Round 11 of the Metaverse League is on! Welcome back to our continuing players, and a cylon salute to our new players!
Round 11 will ask for extra levels of team planning and coordination:
All Victory Types, Mixed Settings
In an effort to freshen up the gameplay experience, JustinSane and I have discussed a new take on an old favorite. Teams will fight for victory in at least 3 of the 5 available victory types on entirely different map settings. Below is a little more detail on how this will work; we're also introducing a new victory condition -ethical alignment- and making some tweeks to scoring. Please take the time to read more about these changes.
Mixed Settings RoundsA "mixed settings round" is where several different sets of map settings are offered, and teams must play at least some of them to properly secure their base points. In this round, each victory type will be assigned different map settings. Teams are required to submit victories of at least 3 different types to qualify for their base points. Teams with more than 3 players will be allowed to either repeat settings among two players or compete for individual points in one of the other two victory categories. For example, to qualify for their base points, Team X (The X-Men) submits a cultural victory, a technological victory, and a military victory. At that point, their 4th player (Storm) may submit another cultural, technological or military victory, or she may submit a political or ascention victory. How your team chooses to submit its potential 4th game is part of your team strategy. Teams with only 3 submissions may have an easier time securing team bonus points, but submitting a 4th game might allow a team to either improve its average team scores or compete for individual bonus points in another game category. As always, we will champion the honor's system.
3-player teams will be allowed to have a single player submit a second game, but there are conditions. First they must formally request this option in this thread from the Co-Commissioners, JustinSane and myself. Second, every team member must be willing to play a second game, since the player allowed to do this will be randomly assigned by either JustinSane or me (based on whoever replies in the thread first, should both reply without seeing each other's response). Finally, should a forth player be assigned to the team after a player as submitted a second game, the players second submission will be considered null and void. To clarify, not every member on such a team will be required to play a second game; only one player will, but because it's randomly assigned, the team should agree that they are each willing to do so should they be assigned the second game (though, this doesn't preclude teams from having their players attempt secondary games before requesting the option of a fourth game).
Ethical Alignment as a Victory ConditionRules in round 11 will now require players' victories to have certain reported ethical alignments. We will use the reported alignment on the metaverse to determine this. Note: this doesn't mean you cannot pick a race with a different alignment, nor does it require you to research Xeno Ethics. If you complete a game without researching Xeno Ethics, the metaverse will use 'what you're leaning towards' as your alignment. You can determine this through the Civilization Manager, Government and Ethics tab. There are seven possible alignment restrictions: any (no restriction), good, neutral, evil, good or neutral, good or evil, and neutral or evil. We hope this will not only mix up games, but also encourage players to explore Twilight of the Arnor a bit more, as evil is less appealing in TA, and good is in some cases more appealing.
Team Bonus PointsPoints awarded to teams for highest average score, fastest average game, and earliest average submission time are being raised to 3 points for first place and 2 points for second place. This will help bring the total number of points awarded this round more in line with what was available in previous rounds (due to the reduction of base points last round).
Victory Settings
(the thread will be updated soon with hyperlinks to screenshots of the map setup screen)
Victory Type 1: Technological Victorybasics: tiny map - abundant habitables - common planets - occasional stars - loose clustersmore basics: abundant anomalies - uncommon asteroids (DA/TA) - very fast research - 7 minor civs (DL: random)check marks on: all victory conditionsno check marks: super abilities (DA/TA) - mega events (DA/TA) - "disable tech trading" (TT enabled) - "disable tech stealing" (TS enabled in TA) - blind explorationopponents: one (1)valid ethical alignments: any(space reserved for hyperlinks to screenshots)notes: This one should be very easy and lead to very rapid game times (both game years and real time). We expect zero and one-year victories to be quite common.
Victory Type 2: Military Victorybasics: small map - abundant habitables - abundant planets - abundant stars - scattered planetsmore basics: abundant anomilies - abundant asteroids (DA/TA) - very fast research - no minorscheck marks on: all victory conditions - super abilities - mega events - "disable tech stealing" (TS disabled in TA) - blind explorationno check marks: "disable tech trading" (TT enabled)opponents: six (6)valid ethical alignments: any(space reserved for hyperlinks to screenshots)notes: This one may take the most real time due to the number of opponents and planets, but should offer the highest scoring potential due to the victory type and various settings. It may be more difficult than average.
Victory Type 3: Political (Alliance) Victorybasics: small map - common habitables - common planets - uncommon stars - tight clustersmore basics: occasional anomalies - rare asteroids (DA/TA) - very slow research - 1 minor civ (random in DL)check marks on: all victory conditions - super abilities - mega events - "disable tech trading" (TT disabled) - blind explorationno check marks: "disable tech stealing" (TS enabled in TA)opponents: four (4)valid ethical alignments: evil(space reserved for hyperlinks to screenshots)notes: This one should be rather difficult, quite slow in game years, and pretty low scoring, but it's likely to be less competitive and thus easier to get individual bonus points.
Victory Type 4: Cultural (Influence) Victorybasics: large map - occasional habitables - rare planets - rare stars - tight clustersmore basics: abundant anomalies - abundant asteroids (DA/TA) - fast research - 4 minors (random in DL)check marks on: all victory conditions - mega events (DA/TA) - super abilities (DA/TA)no check marks: "disable tech trading" - "disable tech stealing" (TT and TS enabled) - blind explorationopponents: five (5)valid ethical alignments: good or neutral(space reserved for hyperlinks to screenshots)notes: This should score fairly well and play fairly rapidly, and be fairly easy to play. No evil means Twilight is relatively more favorable.
Victory Type 5: Ascension Victory (TA only)basics: medium map - occasional habitables - occasional planets - occasional stars - tight clustersmore basics - occasional anomalies - occasional asteroids - normal tech - random minorscheck marks on: all victory conditions - meta events - super abilities - blind explorationno check marks: "disable tech trading" - "disable tech stealing" (TT and TS enabled)opponents: two (2)valid ethical alignments: any(space reserved for hyperlinks to screenshots)notes: These games should score decently, but will likely have long game times (in game years). It might offer good chances at individual bonus points since not everyone plays (or has) Twilight.
Team Rosters
Team A: Capt. dystopic; PlayJeff45; LoupdinourTeam B: Capt. JustinSane4; Ferrel; VegJed; LethrinTeam C: Capt. TheGreatEmperor; Davaled; Freeman43; e-stabTeam D: Capt. KzintiPatriarch; Ragnar1; SilverBeacherTeam E: Capt. DethAdder; Pndrev; RhetoricalSun; Galefury
players who haven't confirmed yet and new players will be added to teams with only 3 players. I will update the list as the round roster changes.
Round 11 ends on October 19 at 12:00 noon, Eastern time (12:00:00 reported forum time)
GOOD HUNTING!
well creativity doesn't occur on the technology wins (i think only up to and including Discovery Spheres), after that you're on your own.
I got a question about game versions. Today the 2.0 beta came out. I have every plan to install it upon getting home.
Due to how buggy a beta can be (in the way of overpowering sometimes) should I get a game to submit under TA 1.96 before I take the plunge?
i would strongly suggest it; that or make a backup of the files first.
and how come i can't see the 2.0 beta?
If you are using Impulse, shut it down as well as it's background program, then fire it up. For more info and such, jump into this thread here since BoogieBac is involved with trying to smooth out these wrinkles.
Well, it only fits that one who lobbied for Ascension victories to be added to the mix to post the first one:
Congrats Loup! I dont know much about Ascencion victory, but it looks like a good game to me.
Just an interesting note, but every game submitted so far has been on Suicidal.
Sentient species taste better...
...and every MVL game I've submitted has been under Very Good alignment /shivver
The score could have been better, but the damned Alterians made me attack them in the las 1/2 year. I was setting up to do a last-minute ship upgrade to jack my militry rating sky high.
With 29 weeks til my win, I decided to look into the AI to see what they were doing...the Alterians were working on Beyond Mortality...and then a few weeks later I saw that they were going to get a Tech Victory THREE WEEKS before I could win via ascension. I had no invasion techs, so I was scrambling like mad to knock at least one of their main lab planets down.
Ascension 101: There are 5 ascension crystals across the map (at least on this map size), you build a star base on it, which cannot be upgraded beyond that first constructor...no weapons/defenses/mining modules. For each node you hold, you get 1 point a week. Once you hit 1,000 points, you win. Downsides: for 1 node, all races get a "-" to you, for 2+ you get "--" from all races. You can only get 5 points a week (5 nodes) so even if there were more nodes on the map, it wouldn't benefit you that much to hold them...besides greed or node-blocking. If a base blows up/you destroy it, it's points stop coming in, but you keep all you've earned.
i didn't play an MVL game this weekend. but i did manage to snatch Davabled's spot in the MV
loup, you'd better watch out. i'm coming for you next
Well, considering I haven't submitted a MV score on Loup since 7/17....it aint gonna hard brotha lol. Perhaps if I spun up my ZYW drive again I'd give you a good run for your money.
I really wish I'd let one of these espionage games I'm playing run to the end. I'd LOVE to see my econ score on them lol. Current game as the Krynn has the tax slider on 95%, lowest morale is 30 something, I own about 3/4 of a medium all abundant map, each planet has 2 factories, the 2 morale/influence buildings, a star base and the rest econ where there wasn't a research tile. I'm somewhere near my 70th spy and I'm still knocking out a spy every other week.
Besides learning TONS about the espionage system, I think I just learned a bunch about getting a better colony rush in with this game. This should help me in future games that I'm actually playing to win or submit scores for. I'm only playing on Beginner so I don't even have to think about the AI being a threat me while I do my research. Hrm, I think I'll try out that planetary improvement governer and see if I can globally make all my planets turn their star bases and factories into econ buildings...well, except for 2 or 3 planets to rush-buy a huge ship to keep me below 20k that is lol.
May I please request to be removed as Captain of Team C, if not during this round, then possibly the next. I don't have enough free time to really contribute anything of value as a leader.
Wow, I honestly never thought anyone would brag about taking MY spot lol! to my ego
Congrats on moving up Dystopic, I consider you a better player than I.
As I know I've proven via my rise on the MV charts, it's not nessisarily player quality that is represented there, it can also be game quantity or low quantity games tweaked to the max for points. Anybody with enough time on their hands can climb up the charts very quickly. I know there has to be players better than I below me on the charts. I just happened to find a quick way to improve my score and I beat the livin tar out of my PC in order to get a bunch of games out.
This doesn't mean I beleive those above me are crap, this is just me saying that scores or rankings such as these don't truely show the skill of a person. The more active a player is, the further up they will be.
Wyndstar is ranked 58th. Personally, I think that says all that needs be said about the utility of the Metaverse ranking list in evaluating player skill .
(f)utility.
Oh: And TheGreatEmperor, thank you for giving us advance notice about your no longer being able to serve as team captain.
re: MV ranking, it mostly just thought i'd throw a taunt of some sort out there. it's been too quiet this round!
TGE: yes, thank you. any takers for captain of team C? captaining really isn't much work unless you want it to be (just ask team A)
Ah sorry guy i can't partisapate in this anymore studys are geting to hard and chores as well so i whon't post anything for some time but when summer come i will be back.
Good luck with your studies Freeman. I'd miss you on Team C, but I'd rather promote higher education. I'm sure the MVL will still be here when you're done.
two weeks to go
i took the day off to get my MVL game done.
~checks to see if dystopic has a litter box nearby~ Your starting to sound like KP....
actually i do have a litterbox nearby, but it's for my pet kzin. i keep him around to hunt space flies.
and i also took the day off because i needed it. mental health and whatnot.
pfft, mental health is overrated, I'm proof of that.
I'll step up as interim captain of Team C for this round if there are no objections. Rather not make a commitment yet about future rounds though.
p.s. - TGE, will you be able to post a game this round? I know you're busy, haven't heard from you on the team forums yet... if so, stop on by and let us know which victory condition you're working on.
Thank you Davabled .
You're welcome.
With the loss of Freeman this round, I'd like to inquire about playing an extra game for this round. I'm not sure TGE and E-stab will have time to play an extra game, but I know I have the time.
Assuming I understand how the rules work, that is.
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