Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => Command Nexus => Topic started by: JarlWolf on October 26, 2012, 04:58:45 AM

Title: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on October 26, 2012, 04:58:45 AM

Was watching Kevin Costner's WaterWorld. Great film, if a tad silly. Then I came up with something.

Here is the idea.

The planet has 70 to 90% water, standard or large size planet, and thinker difficulty.
Planet life: Abundant
Rainfall: Probably average.

The catch? All my enemies, are Pirate factions.

My goal? The outright conquest of each and every one of these buccaneering bums and the introduction of law and order on the high sea's.

My own faction? This is where you come in.

What faction should I take? What faction should introduce it's own world order on this oceanic world? Who will lead this purge of the pirates?

You tell me. Possible candidates are:
 ;deidre; ;yang; ;zak; ;morgan; ;santi; ;miriam; ;lal; ;caretake; ;cha; ;aki; ;domai; ;roze; ;marr;

Our enemies are:
 ;ulrik; ;ulrik; ;ulrik; ;ulrik; ;ulrik; ;ulrik;

 :danc: Will I achieve law and order on the high sea's? :danc:

Doubt it, but worth a shot.

Playing as Roze of the Data Angels.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: lorddragonhat on October 26, 2012, 02:05:36 PM

Depending on your own skill, and taking in account thinker difficulty, i would say most builder oriented factions are no-no.  Myself played a Morgan against all Hive, transcend difficulty, and couldnt make it.

I am not saying you should pick a momentum-oriented faction, but choose other than that at your own risk.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 26, 2012, 02:12:26 PM

This is SP?  You might consider using 5 custom aquatic factions - there are plenty around; I've done more than one myself.  It would save you a lot of aggravation keeping the enemies straight.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on October 26, 2012, 11:06:16 PM

I'll look into it, though I can rename each ingame and such  as so to distinguish them.

As for faction selection, it is entirely up to you folks. It matters not what faction you choose for me, just that a decision is reached. While you all decide, it gives me time to iron out any issues and other things.


The way this will go about is it will be a semi role play semi After action report. I will write through the perspective of said faction leader, and I will role play as them in the report. Reports are generally a few turns.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: t_ras on October 27, 2012, 06:57:23 AM

Interesting.
I guess I would go for a researcher, to get hitech ASAP and use it to have stronger ships.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Earthmichael on October 27, 2012, 07:46:32 AM

I agree with t_ras.  I would play either University or CyCon. 

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: sisko on October 28, 2012, 03:16:45 PM

Quote from: BUncle on October 26, 2012, 02:12:26 PM

This is SP?  You might consider using 5 custom aquatic factions - there are plenty around; I've done more than one myself.

@BUncle: can you give him some links? maybe even pictures?

@JarlWolf: Uni is a safe choice since the Pirates are not that good at mineral production. you should be able to secure the HGP (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=1235.0) and the VW (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=1312.0) which should be your main priorities in the early game.
throwing in some custom factions can change everything though..  if you're reluctant because you don't know how to install custom faction, don't worry, we can help you with that. :)

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 28, 2012, 03:31:01 PM

I'd suggest that the least confusing way to do it would be to KEEP the pirates.txt with minor changes, like renaming the file and faction, but use the art.  No surprizes that way.  I can link two alt. pirates arts I've done, and post some Network Node ones.

You get a range of faction colors on the map that way, a different leaderhead in diplomacy, and none of that Pirates, Pirates 2-5 that way.  MUCH easier to keep track of.  I noticed it's a slight problem in one of the AARs in progress (NewAge's?)

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 28, 2012, 05:26:09 PM

http://www.hickorychessclub.org/FemalePirate.zip (http://www.hickorychessclub.org/FemalePirate.zip)  -You'll need to change the faction name and nothing else - I changed nothing but the leader name in the .txt.

http://www.hickorychessclub.org/Vikings.zip (http://www.hickorychessclub.org/Vikings.zip) - art only (it was Darsnan's project and I never got the .txt files, but the old man is Jali Magnusson, a Finn.)

http://www.hickorychessclub.org/MyShadowGhosts.zip (http://www.hickorychessclub.org/MyShadowGhosts.zip) - art only (a SMAniaC gold edition faction, and the .txt was tailored for the SE and tech changes in SMAniaC.)

SO - I only need to find you two other aquatic factions, if I've kept count - time to look through my (other people's) Custom Factions collection.  Hold on...

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 28, 2012, 06:12:31 PM

...Searching through what I've got is proving an annoying task - I just found a grouping of just the opposite of what I'm looking for - official faction art with altered .txts to make them good aquatic factions.  So frustrating...

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 28, 2012, 06:37:33 PM

Well, this one is a little strange, art-wise, but it's an aquatic faction graphic.  I'm attaching all the files because, what the heck; you might want to just use as-is, or at least lift the names from the .txt.

...

Come to think of it, there are eleven of the aquatised offical faction mentioned in the last post -all the human land factions, renamed as aquatics- so, if you fancy playing against, for example, the Peacekeepers in your Waterworld game, say the word, and I'll post them.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 29, 2012, 01:35:56 AM

I've asked Kilkakon if he knows of any sea factions, because he knows the NN collection at least as well as I do, and searching's going slow.  Having to look at one at a time...

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on October 29, 2012, 09:59:22 AM

I figured a way to rename each pirate faction and such without the use of mods/ program editing, you just have to select each faction during the choose a faction, edit name and all that, then keep jumping to the others. And then you can rename and such with all the factions. I will also be putting on randomized faction personalities and agenda's, so we have a variety of nautical nutcases.


As for the factions to choose between, according to the discussion it is between the Cybernetic Consciousness or the University. Vote between those two.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: sisko on October 29, 2012, 10:03:45 AM

my vote goes to Uni, of course.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Kilkakon on October 29, 2012, 02:54:40 PM

I know of two more:

The Bree from NN, if you like naked women. They are an alien aquatic race.

My own pirate faction, if you like totodiles. While not for SMAX I can easily convert them over and you wouldn't notice. They have even got their own little pirate ships as cities. XD

Interested? :)

As for player faction, I'd say go with... ;roze; as Sisko likes her.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 29, 2012, 02:59:26 PM

[smacks forehead]  The Bree!  I've played them in SMAniaC, and looked at the faction yesterday, and forgot they were aquatic.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Kilkakon on October 29, 2012, 03:03:04 PM

Haha well we might as well make things easier for him and attach them all in one post for him with the fixes we suggested.

Should I throw in my totodile pirates? XD

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 29, 2012, 03:13:44 PM

He's not going to use them, but I don't see why not - at least we'd be collecting 6 aquatics in one place for someone's future convenience...

Here's an improved Bree.pcx I did for Maniac, with scanlines and small report logos that don't stand out like a sore thumb in-game.  http://www.hickorychessclub.org/MyBree.zip (http://www.hickorychessclub.org/MyBree.zip) 

I attach the other files below.  The readme is a good set of installation instructions.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Kilkakon on October 29, 2012, 03:43:58 PM

Here's mine. :) Two graphic options, choose G or normal as you desire.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on October 30, 2012, 03:57:38 AM

Right, well I got one for University, one for DataAngels.

I might use the other factions at a later date, though I want to get straight to the project as soon as I can, so I can submit content for you all to enjoy.

So far the vote is
 ;roze;
 ;zak;
Majority wins. (if one becomes a tie, its whatever one reached said number first.)

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Kilkakon on October 31, 2012, 07:25:05 AM

Well the work was already done for ya, but sure, it's your AAR so do what you like. :D

Any more votes on the player faction? :O

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: sisko on October 31, 2012, 07:36:28 AM

well, i see no vote from BUncle, even though he's following the thread..  ;)

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: t_ras on October 31, 2012, 08:20:24 AM

I'll go with Uni

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 31, 2012, 01:44:13 PM

Oh, since the point is a challenge and the Data Angels are a fun mix of weak and strong with the probes, I'll confuse the issue by voting Roze.

I follow everything, y'know.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on November 01, 2012, 01:10:10 AM

So far it is a tie, with

University reaching
 ;zak;  ;zak;
And Data Angels reaching
 ;roze;  ;roze;

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Bodissey on November 01, 2012, 08:41:44 PM

Good ole Zak could be interesting against the sea hordes but the Data have something to prove against the freebooters... Let the best pirate win!

Therefore I vote for Roze.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on November 01, 2012, 10:32:21 PM

So far the votes stand at

 ;roze;  ;roze;  ;roze;

And

 ;zak;  ;zak;

The Data Angels are in the lead. I will wait for 6 more hours. Voting ends by then.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Rainbow Lizard on November 03, 2012, 12:36:44 PM

I'd go with the Angels, because I love watching people fail.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on November 04, 2012, 05:49:49 AM

Quote from: Rainbow Lizard on November 03, 2012, 12:36:44 PM

I'd go with the Angels, because I love watching people fail.

Great to have a supportive comrade!

Another vote for Roze.

 ;roze; ;roze; ;roze; ;roze;
 ;zak; ;zak;

Roze wins as the time elapsed a long time ago and Roze was in majority anyways.


I will be playing as the Data Angels and will be posting things soon.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on November 04, 2012, 06:44:58 AM

Right, lets start this up.

Note: I will be roleplaying as Sinder Roze, and please forgive any butchering of Roze`s character by me, as I am neither a woman nor am I Sinder Roze, nor am I even close to her technical god knowledge.

Regardless I hope you enjoy.

(http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m494/JarlWolf/Roze1.png)
(http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m494/JarlWolf/Roze2.png)
(http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m494/JarlWolf/Roze3.png)
(http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m494/JarlWolf/Roze4.png)

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: sisko on November 04, 2012, 11:44:31 AM

tough luck with all that fungus to the north!  :scratch:

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 04, 2012, 12:48:34 PM

Interesting.  Nice evocation of the Roze personality and an attractive presentation.  Watch the colors on the sidebar, though - when the red and green get bright enough, it gets tough to read. 

Good work. ;b;

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on November 11, 2012, 06:56:16 AM

More coming soon, stay tuned, just been a bit busy recently.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 17, 2013, 04:27:28 PM

MOAR!

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 02:42:37 PM

Forgot about this mind, I might re-do it later, but all my efforts for now are on Varshavianka. Noticed you reading it Ete so I decided to clarify for any who wondered what happened to this.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2013, 02:45:19 PM

As far as the aquatic versions of the official factions I posted about before goes, Geomodder did those, and he's a member here, now...

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 02:46:55 PM

Mhm... I may have a faction of my own in the works too for this. Not many people do sea based AAR's so I will definitely reboot this in time. But for now, I think this thread should appropriately sink again. Pun intended.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 02:53:09 PM

I was reading to check if there were any faction files I'd missed, since this was on my list of places with faction files, but yes a sea based AAR would be very interesting at some point. Ideally with an extremely high water map and not much place to settle on land I think? If you are on land and dug in the AI basically can't take any of your bases. But some nice coastal resources and land/fungal barriers prepared maybe. Oh, and the AI will need probe foils as a basic unit.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2013, 03:02:39 PM

This thread inspired my call for indexing custom factions - Kil and I spent a lot of time searching for aquatics, having large collections of factions and memory being an imperfect thing.  There's a lot of gold sitting around, but there's so much to sift through that it's a terrible slog finding what you need.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 03:16:01 PM

Mhm.. I feel like a dick jerk for having not used them (or continuing this AAR for that matter) but that was due to my inexperience and overall foreign stance with AC's modding/custom faction realm. Now I'd consider myself well dabbled in it and knowledgeable, at least in the creation process/art end of it, less so finding/cataloging them.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Vishniac on August 05, 2013, 05:13:56 PM

The game I actually play is not far from this:
huge planet / abundant native life / 70-90% water / slow research

I took Gaians and I'm holding my island well against the usual SMAC suspects. (ok: Librarian, not Thinker... :-[)
To help my faction, I chose: weak erosion/little rainfall.

I would be interested to play Deirdre against 6 sea-based factions.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on August 10, 2013, 02:24:20 AM

You are welcome to make an AAR out of it. Let me know if you want any help.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Vishniac on August 10, 2013, 10:08:56 AM

I have never been a modder and it's been forever since I installed any GotM in my files. So, yes, you can help me by customizing it to make me have it 'on shelf'.
And if someone can refresh my memory of what goes in which files and which folder...(but I remember it was pretty straightforward, not like Dominions3 and its hidden files: I had to ask the IT Department of my plant to access them... :D).

We could make it an official GotM to refresh some activity.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Earthmichael on August 20, 2013, 10:31:53 PM

I think Uni is more powerful than CyCon, so if we go with only 1, it would be Uni.  A combo of the two factions would provide a powerful research alliance.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Vishniac on August 21, 2013, 10:07:13 PM

I started a new game a few days ago with
The Gaians ;deidre;
against the classical factions but with The Pirates replacing Morgan.

Huge planet/70-90 ocean/slow research/abundant native life/weak erosion/little cloud cover
Difficulty: thinker this time (in the case someone would think I am getting soft!  :mad:)

Interesting, that's the name of the game!
The strategy: rush the weather paradigm and start expanding my island. NO sea base! Extensive capturing of worms & co, and using them to destroy the attacking forces. Builder game, build, build, build, and research Build/Explore.
The game is not finished but I passed the most dangerous times. (this is around 2387 I think)
The SPs I couldn't get were: Human Genome Project / Virtual World / the market thing(?) / the Maritime Control Center (got by Pirates...Ouch!)
There were a lot of vendettas against me or between the other but I managed to stay far away of things on my fortress island. The Pirates were and still are clearly the most powerful though I am now leading in tech/territory/wealth and winning will be just a question of how much micromanagement (for military victory) or time (for diplo or research victory). To show where I am in the game, I just got the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm, am researching Fusion and nobody has missiles yet.
The Pirates' navy and air force still prevents me to attack them except their most exposed bases around my...continent (quite large now): I took 3 of them. Santiago has a big island near but we have a treaty. I have only 2 bases which have sea access, the others are surrounded by land, easier to defend. My continent is covered by forests with many mines and boreholes. I'll play on to see what happens.

From what's been said before, a game against 6 Pirate factions would be a real challenge. Quarrelling between them could allow the Gaians to prosper but vendetta against 3 or 4... :-\
Whatever, if you want me to take a challenge on this, I'm your man!

(and, yes, I know you usually don't use commas in English the way I do but I don't like to think that my sentences are not understandable, and without commas it seems to me that's the case.  ???)

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on August 21, 2013, 10:32:16 PM

Hrm. I suggest if you take up this challenge, while doing what I originally did is always an option, I suggest taking at least 6 aquatic factions. I will have an aquatic faction for you to use in a moment, my Sons of Oceanus one.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Vishniac on August 21, 2013, 10:38:01 PM

Yeah, the 6 adversaries must be aquatic but I need someone to make-up the scenario for me with the file. I tried with 6 Pirates but they all had the same color and there were 5 Pirates-2 factions...

For the played faction, it must be terrestrial to get this feeling of being under siege.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on August 22, 2013, 04:44:24 AM

If I give you/you get custom factions, you won't need a custom scenario. You just need to load the factions into your game and you can start playing with them.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Kilkakon on August 22, 2013, 04:55:48 AM

Yeah we have a bunch of them available here. :)

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 22, 2013, 05:02:25 AM

:D :danc:

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Vishniac on August 22, 2013, 05:22:34 PM

Quote from: Vishniac on August 21, 2013, 10:07:13 PM

I started a new game a few days ago with
The Gaians ;deidre;
against the classical factions but with The Pirates replacing Morgan

...and Planet Cult replacing the University, I forgot.
(Of course since I was hoping slow research would allow me to tech-lead, which has not been the case. I'm looking forward to try University in the same configuration)

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: uss1701jb on August 22, 2013, 05:53:57 PM

I want to try this, but with:

Me:  ;ulrik; on land

Opposing forces:

 :danc: on a boat  ;deidre; on a boat  ;yang; on a boat  ;zak; on a boat  ;morgan; on a boat  ;miriam; on a boat

Sorry  ;santi; , no boats for you.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Vishniac on September 09, 2013, 10:08:07 PM

I had a very interesting game these two days along the same lines.

Classic / Size standard / Slow research / 70-90% ocean / Abundant lifeforms / weak erosion / little cloud cover
I took The Hive for the industrial bonus.

Under these conditions the Gaians were quickly the powerhouse: they grabbed the Weather Paradigm, the Merchant Exchange, the Human Genome Project and the Empath Guild. Soon Deirdre was elected at the head of the council.

The University was my ally at first and that allowed me not to be distanced in the research race but after some time they changed allegiance. With the Command Nexus and especially the Maritime Control Center, and with a good chunk of land supporting 10 bases, I decided to launch some strike task-forces: cruisers and a transport with marines.
Soon a base was taken then lost: the Gaians had a very numerous military...
And then someone (can't remember who) asked to invalidate the UN Charter ha ha! Then my signature took all its sense!!  :D A feast of gassed and/or obliterated bases who would have put Saddam and Bachar together to shame, and all legally!

I first killed the University to prevent them to give too many techs to Deirdre. Then Morgan who had just one base left. (yeah, someone else had the stupid idea to melt the polar caps and they all agreed... ??? Bah, I had the strongest navy!). Then Lal fell. I took at last Gaia's Landing and got elected Supreme Leader by Miriam with Santiago abstaining.
Deirdre refused and I had to indulge in a rain of missiles (charter had been reinstated in the meantime) to win.

Boys, it was hard! I wouldn't cope with micromanagement so they downed scores of my needlejets and killed everything I neglected to protect: rovers, formers, transports with 4 attack units boarded (ouch!).

An interesting game!

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 09, 2013, 10:19:48 PM

AAR. 

AAR.

AAR. ;)

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Vishniac on September 09, 2013, 10:49:01 PM

Hey, it's not really an AAR but it's already a good abstract. I don't have a lot of time and my computer messes with the colors when I PrintScreen.

Post me the scenario we are talking about with 6 pirate factions to play against and I'll see to your AAR!  ;)
At least it confirms the power of the Gaians in certain conditions. I should now try the University since Michael thinks them the most capable

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: JarlWolf on September 09, 2013, 11:19:30 PM

All you have to do is you open paint before launching game, screen capture it, window out of game and paste, save. Make whatever edits later.

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Vishniac on September 09, 2013, 11:25:59 PM

Quote from: JarlWolf on September 09, 2013, 11:19:30 PM

All you have to do is you open paint before launching game, screen capture it, window out of game and paste, save. Make whatever edits later.

That's what I do but see the result:

Title: Re: Challenge: Law of The Sea
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 09, 2013, 11:29:00 PM

I've seen that happen before.  It's something in the color settings for your machine.  Uno got it because he's colorblind...