Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy

From: sutin@ra.UCSC.EDU (Brian Sutin)

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 23:35:07 +0000

In article <1okqiv$37p@growler.ccr-p.ida.org> desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins) writes:
>Brian Sutin <sutin@ra.UCSC.EDU> writes:
>If you really think that this is the case, why on Earth would you play a
>game like Galaxy, where you have to spend hours making detailed
>calculations in order to do well, all the time knowing that everyone
>else is going to make the same calculations exactly as well, and so your
>time is completely wasted?  Why not play a game without the need to do
>this?
>                                        David desJardins

Perhaps everyone else spends hours doing complex calculations.  I have a
program which calculates what I think is optimal growth and then writes
the orders for my cargo ships.  I used to tinker with it until I realized
that my program was just smarter than I am.  Go figure.

I never said that I would play in a game with all perfect players.  I said
that the game reduces to Diplomacy when all players have optimal growth.

I think that the equivalence class I am putting on games (ie, all 2D multi
player games are alike) is not getting across.

A 2D multiplayer game is one where there are many players, each of which has
some fraction of the other players as neighbors, and each of the neighbors
has usually two of these neighbors as neighbors.  Because of the details
of the respective games, the most common alliances in both Galaxy and
Diplomacy are the non-agression pact and the mutual attack pact.  Because
so many players play Galaxy badly, the non-agression pact is more usual,
since weak players are more easy to conquer single handedly.  These weak
players exist only because they do not play well, not because the game
enforces some kind of distribution of strength.  Without them, mutual
attack would be the only reasonable way to go.  To equal strength players
in a solo war in Galaxy usually eliminate each other.

Brian Sutin				sutin@lick.ucsc.edu
Lick Observatory, UCSC			Santa Cruz, CA 95064
    Fred:   "May I rescue you?"
    Ginger: "No, thank you.  I prefer being in distress."

References

Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Mon, 22 Mar 1993 05:10:57 +0000
Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy
sutin@ra.UCSC.EDU (Brian Sutin)
Mon, 22 Mar 1993 08:38:31 +0000
Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Mon, 22 Mar 1993 16:47:27 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Mon, 22 Mar 1993 05:10:57 +0000
Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy
sutin@ra.UCSC.EDU (Brian Sutin)
Mon, 22 Mar 1993 08:38:31 +0000
Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Mon, 22 Mar 1993 16:47:27 +0000