Alpha Centauri 2 Forum Community Succession Game

[Mart]

As in another thread with poll on playing commitment in 2015 one can see more people playing singleplayer, this maybe will give us something to do with larger response.

A Forum Succession Game.
It is kind of competition, but there is only one team. We play as a forum with intent to have:
- a game that we can talk about and share our experiences
- compete with ourselves, watch our progress in future games in this series (hopefully)

Post in this thread if you wish to play, so I can include you in the list of players.
All forum members are invited to join.

And here it goes, the first game, using Yitzi 3.4 patch
The first 4 victory conditions, no cooperative
- Flexible start
- Map not visible
- Blind research
- Tech stagnation
the rest is OFF

7 Factions of vanila. We play Gaians, as in another thread they received most votes for "intend to play next" faction in this set.
Map is 80x70 (west-east) elongated.
With only:
- Abundant native life
- Dense cloud cover (helps AI)
the rest is average/medium/...

RULES
- Succesion game, every player plays only 5 (five) turns. A player ends his/her turn, but saves the game (e.g. in 2106, 2111, 2116, etc.) in the beginning of the turn not making any changes in it. Then attaches the save for the next player
- We wait 3 days (72 hours) for the next player. If the game is not posted with progress of 5 turns, the next player can play.
- We can post short description/report of events in these 5 turns, but this is more of voluntary. 
- ... (to be determined)

And here it goes the first game save.


= = = * * * = = =
Players:
1| Mart
2| Vishniac ----- inactive
3| Kirov
4| Bodissey ---- inactive
5| Geo
6| binTravkin
7| Kurvivor ----- inactive
8| ................(open)
...

Inactive player can return to the game during any round
=======================
Score:
+316; This is in 2246 as Gaians before the switch to Hive
+62; This is in 2267 as Hive before switch to PK

=======================
Short history of Planet:
We start as Gaians on northern hemisphere. Soon after we eliminate Hive, before MY 2200, so Yang escapes in a colony pod to some island near equator.
We eliminate Peacekeepers shortly after. Lal is imprisoned in Gaia's Landing.
From his cell, Lal signs a secret pact with Yang. They both are seeking revenge against Deirdre. Lal convinces top Gaian Council members to join his cause.
In 2246 large part of the council leaves Gaian faction and establishes a base of operation in new Hiverian capital, Chairman's Burrow. Their mission is to free Commissioner Lal from his prison.
In 2267 a single probe foil team succeeds and soon NuDawn base, the new Peacekeepers capital, is established on the southern hemisphere.
Mission Year 2295, Deirdre paying back to Yang for his involvement in releasing Lal, her enemy, captures Hive headquarter base yet again.
The story continues...

[Mart]

The starting location is next to 2 fungus tiles. Maybe for Gaians this is not that of a problem, but to the west there is a tile with river, and having +1 energy per turn may be worth of loosing 2 turns for travel.

MY 2103
Establishing Gaia's Landing on that river coastal tile. It is next to 3 fungus tiles, but anyway...
Interesting, that Spartans were first in 2101 to get hq base. Since this is vanila set, it looks like Yang, Zakharov and Morgan were not so happy about their initial location and decided to move also. From covered tiles shape, map looks interesting, hopefully it is not crappy, like sometimes game engine makes that.
Formers... This will slow down exploration, but the first 10 minerals go for a former.
The scout patrol going along the river encounters a spore launcher... could be better. A mindworm boil would be a bit more usefull
And we do have our first native life unit.

MY 2104
Research priorities are asked:
Explore:    -
Discover:    -
Build:        X
Conquer:    -
We have Centauri Ecology. How about 'building' something first?
And checking the color of the next tech, it is white?! Interesting choice by the game engine.

And the second base to South-East from GL. Scout is first, better not risking some nasty mindworm attack.
And location is good, there is mineral bonus in the water!

MY 2106
We have the first former.
And now the next Gaian Governor term.

[Kirov]

Interesting. I don't know if I can help yet, but one question - isn't 5 turns abysmally little at the beginning? I mean, it's not like you're gonna leave any footprint with this.

[Mart]

The 5 turns limit in the beginning is not large, that is true, but the idea of the game is to have some rather wider participation. Like the game is not limited to only several people that voice their access early enough.

So early turns have a chance to be dictated by more players who will have to, on one hand, adapt to resulting strategy of all other players before and on the other hand think: "what can I do in 5 turns, that will benefit the faction and give all future players some decent choices as for what to do next."

This way more players will 'taste' these early exploring/building turns of the game, not that when someone is like 4th in the player queue it is already midgame or close to it.

[Vishniac]

I will be next.
Don't hesitate to comment on my choices!
-------------------------------------------------------

2106
•   Put Lab at 70%, changing research time from 9 to 7 turns (and losing only 1 EC a turn)
•   Production: scout patrol
•   Foresting the river

2010
•   Scout patrol completed.
•   I have put the citizen on fungus for a few turns until: colony pod would be ready 6 years too soon for base growth.

2111
•   Tech discovered: Biogenetics.  Zak had first discovery in 2109.
•   Forest already expanding
•   Former constructing a sensor
•   Former completed at Garden of Paradise

The spore launcher has explored the west coast.
I have put our units ready to pop the pod near Gaia’s Landing and fry any worm appearing.

[Mart]

I can see, the next tech bar is yellow, so it is going to be either Industrial Base or Social Psych.
Hard to guess.

[Kirov]

Oh my God, I hope you won't hate me for this... But let me start from the beginning.

In 2111, our noble faction popped a pod next to Gaia's Landing and found a monolith. What is even more curious, during this five-year term we found three monoliths (and a rover) in pods. Weird, huh? But also lucky, as monoliths always come in handy.

This first pod was popped by our Spore Launcher, which then started to roam fungus, found and engaged a wild Launcher, growing stronger after the battle.

Technology wise, we added 'Discovery' option to help us on the way to Industrial Automation. It should be our outmost priority!

Production wise, we're building a colony pod in Gaia's Landing (but every time we pop a pod, production is switched to RecTanks in case of a rushbuild pod), and RecTanks at Garden of Paradise (which can't sustain the second citizen just yet).

It didn't escape our attention that our NW border is suspiciously close. We are not alone here!

2212: Another pod yielded a rover and we immediately pushed it to NW.

2213: Hive's Proletarian Knot discovered at (113,5)! Chairman Yang proved very amicable and offered a Treaty of Friendship. Of course, it was obvious that he's doing that only because he's weak for now. The Treaty was rejected. Also, we found and captured another bug close to our HQ.

2214: Alas! We're no longer so noble. We launched a surprising attack on the empty Proletarian Knot. All our units are pushed to crush Yang. The memories of his behaviour onboard Unity are still fresh and we won't believe a single word coming out from his mouth until he's on his knees, begging for mercy.

2215: Hive's Scout Patrol has been destroyed, our Rover took 20% damage. Fair enough.

2216: Social Psych discovered, next tech in 12 turns. I guess we need more bases.

And that's it! The reigns of Bloody Kirov brought intensified exploration efforts and an attempt to stomp out the Hive's threat. It's clear that at least one Member of the Gaia's Council is not above asserting domination over other factions in any way possible. Now that his term has come to an end, will his policies be continued? Let's find out.

[Mart]

...
2216: Social Psych discovered, ...

I had a feeling this would be the tech. And Industrial Automation is yet even more far away...

=====
And I saw 2116 save, the next tech color is green. Having Centauri Ecology, that puts Doctrine Mobility as the only possible tech (?)
This is as I remember tech tree.
What I found some time ago, is that with blind research option this next tech is already decided. The player just does not see it, only its color.

=====
Well... Ethical Calculus is possible since we have Social Psych. Mobility is level 1. Eth.Calc is level 2. I wonder, if both had the same chance to be chosen.
Level 2 tech will cause more expensive techs.

[Vishniac]

In 2111, our noble faction popped a pod next to Gaia's Landing and found a monolith. What is even more curious, during this five-year term we found three monoliths (and a rover) in pods. Weird, huh? But also lucky, as monoliths always come in handy.

It must be something in Yitzi's patch.
In our current MP game, almost all my pods were monoliths or resources, plus one rover and one infested by worms. No tech, no instabuild, no money, no com.

[Mart]

I had other outcomes from pods in other games. Still, the random generators are pseudo-random, and it may be due to some operating system weird occasional behavior. But this is my guess.

[Kirov]

Can those who want to participate step ahead? It may be problematic if we wait for another player who is just not there.

[Bodissey]

I'd be happy to join if a position is available.

[Mart]

I'd be happy to join if a position is available.

Term 2116-2121 is yours.

[Bodissey]

2116
Popped the pod in (105,15) -> Nutrient ressources.
Worm headed back to Gaia's Landing in order to police it when pop reachs 2 (in 2118).
Spore launcher in (110,8) spawned hatchling worm in (112,8). Rover captured it from (113,7).
Decided that (106,12) was a good base spot (nutrient @105,15 & monolith @ 103,11).

2117
Switched worked square in Garden of paradise to the new forest in (112,12).
Worm popped a pod in (111,11) -> Alien Artifact.
Repaired the rover at the monolith in (111,7).

2118
Popped pod in (115,13) with worm. Spawned rogue worms in (115,11) & (115,15).
Partially rushed ColPod in Gaia's Landing (+4 prod for next turn).

2119
Gaia's Landing produces another ColPod.
The worm chase is on.
Attained larval mass with our own worm @(115,15) and 10 EC bonus.
Found another worm in (117,11). Chasing with Unity rover @(117,11)

2120
Capture attempt of worm by Scout in (117,11) failed. + 10 EC.
ColPod and Scout escort @(105,11) ready to get in (106,12) next turn.
Worm popped pod @(101,7) and tapped an underground river (100,6) & (99,5).
Road in (103,9) achieved. Road in construction in (110,10) - 2 turns to go.
Popped rogue worm in (116,8). Capture attempt by rover failed. + 10 EC.
Partially rushed RecTanks in Garden of Paradise. 0 prod bonus next turn.

EC 34
2121
EC 38.
Hive Unity rover destroyed our Spore launcher.
Production idle base in Garden of Paradise (4 nuts).
Hive base supposed in (120,10) (base grid deduction).
Hive Unity rover 70% damaged & Scout Patrol @(117,7).

Have fun.

[Mart]

Waiting for another new player...

Yang started close to us. This is not good for him, but when defeated before 2200, he will get another chance.
Using land shape feature on hidden tiles, one can see Unity Wreckage most likely, SW or SSW to our location.