quickie smax by funbot

[funbot]

Sup guys. My current PBEM games wont quite fill my gaming needs, so thought i'd set up a quick hassle-free game whoever wants and manages to join in. And by hassle free i mean that there wont be designated guy to make a map, and if peeps will stop playing in middle of the game, we just toss the game to trashbin instead of trying to find player to fill the spot.

So full on faith on games random generation on players placements, some will win and some will just suck it up and just make the most of it 

Game settings will be as follow: All winning conditions allowed, look first, blind research and no unity survey. Map conditions will be random and size will range from tiny to standard depending on participants. No AI factions.

We will use Yitzi's Unofficial SMAX patch 3.5c, and i'll just snatch some houserules from other currently active pbem thread since they seem nice: "1) Weapons above strength 4 on choppers are banned, 2) Releasing mindworms to the wild is permitted, 3) The Empath Guild and The Cloudbase Academy SPs are set to destroyed". Any other suggestions to houserules are negotiable.

And ofc we use the this sites standard rules too: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=1519.0

Since we don't mod the game either at all, banned SP's are still buildable, but we just have to agree together not to touch em' anyway, mmmkay? 

Those who wants to join, state your faction you want to play on this thread, and pm me your timezone and email, so we can figure out the gaming order. I'll start by choosing my o ever favorite Miriam the Believers.

Players are expected to send their turn within 24 hours, though ofc rl will always butt in time to time, but pls give a heads up for that atleast. But if you are not able commit to that on a regular basis, pls dont bother join da gaim 

We will start the game within week.

[funbot]

o, rite, i gues you can't play less than 7 factions without scenario editor? Welp, fek it then, we will have Ai to fill the spots then kek.

[funbot]

and since AI is in the game, gues might as well lift the secret project bans as well, since AI wont care about those bans anyway.

[Nevill]

I suppose I can play.

Which faction will you choose? I'll probably pick something depending on your preferences. If there are none, I'll just play Morgan.

If AI builds any forbidden projects, we can always set it as a rule that a base with those project has to be obliterated no later than next turn.

I am fine with any rules, though I would forbid Planetary Transit System unless you are looking to a very short game. I also prefer games without crawlers, but that's up to you. We can also try a game with no Secret Projects at all (only AIs will build them, and we are obligated to destroy their bases if we capture those) - it could be interesting.

[MercantileInterest]

Looks fun but I'm already involved in multiple games, so will have to skip this one.

I am willing to set things up for you with the scenario editor. You wouldn't need any AI factions. If you send me all your passwords, I could also delete players who jump ship, so you wouldn't have to trash the whole game.

Remember that the faction placement algorithm stinks. However, I could hand pick a number of evenly spaced and valuable locations and then randomly pick which player starts where by rolling a die.

Let me know if you want to move in that direction. Cheers!

[Kurvivor]

Will participate if there are places

[funbot]

awrite mercantile, sounds like a deal. I was thinking that having a designated editor would take it sweet time to get things rolling, but in with your "daily activity rate" it shouldn't take too long . So ye, dump all the AI away, remove banned secret projects (Cloudbase, empath guild and planetary transit system), and giev a decent positions for all of us. Just don't over do it and all you know

Atm there is 3 of us playing, so i'd think small mapsize would be enough for us (nevill, kurvivor, feel free to comment on this one)?

We will wait untill sunday to sort all the rules and possibly add one more eager player if such appears, and then you roll up your sleeves and stuff? Rite? Rite 

[funbot]

Will participate if there are places

Yus, theres place to have atm. We been talking with nevill that we add planetary transit system sp on ban list, and also thinking to ban crawlers in game. Will that be ok for you?

[Nevill]

Atm there is 3 of us playing, so i'd think small mapsize would be enough for us (nevill, kurvivor, feel free to comment on this one)?

I will go with whatever works, but I'll voice my preference for bigger maps. Though if the placement is hand-made and there are only 3 factions on the map I suppose it doesn't matter too much.

Some factions work better depending on the map size.

[funbot]

well we could go for standard mapsize then to be sure, that should be more than enough for 3-4 players

[Kurvivor]

ban crawlers in game. Will that be ok for you?

Well, i prefer to have crawlers in the game, if possible - but i will defer to the knowledge of organizers

[Nevill]

I was leaning towards the ban, but I'll leave it to funbot's discretion. Since I will be playing Morgan, leaving them in the game won't hurt me in the slightest.

[Kirov]

Do you have more room? For Lal, perhaps?

[Nevill]

Sure!

I think that's everyone?

Since we got into rules lawyering a little, let's specify the rules. My suggestions:

Rules:
1. A player is not permitted to establish contact with another player prior to having met them in-game.
2. A player may not use build queue manipulation or other loopholes to hurry production at a cost that would be lower than directly hurrying the item that one intends to build. except for the first 10 minerals
3. A player may not use build queue manipulation or other loopholes to build something you could not directly add to the build queue.
4. A player may not upgrade a particular type of unit using the design workshop, and then attack with that unit in the same turn.
5. A player is not permitted to make more than one social engineering change per line, per turn. For instance, one is not permitted to start the turn in wealth, switch to power mid-turn for the extra disbanded minerals, and then switch back to wealth that same turn, getting the refund.
6. Stockpiling in build queue allowed when building units. (of course when building sp/facility too, but it's not needed to do anything to gain those bonuses too)
7. Upgrading crawlers before adding them to hurry a secret project is not allowed.
8. Reverse-engineering allowed. except for reversing Speeder chassis from a Probe Team
9. Additional move after former builds something and his flag is gray is not allowed.
10. Empath Guild, Planetary Transit System and Cloudbase Academy are BANNED. I think Mercantile Interest can set them to Destroyed, and that'll be that.
11. Weapons above strength 4 on choppers are banned
12. Releasing mindworms to the wild is permitted. It was never prohibited, but funbot wants it explicitly allowed, so why not?
13. Messing with other players (represented by AIs) during Council meetings is NOT ALLOWED. You can't let AI override the player's vote.
14. Probe team actions are NOT PUNISHABLE by automatic vendetta. If a player wants to start a war over a probe action, they must initiate it manually. The responce over the probe actions defaults to 'Overlook' until it's the affected player's turn. (in PBEM the player using a probe decides the reaction of a player against whom the action was taken)
15. Self-destructing units with Fusion reactor or better is not allowed. The self-destruct formula allows to destroy any number of units by detonating two 10-1-*^2 Jets/Copters in the adjacent tile. Disbanding units to get rid of them is perfectly fine, though.
16. All game-relevant information (Global warming warnings etc.) that only displays for the first player should be provided to the rest of the players too.
17. Retiring units is prohibited, period. Players must 'Obsolete' the designs, not retire them. Retiring a design erases all instances of the design from the game, including thoise that belong to other players. This is obviously unacceptable.

Discuss?


Edit: added the retire rule.

[Nevill]

Will participate if there are places

What's your preferred faction?

For now, it looks like these are taken:
funbot: 
Nevill: 
Kirov: