ACDG6: Organization

[vyeh]

Random events are on, just like ACDG5 (recall that Santiago's Last Stand had an industrial boom (+1 mineral in every square) in MY 2193.

[vyeh]

Originally posted by Maniac
In SMAniaC the Angels have mind control immunity to prevent needing such house rules. So no need to worry about that.

Originally in Darsnan's how to build ghost secret projects.doc
Add the following information in at the appropriate location:

#UNIV
University of Planet, The Scientist, University, M, 1, Zakharov, M, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0,
TECH, InfNet, TECH, 1, SOCIAL, ++RESEARCH, SOCIAL, --PROBE, DRONE, 4, FACILITY, 8, MINDCONTROL, 0


...
Now all University units will possess immunity from mindcontrol just as with the HSA ... 
Note, however, that the Uni bases will still be susceptible to mindcontrol, infiltration...

If a base contains units that are immune from mind control, can the base be mind controlled (presumably it could still be infiltrated, probed for tech and credits and sabotaged)?

[vyeh]

Let's see what roles people want to assume.

(1) We don't have to run things the same way as in ACDG5. E.g. explicitly detailed orders to the turnplayer.

(2) I would prefer not to be faction leader initially (I took the role in ACDG5 when the player who was faction leader dropped out of Apolyton without any explanation).

[Nahkrinoth]

We're not sure how hard the game is going to be. We probably should use explicitly detailed orders.

You're good at being faction leader. We don't have to be in a hurry if you're short on time to participate often.

[vyeh]

Thank you.

Nahkrinoth,

What would you like to do? Would you be willing to be turnplayer?

Bodissey, Mark123jansen,

What would you like to do?

[Mark123jansen]

Honestly, what is there to do?

I've only been marginally involved in one demogame so far and that was years ago. So I'm not to clear on what exactly it going to happen.

[vyeh]

The aspect that is unique to a demogame is collaboration.

Major decisions (e.g. declaring vendetta) usually involve a vote among the active players.

Often responsibility for a particular area is assigned to a single player. In some games in the past, a single player would be responsible for choosing the techs to research.

And we need someone to actually play the turn and post the saves.

What I'd like to do is find out what your interest in the game is. Once we know everyone's interest, we can assign roles.

If you would tell me more about what you enjoy about the game (I think one of your posts mentioned you're a builder), then we could figure out a role that you would like in the demogame.

Since this is SMAniaC and we're playing a popbooming faction (it gets free children's creche with a tech it can immediately begin researching):

(1) there is a new tech tree, which will make tech choices interesting; and

(2) terraforming will require new strategies (farms and forests can be built before the tech for mines and solar collectors are discovered); and

(3) there will be infrastructure choices (once three techs are researched, we can initiate a pop boom) to control drones and maximize the economy and research.

Of course, there is always:

(4) exploration, initially land, but later sea;

(5) placement of new bases;

(6) once there is contact, the diplomatic game, including council politics;

(7) military preparedness, and once there is a vendetta, combat;

(8) probe actions;

(9) social engineering; and

(10) secret projects.

[Mart]

I would gladly join ACDG6 as a player. Till the end of December we have to complete a project, where I work, so I can contribute occasionally till then.

Re game setup.

First, it's great to see SMAniaC Demo game!!!!! I have to admit I like the mod a lot, but never played it as much as I would like to.

I think that it wold be still good to see a game prepared using scenario editor, the reason is to have difficulty level for AI forced to the level we want. As I recall otherwise it stays on default one, somewhere in the middle of the scale. AI on transcend plays the best, as I noticed.
There is some kind of a solution to this, when a player can do it.
- Start SP game
- Increase zoom to max an shield the screen where minimap is
- Turn on scenario editor
- Make forced difficulty level for each faction, the way Rubin described it, 7 times for each faction separately.
- Save scenario and restart from it.
This way a player will not know the map.

Map 30x60 would require probably human intervention to place faction in a good way. Unless map is prepared very well, then smacx game can do it fine quite often.

[Mark123jansen]

I have experience with the Smaniac mod, and I'm a builder at heart, though I never use pop boom (yes bad of me I know), so I suppose I can handle Terraforming/Tech/Exploration one or more of those I suppose if needed.

[vyeh]

Mart,

It's great to have you! I'd like to know what aspects of the game you would like (I can always fill in for you until your schedule permits).

Thank you for pointing out the AI difficulty level. Because the Cult is an opponent and Maniac has pointed out that the Super AI cult on Monsoon Jungle is lethal, I had hoped that Maniac (if he isn't interested in playing), Darsnan or Hydro might review the game to ensure the Cult is not near the Monsoon Jungle. I suppose I could ask the reviewer to also force the difficulty level.

By the way, if we follow the procedure of starting the game, using the scenario editor to force the difficulty and saving the game, will we still have a score or is this considered cheating?

Mark123jansen,

Thanks. I'm waiting for responses from Bodissey and Nahkrinoth before I can suggest your role.

[Mart]

Originally posted by vyeh
Mart,

...I'd like to know what aspects of the game you would like (I can always fill in for you until your schedule permits).

I was thinking about participating in general and our roles would develop as the game continues. We might have e.g. 10 turn terms for certain roles or more than 10, or variable. This way we would try various things, game would be more interesting.

For now I would be a regular faction member, that just happened to find himself in the Genesis Project faction. (if we play it)

...

By the way, if we follow the procedure of starting the game, using the scenario editor to force the difficulty and saving the game, will we still have a score or is this considered cheating?

It would be like a normal game started from a scenario. To restart there is an option "Play scenario" This in fact starts a new game.
Cheating is enabled when you only turn off the scenario editor without game restart.

[vyeh]

Genesis, 2101

I followed Mart's procedure. There is a slight glitch. The Cult of Planet doesn't land on Chiron until 2105, so

(1) I wasn't able to set the difficulty level for Cult
(2) It may still end up on the Monsoon Jungles.

What I did:

Following Maniac's instructions, I opened SAI Genesis player.zip into my SMAniaC directory.

I started a game randomly using the settings above.

I increased the zoom to maximum and covered the minimap.

I turned on the scenario editor.

With each of six factions, I went to scenario rules and toggled the force current difficulty level off and on.

In addition, I also set the difficulty level for each faction to "transcend."

I then saved it as a scenario and quit.

I opened SMAX in my SMAniaC directory and loaded the scenario. I then saved the scenario as a game.

I'm posting the zip of the saved game. I'd appreciate it if someone who is not a player would open it in the scenario editor and give a quick look. Do we have to worry that the Cult will be placed in the Monsoon Jungle?

If there are no problems, I'll start a turn posting thread. Otherwise, I'll generate another game.

Edit: Maniac looked at my saved game.

There were several problems:

(1) I wanted a 60 by 60. For the custom size, I put in horizontal 60; vertical 30. That produced a 30 by 120. I should have put in horizontal 30; vertical 60.

(2) The Cult wasn't created after 10 turns. Manica theorizes that when the game is saved as a scenario, the Cult is never created. So the Cult has to be added at the start of the game.

He offered to create a random game and place the cult. I accepted.

2nd edit: I edited the proposed rules by adding a rule prohibiting building AI formers, AI probe or AI probe foil.

[Nahkrinoth]

I'll be a general advisor. Unless our group gets large I doubt we'll need individuals personally in charge of specialized tasks.

[vyeh]

In ACDG5, it made things a little bit more interesting when I incorporated your sea base recommendations or when Bodissey would ask for more combat units.

Focusing on one or more aspects doesn't stop anyone from giving general advice.

Since you're interested in vertical development, why don't you look at base facilities (the -1 support and - 1 economy reduce the benefits of establishing a lot of new bases but building a crawler to harvest two minerals per turn from a forest will be a very tempting alternative to network nodes and energy banks)?

Every player should have installed the core SMAniaC (~2.5 MB) with the custom factions (~2.5 MB) and Boosted AI faction files (1 MB).

You can also download it in one package.

If you can read an Excel file, Hydro's summary would be useful.

Instructions for installing SMAniaC (if you don't have it installed):

(1) Duplicate your SMAC directory (strongly recommended unless you have a shortage of disk space). You can discard the SMAC application (SMAniaC runs with the SMAX application), any saved games and any scenarios.

(2) Copy the core SMAniaC and the custom factions into your main directory.

(3) In the Super AIs download, find "SAI Genesis player.zip," unzip it and copy the files into your SMAniaC file, overwriting alphax.txt and all 21 (7 SMAC, 7 SMAX and 7 custom) faction files (I'm not sure this step is necessary since the super AI modifications should be imprinted on the save game file; maybe a CMN could address this).

You can check whether you've installed SMAniaC and the custom files by downloading Genesis, 2101 into your SMAniaC directory. (Windows users may have to add .sav to the file.)

Open the saved game. Go to Menu > Help > Factions > The Shadow Ghosts.

If you don't see "Leader: Shadow Hunter Deian," please post.

Edit: If the faction leader pictures aren't right, you need to either edit your .ini file or you can start a game with the factions in the following slots:

1: Ghosts
2: Templar
3: Atlanteans
4: Consciousness
5: Cult
6: Angels
7: Genesis

Then load the save.

[Mart]

Maybe a training game before the actual ACDG?