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Re: Cheating? Multiple partially complete items in production queue |
Tue, 27 March 2007 22:24 |
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I also concurr with Micha. There is nothing wrong with manipulating the production queue in this way. I can almost finish building something, then decide to do other things because I want to finish it later and don't need it now. I generally would not bother with so much effort though - build what I need, when I want it and get it done is easier.
Ptolemy
Though we often ask how and why, we must also do to get the answers to the questions.Report message to a moderator
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Re: Cheating? Multiple partially complete items in production queue |
Wed, 28 March 2007 08:13 |
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PaulCr | | Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stars! V.I.P
| Messages: 187
Registered: February 2007 Location: An Island that kinda look... | |
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My first thought was for using it on reds or even on a -1 yellow since you can over populate and get some resources from the extra pop but only lose 1% per turn, turn it to a 5% green or below and you much more quickly use pop to over population so you could stack them up until you could reach an high enough figure.
The idea for keeping ships in the queue came about because I'm currently in a game with PPS and the scores have come up, there were surprisingly few escort ships showing up, therefore I'm not worried about a serious attack anytime soon. If I was to now start building ships however it would show in the scores alerting potential victims of my intention to attack and possibly having them start a preemptive one whereas if I was to keep them in a queue I could finish them all in one turn, gate them to a border world and merge them on the next giving much less time for my opponent to respond.
It's also my first game in 6-7 years so I was wondering if the fact that quite a few people have no escort ships at all was because they may have been doing this to reduce the risk of a preemptive attack once the scores did show.
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Re: Cheating? Multiple partially complete items in production queue |
Wed, 28 March 2007 09:53 |
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PaulCr | | Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stars! V.I.P
| Messages: 187
Registered: February 2007 Location: An Island that kinda look... | |
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I was intending to use it for terraforming but wanted to check first whether it would be considered cheating to suddenly jump 5-10% on a world that can only nominally do 1% a turn.
Later in the game when I have sufficient pop to afford over populating I may do it on 1% yellows to avoid the extra colonist being wiped out by changing to a small green.
I'm not planning to use it for ship building yet until I have a reasonably stable tech, possibly C9,W10 although more likely C13,W16 and then only have a short 4-5 year period before completing which might give me around 30-40 unexpected ships.
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Re: Cheating? Multiple partially complete items in production queue |
Wed, 28 March 2007 10:26 |
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PaulCr | | Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stars! V.I.P
| Messages: 187
Registered: February 2007 Location: An Island that kinda look... | |
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In reply to Kotk, the original example was delibrately vague to avoid telling the people I'm playing against that despite the fact I've got very few armed ships that I may in future acually have 200 battleships with just one year's warning of them being at their border. I can build bombers without worrying people since they are pretty easy to hide, warships are impossible in a PPS game other than by manipulating the queue. You could temporarily give them to an ally but they would still show in his stats.
In reply to Micha, it would be possible to do in real life but in reality you would complete them since it would be easier to hide completed items then incomplete items. As an analogy, imagine in the real world say Iran having 200 nuclear missile virtually complete but completely undetectable because they hadn't actaually completed them, they then spend a couple of weeks painting 'Death to America' on them and they suddenly appear to the americans. America would attack if they knew about the 200 virtually complete though useless warheads or if they knew about 1 or 2 completed ones but after they've completed 200 they couldn't because Iran could launch them all and wipe them out.
[Updated on: Wed, 28 March 2007 10:40] Report message to a moderator
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Re: Cheating? Multiple partially complete items in production queue |
Wed, 28 March 2007 11:58 |
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For terraforming, this can be particularly useful. Take the case of a -3% - -5% red planet with 110k pop on it and around 200 rsesources. Generally, you terraform 1% or 2% per year to get it green and, during this time, you are losing a small amount of pop each turn. However, if it turns to a green at anything less than 10%, you are going to lose pop from overpopulation and, this can be substantially higher than the loss on the low red. Stacking almost completed terraforming in the queue and releasing 10% all at once may very well save population.
Ptolemy
Though we often ask how and why, we must also do to get the answers to the questions.Report message to a moderator
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Re: Cheating? Multiple partially complete items in production queue |
Thu, 29 March 2007 11:46 |
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PaulCr | | Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stars! V.I.P
| Messages: 187
Registered: February 2007 Location: An Island that kinda look... | |
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Bombers do show up as escorts ships but you still need quite a few escorts ships even when your not about to launch a war, Bombers are usually outnumbered and therefore can fade into the background noise created by normal escort ships used for defense.
I usually play IT so I can gate bombers to avoid anyone seeing that I actually have built any. Non IT races will probably find it harder to hide them.
The idea of hiding ships in a queue is aimed at avoiding giving notice that I'm preparing to go to war within say 10 years. Unless someone see you building bombers they are much more likely to assume that the slowly increasing number of escort ships is caused by your normal shipbuilding for defense.
Once your ready to go to war you can suddenly release 200 warships so the count suddenly jumps to 300 but by then they have less time to react. If they see the escort ships count going 100,120,140,160... they can be pretty sure you are planning an attack.
Releasing them simultaneously also prevents your enemy seeing the design early, if built gradually they could send a kamikaze ship to see what the design is your actually building.
If your already at war or you know your opponent is expecting it I wouldn't bother to hold up the production since they would be of more use if they were built immediately.
[Updated on: Thu, 29 March 2007 11:52] Report message to a moderator
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