New PBW game: Ancient

[Kull the Conqueror]

1. one planet is fine (if all four players had 2 home systems, these would probably be the only colonizable ones)
2. yes - i am playing in ancient galaxies rather often and i have never seen a warp point closer than 2 sectors to the center of a black hole (if the wp damages your vehicle control - bad luck but it would be the same with wp on the edges if you have no repair bays)
3. cruel fate, but - yes (we can start it again if it ends too soon)
4. i would also like to vote on technology cost (tc) and set it to medium because i dont like the linear progression in the low tc setting. medium tc would allow us to reach stellar manipulation 3 for nearly the same price as on low tc (750k vs 600k) but make higher levels expensive to avoid having planet or sun destoying weapons shortly after reaching open/close wp.

[Rollo]

Kull,
I am actually not aware of the different progressions in tech costs. Could you please explain I little bit further. I understand what you mean by linear progression (level2: double cost of level1, level3: triple cost of level1, and so on...). How is the progression in medium cost?

Rollo

[capnq]

It took me a couple tries with the search engine, but I found an old post by geoschmo that gave the progressions:

quote:

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For a Low Tech Cost Game:
The multiplier is simply tech level. It is linear.
For Example, Ship construction
Level Cost = 10000
Level 2 cost is 10000 X 2 = 20000
Level 3 cost is 10000 X 3 = 30000
Level 4 cost is 10000 X 4 = 40000

For a Med Tech Game:
The multiplier is the result of Tech Level rasied to the power of 2 and then divided by 2.

For example, Ship Construction again
Level 2 cost is 10000 X 2(2 to the power of 2 is four divided by 2 is 2) = 20000
Level 3 cost is 10000 X 4.5(3 to the power of 2 is 9 divided by 2 is 4.5) = 45000
Level 4 cost is 10000 X 8(4 to the power of 2 is 16 divided by 2 is 8) = 80000


For a High Tech cost game the multiplier is
Tech level raised to the power of 2

Ship Construction again
Level 2 cost is 10000 X 4(2 to the power of 2 is 4) = 40000
Level 3 cost is 10000 X 9(3 to the power of 2 is 9) = 90000
Level 4 cost is 10000 X 16(4 to the power of 2 is 16) = 160000

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[Rollo]

Thank you capnq,
(und Danke für die mail, Kull),
okay very well, we'll vote on tech cost also.

4. tech cost: low or medium?

I vote for low.

The way I look at it: Even if you are able to design things like star destroyers, black hole thingies, and whatnot, you'll still have to pay tons of resources and lots of time to actually build those things (remember, we are talking finite resources here). If you are going to spend hundreds of thousands of resources on those things, while for the same price you could also build, say, a dozen or two battleships, I think you have more than deserved to see some spectecular fireworks .

Okay, all empires except mine are uploaded. Last chance for people to join the ride. Also I would like to see some more votes on the setup. I will check, if there is anything new in couple of hours and then probably start this baby around 9-10 pm (Zulu).

Rollo

[Quikngruvn]

I just created a small ancient map with exactly four empires and the whole tech tree visible. Heh. A string of four black holes in a row! But I digress. My opinions:

1) I think you know already!
2) Sure. I agree with Kull's observation of no warp poins closers than 2 sectors from the center. 'Course, there were a bunch that were exactly 2 sectors away....
3) I've never played finite resources before. Now's a good a time as any to learn!
4) Gotta consider progression on the Stellar Manip line of the tech tree. The breakdown:

Lev, CostLow, CostMedium, Results
1: 100000, 100000, Storm cleanser/producer, monolith I
2: 200000, 200000, Medium planet creator/buster, monolith II
3: 300000, 450000, Warp Point closer/creator I, Large planet, mono III
4: 400000, 800000, WP creator II, Huge planet
5: 500000, 1250000, Star creator, WPC III, Ringworlds
6: 600000, 1800000, Star destroyer, WPC IV, Nebula dissipator, Black Hole collapser
7: 700000, 2450000, WPC V, Nebula creator, Black Hole creator
8: 800000, 3200000, Sphereworlds

Right now I'm leaning towards low cost, because we'll never get to the upper levels on finite resources and medium cost. (Remember, this is in addition to anything else you'd like to research, like maybe weapons, shields, etc...).

Man, this is gonna be one twisted game!

[edit]
I posted a new topic asking what kind of resources you could expect to get from a ringworld or sphereworld under finite resources. Assuming, of courses, you still have the resources to build the thing!
[/edit]

Quikngruvn

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Ponder this: Scientists already knew that matter is 98% empty space. After they figured out the structure of protons, they determined the remaining 2% is mostly made up of... well, nothing. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

[This message has been edited by Quikngruvn (edited 28 July 2001).]

[Dragonlord]

Hope I can get my votes in on time !

1 one planet-start: why not three? I am afraid of never finding any planet as good as my single home planet, and it would make the first 30 turns pretty boring, development wise. right?

2 warp points anywhere: OFF
3 finite resources: Hmm. I have never tried it, but OK as Quikn said, lets doa ll the experimentation in one game
4 low cost of tech: why not, I've never tried it, I always have medium.

[Rollo]

Hi everybody,
thanks for your votes. The results:

1. one planet (3:1)
2. warppoints anywhere: OFF (2:2, but off won the toss)
3. finite resources: ON (4:0) BTW, I have never tried this before, either.
4. low tech (3:1)

Okay, I'll have dinner now and watch todays footbal games. After that I'll start the game. So, that gives you about two hours to object to the above decisions and get ready for the game.

Rollo