Let me ask you guys a question:

Have you ever played a game where two empires got the lovely little "more powerful every turn message"? I was getting close to a Military victory on a medium map when the Arceans hit that message and then the Torians hit it the very next turn. Talk about the tables turning... holy crap.

philopoemen, that event is not necessarily the end of the game- especially if you are already close to a Military Victory. It just means they are getting a random +1% bonus to one of their stats per turn.

But there's 27 stats, and that includes stuff like Luck and Creativity that won't help them fend you off. Even +5 or +10 Weapons is easy to overcome with a higher tech level.

Go get them now if you can, or ally with one and kill off the other. Or ally with both and win an Alliance victory. No need to throw in the towel yet.

~SDC~

Never twice in a game, philopoemen.

IIRC, the advantage they get is a +1% to a random attribute per turn so the real hurting will only come a few years done the road. If you are close to winning, just make sure you don't give them that kind of time.

Me too. I wonder how much of my life has been spent playing games of one sort or another. After college, the advent of the computer game was a godsend because I no longer had anyone to play with.

For EU2, you really have to roleplay to the hilt to get full enjoyment out of that game. Unfortunately, though I know they tried to improve it constantly, that AI couldn't fight it's way out of a wet paper sack.

But if you played within the context of that time period, it was really a fantastic game.

~SDC~

Don't worry about the ole Pirate King, philopoemen. He likes to make a nuisance of himself here in our thread but he is a honourable and civil opponent, unlike some of the other empire folks.


Why thanks Ray. We got one of those uncivils posting in threadzilla unfortunately.

Also, We Pirates have no King. Historically, Pirate ships were generally democratic with most decisions put to a vote of the crew. Crew was free to come and go at any port. Captives were given the choice of joining the crew (till the next port) or death. That indeed was what feared most merchant captains the most (having mostly shanghei'd (taken by force)) crews. Many would simply desert to the Pirate ship knowing they only had to make the next port and were free to go.

As such, I don't consider myself a king. Only the Dread Pirate Captain Pontius Guiding the survey ship of doom over the 7 seas of space. That and keeper of the one ring that was entrusted to me as the sea wizard.

Regarding posts #328 & #329

Please understand that I have no intention of losing my 3rd game . I was just a little surprise that the event happen twice back to back.

And by the way HawaiiFive-0, I did ally myself with the Arceans before I left for work. When I get back the Torians are going bye-bye.

"For EU2, you really have to roleplay to the hilt to get full enjoyment out of that game. Unfortunately, though I know they tried to improve it constantly, that AI couldn't fight it's way out of a wet paper sack.

But if you played within the context of that time period, it was really a fantastic game."

Agree, it was another game that really got me into the "Zone". I lost the plot with that game after Johan decided to came out with all those drastic changes in gameplay early part of this year. Galciv came at the right time.
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Me too. I wonder how much of my life has been spent playing games of one sort or another. After college, the advent of the computer game was a godsend because I no longer had anyone to play with.

Oh no!!! You hung out with the d & d crowd in college?


Book him Dano. Geek1

LOL

Guilty as charged. And you get 2 points for getting the HFO quote correct! If I ever get tired of hanging around with the Wizards, I'll hook up with the Jolly Roger.

"And who could make my heart feel woozy,
Only you, my dear sweet Susie..."

~SDC~

Go get 'em.

~SDC~

"If I ever get tired of hanging around with the Wizards, I'll hook up with the Jolly Roger."

We already have some kind of a player-exchange program going around. We both have ex-wizards and ex-pirates in our midst.

True. But for now, my staff is yours to command. Speaking of, I really ought to play a little tonight. Having too much fun socializing I suppose, it was a long day at work...

~SDC~

Boy, that's an image I can relate to as an only child...this could turn into a group therapy session if we're not careful....

I often wonder what my childhood would have been like with today's PCs and games available - pretty amazing stuff around now.

So true. I remember playing at arcades, and then getting my very own Atari 2600. Man, nothing was ever going to be better than that!

Heh.

Remember Adventure? Where your character was a little yellow block running around with a pixel drawn sword 20 times bigger than he was? How far we've come...

~SDC~

Wow, Go on vacation for a week and a whole lot can happen. I'm still active, just was away from computing resources for 8 days. Sorry I didn't get my vote in by the deadline.

I did have ambitions to work on some of the projects to improve the game when I joined, but I've found that I just don't have the time. Between my work and social life I only have so much time to spend on galciv and I mostly use it to play and participate in the forums.

At this point my main interest is just the community and conversation that has sprung up around the empire. Role playing is an amusing addition, but not core for me. Like I said above, I really haven't found the time to contribute as much as I would have liked.

Finally there's the metaverse...

I had hoped they would fix the main scoring issues with the latest release, but I see that they haven't. Simple games still score more than masochistic games, and milking seems just as easy as previous versions. I'm starting to lose faith that they'll ever get it right, and it's dissapointing to me because the metaverse seems like such a cool idea.

I'm not really worried about being number 1, but I think it's fun to bounce around near the top. I wish the scoring made sense, but moving around near the top of the leaderboard is still somewhat appealing. I have become disenchanted with the metaverse however, and think that basing an empire or even personal play on rising to the top of this rapidly changing, inconsistant, and highly exploitable scoring system would be unwise.

Sorry that my opinions didn't get in while the main decision making was going on, but it looks like the empire survived anyway.

"Remember Adventure? Where your character was a little yellow block running around with a pixel drawn sword 20 times bigger than he was? How far we've come... "

Loaded up some abandonware sites to see if I could recall some of the earliest PC games I've played.

Spotted some of my faves - Pirates!, Airborne Ranger, Elite, Ultima 3, Ancient Art of War, Balance of Power, Empire, Sword of Aragon, Defender of the Crown, Star Command.

I have a lot of those games . I still enjoy playing Pirates! in my spare time.

Welcome back, redshift8!

"I have become disenchanted with the metaverse however, and think that basing an empire or even personal play on rising to the top of this rapidly changing, inconsistant, and highly exploitable scoring system would be unwise."

I've been there and back. We are definitely not basing our empire soley on the Metaverse. It's just a fun sideshow which allows some of us with more free time to fool around with roleplaying.

We would still very much like to interact as a community to talk about the game and other OT topics (see recent posts). Help newbies out and contribute to the community and the forum.

Key is to have fun and enjoy the entire Galciv experience.

I don't know about you guys, but I think they should add an option called "married". Concentrating on a game and having my wife hovering over me should add a bonus to my score LOL .

But you should get bigger bonus points still for getting her into computer games as well.

And harkening back to the old D&D days, I get points for once having the original Chainmail rules in my possession. Right now, I can only claim to have a complete first edition D&D book collection. There is just something about the old Monster Manual and Dieties and Demigods that isn't quite the same as the new third edition books and their companions in the d20 system format. Call it nostalgia, I guess.

That's part of the problem. I'm on my third game because of her love of The Sims. Good thing I'm building a second computer .

My wife hates the fact that I spend so much time playing as well but I have had success with getting her to play games.

She played The Sims, Theme Hospital, etc. But my greatest achievement was getting her to play and complete the Warcraft campaign.

You are truly a GOD in my book now

I just did a quick averaging (rounding up) of the difficulty level of games played by the current Top 10 Metaverse players. These are the results:

Avg Difficulty/No of Top10ers
Maso - 2
Crippling - 2
Painful - 1
Tough - 2
Challenging - 1
Normal - 1
Beginner - 1

Interesting that 1/2 of the Top 10 players (all of them vets with at least 10 games under their belts) still play at levels where the AIs are dumbed down (below Painful).

It is also clear that avg difficulty of games has a poor correlation with the scores needed to become a Top 10 player.

So what we have is a ladder that rewards commitment more than skill.

I'm not trying to start another Time of Trouble here. Just some observations.
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I would like to recommend that Council Members support June's Game of the Month organised by Michael Casey.

I've played it and its fun because Ironman mode really gets you to play it carefully and properly.

I've managed to get a military victory in 10 years. Take up the challenge and beat that!