Our PEACE rules for discussion and posting

Hercules · May 14, 2003, 07:46

Playing the turn

When we receive the turn we're expected to play it within a reasonable period. Twenty four hours was suggested, after the initial period. To comply we need to figure out the best way to suit us pirates. An irc channel can work fine but there are other interactive methods/ forums (I think) Yahoo? MSN? ICQ, AIM.

Anyone familiar with these and their ease of use?

We also need a guidance on how to proceed in some team players absence.

What is our minimum level of consultation on game moves and undertakings.

A good thing about PBem we don't have to make all our decisions at once. Say we find a pod and we have two moves left, we can consult on whether to leave or pop it that turn. Or if the Council is called. The player can save the turn and not exit and come back to it after we have discussed what to do and how to vote or what to offer/ seek in our negotations with other factions.

The one area I am not sure about is this and it is impossible to police. It is the pbem equivalent of playing ahead.

At a more advanced stage of the game, after we all open the turn. Some of our team could explore certain outcomes by trial and error. even as simple as exploring the map and reporting back. Then the real player can play, avoiding risks. As I understand it this would not show as a replayed turn. Views on this.

Should we police ourselves regardless of what others may or may not do. ?

We also could rotate 'the player' every so often by rote or by election. In fact it is probably a good idea to copy the 1st SMAC DG and have elections every so often to all posts (bar team leader?).

Discussion Threads

I hope we could keep a number of threads, always on topic eg Strategy, Tech research, but have plenty of taverns for xenoRum consumption and debate.

Confidentiality

We also have to be careful in the general forums about our plans. However mis leading other factions is part of the game. Before you post just be careful. Xeno brew and Xenorose can cost pirate lives.

We have also chosen a PEACE team name. This allows us to be peaceful and ambiguous in conversation with other factions while disguising our real intent, whatever that may be.

Makahlua · May 14, 2003, 19:04

I have IM's out the you-know-what (so I use Trillian to keep 'em all in line

) Yahoo & MSN both have ways to set up a multi-person chat; I've found MSN to be the least painful of the two (Micro$oft products that work?? Shocking

) IRC works for me too...I guess we just have to wait and see what everyone else has

I think 2/3 people would be a good minimum (two for ordinary turn-to-turn decisions, 3 for major policy changes). And perhaps we rotate the 'player' every month or so, or perhaps every 20 turns or so?

And I'm wondering if perhaps we should bring up playing ahead to all factions?

Googlie · May 15, 2003, 16:57

You can also "play behind" in the sense that once you have played, saved, zipped and sent your turn, you can replay it with impunity, testing other unit movements etc. of course it doesn't affect the outcome of the turn just played, but provides useful recon info. etc, all without a reload warning.

A single player in PBEM's always could do this, and by and large the community relied on individual integrity and self-policing.

I guess, as CMN, I should post something drawing attention to the ban on preplay and postplay.

G.

Googlie · May 15, 2003, 17:16

Please see and comment on:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=86125

G.

FlameFlash · May 15, 2003, 21:02

subbing...

ThePlagueRat · May 26, 2003, 12:06

Good thing this was more like guidelines, than rules.

Pippi don't like following rules... he just takes the guidelines.

Flubber · June 3, 2003, 11:27

I am fine with whatever decision making method works-- I just want to be able to get involved

Flubber · June 3, 2003, 16:20

Considering that we have a few days between turns, it should not be that difficult to make plans that only an unanticipated event would change.

wrt unit moves, we can make plans based on where they were at turn end. It will be a minority of cases where something has arisen/shown up that will change this. If the turn takes a LITTLE longer in this case as we try to issue new orders, so be it

Diplomacy-- we should set out what we think we can offer ( but I believe this should be best done by email if its one of the teams)-- With the AI, I think the best is to have some general principles to follow.

Research-- unless we make costly switches in an emergency, this should be easy to manage. The turn-player can have a hierarchy of choices and would choose the most favored tech from those available.

I believe the first demo games had people elected for the purpose of managing some of this stuff ( starting threads if there was a decision was to be made inn their area) but our numbers are so small I don't know what is the best method. I do know that a division of labour will be needed or it will simply become too much effort for one person to seek input on ALL the things that will come up.

Suggestions??

FlameFlash · June 3, 2003, 21:01

Currently we seem to be doing fine with the general plan... but then that's all that's needed until we really get in hot and heavy.

Flubber · June 3, 2003, 22:12

Thats my point.. Now its relatively easy as we have met no one, the numbers of bases are small and the number of available builds are likewise small. It will soon get complicated

ThePlagueRat · June 4, 2003, 06:50

So what do we build now, in the early phase?