In reply to Germany (msg # 157):

What can you invest in with your unused Response PAs?

Mainly in unexpected events, as if some war erupts you didn't expect, or to fix any problems your (or other players') PAs have produced (due to mishaps, unexpected other player's actions, etc).

If there are none (or they don't affect you, or so you think), they can always be used as regular ones, to make more diplomacy, internal actions, etc...

As a resume, they can be used as any PA, but at any point of the game, not only with your turn initial orders.

In reply to Germany (msg # 159):

Many thanks!

You're welcome. The game is quite complex, and so feel free to ask any question to the more veteran players. We will help you to the best of our capacities.

BTW, dont forget this part of 6.7:


So, to a limited extent (and with referee's permission) you can buy those response PAs in midturn at a debt for next turn. It's more expensive, but sometimes not acting may be even more...

In reply to Germany (msg # 162):

Thanks for the tip!

I have some Response PAs already bought, as I am paranoid like that. :)  I just wasn't sure what all they could be used for if my Nation wasn't reacting to something external or internal, in the case of a standard PA project going horribly awry.

From International Forums Thread:

Which reasons I gave are good examples to keep the current system?

The fact the old system allowed us to know what was happening in the world (at least what was public, as if country A was at war with country B?

The fact we knew the random events when we could still react?

Currently, the only information I have about what is going in the whole universe is the lñist of the actions done by the players, so it seems the NPC countries are quiet waiting for the players to do something. Not even the (quite complicated, by the way) Daily Mail is available (not that I liked it, BTW, as I've never liked the games where you have to explore the whole screen to find the clicking spots, but that's a matter of taste, not of being better or worse).

Formerly, we had some news before we made our budgets, so we at least knew the main events occurring in the world, and could react to them. CUrrently, we are supposed to react to events we don't know, so going blind.



Does that mean that we have to ask for any situation that we're interested to? See that there are several conflicts about whom none has been said for several turns now. Must we ask specifically for every of them to know if they still keep or peace has been reached?

Or are we expected to spend PAs on this too, when it means just reading the newspapers?

If only PCs actions produce changes and events, then the game has (IMHO) lost part of its meaning. If NPCs are active too (not matter how few), having not even general news menas we have to ask for each and every former conflict, and I guess you're busy enough for this...



And what have they to do with this problem?

I was not asking what my advisors say (as would be Q7), and while Q11 could have more to do, I was asking if there's a war, and I guess this ir public and relevant information...

... or that's what he said us! I learned not to trust anything unless the info was obtained via successful PA. So we should vote in the UN and use a PA in order to learn for sure who stands behind the COVID-19.

In reply to Russia (msg # 165):

>...in order to learn for sure who stands behind the COVID-19.
Your particular phrasing there ...can be taken to mean that you are a supporter of and are publicly calling on all people to come out and openly help support the goal of the group know as 'COVID-19' ...<pauses in awe of the possible implications>

In reply to Referee (msg # 166):

Greetings and Solicitations, I represent the Fatherland, Greater Germany! ;-) Glad to meet you and hope we all have fun.

In reply to German Republic (msg # 167):

Greetings from the USA!

Happy to be here! Apologies in advance for the inevitable new player mistakes or misunderstandings!

In reply to USA (msg # 168):

Same here.

In reply to German Republic (msg # 169):

Welcome!

In reply to Russia (msg # 170):

Thank you, not sure what is going on yet, working on it.

In reply to German Republic (msg # 171):

Welcome to the game, all four of you! Hope you enjoy your time here!

In reply to Australia (msg # 172):

Hope I can figure out what is going on, sort of like Diplomacy in the Far Future?

Long-time activity from USA Player has not been seen. It's one of the key geopolitical players. I cannot plan my next moves w\o a response from him. I ask GMs to clear the situation, is he active?

One more thing. Continual players shifting very bad for the game. It's impossible to do something long-term. Even just relations.

I have no idea what kind of "initial" data was given to Japan player, but with the previous player, and the country he represents, was built good relations and international economical project. When a new player come - all was changed to opposite. What is the point to do something now if there will be no tomorrow?

I insist, that if player changes, GMs should include in their "setup" info for the new players a more detailed situation description, with previous deals and relations, and WITHOUT their personal vision. Maybe even include setup files written also by other players, with their point of view.

The situation file, which was given to me many years ago was clearly claim Russia as the main enemy and a country that should not be trusted in any circumstances. Without any explanations why. I found this very wrong and unprofessional, but our GMs were unexperienced at those times, so I follow this setup partially and do not say any objections. I am afraid, that this practice continued.

Yes, we play a turn-based game, but it's not one turn - a one-session game! Many decisions come from relations and understanding of opponents and friends. And they are formed in many turns. Stop the chaos, please.

And one more. Like Korea reunification was a very impossible event, more impossible is united "country" of Japan and Indonesia. There is no way it can happen. It's totally different countries and different religions. Can you imagine Japan full of minarets? Will deeply conservative Japanese peoples welcome another religion as their state religion? It's a very bad move from player who plays both countries as one, without separating their interests and goals. And more questionable, that GMs approve this. If a player can not play 2 countries well, he should play one.

Also, I want to point to events of far away past. GMs every time tells, that government, military, and other state organizations do their best, so players do not need to find solutions, just give directions. If so, why clearly strange events, which lead to the nuclear strike on Korea were not investigated? Keeping in mind, that there was beyond our PHYSICS and capabilities events that happens? And it was documented. Do all understand the priority and magnitude of this?! But China player leave the game that time and all is forgotten. All attempts to find something now were not successful. SO, DO OUR GOVERNMENTS DO THEIR BEST?

Next thing. Is this game about space and the future, or just about... something else. Were are spaceflights to other systems? Were is riddles, events, aliens...e.t.c.? How many real years has all this happened? Don't you think there is something wrong? Are you looking for players? I do not want to offer this to anyone of my friends. In this state of development.

What I suggest. I can't do something with GMs vision. It's up to GMs to grow or not. But I can offer my knowledge in UnrealEngine. There is not so big effort to move all this excel nightmare to a real computation engine, networked it, and have a game that happens even very slowly in real time. We can alter parameters when we want, move units, and so on.

I cant offer my time. I have my own project to do, BUT I can consult how to do right. It's not as scary and hard, as it looks.
We do not need fancy graphics. Just primitive interface, Database connection and a very little networking understanding.

The more playable temp will make the game more user-friendly and bring players. Or at least they do not leave each turn.

Maybe some of you have skills in other development systems?

Thank you for your time.

In reply to China (msg # 174):

>Long-time activity from USA Player has not been seen. It's one of the key geopolitical players. I cannot plan my next moves w\o a response from him. I ask GMs to clear the situation, is he active?
He is active. If, for whatever reason, he has chosen to not talk to you, then that is his choice.

>One more thing. Continual players shifting very bad for the game. It's impossible to do something long-term. Even just relations.
I agree. However, as much as I would love to, the Referee has no power to force people to stay in the game.

> When a new player come - all was changed to opposite. What is the point to do something now if there will be no tomorrow?
Because this is a game, not a simulation, and it is not much of a game if players are forced to do something, including staying with the game.

>I insist, that if player changes, GMs should include in their "setup" info for the new players a more detailed situation description, w
There is, it is called the 'Handover' thread. Keeping it updated is the responsibility of the player ...which like DocRocket (Japan, India, Indonesia), who just quit the game, rarely if ever do. Again, the Referee has no power to force people to update the Handover thread before they leave. The Referee could write something, but it would be no better than what the new player could find out for themselves without the Referee having to take the time to do it.

>It's a very bad move from player who plays both countries as one, without separating their interests and goals. And more questionable, that GMs approve this.
Agreed, and the Referees do not approve, but then the question becomes: Exactly what constitutes unrealistic collusion between nations played by the same player? We are 70 years down an alternative timeline; how can we realistically judge an action to be unrealistic based on today's real life standards ...could a person in 1952 foresee the position that Russia is in today? Regardless of the answer to these questions the only real solution is to have more players so we are not forced into the situation of having more than one nation played by the same person.

We need more players!

In reply to China (msg # 174):

>I cant offer my time. I have my own project to do,
That would be the real reason behind every problem in this game. It is no use talking about these problems until you are willing to offer your time. Expecting someone else to put in the time to perfect this game is not fair as we all have are own projects too and we have put quite a bit of time already into this game.

Way back, when I was just a player and after multiple Turns the game was still little more than a collection of good intentions, everyone else in the game was still not willing to do anything but talk about their various plans for an amazing and completely realistic game they were eventually going to create; including the various Referees that we had. I was the only one to put in the time to actually create something that works, no matter how badly, because I decided that I wanted to play the game rather than just more talk about eventually creating an amazing and completely realistic game. It is the reason why I am the Referee now.

In reply to Referee (msg # 176):



As interesting as the idea sounds to make it all database dependent rather than various sheets all over the place, a lot of stuff is still very GM dependent, and I don't see how that can change.

I spent some time on Monday night thinking about this idea, and I don't see how it would change massively. I could see maybe doing something like Aurora 4x(1), but at the end of the day, that's basically a spreadsheet with basic OS UI, and is just really a matter of making it look nicer. It might help organize some info, like the dreaded Settlements list(2), and make looking at the solar system a bit easier.

I can give it a go when I have some time between IRL stuff, to see if I can find a way to nicely organize it and make it more accessible. I've already screwed my remaining braincells protesting work-intensive ideas by attempting to Google Sheets-Fu a colony calculator with all the math into existence

It all depends on how much math the Referees are doing by hand and if they have any input, because otherwise, the sheets Kelvin and others have made are, in my honest opinion, not that bad. Aside from the settlements list, which is awful out of necessity of not having hundreds of tabs and wanting centralized information, the google sheets system is fairly decent.

Changing the game so it runs slowly in real time, I don't see being particularly feasible. People have lives outside of the game, sometimes people require more time than originally given by the Referees due to IRL circumstances and the game being turn based gives everyone equal opportunity to act regardless of IRL circumstances. From the point of view of a player with no access to any behind the scenes stuff (thank god), it seems most of the time spent between turns is not math related, but instead the writing needed for things and simply the fact that our Referees are human and have lives outside of the game that need to take priority.

EDIT:
A lot of the turn orders math would be nice to automate to a degree too, so I'll take a look at that as well.

Hyperlink formatting refused to obey my commands, so here are relevant links
1. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ESWylNpWAAEF1Fr.jpg
2. https://docs.google.com/spread...sBJI4wTXnDAY7FSvA9vw
This message was last edited by the player at 13:27, Tue 22 Feb 2022.

In reply to Australia (msg # 177):

Hi all -
apologies for the lack of comms - been very unwell for some time now.
But I am still active and talking, albeit slowly.
:)
John / USA

In reply to USA (msg # 178):

Nice to see you back, John, and get well!

In reply to Russian Federation (msg # 179):

Bless you for your kind words! Full recovery is some time off, but every day I'm a little better (or at least that's what I'm telling myself).
:)
John

In reply to USA (msg # 180):

In those conditions, it's good to switch to something completely other. Books, games, sport on TV, something that keep your head totally from bad thoughts. With "every day a little better" it will help to recover faster. A positive attitude is very important. And it help.

Get well, John! All will be ok.

In reply to China (msg # 181):

Thank you! What has surprised me with my current issues is just how many friends have suffered the same. So my very best wishes to you all, whatever your state of health!

:)
John