Ray the Wanderer Ray the Wanderer

Fellowship of the Ring Empire Thread

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Fellowship of the Ring Empire Thread

from Stardock Forums
The Prancing Pony

The welcome sight of a tavern greeted the weary traveler as he moved within distance of the town. Having traveled for many days, he longed for a cool mug of ale to slake his road-thirst.

As he approached the inn, he could see a sign of a fat pony rearing up on its hindlegs. The letters, THE PRANCING PONY, was painted in white.

The common room was large and rowdy. A bald and overweight innkeeper stood bent over the counter, whispering the latest gossip into the ears of a patron. On the benches were various folks, the local drunks for most part, but in corners of the taverns, he noticed there were groups drinking by themselves.

Setting himself down, the traveler handed a couple of coppers over to one of the bar wrenches for ale.

“Welcome to the Pony.” The traveler was mildly surprised to find a sprightly old man next to him, holding his gaze with keen eyes that belittled his obvious antiquity.

“Thank you, and whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?”

“Folks around here call me Ray and I do enjoy meeting up with newcomers to see if there is any assistance I could render.”

“That would be great, Ray. I would love to learn about the people who reside in these parts.”

“Ah, that’s a frequently asked question and one I’m well qualified to answer. There are a couple of factions here in Meta that you will want to watch out for.

The Pirates are currently dominant. Not the most refined of speakers but they are a jovial bunch, with a particular weakness for good drinks.

The Diplomats hold power in the Courts. Their courtiers are many but they don’t really mix with us common folks.

The Farmers are our working class. Hardworking and honest, they are however on occasion given over to overly elaborate festivals and celebrations.

The Galahs are a group of seafarers. They are also good trainers of livestock.

The Warlords are our warrior class. Their love for long campaigns leaves them frequently out of town.

The Spiders monopolise our merchant guilds. They are by far the most invertebrate bunch of traders you will ever see.

Far to the north, the Undead holds a death grip over the wastelands. I would caution you against traveling down that road.

There are many other smaller factions around, but I leave the details of those to Barley our bartender.

One of our tavern regulars, Gerakken the Spymaster, is also in the know with regards to many of the factions. So do buy him a drink if you want to find out more.”

“Thanks for the insights, Ray. But how about yourself, which faction do you belong to?”

Smiling to himself, the old man stood.

“Come round the Fellowship Halls tomorrow morning and I’ll show you around.”
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Reply #126 from Stardock Forums Top
I seemed to have missed quite a bit, this weekend. I'll try to contribute after I catch up on everything.
Reply #127 from Stardock Forums Top
I have to say, I got a kick out of reading the last few day's posts. I'm sorry I'm not more vocal, but I hope you guys know that your story-telling efforts are appreciated.

I submitted a game yesterday, work doesn't permit more game playing time, but I try to finish one per week. 'Course I had that Anomalous score a game ago, that's what you get when your modding experiments cross the line. ;)

If anyone has any questions on modding the game, you can post here or the Mods forum, and I will do my best to answer.

Have fun gaming!

~SDC~
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #128 from Stardock Forums Top
Theleb,

As Pontius mentioned, cultural flipping cannot be turned off. In fact, many military victories are won via massive culture flipping with cultural victory switched off.

Personally, I don't build any cultural social improvements, except embassy when there is really nothing else to build. Mining influence resources and cultural SBs are much more value for money IMO.

I don't usually build any cultural resist as well. I find that it is better to deal with the cultural aggressor in a more direct way.
Reply #129 from Stardock Forums Top
Interesting observations about influence, MP.

It does make sense for the AI to be wary about attacking an enemy with higher influence due to the potential reversion of a captured planet back to defender.

However, there is a hypothesis that a superior economy deters aggression as well. May be a combination of factors.

I do notice that at the mopping up stage, I could plant cultural SBs in the middle of the AI's sector and not get a whimper from them. It is often where we are on par that I would get the demands to hand the SB over.
Reply #130 from Stardock Forums Top
Do try to participate whenever you can, H50.

I would love to see your halfling alchemist in action someday in our MMORPG. ;)
Reply #131 from Stardock Forums Top
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.
End of quote


Just a guess here, vincible, but are you saying PBP is Calvin and Gerakken is Hobbes? Kinda fitting... unless I'm just thinkin' too hard. ;)
Reply #132 from Stardock Forums Top
Seems like there were some movement in our membership.

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I would greatly encourage new members to sign onto this thread and say hi and/or introduce themselves.

We would really like to get you know you better.
Reply #133 from Stardock Forums Top
KitWarrior, I see that PBP has failed to educate you on the historical roots of your empire. Ah well, I suppose history is the vocation of wizards, not pirates.

The name G.R.O.S.S. is a Calvin and Hobbes reference. In the comic, it stood for "Get Rid Of Slimy girlS." It was a club that Calvin formed with Hobbes. Calvin's main purpose in creating the club was to make his classmate Susie's life miserable, but he was usually unsuccessful.
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Reply #134 from Stardock Forums Top
Status on our MMORPG. Current characters:

Fellowship
Ray the Wanderer, Human Wizard
Gengsta, Human(?) Wizard
vincible, Human(?) Wizard
Theleb, Human(?) Knight
Mad Prophet, Human(?) Psychic(?)
H50, Halfling Alchemist

NPCs
CariElf, Half-Elven Cleric

If there are members of the Fellowship who want to get involved in the MMORPG but prefer not to write stories, just tell us your preferred character and we will write you into the stories.

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Reply #135 from Stardock Forums Top
Weird, the game I just submitted registered as "anomalous." I wonder why. I didn't use any non-library mods.

The only things I can think of would be that the poor abused Altarians were so far in debt when the game ended (several thousand BCs) that it thought I must have been cheating. Also I was playing crippling and really abusing tech for cash so I ended up with over 70,000 BC at one point. Any thoughts?
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Reply #136 from Stardock Forums Top
The only way I know to trigger the anomalous score is to have a too high average PQ for your planets. I tripped over this a couple of games ago, when I experimented with putting back in the 2 PQ bonus granting techs at the end of the tech tree.

I don't believe 70,000 BCs would trigger. My last game I had over 100K and it still posted fine.

Did you get several of the PQ 'blossom' events?

~SDC~
Reply #137 from Stardock Forums Top
It happens, Vincible, even to those playing without mods. See Frogboy's earlier post:

"#2 by Avatar Frogboy - 4/26/2003 11:03:42 PM

sixtoes - for some reason the game thought you were cheating. Send me your saved game and I;ll look into it ([email protected]). Anomolous doesn't mean you were cheating of course, just that something got triggered."
____

Someone mentioned also that resubmitting the anomalous game works. You can try that.

H50, maybe you should try as well. May not be a problem with your mods.


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Reply #138 from Stardock Forums Top
No, no Precursor events.

Resubmission worked. I'm glad. Metaverse isn't that big a deal to me, but seeing that zero there was insulting!
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Reply #140 from Stardock Forums Top
I didn't keep a save of that game, unfortunately.

I'm not really that concerned about it. It goes with the territory, sometimes my Alchemical experiment blows up in my face. :)

If anything, I'd just like the game deleted.

~SDC~
Reply #142 from Stardock Forums Top
SD doesn't believe it deleting games for players. They feel that once they start doing so, they will be flooded by deletion requests.
Reply #143 from Stardock Forums Top
GUys--

H50: Yeah I noticed you submitted a game your score bounced over min all of a sudden heh.

MP: What you mentioned seems correct about cultural influence. Since flipping is not disabled when cultural victory is off I assume cultural social projects, TG's, wonders are still useful. Odd though on my huge map where I have near total cultural domination not a single planet has flipped.. ever...

MMORPH: Hmmm I guess the Green knight from the story of Sir Gwain and teh Green knight might be a Knight since he is lord of a castle, however historially he is protrayed as having a mystical/celtic origin that is closely tied to the earth and morality. I think perhaps a Druid migh be a better classification.
Reply #144 from Stardock Forums Top
FREE NEW GAME:

ok you guys may have seen the thread on the guy who wanted an XCOM like game, thread starts "OT..." someguy recoomended the game spellcross which never hit the American market. After massive experimentation I found the game and got it working for FREE on one of my machines. It looks like a lot of fun. See my latest post in that thread for detailed instructions how to get it running
Reply #145 from Stardock Forums Top
They feel that once they start doing so, they will be flooded by deletion requests.
End of quote


Yah, I know it won't happen. No matter, I'll keep playing, modding, and submitting. What happens happens. :)

~SDC~
Reply #146 from Stardock Forums Top
I loved the early UFO releases too. Try it and tell us if SpellCross is fun.
Reply #147 from Stardock Forums Top
One thing I didn't like about the xcom's were that the story was exactly the same every time. And the hard levels weren't an expanded story. The Aliens just waxed you more at first and were harder to defeat. I learned my lesson on the second one to skip the junior levels and go to the hard one right off.

Theleblk: Ironic, you can win by cultural domination without flipping a single planet. You can also win by military domination without conquering a single planet.

Reply #148 from Stardock Forums Top
The name G.R.O.S.S. is a Calvin and Hobbes reference.
End of quote


Doesn't everyone know this? vinvible, you implied that we're somehow exposing people to Calvin and Hobbes. It's a great idea, but I fail to see how we're doing that if the only connection is in the name.

This is all just a horrible misunderstanding! (:( Why oh why can't we communicate? It's like you don't even know me anymore! That's it! >:( I'm breaking up with you!

Uh... rrrrrright.

(edit: I can't spell when I get all emotional)

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Reply #149 from Stardock Forums Top
Hey guys,

I have a good smiley now :)
Goodbye Neutral.