smac pbem newbie tutorial

[Senethro]

Re: Reply to Senethro

Originally posted by maiasystemsltd
Senethro,

How do you get notified of a reply so fast? Nearly missed you.

I've got a Gmail account for receiving emails from forums I've subscribed to that I keep open most of the evening.

Um,... I am used to playiong the 'puter. How different is it from PBeMing?

If you're really impatient you could set one up yourself using the Mulitplayer menu and selecting Hotseat. A couple of times I've taken two factions vs. five CPUs.

What you have sounds exciting. Though, I am a little mistified still not having actually been strapped in and engaged. I can basically keep showing up and be a team player but I don't want to f*** w/ any buttons I shouldn't press.

Pressing all the buttons you want would be the whole point of a tutorial scenario.

Can you play this game on a Blackberry?

I imagine you don't mean the piece of fruit? Is it a kind of computer?
If it uses some kind of bizarro operating system the chances are no.

What were taking exams for if you don't mind me asking?
How do you survive in Scotland without an MBA?

I'm a first year Biology student in St Andrews with some psychology on the side. I'm not sure what you mean by needing an MBA to survive

[maiasystemsltd]

tutorial

Senethro,

Yeah,..I checked out "GMail beta" and it seems they're only offering it to a select few. That sounds like a cool feature. I am starting a small idea of a music business that doesn't bring in a consistent income stream right now and am on dial-up. I am not online 24/7 so I don't have monitering features on my PC.
Could be soon, though. A Blackberry (orig. Blue Berry) is the new line of PDAs with some ramped-up goodies around email technology and some Blue Tooth tech. thrown in for good measure. I was just curious. I guess I'd need a microscope to really enjoy myself though.
A Blackberry would alert me to the forum though.
I appreciate your suggestion to be in the "hotseat" as from time to time I like the euphoria of aplomb settling in after being in way-over-my head. But I don't think I want to take on 5 CPUs at once just yet.
I am fairly ignorant of Scotlands economy in general ( compared to the "Celtic Tiger") but picture it rougher than New York under the Bush Administration currently. Though my grandmother is from the "other" Kennedy clan from Scotland and would some day like to visit.
Biology is fascinating now and more exciting than ever!
General Electric has a HUGE campaign out for alternative "clean" energy sources aimed at making shareholders happy. I think they will be successfull as there is alot of nepitism associated with the old chemical plant cronys in this country that are digging their satanic hooves into our future.
Well I will poke around for some short games and take my chances to await your preparations in you tutorial.
I will also poke my head into some threads. I couldn't believe Fosse's edict on a Vendetta against his opponents!
Oh, I have one important question:
How have you found the search site feature on the recent Settler III?
I mean in this multi-player forum namely. I imagine it is a gold-mine of resource for having a stinking ball with diplomacy and all. I just didn't find my search terms yielding what i wanted.
Any way. I will stick around a little while longer.

ttyl,

loudon wainwright



-maia

[maiasystemsltd]

biology

Senethro,

I think I was thinking recent advances in stem-call research in S.Korea rather than bio-energy alternatives. My mind has a mind of it's own.
Sorry.

ttyl

-maia

[Senethro]

Re: tutorial

Originally posted by maiasystemsltd
Senethro,

Yeah,..I checked out "GMail beta" and it seems they're only offering it to a select few. That sounds like a cool feature. I am starting a small idea of a music business that doesn't bring in a consistent income stream right now and am on dial-up. I am not online 24/7 so I don't have monitering features on my PC.
Could be soon, though. A Blackberry (orig. Blue Berry) is the new line of PDAs with some ramped-up goodies around email technology and some Blue Tooth tech. thrown in for good measure. I was just curious. I guess I'd need a microscope to really enjoy myself though.
A Blackberry would alert me to the forum though.
I appreciate your suggestion to be in the "hotseat" as from time to time I like the euphoria of aplomb settling in after being in way-over-my head. But I don't think I want to take on 5 CPUs at once just yet.
I am fairly ignorant of Scotlands economy in general ( compared to the "Celtic Tiger") but picture it rougher than New York under the Bush Administration currently. Though my grandmother is from the "other" Kennedy clan from Scotland and would some day like to visit.
Biology is fascinating now and more exciting than ever!
General Electric has a HUGE campaign out for alternative "clean" energy sources aimed at making shareholders happy. I think they will be successfull as there is alot of nepitism associated with the old chemical plant cronys in this country that are digging their satanic hooves into our future.
Well I will poke around for some short games and take my chances to await your preparations in you tutorial.
I will also poke my head into some threads. I couldn't believe Fosse's edict on a Vendetta against his opponents!
Oh, I have one important question:
How have you found the search site feature on the recent Settler III?
I mean in this multi-player forum namely. I imagine it is a gold-mine of resource for having a stinking ball with diplomacy and all. I just didn't find my search terms yielding what i wanted.
Any way. I will stick around a little while longer.

ttyl,

loudon wainwright



-maia

I've just sent you an invite to Gmail.
All these mobile technology things are way over my head I think that even if you could get SMAC running on it, it would be like playing through a keyhole.

Scotlands economy is not bad at the moment. We've experienced a longish period of consistent small growth like the rest of the UK. Nearly all of our manufacturing industries are dead and our fishing industry is about to go belly up in a similar manner to the Canadians did a couple of decades back. The workforce is highly educated however and we have growing biotech and software industries.
Comparing Newyork and a country with a quarter of its population is like comparing apples and oranges. However, it has to be said that Scotland loses its best people to other countries, as it always has. Only 48% of Scotlands population is male as the rest migrates for economic reasons. Scotland doesn't have a shortage of work but the very best opportunities aren't to be found here.

If your grandmother decides to visit, definitely make it a summer visit. Scotland is not at its best from October to March.

You won't find the best PBEM diplomacy in the forums. I conduct most of mine by email. Fosse is keen on formalities, especially as we approach an interesting phase of our Glimpse of Chiron game.

Apolytons search engine is less than excellant. I've not found it very useful. If you're not finding what you want you can always try the AC-Multiplaying archives which are further down the forum index.

(And I'm annoyed that the S.Koreans got the jump on us this time after we cloned and brought to term the first mammal in Edinburgh. Raghr!)

[maiasystemsltd]

PMed?

Senethro,

PMed not PBeMed. I haven't gotten anything on GMail as of yet. I noticed my B-Day doesn't display right. Maybe you picked up a mottled email addy too.

My 3rd email addy is creamtowney@yahoo.com. It's given to everyone. I will provide you with my primary email addys if I learn how to mask it it like you do.
How could I forget Dolly! Sure, the first. It was an intense and revolutionary act. How could we have known the outcome? I think we all didn't want a scene from 'The Fly' with the monkey in the pod. (grusome)
But I think 'Lord_Icewinds' sign. says it well.
I am a bigger fan of growing organs from the owners modified DNA. That is just mind blowing!!!! I can't wait to see that adminstered successfully within my lifetime.
Grandma?? Grandmas seen it all done it all. Married to a 1950's vineyarder in the 'finger lakes' of NY state- she's got a nice nest egg that I'll never see.
Hell, I want to see Scotland. Get my s*** together and meet some promising woman along my heritage.
I love the ancient druidic/ rastafari dreads on Scottish girls.
Go clubbin' in Edinburgh. Oh yeah! S*** hope to play
Edinburgh first. I'm trying to get a band together here in the states to try to do something on par of the Police in the 80s. Barring the sound.
Eeerrrrr... hope I didn't give you a gender bender with the alias, mate. Just gettin in touch with my feminine side.
I am more of the Perry Ferrell fan club (Janes Addic.). Though if I could be half as good as the WaterBoys (Mike Scott) then well I could rest in peace for sure!

Anyway, still plugged in.

gimmee a shout.

-maia

[maiasystemsltd]

smax

Senethro,

I've recently acquired the SMAX version and am digging 'DataJAck' Roze at the moment. It's cool. Like Jazz cool.

ttyl,

maia

[Senethro]

Ok, heres a prototype for a demonstration PBEM. Its a SMAC game but should work in SMAX, the password for each faction is the colour of that faction.

The Gaians show the power of tree farms and a Pop boom achieved using Demo/Planned/creche.

The Hive shows a small ICS.

Morgan shows what even a small energy park can do.

The Spartans and BElievers are on a small island together to show how war works.

The Peacekeepers are the only unpassworded faction so you can set your own. They can call council on first turn.

Feedback please.

[maiasystemsltd]

Senethro,

*****in'. I'll follow up with you in 1-2 days.

-maia

[maiasystemsltd]

new tutorial

Senethro,

Impressive fortes for each faction.
Gaians have wall to wall carpeting of delicious tree farms.
What's an ICS? I can't find any instance in the maual with "match whole word only" (the word being 'ICS').
I never knew supply crawlers could be so useful.
Still, though I had a prmpt for every faction that 'the Gaians may have taken one or more extra turns'.
In turn sequencing and rules and regs how do we interpret that prompt ? How do we not take extra turns?
Whats the difference between hotseat/ email game and the other 'direct' game options when first setting up a multi-player session?
Lastly, how was the tutorial intended to be played?
Being a newbie I didn't know whether to post for a 'newbie tutorial game' or just investigate as I have done.
All in all I like the example of the scenerio editor that you showed in your work. It was exciting to see how malleable this game can be.

feedback please,

maiasystemsltd

[PJayTycy]

ICS = infinite city spread : placing bases very close to each other, and building a new colony pod as soon as your population will reach 2 pops. Bases stay small in pop-size, and you don't need much drone-prevention facilities.

Crawlers = the most usefull unit in SMAC (you can always use them as some sort of stockpile minerals if you don't know what to buid right now).

The prompt about reloads = a warning to other players that one player has played the same turn twice. For example if you notice a huge stack of enemy units at the very end of the turn there is nothing you can do about it. If you then replay the turn and take them out, that is considered cheating. That's why the popup comes.

hotseat / email games ask the players for a pwd every turn. You can play with some people on the same pc or (like most do) send the turn on through email. You can play without everybody online at the same moment. From the other options, basicly only TCP/IP is a valid option and here everybody plays at his own pc, everybody is online at the same moment, everybody takes turns to play. This usually are a lot faster games (ie: 5 mins / turn instead of 1 day / turn), but you have to be online for about 5 hours in a row to finish a game.

[maiasystemsltd]

many thanks

Hey thanks, PJayTycy,

Thanks for your comments. They were educational for me.
i can see more why Senethro did things the way he did. I didn't see the key to the Spartans and Believers example as evidently as the others. Though I know they are painted as at war with each other.
These examples are very educational and I think Senethro has nailed the idea well. I just wish I could figure out what the B & S conflict is all about.
All in all I petition the entire community here to stop and take a quick look at what Senethro has begun. Mostly because I am off to get my ass kicked in brand new enterprising newbie PBeM and will need to check back here on a periodic basis.
Much gratitude,

'maia'

[Senethro]

The Believer/Spartan conflict was just for you to see how war is done in a PBEM. Keep in mind that in PBEM you would only see one side of a conflict, you wouldn't see your opponents pieces move.

[maiasystemsltd]

check

Oh,

As Johnny Carson would say, "I did not know that".
It's a good point to re-iterate.
Thanks Senethro. And thanks for the "Edit" button.

[maiasystemsltd]

another look

Senethro,
I am about jump into my first game (newbie game) with you joining as well, hopefully. I'd like to post more questions here upon taking a 2nd look at the tutorial you built but would like to pose one primary question to you:
After my first couple of turn submissions how do you think the tutorial thus far and actual game play will weigh out? I'll share the rest of my questions here:

The Hive, packed so close together in co-habitation, is considered light years ahead in "faction dominance" (fact. dom. chart/graph). Why?

With the Gaians,: How come the Tree Farm and Hybrid Forests built together at each base aren't cumulative?
I only see 3(n), 2(m), 2(e) in any of the sq.'s of that green brush cut. Wouldn't there be more?

How is Morgan benefitting from a neighboring behemoth of a complex (sounds like my ego problems) when I only see one settlement. Is that complex the "energy park" you speak of?
Or did I overlook an underground civilization?

The UN is really packing them in there (10-12? citizens).
With the secret projects and buildings the drones are appeased for the time being.

Well, thanks again for all your hard work and will be referring to this thread off and on throughout my first trial run.



'maia'








AB Criollo98 Torps RULE!

[maiasystemsltd]

check it out now (PJay), my funk soul brotha,


'maia'