[Micah]

Namad: "but that didn't make me think the game wasn't going to be fun"

It's NOT fun anymore, which is why the top players in this game have all abandoned it (Atul and Homer were bored with the game before they quit, and were doing halfhearted turns, and obviously QM and I are done since I've revealed our position). The map is too big, the economies and recursive gem generation are out of hand, and late game defensive advantage is too much of a hurdle for this to end in anything resembling "fun." My projected income from clams would hit 1000 on turn 100. Managing that many gems effectively is more or less completely impossible, and the game would become about who is willing to spend more time on turns than anything else. There IS no "cool late game stuff," it's mostly just tarts, aboms and seraphs running around beating on each other with defensive blood magic meaning no one can make an effective attack because of Banish/Claws and first turn defender advantage.

Psi: Assuming you don't have a forge site I'm making them for about a third of the price you are. That adds up pretty quickly. QM and I divvied up the blood stones and clams, so no, he doesn't have any clams, but he's been making over 10 blood stones a turn of his own. We could easily up that, especially if I chose to start wishing for blood slaves instead of gems, but I get 6 clams out of a gem wish, so it hasn't been a priority to divert over to slaves.

The major limiting factor on my clam farming has been N, not W. Actually forging them is dirt cheap, and the reason I say we're in better position is because of the rate of expansion we have, not where we are now. I'm adding a new clammer or wish caster EVERY TURN as it stands, and even if you could, I'd still be saving 270 gems/turn over what you'd be spending to clam due to forge bonuses.

I'm sure there's plenty of nasty stuff you could have done. If anyone had actually been doing any of those nasty things to us for the past 10 turns while I was setting all this stuff up I'd be more inclined to give them some weight in the consideration of relative positions, but now that it's somewhat after the fact I'm really not impressed.

At the end of the day though I really don't care that much if I get a win here or not. I'd obviously like it, but if people are going to get bent out of shape about calling the game with a decision instead of calling it a draw I guess I can't do anything about it. One way or the other though the game needs to die. It's been a great lesson in some of the exploits in the game engine, and now needs to be put out to pasture and shot.