Nato Unravelled 2, Parallel Universe

[Misotu]

2120 is off to Tau. My scout has found a colony pod and base of Googlie's. Looks like we started about 14 squares apart this time, with no water barrier or even fungus. On a huge map, this seems unnecessary ...

[Tau Ceti]

Depressing...

2120 to Googlie.

[Googlie]

2121 to b_c's xd

The CAT squad emerges for a looksee (Canadian Advanced Technology squad)



G

[Misotu]

Do your worst, dear Commissioner

2121 to Tau.

[Tau Ceti]

Oooh! Cat fight!

2121 to Googlie.

[Googlie]

2122 to big_canuk via xdrive

[Misotu]

LOL Tau. Actually, we have to admit that our poor scout is somewhat overwhelmed by the advanced Canuck tech wotsit. I mean, 6 weapons and 3 armour are rather distant for us at the moment ...

We are running away as fast as we can Which, um, is not very fast in fact.

2122 to Tau.

[Tau Ceti]

2122 to the chasing Canadian...

[Googlie]

2123 to the Gaians xdrive from the one who scored .87 on the Atherholt Trauma Function Test

[Misotu]

2123 is on to the Drones from the one who is a) stuck b) damaged by mindworms and c) baffled by Atherholt whatever it is ...

[big_canuk]

http://www.gamesta.com/smacplanet/peace.htm

[Tau Ceti]

2123 to Googlie.

[Misotu]

Thanks Big_C .... all is now clear. I thought it was some horrible secret weapon

[Googlie]

2124 to big_canuk's xdrive


"Nothing personal, my dear Provost Misotu, but Planet simply isn't big enough for the two of us. I shall ruthlessly crush your faction, of course, and shall derive great pleasure from having you executed."

Commissioner Googlie

[Googlie]

Been chating to big-canuk via ICQ .....

If you guys want to restart so that we have more than 14 tiles separation between the competing teams, we're agreeable.

It would also allow for the Librarian/Transcend level fault to be rectified (altho this would likely mean starting both NUs, 'cos it was balancing out with the Gaians in both games being the Transcend level and the other three in each game being Librarian)

So we throw it on the table for discussion - we're 25 turns in for both games, but we are getting a good turn rate, so we'd be at this position by Feb 5th or so again, but with cleaner games.

What do you think?

Googlie

[Misotu]

Hi gang

Well, I hate to whinge 'n all, but I was really hoping for something a bit different from what we have here
I have also somehow magically acquired Big_C's comm fq as well as Googlie's, which I assume means that one of his units has been sniffing around me too, although I've not seen him yet. If that means that I'm sandwiched between the 2 of you, or you're in a position to do a 2 on 1 early rush, then I think the game would be a bit disappointing Especially for me

It's a shame to have yet another start but ... I'd certainly vote for a re-start on NU2. If we *do* restart, I'd like to make a plea for some changes which I think might help us to get this sorted once and for all (moves lips in silent prayer).

1 How about we use DiDad's ultimate builder map? He reckons it has 24 possible start locations playtested to ensure that they are as balanced as possible ...

2 How about we give ourselves a few extra pods and scouts? I mean, this has to be started as a scenario anyway, so why not get the game moving a bit faster?

Regarding NU1 ... well, I'd leave that up to Tau. He has the disadvantage there, but his start location is not too bad (no, it's not dramatically wonderful either. No jungle or flats ) So I don't know, he might just want to keep going with that one. I'd be happy either way - if we take an accelerated start we could be back to where we are now in around a week or so ?

Anyway, I sent you all an email.

[Tau Ceti]

I support a restart of NU2. An early game Ogre rush was not really what we intended... and the sooner I get rid of my own starting position there, the better.

As for NU1, I quite like it, actually, and would not mind continuing. Unless difficulty level severely impacts tech costs, the disadvantage will probably mainly be in the early game, and I think I have the potential for quite acceptable performance there anyway.

But it depends on what we do in NU2. Any significant changes in the setup parameters should probably mean a restart of both games (and I am not opposed to that either - either way is fine). For example, extra starting pods will help the University more than the others, and a known map will influence a lot of early decisions.

Personally, I would prefer a random map. The UBB may be balanced, but it should be possible to get balance through CMN effort as well, and I like the surprise factor of a random map, actually exploring rather than just racing for prime sites.

Extra pods and scouts (and maybe a former or two as well, as both teams start with Centauri Ecology anyway) sound good to me - especially as we will lose time by restarting.

[Googlie]

As suggested in the e-mails exchange, I'd opt for a complete restart of both games, on an accelerated basis (pods, scouts and formers) with a random map.

And make sure this time that the difficulty differences are corrected through the flag force (or whatever - Tau's specialty) and that we get decent separation between the factions at the start. I guess we are somewhat unique in our requests - as a team-based game we want the two team players to be reasonably adjacent, but as builders, with an attempt to delay warfare until the middle/late game, we do need separation between teams - and 14 tiles is a bit close.

Over at ACOL, Aredhran has oodles of practice and experience in CMN'ing specialty game situations. I wonder if he'd be willing to take us onery bunch on? As Mis says, we all expect to be playing these two well into the summer and fall months, so we need to get them just right to derive maximum game satisfaction from them.

Tau - you got any of 'Red's IOU's sitting in your desk drawer? (and you would need to make sure that he knows about the diff bug and how to correct it). You'll gather we annointed you as the beseecher.



Googlie