Pravin Lal's Runner-up Science Fair Runoff

[Horseshoe_Hermit]

I'm new to SMAC multiplayer, the welcome thread just said to poll for a new game in this forum, so here it is.  (I expected a single thread for LookingForGroup.)  I can still enjoy squaring with the computer players, but I am drawn to tell fuller stories with Human rivals.  I'm an MP addict!

My details can be found here:  http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2622.msg117633#msg117633

Since I am new, I am not familiar with the exploits of SMAC so I will be reviewing the standard rulesets carefully.  Please help me if I have questions.

 

The game begins!  Link to first save hand-off  -> http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21141.msg118212#msg118212   false start because Kirov is a poopyhead

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21141.msg118241#msg118241  Twice is magic?

Overview
SmaX
-Yitzi's patch 3.5d
Play-by-Email
4 players, topped up to 7 factions by AIs
-Humanity only
Difficulty: Librarian
alphax.txt edited on lines 102/103 to enforce etiquette #1
Random map, standard size, settings below
Blind research
All victories
-No co-operative victory
Do or Die
Off Spoils of War

Factions:
Morganites  .. Horseshoe_Hermit
Gaians .. Deidre Sky
Pirates  .. roninscg
Consciousness .. Aki Zeta-5
Peacekeepers .. Kirov
Believers  .. Mart
Hive .. Shen-ji Yang


Planet:
- Standard size
- 30-50% ocean
- weak erosion
- dense cloud cover
- abundant life
- 90 million mi. planetary orbit

Rules:

File doctoring
-alphax.txt should be edited on line 103.  Change that 1 to a 0.
-The Cloudbase Academy was destroyed in the scenario editor.  All other SPs are fair game.

The forum etiquette

Rules for the fully patched game (including the unofficial patch):
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.
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 secret project allowed.
8. Reverse-engineering allowed.
9. Exchanging bases with AI forbidden. (It is not possible to do this in random tcp/ip anyway; this is obvious exploit cause AI trades everything; lets say I take over base level 2 with probe and then exchange this base for a base level 6 that has SP, more over I exchange it with my enemy's pact-friend so that to liberate this base my enemy would have to mess with his friend)
10. Additional move after former builds something and his flag is gray is not allowed.

Rule 9 means deals of a base for a base.
We are taking Rule 2 to mean "Don't dequeue a thing or front-queue anything when you've hurried".

Additional rules
-- If you declare vendetta, and you have a treaty/pact offer on that turn, you must refuse the treaty/pact offer.
"9-4: When engaging in a probe team operation against another human faction, a window appears asking whether the victim wants to "declare vendetta" or "let off with a stern warning." This window is appearing during the wrong player's turn since the victim should decide and not the prober. Etiquette dictates that the prober should choose "declare vendetta" unless prior approval has been received from the victim to choose something else. (MoSe)"
-- As it says.  Always choose "declare vendetta" in your rival's place, without prior arrangement.  "Prior approval" will mean messages received before you opened the turn file.
-- We must not issue the 'Demand Withdrawal' action via the commlinks menu on our Human opponents.
-- Setting the home base of a unit to be another faction's base is not permitted.
"9-1: When voting in the Planetary Council, it is possible to click on the portrait of the faction for a human player and be offered a chance by the AI to pay a bribe for the vote of that faction. The AI decides the bribe rather than the human player whose faction it is.
9-2: When voting in the Planetary Council, the AI will take on the role of a human-controlled faction and offer a bribe to the person currently voting. The player whose faction is offering the bribe is not offering the bribe - the AI is doing it for them without their knowledge."
-- Of course we must take care not to credit the AI controller to usurp the authority of Human players.
-- No peeking at the communications log with a text editor!

*

[Mart]

I would play a pbem.
What game/settings are you interested in?

SMAX or SMAC?
map size? map other settings that would not be average?
any other conditions, like exclusion of some factions, or set of AI, etc.

what faction?
I would choose mine after you.

And for how many players do we wait? 3-4 is probably optimal.

[Horseshoe_Hermit]

I'm interested in a game with all victories, could be any map, normal map of Chiron sized.  Do or Die.
SMACX.  Yitzi's patch too.

I could play Morganites. 7 factions.
I can't go for less than 4 players but I can pray for 5.

Shared victory looks imbalanced so I guess that's off?

[Mart]

Cooperation victory is often set to OFF, and we might do it too. I vote for Cooperative victory OFF.

So we would play on Chiron map, standard size, the one shipped with the game?
One good thing is, that it usually starts all factions in fair locations, so we could start without CMN.

If we start without CMN, then Librarian difficulty would be recommended, all factions get it then equally.

[Mart]

I would play Believers.
And regarding the faction order, if you could place it on the 6th slot?
This is because I know there may be problems with technology selections if the factions are not on their original slots. Believers are originally on 6th slot.


Research directed or blind?

[Horseshoe_Hermit]

I didn't mean the map of Chiron.  I meant the size of the map of Chiron - not the huge one.  I know that other players would know more about balanced maps than I do... continental?  lower/higher sea level?  I'll let that up to whoever joins in.

Directed research follows an arcane but deterministic formula for the choices, right?  So you can execute a build like an opening in Chess, if you just memorize it.  Well, I can't say I like being disadvantaged like that.  I'd rather have blind research.  Can be better for an AAR, I think.  But I'm surprised the two are equal options in the meta.

What slot do Morganites have?  This is the first I'm hearing of this bug.  (gosh there's so many 😂)

[Mart]

Morganites are in slot 4.

It is not a bug, actually, but it is, as I think, to do with the available techs formula, which has faction slot in it. So some slots result in marking some important techs as not-available. Centauri Ecology would be the most significant here, but maybe not for all players. But mostly, everyone wants formers ASAP.

And it is not like every other than default slot has this problem, only some of them eliminate techs some particular player would rather have for selection in 2101.
So it all depends. Morganites may stay in slot 1, maybe only check what techs you would get in turn 2101.

So, we play blind research then.

[Mart]

Ok, I just checked, so Morganites in slot 1 get 8 techs:
- Doc Mobility
- Centauri Ecology
- Prog Psych
- Biogenetics
- InfNetworks
- Social Psych
- Indust Economics
- Applied Physics.


So we do not play on official planet?
Then in order to get good terrain for all fair start, it might be:
- 30-50% ocean
- weak erosion
- dense cloud cover
- abundant life


but still, we have no guarantee that the map generator will make good map, it is often crap. And starting locations are problematic and not fair.
Usually pre-made map, that is engineered for the game to distribute factions well is best option.

[Horseshoe_Hermit]

Okay cool.  As I said, whatever map would seem to be fair, I will accommodate to as the newcomer.  Where does one get such custom maps?

I've sent five invites to the thread based on the profile page, but I thought there would be more luck just asking around within recent or current games.  And you are connected to one as its CMN, as I understand.  So I'm going to give this round of invites a week and then . . . try something else.

(first post updated)

[Mart]

We might get a map from existing collection/s, there are maps here on this site. But I think any such map would need to be checked for starting a game, cause many maps were prepared for a specific purpose, mostly not a random game.


Such map would need to be known to every player. The drawback is, that it takes from exploration game element a lot. Maybe not everything would be rememebered during weeks of game, if a player decides not to peek into the map. But to check the map at any given moment, would be allowed.

I have some experience in map making, so I could make one.

[ExCx]

I'd like to join your game, sign me up for Gaians please.

[Horseshoe_Hermit]

I hadn't known that map selection was so complicated.  And if the majority of diversions from Chiron are fraught with imbalance, maybe we should just play on the map of Chiron.

Let me know which slot for Gaians is correct.

[Mart]

I have checked slot 2, and it should be ok. It has 7 techs to choose from in 2101:

- Doc Mobility
- Prog Psych
- Biogenetics
- InfNetworks
- Social Psych
- Indust Base
- Applied Physics.

As for the map, I can prepare one, and everyone would know it, since it would be public. At least it would not be so well known, and maybe less boring.

[roninscg]

The game started? if not, I'd like to join. 

[Mart]

We haven't started yet. Write what faction you would like to play.