Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Baal:
Sneak attacks are best.

No one is ever your ally or even friendly.

That's my view.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


I tend to disagree. while I may have been caught recently making a 'preemptive strike' in another game, they are generally not a good idea. especially if you get a reputation for doing it, and you end up in a game where you need alies but no one trusts you. I find my self wishing now that I had waitied a turn or so after a declaration of war before entering the target system with my fleet, as it probably would have left me with more friends in the long run. just as in the real world, war crimes dont (often) go unpunished (when they are not in the best interests of a major industrial power). I guess I was just lucky that all the major industrial powers in said game were able to see things my way.

I have to say, I think these newbie games are great, and hope that they continue on a regular basis, as they are churning out our future experienced players. I think most of you guys are already in other games as well, but this is as good a time as any to voice a little community support.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>I find my self wishing now that I had waitied a turn or so after a declaration of war before entering the target system with my fleet, as it probably would have left me with more friends in the long run.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>In my game in Geo's Survivor Tournament, I'm playing an Honorable Warrior race, the Rrurrr. We started off making a Trade Alliance with the first aliens we encountered, the Empire of Night, and eventually upgraded to Trade & Research. Our second contact, the Spoo, looked weaker, so we only agreed to Non-Aggression, not wanting to bolster our most likely enemy. (The first round games have See Allied Scores turned on, so I knew EoN was in 1st place.) When we ran out of unclaimed systems to expand into, we decided to expel the Spoo from the border system which we had colonized first, and sieze the two colonies the Spoo had placed there later. Rrurrr Honor demanded that we warn the Spoo to leave the system, and warn the EoN that we were going to seize their Partner's colonies.


We were completely surprised when the EoN decided to side with the Spoo rather than us. We seized the two Spoo colonies with almost no resistance, but the EoN has proceeded to glass several Rrurrr worlds in response.


The resulting war has been pretty grim for the Rrurrr, but Honor demands that we fight to the Last.


------------------
Cap'n Q


The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[This message has been edited by capnq (edited 11 July 2001).]

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dragonlord:
(**(&*))*()##

I just lost two LC's to Baal's minelayer. All along I thought it was an observer ship http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif Now I find out he layed mines all over the contested system. The Nostro will pay for this !
Allies, please join me in the mourning of my lost crewmen :-(<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sucks doesn't it when you lose ships when you do not expect it.

EDIT: Anyway you must have been trying to attack a lone ship that had no back up, quite dishonorable. Kind of like your treachorous attack on our planet in Prenix.



[This message has been edited by Baal (edited 11 July 2001).]

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Dishonorable?!!!

I have been trying to rid myself of the terrorist guerilla ship that lays mines all over MY system ! Jees, how many mines did you stuff into that LC before you sent it to the front? It must have launched at least 50 already, since I know it launches 10 per turn and there's minefields all over.

Odd though, my turn's movement gets executed before yours does (I think) but if I send in a ship to attack the minelayer, the minelayer has always somehow managed to launch mines in its own sector before my ship gets to it. Hmm...
Anyway, I'll be rid of it soon enough, with an enforced sweeper fleet on the way.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Odd though, my turn's movement gets executed before yours does (I think) but if I send in a ship to attack the minelayer, the minelayer has always somehow managed to launch mines in its own sector before my ship gets to it.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That sounds like your ship is catching the minelayer before it can leave the sector where it dropped the mines Last turn.

------------------
Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Players of Newbie game - It's my first anniversary this weekend, so I might be a little limited in getting lots of turns in. I'll try my best to sneak in as many as I can...

------------------
Visit the Spoogy Federation at:
http://spoogyfederation.tripod.com

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

I just love these struggles between humans, Baal is deploying tricks an AI would never do !
My primary fleet finally wrested control of the contested system, and has moved past the wormhole in the direction of Baal's systems.
What we found was an empty system (just asteroids) with two wormholes leading into unexplored space. One wormhole had a single ship (from Baal) sitting on it, so I figured aha ! that way must lie his empire. I proceed to spend two turns moving towards, then killing that ship and warping through.
All I find in the next system is again...asteroids. So now I'm thinking that I should have gone through the other wormhole, and his ship was just a sacrificial decoy to lure me in the wrong direction to buy him time to build better defenses.

Baal, am I right?

Oh well, at least something came of it, buy moving into the wrong (?) system I finally made first contact with the fourth and Last human player in this game, Phoenix.
Phoenix is ranked 3rd or 4th, while Baal is 1st and I am 2nd. It will be interesting to see if Phoenix will choose a side in the war I'm in...or stays noncomittal in the hope we weaken ourselves enough for him to step in.

Ya gotta love this game in multiplayer.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by capt_spoogy:
Players of Newbie game - It's my first anniversary this weekend, so I might be a little limited in getting lots of turns in. I'll try my best to sneak in as many as I can...

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's actually good news for me, I have friends staying over on friday and saturday, maybe even sunday, and will have almost no time to play in any of my PBW games. Will do anything I can to avoid having the AI play my turns, may even request a turn-upload extension from the host, but I hope it won't be necessary.

Happy anniversary !

Ouch that reminds me, our 3-year anniversary is next week and I really should start preparing some activities/gifts for that.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

I have to ask, what tactics am I using that the AI doesn't use?

EDIT: Good for you Spoogy, I think we should all take the day off then. Leave you to your life for a little while.

[This message has been edited by Baal (edited 13 July 2001).]

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Baal:
Well for one thing you are trading with the neutral AI in the frontier system so that you always have an observer ship there.
And you lay mines where the AI wouldn't.

I also noticed that you just built a big fleet, you must have thought "hey if my weapons are inferior I can beat him through numbers". Will be an interesting fight.
You produced em fast though, did you put your entire empire on emergency build or something?

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

heh, Newbie 2 is starting to turn into an Intel Version of M.A.D...since no one can stop intel attacks because of the bug, we just sling attacks back and forth.

Phoenix-D

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Kind of a pity, I'd been hoping to avoid that due to the way the CI bug has totally whacked the balance between offence and defence. Won't be as much of a _strategy_ game if it all comes down to abstract intel point generation and the luck of hitting valuable ships/planets with intel ops rather than valueless ones. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif

Ah well, at least this way I'll get to see how bad the CI bug will impact the game under field conditions...

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Well you got me at a disadvantage in Newbie II because I still don't fully understand the CI bug. usually my attacks go through, but it also happened that three small ones were stopped at the same time.

I also wonder if the xenophobic roleplaying that Phoenix is doing in Newbie II will carry over into Newbie I. If it does, I'm in trouble in newbie I with Baal's hugely armored fleet at my border...

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Well, I don't intend to "exploit" the CI bug, but it's kind of hard to avoid if one starts firing off lots of offensive covert operations. My plan is to shift to intelligence sabotage instead of counterintelligence if the game actually does turn ugly, and hope that that balances better.

(at this point I'm still not sure whether it's all going to fall apart into full-scale war or whether it's all just misunderstanding and mistrust that can yet be rectified. Phoenix doesn't seem overly xenophobic towards me, after all, though perhaps the Certadsh simply consider machine intelligences to be more trustworthy and inherently peaceful than organics. From my perspective attempting to mediate this dispute I can see how one might think that way. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Personally, I for banning CI in Newbie I if everyone else agrees. I think it could possible destroy our game. I don't mind if the AI uses it - but once all the people do...it's going to destroy any strategy...

------------------
Visit the Spoogy Federation at:
http://spoogyfederation.tripod.com

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

The problem with the counterintelligence bug is that counterintelligence operations are badly crippled; no matter how many you've got running, they'll only block the first attack that hits you in the course of a single turn. What's more, the points will still be deducted from your other counterintelligence projects as if they'd blocked the other attacks even though they didn't.

This means that if you're running 12 counterintelligence IIIs, each with a hundred thousand points accumulated, and the enemy hits you with 8 sabotage projects simultaneously, then the first sabotage will be blocked and the remaining 7 will succeed. 8 of your counterintelligence projects will have points deducted from them as if they'd blocked all 8 attacks.

In other words, intelligence attacks still work at full strength but the _defence_ against them has been hopelessly crippled. At least so say the reports on this forum, I haven't actually tested this myself yet.

I really don't know what the best way to handle this is; banning intelligence operations altogether comes to mind, but that seems a little harsh. I hope that Malfador comes out with another patch that fixes this soon, so that we can simply upgrade to a new Version and relax.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Hmm in that case we should probably ban the use of all offensive intelligence (hence all intelligence) in Newbie II. Unfortunately I had a few crew conVersions in queue Last turn, but I won't launch any more offensive intel if we all agree to do that.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

A FEW?!

4 ships is a few? http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Time for a non-use pact. Burn all the intel centers!

ah, crud. The AI would probably exploit that little hole, wouldn't it.. though I don't think I've been hit by AI intel yet.

EDIT: OK, stopping all intel against humans now..

Phoenix-D

[This message has been edited by Phoenix-D (edited 17 July 2001).]

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

I've been hit by the Nostropholo a few times, but the CI that I've been running has always been enough to stop it so far. the CI bug only kicks in when more than one attack hits simultaneously.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Well, Baal has just dropped out of the original "Newbie" game...

------------------
Visit the Spoogy Federation at:
http://spoogyfederation.tripod.com

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Baal must be getting hit in real life. He dropped from one of my games too. Too bad we all can't just sit around playing SEIV all day. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif

Geo

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Well, hopefully his replacement can figure things out fast enough.. dropping in in the middle of a war is bound to be interesting.

Meanwhile, one of my colonies just got hit by my first random event. Earthquake that killed 5 million. Guess how many people I had on that colony? Yup, 5 million. Instant ghost town, just shake and bake!

Phoenix-D

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

I suspect Baal dropped out partly because he just lost *the* decisive battle against me in Newbie I. His fleet of 50 ships managed to destroy some of my frontier worlds, cause I needed time to group together a response force. When we attacked Last turn, it was a major success. 45 ships against 50, we lost about 15 ships, he lost ALL. Of course it must have helped that my fleet was "legendary".

I'm sad he's leaving though, it was a lot of fun playing against him. I hope nothing serious is happening to him in real life.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Dragonlord is completely right. I dropped because I could see that I was going to lose. I saw no reason to drag out an embarrassing defeat. I'm glad that some of my things entertained you Dragonlord. The mines were fun, the flanking your forward fleet was fun. I'm glad I could give you a small challange, but that's it for me.

I'm throwing in the gauntlet, you win. (translation = I quit, you kicked my *** to hard)

Sorry about dropping the grit tech game Geo, but I don't feel like getting my *** kicked again.

Sorry everyone but quitting is in my nature.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Hmm not sure if Baal was being sarcastic there...

By the way Baal, I'm sure you looked at the combat replay of our big battle. I figured the only way to stand a chance against those 50 ships, all heavy on armor, was to exploit its only weakness: build a lot of boarding ships FAST. But from the replay I couldn't really tell if that worked, it was mostly my ships doing more damage than yours because of the offense and defense bonuses I enjoyed.
And I did not end up with any of your ships in my fleet. I've never tried boarding parties before...did you see any of your ships going to my side mid-battle or firing on your own ships?

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

*bump*

Just a senseless post to see if my rank would go up when I hit 100 Posts.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Guess it didn't work :-(
Serves me right for paying attention to ranks.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Hey it did work ! Guess the server was slow to realise it http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Dragon-Sergeant

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Oo, is that what determines rank, then? I'll have to make a point of posting more pointless little Posts, like this one. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

On the other hand, my sense of morality would give me problems. Stupid morals. So I guess I'll add a meaningful comment to this thread: Baal's departure from Newbie I can be worked into the game from a RP perspective by saying that his empire's leader was replaced after the loss of his fleet. By coup or by resignation or by election remains to be seen.
There, I feel better. And closer to five-star general at the same time.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

If you're looking for someone to take Baal's place, I'm game to try my hand at it. I'm a PBW newbie, so I qualify (I've taken a grand total of ONE PBW turn so far). It would be interesting to see if his empire can be salvaged. Remember: it's not hopeless until your Last colony has been blown to smithereens....

Quikngruvn

------------------
"That which does not kill you will make you stronger." -- Nietzsche

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Already have a replacment. He didn't know of Baal's agreement with the Certdash (me) though, so he got his scout ship blown to very small little pieces.

The Certdash are a bit territorial http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Phoenix-D

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Geez! Do I have a "kick me" sign on my empire, or what?

I got ship bombed this turn, so I went in to check the AIs (i.e. to see that no one was violating the no-offensive-intel against a player thing).

Result? EVERY AI I'll met- that is, all the AIs but one- has me as their EXCLUSIVE intel target. Even their counter intels are directed against me. Guess I pissed em off..

This is odd mainly because I haven't actually be fighting any race except the Eee much, though two of them are having a merry old time throwing themselves into my minefields.

Phoenix-D

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Looks like Baal's replacement is just as agressive (and stubborn) as Baal. He insists on attacking me, and pretended to make peace through a NA pact only to park a fleet at my border.

I am happy to report another big victory. My legendary fleet, with 30 ships, engaged the enemy fleet (18 ships). Most enemy ships are Battle Cruisers, while my fleet is mostly LC's and frigates.
We suffered not a single lost ship (though one came close at 96% damage) and all 18 enemy ships are either dead or captured.

Nostropholo, prepare for the fiery vengeance of the Dragons !

The only bad thing about killing that fleet though was that it put me too much ahead of the 2nd place player, so a neutral race (former Partner!) suddenly declares war on me (maybe I am MEE) and kills an outpost http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Wow, it looks like Newbie I is _much_ more violent than Newbie II. I suspect my poor Irha-Nrr would be going absolutely bannanas trying to get everyone to make peace with everyone else if they were involved in that one. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

It helps that we don't have all those genocidal AIs running around..

Phoenix-D

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
Already have a replacment.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bummer. Oh well, it's still fun to read up on what's going on....

Quikngruvn

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Quikngruvn:
Bummer. Oh well, it's still fun to read up on what's going on....

Quikngruvn<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Quikngruvn,
Hi all others,

I am also a newbie to SE IV. Like Quikngruvn, I enjoy reading your Posts about those newbie games and would also like to join a game.

If other people are interested, maybe we could set up a new game.

Quikngruvn, are you in?
I guess we need at least 2 or 3 more players. So, come on newbies, this is fun http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif.

Sorry to "abuse" this thread for a roll call, but I thought this was a good place to come and look for new games.

So happy gaming and conquering to all...

Rollo

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Hi again,
to everybody who doesn't know how and where to join and play PBW games (Like me, up to yesterday http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif).
You can register, find more information and join games here.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Rollo:
If other people are interested, maybe we could set up a new game.

Quikngruvn, are you in?
I guess we need at least 2 or 3 more players. So, come on newbies, this is fun http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I actually set up a game Last night for general use, but I'll make that a PBW newbie game. I also created a new thread for it, My own private Idaho.

This should be QUITE entertaining!

Quikngruvn



------------------
"That which does not kill you will make you stronger." -- Nietzsche

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Sounds good, I might join.
But the 96 hours per turn seems a bit too much to me...

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Gotta wonder how everyone is going to react to the stunt I just pulled in Newbe 2.. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Phoenix-D

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
Gotta wonder how everyone is going to react to the stunt I just pulled in Newbe 2.. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Phoenix-D<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

pray tell, describe.



------------------
"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

I'll wait a few, until the other players have time to react..

Phoenix-D

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dragonlord:
Sounds good, I might join.
But the 96 hours per turn seems a bit too much to me...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can drop the time, if the that's what the consensus says.... (It'll only be a democracy till the game starts!)

Quikngruvn

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

I, too, am very interested to see how Phoenix's little applecart-upsetting is going to affect the global balance of things. In no small part because I've been made into an accomplice. Curse my friendliness! http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Uh? I just played a turn of Newbie II and did not notice anything out of the ordinary??
Hmm will now immediately reload that turn and see if I can figure it out.

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

It may take a turn or two for the effects to be felt..

Phoenix-D

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Enquiring minds want to know!

(Patience, grasshopper....)

Quikngruvn

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

Uhm, you're not talking about the destruction of the Eee, are you Phoenix?
Cause I don't think that's a big event, although I may use it as an excuse to exact revenge on their behalf http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Hmm..say, if you opened a wormhole or something, wouldn't I see it immediately because I am ancient race? Do other players get notified in-game if someone opens a wormhole?

Re: PBW \"newbie game\"
 

No, it wasn't about the Eee.

You only get told if I open a wormhole if you can see it (i.e. are in the same system). Ancient Race only functions to give you the STARTING game map, I think.

Revenge for the Eee? Not happening.

Phoenix-D