Welcome to the MVL Round 12!
This is a (mostly) Military Victory, Mixed Settings round.So, how will it work, you ask? Here's some scoring information.There are 4 groups of settings groups; teams are not required to submit a victory of each settings group. Your team can chose to submit 4 games from the same type, a game from each type, or anywhere in between. As with last round, 6 base points will be awarded for teams submitted 3 qualifying games. Team bonus points will be awarded as last round: 3 points each to the lowest speed, highest score, and fastest average submission, and 2 points each for second. individual bonus points will be awarded per settings group (similar to all-victory rounds); that is, the fastest game and highest score in each group will receive 1 point (you can get 2 points for having both the fastest game and highest score in your settings group). It's the same goal here as last round, to get teams to decide between team and individual bonus points. As before, 3-player teams will be allowed an optional 4th game, subject to the same random assignment as last round.There's the basics. We're piloting a new victory conditions on two of the maps this round as well: race restrictions. For some of the configurations we'll require players to play as and/or play against certain AI players. JustinSane and I know this was a "controversial" suggestion, and that's why we haven't imposed the criterion in every map setting.One more note about the 2.0 beta. We've included settings that are in the 2.0 beta, but we've tried to keep them as close to "stock" as possible for now (i.e., "uncommon"). This is so players with the beta will be on roughly equal footing as players who don't have it; in future rounds, and depending on how the beta develops, we may consider using other options for tech brokering and frequency of extreme environments and mega events. This is mostly an FYI statement.So, on to the settings!Settings Group 1: SpeedOutlook: tiny map, military victory, any 2 opponents, player may select any race and any ethicsMap sliders: rare stars, rare planets, rare habitables, tight clusters, abundant asteroids, very fast research, abundant anomalies, random minors (all game editions) occasional random events, occasional extremesCheck: all victory conditions, surrenders, mega events, tech stealingDo not check: blind exploration, super abilities, "disable tech trading", "disable tech brokering"Settings Group 2: ScoreOutlook: medium map, military victory, any 7 opponents, player may select any race and any ethicsMap sliders: abundant stars, abundant planets, abundant habitables, scattered stars, slow research, abundant anomalies, abundant asteroids, 7 minors (random in DL), occasional random events, occasional extremesCheck: all victory conditions, surrenders, blind exploration, super abilitiesDo not check: "disable tech trading", "tech stealing", "disable tech brokering"Settings Group 3: ChallengeOutlook: medium map; military victory; 5 opponents which must include the Drengin, Korath and Yor; player must use Iconians and any ethicsMap sliders: uncommon stars, rare planets, common hiabitables, loose clusters, very slow research, rare anomalies, common asteroids, disable minors, occasional random events, occasional extremesCheck: all victory conditions, surrenders, blind exploration, mega events, super abilitiesDo not check: "disable tech trading", "tech stealing", "disable tech brokering"Settings Group 4: TA SpecialOutlook: small map; ascension victory; any 6 opponents; player must select Arceans, Korx, Thalans, Drengin or Iconians and any ethical alignmentMap sliders: common stars, common planets, common habitables, scattered stars, fast reserach, common anomalies, common asteroids, 4 minors (random in DL), occasional random events, occasional extremesCheck: all victory conditions, allow surrenders, mega events, super abilitiesDo not check: blind exploration, "tech stealing", "tech brokering"
Now, for the team rosters
I announced last round that team C would be suspended for until further notice. captains and former team C members should take note of the new rosters. Since all teams are now down to three members, i've randomly assigned each player in a straightforward manner. Former team C members should note their new allegiances. I"ve embolded the former team C members to make it easier. If i missed someone's announced sbatical or resignation, please let me know!Also, we need a new captain for team E. For now i've assigned Pndrev based purely on expeience, but i expect team E to let us know who the captain will be (even if that means confirming Pndrev): though, since Davabled happened to be assigned to team E and agreed to serve at team C captain last round, he might be a good option as well. Note: i've indicated the players who may optionally submit a forth game for respective teams in yellow (though as with last round, a second/forth submission would be null and void if a new player joins your team mid-round).Team A: Capt. dystopic, PlayJeff, loupdinour, KushHazeTeam B: Capt. JustinSane, Ferrel, Lethrin. neiloTeam D: Catp. KzintiPatriarch, Ragnar1, SilverBeacherTeam E: Pndrev; RhetoricalSun; Galefury, DavabledOkay, i hope that takes care of everything, but i doubt it does. if there are any questions or things that remain unclear, please let JS and i know soon. Lastly...
***Round 12 will end at 12:00 midnight on Nov. 29 (the evening between Nov. 29 and 30)***
I decided this round deserves and extra week. Ending on Nov. 22/23 would be Thanksgiving weekend for Americans (unless i totally have my dates f***ed up), and i felt ending during that week would in a practical sense be like ending a week early for a significant number of players. For future reference, I don't by any means know every country's holidays: if you have a significant holiday occurring during an end-week, whether it's national or religious or whatever, let me and JS know and we'll take it into strong consideration.Special thanks to Commissioner Emeritus SilverBeacher for creating the screen shots, and sorry about never doing it last round.
GOOD HUNTING!
i totally had some follow-up comments and can't remember them now. damn you, rum!
okay, one of them is that everyone should give JustinSane some karma, 'cause he totally derserves it. and SilverBeacher too, for helping even though he's "retired" *cough*cough*old*cough*
oh, another thing was, if you want to chose new macots for your teams, go for it! try to stick with the tradtion of including your team letter as the first letter in your team's mascot, and also make sure no one objects. i say this because team C had the only "good" mascot. this is purely something i bring up for fun... if you're all happy with your mascots, then don't change them. i know i like being part of the A-team... 'cause, you know, we're bad*ss.
Thanks Dystopic!
One question though....I thought the season was originally planned for 5 rounds, meaning 2 more left in Season 3?
Sentient species taste better...
Hi guys. Since more than one of you are trying to get me back in the fold, i figured i'd have a look at the current round settings.
I got a question for ya though.
With the speed and score group settings. Are they inclusive of each other? What i mean to say is if i was doing a group 2 score game (medium map) and i get one of the 4 highest scores and one of the 4 fastest games, do i still get a BP for each? Or only score since that is the challenge for settings group 2?
Or..
Is it that the top 4 "score" games that are the fastest are awarded speed BP's and vis versa then for the "speed" games? Obviously both settings groups would have the top 4 BP's as well in the respective other score/speed criteria. And following this i would also assume that each of the 4 settings groups are treated the same. Each with their own speed and score BP's.
I assume it is the latter that is employed but i thought i would check.
Hello everyone!
Thank you Dystopic for great work as usual on the OP and to Silverbeacher for creating the screenshots. Thank you also to KzintiPatriarch for so ably handling the job of Scorekeeper. One minor clarification on the above: While teams can choose to submit a fourth game, we are again using a base 6 scoring system, so only 3 games need be submitted (2 points each) for the base points. We do not want to force anyone to play 2 games just so their team gets the base points.
The race restrictions were my idea (if you don't like them, blame me not dystopic ). I would be quite curious what everyone thinks about them, and would appreciate hearing your thoughts. My rationale was that the races are imperfectly balanced, so that there is a comptetitive counter-incentive to playing some of them. No one wants to let their team down by playing the Arceans when you could be using the Korath, Krynn, Thalan... it's essentially playing with a handicap. On the other hand, some of these races, while not as objectively strong, could be a lot of fun to play. So I'm hoping this will give those of us who would like a way to explore some of the weaker races an excuse to do so while not feeling guilty about not doing our best for our team .
KP, I honestly don't recall the discussion of season length - my bad. I'll be sure to discuss it with dystopic and get back to you on that, though I've every confidence you are right on what had been the plan. What do you all think? Does 2 more rounds to this season sound good, or would you prefer longer (or shorter)?
Edit: Neilo! Good to see you in here! On the individual bonus points, there is one speed bonus point and one score bonus point allocated to each settings group. So the fastest "score setting" game gets a bonus point even if it was a slower game than the 5 fastest "speed setting" games, for instance. This means that the settings that aren't likely to score as well or have as fast of games can still be worth playing, so that you've got a chance at the bonus points for each of those settings groups. One additional note: This means that the second best game all round could get no invidual bonus points if the best game came in the same settings group and took both the speed and score BPs for that settings group. This seemed to work well last round. Hopefully it will be more fun this round and more open to team strategy, with teams having total freedom to decide which of the 4 settings groups they want to play and which not to. Have everyone play for speed? Everyone play for score? Take a shot at playing each settings group for maximum individual bonus point potential? Completely up to you .
oh, err... i think JS and i lost track of time. nevermind the 'end of the season' comment. i'll try to update the OP today at work, but it's been hellishly busy so i don't know if i'll be able to get to it until tonight.
good to see you in the thread neilo! JS answer the question for ya.
random comment, but these mixed settings rounds kind of remind me of being on the track & field team. we're still teams even though each of us competes in (sometimes drastically) different events.
Looks good guys, thanks.
@ JustinSane: I like your idea of forcing us to use the less competitive races. I think that part of the appeal to the MVL is meeting new challenges and new ways to play. Your reasoning is correct in that with open settings, we will all play for the optimal and not select other races. I wouldn't mind seeing a future round that restricts all of us to a single unpopular race. As long as we are all forced to use the same sub-optimal race, why not?
New note: Dystopic and I have decided that it may be easier for everyone if the teams with three players knew up-front which player is eligible for the extra game. I have just rolled the die (virtual die actually - www.random.org), with rolls of 1-2 being assigned to the first person listed in each team in the OP, 3-4 to the second person, and 5-6 to the third. The roll for Team B is 1, so JustinSane (me) is eligible to play an extra game. The roll for Team D is 5, so SilverBeacher is eligible to play an extra game.
Actually, we probably should have thought of this eariler, but this could create the appearance of conflict of interest rolling for my own team. I attest that the results are exactly as I stated above, but if anyone has the slightest concern on this point, please speak up and we'll have dystopic re-roll for Team B. Seriously, if this bothers anyone even a little, please post here or PM dystopic (he can keep your name anonomous if you like) and he can re-do it. If on the other hand everyone is ok with it, we'll go with these die rolls.
Acknowledging.
Definitely hope to see you back this round Neilo
@JS: You have not rolled for the A-Team or Eternal Villainy however. Wanted to bring that to yer attn.
@Dys: IMO, it would be better just to have the screenies actually on this page, not just the links. It is much easier and visually appealing than a wall of text.
Edit: @JS: only to realize that since A and E have 4 players there is no reason to roll the second game. So...never mind
Once again, I draw first blood!
Without being able to use ARC, and no minors, it is definitely tougher to get a high score on these settings....nowhere near my best of 40k for this map size ZYW. Fun little game though.
I SOO had you on drawing first blood, but decided to wait for team confirmation... You're lucky I like black cats.
Hehe... I like to get in the first shot, but with the ZYW-friendly settings I wasnt sure if I would.
Good thing we're quick on the team confirmation thing.
Hrm, been having trouble getting logged into this site today, as well as problems getting into my hosting site.... Anywho, my game is not nearly as good as KP, but I still wanted to get an early submission for Team Eternal Villany.. And Purple Robots of Death are cooler anyway!
Great games by each of you. KP, I was looking forward to seeing how high your score on your ZYW would be. Turns out, very high. Well done .
Thanks!
Nice game Davvabled!
Posting to 'bookmark' the thread.
The "Challenging" group looks fun, I may just give that a shot for fun. <-- that smily looks like the gas-mask kid from Doctor Who "The Empty Child"
Great couple of episodes, those .
It looks like I left out a setting for settings group 3 - sorry. There are 0 minor races in settings group 3. Has anyone already put time into a settings group 3 game with different settings on minor races? If so, we might be able to grant an exception there, though I hope we've caught this early enough to avoid that problem .
OP updated.
i was told today at work, basically, that i needed to shape up or ship out. i'm opting to ship out. i wasn't fired, and i didn't quit. in the near future i'll be looking for a tech-support type job as well as applying to graduate schools. i may be a bit busy in the coming months, but i'll do my best to continue supporting everyone here.
and yeah, i really need a
Cheers dys.
Don't let the man get you down, Dystopic!
honestly, in some ways it's a blessing in disguise. before i finished my bachelor's degree i knew i wanted to go to graduate school. i was just burned out and tired of being poor. but this has been a real wake-up call. i'm not cut out to be an office drone (no offense intended to anyone who is). the longer i work with graduate students, the more i envy them.
so i'm looking into graduate schools. it's a slow process. for each school, i need to look into at least half a dozen departments and programs, and for each of those, read through all the faculty biographies, looking for a handful of people with similar interests to my own.
so far i've got social psychology (through the sociology deptarment) communication studies at the university of Iowa and American studies at NYU. the communication department at UCSD has a number of faculty whose interests compliment my own. i might apply, but i don't want to stay at UCSD another six years. i'll probably just tap a few of the faculty for advice on where to look into and apply. and somewhere in there, i gotta find a job i can do for the next year.
fun stuff
@JS: it was listed with having 0 Minor Races in the OP; unless there were supposed to be Minors? But yeah, thats how (No Minors) it was originally presented, and thats reflected in the screenshots.
@Dys: sorry bud! go get drunk!
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