SinglePlayer League, SPL-02 Game - preparation

[Mart]

As the deadline for SPL-01 approaches, time to think about the second game.
We are going through original factions - the vanila "feel" to SMAX, and from the voting, Spartans would be our second game.

The settings, maybe first, that I think we can use:
- size, I would keep at 46x92.
- map not visible
- flexible start

Other:
- Victory conditions: the first 4 of them (except cooperative, as by rules should be off). This is including conquest, so playing in the spartan spirit would possibly give fastest win.
And due to it, other considerations:
- native life? average? So it would be more difficult for Spartans to train their troops by mindworm hunting.
- cloud cover? average or dense? The dense cover is believed to help AI, as it creates more possibility for growth.
- intense rivalry, should we turn it on?
- no scattering? It is much more interesting to play with unity pods, but this is a lot of help for Spartans. If we keep pods, then maybe make it more difficult for human player elswhere?

In scenario editor, the 2 settings I thought of:
- in diplomacy, should we set some permanent pacts? to make AI harder to defeat.
- in AI personality, there is an option "team up against human player" will we make it on? for which factions? We play all the original ones.
- And more personality settings: anything like research direction, for example conquer techs for university? a lot of air units for whom? hive? a lot of artillery? whom?
Any other settings?

Any thoughts on this?

[Mart]

The settings will use:

map 46x92
dense cloud cover - will help AI
other map settings average

4 (the first 4) victory conditions
flexible start
map not visible

Unity pods will be on
"team up against human player" turned on for all 6 AI factions.

The outcome is not so certain, anyone wishing to play a training quick scenario can try this.
I think, the game should be winnable for newbie players, who have few games behind.
Some Velocyrix strategy guide reading for Spartan strategies should help here...