“Greetings, Ray. We have met before at the Galactic Forum, where together we conversed with the Creator of Meta himself. I am Vincible. You were a mighty wizard then, and it heartens me to see that now, you are mightier still.

Since we last met, I have wandered far, in search of the secrets of this world’s creation. And the more I learned, the more I felt that the true secrets lay outside this world, perhaps outside of this universe entirely.

So I attempted an enchantment that lay at the edge of my ability. For many days I prepared gathered my strength for the spell, one of the most dangerous I have ever endeavored. When the time was right, when the moon was new over Vigrid and the tides of magic were at their peak, I cast the spell that would send my spirit outside of this plane of existence.

It is dark in the space between the planes, and a cold wind blew, from what source I know not. Powers moved there, powers far greater than myself. Momentarily I quailed, and I considered retreating to my own plane, but my thirst for knowledge would not allow it. So I turned to look upon our universe, and from my vantage point time was but another spatial dimension and I could peer into the past and future.

First I looked into the past, trying to uncover the secrets of the Origin. The further back I searched, the closer the galaxies grew, and more numerous the stars. I grew excited at this, for it seemed to me that the galaxies would all meet in a single point. But the further back I looked, the brighter the universe became, and near the Origin the light became unbearable. It was clearly a test, to ensure that only those with sufficient power and knowledge could uncover the secrets of the Creator. I failed the test, and was forced to look away.

Then I attempted to look into the future. The galaxies tumbled further and further apart, Stars were born, and stars died, some slowly burning out like embers cast from a fire, some exploding with titanic force. But the further I looked, the darker it became, until in spite of all my efforts I could see no more. And thus the End was hidden from me as well.

Then, I turned, and looked away from our universe.

Another universe existed alongside our own, similar in overall plan but different in the details. In the beginning, light. In the end, darkness. But the galaxies formed different shapes, the stars formed at different times, and its physical laws differed subtly from our own, in such a way that star formation was far more common, and planets far more abundant.

I turned further. And found another universe, a universe in which the star-stuff did not burn as hot, making stars rare and planets rarer.

Billions of universes, far more than I could ever count. But they all had a strange thing in common.

For in each of these universes, I saw a great conflict between six races. These races warred between the stars, in great ships of metal and with weapons of light. Sometimes one race would triumph, either through the power of its weaponry or through assimilation of its foes. Sometimes an alliance of races would triumph, and sometimes one race would transcend this existence and move… beyond.

With the Origin and the End hidden, this was the greatest clue among all the universes as to the intentions of the Creator. Long did I search among the galaxies for clues as to why this conflict raged throughout the Metaverse. I burned to know. But hours later I still found nothing. And the cold wind sucked energy from my spirit, and I knew I could not stay.

Upon my return to my body, I thought about what I had seen. And then I recalled that you, Ray, had hinted at much of what I had seen, when we last met in the Galactic Forum. You knew all this before I did, though whether or not you discovered this through the same methods as I did, I do not know.

And so I ask that I be allowed to join my powers to that of yours and your Fellowship. I wish for us to share our knowledge of this strange Metaverse we find ourselves within, to better understand it and perhaps, if we have the power, to do our part to improve it.”
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Long have I wandered the planes myself, Vincible, gripped by a insatiable thirst for knowledge of such universes.

And I too have realised the futility of challenging the higher powers with my own meager strength. Thus was the Fellowship formed - to bring travellers of like mind together along this journey of discovery and mastery.

The doors of our Halls are open to you, Vincible. Take your place amongst the Fellowship.

"It is done.

I shall send a representative to the Halls shortly."

Thanks for the advice on picks Ray, I think I will expereiment with different things that adds some replay value for me.
I heard that the govt. out your way a couple days ago finally allowed the import of chewing gum. Granted it has to be sugerless, is only sold at a pharmacy, and has to have "medicinal properties"; still it sounds like Singapore is letting its hair down a little. Have you indulged yet?

Yes, a concession given to the US govt (actually to Wrigglys) as part of the US-S'pore-FTA.

Latest is that these sugarless gum can be sold over the counter. What the govt would do instead is to up the penalties for folks who dispose the gum carelessly which was the main reason for its ban 10 yrs back.

Welcome to the Fellowship, vincible.

We've got quite a few things happening concurrently. The MMORPG story, self-introductions, vote on the alliance with the Jedi Republic and thoughts on how we can design new playing styles for the game.

Man oh man, the things Americans take for granted.

How about this for a scenario. Player 1 has the goal of destroying the Altarians. Player 2 has the goal of destroying the Drengin. Whoever destroys his target race first wins.

As for introductions, I'm 23, a graduate student (hence the "ivory tower" references in my little essay, and which also means that most days I have no time for Galciv or for that matter anything recreational) and live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

With the exception of video games, I haven't played an RPG since middle school, when I played a fair amount of Dungeons and Dragons. I was an avid science fiction/fantasy reader until I got to college, when life became too hectic to read much. My favorite character is definitely the wizard. My favorite (complete) fantasy series is probably "Winter of the World" by Michael Scott Rohan.

I tell ya, Australia lives in fear of Singapore. (Well, it lives in fear of just about everyone). All of these very well-organised companies from Singapore are eyeing Aussie companies to take over, or have already done so.

vincible: that was a good trilogy. It was fun when 'Europe' got trashed at the end, too. Hehe.

It's no biggie. The withdrawal symptons faded for me after 5 years or so.



Got this idea from Galaxor - more GOTM than sequential games. Advanced games (eg. 5 years played) presenting players with a specific scenario. Maybe a seemingly dead-end game to see how a skilful player could reverse the situation and win. We should be able to get one from a newbie who has played himself into a hole and use that as a challenge. Would be an eye-opener for the newbies as well.



Interesting that we seem to have quite a few paper RPGers as well as CRPGers in this board. I played D&D and AD&D a lot during my youth, mainly as the Dungeon Master.



Yes, in my short working experience, I've reviewed my fair share of potential AUS/NZ acquisitions. Is your company up for sale as well, Chris? Do get them to send the info memo over.

*Shudder* I think not grasshopper. We enjoy our highly inefficient work practices and long tea breaks.

I think the Sequential Game has the potential to be fun.

Who's game to be the first two playtesters on this concept? Good if the skill level between the two is somewhat similar but not absolutely necessary.

I suggest simple goals, a tiny map and a few rules to kick it off. The team can play it over email for a while, improve the parameters as they see fit, and report regularly back to the Fellowship on its fun potential.

Ray, you forgot about the performance indicators!

No worries, Chris, I'm happy as long as they file regular progress reports.

BTW, I love Dilbert, one of the few strips that can make me laugh out loud.

Ahhh Dilbert. Second to Calvin and Hobbes on the all time list.

To introduce myself allow me please. Yoda I am, jedi master and member of jedi council. My ally is the force and a powerful ally it is. Together we must work to defend against the dark side. In the future, peace I see. You I thank for time.

There are two types of people in the world: those who get Dilbert and those who do not. I try to feel gratitude for the do nots, since the do folks have probably sold their souls to corporate lawyers and bad management. I am a big Catbert fan myself. Dogbert is too much into a selfish type of evil that will only benefit himself. Catbert inflicts misery that would most likely be harmful to all of the common white collar workers while benefitting the whole of the corporate elite. Catbert delivers a type of evil for the benefit of the guys with the golden parachutes.

Edit: mangled a sentence while typing too fast. Oops.
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Ray are you online? If so go to chat

Ray, a suggestion for the sequential game. You should have someone playtest the map beforehand to see that the goals are of roughly equal difficulty. If you have "kill the Drengin" versus "kill the Altarians" and you play ten turns and find that the Drengin are stuck in the corner with one star while the Altarians start with half the map, well, that's no fun.

I think it might be fun, but I can't play something like this... my schedule is such that I have no time for galciv most days, then play a whole lot once a week or so.

I like the idea of rescuing newbies as well... it sounds like a good way to get a challenge without having to play @#%^$&king masochistic.
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No worries, vincible. You can help think about ideas on how two or more Galciv players can compete.

Pity Sergey/KseAli is not frequent around here anymore. I believe he would have loved a different mode of gaming.

Calvin and Hobbes has brought me many hours of joy and I think GROSS is doing a valuable service to the world by exposing more people to it.
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Ray--

Playing my first huge map. Wow what a pain so big you cannot get deatiled info in teh mini-map and have to scroll around and memorize tons of place names!
I turned off cultural victory this game for the first time. Not a single planet has flipped. Does turning off cultural victory prevent all planets from flipping? In such a game is ther any point to influece or building cultural social projects?

Though I wish what you said would be the case, turning off cultural victory does not prevent culture flipping.

Influence is critical, and I mean critical.

Recently on this board(though not this thread), someone asked about how to help stop being attacked constantly by the AI. One of the big guys responded with a detailed post on how to avoid it mostly, but said there was something else he had not yet identified that kept him from being attacked.

Being the curious sort, I decided to investigate it, and found that it was influence. I am currently working my way up the difficulty levels, but one thing that I have found is fairly constant is the effect of influence. At 25% or greater, the AI seriously hesitates to attack you, even with a minimal navy. At 40% or greater, they won't even whine if you place cultural bases directly next to their planets. This rule is holding true for me up into the tough level, I'll see how it goes from here, or anyone else can of course add in their input.

MP

Ray, if you're around, the saga continues in the chat room.