[NO PLAYERS] The Kibitzer Klub: PB13 Map & Lurkers

[Bobchillingworth]

I'm not sure those are "opposite" frustrations so much as different aspects of the same disappointment with how RB Mod supports "rubberbanding" behaviour to keep games competitive longer, even when certain teams have massive material advantages over the majority of the field.


I know the feeling from SP well enough, but I imagine most people would rather not recreate the SP experience in MP, given that most games against the AI 1. Take ages to formally complete, and 2. generally end prematurely due to boredom caused by point 1.

[pindicator]

It seems scooter is saying that he likes where things are but that the numbers may need a little fine tuning. And scooter is also spot on for saying MFG is given increased importance. Likewise I haven't heard anyone say it, but it would stand to reason that the increased rubber-banding means one of the superpowers ditching tech to increase MFG and kill a neighbor wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Maybe. When you're ahead in SP chasing the victory condition is usually the single most boring thing to do in the game. I've never satisfactorily figured out what could be done to "win" the game one you've obviously run away from the competition, but don't want to spend twice as long mopping up as it took to run away. At that point inevitably the reaction is to roll another script and start a new game. Clearly the AIs need a concession option like we use when things get out of hand in MP.

[Bobchillingworth]

It used to be better before BTS, when you could just vote yourself the victor via the UN. Like 90% of my SP victories were Diplomatic.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Isn't the solution to Scooter's problem to unlock machine guns and build a healthy swarm of them? I know they'll take siege damage from CKNs but not from Lewwyn's catapults. Lewwyn can't attack with catapults into a stack with a lot of machine guns because they'll just absorb most of the collateral. If he attacks with the CKNs before the cats they'll do collateral but die for the most part and any MGs still alive well continue soaking catapult collateral as long as they're alive. So the answer would seem to be having enough machine guns to make only part of Lewwyn's siege useful. What is the argument against doing this? Takes too much research?

[Bobchillingworth]

Lewwyn has a fair number of Knights, right? I think they might do reasonably well against Machine Guns since they ignore first strikes, and I don't think Scooter has m(any?) rifles to cover for them.

[Ceiliazul]

machine guns are really not strong enough to leave cities. one knight pretty reliably redlines an MG, and thats not a good hammer trade. Also, since MG can't attack, they couldnt clean up the battered remains of lewwyn's stack. Cavs with their withdraw chance are a better bet if he plans to march.

[Rowain]

I will send a message in game to lewwyn , trying to comunicate atack is of but dont know if he gets it, becasue i just say 100 gold for 100 gold or something.. dont know...

Mackoti just sent me a trade offer: 20 gold for 20 gold.
...
Do I wait? Or invade next turn. I can either wait 20 turns. Or go next turn. If I don't go next turn there is no point in waiting any shorter than 20 turns...

Goddamn you Mackoti.

So either Mack has changed his mind again and plans to attack in 20 or just f*** Lewwyn real hard. I rather hope Lewwyn doesn't wait because if he does and then has to realize that Mack has still no interest to fight scooter I fear for anyone near Lewwyn (and I'm sure his explosion can be heard around the world).

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Lew knows as well as anyone that the game situation changes. It's no longer an absolute two horse race, and even more so if Scooter and Mack invest in warring against each other. Plako is slicing and dicing the slick-rolling Bacchus and could loom large and highly relevant if mack and scooter fight. He can get upset and all of that, but what's to be done? Even if mack hadn't sent that diplo a while back, it was still Lew's decision to whip his cities to nothing and allow his coastal cities to be razed to preserve his big stack. I'm not judging right or wrong here, just saying this isn't on mack.

[pindicator]

I'd like to note that this whole burning down the coastal cirrus you can't hold asks then invade later strategy was exactly what I wanted to do to Commodore. Scooter kept vetoing that because he was afraid Commodore would quickly whip an army of rifles and invade overland. Just seems relevant now for some reason...

Sorry for the sour grapes