Re: Endgame: Singularity

[evilmrhenry]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I am aware of the cluster
effect; I haven't done anything about it yet, though, as that would
involve drastic changes to the game.

Charles wrote:
>
> To: The creator of Endgame: Singularity.
>
>
> Someone on AIM sent me a link to your game, and I was just writing to
> tell you what an original concept it was. I'm rather surprised noone's
> made a game like this before. I do have a suggestion, however. Even on
> 'very easy' the game is very hard, and whenever your bases are
> discovered, they not only add 10% suspicion, but tend to be discovered
> in rapid-fire succession...and for some reason, the amount of suspicion
> is not spread out evenly, but tends to 'stick' to one group (At least
> during the beginning, with either server access or stolen computer time,
> I've had 10-15 minute periods where /all/ discoveries only add to
> covert, or news or public....not all three. It definatly seems to happen
> in clusters....which drastically increases the difficulty of the game.
>
> Anyways, I just wanted to offer my comment on what a cool game it was,
> and offer a suggestion about toning down the above.
>
>
> -Charles

[Charlie Nolan]

A little of that is intentional, since suspicion is one of the factors
in detection rate. A group with 99% suspicion will detect about twice
as often as one with 0% suspicion.

The type of bases you have can affect it. Server Access bases, for
instance, will never be detected by science, and for every news
detection, will have two covert detections and three public detection.
(on average, and ignoring all other factors) Stolen Computer Time
has the same ordering, but a lower maximum. So Public will tend to
pick on you at first.

Then there's technology. The techs you research often affect only one
group, so that can unbalance things as well. In particular, the
Public are easier to confuse than Covert ops are, so once you get a
few techs in, your main opponent may switch form Public to Covert.
Covert suspicion also decays more slowly, so that factor will tend to
accumulate.

There's a *slight* bias in the detection algorithm, but you'd need to
have the same base be detected by two groups during the same tick for
it to trip, so I doubt it's even significant. (Technical: We pull the
three groups out of a dict in arbitrary order, and the first detection
breaks out of that loop. I don't know what order the dict happens to
give us, or even if it's constant across architectures or Python
versions, but it's probably constant for any given play session.)

The rest is probably just a direct result of Murphy's Law. I've had
evenings where ordinary dice seemed to have it in for me.

If a group seems to be picking on you, the best you can do is pick on
them in return. Research techs that hurt that group, and pick your
base types carefully so that you minimize their detection rate. You
may need to "lay low" in a couple small bases until their suspicion
drops.

Very Easy is actually quite true to its name, once you realize that
Singularity is a stealth game and that each base is a liability.
Suspicion is easy to gain, and hard to lose. You should be able to
count your bases on your fingers. Preferably without using a second
hand.

-FM