3 Players Wanted (transcend level)

[Googlie]

I need 3 volunteers to test drive a concept.

Democracy is in peril, with Morgan, Domai and Lal (the three players) attempting to avoid domination by a Hive-led Axis comprising Yang, Santiago, Zakharov and Aki Zeta-Five. The latter three alll have been mind-controlled by Yang's lieutenant, Ashaandi, and are in submissive pacts with the Hive.

Needless to say, they share tech and battleplan co-ordinates from the start, but you can't talk to each other until formal contact has been made in the game.

Any takers for Democracy in Peril?

G.

[johndmuller]

I'd be up for either Morgan or Lal.

JohnDMuller@msn.com

Please feel free to provide other details (like map size, world parameters, fallout shelter locations, etc.).

[Tai Mai Shu]

Hi there, I'm interested in playing, I'm not a Zak or a Morgan man myself, Lal suits me a lot better. But I'm willing to try something new if Lal is taken

[Darius]

I'll give it a go. Any faction is fine.

Darius

[Googlie]

OK - Game on !!

Turn order is:

Morgan - johndmuller
Lal - Tai Mai Shu
Domai - Darius

The Axis powers are:

Hive
University
Spartans
Consciousness

Map is large, with 30% to 50% water, weak erosion and average native life.

All winning conditions are on, look first, eliminated players not restarted. No Unity Survey and No Random events. Everything else unchecked (so no spoils of war).

Unity pods don't produce techs (you have to research or trade (or steal) for everything.

Everyone has some exploitable goodies near their start positions (the AI has a couple of forest tiles by theirs, to wean them off farms) and each faction is close to a feature.

Apart from that, everything else is normal. Stockpiling energy and crawlers upgrades allowed, as well as retro-engineering except for using the probe chassis before doc mobility is discovered.

That's about it.

G.

[Googlie]

Tai Mai Shu:

Can you send me your e-mail ady to:

googlie@mybc.com

Thanks

G.

[Tai Mai Shu]

My email address is Spoofmaster@hotmail.com and can we coordinate our plans in this thread or do we have to wait up and meet in game before we start?

[Googlie]

It's up to you - I did place the three of you on adjacent island continents with the Axis around the perimeter, so early contact will happen naturally (well, as soon as someone gets flex, anyway)

In my test run, evcen although I was playing all three human factions I didn't find co-ordinating research very easy at all, but I did wait until contact before exchanging techs. Thus I had a lot of duplicate research paths happening, and drone riots at one when the other two factions both had soc psych.

So I'd say no communication until it happens in the game.

Oh, and as befits the Lord and Master of the great empath, Ashaandi, I started the Hive with the Empath Guild



G.

[Tai Mai Shu]

Hmmm..... evil. Okay, sounds like it's going to be interesting, did the computer manage to win btw? 3 vs 4 is a whole lot different from 2 vs 5 in your other scenario

[Googlie]

Without giving the AI's tactics away, I lost a lot of units trying to win back subverted bases. Saving grace was popping an Ogre Mk II which really cowed the populace (taking some damage, though) in 2 revolted bases.

(Maybe I was just pathetic as a player - my Morgan did OK, but my Lal and Domai stank the joint out)

The problem was I assumed (I had built the map, after all) that contact would be made fairly quickly, but of course didn't research doc flex until it dawned on me that I wouldn't get off the islands without it. So the Drones went forever without rec commons, with huge drone problems.

Interesting quirk when I added the EG to Yang - he called elections in 2101, and although the candidates are Yang, Aki and (IIRC) Santiago, all voted for Yang, as their slavemaster.

As I had set up my trial run as a PBEM (playing all 3 factions) I couldn't open the scenario editor to see how the AI was doing, but by 2175 they all 4 vastly outnumbered my 3 in population. I'll play a few turns open ended to see how the AI copes.

Cheers

G.

[Rynn:]

The point of early - or delayed - contact is moot, as Yang has the Empath Guild and called the election, so anyone can contact anyone else now in the game.

[johndmuller]

MY 2102 to Tai Mai Shu - Peacekeepers

Darius, I'm having temporary (I hope) problems with receiving e-mail (long delays, occasional bounces and who know what else) at my regular address. If you would be so kind as to use an alternate address as well for a little while (until things get better) I would appreciate it. My addresses are:
JohnDMuller@msn.com (main address)
JohnDMuller@hotmail.com (temporary additional address).

Also, Darius, please post or send me your email address if you don't mind (and if it isn't already hiding in plain sight somewhere in the thread) as I might need to reach you if there are technical difficulties, etc.

Thanks,
John

[Darius]

Oh, Sorry.

My main address is stephen.roy@snet.net

You may see emails coming from me using my second address stephen_roy14@hotmail.com as I use that one at work to access my home email. However, I prefer people to send to my main address above.

I'll try to remember to use both of your addresses, John, until you say otherwise.

Darius

[Tai Mai Shu]

So, do you two want to do specific tech tree paths right now and wait till we hit our goals to techshare or should we all try to grab Ind Auto asap?

[Darius]

I take it that, due to the unique nature of this game, we will be cooperating? If so, then I suggest we set up Pacts right away, and coordinate/share our research in the most efficient manner. Comments?

Hey, Googlie, the factions are messed up. The Hive displays the color and icon of the University, the University looks like the Believers, Morgan looks like the Consciousness, the Spartans look like the Drones, the Peacekeepers look like the Caretakers, and the Consciousness looks like the Usurpers. (Sorry, I forgot to write down what my own Drones look like.) This is very confusing, as I am used to identifying factions by color. Is there a reason for the switcheroo?

By the way, I will not be posting here routinely after every turn since I have a slow dialup connection with limited hours per month and Apolyton is slow to load. But rest assured, I always play my turns on the day received, or the next day if late at night.

Turn 2103 to John.

[Googlie]

The graphics and color changes are a fact of life with scenario creations that frequent PBEMers learn to live with. It's a major job to edit and change them, and the only way it works naturally is for 7 human players, (or in the case of 3 human players, the factions played need to be the first 3 in the gamelisting).

Unfortunately the Hive were first on the list, but Morgan loaded first,, then the PKs were fifth (but loaded second) and the Drones, although seventh, loaded third. After the 3 human players, the remaining four factions then loaded. Hence the different colors and pictures.

[Darius]

Ah, I see my ignorance is showing. I guess I've never played a scenario creation before.

[johndmuller]

MY 2102 to Tai Mai Shu - Peacekeepers

My fellow Democrats, I have instructed my Secretary of State to draft (to each of you ) the formal Documents of (Pact) Partnership with offers to share all my tech and maps. I received a blank offer from Tai Mai Shu (I presume because you weren't sure how we were going to work things). I guess I'm suggesting we mutually Pact and share our techs.

There is some reason to be selective about trading techs (that the research cost goes up the more you have - or at least the higher up in the #-of-techs ranking list), so one may not want to have each tech (for example the unit enabling ones if/when we can physically transfer a unit as an item to be revese engineered) to keep research costs lower, but for now, we may want all of them. I don't yet have a base and haven't committed to researching anything in particular, but have a strong interest in Centauri Ecology, Social Psych and the Industrial Auto path. I think I am going to found 2 bases next turn, but I probably won't have to select a research tech right away. If we are going to share techs, I would propose that insofar as we are able to manage things, whoever has the fastest research rate do Centauri Ecology, but there may be better approaches.

I don't know this from experience, but seems to me that in order to maximize our exchanges, we need to have some sort of offers on the table all the time so that when it is your turn, you have offers that you can accept from each player and then you make one to each one; is that how it works? At some point, we should try to figure what specializations would make sense for each of us.

[Tai Mai Shu]

Okay, basically I feel that all three of our factions will require the most basic needs for survival, and that is formers/crawlers/military, then may I suggest that we all work together to hit Ind Auto asap? After that we can split off to hit the restriction lifting techs as well as clean reactors and Doc: Air Power asap. Actually, if we can get one of our factions to grab the Planetary Datalinks then we can maintain a permanent tech lead just by infiltrating even one of the axis factions.

So the critical techs that we should try to hit in the beginning are Centauri Ecology, and Ind Auto. Afterwards, we can split up and grab Environmental Economics, Bio Eng, Doc: Airpower, and Cybernetic Ethics seperately and share when we hit our goals.

As for who should research what, well I suggest the Drones go for Doc: Airpower first as he's got the best industrial capacity and can churn out dozens of these things much faster than either the Peacekeepers or the Morganites. The others we'll decide who does what as we go along, so what do you two think?

Oh, as a response to the CEO's hails I've included this little RP segment for your entertainment

Commissioner Tai Mai Shu over the commlink to CEO Muller

"Welcome to Chiron, CEO Muller. You bring many unique talents to our new world. Permit me to reintroduce myself; I now style myself Commissioner Tai Mai Shu of the Peacekeepers, and on this world I plan to defend the humanitarian principles of our original U.N. Charter."

"I have recieved your Secretary of State's proposal for a pact of military and economic partnership and I must agree wholeheartedly that it's the only way to ensure our survival."

"First and foremost, we should get to work on the most basic problems of providing for our people through terraforming the land, and knowledge of Centauri Ecology is paramount to this. Secondly, I do believe that in order to flourish we'll need free market economies set up as soon as possible, so if your scientists have already started on the study of Centauri Ecology then I will have mine start on Industrial Economics."

"Also, as Yang has already styled his group of factional alliances as the Axis, may I suggest we call our little group the Allies? As it seems history is repeating itself it only seems fitting."

"Well what a pleasant chat it has been but I must return to the affairs of state, TMS out."

[Darius]

OK, I think we agree on the following:

First priority: Centauri Ecology (formers)
Second priority: Industrial Automation (crawlers)

I have already started on Centauri Ecology, but as the Drones, my research rate stinks (35 turns). However, I have only established one base; two more will follow soon and improve my rate. It may make sense for me to continue on this level 1 tech while you guys aim for Ind. Auto. on level 3. We will have a better overall picture next turn when our pacts become active.

I don't agreee about splitting onto separate research paths later, as my research rate will always lag. I think to be more efficient overall, we each (faster and slower) should be interspersed on each path. I don't have mathematical proof for this, it just seems right.



Turn to John.

[johndmuller]

MY 2104 to Tai Mai Shu - Peacekeepers

Sent each of you offers of map and all my tech again even though I don't have any tech that you don't have (although Darius may end up getting Biogenetics from me as a matter of chance or turn order instead of from TMS; will keep the maps updated at least - if you all don't feel like doing this every turn, thats cool, as long as the Cent Ecol tech doesn't languish.

BTW, as the game goes on, should either of you care to offer MM advise to me on whether I'm doing my part of optimizing the Allied production (and how to improve it), I won't take it (too) personally , so feel free.

[Tai Mai Shu]

Turn to the Free Drones, and I've started researching Industrial Economics as well as set up 3 bases. Hopefully after Cent Ecology is done we'll start coordinating for the Ind auto path.

Ind Economics in 7 turns

[johndmuller]

MY 2105 to Tai Mai Shu - Peacekeepers

Researching Info Networks, now estimated at 2111, but should be faster as I will bring on a good energy producing base next turn.

The prognosis for Centauri Ecology looks rather slow - I don't know why Darius' tech cost is higher than mine and TMS', but combined with the higher cost and the -20% research rate, I wonder if maybe Darius shouldn't be researching something less time critical, like Social Psych, Doc: Mobility or Applied Physics. Under that scenario TMS and I would research first: Centauri Ecology and Info Nets; then: Planetary Nets and Industrial Econ. Ironically, Morgan probably needs Social Psyche the most to deal with drones, but the Drones are in the best position to research it. Alternatively, we could continue as we are and I could do Planetary Nets next while TMS does Social Psych (or vice versa if we finished at the same time), then one of us would do Ind Auto. Please look over the possibilities and see what you all think.

[Tai Mai Shu]

Sounds good to me, changed from Ind Eco to Centauri Ecology. We need formers more than we need free market at the moment. I should be done in 6 more years.

Turn to Darius

[Darius]

OK, I switched to Doc:Mobility. My research rate improved somewhat when I established a new base this turn, and should increase more over the next few turns, but I expect it will always lag behind you two because I am the Drones.

Hey, would you guys mind very much if we were to communicate by email instead of through this forum? That's how we do it in my other games, and it is much more convenient. Just checking my email gives me all of my game turns and any communications at the same time. Right now with this game I check my email, and if there is an automatic email from this thread, I then have to log in again and wait for Apolyton to load. I only have a limited number of hours per month on my internet plan.

Turn sent to John.

[johndmuller]

Your Droneness (Darius),

I don't mind, but since my incoming email is still very erratic, I'd appreciate it if TMS were to post the essence of any email dialogues which transpired periodically and I will include include copies of any relevant posts which have occurred when I send email to you. BTW, I would appreciate if if you included the MY date as a part of the zip file name as I have to open it up to discern whether it is a new turn or the alternate copy of a previous turn; thanks. Interestingly, since you all have been sending me tlurns via the two different addresses, there have been several disappeared messages and several with greatly disparate arrival times, although I am a bit confused as to whether Darius is in one of the western time zones as the treatment of dates/times is a bit varied. I started this message here because you were showing as on-line, but I suppose that you will be off again by the time I've finished.

John

[johndmuller]

MY 2106 to Tai Mai Shu - Peacekeepers

[johndmuller]

MY 2107 to Tai Mai Shu - Peacekeepers

Googlie, we'll send you a copy of the game every so often and post or e-mail comments and/or summaries of our progress. Look for something at 2110 or so.

John

[johndmuller]

MY 2108 to Tai Mai Shu - Peacekeepers

[Tai Mai Shu]

MY 2108 to Free Drones