ACDG5: Rules & Rules Discussion

[Mart]

This rules thread is part of the Alpha Centauri Democracy Game 5 ("ACDG5"). Anyone may post questions and comments about the rules in this thread.

Rules

• (1) Mutual respect. This democracy game is "newbie" friendly. Do not put down players with little experience or players who haven't read every thread in this forum.
• (2) Any use of the scenario editor is prohibited.
• (3) No repeats of saves to achieve a better battle result, pod popping or any other random result.
• (4) No playing alternative moves in the game saves.
• (5) No playing beyond current turn in the game saves.
• (6) Do not insert stockpile energy after a unit in the base build queue.
• (7) Do not make make more than one social engineering change per line, per turn. For instance, one is not permitted to start the turn in wealth, switch to power mid-turn for the extra disbanded minerals, and then switch back to wealth that same turn, getting the refund. Switching only to see results of the change without any played actions is permitted.
• (8) Do not perform multiple airdrops in a single turn with the same unit using the right-click menu. Do not make air drops using the right click "air drop to" function, when it is not possible to do so with the "i" button, ie. after already having moved or made a drop.
• (9) Do not use the F4 screen when you've infiltrated the AI to change the AI's workers to specialists.
• (10) Upgrades anytime allowed, i.e. you may upgrade a unit through the unit workshop and attack during the same turn.
• (11) No discovering bases in unexplored terrain by clicking darkened tiles.
• (12) Do not attack bases with copters.
• (13) Human players must build or conquer the base containing Voice of Planet SP for win by Transcedence.
• (14) Do not use build queue manipulation to hurry production at a cost that would be lower than directly hurrying the item that one intends to build.
• (15) Do not use build queue manipulation to build something you could not directly add to the build queue.
• (16) Do not exploit any other bugs usually prohibited in multiplayer games (e.g. trading a pop 1 base to an AI for a pop 10 base with 3 SP's). PLEASE ask if you're not sure!
• (17) The turnplayer will save and post the game immediately prior to hitting the "end turn" button.

[Mart]

And a reserved post.
In case there is need for an additional post with rules or additional info.
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#UNITS
32
Colony Pod,             Infantry, Colony Pod,   Scout,      8, 0, 0, None,    -1, 000000000000000000000000
Formers,                Infantry, Formers,      Scout,      9, 0, 0, Ecology, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Scout Patrol,           Infantry, Gun,          Scout,      3, 0, 0, None,    -1, 000000000000000000000000
Transport Foil,         Foil,     Transport,    Scout,      7, 0, 0, DocFlex, -1, 000000000000000000000000
*Sea Formers,           Foil,     Formers,      Scout,      9, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Supply Crawler,         Infantry, Supply,       Scout,     10, 0, 0, IndAuto, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Probe Team,             Speeder,  Probe Team,   Scout,     11, 0, 0, PlaNets, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Alien Artifact,         Infantry, Artifact,     Scout,     12,10, 0, Disable,  2, 000000000000000000000000
Mind Worms,             Infantry, Psi,          Psi,        1, 5, 0, CentEmp,  3, 000000000000000000000000
Isle of the Deep,       Foil,     Psi,          Psi,        7, 8, 4, CentMed, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Locusts of Chiron,      Gravship, Psi,          Psi,        4,10, 0, CentGen, -1, 000000000000000000100000
ETU-125,                Infantry, Formers,      Scout,      9, 1, 0, Disable, -1, 101000000000000000000001
Unity Scout Chopper,    'Copter,  Gun,          Scout,      4, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 000000000000000000100000
Unity Sea Droid,        Foil,     Formers,      Scout,      9, 1, 0, Disable, -1, 101000000000000001000000
Probe Cruiser,          Cruiser,  Probe Team,   Scout,     11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 000000000000000000000000
XX Missile,             Missile,  Conventional, Scout,      0, 0, 0, Orbital,  8, 000100000000000000000000
Unity Rover,            Speeder,  Gun,          Scout,      3, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Unity Supply Droid,     Infantry, Supply,       Scout,     10, 1, 0, Disable, -1, 101000000000000000000000
Unity Former Droid,     Infantry, Formers,      Scout,      9, 1, 0, Disable, -1, 101000000000000000000000
Support Copter,         'Copter,  Missile,      Scout,      0, 0, 0, MindMac, -1, 000000000000000000000000
AA Team,                Infantry, Laser,        Scout,      1, 0, 0, MilAlg,  -1, 000000000000000100000000
AA Rover,               Speeder,  Laser,        Scout,      1, 0, 0, MilAlg,  -1, 000000000000000100000000
SAM Rover,              Speeder,  Missile,      Scout,      1, 0, 0, DocAir,  -1, 000000000000000000100000
Falcon,                 Needlejet,Missile,      Scout,      4, 0, 0, DocAir,  -1, 000000000000000000100000
Probe Sub,              Foil,     Probe Team,   Scout,     11, 0, 0, Metal,   -1, 000000000000000001000000
Hover Probe,            Hovertank,Probe Team,   Scout,     11, 0, 0, NanoMin, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Hover Psi Probe,        Hovertank,Probe Team,   Psi,       11, 0, 0, Eudaim,  -1, 000000000000000000000000
Escort Cruiser,         Cruiser,  Gun,          Probability,6, 0, 0, Metal,   -1, 000000000000000100000000
Escort Foil,            Foil,     Missile,      Scout,      6, 0, 0, DocAir,  -1, 000000000000000000100000
AA Tank,                Hovertank,Gun,          Silksteel,  2, 0, 0, NanoMin, -1, 000000000000000100000000
Blink Tank,             Hovertank,Shard,        Scout,      0, 0, 0, Matter,  -1, 000000100000000000000000
Unity Foil,             Foil,     Transport,    Scout,      7, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 100000000000000000000000

You can discuss rules posting below.

[vyeh]

Could we remove "or other loopholes" in Rules (14) and (15)?

We discussed that here and here.

[vyeh]

Is this former tactic covered under our current rules?

Can we do it?

[Mart]

We do not have a rule presently prohibiting former exploits.

This one seem to work sparing only one turn for a former, e.g. if players moves 2/3 move over roads an infantry former in 2 consecutive turns, he gets only 1 turn back, not both. So exploit is not very big and growing.

Not sure at this moment, what do players think? On one side, using exploits adds to micromanagement.

[vyeh]

The pace of a demo game lends itself to micromanagement.

You could characterize the following situation as an exploit. A unit is on a road next to a former that will complete building a road that turn. The unit is the active unit. It waits so the former has completed the road and then moves onto the road. This saves 2/3 movement point.

We did precisely that recently.

[Mart]

In this case it is more choosing the order of unit activation within a single turn. The game completes terraforming before all units moved, but developers did not mind.

With formers it is in a way, that for infantry unit you effectively terraform a tile 4 tiles away along the road, even though infantry can move only 3 tiles along the road (excluding elite units). So this would be "stronger exploit"