I think the destroy target mission would be the best. Without direct military activity. Use your alliance powers to pound them into submission or use your overwhelming cultural power to conquer them.

Scenario:
Players must play evil, one player uses diplomacy, one player uses culture, the target is the closest good empire. The one that took/destroyed the most systems wins. I guess initial exploration would have to be already completed. The two players each control a half of the empire and manage it separately, but sharing a common bank account.
[Message Edited]

Poof. I'd take that in a heartbeat. Ditch this metaverse baby. St Bartholemew is a wonderful place. Here I come!!! All it would take is two weeks and a round trip ticket and you'll be ahead. Of course, I may never come back.
Poof.

Dang It Gerrakan musta overheard our plan and ratted on us... Maybe if I had offered him a ticket too he would have neglected to tell our plot to his superiors... :0

I think anykind of play alternating board would be fun. Does this system support file transfer for passing save games around?

I don't think its a problem to pass savegames around and play them. For GOTMS, they removed the serial numbers but it may not be necessary if it is a closed group such as ours.

No one is continuing our MMORPG? I've left it wide open for everyone.

It's a little too open. I don't know where to go next.
There's so many ways I could take it, just can't decide.
[Message Edited]

Give it a shot, Gengsta. That's the fun of it.

Everyone would get a chance to steer the stories as we go along.

Usually I'll try to relate to some events happening in the forum or the game but it doesn't have to be. Or use it to develop your character.

An Unexpected Party

In a hole in the ground there lived a dropbear. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with paneled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats- the hobbit had been fond of visitors.

Dropbear looked around appreciatively. ‘Yep’ he thought, ‘can’t fault that fat, hairy-toed hobbit for comfort’. The troll had been especially pleased when Dropbear had sold it the bound and gagged hobbit. The troll was in fact, a cousin on its father’s side to the trolls callously murdered by the hobbit and friends some years before. “Don’t forget”, Dropbear had said to the troll, “revenge is best served cold”.

But the hobbit had had some hair-raising stories to tell before the betrayal and subsequent troll transaction. Dropbear flicked through his notes of those stories. He loved nothing more than to gloat over his evil deeds. Indeed, he had often been undone by giving an overly-long explanation to his intended victims, which invariably gave them time to escape. Indeed, he had told RayChua the Wizard of his acquisition of the stories and how he planned to shame the Wizard in front of the Wizard’s beloved White Council. For the hundredth time, Dropbear savoured RayChua’s reaction, which had been equal doses of denial, acceptance, mortification, despair, and attempted contrition.

The notes were titled: ‘The White Council and what it stands for’ (that always got a laugh at the local dropbear RSL); ‘The Once and Future Wizard’; ‘The day last year when Ray was disorganized’ (very amusing, that one, although a bit short); Ray and the semi-naked elf maidens (bit saucy for some); and a particularly gross story: ‘Ray and the 13 Dwarves’. Dropbear gathered the notes together, and whistling, went in search of the White Tower.

Roast Mutton

Dropbear met Wombie at the spaceport, and off they went. Each of them had gone through a personal hell when RayChua the Wizard had cruelly zapped them into their current, rather cute animal forms. Neither of them had forgotten nor forgiven.

On the way they had a succulent meal of roast mutton. Wombie assured him that the sheep, freshly trained at the Skowbo Swamps Training Camp had volunteered for its final mission, as it had an irrational fear of explosives. It tasted delicious.

A Short Rest

They did not sing or tell stories that day, even though the weather improved; nor the next day; nor the day after. They had begun to feel that danger was not far away on either side. One morning they passed a Hall with a gathering of …(Dropbear wasn’t sure how to describe them)…hippies?, Druids? Crazed MMORPGers? They looked in, but a beautiful and shining Viscountess, holding a platinum mace was addressing the gathering. “Best not disturb that gathering”, Dropbear whispered to Wombie, and they left as quickly as their stubby legs would carry them.

Over Hill and Under Hill

Over hill and under hill Dropbear looked for the Wizard RayChua and the White Council. Alas, all the villagers and simple farmers about shook their heads. “Naw. Nope. Sounds familiar, but can’t say as I can place them like. “Tis only the Wanderer and the Fellowship ‘round here like”, mumbled the last simple farmer he asked.

In despair Dropbear trudged on. His well-laid plans for embarrassing and dethroning Wizard RayChua had become dry ashes in his mouth. Why-oh-why had he told the Wizard of his plans BEFORE he had sprung his evil plan? Clearly, the Wizard had recently done a bunk and adopted a new cover in the nick of time.

Once again Dropbear faced despair with a quivering lip. He shook his fist at the stormy sky. “Wizard RayChua, your time will come”, he screamed, as the stinging rain swept away his bitter tears.

Ray Will try and continue the story a little tomorrow, gonna get in a quick game tonight then head to bed.

I see much and know many things, in due time, of course.

But, on the subject of empire participation and scoring ratios, many large empires have more dead weight in inactive players than active, scoring players. And there are always more people in empires that do not participate on the forum than those who do, unless it is a really small empire.

I am a middle of the road player in both scores and how often I submit games and I am grateful that the big guns of GROSS really crank out those games. But no one is bigger than the team. My primary role is to be here. That is how I best help my team and the whole forum in my own ways. That is kind of the trick to it: let anyone who is not totally inactive play whatever part they want to play and hope that the sum of the pieces add up to all that your empire needs to both score and participation on the forum.

Maybe its a good time to continue our introductions that Gengsta and myself started in the White Council thread. Do tell us a bit about yourself and if you are into roleplaying, your favoured character.

Well, I'll start again, I'm 29 and you can probably tell I'm into TBS, RPG games and fantasy. Based out of Singapore so a rather different time zone from most of you. My MMORPG character is a human wizard.

And we need to welcome J4 back into the Fellowship / Council.

J4 and myself were the first two members of the White Council and we had a great time developing this empire. He was the architect of many Galactic News Network transmissions (akin to what Gerraken is doing now with empire updates) in the board.

Welcome back J4.

Dropbear will be Ray the Wanderer's nemesis eventually, although Dropbear has yet to nail him. We both sense 'tis but a matter of time.

Dropbear has been referred to as Wormtongue by your illustrious leader (and less savoury names actually).

I expect that Ray the Wanderer's organisational talents will take the Fellowship all the way in the Metaverse, and maybe to ownership of Stardock (ya gotta watch those Singaporeans).

Replies:

My time is sporadic here, sometimes alot, sometimes little, so it's hard to say when I'll be about. I just now caught up on the last 20 posts or so, and I'll give the story some thought, and input when the muse strikes.(btw, thanks for the compliments )

As for multiple people playing the same game, sounds good, but I am not yet up to your standards of play, still have alot to learn. Come to think of it, someone tell me why you think changing your politics is a help. Either I am bugged, or the system is all backwards: I can play an entire game thru with my production set to max and my morale at 80%+ ... unless I do the dumb thing and upgrade my government which destroys my economy. Also, does anyone have a use for espionage? I don't use that info on my own race so why am I paying for it on another?

As for myself, I have been playing games on screens since pong, and roleplaying since Chainmail (A big frothy mug of ale to anyone that can identify that game, and date it heh). My two preferred types of game over the past few years have been quality strategy games and MMORPGs (spent 3 years in AC). Other than that, my other two things that take up my time are my job (ugh), and my 5 year old daughter (Yay!).


Be Well

Actually, upgrading government does two things to your economy. One, you do get more BC in taxes to spend. But, two, your spending capacity is increased by a good amount. This means that you make more money, but leaving the spending slider in place makes it look like you are losing money now because of that extra spending capacity. And then there is the side effect of elections. The higher government forms put your party at risk every two years, but if you can keep morale that high consistently, you never have to fear losing elections.

Ahhh...

I thought I had to be missing something obvious, I'll have to look more closely at the numbers in the game I am now playing and see how this works out.

Many thanks

**EDIT**

However, that brings up a whole nother angle. If you are working the trade and tech trade angle, and have your taxes set to 10% or lower.... still seems like it would be better to stay imperial. Any replies on this?
[Message Edited]

There was a knock at the door of the great Magi Council.

The members of the high order of wizards glanced about the table attempting to identify who among them was expecting this intrusion. Without a word being spoken, the answer was obvious to all: No one was.

The intruder was summoned before them.
"Why have you come here?” the wisest and most powerful of them asked.
"Because this is where you are", he calmly answered.
"And how did you find us? Our gatherings are quite...” he paused in search of the right wording, "hard to find." The others smiled at his understatement. (A wizard's smile may seem more like a scowl to some not used to their company. If you ever wonder if what you are witnessing is a smile or scowl, then it must have been a smile since you are still alive enough to wonder.)
The intruder held back a smile of his own. "Such a strong disturbance in the Force would be difficult to hide. Even for a group as powerful as you."
"The Force?"
"You might know it by some other name. Manna, some might say, or Life Energy. But it knows us all regardless of our particular understanding or point of view."
The Magi exchanged quiet glances of understanding. "Yes, we know of your kind and of what you speak. Why have you sought us?"
"Simply to bring a message. I am Qui-Gon Jinn, and within me is the essence of one you once knew as LifeWish. My shared memories with LifeWish tell me that you are a great and noble group and I would feel most grateful to know that a friendship could exist between our kind. I await your reply most eagerly."

Just wanted to say it's great to see a few of us heading out to guide newbies along. That was part of my original objective for our empire - one that contributes actively to the forum beyond just having fun.

Like they say, you don't have to be an expert to help, you just need to be one step ahead.

Guys,

On the matter of the Cofederation which I spoke about in the Theme Empires Thread, would like a vote on whether you guys are supportive in entering into such a grouping with the Jedi Republic. Not sure about GROSS and ANZACs' interest at this point in time.

Let me know by 48hrs.
I cast a "Yes" vote.

On the issue of Metaverse competition, I feel it is only honourable as a grouping to compare ourselves against groupings. I don't see any pride in saying that the Confederation owns a certain solo empire. Let's all agree to this. We will of course still have our solo empire competitions.

[Message Edited]

ChainMail was the 70's precurser to D&D which later became AD&D and now D&D anyways I played it too along with Arduin Grimore (original printing hehe) and many others. Well thats 'nough of that lest I date us.

As the higher end strategies all seem to revolve around military rush and its resulting, enormous cost, I wager Mad will have to bump that tax slider up to teh healthy 40% I play me games at.

As Far as some empire confederation thinga-ma-jigger I haven't a clue what your talking about our lost of time to read and learn, so I do not think I can cast an intelligent vote on the matter.

Poof: A nerdy looking guy with horned rim glasses appears, masking tape across the nose piece. The Wizards all cringe in fear. Oh no it's the all powerful econonerd!!!!!

OK lets have an econometrics lesson here Mwahahahahha!!! You see you take the anti-derivative of the set here called Omega, And if that increases, then using the log log linear degradation formula then Tao prime must necessarily decrease. Multiplying that by the cross price elasticity of demand, you often get the result that seemingly your net revenue goes down when your gross revenue goes up. Following through on the third degree price discrimination model, we clearly see the laugher effect shown in the aggregate graph here. Any questions?

The wizards stare in blank amazement. Thought not. HEHE.

Poof: Harry potter shows up. You do know you could have just used Stupify.

Yes Harry, but this is so much more fun.

Poof.
Poof.

Hey Ray what is your favorite govt/race picks for large tech victory?

I'm actually a rather boring picker, Theleb.

For peaceful games, I go for Federalists or Populists. And for picks, Speed, PQ, Economics, Morale, or Diplomacy.

For rushes, I go for Federalists or War Party.
Picks are Speed, Pop Growth, Soldering.

Generally, I prefer fewer types of picks but higher bonuses as the key to victory is always the early game and that is where higher bonuses will count.

Since I started playing, I've never lost a single election so I have never felt the need to go do all the way to Imperial. Just watch your morale and boost it regularly. The 20%/40%/60% boost is very useful less you are going to live solely on trade and tribute.

The sun sets over the plains of Vigrid.

The sea of grass extends to the horizon in all directions. The summer's heat has browned the once lush vegetation, and soon vast wildfires will rage through the land. The day's dying light stains the grass red.

It is said by some that the Last Battle will be fought here. From all corners of the world, the legend goes, the forces of good and evil will gather. Gods and giants, dwarves and demons, elves and ogres, and countless humans will fight to the death on this plain. In the end, the mighty giant Surt will fling fire in every direction. Every world will burn, and every living thing will perish.

Those who say this are wrong. But nonetheless, the plains of Vigrid are a place of power, and home to some who need that power for their own ends.

Near the center of the plains, there is a tower of ivory. Who built it, and for what purpose, is unknown. Those who have studied the matter claim that the tower has stood at least since the Dawn Age, when the plains were still covered by the sea. The builder chose to place the tower one of the focal points of the plain's power, a place where the air is thick with magical energy. Some claim that the entire tower, which extends a quarter mile into the sky, was carved from the tusk of some enormous beast.

This is as good an explanation as any. But whoever the builder was, he was not human, at least not in the sense that most understand that word. One glance at what is left of the original furniture would convince you of that. Many an occupant of the tower had spent years puzzling over what manner of being the builder actually was.

The current occupant of the tower, however, had more important things to think about.

The apex of the tower was flat, and devoid of any features except for a pentagram carved into the ivory surface. He sat outside the pentagram and gazed at the sky.

He watched.

The sun descended below the horizon, and the sky's brilliant reds and oranges faded into a deep dark blue. The first stars appeared.

He thought.

The sky grew darker until it was black, blacker than normal men can even imagine the sky to be, for they grow up in well-lit cities and cannot imagine the dark between the worlds. Here, in the center of the plains of Vigrid, there were no lights for five hundred miles in any direction. The cold light of ten thousand stars stared pitilessly down from above.

He remembered.

And finally he stood, and walked to the center of the pentagram, the point where the magical energy of the plains was most concentrated and most available for him to draw on. It was probably unnecessary to do so, for he was in his tower, protected by hundreds of powerful enchantments laid down over the centuries. But one can never be too careful when dealing with other wizards--wizards who forget this rule soon die.

He drew magical energy around him, and spoke, and sent his words across the world, into the minds of the members of the Fellowship of the Ring.

"We must talk."
[Message Edited]

It was certainly the start of a most unusual day.

First, there was the sudden appearance of the High Cleric of Starkcod, the Goddess of Healing. As the Fellowship prepared to address her, another guest was quickly ushered in.

The Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn, claimed to be a wielder of a power known as the Force and have come to seek an alliance with the Fellowship.

Ray watched as Gengsta approached the two guests. But Gengsta suddenly paled as his words died in his throat.

Ray felt the magical disturbance as well. Another wizard of immense power was speaking to them via a Telepathy spell.

"We must talk"

Instinctively Ray and Gengsta incanted, raising mental defenses around the minds of the Fellowship, fearing that the power of this communication might trigger insanity.

Ray spoke aloud, sending his voice back along the same magical vortex.

"Who addresses the Fellowship? What do you seek from us?"