Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy

From: dagibbs@quantum.qnx.com (David Gibbs)

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1993 18:41:52 +0000

In article <mhallC4DAJL.53z@netcom.com> mhall@netcom.com (Michael Hall) writes:
>The third diplomatic failing of Galaxy is the awkwardness of military
>cooperation.  I don't wish to go into details, but if you have ever
>tried to organize a "multinational" offensive or defensive force in
>Galaxy, you may know what I mean.

I have done it, it takes a little bit of work, and several email
messages, but it can definitely be done.  Now if you believe it
should be easy, just ask some Commanders in Chief from WWII
about running a combined British/Canadian/American/French/Other
offensive in Europe.  The organizational hassles are quite impressive,
and they rarely if ever combined for battles -- generally each took
a section.

Which is, of course, the easiest way to handle a joint effort in
galaxy.  Pick a target empire, and each hit some of his planets.

>The primary problem again is that damn automated firing and peace/war
>declarations, so the main fix is to get rid of the automated
>offensive firing.

Not that hard -- set yourself to peace to your allies and to war
for your enemies, then you only shoot at enemies.  If you leave
yourself at peace with anybody you aren't explicitly fighting,
you don't even get misunderstandings.  (And when cooperating
with somebody in a war, you definitely want to be at peace with
them.)

>Also, it would be nice to be able to dictate the
>speed of fleets of ships, so that you could keep pace with your allies'
>ships, and not wind up at the battle a turn too early or too late.

This is a problem even with coordinating your own ships to arrive
at the same time!  (Rarely are all my ships one-jump arrivals
to a battle.)  For a joint assault on a system, you simply
declare: "time your ships to arrive on turn 35." (Or whatever
turn happens to be "D Day")  And everyone does so.  So if your
ships would take 2 turns to get there from where they are, you
launch on turn 33.  Note I specified arrival on turn 35, people
can work out proper time to write the orders themselves.  (e.g.
for ships that have a speed higher than the distance, write
movement orders after getting turn 34 results.)

>The fourth and final diplomatic shortcoming of Galaxy is the lack
>of incentive for economic cooperation.  As it is, your neighbors
>do you no good unless they are directed against your enemies.

And this is the most important part -- once the initial colonization
of the galaxy is finished, the only place you can expand to is your
neighbours planets.  But generally going one on one with an equivalent
empire is going to destroy both empires, so you need allies...

>difference in quantities and utilities of stuff.  Trading would assist
>the economies, and since building one's economy is the most important
>thing in Galaxy, trade would make diplomacy become the most important
>thing in Galaxy.

But why do you want diplomacy to be the most important thing in
Galaxy?  If you want diplomacy to be the most important thing,
play Diplomacy.

Galaxy is a game of balance, you have to juggle all the
variables -- economic expansion, tech level research,
military development (offensive and defensive), and
diplomatic contacts.  If any one thing were clear cut,
it would make the game a lot less interesting.

-David
(dagibbs@quantum.qnx.com)

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
sutin@helios.UCSC.EDU (Brian Sutin)
Tue, 23 Mar 1993 01:22:27 +0000
Re: Galaxy Cargo, Corners & Diplomacy
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Tue, 23 Mar 1993 04:10:20 +0000