12-11-2004 05:37									#1
	To Iron Man, or not to Iron Man? Inflate your Upload Space

That is my cliched question.....

I noticed a difference in reload behavor between myself and what others are stating and I am guessing it might by due to the Iron Man setting. So vote your typical preference, then answer whether or not content (pod pops, battles, MW captures, etc.) is random or constant when you reload the same round.

	12-11-2004 05:44									#2
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I play Iron Man and my reloaded rounds are static.

	12-11-2004 09:29									#3
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I usually play without the Iron Man, but every now and then to increase the challenge (and the score as well) I play it too.

IIRC, there's still an autosave for the turn you are playing (but not the ones before), which sometimes helps out if something really nasty happens during the turn. Although it won't help much about retrospective mistakes, some may consider even resorting to that current-turn-autosave may be against the spirit of the Iron Man, but it's still there just in case.

As for the results of actions after reloading an Iron Man save, if my memory serves me correctly, I guess it's still random, not fixed in favour of a given result.

	13-11-2004 00:06									#4
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I dont play Iron man, and have autosave in case of a crash, but tend to not reload.

	13-11-2004 02:24									#5
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Iron man saves a few seconds when quitting. I loke for that reason.

	13-11-2004 02:55									#6
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No iron man and random events are different after a reload. That includes pod pop, capture and MW battle.

Reloading is though an action sparesly used. In the first 10 years i might reload if a pod pops a fungus tower or if i (typically) gets Industrial base as a free research package. I usually plays on Huge so it's not needed and it **** up the reseach tree. Another reason to reload is if i ends up on a small island with Marr - playing my favorite Aki, that is not fun.

Later reloads will go 50-100 steps or more back to try other strategies.

	13-11-2004 08:45									#7
	Increase Your PM Length

Ever since I started playing PBEM, I can't get serious about SP any more. It's just too easy on a huge map, which is the only one I'll play.

	14-11-2004 01:31									#8
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I don't play with Iron Man on, but I don't reload the game too. So I think I'm playing my own Iron Man style of game.

	15-11-2004 01:55									#9
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

I haven't read this thread, so if I repeat something...oh well...

The point of being a leader is to have a situation and react to it. Leaders don't get to select or choose the situation, they just deal with it.

So, if say, you open a pod, and 8 mindworms come out, and you lose two bases and some units, reloading the game isn't going to make you any better, just the current game you are playing. Believe me, you will have much more fun when you have to work and actually think in the game rather than reloading and getting exactly the results you want.

I'm not saying that reloading makes you a bad person, I just believe that it ruins the game. But that's me. Some people enjoy playing that way.

So, assuming that I won't be reloading in a game, I am essentially playing by Iron Man rules. In which case, there is no reason why I shouldn't officially play by Iron Man rules. Besides, it doubles your score...

	15-11-2004 02:01									#10
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Iron Man wipes my autosaves past the one from the last turn, and makes it cumbersome to save an interesting situation. The AI doesn't challenge me unless I slap on heavy restrictions, so if I'm playing against it, I want the freedom to poke at old turns, see just how the AI beat me to a particular SP, see why one AI is strong and another is weak, etc.

	15-11-2004 21:47									#11
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

This is not a post about whether or not you are a weak player without Iron Man!

I am trying to figure out if there is a difference in the way the game saves with Iron Man on or off. When ever I reload a game (for what ever reason), everything stays the same. The outcome of battles, MW caputre, pod pops, etc. All stays the exact same. Others have claimed that when they reload they get differing results. I guessed it might be related to the Iron Man setting, so I put up this poll.

Last edited by livid imp on 16-11-2004 at 00:42

	15-11-2004 22:26									#12
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Well, the poll is on Iron Man preference. I didn't closely read the first post, but I've never noticed correlation between different loads of a game.

	16-11-2004 02:25									#13
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I sorry to blow my top (and it wasn't at you specifically CT). I was just irritated to no end to see that almost no one read the post before assuming its contents. BlackCat was the only person that answered in the manor requested. I may have been vague about what it was I was looking for, but then someone should have asked me to clarify.

It is a stupid thing to be upset about i know, but this isn't the first time it has happened either. I would really hate to get discouraged and walk away from these forums the way others have. I have said it once and I'll say it again, SMAC players are a breed apart. There are no other game forums I can stand to lurk in for more than a day or two. I just don't like seeing peoples apathy in what is one of the best forums on the net.

Excuse me for my emotional blubbering. It is unecessary. I don't mean to cause any problems. Please just read the post before answering.

Edit: I should probably add I have the flu and am at work right now, and we are really short staffed. I am a little on edge right now.

Last edited by livid imp on 16-11-2004 at 02:36

	16-11-2004 21:48									#14
	Inflate your Upload Space

Did some testing last night, and confirmed that the seed is saved if you are playing in Iron Man. So the outcome of random events will be the same every round no matter how many times a round is reloaded.
Conversely, if you play with Iron Man off, all events are re-randomized everytime you reload

	18-11-2004 03:01									#15
	Full PM-box? Change here!

But does that really matter? I mean, come on, even if the events on Iron Man were random, who's going to reload? That would take a long time to do. Reloading a game to get results you want can sometimes for some people make the game more enjoyable, but with Iron man on, you'll be reloading more than you will be playing, how fun is that?

By the way livid_imp, I did read the first post. I always read the first post. I always read the last one to just in case the topic change (as is so common on apolyton). I guess I just didn't read it right. Sorry...

	19-11-2004 05:46									#16
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You are still missing the point Commy. This has nothing to do with value judgement. This is about how the mechanics of the game work. I don't give a flying f#@k whether people use Iron Man or not. It is their game, they do what ever they want with it. I did want to figure out why some people had reported differing results when reloading when my results were always the same as discussed in this thread.

	19-11-2004 06:34									#17
	Full PM-box? Change here!

I don't have the balls to IM...

	19-11-2004 06:34									#18
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You know, you really should have gotten one of those flu shots...

	19-11-2004 21:47									#19
	Inflate your Upload Space

No way, those things make you sick

	19-11-2004 22:06									#20
	Inflate your Upload Space

quote: Originally posted by Oncle Boris I don't have the balls to IM...

Reloading takes away what little excitement is left in SP for me. So I wouldn't reload anyway. So I might as well get the score boost for IM.

Don't think about what you lose with IM on.....think about what you gain with it on.

	23-11-2004 03:31									#21
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Funny, that's kind of like what I said...

	23-11-2004 13:14									#22
	Increase Your PM Length

Don't use it. I've had too many instances of computer failure to risk losing out on a game I've spent hours working on.

Not that I can really be serious about SP much thesedays. Like Net Warrior said, it's far too easy, and unless you're having some contest against others playing the same SP game for some kind of special goal, it's not all that fun.

	24-11-2004 00:01									#23
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I don't play with Iron Man just because I worry about the game crashing. I also save every turn. But, I never reload any turn except the one I saved right before exiting, and actually only keep one save file which I overright with each save (with no Auto saves), so effectively, I am playing Iron Man.

If I had known it kept an Autosave file, I probably would play with it on, since I'd have a backup turn in event of a game crash.

	24-11-2004 08:57									#24
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I believe that reloads are variable. I play Iron Woman Transcend when I do play, and that is not very often at all.

	24-11-2004 10:43									#25
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Same here, Fitz