SMAniaC PBEM game?

[lumpenklompen]

I have not tried out your mod yet (need more HD space to copy the SMAX folder, just lazy for now). But I'd like to try it out in PBEM. And I'd go for playing a new faction, anything.

greg_002 - hotmail - com

[Maniac]

Trotsky and Kataphraktoi, does the first / and - in your e-mail stands for @ and the second one for . ? Just checking to be sure.

Anyway, with Trotsky giving his faction and e-mail, I'd say we have the five participants for the first game: Kataphraktoi, Humphrey, Trotsky, ERKUTHER and me. Could you please also post your time zone in relation to GMT? That's necessary for the CMN to make the most time efficient faction order. (Not everyone seems to have set his time correct here on Poly as far as I can judge - eg Trotsky GMT but with an Uruguayan flag)


lumpenklompen, I'd say five people is the maximum to have the turns flying by at a fast enough rate, however there's interest for a second game, so you could join that one together with Humphrey, ERKUTHER, me and perhaps ForesterSOF if he posts here again. (Any word from Senethro, Kataphraktoi?) If you have hard disk space shortages, perhaps ModMan could help you?


Btw, about rules? Was a standard sized map all right?? Also about additional game rules... just stating my personal opinion... how about no cooperative victory and no random events. IMHO cooperative victories stiffle the game diplomacy as sometimes permanent alliances are formed with whomever you meet first. Re random events, I like all of those except solar spots which make communication impossible for 20 years. That's a loooong time in PBEMs.

[ERKUTHER]

I'm at GMT -8 (North America Pacific Coast)

As far as communication goes, how is that handeled in a PBEM? Do you just communicate outside of the game via this thread and if you decide on somthing, do it ingame, or would it work as a simple Q/A where you pose a question/demand/request and wait until you next turn to get a response?

Also, are there any big no-no's in a PBEM that I might accidently do? (obviously doing save/restarts is illegal)

[Humphrey]

My time zone's GMT.
Email: warddamien - hotmail - com
Changed my mind re: faction, I'd like to try out one of the new ones, Order of the Templar. One question about them though, what does 'aversion to empath elites' mean?

[Leon Trotsky]

Originally posted by Maniac
Trotsky and Kataphraktoi, does the first / and - in your e-mail stands for @ and the second one for . ?

Aye.

Could you please also post your time zone in relation to GMT? That's necessary for the CMN to make the most time efficient faction order. (Not everyone seems to have set his time correct here on Poly as far as I can judge - eg Trotsky GMT but with an Uruguayan flag)

I thought I had set that right... anyway, uruguayan time is GMT-3, but we are under daylight saving time for the summer, so it is GMT-2 for a few weeks.

Btw, about rules? Was a standard sized map all right?? Also about additional game rules... just stating my personal opinion... how about no cooperative victory and no random events. IMHO cooperative victories stiffle the game diplomacy as sometimes permanent alliances are formed with whomever you meet first.

I really wouldn't like to play without cooperative victory. It's like Battle Royale... we could just encourage decent diplomacy instead.

Re random events, I like all of those except solar spots which make communication impossible for 20 years. That's a loooong time in PBEMs.

Agreed.

I'm a bit confused, with all the pages in the topic - what are the changes in the last SMAniaC?

[Mart]

Could you vote for settings?

______________________________________
Preference..	|	Settings

Map size	|	?
Ocean		|	?
Erosion		|	?
Life		|	?
Clouds		|	?
Difficulty	|	?

Transcend	|	?
Diplomatic	|	?
Economic	|	?
Cooperative	|	?
Do or Die	|	?
Flexible start	|	?
Tech stag	|	?
Spoils of war	|	?
Blind research	|	?
Intense riv	|	?
No survey	|	?
No scatter	|	?
No rnd events	|	?
Time Warp	|	?
Iron man	|	?
Rand person	|	?
Rand social	|	?

[Kataphraktoi]

GMT -5. I dont have country set, because the CSA flag isnt listed for some reason

a 50x100 map that has fairly average landmasses and everyone well connected. Just mimic say Felix Cactus for the other setts which were good there. Transcend difficulty, and everything else standard.

Senethro is quiet, maniac.

[ERKUTHER]

Any settings work for me, if a we do a vote and a tie breaker needs to be done I'll do that, otherwise assume I'm with the majority.

[Maniac]

First post updated with all the info re players.

Originally posted by ERKUTHER
As far as communication goes, how is that handeled in a PBEM? Do you just communicate outside of the game via this thread and if you decide on somthing, do it ingame, or would it work as a simple Q/A where you pose a question/demand/request and wait until you next turn to get a response?

Personally I prefer sending e-mails or PMs to each other for diplomacy. Though there's also a way to send short messages in-game. See screenshot:


click on the thumblink to see it full size

A nice tip: if you want the diplomacy window to pop up at the beginning of someone's turn so they see some urgent message, use "Give Energy" and transer 0 energy credits.

Re ending turns: you have to click on "Turn Complete". Then a window will pop up and you have to click "Save and exit".

Also, are there any big no-no's in a PBEM that I might accidently do? (obviously doing save/restarts is illegal)

Here's an extensive list from another PBEM. (don't be scared of the length! - or just skip it if you don't feel like reading it atm) There's some discussion whether or not the stockpile energy should be allowed or not.

• Upgrades using the design workshop can only be done at the end of the turn. This to prevent upgrading eg a simple scout rover to the best modeal available and let it attack the same turn - makes it harder to defend
• Retro-engineering allowed, except for using basic unit types such as probe teams, AI formers, etc...
• Social Engineering settings may be changed only once per turn. No “quickie” changing.
  
• Stockpiling in Build Queues allowed at any time
• Multiple drops or orbital insertions using the right-click menu is forbidden. So is airdropping from outside a base/airbase, or after having moved (except on a magtube) using the same method.
• Base growth through Colony Pods - can be used to increase a base size up to the applicable pre-facility limit, but cannot be used to breach that limit without the facility being built.
• Psi (or any other) units cannot be assigned multiple waypoint patrol routes (to avoid instant demon boil bug)
• It is not allowed to set the home base (Control-h) for a unit to be the base of another faction when the diplomatic stance is pact. The unit will then require no support from either faction.
• No base trading with the AI. Extortion and gifting is allowed.
• It is not allowed to trade technology to AIs in exchange for credits if as a result the AI's energy reserves would go into the negative.
• Cannot change an infiltrated faction's workers to specialists, for example by using the F4 screen (or the bases icon of the F2 screen)
• Transparent Commlink Logs - It is forbidden for any player, whether playing the turn or just browsing the .sav, to open a .sav file (current or past) with a text reader program (eg word, wordperfect, notepad, etc etc) as the in-game commlink exchanges are embedded in text in the .sav file and can be read by anyone. For that reason, and also to keep the save file size low, it's highly recommended to do all private communications per e-mail.
• It is forbidded for any player, whether playing the turn or just browsing any gamesave, to select left hand menu, then Game, then Resign. If hit accidentally, then immediately select the "No! Get back in there and fight" option. Selecting the "yes, time to slink away in shame" option triggers the game end scores and map expansion from the start (thereby revealing the start locations and limits of expansion of all seven factions).
• No communications without the correct commlink.
• Council notification - immediate broadcast to all players (Post in the thread and e-mail to all immediately by player who has called elections, citing candidates and votes. After each player's turn, post in the thread the running totals)
• If an aggressive probe action (anything except infiltration) is used on a faction you have a truce, treaty or pact with, you must select 'Declare Vendetta' in the dialog box that appears afterwards, and notify the victim of your transgression, unless you have received permission in advance. No notification is required in other cases.
• Demanding withdrawal to a human player through the menus rather than by negotiation is prohibited.
• Bribing (or accepting bribes) for votes through the diplomatic channel box by clicking on the human faction leader's picture is prohibited (must be conducted by diplo message or e-mail).
• Multiple reloading of the game to try for different effects is forbidden. If a reload is necessary because of a game crash etc., an explanation should be posted to the turn administration thread.
• This bug is not allowed: Normally, a base must have an Aerospace Complex to be able to build orbital facilities. However, if an Aerospace Complex is the item currently being built, then orbital facilities can be added to the build queue. If production is switched to something other than the Aerospace Complex, the orbital facilities remain in the build queue and will be built without the need for an Aerospace Complex.
• This bug is not allowed: On the turn a terraformer completes its terraforming task, its "flag" will be grayed out indicating that it has moved. Clicking on and activating the terraformer will allow a new terraforming command to be issued to the terraformer with the correct number of turns to completion displayed. Clicking on and activating the terraformer again, cancelling its new orders; at this point, the terraformer will have regained one movement point. Using the more advanced technique of this bug is also disallowed.
• It's not allowed to perform probe actions on a base that from one faction revolted to another human faction, unless the new owner decides and announces to keep the base. If the faction doesn't want the base that revolted to them, they have to gift it to an AI of their choice directly after receiving it if possible. If not possible, they have to starve the base and build a colony pod in order to destroy it, again as soon as possible (without hurrying). While disassembling the base, the new owner has the right though to sell off any facilities present in the base.
• It is not allowed to mind control with standard probe teams units or bases of any faction that runs a +3 or higher SE Probe rating.
• Due to the probe rollover bug, an enhanced probe team mind controlling a unit of a faction running +3 or higher Probe SE, would only have to pay half the credits it would have had to pay without the bug. To compensate for that bug, the probing faction needs to get rid of a sum of credits equal to the probe cost. This can be done by for example significantly overpaying for a hurry order, meaning the credits are wasted.
• It is not allowed to locate bases in unexplored tiles.
• You can't ask an AI to stop the war with a human, unless you have permission of that human.

[Kataphraktoi]

Bah my head is hurting trying to read that list of rules.

Maniac some of the base units are AI-only. There should be a clause saying ''NO ai units allowed.'' if there isnt one already.

Absolutely no stockpiling says I.

Some people tend to forget made agreements if you don't remind them constantly,

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Humphrey
Changed my mind re: faction, I'd like to try out one of the new ones, Order of the Templar.

Seems like the Cult will have a strong rival.

One question about them though, what does 'aversion to empath elites' mean?

They can't run the social engineering choice "Empath" Ruling Elite. (see datalinks or modSE.txt in the documentation folder)

[

Originally posted by Leon Trotsky we could just encourage decent diplomacy instead.

I can certainly agree with that.
Personally my diplomacy would be with the goal of ending up as strong as possible, not necessarily winning, no matter if cooperative victory is on or not. So if I was the third most powerful faction, I might ally with number one against number two if that meant I could become number two myself. Even if that meant I wouldn't technically 'win' the game.

I'm a bit confused, with all the pages in the topic - what are the changes in the last SMAniaC?

Do you mean the changes in the last update? In that case you can find them here.

Or do you mean the changes of SMAniaC compared to SMAC? In that case... SMAniaC more or less has a completely revised tech tree, so it's better to think in terms of discovering something entirely new than thinking in terms of changes made. If you can't find your way into SMAniaC, there is some info in the documentation folder in the SMAniaC download. The in-game datalinks work too of course.

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi
a 50x100 map that has fairly average landmasses and everyone well connected.

Are you sure? That's a map size larger than Large! Just checking because you seem to prefer a smaller map judging from your previous posts.


As for my vote:

Standard size map
Everything else average, keeping in mind that the world builder has been changed. Most importantly for me as the Atlanteans: the presence of ocean shelfs is significantly increased.

As for the other rules, how about this (don't care about cooperative victory or not)? Don't know if these are the standard rules as Kataphraktoi says.

Oh btw, do we have a preference for which AI opponents we want?

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi
Maniac some of the base units are AI-only. There should be a clause saying ''NO ai units allowed.'' if there isnt one already.

It's mentioned in the readmefirst.txt in the documentation folder, but I assume that's easy to overlook so:

"Another thing worth mentioning just in case: four AI units (AI Probe, AI Probe Foil, AI Formers, AI Sea Formers) have been added to the basic units list. These units are meant to improve AI performance and are not supposed to be built by you, the human player. I’d suggest to just make the designs obsolete, so they don’t clutter up your build option list. Of course don’t forget to design your own former now."
Little exception for the AI probe foil: that one you can build, but only if you have both Centauri Hydrology (foil chassis) and Information Networks (probe module).

Absolutely no stockpiling says I.

Ok.

Sorry.
Just a little frustrated as I've seen a couple deals fail because of that.

[Kataphraktoi]

Are you sure? That's a map size larger than Large! Just checking because you seem to prefer a smaller map judging from your previous posts.

Good point i mean 40x80 or so. Of course my CMNing makes a 50x100 seem small, see Problem with Planet

Sorry.
Just a little frustrated as I've seen a couple deals fail because of that.

I use ingame+email+PM and i cant even get the deals STARTED. some people are made out of brick it seems

Personally my diplomacy would be with the goal of ending up as strong as possible, not necessarily winning, no matter if cooperative victory is on or not. So if I was the third most powerful faction, I might ally with number one against number two if that meant I could become number two myself. Even if that meant I wouldn't technically 'win' the game.

Of course being number 3 could turn the tide whichever way you went... i might ally with number 2, kill off 1, then finish off 2 with a salvo of PB's

Absolutely no stockpiling says I.

That was a personal opinion BTW

[Humphrey]

Originally posted by Maniac
They can't run the social engineering choice "Empath" Ruling Elite. (see datalinks or modSE.txt in the documentation folder)

That's what I guessed, but maybe you should change it so it says it in the same way as the others ('cannot select Empath...')?

If the presence of ocean shelf squares have been increased, maybe max land would be better, as more of the ocean will be usable?

[ERKUTHER]

That's a lot of rules, fortunately I didn't know most of those expliots existed.


By stockpiling, are you talking about energy, or leaving a base building a SP thats already been finished so you can continually build up minerals and get and instant SP when a new one becomes available?