Prime Function's Office - Turnplay Discussion

[Maniac]

I'd like to suggest we use a seperate thread to make comments about the recently played turn, instead of constantly polluting the official report thread with messages which need to be deleted after a while. This thread could also be used to make small tips to our Prime Function which don't deserve a seperate thread.

As for MY 2115:

• Drogue, you shouldn't move the garrison out of a base which has 20000 or more citizens. As a consequence we will have drone riots in Pi Square next turn.
• Personally I'd vote to switch the production in Pi Square to a colony pod, to build a new base in the north. What is everybody else's opinion on that?

[Drogue]

First thing, great idea for the thread. I should have done this earlier.

On the first point: Sorry about that, I somehow thought that it was 3 that gives drone riots The scout will arrive next turn though, so we will have 1 turn of riots. I am sorry about that.

On the second point: I disagree, I think another former would make growth and production so much quicker, that it would be worth it, changing to a CP straight after. The former will be quicker with the extra person, so we get a former and CP quicker than if we did it the other way round. I will post a poll.

[Drogue]

Thread has been topped. This thread is primarily for discussing Turn Reports or for bring something to the attention of the Prime Function. As such, the name has been altered. If you want somethign to be done in our faction, post it here

[Maniac]

I have bad news. One of my brothers, who no longer live at home, visited us today. He brought along his laptop and showed me a few things in SMAC, using my SMAX disk to start the game. When he left however, he forgot to remove the disk out of his CD ROM reader. I just discovered this, of course two hours after he left. So now I have no SMAX CD; I'll have to wait until he visits again before I get it again. I've phoned him of course, but in the meanwhile I'm without CD so I will not be able to access the save file, or play the turn when Drogue is unavailable.

(So I'd love to see screenshots of the base screens to know what's going on and help our faction. )

[Corellion]

Ouch.

You could always download one of the no-CD cracks to use whilst you await your brother's return.

[Drogue]

Maniac: I will make sure I post screenshots every turn now then, and as I am on holiday, there is no time I can see in the next few weeks when I will be unable to play. However if something comes up at the last minute, would anyone be prepared to be the backup? Corellion perhaps? Chaunk? TKG or Bookwyrm?

[Googlie]

Maniac:

You can d/l the no-cd crack from Rynn's Gallery - I have it running on both my desktop and my laptop, with nary a problem

G.

[Corellion]

I'd be willing to play the backup if necessary.

[Maniac]

If using that crack, can I just make a backup of the original terranx, copy the crack over it, and when I have my CD back, just recopy the original over the crack without having to reinstall my entire game? If I would have to reinstall, it's not worth the trouble of having to search and backup my modifications IMHO and I'd rather just wait, as besides for the ACDG I no longer play SMAC actually.

[Googlie]

M:

Yes - the crack is just a revised terranx.exe file

Just copy the original to somewhere before you overwrite it, then as you say, you can at any time replace it with the original terranx.exe file (though why anyone would want to I don't know)

G.

[Maniac]

(though why anyone would want to I don't know)

*shrugs* I thought I once read somewhere that with the crack the game crashed sometimes.

[Drogue]

Maniac: If you don't want to have to reinstall, you could just copy the crack to a different place, and install it there (maybe a different partition if you have it) so it doesn't overwrite your version. That means when you get the CD back, you just delete the crack and use the old version.

[Drogue]

Although you can post orders here, and I will read them, I thought it would be better to start a thread specifically for orders. This thread is for any discussion or anything else that needs the Prime Functions attention, the orders thread is purely for elected officials to post orders for turnplay.

[Googlie]

[Maniac]

The crack works ok. Thanks Googlie.

[Maniac]

Some suggestions.

Now the CP is finished in Logic Loop, we could switch the monolith worker back to the nutrient square to grow to population size 30k asap.

Also the LL former is finished farming. I guess we might need a discussion what to do next with that former. Meanwhile you could move it to (68,70). That way we can still move north to build a road to our HQ, or go east to forest or mine the mineral square.

[Maniac]

Okay. I need some quick advice. If anyone is willing to give their opinion in the next few hours, be my guest.

The Pirates have finally offered a pact. Should I accept it?

What should Boolean Bay build next?

May I rush a former in our new base "Aurora", or should I start production on something else?

[Chaunk]

Having not seen any turns, I feel unable to comment on Boolean Bay...

Accept the pact I'd say. It seems more sensible to do so than not to.

Yes to rushing a former. Always makes sence.

On a side note, could you tell me the password so I can look at a turn? Might be able to be a bit more helpful then...

C

[Maniac]

You should have told earlier you didn't know the password! I assumed everyone knew it by now, as it was sporadically mentioned a few times. Anyway, I'll include the password in my turn reports from now on. It's 001010100011 btw. That's easier to remember as 1-2-4-3 in binary: 001-010-100-011.

[Maniac]

Okay. Another turn has been played, and we have to plan our future actions.

We have learned this turn that the Pirates have already met the the Angels, Believers and PUT. Should we ask for these frequencies or pretend we do not know this information? If we ask for the commfreqs, what should offer in return?

Btw, this hasn't really been discussed yet. I thought about opening a discussion about it once we knew whether or not the Pirates were willing to sign a pact, but due to their sudden pact offer without further comment this turn, I haven't really had the chance. My question is: do we consider this pact just a commercial pact or also a military pact?

Within this and two turns, four of our bases will have finished their production. Any suggestion what to build next? For Logic Loop we kinda agreed to build a rec commons next. But what about Aurora, Pi Square and Apolyton Prime? Another CP or former?...

Also, should I pop the pod in the south? The scout patrol is alone now, so it can't be defended if it encounters mind worms. The same counts for the scout near Aurora, which can pop a pod on fungus in a few turns.

[Chaunk]

Do we need their commlinks? I can't imagine that any of those factions would be all that receptive towards us. I'd be inclined to delay on asking for the commlinks for a while at least.

With respect to the pact, I think we should assume economic, but try and discuss with them to see what they thought. A military pact would be better I think.

CP's! More bases! ICS! (unless the base isn't supporting a former, in which case a former. Must look at a turn... )

If it were up to me, we'd pop no pods unless they were directly next to a base, and so I'd ask that we don't unless there is something to attack what comes out. Ever.

C :Cool:

[Drogue]

I think military and economic pact, although if I become EAF< I will discuss it with them (and obvsiously with everyone here). Ask for commfreqs. How about we offer one tech for all of them. We are Pact Brothers, so they might give us one if we asked, but the more the better (especially PUT ) They will know we know who they know, as we have their map, from the Pact. Can someone post a screenshot of wheerabouts the other factions are now? So we can begin to plan more our relations with them?

I'd say pop all pods with scouts if they're there. We normally get good things, and it's not like a scout cannot defend itself. A build bonus would be great for helping us grow, and some Ecs/tech would be pretty nifty too. Sure we might get a worm, but it's not like scouts are worth much, and they do fight. I'd say the main reason for having a scout there is to pop pods, as we have PEACE to do exploration for us.

[Maniac]

So for Chaunk the commlinks aren't a priority, but Drogue would ask them. I have sort of a middle position. I don't want the Believer frequency at all (she might immediately declare war on us), but Angel and PUT might be handy. But if it's worth giving a tech? I guess it could be polled. Or we'll just let EAF Drogue decide since there isn't a clear majority.

They will know we know who they know, as we have their map, from the Pact.

We don't have their map unfortunately.

As for pops, I incline to Chaunk's side. We lost our Ogre this turn due to pod popping. I'm inclined not to pop pods unless it's with a rover that can run away or unless it's with two patrols so one can cover the other. Since the southern pod is so far away, I'd pop it now since it'll be ages before we visit that place again, but I would wait with popping that eastern pod on the fungus.

[Maniac]

Look at this pic! We've got a Believer visit!



When I opened the turn, I saw that believer chopper on the place it's hanging now. When I looked to our commlink list, we hadn't met them yet, probably because an air unit cannot meet a land or sea unit. So I tried attacking the unit, that is moving the scout nearby to the chopper square. Not to actually attack - I expected the standard message asking if we should declare vendetta - but because it may give us contact with them. To my surprise, I didn't get the message whether we should declare Vendetta or not, but I immediately got the battle screen showing me the battle odds (45 to 28 in our favour). When I chose not to attack and looked at the commlink list again on the right, we were now at Vendetta with the Believers!! I frankly don't see how this is possible, unless it's a bug or unless the Believers already were at war with us somehow. But they didn't attack any of our units in the AI's turn.

Anyway, after this happened I of course closed down the turn to report this important event to you. There are several things that need to be discussed:

a) Should we consider the turn I just started as the official one (with us in Vendetta with the Believers) or consider this a bug we didn't know about and therefore start the turn over (which may be illegal - only GooglieGod can tell)?

b) What action should we take concerning the Chopper and the Believers in general? Just ignore it (if starting a new turn from scratch), ignore it (when further playing this turn which means being in Vendetta), attack it, or try to talk to the Believers first? Or some other of the many combinations not mentioned here?

c) If we stay in Vendetta, should we ask our pact brother the Pirates to join our fight or at least give us more information about the Believer whereabouts?

d) Does this impact our technology plan? Doc:Flex and Nonlinear Math have a higher importance now, but on the other side researching it would slow down our research to IndAut even more.

I hope many people give response and advice in the next 48 hours.

[Chaunk]

I'm not sure in that situation. I think we should ask Googlie for a ruling, as I'm inclined to think that's a bug...

Of course he may say we have to continue, but who knows...

[Maniac]

Googlie is on holidays, so it may take a while before he visits Apolyton.

[Chaunk]

I'm sure I read in a thread somewhere (over at Acol I think) that he has his laptop with him and internet access until the 28th...

[Drogue]

That's very worrying. I have a few questions:

1) If we are pacted with PEACE, how do we not have their maps? Isn't that part of a Pact?

2) Can a land unit give the commlink of an air unit when they touch? I thought you could, and so we wouldn't have to attack it.

I propose opening the diplomacy window (if we're at Vendetta) and talking to her, to see whether we have no met or not. I think it must be a bug somewhere, and if we are actually at Vendetta (might just be saying it, and we can talk and sign a truce) If we can sign a truce, I would say keep it, as that would be the eventual outcome if we could meet them without attacking, however if not restart and don't meet them. We don't want to meet her that much, and then we are not at Vendetta. It is a bug, but if it can be rectified without a reload, then all the better IMHO.

[Maniac]

1) If we are pacted with PEACE, how do we not have their maps? Isn't that part of a Pact?

It is standard for human-AI pacts. Humans among themselves have to throw it seperately on the negotiation table.

2) Can a land unit give the commlink of an air unit when they touch? I thought you could, and so we wouldn't have to attack it.

From a previous PBEM a long time ago I know for sure they can't contact. Here it's the same. Proof: otherwise I would have seen the believers on the commlink list when I opened the turn.
In that previous PBEM I had the same situation where I ran into another human faction with a Unity Chopper, but I didn't get their commlink. Now I tried something else, land meeting air by moving to its square, with the known unfortunate result...


Ok, I can play in twelve hours (I'm now going to sleep). If you want, you can play Drogue. After all you're still Prime Function. I was planning to let the Pi Square former start a road to Poly Prime. Besides that there aren't many things that need to be decided IIRC.

[Drogue]

I'd love to play, but still no CD drive that works Getting it fixed soon. I think contact the Believers, and if you cannot sign a truce for free, then try again, and don't meet them.