Anyone up for a new PBEM?

[Phobos]

Looking for players interested in starting a new game.


SMAX, 4 players, standard/large planet, average settings and standard PBEM rules. Maybe someone would like to set it up for us?

My preferd factions are CyCon and Hive....

So, anyone up for it?

[Arcainite]

I need a game

So yeah, I'm up for it. I'm not currently in any PBEMs. My e-mail is Arcainite@aol.com

I'll play the Pirates.

[Addled Platypus]

what version?

I think i am updated, if not wont take long...count me in as Spartans

I dont have crossfire

PREXT at msn dot com

[Sebed]

Count me in as Morgan

[Senethro]

I would like to play, if you want a 5th playerand don't mind having a noob on board.
It would be my first game so you would have to direct me to that thread with all the PBEM etiquette. I'm still not clear about all the bugs and how to avoid them, like changing someones citizens to specialists on teh F4 screen, the whole probing shebang and voting for the governor.

I favour any flexible faction like drones, PKs etc.

[Phobos]

Originally posted by Platypus Rex
what version?

I think i am updated, if not wont take long...count me in as Spartans

I dont have crossfire

PREXT at msn dot com

Sorry mate, this is a SMAX game (alien crossfire)

Ok. we have 4 players. Now, lets see if anyone wants to step in as a CMN and set this game up for us and hold passwords etc.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Phobus
Now, lets see if anyone wants to step in as a CMN and set this game up for us and hold passwords etc.

I can do that

Phobos: Cycon
Arcainite: Pirates
Sebed: Morgan
Senethro: Drones
Suggested AI: UoP; Angels; Peacekeepers

(please all send me an e-mail - anything - to:

xxxlinfrew@aol.comxxx (without the 3xxx's at front and back, of course), especially if you have a favorite password you want used

(Senethro - I'll e-mail you a primer on PBEM playing that'll get you past some of the "what the heck do I do now" questions that you'll encounter in the mechanics of the diplo boxes, opening, saving, turn completing etc)

settings: standard/large planet, average settings and standard PBEM rules

Difficulty level?

Customized in-game rules? (these are the usual PBEM ones when the Cycon are involved. "steal tech" should not be activated, as that is the CyCon's unique faction advantage, and to give that ability to the other players would create an unbalanced playing field.)

[Phobos]

Great!

I suggest Trancend difficulty level. Also, if its ok with the rest of you, that we turn spolis of war of cause thats one of the Cyborgs special abilities. The rest looks good.

The AI factions are fine with me.

[Sebed]

I agree

[Senethro]

Transcend is good, spoils of war should be off. Otherwise I'm ready.

Googlie: Much appreciated, I've picked up a few hints from searching but some clarification would be very good. My email address is
XXXah59@st-andrews.ac.ukXXX

[Googlie]

Okay - am in the final stages. Just a couple of tweaks to create balance, then I'll playtest out some 30 to 40 turns.

One question though.

How weak - or strong - do you want the AI to be?

• A pushover for the first faction that encounters them
• able to hold their own defensively for the first 50 turns or so, but no real threat
• good enough to perhaps challenge for a military or co-op conquest
• strong enough that it'll take some human-player alliances to beat them back
• The works - able to win any way - and needing a human-player axis to defeat them

(CMN's have come a long way in this past year in the ability to make the AI genuinely competitive - without giving them so many units and forested terrain that it takes away half the fun)

And Phobos & Sebed - I need an e-mail addy

[Sebed]

For me AI might be not too weak, but not too strong.
My email: sebed@poczta.onet.pl

[Phobos]

I like the idea of human factions ganging up on the AI.

I sent you an email before Googlie but maybe you didnt get it. Ill resend it to you as I have a password I would like to use.

xxxsyrad_alien@hotmail.comxxx (without the xxx).

[Senethro]

Google:
How are you planning to tweak the AI so that its harder? If you're going to do it by giving them preset alliances and disposition to the human factions then "strong enough that it'll take some human-player alliances to beat them back" would be good. If you plan to do it by giving them even bigger production bonuses than transcend AI then I would rather they were able to hold their own defensively for the first 50 turns or so, but no real threat.

[Googlie]

Well, the conventional ways (forests or more units or some additional facilities) just result in the AI building more useless units.

And giving them mines or boreholes with starting crawlers has the unexpected effect that the AI cashes in those crawlers for prototypes, or to use as explorers!!

So now we employ a slightly different arsenal. A remote energy park with crawlers "lurking" for a few hundred (they can't move until a unit bumps into them) crawling energy to a super science base. That has the disadvantage that it boosts their early research rate (say twenty crawlers at 2 energy each, pre EE2) then after EE2, each one is producing 6 or 7 energy for a decent, but not overwhelming boost.

Our current preference is some energy satellites. That has the advantage that research grows as # bases grow and as population in those bases grows as well.

Then there are master-slave relationships that can be put into effect. Slave a researching Zak to an ICS minded Lal, and you get a decent powerhouse of a builder team. Or slave it to Sparta or the Believers, and, wow, what a great momentum team gets formed.

These are the kinds of things we're doing now, and it does give the AI a chance to shine as a builder faction (they actually do build crawlers!!)