Maeldun's First Stand

[Misotu]

Hippy hippy shake   

[Buster's Uncle]

 

[Maeldun]

Lol. Next turn.

[Misotu]

It was just our famed "efficiency". But don't worry. We are not getting the colour we want 

[Maeldun]

Off for the night. See you tomorrow.

[Misotu]

See you tomorrow, RL permitting 

[Maeldun]

Got a battle ogre mk2 from a pod. I hopefully have the best military on Planet right now.

[Misotu]

Gulp. My fungus trawling has produced zip so far ...

[Misotu]

I've attached the turn above, but thought I should do a separate post covering a few things about PBEM which you might not have come across:

There are standard forum rules for PBEM - it's a FAQ pinned at the top of the Command Nexus. It's worth a read just to make sure that we're on the same page and also because they are pretty much standard across most games, in case you decide to play more. There are quite a number of "exploits" ruled out - if you're like me you won't actually have realised most of them existed     but it's good to know what they are.

Some Special Projects are routinely ruled out  In CMN games they are destroyed before the game starts but obviously in a game like ours we just have to agree. I don't know how you feel about this but the two that come up most are the Empath Guild and the Cloudbase. I have mixed feelings about the Empath - it's only really like Planetary Governor but of course it's easier to get and it's permanent. Infiltration is terribly powerful in SMAC. The Cloudbase I do understand. It's not so much the air complex in every base but the additional movement for aircraft can be terribly unbalancing in MP.

What are your feelings on this? It's our game, so we can agree what we like. If there are any other SPs you feel strongly about, just say.

Limiting choppers.  This is a big grey area - people are generally in agreement that choppers are so over-powered that reaching MMI early is pretty much game over. This is particularly true in blind research of course, where MMI can be astonishingly elusive. The solutions vary and include: a limit on the number of attacks a chopper can make per turn; prohibiting choppers from attacking a base; a limit on the number of moves a chopper can make before attacking.

I'm not very experienced on this - when I played MP many years ago we just played the game as it was and put up with the lack of balance! So what do you think?

We're a long way from war (well, I am. Maybe you're not given your ogre 'n all) or later SPs so now is probably a good time to ponder these things.

What time zone are you in btw, I forgot to ask. I'm in Portugal at the moment, so it's GMT around here.

[Maeldun]

Ok, Thanks for the heads up.

I knew some of the tricks (more like exploits) and they all seem pretty reasonable. Pertaining to overpowered SP's, I probably would have added Hunter Seeker Algorithm to the list.

However, since this is our first game and we're starting out as allies against the AI I don't really think we should impose limitations at this point. Honestly I'm kinda having second thoughts about my ability to hold my own against the Transcend AI. I am pretty successful in single games but I have been known to reload saved games when things don't go as planned - so this style of play is kind of new to me.

For now, I'd propose going ahead as allies against the AI and using any sort of advantage we can (sans common exploits) to see how things are going (and in my case, gain a bit more experience). In later stages, once we have (hopefully) eradicated all of the AI factions we could turn on each other to see who comes out on top, just for the fun of it (or not, however we feel like it). We can over the rules again then.

For now I would ally and coordinate here (or using the in-game comms?). Does that sound OK with you?

I am in Romania, so it's GMT+2 over here.

[Misotu]

Sounds fine    I agree with you on the Hunter Seeker too, although of course with SMAX it's not quite the probe game ender that it was in SMAC. We'll see how it goes.

And I hear what you say, I know transcend is a step up from what you're used to. Most important thing is to have fun.

I've got a little bit more to explore round where I am, but it's looking very much like a small island again! I've been trying to steer towards flex but blind research is playing its usual tricks. Are you on an island too? If you are, given Spartan morale, you should be ok against the AI for now. The AI is on transcend but even so, two human players should walk it ... I feel like we ought to at least find each other in-game to start comms and so on, just to make things interesting and give the AI a chance (!) but if things are looking tricky we could combine forces earlier. I don't want to lose my partner before the game really gets going 

Does that sound ok? If we ally against the AI so early we would be so formidable that it might not be so much fun.

Have you run into an aggressive neighbour yet?

[Maeldun]

No neighbors so far.

I seem to have landed an a (sort of island) connected by a tiny isthmus with what seems to be a kind of peninsula at least - could also turn out to be an island, but at least it's not as tiny as in the last game. Doing fine so far, no probs. We'll see how it goes.

[Misotu]

OK, well let's see how it goes. Just confirmed that I *am* on a tiny island. Not quite as small as last time and it will be ok. Let's just hope Flex isn't too long coming!

[Maeldun]

I believe this is our longest game so far.

[Misotu]

And long may it continue