You all are (apparently) da bomb

[Dan Magaha FIRAXIS]

It's apparent now that the game allows me to restrict people from logging on based on the number of times they've been blown up, not necessarily how many times they've been *killed*.

Since some of you didn't equate getting podded to being blown up, and therefore were (ahem) somewhat cavalier with how often you allowed yourselves to be podded, I've set the times blown up restriction to 10. That is, if you are BLOWN UP ten times, you're gone.

I have not altered anyone's number of times blown up, and will only do that on a case-by-case basis if you can show that the game erred in attributing an extra blowup to you when you were in fact only blown up once (a la Urban Ranger).

This means that if you are podded and then your pod is destroyed, that counts for TWO "blow ups" against your total.

Also, for those of you wondering how you could pod five times in a game and still be allowed to play, it's just that the game only checks on login, so you can get podded 25 times in a game and stay in as long as you have turns and time left. Once you quit, you won't be allowed back in.

Dan
a.k.a. Maximus Ire

[aeturneus]

actually, you can only pod three times before you are killed. Then, you can't get back in to extern. Notice that I didn't destroy solarwind's escape pod to kill him - he had already been podded twice, so when I hit his mer freighter a third time he was destroyed, even with a valid escape route.

IF you could pod 25 times though, that would be cool

[aeturneus]

The only problem with this, is that it eliminates a lot of strategies that make offense remotely viable. If you can't moth a shielded quasar cannon, it is impossible to take it in this game. If blowing up counts against your lives, this becomes inviable. I hereby strongly voice my dissent against this way of limiting legitimate offensive strategies, though I am quite happy at the way Dan takes care of the server

[Dan Magaha FIRAXIS]

Originally posted by aeturneus
The only problem with this, is that it eliminates a lot of strategies that make offense remotely viable. If you can't moth a shielded quasar cannon, it is impossible to take it in this game. If blowing up counts against your lives, this becomes inviable. I hereby strongly voice my dissent against this way of limiting legitimate offensive strategies, though I am quite happy at the way Dan takes care of the server

Well, I'm certainly open to suggestions, but it seems like we have to pick some kind of defeat condition in the game, and I can't guarantee that I will have enough time to be able to handle manual removal of players based on other criteria (e.g, "when you have been towed from Fedspace for the sixteenth time, you're out of the game", or something like that)

Dan
a.k.a. Maximus Ire

[Solarwind]

how about when you are #ship destroyed# for the third time?

[Swissy]

Originally posted by Solarwind
how about when you are #ship destroyed# for the third time?

That is what we have now. The Trade Wars game has the third pod and your destroyed rule built in. This generally enough of a limiting factor in most games. Our game is to small for this limit to work well enough. Our limited number of turns puts a big cramp on the builder types and the reds. It also insures that if someone or some corp gets hit bad, there will be little chance of recovery.

I say up the turns to 1000. Production seems fine, actually a little more generous than I've seen in most non-unlimited turn games. The colonist regeneration rate should be higher. Also, an open game may be better. What I have found in TW is alot of games with basically a dozen decicated players. Most of these games have a three trader corp limit, but most corps are only 1-2 players.

[aeturneus]

Actually, if you read the first post in this thread completely, the three ship destroyed rule has been changed to 10 times blown up (or podded) because the #ship destroyed# record isn't working. This malfunction, and the pointlessness of losing good players if they still have something to put into the game, is the reason I am personally in favour of an open game with a one day delay.

Our port regen rate is 15%. Doesn't this seem a bit low to you? Where I have been - bote, wtc, the settings are 20-25% - and I am personally in favour of 30% to encourage builders and org farming.

1000 turns sounds like perfection. Maintaining the 3hr time limit would mean not much additional strain on the server(?)

Colonist regen rate should be about 15,000 - 20,000 for a good tactical game that is more about planets than trading. BOTE, for example, has a regen rate of 19,200.

I think Burbel made the point on a different thread that the proportion of newbies on this server makes corps of size one the best bet. I think corps of 2 are better, though, because Talon was a rookie when he started this game, but by teaming up with me (who have played all of one and a half games) he learned a lot and probably had more fun and angst than if he had been forced to figure it all out on his own - and he ended up as C.E.O. of the winning corp. Maybe he can speak for himself on this matter, but I think hard fact proves that rookies can become experts, if they are put into the right company. Perhaps we should have a rule that experienced players can't corp with anyone except rookies

Then, the game would be about who can think fastest, learn fastest, and teach fastest.

So, here is my proposal. We pick teams before starting the next game, on the basis of game experience and predicted alignment (it is awkward to have a good and bad on the same corp because their alignments move towards each other) and then have a good fair game, with everyone getting a chance to meet new friends

Thoughts?

For example, here would be some good teams, based on performance in this game:

Burbel/Kennymae
Markg/Zealot
Aeturneus/Solarwind (as evils )
Talon Karrde/Lordlmp (if we can get him back for another shot)

etc...

This way, experienced players have to take the time to teach other players (which makes the game better) and the game moves a little faster (because experts have help in implementing their strategies for colonization, war, etc.) while remaining balanced. The final solution

[Solarwind]

hmmmm... Aeturneus/Solarwind (as evils)? how about Solarwind/Aeturneus (as evils)

[Zealot]

Originally posted by Solarwind
hmmmm... Aeturneus/Solarwind (as evils)? how about Solarwind/Aeturneus (as evils)

Originally posted by aeturneus
Markg/Zealot

Boy, will he have a lot to teach me!
But since he didn't post here, I don't think I'm that lucky.

[burbel]

Hmm, I don't think I would be a good person to corp anymore.

Also, who said that Jules was head of the winning corporation?

[aeturneus]

you did, lol

[burbel]

That was before I realized the extent of our eradication. Here's a question for you -- why didn't you go for Foor Axice first, and just leave the lower level citadels alone? That's the thing that has confused me all along, why you didn't do that. I didn't think it was *that* well defended...

[aeturneus]

argh.. people always seem to forget how I demonstrated that taking foor axice would require about 45,000 fighters. That's why we couldn't take it, and why I ended up loosing that war.

[burbel]

Well, I didn't want to argue at the time, but... We had 1,000 shields that fight at 2:1 odds, and around 6k fighters. The damping effects of photons are random on shielded planets; a couple of times when you invaded planets Foor Axice didn't fire, but a few times it did... If it didn't fire, I think around 32,000 fighters could have done it. Not that I know whether each of us had that much or not.

[aeturneus]

are they random? Foor axice fired every single time I entered the sector. Q's don't fire when you take off back into the sector though, so you can invade a planet multiple times. Your 1000 shields were absolutely foolproof... perhaps if it had like 400 shields there might be a certain randomness, but 1000 seems to be 100% photon protection.

35,000 fighters is about 15,000,000 credits. Let's just say it was a bit beyond any of us at that time. Maybe after a couple of weeks, like I had initially suggested, we could have taken foor axice. Definitely not in the first assault, or the few days after that when we were trying to secure bubble gates.

As a tactical note, we also tried to destroy the apolyton figs in the foor axice sector. Unfortunately, we would have had to take q-shots from all of the planets in the sector, because you can't attack figs after you photon them. That would have taken about 10,000 figs to do, which might have been worth it in retrospect, but we didn't realize you would be able to get back into a twarpable iss so quickly. We thought we would invade the other two planets in the sector, and then proceed to take out the sector figs with minimal damage. The invasion got bogged down because of a lack of turns, and when I came back on later, you had retaken foor axice, lifted the figs from its surface, and used them to retake all the apolyton planets and seal off the gate.

That's when I self destructed