New PBEM Classic SMAC

[St Jon]

No new games seem on offer here. Would anyone be interested in a straight SMAC, not SMACX, game. Transend level on a large world with as many humans as would like to play with the AI making up the rest. Choose your faction, draws will be decided by toss of a coin, with exception that I get one of the sane factions, Morgan, PK, Gaiins or even University, not the militaristic, evangilist or Maoist nutters that represent the rest. OK Uni are fruitcakes but they are fun and the Green Lady is 1 plank short of a pile but she can still do quite a bit with a worm!

PBEM with minimum 1 turn per day, that is minimum hopefully more, which I can guarentee during the week and I would hope better during over the weekend.

Anybody interested? Long time since I played PBEM but the game is still a classic and even better with human opponents.

[florin79c]

I'm in

Hive

Wellcome to our small comunity

[mmontgomery]

Friendly Fire, go ahead and pick your faction first.

University for me, unless you want them. Gaia is my second choice.

Is there any reason not to play SMACX? It opens up some good factions that can replace some of the weaker factions from SMAC, like Believers.

[St Jon]

Friendly Fire, go ahead and pick your faction first.

University for me, unless you want them. Gaia is my second choice.

Is there any reason not to play SMACX? It opens up some good factions that can replace some of the weaker factions from SMAC, like Believers.

More nostalgia than anything else, though I don't like the Alien factions in SMACX, as SMAC was the first game that I really got into playing PBEM with all the story telling, plotting and backstabbing. I know what you mean about Believers being weak, against the AI they're a breeze, but I still have had my butt kicked in MP by them!

I will go for my favourite, and least successful in PBEM, faction Morgan. I've never worked out why I did so well against the AI with them and yet struggled badly against human opponents and I am DETERMINED to change that!

Seriously though, if it interests folks more to have it SMACX then fine. It is just personal preference as well as knowing how rusty I will be after years of no PBEM that the factions I knew from the start will be much easier for me to get back into and give someone a decent challenge. If it is SMACX then I would have to change favoured faction to Data Angels as I can remember just how short a PBEM can be as Morgan in a SMACX game!

If possible I would like to have at least 4 human factions so I will keep the thread open a while longer but great to meet you guys and hope to start annoying fungus in about week's time. Good to know that there are others who are still playing a game that has genuinely stood the test of time.

[mmontgomery]

Morgan can be a very powerful faction against human opponents, but it is very tricky to play it well. You must research and move to free market as early as possible, then go for Industrial Automation, to maximum your ECON advantage.

The real problem most people have is learning to play market well. You need probe teams to buy off units of any attacking faction. Trance armored probe teams make a good (but expensive) worm defense in cities, and sensors are very important. No police means extra problems dealing with drones. There are many other techniques, but dealing with free market limitations is the real key to playing Morgan well, since Morgan should never leave free market until he is ready to mount an offensive.

[St Jon]

I know and I knew but I just never ever seemed to be able to get it right against human opponents. I guess it's the way that if you are left alone Morgan will become incredibly powerful but the AI doesn't pick up on it, even at Transcend level, where people do and will hit you hard very early. I still like Morgan as a builder/developer type of player and I know that I should have done better in MP whereas my best results always came from PK and UNI. I even managed to win as Spartans and I am the least aggresive player you could find but come PBEM I just never managed to get the trick right with Morgan. I probably won't this time but I still want to try. A reason for classic rather than SMACX as a preference is that I can remember being utterly routed in under a month as Morgan by one of Manifolds on one of the occasions I attempted it at PBEM.

[florin79c]

It's your game, you decide. I'm sure a 4th will be here soon.

[mmontgomery]

The Alien factions (Caretakers and Usurpers) are always banned in SMACX multiplayer games. They are far more powerful than any other faction. The Pirates are often banned as well. So your typical SMACX games allow one to pick from any of the original factions, plus Prophets, CyCon, Data Angels, and Free Drones.

But plenty of people still play SMAC only games, so if that is what you want, that is fine. I just did not want you to worry about factions that are routinely banned.

[zsozso]

Hey guys!

I would be interested to join as the Gaians.
One turn per day sounds good to me.

[SmartFart]

It's quite possible to play Morgan against human opponents without go Free Market.

[mmontgomery]

It's quite possible to play Morgan against human opponents without go Free Market.

It is certainly possible, but not wise. If you were not going to go Free Market, I suggest one of the other factions like Gaia, University, Peace Keepers, etc. would be a better choice.

Morgan's +1 ECON is nothing to write home about if nothing else is boosting ECON. +1 energy per base is hardly worth the support penalty Morgan has.

On the other hand, if Morgan gets to +4 ECON (from FM/Wealth), then he gets a whooping +4 energy per base, plus additional commerce bonus, and +1 energy per square. Now that is a good reason to play Morgan!

So while you can play Morgan without Free Market, you handicap yourself, and against good players you will lose.

I am not suggesting that you stay in Free Market the entire game. It is difficult to impossible to launch a strong offensive in FM, so when Morgan is ready to make his move, he will probably switch to Green (for the efficiency bonus).

[florin79c]

One of the difference betwin SMAC and SMACX is that in SMACX you can chose the faction order , wich determens the order of the players. It's good to have a turn based on the players place in this world , it can make the game move faster.

As some know, in this game Monty, i work around 18h a day, 1 day work 1 day free, so i can play the turn when i go to work ( 7am ) or when i get home from work ( 3-4 am ) . In the free day i played up to 3 turns in one game. Btw , i'm +2 GMT

[St Jon]

That is a very good point - one of the many things I had forgotten - and I will launch via SMACX. This then brings in the issue of where we all are in the world.

There is also the matter of p/w protection of turns. Without a moderator this can be a nuisance if someone drops out. How big a problem is there with cheating nowadays? It was rare when I used to play but it did happen. I generally only played people I knew and trusted but on one occasion a game I played in fell victim to very dodgy combat results and a miraculous knowledge of geography. Very difficult to prove even when everyone knows that something is amiss. If we use p/w's is there anyone within the community you guys know who would be prepared to record/set them to allow for security and avoid the problem? Even actual launch would probably be better done independantly though nowhere near as important. I started this thread because I wanted to play not run a game so what is the normal practise now? Do you just ignore p/w's and independent setup and launch now?

[florin79c]

We need to decide the rules and preferences befoure we can start this game. Monty, you have the honor to set the rules cose i never do.

My preferences are :

Plante Size : Standard
Ocean : 50-70 %
Erosive : Average
Native life : Average
Cloud Cover : Average


Victory conditions : All
Do or Die : on
Flex stat : on
Tech Stag : off
Spoil of War : off
Blind Research : off
Intense Rivalry : off
No Unity Survey : on
No unity Scattering : on
Bell Curve : on

Tech trade on
Hurry SP with crawlers on


And we need a CMN. I propose we invite the fallowing : Mart, Darsan or Vyeh

[St Jon]

World settings fine for me - was thinking large but if 4/3 Human/AI then too slow a start before we start mixing. Also difficulty must be Transcend for a proper game especially with AI in the mix.

I think everyone has got their 1st choice faction so no coin tossing. I've been off the scene for so long there are no names from the SMAC side of Apolyton that I remember so I do need one of you guys to ask a friendly CMN to help. Mind you it's so long ago SMAC wasn't even on Apolyton at that time!! Really only for P/W record and launch so just needs someone who is reliable if anyone drops out to have the login secure.

If everyone can post their time zones, to make turn sequence easier, and email addresses - I'm GMT and jonathan.furderer[at]live.co.uk.

Hope we can start soon.