I would like Spoils Of War off. It nullifies one of Aki's main abilities. If based on this, you want to switch to Aki, then I will still take Morgan.
If you mean crawler upgrading by energy or rushing, then I am good with banning this; it is definitely trying to cheap out on wonders. But I will want to build any kind of crawler I want, such as a fast crawler or sea crawler, as long as I build the entire thing without any energy or rushing at all.
I don't know what the stockpile energy exploit is? Can you explain?
I am also OK with no reverse engineering, but I am not sure that it is very important. The most that I have ever done is use a probe team to make a speed 2 scout early game, before I have doctrine mobility. This does not seem like a big deal. Are there other ways that reverse engineering can be exploited to greater effect?
This is not really an exploit, just the game is slightly inconsistent here. When you complete a facility, you get cash as if you stockpiled energy for this last turn of building. However, this does not apply to units. You must insert stockpile energy to the queue after a unit to get the same effect. It's tedious and I was usually against this, but it really can help monumentum factions, so nowadays I'm support it as a means of balance.
So basically if you agree, remember to insert stockpile energy after any kind of unit you build. Then you'll get money in the same way as it already works for facilities.
The only time you don't get extra ECs from finishing a facility is if another build order besides stockpile energy is after it in the queue. The only time you do get extra ECs from finishing a unit is if stockpile energy is after it in the queue.
Your confusion is because of the default production. When building a unit the default after completion is to build another unit, and so the queue is never empty. With a facility you can't build another, so the queue is empty by default.
If you have an item in queue you don't get the energy after building a facility.
Question: How would you deal with the Stockpile Energy issue if you ruled "no", but someone actually wanted to stockpile energy? Would you just have them "throw away" the amount from the minerals that already went to the previous produced thing?
And if you want to stockpile energy, just start relevant production (not in the queue).
I presume in all of the games I am already in, since the rule was not discussed, it would be illegal to add stockpile energy to the queue? Or is the default to allow stockpile energy unless otherwise banned?
Except that then you lose out on the legitimate overflow from the last thing you produced...
I will be leaving on a cruise Sunday morning, and will be gone until the next Sunday. I will have no internet access for that week (poor me ;) ).
I will be sure to play any turn that arrives by Sunday morning before I go.
t_ras, thanks for your help. Can I ask you to take a quick look at this map? I'm quite sure it's playable, difficulty ok and so on, what bugs me are two minor things:
1) in a trial run, we get to play in "mission year 0", no matter which MY I set. What gives? Does it mean anything?
2) the aliens seem to pay 60 EC for SE change. It's what they do, right? I just checked in a single player game and it seems so.
Settings:
Us - 2 colony pods, 2 formers, 4 scout patrols. I have IndBase and 110 EC, Michael has InfNet, AppPhys and 10 EC
Aliens - 3 colony pods, 2 formers, 4 scout patrols, ogre mk I, their respective techs (5 each) and 10 EC, 9 forest tiles, checkered for best spread.
5 victory conditions, look first, no unity scattering (is it necessary on a predefined map?), bell curve on. Force difficulty on.
Please verify, I'd hate to have to restart because something glitches later on.
Thanks in advance.
PS: Earthmike, you don't mind my going first in the turn? It just sort of happened that I set it this way...:)