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Danann posted:My most fond dead strategy game that never made it past one game is Submarine Titans where it's two human factions duking it out underwater and some aliens who got lost on planet earth. *torpedos flying everywhere* dammit XrrGlr I told you we should've sprung for the GPS
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Dec 8, 2023 16:47
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| # ? May 23, 2024 11:05 |
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Bringing you more Alpha Centauri. I wasn't planning on doing any screenshots but this game is turning out interesting so I thought why the hell not. I've been playing and playtesting my modded version of Cha Dawn. However, map generation has given me a interesting game scenario. I played with similiar parameters as I usually do (standard size, weak erosion, dense clouds, no tech trading) but I changed the amount of native life to medium to get a better read of Cha Dawn's balance. I also kept tech stagnation off, I'm going to have enough trouble doing research. Fun Fact: Xenofungus is not affected by the normal tile resource limits, this just never comes up in normal games. I had assumed that it would be and so I could add another +1 mineral tech to Cha Dawn with the tech that lifts the 2 mineral limit on tiles. I had to re-evalute my numbers when I found out that fungus can give 3 resources straight from the start of the game. So I started my game as Cha Dawn with myself replacing Morgan. I started with my standard exploration/expansion heavy strategy. I'm going to expand as much as the map lets me.  Welp, that's that. I can put down about 4 cities. I mean I could put down more but then there would be overlap, which I don't like. If I really need to I absolutely can and will put down more cities, overlap doesn't matter for the early game or for the mid-game for that matter and honestly it doesn't matter that much for the late game and more cities are better for a number of reasons. I just don't like it and because of that I've added a new wrinkle, the AI will also avoid overlap the same way I do because I've modified the "thinker.ini" file. I increased the min distance to 5, although I'm thinking of dropping that down to 4 to allow some overlap. If you do so make sure you increase the number of cities that can be in range in that same file (or just use the thinker.ini file I included in my mod). Back to the actual game. So I can't deviate from my ideals in terms of city placement because I already enforced them on the AI and it would unfair if I didn't follow my own rules. I'm also boxed in the same way that I boxed in the AIs in the last game. I'm hoisted between two of my own petards. On top of that the people boxing me are Yang and Miriam who are both very willing to use violence to advance their goals and are terrible researchers to boot. My research is awful, as expected. I can expand to the sea, but I need a tier 2 research for that. However, I'm rushing other techs for now, especially Probe Teams. Probe teams are amazing and I use them all the time. I also want to try and win the Wonder race as much as possible. My new Cha Dawn is kind of feast or famine for Secret Projects. I have great production from all the Minerals I get from the fungus (even after the industry penalty) but I have trouble unlocking Secret Projects with my slow research speed. Another interesting effect of my high mineral production is that I can use it to support a lot of units. It's still 1 mineral per excess unit and that's completely unaffected by the industry penalty. My crappy research combined with my excellent production meant that I built an absolute ton of formers. I just couldn't build much else that would be helpful until I researched Probe Teams. Those formers will be building Solar Collectors and Farms, this will hopefully help my research (and I can't build fungus yet).  I think I built too many formers, this is a bit excessive. Oh well, I can get rid of them later. Immediately after this screenshot Yang declared war on me. Well, I knew this was coming eventually. I just hoped to have more time, I don't even have lasers unlocked. I do have defense 2 armor available so I hope that will do.  I may be weaker than Yang but I am wily and full of tricks. Let's see how he likes it when I turn his one front war against me into a two front war against both me and Miriam. This was an incredibly cheap bribe for this war, I feel like Miriam wanted to go to war anyway.  This could be a problem. Yang has 4-2 Infantry while I'm stuck with 1-2 and I don't even have perimeter defenses. I've had to fend off two of these with my mind worms and I lost one of my precious mindworms to a counterattack. I don't have the technology to fend these guys easily. I think I'll need at least 2 of my garrison infantry just to have a just over an even chance to defend against these guys and 3 to do it reliably. The odds are slightly worse for attacking or counterattacking them with my 1 attack strength units. Mind Worms can compensate for a tech disadvantage but I can't build them because of my tech disadvantage. I need to cheat to win and do it fast. Protip: There is a way to farm Mind Worms. You need a positive Planet score and you really want to already have at least one mindworm (but ideally two). Have the mindworm move 3 moves through fungus every turn, each move has a chance to trigger an enemy mindworm encounter. Then each mindworm you attack you have a chance to catch. I haven't bothered to do this but maybe I should have. Make sure you catch them outside the radius of any of your cities so they're independent instead of needing support from one of your cities.  I had to sacrifice some units (including a spore launcher) but I was able to get not one but two probe teams into position. They got me two techs! Although I did lose the second probe team. I managed to get Nonlinear Mathematics, which is interesting because I hadn't finished researching its prerequisite Applied Physics first. Either way, this is the tech strength 4 weapon Particle Impacter. This advanced new weapon, combined with my own research of Rovers, combined with my excellent production should allow me begin to turn the war in my favor.  However, just because I can win fairly doesn't mean there's no room for dirty tricks. I captured an Isle of the Deep and it already had a unit of mindworms on board! This was an opportunity too good to pass up. This isle is still pretty immature so it can only carry two units, a mindworm and my very first prototype Assault Rover (4-1-2). I moved my Isle and its precious cargo down to a lightly defended enemy base behind the frontlines. I knew it was lightly defended because I managed to sneak one of my newly trained Probe Teams through the fungus and then fail to steal a technology and then get killed. But I did get a look at the defenses, it's only a single scout patrol and as a bonus this is where Yang managed to build his Command Nexus. That bastard managed to steal my Secret Project. I hadn't started it and didn't even have the technology because I hadn't stolen it from Yang yet. However I had thought about building it and that should be enough to call dibs.  Miriam's war against Yang is also going well. She's captured at least two of Yang's colonies, including his capital, and she's now in first place in score even with the bonuses I get from the Secret Projects I managed to snag. So Miriam is now in first place and geared for war and her war against Yang is quite likely to wrap up soon. At that point she'll have all the armies that she used on Yang right next to my borders and I'll probably still be militarily weaker than her because of her inherent offensive bonuses. Hmm, I'm wondering if I did the right thing in convincing her to go to war against Yang. I'm really hoping for some turns of peace so I can start settling the sea, my modded Cha Dawn does well there and I really need more colonies so I can research faster. Stealing research can keep me in the race but I would rather get ahead if possible. If Miriam does go to war against me then I'll need to somehow pause military production for a bit to build at least a few sea colonies, I'm "seaing" other Factions build their own sea colonies so I need to stake my territory fast. We are somewhere like 85 turns into the game so things are going slowly but my slow start may have affected that so I can't say what that means for the balance of my modded Cha Dawn.
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Dec 9, 2023 07:19
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BearsBearsBears posted:I may be weaker than Yang but I am wily and full of tricks. Let's see how he likes it when I turn his one front war against me into a two front war against both me and Miriam. This was an incredibly cheap bribe for this war, I feel like Miriam wanted to go to war anyway. I mean, isn't her usual mode 'burn the unbelievers'?
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Dec 9, 2023 16:04
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A friend invited me to a Discord that does Kriegsspiel. The systems are pretty rules-light, with heavy reliance on umpires who move tokens around, usually in Tabletop Simulator. I'll describe my first game turn by turn, starting with deployment. Scenario posted:June 2nd, 1985 I am in command of C company, and A company is in overall command.  A company deployed at the outskirts of Chodov. B company deployed an infantry platoon up north in a trench, and the rest at the outskirts of Chodov. I deployed C company aggressively along the main road. My company HQ is at the top of a forested hill, with one infantry platoon deployed right next to the road, and one west of the hill. I held my T-72s in reserve at the treeline to the east, and BRDM recon on the southern part of the hill in case of a southern flanking attack. The two green markers are the Target Reference Points for an MLRS barrage. 0745 posted:My troops hear vehicles to the West, but no visual. B company reports visual on enemy column moving along main road. 0800 posted:The western BVP-2s have engaged and routed an enemy infantry platoon in Marders. The BVP's are a little disrupted, but have suffered no casualties. B company reports engaging enemy vehicles on the road, but they don't know what. My own soldiers report a Leopard 2 platoon has been smashed. Looks like imperfect information is a big part of Kriegsspiel. 0815 posted:I have visual on two platoons dismounting from Marders smack-dab in the middle of one of the TRPs. I radio A company to call for immediate MLRS barrage, and order my soldiers to hold fire. I don't want to tip the enemy off, but since I'm new to this, that might be dumb. B company engages with ATGMs and their own mortar barrage. 0830 posted:A whole company appears to be hit. One of my BVP-2 platoons engages, while B company continues a crossfire, pushing their tanks (not sure where they are) to engage as well. I'm considering sending my other infantry platoon north to engage in close combat, but decide against it. While I feel like maybe I am being way too passive, the scenario objectives were to delay the enemy minimize friendly casualties. 0845 posted:Some Marders and Leopards survive, and retreat. In game terms, I don't know if that means they're routed, or if they just took some hits and will be able to regroup. Part of me is kicking myself for not pushing the attack, but it probably would have ended in disaster. Across the field, I spot two Leopard 2 platoons engaging B company. B company appears to have knocked out one. I order one of my BVP-2 platoons to push up to a treeline and attempt to engage with ATGMs. I also order my reserve tanks to push north towards the treeline, but not engage yet. I'm worried about committing my reserve too early, and radio A company for confirmation. 0900 posted:Uh oh. I begin to be hit with an artillery barrage, which suppresses everything I have except for my tanks and BRDM-2s. I don't have a good enough feel for the game to know if that's a big problem, or if it's just opportunistic. I decide to stay put. A company has confirmed that my tanks are to engage the Leopards attacking A company, and I pass along that order. A company also shifts their AT platoon to cover B company. B company retreats their tanks and mortars to Chodov, but their infantry holds. 0915 posted:Uh oh. Now I'm heavily suppressed - the red markers mean those units can neither fight nor retreat. The tanks are engaged. They can't help B company, but at least B company reports the enemy is retreating from the north. I order my tanks to continue fighting, and order my BRDM-2s to push west and attempt to engage the south-most Marders in the side with their 14,5mm. I also alert A company that it may soon be time to use our second MLRS strike on the east TRP, but that the enemies are not on it yet. Plus, I'm danger close to it. It does not escape my notice that I myself, being on top of the hill and heavily suppressed, am in significant personal danger. 0930 posted:My units are finally able to shoot back, and are inflicting some casualties, but the situation appears completely untenable. I'm heavily outnumbered, and I have no fortifications. The forward infantry platoon seems doomed, but I order my other infantry as well as my HQ to retreat east while the tanks continue to engage. After Action posted:Just when I thought I was screwed, NATO orders a general retreat and the game ends with a resounding victory for the People's Army. I didn't end up making that many decisions, mostly stayed put, but I suppose that's because I deployed well. We had a good plan and it worked. I had a lot of fun. Waiting for the umpire to come back to you with a report of what happened, and having to give orders on the spot with voice chat is a very tense setup that feels thematically appropriate. I also signed up for a play by post corps-level game of 1802 invasion of Naples.
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Dec 10, 2023 00:26
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i was surprised a general retreat was ordered tbh must have been spooked by the grads
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Dec 10, 2023 02:37
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FrancisFukyomama posted:Brian reynolds really dropped Alpha Centauri and rise of nations then proceeded to never make a game that wasn’t a FarmVille clone ever again He used to play online Twilight Struggle on these very forums! V nice guy, think i used to have his steam handle
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Dec 10, 2023 03:00
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:A friend invited me to a Discord that does Kriegsspiel. The systems are pretty rules-light, with heavy reliance on umpires who move tokens around, usually in Tabletop Simulator. This was a riveting account of what sounds like a great experience. Thanks for sharing.
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Dec 10, 2023 03:43
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What made the NATO side retreat? Did the umpires determine that enough morale damage had been done, or did the players all decide to concede? I don't know how the rules work in these scenarios.
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Dec 10, 2023 04:46
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Rare to see a NATO-Pact scenario where the former is attacking and the latter are engaged in a desperate holding defense. Good job making them Bundes boys run
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Dec 10, 2023 04:50
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fantastisch
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Dec 10, 2023 06:41
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BearsBearsBears posted:Bringing you more Alpha Centauri. this seems a bit too strong, tbh, because mineral boni add up and the earlier you get them the better. personally i would dial down the mineral bonus a notch and give cha dawn one inherent lifecycle bonus or something if possible
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Dec 10, 2023 07:02
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Cerebral Bore posted:this seems a bit too strong, tbh, because mineral boni add up and the earlier you get them the better. personally i would dial down the mineral bonus a notch and give cha dawn one inherent lifecycle bonus or something if possible I was struggling for a while in my current game but I also got a relatively bad start. Remember that the 3 minerals is partially offset by the -2 industry so it works out to 2.5 Minerals. The -2 Economy is also very harsh at the beginning of the game so that slows you down, especially at the beginning. If you want to do decent research you have to balance between your high mineral fungus tiles and your terraformed farm+solar tiles. I ran the numbers and despite all this my modded Cha Dawn should still be worse at production than the Free Drones working Forests all the way up until a Tier 13 research (Matter Transmission). This is after accounting for +Industry (SE and inherent) and conversion of Energy to Minerals through rushing. The Nutrients were the part I wasn't sure if I properly accounted for since Cha Dawn's fungus gives 2 right at the start of the game while everybody else needs Tree Farms for Forest tiles to be self-sustaining. I used 2 energy = 1 mineral for my calculations but I've got some thoughts on that myself. I think the conversion ratio is a lot closer to 1 (tile) energy = 1 (tile) mineral. You get a lot more energy percent bonuses and a lot earlier while the very first mineral bonus you get is at Tier 6 with the Genejack Factory. Just giving Cha Dawn a Lifecycle bonus didn't seem like it would be interesting enough to me. It would have been possible to just give him Brood Pits from the start of the game to give him better and cheaper Mind Worms than everyone else. I felt that giving him an implicit goal of covering Planet in Xenofungus while all the other Factions want to remove it was something really interesting. If you want to personally check if he's overpowered feel free to give him a spin yourself. Link is in one of my earlier posts. Remember that's he's balanced against the my modded versions of the Factions (or unmodded Free Drones). Edit: Reducing the Mineral production to 2 would make it match Forest. Because of when Fungus bonuses come up versus when Forest bonuses come up this would make there be large portions of the game where Forests work better for Cha Dawn compared to Xenofungus. In my experience these are also the sections of the game where you usually first solidify your victory. BearsBearsBears has issued a correction as of 11:02 on Dec 10, 2023 |
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Dec 10, 2023 08:30
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palindrome posted:What made the NATO side retreat? Did the umpires determine that enough morale damage had been done, or did the players all decide to concede? I don't know how the rules work in these scenarios. I'm not sure, but I assume it was the decision of the umpires. Presumably based on the number of casualties suffered and morale of existing units. It was a really fun experience! The community was very welcoming too. https://kriegsspiel.org/ in case anyone else is interested.
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Dec 10, 2023 11:48
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Microprose apparently published a JFK Simulator recently https://twitter.com/micro_prose/status/1733585992332816692?t=623fmjmXUlqiaHnHKq0PJQ&s=19
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Dec 10, 2023 13:31
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:I'm not sure, but I assume it was the decision of the umpires. Presumably based on the number of casualties suffered and morale of existing units. Hey, I recognize the "professional wargaming" admin! He has a few YouTube playlists of Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm that are really good. For a few I usually have to use the YouTube translator but even then I can usually follow along well enough. Great write-up btw!
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Dec 11, 2023 04:41
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gradenko_2000 posted:Microprose apparently published a JFK Simulator recently "JFK Simulator" makes me think of JFK Reloaded
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Dec 11, 2023 05:44
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Made me think that you command the Barbara and re-take Cuba.
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Dec 11, 2023 15:03
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gradenko_2000 posted:Microprose apparently published a JFK Simulator recently huh, had no idea that existed and by the looks of it no one else did either
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Dec 11, 2023 16:06
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BearsBearsBears posted:I was struggling for a while in my current game but I also got a relatively bad start. Remember that the 3 minerals is partially offset by the -2 industry so it works out to 2.5 Minerals. The -2 Economy is also very harsh at the beginning of the game so that slows you down, especially at the beginning. If you want to do decent research you have to balance between your high mineral fungus tiles and your terraformed farm+solar tiles. I ran the numbers and despite all this my modded Cha Dawn should still be worse at production than the Free Drones working Forests all the way up until a Tier 13 research (Matter Transmission). This is after accounting for +Industry (SE and inherent) and conversion of Energy to Minerals through rushing. The Nutrients were the part I wasn't sure if I properly accounted for since Cha Dawn's fungus gives 2 right at the start of the game while everybody else needs Tree Farms for Forest tiles to be self-sustaining. yea, i get your reasoning, but 3-2 tiles without having to do any terraforming is still real strong
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Dec 11, 2023 17:08
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Regarde Aduck posted:huh, had no idea that existed and by the looks of it no one else did either Kind of interesting that it took this long for someone to do Bomber Crew/Space Crew but with a more grounded look and also interesting that they're just stealing the "Crew" naming convention. Concept sounds great if they can make the campaign and fighting feel better than the other Crew games.
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Dec 12, 2023 00:58
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Need a "Train Crew" where you play as the Soviets in the Russian Civil War to balance out that Clean Czech Legion game.
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Dec 12, 2023 01:35
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Regarde Aduck posted:huh, had no idea that existed and by the looks of it no one else did either I like the idea of more games like Bomber Crew or U-Boat, I just don't care about PT boats. If they have coastal forces in the channel or med, I'll check it out.
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Dec 12, 2023 01:55
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Bears, I think your LPs have singlehandedly caused a big bump in Alpha Centauri quoteposting forum wide and I think that's awesome
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Dec 12, 2023 06:43
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skooma512 posted:Bears, I think your LPs have singlehandedly caused a big bump in Alpha Centauri quoteposting forum wide and I think that's awesome In the past 30 years, we have used our telescopes to gather a few terabytes of information about the target world. On this basis, we glibly call Chiron "earthlike." I want you to consider for a moment what that means. Chiron has gravity not too much higher than we find comfortable, an atmosphere containing water and free oxygen, a surface climate that we can tolerate. That's all. Billions of years of separate evolution have inevitably made Chiron a greater challenge than we can imagine. Even the familiar will be alien. - Captain John Garland, initial address to the Unity crew, 2058 there was a GURPS supplement for Alpha Centauri released in 2002 with even more quotes
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Dec 12, 2023 09:14
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Is there lore on how the captain that died in AC was supposed to keep everyone working together and not split off into their own faction?
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Dec 12, 2023 09:59
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Polgas posted:Is there lore on how the captain that died in AC was supposed to keep everyone working together and not split off into their own faction? quote:As it happened, the bulk of the journey did go by without incident - but in late 2099, as Unity was decelerating into the Alpha Centauri system, it collided with a tiny fragment of space debris. The interloper was no larger than a pebble, but at the starship's speed even such a small missile could have devastating impact. isn't one of Deirdre Skye's colonies named after Garland?
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Dec 12, 2023 10:24
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gradenko_2000 posted:isn't one of Deirdre Skye's colonies named after Garland? Garland Crater is probably named after Captain Garland. Naming a crater where an asteroid crashed into the planet after the captain that crashed our ship onto the planet always struck me as a little disrespectful. On the other hand, +1 Minerals on a whole bunch of squares is pretty nice. BearsBearsBears has issued a correction as of 12:59 on Dec 12, 2023 |
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Dec 12, 2023 12:56
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Huh that's how he died? I could have sworn I read a back story decades ago that said Garland got assassinated and it was a game of cluedo and whodunit with the command staff all accusing each other of doing it causing the split.
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Dec 12, 2023 15:24
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Polgas posted:Huh that's how he died? I could have sworn I read a back story decades ago that said Garland got assassinated and it was a game of cluedo and whodunit with the command staff all accusing each other of doing it causing the split. I also have that recollection. It's possible this GURPS supplement hosed with the "canon"
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Dec 12, 2023 15:27
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don't quote me on this one, but i seem to recall i read somewhere that yang was involved in garland's assassination given that he was the second in command on unity and thus would be in a position to take over
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Dec 12, 2023 15:34
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Polgas posted:Huh that's how he died? I could have sworn I read a back story decades ago that said Garland got assassinated and it was a game of cluedo and whodunit with the command staff all accusing each other of doing it causing the split. Cerebral Bore posted:don't quote me on this one, but i seem to recall i read somewhere that yang was involved in garland's assassination given that he was the second in command on unity and thus would be in a position to take over There is a "Journey to Centauri" novella available that was written as a prequel to the game itself. It's a pretty medicore read. I mostly ignore details from it. https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Journey_to_Centauri_(SMAC) In it, Santiago stages a mutiny aboard the ship for what are honestly pretty unclear reasons. One of the first things she does is capture Yang. However, Yang manages to use his hypnotic powers to get his guard to shoot herself and is able to escape. Yang is suspected by the crew of secretly aiding the mutiny since Santiago was his underling but we see Yang's thoughts at different times in the book and nothing indicates he supported Santiago in any way. Garland is shot by an unknown assassin late in the novella but survives and shortly after dies in a heroic self-sacrifice when he blows up the stuck bolts that are keeping the Unity Colony Pods trapped with the soon to crash UNS Unity. In my view, Garland was the last guy left on the UNS Unity so that makes him the one that crashed it, even if he was already dead by the time of the crash. I'm not sure how the novella was published exactly. It must have been done so in parts and online. There's a "Doctor Saratov" that gets his named changed to Zakharov due to fan feedback about Saratov being an unrealistic Russian name. Fun Fact: You can see there are eight Colony Pods launched from the Unity in the intro cutscene, the eighth pod explodes and doesn't reach Alpha Centauri. The original SMAC did ship with a secret 8th faction. They were the Firaxians, led by either Sid Meier or Brian Reynolds. The only bonus they got was starting with the singularity reactor tech, the fourth and final level of reactor that you could unlock in the game.
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Dec 12, 2023 22:56
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Ring of red was neat and the infantry system was great. They weren't a gimmick, if someone goes heavy on infantry that specializes in killing Mechs they will gently caress you up if you don't have your own infantry to screen
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Dec 13, 2023 02:38
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palindrome posted:In the SMAC lore, is it confirmed that earth is completely destroyed and depopulated? I enjoy a sci Fi twist where enlightened colonists leave earth assuming it's doomed, but the teeming mass of humanity manages to survive and eventually claw back to some level of technology. The earth survivors might even have some resentment toward the opportunistic/cowardly defectors that left them to die. If you haven't read it already this is close to the backstory of the Revelation Space series.
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Dec 13, 2023 15:53
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This is kind of a broad and open ended question, but I've been puttering around with Battletech, with the Battletech Extended mod because I couldn't figure out RogueTech to save my own life - How does Battletech work? I though it would be like X-COM and I knew the gist of Mechwarrior, but both the game mechanics and in-universe tactics are totally mystifying to me. I can't find, fix or finish the enemy to save my life, my units are always getting wrecked, and I'm not sure if I should be hull-down and plinking away, or always moving, or... well, just generally, someone please explain how Battletech works because I'm mystified. They're like tanks, and infantry, and self-propelled guns, but they manoeuvre unlike any of the three. I know I have a "lance" of four units, right now I only have access to light and mediums, and, yeah. I'd really like to help this lady restore the monarchy, but I have no idea how to fight this war.
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Dec 13, 2023 20:03
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FF discovering BT and I'm here for it 
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Dec 13, 2023 20:39
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If you're early on you're probably using Lights and Mediums. They should always be moving a lot because Evade is how they avoid getting wrecked. You get more Evasion the further you move from where you started. So be moving. Also try to face the enemy with the part of your mech that's least wrecked. Focus your fire, as often an enemy at low health is still (nearly) as dangerous as a full health one, but a dead one ain't. Furthermore with the default rules, every time you shoot at someone they lose Evasion, even if you miss, and early on enemies will also be Lights and Mediums relying on their Evasion to not die, so stack on the fire and they'll run out of defense, basically. Early on your dudes are generally going to suck at aiming, so don't try to fire from too far away and try to stack bonuses from flank or back attacks. The special resource thingie that fills up (Resolve?) also gives a global aim bonus once it crosses a threshold and you can use it to make an aimed shot for a bigger bonus (don't try aiming at anything but torso early on imo), but that does consume some of the resource so try to only do that if it doesn't involve going below the global aim bonus threshold. Invest some level-ups into increasing the aim of at least 1 pilot, and put that one in your best Medium imo, and try to fire with that one last, after everyone else has stripped Evasion pips off of the target. Also since every weapon has a separate aim roll, early on its better to stack a mech full of lots of small weapons, like say a Blackjack with 5 MLasers, rather than going for 1 big gun like a LLaser, PPC or AC10. Roguetech is where the real nerd fun is at imo, but yeah you should probably ease into it with vanilla first. Orange Devil has issued a correction as of 20:51 on Dec 13, 2023 |
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Dec 13, 2023 20:46
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Orange Devil posted:Roguetech is where the real nerd fun is at imo, but yeah you should probably ease into it with vanilla first. That's what my research told me and how I ended up starting with Battletech Extended 3025. This whole setting is confusing to me, I mean, some of these vehicles look like vehicles and some look like people, there's not one reference book I read to figure out what's going on, the scales are all over the place with building sized AFVs considering 1200m long range, etc etc. I'm going to read BattleTech: House Arano: The Aurigan Coalition when I have the time and the Battletech Tech Manual.  I'll take another crack at it after work. Frosted Flake has issued a correction as of 20:52 on Dec 13, 2023 |
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Dec 13, 2023 20:49
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FF's confusion is further proof bandai needs to make a Gundam miniatures game yesterday
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Dec 13, 2023 20:53
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Oh if you happen to have a missile boat like say a Javelin (that's a Light mech) you could try stacking LRMs to gently caress up an enemy's stability, which causes them to lose all their remaining Evasion pips and could even knock them over, in which case they're extra hosed. Does generally work better with Medium or Heavy mechs since they can stack more LRMs and by then you should be able to specialize a pilot in doing this. If you try this with not enough LRMs you end up with a mech that does stone nothing. Oh speaking of that, in vanilla iirc there's the Sensor Lock skill you can get early on that wipes 2 Evasion pips off of an enemy at the cost of an action. You put this on whichever pilot is going to be piloting your shittiest mech. For example if you're stuck with a Flea or a Locust or something (basically any 20t or 25t piece of poo poo). These things are generally just both underarmoured and undergunned and so not really worth their slot and weight on the team *except* that they are fast as hell and if your pilot is using Sensor Lock then the lovely armaments don't matter. Once you have Sensor Lock put all the rest of the XP into the tree that lets you stack extra Evasion pips to keep this pilot alive. Basically their job is to scout and then Sensor Lock whoever your current target is, maybe also attracting some fire and dodging it (if they take a serious hit, they die), and then due to their speed they can also deliver a strike to the vulnerable back when opportunity presents itself. If you get greedy with this and do it at the expense of stacking Evasion pips, this pilot is going to die though. Orange Devil has issued a correction as of 21:06 on Dec 13, 2023 |
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Dec 13, 2023 21:00
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| # ? May 23, 2024 11:05 |
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Orange Devil posted:Oh speaking of that, in vanilla iirc there's the Sensor Lock skill you can get early on that wipes 2 Evasion pips off of an enemy at the cost of an action. You put this on whatever pilot is going to be piloting your shittiest mech. For example if you're stuck with a Flea or a Locust or something (basically any 20t or 25t piece of poo poo). These things are generally just both underarmoured and undergunned and so not really worth their slot and weight on the team *except* that they are fast as hell and if your pilot is using Sensor Lock then the lovely armaments don't matter. Once you have Sensor Lock put all the rest of the XP into the tree that let's you stack extra Evasion pips to keep this pilot alive. Basically their job is to scout and then Sensor Lock whoever your current target is, maybe also attracting some fire and dodging it (if they take a serious hit, they die), and then due to their speed they can also deliver a strike to the vulnerable back when opportunity presents itself. If you get greedy with this and do it at the expense of stacking Evasion pips, this pilot is going to die though. I'm very pleased with myself for discovering that independently. Thank you for explaining the mechanics behind it. I have a pilot that has that skill, though I've put him in a Wasp, Spider, Locust and Stinger - I can't figure out the difference between any of them - and used him to spot for the Blackjack and Thunderhawks, the latter being the only vehicles I can seem to get any good use of. I hate the Blackjack but I was told it was an ancestral family heirloom, and you wouldn't throw Durandal away, right?
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Dec 13, 2023 21:04
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