Planetfall PBEM 2

[Iskender]

Do we have a turn order? I can play after Sareln - it proved to be OK in FFH 1 and 5.

[Mardoc]

Do we have a turn order? I can play after Sareln - it proved to be OK in FFH 1 and 5.

Good point. I should be before Sareln. Not sure where Sian and Maniac fit in best. My best play time is 2300-0400 GMT (7-11 pm EST), although I can often fit in a turn outside that window.

[Maniac]

Maniac: Sinder Roze
Mardoc: Svensgaard
Sareln: Luttinen
Sian: Either Domai or Yang
Iskender: Santiago

Unity pods: no
Tech trading: no
full set of AI factions: yes, meaning 6 AI slots need to be added besides the 5 human slots.

***

1) In order to avoid problems when another patch is released, unless someone has strong feeling about it (Mardoc?), I'd suggest we all create a copy our Planetfall v16 map folder and name it 'Planetfall PBEM2'.

2) Everyone should make sure they have the latest patch v16d.

3) Will an outside person generate the game, or will the first person in the turn order just do it?

4) Given that the AI is included, the question what difficulty level we will play on becomes more important. Personally I play on Immortal these days.

5) I also play with the Aggressive AI option turned on, as IIRC jdog5000 once stated he considers that the default option for the Better AI mod.

6) I always use PlanetFall_Big_and_Small mapscript, default map settings. It's ages ago I made that variant, so I can't tell anymore what exactly is the difference between the mapscript simply named Planetfall. Probably something with island placement.

7) Quick gamespeed is standard on Realms Beyond, I assume.

8) If I understand the situation from Plf PBEM1 correctly, it's easiest to correct any potential bugs if no one admin password is set?

What are other people's preferences on these points?

9) We should also determine the turn order based on timezones and when people usually play.

I can play around 6 o'clock in the morning local time. Under summer time local time is GMT+2, so that means 4 o'clock GMT. I don't know if EST uses summer time, so I can't translate the hour to that timezone.

Staging Room

[Maniac]

Hey Sian, I plan to be using the Wealth civic most/all of the time. Wealth is the Drones' favourite civic. As a consequence, if we both use that civic, we gain a +50% bonus to the trade routes between us. Just thought I'd mention it while deciding on your faction.

[Maniac]

of the original 7, santiago was easily the worst, imo. honestly she was the only one of the 7 I wouldnt be confident playing in a multiplayer setting, the other 6 were perfectly balanced and I could rock with any of them.

Spartans in SMAC are only weak if unity pods are turned off. If they're turned on, Spartans can base their economy on them. As they start with Doctrine: Mobility, they can quickly research Doctrine: Flexibility and go popping the unity pods on sea. Their +morale helps them survive IoD attacks. The credits from pods are useful to hurry buildings. But above all, the unity pod result you're after is the materials pod. That completed wbatever non-secret production was set in the base closest to the unity pod. The trick was, before popping any pod, to set the production to the most expensive unit you could design in the unit workshop. Those could then be used to hurry secret projects.

Guess on what SMAC tradition the Unity Bays are based on?

Besides pod popping, the other Spartan strength was pop[ulation] booming. Their +1 police made it easier and more lucrative for them than for other faction to popboom. You were especially golden if you could use the material pods to build the Weather Paradigm. Condensers before Ecological Engineering obviously help big time to get an early popboom going.

Spartans were my favourite faction to play, and using the above strategy (in addition to conquering two AI factions) my team won the third Alpha Centauri Democracy Game with them.

[Mardoc]

1) In order to avoid problems when another patch is released, unless someone has strong feeling about it (Mardoc?), I'd suggest we all create a copy our Planetfall v16 map folder and name it 'Planetfall PBEM2'.

Just so long as I don't have to rename two folders every freakin' turn. But if I understand your proposal correctly, that would prevent my concern beautifully, at the cost of just 300MB of hard drive space. I'm fine with that.

2) Everyone should make sure they have the latest patch v16d.

3) Will an outside person generate the game, or will the first person in the turn order just do it?

8) If I understand the situation from Plf PBEM1 correctly, it's easiest to correct any potential bugs if no one admin password is set?

I'd prefer an outsider, and to set an admin password. But if we don't have a volunteer, player 1 can do it. If we're really lucky, there's even someone who could set an admin password after modifying the map somewhat to balance capitals.

I think an admin password would have let the previous error be fixed by anyone who can operate worldbuilder, a much larger set than those who can make and compile a custom DLL.

The no-admin password tradition is pretty much copied from BtS, where it prevents Mac players from joining. But since they can't play Planetfall anyway, we'd get the benefits without the costs.

4) Given that the AI is included, the question what difficulty level we will play on becomes more important. Personally I play on Immortal these days.

I'd like to knock it down a little...maybe Emperor?

5) I also play with the Aggressive AI option turned on, as IIRC jdog5000 once stated he considers that the default option for the Better AI mod.

Sounds good.

6) I always use PlanetFall_Big_and_Small mapscript, default map settings. It's ages ago I made that variant, so I can't tell anymore what exactly is the difference between the mapscript simply named Planetfall. Probably something with island placement.

Ok.

7) Quick gamespeed is standard on Realms Beyond, I assume.

Yeah. With exceptions, but I don't really see a reason for this one to be an exception.

9) We should also determine the turn order based on timezones and when people usually play.

I can play around 6 o'clock in the morning local time. Under summer time local time is GMT+2, so that means 4 o'clock GMT. I don't know if EST uses summer time, so I can't translate the hour to that timezone.

There's a reason I gave my time primarily as GMT, with the local time in parentheses. . Yes, we have daylight savings, which I suppose would make my current timeslot 2100-0300 GMT. (GMT-4 until winter, GMT-5 on normal time).

0400 GMT, assuming that's your standard time that you can always play - that might actually fit in best between me and Sareln. It's an extremely rare event that I play after that time even when I have the option. And I think that's still pretty early in Sareln's evening.

We should also decide on a diplomacy option. I'm a fan of the public diplo/banter thread, because it doesn't take much time. But I'd be ok with something more or less involved. Would prefer not Always War.

[Thoth]

: popcorn:

[Maniac]

Just so long as I don't have to rename two folders every freakin' turn. But if I understand your proposal correctly, that would prevent my concern beautifully, at the cost of just 300MB of hard drive space. I'm fine with that.

Yep, my proposal is also to avoid ever having to rename folders. Just make sure to always also keep a normal Planetfall v16 installation, as two files refer to that folder name to get files from the Planetfall v16/Resource folder.

The no-admin password tradition is pretty much copied from BtS, where it prevents Mac players from joining. But since they can't play Planetfall anyway, we'd get the benefits without the costs.

Sounds good.

I'd like to knock it down a little...maybe Emperor?

Sure.

We should also decide on a diplomacy option. I'm a fan of the public diplo/banter thread, because it doesn't take much time. But I'd be ok with something more or less involved. Would prefer not Always War.

I have no experience with public diplomacy exclusive. I'll abstain on this vote.

[Iskender]

We might want to have someone take a look at the map, as it can generate things like this:

This is passable only for the player who culture-controls it, others have to bother with transports. Kind of imbalanced if the map would give access to such passes at random.

[Maniac]

Is the problem that that player has a well defensible position?