PAL build system

It has just come to my attention that our game was set up with the PAL ship build system. See below:

Player Activity Level
One of the main arguments behind some build queue management strategies is that the active player should be rewarded for his risks and thus be allowed to build ships at a faster rate than the passive player who simply stockpiles ships. To this end, PHOST attempts to measure the level of involvement of each player, under control of various configuration options.

The Player Activity Level (PAL) is a single number that summarizes the player's overall history of activity. The Turn Activity Level (TAL) is a single number that summarizes the player's activity in a single turn. The TAL is computed anew each turn while the PAL has memory (see below for the actual formulas of computation). The TAL can boost the priorities of existing build orders, while the PAL can be used to boost the initial priorities of new ship build orders.

The effect of the TAL upon existing build orders is configurable with the SBQBuildPALBoost configuration option. The effect of the PAL upon initial priorities of new build orders is configurable with the SBQNewBuildPALBoost configuration option. The PAL can be caused to decay over time so that a burst of activity does not mark the player as being highly active forever. This decay is configurable using the PALDecayPerTurn configuration option.

There are two ways in which the PAL/TAL can affect build order priorities; both were mentioned briefly above. First, the player's TAL on a given turn can be used to boost all of his existing build order priorities. This would relate a player's activity with his likelihood of building new ships. Second, a player's current PAL would be used as a one-time boost for new ship build orders. This connection prevents the punishment of players who have a long period of activity and only submit build orders after that activity has ceased. Without boosting new build orders by the PAL, the player is penalized for not having submitted his build orders earlier, when his high level of activity would have boosted them.

Salut,

yes, I've noticed this PAL-system. *Deep sigh*

Like nearly every improvement it's tending to create a new game.
E.g.: instead of building a lot of bases (to claim many places in the going-around building queue), you now better search a weak neighbour, mass your ships there and beat him down.
(Not, that this happens never - unaffected by the actual game...)

But the balancing between the races (ability to build bases [e.g. Orion, Lizards - rather fast / federation rather slow] seems to be disturbed one more time.

So I'm keeping on my wishes for a next (lateron) game: standard game with new map. Only for the explore AddOn I'm to be convinced.

Good luck & CU, t.e.o. aka Gert

I am given to understand the PBP system is most common at Planetsserver. Why PAL was used in this "custom" game is a mystery to me. The ship build system is not one of the choices you are offered during set-up and I assumed the default would be PBP. I guess this is one more issue you must specify manually by email. Hopefully it will not really impact the game.

For my part, I prefer the SOSS system developed by Pinky. While it allocates ship builds by planets, it also guarantees a minimum numbers of new builds to every player. In that way it encourages everyone to expand and hold planets while still giving other players the means to take those planets (and builds) away. IMHO. both PAL and PBP favors smash-em up carrier races and penalizes torp races that depend more on other tactics like captures and ground attacks.

I agree with the ancient one.

Standard game.

I don't really care what map...