Invitation to 1st Masochistic Challenge to 94 players

from Stardock Forums
Anyone may play in this http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=87766 competition. I don't expect a big number of winners, so even lose will be good. And it's more fun than any standart game anyway.

I invite you to take part in competition.

Players who able to win in 1.03 or 1.04 on Crippling or Masochistic difficulty:
-=YIN=-, Airwreck, Aloak, Andan, Arliman, Army No. Va., Army of Darkness, Babcom280, Bad_Karma, Becephalus, Bert Bellomo, BuzuBuzu, Callipygea, Cataleptic, Chiacow, Christopher Packer, Copernicus, Crush Slider, Daemon3142, Darkhold, Daveman, Dave Anderson, Def Zep, Dignavi, Dikadar, DonFESQ, EMH2003, ESC123, Ellestar, Exarch, Fenris Wolf, Fifth, Frogboy, Garret OneEye, Hunterose, Huzurdaddi, JPMcD, Jimmy Chung, Joy64, Justinian II, KSesler, Kalon, Kceler, Kent Frazier, LDiCesare, Madfizzicks, Markissimo41, Mike Bregenzer, Monkeypilot, Natrak, Nick Tower, Nico56, Paguma, Piety, Pleyan, Pyrkaige, Ralegh, Ransom Richardson, RayChua, Riboflavin, Sergey Pakhomov, Snuis, Solitair, Staffa, Stephen Wiebe, Steve Sitkiewitz, Straywolf, TexasTim65, Thelon Fairblade, Thrakath, Ultimus, UmExcuseMe, UseFox, Valamir, Viandox, Xauxau, Zoshan, alexti, apuleius, axels2000, balthan, bralex, drank01, forceinfinity, infodragon, jtomicic, kfrancis, matso, mwoody, platycus, redshift8, stoplis, surther, tardus

~SDC~
364 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Don't forget:
1) Everyone fights, noone quits!
2) Have fun! That's an order.
3) After-action report is most important (and most fun) part here.

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Exterminated April 2185. Metaverse score would have been 84.

One key observation is that the computer opponents all seemed to have some type of PQ ability which gets magnified with the Abundant setting. Meanwhile, I wasted resources I shouldn't have on PQ 14 planets. Doubt that tipped the balance of my starfighters to their battleships. I actually don't use a tech tree when I play. That might have helped a bit more so that I could have built a better navy sooner. Not that it would have made a difference.
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I didn't save my game before losing. But I lost with style. Strange to see how much the diplomatic ai has evolved in 1.04. Try selling a planet to see if you can get one tech out of it...
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I see that you ask that it be an Iron Man game. Obviously that's on the honour system. That's fine.

Do you mind if we try more than once, as long as it's done in Iron Man style, or do we only get one try?

I only won one Masochistic game, and that was in about 15 attempts.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I think it could be a good thing to tell the yellow star density before you start the game. I'm used to Setting it to Rare, and you behave very differently with rare and abundant yellow stars. Considering it was definitely not rare yellow stars (or the map turned out weird), it didn't help me, and I didn't need that additional difficulty (read: I should probably not have attacked the most poweful race in order to get to that other yellow star first).
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
The abundance is mentioned in both the 2nd thread in
this forum and the thread you have to read to get
the actual link to the game in the apolyton forum.

And yea, it would have a very big impact on how
you play :(
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I think it could be a good thing to tell the yellow star density before you start the game.
End of quote


Map: Medium, Scattered, Abudant - in starting conditions.
Oops... Staffa already answered. -- By the way, thank Staffa for this starting conditions - he told that he'll play on any conditions i choose. These are most difficult IMHO.
~SDC~
[Message Edited]
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Thank you for the invitation, ES. I'm honored.

Unfortunately, I'm right in the middle of a Huge, Tight Cluster, Uncommon, Masochistic (all "Incredible" AI) game at the moment, in which I start lterally in the middle, both of the map and the only "spiral arm" of the galaxy, sandwhiched between the Drengin, Yor and Arceans (with their improved tactics).

Needless to say, "challenging" belies the difficulty. "Survival by any means necessary" is more like it.

It takes me about a month to finish a Huge map. But I will DL your start, and if 'Poly is still hosting the challenge, I may look at it in July.

Thanks again.

~SDC~
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Ellestar, I was going to post that the starting conditions seem to be the toughest possible setting IMO. It seems that you are getting some kind of perverse pleasure in seeing supporters of GOTM fall flat on their faces on their initial GOTM game. :)

I will play it once I finish my Large game. Should be able to meet the 9th June deadline.

BTW, I believe we should only get to attempt this once because it is definitely going to be easier on subsequent attempts.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Ellestar, I was going to post that the starting conditions seem to be the toughest possible setting IMO. It seems that you are getting some kind of perverse pleasure in seeing supporters of GOTM fall flat on their faces on their initial GOTM game.
End of quote


Feel my wraith now! You don't suggested starting conditions and so on then i asked for this. So now you will be punished by DEATH!
//Don't understand meaning of 2nd sentence. May you rephrase this?
P.S. "Too easy to beat on all levels." LOL

BTW, I believe we should only get to attempt this once because it is definitely going to be easier on subsequent attempts.
End of quote


5) You must play your own game without the assistance of spoilers and other information that is not available to you as an individual player.

Then you are playing 2nd game, you have this information, because you are played before, and you don't have this information then you are played 1st time.

6) 'Hardcore' or (another name) 'Ironman' game - so if you stop playing, you must save. Then you start playing again, must load from latest save. (So, no save-loading is allowed.)

You can't load previous save.

So, only one attempt.

~SDC~
[Message Edited]
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
"It seems that you are getting some kind of perverse pleasure in seeing supporters of GOTM fall flat on their faces on their initial GOTM game."

Rephrase 1

You are getting a lot of pleasure making participants of the challenge suffer by setting it so hard.

Rephrase 2

You are a sadist

:D
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Sadists make us stronger, because to survive, you must get strong. I would have no problem with an ironman version of Galciv. Just make the scores worth it. Problem is: it would probably be too hard to program in an ironman version and make it worth more score wise. But, then again, what do I know about programing Galciv? That would be a question for those who would know to answer.

For the record, I tend to be a man who can play an hour or so at a time, so reloads from restarts are often for me, but reloads because I feel like it are rare. Therefore, ironman sounds like a cool option.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
The abundance is mentioned in both the 2nd thread in
this forum and the thread you have to read to get
the actual link to the game in the apolyton forum.
End of quote

:sniff!: I think I should read teh threads fully rather than skip them.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
There shall be a thread for those who already finished it to discuss it. If we trust the competitors to not restart, we could also trust them to not read the spoilers in the discussion/aar-thread...
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok. This is a link to a AAR's and discussion tread. http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=87999
WARNING!
This tread contains spoilers! If you read this tread before completing your game, you can't participate in 1st Masochistic Challenge.

~SDC~
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
To RayChua

I'm Sadist. And you like masochistic pleasure. So we can work together to achieve better results. OkOk? LOL

Really, i has only one responce - only Staffa told that he'll play on any settings. Well if he's so self-confident... Next time discuss starting conditions, because i followed your (participants) responces.

~SDC~
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
Just saw a respawn. Nearest race - Dreign. Ouch. I should press Ctrl-N.

~SDC~