20-04-2000 03:14									#151
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korn469,

I think you played quite in character. I enjoyed all your newsflashes and reports very much, and I think the most important thing is that they are written, and written well. You certainly did that.

As for style, it is good, though I do perhaps think it is a little on the aggressive side. Some of this is due to necessity and game dictates of course. The newsflashes and transmissions generally seem to emphasize the superiority of your faction over the opposition, and contain only slightly veiled threats - actually I think this is more the Spartan style. The University might place more emphasis on technology and development, and would be more interested in knowledge for knowledge's own sake rather than for its military applications. So I think you characterized the University well, but with room for improvement. Still, Zakharov is described as erratic and unethical, and I suppose my views here could be coloured by my in general more sympathetic image of him and my builder/isolationist instincts.

Not that I think remaining very true to faction personality matters so much. Writing entertaining back stories is much more important, and you certainly did that.

As for myself, well, thank you . Playing in character is quite easy when you have no other concerns. Remaining pacifist in the face of such overwhelming opposition did not really hurt my chances. I did actually destroy three of my own bases, and would have destroyed more if there had been other players left to pick up the fight against you. But with only me remaining, it did not matter if you conquered the HGP, for example.

I did not see you do anything stupid - in fact, you never gave me any realistic opportunities to exploit. I think you played very well. I would never have left my core bases so weakly (or un)defended, but then, no one was able to reach them, so no defence was necessary.

You certainly taught me effective probe defence, and its importance. I only managed to get a Probe Team into your bases once in the entire game, and actually built the Empath Guild primarily so I could get an infiltrator.

As for other games, I do not have all that much info. But I do know that Pagan[CyC] used the lessons learned from this game to overrun his opponents with the University in one other game - even though they cooperated against him from the start. That was basically the last nail in the coffin for the original scenario, and I hope the new ones are somewhat better balanced. I do think the University is the leader in the vast majority of the SMAC games it is in - in the SMACX versions the Progenitors work as tech equalizers.

Back to you - did you see me do anything stupid?

	20-04-2000 06:13									#152
	Inflate your Upload Space

Tau Ceti

no you didn't do anything stupid...quite the contrary i think you played very well. However, for your next game i would suggest that you use your energy more. You had the largest stockpile of energy nearly the entire game and that strategy did come in handy a couple times, but on the whole i think you should spend your cash agrressively, and i think that by you not doing that you hurt yourself some. I think if you had of rushbuilt a little more early in the game that you would have done better.

Also if you would have tried to trade tech with me i especially before the Spartans were dead i would have...i think it always pays to try to trade tech...basically just try to do a little more wheeling and dealing but other than that you played good...me getting the PTS so early really hosed you and Pagan[CyC]...once you saw that i had more population than you and Pagan that is the moment you should have allied with him and started jointly plotting against me.

Also i think you did this, but this is just a reminder...build children's creche's and build them early, this especially helps when you are in wealth.

but other than a little nitpicking you just got on the wrong end of the tech gap

korn469