No Copters, no Crawlers TTT (Kirov vs t_ras)

[ete]

Standard MP rules, with some changes requested (and a few minor CMN tweaks):
Empath Guild and CBA set to destroyed at start
Crawlers and Copters disabled via alphax
Probe Foil added as default unit via alphax for the AI. Please do not reverse engineer it for foil tech Kirov.
Difficulty Transcend
Force current difficulty ON
Starting units for humans set (3 CPs each+2 Green Scout Patrols for Mirriam, 3 Sea Escape Pods+2 Green Unity Gunships for Pirates)
Starting techs for humans set (natural starting techs)
Starting bases for AI set (already built in good locations)
Starting units for AI set (3 formers+3 scout patrols each, bar Sparta which gets 3 Scout Rovers. All AI starting units at +1 Morale as minor advantage.)
Starting techs for AI set (natural techs+Cent Eco, Uni has their bonus, Gaia gets a bonus one because they would've had Eco anyway)
Seed AI enhancements built (roads linking their bases, a few forest squares since they rarely make those and need them)
All rules set to those in the word document:
a) <Higher Goals> (allow Victory by Transcendence)   Yes
b) <Total War> (allow Victory by Conquest)   Yes
c) <Peace in Our Time> (allow Diplomatic Victory)   Yes
d) <Mine, All Mine> (allow Economic Victory)   Yes
e) <One of All> (allow Cooperative Victory)   Yes
f) <Do or Die> (don't restart eliminated players)   Yes
g) <Look First> (flexible starting locations)   Yes
h) <Tech Stagnation>   No
i) <Spoils of War> (steal tech when conquer base)   Yes
j) <Blind Research>   No
k) <Intense Rivalry> (AI opponents more aggressive)   No
l) <No Unity Survey> (world map not visible)   Yes
m) <No Unity Scattering> (supply pods only at landing sites)   No
n) <Bell Curve> (no random events)   Yes
o) <Time Wrap> (accelerated start)   No
p) <Randomize FL personalities & Social agendas>   No

Note: Play this game with Yitzi's latest patch. If you are both using different patches, there may be issues.

uss1701jb first.

[ete]

Good luck, have fun, don't let the mindworms bite

You both have your passwords (Kirov PMed me his, I PMed uss1701jb his).

[Kirov]

Thanks ete for the n-th time. USS, good luck to you and enjoy the game! Please provide your email for spam purposes.

Mine is: hlaskover AT gmail DOT com.

[ete]

No problem, hope it all works properly. Especially hope you don't just get flattened by the AIs near you, in my test game they were fairly tough but beatable. I weakened them a little by removing pods, but if they get a Battle Ogre right at the start you may be in for a hard time. Still, giving you someone easy to roll as Mirriam would give you quite an advantage, and you should be able to at least keep the foes back/kill them later.

You can both play by attaching saves to posts in this thread, that way it's easy for me/other CMNs to see how the game's going. And you get more ECs/other people can see your comments.

[Buster's Uncle]

However, it is good to post in the Profiles thread; that's just a good, getting to know each other practice, and the emails provided are a (very useful) contact resource for the MPlayer community.

[uss1701jb]

uss1701jb AT gmail DOT com

I'm afraid I cant do anything yet, as I don't have Yitzis patch. Expect a response in an hour- if you have an answer, PLEASE post on the original game page. It would help me get playing that much quicker.

[ete]

If you mean reply in the other topic for notification, you should be able to set this topic to also notify you. Just click the notify button at the top or bottom.

[uss1701jb]

All the topics notify me.

[Earthmichael]

Have fun!  I cannot believe you are playing without crawlers.  To me crawlers and formers are the most fun aspect of SMAC.  Let us know how the game goes!

[Kirov]

I consider crawlers quite tedious actually, they take up a lot of my micro-management.

Some issues I expect:

1) Secret Project must be planned early, will take ages to build and many of them will fall to the AI.

2) Unit prototypes should also be done in advance. In regular games, prototyping a new element is hardly any effort.

3) Alien Artifacts are to be cherished like Holy Grails. USS, if I may suggest something - build some transport foils and pop pods with that. Some of course will be IoDs so you risk a bit, but many pods should bring you AAs. In fact, you can easily with the early SP race with a bit of luck and pluck. Will there be an early SP race at all?  I'm looking forward to this game. My copy with Yitzi's patch is ready here.

4) We may even need to disband regular units for 50% minerals. Ogres can be also quite useful for this purpose.

[Earthmichael]

I don't find crawlers need a lot of micromanagement.  I put them where I want them and seldom move them afterwards.

[uss1701jb]

Starting to play!

[Kirov]

I don't find crawlers need a lot of micromanagement.  I put them where I want them and seldom move them afterwards.

Hmm, lucky you. I can recall several situation where crawlers give me headaches:

1) In a peaceful environment I'd like to trigger my first fungal bloom as early as reasonably possible (later on you may have more pressing things to do). This involves pushing several crawlers to the HQ, waiting for the bloom, maybe another one, then returning most of those crawlers back (so they help in other bases build more crawlers).

2) In a multiplayer game usually I want to instabuild my SP in one turn, to avoid any misundestandings. So I bring 7-10 sc within a 1-turn distance from my HQ and I still want them not to lose a turn of crawling as they gather to be cashed in. So usually I have to push out the crawlers at my HQ (which is good because I don't like cashing crawlers homed at the HQ so that it remains the powerhouse). Still, a landscape after an instabuild usually need some management, because there's always an empty mine, etc. etc.

3) When I run out of space (my people always like tight spacing). Sometimes I build a crawler and have to 'wake up' and move like 6 crawlers one tile forward. Of course, some of them don't land on a road, and you need to click them again to crawl. Of course, sometimes there is another unit there, so you need to press 'V', then 'A', then select the crawler and hit 'O'...

I'm tired already writing it. It appears now that I have with my crawlers quite a toxic "I-hate-you-but-can't-leave-you" relationship. So it's good to have a break.

[Kirov]

Starting to play!

Wonderful! But don't forget to attach the turn to your post!

[Buster's Uncle]

Should I move the OT to Searching through the fungus, and clean up this TTT?