Pontius: Actually the ANCACS and Canadians would be worthy to join us. Perhaps they will do so later. In the meantime, as things stand, there are two viable strategies to grow in the Metaverse:

1) Churning out tech wins on Gigantic Maps.
2) Recruitment and Mergers.

As I find difficult games on Small Maps vastly more interesting than score milking, I will focus my contributions to G.R.O.S.S. on 2).

Here is an idea: How about a merger with the other non-regional Empires? Let´s say, for starters, Culture, Washu, Fnord, Benzoians, Fun Ball and the Sovereign League. Their leaders should be allowed to join us as Senators.

If they accept our offer, we will be #3, or even #2, and then, from a position of strength, we can make a similar offer to Imperia Galactica. Perhaps even rename to "Imperium G.R.O.S.S.".

This will catapult us into unassailable #1. What say you, Pontius?


Beat em down, then make em an fair offer they cannot refuse. I like it. I like it. As to name changes though well some would be in opposition. I too love our name. We would have to worry about that if the time ever came.
Indeed the sticking points with the midwesterners were
1. Name change and
2. Regional vs Game theme.

I felt it important to retain our identity and fun name. In the end, the merger didn't happen simply because I didn't wish to sacrifice our identity completely. Nor did I want to be exclusionary.
I think that would be "unAmerican" of me. And in the end, that was more important to me than combining simply for the sake of moving up in the rankings in one swoop. In the end, that was a sticky point with some of their members as well. Some insisted we adopt their name. Other's thought we were Satan worshipers or something considering what I read on their poster board. HEHE. Hence the merger didn't happen. Of course we'll see what's really important to them after they are crushed under heel

But as I stated in my real world issues post above, I can't speak for everyone. And every merger would lose a couple members (some because they never even come to the message board and wouldn't have a clue it happened, Others simply would choose to stay). I cannot speak for them nor would I attempt to. But lets work on some of these empires we've passed who are now realizing they can't go it alone without our "Protection" HEHE. Of course Senators from those empires would retain Senatorship. We would expect our players to be grandfathered in under our rules and theirs if different from ours would be allowed to grandfather their rules in for Senatorship post merger.

But I've tried to give everyone, Senator, or not, a voice in how we do things.

This empire, being the evil empire bent on controlling everything that it is, does not care what size or style you play or how you play. Just win baby is our creed. Only rule I have on this is that you don't cheat. I recommend you don't use cheese like saving to avoid a negative event but that's not cheating and is up to you.
We reward, but do not require the evil allignment choice. But that's about it.

Since the square root rule applies to individual scores only, then each individual score is then added to get group score, one person cannot possibly by changing size of games, or low scores hurt an empire (ie subtract points) It's mathematically impossible.
So I'm never going to require churning. Indeed, in the long run that will cost points as once someone churns 5 or 6 times its like ok i've done all I can now what.? Oh there's that game over there..... cool. And if you keep churning, you end up being as bored as if you were in (empire name deleted. We all know who it is) some purposely kept an old version specifically because it churns High scores. What a snoozefest that is...

That will never be required nor encouraged here. But if that's what someone wants to do it won't be discouraged either. I do changeover to new versions late simply because I like to see all the bugs worked out. Then when I get it. I just play and not worry.

One other thing. No one should worry about speaking his or her mind here. Except those other wimpy empires of course and the occasional troll.

Oh As to Imperium G.R.O.S.S. shoudn't that read G.R.O.S.S. Imperium?

"make em an fair offer they cannot refuse"

Now, see, thats the kind of language La Cosa Nostra likes to hear. You end up putting a horse's head in someone's bed, let me know.

I'm playing a Crippling Gigantic game, when my wife and 2yr old daughter give me the chance. :notsure:

Anyway, I'll submit it when I'm done, of course. Ikeep trying the "wolf in sheep's clothing" tactic, *trying* to be a Goody Goody (rescued lunar miners, saved the whales/bears/whatever, destroyed the undead serum, built solar fallout shelters, re-educated my businessmen).... and then the "suck out colonist life force for Planet Quality" event pops up, and down I go!

This map is odd... the entire center is 100% empty. The Altarians got so pigeonholed in one corner, they surrendered.... to ME! Before I even met them! I own the top of teh map, and both sides; the Drengin are fighting the Torians and the I-League for the bottom center and left.

Get this: the I-League are the Most Populous, Most Powerful, Cruelest, and second for Most Advanced! They showed up like on turn 10, and have sucked up a planet here and there every so often. Thanks to the freaking sushi-bait Torians (the only other member of the UP at the time, with FOUR TIMES my influence) voting us into a Star Federation before I even had Republic, our morale has been very low -- more planets for the I-League (so far, about 3 of mine).


I'm broke this game, so my normal strategy is not working. I have like 3 starbases in my 16 colonized secotrs! I'm running at like 38% taxes and 26% spending! I'm definately feeling the pain, when the *I-League* has dreadnoughts, everyone else has Battleships, and I have -- wait for it -- Corvettes! But, I'm so far away that so far, my military losses total 1 Survey ship (the Hero, still 1/1 after all this time), 3 scouts, and a defender...

Ah, well, I've had enough of this goody-goody sh*t... time for Pure Evil once again!

Gypsy. You as emporer would of course be offerred a Senatorship should you entertain our more than fair offer. After all. Why be squashed when you can help Dominate?


Thelon. Your Tax rate too low. I never go below 40. Also, get those economy boosters. They help. If you need to up morale use boosters and PQ items instead of Lowering Taxes. Lowering taxes is a downward sprial from which you never seem to escape. Also Go to your planet screen hit details and up your propeganda on that planet if you need a temporary morale fix till you get some morale boosters.

Hey Pontius, tag your it.

Untill that 17,000 score gets the anomolous tag that is.

Untill then.....So this is the Galactic map. How does it look from 11th??

"Only rule I have on this is that you don't cheat. I recommend you don't use cheese like saving to avoid a negative event but that's not cheating and is up to you."

Pontius: Exactly my philosophy. Personally, I haven´t even used Ctrl-N, yet, though I was tempted in my current game (tiny, 5 geniuses, me in a corner). Possibly an unwinnable position, but I am curious, so I am playing it. I may lose this one, but I´ll learn something!

Surther: We still own you. You're coming over here posting like a giddy lil school girl proves that.

"Daddy!!! Daddy!!! look at how good I am now!!
Hoosier Daddy Surther. Hoosier Daddy?

TOF.

"...voting us into a Star Federation before I even had Republic..." LOL LOL

Priceless. Great report, Thelon, good war stories are appreciated here! When you get to play again, tell us how it goes.

"Only rule I have on this is that you don't cheat. I recommend you don't use cheese like saving to avoid a negative event but that's not cheating and is up to you."

Pontius: Exactly my philosophy. Personally, I haven´t even used Ctrl-N, yet, though I was tempted in my current game (tiny, 5 geniuses, me in a corner). Possibly an unwinnable position, but I am curious, so I am playing it. I may lose this one, but I´ll learn something!

Hopefully they'll do something about score milking. They did change the it to count it a loss when the computer beats you to beyond human. Unfortunately, everyone knows it and is milking the old ones for all its worth. Oh well. I refuse to just sit in the corner and hold out for that type win. It's really silly to get all those points when two computer players beat you to it.

Thelon. See what you get for being Goody Goody. Nothing. I just don't see how it pays in this game other than giving you more cultural influence (which I understand that type win gives low!! points) or pleasing the Torians who seem to be the most dangerous of the other races. You do get some economy tech but it's not like you can't pick +20 at the beginnning anyway.

And to my way of thinking, Our people deserve the best planets we could give em. How is killing a few worms evil? How is killing a few Giant Ocean Squids evil if they are terrorizing our citizens. And what do you do with Bugs? You exterminate them!!!. It would be evil not to kill em.!!!!

Now some of the others, Binding peeps with those pods, taking slaves, throwing the ocean dome guys out. Those are deservedly evil admittedly, but sometimes you do what you gotta do.

Coffee, hows the ambassadorship going with the vanquished? Any one interested in a merger?

"It's really silly to get all those points when two computer players beat you to it."

The day the reprocess all the old scores, using a more reasonable formula, will feel like Judgement Day to some!

(In my current game, the problem of somebody earning a tech victory will not trouble me: They will probably wipe me out before anybody has Dreadnoughts! )

"Coffee, hows the ambassadorship going with the vanquished? Any one interested in a merger?"

Don´t know, yet; must first invent Universal Translator (start a thread)!

I must resist... the evil GROSS emperor is trying to convert the Metaverse!

I find your lack of Faith disturbing.

Gerakken: Why Resist and be squashed when you can do the squashing? Your violent record in your submissions is obvious. We know all about that Virus you put in those computors you sold the Drengin all the while playing the Goody Goody. That's a tactic well respected here. You're evil, we're evil, this game is an evil attempt to make our spouses lonely. Just admit it and you can be part of G.R.O.S.S. You know you want to.

I have just finished and submitted my latest gigantic game. The Glorious Terran ConFed achived a morality of Demonic (0) before the battleship era!

Game Setup:

* Gigantic
* Abundant Planets
* Tight Clusters
* Evil races on Bright, Good & Neutral on Intelligent
* All victory modes turned off save for Conquest

I had an usually lucky start and was able to colonize nearly an entire quadrant before running into the Arcaens. I had to sacrifice early game development to keep churning out colony ships, followed by mass Starfighter and Corvette production to boost my military rating.

By the time I was ready to start building starbases I had a ~150 military rating in corvettes alone. Another stroke of luck in finding multiple economy bonuses scattered in my space; coupled with an already large and burgeoning population (two 26 planets!) and my beginning Federalist bonus money was never a problem in this game.

A minor race started in my space, and I bled them dry with trade goods and extortion before conquering their pitiful 600 million population with a single transport (had to beeline to impulse). For the other minor races I maintained excellent relations throughout the game, using them as my vassalls and cash fall-back when times were tough.

The Altarians quickly started to show their good tendencies and hated me... but by then I was too powerful. I bribed all the other races into attacking the Altarians, again and again. Finally when I hit Terror Star technology a massive construction effort was initiated: Four culturally-maximized terror stars invaded Arcaen, Altarian, and Torian space. Their systems fell rapidly before the onslaught of my deliberately addictive products (Trichloromorphin, anyone?).

I left the Yor as a vassal race and primary trading partner until the very end. Once I had Artificial Slaves I didn't need those elitist robots anymore... so I destroyed all my trade routes and re-built them with the last surviving minor race. Six excaliburs, 300 billion troops, and four months later the Yor were nothing but processed raw material in my war machine.

I definitely had a paper tiger military until the late game... nothing but corvettes and anti-matter missiles. But my military starbases were numerous, and near the end said AM missiles were worth ~960 attack! The excaliburs were averaging 700 attack and 200 defense. Throughout the entire game I lost less than 30 ships, destroyed over 400, and killed over 400 billion troops.

My final population was in the neighborhood of 11 trillion -- the highest to date in any of my games. At one point I had a huge battle against one of the larger minor civs... hundreds of billions of troops were sacrificed, but it was scarcely 4% of my population at the time.

All in all, it's good to be evil! I was favored with more than a few PQ boosting events... my capital planet was over PQ 60 at the end. How can those pathetic boy scout players hope to compete with a 100 billion pop planet that needs no morale boosting? The answer, of course, is they cannot. And all of their efforts will be for naught as the last vestige of impure alien filth is purged from the universe in the name of glorious Terra!

A couple of tips from this latest game (only really pertains to the largest maps):

* It's not worth it to lease an extra Survey ship at the beginning. I used to do so, but since the AI is retarded when it comes to harvesting space junk it's easier to just tech up to StarHawks, build a few, and then build some rangers in the end as necessary. Especially the extra soldiering anomalies are helpful when you're going to be dealing with large battles.

* Colonization is utterly important in the beginning. There are so many stars you really have to grab a fair portion of them or risk being rapidly eclipsed by the AI. I found myself at 75% military 25% tech for most of the early game... remember to send colony ships out at 110 pop for an extra credit of revenue when they land.

* Speed is also more important than I would have thought. I have started playing with a +1 speed bonus and have found it invaluable in racing to planets and resources.

* Trade starbases are useless due to the maintenance cost unless you have a VERY small trade route (like two to five quadrants away). It is a viable and useful strategy to let a minor civ exist within your space just to trade with them and build trade starbases.

* Battle hammers are the awesome late game defenders. Almost as good as a Dread but they cost a lot less. With a few military starbases they are very costly to take out.

* When playing as utterly evil it is worth keeping a goody-two-shoes AI around just to get the late game good morality techs from it. Nothing like having your demonic cake and eating it with an angelic fork.

Finally... if I'm going to keep playing these huge games to add to our great Empire's score, shouldn't I be a senator? LOL

Post final thought: I am also of the position that if G.R.O.S.S. changes it's empire name I will reluctantly withdraw my membership. Simply having the name has drawn my wife into the game, and now I can count on her to expertly hit the space bar when tens of billions of lives are at stake.

The evil Emperor Pontius and Darth Coffeedragon have prevailed. I shall no longer resist.