Would anyone like a waterworld game CMNed?

[Vishniac]

Uh! 

It was written "Official patches" on the last link to click so I didn't went further...
Thanks, Man!

[Earthmichael]

If I can pipe in here, though I am not playing, I have been VERY happy with Yitzi's patch.  It fixes the most bugs, I think.  I had Echelon Mirror crashes until I installed Yitzi's patch.  And it had some cool options too, though you don't have to use them.

[ete]

My internet was down for a week due to train workers cutting the broadband cable for several villages nearby (and not being able to fix it due to trains running), and I wanted to check who is keen to have perfect symmetry and who is okay with just fairly balanced starting positions before starting. I'll likely work on the map(s) on sunday/monday.

[Kirov]

So far it's Kata, Geo, Vishniac and me. I vote for the latter, certain extent of balance with some variation. What about the factions, actually? Do you have any custom ones for us or are we going to play aquatic versions of standard ones?

[Kirov]

If I can pipe in here, though I am not playing, I have been VERY happy with Yitzi's patch.  It fixes the most bugs, I think.  I had Echelon Mirror crashes until I installed Yitzi's patch.  And it had some cool options too, though you don't have to use them.

There is one very serious bug in Yitzi's, copied from kyrub's patch, where you instantly lose minerals when changing production. I vote for scient's now and we can all move to Yitzi's once this thing gets fixed.

[Geo]

Fairly balanced works just fine for me. 

[Vishniac]

Fairly balanced is ok for me.
I'm playing another one of those "90% water" with the University this time and I submitted the Spartans who were my early terrestrial neighbor and proved aggressive so I guess I am not one of those "everything should be balanced / everyone must start at equal distance from others".
Randomness is part of the game: use the forces of your faction, don't fear its weaknesses! Otherwise let's just all take the same faction with a different color and may the best win! 

I have changed my terran.exe and terranx.exe for Scient's and I have resumed my save game without problems so far.

What are the decisions on the aspects of the game and factions?

[Kataphraktoi]

Been using scients patch, works for me.

My internet was down for a week due to train workers cutting the broadband cable for several villages nearby (and not being able to fix it due to trains running), and I wanted to check who is keen to have perfect symmetry and who is okay with just fairly balanced starting positions before starting. I'll likely work on the map(s) on sunday/monday.

I much prefer fairly balanced over perfect symmetry. Also the game is more interesting with 4 unique factions rather than using clones, its all about how you can utilize your strengths, cover your weaknesses, and take advantage of your own peculiar terrain. 

BTW i noticed if all you do is add aquatic to the factions, you wont be able to use the foil chassis until researching doc;flex as the unity boats cant be retro-engineered. Are you going to make it so we can build gun foils and sea pods even for factions that dont start with doc;flex? 

[ete]

Okay, looks like mostly favoring:
Balanced but not symmetrical map
Kata, Geo, Vishniac, Kirov
Aquatic versions of all official factions available (maybe aliens)
Some custom factions if wanted, I'll look over them closely for balance and make adjustments if people want them playable. Possible factions:
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Procyon_Consortium (moderately overpowered, too good a builder. But very vulnerable to early attack, especially from natives.)
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Planet_Freight (close to balanced already)
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Atlanteans (somewhat complicated due to lots of bonuses/penalties, but probably a bit too strong currently)
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Bree (maybe annoying to balance)

I'm also thinking perhaps not banning any of the SPs could be interesting. Whoever gets the MCC will have a very significant advantage.. but everyone will want to steal that base, and know they need to team up against that player. Open to what you guys want on this.

I'm happy to add Doc:Flex to the starting techs for all factions, it'd probably lead to a more interesting start.

Questions:
Do you want AI factions?
Do you want custom factions allowed for player choices?
Do you want Aliens allowed as player choices?
Do you want MCC removed?
Do you want any custom changes?
Do you want air power weakened? If yes here are some options:
Ban copters (or reduce their movement, or increase their cost)
Remove CBA
Make AA Tracking provide greater defensive benefit

[Kataphraktoi]

It should be possible to add the foil chassis to all players unit workshop as a prototyped unit, that would be far more ideal than adding the tech doc;flex as that would damage research times and beelines. Temporarily adding doc flex, using the scen edit prototype function, and then removing the tech will make it possible for foil units to be built without the tech.

[ete]

That'd work, though I think just adding a foil to #UNITS with no prerequisite should do the trick?

Also, about the MCC question, one of the custom factions is somewhat of a one trick pony with having Doc Int from the start, which lets them make cruisers and the MCC. But to compensate, they've got a crippling penalty to democratic (and -1 Support, so under demo units cost 2 mins to support).

[Geo]

Questions:

Do you want AI factions? - Yes, preferably the Progenitors.

Do you want custom factions allowed for player choices? - Okay for me.

Do you want Aliens allowed as player choices? - No.

Do you want MCC removed? - Preferably, yes.

Do you want any custom changes? - The below would be nice.

Code: [Select]

Needlejet,M1, Penetrator,M1, Interceptor,M1, Tactical,M1,  8, 2, 2, 0, 1, 8, MindMac,   Thunderbolt,M1,    Sovereign,M1,
Copter,M1,    Chopper,M1,    Rotor,M1,       Lifter,M1,    5, 2, 1, 0, 1, 5, DocAir,  Gunship,M1,        Warbird,M1,

Do you want air power weakened? If yes here are some options:
Ban copters (or reduce their movement, or increase their cost)
Remove CBA
Make AA Tracking provide greater defensive benefit

CBA to Orbital Spaceflight.

[Kataphraktoi]

Questions:
Do you want AI factions? Yes but make sure they are not tech leaders and not easy fruit. Aliens are good
Do you want custom factions allowed for player choices? Im OK with it but i would like to play as a normal civ (Drones) anyway
Do you want MCC removed? Yes, you cant really take SPs from humans and i never like the ''you need to gang up now'' idea

Moving CBA to orbital spaceflight sounds good. Im a bit ignorant on unit editing, would those custom units(or atleast the needle) proposed by geo be equipped with chaos weapons? Would need to make sure we couldnt retro engineer the chaos attack off. But i really like that kind of idea, the SAM\interceptor ability kinda sucks because the unit only defends with equal weapon and not at an advantage, so giving it chaos vs presumably missile attack would be a good boost. But i wonder if with all the new editing nowadays, is it possible to actually change the interceptor bonus from a 1:1 deal to say a 25-50% advantage for the intercepting air unit?


As proposed earlier to send in our faction choices by PM, and create clones if two players pick the same, i think we all agreed we prefer unique factions. Thus maybe we could put our faction choice in the thread to coordinate and avoid this.

[Kirov]

Questions:
Do you want MCC removed? Yes, you cant really take SPs from humans and i never like the ''you need to gang up now'' idea

I agree with Kata here. In my experience, the 'ganging up' thing is largely a myth and never actually comes through. I could never muster allies against Zak in my games, although he's a natural leader in the power graph, and I never noticed people coordinating against me when I was in the lead. One guy is too busy with RL, another just doesn't like this diplomacy thing, yet another struggles with English, and there goes your Richelieu-like scheming.

Moving CBA to orbital spaceflight sounds good. Im a bit ignorant on unit editing, would those custom units(or atleast the needle) proposed by geo be equipped with chaos weapons? Would need to make sure we couldnt retro engineer the chaos attack off.

I think that '8' refers to movement points. If I read it correctly, Geo wants to cut chopper mp down to 5 and move it to D:AP, while leave airplanes intact and move them to MMI. I'm OK with changes to movement points, but why the tech tree arrangement, Geo?

[Kirov]

Questions:

Do you want AI factions? Yes, but please help them probe-wise, via putting the interlock in their bases, enabling 'build a lot of probe teams' and maybe insert a foil/cruiser probe team in the UNITS section (Darsnan used to do this, I can find it if you want me to)

Do you want custom factions allowed for player choices? Yes, please. Actually, I'd like to play one, but I have a hard time choosing, they all look a bit... weird. One thing about NN factions is that their pros and cons are usually mismatched. Can you... Can you choose one for me? Like roll a die or something? I would go with anything. 

Do you want Aliens allowed as player choices? Some of the custom factions are Progs. Do we have a list of all things Prog-related? I don't remember the last time I played them.

Do you want MCC removed? Yes.

Do you want any custom changes? Maybe we could move submarines and other interesting abilities down the ladder? Also, please let's discuss the issue of sea sensor arrays. I feel blind without 'em.

Do you want air power weakened? If yes here are some options:
Ban copters (or reduce their movement, or increase their cost)
Remove CBA
Make AA Tracking provide greater defensive benefit

I vote that both CBA and EG should go. All air power should get their movement points reduced down to 4-6.