First PBEM - TTT

[Buster's Uncle]

Well, I defer to the true managers of MP, the CMNs, ordinarily, but I hereby declare (unless they persuade me otherwise) that the rule from now on is everybody synch versions on each new game and do not touch the alphax.txt.  -It's only fair.  I will punish (proven) infractions.  -Y'all know what a tyrant I am, but righteous citizen need not fear my (horrific) wrath.

(CMNs - feel free to discuss here or in the clubhouse.  Your call.)

Thank you and enjoy your game.

What's that all about?

Possible problems with not everyone, inadvertently, playing the same version - the specific issue bringing it up is how the game handles drones and whether everyone has the same parts of the YitziPatch enabled the same way.

[Peter Gray]

The turn rate has fallen to 2/week and that's a bad thing. The time when I was idle was when I moved back to Poland and started a new job so it was a temporary thing. What about others? Is anyone thinking about quitting the game? I'm quite happy so far and regret nothing. What's your experience with the Unity pods guys? For me it was mostly beneficial and gave me a kick despite occasional loss of a unit or two to pods infested with mind worms. But random research now is a pain when I badly need new weapons, research equipment and social engineering options.

[MallaxOZ]

The turn rate has fallen to 2/week and that's a bad thing. The time when I was idle was when I moved back to Poland and started a new job so it was a temporary thing. What about others? Is anyone thinking about quitting the game? I'm quite happy so far and regret nothing.

Summer time! Thus I imagine many of us will take vacations in the next months. I think leaving home for a week or two myself in the next weeks. That being said, Kurvivor did not notice us, so I think he won't be long.

What's your experience with the Unity pods guys? For me it was mostly beneficial and gave me a kick despite occasional loss of a unit or two to pods infested with mind worms. But random research now is a pain when I badly need new weapons, research equipment and social engineering options.

I have mixed feelings about unity pods. I like the pinch of randomness it introduces in the game, but I mostly got xenofungus and worms, with a few monoliths. No tech, comms or mineral for the nearest base. And not so many alien artefacts, a pity for a scientific faction which would have wanted network nodes anyway. I don't know if it's bad luck or a bug, though.

On the contrary, I think random search is interesting. It kept me away for winning the Secret of The Human Brain race, but that's cool. I like when it's not easy!

[Kirov]

How can I check which Yitzi's I have?

Coming back to the issue of the same version - I understand that we agreed to the latest Yitzi's, but there is also this implicit understanding that we do it purely for compatibility issues. No game rules are supposed to change. So even if I have some unupdated previous version with the drones as before, I still believe this is a correct way to play.

I don't want to agree to the drone rule changed as I believe it brings nothing to the game, on the contrary. Drone management is just badly concealed grind and even if it makes gameplay harder, it's not in the way I want it to.

I can agree to many rule changes and indeed insist on some. We can throw away supply crawlers or choppers or whatever you want. But adding new rules to drones is like making supply crawlers cheaper - only more chores in the long run.

If Vishniac was hurt by the fact of using the new rule, I'm willing to chip in to cover some of his losses. The damage to be assessed by Vishniac and Mart. If most players were hurt, I can destroy something of mine to make up for it.

[Buster's Uncle]

I like seeing (potential?) problems solve themselves...

[MallaxOZ]

What's the deal with drones? I don't get it.

[Vishniac]

If Vishniac was hurt by the fact of using the new rule, I'm willing to chip in to cover some of his losses. The damage to be assessed by Vishniac and Mart. If most players were hurt, I can destroy something of mine to make up for it.

I'm not hurt since (it's no big secret) none of my bases is yet pop 3 and my efficiency prevents b-drones for the moment.

It's just that you and me noticed in the succession game that the default setting of some variable in the .txt makes drone management, yes, a chore; you can have drones popping without knowing why and when. It's something I already noticed playing SP with Yitzi's 3_4
Mart told us putting the variable to 0 would ease that.

So it's not an issue but a question: should we all put it to 0 and be less harassed by super-drones/phantom-drones  ?
Drone management is already not something that makes the game more fun but it's a necessary evil. Now playing at Transcend gives this Moloch even more time. If I could do without unpredictable drones, that would make my day but there must be a vote on it (and Mart should tell us whether I really understood this thing or not...  )

[Mart]

... (and Mart should tell us whether I really understood this thing or not...  )

As far as I understand the whole issue, yes, you understand it 100%

And this is a very good question: do all players want to make the drone rules as they were previously (patch 3.3 and generally standard SMAX)

[Kirov]

So well, for now it seems like me and Vishniac vote Yes.

Mart, please tell me which string it is. It should be 0 by default but is 8 now, right?

[Mart]

Yes, but let's wait for other players to say what they think about it.

[Kurvivor]

Sorry for the delay. I was very preoccupied on the weekend.
After looking at drone rules, i find myself paticularly liking 3 (1 + 2) - it allows super-drones to be predictabl although harder to deal with and allows to deal with Pacifism properly
-> 

[Kirov]

Hm, noted but I think that changing a rule to some middle value is not that desirable. Well, not when the game is in full swing, at least.

[MallaxOZ]

=> 

[Peter Gray]

I haven't seen anything out of ordinary, just normal drones like in SP game. Maybe I need more explanation? Can someone drop me a link that deals with the issue?

[MallaxOZ]

In my alphax.txt, I have "8" on "drone rule".