02-02-2005 04:24									#1
	Chairman_Chang Requests Information about our Faction Put an end to popups!

My attention has been pointed to your authority by one of your subjects on the subject of joining your society. If you are not already aware, I will be visiting Chiron to study humans and their societal behavior. Conversations have taken place between myself and various inhabitants of Chiron. It may be necessary to check the commlink logs for yourself to attain a better understanding of my intentions. In order to ensure that my stay on Chiron will be a pleasant and prosperous one, a few queries must be made.

Please note that my queries are asked in a general sense. The answers do not have to reflect that of the current status of your society. No inferences about any sensitive or confidential data will be made based on your answers. They are merely designed to instill confidence in my decision. You may confer with anyone in your faction or include answers from anyone in your faction, so long as it is representative of the people in your faction. You may even share this message in your faction's private channels.

Query #1: Occupying my time in a safe, useful, and gratifying manner is the priority. What position would I assume if I were to join your ranks?

Query #2: How would my research be furthered?

Query #3: What is perceived of me in context to all of my recent transmissions?

Query #4: Has my presence been discussed amongst your people? Is my presence welcome amongst your people?

Query #5: How active are you and your people in your government?

Your reactions to the following situations will help determine if your agenda matches mine:

Order these secret projects in order of importance -

Human Genome Project
Hunter Seeker Algorithm
Planetary Transit System
Telepathic Matrix
Weather Paradigm

Typcially, what is the first base facility constructed in a new outpost?

Typcially, what technology is sought within the first 50 years of planetfall?

If one of the following products of technology was unattainable, which would be sacrificed?

Terraformers
Needlejets
Social Engineering
Commlinks

If you had to make a soccer team out of the leaders of each faction, who would be the goalie and who would you have play forward?

Your haste with these queries will be appreciated. My airship departs for Chiron soon.

-* Chairman Chang signing out *-

Last edited by Skanky Burns on 04-02-2005 at 12:50

	02-02-2005 08:16									#2
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Yeah - C_C sent me the same PM, but as I have a cluttered RL right now (with house guests) I referred him to you

	02-02-2005 12:52									#3
	Put an end to popups!

Perhaps just send a "all this information is classified until you join"? By the looks of it, the other factions are more needy of an active player anyway, so I don't see any compelling reason for us to court his highness for his patronage.

	02-02-2005 13:10									#4
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quote: Originally posted by Kassiopeia Perhaps just send a "all this information is classified until you join"?

Good enough.

quote: Originally posted by Kassiopeia By the looks of it, the other factions are more needy of an active player anyway, so I don't see any compelling reason for us to court his highness for his patronage.

He is persistent, isn't he? It's almost like we owe him something, before he joins. Weird.

	02-02-2005 16:21									#5
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quote: Originally posted by Kassiopeia By the looks of it, the other factions are more needy of an active player anyway,

I agree. This is why I was reluctant to reply in the recruitment thread when he posted, but since he specifically asked for a Spartan I went ahead and did it anyway.

But anyway, if he wants to join, it's not my place to say whether he can or not. I can't say that I've really been able to get a grasp of what he's up to I joined Sparta because you posted screenshots and had another guy who spoke swedish, that was enough for me

	02-02-2005 16:36									#6
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The reply could be like that:
"Dear Chairman_Chang!
You have requested information about our faction before joining us. However, you'll understand that, as followers of the paranoïd Colonel Santiago and paranoïd ourselves, we can't grant you what you're requesting.
Defiantly yours."

	03-02-2005 14:34									#7
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Oh ****. I wanted to post a new reply, but instead I edited Skanky's initial post.

Here's what I posted.

In case we want to give some answers to his questions, how about something like this?

quote: Query #1: Occupying my time in a safe, useful, and gratifying manner is the priority. What position would I assume if I were to join your ranks?

If you want to be safe yet useful, you could for example become weapons researcher or terrformer operator in the engineering corps. For more information about this job opportunity, read this interview.

quote: Query #2: How would my research be furthered?

If you want to further your research of Chiron, you could always tag along with a combat squad. We can assure you you will get to see all of Planet and all factions this way.

quote: Query #3: What is perceived of me in context to all of my recent transmissions?

We are undergoing an unusual experience. In Sparta we officers are used to ask the questions, not the other way around.

quote: Query #4: Has my presence been discussed amongst your people? Is my presence welcome amongst your people?

Anyone who wants to fulfill Federal Service is welcome to join us.

quote: Query #5: How active are you and your people in your government?

Sparta is the most active faction of them all. So if you want to have some interaction, Sparta would be your best choice. Believe me: being member of an inactive faction is NOT FUN.

quote: If one of the following products of technology was unattainable, which would be sacrificed?

Needlejets of course. We Spartans prefer to fight mano-o-mano.

	03-02-2005 17:07									#8
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I still think we should give the "classified! CLASSIFIED, foo'" response

	03-02-2005 19:01									#9
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quote: If you had to make a soccer team out of the leaders of each faction, who would be the goalie and who would you have play forward?

Goalie: Judaa Maar, of course. At 8'10" tall and 595 pounds he'd fill the net (to say nothing of his 6 - or is it eight? - arms)

Striker: Cha Dawn. Fast, nimble, and able to skitter through the fungus almost like a mindworm. Plus he'd bore the ears off the opposition trash talking and preaching about conserving Planet

	03-02-2005 21:45									#10
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Just answer the guy, so he can join other factions.

	04-02-2005 05:51									#11
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Response sent.

quote: Dear Chairman_Chang! You have requested information about our faction before joining us. However, you'll understand that, as followers of the paranoïd Colonel Santiago and paranoïd ourselves, we can't grant you the information that you are requesting. Defiantly yours, Skanky Burns (While you are welcome to join the Spartans, the other factions are more needy of an active player. Best of luck whoever you choose )

	04-02-2005 12:52									#12
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quote: My questions were meant to be answered in a general sense. Being new to your society, I wanted to attain an understanding of your leadership's motivations. Any specific details may be omitted if you prefer. Currently, the Spartans appear to be the most interesting and their agenda seems much like my own. However your unwillingness to cooperate causes some assumptions to be formed. Lastly, why the paranoia surrounding the soccer team query? Chairman Chang

Should I send him Maniac's responses to his queries?

	04-02-2005 19:18									#13
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Sure - and add my comments on his soccer team question.

Can't do any harm even if he ends up with another faction (we should try to steer him to the gaians as they are badly in need of activity there)

	04-02-2005 19:24									#14
	Put an end to popups!

I must say I'm a bit surprised by the opinion that we have enough participants, and thus that we should send people to the other factions, even if they specifically state they want to join Sparta.

I'd say one can never have enough participants. My experience of the previous ACDGs is that many people come and go over the course of an ACDG. For example previous participants like Zeiter and Krysia's Krusader become inactive, while new people such as Modo and Snoddasmannen join. So it can't hurt to have some extra members as "reserve" in case some current members would leave. Especially if he'd be willing to take over some stuff currently done by other people, eg update the Base and Unit Inventory.

As for the other factions needing more people, true of course. But usually new members in an inactive faction quickly leave the ACDG, instead of (most of the time fruitlessly) trying to revive their faction. So I'd say trying to revive other factions is probably a lost cause: the SMAC-ACDG fanbase is simply too small to support many working factions. That's why the initial plan was to have only three human factions in this ACDG, but IIRC eg the Angels insisted on having their own faction after all. With the predictable consuequence of course: inactivity due to too little major participants...

So I think sending Chairman_Chang to another faction is unlikely to help that faction, while it won't be fun for Chairman_Chang himself either, seeing his eagerness to join us.

	04-02-2005 19:37									#15
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I'm indifferent, really. I was just put off a bit by his tone; certainly we aren't so desperate as to start obliging every single whim of any candidate for membership. However, he seems to be rather rational about it, so I think answering him properly isn't a bad idea. And if he will decide to join us, I'll apologize for my attitude.

	05-02-2005 06:13									#16
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Well I think he's asking rather a lot of questions before joining too. Though on the other side, it are more playful roleplay questions, so who knows he'll enrich the roleplay fun.

Regarding nudging people to other factions btw, in case we want to do that, I'd suggest to try and send them all to the same faction. That way at least one other faction will have sufficient critical mass and activity for new members to stay. While if they are evenly spread among all factions, people might see only semi-active factions and leave. As said above, unfortunately I fear the possible ACDG participant base is too small to give all four factions critical mass.

On the other hand, perhaps we're exaggerating the inactivity of the other factions. I asked GeoModder today if the Angels were in need of another active member, and he said the Angels could cope well with their current core, that he's just playing along with Chairman_Chang's game.

	05-02-2005 07:55									#17
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Ok, answers finally sent to him.

I guess the rest is up to him. :shrug:

	03-03-2005 12:11									#18
	Good Evening Gentleman Tired of ads?

My decision was mostly based on the answers received by your faction pertaining to my queries and individual transmissions with a select few of your kind. The responses and willingness to cooperate with my requests hinted at the amount of activity within, and thus swayed my decision. My wishes are that my stay with the Spartans is enjoyable, appreciated, and most of all, an opportunity to increase my people's knowledge base of humanity.

With all that said, let's stomp some Morgans.

- Captain Chang out -

	03-03-2005 12:43									#19
	Re: Good Evening Gentleman Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by Chairman_Chang With all that said, let's stomp some Morgans. - Captain Chang out -

Welcome to the Junta Captain