Idle, this is great - if it's all right with you, I'd like to add a link for it on the JR website.

I'd be interested to see how many giant masos go in under 1.11... IMO it's a lot tougher after the decheesing...

Alex


~SDC~

1 IP bribes are still in with 1.11. Brad has said that he's more concerned with fixing things that affect all players and not just the masochists, so this may or may not be fixed even in the next patch.

No difficulty report this time around. Yours truly got the urge to get out in the Metaverse and do something more than sneak around spying on everyone. Here is a sketchy AAR of Gerakken's latest, but long overdue, game.

I grabbed my trusty laser pistol and jumped into Phantom, my personal corvette. It was time to ride. I found a planet crying out for knowledge of the void. The Earth-bound inhabitants had desire to explore space, but lacked a leader confident enough to handle the job. After some persuasion and a few formalities, I was given the title of Chief Administrator, the person who ran the whole planet and what would hopefully be an interstellar empire. Soon after my trustworthy followers started exploring, I saw disturbing reports that the Yor had infiltrated Skowbo. The Temple of CariElf was being defiled! My task of ordering the colonization of any available yellow stars had just been completed, and while it was now time to exploit any PQ 14 planets left, I also had to build a fleet of transports and escort warships to end this unholy Yor infestation. This was a task taking what seemed like an eternity.

At the end of the military build up, the whole map had been laid bare by my intrepid scouts. I was the largest empire in terms of sheer size, thanks to a generous home sector containing 3 more inhabitable systems besides home base. The Altarians were nice neighbors. A large empire very close by, but peaceful and always welcoming my traders. The Drengin were another large empire, equal to the Altarians but respecting me for my fleet and robust economy despite the lack of trade on my end. Crafty Arceans were lying in wait in a remote corner, never able to break out and gain any significant ground, but they were grateful for the attention my traders were giving them. The Torians were the jailers that locked the cell door on the corner-bound Arceans, but they were also in a weak position, always watching their greedy Drengin neighbors. This left the object of my hatred, the Yor who were occupying sacred ground. The machines had only a moderate-sized empire, shaped like a clenched fist from one corner and jutting a mechanical digit out into the center of the map that ended at Skowbo, the holy planet.

The crusaders completed their duty soon enough. Skowbo was free of the Yor. Now the mini-armada moved relentlessly farther into Yor space, eventually capturing more ground. Where would I stop? Normally I would grant mercy after achieving my objectives, but a mania overtook me and soon the fleet was in the sector of the last Yor planet. The mechanical infidels surrendered to the Altarians to spite my victory just when I was in reach! The Yor also had been lucky enough to possess a large number of resources. What I had not captured before in combat was mine to exploit; my constructors were already close to the contested resources and grabbed them, including a pair of very valuable influence resources. (Valuable to Gerakken that is. I never underestimate influence when culture bombing is my preferred style.)

Not long after the Yor affair was history, the Altarian and the Drengin went to war. My invasion fleet was already present near a Drengin planet. While the Altarians were now larger than the Drengin due to the Yor surrender, the Drengin were more likely to turn against my kind-hearted people who were already well on the way to a path of good. When the two warring fleets collided, my troops started to strike. Six months of conquest followed. At the end of which, a Drengin empire stood no more. The last evil alien empire had been quelched.

Some time was spent claiming former Drengin resources and reorganizing the fleet. An army of traders all owing allegiance to my people were soon plying the space lanes between the three major and two minor races left. It was not all an easy life for the merchant captains, though. While the Arceans, Torians, and Altarians were peaceful amongst both themselves and with me, all had designs on the two systems owned by the Alexians and Caranoids.

My advisors told me that the minors could hold out for a while longer. It was ironic that when the UP assembled next, the issue on the ballot was a war tax for any who engaged in hostilities. Due to a vast culture and trade network, my empire had already accrued an immense influence advantage and many delegates owed me their votes. Needless to say, the delegates voted the conscience of my "peace-loving" people and imposed a 20% tax on any who would dare interupt the prosperity of peaceful trade.

Despite the staggering tax, the wars somehow continued. The Alexians were the first to be seriously threatened by the combined efforts of three still very hostile major powers. It was seen as divine justice when the Alexian system was soon laid bare, bereft of defenders, but before the eagar Torians could land the nearby transports, the Alexians decided to seek the enlightened ways of my culture and swear new allegiance to someone who could protect them.

In fact, preparations to culturally assimilate the entire galaxy were well under way. All preliminaries would be complete by 2191, and the galaxy would be mine by 2192 if all went to plan. I dreamed of creating an epic alliance with the three major alien races instead. While the Altarians and Arceans would gladly accept the arrangement, the stubborn Torians, still apparently smarting over losing the Alexians to me, were only lukewarm. There did not seem time enough to change their demeanor before the culture clock ran out, but fate intervened.

By chance, the majority of the offensive arm of the fleet was parked near Torian space in response to their non-commital posture. A prominent Torian leader was slain under suspicious circumstances by someone claiming allegiance to me, and so the war began. Once again with unusual fury, my forces started carving up the Torian empire. It was a brief war, only 3 months. At the end of the Torian war, the clock of cultural domination resumed ticking and the count was down to 2 months.

A month of frenzied negotiations followed. The Altarians and the Arceans agreed to ally themselves to my cause. With just one month to spare before my empire's overwhelming culture would swallow them, the two remaining major alien races decided it was better to be partners than merely consumers. And so Gerakken lays claim to another tiny morsel to add to his meager Metaverse holdings.

ah

An excellent AAR, Gerakken!

Games submitted so far under version 1.11:


~SDC~

Unfortunately we can't tell how many of the games were played under 1.10 and submitted under 1.11....



Alex


~SDC~

One of the Masos was played under 1.10 and submitted under 1.11...

I will file another report around Monday, but I should mention that there is another group of hard-working folks in the MWC who have written software to analyze every game ever submitted to the Meta by the top 25 empires! Just go to http://idle.thehueys.com/midwest/empireapp.php and see the wonders unfold. I recently visited and was thoroughly impressed. While I focus on a big picture analysis here based upon recent trends, the database offers invaluable information and insights in a historical context. Good job!

Gerraken and MWC. Thanks - very interesting.

~SDC~

I got slightly delayed. The Phantom was busy selling aliens things they thought were not needed, but they got this notion along the way that they couldn't live without Earth goods. Of course, selling stuff to a Drengin who has four times the military rating and is already predisposed to eating you can get a bit tricky. That was eventually solved by a ship building program followed by displaying the shiny new battleships on the sales lot. Luckily, I was able to pull off another saintly pacifistic game against all pure evil aliens. Not that I wouldn't go to war if it came down to it, just there was no need to scratch the battleships up unnecessarily. Too many miles lowers their resale value.

Well, here is the mayhem for this report:

Top 25 Players
Cakewalk : 0
Easy : 0
Simple : 0
Beginner : 1
Normal : 0
Challenging: 1
Tough : 0
Painful : 0
Crippling : 0
Masochistic:23
Toughness : 9.60. There are still two anti-masos here!

Top 50 Players
Cakewalk : 0
Easy : 0
Simple : 0
Beginner : 3
Normal : 2
Challenging: 2
Tough : 0
Painful : 0
Crippling : 5
Masochistic:38
Toughness : 9.18

Top 100 Players
Cakewalk : 0
Easy : 1
Simple : 2
Beginner : 3
Normal : 6
Challenging: 7
Tough : 4
Painful : 8
Crippling :18
Masochistic:51
Toughness : 8.56

No extra twist on things this time. Masos and combined anti-masos are almost equal at 51 to 49.

Orphans: 28.

In the midst of the recent Meta shake-up within various empires, there are still 28 folks in the top 100 to be recruited. Maybe recruiters need to find the right bait to get some of them. I can think of some interesting empire-specific techniques off-hand, but don't get me started down that road. Evil Gerakken might have too much fun, and I am trying to restrain him a bit these days.

The 1IP or tiny tribute bug affects all players who gives tribute to AIs, not just Masochists. It's just that Maso players are more tempted to exploit this bug due to the difficulty of that level.

Exactly. So even though the bug is present at all levels it only gets used on maso, thus making it essentially a maso bug

I'm sure non-Maso players exploit it as well, Kryo. I wouldn't term it a Maso bug as it is unrelated to the difficulty level.

~SDC~

For those of us who learned on 1.05, it is amazing that there are 51 of the top 100 players now playing maso. Wowza!!!

In the "olden days" of 1.05 LOL . . . there was more like a half-dozen maso players. Thanks for the update Gerakken.

This is my own personal difficulty report to fill in the space a bit before the next regular update. Just got through with my latest experiment in pacifism. Went up to crippling for the first time against five pure evil genius aliens. The Drengin converted to good after a culture change event mid game. The military superpower of the map that I was trying to gently tip-toe around all of a sudden became my best friend in short order after that. (I was going good already. Ended up at about 80 alignment. Not too many morality events this game.)

This Drengin war machine dismantled five minor races and three major alien empires single-handedly. Too bad that two of the majors eventually surrendered to me and the rest were flipped to me later. I need to have a saintly convert Drengin take apart an evil map more often! I never had to use bribery to start the wars. The crusading Drengin found their own excuses. Culture was kept low near Drengin core sectors. I wanted to bring this one home as a tech victory if I could. Luckily, the Altarians were also a superpower that survived into the end game. They were in the opposite corner from the Drengin, which saved them for the longest time. I was only 5 turns from tech victory when the remnants of their empire surrendered to me.

So I just basically sat in the middle of the map trying not to get noticed most of the game. A lot of trade routes helped keep the evil ones at bay (too much money to lose in trade if they went to war with me). Keeping the military rating at 100 plus as much as I could helped as well. The only powers I really had to fear after the end of the colonization age were the Drengin and the Altarians, so the routes mostly went to them.

I wonder how the results would have been if I went evil and set all the aliens to pure good? Can a pacifistic approach of no wars, no invasions work on any alignment settings so long as there is enough military strength and trade activity to satisfy the aliens? What if one tries the all neutral route? (Player deliberately chooses only neutral outcome for events, aliens set at neutral.)

Well, I brought home a Beyond Human victory for this game. The points were not too swell, but it isn't always about the points. Exploration is an important part of Galciv. I have played various alignments, map sizes, and victory types. Went from limited warfare to no wars at all. One day I will probably venture into full warfare of early rushes and alpha strikes. The point is that this game can be played a lot of ways, even if "The System" that is the Meta only encourages a certain path to high scores. So fool around with various approaches and don't be afraid to let the Meta record show it.

Time for another look into the vast depths of the Meta, a 250 player report Spymaster style. I will just jump right in on the top 50. (No need for the top 25 as a separate category anymore.)

Top 50 Players
Cakewalk : 0
Easy : 0
Simple : 0
Beginner : 1
Normal : 3
Challenging: 0
Tough : 0
Painful : 0
Crippling : 6
Masochistic:40
Toughness : 9.46, up from 9.18 two weeks ago.

Top 100 Players
Cakewalk : 0
Easy : 0
Simple : 0
Beginner : 3
Normal : 9
Challenging: 2
Tough : 4
Painful : 7
Crippling :17
Masochistic:58
Toughness : 8.86 compared to last time's 8.56. Comparable jump to top 50.

Top 250 Players
Cakewalk : 2
Easy : 0
Simple : 3
Beginner :11
Normal :36
Challenging:32
Tough :15
Painful :35
Crippling :54
Masochistic:62
Toughness : 7.67

A Special Achievement Award for being the last anti-maso standing in the top 25 goes to Alex Ascendant.

This report I flesh out a stat I mentioned last time: masos vs. anti-masos in the top 100. If one were to think of both groups as political parties of sorts, a new category in the top 100 known as the Meta Senate would represent them nicely. Currently, the standing in the Meta Senate is 58 to 42, Maso favor.

Orphans: 115 out of 250. The orphans in the top 100 is still holding at 28, so there seems to be better pickings yet percentage wise if one goes down the list a bit.

When not skulking around the dark passages of imperial capitals or not laying low in one of his safehouses, Gerakken gathers his Yor espionage droids round deep within a hidden information gathering facility in order to hear their reports and to study the Metaverse. Here is the latest top 100 report:

Top 50 Players
Cakewalk : 0
Easy : 0
Simple : 0
Beginner : 0
Normal : 2
Challenging: 2
Tough : 0
Painful : 0
Crippling : 7
Masochistic:39
Toughness : 9.50, up only a negligible amount from two weeks hence.

Top 100 Players
Cakewalk : 0
Easy : 0
Simple : 0
Beginner : 3
Normal : 5
Challenging: 5
Tough : 3
Painful : 4
Crippling :22
Masochistic:58
Toughness : 8.98 compared to 8.86. Due to improvements in mid-difficulty players.

Lo! There now be three anti-masos in the top 25: Alex Ascendant, Aldar, and Admiral Mayito7777.

The Meta Senate is still holding steady at 58 to 42, Masos favor.

Orphans: 26 out of 100.

With that, I take my leave. It is time to skulk around some dark passages for a small bit.

I'm not sure what this bug is but I survive Maso without it.

It's been fixed anyway.

The bug was that giving a gift of 1 influence point would often improve relations.

It was the week before Christmas
And the Spymaster is still gone.

Travelling, visiting, reflecting,
Nearly oblivious to what else is going on.

The Meta is surely a busy place while Gerakken is away.
But he will not return until soon after New Year's Day.

Twas weeks after New Year's
And Everyone Missed

Gerakken's humor and wit
Was he out getting pissed?

This ode to the Spymaster
Is not very good

Please come and report to us
Like a Spymaster should

Couple of days ago I was checking this tread and wondered where is the Spymaster the great Gerakken??? (:(