Anyone for ANY PBEM here?

[Flubber]

Upgrades in Workshop

I am fine either way and have played either way. Obviously upgrades must be allowed in the workshop . .. the only issue is whether upgrades are allowed only at the end of turns or if a player can upgrade and use the newly upgraded unit.

I don't care


On stockpile-- most games allow it and I would prefer to allow it since a little extra cash for everyone means faster builds and rushes

[bluetemplar]

I'm OK for Do or Die.
It seems to me that random events are not so unbalancing since the negative events happen more frequently to the leading player... it helps in a exponential growth game like Smac.
OK for SE changes, I meant what you said...

About probe it seems to me that your reputation between AI factions will not be really relevant anyway in this game...

About the 3 hours limit:
I thought 3 hours because it means that we will able to complete at least 1 turn per day:
for instance:
If the first player isn't available at 16, and the next is at 18, the second could pass the first turn at 21 so that the third could also do his turn at 22-23.
The player would have to LOG on the turn tracking thread and then wait for 3 hours.
What we should do is to set this time limit only for (europe) afternoon/evening, not for morning.
And maybe 3 hours is really too short and 4-5-6 hours would be better.
Otherwise we still can do 24-48-72 hours without logging in the turn tracking thread.

About the Alien Bug:
I checked some of the other bugs 2.0 corrects (drop in base, voiceovers, alien probe teams) and they are corrected...

[SebP]

i would also allow stockpile. if it is banned, there's the issue of it happening automatically and "unwanted" if you finish a project or building (as opposed to a unit) and have nothing in the queue next. even if you don't have "stockpile" in the queue as next build. for this reason, i would allow it for all. the ai's (who won't do it) are not for real competition anyways

about the other rules, i don't care too much. this includes the transport thing. after all, we will all abide by the same rules

i'd rather have the cult in then the pirates if we must have 7 factions. also, i would prefer no ais, but aliens are definitely ok

i'm with you guys on the time limit thingie. it's way too restrictive - even for me, and i DO pass a lot of time in front or at least near my pc. i don't think we need a hard limit at all, but 24h is ok (since i will probably never run into this anyways) . it will still move fast without a limit

[SebP]

oh, about random events. i would normally say they should be in, competitive play or not, a bit of randomness never hurts. i would instead leave the stupid bonus pods out.

however if turning off random events really prevents the "no contacts for 20 turns" i will vote for turning them off

though, in my aforementionened last pbem game 5 years back, this exact thing happened right during a world war. we agreed to allow communication only via the only ingame-option still available (so, no emails): landmarks :-)
it WAS sorta funny

[bluetemplar]

transport in Sea Base trick:
yes but it becomes wierd if the transport is a LAND transport.

land transport sea bridge:
yes, it's an exploit, but a costly one (i've also tested: it disappears the next turn) and one which enhances overall game strategy...

1-(Extra growth w/ColonyPod) should be named 1-(Growth w/ColonyPod over the base limit)

Stockpile energy bug:
AFAIK it also happens when you have a facility in construction, whatever is in the build queue.
So this bug is helpful for speeding the game, UNITS MANAGEMENT (stockpile energy prevents the base from repeating the current unit), and all the people that are interested in making lots of cheap units (momentum players!)

the "stupid bonus pods" as you name them are a huge boost for a momentum/scouting/planet friendly player!
And since the builders are overpowered in this game, i think the pods are a vere good thing (and they also add fun to the game)

"however if turning off random events really prevents the "no contacts for 20 turns" i will vote for turning them off":
I don't think there is a link between these two...

No commlink:
It will force us to actually scout for each other. (and roleplay better if you want to...)

Even better idea, as suggests sebP, is to only allow commlink between players when some of the following conditions are met:
-work in progress-

[bluetemplar]

Even better idea, as suggests sebP, is to only allow commlink between players when some of the following conditions are met:
You send a unit that you name "Messenger" or something like that to the player's unit/base/borders.
(a cool roleplay option would be that you can write the message in question only when the unit leaves your "unit proximity"/base/borders.
You have acess to the telegraph (some technology) and can communicate only if you build a road between your two factions : no more communications if the road is severed! (sea version= plant kelp farm???)
You use fungus as a telegraph (some native technology)
You have access to the radio (some technology) and can communicate if your bases are "near" (what is "near" is to be agreed upon : maybe the sensors array could act as antennae... maybe some techs coud raise the radio radius)
There is a planetary network across the planet (techs?/infrastructure?/sever-intercept-modify communications?)

Another HEAVY roleplay thing would be that you can't give orders to your units if you don't have contact with them: they continue their current work OR are set in automatic OR come back to your borders when work is done.

[Flubber]

So

Stockpile allowed ??

I like pods-- they do add some randomness but they also reward exploration-- if someone wants to get out there are explore rather than turtle and build, I can see that as a good thing


I don't agree with any of those special ideas for comm links-- free trade after you meet and not before works fine for me

Role-play-- I can get into it

[SebP]

Originally posted by bluetemplar
transport in Sea Base trick:
yes but it becomes wierd if the transport is a LAND transport.

Stockpile energy bug:
AFAIK it also happens when you have a facility in construction, whatever is in the build queue.
So this bug is helpful for speeding the game, UNITS MANAGEMENT (stockpile energy prevents the base from repeating the current unit), and all the people that are interested in making lots of cheap units (momentum players!)

basically just what i said

the "stupid bonus pods" as you name them are a huge boost for a momentum/scouting/planet friendly player!
And since the builders are overpowered in this game, i think the pods are a vere good thing (and they also add fun to the game)

never thought about this, you may actually be right. tehy also definitely speed things up, which is always good

"however if turning off random events really prevents the "no contacts for 20 turns" i will vote for turning them off":
I don't think there is a link between these two...

in that case i vote for random events. someone verify though

No commlink:
It will force us to actually scout for each other. (and roleplay better if you want to...)

i am also for not allowing any contact before meeting with units. i don't think anyone will see this point different

Even better idea, as suggests sebP, is to only allow commlink between players when some of the following conditions are met:
-work in progress-

i suggested nothing of the sort... full contacts after first meeting for me, except in the event of sunspots

and yes, allow stockpiling always since half the time it will happen automatically anyways.
i'm bad at roleplaying by the way, i fear. it's a lot of work too. might do a little but will most certainly not build up counselor characters who lead dialogs with sebp lal or hero characters or anything off the sort

[Humphrey]

I really would prefer stockpiling bug not to be used. If it is used, it forces everyone to always put stockpile energy in the queue after every thing that is built, which is really tedius, or else be at a massive disadvantage.
It only happenes automatically if you have nothing in the queue or have governer turned off, so just turn governer on to stop it happening.

[bluetemplar]

On single player games, I always put stockpile after a unit anyway so that if i forget to put something other to built after the unit is completed, the game don't waste my ressorces building a unit that most likely I don't need!

When I see "Stockpile Energy" in a base, i know that this base finished producing the unit/facility/sp and is waiting for me to assign it something other to build!

IMHO it is really tedious to NOT using stockpile after units!

It only happenes automatically if you have nothing in the queue or have governer turned off, so just turn governer on to stop it happening.

nothing in the queue => for buildings only
I didnt knew it would not happen with governor on... how does it works?

[Humphrey]

Governer choses some random thing to build, so that happens, stockpile doesn't.
You are told when a base has finished build in the event log at the bottom of the screen, you don't need to go looking at your bases or anything if you use that.
Edit: If it will get things started quicker, lets all be cheating bug-users, and use the stockpile bug. Will make the game go quicker I suppose.

I want CyCon btw.

[bluetemplar]

I find it's a lot more efficient to use stockpile:
-If the random thing that the governor chooses is something that I might build, but in fact dont need to?
-With stockpile you clearly see the geographic location of completed items.
-With stockpile you clearly see in the F4 screen what bases completed their items.
-The event log is too small, unclear, the information inside is about everything, even useless things like forest grown, and has some display bugs... Why use it when you can have a bright yellow stockpile telling you where the items are complete and if the base in question has good mineral production or not!

[Humphrey]

If the goverenr choses something you don't want, just change it.
Do you really look over all you bases once per turn? What if you have like 100 bases?
Right click on event in event log, choose 'zoom and erase' it will take you to the base screen of that base. repeat till all gone.

Anyway, lets not argue about this, I said I don't mind if we use cheating stockpile bug for this, will get the game started quicker.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Humphrey
Anyway, lets not argue about this, I said I don't mind if we use cheating stockpile bug for this, will get the game started quicker.

I don't think its cheating if we agree its allowed



So is there anything undecided at this point ??

[Humphrey]

bluetemplar needs to choose a faction. I think everyone else has:
SebP - PK
Flubber - Hive
Humphrey - CyCon

Also re: rules, default + do or Die ON, Blind Research OFF (Look first ON, but I think thats the default?, and Random events ON, again I think that's the default?)? Are these agreed on? Personally I don't mid random events being on or off, if it doesn't effect the 20 year no commlink thing.