Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => Command Nexus => Topic started by: Misotu on March 02, 2016, 11:54:28 AM

Title: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 02, 2016, 11:54:28 AM

thedarkestcolors and Misotu with the following settings:

Transcend
SMAX with the original SMAC factions
thedarkestcolors as the Hive
Misotu as the Gaians
Huge random map, average everything, techsteal off, look first, world map not visible, no random events
Blind research
Yitzi 3.4

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 02, 2016, 05:35:01 PM

green is good, even if there could be more of it..

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 03, 2016, 09:52:53 AM

You never know - there may that little causeway off into the jungle   :D

Sorry about zipping my files btw - my internet connection struggles to upload a lot of the time.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 03, 2016, 12:32:12 PM

I sure wouldn't mind :D
No worries. I can also upload them compressed. You have the choice of 7z (usually smaller) and zip. I'll add both this time, because I don't know if you can open 7z files.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 04, 2016, 08:02:26 PM

Zip files are great, many thanks  :)  Sorry for the delay, we have been without internet for around 24 hours here  ::)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 04, 2016, 08:29:52 PM

no worries, happens. I miiiight not have much internet next week, if any at all.
Shall we use some naming conventions? Otherwise its a question of time till I get confused which file is which and send you back my turnstart by accident ;)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 05, 2016, 09:55:27 AM

Okey dokey!

Actually I am using the usual naming convention which is: <name of game> <faction name> <MY>   :P. When you click "end turn" it pops up the login screen for the next player and confirms the MY. I usually create a sub-directory in saves which I reserve for one PBEM - then it's easy to do because the MY is the only thing that changes each time.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 05, 2016, 10:19:59 AM

One thing I should mention: the in-game notifications don't work well in multi-player. As I understand it, only one player gets to see them so the convention is that if you see a notification, you post it on the board.

It's particularly important for the projects - people generally post on the thread when they are one turn from completing one, or when they get a notification that an AI project is "nearing completion". But there are other things too - like the Uni completing SotHB and so on, which are interesting to know.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 05, 2016, 11:38:44 AM

Quote

..the in-game notifications don't work well in multi-player..

That is so weird, good to know!

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 05, 2016, 12:09:29 PM

Yes, there are other minor things like you get messages telling you that other factions' forest or kelp has expanded - but it doesn't tell you about your own!

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 05, 2016, 12:36:22 PM

So maybe its just showing the messages to late/early.. Always surprises me how you can miss such a bug. But then again, sometimes things just need to be delivered and all you can do is hope for the best..

I can def. see some potential for a not so splendid start here :D

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 06, 2016, 11:34:42 AM

The jungle is just around the corner Chairman. And then you will be unstoppable   ;lol

There are quite a few things like that in MP - I think it's a bit of an after-thought and gets a lot less testing! Although to be honest I don't think they did much mid-game testing either. The balance between orbital defence and planet busters is annoyingly well-skewed  :(  Speaking as a builder that is ...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 06, 2016, 12:08:36 PM

Its not yet impossible to find the little jungle trail, 5 black squares left :D
I have only seen some Planetbusters sitting arround in AI towns, but never in use. Never build one either. Its so easy to take Ai cities with conventional troops, why bother building such an expensive 1 time use toy. So no idea if its skewed pro nuker or pro turtle.

For some reason I thought I saw turn complete blinking and all units greyed out when opening the save, so I thought I must have opened the wrong one and quit without doing anything. When opening again it said you will get some notice. Totally makes sense to prevent cheating I guess.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 07, 2016, 11:15:56 AM

Something like that has happened to me periodically - I find hitting "w" moves the game to an active unit if there is one. Don't worry about it, reloading happens to us all periodically. One thing though, you can save a turn part-way through and then load that save without any problems. So it's not a case of having to play a turn in a single sitting.

Planetbusters tend to crop up quite regularly in MP if you're building away quietly (and successfully  :mad: )  And I have never managed to research to defence pods before some bugger launches a nuke at me. Breaks your heart, honestly.

Good luck on the jungle!

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 07, 2016, 12:55:29 PM

yes, it was asking me to save, but I thought wrong save, just get me out of here. Next time I'll look twice and save just in case. Makes sense to be able to save in turns. It can take forever to go through just the pop ups of stuff beeing build later in game.

Yes, I can imagine, a few Happiness Wonders turning into a lake of tears can change thinks quite a bit. Hope you had some in stock for revenge ;)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 08, 2016, 10:20:02 AM

Sadly not  :)

But I have won a game after being nuked   :D

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 08, 2016, 11:08:09 AM

--> ;deidre;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 08, 2016, 11:32:01 AM

--> ;yang;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 08, 2016, 12:29:53 PM

--> ;deidre;
(1 black square left.. --> it certainly is hiding the jungle path ;) )

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 09, 2016, 09:56:18 AM

Bet it isn't   :)  Well, there's always Flex  :D

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 09, 2016, 10:22:53 AM

well its going to take me a few turns to walk there. But this turn turned things a tad brigther anyways, gotta be happy for the little things.
Whats Flex?

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 09, 2016, 10:33:56 AM

Beg pardon Chairman, but we Gaians have heard rumours of a Doctrine "Flex", said to be the ideal technology for escaping from teeny isles ...  We don't know much more as we've not seen it yet.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 09, 2016, 10:57:34 AM

hrmpf.. I think I figured out what went wrong last time as its happening again:
when you are asked to enter the password then accidently click on "save and exit instead" of ok, then see the save dialog and press cancel to get back to the password entering menu and then click ok: you loose your turn. Turn complete is blinking and I can't move any units :(

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 09, 2016, 11:17:11 AM

(Tried to save and exit and load the file, but it didn't solve things. So I had to reload the turnstart-file. At least now I know how to avoid it.)
That would indeed be a neat piece of technologie, unfortunately a lack of fresh water on our still to be hoped peninsula is rather non-beneficial towards our research goals.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 09, 2016, 11:45:44 AM

(I didn't know that before but I just tried it out after playing my turn and you're absolutely right ... unfortunately SMAC MP has these quirks. Still now we both know what not to do!)

The Gaians have encountered a teeny pink wriggly thing in the fungus - and it has joined our cause! This has really bucked up the spirits of our "very green" (oh, the irony) troops.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 09, 2016, 12:21:16 PM

A few of those wriggly pink things have just entered our (pen)insula as well. They don't seem to have come in peace, though, and they look rather disgusting, I really don't understand how you can keep the company of such an awkward "thing". Seems like they have to be dealed with before they start breading and spoil my expansion plans.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 09, 2016, 05:38:38 PM

It's true that they are rather unpleasant to look at. But they make excellent pets, I'm told.

In other news ... our researchers advise that they are engaging in a "blind" approach. So far this appears to be working very badly indeed.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 09, 2016, 09:09:12 PM

My scientists are experts in the art of blind research.. unsurprisingly they haven't discovered a thing yet.
And you were right about the jungle, well at least I don't have to share my island with anyone!

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 10, 2016, 10:56:47 AM

Our scouts have discovered an unexpected stretch of water. It appears that we, too, may be on an island although there is a little more to explore so it may not be so.

Nevertheless, our Research Director has ordered pictures of boats, yachts and ocean liners to be plastered all over the walls of our laboratories. They say it will help our researchers "focus" but I'm doubtful. How will they see these pictures unless they take off the blindfolds?

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 10, 2016, 11:22:31 AM

I shall try it with trip wire and a kiddie pool, that should wake the pirate in them, makes me furious that we can hop from planet to planet but anything wider then a river poses an insurmountable barrier.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 10, 2016, 11:43:56 AM

Yes. Baffling really.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 10, 2016, 12:34:14 PM

Well the little refreshment seems to have brought some enlightenment, we seem to have a better understanding of the planet now. Time to plant some trees and someone better starts building a raft out of those sometime soon, or I'll have to make them swim. Good that I brought along an inflatable, but with all those worms around its a question of time till I loose that little jewel.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 10, 2016, 02:20:37 PM

A unity foil? We dream of finding one of those, but our latest effort simply covered a large section of our little island/peninsula with a "fungal bloom". Whatever that is.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 10, 2016, 02:40:58 PM

A fungal bloom you say? Surely your new pets must be happy to hear that.
Some of those are still creeping around somewhere on my island, with fungus next to both bases and not enough troops to garrision them both And protect new settling efforts, risky times lie ahead. Lets hope that the gamble pays off.

It looks like someone allready claims the lands I was going to settle, so for now another small island will have to do, it is quite overfungused, but has a much needed source of fresh water, I will have my scientists move there once things are established, and have some trip wires installed next to the river.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 10, 2016, 03:03:05 PM

Well of course, in theory, it is true that fungus is a nice environment for our native pets. Indeed, the pet who popped the pod in question (affectionately called "Wriggly" by the troops) was heard to cry "yippee!"

However, rumour has it that despite Wriggly being the Lady's Favourite Pet, she was Not Pleased with his latest efforts. Not at all.

Poor old Wriggly.

Our unescorted colony pod has set off bravely to the alternative site that has not been ruined by the bloom. We wait to see how it fares. As you say, Friend Chairman, these are risky times indeed.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 10, 2016, 03:33:55 PM

Sending an escort along with my colony pod might have been just the right decision, it was ambushed by a worm but could establish a settlement and a perimeter defence just in time before the attack, so it was a piece of cake for my scout (at least thats how he tells the story, I certainly was chewing my fingernails), though it seemed like 2 of them where spit ashore by the strange alien transport that came like an isle out of the deep, so the other one might be lurking in the fungus right next to my unprotected base and take it unprepared while everyone celebrates our first little victory.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 10, 2016, 05:07:04 PM

We are rooting for you over here Chairman  ;excite;

The fungal bloom has yielded up a little native. It was not friendly and poor Wriggly nearly made the ultimate sacrifice while teaching it the error of its ways.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 10, 2016, 05:42:48 PM

So far everything looks calm, only 1 more year until every base can feel somewhat secure again. We even found a larger landmass to the north, unfortunately it is not hard to imagine that it is connected to my neighbours land. For now there is peace, I'm curious how long it will last.

May wriggly get well soon and find some friends among the locals.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 10, 2016, 05:46:20 PM

Mindworms, oddly enough, seem to have a tangibly lower capture rate of wild mindworms than other combat units...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 10, 2016, 06:50:46 PM

I didn't know that, but it's probably true. Still, the credits are good  :)

All is quiet and our unescorted colony pod has made the rendezvous with our exploring scout. Hoorah!

Wriggly is recuperating. But it is slow. Very slow.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 10, 2016, 07:00:12 PM

I play Gaian a lot.

Spore launchers can capture, but almost never do.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 10, 2016, 07:36:42 PM

Another unenventfull year has passed.
Wait, it wasn't all that uneventfull, we stumbled over another inflatable. It is much appreciated, how could I forget?

Is there also a difference for non-native combat units?

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 10, 2016, 07:50:23 PM

As in worms/etc. you build?  I haven't noticed a difference from captured ones.

Regular non-Planetlife units definitely capture more and kill less, if you've got the Planet rating to capture.  I wouldn't care to try to put numbers to the difference myself, but you could post in TOE and ask Dio to look for the relevant .exe code...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 10, 2016, 08:18:35 PM

Ah didn't even think about wild / captured worms.. good point.
I was thinking e.g. scout vs copter, or green scout vs. elite scout. (EDIT: airunits can't capture, so that wasn't a good example)

Maybe the natives have a lower capture rate because they can move faster through fungus --> higher chance of beeing the attacking unit.

Was just curious, for the hive its prop. not soo important anyways :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 10, 2016, 08:23:03 PM

I never use copters, and the green scouts at the beginning of the game have the advantage of each capture has a lower likelihood, so hard to say v. elite later when a green faction has already captured several - they definitely capture less.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 10, 2016, 09:38:33 PM

Copter and never in one sentence? Because you find them   too/ not sufficiently   powerfull?

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 10, 2016, 09:57:26 PM

Mostly because I never discovered the multiple attacks before I got my playing habits set -I go back to the year of SMAC's release- and the range isn't impressive, but the damage when you go past it is.  I pretty much don't use aircraft at all before antigrav chasis.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 10, 2016, 11:21:54 PM

Thats a lot of years!
I usually build cities as far into enemy land as I can, then range is enough to empty a city, drop a skydiving policeman, and hop in the city with my helis. Next turn = next city. (If a city is ever too far, then there is def. room for another city ;) )If that fails though I end up with a lot of badly bruised helis. The worst is when I have a lot of copters with 1 move left and an empty enemy city next to them and Then I figure out that I only Thought I still have an unmoved drop unit left.

Adding last turn again, so the Lady doesn't get lost in the jungle of posts ;)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Dio on March 11, 2016, 12:21:52 AM

Quote from: BUncle on March 10, 2016, 07:50:23 PM

As in worms/etc. you build?  I haven't noticed a difference from captured ones.

Regular non-Planetlife units definitely capture more and kill less, if you've got the Planet rating to capture.  I wouldn't care to try to put numbers to the difference myself, but you could post in TOE and ask Dio to look for the relevant .exe code...

I continue to look at the code as we speak. I would also like to point out that Yitzi spoke of this formula in the following thread. http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=6536.0 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=6536.0)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 11, 2016, 09:07:20 AM

Thanks Dio! That is a very interesting thread. Now if only there was a Manifold Nexus anywhere close :)

Quote

-The attacker must have at least one movement left, so no hasty attacks.  This applies even if the attacker is a native life form, which does not take an attack penalty on hasty attacks.

This sounds like the explanation for the perceived lower capture rate of worms vs. normal troops.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 11, 2016, 11:13:17 AM

20 years on Planet and the power graph appears. Exciting!

And ... oh dear. It's not good news for Wimpy Green Economics or the Iron Fist of Social Order. Quelle surprise  :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 11, 2016, 12:49:19 PM

Exciting indeed, it looks familiar for the current stage of settlement, at least I have seen worse. Esp. the pitiful Fanatics fill me with malicious joy, we tend to get along outstandingly terrible. I bet they get a beating by the nerds. (its not like we get along any better, so that might backfire sooner or later)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 11, 2016, 01:11:11 PM

Miriam gets such a bad press. I bet she's really nice when you get to know her   ;cute

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 11, 2016, 01:37:28 PM

For some reason she prefers death over serfedom (prob. believes in all that afterlife nonsense), so she is not making it particularly easy to get to know her more generous side.
Recent discovery of a sonar pod (as if that isn't bad news enough by itself) has revealed that the newfound landmass seems to be indeed connected to my neighbours stomping grounds. Now I have to make sure nothing is leaking to the press, I'd rather have my citizens dream of peace for a little longer.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 11, 2016, 07:14:38 PM

No-one more adept than you at information and population control Chairman. I have every confidence in you  :)

Miriam is a lost soul. :ahem:  But I bet if you moved in next door she'd give you a cup of sugar. Let's think positive!

 ;lol ;lol

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 11, 2016, 08:29:44 PM

She sure would, but I bet she'd do so only for the sake of making my teeth rot.
Well I have some practice, I like my citizens happy and productive and nothing makes people happier then having nothing to worry about.  I must admit, I admire your treehuggers at times, if I let my people run loose like that they immediately begin smashing things, nothing wrong with that, if its directed towards enemy lands, but it is tedious to replace all those burned down entertainment facilities around here. For now everyone behaves, lets keep it that way.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 11, 2016, 09:50:21 PM

 ;lol

I sense a darkness in you, Friend Chairman.

Our followers love trees and hug them often. They would never dream of smashing anything. Well, other than very very *bad* people of course, and only if they absolutely had to.

We love to see the good in everyone and everything. Have you considered walking in the Green Way?

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 12, 2016, 02:06:22 AM

It is often in the darker hours of the day when the more fruitful thoughts come along, so I take that as a complement.
Walking the Green way? I will  plant some Trees if that is what you mean, other then that I believe there is a myriad of urgent tasks that can't be delayed by being overly attentive towards the wellbeing of the planet.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 12, 2016, 09:35:42 AM

Okey dokey Friend Chairman. I dare say your mania for social control and our love of Planet will complement each other perfectly, given time and, er, a lot of *positive* thinking. :D

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 12, 2016, 10:20:53 AM

This sounds like a promising friendship indeed.
Quite surprisingly the new found landmass appears to be a separate island after all, with the hint of a long coastline. Now that is some good news.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 12, 2016, 10:44:39 AM

Good news! And although we have only sea at one end of our position, there is some land still at the other end. So things are looking pretty good over here too.

Still quiet - but it really does look as if Miriam is stuck on a teeny island with no boats and no formers. What a pity   :D

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 12, 2016, 01:12:00 PM

Or she had an evolution debate with the University and they chose a practical demonstration to prove their point.

Oh dear.... this year brought quite an unexpected surprise. Good of course... to some extent, but quite devastating as well. But more on that later, new plans need to be made.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 12, 2016, 01:51:52 PM

 ;lol

Well whaddya know ... huge map, acres of land and ocean and the map generator places the only two human-controlled factions next door to each other on the same bit of land.

Gotta love SMAC.

Lucky we're such good mates, eh?  :D

So we got to the in-game diplomacy quite quickly. Few things worth knowing:

1.   You can either send an offer and leave your status as "negotiating" or you can do what people call "pre-accepting", which means that you put in your offer and click the accept button immediately. This is particularly useful for things like pacts and treaties, which are always 2-way so if the other player also accepts it's fine. It's also useful for sending a technology urgently. You have to take care with this when you are receiving a pre-accepted offer, because doing something other than clicking "accept" will change the other player's status to "negotiating", which means you have to wait another turn to get whatever it is they are offering. Can be very annoying if you muck up accepting a tech you're just about to research yourself!

2.   If you simply type a message in but don't make an offer, the other player may miss your message altogether because the screen doesn't always (ever?) pop up unless there's an actual offer of some sort. Some people tackle this by sending a private message through the board to say that in-game diplomacy has been sent. I usually simply offer something harmless - as far as I know offering 0 energy will do the trick.

3.  In-game messages increase the game file size dramatically over time so it's best to keep them to a minimum really, esp. in a 2-player game like this where we don't need the confidentiality!

Anyway, I have accepted your offer of a Pact (of course) and would be most interested in a bit of tech trading too, if you are so minded Friend Chairman  :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 12, 2016, 02:31:20 PM

You seem to be a magnet for those kind of constellations :) Though a land-Mass I still have to see in this map ;)

Really lucky! Otherwise I'd be toast, with only claimed land and ocean all around.
Thanks for the info about the in-game-dipl. Looking forward to some tech. trading. I wasn't sure if I can do pact and tech. trading at the same time so I did only the pact.
Are maps not traded automatically like when you do a pact with an Ai? We can keep Communication in here.

So Biogenetics sounds good for me.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 12, 2016, 06:04:36 PM

Maps are not traded automatically in MP, even when pacted, so we need to do a map exchange soon.

Biogen for Doc Loyalty is a good for us and I have sent you this accepted. Once you've accepted that trade you might consider offering your map - I'll send you mine. It's not ... ahem ... extensive.

You can offer tech and/or pact and/or treaty and/or energy and/or map simultaneously - the system is quite flexible.

Well, no chance of us being toast now. The AI's days are seriously limited - their only hope is distance from us  :D

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 12, 2016, 06:37:55 PM

After reading the points on dipl. again, the maps would have been a trade I should have send with negotiating (rather then accept) status right?
Very true, Santiago is not among the lucky ones when it comes to distance ;)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 13, 2016, 01:08:48 PM

I've accepted your map and sent you mine by return. Oh dear. Bit unfortunately. What would you say to letting me take that base when it reaches pop 2 in exchange for some tech, Friend Chairman?

We do, of course, have a relationship of Perfect Trust, but it would just make me feel a teensy bit more comfortable ....  :D

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 14, 2016, 03:25:47 AM

I happen to like that little outpost where it is. Lack of room to settle is among my biggest concerns, so giving up a city would require substantial tech benefits and I doubt you have the tech to make such a trade worthwhile.
That little Embacy on the tiptoe of an appendix of your island is quite out of your way anyways and with all that room to the east to settle there should be no reason to be bothered leaving a few acres of land to my humble settlement. Apart from that I shall leave the rest of your tasty, resource loaded mainland to you.

You are quite lucky that you have Razorbeak Wood where it is, I was going to put my base close to there first, but then thought I'd rather put a barrier to the expansion of Santiago ;)

Meanwhile the "lost" worm showed up and ate my former. Now that will throw me back quite a bit.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 14, 2016, 11:45:15 AM

Fair enough, although on the tech front Gaian researchers have just beaten the Uni to Secrets of the Human Brain and grabbed an extra tech  :D

Otherwise, nothing much is happening ...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 14, 2016, 06:51:15 PM

Hehe I congratulate. My researchers have chosen to discover something totally useless (for the moment at least) instead. Researchers, tzz, just won't listen to the whip.

Here the hunting season has started, hopefully someone can get this little [**a thing that has perfected super suction**] of a worm, before he opens a zoo on ireland (aka my "mainland", the colony to the east has been christened northern ireland and my embassy shall be known as scotland and captain cook has set out to discover australia, but with my luck he will either find death or canada, with Uni playing the frenchies)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 14, 2016, 10:54:37 PM

heh. Well needless to say SotHB wasn't exactly our preferred tech so really it just slows down our research rate for getting to the stuff we *do* want. But hey ho. We soldier on ...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 15, 2016, 12:42:26 PM

My scout chickened out of taking on that worm, he claims a fortune teller told him that this is not a good year to take risks, what an idiot. Makes me furious, but what can I do, he is the only one with a weapon anywhere around, got to handle him with kids gloves or I'll end up with riots all over the place.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 16, 2016, 09:37:35 AM

Despite your reputation for ruthless autocracy, Chairman, you're really just a bit of an old softie aren't you?  :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 16, 2016, 04:57:50 PM

Charming as usual ;)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 17, 2016, 12:17:34 PM

My middle name. Lady "Charming" Misotu   ;lol

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 17, 2016, 12:44:35 PM

--> ;deidre;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 17, 2016, 01:40:06 PM

Back to the Chairman ...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 17, 2016, 06:25:59 PM

[Opens the door for the Lady]

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 17, 2016, 07:47:27 PM

:swoon:

Swoops through the door and back to the Chairman of Polished Manners and Social Skills  :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 17, 2016, 10:05:15 PM

 ;zak; of Uni has started the Virtual World

--> ;deidre;

[casting an eye on flex]

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 18, 2016, 11:41:57 AM

In the spirit of friendship and Perfect Trust, we are willing to offer Flex but we don't need Prog Psych at the moment. We would offer Flex now on the basis that we can take your tech later - possibly Prog Psych if it looks like we might be about to research it, possibly something more useful  :)

If this is acceptable, just remove Prog Psych and I'll send you Flex pre-accepted.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 18, 2016, 01:45:47 PM

Maybe you are right and we shouldn't overdo the tech trading. The other factions seem to have a rather slow start and there is no point in rushing to far ahead to early. Lets keep their spirits high for a bit.

Now in the past 2 years finally luck started shining on us for a change. We have set foot on a new shore and even our scientists made up with luck what they are lacking in skill.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 19, 2016, 10:54:14 AM

No I'm very happy to trade but every tech you get makes the next tech more expensive and Prog Psych is possibly the most useless tech in the game unless you have growth problems   ;lol

Will happily trade for Ind Base - see the in-game comms. We need to be fast as I will discover a build tech in 2 turns and it's very likely to be IB. So if you are happy with Flex for IB, please pre-accept so I can complete the trade next turn.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 20, 2016, 11:57:19 AM

If that build tech turns out to be Industrial Economics we would be very happy to trade sthg. for that as well ;)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 21, 2016, 12:55:37 PM

No such luck - looks like an explore tech!

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 21, 2016, 01:38:50 PM

Might be your beloved Prog. Psych ;)
Looks like you secretly started building the Weather Paradigm?

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 21, 2016, 02:03:45 PM

 :-[  I did indeed Chairman and I was certain that our PR people had issued a release on the subject. We Gaians are active in around three parallel universes at the moment and it occasionally causes confusion.

Humble apologies. It's just an SP marker so we end up getting *something* handy  :D

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 21, 2016, 05:32:22 PM

That's alright, a similar mishap happened to us O:-) We sent out a messenger pigeon a while ago to inform you that we are planning to establish another settlement on the tip of the peninsula. Apparently it found a mate on the way and they used the letter as part of their nest.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 23, 2016, 10:25:01 AM

Apologies for the delay - we have family staying ...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 23, 2016, 11:53:20 AM

Don't worry. As soon as the weather permits I'll be gone for days without internet every now and then.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 23, 2016, 12:00:13 PM

Hiya, the download file is xxx.SAV.7z and I can't open it! Could you repost please? 

Edited to add that I did mess around with winzip, but it's just trying to add it to archive and there's no way of getting it to simply decompress the file for me. I'm fine with the standard winzip files you've been posting.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 23, 2016, 02:55:11 PM

oops. Sorry, hard to shake off old habits.. ;)
[7z is just a different compression algorithm, it usually has a better compression rate then zip, but is not as widespread, yet] 

Changed it to zip.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 23, 2016, 06:52:11 PM

Thanks for that  :)

Now that I'm back on track ... what was that about a base on some peninsula somewhere?

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 23, 2016, 10:08:40 PM

My people are crazy about your hippie culture, so I had to add a vacation retreat next to my embassy in scotland. It shifted the borders a bit, but shouldn't be too much trouble, I hope. My transport got delayed on the way, otherwise I would have just made up a tourist attraction and build a hostel-city on one of the million tiny islands.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 24, 2016, 01:25:17 PM

OK. How can I put this?  While we're obviously chuffed to bits with our new neighbours, we really do feel that we're reaching the point of "too much of a good thing" so we call on you to honour your commitment and build elsewhere  :)

We still haven't seen anything of anyone else round here ...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 24, 2016, 05:55:15 PM

Hehe, no worries, I just had to squeeze that 1 town in there. We have in the meanwhile stumbled over some new uninhabited islands to settle, so this was def. the last settlement on your island, not that my folks start asking for democracy in the end.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 25, 2016, 11:33:21 AM

Good decision - democracy is powerful and rather contagious, we hear  :D

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 25, 2016, 12:12:44 PM

Turns your people into a bonoboic frenzy I have heard. Well I wouldn't mind that aspect of it to spread over the sea.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 25, 2016, 12:22:01 PM

 :) 

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 25, 2016, 02:41:15 PM

~~> ;deidre;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 26, 2016, 12:02:44 PM

 ;yang;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 26, 2016, 07:13:29 PM

to curly head

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 28, 2016, 12:52:01 PM

Curly Head reporting in:  Peacekeepers have initiated production of the Virtual World

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 28, 2016, 04:58:57 PM

~~> ;deidre;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 29, 2016, 02:22:09 PM

 ;yang;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 29, 2016, 03:41:47 PM

~~> ;deidre;
   
 

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 29, 2016, 07:21:47 PM

 ;yang;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 29, 2016, 10:11:31 PM

the girl with no curl
jumps into a swirl
she must have had a reason
for its not quite the season

she starts a mighty twirl
before the helpless earl
[..tbc..]

a giant strong and burly
leaps in to get her out
the girl is now all curley
now that was worth a stout

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on March 31, 2016, 10:20:06 AM

We Gaians are puzzled by your ditty. Fascinated of course. But also puzzled. Please tell me this is not an ancient Hive Battle Song   :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on March 31, 2016, 11:19:25 AM

hehe no worries, its but a tale we heard of your youth, might be nothing but rumors of course. You seem puzzled indeed. Lost in dimensions, thinking of war so much that you send me a glimpse into a Spartan World. [wrong save ;) ]

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 01, 2016, 10:32:25 AM

I'll be gone for a few days..

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 01, 2016, 11:46:47 AM

Hi there, so sorry about the save file Chairman. See you when you get back!

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 01, 2016, 12:49:12 PM

Well, one more before I go :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 04, 2016, 02:23:19 PM

Your timing was impeccable ... we keep losing our internet connection, just got it back today but not sure for how long!

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 04, 2016, 07:21:27 PM

Good timing indeed as I just returned today :)
We are not too fond of the trade you are offering, but in the name of friendship we will accept and hope for some more beneficial trades for our side in the future.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 06, 2016, 12:03:09 PM

Understand on the trades - I guess we feel we were very charitable not taking your base on our island with our handly little spore launcher playing in the fungus right next door   ;lol

We are of course pacted against the AI (ahem) so naturally we'll be very helpful in the future. Although watching your relentless ICS and fancy base coding, we're not sure you'll be needing our help that much   ;lol

I haven't played SMAC very much for a long time now and I've forgotten quite a lot of detail about how stuff works. One thing that is puzzling me (although the answer is probably obvious) is that you are getting energy from our Pact and I'm not. Which seems weird but I honestly can't remember how it works now. I know Morgan has an advantage, and I know various financial SE settings boost trade income, but I didn't think Police State had any effect on trade ...

Any ideas?

Any ideas?

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 06, 2016, 03:11:58 PM

I sense some aggression in your voice, unprovoked as I must add and not for the first time.

A note on terminology:
with ICS I would have 12 cities on my main land and not 4; 6 rather then 2 on my 2nd island (which has perfect builder spacing btw :P) and so on.

About the pact benefits: I assume they are a certain percentage of the income of the cities involved in the exchange and my cities simply don't generate enough income yet.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 08, 2016, 11:09:23 AM

Ah no, a poor attempt at humour, sorry   :)  The Hive has to expand given its lack of pop boom and splendid police rating ...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 08, 2016, 01:36:50 PM

oh, despite all the smileys, it was somehow lost on me.. We Can (in theory at least) pop boom, though its def. not our speciality ;)

We would be interested in Planetary Networks and we have something nice to offer in return ;)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 11, 2016, 01:40:23 PM

Of course, Friend Chairman. We agree to the exchange. May our glorious Pact live forever  :D

Sorry about the delay ...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 12, 2016, 02:46:59 AM

Those wriggly little worms surely love me.. As soon as I manage to fence one off, another bunch of them slithers out of a beached whale somewhere on my shores.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 15, 2016, 09:28:02 AM

I'll be gone for a few days..

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 15, 2016, 12:43:53 PM

nevermind.. plans have changed.. I'll not be gone..

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 15, 2016, 01:08:36 PM

Sorry about the delay FC - a combination of internet problems and glorious weather  8)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 15, 2016, 07:24:53 PM

no worries.. glorious weather and internet problems work well together :)

It seems like the planet is not too content with my presence, 4 worms and a spore launcher next to my cities now. Its a never ending story.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 16, 2016, 03:02:25 PM

And here's me hunting for mindworms high and low with no success   ;lol

Hoorah! A xenofungal bloom all over my hoped-for base site ...   :mad:

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 16, 2016, 09:07:54 PM

I tried to send them your way, but they just won't listen..

Well, see it this way: more hunting ground for some mindworms ;)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 17, 2016, 11:43:30 AM

Well, yes. I could do with the money, that's for sure   :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 17, 2016, 12:51:16 PM

Agreed, discomforting they may be, but their financial benefits are undeniable and nicely compensate some inefficiency issues we are dealing with lately.

The Spartans came to say hello with their Battle Ogre, sure sign of a long lasting peace I would say  ::)
I hope some worms will have a feast on it. Apparently some were already nibbling a bit.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 20, 2016, 01:01:07 PM

A Spartan battle ogre is serious. Is there any chance at all that it has just turned up for a play date?

Apologies, you will get a re-load message. I hit "end turn" when I'd just got into the turn, no idea why other than a senile moment. Couldn't find any way of going back to the game from that screen so I reloaded, hope you don't mind. Never done that before!

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 20, 2016, 01:48:38 PM

Well actually it might come in handy, IF it chooses to cancel itself out with the bunch of worms I just popped conveniently next to my new settlement.

2:1 for the reloads I guess, so I finally get to see what that message looks like.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 21, 2016, 10:31:31 AM

If it doesn't, the worms may do their own thing anyway  :)  Quite fortunate, since they don't heal!

I decided that going for the WP is too samey and besides which I never make the best use of it   ::)  So the Gaians will complete the Merchant Exchange next turn, all being well.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 21, 2016, 11:22:28 AM

An odd choice in my eyes, I'm not sure if Morgan approves of this decision :D

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 23, 2016, 10:13:59 AM

I've never built it before in MP  :)  A change is as good as a rest ...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 24, 2016, 11:02:37 AM

I usually liberate it from Morgan, in the process of establishing eternal peace, but then its never really in a convenient location.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 26, 2016, 11:36:52 AM

Well given the start here I thought I might as well experiment   ;lol 

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 28, 2016, 01:47:07 AM

:)
I guess that's what Miriam thought, only that her experiment didn't work all that well..

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on April 29, 2016, 11:35:47 AM

Well, that's Miriam for you   :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 29, 2016, 12:12:23 PM

Well she has made some progress lately, I still doubt that she's getting anywhere ;)

How is your hunting going? We are having a splendid season, another worm just showed up, ready to be burned for some pearls.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 29, 2016, 02:40:03 PM

I'll be gone over the weekend..

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on May 01, 2016, 11:39:16 AM

No worries. Here's a turn to play when you get back  :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on May 02, 2016, 10:04:02 AM

:)

So the Uni finished The Virtual World and started The Human Genome Project, and Lal switched from VW to HGP. Otherwise this was a rather uneventful turn or as they like to put it: expansion is proceeding smoothly :D

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on May 03, 2016, 09:50:26 AM

:)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on May 03, 2016, 01:25:54 PM

~> ;deidre;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on May 05, 2016, 10:19:13 AM

 ;yang;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on May 05, 2016, 10:47:49 AM

~> ;deidre;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on May 08, 2016, 12:54:05 PM

I completely forgot that it doesn't give me a choice whether to capture when I attack ... Not a mistake I'd have made 15 years ago   ;lol

My base will never forgive me   ::) 

Back to the Chairman

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on May 09, 2016, 01:51:39 AM

hehe.. looks like nature prevails ;) I never understood how you can keep those nasty things as pets.

In a few days I'll be travelin for ~2 weeks. So you won't hear from me for a while, but I will be back eventually ;)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Misotu on May 09, 2016, 10:41:51 AM

The PKs built the HGP and the others have all switched.

Your timing is perfect - we're off for about a week tomorrow visiting friends in Italy  :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 09, 2016, 02:26:20 PM

Since when do MPlayers travel so much?

I've known about the making-little-MPlayers problem (and gamers managing to have sex and remain gamers is a bit counterintuative) for years, but all these vacations this calendar year are something.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on May 09, 2016, 05:42:49 PM

hehe, seems like you truly do read everything :D
I currently save time on MPlayer Popbooming and use it for travelling instead ;)

~~>  ;deidre;

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 09, 2016, 09:28:42 PM

I do read everything.  AC2 is my life.

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on May 27, 2016, 10:03:31 PM

Back for a few days. Its still  ;deidre; 's turn

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 27, 2016, 10:42:12 PM

She hasn't been by since you had, on the 9th.  Might better PM, too, for an extra notification email...

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: thedarkestcolors on May 31, 2016, 11:09:56 PM

Maybe she's still on vacation..
I'll also be gone for ~1 week again, so no rush :)

Title: Re: Flying Colors
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 31, 2016, 11:36:19 PM

Too many vacations going around this folder, man.  You people need to stop having lives and get back to entertaining me. ;nod