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Let Us Play SMAC PBEM

jeroendstout

Educated
Joined
Jan 18, 2016
Messages
69
Location
Netherlands
I was under the weather for a wee while so I missed out on posting the videos here.

Also I got content-ID'd for one of the SMAC videos. Have arrived!

Series 2 — Part 8



Series 2 — Part 9

 

TNO

Augur
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
452
Location
UK
Excellent stuff, I shall follow with interest. I play SMAC fairly often but I missed out on the PBEM, and rolling AI on Transcend teaches you very bad habits. Some questions which I should be able to know the answer to, but hope you can save me the time ;):

1) Is there a consensus in PBEM whether you play with the SMAX content or not? I see the landmarks, but tech and wonders are important (and, from my limited experience, Cloudbase was game-breaking).

2) Are the AIs sent to thinker for a reason/ is there a common multiplayer risk of just smooshing the AI very quickly?

3) How important are spawns? My impression was that if you land at/near monsoon jungle its pretty much gg right there.
 

jeroendstout

Educated
Joined
Jan 18, 2016
Messages
69
Location
Netherlands
Thank you very much, TNO !

I can very much recommend PBEM - the AI (even with the patches) has no real comparison to humans. With PBEM you can also play against people who like role-playing, so you're not even limited to early aggression cut-throat tactics. As to your questions--

1) SMAX and "regular" SMAC are both played, both with player-imposed limits on tech or secret projects. Planetary Transport Network is very impopulair, along with Cloudbase. Personally I am a SMAC player, but some people prefer SMAX.

2) The difficulty setting also affects things like when the first drones show up and ecological damage rates. The AI is never truly a challenge in PBEM games, though if you play single-player, you can abuse your knowledge of the AI; with one or more human players, you cannot use the same cheesy tactics, because they might stop you. A higher difficulty setting makes cities harder to manage and AIs harder to just steamroll, really.

3) Spaws can make or break the game, though I suppose it's more of an agreement between players whether it is a GG to land in the monsoon jungle. I think the joy of 4X is also that random element, so if you are interested in the role-playing along the strategy some asymmetry can be quite OK.
 

Comte

Guest
Thank you very much, TNO !

I can very much recommend PBEM - the AI (even with the patches) has no real comparison to humans. With PBEM you can also play against people who like role-playing, so you're not even limited to early aggression cut-throat tactics. As to your questions--

1) SMAX and "regular" SMAC are both played, both with player-imposed limits on tech or secret projects. Planetary Transport Network is very impopulair, along with Cloudbase. Personally I am a SMAC player, but some people prefer SMAX.

2) The difficulty setting also affects things like when the first drones show up and ecological damage rates. The AI is never truly a challenge in PBEM games, though if you play single-player, you can abuse your knowledge of the AI; with one or more human players, you cannot use the same cheesy tactics, because they might stop you. A higher difficulty setting makes cities harder to manage and AIs harder to just steamroll, really.

3) Spaws can make or break the game, though I suppose it's more of an agreement between players whether it is a GG to land in the monsoon jungle. I think the joy of 4X is also that random element, so if you are interested in the role-playing along the strategy some asymmetry can be quite OK.

When you PBEM are you doing about 1 turn per day? Or do you have a session where you do several turns back and forth via PBEM?
 

jeroendstout

Educated
Joined
Jan 18, 2016
Messages
69
Location
Netherlands
When you PBEM are you doing about 1 turn per day? Or do you have a session where you do several turns back and forth via PBEM?

In my experience a lot of early games were played 'hot' (swapping back and forth quickly) but the later game usually gets down to 1 a day (or even less). The turn times go up after the early game so it becomes harder to just sit in anticipation.

The 1-a-day does make it all more tense, because at times you will make your great strategic move, send off the turn, and just make your prayers for the next 24h.
 

Comte

Guest
I would be interested in a multi player game next time you start one if you do a turn a day.
 

jeroendstout

Educated
Joined
Jan 18, 2016
Messages
69
Location
Netherlands
I am forced to wait before uploading Part 16, because some annoying person made a song sampling the SMAC menu music; and they Content-ID'd my video of playing SMAC, because it contains the SMAC menu music.

I would be interested in a multi player game next time you start one if you do a turn a day.

Ah, I just started a new one - but I will be sure to let you know when I start another one :)
 

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