Hello universe!

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15% max growth rate for SS, WM, IS, SD, PP, IT

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PUBLIC SCORES [helps to keep things fair without observer race and makes it harder for the pack leader to runaway]

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CHEATING POLICY:
Obvious game engine exploitations are unacceptable, however split-fleet dodge, chaff sweeping and pop-dodge all have real-world military equivalent [eg. dispersion, force screening and evacuation] and so are legitimate tactics.

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So anyone interested in a low-growth game?

How do you enforce the no duplicate PRT rule easily? Should players declare their desired PRT when they join to make sure there's no overlap and nobody has to redesign their race multiple times?

I'm interested.

I would prefer a no-comms rule. Mostly to save the rest of you from my grandiloquent loquacity.

LSP = free points! And you'll use the PGR later on, even if your homeworld is crowded a bit at first the lost growth will be caught up in no time. The overcrowding would also give you a few extra resources for your first factories, to start compounding off well there.


What do you think about taking LSP specifically to spend the RW points on starting factories? I'm pretty rusty, and feel like the answer to this should be obvious.

I'm skeptical that a HE with a PGR higher than 15(30) is even viable. I'm extra double skeptical that it would be overpowered in this game setup. You'd grow pop really fast for a few turns, but then crowding kills your growth rate and you have nowhere near enough hab to stay uncrowded.

As for an HE with PGR between 8(16) and 15(30), I don't think any of those would be all that powerful in this game setup either. The half-size planets is just too crippling with very little room to expand.

An HE at 7(14) or below is clearly within the rules of this game, so no discussion needed, I think.

Yeah, I think 9(18)% is as high as I'd be comfortable facing in a game like this, and even then it would be highly dangerous - an SD could probably wall it up in the earlyish game, though. 8(16)% is reasonable.

15(30)% HE can achieve 5k@2420 with trivial ease (expansion largely limited by scouting thanks to turn-1 W9 capacity) and most of that's disposable income. HE takes 3-4 times its "rightful" space (since it's facing non-IFE, 15% races which won't be able to stand up to it), wins. Not as badly as it does with AccBBS off, but still.

magic9mushroom wrote on Wed, 18 December 2013 02:33

15(30)% HE can achieve 5k@2420 with trivial ease (expansion largely limited by scouting thanks to turn-1 W9 capacity) and most of that's disposable income. HE takes 3-4 times its "rightful" space (since it's facing non-IFE, 15% races which won't be able to stand up to it), wins. Not as badly as it does with AccBBS off, but still.

I respectfully disagree. Jumping out to a lead is one thing. Winning a PPS game without gates is another.

It seems like you agree that the goal of such an HE is to have an insurmountable advantage by the time gates come into play.
You acknowledge that the game being non-AccBBS was a benefit. I'd say that you might be underestimating how big a benefit that is.

Is it possible that Slower Tech Advances was another factor in your favor in Lowtek?

This game has AccBBS and does not have STA, so it will not take nearly as long for the non-ITs to get gates.

...If you're trying to make a game without the rabid weasel HGs and -fs flying around preying on the weak, it's a pretty dumb idea to leave the most rabid weasel of them all totally unrestricted....

Well, that's a pretty good point. Maybe this HE is as big a powerhouse as you think in this setting, maybe it isn't, but either way it violates the premise of the proposed game.

So is the logical best step to restrict HE to a PGR no higher than 7(14)?

skoormit wrote on Fri, 10 January 2014 22:52

Well, that's a pretty good point. Maybe this HE is as big a powerhouse as you think in this setting, maybe it isn't, but either way it violates the premise of the proposed game.

So is the logical best step to restrict HE to a PGR no higher than 7(14)?

That was my first suggestion, bit I suspect 9% would be "fairer" allowing the HE to do what HE does well, else they lose gates and half capacity for no benefit.