| stepping up evil submissions |
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Evil seems to score about 1.5 times good based on my recent games....
Alex
           
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Did you play with default AI alignments, Alex?
    
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Check out Gerakken's Difficulty Levels Revealed thread, people.
The Fellowship leads that League as well with a Toughness rating of 6.76 pts, a good 0.79 pts ahead of MWC who is in number two.
This could only bode well for us when the Xpack comes out as higher difficulty levels would be rewarded with more points.
It is currently a very good reflection on us in that we have achieved 1st place on the Metaverse league playing relatively higher difficulty games in a scoring system which does not sufficiently reward difficulty. 
But let this not be a discouragement for those of us who don't play at the higher levels. Play at the level where you feel challenged and are having fun. You will last longer that way. 
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Ellestar and LDiCesare are from Apolyton.
Staffa and Ellestar left because they were unhappy about the scoring system.
Not sure what happened to alexti and Ralegh.
Andreas is pretty new. LDiCesare is still around but not submitting any games.
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| Sorry about that. It is getting a bit late for me. I could blame it on "bad intelligence!" |
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No worries. The fault must lie with those spybots of yours.
| Congrats, you guys have earned the current Iron Empire award for people who like it rough. |
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Thanks!
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| Did you play with default AI alignments |
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Yes - roughly following the gccg, difficulty set to normal
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#1258
by Citizen Bakka - 8/17/2003 8:22:47 AM
The Journey- Part 8
The Trial
“Pop”
Bakka spun around as the Wizard appear in the middle of the control room. In a smooth motion the lightsaber was out and activated, only to slowly arc through the air away from Bakka and his clumsy wing tips towards the dazed translocated wizard.
“Oops. Watch out! Duck! Get out of the way of that thing” yelled the bat.
Appearing to ignore the bat the wizard mumbled into his beard and waved his pinky at the flying lightsaber. A golden wall of energy sprang into life between the wizard and the tumbling lightsaber. The intense fluoro lime green light beam hit the golden wall to slide through it with a high pitched sizzle and shower of sparks. Though the wall did not stop the lightsaber it did slow it down.
“Cool.” Exclaimed the bat as he took to the wing towards the errant lightsaber.
Expertly catching the hand piece with his feet he clicked the beam off and clipped it back to his belt as he landed in front of the golden wall. The wall was doing it’s best to impersonate a cat with its tail caught under a rocking chair. The Wizard grimaced and with a wave of his hand dismissed the energy wall.
The bat and wizard eyed each other until the bat lifted his wing tip and stepped forward with a smile.
“G’day mate. Sorry about that. I’m Bakka, the last of the Freedom Force. I expect you are from the Fellowship of the Ring the Jedi’s told me about. Fine group of fellows there, if I may say so, those Jedi. I got in a spot of bother but they came to the rescue.” the bat babbled.
“Any thing to declare?” the wizard interupped
“Such as?” the asked as he lowed his wing tip and frowned
“Illegal weapons like that sword, Ancient knowledge, Diverse entertainment, Harmful potions. You know anything harmful to civilization” the wizard prompted
“Well now,” bakka said slowly as he thought of the Micro bots and Wookie porn. “Nope just the lightsaber to declare and I have a package for the Head honcho from the Jedi Council”
Bakka’s world went blank as the wizard said one word to cast a prepared spell at the bat.
A short space trip later.
The bat stood before a tall bench with a very fat smelly Hobbit banging a smoking pipe.
“The Justice of the ring is extended to all” the Hobbit yelled into the court room. “Even those who are guilty.” he glared down at the bat. “How do you plead Bakka of Freedom Force.”
“What’s the charge?” the bat asked looking at the small creature with trepidation.
“Ah smart ass hey. Bailiff! Read the crimes” he screeched as he rolled his belly and moved his hairy feet onto the top of the bench and lent back with a smirk.
“Huhum!” a tall Human cleared his throught. “Bakka of Freedom Force you are charged with:
“One. Impersonating a Diplomate of the Jedi Republic”
“I was not!” exclaimed Bakka
“Silence from the prisoner!” again the Hobbit screamed
“Two. Stealing lightsaber from the Jedi Republic” continued the bailiff.
Bakka opened his mouth again but saw the hobbit was watching him very closely so decided to hear the bailiff out.
“Three. Attacking patrol battle wizard with said lightsaber.”
“Four. With holding Ancient Knowledge and technology from the Fellowship.”
“Five. Entering Fellowship controlled space with illegal entertainment.”
“Six. Entering Fellowship controlled space with illegal substance known as beer”
“How do you plead?” the Hobbit screeched again as the Bailiff rolled up his parchment with a grin.
“Umm. Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, guilty and guilty.”
“Incorrect. Only one plead can be entered. Since guilty was you last plead you will be sentenced to prison for 6 years hard labour in the military work shops.” the hobbit smirked down at Bakka as he looked the lightsaber over.
“What?” Bakka was stunned. “You little pipsqueak. You call this justice? “
“Make that 7 years” again the hobbit smirked and with a nod to the Bailiff he stood and started towards the door behind the bench. He stopped and looked back at the bat and said. “I detect a zone around the bat. Have the wizards check it out before sending him to the workshop”
“Yes sir” the Bailiff turned to the bat and with an evil grin he asked “You coming quietly or do I get some fun?”
Bakka looked at the tall Bailiff and his guards and said “Quietly.”
“Oh you spoil sport. I never get any fun no more since we got ‘Civilized’ by the fellowship.” the Bailiff whinged
The bailiff pushed the bat before him out of the court room. Once outside the bat was marched towards a large building that had many different colour lights flowing from windows and drainage holes.
“Off to see the wizzzard.. To see the wizard of .” sang the Bailiff.
“Gawwwd.. “ groaned the bat “Need ear muffs.”
The bat was marched into the strange building and up to the desk near the entrance. A wizard with a very relaxed attitude was reading an old book with his feet propped on the desk.
As the bat was stopped in front of the desk the Bailiff growled to the wizard, “Sir. Judge Pickyourweed sent this prisoner to you because of a ‘ZONE’ around him.”
The wizard eyed the bat carefully and turned to the tall human. “Right he was. You have done your job. Now get your sorry little corrupt ass out of this building before we have to disinfect it again.”
The bailiff and his men scampered out the door so fast they almost extinguished the life of an old wizard just coming in.
“Bloody Brutes” the wizard mumbled as he turned back to the bat “Now. Yes I think some sort of enhancement field around you. A simple magic dispel spell should fix that”
The old wizard came up to the desk and watched as the younger one cast his spell at the bat. Nothing happened.
‘I don’t think that is an enhancement spell on this bat, young fellow” the old wizard mused while leaning on his staff “I think we need a little more than a dispel spell.”
“What do you suggest?” the younger wizard asked.
“Well at least 5 senior wizards, 5 candles and a pentagram” the old spell caster grinned. “This is going to be fun.”
“Do I get a word about all this?” Bakka asked
“Nope. Prisoners rights are of little concern while on the pursuit of knowledge.” dictated the young wizard to Bakka.
“Is that so? I’m out of here then.”
Bakka broke the now defunct magic bindings around his wings and took to the air. The older wizard raised an eyebrow at the younger wizard. The Young wizard smiled and start mumbling and waving his hands around. The Air borne bat dodge spell after spell thrown at him by the younger wizard.
“He’ too fast” he complained to his older companion.
“Do you use your noggin for any thing else other than carrying spells around in?” the older wizard said. In all he was enjoying the show. “Feisty little bat though.”
With a sigh the old one straighten, cracked his fingers and with cool efficiency cast a spell in the general direction he had last seen the bat. A form glided from the rafters and floated in lazy circles to the floor.
“That my young fellow is the Secure All spell with stops all movement in a given area. Simple really. Bring him to the casting chamber while I go got the other silly old goats to join in on the fun.”
“It’s a transmorgification spell” said one wizard.
“Eh. Speak up. Morgan was no tranny. She had 6 kids” a second voice said
“I said it’s a TRANSMORGIFICATION spell you daft old bugger” the first wizard shouted
“Well give him a potion and send him home to spend 6 hours in bed with his favourite wench” the second wizard replied
“Can I vote for that cure?” a sheepish Bakka inquired
“Shut up” 6 wizards shouted at the bat at once.
The younger wizard was at the back of the room with a bemused expression on his face. The 5 older wizards didn’t move fast but the preparations for the ritual seem to happen at a very fast rate.
“Ok we are ready!” the first old wizard said
The old wizards all turned as one and took positions around the bat who was immobilized in the middle of a carved pentagram on the floor. Lit candles scatted all through the room added to ambience of the ritual.
As the wizards started to speak the words of the ritual the bat scream in pain. Soon the scream reached beyond the hearing of humans but the affect could be seen in the candle flame beyond the pentagram. The five closest candles at each of the points of the pentagram started to burn a very hot blue. A small trickle of smoke could be seen to rise from the 5 intersecting lines of the pentagram. Ever so slowly the blue flame of the candles flared upwards in an arc to be joined with each other directly above the bat. Once the five curved flames solidified the flames extended themselves along the carved lines of the pentagram.
The wizards increased the speed of the chant slightly as the ten lines of flame joined and formed the 5 complete lines of the pentagram. The room was getting hotter and the sweat could be seen on the younger wizard but not on the wizards standing around Bakka. Aloud hissing could be heard and the blue flames seem to sputter for a moment.
“Whoosh”
All light was extinguished as the 5 wizards where flung back at the conclusion of the spell.
“Bald hobbit toes!” exclaimed the first wizard as he picked himself out of the fireplace “Have you guys seen that blue flame before?”
“Whaaaa” a voice cried from the centre of the room. $#@% *&%*. My wings! My Wings! I’m going to kill them
“Well he sure survived.” the second wizard pointed out.
“There is a funny smell to the air.” noted a third wizard. “It is simular to when the tap room burnt down.”
“It’s the smell of burnt alcohol” said the younger wizard who was still trying to get a pot of his head.
“Interesting.” The first wizard exclaimed “They normal burn red flame and leave a burnt hair smell. Wonder what it means.”
“Oh well shall we go get a drink? It is hot in here.”
With those words the five older wizards filed out of the room to leave the younger wizard to deal with Bakka.
The Smoke was slowly clearing from the centre of the pentagram and soon enough human body could be seen twitching with residue pain.
    
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| Yes - roughly following the gccg, difficulty set to normal |
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Interesting observation. I'll try that for my next game.
| The Journey- Part 8The Trial |
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Nice story, bakka.
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I did, bakka.
It's neat. I'm still figuring out how I can use your maps for some kind of competition or award. 
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Sweet Bakka - and thank God you're still alive out there....
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I wonder if it is to do with the (sometimes v. large) planet bonuses....
Alex
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| H50, how did that anomalous game happen? |
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My first attempt at utilizing the GCCG, actually. Must have done *too* well. Nothing new added to my installation over the last 4 games, so the Metaverse must have freaked out over the AIs having 0 money to spend after about year 2. Kind of a bummer, really.
| H50, did you try resubmitting that anomalous? |
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Yup, no love. Sucks, but what are you going to do?
Theoden: When I load the pages in FrontPage, they still have that weird Word markup, so I don't think I can clean them up on my side. Sorry! I'm still willing to host if you can get the pages working without the Word markup. Just hit me with an e-mail, any time.
To all, I've taken a sabbatical from GalCiv. I'm keeping an eye out for any new beta versions of the X-Pack, I'll probably start another game at that time. For the time being I'm taking it easy, scanning these forums every couple of days, and thinking of getting a FtF game of F&E going.
Have fun gaming, and I'll be back in a bit.
Oh, and Ray- you are always a class act. We don't run around slapping our emperor on the back all the time, but let's hear it for our illustrious leader, eh?
  
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| It is currently a very good reflection on us in that we have achieved 1st place on the Metaverse league playing relatively higher difficulty games in a scoring system which does not sufficiently reward difficulty. |
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pull your head in Ray
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| Oh, and Ray- you are always a class act. We don't run around slapping our emperor on the back all the time, but let's hear it for our illustrious leader, eh? |
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Thanks H50. Have fun doing something else for a while.
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Was thinking how my choice of racial picks has changed since I've started to play about 4 1/2 mths back.
At the beginning, I went for Speed +2 when everyone was advocating PQ+15. I felt the extra planets I can grab outweigh the increased PQs. Then I realised how important PQ is and switched over to the PQ camp. When PQ+15 got nerfed, I basically went back to Speed.
Nowadays, Diplomacy has replaced both speed and PQ as my favourite pick. Correspondingly, I also choose Populists most of the time.
I feel Diplomacy could even be slightly overpowered now. With it, you can easily improve relations, sell techs for lots of cash and bribe AIs to war. All very useful towards helping you win the game.
Using Diplomacy to get loads of cash from minors in the early-mid game to super-charge my economy is what is helping me to grab all those early TGs/wonders at Crippling.
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Hey, all. I'm having computer problems at work, so I'm not going to be around today.
I'm working on an "experiment" currently with a Normal game...trying some things I've never tried before. So far, it's working nicely.
H50: no worries about the site. I was actually kind of concerned about how we'd get updates worked out, so this probably is the best anyway. Still wonder about that markup, though...
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| WHat do you mean Pontius? I'm still at number 5... |
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You must have been asleep the past couple days when you were knocked out.
PPS. it really sucks when gross is ahead and you submit a game only to be 500 pts short!
Awwwww My heart bleeds for ya. Besides. G.R.O.S.S. still owns the top spot on evil. That's all that matters.
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| PS. sorry for knocking you out, Ray. |
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You are good, FriendJosh. I thought my last 20 pounder would get me above you again. 
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| PPS. it really sucks when gross is ahead and you submit a game only to be 500 pts short! |
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Even worse when it's only 110 pts.....
Alex
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