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It's not all that hard to get rid of the Nexus. Just find the caster and kill him. I'll give you a hint. He's got a lot of astral.

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What you need is someone to do something to stop Marverni. At least Kailasa made a move. I suggest the other players join him and negotiate for a reasonable time to drop the nexus after Marverni is managed.

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Oh well, it looks like it's a done deal anyway. I figure Abysia at least, and probably Helheim, have cut a deal for a share of the Nexus, and left the other powers dangling.

And though I've certainly waited too long, I guess I better start declaring my VPs now, while I still have them!

Um, I'm still way behind on my sleep, and while I can get in a minimum turn in the next hour and a half, it will be nowhere close to what needs to be done to deal with the crap-storm heading my way.

So Hoplo, if you see this, can you give me another 24 hours? Sorry guys for the delays though - but once I get my rest this weekend, and recover from the jet-lag, I'll be back to my normal pace, I promise! :)

Better PM Hoplo now...

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Oops. Sorry I was catching up on my sleep. I have added a probably unnecessary 24 hours to the next turn.

And as we have been doing a lot of open diplomacy on the thread I'll add some of my own thoughts. It might not be a bad idea for powers to do their own diplomacy rather than trust the musings of powers long past their prime or friends of those who caste obnoxious globals :p

While most of the remaining powers have some chance of victory some have more of a chance than others :) Not really sure that I care that about the arcane nexus as long as its not in the hands of one of the two big powers at this point. Still PMs are always appreciated :p And so my own high level astral caster remains busy casting Vine Man as everyone knows that is the real root to victory....

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Oh current (Turn 69) VP Totals (I think!)

Arcoscophale (Verjigorm) 54
Ermor (Stagger) 5
Maverni (TwoBits) 6 (3+3)

Please can Maverni declare the VP provinces he has?

Let me know if I've missed any....

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Come on, guys, Dispel that Nexus! You don't need 100% compliance.

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Maerlande can be found on IRC and at dom3mods if anyone wishes private diplomacy. I really haven't consider this to be diplomacy. It's more spin doctoring and taunting and all in the spirit of having fun. Please read all of my comments assuming my tongue is firmly in my cheek.

Some of the players have found Maerlande on IRC for long chats about diplomacy.

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I've got 83, 124, and 134.

BTW, anyone read the description on my new prophet? I've never seen that before! Looks like Lucterius will have to work hard to keep up his reputation ;)

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Interesting battle between Abysia and Ermor. Looks like Yomi gets some action finally :-).

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50% of all non astral non blood gems spent in spell casting or forging are converted into astral and given to the caster.

It is not at all uncommon to make 75+ astral a turn with this spell.

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25%

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The spell description is kind of confusing then, as it states "half".

Oh, and now (turn 70), for the time being at least ( :p ), Marverni has 5 VPs: 83, 101, 105, 124, and 134.

"Thus it has come to pass - all powers have joined against us, or at least none has sided with us (The fools! To spite us, they will sell their souls to the Monkeys!). So be it!

In the face of this, Marverni, in the greater glory of the mighty Bump of Chicken, will take on the ultimate test - having once begun, we shall openly and continuously declare our VPs, until we place our lord upon the Throne of Heaven, or are thrown down! We have no other option.

Unfortunately, that will take time. But what shall you do with this interim? Continue to give your gems to the Monkeys, and their foul Byr, only to see them place the slave collar around your neck once Marverni is no more? Or put them in their place now, while you still have the chance, and try to destroy us in an honorable and valiant struggle, without their whip cracking at your back?

We live in interesting times...

Lucterius, the World's most feared slayer of men, Prophet of the Great Lord Bump of Chicken" :D

Oh, time for a little smack talk (I know, a little unfair, since Maerlande can't reply directly, but I cant resist ;) ): How much do Rudras cost? Dang, even with Arcane Nexus, that loss might take several turns to recoup :angel

BTW, last turn I forgot to say a big thank you to Pyg for sticking his game out to the very end - so I'll say it now: very classy! We all appreciate it, I'm sure, especially after all the 'quitting' problems this game has had.

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Maerlande would like to share his commiseration. The bandar commander responsible for that tactical plan has been eaten.

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Hey folks, my computer is about to go through a magical and wonderous transformation (mainly a new mobo, cpu and ram) so there is a chance that things might go horribly horribly wrong. As such, I'm putting my current turn in and if it looks like things are going to go completely to hell I'll notify you guys.

If anyone needs to reach me for diplomacy or whatever, might take a couple days.

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On behalf of my friend Maerlande, he has started a thread on dom3mods about this game. Simply put he refuses to pay pearls for protection. Come and get it if you can.

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http://z7.invisionfree.com/Dom3mods/...?showtopic=182

I'll also note that you should have pooled pearls LAST turn, now you've given him another turn worth of income from the Nexus and that's probably... mmmm.... 75? nails in your collective coffin.

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"Har har har! We could have predicted this - once the chance to dispel the Nexus was squandered, and Marverni had been compelled to make its move, the offers of Kailasa to share gems are suddenly withdrawn!

What will you do now? You can drive us off the VPs and destroy our empire, but it will not be easy by any means (ask Kailasa about the 3 Rudras, if you doubt us!). And all the while, Kailasa will mass an unassailable horde of gems. Now you feel the crack of the whip, but once we're gone, you'll feel the boot on your neck!

Well, there may be another way. Marverni is willing to talk, and make concessions (such as returning the two VP provinces to Yomi, and halt claiming VP points until such a time as the Nexus is no more).

If not, you'd best start learning to climb trees and eat bananas!

Lucterius, the Worlds Most Feared Slayer of Men"

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Hmm, I reread my postings and I'm pretty sure that I did not make any offers to share gems. On behalf of Maerlande, I offered to share Marverni provinces and of course that offer still applies.

Maerlande himself has only made a single statement on this issue.

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Well I am not sure that by attacking none Monkey provinces you are encouraging anyone to take down the Nexus for you. After all most of us only risk to lose to someone other than yourself or Dr P :) While you and Abysia can see that possible win get sucked out of your nations and into Kailasa's Nexus :)

Why haven't you and Aby taken it down? You have much more to lose than the rest of us if it stays up for long. You and Aby get over 230 gems a turn between you. Even if you don't get a single natural pearl between you that's 115/turn after alchemy. Cast your own dispel....

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This is an early notice of an absence:

I will be camping Labor Day weekend (Sept. 4th - 6th) and will not have access to any Internet or computer.

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First off, I have raided and taken Monkey provinces - but mostly I'm hunkering down on defense, because I expected I would be attacked from all sides!

I'll give kudos to Kailasa's diplomacy, and grumble about everyone else'. No one, NO ONE, offered to help cast a dispel. More importantly, no one, NO ONE, contradicted my assumption that they weren't all in on it with Kailasa!

No one other than Verjigorm expressed serious concern about the Nexus. In fact, the insinuation from Kailasa was that other powers (and I assumed that meant TNN, Abysia, and Helheim) had accepted a hefty share of gems to ally with him (and Yomi confirmed that he was also negotiating for a share as well).

Since no one bothered to counter that assumption, I had to assume that everyone was against me, and thus make my own play, which was to forget casting Dispel (what's the point when the Nexus would go right back up with everyone's connivance?), and go for the VPs. It wasn't a good plan, but it seemed to be all I had.

Well, was my analysis wrong? Are folks not on board with Kailasa? If so, damn, let me know! Like I said, I can still make a deal :) But if I don't hear anything serious, I'm gonna keep figuring it's Marverni against everyone else :mad:

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Welcome to the club. ^_^

Hold all 5 VPs for 20 turns.

Go!

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I must say. Maerlande must be enjoying the chaos he has caused. Perhaps that was his only goal?

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LOL! Yes, there is a certain amount of irony :o

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Firstly let me apologise about abusing my Admin powers by granting myself an extra day for the turn. I was away from home last night and hadn't completed my turn. I have added a further 6 hours from a request.

We may have a problem with Dr P. He staled last turn and has not put in a turn this time yet either. Anyone heard from him?

If he has gone :( then we will need to find a replacement. But he may just be away for a few day. Either way I hope no one takes this as an opportunity to attack him. It's extremely cheesy play :p I don't include Stagger/Ermor in this as obviously he should be free to liberate his lands. But Abysia is a viable power and I would hate to see the game skewed by people taking advantage of a major power taking a week or two off. Can we all agree (except for Ermor) to keep out of Abysia's lands until they are clearly being led again?

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I will just put this out there. But I am NOT advocating it. Just putting this up as a suggestion.

Shall we call this one a draw?

If Dr P has gone only myself, TwoBits and Verji remain of the original players. I joined because I liked the idea of bidding and I liked the idea of having victory conditions which meant (I hoped!) we would not have to fight it out till the bitter end.

But many/most of the players have changed. And the bidding for powers - while a good idea - did not really work as there were few bids against one another. And besides that was ages ago :) And many of the players in the game did not even take part in it!

The Victory spaces have proved to be a waste of time. Unless you are strong enough to win anyway you are highly unlikely to win by VPs. Plus they are an admin nightmare ;)

So while the game is nicely poised we are all facing a potentially long end game. Maverni, Kali (if he keeps his Nexus for a while) and Abysia all have great chances to win. TNN and Yomi both have a decent outside chance and even I am not completely out of it. That's a lot of end game. If big wars are about to start that's long long turns for us all.

So while I am happy to carry on I will just put that out there for you all to think on. I don't think Maverni (or anyone else) could really claim they are far enough ahead to claim victory. And the game has let too many powers get in to the end game so this one is likely to run for a long while yet. Especially as I suspect we have all done enough research even if we haven't completed everything we could (so all mages are 'available' if needed).

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You know, I've only been in a few games that have reached this late game stage, but they all seem to have had the same late game "malaise": Half (or more) of the players are subs (despite pledges, etc.), and the remaining original players are kind of burnt out (and probably enjoying other, newer, perhaps more interesting games).

But that's no reason to pack it in, IMO. For starters, the introduction of Maerlande and the Arcane Nexus has certainly made things more entertaining at the moment! And some of us original players still like our chances at victory.

The original bid plan may not seem relevant now, but it did mean no Mictlan, and Hinnom, Niefelheim, etc., are no more. And as far as the VP thing goes, it is a bit of an admin pain, but it does open an alternate route to sure victory (one Arco tried, and one which I've nearly felt compelled into trying).

If the micro-hassle is getting to be a bit much (but be thankful there are no gem generators or uber blood nations anymore), perhaps we should just extend the Llamaserver clock, and just take it easy? No rush, no pressure, just relax and do your turns whenever.

The missing DrP situation is kind of worrying. It would be sad if he went AWOL, and we lost another original player. But we've found subs before, and I'm sure we can again.

If worse comes to worse, you can just declare me the victor, and leave it at that :D

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I think having the victory points all in one place is a mistake. If they were scattered and automatically tallied a few players would be building towards victory, which would force the action.

I am beginning to feel like an original player :). I am ready to call it in, if there is no DrP. Isn't he on IRC a lot?

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I suggest you don't worry about DrP. Maerlande talks to him most days on IRC. He's still in the game although he does express the opinion that he'd like it to move towards an end. And that is related to the Nexus. It was partially a way to push the game out of stalemate.

You might just want to revisit the VP conditions. Maybe just changing them right now to say 4 capitals might force a quick end. Or maybe 5 capitals. I think this victory system is broken. Not forting a VP is crazy.

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Ah, I've suspected Abysia and Kailasa might be in cahoots :eek: A few turns ago (right after Maerlande took over), Abysia attacked Kailasa and was rebuffed in an epic battle, and since then, they seem to have made nice-nice.

An Abysia/Kailasa axis with the Nexus would be hard to overcome. Just such a possibility (plus I thought everyone else was in on it too) was what pushed me to go the (admittedly awkward) VP land grab route.

I'd be willing to discuss alternate victory conditions. Just as long as they don't blatantly favor any one particular nation (say, a nation with massive access to Astral Pearls, for example).

Remember, I've always got the original VP plan to fall back on - try to hold the VPs I already have for another 18-19 turns or so. Think that's a joke? You just might be surprised. I might just be able to outlast (figuratively or literally) you all, if your hearts are not in it.

But I'd prefer an alternative.

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I could crush you all but I still want to surrender :).

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Astral Corruption is an excellent counter to the Arcane Nexus. It significantly reduces the gem income from the Nexus and makes it much less cost-beneficial. It can expand a Nexus that was paying for itself in 6 turns to one that is paying for itself in 12.

A good move--not as good as a turn 2 dispel, but good nonetheless. Oh! and a successful Nexus Dispel as well! Lovely!

Bravo, guys, bravo!

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No plan survives contact with the enemies, or, in this case, the players.

I still like the bidding; whens the last time you saw marverni, yomi, abysia, and kailasa in the endgame?

But in restrospect the map was a huge mistake. I *like* the map, but the choice of the map was too rapidly done. I should have stuck with arena - or, if I was to do it again - the Lo2 map. And the number and placement of VPs was definitely a mistake.

Mea Culpa!

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I still don't like that Arena map. It creates major choke points outside the arena area. I made the Abstract Sky Tower map to create a more pliable Cumulative VP scenario. Check it out if you haven't already.

If you don't like it, tell me why you like Arena better.

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Well that was a mess of a turn, for me.

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Which of you jerks dispelled the nexus? Inquiring minds want to know!

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Figure it was either overwritten by Astral Corruption, or the AN caster got eaten by a Doom Horror while trying to cast Wish or something.

Arco lost its global as well, likely in another horror-related incident :eek:

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Doom-horrors: 2
You ****ers: 0

On a related note, I have concluded that I don't really have any practical means of fighting in the damn water. I was going to make a reverse-communion of Abominations, but cursory examination of my tarrasque reverse-communion experiment indicates that this strategy will fail.

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Tarts tarts and more tarts.

We thought the Tarasque experiment was quite brilliant. At least for Kailasa.

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24 hours added to the clock as per request. I have also turned Quickhost off. I'll switch it back on once this turn is in - prod me if I forget!

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It is not possible for Arco to lose it's global in any horror-related incidents. My pretender cast the SOAP and is immortal. Therefore, no matter how many horrors attack it, the global will never fall. If you are wondering about the "Feeblemind" thing, it doesn't work. Shaula has been feebleminded with the global up and it had no effect. Thus, even though the description states that Feeblemind ends the spell, it continues...

Now, as for how such a global got dispelled--it wasn't "technically" dispelled while under my control. It was overwritten by someone else who then apparently subsequently died possibly due to a horror. I can't remember which nation it was that overwrote the spell or exactly how long ago it was (maybe 4 turns max). If you really need that information, just review the turn files in your email--I, being semi-dead, am to lazy to care.

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!! Notice of Absence !!

As previously indicated, I will not have access to a computer starting 12pm CDT Saturday Sept. 4th through around 6pm CDT Monday September 6th as I am going camping over the Labor Day weekend.

A stale turn for me at this point will not create any significant disturbance in the game, so feel free to ignore me and let me go stale. It will only be one turn, anyway.

Thank you,

~ Verjigorm

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Mwahahahahaha

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I see my mistake. I'd confused your global with Yomi's Maelstrom (which did disappear).

Well, now we've got Utterdark to deal with anyway.

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Mwahahahahaha

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We're turning this world into a hell. The Dai Oni don't care much one way or the other, but the average citizen of Yomi is hurting.

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Mwahahahaha. Armageddon FTW!

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24 Hours added to the clock per Player request.

I shall be away from this Saturday to next Sunday (8 days). I don't think I will have any internet access during that period. I should be able to get my next turn in though before I go.

So I am going to abuse my admin privilages by extending the hosting period to about 4.5 days so that I don't miss a turn :) Assuming I can get a turn in before I go. With extensions often being asked for, wars going on and obnoxious globals to be dispelled I don't think this will cause too many problems.

If you need an admin then you will need to ask CP to step back in or send someone else the password.

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Really. There is no need to dispel those nifty globals. Just adapt.

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Well, the most obnoxious global (Astral Corruption), is essentially impossible and pointless to dispel since you have to pay pearls to dispel a global cast with blood slaves.

I was thinking of how one would go about dispelling it and I thought that you could dispel it with blood slaves in two turns by (1) overwrite it and (2) teleport your air-breathing controller into the sea. Of course it costs you a commander and you have to have a good number of booster items.