Caught in an Alien Waterworld crossfire - 5 players wanted

Googlie · January 30, 2002, 22:35

Yes, that's right.

The scenario editor lets you create nautical alien factions, so of course I have done so (the Nautical Usupers and the Aquatic Caretakers)

Naturally, Chiron is around 75% water, and all the factions are aquatic - the Pirates and four clones, and the 2 alien aquatic factions.

If I can muster seven players, I'll set up the game as an all human game. If fewer, then if could be five Pirate/clone factions against the AI aliens, or 2 (human) alien and as many human pirate/clone factions as there are players left

Any interest?

G.

vitamin j · January 31, 2002, 01:03

Googlie: sounds cool. I wish I could, but I'm in my limit of games right now as it is...

Shai-Hulud · January 31, 2002, 01:56

I'm up for it.

Will these "cloned Pirate" factions have some unique characteristics? Based on original factions turned aquatic, or what?

Googlie · January 31, 2002, 03:24

No - the cloned Pirates will be exactly as the Pirates are (but different leades and basenames)

The aquatic aliens will be usurpers and Caretakers with marine characteristics as well (can drop the recycling tanks 'cos their sea bases come equipped with pressure domes, so can give them doc flex as a free tech)

I'm playing a single player game with five pirate clones and the 2 aliens - really cool. They are pretty powerful with their 3 res foils early in the game (I swapped the free Ogre for a foil - thought it was a fair trade)

You can get the pirate clone factions at Rynn's Gallery:

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

(but I haven'e hung the aquatic aliens there yet)

G.

GeneralTacticus · January 31, 2002, 03:33

I'd be willing to play as either the Usurpers or the Pirate clones, but bear in mind that this will be my first real MP game beyond a couple of hotseat games with a friend. I think I am pretty god with the Usurpers in SP though, and played my most successful game ever as the Pirates.

Shai-Hulud · January 31, 2002, 07:33

Quote:

No - the cloned Pirates will be exactly as the Pirates are (but different leades and basenames)

It'll do. But taking original factions and turning them aquatic wouldn't be very hard...but I'm in for it anyway. Let' just hope we get enough players. It would be interesting to try it out.

arborman · January 31, 2002, 10:52

Sounds great. I would like to join this venture, as one of the pirates if possible. I do love a navy game.
nickistca@yahoo.com

Googlie · January 31, 2002, 11:50

Quote:

Originally posted by Shai-Hulud

It'll do. But taking original factions and turning them aquatic wouldn't be very hard

You're exactly right, and after your post yesterday I did just that. (Using facedit, I created 11 new factions in addition to the Pirates, and aquatic aliens - just added doc flex and toggled "aquatic faction")

Tinkered a bit with alpha.txt to see if I could give the Sea Angels a foil probe, but so far have been unable to get facedit to recognize it from my new #UNITS list

I'll keep trying, 'cos that sounds like it might be an interesting game (I played about 100 turns last evening with the Sea Drones - awesome - against the Pirates and pirate clones. I dunno how they'd fare agaisnt Sea Morgan, Sea Sparta, etc)

G.

Googlie · January 31, 2002, 11:54

NorthSwordsman, over at the CGN forums, has indicated an interest, so so far we have:

Shai-Hulud
GeneralTacitus
arborman
NorthSwordsman

I'll leave the list open for the time being to see if we get other takers

G.

Shai-Hulud · January 31, 2002, 12:24

I might be able to persuade a friend of mine. He's a fan of SMAC but seems to have little intrest towards multiplaying. That can't be right

Hope you get that working. Glad to see you're making an effort.

knowhow2 · January 31, 2002, 12:36

I like to play the an alien faction. If not avaible then I rather stay out (too many PBEM right now)

Googlie · February 1, 2002, 14:35

OK - we now can have aquatic variants of all factions (except the Cult - that's such a boring faction anyway that I didn't feel it warranted any time spent on it)

So players can choose the Pirates, or a Pirate clone if more than one want to play the Pirates, or else play one of the other factions as an aquatic.

I wasn't able to get the facedit to read the foil probe as an allowed unit, but the Angels (the Hackers) can build one right off the bat as they'll have both doc flex and Planetary Networks.

So assuming a level of interest, who wants to play which factions (and I'd rather keep the 2 aliens as AI - that way I can beef them up a tad without the imbalance of 1 human 1 AI would present)

Aquatic faction

Merchants (Morgan)
Coastguards (PKs)
Mermaids (

) (Gaians
Gunrunners (Sparta)
Submariners (Hive)
Hydrologists (University)
Privateers (Believers)
Seamen (Drones)
Algorithm (Consciousness)
Hackers (Angels)

(I'll hang the factions on Rynn's Gallery this evening after I've finished my exhaustive playtest of them (ie I'm having too much fun at present)

G.

Shai-Hulud · February 1, 2002, 19:00

This ought to be a very interesting scenario. I'm glad to be in. Now, when I come to think of it I've never played any "waterworld" scenarios even against AI. Take your time to playtest Googlie.

I'd like to play either Merchants or Coastguards, but I'm not sure about it yet.

GeneralTacticus · February 1, 2002, 19:01

I'll go with the Gunrunners or Hydrologists.

EDIT: can I rename the one I play?

NorthSwordsman · February 1, 2002, 19:50

I will take any of the following:

Submariners (Hive)
Hydrologists (University)
Privateers (Believers)

Flubber · February 1, 2002, 20:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Googlie
OK - we now can have aquatic variants of all factions (except the Cult - that's such a boring faction anyway that I didn't feel it warranted any time spent on it)

G.

Man googlie-- I appreciate all the work you are doing but is it necessary to slam the Cult??

I have hardened myself to hearing them called weak or unplayable (but BORING ?? That smarts

So all the factions are the same as always except they start at sea and have Doc flex ?? That could have some interesting effects on play .

Googlie · February 1, 2002, 21:31

Aquatic Factions (all but the 2 Aliens which I am still tinkering with) can be downloaded from Rynn's Gallery at:

http://googlie2.tripod.com/rynnsgallery/id10.html

Note that I gave each faction their unique free facility (similar to the Hive's Perimeter Defenses and the UoP's Network Nodes) to offset the loss of their natural land-based advantages - these can easily be edited out by going to that faction's .txt file after you have downloaded them and just removing the free facility reference and number

G.

Googlie · February 1, 2002, 21:36

Quote:

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
EDIT: can I rename the one I play?

Yes, in the normal way thru the faction.txt file (or even in-game via the *menu* then *network* then *Customize your faction*

G.

Googlie · February 1, 2002, 23:00

Flubber:

Specially for you I included the Disciples (aquatic Cult) - gave them a free IoD in lieu of their mindworm and they are incredibly powerful - within 30 turns of my playtest I had eleven IoD's captured and a small army of fifteen mindworms and four spore launchers. Met Dee and she was instantly submissive

It's available too at Rynn's Gallery:

http://googlie2.tripod.com/rynnsgallery/id10.html

G.

arborman · February 2, 2002, 00:55

Wow, are you ever doing a lot of work on this. I thought it was just me who loved this game

I'd like to play either Hydrologists (Uni) or Gunrunners (Sparta). Is it necessary for me to download the factions, or will it be a part of the game when it's sent to me? I haven't dealt much with the mods in this game.

GeneralTacticus · February 2, 2002, 01:14

I think I'll take the Spartans. If anyone else wants to as well, we can just clone them.

Shai-Hulud · February 2, 2002, 04:47

I take the Morgans(Merchants). And how about other game settings Googlie?

And, we appreciate your effort to make things work. A good CMN makes for an interesting scenario. This certainly seems like one.

knowhow2 · February 2, 2002, 10:11

well if the Cult of Ocean deep are avaible (unless my friend Flubber wants it) then I wanna join playing them.

Googlie · February 2, 2002, 15:13

Quote:

Originally posted by arborman
Is it necessary for me to download the factions, or will it be a part of the game when it's sent to me? I haven't dealt much with the mods in this game.

Yes, you need to download the factions and load them into your sid meier's alpha centauri folder. You don't need to add them to the alphax.txt unless you want to choose them as factions for single-player games that you start (and then you'd add them under #CUSTOM FACTIONS toeards the end of that .txt file

I'll put the Aliens up on the site today

I've just had my butt absolutely kicked (as Dee and the Mermaids) by Yang's Submariners. I quit around 2180 after I lost4 of my seven bases in 1 turn. Flipped on the scenario editor to see what was happening

He had 37 impact plasma foils, and had taken out my HQ (with the WP, CDF and ME in it too) with a mass attack of nine of these beauties. I was still laser silksteel so was no match, and my navy of IoD's - eight of them - had half ferrying AA's back to base. All my spore launchers (I think I had three or four) were dropped off on small islands so that the IoD's could carry a mindworm as well as the AA. That tactic sure backfired on me.

I think making them aquatic has opened up a whole new strategy paradigm that needs developing (hmm - can one "open" a pardigm?)

G.

Shai-Hulud · February 3, 2002, 05:17

I think making original factions aquatic makes them harder? At least, they're more able to attack you, it seems. I hope those militant factions don't gett off-balanced because of that. But it sure sounds interesting.

And you could list our players and their choices of factions. I'm little lost here

. Do we need to recruit more players?

Shai-Hulud · February 5, 2002, 07:35

So how's that scenario coming together?...impatience from my behalf

arborman · February 5, 2002, 23:43

I just got hit with a mountain of work, so its best I bow out of this game. I won't have the time to send the turns on fast enough, and I'm sure none of you want or deserve a 3 year game. Sorry, and good luck, it sounded like a lot of fun.
Arborman

FlameFlash · February 15, 2002, 12:34

Googlie, think a poor disadvantaged Pirate loving Mac user could jump in on this, or would I be required to have the Windows version? (Which is possible... I'd just need to talk with a friend to "loan" his copy.)
Or did the project fall through? I didn't see the alien factions on Rynn's site.
I just wish there was a faction editor available for Mac... *sighs*

Mongoose · February 15, 2002, 21:31

This sounds cool! Is there still room in this game?

FlameFlash · February 15, 2002, 22:05

Have no idea... that's what I was trying to find out earlier... just keep the thread active, and maybe it'll regain googlie's notice.