Neptune's Pride, free browser-based MoO/Spaceward Ho geared toward Diplomacy

TheWanderer wrote:

Just an FYI: Apparently your fleets in FTL can benefit from advances in speed. That's right, your engines get upgraded while you are in a wormhole.

That sucks.

I don't know...I think its kind of cool

d3p0 wrote:

I can't wait to hear what sort of scheming was going on down south. I'm dpad in our game btw and I'll be glad to recount my view of what took place.

Overall I had a great time until we arrived at the tedious end game (made even more annoying by checkm8). Despite cries for a symmetrical layout, I think the game was very balanced. No one had a lead that wasn't because of their planning and no one conquered anyone without help or backstabbery. Some things I learned: economy and scanning are key for the early game, range and industry are key for the mid game and in the end game, a lot can be solved with a large club (ie: flood their cannons with our dead ships).

LOL don't hate on me because I'm a little curious what the north side of the galaxy looks like!
Besides, those are Copingsaw's tactics except he executes them a million times better.

Things I'll take with me in a (possible) future game:

Make immediate contact with your neighbors and those on the opposite side of the galaxy. If possible, establish boundaries with your neighbors, obtain scouting intel of them by others who share their borders (perhaps spread false rumors), and it's best to exchange more threatening tech (i.e. weapons) with those who are further away from you.

I also liked how Dpad made his push into the south by sending his fleet in calculating waves to prevent the opposition from making a huge range jump past his fleet and into undefended territories.

For those who participated in our game, I'm curious how often you guys logged on. There were plenty of key moments where I wasn't around to log on at the right time to see where my fleet should jump next. Glad the game is now over or else I'd be worrying about my empire next week since I'll be out of the country

Hypatian wrote:

I dunno, you might be surprised if I get all of the messages together. I'm actually pretty honorable and straightforward. I think the most underhanded thing I did in this game was decide to go after DF7 during the Great Patriotic War Against Copingsaw... and that was mainly because Copingsaw was stomping all over him and I didn't see any way for him to recover. So: "Better that I take over these systems before Copingsaw gets them and use their resources to fight him than to let Copingsaw grab them and use them to stay alive."

I guess double-crossing me doesn't count as underhanded?

Had I known you would be able to talk check-m8 into making what I considered a poor strategic decision, I would have gone at you full force when I had you on the ropes. Instead, I decided that I could wipe yellow out all by myself and keep a sizable force on your border to hold you off until I had the muscle to wipe you out too. Unfortunately, getting check-m8 to support your cause was the death of me and I give you lots of credit for being a better diplomat than I was. You earned your victory over me.

Had I been check-m8, I would have gone after dark blue with a vengeance. It would have weakened him for a while but with no credible enemy on his border, he would have recovered and been able to challenge DPad.

Pfft. Here's my communication with you:

NP Messages wrote:

Yellow

2010-04-25 10:05 Copingsaw -> Hypatian

Yellow is weak but he is a danger to both our flanks. I would like to suggest that it would be in both our interests to take him out ... you from the right and me from the left. Until he is wiped out we declare a truce along our border.

Thoughts?

2010-04-25 14:53 Hypatian -> Copingsaw

I can support this--if you're willing to move that fleet out of Canopus.

I would be happier if you were willing to give up Merope and Zavijava (particularly Merope, however), since they are entirely too near my core systems for me to be comfortable. But I understand that you might not wish to do that.

So: I will agree that yellow should be dealt with and begin engaging his systems--but as long as you have a threatening force and systems near my core, I will maintain a defensive fleet and take whatever actions I deem necessary to protect my borders.

2010-04-25 23:21 Copingsaw -> Hypatian

I have never once attacked you and have not moved my forces to Merope. If I had aggressive intentions, I certainly would have done so after you attacked me. Also keep in mind that if you had those stars you would be but one jump from my capital so it goes both ways.

In any case, I am moving my Canopus fleet back to Navi to protect from any counterattack from Yellow. I have a large fleet that will soon be on the way to Ashlesha. I'm sure he will scream bloody murder within the next 24 hours. The door should be open for you through Alrischa at that point.

I'll note: "[A]s long as you have a threatening force and systems near my core, I will maintain a defensive fleet and take whatever actions I deem necessary to protect my borders." I did.

I also didn't let you sit around for long before attacking--I believe I attacked you within the next 24 hours after that last message. (Ahh, yes. I definitely did. Your "Infamy" message was at 09:56 the next day.)

So I let you imagine that I would ally with you, while warning you that I was going to do whatever necessary to get you out of the area near my home star system, for less than a day. Then I attacked your systems in the area near my home star system.

Yes. I am a horrible back-stabber. ;>

d3p0 wrote:

Despite cries for a symmetrical layout, I think the game was very balanced. No one had a lead that wasn't because of their planning and no one conquered anyone without help or backstabbery.

Actually, gwartok was well on his way out before he turned AI, without any help or backstabbery. That's simply because he had four nearby aggressive neighbors, and not much in the way of natural borders with any of them.

On my part, the biggest complaint I have with the non-symmetrical setup is that while I had a similar number of systems to other people in my area, it took me about twice as long to collect ships from it, just because all of my best planets were so far out from my core worlds. The only thing that kept me alive long enough to organize a sort of local collective is the fact that checkm8 and I played nicey-nice with each other from the very beginning, and I had some pretty large gaps between me and Copingsaw.

Basically, I think that in a game that is so fundamentally focused on diplomacy, it's best to throw the dice out entirely. Don't make people hope that before the game starts that they're not going to be the guy surrounded by everyone else, or worry afterwards (and before they have decent sensor tech) that they've expanded in the wrong direction because all they're finding is systems with crap resources.

checkm-8 wrote:

Things I'll take with me in a (possible) future game:

Make immediate contact with your neighbors and those on the opposite side of the galaxy. If possible, establish boundaries with your neighbors, obtain scouting intel of them by others who share their borders (perhaps spread false rumors), and it's best to exchange more threatening tech (i.e. weapons) with those who are further away from you.

I also liked how Dpad made his push into the south by sending his fleet in calculating waves to prevent the opposition from making a huge range jump past his fleet and into undefended territories.

For those who participated in our game, I'm curious how often you guys logged on. There were plenty of key moments where I wasn't around to log on at the right time to see where my fleet should jump next. Glad the game is now over or else I'd be worrying about my empire next week since I'll be out of the country :D

Good tips.

During the heat of things, I was logging on five or six times a day for a minute or two at a time just to adjust my fleets as necessary. When things weren't so involved, two or three times a day.

Wow, stuff is getting ugly in our game. The long-time leader Latrine got gangbanged. Fedora missed the start, inflated like a pufferfish and immediatly got beaten into a bloody pulp. Iumogg got the shaft pretty early on too and now everybody's favorite corner-dweller Hubbinsd went out without a bang. We had a seemingly slow start, but this is just awesome.

Luggage wrote:

Latrine got gangbanged.

I hate this game so much.

I'm waiting for Iumogg to take his last 300 ship fleet and strike at someone out of pure spite.

The most fun thing to do with your last big fleet is just skip from one lightly defended star belonging to an enemy to another, I did that with a few fleets in the last GWJ game I played. I'm not too sure what the results were but I'm sure it was annoying.

Or wait till an opponent is in a jump to a star and then take it over just before they get there so their fleets smash against yours, preferably a star with a high industry rating so your fleets get replenished.

IUMogg wrote:

New game. 12 players, symmetrical map. One spot is saved for Senkrad. If you are going to take the 12th spot and he isn't in, please save the spot for him. thanks

http://np.ironhelmet.com/detail?game...

password is gwj

Lord Mars has entered the game. It's my first, so be gentle. I've read the entire thread and tutorial, but still a no0bie.

It's okay Mars, we'll be gentle...

*edit*

Still need 3 more players.

Jumped in as Inago. I've been wanting to try this out, but haven't had a chance. It reminds me of Stars, if anyone remembers that old game.

Latrine wrote:
Luggage wrote:

Latrine got gangbanged.

I hate this game so much.

I was doing pretty well early on too, but then I decided to lay low to not become everyone's favorite enemy.

It's crazy to see how fast an empire can go BOOM when two or three people decide it is ripe for picking...

It's crazy to see how fast an empire can go BOOM when two or three people decide it is ripe for picking...

And then how quickly the tide turns when an outside force jumps into the war.

We need two more people to get the game going.

Can someone explain to me what the virtues of fleet stacking are? I see a lot of people in private games that just load certain planets up with a dozen 1 ship fleets.

Certis wrote:

I'm waiting for Iumogg to take his last 300 ship fleet and strike at someone out of pure spite.

I'm hoping to just build ships at my last planet for days until everyone forgets about me, and then play king maker by attacking one of the last people left at a pivotal moment during the end game.

Also, 2 spots left in the latest game. Symmetrical map, 12 players total.

http://np.ironhelmet.com/detail?game...

password is gwj

I'd like to give it a go. Are either of the two remaining slots reserved or is it cool if I jump in

Radical Ans wrote:

I'd like to give it a go. Are either of the two remaining slots reserved or is it cool if I jump in

They are both open. Jump in

done and done

Huh, I managed to join even though I'm in 2 games already. Maybe because I'm wiped out of one of them?

Somewhat regretting it now though, that maps looks painful.

Luggage wrote:

Can someone explain to me what the virtues of fleet stacking are? I see a lot of people in private games that just load certain planets up with a dozen 1 ship fleets.

As far as I can tell, either that's the wrong thing to do or a brilliant thing to do. My understanding of combat is that the number of fleet carriers doesn't matter. So if you have 4 carriers on one star with 50 ships total and are attacked by a single carrier with 100 ships, given a reasonable weapon skill for both players you will lose all your carriers. That's $100 down the hole.

On the other hand, if carriers do effect combat and you get extra attacks for each carrier then having a lot of carriers greatly increases the damage of the defenders. However I doubt this is the case because I couldn't find it anywhere in the documentation and it would heavily unbalance the game in favor of defenders. But it would explain the one time I saw a weird glitch where I won a fight I shouldn't have against Firesloth.

Latrine wrote:
Luggage wrote:

Can someone explain to me what the virtues of fleet stacking are? I see a lot of people in private games that just load certain planets up with a dozen 1 ship fleets.

As far as I can tell, either that's the wrong thing to do or a brilliant thing to do. My understanding of combat is that the number of fleet carriers doesn't matter. So if you have 4 carriers on one star with 50 ships total and are attacked by a single carrier with 100 ships, given a reasonable weapon skill for both players you will lose all your carriers. That's $100 down the hole.

On the other hand, if carriers do effect combat and you get extra attacks for each carrier then having a lot of carriers greatly increases the damage of the defenders. However I doubt this is the case because I couldn't find it anywhere in the documentation and it would heavily unbalance the game in favor of defenders. But it would explain the one time I saw a weird glitch where I won a fight I shouldn't have against Firesloth.

I don't think it's a strategy. I've moved all my fleets into one carrier before and ended up with 9 lone carriers on one planet. It was annoying me so I ended up sending them out to be destroyed, I wasn't in the mood for shuttling at that point.

And we're rolling. This looks like it's going to be interesting.

So, is it better to spend all your $$$ each turn or save it up for special purchases?

I usually hang on to about 100-150 to in case I need to make a tech transfer or build a couple of carriers and spend the rest.

The sooner you upgrade industry the sooner it starts producing ships for you, science upgrades start working immediately too. Economy only takes effect at the end of a turn, so it's worth it (imo) to log on before the turn ends and spend the money you have left over on economy.

Good grief, after getting through two late game periods in the last week starting a new game feels ssslllllooooooowwwwww.........

Yay! The goodjer beat down has ended! Here's my play by play:

I was dpad and pink in our game. Right off the bat I was put on the defensive because of the alliance between the two green players. With no place to expand but down I expected they would work together to take me and pignoli (orange) out. I agreed to non-aggression with pignoli and proceeded expecting to fight the greens.

Pignoli and Rex (light green) started battling it out early on while I was getting cozy with pignoli's west and preparing a sneak attack on jonstock (dark green). By that time I was trading tech with all of the southern players except checkm8 and was preparing to use my tech advantage on jonstock. Then Maq contacted me to discuss splitting pignoli up. I figured if I went to war with jonstock, Maq (who was in a very strong second place) might just take me out too. So, with pignoli already weakened and having an advantage over him, I took him out.

Around that time, jonstock and I had already managed to settle a dispute like gentlemen and agreed to non-aggression and eventual partnering. But I knew his position required him to expand through me so I cut him off and once again prepared for a sneak attack. Meanwhile, I was carefully collecting Maq's resources since he had become AI. I think jonstock figured out that I was not going after Maq aggressively and finally researched enough scanning to see all of my fleets lying in wait.

After the tension of being out of town expecting jonstock to strike at any time, we finally agreed to partner up and move south. Checkm8 (maroon) pulled some really tricky moves but eventually, Jon and I adapted and used our massive fleet strength to crush him. The only piece of the puzzle left was Hypatian (purple) and although jonstock had agreed to take second place I was a little suspicious mainly because I would be vulnerable if I launched an all out attack on hypatian. Finally, I decided to break my ships up into many tiny fleets in order to seal the victory quickly, efficiently and with minimal risk. All went well and I took first, jonstock took second and hypation picked up third.

As was already mentioned, the beginning to mid game was a lot of fun but the game started to wear later on. It was also really stressful and or annoying how invested I was after weeks (!?) of play. It made leaving town, which i did twice during the game, very tense. I emailed the devs about an iPhone version but they seem to be caught in the same delusion as so many others about this whole flash thing. Oh well, until I can take this game on the go I'm done but it was a fantastic experience/experiment for me and I'm glad I did it.

Here's the link to our game: http://np.ironhelmet.com/gameover?ga...