PBEM anyone? - Page 2

Zalek · July 15, 2003, 10:49

Hi guys

Is there a time to join this game?
I'm from GMT +1 zone time

Zalek

Snowflake · July 15, 2003, 11:29

Quote:

Originally posted by Rubin
Alright, no colony pod limit bypass. But I think we should keep the reverse engineering on - except for the Probe Team to Speeder one. Ok, HongHu?

Standard order is the way a normal single player game runs. Gaians first, then Hive, Uni, Morgan, Spartan, Believers and Peacekeepers last.

In this 4-some it'll be: Chip_Buckner, HongHu, Gufnork and Rubin.

Should I ask Darsnan to set up the game even though I've heard nothing from Chip? Darsnan could provide us with passwords, and I know a way to get a password for Chip so that it remains a secret. We can then send it to him even though Darsnan is offline.

If all of this is ok, I send the stuff to Darsnan and the game can hopefully commence soon. HongHu?

I'm ok with reverse engineering except for Probe Team to speeder I guess. Not that that means anything to me.

(I have never used that strategy, so) Looks to me the play order is also good. I'll try to contact Chip. I found that he has a webpage listed so maybe I can find his email there. I think you could go ahead and get Darsnan to set up the game and I hope Chip will appear with his email address before Thursday. If Chip is not here to be found, then maybe we could take Zalek.

Snowflake · July 15, 2003, 11:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Zalek
Hi guys

Is there a time to join this game?
I'm from GMT +1 zone time

Zalek

Hi, Zalek, thanks for your interest. As the game stands for now we already have four people. But if Chip doesn't show up with his email address maybe you can take his place. The game has not started yet. So please check back before Thursday if you would like.

Rubin · July 15, 2003, 12:12

Ok guys!

Setup information on its way to Darsnan.

Snowflake · July 15, 2003, 12:16

Don't forget to post the final rules here, will you, CEO Rubin?

Snowflake · July 15, 2003, 13:25

Oh I was re-reading my previouse post and realized that I was unclear about the stock pile energy bug. I think since it can not be monitored, we might just as well allow it.

I have tried email Chip and hopefully we'll hear from him soon.

Chip_Buckner · July 16, 2003, 01:05

Sorry to be difficult to reach. I'm in the last week of rehearsals for a community theater production which has me out pretty late. I thought I had sent a private message with my email address to Gnufork, but apparently not. Anyway, I presume you can translate "chipATthebucknerhomeDOTcom" into an email address.
Ready when you are.
CHIP

Gufnork · July 16, 2003, 02:17

Seems like we're on our way.

Regarding the stockpile thing, I think we shouldn't allow it. If someone wants to cheat it's on their conscience.

Rubin · July 16, 2003, 04:23

Here's the settings and rules we'll use:

Settings:
- SMAC version 5.0
- Transcend difficulty
- Standard map size; average everything
- All victory conditions enabled, including co-operative. (No more than two players may participate in a co-operative victory)
- Do or Die
- No random events
- Directed Research
- Look first
- No Unity Survey
- No AI boost (normal AI)
- Probe Cruiser availabe for the AI upon Doctrine: Initiative

House Rules:
- You may not restart a turn without good reason. Specify the reason if you are not able to avoid reloading the turn.
- You are not permitted to establish contact with another faction prior to having met them in-game (or you have the Empath Guild).
- If you perform a probe team action other than to infiltrate against another player with whom you are in a truce, treaty or pact, you must inform the probed player what it was you did and what you stole/sabotaged. You must also choose the 'declare vendetta/cancel pact' option when you perform the action.
- You are not permitted to make more than one social engineering change per line, per turn.
- You are not permitted to use the demand withdrawal feature against another player.
- You may not accept a bribe from another player's AI during council sessions.
- You may not perform multiple airdrops in a single turn with the same unit using the right-click menu. Use the 'I' shortcut key instead.
- You may not use the F4 screen when infiltrated to change an opponent's workers to specialists.
- You may not insert stockpile energy into the build queue after the production of a military unit.
- If a player declares vendetta upon another player, either directly or indirectly, you must not accept a pending diplomatic agreement between the two factions in the same turn.
- You may not upgrade a particular type of unit using the design workshop, and then attack with that unit in the same turn.
- You may nod use colony pods to exceed the hab limits of a base.
- You may not upgrade crawlers intentionally/directly for Secret Projects rushing.
- You may use reverse engineering except with the rover chassis from Planetary Networks.

(Edit: Highlighted key words)

Rubin · July 16, 2003, 04:35

Good to see you Chip

If you want to specify your password for the game, please notify Darsnan. Otherwise Darsnan will choose one for you.

Any last minute modifications of the House Rules posted above should be possible.

Snowflake · July 16, 2003, 11:53

Great! We are ready to go!

One question, why the stockpile bug only not allowed for military units? Just curious.

Oh and one clearification for the probe rule. We should add "unless agreed upon by the target faction" or someting like that. I vaguely remember that sometimes if you pact with somebody probing can be used to get tech sharing or something, I don't really know what that means though.

Snowflake · July 16, 2003, 12:04

Quote:

Originally posted by Zalek
Hi guys

Is there a time to join this game?
I'm from GMT +1 zone time

Zalek

Zalek, Unfortunetaly we will not be able to take you. You may want to take a look at this thread. Or you could start a new PBEM yourself. It seems to me that there are always someone who's looking for a game.

Snowflake · July 16, 2003, 12:07

A side question, do we have to join the AC PBEM Civgroup?

Rubin · July 16, 2003, 13:33

The probe rule: As I see it, you would only really need to probe for techs. And since you can share techs via commlink, only a few rare situations are relevant. 1) Probe team needs morale upgrade; 2) Sunspot activity prevent commlink operations; 3) Player needs tech badly and cannot wait until the year has passed and diplomatic actions are completed.

I suggest the following: We enable probe agreements, but any probe activity agreement must take place before sunspot activity. Also in general: No diplomacy e-mail contact during sunspots.

Stockpile bug: I think dealing with facilities become very cumbersome if you have to avoid the bug completely, since built facilities always put stockpile energy next. Units just keep being built. But honestly, I'm not sure.

Ehh, AC PBEM Civgroup?!? No idea! What is it?

Gufnork · July 17, 2003, 08:27

If anyone has ICQ I'd love to have them to discuss things when we meet in game. It's allowed to use that once we've met, right (except during sunspots)?

Rubin · July 17, 2003, 08:44

Right, Gufnork! I do not have ICQ, but you can always use e-mail, I guess. Keep in mind that diplomatic actions can take several turns in a PBEM, and diplomatic communication is stored in the .sav file. Refer to e-mails and ICQ if you want to keep your diplomatic discussions a secret and also speed diplomatic things up.

Now, we're waiting for HongHu to take his turn, right?

Snowflake · July 17, 2003, 09:30

Quote:

Originally posted by Rubin
The probe rule: As I see it, you would only really need to probe for techs. And since you can share techs via commlink, only a few rare situations are relevant. 1) Probe team needs morale upgrade; 2) Sunspot activity prevent commlink operations; 3) Player needs tech badly and cannot wait until the year has passed and diplomatic actions are completed.

I suggest the following: We enable probe agreements, but any probe activity agreement must take place before sunspot activity. Also in general: No diplomacy e-mail contact during sunspots.

Stockpile bug: I think dealing with facilities become very cumbersome if you have to avoid the bug completely, since built facilities always put stockpile energy next. Units just keep being built. But honestly, I'm not sure.

Ehh, AC PBEM Civgroup?!? No idea! What is it?

Sorry for lots of questions cause this is my first PBEM.

Now is Sunspot activity a random event? Didn't we turned off random event? What does that mean actually? Do you not have to build some facilities or you just don't do anything?

As for the Civgroup thing, if you look under the title of this thread, you'll see two lines in the middle like this: CivGroups
Alpha Centauri PBEM (44): Not a Member -Join
Do we need to join?

Snowflake · July 17, 2003, 09:32

Quote:

Originally posted by Rubin
Right, Gufnork! I do not have ICQ, but you can always use e-mail, I guess. Keep in mind that diplomatic actions can take several turns in a PBEM, and diplomatic communication is stored in the .sav file. Refer to e-mails and ICQ if you want to keep your diplomatic discussions a secret and also speed diplomatic things up.

Now, we're waiting for HongHu to take his turn, right?

I see that Chip has passed his turn. I'll have to wait until tonight when I get off work to work on it though. Sorry! I was up till 1am last night but wasn't aware that Chip had emailed me.

Chip, do you have messenger? If you do maybe you could drop me a message when you passed the turn? I normally turn off PC before 12 though.

Rubin · July 17, 2003, 09:54

I don't know if sunsport activity is solely a random event, maybe we'll have one at a preset date!?! I don't know. Sunspot activity only affects infiltrator information and commlinks/council. So, I guess you just don't do anything special during sunspot activity - remember to check infiltrator information, though.

I've looked in the Apolyton FAQ, and I haven't found anything on civgroups. You could try posting a new thread with your question.

If possible, maybe we could get 2-3 turns done this evening?!? The first couple of years usually only require little time to play. Is this possible? HongHu? Chip? Gufnork?

I just noticed the Apolyton Time (AT) (below the posts). This can be our time reference. Just a suggestion, because I get so confused with the different time zones.

Keep asking questions HongHu!

Snowflake · July 17, 2003, 11:35

I'll try my best. My normal PC time is from 9pm to 12pm my time or AT 10pm to 1am. If you guys will be on during that time, then we can certainly try email it a couple times at least one day. Do you guys have messenger? Or should we all get ICQ?