korn469,
I think you played quite in character. I enjoyed all your newsflashes and reports very much, and I think the most important thing is that they are written, and written well. You certainly did that.
As for style, it is good, though I do perhaps think it is a little on the aggressive side. Some of this is due to necessity and game dictates of course. The newsflashes and transmissions generally seem to emphasize the superiority of your faction over the opposition, and contain only slightly veiled threats - actually I think this is more the Spartan style. The University might place more emphasis on technology and development, and would be more interested in knowledge for knowledge's own sake rather than for its military applications. So I think you characterized the University well, but with room for improvement. Still, Zakharov is described as erratic and unethical, and I suppose my views here could be coloured by my in general more sympathetic image of him and my builder/isolationist instincts.
Not that I think remaining very true to faction personality matters so much. Writing entertaining back stories is much more important, and you certainly did that.
As for myself, well, thank you
. Playing in character is quite easy when you have no other concerns. Remaining pacifist in the face of such overwhelming opposition did not really hurt my chances. I did actually destroy three of my own bases, and would have destroyed more if there had been other players left to pick up the fight against you. But with only me remaining, it did not matter if you conquered the HGP, for example.
I did not see you do anything stupid - in fact, you never gave me any realistic opportunities to exploit. I think you played very well. I would never have left my core bases so weakly (or un)defended, but then, no one was able to reach them, so no defence was necessary.
You certainly taught me effective probe defence, and its importance. I only managed to get a Probe Team into your bases once in the entire game, and actually built the Empath Guild primarily so I could get an infiltrator.
As for other games, I do not have all that much info. But I do know that Pagan[CyC] used the lessons learned from this game to overrun his opponents with the University in one other game - even though they cooperated against him from the start. That was basically the last nail in the coffin for the original scenario, and I hope the new ones are somewhat better balanced. I do think the University is the leader in the vast majority of the SMAC games it is in - in the SMACX versions the Progenitors work as tech equalizers.
Back to you - did you see me do anything stupid?
