Anyone want to start a rated SMAC game?

Levelisk · June 1, 2001, 17:21

Hi. I'm wondering if anyone wants to play a rated SMAC game? This will be my first MP game, but I've beaten the AI transend.

WhiteElephants · June 1, 2001, 17:36

What are your settings going to be? What faction do you want? What version? Etc. etc...

Levelisk · June 1, 2001, 18:58

SMAC v4.0, and whatever the settings are for the rankings for the PBEM setting. Could someone set that up, too?

Gee, I'm beginning to think I should just wait to join a game...

theohall · June 1, 2001, 18:59

I'm interested as well. It would also be my first rated game.

Finally won single player on Transcend last night. A true learning experience. Thanks to all who helped Vel develop his Guide.

Solver · June 2, 2001, 05:49

Hi guys,
I'm the SMAC PBEM Ladder Administrator. First of all, if you have saves from your games on Transcend, would you please email them to me at solver@apolyton.net .
I will help you to play this game, by playing here myself, just to let you play with someone expreniced, too.
More players will come here, to be sure. And, someone will also be starting a game, that's no problem.
Please state what preferences (map size, rules, etc.), would you better like to play with, so that we start a game that would suit us all.
Waiting for your replies.

Levelisk · June 2, 2001, 20:41

Well, my preferences are:

Gaians
Huge, random map
Random events ON (I like the uncertainty)
whatever the rules are used for the SMAC PBEM ladder

Viriato · June 3, 2001, 10:55

Count me in.

My preferences will be:

PK (I don't play them for a long time)
Large, random map
All settings average (erosion, native life,...)
All victory conditions on (if more than 4 players else no co-operative to keep this from becoming a teams game)
Random events OFF
Apolyton Tournament Standard rules

dinoarms · June 3, 2001, 12:13

Any faction will do

If a seven human player game is allowed I would love to wait for that many people...but no cooperative vic then.

Qantaga · June 3, 2001, 12:21

Hello everyone!

I know you already have enough players for this game. The only reason I am posting here is to offer to be the seventh player if you want to follow dinoarms suggestion of a 7 player, human-controlled faction game.

If you guys don't want a 7 player game, then no worries, I will look for a new game in the future.

Levelisk · June 3, 2001, 12:35

Sure, 7 player all-human game would be cool. So, here's who's playing:

Levelisk
theohall
Solver
Viriato
dinoarms
Qantaga

anyone else? And, what factions do you guys want? I for one prefer the Gaians or Morganites

Qantaga · June 3, 2001, 12:53

Assuming that the first few people who posted even want a 7 player game, I would like to try my hand at the University, the Hive or the Spartans. But, I will take any faction, since I was the seventh person to reply to your post.

WhiteElephants did post early on, but hasn't expressed whether or not he is interested in this setup, so I would think he should have the right of first refusal as the seventh player.

Also, we will need Solver's approval of a 7 player game setup (if it is to be a rated game) since it is his rating system.

Again, I am not trying to derail this game or thread. So, if those who posted first are not interested in a 7 player game, I will gladly bow out of this game.

dinoarms · June 3, 2001, 17:15

I will take the last available faction after everyone else has chosen.

I beleive that a seven player game won't qualify as a tournament game. But for the pleasure of playing against six humans it is worth it.

To stay away from players forming permanent alliances we should allow NO COOPERATIVE VICTORY.

I would prefer a standard or small map, 30%-50% water on transcend because anything larger will take years.

Also if it is possible we should allow any player who surrenders to have is faction taken over by the AI.

I'm sure Solver will help us with the details.

theohall · June 3, 2001, 17:19

Faction preferences (in order):

Gaians
UoP
Spartans
Peacekeepers
Hive
Morganites
Believers

Whatever other settings are fine by me.

Solver · June 4, 2001, 05:21

Looks like noone muscled me off the the University, and I will take it, as my by far and by mach favorite faction.
Qantaga - sorry, but I think you will be all right with the Hive. Yes, 7 player game is good - no objections at all to that. I have rated 7-player games, too.
It's impossible for the AI to take over a human slot in the game, so when you want to surrender you'll have to either:
1) Give someone else control of a faction
2) Play it till you are defeated
Hope this won't happen, though.
Dinoarms - if we disallow cooperative victory, so be it - bloodbath. Will Standrard size planet suit anybody?
Then, the settings look like this:
1) Standard Planet
2) All victory types
3) No cooperative victory
4) Directed research
5) Pods scattering ON
6) Do or Die ON
7) Spoils of War OFF
8) Rated game
9) SMAC v.4.0, right?

Trying to arrange faction list:

Levelisk - Deirdre
theohall - Deirdre
Solver - Zakharov
Viriato - Lal
dinoarms - Miriam or Santiago
Qantaga - Yang

As you see, two people want to take the Gaians. But, Levelisk might be willing to play as Morgan, it seems to me.

So, we have six players. As I see it, WhiteElephants, just wanted to give you some little help in starting the game - just what I'm doing now

.
Anyone wants to comment on these? And, I would need everyone to post their highest AI level beaten, except Qantaga and theohall, they've already submitted me a save file. It would be nice of you to send saved games of you to solver@apolyton.net , as a proof to me.
So, when we get clarified with the Factions and abovementioned rules, I'm ready to start.

One final note - there are some widely known cheats you can't use. For example, controlling citizen allocation in enemy cities, making instant terraforming, upgrading units at a lower cost, etc. Also, taking either H'minee or Marr is regarded as cheat - these factions are disallowed in PBEMs, as given same skills of the players, the guy owning H'minee or Marr will win.

cpt.slick · June 4, 2001, 05:23

YEAH I'm down and will take spartans

if this is cool and if u don't mind a seventh..

thanx

Solver · June 4, 2001, 05:25

Ah well. Man, learn to spell

.

cpt.slick · June 4, 2001, 05:30

i just read above and the yang player doesn't mind playing morg. or sparts.. so i would MUCH prefer to play yang as they r my fav. faction ..... if this is ok thanks

cpt.slick · June 4, 2001, 06:03

sorry to keep posting but i forgot to mention that my email.. is not the one in my profile.. its sgtslick@hotmail.com

dinoarms · June 4, 2001, 08:00

The Believers is fine with me.
My email addresses are dinoarms@altavista.com
crackplaza@yahoo.com
please post to both as my mail boxes are sometimes full

Solver: The idea of one player controlling two factions strikes me as imbalanced. I suggest that if the player will not self destruct or continue on in obediant servitude or has abandoned the game that the moderator take control of the faction for the sole purpose of self destruction in the minimum time neccessary.

DA

Qantaga · June 4, 2001, 08:27

cpt.slick, I will be happy to take the Spartans, so you can play the Hive.

As far as a player bowing out of the game, it is possible for that player to retire. In some other games I have been involved with, the AI has eliminated a human faction. When that occurs, the game ends. The way we got around it is that the eradicated human would reload their last turn and choose "retire" from the game menu. After that, the rest of us could continue. For example, I am playing in a 3-player game that used to be a 4-player game before one human retired and it has been going quite successfully for some time now.

So, a player who needs to quit this game can hopefully: 1. find a replacement player or 2. retire, if a replacement is not available, if it is not possible for them play out the game.

Levelisk · June 4, 2001, 08:34

Yeah, I'm willing to play as the Morganites, even though I'm not as good with them. And, my email is jeffrey@thecases.com in case you didn't catch it.

Solver · June 4, 2001, 08:52

Could anyone make another list of players with their factions, then?

Qantaga · June 4, 2001, 09:01

Okay, as I see it:

1. Levelisk - Morgan Industries
2. theohall - Gaia's Stepdaughters
3. Viriato - Peacekeeping Forces
4. Solver - University of Planet
5. dinoarms - Lord's Believers
6. Qantaga - Spartan Federation
7. cpt. slick - Human Hive

Please let me know if I have mis-represented anyone's wishes.

Solver · June 4, 2001, 10:07

Thank you. Anything else needed to start? I've posted the rules already, as I see them. Oh, we need a name for this game.

theohall · June 4, 2001, 17:31

How about:

7 Man Free For All

or

No AI #1

Viriato · June 4, 2001, 17:43

dinoarms,

A game with 7 players will take a long time no matter what map we use because will be lucky if we'll play a turn per week.
I'm playing in 2 7-players games and sometimes it takes 2 weeks to receive another turn.
Even if we have a CMN to replace those who take to long I don't believe we'll get a better average.
Besides if we play a 7 player game in a small map without co-operative victory there will be some of us who will be eliminated in the first turns. For example I wouldn't want to be playing Morgan in this settings.
Even a standard map is, IMO, too crowded for 7 players.

solver & Qantaga,
For the record, it is possible to give control of our faction to the AI. Tau Ceti has done it in ACT019 when the UoP player quitted.
Also it it possible for the player who drops out to destroy all of his bases. This solution is often used when a player is about to be eradicated to avoid the game from ending.
I have never seen the option retire been used and I'm curious to know what happens. Do the bases disapear or get controled by the AI?

*****************

I agree with the settings although I would prefer a large map.
BTW, who shall set up the map? Or are we using a known map?

As for the rules I propose we use the tournament standard rules for random map games

My email is viriato@megamail.pt and I'm in GMT 0.

Qantaga · June 4, 2001, 21:23

I am in agreement with Viriato. I would also like to see this as a Large map.

Viriato, to answer your question, I believe that when a player retires, the AI takes over. The reason I think that is because the scenario in that game went like this:

I was playing a turn as Roze. When my turn ended, I got a message that the Nautilus Pirates (a human player) had been eradicated. Then, the game ended. To keep the game going, the human player reloaded his turn and retired. When the turn came back to me, the Pirates (this time controlled by the AI) contacted me by commlink. They were still eradicated after I ended my turn but, because of that contact, I would suspect that the AI takes over a retired faction.

Levelisk · June 5, 2001, 00:01

Hmm. "No AI #1" has a nice ring to it, not to mention it implies more 7-player games

Solver · June 5, 2001, 03:08

Viriato - wrong. Faction Strife (7-player), and I play a turn each 2-3 days there. I'd like Standard map, otherwise it will take ages for us to meet.

dinoarms · June 5, 2001, 07:54

I prefer Standard

The argument that there is not enough room must be a relative thing as the the "Planet" map is standard size and designed for 7 players.

I believe that each player will start with a number of Colony Pods and will also receive 7 techs (equivilant to all the starting techs of all players) If this is true than there will be no chance of getting wiped out early, (unless of course you have quite a few things to learn about the game). True early in the game there will be border conflicts but at least with a Standard Map that will happen to all of us and not the unlucky few. Even the most unfortunate player should have at least a few months of playing out of a standard at a rate of 2 turns per week. A large map would take at least a year to finish. Go Standard I say!

Other preferences that I am not so adament about are
Abundant Aliens
random map
30-50% water coverage
low erosion
dense cloud cover

no unity survey ( world map not visible )
look first no established start locations