Alpha Centauri 2 Forum Community Succession Game

[Kirov]

I don't want to impose anything, but we can brainstorm here, can't we? So here's a thought - why don't we beat the everloving crap out of Yang? It's reasonable, fun and ethical to boot. My vote is, let's throw our mind worms at him! We'll either make him our pet or, if he makes it to his escape pod, we'll be able to find him and beat him again later on. Win-win, I say.

[Mart]

Yang starts with an 'interesting' tech of Doctrine Loyalty, which gives Command Nexus SP. This tech is for the taking, for possible cost of loosing a probe team. And possibly he will research some more stuff, that may be outside of our first B-lines.
We would need to have Planetary Networks first though.
My vote would be to allow him to have like 2-3 bases until we probe him for techs.

[Vishniac]

Is "steal tech when conquer base" enabled?
Kirov, did you get something when you took Proletarian Knot?

[Kirov]

@Vishniac - nope, the Spoils of War are off.

As for Hive handling - I think it's all about if we want to roleplay and have casual fun or brutally optimize in a competitive fashion. You see, Mart, the way it's usually done in MP is that until midgame you have certain strict beelines (CE, IA, Flex, 2xEE and D:AP) and until you secure all of them, any surplus techs are more liabilities than assets. Doc:Loyalty in particular, as it totally sucks in any capacity other than "beeline to Fusion", which is a very distant dream as of now. In my opinion, the Command Nexus sucks as well.

Another issue is, in the long run it will be more costly to contain Yang (who will be constantly churning out units) than to eliminate him. Besides, remember we can just put him on a leash as a submissive.

On the other hand, this is single player so we can really do whatever we want, optimization be damned. Up to you, people. I will probably employ my MP habits during my term. This includes more dense packing of bases.

[Mart]

Spoils are off, so we get somewhat more diplomatic gameplay. (probably...)
Blind research also helps AI, and together with this map size (more tiles than standard large map) and tech stag. we can expect IA later. But playing before-crawlers era is very interesting.
With Univ on like standard map that was possible to get IA around 2112. Over here, I wonder if 2170 is the right guess. No bets here though.

Yes, like in succession, every ruler gets his/her 5 turns and can do/screw everything as desired (... like our RL democracy)
I hope, we have the fifth player.

[Vishniac]

I don't know what Yitzi put in his 3.4 but the AIs are much more dangerous.
Last week, I played a SP game like this one: Gaian, 7 original factions, map of Planet, transcend.
I found myself between Believers and Spartans, made friend with the former, killed the latter, but losing some time at the beginning was enough to never catch up to Lal.
I tried a lot of things from the book, I had bases churning 60 minerals/turn at the end, could build and orbital-insert 10 drop-disruption-infantries a turn...the only way I could win was by rushing the Ascent to Transcendence when he completed the Voice of Planet. I felt like cheating...

To make a long story short: I am with Kirov on this. The sooner Yang is out of our way the better unless you want some very bad turns down the road.

[Mart]

It looks like it is going to be an interesting play.

any more players? Anyone?

[Buster's Uncle]

Be bold and PM someone who is not me that you'd like to see involved.

[Mart]

... who is not me ...

And I hoped for a moment you would join us in this game

[Buster's Uncle]

Sorry - I'm not in an adventurous mood, and if I had any energy do anything these days, I'd be working on finishing the Official Firaxis pages...

[Bodissey]

I'm in favor of "pruning" the Yang.
Let's milk his techs before eradication.

[Mart]

Ok, let's play next round of 5-turns... I'm at it.

MY 2121
And the first disappointment. The Scout Rover with odds of 9 to 7 lost!
MY 2122
3rd base.
Lal appears to the SE, and in demanding mood tells us to give him Social Psych.
It ends in vendetta.
MY 2123
Lost a mindworm.
MY 2125
It is Ethical Calculus.
Signed truce with Yang for Centauri Ecology. One vendetta at a time.
The bar is red, Applied Physics?

====
On a side note:
I needed to de-mac the save, cause it did not want to save on my windows system. Worth mentioning to possible 5th player, if it's not me next time.

[Vishniac]

Lal appears to the SE, and in demanding mood tells us to give him Social Psych.
It ends in vendetta.

HA HA HA!
What was I telling you? Same thing!
In my SP, first contact he declared vendetta and till the end of the game he would never talk except to say "would derive great pleasure to having you executed"
I could lose bases, take his bases, do anything, he wouldn't say anything else...
--------------------
I'll try to play tonight: travelling for work.

[Vishniac]

2129 : new base founded
2130 : University has discovered Secrets of the Human Brain
Yang called to ask us to remove a scout on his territory. I did.

Preparing a sensor for the colony pod from Chiron Preserve

There is a Peacekeeper probe team waiting to be destroyed near Garden of Paradise.

[Mart]

...

There is a Peacekeeper probe team waiting to be destroyed near Garden of Paradise.

Lal has Planetary Networks! If there was a way to get that tech from him... Maybe sign truce/treaty/pact with Peacekeepers and then he makes a gift (the gift!) for Lady Deirdre?