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 #226 from Stardock Forums Top
Well MIT isn't exactly a pleasant place. I have to return there in about a month. Between classes, swimming, and other activities, I end up doing nothing but study, work, swim, and party.
Sometimes, I doubt the sanity of everyone there and wished the professors would make their teaching easier/clearer. Other times, I wish I had a TA that spoke English clearly.

As you can see, I have a few gripes, but the students make the school and there are lots and lots of really intelligent people studying there.

Notes the use of 'there': There I go subliminally distancing myself from the place until I really need to go back.
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Reply #227 from Stardock Forums Top
I rather like it here, but I'm a grad student while Gengsta's an undergrad. The experience is really really different. MIT undergrad seems to have this culture of misery about it--the impression I get is that undergrads always have a zillion things to do and are constantly playing catchup with work (though I admit I only know a couple undergrads, and not well). Whereas a grad student's experience is much more focused--you've got one project, and you make it work over a year or five. Just as much work, but less stressful since it's self-paced and there aren't all the deadlines and grades and things to deal with.
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Offworld Trading Company
Reply #228 from Stardock Forums Top
Ah, I was wondering if you are not going to show tonight, Pontius. Busy cranking out your next gigantic, are you?You forget my friend that this is also Brad's dream as well. I've reposted his old posts where he talked about making the Metaverse ranking a vague reflection of skill and his dream scoring where there are big differences in scoring between difficulties.But it's his Metaverse and his call on the scoring. I've just holding on to some faint hope that he would tweak the difficulty scoring someday. That would be the only change I would ask for in the current scoring mechanism.
End of quote



Naah I had a homeowner's meeting. Seem's I'm public enemy #1 for having blue backing on my blue curtains instead of white. Although there is nothing on the white requirement in the restrictive covenents. One of em vowed to take me to court. Dang Stepford Wives. Have to be in everyone's business. I shall have the pleasure of bringing them to ridicule in court if they so choose. Although a real-estate agent might just be cheaper than a lawyer. (In my case, it's free. LMAO)

But I love Gigantic. It takes longer, but There's no just hittting turn turn turn turn turn just to crank points like the other sizes. It's just not for me.


As to the difficulty settings. The base multiplyer I think is fine. It's the nerfing that went on regarding pop. The result is, the major component of scoring at maso is now gone, the others you just don't have the opportunity to do. But it's precisely the Maso players that requested the change. Ironic.

I think Brad's goal is to make money. I think he's got a certain budget and it's already exceeded. So, for a while, untill his programmers have some free time on their hands, don't expect a change. I'm also not complaining about that. They've already gone above and beyond with the freebies.

I guess some are pondering Galciv2. That would be nice. I'd love to learn C++ and have a go on that project. Teehee Wouldn't the MWC be PO'd... Pontius the omniscent Dev!!!! Bwahahahahahhaha!!!


Reply #230 from Stardock Forums Top
"Other times, I wish I had a TA that spoke English clearly."

And I thought we only get this problem in Singapore. As an undergrad, I had to endure lecturers who enjoyed mumbling to the projector in heavily accented english.
We get a lot of postgrad students from China, India, etc who also take classes but it doesn't seem obvious to the college that the brightest folks don't always make the best lecturers.
Reply #231 from Stardock Forums Top
"Naah I had a homeowner's meeting. Seem's I'm public enemy #1 for having blue backing on my blue curtains instead of white. Although there is nothing on the white requirement in the restrictive covenents."

Are you serious? I thought conformity is a Singaporean virtue.

"I think Brad's goal is to make money. I think he's got a certain budget and it's already exceeded. So, for a while, untill his programmers have some free time on their hands, don't expect a change. I'm also not complaining about that. They've already gone above and beyond with the freebies."

Yeah, that's why I don't make any "I want the Metaverse changed now and in the way I like it" posts. I'm just hoping Brad gets into a good mood someday and decides to humour his fanatical Metaverse players.
Reply #232 from Stardock Forums Top
Sheesh this is the Fellowship of Insomniacs.

Now that I'm not an undergrad anymore I have much more sympathy for the professors who end up giving bad lectures. It takes a LOT of work to prepare a good lecture, and there is zero incentive to do it well.

A lot of people here speak English dreadfully badly. Some can't follow a simple conversation at normal speed! I guess they all study for the written exams, since that's what gets you admitted, and they neglect actual communication skill.
Reply #233 from Stardock Forums Top
And I thought we only get this problem in Singapore. As an undergrad, I had to endure lecturers who enjoyed mumbling to the projector in heavily accented english.We get a lot of postgrad students from China, India, etc who also take classes but it doesn't seem obvious to the college that the brightest folks don't always make the best lecturers.
End of quote


The idea that the best researchers make the best teachers is little more than garbage spoonfed by academitions that don't wish their gravy train interrupted.

There is no correlation between writing journal articles (most of which do not break any true new ground in research) and prowess in the classroom. We had a prof that had a regular nervous breakdowns in front of his classes. LMAO they kept him on and threw him at the undergrads oblivious to the fact he couldn't teach. I've seen Ta's teach classes where the prof shows up maybe 4 times a semester. I've seen a class where the prof had no tests, and just did student led seminars all semester and promised everyone an A at the end of the term. But it's research that brings in the Grants and the money.
Reply #235 from Stardock Forums Top
Well MIT does cultivate that. During the term, there were couple weeks that I consistently went to sleep at 3:30.
Ray is living in Singapore so this is in the middle of the day for him. I'll assume Michael is an insomniac.

And what you say about grad vs undergrad is true. Much of it can be attributed to the fact that undergrads just haven't come to terms with their geekiness yet and try to do everything: social, sports, work, class. We do punish ourselves with our schedule.
Reply #236 from Stardock Forums Top
haha yeah, I've pretty much given up on being an interesting person these days =)

Part of it, too, is the differing selection processes. When you get admitted for undergrad they want someone who is well rounded and interesting as well as smart, because they want to create a diverse community for various reasons. In grad school, they take you because of your skill in your subject.
Reply #238 from Stardock Forums Top
Don't look now but it appears that we are quickly creeping up on 4th place :HOT: .

One thing I'd like to understand better though. When I submit a game, I am lucky to get 30% of the score added to my total, often as little as 15%. On the other hand, that last game Staffa submitted got him over 50% ... or was that 2 games? In any case he jumped about 10k.
Reply #239 from Stardock Forums Top
Theoretically the meta score is the following I think:

(Sum of all game scores)/(square root of number of games played)

So for example: 9 games with total score of 90.000 divided by 3 = 30.000

But that's not always true, just in most cases:) So it gives a good estimation:)
Reply #240 from Stardock Forums Top
The formula provided by Lanvik is correct but I too have noticed weirdness in the overall score increase. I have submitted two games in the region of 15k recently but my increase in total score was rather different. I'm not too sure why though.

Anyways, I'm going to submit my next game now. My current score stands at 42 games, 72,423.

Ok, I submitted a 13,530 game for a 2,242 pt overall increase. Hmm, v small increase.
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Reply #241 from Stardock Forums Top
The square root of 42 is something like 6.5 so 2200 points for a 13500 game is about right.

Staffa's game is weird though--there's no way he should have gotten 10K under this system. Maybe it has something to do with score aging--when he submits, score aging is reversed and he regains points from his old games? I don't know...
Reply #242 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks for the insight guys, you're a big help. I looked back at Staffa's list and see that it is indeed just one game, so I am still puzzled there. I think I'll write a post about metaverse scoring as it appears to me the designers forgot the K.I.S.S. rule when designing it. To my mind, the points you score from a game should all go to your score, and the only thing that should lower your overall score is time deterioration. No need for formulas etc, just a base score.

On a separate note, the Prophet has just had a *revelation*. You old veterans will get a good laugh out of this, but I just figured out something that should be obvious. In trades, you watch the color of the wording (duh, it's just like a streetlight). I tend to focus on one single aspect of the game at a time and ignore all else so that I understand fully what each thing does, which has the effect of putting blinders on me for the most obvious things.

Gawd all that time I wasted trading the hard way.... :sniff!:
Reply #243 from Stardock Forums Top
=)

We all do dumb things. It took me several games to figure out that you could build starbases away from resources.
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Reply #244 from Stardock Forums Top
In trades, you watch the color of the wording (duh, it's just like a streetlight
End of quote


Ummm...please expound on that. Are you talking about being able to tell whether the trade victi...er...partner will take the trade or not?
Reply #245 from Stardock Forums Top
I can't recouncil this will the scoring algorithm, but it seems to me that when I submit a game dramatically over my average by score goes up by a large margin.

When I submitted by last game at 11k, my score went up by over 9,000 points to nearly 30,000. It did not make any sense. I had written off the large rise after my previous 10K game to not having submitted many games.

Staff's last game was a monster over 19k. I wonder if he got the same type of benefit. (or if this benefit even exists).

... Or perhaps Stardock just likes GROSS. ;)
Reply #246 from Stardock Forums Top
Hey all. Lets see, lots going on here.

1) Regarding college and academic life. Pontius is very right on regarding research/teaching. I wonder where he gets his knowledge, he must have been in the loop at one time or another. For me, I am at U Texas Houston working on my phd (piled higher and deeper) in biomedical science. So again he was right on. Undergrad is nothing but busy busy busy. Grad is a bit better but it's alot easier to lose your hair and sanity. At least i can go home every night and not study. I did that the first three years. If anyone is thinking of grad school, drop me a line ([email protected]) if you want some details.

2) Regarding trading, when you set your deal, the text has to be green for them to agree. otherwise it's yellow if they won't accept that deal. If its a one sided deal (ie tribute to them) its blue. (this is all in the guide - plug plug).

3) I am thinking of switching empires. Currently I am a senator in GROSS. Since I did all this hard work of making the Guide (Ray's idea), I think it's fair that I get the rank of Senator if I decide to join the fellowship. How about it?
Reply #247 from Stardock Forums Top
[messed up the quote, question from 244]

Ok, from a n00b point of view (which I have had), I have spent all too much time getting another empire to trade. The seriously frustrating thing is that thw whole time I was fuming because there are about 4-6 stock phrases that the AI uses to say "hell no you dork". All that time I was thinking there has got to be a way for the stupid game to tell me when I was getting close... but it's already there :notsure: .

When you offer a trade (not tribute), the lettering is yellow in the box if the AI won't take the deal, and green as soon as he likes it. In my current game, which is another difficulty level up, I am smoking them all just because I finally got it on this issue... dum dum dum. I think I'll write a 'trading for n00bs' post on the strategy forum with all that I have discovered so others don't go through all the frustration I have heh.

More to follow ...

(Anyone else realize the potential of trading for influence?)
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Reply #248 from Stardock Forums Top
Something appears to be wrong, either we are no longer
informed on the math behind the metaverse or its very
buggy.

I calculated the top 3 players scores using excel
not counting any decay

Staffa Actual 82479,by math 49559.15
Ray... Actual 74665 by math 42075.42
Ponti. Actual 70495 by math 45902.79


Reply #249 from Stardock Forums Top
Since I did all this hard work of making the Guide (Ray's idea), I think it's fair that I get the rank of Senator if I decide to join the fellowship. How about it?
End of quote


We at the Fellowship do not believe in senators. If it were possible to not have an Emperor, I would be welcome it.
So if Ray does decide to agree to this deal, it would be quite a step up from your current position at GROSS since you would be the only senator here. Personally I don't care for ranks in the empire and would like to welcome another member to the Fellowship.
Reply #250 from Stardock Forums Top
When you offer a trade (not tribute), the lettering is yellow in the box if the AI won't take the deal, and green as soon as he likes it.
End of quote


But does that tell you when you are close? I thought rejections were yellow and acceptance was green. That doesn't help me know when I'm getting a little closer... :notsure:


Wait...wait...I'm stupid. You mean when it shows up in the queue...
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