Ways to PBEM

RedFred · May 29, 2002, 12:50

Many games are a free-for-all. Alliances can be formed or broken and all victory conditions are enabled. But there are some other interesting ways of going about it.

Builder's games. If conquest victory is enabled, it is not permitted anyhow. The 'Bob' style of going about it is a four player game with no cooperative victories allowed. The three other AI factions spice up the game a little.

Team games. Two or three players to a team with no breaking of alliances permitted. Best are games where each side has a good military faction and a good research faction.

Parallel two-player games. Select two relatively balanced factions. In the first game play one faction and in second play the other. Your opponent plays the same two factions, but the opposite one to you. Stick with the same five AI factions. Play both games simultaneously. By both playing a faction and analysing how your opponent plays him allows you to really improve your game with the two factions selected.

Googlie specials. To prevent exploitation of the AI factions, any AI in the game is pumped full of advatages: additional starting tech, cash, units, bases or even SPs. The AI can all be pacted together and can be made to view the humans as atrocity-committers right out of the gate.

Quest games. All the humans in the game are allied and have a common objective, either to win or to capture a particular base from the AI by a pre-set date.

I would be interested in hearing if anyone knows of any other fun way of PBEMing and what ways are most enjoyable.

Maniac · May 29, 2002, 17:21

OCC of course!

Flubber · May 30, 2002, 13:40

A couple of variations

1. role playing games-- must always be in character with respect to research priorities , SE choices and diplomacy. As Yang, for example, I would be able to at most truce with anyone running Democracy.

2. Multi faction games

2 players with 2 factions each
3 players with 2 factions each
2 players with 3 factions each

I am playing one of each of these at the moment and there is an added element to the coordination of research and development

RedFred · May 30, 2002, 17:17

Good ones Flubber. I shouldn't have forgotten your first one, with my involvement in Role Play 2.

The second suggestion is one I never thought of and I will have to try it. This aspect of my game, coordination between different allied human factions, is still weak. Playing a couple of different factions in tandem could really address this deficiency.

M@ni@c, while I enjoy several different SP challenges including OCC, I never even thought to extend any challenge-style game, including OCC, to MP. It sounds like an excellent idea. In a similar vein you could have a Lumberjack MP game or only allow humans to build native troops and so on.

You could even change the victory conditions and have a game where victory would consist of building the most SPs, or accumulating the most energy, from say, 2200 to 2230. Could be lots of fun possibilities there.

MariOne · May 31, 2002, 05:20

I think Hobbes organised more than one OCC pbems, for sure he did one @ACOL.

Maniac · May 31, 2002, 11:41

Yup, and I'm eliminated in that one by Big_Canuk because I lost the race to D:AP. I couldn't select it as my next research choice!

Maniac · May 31, 2002, 11:43

Always happy to start a new one btw. Interested in one, RedFred and MariOne?

If so, may I already claim the title of Commissioner of the Peacekeepers?