Alam al-Mithal, turn tracking thread

Qantaga · February 3, 2002, 14:36

Alam al-Mithal has begun. The players are, in turn order:

Darsnan - Gaians dnandal@twcny.rr.com
smhfan86 - Hive callistosdarkside@rogers.com
Shai-Hulud - University janne.huttunen@kolumbus.fi
duMa - Morgan modowd724@hotmail.com
Radman - Peacekeepers bferdy@cs.com

The CMN is Qantaga: Qantaga@aol.com

Map settings:

Huge, Random map
Erosion, Native Life, Clouds - average
Oceans - I started with a 30-50% map, but carved things up a bit, so it probably is somewhere between a 30-50% and a 50-70% ocean map.

Game settings:

All victory conditions are on
Look First: On
Tech Stag: Off
Spoils of War: Off
Intense Rivalry: Off
Directed Research (pick your own techs)
No Unity Survey (map not visible)
Pods are scattered
No Random Events
Time Warp: Off
Iron Man: On (doesn't matter in PBEM)

I tried to pick the consensus from the thread. When in doubt, I picked the default settings or those that I thought would better fit the map.

The AI (Spartans and Believers) are in the game. They should stay hidden for awhile. As Shai-Hulud suggested, I have beefed them up a bit, so they won't be a pushover for the first faction that finds them.

I have given you each three Colony Pods and three scout patrols to start with. You will find them all in the same starting square, so it's up to you to find good places for them.

I have also taken the liberty of planting some goodies close to your starting positions to help speed up the early years a little.

Here is a list of the generally accepted rules. As I understand the thread, these are the ones you will want to go by, but if there are any questions let me know.

Rules:

• Communications - None until in-game contact, obtain commlink, or build EG
• SE switch "quickies" forbidden - (obviously you can experiment to see what effect various SE choices have, but cannot change, play moves, then change back in the same turn)
• Council notification - immediate broadcast to all players (Post in the thread and e-mail to all immediately by player who has called elections, citing candidates and votes. After each player's turn, post in the thread the running totals)
• Do not place Stockpile Energy in your build queues
• Crawlers Upgrade anytime - OK
• Probe actions: Must choose vendetta option when probing other players, unless you have previously gained permission to probe by e-mail.
• You cannot bribe the AI on council votes nor to demand withdrawal of units
• Cannot use the right click feature for multiple drop moves to extend range (ie limited to 8 tiles unless owning the Space Elevator SP)
• Cannot use the 'set waypoint' feature for automatic worm hunting/lifecycle enhancements
• Must 'Accept' or 'Decline' an offered Pact or Treaty that the other player has indicated 'Accepted' before exiting the diplo box and playing the turn (i.e. no accepting pending treaties/pacts *after* declaring vendetta in the same turn )
• Cannot use the F4 feature (or the bases feature of the F2 screen) to change an infiltrated faction's workers to specialists.
* You cannot trade bases with the AI. It is okay to gift a base to the AI.

Shai-Hulud has indicated a preference to keep any "cheats" or "bugs" out of this game. If you have any questions about anything in the game, feel free to e-mail me about it.

From time to time, I may contact some of you asking for a game file. I want to keep an eye on the progress of the game for my own map-making experience.

This is a SMAC game, version 4, so you may want to make sure you have the latest patch. It can be found on this page:

http://apolyton.net/smac/

There is good news for all of you. Googlie, an incredibly gifted CMN, has taken a look around the scenario I created. He has given much advice in the creation of the game and has added a few touches of his own, so you should be in for a nice game.

Please take a good look around on your first turn to make sure everything looks to be in order with your faction. The game should be fine, but there are quite a few things to take care of in the scenario editor, so please bring anything that looks funny to my attention.

The first turn will be on its way to Darsnan momentarily.

Best of luck to everyone. Please feel free to contact me if I can be of any assistance in the game.

Radman · February 3, 2002, 15:28

Hi all:

Sound like its gooding to be fun. Thanks Qantaga and best of hunting to the other players (well, not to good

)

Talk to you all later.

Radman

Darsnan · February 3, 2002, 16:13

Good luck to all!
Turn to smhfan86.

smhfan86 · February 3, 2002, 16:52

2101 to Shai

smhfan86 · February 3, 2002, 16:56

question: we can still stockpile energy, just not placing it in the queue, right?

Shai-Hulud · February 3, 2002, 17:12

Turn sent to CEO duMa of the Morganites, 2102 AD

Googlie is cool

. I'm playing two of his scenarios in PBEM(one is soon to start). He certainly knows his way around as a CMN.

It's OK to stockpile, as far as you don't place it in queue.

duMa · February 3, 2002, 19:05

Heyhey, hopefully I'll get to my turn as soon as I finish a movie.

In the meantime...

Slap your forhead, roll your eyes, it feels like it should be deserved; I apologize tremendously as this is my first game outside of a group of friends game... why is the file I recieved only 64k? I'm used to the file being at least 500k to start with. What am I missing? (I've got 4.0)

Again, apologies. I do not mean to delay this. Growing pains.

smhfan86 · February 3, 2002, 19:20

it's probably zipped. u have to unzip it first. it's also good manners to zip the save file before sending it to the next person.

oh yeah, i also highly recommend renaming the save file when u save, changing the name in the middle to the person that's next in line. i.e.

Alam al-Mithal-shai-2101.SAV

change 'shai' to whoever's next in line.

this way when u look for the file on your hard drive, u don't mistakenly send the wrong file. this was a major problem in the first pbem game i ever played.

the reason being that when u save, the file will end up in the main directory and not in the saves directory, so people end up sending an old file. big headaches.

-smhfan86

duMa · February 3, 2002, 20:03

Aha! Okay. I never tried to zip a .SAV file before. EGADS! It shrinks a lot!

Radman is up, turn is sent.

Darsnan · February 3, 2002, 21:57

Heah, why is it on the Faction Strength chart the Gaians look so pathetic!?!

Oh, wait a minute, never mind, my forces are pathetic....

Turn to smh

smhfan86 · February 3, 2002, 23:35

2102 to Shai

Radman · February 4, 2002, 00:21

Hi all:

Sorry about not posting earlier, but I just couldn't get away from the Superbowl long enough!!!

I did get the move out during half time however. At least some credit.

Anyway, move sent to Darsnan who sent it on much earlier than this post.

Radman

Shai-Hulud · February 4, 2002, 04:35

Turn send to CEO duMa of the Morganites, 2102 AD

...Why is the University ahead of faction strength charts? Hey, it's because I'm so damn good!

...OK, it's because I got free tech

duMa · February 4, 2002, 05:42

Turn sent to Brother Radman of the Peacekeepers.

The AI factions are beefy, eh? Hope they're nowhere near me... :)

Darsnan · February 4, 2002, 21:22

on to smhfan86

Radman · February 4, 2002, 21:25

Hi all:

Turn sent to Darsnan. Boy, before I could even log in to Apolyton he had already sent it. Wow, not bad!!!!

Radman

Googlie · February 4, 2002, 21:47

Some file management hints I have found useful

Create a desktop folder called "firaxis PBEMs" or something like that

Unzip all your turns to that folder (i actually have my zipper set to unzip to that folder as default) - make sure you activate "overwrite" so that a samename new file can download and unzip.

Insert the line:

WindowsFileBox=1

into your alphacentauri.ini file (it changes the fileboxes from the alpha cebntauri ones to regular windows ones - makes it easier to navigate

loading an MP game then becomes desktop/file/game.sav

When saving, right click on the last saved turn for that player, delete, then change the year and save

e.g. duMa might have the last save as AAM - Darsnan, 2110

He just right clicks on that, hits "delete" (the old file name still stays on the gamesave window) and changes to AAM - Darsnan, 2111, then save,

Zipping is easy, as it's desktop/file/saved game

This way you'll save around ten clicks of the mouse per game, and have all your pbem turns saved apart from the default smac/x save directory

G.

Googlie · February 4, 2002, 22:00

Quote:

Originally posted by Shai-Hulud
It's OK to stockpile, as far as you don't place it in queue.

Opinion on this one has shifted since Tau crafted the first set of 'Poly tourney rules.

The problem is:

when in the queue, and when you complete a unit that turn, you get the minerals allocated to the unit's completion, plus the mineral value as energy under the stockpile energy formula. So the practice has grown to rush complete to 1 turn left (eg that base produces 14 minerals, and you need 40 ecs to complete - rush (40 - 28) to leave the 14 minerals to be applied to complete, plus you get the energy value of the same 14 mins that same turn.

However, banning stockpiling energy doesn't remove the problem, as setting a preference to "stop for XXXX unit built" produces exactly the same effect - the computer applies stockpile energy by default (to enable the pause) - it just doesn't show in the queue.

(menu/game/warning preferences/"stop for combat units built"

Also, the AI gets the benefit of both minerals and energy on unit completion.

So most new games allow stockpile energy in the queue as unlike the Emath Guild (or Pactmates) where you can see the queue items, there is no way to police the preferences set by a player (other than by CMN audit periodically).

G.

smhfan86 · February 4, 2002, 23:33

2103 to Shai

Shai-Hulud · February 5, 2002, 01:25

Turn sent to CEO duMa of the Morganites, 2103 AD

duMa · February 5, 2002, 06:16

Turn sent to Brother Radman.

#BLURB
There are people who don't like capitalism, and people who don't
like PCs. But there's no-one who likes the PC who doesn't like
Microsoft
^
^
^ -- Bill Gates
^
^

Radman · February 5, 2002, 08:43

Move on the Darsnan!

Radman

Darsnan · February 5, 2002, 09:11

on to smhfan86

smhfan86 · February 5, 2002, 14:14

2104 to shai

Shai-Hulud · February 5, 2002, 14:39

Turn sent to CEO duMa of the Morganites, 2104 AD

Thanks for the tips Googlie. Didn't know about that option in alpha.ini. Though I can do the routine with six clicks

Quote:

the computer applies stockpile energy by default (to enable the pause) - it just doesn't show in the queue.

Yeah. But the AI "cheats like hell" anyway.

Quote:

there is no way to police the preferences set by a player (other than by CMN audit periodically).

But if you do cheat and get caught...there goes your reputation. No one is going to want to see any more of you. You have to start a new account and alter you're personality to get back to the gang again

...It's just not worth it anyway. And if you really get some amusement cheating in SMAC PBEM - get a life!

duMa · February 5, 2002, 15:32

And back to Radman.

Radman · February 5, 2002, 20:59

Hi all:

Move 2014 received, played and turnaround to Darsnan as move 2105!

Just a quick question to the group, are we now going to say stockpiling is acceptable anytime as would be indicated by Googlie's latest note. Thought I would enquire to make sure we all know what the rules are!

Radman

Darsnan · February 6, 2002, 02:50

turn to smh

smhfan86 · February 6, 2002, 03:11

2105 to shai

Shai-Hulud · February 6, 2002, 08:32

Turn sent to CEO duMa of the Morganites, 2105 AD

Quote:

Just a quick question to the group, are we now going to say stockpiling is acceptable anytime as would be indicated by Googlie's latest note.

I favor not to accept. The rules are set, we've moved into turn tracking. What's the big deal anyway?