Proportions Mod: Multiplayer anyone? - Page 11

PvK · #**101** March 28th, 2002, 01:43 AM

Yes. I also modded some more of the new systems to at least do some things. Some of the black holes are not only impassible by low-tech Proportions colony ships, the larger ones are even inescapable by them (they will be pulled inside).

PvK

PsychoTechFreak · #**102** March 28th, 2002, 11:40 AM

Yes, yes, all right. I just thought about the 14 colonizable systems for 10 players. If your home system is surrounded by "eye-candy" you are screwed anyway in proportions.

geoschmo · #**103** March 28th, 2002, 07:57 PM

Pvk,

Has the game been setup on PBW yet? I looked but didn't see any that say anything about the Proportions mod. If you get the game setup now people will have a few days to join and for the newbies time to get familier with PBW. They can upload their .emp files there instead of sending them to you. Of course if you make significant changes to the mod they may need to send you new .emp files before the game starts.

I would suggest that when people join at the time they put in their empire name, they can put the shipset name in parenthases. This way you will now for those that are using stock shipsets.

You can set it up using the 1.5 that's on there now as the Version. When you have the final game Version ready I can change the game to that.

Also is there room for another player? I read you have 10 now. What's the limit?

Geoschmo

[ 28 March 2002: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

PvK · #**104** March 28th, 2002, 09:08 PM

quote:
Originally posted by PsychoTechFreak:
Yes, yes, all right. I just thought about the 14 colonizable systems for 10 players. If your home system is surrounded by "eye-candy" you are screwed anyway in proportions.

The Sidereal quadrant in 1.5.3 has mostly colonizable systems. I'll do some trial setups and try to get something where we should have at least a 4:1 colonizable-system-to-player ratio, or so.

I'm not sure being surrounded by eye candy would be a huge problem in Proportions. It would be an obstacle to accelerated colony development, but also a protective barrier for your vital home system. If your were surrounded by real navigation hazards (ruptures/holes/etc) then it would be more severe, but again, highly-developed colonies aren't necessarily decisive, and a human can develop tech that can overcome the obstacles.

PvK

PvK · #**105** March 28th, 2002, 09:19 PM

geoschmo,

I will set up a PBW entry for the game shortly, so people can set up. We've listed almost everyone's ship sets below, so I think we're conflict-free.

I think we'll take up to 20 players in theory, and I think we have 11 at present - I'd just make the quadrant larger. Alternatively, if players prefer, we could start two games of 5-6 players each. That way each game would go a bit more quickly (and there could be a "fast players" game and a "slow players" game - both 48 hour turns, though, I think), and if anyone drops out of one game, we could probably find a replacement from the other game to take over.

Quick player poll:

1) Do you prefer one game with many players, or two games with fewer players?

2) If there will be two smaller games, would you prefer the "faster players' game," or the "slower players' game"?

3) Would you prefer a game without mine technology?

PvK

geoschmo · #**106** March 28th, 2002, 09:27 PM

1) Two games

2) Prefer the faster, but would be willing to go to the slower to help you even the games out. (I'd rather bein a smaller game with slower players, than a larger game with everybody.)

3) No preferance on the mines

I'll probably use my Leonine set that Val was working on for me. Will be my first game with it. I think he finished it. I'll have to check. If he didn't I can thrown some extra images in to fill it up.

Geoschmo

Krsqk · #**107** March 29th, 2002, 03:14 AM

1) One game. I've not had the chance to play against several human opponents before. Having said that,

2) I'd opt for the slow game if there are two.

3) Keep the mines. I might not use them, but it wouldn't hurt to have that option available.

BTW, I plan on using the XiChung ships. Should I combine that with the Amonkrie AI, or will that be necessary? Do I even need to upload a shipset?

PvK · #**108** March 29th, 2002, 03:33 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Krsqk:
...Should I combine that with the Amonkrie AI, or will that be necessary? Do I even need to upload a shipset?

Short answer: No, for a default set, or one that's already on PBW, you don't need to upload a shipset.

Long answer:

I wouldn't particularly recommend packing in the Amon'krie AI in a shipset uploaded for Proportions, unless you expect the AI to get to do a lot of design, research and construction.

For purposes of ministers or AI takeover... I'm not sure how PBW works. I assume you could include AI files in your shipset that you upload to PBW, and then if your EMP file has "use ministers from style" instead of the default "ministers use selected style", then I would assume PBW would use those AI files from your ship set.

If you don't include AI files, or if you use a "selected minister style" in your EMP setup, then PBW should use the default Proportions AI's, which should be adequate. I don't think they're partcularly worse than the Amon'krie AI - the main improvements in Proportions' Amon'krie set are that it has some more-tweaked ship designs and building and research queues, which mainly help when letting the AI run an empire for a prolonged period.

PvK

Fyron · #**109** March 29th, 2002, 03:50 AM

1) One game.

2) If two games are made, then the faster players game.

3) Leave mines in. Removing any basic options of the game is always a bad idea.

geoschmo · #**110** March 29th, 2002, 04:33 AM

quote:
Originally posted by PvK:
For purposes of ministers or AI takeover... I'm not sure how PBW works. I assume you could include AI files in your shipset that you upload to PBW, and then if your EMP file has "use ministers from style" instead of the default "ministers use selected style", then I would assume PBW would use those AI files from your ship set.

No, actually PBW doesn't use the ai files you upload at all. It uses one of the following...

1) If you use a stock race, or a custom race that has the same name as one of the stock races, and select "use ministers from style", it will use those files from PBW, not the ones you inculde with your shipset. If you select "use selected style" it then chooses the aggressive, defensive, or neutral defaulat AI files, depending on which you select. In both cases it uses the coresponding ai files in the mod you are usign if there are any. If there aren't any in the mod, it uses the stock AI files.

2) If you use a custom shipset that does not have the same name as one of the stock AI races and you select "use selected style", then it works as above.

3) If you use a custom shipset that does not have the same name as one of the stock AI races and you select "Use style from race", then it will randomly select a set of ai files to use for each turn you allow the AI to play for you. Similer to the way it will select a different shipset each turn for players that don't have the custom shipset loaded on their PC's when they play their turns.

The exception to rule 3 is if you are using a mod that has that custom shipset built in on PBW, like the TDM modpack.

Someday we may get to the point on PBW of adding peoples custom AI to PBW. For now though if you want that then your option is to put them in a mod and submit the mod to PBW for inclusion as a Version.

Currently the only thing uploading yoru shipset to PBW does is allow you to select it when you join the game so the other players will have a convientent link to download the shipset so they can see the pictures correctly when they play against you. PBW does not use the files, picture or AI for any kind of processing.

Geoschmo