Proportions any good for single player?

[Fyron]

Originally posted by JLS:
It plays great in LAN Play, with 3-4 human Players!

LAN is wholely different from PBW. LAN games have lots of time at once to be played. PBW games typically have 1 turn per day (or every other day).

PvK:

That depends on how you set up the game, and what kind of a game you want.

Yes, it does.

In the unmodded game, I never wait until I have finished the tech tree before attacking other empires. Sitting around doing nothing for many turns in a row is not my idea of fun.

The game is about conflict, after all. Why would so much of what you do have to do with military strength if it weren't? In Proportions, it takes a long while before you can get enough forces to have meaningful conflicts (esp. when trying to attack HWs).

If you want to have an intense war in a couple-hundred turns

I would rather not have to wait a couple hundred turns before having an intense war.

Or, turn blitz/autorun for the first 150+ turns, then let the game start.

This is an option, yes. But, I would rather be in control of my empire for the entire game. I don't want to have to spend a lot of time fixing the problems the AIs caused.

[ March 25, 2003, 22:43: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[gregebowman]

Originally posted by PvK:

quote:

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Originally posted by gregebowman:
How do you pick a specific number of AI enemies? I know you can put low, but how do you get 4, or 5 or whatever number you want?

Select zero generated AI enemies. Then add the ones you want as players, and specify computer control for them.

PvK

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I was hoping to download Proportions Last night, but even though I got my internet server set up, I couldn't find any phone cords long enough!! My wife made me move my computer desk into the bedroom, and the plug is in the dining room. AArgh! I'm definitely going to play this game tonight, after I go to the store.

[ March 26, 2003, 15:50: Message edited by: gregebowman ]

[PvK]

Fryon, in most PBW games I've seen, players often do wait 100+ turns colonizing and researching everything in sight until they run out of things to develop and improve, before doing much fighting.

In Proportions, you can start building a war fleet more or less immediately, just based on the homeworld economy. Colonial development and research are the main things that are slower in Proportions, but:

1) Doing a lot of colonial development will actually slow down your war production.

2) Since research rate and resource production are not majorly affected by colonial development (as they are to a huge degree in the unmodded game), there is no need for a rat race to colonize and develop.

3) Since most tech areas can't be researched "to the end" in a practical amount of time in Proportions, the common un-modded practice of "waiting for the best stuff before doing anything, because the early stuff is obsolete before it sees action" doesn't make much sense in Proportions.

Of course, as with many aspects of Proportions, players may not realize the implications of all the changes, and may tend to stick to habits formed with the unmodded game, including thinking of the play cycle as the same way. Players who think the goal is to reasearch and colonize everything, might die of old age before they "complete" a game. On the other hand, I think JLS' group has completed several multiplayer games played with a the idea of having a quick war from the beginning.

In my PBW Proportions game, we're only about 100 turns in, and already one player homeworld has been lost to another player, and everyone seems to have a capable fleet. It's also a large quadrant. At closer quarters, we could have seen serious fighting even earlier.

PvK

[mottlee]

I LOVE this mod...also find Derick's (sp?) this is a good one too!

[JLS]

Originally posted by PvK:

Of course, as with many aspects of Proportions, players may not realize the implications of all the changes, and may tend to stick to habits formed with the unmodded game, including thinking of the play cycle as the same way. Players who think the goal is to reasearch and colonize everything, might die of old age before they "complete" a game. On the other hand, I think JLS' group has completed several multiplayer games played with a the idea of having a quick war from the beginning.
PvK

I can’t count how many LAN games we all have been played with Proportions… It certainly is over a few Dozen with 3-4 Player games going sometimes simultaneously.

We much prefer Proportions 2.22+ over any MOD today for multiplayer LAN play.
When any Human Player starts (next door) to a Violent or aggressive AI early, all Human Players that can help, usually do help, in that AI War…

How ever with over 18 in the LAN group, there is a very Diverse Way, we each Play Proportions. Actually you could find a style of play that would match every Culture and Demeanor from this group that resembles SE IV. I would put myself in the Aggressive Honorable Merchant type Category of average Play with other Players ranging from over aggressive to excessively conservative in play and we have competed in many wide-ranging games from 100 turns to more then a thousnand turns.
~
With above said, I also want to reiterate how seamless Proportions plays in Solitaire as well; in all turn based games

John

[ March 27, 2003, 17:24: Message edited by: JLS ]

[Fyron]

Fryon, in most PBW games I've seen, players often do wait 100+ turns colonizing and researching everything in sight until they run out of things to develop and improve, before doing much fighting.

Only when you have lots of players on a huge map. Play games with smaller maps in the future.

[gregebowman]

Finally got play Proportions Last night. It's definitely different and as good as everyone is talking about. But I have a question. I usually start a game with homeworld value set as good and have 10 planets. Should I start smaller, say 1 or 3 planets?

[dogscoff]

Proportions is designed for a one-planet, low tech start. Go for 10 homeworlds if you want, but I'm not sure how well it will work. I'd be interested to hear about it though.

[oleg]

Originally posted by gregebowman:
Finally got play Proportions Last night. It's definitely different and as good as everyone is talking about. But I have a question. I usually start a game with homeworld value set as good and have 10 planets. Should I start smaller, say 1 or 3 planets?

Yes, proportions setup implies one homeworld. That's what we have in a real life
Multiple homeworld make research and production way to fast - there is no need to colonize whatsoever, game will be over before you build a first meaninful colony.

[PvK]

Multiple homeworlds will tend to throw things a bit off - it multiplies the rate of reasearch of the whole game, although if you set "high" research costs, the research rate might stay more interesting than the unmodded game. The AI might be at a disadvantage, because I suspect it probably won't be able to scale very well to take advantage of the multiplied resources, but you can help it out by giving it a bonus.

This would be a way to get a Proportions game that seems "as fast" or "faster" than the unmodded games, at least for the time required for humans to develop powerful war fleets. If you wanted to do a PBW game focussing on large-scale combat using the Proportions changes to equipement, fighters, etc, a ten-planet start with high research cost might be a reasonable way to do it.

PvK