Roundchild
Chieftain
Is there any way to replay (re-view) a PBEM game turn-by-turn?
A couple of months ago I hooked up with an old friend, and he started talking about how much he loves SMAC and how he always plays it. He even bragged about beating a friend of his, a supposed master of SMAC. As he is extremely prone to over-exaggeration, I proposed we play a PBEM match.
We talked a bit about problems and balances of SMAC, I told him about the modifications I made to the game (mostly stuff off this site and Apolyton - C&D nerfing, giving AI free superformers and naval probes, etc.) Nope, he's fine with C&D. Then he complains about some things in SMAC that were fixed in SMACX - I suggest we play SMACX. Nope, he doesn't want to play SMACX. Apparently he never has. Stuff starts smelling slightly fishy to me.
I let him choose the game parameters and the map build. At map build, not only he choose Map of the Planet, but also the small one. And then he chose to play University. Now, there might be some advantages to playing MotP in multiplayer, namely knowing the lay of the land and possible starting positions for other players, but ultimately strips a nice chunk of challenge, unless it's meant to be a fast, aggressive game - especially if it's a small map. And since I announced I'd be playing Morgan (as always), and he chose University, I certainly didn't expect that. The day before I had to listen to him for hours about how the game can be screwed up if you get stuck on a small island with several aggressive AIs and your (human) opponent lucks out on a continent alone.
So I switch to Yang.
The game starts, I start on the freshwater sea in the lower-left continent. I find Miriam right next to me sneaking a second colony pod and manage to z-rush her with 4 scouts (!) and push her off the cliff. I expand rapidly, while still managing to snatch Human Genome, Command Nexus and (I think) even Citizen's Defense Force, running Police State and Planned. Meanwhile, he apparently didn't scout at all and found too late he's trapped on a small island with Spartans (turns out later on he's on the small island with the Garland crater just north of me). He refused to give them tech and was now at war with them (while running Democracy). I find a Spartan skimship and ally with them.
At this point, I mention we should agree to ban trading bases with pact-brother AIs. He disagrees, even though I'm in a much better position to abuse it than him. Now I really start to smell a rat, as IMO the only ones who'd exploit this (in a multiplayer!) are cheaters or newbs.
Couple of turns later, him, Gaians and me are competing for the Empath Guild (why he wanted it in the middle of war with Sparta is beyond me). I don't know who finished it, but suddenly a message appears that University has convened council (he claims he got the message that it was me). I make use of free commlinks and manage to pact Sparta and even Miriam, with all others as allies, swap a back-of-the-woods seabase for Spartan base in the center of Garland crater and send a probe team over his border. I end the turn and send it to him.
After a few days of not getting a response, I ask him about it and he claims he never got it. I send it again, he still doesn't respond. Later on, he says he thought the game was declared over.
A couple of days ago, someone mentioned SMAC PBEM and we started talking about our match. He started talking about how he was swarmed by mindworms, losing 2-3 bases to him, while being pounded by Spartans, making it sound like the only reason I "won" was because I got all the luck, and he got it up the ass by the God of Randomization.
So now I want to know what really happened. I'd like to know if there's any way to replay the match, other than going save-by-save, opening the Editor on each one and checking the map. Problem is, I only have the last 2 saves, and both are my end-of-turn ones, i.e. opening them asks for HIS password. Is there any way I could, at least a bit, check on his actions?
A couple of months ago I hooked up with an old friend, and he started talking about how much he loves SMAC and how he always plays it. He even bragged about beating a friend of his, a supposed master of SMAC. As he is extremely prone to over-exaggeration, I proposed we play a PBEM match.
We talked a bit about problems and balances of SMAC, I told him about the modifications I made to the game (mostly stuff off this site and Apolyton - C&D nerfing, giving AI free superformers and naval probes, etc.) Nope, he's fine with C&D. Then he complains about some things in SMAC that were fixed in SMACX - I suggest we play SMACX. Nope, he doesn't want to play SMACX. Apparently he never has. Stuff starts smelling slightly fishy to me.
I let him choose the game parameters and the map build. At map build, not only he choose Map of the Planet, but also the small one. And then he chose to play University. Now, there might be some advantages to playing MotP in multiplayer, namely knowing the lay of the land and possible starting positions for other players, but ultimately strips a nice chunk of challenge, unless it's meant to be a fast, aggressive game - especially if it's a small map. And since I announced I'd be playing Morgan (as always), and he chose University, I certainly didn't expect that. The day before I had to listen to him for hours about how the game can be screwed up if you get stuck on a small island with several aggressive AIs and your (human) opponent lucks out on a continent alone.
So I switch to Yang.
The game starts, I start on the freshwater sea in the lower-left continent. I find Miriam right next to me sneaking a second colony pod and manage to z-rush her with 4 scouts (!) and push her off the cliff. I expand rapidly, while still managing to snatch Human Genome, Command Nexus and (I think) even Citizen's Defense Force, running Police State and Planned. Meanwhile, he apparently didn't scout at all and found too late he's trapped on a small island with Spartans (turns out later on he's on the small island with the Garland crater just north of me). He refused to give them tech and was now at war with them (while running Democracy). I find a Spartan skimship and ally with them.
At this point, I mention we should agree to ban trading bases with pact-brother AIs. He disagrees, even though I'm in a much better position to abuse it than him. Now I really start to smell a rat, as IMO the only ones who'd exploit this (in a multiplayer!) are cheaters or newbs.
Couple of turns later, him, Gaians and me are competing for the Empath Guild (why he wanted it in the middle of war with Sparta is beyond me). I don't know who finished it, but suddenly a message appears that University has convened council (he claims he got the message that it was me). I make use of free commlinks and manage to pact Sparta and even Miriam, with all others as allies, swap a back-of-the-woods seabase for Spartan base in the center of Garland crater and send a probe team over his border. I end the turn and send it to him.
After a few days of not getting a response, I ask him about it and he claims he never got it. I send it again, he still doesn't respond. Later on, he says he thought the game was declared over.
A couple of days ago, someone mentioned SMAC PBEM and we started talking about our match. He started talking about how he was swarmed by mindworms, losing 2-3 bases to him, while being pounded by Spartans, making it sound like the only reason I "won" was because I got all the luck, and he got it up the ass by the God of Randomization.
So now I want to know what really happened. I'd like to know if there's any way to replay the match, other than going save-by-save, opening the Editor on each one and checking the map. Problem is, I only have the last 2 saves, and both are my end-of-turn ones, i.e. opening them asks for HIS password. Is there any way I could, at least a bit, check on his actions?
I don't have his password, and I'd avoid asking him for it unless push comes to shove.
