The Battle for Manifold Seven - turn reporting thread

Googlie · November 14, 2001, 21:20

In a galaxy far away, as her sister planet, Manifold 6, adjusted to the human invader colonists, Manifold 7 witnessed the clash of Titans as the Usurper Scoutship 427_s fought the Caretaker warship Harmony.

In a ferocious battle, both ships were destroyed, and recriminations rang out among the officers and crew that led to blood-letting even as they manned the escape pods and plummeted to the surface of Manifold Seven.

Led by Conquerors Rastapopoulos, Radman and Flubber of the 427_s and Conservators Black Sunrise and Flotax of the Harmony, each was determined to conquer Manifold Seven for themselves, or to summon the assistance of their faction supporters from the Grand Battlefleet if this proved more advantageous and might tilt the balance in their favor.

Gentlemen: Lock Tusks !!

This is a SMAX game - Aliens only

Players, in turn order, are:

Warriors - Rastapopoulos( flogae@web.de )
Overlords - Radman ( bferdy@cs.com )
Usurpers - Flubber ( sharris4141@yahoo.com )
Caretakers - Black Sunrise ( indra@blacksunrise.com )
Preservers - Flotax ( captainquattro@gmx.de )

Transcend level, huge map (50% to 70% water), no AI, average everything else.

Only game conditions turned on are:

Win by Conquest
Do or Die
Look First
Steal Tech
Bell Curve

(Summoning the fleet is an automatic game-winning condition for an alien faction)

Alien clone factions can be found in Rynn's Gallery at:

http://googlie2.tripod.com/rynnsgallery/id7.html

Passwords have been sent to all, and 2101 has gone to Conqueror Rastapopoulos

Good luck, and enjoy

Googlie

Rastapopoulos · November 15, 2001, 17:50

2101 to Overlords.
Good luck to all.

Radman · November 15, 2001, 21:20

Hi all:

Well the inaugurial move of "Manofold 7" received at 2:45 pm (MST) and forwarded to Conqueror Flubber at 6:23 pm (MST). Good luck to all, well not too much!

Radman

Flubber · November 15, 2001, 22:05

2101 on to Black sunrise

I must say that it is one very interesting map. Atre we to understand that there might be all kinds of weirdness here that are not present on normal maps

-- I particularly like the moat around the island. That just looks like fun terrain to me

Black Sunrise · November 15, 2001, 22:18

To explore quickly: Dangerous.
To explore safely: Wisdom.
To ugrade station: All units.

To play move: Joyous.
To pass a move quickly: Noble
13 minutes: Why we shall be victorious: Our great commitment.

Googlie · November 15, 2001, 23:55

Just some little things that I've incorporated (not all together) in some of my other scenarioed games (plus some ideas from Black Sunrise)

eg

The Great Fjord
The Moat
The Marshes
Beanstalk Mountain (a different Mount Planet)

Just adds to the alin-ness of the game, I figured

G.

Googlie · November 16, 2001, 10:18

To answewr a question that's come up:

yes, as alien factions you have each others' commlinks right from the beginning of the game

G.

Flubber · November 16, 2001, 16:08

Googlie

I saw that I had the comm frequency ( in vendetta) so I clicked the comm button. I was more curious to see graphics than anything --- BUt each and every contact gave me the automated " i hate you" screen that the AI uses-- will diplomacy be possible between the factions (tech trades etc)?? Is this normal-- I feel that I loaded the necessary stuff correctly since I had no problem playing subsequently.

Also all these "new" landmarks-- a couple I can surmise what they are from the name but do these have any features that you are willing to share with the group or is the idea to discover a new landmark and figure out what it does on our own?

Googlie · November 16, 2001, 18:43

Hmmm - I must admit in the playtest I never actually tried to initiate contact - just saw that the commlinks were there. Perhaps the set-up of the alien factions is that they cannot trade with another alien faction (although conceptsx.txt is silent on this, as are the two alien faction text files.

Perhaps after contact normal relations may be possible? (Imagine a tape recorded message on the commlink, to play if another alien faction calls "yadda yadda yadda, exterminate you" which can be overridded when the two ex-colleagues finally meet on Planet)

Dunno if that's what would happen though. I'll playtest to a meeting this evening, 'cos it will be a pretty isolationist game if you can't contact each other, ever.

As to the new features. I struggled to give each of the five a decent pair of goody features, given that the wreckage is useless (alien factions don't get any of the bonuses).

So:

The fjord is energy rich
the marshes are food/energy rich
the moat is just a fun thing
Beanstalk Mountain is unity-pod rich

Googlie

Googlie · November 16, 2001, 23:22

Bad News, Guys

(and you may want to ditch this game concept before you get too far into the game)

Alien AI's cannot talk, trade or otherwise do business with other alien AI's.

I just playtested 150 turns, contact was made, even built the empath guild, but even with a unit just outside a base, the only screen that ever comes up is the ten line diatribe from alien to alien.

I looked in the faction files to see if there was perhaps a key that could be turned off - the only relevant one is the "alien" one itself (which would let the factions talk) but then would disable the battlefleet summoning victory as well as the unique alien energy crediting system (base facilities and special projects) and the various other alien attributes.

So it's a pretty solitary game without diplomacy, and as I say, you might want to kill it before you invest too many more hours

Googlie

Black Sunrise · November 16, 2001, 23:33

I'm still in.
Indra

Rastapopoulos · November 17, 2001, 10:10

2102 was sent to the Overlords.
I'm still in as well, although I do think it's taking away a lot that we cannot tech- or energytrade. We can still make war alliances via email.
I just had an idea. Can the CMN effectuate the trades by opening a .sav-file and editing in the SE? Then we could have "virtual trading meetings", say every 25 years or 20 years or so.
Players must agree beforehand on what they wish to trade and send their requests to Googlie via email. If we do it once in 25 years, it's not that much work either, or is it?
Just a silly idea, maybe it works.

Black Sunrise · November 17, 2001, 11:38

War alliances via email makes sense.
That's not a bad idea for tech trades. Not easy, but possible.
If there is ever a Manifold 8, let me recomend: 2 usurpers, 2 caretakers, 1 human, 2 ai humans. Makes the human immensely important, because he can be traded through, so he's like a UN broker. That is counterbalanced by his having no natural allies (make the other human AI of a type that dislikes him). Creates a powerful dynamic.
Personally, I'll happily play through whatever. Right now I'm in 8 games, and getting two moves a day is a miracle, so I just want to play!

Indra
Black Sunrise

Radman · November 17, 2001, 11:43

Hi all:

Move 2102 received at 6:59 am and sent on to Flubber at 8:45 am MST. From the last couple of e-mails, I don't have a problem staying in. We'll just have to have diplomacy through e-email.

Talk to you all later.

Radman

Flubber · November 17, 2001, 12:22

2102 to black sunrise

I'm still in-- Its a different game but no tech trades should be interesting-- besides its not like there is some faster researcher in the game so that people need to trade to catch up.

email for diplomacy is fine -- I'm still looking forward to exploring these landmarks and only wish i could use the "moat" LOL

Black Sunrise · November 17, 2001, 22:00

To spread out bases: reap great rewards.
To trouble native life: reaped by great rewards.

Googlie · November 17, 2001, 23:24

Rastapopoulos:

It's a neat idea (using the scenario editor to effect "trades" ) but unfortunately wouldn't work

I'm in the same boat as you all are - hit "scenario" in the menu and you get the message "cannot open scenario editor in a multiplayer gamr" - or some such words.

All we can do is play the turns sequentially using the stored passwords to ensure that players aren't bending the rules (the spot audit), or to concoct a scoring system for relative ranking that's better then the simplistic AC score (as I've done in the six Forum Wars games)

And, of course, sub temproarily for an absent player, or send the password to a replacement player. That's really all we can do.

It'd be neat if there were a master password that unlocked the scenario editor for just the purpose you suggested, but alas ....

Googlie

Black Sunrise · November 17, 2001, 23:45

Well, if we need to trade techs, I guess we can always use probes.

Indra

Radman · November 19, 2001, 21:24

Hi all:

Just wondering where the move sits? The last sighting was with Flotax???

Radman

Black Sunrise · November 19, 2001, 23:27

To resend a move: easy.
To wait patiently: hard.

Move resent.

Flotax · November 20, 2001, 06:37

2103 to rastapopoulos

First I send the wrong one to Rastapopoulos....

Radman · November 20, 2001, 09:52

Hi all:

Move received from Rastap... at 6:23 am and sent on to Flubber at 6:50 am (MST). Later.

Radman

Flubber · November 20, 2001, 11:45

I have the turn-- but won't be able to play it for about 12 hours-- sorry for the delay.

Flubber · November 21, 2001, 00:01

turn passed (2103)

Black Sunrise · November 21, 2001, 09:28

Mindworm boil: Dangerous.
Loss of colony pod: Tragic.
Resolve: Unchanged.

(yes, we lost 1 of our 3 colony pods to a boil. sigh)

Flotax · November 21, 2001, 12:01

2104 to Rastapop

I feel sorry for your poor colonists, Black Sunrise

Flubber · November 21, 2001, 14:39

News: Danger
Feelings: Mixed
Reduction of enemy: Good
Reduction of possible friend: Bad
Response : Caution
Colony : escort
Mindworms : kill

Radman · November 23, 2001, 11:37

Hi all:

Move 2104 received at 4:28 am (MST) and passed on to Flubber at 8:40 am (MST). Keep them cards and letters coming!!! Talk to everyone later.

Radman

Flubber · November 24, 2001, 04:05

2104 to black sunrise

Play: pleasure
work: agony
Delay:Mine: apologies

Black Sunrise · November 24, 2001, 08:59

To leave work: relief
To find a move awaits: joy

4 hours, 54 minutes: acceptable.

Move sent!