PBW ethics, opinions please.

[couslee]

Ahhhh. Stars! the fun. I never got into the MP aspect of it, but have a fairly decent claims adjuster race. HAD actually, I lost all the balancing work when my other computer died.

[Gryphin]

Rollo is right.

[Rollo]

Originally posted by Gryphin:
Rollo is right.

Originally posted by Puke:
i definitly side with Rollo, here.

Thanks for your support. There aren't any sides to take really.
I have gotten an apology from the player by email. That is settled for me.

Rollo

[ January 17, 2003, 12:03: Message edited by: Rollo ]

[Pax]

Originally posted by couslee:
Ahhhh. Stars! the fun. I never got into the MP aspect of it, but have a fairly decent claims adjuster race. HAD actually, I lost all the balancing work when my other computer died.

Funny, I always preferred Inner Strength as a PRT. Overpopulated all my worlds regularly, through the Flying SuperOrgy of Doooom(tm) .... hehehe.

Bombers? Who need's 'em, just drop 6,000,000 storm troopers from orbit; the 1.5M that survive the orbital defenses will take the planet with ease -- with all mines and factories intact!

Detach a freighter or two from the SuperOrgy to keep yoru shiny new colony fully overpopulated, move the SuperOrgy to your next target ... lather, rinse, repeat.

Heh.

[Rambie]

Originally posted by Rollo:

In one game after attacking a player and mopping up his planets. I got a series of insults for several months...

In another game a player gives his ships offensive names which are particularly aimed at me.

Well, that's not gamey, that's just childish. If they're that immature, I wouldn't play with them either.

[couslee]

Pax, yea, all the different PR traits is Stars! have very stong points. Claims adjuster don't need to spend anything to optimize a planet, opens up a LOT for colonization. You super-fockers die off every turn trying to colonize that -12 to +5 planet until they get it to the + side. in the same time period, I have built mines and defenses, and orbitals, ect...
Thats what makes it so nice. it is one of the more balanced 4x games I have played. not to mention, the AI can give you some grief from time to time. try playing stars and turn the scanner view down to 10%. lol

[Fyron]

Here is something that is gamey:

Joining a non-team PBW game (that is not like the Survivor tournament) where you and several friends plan out a massive alliance and all research and such to guarantee your victory.

[Pax]

Originally posted by couslee:
Pax, yea, all the different PR traits is Stars! have very stong points. Claims adjuster don't need to spend anything to optimize a planet, opens up a LOT for colonization. You super-fockers die off every turn trying to colonize that -12 to +5 planet until they get it to the + side. in the same time period, I have built mines and defenses, and orbitals, ect...
Thats what makes it so nice. it is one of the more balanced 4x games I have played. not to mention, the AI can give you some grief from time to time. try playing stars and turn the scanner view down to 10%. lol

The trick is, any lanet -- even a 100% -- gets colonised with a small seed of people (to 1/4 local max-population levels), while one or more privateer-hull ships park in orbit, full of population -- to rain babies down on the colony below.

People die on the surface, true ... but thatd oesn't matter to an IS; more people are born in orbit and beamed down, than die on the surface, until around 400% population levels (if you keep the orbital fleet growing proportional to the planet's habitation range; 1 privateer for every 5%, or one superfreighter per 20%, is usually fine.

As for building mines, etc ... never EVER, with a non-CA, terraform until you have enough points to do so AND build 1+ factories, per turn. Then, put the terra (the most you can finish 100% in a given turn) into the top of the queue as an auto-build line.

Lastly, the AI in Stars! -- is a joke. Seriously. I regularly played with the scanner pane turned down to TWO percent -- the better to make sure no 98%-cloaked SS ships can slip through into "my" space.

Given an IS/NAS combination, with TD's installed, I could turn it up as high as 10%, but still usually went for 5% "just in case". And that's still a good hundred to hundred-fifty fleets in space.

Try playing against a set of good, solidly-skileld humans ... you too will come to agree the AI is nothing but a pest to be brushed aside with the other mosquitos.

[Wardad]

Yea, what he said.

The Claim Adjuster race trait is considered so powerfull that it is often Banned from most multiplayer games.

The Alternate Reality trait is considered the weakest. The population lives on star bases, not the planet below. Starbases are vulnerable sitting ducks from the mid game on.

I had wondered about the quickest way to terraform. Your correct, but did not mention why. On a hostile Yellow or RED (not native Green) planet there is a CAP on the amount of population that can produce resource points. The CAP also applies to the amount of population that can run factories. Terraforming is somewhat expensive for a new colony so it makes sense to reach the CAP for population and factories first. Once the planet goes green you may have a problem with overcrowding killing more colonist per turn then if it were hostile. So you want to be able to work up your new greens quickly, and factories help with that too.
If you do choose the Total Terraform minor trait, the teraforming is cheaper. My current race can terraform 2+ click a year, once the factories are built.

[Dralasite]

I read on another post (aplogies to whomever wrote it author, I can't find it now) that the first troops you load are the first off to your advantage?

So by loading up a bunch of all defense troops first followed by all weapon troops, you get to fire at full power until all the defense troops are gone.

This seems to qualify as gamey, but maybe the advantage is not so huge that people really get upset about it.