You may be gone, but are not forgotten.




HEHE a chua pet. Wait till lil Idle becomes the christian slater of the mwc

Well it's time for some shut eye. Cya all tomorrow. Keep on pluggin.

With a mullet! I'm inspired to do an Evil Ray portrait for the Jedi website - Gandalf with a mullet...on a Harley... LOL

Pontius, that's the first genuine LMAO reaction I've had from one of your posts in...
...
...where's that calendar...
...oh, on the Windows 3.1 PC, right...
I'll get back to you.

EBZ, you're not forgotten. And you're not going to be remembered just for the GCCG, or for the hubbub that it generated, but because you were (are?) one of the most damned dedicated players we've seen on the Metaverse. Regardless of the difficulty you chose to play at, it takes time and effort to hit 100 submissions, and to rise to second on the leaderboard. I post here on the boards, update a website, and play when I have the time (not bloody often of late) - but I wish I had half your dedication to PLAYING THE GAME, which is what all of this other stuff is about.

Ye Pirates are top dogs. Better keep those ring worms down so we can overtake them.

A Pirate, MWC alliance? Wow this talk like a Pirate Day has paid dividends.




You havn't been reading many of my posts have you?
LOL

Arrg, that wandering Ray has turned in a 50,000 pt score. We better make him walk the plank.

Avast ye Matey. We be meetin at the yardarm to discuss strategy.

Get to Maso, any way you can. It gives boku points.
Walk the plank? Shiver me timbers. Lets keelhaul em.

It's almost time for Saturday Board Reports... Get those games in... Move up while you can... See those names in lights... I'll BBL

Ok Pontius you have peaked my curiosity. I haven't played a Maso in a while they seem a lot harder since 1.05 but maybe I am missing something. So what am I missing you old Pirate?

surther: Email?

I'll bbl... GTG shopping... :VOMIT: and then pick up the kids. Then it's a school carnival tomorrow. Well at least USC isn't playing. hehe.

But in general Surther if you up your diplomacy abilities, almost any lil ole gift makes the aliens happy. I just keep giving em trinkets the whole game and it keeps em off me long enough.

Well, I'm back after a long absence. Even had to reinstall the game (new computer from work). Loaded up the expansion pack, played a small "Painful" game.... and can't upload to Metaverse from work. How dare they block my gaming? I'll load it up from home tonight probably.

Was fun! First time playing with "common" habitable worlds. Started with an extra in Sol, another yellow in my system with a 15 and a 16, and a minor-race yello. But just below me were the Arceans with -- wait for it -- 5!! habitable worlds in their home system! Adn they went to war iwth me!

but eventually, I prevailed, hurrah! Chaotic Evil, of course.

How do you manage to get 50k from a maso game, I am playing right now a painful one and I have been suffering the consequences, they are very painful indeed, do you have any spoiler about the Maso? Can I post my e-mail here to see if you can send me a spoiler?

My e-mail
[email protected]

Diplomacy huh..Let me try a maso where I brush up on diplomacy. If I get creamed then I will bug you for more tips. Thanks Pontius.

Welcome back, Thelon!

Please, share with all of us; I just started a painful game today and it did not take them long to start taking over my planets.

I don't think that he will share, I posted here, because in other tread he said if we asked here, he will provide with the spoilers, but like a truly pirate he deceived us again. LOL LOL LOL

Here is a step by step guide to how I play small maso (this is revised after some advice by Pontius). I recognise there are many different strategies, and I am not in the higher league of maso players.

-Set start stats to 60% diplomacy; 20% reseach; 10% influence; 10% economics. Speed is irrelevant on small maps I reckon. Diplomacy is everything with my style of game and probably with maso games.
-Government used to be industrialists: ie 20:20 production. My latest game I am finding Populists 20% morale and 20% Diplo good.
-When first starting to play maso I put planets on rare or uncommon. This is because if an alien civ is restricted to few planets they can't pump out ships and influence as much. Alpha strikes are also much easier.
-Set other civs to evil or neutral. (I always play evil so I don't have racial enemies). Or set one civ to good so that that civ will be picked on.
-Control + N until there is another habitable planet nearby.
-Set sliders to 100%: 50% on research and 50% on ships.
-Research to diplomacy ASAP. (about 7 turns)
-After colonization over, build 1 scout and explore to meet the minors ASAP.
-Trade techs with everyone. If minor civs build Diplomatic Translator it is heaven! Once I trade techs for that, my diplomacy is over 120% The other civs then trade techs very easily.
-With the weaker civs, try to trade techs for freighters and/or ships. (Harder but possible) I try to buy ships rather than build them. I love buying a freighter and in the same turn sending it to the vendor's planet for an instant trade route!
-Research some unusual techs too, so I can trade with all civs. Sometimes a good tech can trade for 4-5 different ones.
-To build/keep close relationships, gift 1 UP vote to aliens regularly. Pontius says every 3 turns it almost always increases relations, and that seems to be the case
-Then I try to rush research to battleships (which civs won't trade me).
-At some point I change sliders to start building planetary improvements. Usually after I can build the Fusion Plant. I don't try to build wonders at all until mid-game. I build Fusion Plant, bank and manufacturing plant quickly.
-Trade with freighters with the nastiest civ to prevent war.
-Once mid-game approaches I blockade minor civs with cheap ships to prevent aliens getting them. And prepare combat transports to alpha strike the most powerful civ or the weakest. Once most powerful civ is gone, the game is won.

This strategy is only for small maps. I haven't tried it on tiny or medium. I can't play large maps.

Killa, when you say alpha strike, do you mean build a fleet, then send everything you have and attack that civ?

I only got 21k, but from a tiny. It stands to reason a large from Ray would score about 50. Which he got.



A sincere welcome back Thelon. Woohoo.



Hmm Perhaps I should have posted in english. I said in the other thread post your email here and I'll send it. #2789 above said I'll bbl which is inet speak for be back later. Well it's later, and I'm back. But since killa posted, well there won't be any spoilers.

My keys to small and tiny. It will likely work on med also but you'll need to take +1 speed for large and huge so be prepared to lose some of your other crutches You might get back away without the added speed with the extra empty sectors on gigantic. I'm also trying that out now. I seem not to need it with tight clusters and the extra gaps. I get what clusters I need there
My settings
Populists +20 diplo + 20 morale
+60 diplo
+10 econ
+20 science
+10

I go with abundant planets. It's alot easier on rare like Killa plays. So I might go from there and work up. You only need 2 good or 3 one planet systems to dominate a rare small.

100% ships to start. I don't care about my starting pq all that much. It doesn't really matter. What I look for is a possibility of 5-6 systems (small) 3-4 (tiny) in good reach (sometimes that's in 3-4 different sectors, sometimes 2. It matters not. But if you don't see the possibility of such control-n right there. Sometimes it turns out even on abundant, you'll end up with 4 suckies and 2 goods. CNTrl-n right there. Most of the time, I get a doable board for me in less than 5 minutes.

I usually go all evil on the aliens and Instead of going good or evil by choice, I do what I would do in the situation and get into the game. However my allign comes out is how it comes out. More fun that way.

With the +diplo almost any pitance of a gift will satisfy the aliens. You can't do it every turn. You'll know you gifted too fast when the alien says "ahh more presents thank you." Don't bother to look in this case, your relations didn't improve. Every 3 turns is a good rule of thumb. And always immediately after rejecting a demand.

Here is the key. You must figure out whether you're going Military, Culture, or tech strat and stick to it. You cannot just do everything on maso, there isn't enough time. If you go anything other than military, expect to pay bribes the whole game. If you wait till they demand anything, You're likely going to war. But if you pay them bribes on a regular basis, you can reject a demand and not end up in a war.

They will out tech and out gun you most of the game. But hang in there nonetheless. You'll be able to take em late.

If you need a full run through guide a-la ebz's I'll make one up after my next game. I'm still refining my strat as it's changing considerably from the way I used to play Masos. Before I was a militaristic scorcher. I'm playing more the culture bomber these days.


Oh and re the typical pirate crack. We are the one and only empire that has consistantly posted our strats right here for all to see. None of the others do.

Another key. You cannot trade for money unless you set two aliens down a peg. But if you do that, you will lose alot of points. And they are easy pickings for the maso aliens before you will get strong enough to take em. Watch those leases. Don't get one unless you're making more than the monthly payment in surplus. Or you'll be sorry.

YOU MUST BE PREPARED TO PLAY FROM BEHIND. YOU WILL BE BEHIND MOST OF THE GAME.

Yes.

Pontius and Killa, as always, thanks for the tips. I look forward to reading your guide.

Is that why some of us are Rear Admirals????