First PBEM. death to xenos and other stuff

[Peter Gray]

I thought about it and talked to some people what they think and I believe the problem comes from the fact that I've never played an online game before. I wasn't aware that what you get from the pods can have a serious impact on how people feel about fairness of a game. So, I'll trust the experience of others and let's play with "no unity scattering" on. That's the way most people feel anyway. Sorry for pushing it, it's just a cognitive bias based on single-player-only gaming experience.

So with everything sorted out, let's get on emergency colony pods before the Unity smashes on the surface of the Planet!
Hurry up, drones! Move! Move! Move!

We were walking down the corridors, planning our next move. The shifts have been extended for another day in a row. It seems that Captain Garland just don't understand what it feels like to work 14-hours in a badly conditioned and hot environment. When they've cut our food rations again, we've started hearing "enough is enough". It's true that we're preparing for a historical landing but before boarding we were being promised something else and we don't see it coming. There was an assassination attempt on Garland's life but tightening up security targeted solely on the most hardworking members of the mission is just asking for a revolt. The mission comes first, but we don't believe anything we hear from the bridge. Maybe so-called "assassination" is just an excuse to turn us into slaves? With bleeding heart, I'll have to tell the Captain that we're setting up a Free Drones' Union to start a reasonable dial....

The corridors turned red with alarm triggering off, a cold and calm female voice announced in a robotic, inhumane manner: "Warning! Warning! All personnel must evacuate immediately. Please, move along the white signals to reach your nearest landing pod. Warning! Warning! This is not a drill, leave all your belongings behind and move along the white signals."

This is it, I thought to myself, it's time to make a PLANETFALL...

[Kirov]

Peter, we're fine if you want the pods on. As long as someone doesn't always want to get his way all the time, I'm sure we can accommodate everyone's strong wish about something particular. You agreed for my proposals, I can go with pods on, no problem. Just remember they don't really have to benefit you more, in fact their results are random and this can as well come and bite you.

[Vishniac]

I wasn't against pods due to fairness.
Primarily it's because it adds some more micromanagement: popping it now or later? Bringing forces in case of worms?
And secondly every decision in the setup of the game can have far-ranging consequences: the Pirates would probably have more pods than anybody else (the whole ocean will be theirs until late) and would pop them sooner, meaning an accelerated start.

What about other setup decisions: % of oceans / Rocks / Insolation / Native life / other things?
Sisko, can we have a TTT first post like this:
http://www.weplayciv.com/forums/showthread.php?1438-White-Rainbow-Turn-Tracking-Thread-(TTT)-6days
And ultimately: shall we use a patch and which one?

[Kirov]

Yep, that's one thing - pods will work best for the Pirates, that would be me. Maybe you want to reconsider.

As for the patch - Yitzi's latest should be fine, scient's if not.

[MallaxOZ]

Yep, that's one thing - pods will work best for the Pirates, that would be me. Maybe you want to reconsider.

It's fine. We're just going to sign a pact against you if you're too powerful 

[Peter Gray]

I was thinking that maybe it would be better to facilitate the power of Internet to find people with similar taste rules-wise. But I feel bad about saying "either my way or I'm out" when at first I was the one who introduced voting on those matters. I still find pods fun but having done some research, my stance softened. If one player gets four monoliths and the other will lose a base and two units while getting only few resources in turn... Well, I do see it as a potentially frustrating thing but I don't mind taking that risk.

But I would really loved to play on a map that isn't totally randomly generated. If CMS would make interesting features, hot-spots of resources or monoliths on top of one lonely peak, tidy-up coastline, put some interesting twists or even choke-points. Possibilities are limitless with idyllic places dropped in the middle between three factions or some remote paradisic continent... You can still make it balanced but I don't like the idea of making everything mediocre for the sake of fairness. As you can see, flavor and story are more important for me then just beating everyone else...

[Peter Gray]

I would like to try playing with pods and review my points after finishing the game.
I'm for more land, less rain, medium mountains and medium native life-forms but maybe average everything would be the fairest. Are you guys sure to have a standard mao size instead of small one?

[Kurvivor]

  inc. has but one reservation: more land is better. For everything else, human ingenuinity will prevail.

[MallaxOZ]

  As the computer lab scientist of the ship, may I object that, if we don't launch the game now, we're going to crash on Chiron!
Can we just push the eject button of our pods, and we'll go from there...

[Peter Gray]

  already in the pods...

[Kirov]

Wanted to do it myself tonight, but I've got a deadline breathing on my neck till tomorrow. Can one of you guys go through the thread again and put all the info relevant for the CMN in one place? Even I don't know some of the stuff we agreed (or not) on. Let's make it as easy for sisko as possible.

[Peter Gray]

Peter Gray - Free Drones, mprswk@gmail.com, GMT +0 (Greenwich is 4 miles from my house hehehehe)
Kirov - Pirates, hlaskover AT gmail DOT com, GMT +1
MallaxOZ - Cyborgs, <my_username_in_this_forum> A gmail D com, GMT+1
Kurvivor - Morgan, GMT+3
Vishniac - Gaians, GMT+1


SET-UP:
* all victories allowed
* blind research
* no unity scattering off
* other rules standard
* customised map with all settings at medium/average
* Transcendence

[Kurvivor]

Locusts of Chiron chirping

[Geo]

Wow. A five person PBEM?

[Vishniac]

Wow. A five person PBEM?

You know, it seems even a 3-person PBEM can't go to its term so...perhaps one with new players will find a better motivation.
(I still have to finish a PBEM...  )