RBSotS1 SG3

[Zed-F]

Our second SG took a lot longer than the first to finish, but we got our goal of an alliance victory in the end. As a result, signups are now open for SG3. We should have a number of players returning from SG1 and SG2 but additional players are also welcome; if we need to we can split into multiple teams, so no worries about getting too many participants. New players are still welcome!

Along with your signup, please answer the following questions:

1. Preferred race?
(Human, Hiver, Tarka, Liir, Morrigi, or Zuul -- but I'd only recommend Zuul if you've played at least one game of SotS before, or if you've been following both SGs closely and have a good feel for how the game economy normally works. The Zuul break the rules in many respects!)

2. Preferred challenge level?
(On a scale from 0.0 to 5.9, where 0 is RBSotS1 SG1, and 5.9 is insane variant action. Essentially:
-- 0 is a normal difficulty game with even starts for all positions,
-- 1 is the same with a small handicap,
-- 2 is the same with a larger handicap or variant rules
-- 3 is a game on hard difficulty with even starts
-- 4 is a game on hard difficulty with a small handicap
-- 5 is a game on hard difficulty with a larger handicap or variant rules)

3. Preferred overall pace of advancement in the game for all races?
(On a scale from 0-10, where 0 is glacial and 10 is lightning-fast. Treat this as a rough estimate as it depends on a lot of variables in any case.)

4. Do you want a surprise dropped into in this game?
(I'll use this as a tie-breaker on the challenge question. If enough people want a surprise and we pick a challenging enough difficulty overall to make effective use of one, I'll add something appropriate in. It might not be apparent from the get go what kind of surprise it is, and it could make the game considerably more challenging than anticipated, so be forewarned! )

[ssmagus]

I'm in. 2/4 in the Challenge and Pace settings. Race...What we haven't done yet.

[Mardoc]

We should have a number of players returning from SG1 and SG2

That's me! This has been a blast so far, I'm definitely continuing.

1. Preferred race?
(Human, Hiver, Tarka, Liir, Morrigi, or Zuul -- but I'd only recommend Zuul if you've played at least one game of SotS before, or if you've been following both SGs closely and have a good feel for how the game economy normally works. The Zuul break the rules in many respects!)

Something new. I'd probably rate Liir and Zuul tied for my preference, Morrigi and Tarka 2nd tier.

2. Preferred challenge level?

Probably a 2 or 3 here.

3. Preferred overall pace of advancement in the game for all races?
(On a scale from 0-10, where 0 is glacial and 10 is lightning-fast. Treat this as a rough estimate as it depends on a lot of variables in any case.)

3. If we can handle a Grand Menace on T140 that targets us first, I like this speed. It also doesn't change too extremely much between turnsets, it doesn't take too long to refamiliarize myself.

4. Do you want a surprise dropped into in this game?

Yep! .

[Ranamar]

So far, I've really only played one game, although I've been watching you guys closely.

I want to play as Morrigi, because I just think they're cool, and I haven't done it yet. (will probably do it on my own) ... temperamentally, I think I fit the canon characterization of the Liir.
Really, I'd just rather not play Zuul and I've just played humans so I'd rather not do that again.

Challenge? Let's go for somewhere in the 2-3 range. I haven't gotten a handle on how much better than the AI I am, but I get the impression that it's significant.

Speed? anywhere 3-5 would be fine for me

I'll admit I don't like surprises, but I wouldn't complain about an interesting mix of races and/or star layout.

[yuris125]

I'd like to join, but I'll be on holiday 27 July - 3 August, my laptop probably won't cope with SotS, and I don't want to install Steam client on it anyway. So if you're ok with me not playing until 3 August, I'm in!

Race - any except Zuul. I don't feel confident enough to handle the Zuul yet

Challenge - 2-3 sounds good

Speed - somewhere midway, anything in the 3-6 range would be fine

Surprise - yes, because I'm curious what it could be!

[haphazard1]

The second SG was tremendous fun (I was an observer for the first), so I am definitely joining up again for further adventures.

1. Preferred race?
(Human, Hiver, Tarka, Liir, Morrigi, or Zuul -- but I'd only recommend Zuul if you've played at least one game of SotS before, or if you've been following both SGs closely and have a good feel for how the game economy normally works. The Zuul break the rules in many respects!)

Liir, Morrigi, or Zuul -- these are the races I have not yet played, so any would be good.

2. Preferred challenge level?
(On a scale from 0.0 to 5.9, where 0 is RBSotS1 SG1, and 5.9 is insane variant action. Essentially:
-- 0 is a normal difficulty game with even starts for all positions,
-- 1 is the same with a small handicap,
-- 2 is the same with a larger handicap or variant rules
-- 3 is a game on hard difficulty with even starts
-- 4 is a game on hard difficulty with a small handicap
-- 5 is a game on hard difficulty with a larger handicap or variant rules)

Something around a 3.

3. Preferred overall pace of advancement in the game for all races?
(On a scale from 0-10, where 0 is glacial and 10 is lightning-fast. Treat this as a rough estimate as it depends on a lot of variables in any case.)

I'll say about 4. It was fun to have time for the game to develop, but let's not get too slow.

4. Do you want a surprise dropped into in this game?
(I'll use this as a tie-breaker on the challenge question. If enough people want a surprise and we pick a challenging enough difficulty overall to make effective use of one, I'll add something appropriate in. It might not be apparent from the get go what kind of surprise it is, and it could make the game considerably more challenging than anticipated, so be forewarned! )

A surprise of some sort sounds good.

Thanks again for organizing these SGs and sharing the benefits of your experience, Zed-F!

[Zed-F]

No problem. Sharing my experience is pretty much what I do over at the Kerberos forums as well.

Looks like we have almost enough for 2 teams this time, so that's promising! And so far Liir and Morrigi look to be the front runners for race pick.

I know for Civ and MOO SGs in the past we often ran games over at CivFanatics. How do people feel about running a game over at the Kerberos forums? We might well get some extra players out of the bargain, and have the potential of more games running simultaneously.

[Brian Shanahan]

No problem. Sharing my experience is pretty much what I do over at the Kerberos forums as well.

Looks like we have almost enough for 2 teams this time, so that's promising! And so far Liir and Morrigi look to be the front runners for race pick.

I know for Civ and MOO SGs in the past we often ran games over at CivFanatics. How do people feel about running a game over at the Kerberos forums? We might well get some extra players out of the bargain, and have the potential of more games running simultaneously.

As long as you link it for us lurkers!

[spellman]

I'm game.

I'd look for something around 3-4 difficulty.

Liir!!!! Shields for everyone!

Speed... around 6.

[Mardoc]

Looks like we have almost enough for 2 teams this time, so that's promising! And so far Liir and Morrigi look to be the front runners for race pick.

I'm sure I'll have other opportunities for trying out the Zuul mechanics; now that we have a number of new faces with less experience, I'm fine with backing off to a more 'conventional' race.

I know for Civ and MOO SGs in the past we often ran games over at CivFanatics. How do people feel about running a game over at the Kerberos forums? We might well get some extra players out of the bargain, and have the potential of more games running simultaneously.

Well, I like RB - but I did find RB myself due largely to those SG's. It's probably about time for me to pass it forward. I'll see about creating an account over there, anyway, and see what smilies/image tools/etc they have.