Metaverse scores

They did delete a bunch of scores for people who "cheated" in some way... not sure if this applies to you or not.

I know I didn't cheat in mine besides downloading some mods from the library.

~SDC~

I guess that could be it, I don't know if all the library mods are "sanctioned" or not... like maybe those beefy new terraforming techs?

The metaverse total score also seems off for me and Andrew Chai. Both our scores are higher then they should be when you use the metaverse scoring formula.

~SDC~

An analysis was run on the game data in the database and scores were removed in which the data was impossibly high. Now if someone wants to explain their strategy for winning the game with all players on incredible, in a gigantic galaxy in which the player somehow had a population well into the dozens of trillions I'm sure we would all like to hear it.

We didn't remove any actual accounts today, but the games that failed the integrity analysis were removed from the scoring.

~SDC~

Thanks Frogboy. Was wondering how some of those way high scores could happen.

I was also wondering if those Library mods could affect the scoring such that it wouldn't pass the cheat filter.

None of them can cause that kind of thing to my knwoledge but I haven't gone through them all yet.

~SDC~

In my game when I had the high population, I was playing a peaceful builder strategy while on the left side of the map. For mods I had all the mods on the library submitted around the week of 4/10 or so. A large part of my end population came from culturally assimilating the other races such as the Altarians and Torians who had several trillion people which was actually more then I had for a large period of time.

~SDC~

The scores I get really suspcious of is where they've won at masochistic, gigantic galaxy. I don't claim to be the greatest strategy gamer of all time but I can't see how one can, with 1.03 possibly win that. Such games will always get more scrutiny since one has to wonder how they did it. Even using the debug build with cheat codes and such (they don't submit but I can see the scores calculated) I can't get the kinds of scores some people have submitted to the metaverse (those scores are gone now). Right now we have to manually run the integrity analyser on individual games. Eventually it will be automated.

The cleared out scores actually moved you up in the rankings. One guy had a 31,000 score. First submission.

~SDC~

Well mine was won in 1.02, I haven't played 1.03 that much but it seems much harder to use the same strategies and win.

~SDC~

I am fine with moving back up to #2 though:) although I'm still confused the scoring formulas for me and Andrew Chai seem to be different then what it has been.

~SDC~

Yeah Frogboy, that 31000 was an eye opener. LOL I have yet to figure out how to get the big scores other than play a big galaxy and do the tech win.
I just upgraded to 1.03 today. It seems mucho harder.

Yeah I was shocked to see the 38k score, when I submitted my 25k score I was thinking that 30k would be around the maximun anyone would be able to get for a score.

~SDC~

Well, if you conquered the entire galaxy and left one empire one poxy little planet in a corner somewhere, then colonised every planet with a class of 13 or better and rush-built the two cheap terraforming techs, then punched the turn button for, oh, a day, you could probably get about 25 trillion people. It'd be quite doable, particularly if you fed the new colonies with transports from breeder colonies... just incredibly tedious.

~SDC~

I've had a couple of games in the 6-9 trillion range, but all of them became increasingly unstable around then as well, so at this point I don't really milk games anymore that way.

Here's the basic method I was using: stop your tech tree short of the 2 +10 PQ techs, culturally flip all but a corner of the galaxy, then do The Terraformer, then the 2 +10 PQ techs, put your sliders to 100% social and build up all the relevant infrastructure, then let 'er ride for awhile.

I did do the 'go back and colonize all level 10 or higher worlds' once, back when I had +15 PQ on a game that I was going to break the bank on population with (and yeah, it was tedious to be sure), but that game was totally hosed by corrupt data, never could get it submitted to the metaverse. Score wasn't that high anyway, to be honest.

Nowadays I usually flip everyone except a few and then tidy things up and end it, sometimes I don't even flip I just tech end it. I'd rather start a new game with all its unknowns then stare at a screen of a game that is already won.

Frogboy, on a gigantic map with abundant habitable planets I hit 5 trillion on a 1.03 game (no +15%PQ) where I didn't take any evil PQ choices, I hadn't installed the advanced terraforming techs, and the population curve was still almost vertical when the game ended. Those "enhanced terraforming" techs are +100% combined, so I suspect that if I had put off the tech victory, I would have hit dozens of trillions in that game, and with the extra +100% I can't even imagine where my population would have gone.

Guys, Frogboy is talking about 'dozens of trillions'. So he's probably talking about something like 50 trillion people I guess. That means it's certainly not impossible to end up with 10 trillion people on a gigantic galaxy. But that's not even close to the 50 trillion that some people had in their scores.

I really think that there should be a population limiter on the score. Why should you get a higher score for taking so much longer to win that your population hits 10 trillion as oppossed to some-one else winning the exact same game with 0.5 trillion? Yes I know there's a time bonus, but it doesn't seem to make enough difference.

Paul.

~SDC~

For my 30k+ game, I have explained how I did it in this thread http://www.galciv.com/forum.asp?BID=GF&id=50245

It is definitely doable if you get a great start which I did for that game and the AIs start poorly. Still remembered I managed to colonise 102 planets before starting any wars. Managed to crush the Dregs who were leading by quite a bit by getting all other AIs to fight it at the same time. After conquering them, I was overwhelming superior in terms of military compared to other AIs and I basically cultural bomb rest of the AIs to submission. My end pop was 5 trillion.

I still have the save game one turn before the end. So if you want to have it to see if I've cheated, I'll be glad to send it to you

Don't worry Ray,
I certainly don't assume you've cheated. I have finished quite a few games with populations in the multi trillion level (3-5) and the highest score I've received for them is around the 5k mark. I'm sure I could have achieved higher scores by allowing (or just having) enemies to be more powerful before I crushed them, but that's not the point. I think the problem is with the scoring giving so many points for this. I believe Brad has now modified the scoring to be less impressed with high populations and more impressed with early victories.

Paul.

~SDC~

I certainly agree that the old scoring gives scores that are too diverse, with scores in the hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands. Glad that it is going to be tweaked to discourage milking.

But if it is not too much to ask, if there is nothing "illegal" about my game, how about giving that game back to me with the score moderated with the new scoring methodology.

I'm going to have a problem if the developers are going to be suspicious about Maso Gigantic games. I'm fond of those as they seem to give the greatest challenge. I've already starting one using the 1.03A and am in with a fighting change if the Arceans don't toast me first.

Is there a way I can get a high score with rare or uncommon habitation settings? I don't like tedious games and having to manage 100 planets is just too much like work. Even this last game that I finally finished with a tech victory seemed to drag on because as I conquered races I had to manage more and more planets.

Ray I play Maso gigantic games as well, but usually with scores in the 2k-5k region. I have also had populations around 5 Trillion and won culturally after having the entire tech tree except final frontier researched. Still got less than 5k though.

Should be safe to keep playing. If you do find you're still getting huge scores then alert Brad so he can try to figure out why. Maybe there's a bug in your scoring for some reason.

Paul.

~SDC~

Thanks for your responses, Solitair. The question for me is whether I can win any more Maso gigantic games at the rate the difficulty level is being cranked up

Trying hard on my current game but fighting the Drengins, Torians and Arceans on three fronts is no fun.

Just out of idle curiousity, what stardate did you finish your 30k game on?

I suspect that playing with abundant worlds and getting a good start, as you did, would accelerate victory immensely. Perhaps the problem is that there's *too much* weighting given to quick finishes?

~SDC~