
Sorry for the ton of questions. Help a noob out please.
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