Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy

From: desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1993 02:02:06 +0000

Michael Hall <mhall@netcom.com> writes:
> The first failing in Galaxy is the inability to communicate with other
> players prior to "first contact", coupled with the fact that "first
> contact" is almost always an exchange of automated firing, since by
> default everyone is "at war" (meaning automated firing upon contact)
> with everyone else.

> It's sad that there really is no alternative to this strategy - the
> way things are set up, one cannot communicate with the neighbors prior
> to preemptively blowing their brains out before they blow your brains out.

You are under a misapprehension; I'm not sure of what sort.  Perhaps
this is a feature of some particular Galaxy games you have played in;
there are indeed various special versions floating around out there.

In standard Galaxy games all of the player's names and addresses and the
locations of their homeworlds are all known.  Indeed among PB(E)M games
Galaxy seems to be notable for the very high degree of communication it
permits and encourages among the players, by disclosing all of their
locations.

If you ever were to try your "attack everyone on turn three" strategy in
a game with people who know what they are doing, your attack would be
completely ineffectual and your intended victims would all join forces
and nuke you.  This is exactly what happened to my neighbor Diskus in
game Clarke, for example.  Perhaps that would be a good way for you to
see some diplomacy in action.  :-)

As for your other "fixes," designed to turn Galaxy into a more
diplomatic game, many players enjoy the ability to opportunity to play a
game which emphasizes strategic and planning skills and not primarily
diplomatic skills.  There are already many highly diplomatic multi-
player games out there, for example Diplomacy.  If you prefer such games
why not play one of them?

I mean this question seriously and I hope it will be taken seriously.
The thing I have had the most trouble understanding in recent
discussions is why people would want Galaxy to be more highly
diplomatic.  (Although, if you are under the impression that you can't
communicate at all, then I can certainly see why you would want it to be
more diplomatic than that!)

Finally I want to address one of your particular examples: the inability
to remove colonists from a planet.  I don't know if this was a
deliberate design decision, but I think it is a stroke of brilliance and
one of the very best features of the game.  If one makes it too easy and
too profitable for players to cooperate, then every game looks the same
and every player must join a large alliance in order to survive.  Little
touches like this in Galaxy create a constant tension between players,
which in my view makes the diplomacy that exists more interesting,
because it is still in players' interests to cooperate but they have to
balance their desire for cooperation with the constraints imposed by the
game system.

David desJardins

References

Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy
sutin@ra.UCSC.EDU (Brian Sutin)
Tue, 23 Mar 1993 20:11:30 +0000
Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy
mhall@netcom.com (Michael Hall)
Wed, 24 Mar 1993 00:26:09 +0000
Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Tue, 23 Mar 1993 04:10:20 +0000