What the heck is this? Planetfall Lurker thread

[Ichabod]

Well, I played one game in this mod yesterday. Not for a long time, though. It's fun and I think i'll try it again. Unless I was seeing things, the tech cost doesn't scale, they always cost the same.

[Bigger]

oops, wrong thread

[Mardoc]

what the heck is this? Alpha Centauri mod?

I can't beleive an AC game started and I didn't catch it . Woulda been all over this.

Well, if Azoth is right about the mod's quality, I suspect there will be a second game in a couple months, once RB'ers understand the mod well enough to make a balanced MP map. At least, it's caught my attention and I'd be willing to consider a game once my other games are well along.

[Bigger]

Well, if Azoth is right about the mod's quality, I suspect there will be a second game in a couple months, once RB'ers understand the mod well enough to make a balanced MP map. At least, it's caught my attention and I'd be willing to consider a game once my other games are well along.

well, I'll be practicing in the meantime .

I do recommend a 7 person game next time, possibly with tech trading on (my opinion on the latter might change once I play though).

[oledavy]

I do recommend a 7 person game next time

7 players would probably spell doom for a PBEM, unless everyone was aligned perfectly according to timezones and had a ridiculously good PYFT rating. For that number, you'd probably have to go the PB route.

[Maniac]

Hi all. It's Maniac here, the mod's designer. Ilios told me on CFC that a Planetfall PBEM had started. I of course had to check it out. This will be very interesting for me to read if the intention is for all players to keep writing game reports and analyses.

If you like, I can drop by to enlighten you guys on same game mechanics, or prevent you from coming to some wrong conclusions (such as the Cybercore being buildable by everyone instead of just the Consciousness). On the other hand, I partially get the impression you want to go in blind and discover everything for yourself. In that case it could be annoying to have a know-it-all around. Plus then it would be less educational for me, as your first impressions on what's easy or hard to understand would be spoiled.

Awaiting your answer, here are my thoughts on the much discussed starting position issue: they're intended! (Well, except for the Scattered Landing Pods part: I never play with that setting and didn't spend much attention to it) On neither setting you'll be guaranteed to start near a lush rainy river valley however. Instead you're just placed somewhere random, only taking distance to other factions and the landmass size into account, and then the worst positions get improved by placing bonus +2 nutrient/mineral/energy resources near them. But fungus will never be removed, polar/arid terrain will never be turned into rainy.

The reason? If everyone would start near a rainy river without any bad features such as fungus, as you'd expect from vanilla civ4, then everyone would be going for a terraforming strategy with lots of farms. Planetfall on the other hand aims to provide a variety of ecological strategies, and offers a tech path to thrive in all possible starting positions.

So for example when you start near lots of arid or polar terrain, you can aim for Biodomed, the great equalizer, the earliest available civic, which gives +1 nutrient on those tiles. This makes them just as good as moist terrain. If I were the University, I'd just have moved one tile west to get that mineral bonus in my base radius, and then researched Ultraponics to build Algae Labs on those two White Algae resources. I think his current headquarters position is actually worse than his original starting position.

Besides the Biodomed civic as an equalizer of starting positions, there's also your Planet Attitude. If you start near a position with less food, you'll likely end up with a lower population, but on the other hand because population causes negative Planet, it probably means you'll have a higher Planet Attitude, which brings its own advantages.

Take the Believers' starting position. I think too that's the worst of the five, but only because it has no 3+ yield tile in its 8 surrounding plots. So that will cause a disadvantage in the first couple turns until you have expanded your borders and researched your first tech. The fat cross is decent however IMO. All you need to is research Xenobiology. Then you'd be able to work the Monolith and Fungal Gin plots, improved with a Field Lab, which is buildable from the start of the game.

Jungle provides Freshwater: +2 health. Each of the six fungus plots causes -0.5 health, for a net of -1 health at that position at gamestart. But Xenobiology enables the Biology Lab, which halves unhealth from features. -3 to -1.5, with rounding to -1. Add the Jungle Freshwater to it, and you actually have a health bonus.

Meanwhile those six fungus plots provide you with +3 Planet each turn. This will result in a positive Planet Attitude. The free culture resulting from that can help you through your entire early expansion phase.

I certainly have no quantitative data to say that starting positions are equal, but the general idea is that all starting positions are viable, as long as you make the right tech choices.

[Mardoc]

Hmm, interesting. So does that mean that all strategies are equal in the end? Can I get as much use from a fungus tile as from an Eden, if I pick the right techs/improvements?

It's quite possible that we don't know what we're looking at, or what's important; in BtS, food is the most important thing.

If you like, I can drop by to enlighten you guys on same game mechanics, or prevent you from coming to some wrong conclusions (such as the Cybercore being buildable by everyone instead of just the Consciousness). On the other hand, I partially get the impression you want to go in blind and discover everything for yourself. In that case it could be annoying to have a know-it-all around. Plus then it would be less educational for me, as your first impressions on what's easy or hard to understand would be spoiled.

Generally, people like having questions answered, but not extra information given unasked. And lurkers like me enjoy knowing what's going on, so you're certainly welcome to stick around the lurker thread, anyway. Perhaps you should make a similar post, with potential spoiler information redacted (that is, your examples), in the general tech thread, to let them know you're available if they ask.

[Maniac]

what the heck is this? Alpha Centauri mod?

I can't beleive an AC game started and I didn't catch it . Woulda been all over this.

I'd be interesting in starting up and joining a second PBEM.

Hmm, interesting. So does that mean that all strategies are equal in the end? Can I get as much use from a fungus tile as from an Eden, if I pick the right techs/improvements?

All strategies should be viable depending on circumstances. I wouldn't call them equal though. Your base management, military composition and strategies can be completely different depending on which ecological strategy you go for.

[Maniac]

Generally, people like having questions answered, but not extra information given unasked. And lurkers like me enjoy knowing what's going on, so you're certainly welcome to stick around the lurker thread, anyway. Perhaps you should make a similar post, with potential spoiler information redacted (that is, your examples), in the general tech thread, to let them know you're available if they ask.

Ah, I take it the players can't read each other's report thread? I was already wondering how they were ever gonna do surprise attacks with such an openness.

[darrelljs]

Does the mod intend to replicate SMAC or use SMAC as an inspiration?

Darrell