Hvy Plastic 2 --- Plastic Explosives
Markus Armbruster
Thistle, Aquitaine, Wamic, beep, Metallica, CallMeFodder, DevilDog,
Ashkanistan, Noodles, Sun, Savoia, FreeBeer, RimFire, and Robotron.
beep was first to break sanctuary.
Gemini
ACK! SuperBowl made me forget!!
::scramble::
]G[
z
Markus Armbruster
far.
beep was first to break sanctuary.
Savoia and Noodles didn't show up. The deities frowned. wales took
over Noodles after the second update. The deities were somewhat
mollified, and wales received some gifts to narrow the gap to the
nations that started on time.
beep opened the race for new land. Most other nations quickly joined
it, some more successfully than others.
RimFire drew first blood, defeating Aquitaine. In another skirmish,
CallMeFodder defeated FreeBeer.
Defense budgets are ballooning. For how long will relative calm
prevail?
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Feb 19 21:01:54 2010
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
beep 80 59% 28K 700 0 0 0 2.8K 1.1K 900 0 20 0 3.5K
FreeBeer 80 61% 28K 800 0 0 0 3.3K 1.6K 750 0 20 0 5.0K
Bloodstar 65 80% 29K 100 0 0 0 3.1K 2.3K 1.0K 0 4 0 10K
RimFire 65 72% 29K 350 0 0 0 3.5K 2.8K 1.4K 0 10 0 5.0K
Aquitaine 75 48% 29K 700 0 0 0 2.7K 3.6K 1.4K 0 20 0 20K
Thistle 90 58% 28K 1.1K 0 0 0 2.4K 850 1.4K 0 20 0 20K
DevilDog 70 66% 29K 500 0 0 0 2.6K 4.6K 900 0 9 0 10K
CallMeFod 95 54% 28K 1.0K 0 0 0 3.3K 1.1K 500 0 20 0 2.1K
Goop 70 76% 28K 750 0 0 0 3.6K 800 850 0 10 0 5.0K
Robotron 80 66% 27K 1.9K 0 0 0 2.7K 2.2K 400 0 30 0 15K
Wamic 65 88% 26K 550 0 0 0 3.1K 600 900 0 9 0 15K
Ashkanist 55 94% 29K 100 0 0 0 3.1K 600 4.7K 0 3 0 15K
wales 75 63% 28K 550 0 0 0 3.5K 1.8K 400 0 7 0 10K
Sun 55 84% 28K 750 0 0 0 3.6K 300 750 0 20 0 25K
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 1.0K 68% 394K 9.8K 0 0 0 43K 24K 16K 0 210 0 170K
Hvy Plastic is 2 running at empire.pond.sub.org, port 6665. Check out
http://www.pond.sub.org/~armbru/empire/hvy-plastic-2/
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Feb 7 13:33:58 2010
Since this game is so heavily customized, here are a few hints. If
you're a veteran, it may well be all old news for you. Or not, who
knows.
In case you played the blitz, be warned that a few details could have
changed.
For those of you who played Hvy Plastic 1: yes, this game is quite
similar. And both Hvy Plastic games share quite a few traits with the
Hvy Metal games.
Read info Hvy-Plastic. Then read these hints, slowly. If you don't
understand something, ask the deities. We're not going to play the
game for you, but we're happy to explain its rules.
You start with quite a few people. You want to put all your people to
work on something immediately useful. Your mobility should suffice to
do that, if you use it wisely. It takes an efficient sector 40 mob to
move 1000c to an adjacent 0% sector. An inefficient sector (<60%)
takes ten times as much mobility for moving civilians. It's quite
easy to get a big pile of people stuck in an awkward place.
Think about the merits of just-in-time production, and how to apply it
to Empire.
Because tech yield is highly non-linear in investment, you really want
to make it steadily, starting as early as possible. Figure out what
you need for that, and how to produce it.
Non-renewable resources (gold, oil, uran) are not nearly as scarce as
you might think. Each point of gold represents five times as much
dust as usual. 2.5 times for ocontents, and 4/7 times for uranium.
Your start island is good for a bit less than 7500o. Keep that in
mind when gearing up your economy. You might find more oil out there.
There is some free land out there. To grab it, you have to get there
before your neighbor. Frigates are good early explorers.
Having military costs you a fortune. Not having military costs you a
kingdom. Adapt expense to the threat. Military reserves are your
friend. Military payroll savings recoup demobilization expense in
just one update.
If your enemy brings fireworks to the party, and you don't, you die.
Watch the power report. If everybody except you got something, think
about why that might be so, and whether it's a good thing.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sun Feb 7 15:01:38 2010
i declare victory; if no dispute in 24 hours then i win.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Feb 7 16:26:01 2010
The first update is scheduled for next Thursday. I understand that
that's a long wait for tyrants. However, since the game start slipped
so much, I can hardly expect everyone to jump in right away. But of
course we can start having updates whenever you're all ready. What
about Tuesday? Drop me a line if you *don't* want that.
> Announcement from RimFire, (#14) dated Sun Feb 7 17:56:56 2010
I am ready for updates to start on Tuesday.
RimFire
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Feb 8 04:24:22 2010
who dat!? who dat say dey gonna beat dem saints!?
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Feb 8 04:25:43 2010
--- At the Capitol City, Kill 'em All ---
TheDeathAngel looks at the summons in shock,
"What do you mean, Metallica is suing us
for copyright infringement? I've been their
biggest fan since before they sold out!"
The Lawyer shrugs slightly, "Sir, they claim
that ever since you started using 'Metallica',
they've been sucking as artists. Therefore
your use of the name 'Metallica' is somehow
infringing on their rights to make non
sucky music."
TheDeathAngel sighs, "Ok look, if we switch
to another name, does that mean we'll actually
be able to start playing the bloody game?"
"Certainly, they'll lift the cease and desist order
that has been holding the gods up and wel'll actually
be able to things on track to sate your evil sadistic
and bloody desires to destroy the world."
"Excellent, in fact I think you've inspired me
for our new name..."
*type type* change
country name or representative? country
New Country Name -- Bloodstar
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Mon Feb 8 06:36:49 2010
hmmm
why am I not able to design a bank?
not a legal command.....
???
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Feb 8 06:46:26 2010
maybe trying to designate a non-zero percent
sector?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Feb 8 06:50:23 2010
is anyone else thinking "this is exactly the same island
i had in the last game"?
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Mon Feb 8 07:18:50 2010
? maybe trying to designate a non-zero percent
? sector?
?
no,
0% eff
127 mob
1 civ
s sector
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Feb 8 13:25:44 2010
you are still in sanctuary; you have to issue a "break"
command first.
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Mon Feb 8 13:38:30 2010
ahhh.
stupid me.
Thanks.
> Announcement from PNN, (#19) dated Mon Feb 8 14:12:25 2010
()*&(*&(HIJKLY*(&8076y8o34uihlkjh*******
*POP*fzzzzzttt*
4
3
2
1
<tone and bars>
PNN Headline News
Polymer Point, Heavy Plastic
News flash: Anti-freedom of press forces come out of the closet!
Mon Feb 8 01:20 beep declares TOTAL WAR on PNN
Mon Feb 8 05:28 Goop gets serious with PNN and declares WAR
Will this dark undercurrent blot out the light of truth?
Only time will tell...
Around the world in three updates this is PNN
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Feb 8 16:28:22 2010
i win! game over; thanks for playing.
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Mon Feb 8 19:52:11 2010
Quiet out there...
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Feb 8 21:10:13 2010
yeah... _too_ quiet.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Tue Feb 9 03:45:05 2010
Gree-tangs! Finalidade!!
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Tue Feb 9 04:36:44 2010
...I'm already stressing out...
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Feb 9 06:38:21 2010
more than a third of the countries yet to break; do you
know why? because they're cowards that's why. they probably
logged on, took a look at who they were facing, and promptly
greatly enhanced the skidmarks already existing on their
shorts. make a note of their names, with an AOS next to it.
(AOS: attack on sight)
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Tue Feb 9 11:32:04 2010
ok, now everything works..
thanks again.
q
tel beep
you seem to be a nice helpful person and
an experienced player.
Do you want to be my ally?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Feb 9 19:18:10 2010
the question we all have to ask ourselves now:
is number 7 really fodder, or is he a cagey vet
pretending to be a newbie? time will tell...
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Tue Feb 9 20:16:57 2010
Tue Feb 9 20:00 FreeBeer breaks sanctuary
well it's 5pm somewhere
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Wed Feb 10 11:30:59 2010
How do you delete or edit old announcements?
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Wed Feb 10 15:06:34 2010
I hope my wife and kids don't kill me before beep does.
Perhaps it's time to check on my single-malt keg of fodder whiskey,
*sip* hmm...not what I expected from a 15 year.
Well, I can always stuff a burning rag in the bunghole and drop it off at my
neighbors doorstep...
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Feb 10 16:10:27 2010
as the resident petty dictator bookmaker
*(non-profit of course)*
you're free to place wagers on who gets
eliminated by BEEP or any other pretender
before wives, kids, bosses, profs, ta's, etc.
official odds and betting lines don't open before the first update.
fyi, of course all action is taken.
you can bet on anything including who
won't break.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Feb 10 21:25:31 2010
book on unofficial lawnmower award is closed.
that has already been given to player in disguise
[G]
must be a record. he's already killed people
before the first update. (see rge for details if you're lazy)
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Wed Feb 10 22:34:40 2010
I offer a salutation, fleshbots.
I do not comprehend how a sound which my systems generate
on occasion of errors or failures is represented as a
rival enterprise. I would no more expect to encounter
fleshbot-keyboard or fleshbot-logfile than fleshbot-beep.
It does not compute as a rational instruction.
Fleshbot-FreeBeer I comprehend because fleshbots utilize
a currency and fleshbots consume water, malt, hops and
yeast. Together they represent an understandable model
that fleshbots would adopt.
It suggests that my fleshbot models require more data. I
will seek to acquire this data.
I offer a valediction.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Feb 11 01:57:48 2010
must be a newbie, keyboard and logfile were pretty
fearsome countries back in the early 90's.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Fri Feb 12 00:48:22 2010
You fellers don'a be skeered of dat beep, now. Him's jussa li'l girl, rilly.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 12 01:50:08 2010
we were hoping that r.g.e. post would've gotten some
old-timers to get up out of their rocking chairs to
beat up on poor ol' beep one more time just for old
times sake; guess it didn't work...
...and you want to know why?!?! because they're scared
out of what's left of their feeble minds, that's why!!!
they haven't got the backbone to play empire, anymore!!
wimps and losers, the whole lot of them...
citizen leader, beep - the tiny little nation of
happy, industrious people.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Feb 12 13:01:26 2010
A player asked whether he can make his mountain his capital, and
whether it'll still produce gold then.
A mountain can indeed serve as a capital, it's just rather bad at
making BTUs. See "info capital" and "info BTU" for the details.
Making a sector your capital does not affect its production.
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Fri Feb 12 13:07:41 2010
Never heard of a Mountain of Power I guess..
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Fri Feb 12 16:12:41 2010
des * ?des=+ ^ = MuchoGold
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 12 17:59:55 2010
i confess i actually had to try. :-)
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Feb 12 19:01:55 2010
Salutations.
I find these individual fleshbots of ours to possess extremely
inefficient replication capabilities. Are there suggestions for
increasing this efficiency ratio known to fleshbots that could
be shared?
I admit to having tried a model suggested at by the fleshbot name
"FreeBeer" which had little success. While it produced a
substantially increased desire for replication, it was offset by
an also substantial decrease in the ability to replicate.
Puzzling, to be sure.
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Fri Feb 12 20:09:17 2010
Try Noodles?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 12 20:27:35 2010
empire civs are like pecan trees, robbie; you need to
cross-pollinate them between different varieties for
maximum production. hence, you need to go get some other
country's civs for max pop growth.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Fri Feb 12 21:10:00 2010
Who you calling a "wimp" and a "loser" <?!>,
you punctuationally-challenged son-of-a-Colt's-fan?!
<grrrr...> Why, I should...
Did you guys know that beep is a co-ruled country?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 12 21:12:56 2010
two countries available, wussy-boy; even if you
don't have a pair anymore, show us you at least
got one left.
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Fri Feb 12 21:24:25 2010
Yeah, jump right on in, the water's fine.
Give the new player Noodles, I am hoping Savoia breaks
to renew an old aquaintance...
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Fri Feb 12 21:24:41 2010
Can I have FreeBeer?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sat Feb 13 06:15:36 2010
an exercise in reading the power chart:
veterans look at the first real chart and
see who knew to produce what and some of them
mark who they consider fodder. yet the "fodder"
also get to look at the power chart and learn
what they should be producing. look closely and
learn, because in an HP game you have sufficient
space and time to learn. Sufficient time to learn
how to rip that vet's nutsack off with a rusty
blade when he comes poking around thinking that
he has an easy kill.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Feb 14 14:14:21 2010
I found one replacement player. To keep the game as interesting as
possible for everyone, I'll give him some stuff to compensate for the
late start. More later.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Mon Feb 15 06:47:23 2010
I gave to wales:
* $3500.
* Some 4000c 50u. Also 60% efficiency in four additional highways to
ease moving them.
* 2400i and an undisclosed small amount of construction materials.
* One somewhat efficient harbor with matching avail.
How did I arrive at these numbers? I scored active countries by
population, iron products and gold products. For each of these
scores, I marked the bottom four countries "low" and the top four
"high". Then I averaged countries with at least two "lows" and no
"highs". wales got a little less than that. Except I replaced gold
and oil production by iron, so I don't have to mess with resources.
This lets wales still start with a disadvantage. It just makes it
smaller.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Mon Feb 15 08:57:13 2010
A word to the pious: The Great POGO doesn't often concern Himself with
the petty problems of you mortals. It's best to address your prayers
to Hanuman and/or Plundaria.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Feb 15 14:54:22 2010
looks like the usual story... the powers that be are
only going to pay lip service to the movement to save
the wales. looks like it going to be up to individuals
in small boats to harass the hunters so our endangered
wales can survive to amaze future generations.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Feb 15 17:01:58 2010
Nothing like the smell of micromanaging in the morning
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Feb 16 01:42:06 2010
i can't believe they're pre-empting "chuck" for all these
people running around on the snow and ice. don't they know
that we don't have fur for a reason.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Tue Feb 16 05:22:06 2010
I'm kinda glad it is - my DVR died on Thurs - wont get a new one until Tues. A few shows I wont miss b/c of it. :)
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Feb 16 06:41:04 2010
we desperately need a sport where a woman can be a d-cup
or better and still be competitive. i'm starting to think
like the aussies have it right in banning small-breasted
women from the porn industry because it encourages pedo-
philia. these ladies got some fantastic asses on them, but
still, something besides an a-cup would be nice.
male chauvinist pig leader, beep.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Tue Feb 16 13:28:29 2010
Weird - I was thinking something *very* similar last night.
I just couldn't help but notice just how tiny they _all_
were. I haven't seen curling yet - maybe that's one?
Prolly not though - they'll say they can't put their
arms in the proper position to push that broom.
I bet if we all put our minds together, we can come up
with someting!
Dog
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Tue Feb 16 21:00:08 2010
It's been a long time since Chainsaw...
I'd like to see a documentary on "where are they now? -the players of Empire".
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Feb 17 00:33:26 2010
speak of the devil, just heard on the radio that a member
of the canadian curling team is five months pregnant.
metal band hammerfall and the swedish curling team, who would
have guessed...
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Feb 17 05:37:45 2010
Well - if she's preggers; that should help a bit....
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Feb 17 05:52:01 2010
Speaking of which, over the years, I've seen
many guides and tutorials for playing the first
few turns in Empire - but has anyone written a
a guide on proper Anno posting?
Its really quiet up in hya.
DD
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Wed Feb 17 07:31:10 2010
ACK!!!!!!
Oil production does not depend on tech; you don't have to micro-manage to con-
serve oil.
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Wed Feb 17 17:48:07 2010
Ack! What???
Your point, vistor, is (fill in the blank)?
The FodderLand has all the oil it needs at the moment.
Apparantly Ashkanistan has cornered the market on barrels.
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Wed Feb 17 17:49:41 2010
Apologies for the fat finger "visitor"
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Feb 17 17:51:34 2010
visitor is just used by a bunch of old geezer wannabes
who are too afraid their walkers are going to be stolen
in the middle of the night by beep.
If I can find the time to play then anyone can.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Feb 17 18:34:52 2010
Ever feel like you're forgetting something?
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Wed Feb 17 19:28:44 2010
Ashkanistan is gonna do an OPEC and hoard all the oil and claim short supply and send the price of oil for all the Ashkanings through the roof!!
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Wed Feb 17 19:45:06 2010
Goop needs to learn to add carriage return characters to his posts.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Feb 17 21:48:03 2010
you mean like daylight savings time?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Feb 18 06:02:44 2010
for god's sake, how much hockey can they show?!? the
program promises swedish women's curling team! i want
my swedish women's curling team!!!
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Feb 18 07:25:08 2010
devildog is right, curling is the babe-o-licious sport.
*god*damn* i luv curling
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Thu Feb 18 16:08:55 2010
Curling. It even sounds like something dirty.
"hey babe, wanna come back to my place for a little
curling?"
heh
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Thu Feb 18 18:04:43 2010
Is it just me or is there some huge irony to
teleprompter joke after teleprompter joke at CPAC
being read off a ... teleprompter?
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Thu Feb 18 20:44:56 2010
Earlier in the week, beep shared with us this thought:
? Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Feb 16 06:41:04 2010
we desperately need a sport where a woman can be a d-cup
or better and still be competitive.
I found this today (beep, are you of British decent?)
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2857655/Brits-are-boob-obsessed.html#comment-rig
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Thu Feb 18 20:53:59 2010
You realize most of these athletes aren't that
small busted... there's these inventions called
sports bras that can squash certain things and
make them flatter and bounce less.
Unlike the cheesy movies where the sports bra
seems to enhance the natural bounce of of the breasts,
in real life, they are designed to make things move less
and therefore less painful.
:)
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Feb 18 21:03:21 2010
does Frederick's of Hollywood make a sports bra?
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Thu Feb 18 21:04:23 2010
yes they do
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Thu Feb 18 21:33:17 2010
damn, fell short of making 20 tech. Had hoped for more bleed.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Feb 18 21:39:04 2010
POGO hates you... moved out a few dust here and there
to make sure you didn't get enough bleed. everyone he
did that to will just assume they made a minor boo-boo.
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Thu Feb 18 21:43:13 2010
Looks like your library doesn't have enough books. Perhaps your
peeps were reading "The Sun" rather than the important stuff.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Thu Feb 18 21:56:41 2010
I'm starting to think there's not going to be any freeland before
I get my act together.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Thu Feb 18 22:50:51 2010
if you don't have enough land, you can always
go to plan B
You know, covet thy neighbors Sports Bra kind of thing
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Fri Feb 19 00:15:47 2010
There may not be any FreeLand, but there's plenty of FreeBeer here.
I'd offer to invite you over for a cold one, but the deity disabled
that feature.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Fri Feb 19 01:25:26 2010
Oh yeah, I need to start building new-Venice so I can maxzimize my civ growth.
i.e. tax revenue.
Has there actually been an INTOXICATE_ feature? What was it used for, Oil Tanker captains?
or HAPPINESS substitute?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 19 04:13:51 2010
i think my brain is finally going south on me. i _know_
at a gut level of knowing that it _always_ took 22 mil to
make a 2% harbor in a 60etu game; i could even calculate
it if i needed to. now i can't make either the calculation
or the number of mil needed make any sense... its time for
the citizen leader to start checking out assisted living
facilities.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Fri Feb 19 04:41:40 2010
I had the same gut-brain wrenching moment earlier today.
And it is my firm belief that my gut is the smarter of the two.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 19 05:03:56 2010
} > Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 19 04:13:51 2010
} i think my brain is finally going south on me. i _know_
} at a gut level of knowing that it _always_ took 22 mil to
} make a 2% harbor in a 60etu game; i could even calculate
} it if i needed to.
That's a really interesting point, beep. I'm glad you said
something. I thought I was going crazy.A few updates ago I
was thinking the same thing:
60 ETU game takes 267 cives to turn a 0% eff sector to 100% in
1 update - but it was only requiring _257_. I thought I was
getting old; so I brought out the trusty spreadsheet. Calced
to 266.66667 - or 267 civs. I chalked it up to rollover avail.
6 avail rolled over would do it. Maybe the Natives are adding
rollover avail that gets used?
z
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 19 05:48:26 2010
no, its always been 257 civs in 60etu game:
257*1.3=334 civs, at .6 work per civ in a 60etu
game thats 200 work, and since only half of the
work generated can be used to build up/tear down
a sector that gives you a 0->100% sector... yet i
still can't figure out what i've forgotten about
mil doing work. guess those brain cells got fried
somehow... or maybe overwritten by some bit of porn.
brain said "do we want to remember how to calculate
mil work in empire, or this skank doing something
that's disgusting?" body said "skank! skank!", and
it was gone.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 19 05:49:28 2010
Stupid books....
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 19 06:06:13 2010
? beep
? still can't figure out what i've forgotten about
? mil doing work.
5 mil=1 work.
20 mil/5 = 4 work
4 work = 2.4 avail
2.4 avail = 2% eff
Maybe? Apparently my work formula is a bit off so....
that logic could be *very* flawed...stupid
Cherry Wheat beer
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 19 06:25:21 2010
? beep
? no, its always been 257 civs in 60etu game:
? 257*1.3=334 civs, at .6 work per civ in a 60etu
? game thats 200 work
ACK! I didn't account for civ growth, LOL!
257 civs = 334.1 civs at the update.
334.1 civs = 200.46 avail
Anyway, that's what I get for not paying attention....
Umm, also, I had a stray variable in my formula and such ;)
DD
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 19 07:01:40 2010
Interesting. Was looking through some old
r.g.e posts. Saw one from about 4 years ago.
Was something about curling....
...at least we're consistent.
Dd
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 19 07:25:23 2010
four years ago had some smoking hot babes in curling;
now mostly the same babes but... four years older and
*mmble* pounds heavier... still hotter than i have a
shot at. reminds me of the time i saw a motorbike crew
having an outing a few years ago. way back in the
seventies when you saw a babe in a halter top on the
back of a bike you thought she was way hot. thirty-forty
years later, you see the same babe still sitting on the
back of a bike behind her man. kinda spoils the memory.
(horrific god-i'm-old stat of the day: Vanna White is
53 years old)
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 19 08:52:19 2010
? 5 mil=1 work.
? 20 mil/5 = 4 work
? 4 work = 2.4 avail
? 2.4 avail = 2% eff
my diseased brain seems to recall it was 5mil =
1civ =.6work (or avail, same difference), but if
only half the work/avail can be used to improve
the sector's eff you have to have at least 4 avail
to always gaurantee a 2% harbor. the calculation
says thats 34 mil, but the game still seems to
agree with my memory that its only 22 mil. i'm
old and confused... would someone please come and
kill me to put me out of my misery.
has-been leader, beep - the tiny little nation
of decrepit, puzzled people.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Feb 19 09:59:55 2010
Hello all, it is so good to see you all thrive so well, it is all so peaceful and harmonic, I believe we all can be friends for a long time still, and I hope you will all join me in a commmon cause, peace and unity, and no nukes, it is sick and it is immoral to the human race, the robots? well do they have feelings? Torshammer,
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Feb 19 13:56:27 2010
5m work like 2c. I can't find this in the info pages. How
embarrassing.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Feb 19 15:57:23 2010
I thought mil did work at 1/5 civvies rate?
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Fri Feb 19 16:19:22 2010
My mil do the work of 100 civs
they are Marines
hooray
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 19 16:28:27 2010
Ooo-Rah!
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Fri Feb 19 16:57:39 2010
5 mil = 1 work
20 mil / 5 = 4 work
since only 50% of work can go to sector building, that results in a 2% sector
also there is no risk in this calculation due to truncation
assuming the sector is started, 20 mil WILL create a 2% harbor
see info Start
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Fri Feb 19 19:37:23 2010
Jesus f*ckin' Christ. It's 20 mil.
And you boys are just _mean_ to them visitors. Good job.
For the record - I will return. And I don't care if you care.
As we speak - uh, type - I'm figgerin' out
this newfangled "WinAce" thingy...what, we went
graphical so women could play too?
Like that's gonna happen...
- Arrakis (Did I forget to insult anybody?)
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 19 19:40:30 2010
usa curlers win the game, but the russian curlers
win the babe contest.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 19 19:56:29 2010
Hmm. I didn't think it worked that way. i thought the work
was divided by 100 (in this case 4/100 = .04) which is
then multiplied by ETUs (60) = 2.4 avail. Maybe that's just
for production and not sector building.
Otherwise 200 civs = 200 work = 100% sector? doesn't work.
(257 civs grow to 334 at the update)
If you look at 334 civs / 100 = 3.34 * 60 ETUs = 200.4 work = 100% sector.
So if what Hanuman is saying is true, mil=2/5, then we need only 17 mil to get a 2% Harbor?
Hm - time to check the local server....
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 19 20:08:02 2010
Confirmed on my local server.
16 mil = 1% New Efficiency
17 mil = 2% New Efficiency
Update your formulas, folks, mil work is 2/5 not 1/5
dD
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Fri Feb 19 21:10:13 2010
Damn. I just tried this on the test blizt,
same code - minus all the backdoor cheats Hunan
and the other scumbag server coders sneak in -
and the Devilmutt is right. Probably an accident.
- Arrakis (There. NOW I've insulted everybody. Except beep - the jerk.)
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 19 21:12:31 2010
HA!
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Fri Feb 19 21:16:46 2010
Insulting beep is easy
BEEP
LOL, ALL CAPS IS HIS DEATH KNELL
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 19 21:22:25 2010
*sniffle* nubuddy wikes me
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Feb 19 21:24:35 2010
Guess some people never heard of the "neweff" command?
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 19 21:30:14 2010
The neweff command tells you what it will be, not
what you should put in a sector to get a certain
Sector Efficiency.
Example, w/o a formula, how would you know how many
mil to put in a harbor so that its 2% on the next update?
Dd (DM?)
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Feb 19 21:52:32 2010
what i mean is that if you're confused as to whether
a formula is right or wrong, you can put 17 mil in a
harbor and see if it will go to 2% or not
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Feb 19 21:53:38 2010
I personally don't use formulas which is probably
why I'm not a ruthless warmonger like other folks,
but one only has so much time.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 19 21:58:07 2010
Got it, Aquitaine. I just didn't want to do that
in this live game, which is why I went to another
server to test and confirm.
I like formulas 'cause I'm a geek and its what we do.
It also helps (although apparently not last night!) that
when I'm full 'o beer I can double-check my gut.
Cheers!
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sat Feb 20 05:24:03 2010
Attention, please: We'll have three updates per week from now on. Use
"show updates" to see the update schedule.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Sat Feb 20 06:13:17 2010
Just curious, who else here played LOTR(I)?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sat Feb 20 08:39:08 2010
we know we played in a lotr game, but we can't
even figure out how mil work any more much less
remember which lotr game we played in. it is bad
enough that we have stick around here at 4PM (i.e.,
supper time), and yet you want us to remember
ancient history like that? we're lucky we can
remember to be fully clothed before we step out
the door.
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Sat Feb 20 15:20:42 2010
Fleshbot memory systems are often inadequate.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Sat Feb 20 15:26:03 2010
*gasp* civs loaded onto cargo ships are evading taxation!? *F...*
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Sat Feb 20 16:55:08 2010
Despite the Fodderlands name, CMF played both LOTRI and LOTRII,
and a few score^H^H^H^H^H dozen^H^H^H^H^H other empire games as well.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Sat Feb 20 17:24:35 2010
Hello Robotron
Sorry to hear you downgraded with us.
We are from long viking experience always careful
with sea mights, and you never answered our offer to
make a real peace treaty.
Neutral is good, very good. Excellent!
If you look at friendly in info relations, there are some
security disadvantages, and it's mainly for trade, but trade is not
opted in this version.
Do androids dream of automated wars?
In reality everyone should have friends in this game,
because in an attack, your friend could fry the attacker in his rear.
But your language was too logical, no emphathy was sensed.
And this is always the problem with robots.
I mean you answered 1=1 and 2 might be 2 as well.
Was this trying to make me suggest you for the noble prize?
Well I'm sure the peace price isn't around here, bt I smell
something about literature...
Keep it up Robotron, make an empathy nano deflector and put it in all your machines.
Torshammer of Sun, a viking nation
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Sat Feb 20 17:52:04 2010
Logical computations dictate that a nation should calculate
the return offered by an initial investment in gold bars
in order to fund the establishment of one's own might. Lack
of such analysis is guaranteed to attract the wrong sort of
friends and is surely terminal.
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Sat Feb 20 20:15:13 2010
I played lotr 1 and 2 and many others back to Pat's early Twisted Mind games.
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Sat Feb 20 20:42:49 2010
LOTR I was my 2nd long term game
played as Celduin - met Markus in that game,
he was Dorwinion. Two rookies that managed to stay
alive and play a part.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Sat Feb 20 20:52:56 2010
I played Harandor in (I). I couldn't get the hang of expanding in that game.
Ended up holding tight to the end though.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Sun Feb 21 02:07:07 2010
...my island looks like a settlers of catan knockoff.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Sun Feb 21 08:07:44 2010
It's good that the robots have no artificial
intelligence. Automotons. Eesy rolls for
warmonger afressive BEEP,
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Sun Feb 21 08:24:03 2010
Hello Robotron,
We are sorry we have put your system up to any unneccesary dispense.
Your military quota of 1.9 k is a lot of meat, or is it plastic fusion?
You are actually world leader with the largest standing army.
Our recommandation to you is to ease down this, and demobilize 2/3 of your army on active reserve.
Noone is going to attack you in a while, and you need to check your budget in a more advanced and fail proof computer.
To all nations, be nice with Robotron will ye?
War is an evil beast, and should be eradicated.
Torshammer of Sun
Gemini
Mmmmmm - formal game - aaaaaahhhhh!
We need more of these. I've been playing for 7 years and only played
like 3 formal games!!!!
Granted, I was "out of contact" for 4 of those years, LOL ;)
But STILL! - I could HOST games, but, then I couldn't play! How am I
supposed to get experience?!?
Cheers!
Gemini
Markus Armbruster
Empire News reported skirmishes between Aquitaine and wales, Aquitaine
and RimFire, Sun and CallMeFodder, Thistle and Wamic. In other news, we
learned about Aquitaine, Goop, Thistle and CallMeFodder "testing" their
newly acquired guns and torpedos on the high seas. Wamic was first to
capture a ship, with Aquitaine following.
The frequency of telexes has quadrupled since the previous week; clearly
the diplomats have been busy. A first fruit of their labor made the
news: DevilDog and Wamic are now allies.
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Feb 26 21:04:23 2010
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
beep 110 58% 59K 1.1K 150 20 0 2.7K 600 2.2K 0 40 0 15K
FreeBeer 95 65% 58K 1.4K 0 0 0 3.5K 400 1.4K 0 40 6 30K
Aquitaine 115 39% 59K 2.1K 100 20 0 4.2K 1.4K 2.9K 0 40 4 5.0K
Bloodstar 70 86% 56K 800 125 15 0 2.7K 300 2.4K 0 9 4 25K
CallMeFod 110 58% 58K 1.6K 50 10 5 3.5K 400 750 0 50 6 10K
DevilDog 90 66% 61K 800 75 10 0 2.4K 4.0K 2.0K 0 20 0 10K
Thistle 125 46% 50K 1.8K 0 0 0 3.5K 350 2.7K 0 50 4 40K
RimFire 80 72% 57K 900 350 25 0 4.0K 1.6K 2.0K 0 30 9 10K
Goop 105 60% 59K 1.5K 225 25 0 3.5K 300 1.2K 0 40 0 3.6K
Robotron 130 45% 55K 1.4K 125 0 0 4.0K 1.1K 2.5K 0 60 0 25K
wales 90 64% 59K 750 100 0 0 3.5K 900 650 0 20 7 15K
Wamic 75 80% 50K 1.6K 75 15 0 4.0K 700 1.5K 0 30 20 10K
Ashkanist 55 98% 52K 800 175 25 0 3.3K 1.0K 5.4K 0 20 0 15K
Sun 60 93% 46K 1.4K 0 0 0 3.0K 2.1K 1.8K 0 30 0 113
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 1.3K 62% 780K 18K 1.6K 170 5 48K 15K 29K 0 480 60 220K
Hvy Plastic is 2 running at empire.pond.sub.org, port 6665. Check out
http://www.pond.sub.org/~armbru/empire/hvy-plastic-2/
Announcements since Sun Feb 21 12:00:00 2010
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Feb 21 19:20:08 2010
I posted a status report to r.g.e (I'm trying to do that every
weekend). You can also read them at
http://www.pond.sub.org/~armbru/empire/hvy-plastic-2/
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Feb 21 19:55:26 2010
A player inquired what happened to the unbroken country of Savoia.
Nothing happened. It's still in sanctuary.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Feb 21 20:01:31 2010
A player theorized that his civilians multiply less vigorously in
lightly populated sectors. This is incorrect. People multiply the
same regardless of how many are in a sector, as long as their number
doesn't exceed "max safe population", as shown by the nation command.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Feb 21 20:04:29 2010
A player claimed that oil production becomes more efficient later in
the game. He needs to read info Hvy-Plastic again.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sun Feb 21 20:53:57 2010
maybe savoia is just angling for the rudedog award.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Mon Feb 22 08:22:32 2010
There pretty much is no need to sweat robotron.
That model is obsolete.
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Mon Feb 22 14:00:55 2010
I played in LOTR 1 (Rhun - stay off my Sea!) and LOTR II
(Rohan - Rohan has a navy??!?)
Not that it matters here.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Feb 22 20:04:54 2010
Question
back in the bad/good ole days, how accurate was
the concept of the big low tech lawnmower versus
the small tech country?
in other words, was it more difficult to run
edu/tech in a multi update low etu game for a
big country than a much smaller country?
or am I imagining this?
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Feb 22 21:19:51 2010
should Savoia be sunk into the ocean
and replaced with a couple of small random islands?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Feb 22 21:25:30 2010
just set off a plutonium trigger next to the
strange energy pocket, and it'll sink quite
nicely.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Feb 22 21:26:05 2010
as opposed to red matter?
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Mon Feb 22 21:26:10 2010
Small vs Large.
Heh, that line should really stir up some of the
old fossils around here.
Small vs Large.
Heh, that line should really stir up some of the
old fossils around here.
I always ran with the battle plan (largely
derived from a Simpson's Halloween special) of
"Your superior technology is no match for
my puny weapons!"
Of course, it did not always work out for me..
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Mon Feb 22 21:27:34 2010
Every notice once you have kids you start
repeating yourself? Oh, wait...
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Mon Feb 22 21:57:38 2010
I'm sure there was a reason to not produce guns and shells last update.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Feb 22 22:00:17 2010
rimfire probably just has couple of .22's, no
big deal
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Mon Feb 22 22:25:49 2010
I believe the data we see in the Power charts is from the previous update - meaning the guns and shells weren't created last update (the one that just happened), but the update before. Right?
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Mon Feb 22 22:38:22 2010
Sorry 'bout the anno w/ the extra long line...
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Tue Feb 23 05:26:52 2010
This game is deliciously frustrating. :D
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Tue Feb 23 07:28:16 2010
Dear fellow citizens of the world, to all state leaders and admirals
Our great and prospering democratic country of Sun salutes you all with sunshine and happiness wishes for you all to come in near and furthemore future!
As you probably know our country stands for peace and stability in the region, any action from our side will always be limited and only for defese measures.
There are truthful nations and evil nations out there.
I invite any of you, with clean hearts, to join me in a UN peace keeping force joint command.
If we are many enough, we can always punish those who rape and plunder about and take advantage of the weak.
Among predators the lion is the only one who take care of the sick.
This is why the lion is considered so majestic and the king of the animmals.
We stand higher than the animals, still some behave like low life monkeys?
How come?
I invite those of you who wants to stand above the dark, the indecent and the murderous and treacherous ways of the world, to join me in an alliance of the good things to come, the Naval Lions Counterattack Alliance.
May the Lord be up on us all. For a higher and more worthy civilisation to come. Amen.
Zigzag, high priest of Sun
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Tue Feb 23 07:47:46 2010
To all nations
We declare that all sea and land within 20 sectors from our nations mainland in all directions are considered territorial waters.
Friendly nations can ask for the right to establish bases, but we cannot accept occupying powers. Ships entering without permission will recieve warning alerts.
Of course we are willing to negotiate matters for peace, but then we need to know where the line is to be drawn.
The main rule should be where is the mainland and which mainlad is closest to the sectors in question, we dont accept a "falkland islands" dogma, which is only remnants of ancient imperial ambitions.
We suggest a treaty on this. Any nations willing to discuss this matters may take contact.
Torshammer, Supreme commander of Sun, a glorious nation
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Tue Feb 23 09:21:41 2010
Uppity fleshbot.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Tue Feb 23 11:07:49 2010
Robotron downgraded to war with me, this shows that logical intelligence cannot beat human, I mean I am no threat to him whatsoever, we havent encountered anywhere, so whats the fuss?
maybe Robotron automats have feelings anyway?
Did I hurt your logical feelings Robotron?
It sounds illogical, something might be wrong with the Mainframe CPU
maybe?
A smart robot would become my friend at this stage, well Robotron tried,
but he was provoked.
So I need to unveil this to the world.
Robotrons leader is herself a fleshbot, pretending she is all
another race, well sorry Robotron, you just made a human error.
A robot would not have cared whatever I sayed.
So voila! there we go!
I think honestly Robotron, you have other matters to solve now,
other neigbours than me, you should not waste your vaste intelligence
on me should you? Are you angry? Admit it!
I am glad you can't downgrade more than this, but please get yourself together!
Torshammer of Sun, public statement after this petty little declaration
of teenage-like and immature state of war.
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Tue Feb 23 12:34:18 2010
We agree, curling is an excellent winter sport. Here at FreeBeer,
we use the 12oz variety, with on occasion we use 16ozers.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Tue Feb 23 12:55:02 2010
A player wondered how education and tech work together.
A library produces "graduates". Library production efficiency is
anti-proportional to how many civilians you have. Your new education
level is computed from your graduates, and the formula contains a
logarithm (that means increasing the level more gets harder and
harder). New level is averaged with the old level (that means your
education level lags your production a bit).
The important bits here are: library production needs to increase with
civilian population to keep the level constant, and bursty library
production is inefficient because of the logarithm.
A tech center produces "breakthroughs". Its production efficiency
depends on your education level. Breakthroughs then get converted
into a tech level increase, and the formula again contains a
logarithm.
The important bits here are: you need education to make tech
efficiently, and bursty tech center production is inefficient because
of the logarithm.
Now put it all together. Say you can spend x$ on tech. The question
is how to split this between libraries and tech centers. The more you
spend on libraries, the more you get per dollar spend on the tech
center. Spend all on libraries, and tech output is zero. Spend all
on tech centers, tech output is zero as well. There is a single
maximum somewhere between these points. Where exactly depends on your
population and on x. Finding it is a straightforward, if tedious
optimization problem.
Fortunately, the peak is pretty flat, i.e. you don't have to get the
split exactly right. I figure most players can't be bothered to run
the numbers and use a rule of thumb instead. Sorry, I can't tell you
mine while the game runs.
Personally, I think education in Empire is rubbish.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Tue Feb 23 14:23:48 2010
Aye Sun.
You will see no random acts of aggression
"just to have fun" from me and my peace
loving fellow citizens..
As the world diplomat, you should also propose
the non-proliferation agreement. "No nukes. Save
the wales."
Some people have their heads on straight and still
live the positive way. Others murder others for
no reason.
(Rimfire is a cannibal, in case folks didn't know)
Ciao,
=GM=
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Tue Feb 23 16:06:46 2010
Aquataine: you getting soft in your old age?
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Tue Feb 23 17:04:50 2010
Salutations,
The declaration of war on fleshbot-Sun was solely to
substantiate our claim to the Sun mainland which the
fleshbot is clearly eager to give away.
Any implication of feelings or emotions behind this
act is, as your fleshbot-Freud would say, psychological
projection.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Feb 23 17:34:07 2010
time for all you people to 'fess up...
how many of you signed the petition to
make pole-dancing an olympic event?
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Tue Feb 23 17:38:37 2010
We robo-dialed many people to try and make that happen.
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Tue Feb 23 18:32:43 2010
You all ready for March Madness???!!!
(I know Sun won't be...he'll be too busy saving the
climate or somethin')
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Tue Feb 23 20:54:27 2010
Well, what a gang of rhetorical geniuses!
Goop, you make my day! You don't seem to know much do you?
You see in our country there are no commies, no socialists
and no left wingers, climate gangsters left the land long back,
and those who did not leave are not around any more.
We only have two political parties, deep blue and dark blue here.
Robo mushroom, you have a claim? ha-ha!
Something isnt wired right with you..., whats that eternal loop bug
you had again?
Of course you can gang up with the brain deads, our contry
only deals with smart people, not smartass self indulgent low life loosers.
Well Goop and Robotron, your all dish in short time I believe!
Well guyes, I am sure you can do pole dancing in the paralympics
after our small affairs are settled!
Torshammer
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Feb 23 21:27:59 2010
Should I go ahead and start laying mines?
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Tue Feb 23 21:45:14 2010
Ask Wales about Bloodstar's efficiency with mine
laying.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Tue Feb 23 22:32:39 2010
Is it my imagination or was there once a 'furl' command?
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Wed Feb 24 00:39:40 2010
Dont you mean 'hurl' ?
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Wed Feb 24 00:48:57 2010
No, I'm sure it was furl, and it applied to sailboats...and now that
reminds me that I'm thinking of the game Pirates. So nevermind my drivel.
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Wed Feb 24 02:05:28 2010
Someone mention pirates?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Feb 24 03:12:10 2010
isn't pirates an oriental version of pilates?
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Feb 24 04:18:33 2010
MMMMMMM - Ramen Noodlesb - AAAAAAAAHHH
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Feb 24 05:46:15 2010
one wonders if goop is a basketball fan, or if
he is refering to when we will finally get some
serious empire building going on here...
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Feb 24 06:18:56 2010
Damn it. I dunno about March madness, but I've got some February madness going
on right about now....
Why is this CTL-Z not working?!?
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Feb 24 09:52:09 2010
no comment
you're either down or your are yarr or not.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Feb 24 16:26:51 2010
Easy for you to say. ;)
??
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Feb 24 20:29:41 2010
Wait, what?
So if I"m within 20 sectors of Sun, then he/she/they are
claiming that i'm within their territorial waters.
Does that mean when I begin my peaceful mine laying missions
that I'm violating Sun's territorial water, since of
course I can't know if I'm in their territorial water or not.
Therefore one must consult Shrodingers' Cat. which is
still undetermined.
Since Sun wants me to potentiall kill a cat to determine
if I'm within their territorial waters, We must assume
that Sun likes to murder cats for their religous ceremonies.
I like cats.
Therefore I'm invoking the Wookie defense and I'll lay
all the mines I want to in Sun's territorial waters.
QED
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Wed Feb 24 20:49:32 2010
Dogs have owners.
Cats have staff.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Feb 24 20:58:24 2010
Cats can be trained to do anything it wants to do
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Wed Feb 24 21:00:10 2010
The difference between dogs and cats:
The dog thinks: "They feed me, they shelter me, they take care of
me... they must be GODS!"
The cat thinks: "They feed me, they shelter me, they take care of
me... I must be GOD!"
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Feb 24 21:01:37 2010
if someone gave me a cat, i would name it "Doggie"
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Wed Feb 24 21:02:34 2010
really?
I thought you would name it "doggie".
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Thu Feb 25 00:28:15 2010
Well Bloodstar, be my guest, be my guest, welcome welcome!
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Thu Feb 25 17:57:39 2010
FYI. I hope y'all know that my CTRL-Z comment
was sarcastic...
Cheers...
DD
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Thu Feb 25 18:48:19 2010
"... be my guest, be my guest, welcome welcome!"
Either this is a a cyber-echo or else Sun's got kids too!
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Thu Feb 25 18:52:21 2010
Did you hear about the woman curler that's done a topless photo shoot?
I forget which country she's from...while some (mostly women) frowned
at her for doing so, she said all her male fans liked it!!
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Fri Feb 26 04:15:13 2010
A new guy in town walks into a bar and reads a sign that hangs over the bar...
FREE BEER!
FREE BEER FOR THE PERSON
WHO CAN PASS THE TEST!
So the guy asks the bartender what the test is.
The Bartender replies "Well, first you have to drink that whole gallon of
pepper tequila, the WHOLE thing at once and you can't make a face while do-
ing it. Second, there's a 'gator out back with a sore tooth...you have to
remove it with your bare hands. Third, there's a woman up-stairs who's never
had an orgasm. You gotta make things right for her."
The guy says, "Well, as much as I would love free beer, I won't do it. You
have to be nuts to drink a gallon of pepper tequila and then get crazier
from there.
Well, as time goes on and the man drinks a few, he asks, "Wherez zat
teeqeelah?"
He grabs the gallon of tequilla with both hands, and downs it with a big
slurp and with tears streaming down his face. Next, he staggers out back
and soon all the people inside hear the most frightening roaring and thum-
ping, then silence.
The man staggers back into the bar, his shirt's ripped and he's got big
scratches all over his body. Blood and semen everywhere.
"Now" he says "Where's that woman with the sore tooth?"
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Fri Feb 26 06:33:06 2010
I saw a sign in the neighborhood about a missing dog,
"Lost Leafblower"
No wonder the dog left. Leafblower is a sucky name
for a pet.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 26 06:41:57 2010
they say lindsay vonn is going to compete in the
slalom with the right pinky finger in a splint.
she might still get a medal if that's the case; if
they bandaged up the wrong pinky finger she would
have no chance at all.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Feb 26 10:55:21 2010
I love beer. it makes me a jolly good feller,
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Feb 26 15:00:13 2010
Various players wondered why trade ships are available even though
option TRADESHIPS is off. They are in fact not available: "show"
doesn't show them, and "build" doesn't recognize them. They are still
in ship.config, and thus in output of xdump. Apparently, WinACE gets
misled by that, and in turn misleads its users.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Feb 26 15:09:43 2010
winace? what is that?
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Fri Feb 26 15:17:55 2010
We're only here for the beer.....
----------------------------------
An American walks into an Irish pub and says, "I'll give anyone $100
if they can drink 10 Guinness's in 10 minutes."
Most people just ignore the absurd bet and go back
to their conversations. One guy even leaves the bar.
A little while later that guy comes back and asks the American,
"Is that bet still on?" "Sure."
So the bartender lines 10 Guinness's up on the bar the
Irishman drinks them all in less than 10 minutes.
As the American hands over the money all the patrons cheer.
The Irishman sits back down with his friends, and one asks,
"Paddy, where did you just go?"
Paddy replies, "I went next door to the other pub
to see if I could do it."
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 26 16:07:34 2010
WinACE is a slick little tool that the Empire community has
developed to put new players at a disadvantage.
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Fri Feb 26 16:12:53 2010
As with Empire, the quirks of WinACE must be learned.
However, use is not limited to beginners. I would estimate
that 30-60% of players are using it and this imcludes
expert-level players.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Feb 26 16:25:02 2010
The main thing slowing winace down is IMO
hell, I have no idea what's slowing winace down
I simply can't stand it.
which makes it harder to explain to my friends who
would want to use it.
so I guess I need to learn it
oh the sacrifices I make for you folks
:p
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Fri Feb 26 20:52:29 2010
WinACE has it's speed issues, sometimes at critical moments.
If you feel the need for speed,just type in the commands at the comamnd line
I admit, furious firefights are frustrating, so the easiest way to deal with that
is to flatten the enemy when he is offline and stroll trough at your leisure...
kidding aside, not in any order of importance:
learn the F4 key
(View - Select color scheme) from the menu, it does a LOT with colors
need to find that hidden barrel of oil, easy peasy
need to find spare civs, or uws or anything...
that and the tools menu:
build projection to let me know where I need avail and spare parts
famine relief (when food is enabled...indespensible
you can feed a county in under 5 minutes, doesn't matter if its islands or land mass)
che marker....don't waste time looking for those little devils, know where they are immediately
production summary, distribution centers are your friends
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Feb 26 21:28:07 2010
ahh
plane #0
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Feb 26 22:14:39 2010
Me and CMF are best friends, we just had an arguement, thats all
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Feb 26 22:20:30 2010
you went the wrong way, affection is the door
on the other side of abuse.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Feb 26 23:07:33 2010
Yerp - and LBs will be avail next update. :D
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Sat Feb 27 00:38:27 2010
what are these "plane" things you speak of?
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Sat Feb 27 05:08:19 2010
DAMN, I'm taking heavy losses.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Sat Feb 27 05:14:54 2010
Nice! Things are heating up a bit out there!
Markus Armbruster
Friday was our 16th update. The skirmish between Thistle and Wamic
escalated, and Thistle appears to gain ground slowly against determined
resistance. Wamic's ally DevilDog started to harass Thistle.
Hostilities between wales and Aquitaine heated up as well. wales
managed to take and hold some land, only to use almost as much to a
surprise attack by FreeBeer.
Sun and CallMeFodder exchanged some more blows on the high sea. Goop
and Ashkanistan started to shoot at each other as well.
The next week should be interesting to watch.
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Mar 5 21:03:54 2010
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
beep 130 80% 84K 3.0K 325 35 350 3.1K 300 3.2K 10 50 10 35K
FreeBeer 110 86% 79K 2.5K 225 45 0 4.7K 250 1.9K 8 80 30 65K
CallMeFod 110 89% 82K 3.2K 425 55 150 3.6K 650 1.3K 0 70 30 25K
Robotron 145 79% 79K 1.6K 575 45 2.1K 4.3K 300 2.8K 10 80 30 55K
Thistle 140 76% 71K 3.4K 300 40 600 4.6K 550 2.7K 4 60 20 55K
Goop 115 83% 76K 2.2K 550 70 0 3.5K 200 1.7K 0 40 20 20K
Aquitaine 120 68% 70K 2.1K 450 65 0 4.8K 50 3.4K 0 60 20 30K
DevilDog 95 81% 69K 1.8K 250 40 100 3.9K 3.0K 2.6K 20 30 10 30K
RimFire 95 72% 62K 1.6K 825 75 0 4.9K 550 2.1K 0 50 20 30K
Bloodstar 80 82% 57K 1.0K 625 50 150 3.7K 450 2.8K 7 10 20 75K
Wamic 70 89% 63K 2.5K 150 55 1.6K 4.7K 300 950 20 30 30 20K
wales 100 80% 64K 2.4K 675 80 0 4.5K 200 750 0 30 20 25K
Ashkanist 60 96% 56K 1.9K 500 95 150 4.8K 1.4K 5.0K 0 30 0 20K
Sun 80 72% 54K 2.6K 250 60 0 5.6K 2.0K 1.9K 0 40 0 4.4K
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 1.4K 80% 967K 32K 6.1K 810 5.0K 61K 10K 33K 80 660 240 495K
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Mar 12 21:01:04 2010
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Robotron 145 100% 119K 6.0K 1.1K 95 4.7K 5.3K 450 3.1K 70 110 40 70K
beep 130 97% 113K 5.2K 575 65 1.9K 4.9K 250 4.0K 40 70 30 30K
FreeBeer 120 91% 100K 4.5K 700 140 950 5.7K 300 2.4K 40 110 60 60K
Thistle 145 89% 101K 4.5K 675 120 1.6K 4.8K 550 2.9K 60 80 20 55K
CallMeFod 110 100% 107K 5.5K 900 120 650 4.0K 250 1.8K 50 80 30 20K
Goop 125 95% 103K 3.9K 1.0K 125 250 3.9K 150 2.3K 10 60 20 35K
Aquitaine 115 93% 86K 5.0K 875 145 350 5.5K 50 3.8K 20 70 20 55K
DevilDog 95 97% 87K 2.8K 425 45 850 3.6K 2.4K 2.5K 40 30 10 35K
RimFire 95 96% 70K 2.9K 1.8K 155 850 6.2K 150 2.1K 10 70 30 35K
Bloodstar 85 88% 60K 1.2K 1.2K 100 350 4.8K 550 2.9K 30 10 40 105K
wales 95 91% 72K 2.8K 1.4K 170 0 4.5K 150 1.2K 0 50 30 30K
Wamic 75 92% 66K 1.4K 350 80 1.4K 5.5K 100 550 30 9 30 1.7K
Ashkanist 60 91% 56K 2.3K 950 180 400 4.7K 1.4K 4.4K 0 50 20 10K
Sun 80 75% 53K 4.0K 450 95 800 9.6K 1.5K 1.7K 0 30 0 15K
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 1.5K 93% 1.2M 52K 13K 1.6K 15K 73K 8.2K 36K 400 820 380 550K
Hvy Plastic is 2 running at empire.pond.sub.org, port 6665. Check out
http://www.pond.sub.org/~armbru/empire/hvy-plastic-2/
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Sun Feb 28 23:13:15 2010
Damned lucky canadians
> Announcement from wales, (#10) dated Mon Mar 1 05:55:03 2010
Yes. Lucky to have all that skill and talent! :)
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Mon Mar 1 19:30:48 2010
Does Goop wear a bib to eat his Devil Dogs?
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Mon Mar 1 19:53:37 2010
A player inquired whether civilians pay taxes while embarked on a
ship. They do not. They're also chaste there. Makes one wonder what
exactly is being taxed in Empire.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Mon Mar 1 19:53:53 2010
extract from Derfuhrer, gen.secretary, kaizer, ministerpresident, marskalk und admiral Torshammers speech to the Sun Cabinet in the capital Bergen;
Telecastet to the whole nation i its language laptoppish, translation from Unsere Telegram bureau:
Beautiful countrymen! and gorgeous countrywomen who I am not married to yet!
(this a saying in our country)
The commie diper boys are hacking around our coasts with their scanky vessels!
Unsere nation must pe prepared to bleed for victory!
All our armies are growing and controlling every single sector with homeguard and brave infantry and artillery men!
Our wet armada is enjoying leisure time in between long hunts in the far outer areas of our interst fields!
Now I have a vision to share with you! a vision standing above any vision of the high seas: You see there is this island! yes a tiny small island of only a few sectors, some distance from here! And this island, it is called Fodder Island!, it is a big dream to be dreamt of, to set a soldiers foot on those shores! And my contrymen! and ladies of the art! We are already there! On this island! Only a few pockets are left before it is in our total control!
And my country people! There is this nation, it has provoked us with torpedoeng an innocent merchant ship. the nation of Goop, a nation of
illiterate, non logical, half monkeys, al they do is sit all day,and fart some torpedoes on our ships! yes that all they do, and then they go on with all their monkey business! And they tell us that we don't bite. Sure we don't!
We are no monkeys! Thats why!
But be sure, we are not provoked of this, we mourn the dead, but all can be rebuilt, so dear everybody! We will prosper! Our will to survive is unchallenged!
And there is this other island, Fortrress island! We will leave it to the opposition, as we have no enemies, only half breed hostiles and neutrals.
Friends? One needs no friends in this world, lets be happy while we may, and shed blood, tears and sweat at the updates passes by.
your humble servant Torshammer!
The crowd cheered the leader for 5.5 hours with disco dancing in the churches and a lot of hankypanky going on as the politics in our country is to breed as many soldier babies as possible.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Tue Mar 2 05:50:00 2010
Our psychiatrists have analysed the psyche of DevilDog, what a dog! but a devil? well we just recieved he tried to catch one of our ships outside his 3 sector! atoll in the ocean, but you know what, the report says he failed! Yes!
As Devildog is suspicious of all, he sends telegrams in all directions, despairing, if only he sees a ship he becomes hostile.
Ours psychiatrists wonders if DevilDog suffers from paranoia.
Is he afraid of God? or any kind of authority which is the Freudian translation of God.
Our churches is now praying for DevilDog, that he might become sane and cooperative, for spiders are sole players, but the best players ally, the rank one has in the animal kingdom is quite important.
Mr. Brainwash, our obedient shrink and Doctor in Faustus
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Mar 2 05:55:49 2010
"insanity does not mean the voices are wrong"
"there is no such thing as someone with nothing
to lose"
"it is better to ally along shared interests
than shared ideals"
"sometimes explosions are neccessary"
... no way that this clown is not an empire player.
come'on Swann, where are you? i know you're here...
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Tue Mar 2 05:57:32 2010
}
}From: POGO
}
}DevilDog (#8) frg frigate (#79) failed to catch frg frigate (#53)
}
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Tue Mar 2 14:00:23 2010
For those of you using WinACE and making long announcement
lines such as Sun, you need to press the enter key each time
the text is about to wrap. The Empire server does not insert
these breaks for you. It helps make annos (and teles) more
readable in an 80-char terminal window.
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Tue Mar 2 14:19:36 2010
Sunny boy: Two words fer ya: Suck It!!
We know that all you are good for is cooking and
cleaning, so stash all your women away and
put another shrimp on the barbie fer me mates cuz
the boyz will be hungry.
Goop Foreign Minister
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Tue Mar 2 18:25:00 2010
Sun:
Since you're taking this to the annos, I will respond in kind.
Hostilities are delcared as a matter of self defense to have some
semblence of automated defense should someone attempt a sneak attack.
My declaration to you was in response to your 'all sectors with
20' etc. statment. Since you believe that 20 sectors is sovreign waters,
then your frg being with 20 sectors must be construed as a hostile act.
My response was to that, and within that context.
The subsequent elevation by attempting to board your frg, was in
response to your blatant coast mapping of my "atoll" - POGO telexes
showed which sectors you went to 1 after the other - clear coast mapping.
Very little telexes have been sent your way as you are quite the
saber rattler, I was essentially ignoring you - but mapping a coast
is valuable information to you and your allies and cannot be tolerated...
Which brings me to the other hostilities - Thistle ships clearly were
coast mapping - telexes were sent - the only reply was the sinking of
an frg. Since that was my answer, war was my only choice.
Cheers,
DD
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Mar 2 19:59:32 2010
this used to be such a nice, peaceful donut...
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Mar 2 20:03:14 2010
It did?
Tell that to the Natives...
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Tue Mar 2 22:36:39 2010
HA! Good point.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Mar 2 22:38:01 2010
I think it'd be interesting if the natives
had civilians on their islands as well
not only do you have to find the land, you have to keep
it from rebelling
or get some free uw's for getting there first
just a thought
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Wed Mar 3 01:06:10 2010
Suck What Goop? Ice cream, sure!
DevilDog, you suprise me, you have rethorical skills
to become a member of our Parliament, a saber rattler, very
good! I am impressed, really! Very bad your not my citizen.
Your explanation makes perfectly sense, of course
you know my ships were just exploring, maybe you did not
attack when you saw only one mil in this scouting vessel.
So it was a nice fishing frigate, yachting, around
your small oasis in the ocean, leisuring, and I am sure
you figured this out. So you did not attack my ship.
I appreciate it.
I am sure Thistle was just doing his natural thing,
out of curiosity,
of course I know mapping is not so well liked here,
but you know one does a thing or two, this neighbours
rattles, yes there I usesd your word, I stole it, I never
took a sector from you, maybe even I could look at you as
an ally after some cooling time of the Devil and walking the
dog. Like the Japanese Emporer I am poetic of nature.
BTW a Quiz, you know what my name means? Torshammer? :)
A language expert like you might solve this one.
Yours supreme commander of Sun Nation, the indian vikings of
the sea
Torshammer
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Mar 3 01:42:42 2010
I dunno. Isn't Hammer Scandinavian? Maybe Norwegian? I'll have to look it up...
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Mar 3 01:51:25 2010
tor-shammer
i.e., he's pretending to be tor.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Mar 3 02:27:57 2010
Tor?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Mar 3 02:50:40 2010
its an internet anonymity tool; he's pretending
to be anonymous.
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Wed Mar 3 03:35:50 2010
Nah...Sun only knows about onions, not routing, so it
would probably be referring to the hammer of Tor
the sissy god of the vikings who was renowned for his
culinary skills more than anything else.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Mar 3 03:45:04 2010
Oh. I thought that was Thor....
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Wed Mar 3 03:55:38 2010
Heard of the new ice cream flavor, Torshammer, you suck it!!
(most of us, either lick or eat ours)
BTW, The last words from one of your drowning crew members,
overheard by the Flt Capt, were:
Vask hendene etter ? ha spist.
What?? Can you translate?
Goop Foreign Minister
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Wed Mar 3 04:03:37 2010
Tor is sometimes spelled as Thor.
One letter didn't come out clearly due to the amount of water
already in the lads lungs as he was tryign his best to finish making
soup while the boat was sinking. Clarified with the Flt Capt and
it shouldve read:
Vask hendene etter a ha spist.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Mar 3 06:32:55 2010
Sun:
Anyone who has played Empire more than once knows that hitting a .
coast - and then following that coast - is coast mapping - not exploring
Your defense of exploring is unaccepted. You did nothing overt, yet, so
hostilities remain, instead of war.
Who knows: if you're nice, and play your cards right, you may be
able to work yourself up to a Neutral status. Simply practice what you
preach: stay 20 sectors away from all other nations sectors.
Regards,
DD
dd
Dd
dD
DevilDog
DevilMutt
DevilPup
Teufelshunde
UNITED STATES MARINE! OOH RAH!!!
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Mar 3 15:21:31 2010
Its always so quiet in the last couple of hours before an update...
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Mar 3 19:07:36 2010
Wash your hands after you finish eating? huh!
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Mar 3 20:12:40 2010
One thing I loved/hated about annos
they make my brain hurt trying to figure
them out.
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Wed Mar 3 20:26:45 2010
That is a key flaw in the fleshbot design.
You should try one of our new virtual CPUs. Very efficient
at managing the fleshbot infrastructure without the annoying
emotional side-effects.
We would be happy to offer the procedure to you free of
charge. It's simple outpatient work that will have you
feeling better faster than you can say "assimilate".
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Wed Mar 3 20:32:13 2010
Guess you never feel the need...the need for speed!
BTW, DD you're correct!!!
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Mar 3 20:32:13 2010
"Man is Obsolete
Our world, Obsolete
Man is Obsolete
Erased, Extinct"
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Mar 3 20:50:44 2010
Man is the Universe coming to know itsself.
If man is extinct - so is the Universe.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Mar 3 20:59:33 2010
I would suspect self aware machines may disagree
with that sentiment
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Thu Mar 4 04:39:24 2010
Hmmmm ::strokes beard:: Mmmm. MmmHmmm.....
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Fri Mar 5 16:51:58 2010
Rimfire, the Natives are not that good!!!
Fri Mar 5 15:41 RimFire sailors repelled by Natives coast-guard sixteen times
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 5 19:50:11 2010
The Empire News lies:
Wed Mar 3 21:14 Goop ships sunk by marauding Goop torpedo-boats
Wed Mar 3 21:45 Goop ships sunk by marauding Goop torpedo-boats
The torpedo command misreports the owner of return torpedos. The
marauders were in fact from Ashkanistan.
Goop receives five bars of gold for reporting this bug.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Mar 5 19:52:22 2010
Nice. Do I get an assist for reposting that to Goop?
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Mar 5 19:52:45 2010
*reporting
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Fri Mar 5 20:01:28 2010
I just thought Goop was testing out his
torpedo tubes.
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Fri Mar 5 20:06:42 2010
Those torps didn't have our shiney signature slime on them.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Mar 5 20:07:22 2010
i have some bugs to report: they're these little ants
i sometimes see crawling on the countertop... not sure
where they're coming from. can i get 5 bars apiece for
each one i squash?
> Announcement from RimFire, (#14) dated Fri Mar 5 20:13:18 2010
?> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Fri Mar 5 16:51:58 2010
? Rimfire, the Natives are not that good!!!
? Fri Mar 5 15:41 RimFire sailors repelled by Natives coast-guard sixteen times
I did not have the right equipment on hand and paid the price.
RimFire
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Fri Mar 5 20:17:41 2010
}i have some bugs to report: they're these little ants
}i sometimes see crawling on the countertop... not sure
}where they're coming from. can i get 5 bars apiece for
}each one i squash?
No but gold bars are good for squashing them 5 at a time.
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Fri Mar 5 20:18:57 2010
? Announcement from RimFire, (#14) dated Fri Mar 5 20:13:18 2010
?> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Fri Mar 5 16:51:58 2010
? Rimfire, the Natives are not that good!!!
So you are saying I should perhaps enable Plunderbot to
take charge of them?
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Mar 5 20:20:36 2010
Yes
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Fri Mar 5 20:51:11 2010
Natives that fight back would definately make initial
expansion more interesting...
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Mar 5 20:52:53 2010
particularly if they had a few units like cavalry and stuff
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Fri Mar 5 20:58:48 2010
Apprantly these chaps haven't played in the last few years,
that's all we've had was unitized "natives"
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Fri Mar 5 20:59:51 2010
I suppose "more interesting" would be the equivalent of:
don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Mar 5 21:00:03 2010
Nah, this is heavy plastic
Natives with units is only available in Heavy Metal
Available at a record store near you soon!
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 5 21:13:56 2010
I'll be out of town until Tuesday. Plundaria will be watching you.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Sat Mar 6 00:11:45 2010
Oh ick. Now I feel all dirty...
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Sat Mar 6 08:48:32 2010
Official Apology
We sun nation apologise for the inconviniences of aggresive and/or indecent
language fired against such good nations as DevilDog and Goop.
We just arrested Torshammer, and now we have a new queen instead,
her name is Victoria.
speaker of the cabinet, Mr. Olson
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Sat Mar 6 09:09:02 2010
It seems Sun is having a change of heart re: their intial rhetoric.
We now have Queen Victoria as the rep.
The Sun words seem sincere, but Sun actions seem to be at odds with
those words.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Sat Mar 6 10:14:23 2010
The nation of Sun accepts visitors within the line
of 20 secs.
It is only by closing to our island we might commit
ourselves to self defense.
This is natural to protect our coastlines.
We are trying to negotiate with our neighbours, but CMF
will not answer any calls, they feel very self secure, and might
be a threat to the general stability in our region.
We are hoping for some good neighbours on our way.
Victoria, new crowned Queen of the island.
btw. Torshammer will be shot on Sunday after church services.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Sat Mar 6 16:30:25 2010
please remind me to call 736-1137 when I'm done playing
so I can tell my wife I can come home now.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Sun Mar 7 15:32:47 2010
that has to be one of the best annos ever.
tell her to thank those evil, warmongering, fellow
petty dictator friends of yours for liberating you
from the tyranny of updates.
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Mon Mar 8 14:23:18 2010
What a quiet weekend!
I think Cameron was robbed of at least a couple of
Oscars.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Mon Mar 8 19:44:10 2010
Who's Cameron and why should he win an Oscar?
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Mon Mar 8 20:17:37 2010
Cameron is the mentor of Mauro Camoranesi,
World cup winner and Juventes winger.
Do you need any other reason to give him an Oscar?
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Mon Mar 8 20:56:00 2010
Yes, Kirk Cameron should get an Oscar...he's way overdue.
Attn: diety
Please allow us to purchase insurance. I've lost far too many units
and boats...my finances are in ruins already.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Mon Mar 8 21:08:03 2010
don't worry about insurance. you are supposed to be free from
the tyranny of updates soon. save your finances to to buy flowers
for your old lady.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Mon Mar 8 21:21:59 2010
FLOWERS! HA! Try diamonds... ;)
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Mon Mar 8 21:33:58 2010
Do not believe SUN. A frg was exploring internation waters
when it was fired upon by Sun, without warning or apology.
DD
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Mar 9 01:19:16 2010
was it the "DDS Icarus", perhaps?
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Tue Mar 9 01:36:27 2010
Aw, geez...somebody slap that silly bastard.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Mar 9 02:23:07 2010
"hurt so good.
come on baby, make it hurt so good.
sometimes love don't feel like it should.
you make it hurt so good."
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Tue Mar 9 03:09:26 2010
you turning over a new leaf or something?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Mar 9 06:05:42 2010
a fig leaf, maybe. find the right girl, peal that
leaf off, and you find a nice surprise underneath.
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Tue Mar 9 11:43:10 2010
Victoria:
Passes still available to your secret lingerie show?
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 10 06:56:05 2010
the gods have forsaken us again. no one even knows
what is happening anyomre and there are no rules to the game.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Mar 10 07:06:44 2010
Wait. What happened?
Did I say something wrong?
dd
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 10 07:28:44 2010
is there even a diety in this game anymore?
I thought that dude was joking when he said good luck with
hanuman.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 10 07:30:19 2010
mk. so here's the deal. since it is illegal to not report
bugs, fyi battleships can interdict submarines on silent,
and kill them with one blow. hvy plastic rules.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 10 07:35:27 2010
and praises be to the almighty POGO.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Mar 10 08:05:19 2010
how do we know that's a bug and not an
undocumented feature?
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Wed Mar 10 09:16:46 2010
*** Attention, please ***
I fixed two player-visible bugs:
* Interdiction attacked submarines with surface-only weapons
Broken in 4.3.24. I still need to figure out who profited and who
got hurt by this. I'll report on my findings when I have them.
* Fix unsafe use of shared buffers in commands drawing maps
This let players steal map output of lradar, path, radar, route,
satellite, sect, survey from another player. Tricky race condition.
Broken in 4.2.0, i.e. more than a decade ago. I'm not aware of any
abuse at this time.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Wed Mar 10 09:23:26 2010
Aquitaine received five bars of gold for reporting this bug first.
Thistle and wales also reported it. Thanks a lot!
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Wed Mar 10 09:27:49 2010
As I announced on Friday, I was out of town and off the net until last
night. The moment you stop watching the game, bugs come crawling out.
Sigh...
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Thu Mar 11 03:08:06 2010
Burning in my brain
I can feel the flame
Wait for the sign
To flick the switch of death
Its the beginning of the end
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Thu Mar 11 03:25:45 2010
Metallica?
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Thu Mar 11 12:03:54 2010
According to my logs, the interdiction bug bit us twice. I restored
the affected submarines to the state right before the interdicted
navigation. I did it approximately 20 hours ago.
Naturally, I can't erase the information gained by either side in the
undone navigates. Perhaps the sub-skipper profits more than the
interdictor from the restore. On the other hand, the sub-skipper was
inconvenienced tactically. I guess it about evens out.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Fri Mar 12 01:20:50 2010
Pinhead, Metallica's *in* the game.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 12 11:33:34 2010
Reminder: Server time is in UTC. If your local time switches to DST,
your local time of the update moves.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Mar 12 16:31:50 2010
Though that's a good Metallica quote
back in the days before they sold out and
didn't suck
*sigh*
Markus Armbruster
CallMeFodder's naval air reportedly penetrated Sun's airspace and bombed
a bank. Robotron expressed his outrage at this murder of innocent gold
bars. CallMeFodder's marines hit the beaches soon after.
Meanwhile, FreeBeer continued his drive into wales, and Thistle kept up
the pressure on Wamic. Goop and Ashkanistan are still locked in combat.
Not content with one enemy, Goop also started to seize Sun sectors.
RimFire changed leadership and is now known as Barbwireland.
Robotron relieved beep at the top of the power report.
Some countries are almost broke, while others have amassed substantial
cash reserves.
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Mar 19 21:01:41 2010
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Robotron 145 100% 141K 6.5K 1.6K 185 6.5K 6.5K 450 3.0K 110 150 80 5.0K
Thistle 155 92% 134K 7.0K 1.2K 180 2.0K 5.2K 450 2.9K 100 90 50 55K
beep 130 100% 131K 6.3K 900 140 5.5K 5.7K 250 3.4K 80 90 40 2.7K
FreeBeer 135 98% 114K 4.7K 1.1K 225 900 6.5K 300 3.1K 90 120 70 30K
CallMeFod 115 96% 113K 6.5K 1.0K 155 1.4K 4.8K 100 1.9K 90 90 30 10K
Aquitaine 115 99% 109K 5.9K 1.2K 230 1.9K 5.5K 100 4.0K 50 90 40 45K
Goop 130 89% 112K 4.8K 1.0K 150 450 4.8K 200 2.6K 30 60 20 35K
DevilDog 95 99% 91K 5.3K 725 65 1.8K 3.8K 1.6K 2.0K 60 30 10 75K
Barbwirel 95 100% 86K 4.5K 2.8K 255 850 5.2K 650 2.1K 10 60 30 50K
Bloodstar 85 91% 69K 1.9K 1.4K 155 500 4.8K 550 2.6K 70 20 60 100K
wales 85 96% 72K 3.1K 1.7K 205 400 4.9K 100 850 40 70 30 10K
Wamic 65 99% 62K 3.2K 675 90 1.9K 4.2K 100 500 50 10 20 973
Ashkanist 60 100% 57K 2.4K 975 220 700 5.5K 1.1K 4.0K 8 30 20 15K
Sun 65 78% 44K 3.3K 250 70 2.5K 6.8K 1.2K 1.2K 30 20 20 817
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 1.5K 96% 1.3M 65K 16K 2.3K 27K 74K 7.2K 34K 820 930 520 430K
Hvy Plastic is 2 running at empire.pond.sub.org, port 6665. Check out
http://www.pond.sub.org/~armbru/empire/hvy-plastic-2/
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Mar 12 21:07:14 2010
(hands yellow jersey to Robotron)
"those? those are -uh- sweat stains. yeah,
sweat stains; trust me..."
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Sat Mar 13 02:57:37 2010
While "METALLICA", the band, sold out, it is quite apparent
that they made a very good comeback album with Death Magnetic.
It's quite on-par with the Justice and Master albums, IMHO.
Yet, they did F-over Mustaine, who has done especially
well in his Megadeth career.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Sat Mar 13 16:45:35 2010
I've done pretty much everything wrong and yet I've
heard no chortling from the polystyrene heavens.
Although I don't think a few extra bars would help much now.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sat Mar 13 23:58:04 2010
we're losing a whole fracking hour! how can
we get everything done before the next update?
\
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Sun Mar 14 01:02:38 2010
Try robots.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Mar 14 07:41:57 2010
The nation of RimFire shall henceforth be known as Barbwireland.
This is a free rename to bring its new ruler on board. Doesn't show
up in the news for technical reasons.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Sun Mar 14 08:02:07 2010
you're olny losing an hour if you
have no concept of time.
We all thought you had more skills than that.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sun Mar 14 21:30:56 2010
For immediate release:
Regarding the recent nation-wide scandal triggered by the ludicrous, unfounded
rumours linking key personnel of the government in a plot to profit from the
enslavement of national citizens in secret offshore facilities,
After careful analysis and long deliberation, the Congress of The Country
Formerly Known as RimFire has resolved that the time had come for bold,
determined cosmetic maneuvering to appease the populace while keeping
everything mostly the same.
It was generally agreed that while the competence and know-how of the hitherto
President were highly appreciated, what the country really needed in order to
stand as one in these turbulent times was a good pair of big, supple, turgid
boobs.
Following that consensus, it's been our pleasure to appoint Barbra Rimbaud,
better known by her artistic name Barbie the Uncompensated Lover, as the new
President of the Completely New And Not At All Corrupt, Let Alone Self
Enslaving, Republic of Barbwireland.
While Barbra is better known for her work as an actress, she has been heavily
involved in activist enterprises such as the No, Save The Oil, Furries Are
Aplenty campaign to sensitize the people against synthetic clothing.
We hope to resume diplomatic relations as soon as possible, and it is our
desire to try and iron out whatever little differences we may have with some
of our neighbours and to make our existing friendships stronger. Or, failing
that, to keep things more or less the same, just now with more boobs.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Mon Mar 15 01:48:53 2010
I ve got CMF with a light carrier outside my country with planes on
missions, I need some advice from friendly states of Sun.
Sun
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Mon Mar 15 02:05:34 2010
Pray
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Mon Mar 15 02:18:11 2010
We shall fight these bastards on the shores, in the forests, on the sea, in the air, in all unnnknown dimensions, we shall fight, to theres nothing left, and even then shall we fight from the invincible corners of the world, from the shadows of our dreams...
Victoria, Queen
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Mon Mar 15 11:03:25 2010
One solution is to build planes and dogfight. Another solution is
subs and/or battleships. Good luck with that.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Mar 15 14:53:42 2010
if you can get enough tech, tactical nuclear weapons
wworks really well.
though bang for your buck is questionable
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Mon Mar 15 18:43:11 2010
Huh. After all that, Sun decalred war....nice....
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Mon Mar 15 19:17:35 2010
I am but a peaceful trader.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Mar 15 21:18:41 2010
Re: Death Magenetic
The album annoyed me, with lo fi production values
in a obvious effort to 'recapture' their now well
lost and moved on fan base. The songs sound like
mush and there's no real effort so any quality
in songwriting, musicianship, or technique.
it was a desperate cry of "We can be cool! We can
be underground and Garage again! please like us
even though we spent the last 15 years sucking
the cock of corporate cronies and screwing over
the fans that we encouraged to trade our tapes
back when we were small and insignificant, but
while we were big corporate whores (I'm looking
at you Lars), we shat on you and wanted to squeeze
every penny out, all the while alienating the
very people who gave us a chance and supported
us."
Yeah, Fuck em All
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Mon Mar 15 21:54:47 2010
I'd rather have "This ol' abomination" than
have "Thistle bomb my nation"...
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 17 05:58:43 2010
word on the street is that big swimming mammals love free beer
(as we all do).
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Wed Mar 17 06:17:58 2010
Wamic said...
? Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Mon Mar 15 21:54:47 2010
I'd rather have "This ol' abomination" than
have "Thistle bomb my nation"...
In honor of St. Patrick's Day
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me
than have a frontal lobotomy.
------
Why did God invent whiskey?
So the Irish wouldn't rule the world.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Wed Mar 17 12:23:14 2010
A player reported difficulties with distribution running out of
mobility.
Your primary method for moving products around should be distribution.
Distribution gets a 10x mobility bonus. Moving by hand sucks too much
player time and mobility.
There are a few land units that can carry stuff. They are meant for
tactical use. But they are also great blunder-fixers, e.g. when you got
something you need to move stuck in a sector without mobility.
If distribution moves lots of stuff, it may run out of mobility.
Symptom: the dist center has 60 mobility after the update (to be
precise: as much as it gains per update, 60 in this game).
anno
When that happens, you can either decrease the movement cost, or
decrease the movement load, or increase the mobility supply.
To decrease movement cost, construct a highway network. This is my
preferred solution. Not practical in every game. Pay special
attention to the destinations for heavy stuff.
To decrease load, you can move some stuff with delivery (see info
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Wed Mar 17 12:23:51 2010
deliver). Drawback: adds complexity, it's work to set up, and
relatively easy to screw up. Some players like delivery, some hate
it. You can also use multiple dist centers. Similar drawbacks.
To increase mobility supply, you need to make sure that your dist
center has lots of mobility before the update. If you use up too much
of its mobility for manual moves, distribution will fail, making you
move manually again next turn. Vicious circle. Better start over
with a new dist center.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 17 12:36:30 2010
Since most petty dictators consume at least a little
bit of alcohol, how come we have non-updates on
so-called holidays such as xmas and easter and the
so-called thanksgiving but war and micromanagement
always has to be done on St Paddy's Day?
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Wed Mar 17 12:40:40 2010
The CMF Diving Association wants to express their gratitude
to DevilDog for suggesting to move battleships towards
a CMF carrier.
There are new interesting reef constructions
which will provide great joy of diving activities.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Wed Mar 17 17:54:42 2010
A player wondered how many guns, shells, and military to put into a
fortress.
A fort fires up to 7 guns. Gory details are in "info Damage".
A bb can load more guns than it can fire. Can you think of a reason for
loading more than it can fire? If yes, could this reason apply to forts
as well?
There's a second magic number for guns: a sector can use up to 14 guns
for flak. See "info Flak".
How many shells depends on the situation. You obviously don't want to
run out of shells in the wrong moment. Note that the fort will try to
get more shells via automatic supply (see "info supply", written
badly, sorry). Can you think of situations where you don't want to
have many shells in a fort?
A fort needs at least 5 mil to fire (see "info fire").
Defend your forts well! Try to anticipate what a potential attacker
could throw at you, then think what you can do to secure your forts
against that. And then think what you can do to mitigate the damage
from the loss of a fort.
To learn more about defense, start with "info Attacking". Pay special
attention to defense details such as support, land unit fortification,
land unit reaction. A useful command to check your defense is
"strength".
What are the threats to your forts other than ground attack? Think
land, sea, air.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 17 17:59:36 2010
Hanuman seems to be a kind and benevolent god.
Praises be to the one and true, Almight POGO. Praises be.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Wed Mar 17 19:35:17 2010
Now if only I could put this info to sensible use.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 17 19:39:11 2010
wait a sec. are you telling me that a 100% battleship that only
has 8 guns loaded does the same damage as a 100% battleship
with 10 guns? If that is so, I am very with stupid and drunk most
of the time because i never knew that.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Mar 17 19:40:46 2010
okay, which one of you craven bastards sank my
helpless little sailboat?
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Wed Mar 17 19:43:30 2010
See info sstat - 'fir' is number of guns firing.
It is scaled with tech. 'show ship stat' lets you know what you get
when you build them at a specific tech level.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 17 19:51:42 2010
BEEP is drunk again already and has lost track of some of his ships?
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Wed Mar 17 19:51:49 2010
We regret to inform Aquitaine that there is also
no fleshy bot known as Santa Claus.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Mar 17 19:54:53 2010
already? it's st. patrick's day. (somebody pinch
eleanor, i bet he's not wearing green)
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 17 20:04:18 2010
eleanor is wearing a green habit today. she's in a nunnery and
unconcerned with warfare and the interests of petty dictators but
celebrates all holidays
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Mar 17 20:29:34 2010
wait
Fortresses can fire this game?????
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Mar 17 20:30:23 2010
well I'll be gosh darned
Fortresses can fire this game
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Wed Mar 17 20:57:53 2010
Yeah, that old double-negative will get you every time.
Took me a while to figure that one out myself, but apparantly not as long as you.
:)
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Wed Mar 17 21:03:18 2010
I decided to go with delivery/multi distribution centers
Call it preperation to having to deal with incoming
Thistle annexation.
Someone long ago mentioned you dont need roads at all if
you plan carefully. I just decided to give it a try since
I'm having a bad early go anyhow.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 17 21:03:25 2010
Are you sure there is no santa claus?
Some of us are still concerned with the highly controversial incidents
regarding certain gods and the vast empire money laundering scheme.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Wed Mar 17 21:27:42 2010
I'm still here? how many updates have I survived now?
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Wed Mar 17 21:33:07 2010
your enemies are slow. i'm sure your wife is quite angry
about that.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Wed Mar 17 21:41:35 2010
*shakes empty tin cup at you*
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Thu Mar 18 12:14:44 2010
Although there may be plenty of Free Beer to go around
for St Patty's day, there are no free hangover cures.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 01:54:00 2010
It is high time to tell the world whats happening:
From a cluster bomb secure bunker in the Sun nation
philosopher Field Marshall Atomic Kitten
We lost bars in our bank after CMF bombing,
it weakened our revnues
somehow. Maybe we should have hardened the bars,
if posssible, or
moved it to a Swiss deposit.
Too bad theres not a market around.
No market is like communism.
Now we register an alliance with Ashkanistan. We would like to help
Askhanistan in its struggle.
About bombing. Its an imperialistic a highly unmoral venture that kills
innocent children and women.
Those men in charge in CMF land and elsewhere should be ashamed
of even thinking the thought of killing in this joystick manner.
You think its just a game?
As our Master Jesus put it: Those who raise the sword will fall
for the sword.
We were btw one week on Madeira. Our island was then without a leader
for 3 updates (a week). We are happy noone took account of it.
Now I personally will be back with info on CMF, an analysis anyone
interested can use,
also good allies might get our bmap, our ships have been all
around the world,
remember that song by Aqua?
Atomic Kitten, Field Marshall
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 02:16:23 2010
CMF analysis
For those parties interested, CMF s operation against Sun nation
is of course costing CMF a few resources and bucks.
CMF has totally lost about 10 ships in conflict with sun nation,
mostly that was frigates, but also we crippled one battleship.
Sun has lost more value concering ships, due to our lower tech,
and maybe lack of training for some admirals.
Now on the north east of our island, CMF has gathered about 25
ships in a cluster.
One is a light carrier with ability to damage our main island,
I guess CMFs tech is quite higher than mine.
What kind of ships are involved?
Interestingly enough there are no troop transports, and a lot of
low tech cruisers and patrol boats and a few cargo boats. Only
one battleship and one battlecruiser are involved. 2 heavy cruisers and
2 light cruisers too. And more than 5 frigates. He used frigates to
occupy one of my sectors, of course that did not last long.
Analysis: It does not seem he has prepared himself good enogh.
The goal of his actions sems to be to measure himself up, and
to weaken my country by terror. In other words; CMF is plainly and
simple, a simple Terrorist. He doe not even want to talk to our diplomats,
he is a brutal low life slaughterer with no poetry and no civilisation whatsoever, I guess he needs pr agency to carry out his sentences.
If his got any brain at all, except his war calculator which I guess works fine, if not exceptionally skilled.
It does not seem that he is carring out a full scale invasion yet, and it might be he is throwing in he least valuable ships against me.
Even I can only see 25 ships, hes got a few more controlling islands on my east, so I guess his total to control me is like 40 ships.
This amounts to about half his fleet.
So where is the rest of his fleet?
There are limist of the power.
And I guess this means he is weak towards other fronts. ?
If anyone feels threathend by CMF,
don't hesitate to share a free beer with me...
Atomic Kitten, Field Marshall, reporting from the Sun Front
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 02:29:52 2010
So CMF :)
While your pushing all over me, youre leaving other pits
of your pety empire weak, anyone studying strategy knows this,
so I think especially your islands will be weak now, as you are
building it up against me, just because you were provoked by my words.
If you had been a Wise guy, you would have allied yourself with me,
not alienated yourself.
But it is too late CMF, now I hope somebody takes advantage of
this situation and hits you in the flanks and the rear.
Like kicking some butt?
Your empire is cracking isn't it?
Sun
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Mar 19 03:56:20 2010
The real terrorism is the murder of the innocent gold
bars in that story.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 05:31:30 2010
the peace loving nation known as Aquitaine is constantly being aggressed
by the warmongering non-viable state known as wales.
this is very unfortunate but it is what it is.
despite our best efforts to try and resolve the situation, they
insist upon having an adverserial relationship.
we are now in a state of total war. i hope to be drankin' beer and
whiskey at the wales capitol first.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 06:18:47 2010
According to news and anno's it seems that some people besides
wales are also non-viable states.
The peace loving nation known as Aquitaine reserves the right to send
international aid to certain countries. We also accept refugees.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 06:45:18 2010
We belive the fleet of CMF is moving, we would appreciate any information
on this subject.
Sun
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Mar 19 06:47:22 2010
It depends on your frame of reference.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 07:22:52 2010
Freebeer!
I don't like you going nice on my arch enemy CMF.
This must be considered carefully.
Also I don't like you picking on my good friend wales.
Sun
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 19 07:31:28 2010
A player asked what happened to the lrange command. Easy question, as
I can reuse the answer I gave in the last game.
The short answer is buried in info Empire4:
Changes to Empire 4.3.20 - Fri Feb 20 18:14:20 UTC 2009
* Land units now react only when on a reserve mission. The lrange
command is gone.
Experienced players may wish to peruse the changelog for other
"surprises".
Long answer: land unit reaction was a complicated mess, because we had
two different concepts controlling it: reaction radius (set with
lrange, queried with land) and reserve mission (set and queried with
mission). You had to deal with both to set up or query reactions.
Setting just the reaction range gave you non-mission reaction.
Additionally setting reserve mission gave you a reaction radius bonus.
Missions get reset by many commands, including march and attack, but
the reaction range was "sticky". Resetting the mission changed the
effective reaction radius through loss of the mission bonus. Icing on
the cake: if you had a land unit with maximum reaction radius 1, you
could set radius 0 (lrange 0), 1 (lrange 1) and 3 (lrange 1 &
mission), but not 2 (short of building headquarters under it).
This was a total embarrassment to explain.
To simplify, I gave reserve missions an op area. and removed the
non-mission reaction. This loses the "sticky reactions" feature.
If it should turn out we want it, we can create sticky missions.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 09:33:20 2010
the peace-loving nation known as Aquitaine has been accused of
not being "open and honest."
that is a lie
even my most bitter enemies know that the peace-loving citizens
of Aquitaine are fair dealers and straight shooters.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 09:59:32 2010
I don't know what is worse. the possibility that my "enemy"
is lying to me or the fact that they cannot police their own
waters and airspace.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 10:27:10 2010
my brain is hurting again. since lrange is gone now
can we set specific reaction radius and if so what
is the exact syntax for that.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 10:30:24 2010
martin luther G is nailing his theses on the door of
the church and going back to the true religion.
All hail the almighty POGO. Praises Be. Long live
the Empire he has created for us.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 11:01:41 2010
Hello Aquitaine!
Is going to war is being open and honest?
When I asked you to ally in the beinning of the game,
I also asked you to tell me what kind of cooperation
we should have, I could nt ally with you beccause you
were not honest towrds me, you ignored me.
My risk asessment was that you just wanted the alliance to invade me.
What kind of world are you living in?
Its quite good Kennedy stopped the Generals
from going to atomic war, we wouldnt have this
game if the opposite had happened.
war is not a good thing.
No you didnt share any plans with me, you did not
answer my questions.
Youre not skilled in politics.
I in fact am.
You should watch the movie "Invictus",
its about Nelson Mandela and South Africa
and the almost all-white Rugby team cupping up
in the world cup in 1995. There you can learn
about politics.
You sure are triggerhappy, but are you wise.
In the meantime why don't you grow up?
BTW how many teenagers are there in this game?
Sun
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 11:43:35 2010
news from the frontlines on rge. anyone with clearer
vision in some areas that i missed, feel free to add
corrections
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 19 12:09:02 2010
} > Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 10:27:10 2010
}
} my brain is hurting again. since lrange is gone now
} can we set specific reaction radius and if so what
} is the exact syntax for that.
Put the land units on a reserve mission. The mission's op area
specifies where to react.
Examples:
* Op area centered on land unit itself, maximum radius:
[1:632] Command : land 6
# unit type x,y a eff mil frt mu fd tch retr xl ln carry
6 lar lt armor -22,2 a 100% 19 127 127 1 377 42% 0 0
1 unit
[2:632] Command : cen -22,2
Fri Mar 19 13:06:06 2010
CENSUS del dst
sect eff prd mob uf uf old civ mil uw food work avail ter fall coa
-22,2 ! 100% 127 .. .1 1000 107 1000 100 100% 1225 0 1
1 sector
[2:632] Command : miss l 6 res .
lar lt armor #6 on a reserve mission, centered on -22,2, radius 5
1 land
Note the +1 range bonus from the hq.
* Same, but with a limited radius:
[2:630] Command : miss l 6 res . 1
lar lt armor #6 on a reserve mission, centered on -22,2, radius 1
1 land
* Off-center op-area:
[3:628] Command : miss l 6 res -23,1 1
lar lt armor #6 on a reserve mission, centered on -23,1, radius 1
1 land
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 12:12:21 2010
are there plans to get rid of the range command too?
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 19 12:28:31 2010
} > Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 12:12:21 2010
}
} are there plans to get rid of the range command too?
I considered it when I integrated air defense and interception.
Plane interception and land unit reaction share some properties, but
there are important differences as well. The most important one: land
units don't react unless explicitly ordered (reserve mission), while
planes intercept even without orders. Thus, planes need a "sticky"
range control much more than land units do. Moreover, range doesn't
interact as badly with missions as lrange did.
What do I mean by "sticky"? Flying a plane manually clears its
mission, but it doesn't affect range.
So range stays until somebody can come up with a better tool to
control non-mission interception.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 19 12:30:56 2010
Here's a few recent changes with surprise potential, straight from
info Empire4:
* Only bomb strategic and launch at sector can use nukes. Before,
they could also be used by missions, bomb pinpoint, and launch at
ships, but there were several bugs and inconsistencies, and the
code was messy. The arm command now rejects marine missiles in
addition to satellites, ABMs and SAMs, and clears the mission. The
mission command now rejects planes armed with nukes.
* Revised cargo plane rules: a cargo flight can be either an airlift
or an airdrop now. Airlifts carry more cargo than airdrops. A
cargo drop or paradrop with a non-VTOL plane is an airdrop.
Anything else is an airlift. This makes paradrop loads consistent
with drop loads. Paradrop with VTOL transports now carries twice
the punch, and drop with non-VTOL transports hauls less than fly.
In particular, the stock game's tr can't drop guns anymore.
anno
Not so recent:
* Intercept the same all along the flight path. In each sector, any
country owning the sector, a surface ship or a land unit there gets
to intercept. Before, only the sector owner got to intercept,
except for the assembly point and the target sector. In the target
sector, any country owning surface ships or land units got to
intercept in addition to the sector owner. Thus, a sector owner
with surface ships or land units there got to intercept twice. The
sector owner did not get to intercept at the assembly point,
even when it was the target sector.
* Reserve and escort missions now have an op-area, like all the other
missions.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 19 12:31:29 2010
Grr, let me try that again.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 19 12:31:38 2010
Here's a few recent changes with surprise potential, straight from
info Empire4:
* Only bomb strategic and launch at sector can use nukes. Before,
they could also be used by missions, bomb pinpoint, and launch at
ships, but there were several bugs and inconsistencies, and the
code was messy. The arm command now rejects marine missiles in
addition to satellites, ABMs and SAMs, and clears the mission. The
mission command now rejects planes armed with nukes.
* Revised cargo plane rules: a cargo flight can be either an airlift
or an airdrop now. Airlifts carry more cargo than airdrops. A
cargo drop or paradrop with a non-VTOL plane is an airdrop.
Anything else is an airlift. This makes paradrop loads consistent
with drop loads. Paradrop with VTOL transports now carries twice
the punch, and drop with non-VTOL transports hauls less than fly.
In particular, the stock game's tr can't drop guns anymore.
Not so recent:
* Air defense is no longer separate from interception. Putting a
plane on air defense now merely changes where it intercepts.
Separate air defense added too much pointless complexity. Its
implementation violated design assumptions of the intercept code.
Because of that, the same plane could intercept both an air defense
mission and the planes that triggered it, and the damage it
received in the first interception was wiped out.
* Intercept the same all along the flight path. In each sector, any
country owning the sector, a surface ship or a land unit there gets
to intercept. Before, only the sector owner got to intercept,
except for the assembly point and the target sector. In the target
sector, any country owning surface ships or land units got to
intercept in addition to the sector owner. Thus, a sector owner
with surface ships or land units there got to intercept twice. The
sector owner did not get to intercept at the assembly point,
even when it was the target sector.
* Reserve and escort missions now have an op-area, like all the other
missions.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 12:39:24 2010
I apologise for my war rhetorics versus Aquitaine.
he is after all a gentleman.
Sun
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 13:03:22 2010
I declare Sun nation for a FREE STATE.
wE WILL BUILD PLENTy OF CASINOS, BROTHELS AND BIERSTUBEN.
wINERIES, DRAPEIS, OTHERs interesing investment objects.
iCE CREAM, vanilla, strawberry and chocolate.
All for free for friends and allies
Sun
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 13:04:37 2010
no free beer for FreeBeer, only free bear, icebear, yeah
Sun who wants some booze badly
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 13:16:39 2010
Invitation
Untergang party with cuckold marching and champagne for all,
asap in Sun nation!
But allow me to keep a mountai sector for retirement.
Sun
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Fri Mar 19 13:18:23 2010
Oh no, Sun withdrew the invitation from me.
How will I attend now? How??
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Fri Mar 19 13:23:10 2010
Be nice ...
bring a bucket of lube to the party
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 13:25:53 2010
Now, your all invited!
Even Freebeer and Goop!
Alliance with all is declared!
Lets party!
Sun
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 14:26:18 2010
Are info pages being still revised to reflect current
abominous changes or do we have to guess what they
mean and figure it out after issuing certain commands
and seeing what happens?
Specifically regarding cargo lifts and airdrops.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 14:30:23 2010
It makes no sense to me that a vtol transport plane
can carry more cargo than a non-vtol transport plane.
I must be misunderstanding something.
so my trs can't drop guns anymore. i get that if it
is actually true.
What about Starlifters?
Does a helicopter really have more cargo carrying potential
than a tr?
Next thing you know, b-52's won't be able to carry bombs
anymore because they are considered to be too dangerous...
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 19 15:44:32 2010
} > Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 14:26:18 2010
}
} Are info pages being still revised to reflect current
} abominous changes or do we have to guess what they
} mean and figure it out after issuing certain commands
} and seeing what happens?
}
} Specifically regarding cargo lifts and airdrops.
To the best of my knowledge, info never explained the rules for cargo
plane loads. It certainly should. Patches welcome.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 19 15:45:51 2010
} > Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 14:30:23 2010
}
} It makes no sense to me that a vtol transport plane
} can carry more cargo than a non-vtol transport plane.
It's not VTOL vs. non-VTOL, it's airdrop vs. airlift.
An airlift is when you land in the target sector and unload your
cargo.
An airdrop is when you toss your cargo out of your planes over the
target sector. Requires parachutes and extra-sturdy crates, which
reduces the load.
The fly command lands at the target, thus it's an airlift.
Commands drop and paradrop are airdrop for non-VTOL transport planes,
and airlift for VTOL transport planes. That's because the latter
don't use parachutes --- they land, unload, take off and fly home.
One could argue that a VTOL paradrop should carry less than a VTOL
drop, because paradrop lands in a hostile sector. But that would add
another case the rules, so we decided against it for now.
} I must be misunderstanding something.
}
} so my trs can't drop guns anymore. i get that if it
} is actually true.
}
} What about Starlifters?
}
} Does a helicopter really have more cargo carrying potential
} than a tr?
* fly command
plane | zep np tc tr jt
item lbs ld | 2 3 5 7 16
--------------+--------------------------------------
other 1 | 4 6 10 14 32
u 2 | 2 3 5 7 16
d 5 | 1 2 2 6
r 8 | 1 1 4
g 10 | 1 1 3
b 50 |
No change.
* drop command
plane | zep np tc tr jt
item lbs ld | 2 3 5 7 16
--------------+--------------------------------------
other 1 | 4 3 6 10 7 14 16 32
u 2 | 2 1 3 5 3 7 8 16
d 5 | 1 2 1 2 3 6
r 8 | 1 1 2 4
g 10 | 1 1 1 3
b 50 |
First number is new load, second is old load if different.
Non-VTOL transports np, tr, jt can drop less than before.
* paradrop command
plane | tc tr jt
ld | 5 7 16
--------------+-------------------
mil | 10 5 7 16
VTOL transports tc can paradrop more than before.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Mar 19 15:51:16 2010
we can't drop bars?!?!? what the sam hill kinda
rule is that? don't you know how much damage a gold
bar would do when dropped from 20,000 ft?
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Fri Mar 19 16:52:57 2010
There should be collateral damage attributed to dropping
civs or uws from a plane. Say you drop 100 uws from
10,000 ft, the uws will either BOUNCE and hit something
on the rebound, SPLAT, in which case the gooey slime will
cause damage (especially if the target sector is a highway)
or create a CRATOR.
All of thse will affect the sector and goods in the sector.
Ya think?
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Mar 19 16:56:53 2010
Fleshbots as ammunition? We like it.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Mar 19 17:09:55 2010
thanks for clarifying.
the gods are truly kind and benevelont. Praises be.
it still makes no kind of sam hill sense that starlifters carry less
stuff but I don't create the world. I just live and die in it.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 19 17:49:51 2010
} it still makes no kind of sam hill sense that starlifters carry less
} stuff but I don't create the world. I just live and die in it.
Carry less than what?
In case you mean "drop less than before": to me it makes sense that a
starlifter can transport less cargo when it parachutes. How much less
is debatable. I picked 1/2 simply because that left paradrop the
same.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Mar 19 17:53:21 2010
I'm not sure if the verisimilitude is quite there
but in the end, it's more consistant behavior
if your plane lands you get 2x load
if it doesn't land, you don't
if it's VTOL it always gets 2x load
how does this affect plane mining missions?
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 19 18:00:30 2010
} how does this affect plane mining missions?
Not at all. It's not a cargo flight.
Besides, I can't see how VTOL capability would benefit laying of
seamines.
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Fri Mar 19 18:34:56 2010
Hear ye, hear ye!
In her own words, Sun has bequeathed us
one of their lands.
So let it be written, so let it be done!
[Victoria also said I would be punished!
Go figure!
Women!!]
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Mar 19 18:37:57 2010
So, should you rename yourself Oracle?
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Fri Mar 19 20:18:29 2010
How come noone joined the party?
out of mobility maybe?
Well we have the fortunate way of telling you
that we have a transylvanian party house tonight.
Everyone that wants to shed some blood on our behalf
are welcome. Watch those booby traps when you walk the red
carpet up to our whores too.
Victoria is waiting, remember what it means, We are
INVICTUS.
Now to church for prayer, we shall not in our government descend
to muddy matters.
Note:
Goop wants to be whipped, but we think its better to oil him
first.
Goop asked for this after attacking an insignificant island stripe
the other day.
I think he is really thirsty for my party. Ill have my head executioner
take care of him, we have s a special well equipped cabinet ready for Goop, when his party lands.
Sun
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Mar 19 20:42:50 2010
and how are the tourney brackets doing so far?
anyone got a perfect bracket?
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Mar 19 20:57:07 2010
correction to the game report on rec.games.empire
I didn't just come out of retirement
I've been out of retirement for a while
I just suck at playing now
(cue the 'you always sucked at playing ...' cracks in
three... two... )
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Mar 19 20:57:45 2010
worst thing about march madness is that all the
other stations wimp out and put their best shows
into reruns because they're afraid to go up against
the b-ball games.
Markus Armbruster
Sun's forces were no match for the CallMeFodder war machine.
Counter-attacks inflicted some damage, but the war was too much for
Sun's strained finances, and all too soon the Sun government went
bankrupt and collapsed. CallMeFodder's conquest is all but complete
now. Aquitaine and Goop each bagged a few remote sectors.
The slight decrease in the intensity of Thistle's attacks on Wamic we
saw in the previous week was the relative calm before the storm. A
massive landing force hit Wamic proper, and established a solid
beachhead. Heavy bombing and shelling followed. Wamic's back was
broken, and all that's left for Thistle is some mop-up.
FreeBeer and wales are still fighting, but the action appears to be
limited to the sea at this time. wales and Aquitaine exchanged some
blows, too. The conflict between Ashkanistan and Goop has lately been
limited to the sea as well.
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Mar 26 21:01:48 2010
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Thistle 200 90% 166K 8.3K 1.3K 230 4.1K 10K 550 2.2K 110 90 60 25K
CallMeFod 170 94% 150K 7.0K 1.3K 215 3.8K 12K 1.1K 3.0K 100 100 40 1.1K
Robotron 145 99% 142K 6.8K 2.5K 375 7.7K 6.4K 400 3.4K 140 150 90 952
beep 130 100% 131K 5.8K 1.6K 265 7.0K 6.7K 250 2.8K 110 100 50 2.4K
FreeBeer 135 100% 128K 4.5K 2.0K 300 1.4K 7.2K 250 2.9K 120 130 80 25K
Goop 135 97% 120K 6.4K 1.7K 190 900 5.2K 150 2.5K 60 70 30 15K
Aquitaine 125 96% 118K 8.4K 2.0K 330 4.3K 5.8K 41 3.5K 70 100 80 40K
DevilDog 95 99% 92K 7.5K 1.3K 175 2.9K 3.9K 1.0K 1.2K 60 30 10 75K
Barbwirel 95 99% 93K 5.5K 2.0K 385 700 5.2K 200 2.1K 30 70 50 3.1K
Bloodstar 90 100% 77K 3.5K 1.7K 210 350 5.8K 400 2.6K 80 20 70 80K
wales 80 96% 78K 2.4K 1.7K 215 700 4.8K 43 2.4K 40 70 30 5.0K
Ashkanist 60 100% 58K 2.5K 1.3K 250 1.1K 5.6K 1.2K 3.6K 20 30 20 10K
Wamic 15 72% 20K 350 25 4 0 0 0 200 0 0 0 -215
Sun 4 46% 600 300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 -2.9K
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 1.5K 96% 1.4M 69K 20K 3.1K 35K 78K 5.5K 32K 930 950 590 285K
Hvy Plastic is 2 running at empire.pond.sub.org, port 6665. Check out
http://www.pond.sub.org/~armbru/empire/hvy-plastic-2/
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Mar 19 21:03:00 2010
how in the hell did I manage to fall .04 tech short?
I blame you Tech Decay!
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Fri Mar 19 21:15:30 2010
woohoo, Job Posting: Engineers Wanted, please submit
resumes to sector 23,13.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Mar 19 21:17:18 2010
Engineers are an abomination
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Sat Mar 20 00:05:18 2010
Only self defense war declared against all for security reasons
I promised a party did I not?
Sun
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Sat Mar 20 00:06:23 2010
We used the asterisk, Barbewire and Ashkanistan wales and some more will be upgraded soon.
Sun
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Sat Mar 20 05:07:01 2010
Lo and behold!
Victoria has shunned us from her late night
parties again!!
But we will not be easily denied. As famously
stated long ago:
"You gotta fight for your right to party!"
All hail Victoria, queen of scotch!
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Sat Mar 20 19:41:27 2010
}(cue the 'you always sucked at playing ...' cracks in
}three... two... )
But you was always one helluva miner...
{Engineers are an abomination
What?!
Lemme think...
What?!
"dec h -whatever the hell your number is-"
- Arrakis (Was one, now educates 'em.)
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Mar 21 07:24:29 2010
The server crashed hard at 04:35:26. I'm investigating why. Sorry
for the downtime.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Mar 21 08:08:19 2010
Probable cause for the crash identified, working on a patch. Please
try not to hit seamines for a while :)
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Mar 21 09:05:36 2010
*** Attention, please ***
I fixed the crash bug:
* Hitting seamines could crash the server. When not, the damage
reduction for capability sweep was applied unpredictably.
The player triggering this crash gets spared the mine damage for his
trouble.
The bug did not affect us beyond that, because this was the first
seamine hit.
Feel free to hit all the seamines you want.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Mar 21 09:05:42 2010
I also fixed a number of minor bugs:
* When an interdiction did damage other than collateral damage, the
planes that intercepted it from interdicted carriers used no
petrol.
* Ship anti-missile defense failed to charge shells when the ship was
interdicted.
* Fix a bug in navigate and march that let players lay mines free of
charge. Also fix them not to prompt for the number of mines.
* Missile exploding on launch could not damage its base if it was
armed with a nuke.
* When a torpedo attack triggered a return torpedo, the news reported
it to be fired by the attacker instead of the defender.
These bugs were not abused in this game, voluntarily or unvoluntarily,
because that would have triggered my bug traps.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Sun Mar 21 11:18:06 2010
seamines? who has enough shells to waste them
by dumping them in the water?
The peace-loving nation known as Aquitaine waters have
no mines in them and we do our best to sweep behind the
scoundrels who might attempt to pollute things.
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Sun Mar 21 19:25:47 2010
CMF
Official Sun Announcement
I ask you for mercy, if there is any, could you leave my
main island and let my people free?
Sun
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Sun Mar 21 19:28:12 2010
my commando on that sub passing through my own minefield
crashed things eh? It was late and I wasn't paying attention,sry.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Sun Mar 21 23:05:37 2010
CallMeFodder covets your bars and women. Most likely
will show no mercy.
The peace loving nation of Aquitaine is accepting refugees.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Mon Mar 22 20:24:01 2010
A player read the following in info assault:
Any ship with military can assault a sector containing 0 mil,
however only a landing ship can assault a sector with military in
it with its full complement of troops. The other ships will only
be able to land a fraction of their troops in any given assault
(usually 1/10th). This represents the use of the Admiral's gig,
the Captain's barge, etc.
He wondered whether a land unit in the sector counts as military. The
answer is no.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Mon Mar 22 20:26:30 2010
A player inquired whether sweeping all mines from a sector clears the
X in his bmap. The answer is no.
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Mon Mar 22 20:34:28 2010
Try "bdes x,x ." to clear that bmap
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Mar 22 20:36:34 2010
"bdes *,* ." if you're an artistic type entering
your blue phase
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Mon Mar 22 20:40:07 2010
If its Wamic asking about that bmap:
Your landing ships loaded with engineers work great
to clear those mines. They hang their mining nets
over the side.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Mon Mar 22 20:46:53 2010
I havent asked any questions yet...
Glad for all the reminders. Seems I remember
a new command every day...just rembered lcargo.
wow, I had 0mil in most of my coast sects.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Mar 22 21:03:58 2010
oh my
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Tue Mar 23 00:49:59 2010
Hoe come I dont get enough btus, I cant carry out commands, even thoug
I have a national capital,
this stinks.
Where can I get political asylum?
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Tue Mar 23 00:53:01 2010
CMF
I offer you to surrrender, uncoditionally!
This country belongs to Goop only!
> Announcement from Sun, (#11) dated Tue Mar 23 01:05:08 2010
Report from the north Sea!
As CMF primitive NAVY movwed in, she did a mistake.
She left her big warships and a light carrier unguarded
in the belief i could not bite,
I had a few battleships fully armed out in the sea, and in
range. So they moved in, and could pick down 10 ships including
the light carrier, of course CMF had another carrier standing by,
but how well eguipped we dont know,
it was the biggest loss ever for CMF
I used both bomber planes and a battleship to take down
CMFs light carrier, a tremednous loss it bmust have been, ah it was a pleasure, an in later games, if CMF
is there vengeance shall be mine, this CU.. MO... FU....,
rot in hell!
CMF is now weak on other flanks, go get her rear!
Bomb her pety island with nukes, yes its moral, she deserves
total annihilation.
We shall fight from the shadows, you never knew your nightmare
was coming CMF! Never ever ever ever shall we succumb!
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Tue Mar 23 03:51:04 2010
woohoo, I make the 14 flak limit with only 13 guns.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Tue Mar 23 18:38:22 2010
A player inquired whether land units use mobility when they react[*].
Yes, they do.
[*] If you don't know what "react" means, read "info Attacking".
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Tue Mar 23 19:58:07 2010
wales earned 5 bars of gold for reporting a bug in coastwatch that
lets you occasionally see one sector too far. Off-by-one error in a
piece of exceedingly clever code, already present in Empire 1.1, 1989.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Wed Mar 24 02:29:41 2010
I got rolled hard today. I suppose I asked for it.
My lands will soon be completely Thistlimulated in the
next 24hr period I think.
Thanks for the party.
Cupcake, leader of Wamic
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Thu Mar 25 08:33:41 2010
*** Attention, please ***
It wouldn't be a Hvy game without a configuration screwup. This
game's screwup is uranium mines. Again. Only this time they produce
too little, too fast, because resource depletion is wrong. I fixed
it. "show product" changes from
product cost raw materials reso dep level p.e.
rad r $2 uran 20 (tech-40)/(tech-30)
to
product cost raw materials reso dep level p.e.
rad r $2 uran 5 (tech-40)/(tech-30)
My sincere apologies.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Fri Mar 26 19:10:04 2010
looking forwards to the next game. I plan on doing things
much differently.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 26 19:42:24 2010
A player inquired whether llookout can spot neutral or friendly spies.
The answer is yes. The spotting chance is the same regardless of
relations.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 26 19:45:35 2010
A player read in "info Damage" that gold bars take no damage when the
sector takes damage, and inquired whether that's correct. It isn't.
Gold bars are immune only if option SUPERBARS is enabled. It's not.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 26 19:48:47 2010
A player inquired about ABMs. This game mimicks real life in that
ABMs become available long after big nukes.
There is no way to stop non-marine missiles without ABMs.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Mar 26 20:37:44 2010
Bloodstar earned five bars of gold for reporting the uranium mine
misconfiguration.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Mar 26 20:39:16 2010
Don't mind me...
I'm just making some glow in the dark watches
Markus Armbruster
plenty of action to report all the same.
CallMeFodder scored the first sack of a capital, completing his conquest
of Sun.
Thistle gobbled up most of Wamic, including the capital.
FreeBeer sent a clear signal "This means business, April Fool's Day or
not" by starting his invasion of wales with a nuclear strike. This
proved too much for the welsh treasury, and bankruptcy had to be
declared.
Goop appears to achieved a breakthrough in his long-standing struggle
with Ashkanistan.
Note that the power report is from Wednesday, and thus doesn't reflect
all of the action covered above.
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Wed Mar 31 21:03:51 2010
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Thistle 220 96% 185K 8.0K 2.0K 280 4.2K 11K 650 2.2K 120 110 60 30K
CallMeFod 175 97% 155K 8.3K 2.5K 295 4.5K 10K 350 2.5K 120 110 50 10K
Robotron 145 100% 143K 8.0K 3.5K 505 7.7K 7.4K 350 3.8K 160 150 90 10K
beep 140 99% 137K 6.3K 2.6K 395 7.0K 6.4K 250 4.2K 130 110 60 2.7K
FreeBeer 140 99% 132K 4.8K 2.6K 360 1.4K 7.4K 250 2.5K 120 120 80 25K
Aquitaine 135 96% 129K 8.8K 3.4K 370 5.8K 6.1K 450 3.1K 80 100 80 30K
Goop 140 95% 128K 5.4K 1.0K 210 1.1K 5.8K 150 2.5K 60 80 30 15K
Barbwirel 95 100% 94K 5.0K 1.9K 420 650 5.7K 150 1.9K 40 70 50 16
DevilDog 95 99% 93K 8.4K 1.6K 210 3.1K 4.1K 550 900 90 30 40 40K
Bloodstar 90 100% 80K 3.2K 2.5K 245 850 6.8K 850 2.2K 90 20 70 85K
wales 60 100% 61K 2.2K 1.3K 200 650 5.2K 200 2.7K 40 40 20 5.0K
Ashkanist 50 87% 43K 1.2K 400 100 550 5.5K 250 200 20 20 20 20K
Wamic 3 33% 2.0K 9 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3.1K
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 1.5K 97% 1.4M 70K 25K 3.6K 37K 82K 4.4K 29K 1.1K 950 650 275K
Hvy Plastic is 2 running at empire.pond.sub.org, port 6665. Check out
http://www.pond.sub.org/~armbru/empire/hvy-plastic-2/
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Fri Mar 26 22:28:14 2010
Lies! Him's lying!
He can't even tell time.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Fri Mar 26 22:30:28 2010
Look on the positive side, Wamic.
You're not Sun.
Certain people exist solely so the rest of us can say -
"Whew, I guess I'm okay!"
> Announcement from wales, (#10) dated Sat Mar 27 01:40:37 2010
While I am saying "whew, I am still okay",
just how long can I keep it up?
(comments from Freebeer and Aquatine encouraged)
Although Aquatine may have some money problems
after his bank was damaged!! :)
Gotta love those commandos!
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Mar 28 15:27:33 2010
*** Attention, please ***
The 10kt and 250kt nuclear warheads did not fit on jhb as intended,
because I miscalculated their weight. I just fixed it.
FreeBeer earned five bars of gold for pointing this out to me.
My apologies...
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Mar 28 17:47:09 2010
beep and wales earned five bars of gold each for reporting behavior
that I can't quite bring myself to call bugs --- the code certainly
works as designed there. Still, I find the behavior surprising, and I
can't say I like it. So maybe these are bugs after all.
beep observed that submarine interdiction uses up shells even when it
doesn't bomb anything.
wales reported that spies sneaking ashore keep all their mobility.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sun Mar 28 19:37:30 2010
so they aren't necessarily bugs, but they still
bug you?
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Sun Mar 28 19:54:06 2010
Buglights?
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Mon Mar 29 19:05:56 2010
I recall discussion about the sub interdiction and shell consumption in a game a few
years back. Interdicting planes always load / consume shells when they fly.
There is no logic to add those shells back to sector stock if they are not used for bombing.
At that time it was decided to leave it unchanged. Therefore, shell consumption
remains a cost of sub detection by planes - even friendly subs. The negative
affect here is that sub interdiction does not occur if the sector runs out of
shells just like it stops if you run out of petrol.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Mar 29 20:12:29 2010
nobody likes me... and i even bathe and use
deodorant... occasionally.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Mon Mar 29 21:07:29 2010
woohoo, go che!
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Mar 29 21:10:09 2010
--- At the Capitol City, Anywhere, Anytime ---
"Stellar Bomb Intiated and Detached..."
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Mon Mar 29 23:26:16 2010
}nobody likes me... and i even bathe and use
}deodorant... occasionally.
Lipstick on a pig.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Tue Mar 30 20:09:08 2010
One more bug: a 100% commando sabotaging a sector has a 90% evade
capture, and should have a 90% to survive the explosion. 4.3.17 broke
the latter: the spy always dies.
In other words, you can get at most one sabotage out of a commando.
I won't fix this in this game.
> Announcement from Goop, (#1) dated Wed Mar 31 15:18:43 2010
Damn. Ran outta BTUs!
Had to disconnect and re-connect.
There's gotta be a better way!
How 'bout them Spartans!!!
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Mar 31 15:26:22 2010
you mean back when 640 BTUs was how many
BTU's you got per 24 hour period?
when you ran out... you were out
nothing like logging out and back in to get that
precious 5 BTUs
and man did it suck if you ever had heavy casualties
and went deeply negative in the middle of a war
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Thu Apr 1 06:23:45 2010
Reminder: there is no update on Good Friday. The next update is on
Monday, April 5.
You might notice a slower BTU gain. BTUs are made every ETU. There
are 60 ETUs from update to update, spaced evenly. Normally, updates
are 48 hours apart (72 on weekends), so one ETU takes 48 minutes of
real time (72 on weekends). But right now it takes 120 minutes.
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Thu Apr 1 14:01:35 2010
wales has been the recipient of the first nuke!
Thu Apr 1 13:43 thirty-three times FreeBeer explodes a nuclear device
damaging wales territory
Now let's see how bad the fallout is...
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Apr 1 17:26:23 2010
nukes are unclean; they should be removed from
the game. we have never, ever abused the game
by resorting to nukes.
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Thu Apr 1 17:45:14 2010
beep cleans his nukes before a blast off
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Thu Apr 1 19:55:58 2010
Logged in today to check up on my sector. Things look good.
My new neighbor is great. It's a good day to mow my lawn.
Yeah, I think I'll do that. I'm sure my neighbs will really like that.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Thu Apr 1 23:43:44 2010
Wamic has a shell! Oh my...
Quick, somebody loan him a gun.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Apr 2 03:07:50 2010
So, if you can't be on for an update, don't leave your ships sitting there w/o retreat orders.....
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Apr 2 06:01:30 2010
direct evidence of the vast diety related money
laundering scheme and players cheating exploiting
"bugs". more details to follow after the so-called
holiday weekend
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Apr 2 06:02:45 2010
the cheater has even bragged about it in public announcements.
some petty dictators have no honor.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Apr 2 18:13:39 2010
I'll be curious to see if wales goes bankrupt after that nuke
nukes are incredibly ugly in a game where the islands
are relatively small like this
not that that's a bad thing :)
though I would be curious to see how things would go
with a large islands game with each country starting
with about 200 sectors, 50 of which are not plains
and about 10 mountain sectors with gold in them their hills
if the sectors are scattered around, then a single nuke
isn't quite death (unless it pegs a bank, then you'r
hurting, but a fleet of jhbs could do that too
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Fri Apr 2 18:23:23 2010
}isn't quite death (unless it pegs a bank, then you'r
}hurting, but a fleet of jhbs could do that too
If you have just *one* bank, you deserve it.
Oh, wait, I'm supposed to be a kinder gentler type now..
:)
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Fri Apr 2 20:42:54 2010
Plundaria is the evil god.
He/She is part of the vast money laundering and supporting cheater
scheme.
All hail the Almighty POGO, the one true God. Praises Be!
> Announcement from wales, (#10) dated Fri Apr 2 22:14:33 2010
Yes it did (much to my surprise/disappointment...)
put me bankrupt.
Markus Armbruster
updates this week.
FreeBeer occupied most of wales, sacking the capital no less than three
times (first time should have been reported last week already).
Goop punched through Askanistan's line and plundered the capital.
Organized resistance collapsed.
Thistle jumped DevilDog and took a couple of sectors. CallMeFodder got
some, too.
Robotron and beep attacked Barbwireland. Heavy fighting at sea and in
the air ensued, and a few landings. Minefields apparently slowed down
the attackers. Bad luck, too: the server crashed right before the
update, throwing landings into disarray.
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Apr 9 21:04:54 2010
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Thistle 240 99% 210K 9.0K 2.7K 345 4.2K 7.9K 900 3.1K 120 120 70 15K
CallMeFod 190 99% 181K 10K 3.8K 330 4.8K 15K 200 2.4K 130 130 60 1.2K
FreeBeer 190 93% 159K 5.4K 3.0K 495 1.9K 11K 500 4.8K 110 110 80 10K
Robotron 150 99% 148K 7.8K 4.0K 565 7.4K 7.4K 350 3.4K 150 140 90 1.4K
beep 145 100% 140K 6.7K 3.2K 530 6.7K 6.5K 250 4.2K 120 110 60 699
Goop 165 90% 140K 5.3K 1.3K 235 1.1K 9.4K 600 4.4K 70 80 30 30K
Aquitaine 135 99% 131K 8.8K 4.9K 425 7.0K 5.0K 100 2.8K 80 100 80 25K
Bloodstar 90 100% 81K 3.1K 3.1K 285 1.1K 8.2K 550 1.8K 140 20 70 95K
Barbwirel 80 91% 77K 4.1K 1.9K 360 1.9K 6.8K 250 2.2K 50 60 60 65
DevilDog 70 99% 65K 5.8K 950 205 2.1K 4.4K 450 1.7K 50 20 40 1.7K
Ashkanist 25 71% 17K 600 100 35 300 2.4K 35 100 10 30 6 20K
wales 10 100% 8.9K 500 500 50 100 50 0 0 0 9 2 -6.0K
Wamic 1 100% 900 150 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -135
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 1.5K 96% 1.4M 68K 30K 3.9K 38K 84K 4.2K 31K 1.0K 920 630 195K
Hvy Plastic is 2 running at empire.pond.sub.org, port 6665. Check out
http://www.pond.sub.org/~armbru/empire/hvy-plastic-2/
> Announcement from wales, (#10) dated Fri Apr 2 22:14:33 2010
Yes it did (much to my surprise/disappointment...)
put me bankrupt.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sat Apr 3 03:17:14 2010
sometimes when you begin to get farther along in your
trip to six feet under you begin to become jaded; you
feel that most of the good times are faint shadows of
the really good times you used to have. but, occasionally
something happens that revitalizes you, that makes you
feel that there are still depths of experience you have
yet to plumb, and that make you still believe in the
magic... "Mega Piranha" debuts on the SyFy channel
tomorrow. life is good.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Sat Apr 3 05:00:29 2010
sounds like another Asylum production. I'm a sucker for their films.
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Sat Apr 3 06:17:22 2010
BEEP is crazier than me but sometimes he is right.
much respect
I'm still trying to get to the bottom of the vast
diety corruption money laundering scheme and them assisting
players who cheat and exploit bugs, but whatever.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Sat Apr 3 13:34:04 2010
Saw that coming....
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sat Apr 3 15:39:32 2010
Now, nuking someone's mainland the same turn
you're taking their capital, is that worth it?
Sounds like spending money to depreciate your
spoils?
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Sun Apr 4 01:14:12 2010
some people still refuse to sign the non-nuclear
proliferation treaty.
"no nukes!!!"
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sun Apr 4 02:29:46 2010
we only mine uranium because rads increase your
power score, honest.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Sun Apr 4 03:54:00 2010
Unbelieveable
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Sun Apr 4 03:55:13 2010
Well, I never made it this far, so, I'm bound to fail miserably.
Hey, maybe in another 10 years I'll get anotehr 2 games in to learn what to do at this point.
Dd
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Apr 4 07:33:17 2010
DevilDog earned five bars of gold for reporting that retreat condition
'c' doesn't work.
You can still clear retreat orders by navigating or marching (path "h"
is fine, also clears mission), or like this:
[14:575] Command : retr 8
shp# ship type x,y fl path as flt? flags
8 tk tanker 21,-3 a jjj ithb
1 ship
[15:574] Command : retr 8 "" c
Retreat path?
shp# ship type x,y fl path as flt? flags
8 tk tanker 21,-3 a
1 ship
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Sun Apr 4 17:39:31 2010
Big gamble.
Big mistake.
Big loss.
Nice lesson. Thanks again to Thistle school of hard knocks. ;)
dD
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sun Apr 4 19:12:53 2010
so he really stuck it to you, did he? gave you
the shaft? it really stung? pointed out the
error of your ways?
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Mon Apr 5 05:38:50 2010
Yeah - big 'ol hunk 'o chunck 'o shaft...
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Mon Apr 5 08:48:31 2010
I can't even tell what's a bug or not anymore. Heavy Plastic
is a strange world. Now I know why BEEP declared war on the
false gods immediately after breaking sanctuary.
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Mon Apr 5 12:07:56 2010
re Big islands
Geoff tried that a few years back in his Big Game. We all had
100-sector start continents. It was nearly impossible to kill
a country unless 2 or 3 friends helped. The game did end in a
big nuke fest with about 50 nukes being dropped. We did manage
to overrun a neighbor singly because he was about an update behind in
tech. Conventional warefare in this game is useless against
that much depth if the defender knows how to use his defense.
The nuke fest was not a satisfying ending after investing
months of work.
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Mon Apr 5 12:13:27 2010
re nuke and cap same turn
We did not expect to penetrate so deep after the nuke.
The nuke was to prevent much of a counter-attack after
the beachhead. We got lucky and made it to his cap
wire n
enjoy the fallout. :)
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Mon Apr 5 12:15:28 2010
re nuke and cap same turn (lets try that again)
We did not expect to penetrate so deep after the nuke.
The nuke was to prevent much of a counter-attack after
the beachhead. We got lucky and made it to his cap
and the sack appeared to bankrupt him. Now WE get to
enjoy the fallout. :)
> Announcement from Aquitaine, (#3) dated Mon Apr 5 12:57:37 2010
I've heard that convential warfare was useless a lot.
Next thing you know, our marines sitting in the enemy
cap on top of tanks with beers in one hand and a woman
in the other.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Apr 5 18:52:41 2010
some people prefer to celebrate the coming of spring
by rolling easter eggs; we prefer the more primitive
pagan ways of blood sacrifices.
> Announcement from Ashkanistan, (#9) dated Mon Apr 5 21:33:54 2010
Good Bye cruel world ;-)
See you next time!
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Tue Apr 6 05:27:10 2010
A player had difficulties interpreting the output of "report".
"info report" says:
(1) If your value of the statistic is 0, then n/a (not applicable)
will be printed in that column.
You need a positive level to gain any information from "report".
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Tue Apr 6 23:55:59 2010
Well, I'm having trouble interpreting the output of "women".
"info women" says:
Sorry, there is no info on women
What good are you guys?
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Wed Apr 7 00:15:56 2010
If you are trying to learn about women, you are playing the wrong
game. This game is all about sheep. IE, see "info sheep"
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Wed Apr 7 00:34:46 2010
I dream of electric sheep.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Wed Apr 7 00:37:48 2010
QxKB6+!!
-Bladerunner
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Apr 7 19:25:45 2010
probability godz hate me...
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Wed Apr 7 20:42:03 2010
Me too!
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Apr 7 21:55:53 2010
not my fault! honest, i wasn't doin' nothin'
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Wed Apr 7 22:01:03 2010
*** Attention, please ***
The server crashed hard at 21:00:28, and we missed the update.
I fixed the crash bug:
* Hitting landmines could crash the server. When not, the damage
reduction for capability engineer was applied unpredictably.
The player triggering this crash gets spared the mine damage for his
trouble.
The bug did not affect us beyond that, because this was the first
landmine hit.
Sorry for the downtime, and for the missed update.
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Wed Apr 7 22:09:41 2010
A server crash at the update? We thought this was
"Hvy Plastic", not "Retro" empire.
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Thu Apr 8 03:55:01 2010
These BTU calculations do not compute.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Apr 8 03:58:16 2010
danger! danger, will robotron! danger!
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Thu Apr 8 04:08:34 2010
I'm sorry, beep. I'm afraid I can't do that.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Thu Apr 8 05:54:14 2010
BTU growth is tied to the Empire clock. The Empire clock ticks 60
times between updates. It already ticked 59 times since the last
update (show updates says "Turn 26, ETU 59"). The 60th tick will be
right at the next update.
> Announcement from wales, (#10) dated Thu Apr 8 05:56:12 2010
Is there some kind of prize for the most
sacks of a single nations capital??
Freebeer has taken mine 3 times and I think
that he is leaving me a few sectors solely so
that I create another capital for him to sack!
:)
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Thu Apr 8 07:15:12 2010
Wales are mammals and thus milkable.
Then again, so is Barbie The Uncompensated Lover,
and still..
Bah, typing from a phone and it would be long.
Wish I could sell BTUs. Outsourcing bureaucracy anyone?
It's so boring when your mechanical toys run out
of batteries..
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Thu Apr 8 17:12:26 2010
A player inquired on how to give away planes. Read info load for a
safe and peaceful way to give away planes
Note that boarding a ship damages the planes on it down to 10%, even
when you're friendly.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Apr 8 21:27:21 2010
i want my btu's
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Thu Apr 8 21:28:24 2010
No... really, you don't
it's getting near summer and you'll get awfully warm.
unless you're in the southern hemisphere...
in that case, yeah, stock up on those BTUs
:)
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Apr 9 18:45:46 2010
A player inquired about the blast radius of nuclear warheads.
"show n s" column "blst" shows airburst blast radius. Groundburst is
2/3 of that, rounded down.
Groundburst damage is dam / (dist + 1), where dam is "show n s"
column "dam", and dist is the distance from ground zero.
Airburst damage is dam * 0.75 - dist * 20.
Damage above 100 makes wasteland.
In both cases, damage less than 5 is flushed to zero. No damage is
done beyond the blast radius.
Note that damage can be zero even within the blast radius.
Here's a handy table for the evil tyrants among you, first
groundburst, then airburst:
blst dam lbs tech 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
10kt fission 3 70 12 150 70 35 23
52 32 12 0
50kt fission 3 100 7 160 100 50 33
75 55 35 15
100kt fission 3 110 8 170 \ 55 36
82 62 42 12
5kt tactical 2 80 1 180 80 40
60 40 20
250kt fusion 4 125 12 180 \ 62 41
93 73 53 33 13
1mt fusion 6 150 5 190 \ 75 50 37 30
\ 92 72 52 32 12 0
3mt fusion 6 170 6 200 \ 85 56 42 34
\ \ 87 67 47 27 7
5mt fusion 8 190 8 210 \ 95 63 47 38 31
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Fri Apr 9 18:46:31 2010
\ \ \ 82 62 42 22 0 0
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 9 21:00:23 2010
I demand my land mine back, and that its exact
location be deleted from Robotron's data banks.
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Apr 9 21:00:26 2010
What is this "land shark" and why does he keep contacting
us?
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Apr 9 21:00:55 2010
We would like to point out that we did return that land mine.
It went through the bow of your cargo shit.
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Apr 9 21:01:12 2010
Spell checker: segmentation fault. core dumped.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 9 21:02:16 2010
I hereby publically reprehend Robotron for using
such dirty tactics to delay the update to a day
when fleshbots should be intoxicating themselves.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Apr 9 21:04:34 2010
but you were the one who used such an inhumane
practice of planting landmines where innocent
sailors on shore leave might stumble across them.
Markus Armbruster
air.
The Robotron / beep aggression on Barbwireland appeared to stall
throughout the week. But then the week ended with a bang and a mushroom
cloud. Several of them, in fact. Thistle dropped the game's second
nuclear warhead on Robotron, and beep dropped several on Barbwireland.
Thistle and CallMeFodder jointly declared victory a couple of hours
before Friday's update. DevilDog opposed it, and Bloodstar declared
victory as well. The game is still on.
In other news: Goop took another bite out of Ashkanistan, only to lose
twice as much ground to CallMeFodder and Thistle. FreeBeer completed
the conquest of wales, and Thistle finally took the last Wamician
stronghold.
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Apr 16 21:02:54 2010
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Thistle 270 98% 250K 9.4K 4.5K 460 7.0K 9.5K 500 4.3K 140 130 80 20K
CallMeFod 215 94% 200K 10K 5.2K 570 4.8K 11K 150 2.6K 150 130 50 10K
FreeBeer 205 96% 166K 6.3K 4.8K 710 3.0K 12K 1.3K 4.0K 140 110 80 55K
Robotron 150 98% 145K 7.1K 5.8K 545 7.8K 6.4K 500 2.9K 130 140 90 15K
beep 145 100% 141K 5.5K 4.9K 675 6.2K 6.4K 300 3.9K 130 110 60 4.9K
Goop 135 93% 118K 5.3K 1.9K 225 1.0K 11K 850 3.9K 50 80 30 80K
Aquitaine 135 99% 134K 8.7K 7.1K 520 8.0K 4.2K 34 4.0K 80 100 80 45K
Bloodstar 90 99% 83K 3.1K 3.6K 335 1.5K 10K 350 2.8K 220 20 80 100K
DevilDog 70 95% 62K 6.0K 1.1K 290 1.9K 7.2K 450 2.4K 60 10 40 4.7K
Barbwirel 75 87% 63K 2.2K 1.7K 400 2.2K 6.7K 27 2.0K 40 40 60 69
Ashkanist 15 95% 11K 200 25 15 0 600 27 5 0 20 0 40K
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 1.5K 96% 1.4M 64K 41K 4.8K 43K 86K 4.5K 33K 1.1K 900 650 365K
Hvy Plastic is 2 running at empire.pond.sub.org, port 6665. Check out
http://www.pond.sub.org/~armbru/empire/hvy-plastic-2/
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Apr 9 22:28:46 2010
It's our understanding that every day is a good day for
fleshbots to get intoxicated. The fleets of FreeBeer beer
tankers would seem to confirm this.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 9 22:37:12 2010
The innocent sailors got their legs back.
I thus want my cargo shit refloated.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 9 22:44:13 2010
And I want my five bars of gold delivered with great
force against the hull of certain carriers.
That's all for now I think.
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Apr 9 22:46:42 2010
We are fairly certain that as the discoverer of the
bug, we should receive those 5 bars. They may be
deposited in any one of our banks, including the one
located on the island formerly known as "Barbwireland".
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 9 22:50:49 2010
I want to protest the evil spionage tactics of
whoever leaked our plans to rename the island
to "Cybertronics junkyard."
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 9 22:57:06 2010
Not to belittle beep's efforts at feeding our renowned
sealife and maggotlife. Sorry I keep forgetting
you're fooling around too.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 9 23:05:28 2010
(Pro tip: you might as well have saved some
perfectly good parachutes.)
.e
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Apr 9 23:28:41 2010
Unless you've again hacked the empire server to further
work to your benefit, the name "Cybertronics junkyard" is
clearly not allowable as it contains whitespace.
This highlights the problem with zombie processes. They
tend to spew garbage until you kill them once and for all.
Besides, "128.138.240.3" has such a nicer ring to it.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 9 23:32:35 2010
Ah that's why you were trying to ping my country.
And now you are going to deny it again of course.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 9 23:35:55 2010
BTW, it goes without saying that we have a single
word for "Cybertronics junkyard" in Barbwirish.
To wit:
KABOOM.
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Apr 9 23:38:06 2010
Were we to engage in any sort of traffic with your former
island, we certainly would not use an unreliable protocol
like ICMP. What do you take us for, Commodore 64's!?
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Fri Apr 9 23:39:30 2010
And if we even see the word "Amiga", we're immediately
launching our DDoS attack.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sat Apr 10 00:04:50 2010
One would thing you'd be aroused by memories of
Amiga, seeing how you like to play Lemmings.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sat Apr 10 00:05:29 2010
*think even.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sat Apr 10 00:07:13 2010
And my apologies to beep for unfounded accusations.
Our investigations found no trace of actual parachutes
in the area of your attack.
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Sat Apr 10 00:09:27 2010
We don't know what these "lemmings" are, but if it's anything
like what we've observed you do with those poor sheep and
fleshbot slaves, we don't think we need that information in
our databases.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sat Apr 10 00:42:26 2010
From your attack schedule and your fixation with sheep,
I take it that I'm being attacked by Aussie robots?
> Announcement from Robotron, (#15) dated Sat Apr 10 00:52:00 2010
Attack schedule? The time of our attacks is based solely
on the rand() function. Perhaps we need to vary our seed
more greatly.
And according to our records, it is the Kiwi who, like you,
have an affinity for ovis aries.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sat Apr 10 04:43:59 2010
Welcome again.
This random number generator closely models your attacking behaviour:
Keep it up, though. It never gets old.
Regarding sheep, your memory must be corrupted by some of your other
processors. It has posted an announcement before admitting that it leaks sheep
imagery in its idle loop. A bug in no-op hardware, go figure!
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sat Apr 10 05:18:09 2010
we love xkcd. it is sad to see that others who
appreciated xkcd deliberately chose to become
our enemies. i guess that proves the old adage
that "everyone knows the Mona Lisa is a masterpiece,
but not everyone knows that the Mona Lisa can also
be used as firewood."
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sat Apr 10 08:43:21 2010
Sorry, beep, but if you were in my position, would
you forego the opportunity to conquer some combined
300 sectors?
Thought so.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Sat Apr 10 20:09:27 2010
Him spelled "behavior" funny!
Him's a Brit! Get 'im! Get 'im! They killed Elvis!
Well, them and bacon.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Sat Apr 10 20:17:31 2010
}FreeBeer bombers wreak havoc on FreeBeer twenty-four times
Didn't your mama tell you you'd go blind doing that?
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Sun Apr 11 00:51:50 2010
You guys do realize, that the lack of Free Beer has caused some
workers to go on strike:
http://www.nowpublic.com/strange/carlsberg-strike-workers-walk-out-over-beer-ban-2603260.html
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sun Apr 11 02:19:48 2010
piranhas 1
us navy 0
go piranhas!
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sun Apr 11 02:36:33 2010
piranhas 2
us navy 0
too bad tiffany is a bit of a butterball now,
instead of the passably attractive pop tart
she used to be.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sun Apr 11 03:02:22 2010
awww... why don't the monsters ever win? oh wait...
the humans won, and we're definitely the baddest
monstrosities this little blue mudball has ever seen.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sun Apr 11 13:10:56 2010
I'm a native Kaboomese (FKA Barbwirish) speaker.
In our language, the word for spelling also has
the meaning of finger crossing.
We don't produce bacon. Pigs can't survive in
our climate. We have to import all pork
derivatives from our neighbours. For some reason,
they are discontinuing supplies this update.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Sun Apr 11 18:40:26 2010
A new version of WinACE has been released on sourceforge.
Version 2.5.66 fixes support control for attack and assault.
The program was using 0/1 instead n/y for selecting the support options.
Also this version fixes where the navigation error pop up when
not used the form for navigation.
Ron K.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Sun Apr 11 20:49:10 2010
Him spells "neighbors" funny, too! Eek! Him might be an Aussie!
This is terrible! They exported Keith Urban!
Who took the "o" out of "country".
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Mon Apr 12 10:38:52 2010
Ron, can you also take out all references in WinACE to lrange (there
are multiple forms) and talk to Markus about nuke damage reports.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 12 13:41:10 2010
Will yo visitour stoup being a count already?
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Mon Apr 12 18:41:30 2010
re bombing ourselves
It's so fun bombing the wales - we can't miss!
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 12 20:16:53 2010
damn kids, get off my lawn with that WinAce stuff
next thing you'll know they'll be playing empire using
nural implants...
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 12 20:21:30 2010
Neural implants are for porn.
Then again, so is the internet, so who knows.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 12 20:22:53 2010
wait? porn? There's porn on the internet?
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 12 20:27:39 2010
*sigh*
There goes another Empire player.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 12 20:31:29 2010
If you're still reading us, may I suggest you check
out "Parachuteless" and "A Most Satisfying Kaboom",
featuring our very own Barbie The Uncompensated Lover.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 12 21:03:07 2010
laggy?
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Mon Apr 12 21:05:23 2010
I get wildly varying ping times to the host right now.
Fishy.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 12 21:06:04 2010
I blame Winace ;)
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 12 23:35:59 2010
Hey where are my 5 bars?
Robotron stated it very clearly that he was OK with
them being transferred to a custody account in
my bank at Kaboom DC.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Tue Apr 13 03:37:22 2010
"Oh, For the Day"
Oh, for the day
When the Dorsia Gray Captains killed their neighbors just for breaking sanctuary
When Afrika Korps called you an Asshole because those were the only 6 characters working on his keyboard
When there were 2 or 3 games alwyas going
And beep was in all of them
When Barsoom was drug around the town square behind an F150 like a deposed African tyrant
When there was more than one update in a day
When 50+ players signed up for a game
And all of them broke on time
When time to play Empire was a reality
When there were a dozen or more posts to the news group every day
When Mirkwood had to dial in form the airport to keep from being invaded
When Mirkwood would make an announcement
And it was worth staying up to 2:00 AM to read it
When Overlord would post a call for players for European Empire and you would pee your PJs in happiness
And when Overlord would post a call for players for Twisted Mind and you would shit your pants in fear
Damn, I miss those days.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Apr 13 17:59:56 2010
Quit playing WoW then
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Apr 15 05:48:11 2010
five
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Thu Apr 15 19:31:40 2010
blue
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Thu Apr 15 19:38:49 2010
RE: WinACE
And maybe spell "assault" correctly, fer chrisake...
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Thu Apr 15 21:56:21 2010
maybe it's a british spelling of 'assault'?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Apr 16 04:49:21 2010
four
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Apr 16 05:03:44 2010
Fore!
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Apr 16 07:04:49 2010
real men say "fore left"; only wimps (or lefties,
being an abomination because only the perversion
of satan worship causes left-handedness; when the
revolution comes the lefties will be among the
first up against the wall) say otherwise.
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Fri Apr 16 14:20:25 2010
? Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Tue Apr 13 03:37:22 2010
}"Oh, For the Day"
*Yawn* another has-been who can not be bothered to play
yet can groan and moan about how good it was when lots
of players signed up for games.
The logic in that stance seems... inconsistent.
Or maybe I am just messed up.
:)
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Apr 16 15:40:11 2010
(bpi) the sec formally charged barbiedoll with fraud
today. the complaint alleged that in marketing a security
backed by mortgages to be issued on barbedwireland acres.
the complaint states that barbiedoll mis-represented the
desirability of the product by claiming the land in question
was an idyllic realm filled with large-breasted blonde women,
whereas in fact it was cesspool filled with dangerous industrial
waste. investigators noted that even the waters around the
area were known to contain dangerous toxic garbage.
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Fri Apr 16 15:56:29 2010
:::Win Declaration:::
The countries of Thistle and CallMeFodder declare
a win in this land of Heavy Metal II.
Hopefully further bloodshed and spreading of
radiation materials can be avoided.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Apr 16 16:34:01 2010
the tiny little nation accepts the win, and pledges
to dispose of its defensive nuclear stockpile in an
environmentally friendly fashion.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Apr 16 17:23:20 2010
I KNEW CMF was in cahoots with Thistle!!!
I was really hoping to see how my defenses would have been
against invasion. I withhold accepting the win declaration -
for now.
In all honesty, I agree - especially b/c I would like the
next game to start so I can apply everything I have learned here,
however - I want my mainland to be attacked, as I believe
it would be a tough fight...(at least in my mind).
If I'm rapidly outnumbered, then I will accpet the declaration
so as not to unnecessarily prolong the end game, and I would also
accept if I would be leveled by nukes as well (rather than
convetional invasion)
Which means, this is the best game I have ever played!! Made it
to end game!! To still have ALL of my mainland - never invaded -
whilst witnessing a win declaration YAY FOR ME!
FYI, for those that might care, DevilDog is AKA Gemini
;)
Cheers!
Scott
AKA Gemini ][
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Fri Apr 16 17:39:12 2010
DevilDog aka Gemini-----
I have big nukes and they will come.
However, if Deity keeps game going after
a final win, I will curtail the nukes
and give you a chance with conventional defense.
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Fri Apr 16 18:23:10 2010
Thisle win declaration has been made and opposed.
Game goes on.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 16 18:41:30 2010
I protest beep's failing to finish the countdown
before launching his expensive toys.
Incidentally, demand for Barbwirish real estate
has spiked since pictures of all-year aurora
borealis have been circulated.
Good times!
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Apr 16 18:46:37 2010
The Nation of Metallica^w Bloodstar is declaring
victory.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Apr 16 19:53:30 2010
ruh-roh... are the icbm's ready to fly, metalhead?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Apr 16 20:47:23 2010
Command: reso # ?ocon>0
Fri Apr 16 20:45:58 2010
RESOURCE
sect eff min gold fert oil uran ter
2,0 o 100% 100 0 0 1 100 5
1 sector
*fingers*crossed*
Markus Armbruster
DevilDog retracted his opposition to the victory declaration shortly
after Friday's update, but Bloodstar, sitting on a substantial war
chest, did not. Only to find out that despite their name, ICBMs are too
short-legged for his designs. CallMeFodder then managed to set off a
megaton warhead right in the middle of Bloodstar's heartland, ending the
disagreement on who won then and there.
Meanwhile, beep lobbed two fat nukes into Barbwireland, and CallMeFodder
pillaged Goop's capital along with quite a bit of his land.
Hope to see you next game!
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Wed Apr 21 21:03:22 2010
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
CallMeFod 264 96% 246K 10K 7.8K 833 5.1K 16K 850 4.6K 190 136 57 55K
16937.59
Thistle 289 98% 266K 9.6K 5.1K 497 7.1K 12K 429 4.4K 154 139 82 72K
16729.42
FreeBeer 207 100% 191K 6.6K 6.3K 850 2.8K 10K 705 4.3K 149 119 78 17K
13179.35
Robotron 146 100% 144K 7.1K 7.2K 599 7.8K 6.4K 370 2.5K 133 133 78 57K
9872.03
beep 147 100% 145K 4.8K 5.9K 790 7.2K 5.8K 270 3.0K 128 101 63 3.6K
9584.65
Aquitaine 135 99% 132K 11K 8.6K 521 9.3K 4.3K 28 4.2K 78 99 76 71K
7773.68
DevilDog 72 98% 63K 6.5K 1.4K 361 1.9K 6.2K 386 2.5K 63 13 38 224
4459.64
Bloodstar 89 68% 56K 1.8K 1.5K 176 727 4.6K 112 1.3K 216 12 72 111K
4302.97
Goop 71 95% 66K 4.5K 814 126 758 4.9K 131 2.1K 23 73 17 49K
4235.19
Barbwirel 66 47% 25K 459 1.2K 151 1.8K 939 2 1.2K 0 40 16 11K
1917.57
Ashkanist 6 70% 3.0K 268 29 16 0 973 61 0 0 11 0 45K
324.12
Wamic 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -401
-1.16
Sun 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -7.0K
-13.83
wales 0 0% 0 29 57 7 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 -9.8K
-24.68
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 1.5K 94% 1.3M 63K 46K 4.9K 44K 72K 3.3K 30K 1.1K 879 577 473K
See the appended announcements for the final tech levels, deity awards,
and more.
Check out http://www.pond.sub.org/~armbru/empire/hvy-plastic-2/
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Apr 16 21:08:38 2010
Command: reso # ?ocon>0
Fri Apr 16 21:07:59 2010
#: No sector(s)
yea!
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 16 21:09:44 2010
} ...Incoming beep missile HIT!
Damn, that's one very dissatisfied customer.
Should really stop outsourcing touristic advertising.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Apr 16 21:46:23 2010
Since being nuked is the same as the game ending, I hereby
accept the Thistle, CMF win declaration.
DevDog
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 16 21:48:18 2010
Being nuked is cool, actually. Fallout is far cheaper than military.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 16 21:52:25 2010
I accept *both* Thistle/CMF's and Bloodstar's victory
claims.
I'd also like to award beep the Most Buck For The
Bang Award.
Everyone is invited to the west of my country to get
a tan and celebrate the endgame!
We have the most beautiful mojitos, really have to
be seen.
Re: three breasted women, those are all false rumours.
We're not really on the market for the skanky tasted.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Apr 16 21:53:22 2010
i can't ever remember actually being in a game where
there were competing win declarations (assuming both
are serious here). been in plenty where there was
disagreement, but no multiples at the same time.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Apr 16 22:17:21 2010
Thistle and I have an agreement that we will not
combat each other even in the event of victory declarations
therefore I cannot contest his victory declaration.
However I feel that a seperate declration is
perfectly valid.
It does lead to an interesting question as
potentially you could have people agree to one victory
declaration but not another. do we continue
the combat?
:)
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Apr 16 22:45:45 2010
only we would have a slbms with no subs capable of
carrying said slbms
:)
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Fri Apr 16 23:43:42 2010
Damn. I hate missing tech target by 0.51 :/ I guess with the fallen nations,
there's not as much tech bleed now.
DD
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Apr 16 23:45:26 2010
its barbiedoll's fault, she quit making tech.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 16 23:51:59 2010
Actually, I didn't. FWIW.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sat Apr 17 02:37:33 2010
her be prevaricating; she fell a level behind in
the tech report. now you know why we have been
attempting to destroy it. it pretends to be an
innocent doll, yet it is anything but that.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sat Apr 17 10:12:08 2010
We did reduce tech and edu budgets, but didn't
halt either, and this update we're hopefully
coming back to pre-blast levels.
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Sat Apr 17 11:40:33 2010
<darkness<
Can anybody switch on the lights?
What do you mean, energy-saving lights need some time...
$*&&&%??
<tap, tap, tap>
Is this on?
< iiiiiieeeeekkk>
<BLAM>
Can we have another audio engineer?
This is a message to the fellow tyrants of Heavy Plastic II.
Victory declarations have been made and commented upon.
The anchorman of the news channel aka Plundaria claimed the game to be ongoing.
<flips through rulebook>
Do not believe the newschannel. Do only believ the diety. All praise POGO!
DevilDog accepted the Thistle/CMF claim, thus that declaration stands uncontested.
as to the win declaration by Metallic^WBloodstar:
<flips again through the rulebook>
If noone contested this declaration, Bloodstar would be the winner
18:46 UTC. Unfortunately the game would already be over 15:56.
CMF formally contests the win declaration of Metallic^Bloodstar.
<throws rule book away>
Unless the Diety decides to end the game on the Thistle/CMF declaration,
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Sat Apr 17 11:43:55 2010
<da$5&* length restriction for annos>
we will find you, Metall^Bloodstar, and we will bomb you, shell you, nuke you,
you and your sheep, and all your other stuff, until your nation has been erased
off the torus of Heavy Plastic II (All hail POGO!)
<now this sounds like a proper empire anno>
PS: have a nice day.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sat Apr 17 11:59:05 2010
that is bad news... very bad news, indeed... for barbiedoll.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sat Apr 17 12:20:27 2010
You surely mean bad news for beep. Your hitherto
successful stretch to grab the Captain Ahab Award
from Robotron's hands may have been for nothing
if Robo shakes off the radioactive dust for a
dramatic comeback.
Hell Robo and me could declare victory now and
hold the game hostage for like ten turns or so.
I don't think anyone would dare invade us at this
time.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sat Apr 17 19:22:27 2010
\
\
\ \ \
\ \
\ \
hmmm... probably don't have the rads for that.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sat Apr 17 20:17:22 2010
I can trade you. What _do_ you have?
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Sat Apr 17 20:27:27 2010
Hairy legs and body odor are safe bets.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Sat Apr 17 20:34:51 2010
You know, for a furriner Barbwireboy writes a fair anno.
He deserves some kind of consolation prize, like maybe
oh...I dunno, a date with beep. Or the entire collection
of Metallica's greatest hit.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sat Apr 17 20:40:28 2010
Also, a 1:1 ratio of nukes wasted vs sectors
conquered, which would get three times worse if
he could complete his 'b' project.
All the while failing to touch my real capital
or my main bank.
I wonder if you blame me for losing this game? I'm
a bit worried you may be actually mad at me for
something. Here's hoping you're just using up
your fireworks just because you can.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sat Apr 17 21:15:53 2010
it's because sometimes you have to do what the voices
say just to get a little peace and quiet.
> Announcement from visitor, (#16) dated Sat Apr 17 21:35:53 2010
Yes, this is {killyourself} understandable. I'm quite sure
that beep {killyourself} would never nuke someone out of spite
or some {killyourself} petty jealousy.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Apr 18 08:32:04 2010
A player got confused by taxes (happens to the best of us).
People get taxed *before* they multiply (see info Update-sequence).
However, sector population limits do *not* limit taxes.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Sun Apr 18 13:33:13 2010
So that means if you have 9,000 civs in a harbor/warehouse,
they all get taxed, correct?
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sun Apr 18 15:00:10 2010
Yes. You can double-check with the budget command.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Sun Apr 18 23:47:49 2010
Aaaand... yes!!
Robotron got the Captain Ahab Award back by a clever
tactic involving a division by zero exploit.
You're up against infinity there, beep. Good luck
with that!
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Apr 19 00:49:57 2010
we're more interested in testing your hypothesis that
we would run out of petrol before you ran out of iron...
we be guessing a 3mt *there* and another over *there*
would be an appropriate way to explore your theory; oughta
be good for an "acta empirica" article. since it was your
idea we will agree to let you be first author on the paper,
no matter which way it turns out.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 19 14:18:56 2010
so, can I contest CallMeFodder but Not Thistle
as far as win declarations go?
;)
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Mon Apr 19 15:10:34 2010
Any viable country may freely contest any victory declaration.
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Mon Apr 19 15:16:01 2010
So do we have a pending victory declaration or not?
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 19 15:19:44 2010
You could turn all of my iron mines to wasteland
and still not disprove my hypothesis, since
you have, by your own admission, depleted your
oil fields.
By that interpretation of my words, I was right.
By the more literal interpretation of who will
grab onto the last token unit of either commodity,
the issue is undecidable.
An ore ship parked in one of my friend's harbours
with one unit of iron allows me not to run
out of iron forever.
If anything, if the game came to war to extinction
of all non-winning parties, the issue would be
left for the winners to settle (i.e., who would
they put out of their misery first.)
In the original interpretation, I was right in
that it made little sense to keep sending your
anti-subs like that, and since you stopped doing
it, I understand you agree.
P.S.: I know you're tongue-in-cheek, but found
it fun to start writing the draft for the paper.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Mon Apr 19 16:15:14 2010
Unless I'm misinterpreting announcements, we have two competing
victory declarations. They contest each other.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 19 16:16:47 2010
I'm not Contesting Thistle
I'm Contesting CallMeFodder since he Contested mine
(why am I capitalizing Contested?)
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 19 16:30:20 2010
and specifically, if I can't Contest CallMeFodder without
Contesting Thistle, then I withdraw my Contesting of
the Victory Declaration
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Mon Apr 19 16:57:50 2010
Game continues until all viable countries agree on the victor(s).
Tonight's update will not be cancelled.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Apr 19 17:01:08 2010
noooooooo!!! we need to 2 more updates to nuke
barbie! don't you people realize we are doing
important _science_ here?!?
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 19 17:06:26 2010
Just so we can save ourselves the two updates,
here's the predictable conclussions from beep's
experiments:
"This demonstrates with p>0.996 that if you
find yourself in a hole you're not digging
hard enough."
The voices knew it all along. We can start
a new one so you can nukie-nukie before losing
the game. I assure you it's a completely
different experience.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Mon Apr 19 17:48:28 2010
Just to clarify - since the r.g.e update indicated otherwise -
DevilDog *does* accept the Thistle/CMF win declaration.
Since now it is known they are allied,and they both
surround me *and* Thistle would simply hit me with nukes,
I accept the declaration.
DD
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Mon Apr 19 18:02:11 2010
The r.g.e. update covers events up to Friday's update. You conceded
after the update.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 19 19:43:24 2010
Question, if I agree to the Thistle/CMF victory declaration
the game would go on as all viable countries have not conceded
correct?
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 19 19:48:44 2010
My guess is you're right, only all countries
are assumed to implicitly agree after 24h of the
declaration. If you withdraw your objection,
then I understand that would reset the 24h
timer, but no rule says that. I think the
safest, least confusing procedure is that
Thistle/CMF redeclare.
I hereby (re)accept their declaration. I hope
this doesn't cause too many jokes re: my viability
as a country. :)
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Mon Apr 19 20:34:09 2010
I count silence as a (less than polite) way to concede, but only after
enough time has passed, and only if the situation is clear.
Tonight's update will not be cancelled.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Mon Apr 19 20:50:26 2010
you are a vital member country of our little league
of nations, barbie. with the closing of the yucca
mountain facility, we desparately need a place to
store our nuclear waste. it is our understanding that
you intend to re-process the waste into useful fuel
pellets for nuclear power plants, correct?
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 19 21:09:33 2010
You're welcome, beep, as always.
I think we could arrange it with Hanuman so you're
allowed to drop your gold bars directly on my homeland.
That would save us all some noxcious byproducts.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 19 21:22:17 2010
I think I may concede the win because it's literally impossible
for me to reach CMF
What good are ICBMs if they're not... intercontintantal?
LOL
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 19 21:25:08 2010
If you can launch them through the Gibraltar strait
you can't sue the advertisers.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 19 21:29:19 2010
I protest the lack of a market. National Geographic
would pay a fortune for my bmap right now.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 19 21:34:10 2010
I protest that this doesn't work:
thres * # ?*>0 1
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 19 21:36:36 2010
I'm officially claiming a bug report
ICBMs don't have enough range ;)
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Mon Apr 19 21:54:12 2010
CMF called Slim Pickens out of retirement.
It was worth the extra case of Jim Beam.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 19 21:55:09 2010
classy
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 19 21:57:40 2010
I keep forgetting there is no honor in empire
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 19 21:57:59 2010
I concede that Thistle and CallMeFodder have won this game
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Mon Apr 19 22:14:25 2010
The country of FreeBeer concedes the win to Thistle and CallMeFodder.
We'll provide the first round for the victory celebration!
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 19 22:28:55 2010
As I said, I provide the venue. A charming mountain
view over ancient castle ruins. And the lighting
is really something to be seen. Just let me know
if you're looking for a decorator. Would
definitely buy again.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Mon Apr 19 22:35:22 2010
} beep explodes a nuclear device damaging POGO territory six times
Holy war anyone?
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Mon Apr 19 22:35:42 2010
The punishment Due
great album
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Tue Apr 20 06:46:00 2010
*** Attention, please ***
A joint victory declaration by Thistle / CallMeFodder is pending.
Viable countries, please accept or oppose publicly (announcement) until
Wednesday, 18:00 UTC (three hours before the next update).
Non-viable countries are welcome to announce, but their opposition
doesn't count.
If the victory declaration stands, then the game state right before the
next update will be final. I'll leave updates enabled for some post
game fun.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Tue Apr 20 07:04:16 2010
The Hvy Metal mod customizes planes only in minor ways so far. Our
ballistic missiles are identical to the stock game's, except for the
required tech.
For what it's worth, Chainsaw era icbm had 50-60 sectors range, as far
as I can see. Empire 4.0.0 dropped it to 40-50. Not sure it was
intentional.
Whether either is a good icbm range is certainly debatable.
In my opinion, the stock game's planes are seriously out of whack in
many ways, and some of them require code changes to fix.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Tue Apr 20 12:39:27 2010
The Thistle/CMF win declaration is accepted.
I'm DevilDog and I approve this message.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Tue Apr 20 13:48:50 2010
I declare myself viable and, incidentally, I
accept Thistle/CMF's victory for the third
time.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Apr 20 14:53:34 2010
now that I'm done being grumpy at both my own dumbness
at not going hostile, and for being nuked in a
shady way (though the light from the nuke was really
sunny ;)
I'm a little confused on why there are so many
relatively powerful countries with good technology
but no one seems to be willing to say, hey...
we could win this sucker with a couple of well placed
nukes.
and the reality is, you don't need a 5MT nuke to cripple
these islands. Heck, a 1MT airburst can damage an island
quite well, let alone a 3MT.
Ah well.
Not everyone has spoken yet
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Tue Apr 20 15:42:03 2010
Part is what you found out already - ICBMs do not reach
far enough (neither do JFBs) and with these vast oceans,
good intel for that perfect placement is not available.
The 'little nuke' I put on wales did far more damage that
I expected. Even if I had not bankrupted him, his
country was trashed. Also, even without food in this game,
fallout is absolutely debilitating. That small nuke crippled
a continent of almost 60 sectors for over 5 updates!
Of course, the small nuke cripples the economy, it does
not stop nukes from flying back at you. 5mt nukes make sure
nothing comes back...
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Apr 20 17:08:10 2010
we be a peaceful nation; we accept the win by CMF/Thistle.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Apr 20 17:08:53 2010
is empire a tactical or strategic game?
If I want to play with land units
I'd play starcraft.
hmmmm
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Apr 20 17:14:53 2010
a few things that I think could make the game more offensive
1) Easier dification of sectors from shelling
2) First land units around tech 120, and only make them
specialty units, such as engineers
3) Correct the Air Combat system
4) Larger countries with food requirements and low fert
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Apr 20 17:18:24 2010
Easier deification of sectors helps the offensive team
by enabling them to explore into the now non owned sector
which means you don't have to attack it, it still costs
a ton of shells, which is the real limiting factor.
but it enables someone to take real territory in between
updates without having the extra compications of
land units.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Apr 20 17:22:50 2010
Land units at a later Tech, and only specialty ones:
Other than enabling attacks to occur deeper into territory
outside of updates, land units are simply another layer
of work that complicate a game that shouldn't be complicated
Engineer units make sense, they're expensive, but serve a purpose
art units make sense if you don't have fortfire
aau's make sense if you want additional air defense
but set their attack rating to zero and their def to 1.0
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Apr 20 17:26:12 2010
revamping air-combat
Really, it's jacked up. you have Transports able to shoot
down enemy fighter with their uhhhhh pistols.
logically having a fighter escort should make it more likely
to get a bombing/paradrop run through, but in empire
the exact opposite is the case.
that's just two significant issues, there are others
oh, and give f1's paradrop capability again.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Apr 20 17:28:37 2010
Food and Empire
I know it's a hassle, but food is vital
as it enables you to starve a country into submission
the more avenues you have to attack your country,
the better the chances you'll find a weakness and take
the country out.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Apr 20 17:31:41 2010
And yes, maybe I'm just that old and you kids need
to stay off my lawn or something, but I still think
land units are a solution looking for a problem
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Apr 20 18:13:15 2010
art units? shaming the enemy into surrendering
by drawing unflattering portraits of their women,
perhaps?
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Tue Apr 20 19:31:00 2010
well, it could be post-modern, but I don't think
our tech levels have reached that point yet
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Tue Apr 20 22:14:23 2010
I have heard multiple discussions of strategy versus tactics. How do you
separate them? When can you call a collection of tactical moves a strategy?
I think excelling at Empire takes a multitude of successful tactics that
start with running an efficient, just-in-time economy. Is that
a strategy? BTW, you also need to have a fodder or 2 nearby to get
that early economic boost...
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Tue Apr 20 22:45:55 2010
From what I read here and there, land units made one's
homeland defensible. Before them, if you got attacked
by a reasonable force you were pretty much screwed.
I think it's a good thing that if all you care about
is putting up a good defense, you can do so.
That gives us fodder a chance to be seen as something
else than fodder. That is, if only the culture of the
community caught up.
The story of this game has been pretty much "who
can take over beginners the fastest." Except for
FreeBeer's attack on wales, there were never much more
than minor skirmishes between experienced players
before the score was settled, right? (Since I'm a newcomer,
I have no idea who's actually experienced, but I
I have a few guesses.)
My background is in Diplomacy, where expanding fast
over the beginner's corpses is certainly an option,
but far from the only one. A really good player wants
to get a less experienced game long partner because
that facilitates the final stretch for the solo
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Tue Apr 20 22:50:08 2010
victory. Empire culture frowns upon stabs (a shame, me
thinks), so you want to get the strongest allies you
can. This makes the game quite flat, IMO.
More than it could be, anyway.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Tue Apr 20 22:54:41 2010
what this game needs is an undocumented feature
that only i know about.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Tue Apr 20 23:43:33 2010
Something doesn't even POGO know?
http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1678
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Tue Apr 20 23:49:14 2010
Oh nvm.
http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1668
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Apr 21 02:18:24 2010
since this is the traditional time where people offer
their "brilliant" suggestions to "fix" empire... mine
are simple. fire ranges are too long, and radar/sonar
ranges are _way_ too long.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Wed Apr 21 03:27:05 2010
Too long radar ranges? Why?
Most, if not all, ship types can navigate
more than one radar radius in one update.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Apr 21 06:39:14 2010
mainly because i said so, that's why.
there will never ever be a cure for the
"problem" of fodder breaking next to an
experienced player, but you must be able
to attack a reasonably competent country.
you need the capability to have an actual
war, and not just a romp-n-stomp or bust.
you have to be able to seize an advantage
and, if you are good enough, carry it
through over multiple updates to victory.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Wed Apr 21 11:16:08 2010
You attack someone who is engaged elsewhere,
you expose yourself while doing that, and that
kind of risk management adds to the game.
Siding with someone because you've known them
for 10 years, knowing for certain that this
and that flanks are secure because otherwise
someone gets ostracised from the community,
those stiffle your choices both as a newbie
and as an experienced player.
That said, being able to fend off an attack
by a force 3 times bigger is maybe too much.
I see your point that attacking is harder than
it should. But I think it should be hard, that
if you sacrifice other ambitions and do things
well, you can keep a 2:1 force away.
Then if you want my stuff, try and get me into
war with some other neighbour.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Wed Apr 21 12:32:48 2010
Just a couple clarifications:
By 3:1 and 2:1 I meant ratios of country sizes,
not of deployed forces.
If you can bring a 2:1 attacking force, you
should make a dent. But sending all your military
in one direction should be an extreme case
of recklessness. It shouldn't be safe to do so.
And the problem I see with beginning players
is not that they are at a disadvantage. They
should be, if the game is to have any meaning.
The problem is that newbies have no leverage
to try and pit the experienced vs each other
(e.g. try and play kingmaker, be the factor
that breaks the balance between them), and
that the experienced players that start without
nearby fodder are at a big disadvantage.
In summmary, the weak should have something to
do but sit there and wait to be taken over.
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Wed Apr 21 14:14:53 2010
Sonar and firing ranges are definately long compared to plane ranges.
Ship radar is basically useless. Land radar is also too long.
However, I think these have been contorted to make the game playable.
Without enahanced sonar, subs would rule the seas. Subs are
powerful and feared in the current game context until tech 100
when AS planes arrive and better DD fire ranges and sonar make them
managable.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Wed Apr 21 14:20:03 2010
I'm both suprised and not suprised by the way things played out.
Being a REnewbie and not having enough recall or experience to
gauge most of the elements of play, I had only a few options
first proving to myself I could muster a decent economy (which I
did great on at first, but later screwed up when I toyed with
and second, in the spirit of empire, declaring war on the first thing
that moved. I asked around 'so who is this Thistle anyway?'
but my hopes and dreams that someone would toss a few helpful
jabs in my favor were unrealized. Timing is everything, and I had no
idea when and what...apparently the trend these days is to hold
back and insulate your country until you can drop it cold fusion
style. I thought there was a perfect opportunity for Blooddog and
Devilstar to join forces against Thistle...but they only joined in
song, singing 'hey hey miss Fodder-again pie...'
To Thistle's credit, I may have went down easy, but he weilded proper
force to win the battle before it started.
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Wed Apr 21 14:20:20 2010
I understand the standard complaint from beginners is they are early targets.
That is how the game currently exists. The best strategy is identifying
your weakest neighbor and assimilating his resources through a quick
invasion. Long battles are costly and take tremendous time. I have had
long battles over the last decade with all of the experienced players I
currently border, except possibly Metallica. They usually result in
both players failing to make the winners circle. (I think always!)
Unless someone can change the game to make weak neighbors worth
more alive than dead, nothing will change.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Wed Apr 21 15:11:11 2010
I bet things would change if country names were to be randomly
shuffled. That way certain assumptions about the historical
habits of players doesn't streamline the practice of targeting
the weak or unknown players. What should we call it?
Enable OPTION=HIDDEN + OPTION=COUNTRYNAME_DOPPLEGANGER?
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Wed Apr 21 15:37:40 2010
FreeBeer: as I said, I think it's more of a
cultural thing. Example: everyone seems to agree
that Thistle+CMF have won, even though they
add up to about one third of the strength of
the map. Surely with more of a custom of ganging
up against the leader the best of the game
would be ahead of us. But if there are any
balance-of-power concerns in the player population,
I couldn't find them.
I don't think the rules of the game are to
blame. I think with these exact rules and this
exact position, the best of the game could be
ahead of us, if the culture allowed relations
to be more informal. I would have preferred
to avoid committing to such things as NAs, but
in this game I offered it to practically any
neighbour that would listen, because once
the culture allows to back agreements with
real-life reputation, informal agreements are
worth nothing and new players are not eligible
as allies even if you could use them as puppets.
I think Thistle should be glad he offered me an NA
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Wed Apr 21 15:48:38 2010
and got bases in my islands in return, but
it must have been quite a leap of faith for
him. I think the game would be richer if that
kind of stuff, manipulating fodder to get
an edge over other experienced players, was
a competitive strategy with taking over them.
And there's no reason in the rules why it shouldn't
be. It's faster to use someone's existing
resources than to assimilate them. If, say,
Goop attacked Sun while Thistle convinced Ashkanistan
to work together in a joint attack on Goop,
who'd fare better? While Goop doesn't get his
ROI, he's weaker and spread in two fronts.
(Talking about an hypothetical game begin here.)
Another example: beep+Robotron attack me
while Thistle gives me an NA and gets bases
in my islands. Actually, Thistle got more
sectors from me than beep (Robotron lost his
exploits to Thistle.) So, is it really the
rules of the game or cultural inertia that
keeps the feed-on-fodder strategy so prevalent?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Apr 21 15:56:17 2010
everyone is missing the obvious problem: multiple players
per country. solo play should be required; anything else
is unclean.
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Wed Apr 21 16:20:27 2010
How things transpired for me this game.
Early on I find 2 inexperienced players near by.
Wamic to South and Ashkan to North. Wamic was showing
signs of aggression early, so I countered with more
defense to the South. Then devilDog seems to be
getting aggressive to aid Wamic.
I chose to make friends with Ashkan, providing him
some advice and basically not wanting to defend in North also.
Since I already had defensive force to my South, I
built more and made it offensive towards Wamic, using
this Southern front to also defend DevilDog and just waiting
for him to make mistakes, he obliged.
As Barbie just said, I choose to be friendly with him,
not really a leap of faith but this. If beep or Robo
got his island they could later reach my start island
with icbm's. Without this I think their only recourse
to nuke me would have been sneaking tridents thru on a sub.
So, I gave Barbie defensive advice and hoped he would
return the favor in other ways.
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Wed Apr 21 16:24:10 2010
Something usually missing in current games is larger
alliances. These become training grounds for new players.
Most games today have less than 15 countries, so the large
allliance is not needed.
We had a land based game 2 years ago, I forget its
name, but 2 alliances formed, mine being the loser.
beep worked with Baldoria (if my memory is correct),
a new player and he learned alot.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Apr 21 17:12:20 2010
@Wamic:
If by Devilstar you mean DevilDog, I take offense to saying that
I joined in song only. As was indicated by Thistle, I was
throwing stuff at him. I'm a ReNewb as well. My inexperience
and newbishihnish caused a lot of good tonnage to end up
at the bottom of the sea en route to try and take Thistle islands.
I lots entire fleets with DDs and BBs and CVs b/c of my attempt, but
lack of know how. So, I did try to help - whilst worrying about CMF,
and whilst trying to take advantage of the Fodder called Sun.
I may have bitten off more than my abilities could true, but, I did
try to be there for you.
DevilDog
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Apr 21 17:35:06 2010
...that being said. I'm sorry I couldn't help you more,
Wamic. I had enough issues just trying not to _appear_ as
fodder - I couldn't even mount an attaack on Sun, LOL.
Much comes from having NO experience in the game beyond a
few updates - so I have NO idea how to actually run a military.
I found myself not planning enough ahead for resources, taking
into consideration the way the world would be by the time
I was ready to use said assets.
Anyway - I tried. I just tried and failed.
DD
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Wed Apr 21 18:38:31 2010
Regarding us accepting the Thistle/CMF win:
Even though the power report shows that pair with only a third of the sectors,
they are in runaway mode. They both have conquered and digested their first kill.
Now they are actively each overruning their second victim. The rest of us either
have only country overran or none. The power of either Thistle or CMF is now
very formidable and together unstoppable from a conventional warfare perspective.
Also keep in mind we are now at fully mature nukes. They can reach almost anywhere.
You see what happened to Bloodstar. The same would happen to any who opposed them
at this time. Even if all remaining countries banded together, all of our start
islands would receive a 5mt hit. We would get a few of theirs but not all.
The game is over and they won - its that simple.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Wed Apr 21 20:04:08 2010
Re: the leap of faith, I was talking about
agreeing to a NA rather than taking my Eastern
islands, which would have been easy enough.
I agree that the most valuable thing you got
from the deal was not the bases in my islands
but the very fact of beep+Robotron being kept
from quickly overrunning me.
Arguably, they could have tried to use me as
a launchpad without attacking me. It would
have been faster.
But they had good reasons to expect me to be
an easier target.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Wed Apr 21 20:36:30 2010
Re: accepting the CMF/Thistle declaration,
This result is excellent for my interests (Thistle, who helped me, went on to
win, while my aggressors got terrible ROI and ultimately lost), so I have no
motivation to call for resistance. Even if I wanted, I have a game long NA
with Thistle, as does Bloodstar.
But in the hypothetical case that diplomacy was more fluid (so 'formal' NAs
wouldn't exist) and everyone wanted to cling to the remotest chance to be part
of the winning side, I have to disagree that the game was over by the time
Thistle/CMF declared victory.
While they have digested colonies, the rest of us are, um, more.
I'm not sure CMF could reach beep's homeland, for example, and I'm quite
confident Thistle couldn't. By Thistle's admission, I could reach his
homeland. Aquitaine could reach their colonies in former Sun and Ashkanistan
land. Bloodstar (tech leader?) could reach the original Wamic. beep has proven
that he had a few nukies to spare.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Wed Apr 21 20:37:05 2010
I think it's easy to conclude that the-rest-of-the-world was stronger.
Sure enough, the-rest-of-the-world is not an united country and it would be
*hell* to coordinate the disparate agendas. Hell sounds fun, though! More so
than "when the trivial battles are over, the game ends."
> Announcement from Thistle, (#2) dated Wed Apr 21 20:39:49 2010
Once range 43 icbm's became available
I could reach beep Robo and Freebeer homelands.
Some I have mapped better than others.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Apr 21 20:44:01 2010
now would be a good time for Savoia to break and
go for the win.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Wed Apr 21 21:11:57 2010
we wonders if we got all barbie's mines we does...
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Apr 21 21:36:43 2010
Mind you, I think CMF and Thistle won this one fair and
square.
they had a good dosage of diplomacy and well timed
aggression that enabled them to effectively secure
their territory while being able to reach other countries
who might threaten them.
Future games might actually see me try to attack someone(!)
Ok, unlikely, since I spend an average of 10 - 15 minutes
a day playing, but I can dream... right?
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Apr 21 21:44:27 2010
Tactics V Strategy:
Tactics would be using move to work your economy.
Strategy would be using dist
Both accomplish the goal of making your ecnomy work,
one requires less time, effort, and hassle.
Land units are the equivelant of using move
mil is a simpler and more abstract concept
Ships and planes can be more easily abstracted out
as they're typically not required for point defense
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Wed Apr 21 21:45:26 2010
anyone who thinks that you couldn't put up a
stout defense before land units wasn't trying
trust me :)
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Wed Apr 21 21:54:01 2010
Not all, beep, but a good sample. Considering
you've never strolled through Barbwirish beaches,
you have a most impressive collection of our
shells.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Apr 21 23:16:25 2010
OOPS
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Wed Apr 21 23:30:55 2010
DD, I couldn't resist taking a jab at you and anyone else who
seemed to be doing little else but reading the news.
As for trying to help, I appreciated it and understand the sad
factofthematter...heck, I couldn't match any of Thistle's moves
during the first minute and a half after update. I failed in so many
ways as well. I would've done no better helping you if Thistle
moved against you first.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Wed Apr 21 23:59:34 2010
:D Thanks, Wamic. I get the frustration this game can cause. That's
one of the reasons I hadn't played a formal game since 2004 -
among some others...:)
Thistle seemed to be on 27/7 and around every corner. I'm not sure
how many rulers Thistle had, or CMF, but that adds another component
that I've yet to learn how to deal with.
The great thing is that you and I both came away having learned a great
deal...maybe next game we can ally, or even corule together, and be
just that much more formidable...
Cheers, m8!
DD
AKA
Gemini
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Thu Apr 22 00:01:19 2010
Looks like the Holy War has begun!
Wed Apr 21 21:05 beep nuclear device devastates POGO sector thirty-two times
The day of reckoing is upon us!
Repent! Repent! Judgement day is at hand!!
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Thu Apr 22 00:10:35 2010
woohoo! There be glass on them there beaches!
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Thu Apr 22 00:11:05 2010
beep 37, POGO 0. Obviously He's putting our
faith to test.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Thu Apr 22 00:22:34 2010
I stand corrected re: the strength of Thistle+CMF
vs the rest of the world.
Also, tech lead is Thistle, not Bloodstar,
according to my report.
Good game!
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Apr 22 00:30:58 2010
all deities are scum, and that includes POGO.
i 'pray' for extra resources every single game;
that uncaring bastard has never answered one
time.
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Thu Apr 22 04:09:27 2010
Tactics vs Strategy
Bloodstar:
I disagree with your example.
It's not "move" versus "deliver/distribute", those are both
tactics, one superior than the other.
Strategy and Tactics are not the same, but a lot of people
confuse the two, just like they confuse sales and marketing.
Actually, that is an exellent example, marketing is the strategy,
sales is the execution.
Strategy is having your assets in the right place at the
right time. So one's strategic planning and strategic decisions are
geared around what kind of ships am I going to build, and where am
I going to send them. In the end, the tactics you use are
limited by the strategic resources at your disposal.
On even a more simple example, if you have 50 ships but 40 are out of
position, then you cannot execute ANY tactics. (or very few). Your
strategic decisions were poor, and your tactical options are few.
On the other hand, you can have 50 ships in the right position,
(strategically correct) but you do not utilize them properly, or worse,
leave them in harms way (ask Devil Dog what happened to him),
you are using poor tactics.
There are plenty of examples, hell I've made most of the mistakes
myself, like sending my hc out of port with 4 land units sitting on the dock.
You need a combination of both strategy and tactics,
you need the right stuff at the right place,
and then you need to know what to do with them.
poor strategy-poor tactics = fail
good strategy-poor tactics = fail
poor strategy-good tactics = fail
good strategy-good tactics = I have a chance...
Did I ever mention luck? Stay tuned for a future post
(probably tomorrow)
cheers
Rook - 1/2 ragnarook, 1/4 Partimers, 1/2 of (here) CMF,
plus several other aka's...
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Thu Apr 22 05:36:02 2010
*** Hvy Plastic 2 "Plastic Explosives" is over ***
Congratulations to the winners Thistle and CallMeFodder!
I'll leave updates enabled for a while at players' request.
Stay tuned for Deity Awards. A final game report will be posted to
rec.games.empire. It will also appear on the game's web page along
with pretty maps and graphs for my fellow data junkies.
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Wed Apr 21 21:03:22 2010
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
CallMeFod 264 96% 246K 10K 7.8K 833 5.1K 16K 850 4.6K 190 136 57 55K
16937.59
Thistle 289 98% 266K 9.6K 5.1K 497 7.1K 12K 429 4.4K 154 139 82 72K
16729.42
FreeBeer 207 100% 191K 6.6K 6.3K 850 2.8K 10K 705 4.3K 149 119 78 17K
13179.35
Robotron 146 100% 144K 7.1K 7.2K 599 7.8K 6.4K 370 2.5K 133 133 78 57K
9872.03
beep 147 100% 145K 4.8K 5.9K 790 7.2K 5.8K 270 3.0K 128 101 63 3.6K
9584.65
Aquitaine 135 99% 132K 11K 8.6K 521 9.3K 4.3K 28 4.2K 78 99 76 71K
7773.68
DevilDog 72 98% 63K 6.5K 1.4K 361 1.9K 6.2K 386 2.5K 63 13 38 224
4459.64
Bloodstar 89 68% 56K 1.8K 1.5K 176 727 4.6K 112 1.3K 216 12 72 111K
4302.97
Goop 71 95% 66K 4.5K 814 126 758 4.9K 131 2.1K 23 73 17 49K
4235.19
Barbwirel 66 47% 25K 459 1.2K 151 1.8K 939 2 1.2K 0 40 16 11K
1917.57
Ashkanist 6 70% 3.0K 268 29 16 0 973 61 0 0 11 0 45K
324.12
Wamic 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -401
-1.16
Sun 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -7.0K
-13.83
wales 0 0% 0 29 57 7 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 -9.8K
-24.68
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 1.5K 94% 1.3M 63K 46K 4.9K 44K 72K 3.3K 30K 1.1K 879 577 473K
# name tech research education happiness capital
1 Goop 206.65 0.00 16.48 0.00 -15,35
2 Thistle 210.34 0.00 16.56 5.28 -63,-59
3 Aquitaine 174.88 0.00 17.36 0.00 -124,18
4 Wamic 145.56 0.00 1.39 0.01 -91,-11
5 beep 205.87 0.00 13.76 0.00 22,36
6 Bloodstar 208.53 0.00 31.64 0.00 110,-36
7 CallMeFodder 205.45 0.00 23.00 11.68 0,0
8 DevilDog 185.06 0.00 8.54 10.50 -40,-24
9 Ashkanistan 146.96 0.00 2.63 0.01 -75,43
10 wales 161.02 0.00 4.98 0.00 117,-3
11 Sun 99.59 0.00 0.74 0.00 -82,-4
13 FreeBeer 208.86 0.00 20.68 0.46 64,-16
14 Barbwireland 189.45 0.00 11.04 0.00 -107,51
15 Robotron 201.01 0.00 16.45 10.26 44,-60
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Thu Apr 22 05:52:23 2010
*** Correction ***
This is the final country report. The one above is from after the
final update.
# name tech research education happiness capital
1 Goop 205.85 0.00 21.63 0.00 -15,35
2 Thistle 203.94 0.00 17.06 5.46 -63,-59
3 Aquitaine 173.89 0.00 16.49 0.00 -124,18
4 Wamic 144.38 0.00 1.83 0.02 -91,-11
5 beep 200.98 0.00 18.06 0.00 22,36
6 Bloodstar 205.06 0.00 34.54 0.00 110,-36
7 CallMeFodder 198.34 0.00 22.83 11.91 0,0
8 DevilDog 181.11 0.00 11.21 10.49 -40,-24
9 Ashkanistan 145.79 0.00 3.46 0.02 -75,43
10 wales 159.94 0.00 6.54 0.00 117,-3
11 Sun 98.13 0.00 0.97 0.00 -82,-4
13 FreeBeer 202.54 0.00 21.61 1.03 64,-16
14 Barbwireland 187.35 0.00 14.49 0.00 -107,51
15 Robotron 195.22 0.00 16.85 9.75 44,-60
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Thu Apr 22 15:52:24 2010
Well, I got home late last night and had to respond to Bloodstar's
post on tactics versus strategy.
Which got me thinking about a few things.
Disclaimer: I have skimmed the past few days annos and need to reread them.
Perhaps I will make a comment on other posts as well, but I woke up
this morning and realized that I ignored a very important component
of Empire that is not discussed too often, but makes the difference
between winning and losing.
Remember I said good strategy and good tactics gives one (at least my
country) a chance. The component that is missing is logistics.
An army travels on its stomach. In Empire, an army (navy airforce)
is only as good as the units, mil, shells, guns, and petrol at it's
disposal. It is easy to start a county in Empire, and in a land based
game it is fairly easy to supply an army. But a sea based game
separates the good players from the poor and average. The further
you have extended your forces, the more attention to detail one needs
to make sure you have your resources in place.
"In place" means the right place (strategy), but if you are in the right
place with no support, you can be the best tactical player in the game,
but without shells, petrol, guns, and oh, did I forget to mention
the magical resource of Empire, mobility...you cannot accomplish
anything.
I have gotten a lot of good advice from a lot of players over the years,
but if I had to say what is the single best advice I ever got, I got from
Overlord. He told me (and now I am telling you, perhaps I shouldn't)...
well maybe, I should let you guess/divine/determine/or already know what he
told me. LOL
The second best advise I got was from Temekula, who taught me many things in
the first game that I was ever a co-ruler. Believe me, from an Empire
perspective I was teh junior partner in that game, but like most grunts/interns
I did the bulk of the heavy lifting. But I sure learned a lot. More on
that in my upcoming opinion on co-ruling.
cheers...Rook
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Apr 22 16:13:21 2010
unclean! unclean!
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Thu Apr 22 16:18:32 2010
When you look at the definition of Tactics Versus
Strategy, sure, everything is a tactic to accomplish the
Strategy.
But when you compare Tactical Versus Strategy in a
board wargame setting, you're not worrying about
specific details like move 20 sh -3,3 etc just to
supply some HAT that's off protecting your coast.
Empire was designed with the KISS concept in mind.
that's why there weren't land units. Military
was conceptualized as a commodity that could be delivered
distributed and moved around without me having
to do everything by hand. If I want to enlist, I can
if I want to move the military from my enlistment center
I can also do that. but that usually not the most
efficient way to do it.
Then, when land units were introduced, rather than
remove military as a conceptual commodity, they became
this wierd bastardized combo that kinda kludged together
rather than making the military part of the build requirements
land units are treated like ships.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Thu Apr 22 16:27:25 2010
CMF Rook
No one is arguing that you have to have strategy
and tactics to win in empire
my argument is that empire moved towards a lower
level implementation of tactics with the development
of land units, they took abstraction away from
the game with IMO no real tangible benefit
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Thu Apr 22 16:37:55 2010
now that I have a couple of games under my belt
I might try to actually play a serious game of empire
but that could mean breaking my commitment to
15 minutes of empire a day
(the other reason I have to be really efficient
at empire, I've never had the ability to give a significant
time commitment and I don't have co-rulers)
Personally I think co-ruling takes part of the fun
out of the game. I can see having a newbie as a co-ruler
to show him or her the ropes, but two real empire players
I always hope they end up like Synergy :)
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Thu Apr 22 16:56:26 2010
I won't be able to commit to play alone next
game, but I am available for co-ruling and
I can afford to put quite some time in it,
while I'm around. Now, I may disappear for one
or two weeks, once, and I can't predict wwhen
it will be (that's why I can't rule alone).
So, if someone is up for some dirty co-ruling and can
live with me possibly disappearing mid-game,
you can find me at eucc...@gmail.com.
I beg you abstain from joking about the reasons
why I might have to leave the game.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Thu Apr 22 17:48:07 2010
You mean you don't put your country on autopilot and telnet
in from your droid to make random announcements?
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Thu Apr 22 18:10:17 2010
business plan! empire app for smart phones... gotta
be big bucks to be made there. better hustle over to
the apple website to make sure no one has beaten me
to it, already.
> Announcement from DevilDog, (#8) dated Thu Apr 22 18:24:24 2010
I was going to write one, but I seemed to have
lost my Visual Studio 2005 Professional. :/
Limited to telnet, I reckon.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Thu Apr 22 18:24:57 2010
Actually, I didn't know of any telnet clients
for my phone (Symbian 60), so I used a ssh
client to log into a vps I have for other
stuff, then telnet from there.
I could do some crucial adjustments from there,
and send announcements to try and appear more
active/available than I was.
Re: generic smartphone app, I have considered
making a HTML5 client that could be used from
either a smartphone or a (possibly firewalled)
laptop/desktop. I might do that as a learning
exercise if I get the time.
Now, my problem for next game is not availability
of connections. The problem is my mind will
be elsewhere.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Thu Apr 22 19:07:48 2010
I've always wanted to run a world empire game
so I need to find a way to make a client that will let me
do that.
to be able to designate stuff with mouseclicks and fills
would be awesome
now...
maybe winace would be fantastic for that
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Thu Apr 22 20:42:20 2010
I have a mixed solution. I select an hex or
region with mouse click/drag and then use that
from the command line. I have two selections,
'origin' and 'target', so I could type things like
mov sh None 50 None
I use a single dot (a la vim) to repeat the
last command, so to make multiple similar
moves I could just click a new origin and/or
target and press '.'
Indeed since I made a lot of distribution screwups
I ended up needing to move stuff manually a
lot, so I made the abbreviated version:
mv 50 sh
Which assumes origin and destination are as
selected in the map.
I have a similar thingy to move ships around.
Entering 'nv' will navigate the ship(s) in
the selected origin to the selected target.
(I call it target and not destination because
it doubles as the default selection for commands
that take no origin.)
Screenie of an early version of my client:
http://estevo.eu/static/barbwire.html
http://estevo.eu/static/resources.html
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Thu Apr 22 20:50:52 2010
Screenie of my homeland after beep's nukes:
http://estevo.eu/static/scorched-barbwireland.html
The little ships around my island are actually
submarines. I didn't bother draw a separate
icon for them yet.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Thu Apr 22 20:54:48 2010
This client is not the HTML5 thing I was talking
about, though. It's made in Python. So far
it's too quirky and totally undocumented, but
if anyone wants the source to tinker with it,
just let me know.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Thu Apr 22 21:13:58 2010
Where I said:
mov sh None 50 None
I meant:
mov sh $o 50 $t
Where $o and $t are shortcuts for the currently
selected origin (shift+click/drag, seen as
a yellow outline on the map) and target (plain
click/drag, seen as a white outline.)
My client actually tried to fill in my current
selections there, and I hadn't any.
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 23 00:33:12 2010
Bloodstar: if you are on a Windows machine by all means
try WinAce. I ended up rolling my own because I
want a client that I can program to do repetitive
tasks, and because I often play from a 10" screen
notebook without Windows.
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Fri Apr 23 01:46:55 2010
I think it's really shitty that most public computers have telnet disabled.
Just had to say that. Would be nice to see a touchscreen style empire
app...not sure I'd be interested if it wasn't opensource though.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Fri Apr 23 04:24:28 2010
}> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Thu Apr 22 20:50:52 2010
}Screenie of my homeland after beep's nukes:
we have never, ever, used nukes on anyone. nukes should be
banned from the game.
> Announcement from FreeBeer, (#13) dated Fri Apr 23 11:29:10 2010
its all propaganda, right?
> Announcement from Barbwireland, (#14) dated Fri Apr 23 11:48:10 2010
Ssh, do you know how long it took me to forge that
screenie in MS Paint?
> Announcement from Plundaria, (#18) dated Fri Apr 23 17:11:32 2010
}RE: CallMeFodder
logistics IMHO is what divides empire winners
from empire whiners.
> Announcement from Bloodstar, (#6) dated Fri Apr 23 17:38:29 2010
But Logisticsa only work when the abstraction
works with a certain verisimilitude.
Land units as ships makes no realistic sense from
any sort of reality based concept.
> Announcement from CallMeFodder, (#7) dated Fri Apr 23 17:59:54 2010
I'm back, like a bad habit....
only briefly, too many RL demands
which is a perfect introduction to co-ruling.
And so I will be brief. I understand the sentiment toward single
ruler countries. Everyone starts single ruler because they
join a game for the first time not knowing ANYBODY.
But as we are all (well, most) social creatures we get to know people,
even meet up in RL.
Co-ruling provides two different kinds of benefits, both providing
(my opinion) a valuable contribution to Empire.
First, it allows mentoring newer players so that they don't just up a quit
the game after their first and only game. The playing population
is small enough already, we need more players, not less. We need to be encouraging
new players to stick around for the "next game" (sort of like the Cubbies)[American
joke, apologies to the rest of the world]. Perhaps there should be some sort of
sign up on the wolfpack site that allows new players to ask for more direct assistance.
The second is that it allows players like myself and my co-ruler to participate
in an Empire game. If I did not have a co-ruler for this game, I would not have
signed up as an individual. I am not interested in signing up and then not
running a viable country. If that would have happened, there would have been
even less countries in an already small game.
That's my summary thoughts on co-ruling. For those violently opposed, we should
convince a deity to run a single player per country game as one of the start
up rules. That would be one way to support the idea.
cheers
Rook - 1/2 CMF
> Announcement from Wamic, (#4) dated Sat Apr 24 00:55:07 2010
There are definately some good points to co-ruling. It's neither
a rule or an etiquette matter, imho, that players shouldn't make
use of that option. Although the purists out there will struggle
to keep watch over their country during the wee hours of the night,
I think the real problem is that something is missing when it comes
to available btu. Perhaps it should be balanced with a few additional
variables. Something to think about, anyways.
Sorry to be vague at the moment, I'm not prepared to recieve hate
mail just yet.
> Announcement from beep, (#5) dated Sat Apr 24 02:56:02 2010
i remember the tamu games, where btu's were restricted to
256. with the current implementation of tying btu production
to time between updates, such a restriction would have real
teeth to punish the unclean ones... a punishment they richly
deserve for their vileness.
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sat Apr 24 14:21:13 2010
Deity Awards
The "Show me the Money" Award
GOLD CallMeFodder for sacking two nations' capital
Silver FreeBeer for sacking one nation's capital three times
Bronze Thistle, Goop for sacking one capital
The "Plundarian TweeterTwit" Award
GOLD Thistle for 883 shellings in all forms
Silver (not awarded)
Bronze CallMeFodder, Goop
for 513 and 485
The "Lawnmower" Award
GOLD Thistle for 267 violent sector takeovers
Silver CallMeFodder for 224
Bronze FreeBeer, Goop for 153 and 150
The "Exploding Porcupine" Award
GOLD Bloodstar for laying well over 3500 mines
Silver Barbwireland for more than 3300
The "Jolly Roger" Award
GOLD Goop for boarding 30 ships
Silver Thistle for 17
The "Top Gun" Award
GOLD FreeBeer for 322 aerial victories and bombing runs
Silver Thistle for 212
Bronze CallMeFodder for 189
The "Armageddon" Award
TRITIUM beep for delivering 5 nuclear devices (3 tactical)
Plutonium CallMeFodder, FreeBeer
for delivering one
Uranium Thistle for delivering a tactical warhead
The "Most Radiating Smile" Award
Caesium-137 Barbwireland for absorbing 24127 units of fallout
Strontium-90 Bloodstar for 8436
Krypton-85 FreeBeer for 5276 (all "liberated" from wales)
The "Bug Hunter" Award
DDT wales for two bug reports
Borax Goop, Aquitaine, Bloodstar, FreeBeer, beep, DevilDog
for one
> Announcement from Hanuman, (#17) dated Sat Apr 24 14:23:05 2010
Technical trivia: we had 30 updates, two server crashes, one server
oops, more than 500,000 player commands, generating some 1.8GiB log
files (uncompressed).