| Obfuscating Alliance Game Race File Naming |
Tue, 10 January 2012 15:01  |
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 torben |
 | Petty Officer 3rd Class |
Messages: 49
Registered: October 2007 | |
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Hi there,
I wanted to place something on the table which I've been seeing in a game with predefined alliances.
One pair of allies named their Races in a way, that the plural race names of both races where the same, don't know for sure about the singular race names, as you cannot see them.
This has certain interesting side effects:
First of all it is no longer possible to distinguish between both races whithin the game. Planet names, Ship and Fleet names, everything is the same. Only on the starmap with enabled player colors you retain the ability to actually tell who is whom (and even that only by memorizing the color).
Even more, the data dumps (Pxx Files etc.) also contain only the plural names, which merges the recon data of both distinct empires together.
While this has a certain style, I have to agree to that, it is a certain tactical hindrance as it takes you the ability to actually know who you are dealing with. If one of the partners is an WM, for example, this could be quite significant.
Given the drawbacks, would you consider this a legitimate tactic (basically on information warfare) or would you think of it as something that should be avoided?
Torben
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| Re: Obfuscating Alliance Game Race File Naming |
Thu, 12 January 2012 02:44  |
|
| torben |
| Petty Officer 3rd Class |
Messages: 49
Registered: October 2007 | |
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| m.a@stars wrote on Wed, 11 January 2012 15:00 |
| LittleEddie wrote on Tue, 10 January 2012 23:00 |
Now the real fun happens when they name their ships with the same names but different designs, One's a BB and ones a DD, so you have to check.
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... or just notice the hull icons and/or the mass. 
Amazingly, they'd have the same problem when queueing items to build, and simple mistakes could be costly. 
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Oh yeah, that is definitly true ...
It isn't, that I cannot cope with it, it is just annoying. And, as you said, you have to look after enemy fleets anyway. Given my bad memory, I klick thorugh mixed fleets token by token more often anyway.
Well, thanks for your opinions, I'll get back to the easiest counter of all to this tactic, I'll try to wipe it of the map 
Torben
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| Re: Obfuscating Alliance Game Race File Naming |
Thu, 12 January 2012 12:19 |
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I don't mind a player using Hex or decimal name tagging systems.. but the concept of having similar plural names for different race names isn't something I'll condone.
It's an enterprising and deviously clever thing to do, but not something that I would do.
IMO it's not in the spirit of the game even if it's not explicitly disallowed by the game engine.
ps - you can change one of the races to friend (temporarily) to see things clearly.. but it's still a pain.
I know my minefields.. but I'm a chaff sweeper.
I used to curse when I got stuck in traffic... till I realised I AM traffic.Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Obfuscating Alliance Game Race File Naming |
Fri, 13 January 2012 14:23 |
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| torben |
| Petty Officer 3rd Class |
Messages: 49
Registered: October 2007 | |
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Hi Joseph,
| joseph wrote on Thu, 12 January 2012 17:05 |
I named my race the plural the same as my ally.
I wasnt even aware it would cause problems, it just seemed a good way to complete a joke
His name - Cowboys
My name - Knights
Plural Westerners ~(he lived in Texas, I live in the west country in UK)
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Interestingly, I cannot see that with your races, they are "WildWest" and "Westerners" so you are actually distinguishable easily enough.
Well, anyway, from a roleplaying point of view it is a quite fine thing, brings quite some athmosphere to the game.
Actually, if everybody would have done this consequently, things would actually be even easier 
As always, two sides to every coin.
Torben
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