Conniving Multiplayer - Game 3

[MercantileInterest]

My old group of veteran Centauri players is starting up a new multiplayer game but this time around Nevill will be playing with us. He has a lot of talent, so we're looking forward to the challenge. The rules are as follows:

(click to show/hide)

A player may not:
1. Reload the game multiple times or load the game into the scenario editor
2. Conduct diplomacy prior to having met in-game
3. Use colony pods to increase a base beyond its maximum population limit
4. Use build queue manipulation or other exploits to hurry production at reduced costs, or build something that could not directly be built
5. Take advantage of the stockpile energy bug by adding it after units in build queues
6. Upgrade crawlers to more expensive designs before adding them to secret projects
7. Connect multiple artifacts to the same network node (supposedly possible if you rename the city)
8. Set the home of a unit to the base of a pacted AI faction
9. Start a terraforming task in one square, cancel it, move to a different square and then finish it there (in case of combat terraforming)
10. Perform an act of aggression against a player and complete pending negotiations in the same turn
11. Reverse engineer custom units to gain undiscovered abilities, weapons, armor, etc.

Reverse-engineering is allowed (i.e. capturing a unit and making new units from it in the workshop, even though you lack the tech).

As for probe teams, PBEM games are bugged in that the person using the team gets to decide how the faction should react upon discovery. For this reason, exposed probe team actions must always result in the harshest reply (dissolve pact/treaty).

Finally, Planetary Council information must be fully shared with all players upon request (the game doesn't properly show how the factions voted to all players, only the result).

Our faction lineup is as follows:  (MercantileInterest),  ,  ,  (AI),  (AI),  (Pierce Ji-Jang),  (Nevill). We've selected aliens for tougher AI and in the hope that their permanent war will distort our diplomacy.

Onward to victory!

[MercantileInterest]

[Kirov]

I'm sorry, it's not that obvious - is this a TT or setup thread?

[MercantileInterest]

It's a TT with an RPG theme. Should be fun to follow. Inspired by this fantastic game: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/lets-multiplay-sid-meiers-alpha-centauri-pbem-game-2.92864/

[MercantileInterest]

We've reached turn five. No sign of other Unity survivors but we have found ruins indicating an ancient alien presence.

[MercantileInterest]

2205: Unknown signal detected at the Crucible. Transmission methods match standard usage. The originator claims to be part of a surviving group from the Unity mission under assault by hordes of hostile aliens using advanced technology.

2207: Signal lost.

2215: Pandemonium engulfs the Crucible.

0030: Union Enforcers restore order.

0053: Researcher Wilkinson, temporarily relieved of welding duty, explains that the alien structures discovered so far date back millions of years, with no evident sign of maintenance. The signal is most likely a fraud, as all efforts to reestablish contact have proven unsuccessful. He urges calm.

0900: The perpetrators of the 'Contact Hoax' are taken into custody, stripped of Union membership and reassigned to the septic reclamation fields.

[MercantileInterest]

[Nevill]

Aliens confirmed. Engaging standard contact procedures: shoot, then ask questions. They don't understand our questions anyway.

[MercantileInterest]

I'd been wondering why I had so few scientists on my landing pod.

[MercantileInterest]

Though for the Day: Heroic Success!
*No additional thoughts authorized*

Having successfully tracked the location of the other landing pods through the most successful science program on Planet, Foreman Domai despatched our advanced helicopter to locate Unity survivors. After an initial panic, our long lost brothers welcomed the bold expedition with feast and song. Thus opens a new era of friendship and prosperity. We see no obstacle to integrating these 'Peacekeeping' refugees into both Union Membership and the Colonial Government.

Though the Peacekeepers had undergone an attack by vicious xenos, their ad hoc leadership informed us they successfully drove the brutes back. This raises the possibility that our alien neighbors are, in fact, bourgeois.

In recognition of this momentous occasion, the Union has reduced mandatory manual labor by 50% during the next work cycle and issued complimentary liquor rations.

[MercantileInterest]

Fat Cat One Percenters Steal Planetary Leadership
Thought for the Day: Outrage

My fellow laborers, today we see how the evils of old Earth have followed us to the new world. Through a series of corrupt back room dealings, the Peacekeepers have guilefully snatched the official government of our colonization effort out of the soot stained hands of the working class. We reached out to them in friendship but they're rotten to the core. Corruption, my fellow laborers! Through nefarious electoral manipulation, only the Peacekeepers and an as of yet unmet group of survivors calling themselves the Human Hive were even allowed on the ballot. Mark my words, we'll not soon forget our mistreatment.

- Foreman Domai
     Class Struggle

[Nevill]

Gentlemen, I think we have a problem. My game crashes after selecting a base where I have just built a scout patrol.

It could have something to do with Yitzi's patch. I will have to remove it and install the mod anew to test.

[MercantileInterest]

Keep us updated, please.

[Nevill]

Good news is, I resolved the issue. It was indeed the interaction of the mod and Yitzi's patch causing it.

Bad news is, a mindworm ate one of my bases that was about to produce a Colony Pod, so I am now solidly behind. Ah well.

[MercantileInterest]

Alien Race Attacks Spartan Federation
Thought for the Day: Full Alert!

Early this morning, the 5th Expeditionary Force received a distress signal from what turned out to be a nearby Spartan colony. To the horror of the expeditionary members, only smoking ruins still stood while screeching aliens fled the scene of the slaughter. The invaders daubed incomprehensible pictograms all over the wreckage and made use of a deployable culinary unit to 'field taste' human captives. The Expeditionary Force found no survivors.

The Steel Driving Men pledge their full moral support to the Spartan Federation and promise to strengthen their own defenses against possible incursions. Mankind must stand together on this new world.