Another MSN stratchat with Jam'n'John

[Jamski]

John says:
hi
John says:
ping
Jamski says:
pong
John says:
hiya
Jamski says:
I was invading Stalingrad
Jamski says:
didn't realise I had a message waiting
John says:
heh
Jamski says:
All quiet on the eastern front now
John says:
I'm just here to ***** about how much difficulty I had yesterday trying to plan the turn
John says:
lots of stuff to balance, and it looks like it's only going to get worse
Jamski says:
was it a pain?
Jamski says:
in the ARSE
John says:
it was a pain I spent 6 hours on, and haven't finished 1/4 yet
Jamski says:
bloddy hell John
Jamski says:
is this the base re-building?
John says:
that's half of it
Jamski says:
and the rest is?
John says:
the other half is making the science cities, and the crawler automatic reallocation
Jamski says:
I like the mini science city idea
John says:
because when you rebuild a base the crawlers move to a new base and the minerals accumlate twice
Jamski says:
a node, a rec tanks and some crawlers?
John says:
a node, rec tanks, knowing exactly when it grows, calculating the time it takes to move the colony pod there
Jamski says:

John says:
getting node and rec tank finished before it grows
Jamski says:
working out when to rush
John says:
part of it
John says:
it's also working out the crawler reallocations
Jamski says:
*sigh*
John says:
so the rush happens every turn
Jamski says:
This is why I'll never be a SMAC god
John says:
well actually the SMAC gods don't do that as far as I see
Jamski says:
hmmm
John says:
they do it to some degree
Jamski says:
perhaps they do it all by instict?
John says:
but they only see 1 turn ahead
John says:
I'm trying to do it 5 turns ahead
John says:
actually it's 2144 the hive rebuild is
John says:
so that's 6 turns ahead
Jamski says:
and the new HQ the turn before, remember
Jamski says:

Jamski says:
I'm sure you did
John says:
yeah
John says:
needs to be 2143
John says:
so HongHu's minerals needs to be balanced perfectly
Jamski says:
Tell me John, do you actually enjoy this kind of 4 dimensional crossword puzzle?
John says:
well yeah actually I do
John says:
but I still get frustrated especially when I'm back peddling
John says:
Like yesterday I was often taking one step forward then two steps back
Jamski says:
like anything worthwhile, it can't be too easy
John says:
*nod*
John says:
but I think if I do the next 6 turns successfully we'll get at least another 10% increase in power
Jamski says:
wow
John says:
The mini science cities will bump up our science rate by at least 25%
Jamski says:
still a bit slow
Jamski says:
lets go FM
John says:
10% isn't that much by the way
Jamski says:
but if you keep these 10% boosts every few turns...
Jamski says:
it all adds up
John says:
10% is what I've been getting during the first 6 years of all the crawler craziness.
John says:
those SPs really made a difference though
Jamski says:
ind33d they do
John says:
I would say if we hadn't mircomanaged we would be between 30% to 60% weaker
John says:
we would probably wouldn't have had the HGP
John says:
because we would have gone for mobility
John says:
and we would have probably gotten the VW, without realising the PTS was so good
Jamski says:
I feel that your micromanagement is SAVING our substandard overall stratagy
John says:
then we would have gotten the CN.
John says:
our overall strategy is actually being run by the buster
Jamski says:
is it?
Jamski says:
how so?
John says:
yeah I've been looking carefully at what he's been saying on what his faction is going to do
John says:
basically build like crazy until air power
John says:
then time for invasions
John says:
beeline for restriction lifting in meantime
Jamski says:
trouble is, we're going to gome late to AP at this rate
John says:
get infiltration of as many factions as possible, so aim for flex
Jamski says:
we need to steal a bit, and perhaps THREATEN a bit to get tech
John says:
how do you know that?
John says:
Humans don't take kindly to threats
Jamski says:
yes
Jamski says:
but if we and the drones say "give us this tech or we both declare war"
Jamski says:
what will they do?
John says:
they'll realise it's time to throw their lot in with the pirates and form an alliance against us
Jamski says:
get the pitates in on the extortion scheme too
John says:
the only point of giving tech is if you think you can outbuild the other person
John says:
otherwise the tech comes back to bite you
Jamski says:
I'd give tech to avaiod war with Hivae AND drones
John says:
googlie posted to the pirates forum
John says:
Not if the hive and drones look like they're just going to get more powerful
John says:
and you know they're planning on taking over
Jamski says:
I'd try and join them
John says:
how about if you were the universty and you had lots of anti-university sentiment directed at you
Jamski says:
hmmm
Jamski says:
I'd still give the tech
Jamski says:
its better than dying
John says:
but currently the other faction would have to do a transport war
John says:
and you know you can get to air power first
John says:
if you just avoid trading them the techs
Jamski says:
hmmm
Jamski says:
but still, I think threats could be of some use to us
John says:
the real problem is threats could form an early alliance against us
Jamski says:
yes, ok, forget threats then
John says:
oh yeah did you remember the pirate negotiations
Jamski says:
I thought that if we could get together with the pirates too...
John says:
how I said "launches into a rehearsed talk"
John says:
I don't trust the pirates
Jamski says:
me neither
Jamski says:
but we can use them
John says:
I think they would abandon us at the drop of a hat if it proved useful
Jamski says:
as long as we are always prepared that they will bite us
John says:
also notice how the pirates have completely stopped talking to us
Jamski says:
have they?
Jamski says:
hmmm
Jamski says:
do we have a treaty?
John says:
yeah
John says:
we have a treaty and that's it
Jamski says:
CANCEL IT
Jamski says:
that will wake them up
John says:
you do the poll
John says:
and post this discussion
Jamski says:
if we should cancel the treaty?
John says:
I guess
Jamski says:
so a poll if we should cancel the treaty coming up
John says:
Flubber replied before launching into what sounded largely like a rehearsed speech. "Our faction is one of seabourne merchant traders. In that vein we would be interested in a treaty and possible tech trades."
John says:
then we get
John says:
We are seafaring trading nation and wish to establish a peaceful and friendly relationship with you. In that vein we are offering to make a treaty to reflect our good relations and the hope of a continuing friendship.
John says:
sent to the drones
Jamski says:
its just blah and tar
Jamski says:
I say they're looking to infiterate and then marine bounce as early as they can
John says:
yeah
John says:
we might need to ask for +3 armor from the drones soonish
Jamski says:
ok, so would YOU be in favour of just dropping the treaty without saying anythng?
John says:
I need to think on it
Jamski says:
ok, I'll post the poll tommorrow
John says:
we should send a warning message
Jamski says:
if they don't want t talk...
John says:
something along the lines "we are disturbed by the lack of response", then drop
John says:
so if it's just because they've been busy
Jamski says:
yes... that would be more polite
John says:
also if they send a message back it would allow us to see if they really are friendly
John says:
well rather it keeps open the possibility
John says:
so you going to post this entire conversation?
Jamski says:
I like the idea of pretending to like them as long as we can
Jamski says:
yes why not
John says:
I wonder what the pirates are talking about
John says:
been watching hercules post, then googlie then hercs again
Jamski says:
probably just spam
John says:
then googlie again
Jamski says:
of the VW
Jamski says:
Herc : Are the Hive Cheating?
John says:
googlie doesn't spam us anymore
Jamski says:
Googlie : No
John says:
Googlie gives longer explanations which leads you along interesting thought paths
Jamski says:
yes, but how often is he fooling us?
John says:
enough
Jamski says:
true
Jamski says:
EVIL MAN THAT HE IS!!!!!!!!
John says:
still I don't think he tells lies
John says:
he just phrases things to suggest
Jamski says:
thats MORE evil than lying though
John says:
You would think that the other factions would know that if the hive was cheating googlie would have already said something?
Jamski says:
but still, we are SP central
John says:
yeah
John says:
but I doubt we can keep that title
Jamski says:
I need a smoke
Jamski says:
back soon
John says:
we need more tech *sigh*
John says:
oka
John says:
I should get back to doing the preturn
John says:
So buster says the pirate-cycon pact is pretty deep.
Jamski says:
he knows about this?
John says:
whereas my theory is that pirates are pacting with everyone for more trade
John says:
yeah buster knows, we've been running open book with him. He is after all our permi-pact mate.
Jamski says:
But HE KNOWS that they have a pact?
Jamski says:
or is he just guessing like we are?
John says:
Gosh EVERY KNOWS
John says:
the cycon basically admited it on the public forums
John says:
where have you been... oh never mind.. now I remember you were away
John says:
while you were gone voltaire did some private eye work
John says:
and managed to get the cycon to admit to it
Jamski says:
nice
Jamski says:
how did he manage that?
John says:
and by a mistake he posted this results to the public forum
John says:
and the outburst caused everyone to start talking about the cycon-pirate pact
John says:
and they basically admited it was true
Jamski says:
ah
Jamski says:
so public detective work, as you would say
John says:
well it was private
John says:
you would need to ask the chairman about details.
Jamski says:
if he's ever around to chat
John says:
although the method that the chairman used to find out was a bit dodgy
John says:
basically chairman offhandedly mentioned to corellian that he knew they were pacted with the pirates
Jamski says:
ah
Jamski says:
well, they were silly to admit it
John says:
then a short time later
Jamski says:
I would have lied
John says:
drogue send an email to voltaire
John says:
sent
John says:
or PM maybe, accusing us of how we found out
Jamski says:
silly Cycon
Jamski says:
I wonder where the CyCon are?
Jamski says:
on the map

[ Heretics!!!! ]

Jamski says:

John says:
we need at least a few people not to know
John says:
so they can vote on the issue
Jamski says:
what's wrong with an INFORMED democracy
John says:
because we're trying to stay clean of all the scandels
Jamski says:
ah
Jamski says:
what do you think the CyCon will do with thier VW build?
John says:
I mean there was my skywalker scandel, the tassadar scandel part I, voltaire's scandel, tassadar & hacker scandel part II
John says:
and honghu seems to have a habit of openly admitting she cheats on the public forum.
Jamski says:
scandal cental this demogame
Jamski says:
LOL
Jamski says:
I havn't noticed
John says:
she's done it twice so far
Jamski says:
anyway, the CyCOn VW build?
John says:
basically said she retro engineered something not quite right in one of her PBEMs
John says:
to get foils before she got flex
Jamski says:
hmm, evil HH
Jamski says:
I won't play agaisnt her
John says:
and also suggested that everyone had tried opening up the game file in a text viewer
Jamski says:

John says:
which suggests that she's done it
John says:
ofcourse I didn't comment, as it would throw a bad light on the hive
John says:
I have no idea what the cycon will build
John says:
maybe they'll beeline for loyalty
John says:
I'm planning on getting CN built in 2141 just in case.
Jamski says:
good plan
John says:
and randomly putting CN in our build queue to throw them off
Jamski says:
I hope they can't get loyalty in 3 turns
Jamski says:
AH, they'll assume another instabuild
Jamski says:
and then they won't bother even trying
John says:
well buster said that they're not instant building
John says:
they've got the minerals queued
Jamski says:
then they're really silly
Jamski says:
instabuilding is MUCH more "efficient" and "logical"
John says:
Micha says that the cycon are a bunch of beaurcrats
Jamski says:
not like us then
John says:
so they're not really Smac efficiency experts
Jamski says:
I bet they vote on EVREY former movement
John says:
we're mainly a bunch of spammers
John says:
that sounds more like the pirates
John says:
with the time they've been taking
Jamski says:
nah, they're just lazy
John says:
so are you
John says:
you know that redfields
Jamski says:
is dead
Jamski says:
isn't it?
John says:
vev and honghu declared victory
Jamski says:
oh
Jamski says:
well, if roko never plays...
John says:
but I was looking at your turn and noticed one big mistake straight off
Jamski says:
what?
John says:
Jamski, it stopped at your turn
Jamski says:
really?
Jamski says:
whoops
John says:
you two traded techs before you guys got your first tech
John says:
which tripled the early tech cost for rokossovky
Jamski says:
really?
Jamski says:
I thought we didn't trade
John says:
yeah
Jamski says:
I forget
John says:
you did
Jamski says:
silly me
John says:
also you send a colony pod off the river
John says:
so you lost a two turns getting that pod to the base site
Jamski says:
becuase of the silly hill
John says:
that's like -10% straight off there
Jamski says:
and I didn't want to reload
Jamski says:
I simply pressed the wrong key pad
Jamski says:
but I thought WHAT THE HELL
John says:
you guys also should planted bases before poping those pods
Jamski says:
I'll do it anyway
John says:
I think it was either Rokossovky or you that popped a pod with a scout 1 turn earlier than planting the base
John says:
or maybe it was both
Jamski says:
I like worms maybe
Jamski says:
anyway
John says:
the base basically removes the mindworm and fungal bloom outcomes
Jamski says:
time for bed
Jamski says:
Mrs J is waiting for me
Jamski says:
NAKED
John says:
can you quickly post this?
Jamski says:
ok

[Vev]

Yes, perhaps I should have read the words carefully rather than having second-hand paranoia influence me. There can be a thing as reading too much and I rather have my sanity intact.

[Snowflake]

Yes that's me. I am like that. If I'm going to do something, I tell you. Like I told you I'm going to do everything in red field to beat the evil bastards, and that I would even cheat. Jamski and Marshal are smart to back off. Although the retroengineering thing was not a cheat though, for it was not forbidden in my pbem. Ok now tell me, you give me a sea colony pod, don't allow me to build sea base before flex, what do you expect me to do with that? Anybody who has a brain will try to tear it up and get something better from it. As for reading save file in words, hey I didn't have smax at that time, what else can I do?

You know unlike skywalker and his dad, and tass and the hecker, I think what I have done have not added any bad reputation to the Hive. In fact I think what I did helped Hive reputation. You know when they think if there still is anybody who is honest in the Hive, they'll think HongHu.

The best lie, is 99% truth, plus 1% real lie.

[Snowflake]

As for peace, I don't see the logic not to treaty with them. It's not like they will infiltrate us with the treaty is it? And we get more commerce than them. What is the use to show them we are mad at them if we don't want to go to war with them (yet)? If I was one of the factions you threaten, guess what I'll do? Giving you some tech so that you could destroy me faster? I'm smarter than that. One could die, but one must die with dignity.

As for CyCon's VW, my feeling is that you really don't need to worry for them. They are not doing instabuild, that means they have not cumulated much mineral yet, it will be quite easy to change to something else. However, expect them to get irritated since we've got so many SPs. What's the next real valuable SP? Will they beeline to the Empath Guild while we are busy beelining to airpower? Before you could attack them, they know all about you ...

EDIT: ok Kody said that the empath guild is disabled. What a release. Sorry to get you all worked up. :P

[Kody]

Jamski was supposed to censor some of that... Oh well too late now.

[Snowflake]

You are expecting too much from the dear deputy chairman, Kody. I mean you have to look at the situation dear Kody. I mean really look at it. Then you'll know why you expected too much.

[Kody]

Ofcourse how could it have escaped me!

He was too busy thinking about naked women. I should have known. All that time he was talking to me when he was really thinking of something else.

[Snowflake]

What's really astounding is his ability to keep staying in front a boring PC and talking to you when he was thinking what he was thinking. I mean, how many men can do that ... On a second thought, he did leave for "a cigrette" I believe ...

[Nubclear]

I have blessed this MSN log...

[Jamski]

I always forget that some people have the patience to read pages of text of someone elses conversations. You people amaze me.

And I was 10 minutes too late, if anyone cares Mrs Jamski had already started snoring

-Jam

[Vev]

Poor catty has to bear all that snoring.

[Jamski]

Don't waste your sympathy on that evil rat, Vev.

-Jam