Alien WaterWorld III

[Flubber]

Now are you two interested in a fast reliable players type game-- I'm up for any settings you might suggest. How about a 3 player game where we have 2 factions each? or a small map slugfest ? or a superhuge map buildfest ?


I'm just tired of games that don't go anywhere and think that all 3 of us have soem of the most reliable reps around

[Googlie]

ME .... ME ..... ME ...

I wanna play with reliable folks (4 "Emperors" game, eh?)

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Googlie
ME .... ME ..... ME ...

Originally posted by Googlie
I wanna play with reliable folks (4 "Emperors" game, eh?)

Well, after what Hobbes has done to me in Lost Secrets as well as Snails Pace, why I owe him an arse whuppin' or two.

That would make three. If we invite mart7x5 that'd make 4, however leave us without a CMN.

Another thought would be to set up two games simultaneously, this one with mart7x5 CMN'ing (and we either recruit a 4th or go with 3 Emporers) and that in the second one I'll CMN, with mart7x5 playing. Any thoughts on this?


D

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Darsnan






Well, after what Hobbes has done to me in Lost Secrets as well as Snails Pace, why I owe him an arse whuppin' or two.

That would make three. If we invite mart7x5 that'd make 4, however leave us without a CMN.

Another thought would be to set up two games simultaneously, this one with mart7x5 CMN'ing (and we either recruit a 4th or go with 3 Emporers) and that in the second one I'll CMN, with mart7x5 playing. Any thoughts on this?


D

Googlie
Darsnan
Hobbes ( assuming he's in) and
Flubber

make four before mart7x5 involvement

WE have some of the same folks in that proposed all spartan game so I don't know how that plays into all of this

I am up for pretty much anything and with anyone that any of googlie, hobbes or darsnan would deem as reliable. MY only requests in all games is directed research on and co-op victory off. I would also tend to keep games at 3-4 players but will play with 5 if people wish. No Ai, regular AI or boosted AI are all good .

So if all the people above are in, we have no need to recruit a 4th.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Darsnan


That would make three.

Originally posted by Flubber


Googlie
Darsnan
Hobbes ( assuming he's in) and
Flubber

make four before mart7x5 involvement

LOL - Gaian math

[H0bbes]

Yeah, I'm in, the turn rate for the current 3 has been awesome of late.

I've been thinking--inspired by Chaos Theory's Winter Solstice challenge (which I still haven't completed)--of a PBEM game involving some of the same factors.

Thread: Here

Sample text from Winter Solstice:
"A ruined city decades old lies here. Your troops set up camp here to investigate it. One evening, two soldiers intoxicate themselves, then decide to see who can breathe the native atmosphere the longest. Upon exposure to the atmosphere, they immediately notice a pungent, foul odor - that of rotting meat mixed with compost. More sober investigations show extensive catacombs beneath the city, where many dead lie entombed and where vast quantities of raw goods and materials are stored.

(You may create five supply speeders (0-1-2) at this location)"

Now you can't open a PBEM game in the faction editor but the CMN could set up a super faction whose only role was to dish out the "surprises"--techs, intel, units, ECs etc--as necessary. (That faction is to be ignored by the other players so it would need to be a non-AI game.)

Hobbes

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Googlie
LOL - Gaian math

Heah, how did you know I was thinking about taking the Gaians!


Anyways, it was just my thought that since mart7x5 is recruiting for a game, that maybe we should ask him if he'd be interested in joining as well. But, maybe not.

Anyways, my input for the game would be:

- Huge map
- 50/50-ish of land/ sea
- AI can build Probe Cruisers
- AIs aren't set to automatically hate humans


D

[Mart]

I can CMN this game.

[Googlie]

That'd be great

I think for factions we should all play alliteratively:

Darsnan's Drones
Flubber's Fungboy (Cult) (that was a stretch)
Googlie's Gaians
Hobbes' Hive

---- and that has a neat symmetry to it as well - two industrial powerhouses and 2 planet-friendly factions

with maybe the AI being Morgan and Sparta in a submissive pact with the University (to give us a research, economic and military run for our money)

[Mart]

I could start the game with tweaked AI faction bonuses, as you know, they get written into the save file. And there is no need for players to change any files for that reason.

Some ideas:
- INTEREST, smth between 3-5%
- TECHCOST (this one is not limited to 8) 50% gives some challenge
- SUPPORT, maybe lifted +2 or else.
- removing some negatives

Some of these tweaks you may find too drastic, damaging faction ideology too much

[Flubber]

Interest for the AI can be far too gamechanging-- Its not the cash the AI gets that is so bad-- its the amount that a human can steal-- I played a scenario with interest and stealing fron the AI became the single most beneficial thing to do--

[Flubber]

Oh and googlie

Flubber's fanatical followers-- Believers
Flubber's financeers ---- Morgan
Flubbers fortress fighters-- Hive perhaps sparta
Flubber's foul foreigners-- Aliens?

Give me time and I'll come up with a few more that sound better than Flubber's Fyngboy

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Googlie
I think for factions we should all play alliteratively:

Darsnan's Drones

Nooooo - not my anti-thema!

Personally speaking, from a role-playing perspective as well as just where I'm at in my PBEM career (just want a few games that I can really focus on) I'd rather play my Gaians for this game ("4 Emporors"). We already have the All-Spartan game forming up where we will be playing a Faction that we are all very weak at, so for me that satisfies my desire to "stretch my horizons" as it were.

As far as enhanced AIs are concerned: several points I feel that I can knowledgeably talk about regarding what works well for an AI:

1) taking away the negative aspects of a Faction. Example: for the Unis take away the -2 Probe, or for the Consciousness take away the negative Growth parameter. These are not overpowering in themselves, are not items that can be probed away (such as when CMN used to give AIs SPs), and so don't then make the AIs targets for aggression because of these enhancements. Alternatively you could change the + modifiers for a Faction so as to throw the human players off the scent of who they should attack first. Example would be where two of the AIs are the Unis and Drones. A human player would automatically beeline for the Unis in either an aggressive nature (to make them a submissive or to eliminate them as a threat) while avoiding the Drones (drain on manunfacturing due to battling sheer number of units the Drones produce, no real advantage tech-wise cuz their the Drones!). However if the CMN were to swap the + modifiers for the Unis and Drones, why that would cause quite a surprise for the human players encountering these AI Factions!

2) Add units to the #UNITS section of the alphax.txt file that benefit the AIs. Good examples would be an AA Rover available with Doc:AP, Googlie's Probe Cruiser available with Doc:Init, etc.


D

[Googlie]

And how about these 2 (one of them my favourite rant!!)

disable the Empath Guild
disable the Planetary Council (via the scenario rules menu)

that way, no automatic infiltration via either the EG or becoming governor, no global trade pact or raisong or lowering sea levels, etc

Make for quite a different game than we usually play

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Googlie
And how about these 2 (one of them my favourite rant!!)

disable the Empath Guild
disable the Planetary Council (via the scenario rules menu)

that way, no automatic infiltration via either the EG or becoming governor, no global trade pact or raisong or lowering sea levels, etc

Make for quite a different game than we usually play

Googlie-- I am in favor of eliminating both the Empath Guild and the governorship /Council-- I like when people have to work to get infiltration and the EG and governorship can often mean TWO players have it for 'free".

Darsnan-- I usually like your ideas for AI boosts and am willing to accept pretty much anything along those lines EXCEPT if the AI becomes a research or cash clear leader, the game can boil down to who is able to repeatedly proberape the AI. I saw attempts to give the AI interest on cash where I was proberaping thousands a turn so I am not much interested in that .