But it is the deadweight that makes you strong in the end. The rookies these days don't know the meaning of pain, unlike the day when a couple of hundred points meant something!

I think Pontius has it absolutely right - you're going to play this game 'cause you like it, or just get totally pissed off with the scoring. I'm going to start recruiting for my elite ANZAC NSAC Unit (No Skill All Commitment) to dominate the Metaverse! The heavy hitters who are into working out how to eke out that extra 1.659% score bonus are asking for a stroke. I've recorded 20 wins, and if you look I've gradually gone from simple, to beginner, to normal. I may, sometime around the year 2200, win a maso game. I am rewarded for continuing to PLAY the game and improve. The elite top 10 or so master the game quickly and have nothing left to prove....and drift away (Staffa, Ray, Sergey). Yes, it does seem unfair that a Cakewalk Gigantic scores more than a Painful Small - maybe there should be a score cap for each map size/difficulty tier?

I would have to agree with you Space Wombat. I've slowly built myself up in each game. I'm now working on Challenging games.

I must admit though that currently I'm pushing for a tech victory on normal. I feel like I'm in a time tunnel though, will this game ever end !

I'm certainly not looking down on players who don't move up to Crippling after their first game (like Staffa. I needed three ). My issue was more with players who keep playing the simpler games for score and not because they are challenged by that level.

"The heavy hitters who are into working out how to eke out that extra 1.659% score bonus are asking for a stroke."

hehe, that's a good way of putting it. But like you say what's left for me after mastering the game and drifting away and back?

Maybe its time I played the game that all the Stardockians seem to be playing and see if I can give Draginol a good thrashing on Gamespy.

I have one more objective to meet at least before I do that though. To get my rear admiral rank!
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I hear you, Ray - I'm certainly not trying to trash talk any of the real powerhouses. No software author can make a game infinitely difficult, to KEEP appealing to the top echelon, though. I thought Frogboy had the intention of taking Metaverse submitted games and using them to revamp the game's AI code? That's about the best plan I've heard after years of playing Civ3,etc. This at least would give you a challenge, although I guess it doesn't solve the problem of scoring on merit. Whatever you do - keep that blood pressure under control, mate!!

I have played games for 17 years and this game is among a very small number where I have invested much time and enjoyed thoroughly.

The Metaverse certainly takes a huge amount of credit for this. It's a great concept and one I would have loved to see suceed beyond Stardock's wildest dreams.

End of the day, this is their game and Metaverse and they have every right to set up the rules anyhow they choose.

Doesn't stop me from griping about it every now and then though.

damn scoring has no rhyme or reason

probably some reasoning behind it, but it beats the hell out of me

anyways joining the council now, this past game, Gandalf and Sauron star systems were right next to each other. I guess it's just luck.

Number 2 in the standings!!!!

It's no luck, Maike. It's destiny staring you straight in the face!

Remember all players, if you happen to also see Gandalf or Sauron or any else game references to LOTR while playing Galciv, you know you have to join the White Council.

Eldin: I see that the latest version on gigantic maps you got 2 games in the 9,000s and then your last 2 games you got in the 15,000s. All 4 games were same level, although the last 2 were military victories. This suggests to me that you worked out a method to get a higher score. Or was it just that going for a military victory meant that the game lasted longer?

Gosh Pontius, thank heavens you pointed out you were being sarcastic. You had me all stirred up for a second.
But I confess, I milked my last small game until the cows left home, and I could only squeeze 10,000 out. I cannot see how anyone could get above 10,000 on a small map, at a lower level of difficulty. I mean, I lose sleep over these details! Now that I have played 30 or so games, (ie a few masos I lost) once I have the game won, the fun for me is to see how high I can score. For me, the least fun is the start at the colony rush- that is why I can't face gigantic maps anymore.
Re your second post, I have the UTMOST respect for anyone that can play gigantic maps, as they just do my head in. But I have the UTTERUTMOST respect for anyone that can play maso games and win (even if only 10% win ratio).
I do want to pace myself though and not burn out!

I think that Staffa can wins all his Maso games if using ctrl+N. I can win 90% tiny Maso with proper use of ctrl+N. The reason why I don't play Maso is that its more like work not fun. In most strategy games like different Civs, I tried highest difficulty only once, in all cases I can win but winning is too boring.

I think that Staffa can wins all his Maso games if using ctrl+N. I can win 90% tiny Maso with proper use of ctrl+N. The reason why I don't play Maso is that its more like work not fun. In most strategy games like different Civs, I tried highest difficulty only once, in all cases I can win but winning is too boring.

Sorry, double post

Staffa says he uses Ctl-N, Sergey. Considering that there are nearly 3000 of us participating in the Metaverse and only a couple of us who is beating 1.05 Maso, I say it is truely a tough level.

I hope you didn't mind me using you as an example cause you have mentioned before that you think Staffa is the better player. If there was a Galciver Hall of Fame, you would have been up there together with him.

No problems RayChua, I just want to say that my opinion is that playing Maso shows not only skill (which should be certainly high) but great patience. I think that if you easily win at crippling then after few attempts and some tactics adjustments you can manage Maso. My view is: skill for Maso = Skill for Crippling + a lot of patience.

Nothing like a Military Victory to start a week huh .

Sorry I haven't checked in lately, work's been picking up. Submitted a game last night, though.

Reading through the last few days, I find that Ray has succinctly summed up the Metaverse with these two lines:

#350:


#389:


I'm going to submit one more to get to 5 victories, and then I'm going to get back to work on my Tech Tree generator that's been languishing in a half finished state for a couple of weeks. Bright AIs aren't any fun any more, so I'm heading up to Intelligent.

~SDC~

I was actually shooting for my first Tech Victory until I got my score - 4568. I guess the Tech Victories are on the low totem pole. I'm not sure if this is milking but I just had to see how the scores laid out. Here's the game:

Normal Difficulty across the board
Medium Map
Pacifist
+1 Speed
+20 Dipolmacy
+5 Planet Quality

Military 11560
Alliance 9756
Cultural (don't know I turned it off, probably around 7000)
Tech 4568

In playing out this scenario, I've realized that adding Planet Quality to my attributes is a complete waste of points. Throughout the game the random events boost most of the planets for me.

Sorry about being long winded, I thought it would be interesting to see :notsure:. Questions/Comments?
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By the way, I'm going to hang around the Challenging mode from now on . See if I've gotten the hang of this a little bit more. I tried Maso once... I still hurt from the beating I took (:(.
[Message Edited]

It's no luck, Maike. It's destiny staring you straight in the face!

Remember all players, if you happen to also see Gandalf or Sauron or any else game references to LOTR while playing Galciv, you know you have to join the White Council.

Did you see Bellatrix (she's one of the death eaters in Harry Potter) in that game? I'm sure you did. You need to form the Dumbledore's Army empire al-la Harry Potter. It's not luck. IT'S DESTINY!!!

As you know I like to think of cool rock band nicks for empires.

The Euro's for example are Frenchy and the Lap Poodles.
The Anzacs are Lil Cotel Peep and her lost Sheep.


I have just thought of one for you.

Ray Ray and the Ringworms!!! Yeah baby coooooool
nick.

He. I had that colony, too. Unlike Gandalf which was alway productive PQ 24 to start! Ended up 35 with all PQ improvements and The Terraformer. Bellatrix was shitty ass planet that was 14 before I built the Terraformer. I'm sure that had something to do with it.

I think the real answer is that I was going to join anyways.

We're not doing so bad sitting at 2nd with only 20 members. A bit more recruiting and we'll take 1st easy .

And yes tech victories give poor scores.

In my latest game,
Painful Gigantic Abundant

Military Conquest - 16k+
Cultural Conquest - 11k+
Tech Victory - 6k+

all three victories happened within a span of four turns

speaking of which, I would have gotten a much better score except I had to prevent myself from winning via alliance and culture.
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Kudos to you wizard folk. You have overtaken us simple midwesterners in the metaverse. Your powers of persuasion are great and after a brief hiccup in your rise you seem to have begun the process of redeeming yourselves. While we simple hardworking farmboys may not have the magical powers you wield so carelessly we shall not hesistate to forge our proverbial plowshares into swords and fight you off. So I say to you again, congrats on your renewed vigor but beware the simple worker empire of MWC, we shall not stand by and let your magic rise without provocation.

Fleet Captain plephart
Come Realize Your'Manifest Destiny'
Join the Mid-Western Confederation at http://idle.thehueys.com/midwest
Magic users and Pirates need not apply!

Maybe you should talk to your Canadian counsins as well.

They are sneaky bastards and you just might find yourself in 4th.

Another who believes those Canadians are sneaky. I've been warning people about them for a while. They are as quiet as a corpse, but have a the grip of death on the map. Run! They are undead! Ahhh!