Question for mainly you PBW/PBEM players :) (planning Earth and Beyond Mod)

[Sivran]

Why for PBW/PBEM players? 'Cus at this stage I'm not even considering the AI, that's why. What the heck am I talking about? I'm planning out my Earth and Beyond mod, and I've come to something I feel I must refer to the potential audience (come to think of it, are any of you interested? How many of you know what EnB is?)

That question is: How drastic, how devestating to your strategy, how big a disadvantage and how much of a show-stopper is not being able to have warp point openers (and closers)?

See, to emulate the Jenquai ability to open a wormhole at will, I plan to limit WP openers to that race. But I don't know how big a deal that is to veteran players. Hence, I ask you all.

[ March 15, 2004, 20:38: Message edited by: Sivran ]

[Ruatha]

If it's in a mod I can accept it.
The problem is if the opener/closer race chooses to turtle....

[Sivran]

Hm. I can sorta see that being an issue. Jenquai won't be very effective turtles though, even if they seal themselves off, Progens and Terrans will outclass them in shields and armor and can just wait for the Jenpie to come out--or fight it out among themselves and then declare Last man standing, aside from the turtle, the winner, leaving the turtle out in the cold.

[primitive]

It will still be a problem. The �Jenquai will be able to pick the other empires apart system by system. - Jump from a safe location (empty system) send in a fleet with closers and close the system off. If this don't succed, another 20 turns of boredom until the next fleet are ready, then try again.

To make the mod playable you could also make openers/closers available to the other races but at an insane price (something like 10 times normal researchpoints). That would give the Jenquai a limited time to take the other guys out. Not sure if I would want to play such a mod anyway though

[Sivran]

I did not consider the use of closers without using an opener first. Thusly why I posted it here.

It turns out I can't do this the way I would like to. Ideally, I could prevent Jenquai from (ab)using their advantage by limiting openers and closers to only working on small WPs, but that's not possible.

But I'm not giving up entirely on placing limits here, I'll just limit the range of Terran and Progen WP openers and make them more expensive. They have to build a gate, after all..

[Alneyan]

A few random thoughts:

These nice devices tend to be pivotal in my strategy, and I would hate to be vulnerable to these if I cannot respond myself. If the player using the Warp Openers/Closers is clever enough, and/or if there are only a few choke points, it is easy to close the wormholes as needed, thus preventing any enemy fleet from coming close to your worlds.

I have been trying the following strategy recently (*Winks at Primitive*), and I do believe it would work if done properly as you cannot ward yourself from Warp Openers/Closers without using these devices yourself. (Well, there is a facility protecting a system from warp opening/closing, but it cannot be built in a nebulae obviously) Lastly, it does give you the advantage of choosing your battles, allowing you to strike about anywhere without being too exposed to a retaliation if you protect your systems well.

So the Jenquai should have an easier access to these devices, while the research cost should be higher for the other races. This way, Jenquai would have an earlier access to these devices (if they go for it as soon as possible), but the early levels wouldn't be too efficient and they would be behind in other fields then.

Assuming the research cost is the same for them that in the vanilla game, you can reach Warp Openers/Warp Closers very early if you have enough space to expand. (Being boxed in a corner with two systems makes matter all the more complicated obviously) But then I tend to go overboard with technology as well. On the other hand, in the end game, they would have longer ranged openers, thus giving them an edge over the other races in this field, but a lesser advantage I guess. (It also depends on what assets the other races have, as there is quite a difference between having slightly stronger torpedoes and, say, the Religious trait. )