"Survivor 2" Round 11 is about to start

[geoschmo]

Announcing the long awaited Space Empires IV "Survivor 2" Multiplayer Tournament.

This tournament will have as it's goals the same things that were the goals of the first Survivor Tournament. To be a fun, competative, and fast moving event for players of all skill levels and playing styles. There will be some changes in format from the first tournament, hopefully we have learned some things that will make this one be even better.

Instead of multiple games, this year the tournament will be multiple rounds of progresivly smaller single games with all entrants pitted against each other in each round. Up to and including twenty players per game. If more than twenty players join the tounrament then they will be split into two games of equal, or nearly equal numbers. Each game will be played to the elimination of one player from each game. This will be repeated for as many rounds as are required until such a time enough players have been eliminated so the remaining players can be combined into one game.

The first round game will be played until one player has been eliminated. At that point the first round will be over and all the surviving players will move on to the next round where things will start over once again. This will continue from round to round until only one player remains.

All games will be played using the latest patch Version of Space Empires IV, Gold edition. (Currently this is Version 1.78)

All games will have default settings except for the following stipulations. No computer or neutral players. All quadrants will be randomly generated midlife quadrants. Early rounds will be large quadrants (Though not more than 100 systems). As the pool gets smaller in later rounds the size will be reduced. Ships and units in space per player will be set to the maximum. (20K I believe). The events will be turned off.

The following are default settings, but they bear mentioning for clarity. Each game will be a low tech level, medium tech cost, one average starting planet start. Each game will be 2000 Racial points. No techs will be disallowed(including intel and drones). All trading will be allowed (including trading of colonies). Surrender will be allowed, and not restricted. Since surrender eliminates the surrendering player, it brings an immediate end to that particular round and therefore there is no reason to disallow it.

Players may, but are not required to use the same empire file throughout all the rounds. Players will be required to use a shipset, either a custom one or a stock one, that no one else in the game is using. In the event of duplicates, the first player to join the game will have precedance. For conveience I ask that you include the name of the shipset you are planning on using in parentheses after your empire name when you apply to join. If you are using a custom shipset I also ask that you make sure it is in the PBW shipset file library and that you use the shipset linking system provided by PBW when you upload your empire file.

All games will be set to 36 hour, fully automatic turns. There will be no breaks for vacations or illness. The only stoppages will be in the event of PBW failure, or extroidinary circumstances affecting multiple players. If you need to take a break for any reason, post a message in the game forum and the game owner will attempt to find a temporary replacment for you until you return. You may as an alternative find a replacment yourself that is not already playing in that current rounds game and provide their name to the game owner. You may as an alternative allow your empire to revert to AI control for the duration of your absence. In such a case the turns will be allowed to go to their full 36 hours before running, limiting the number of turns the AI will play in your stead.

Obviously any player that surrenders to another player, or is completely destroyed in the game will be eliminated. Additionally any empire that is reduced to the point of having no planets will be deemed as destroyed and will be eliminated. This includes an empire with ships remaining, even usable colony ships. You must at all times have an exsisting colony with or without population to remain in contact and in the game. Additionally any player who by means of stellar manipulation closes themself off from the rest of the quadrant will be deemed to have been eliminated. You may close off some of your warp points to restrict enemy access to your territory, but you must retain at least one point of access to all of your systems. And there must be at least one path of access, however circuitous, from any system on the map to any other system on the map. The determining factor in any case in doubt will be if an empire loses contact with another empire. If that occurs then either one of them has lost all their planets, or someone somewhere has broken the chain of systems by closing too many warp points.

Any player that misses five consecutive turns in a row (approximatly one week) without notification in the game forum will be declared to have abandoned the game and will be eliminated. Additionally, any player that qualifies for the next round and fails to join the game and upload his empire within a week of the creation of the game on PBW without prior notification will be declared to have abandoned the tournament and will be eliminated.

In the event that more than one player meets one or more of the qualifications for elimination on the same turn, all said players will eliminated from the tournament simultaneously.

[ July 23, 2004, 01:12: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[tesco samoa]

I am in... Can we start in Sept.... I would hate to be elimated on the first one because of a 4 day vacation.

[geoschmo]

Well, it'll probably take a week or so to get everybody joined and empires loaded. After that, it's find a lieutenant, or trust the AI.

[Fyron]

I'm in! And I will win, too! Well, maybe not. We'll see.

[Zarix]

Sounds like fun. Count me in.

[geoschmo]

For anyone scared off this tournament by the prospect of the games having 20 players and taking forever, I'd like to point out the following.

Firstly, I intend to ruthlessly enforce the 36 hour turn time limit. No Mr Jones I don't care if your dog ate your .plr file.

And secondly, the early rounds should end quickly at any rate because they don't have to play to a normal Last man standing completion, only to the elimination of one player. In fact I expect a couple of rounds to end simply because someone drops out. That's the nature of these things often. The beauty of this format is that abandoned players don't hinder us, in fact they speed things up because they end the rounds sooner.

[tesco samoa]

The determining factor in any case in doubt will be if an empire loses contact with another empire.

Does this mean that everyone will be in contact with each other ????

[tbontob]

Oh boy! Oh boy! My first tourney!

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by tesco samoa:
The determining factor in any case in doubt will be if an empire loses contact with another empire.

Does this mean that everyone will be in contact with each other ????

No, not at first. But once you make contact with another race the only way to lose contact is either to lose all your planets, or be cut off from them by someone closing warp points all the warp points between you and them.

I honestly don't think any of the games will Last long enough for the second option to come into play. At least not in the early rounds certainly. I only included that as an official position to prevent someone "turtleing up" and closing all the warp points and building systems shield generators and thereby guaranteeing their survival.

Technically I suppose you could do that with part of your empire and leave a single planet outside, thus maintaining contact but still violating the rule requiring all systems to have a chain of open warp points. In the unlikely event someone attempt such a manuver I will simply declare them eliminated.

Geo

[Ragnarok]

Hey, count me in. And no Fyron, I'll win! Well most likely not but I gotta have some self confidence right?