Analysis on potential foreign policy threat(s). - Page 2

Jamski · June 11, 2003, 11:55

Sounds good to me

-Jam

Static Universe · June 14, 2003, 22:10

The Drones must die. They're out there trying to turn everyone against us because of this harmless turn-length polling business. Their plan must be to take out us first, or at least make their supporters think that's their plan.

I do not think an alliance with them will be possible, as the Hive and the Uni are the biggest threats to them, and they want to win at any cost. We must attempt to build an alliance with the CyCon and/or the Pirates.

Jamski · June 14, 2003, 23:15

Agreed. I don't like the drones at all either.

-Jam

Nubclear · June 15, 2003, 00:57

A word on the drones:

I overheard a conversation between several Uni members (MODS: THIS DOES NOT COMPROMISE THE UNIVERSITY IN ANY WAY AND THEREFORE DOES NOT VIOLATE MY PROMISE NOT TO DIVULGE UNIVERSITY SECRETS) saying that the Drones are lead by VERY good SMAC players and are definately to be feared.

Static Universe · June 15, 2003, 01:47

Yes, Buster and Mongoose are very experienced PBEMers. I don't doubt the other drones are up to their level, so they don't matter.

The Drones aren't being demo gamed, IMO. A few good players are pooling their talents to defeat everyone else. That is why they want "one faction, one vote" so badly. They cannot marshall their members (except for MRT144) to vote.

Analysis of Drone players, with post count:

Expert level players:
buster 1208
Mongoose 1927
mark13 2126

Not sure, but probably very knowledgeable:
Main_Brain 718
monkspider 1018

Of no consequence:

MRT144 50
murielwasser 0
One eyed John 0
Confuceus 0
Kizami 33

Voltaire · June 15, 2003, 02:49

If the Drones truly do turn out to be hostile as has been stated action must be taken, we will not hesitate to take them out first if it at the time becomes deemed appropriated.

The CCC would appreciate two volunteers to course the Pirates and CyCon in order to eliminate negative Drone propaganda influence that might have affected them. The courting will be done in private of course away from public eyes, we must make the CyCon and Pirates realize the threat of the University. And in the mean time I authorize all and any measures deemend necessary to be taken against the Drones. If the intelligence reports prove accurate, the CCC will deem it fit to consider ourselves at war with the Drones in all but official manners.

-Chairman Voltaire

Haon · June 15, 2003, 03:36

As former Foreign Policy Commissar (leaving in about 10 hours now!) I think that isolating The Drones is asolutely essential if things continue going as they are now. They ARE an industrial power and we need to compete with them VERY strongly in industry. There one weakness is Tech, so we absolutely MUST be on good terms with CyCon and we should not rule out the posibility of occsionally getting some help from the Uni if it can stop the drones. We should call on the military Power of the Pirates as well.

With any luck, The Drones will be rather close to Miriam.

Also, speaking of Miriam...

It may be possible to use Miriam as a scapegoat to forge A Coalition with other Factions to elliminate her and share tech and co-ordiante attacks and such, thus laying the Foundation for a stronger new Pacts with ideally CyCon and the Pirates.

And just to remind you what I said earlier, if we get the tech advantage, the Drones will be helpless as there primitive troops in synthemal get blasted by Particle impactors or even Chaos Guns.

Rokossovky · June 15, 2003, 03:55

I will talk to Mr. Morgan Glorious Comrade Chairman... I will see about a pact. As for the Drones, I cannot wait to lead our forces in turning their puny civilization into something worthy of a citizen level game.

Static Universe · June 15, 2003, 04:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Haon

And just to remind you what I said earlier, if we get the tech advantage, the Drones will be helpless as there primitive troops in synthemal get blasted by Particle impactors or even Chaos Guns.

Not these drone players. There was a thread (or threadjack) a while back in AC-Strategy about how to ratchet up the Drones into a competitive research faction, and we have to assume the Drone players are aware of these techniques, if not their outright creators.

I do not believe research will be any more a problem for them than it is for us, or the Uni as well, for that matter.

We need to make whatever alliance we can, and make it early, to defeat them.

Vev · June 15, 2003, 07:47

What was the tactic?

Vev · June 15, 2003, 07:49

Since the University may feel threatened, they may team up with the Drones. That would be a nasty scenario.

Static Universe · June 15, 2003, 15:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Vev
What was the tactic?

I'll try to find it, but with Poly's "search" feature the way it is, it may take a while...

Jamski · June 15, 2003, 17:15

The tactic for the Drones is to build 10,000 bases and take planned and wealth and use the +4 industry and the huge number of bases to swamp people. Its messy and practicably unstoppable - by one faction...

-Jam

Vev · June 15, 2003, 19:08

Who among the ACDG actually are seasoned veterans in gameplay ~~not spamming~~?

Vev · June 15, 2003, 19:10

I like my +4 industry, I was playing 2 human co-operative hotseat, and my friend was a newbie. He was amazed by how quickly I build things.

Jamski · June 15, 2003, 19:16

Quote:

Originally posted by Vev
Who among the ACDG actually are seasoned veterans in gameplay ~~not spamming~~?

On the Hive...
Me - for a start, Frankychan too, Tass, Voltaire?... I don't know about the rest of you

(4+?)

On the Uni...
General Tactitus, Archaic... (2)

On the CyCon...
Cedayon, Drogue, Maniac, TKG, MrWhereItsAt...(5)

On the Pirates...
Hercules, Flubber, JDM...(3)

On the Drones...
Mongoose, Buster, Main_Brain, Mark13, Monkspider...(5)

That's just off the top of my head who I'm sure can really play the pants off of SMAC. There may well be others.

-Jam

Vev · June 15, 2003, 19:46

I was worried the Hive might be lacking in experience.

Jamski · June 15, 2003, 19:57

Well, my new poll will soon tell us all we need to know about people's SMAC experience...

-Jam

Frankychan · June 16, 2003, 04:38

Hmmmm, IIRC Main Brain is a pretty decent player. Mongoose and Monkspider are the ones we should be worried about...especially Mongoose cause he knows his stuff.

Yeah, I've been "monitoring" the events in the main ACDG thread and it's been getting kind of ugly. I'm thinking we can make a deal with the CyCon's giving them industrial power for tech.

One thing that's troubling me is that the Pirates seem to be very quiet. I haven't seen any of their members acting overtly hostile to any faction so far. What are all of your takes on this?

Static Universe · June 16, 2003, 04:54

I suppose the Pirates are keeping quiet because they are likely to meet up with the other factions quicker and would like to trade techs.

I assume they'll play everyone's friend until they're ready to make a move or join a coalition. For that reason, I'm not sure their in-game motivations can be trusted (They are Pirates after all...

).

Here's a list of the Pirate members (with Poly join dates and post counts). What do we know about them?

Atlantian - 05-16-03 - 57
BulMaster - 09-30-02 - 47
Deaf - 06-12-03 - 0
Dmad_aen - 05-27-03 - 21
FlameFlash - 12-18-01 - 3332
Flubber - 08-02-00 - 3079
foolish_icarus - 11-15-02 - 533
GeminiRai - 05-06-03 - 7
Hercules - 09-13-02 - 1341
Iskander - 05-19-03 - 0
johndmuller - 02-04-01 - 1512
Makahlua - 09-12-02 - 134
Mark123jansen - 08-15-02 - 77
Nax - 11-22-02 - 10
ThePlagueRat - 05-25-02 - 1389

Static Universe · June 16, 2003, 05:05

Here's a list of the CyCon members (with Poly join dates and post counts). What do we know about them?

Bookwyrm - 03-09-03 - 47
Cedayon - 01-13-03 - 1162
Chaunk - 04-16-02 - 160
Corellion - 09-05-02 - 173
DeathByTheSword - 11-18-01 - 2249
Drogue - 10-30-02 - 2581
Maniac - 07-07-99 - 3454
Protonman - 06-05-03 - 3
Rynn: - 06-29-00 - 484
TKG - 02-15-01 - 3635

Static Universe · June 16, 2003, 05:09

Here's a list of the University members (with Poly join dates and post counts). What do we know about them?

AdamTG02 - 08-02-02 - 424
Alex - 03-28-99 - 2339
Angryclown - 05-26-03 - 4
Archaic - 11-08-01 - 2110
Deaf - 06-12-03 - 0
Eli - 07-01-00 - 5443
GeneralTacticus - 12-06-01 - 4735
History Guy - 10-16-01 - 2276
Kingsizzle - 05-31-03 - 0
moomin - 07-15-00 - 1607
Mr. President - 07-21-01 - 2247
Nivoxz N. - 05-30-03 - 0
Timbba - 05-17-03 - 38
yeinzon - 11-13-02 - 15

Static Universe · June 16, 2003, 05:16

And for completeness, here are the Drones again.

buster - 10-27-99 - 1208
Confuceus - 06-08-03 - 0
Kizami - 04-07-02 - 33
Main_Brain - 07-30-02 - 721
mark13 - 09-08-00 - 2126
Mongoose - 04-11-99 - 1927
monkspider - 08-05-01 - 1018
MRT144 - 10-09-02 - 51
murielwasser - 06-11-03 - 0
One eyed John - 05-22-03 - 0

Comrades, look at these names. These are our enemies. They could also be our friends. Who are our best choices to make contact with? Who wants us dead?

Jamski · June 16, 2003, 10:01

I'd say there's a nice split. People-wise the Uni and the Drones are our enemies and the Cycon and the Pirates are our friends. We'll have to see how it plays out though. EVERYONE BE NICE TO THE CYCON AND THE PIRATES PLEASE

/me looks at Tass

-Jam

Static Universe · June 16, 2003, 12:33

MRT is out there pissing off many of the other factions with his comments, so building a coalition against the Drones may turn out to be not so difficult.

If we can get Tass to direct his energies toward him...

Vev · June 16, 2003, 20:20

Is that wise?

Frankychan · June 16, 2003, 21:57

Information on other members.

Pirates

The most likely head of the Pirates is probably either Flameflash or Flubber. These guys have been in the AC forum for a long time and I've read many of their posts since I've been here. Johndmuller is more of a quiet person IMHO but he should be considered as a threat. Hercules and ThePlagueRat...I haven't heard too much about them so I can't give a synopsis on them.

CyCon

This is probably the most stacked team. DBTS, Drogue, Maniac, TKG including Cedayon are all "technopiles"...meaning that they most likely know all the little tidbits and what not in the game to make the game easy for them. All these guys know what to do and how to get their faction on top. I would consider this team a definite threat to us. One on one against the CyCon's and we'd probably get whupped. For these guys, I'd depend heavily on our industrial power.

Looniversity

Biggest threat is definitely Archaic...with AdamTG02 and GeneralTacticus coming in second place. Comrade Jamski knows Archaic better than I but I do know that he's a big threat. AdamTG02 is pretty good from reading his posts in the AC forums so I'd watch out for him. GeneralTacticus I'm not too sure about. But seeing as how Archaic is more autocratic than Chairman Yang, I'm betting that things aren't happy in University-land.

Even though this isn't a detailed description on the threat levels, I have a slight understanding of some of the posters. Mr. President is probably on the same level as myself so he probably contributes on what he thinks is right, but Archaic most likely has the reigns on where the University is going with GeneralTacticus right alongside him.

CyCon seems to be a stack team and I'd watch out for them. But seeing as how the "main" members don't seem to like Archaic, we might have a chance with them. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that they'll put aside their feelings for Archaic when it comes down to what's best for their team.

Since I haven't played a thorough game of SMAX, I don't know how deadly the Pirates can actually be so I can't really contribute that much.

Jamski · June 17, 2003, 06:11

That's a pretty fair assesment of the other teams Franky. I must underline your assessment of Archaic - he always plays Uni in PBEM and IP and he wins more than he loses. I han't yet crossed swords with him, but he knows all the tricks. DANGER!

-Jam

Static Universe · June 17, 2003, 07:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Vev
Is that wise?

He's probably going to do it anyway, so it would be better if we can plan in advance for it.

Googlie · June 17, 2003, 12:12

And here are the Drone members' CGN posts (Buster owns the site) - note that some names are different there, and there are only a handful of active posters:

buster - 1652
Main_Brain (Crazy Ahmed there) - 42
mark13 - 2257
Mongoose - 1315
MRT144 - 40
Triped - 1390
Shadowlord3 (Don't know who he is at 'Poly) - 1651

G.