Hmmm maybe they introduced a weighting system as you suggested Staffa, with the old games getting less weight. That would fit. It seem's the more games I play and score big, the more it's boosting me.



Quite correct.

Gibbie: Once G.R.O.S.S. always G.R.O.S.S. You can take the pirate off the sea, but you can't take the sea off the pirate. It's where you belong. With your Mateys. Argggh.

Not much of a "fellowship" if there's ranks, right?

Interesting find, Staffa. I'm curious if something was yet-again tweaked: it DOES seem that scores in general have risen dramatically as of late.

Hey Gibbie,

We would love to have your participation especially seeing how you had been such a great supporter of our previous Council project. And I'm personally grateful to you and Ralegh for having seen through one idea.

However, the Fellowship does not have "senators". "Senators" are admins and there will only be one admin which is myself or another when I retire.

Feel free though to dream up a powerful character for yourself in our Fellowship MMORPG though

Hey folks,

I hate to clutter the board with yet another Metaverse post. Nonetheless, I will do so.

Frogboy has made it clear he won't change the Metaverse. Why don't we just make a new ladder on someone's web site, using the information available on the Metaverse ladder? Only people who opted in, and maybe who qualified by getting into the Metaverse top 100 or something, would be included--otherwise it would become huge and unmanageable.

We have game difficulty, victory type, and size, and really I think that's all we need. Just assign a point value to each map type, size, and difficulty (and maybe victory condition?) and as long as the numbers make sense we've got a much better system than the Metaverse.

The nice thing about it is that Stardock handles all the verification and posts the game information through the Metaverse. We would just take that information, toss their score and assign our own score. So no one would have to go around checking saved games or anything.

Hmm... maybe whoever put this online could make a simple web form for people to submit their own games. It would just be on the honor system, but since all the information would be checkable on the Metaverse anyone who cheated too blatantly would be caught by other interested users. Then the whole thing would run fully automatically except for occasional deletion of the accounts of abusers.

*Tenatively nods and agrees*

I am up far past my bedtime so I'll have to relook and see if this all makes sense to me later.

By writing the strategy guide Gibbie has become a powerful influence resource here. Having GOTM manager Michael Casey and strategy guide writer Gibbie99 would put the Fellowship well on the way to a cultural victory in the Metaverse.

Too bad the Metaverse doesn't give the full score for cultural conquests =(

Seriously though, anyone who's shown the dedication to the game that you have would be most welcome.

Umm .. .

Holy Cow.

Welcome Richard, I hope you realize you just made the Fellowship jump 2 places ... Yikes.

To be honest I was looking at those two spots as a definite possibility soon, but geez.

In any case, please feel free to add yourself to our story, or babble with more coherency than I manage to

And the Fellowship is now part of the Half Million Club!

Seems like our recent recruitment blitz is paying dividends.

And passing the Undead deserves a fitting MMORPG story. Maybe even an encounter with the Lich King himself. As Zoshan would say, are there any orators here?

[Message Edited]
[Message Edited]

A Fellowship in Action

Fellowship Halls were unusually empty these days. Ray had recruited some excellent minds and able bodies for the task of protecting the surrounding lands. At the beginning, the initiates were greeted by the entire Fellowship. Long exchanges were frequent as the guest and the members of fellowship sized each other up. Lately the Fellowship was busy training to maintain strength comparable to the large empires on its borders. New recruits joined barely without a greeting and hastened to their assignments shortly thereafter.

Most members left for their training ground at the break of dawn and returned after dusk. Some members were given missions to tour the surrounding empires for a show of strength and a guise for espionage. Ray left for the White City to challenge prominent warriors for the title of the most powerful in Meta. Passing travelers at the Prancing Pony have said that the Fellowship packs a mean punch for its size. Certainly if anyone thought that the Fellowship could be trifled with, they kept that thought to themselves.

The Fellowship received its newest recruit. Gengsta walked down the east tower to greet the man. The new recruit was Michael Casey, an expert trainer of men and famous for his monthly challenges. Gengsta had just completed the latest challenge and acquired several new skills, one of which was pounding an enemy with the staff until they became submissive enough to ally. Gengsta wanted to learn more from Michael's challenges, but there was a touring assignment awaiting him. With an exchange of greetings, Gengsta took leave and headed out the door.

The Assignment

Gengsta headed south along the Ancient Animal Avenue. His first destination was the Land of the Southern Cross. Ray had ordered an immediate dispatch to that empire because there seemed to be trouble brewing. Hush whispers and unbelievable rumors from the pirates indicated several citizens were seeking to 'mutiny' and to form their own empire. Gengsta expected something entirely different.

Most visitors to the Land of the Southern Cross characterized the citizens there as noble creatures. Gengsta had heard many peoples described with such words. The strange thing about the these citizens was that there was as much emphasis on 'noble' as on 'creatures'. What were these citizens, animals?

A Land of Change

When Gengsta finally arrived at Land of the Southern Cross - actually I shouldn't say finally; wizards have the ability to walk very quickly - he noticed a small furry creature watching him from the trees. According to his knowlegde of animal lore, this particular furry animal looked like a koala. The difference was that its seedy green eyes betrayed an inkling of intelligence and its unkept furry hair emitted a noxious odor of beer and feces. Gengsta covered up his nose and continued towards the capitol. He didn't have any time to waste on some disgusting little tree dweller.

The koala followed Gengsta towards the capitol, easily keeping up with the wizard's quick gait. Of course, the creature accomplished this feat with little or no consideration for stealth. The occassional voracious munching of eucalyptus leaves and the overpowering stench were dead giveaways to its presence. As Gengsta neared the gates of the capitol, the creature picked up its pace, jumping from one tree to the next in rapid succession. When Gengsta arrived at the gates, the koala was waiting for him and unlatched the entrance without a word.

Gengsta nodded to the koala in recognition of its services and proceeded to the long hallway. There he was greated by a stockly little bearlike animal. Again drawing from his knowledge of animal lore, Gengsta identified the creature as a wombat - maybe the rumors of sentient animals in the Land of the Southern Cross were true. The wombat wordlessly lead Gengsta to the second gate where a human finally appeared and welcomed him to the capitol.

"Welcome to the headquarters of ANZACs. I am Slitherin, the guard of the inner halls. Except for a few characters, our halls have been very quiet, so you may not find the one to answer your questions."

With that Sliterin lead Gengsta down the long winding hallways, up, down, around, in circles, zig-zagging until finally the tunnels emptied into a large cavenous room filled with interesting topological features. The entire room was about 350 yards long and 100 yards wide. The ceiling was about 100 yard up and there were many large holes that spilled sunlight across everything. In the center of the room, 100 yards away, there was a huge artificial ditch spanning the entire width of the room. The ditch was 17 yards wide. The depth of the ditch was difficult to determine since the contained quite a bit of water. At the center, a small wooden bridge crossed over the ditch, and on top of this bridge sat a large regal throne. In the throne sat an old man with quite a few warts. From the opening of the tunnel to the bridge, there was a barren gravel path about three yards wide. On both sides of the path, the terrain was very different. Most of the room to both sides was a grassy mead, and there were hundreds of sheep rat-packed into the confined area. Occassionally large rocky masses rose as much as twenty feet over the grass and made it impossible to walk.

The terrain on the other side of the ditch was drastically different. Most of the room was a barren dirt, but the patches closest to the ditch spawned very lush vegetation and dense eucalyptus trees. Many of the trees harbored koalas, but most of them were sleeping the day off and could not be seen. Beyond the large area of barren dirt, on the wall at the back of the room, there were fourty large leathery pouches - large enough to hold a full grown man. Gengsta was about to walk up to the old man at the center when Slitherin grabbed his hand and stopped him.

"The Emperor no longer speaks. We are not clear whether he hears, either. If you have any questions, feel free to ask the citizens around here. Wander around and you should find them working dilligently in the various parts of the room. Everyone is busy, so I am afraid we cannot entertain you continuously. I must return to my post, now."

The man walked back to the tunnels and left Gengsta alone in the large room. What the man had said was very true. The Emperor sitting in the regal throne had fallen mute and showed no signs of hearing the sounds reverberating around him. Gengsta wondered who was making the ANZAC capitol run since the Emperor seemed to have absolved himself of all responsibility at this point. His gaze fell upon two little creatures and a man at the back of the room next to the large pouches. He walked over to see what they were discussing and planning. When Gengsta neared the three creatures, he recognized two of them as the koala and the wombat. The man was unfamiliar to Gengsta but he would soon find out his identity.

"So what is our plan?" asked the man.
"We are going to return to these pouches and become superheroes."
"You are sure this works right?"
"As sure as I am a wombat."
"Ok, then I, Bakka will do this."
"Alright we have to pick superheroes."
"I want to be a fireman, Wild Wombat."
"Just remember to give yourself super powers. Drop Bear, what are you going to be?"
"Actually I change my mind, but I know what I want to be!"
"And you?"
"I want to be a koala!"
"You are a koala."
"Then, I want to be koala feces. I'll set off the pirates' feces detector every single time."
"You already do. You stink like no other."

At this the Drop Bear started to cry and showered the other two with his tears. During his many exploits into pirate territory, Drop Bear had gotten use to appearing cute and cuddly in front of all the pirate ladies. It had become a tool that he could use to get his way and it was very reliable - at least when there were ladies around.

"Hey, hey! Get back to business here. And stop crying, you big baby!"
"Anybody have an idea for our name."
"I thought we already decided this."
"Yeah, we decided on Dropping Bear Bottles."
"Stop it, Drop Bear. We decided on Freedom Force."
"Yeah, you decided on that. We only agreed."
"I'm going to be wombat, a super wombat."
'Since we are all set, let's transform."
"You mean climb back into our pouch and suck on a teet for seven months?"
"Exactly! Although it should take more than seven hours."
"What! I want seven month!"
"Get in, Drop Bear."

This was certainly an interesting phenomenon. Gengsta stayed by the pouches watching and waiting for the seven hours necessary or complete transformation. Sure enough, seven hours after climbing into their pouches, the three characters were ejected back out. Gengsta noticed nothing different about the characters. They looked the same as they before. Drop Bears was more cute than ever. Wild Wombat had more rage in his eyes than before. And Bakka gained the air of a superhero but not much else. Ray would be pleased to hear this news. The citizens of the Land of the Southern Cross were 'transforming' themselves by entering the pouches but they were not being corrupted by any dark powers or threatening to wield the dark arts.

To his surprise, the three superheroes darted with lightning quickness out of the room and yelled a tremoring "Freedom Force!" through the halls. Maybe the superheroes shouldn't be trifled with after all, but Gengsta had finished inspecting the Land of the Southern Cross and headed over to his next destination, the pirate cove of GROsS bay and his mission was to determine the identity of the GROSS spymaster and the size of his information gathering network.

[Message Edited]

I would like to give a big welcome to the newest members of the Fellowship:

Bombashaman
Terrill
Michael Casey
Richard Heaton

Do join us in our discussions.

Good one, Gengsta!

There are just some many things happening in Meta now. It's a paradise for all writers and orators. My prophetic powers foretell more earth-shattering events to come. So Fellowship members must remain vigilant.

Don't forgot about CariElf, guys. She is still waiting for some brave soul to continue her quest.

Nice writing Gengsta!

Welcome to everyone.

Terrill--is that name from the Cenotaph Road series? It's good to see more fantasy buffs here.

"To his surprise, the three superheroes darted with lightning quickness out of the room and yelled a tremoring "Freedom Force!" through the halls."

I was just thinking it would have been good if they have yelled "Freeeeddddommm!!"

You could use a Guest Book, Those allow you to create questions and delete posts.

The Pirate Ship

Gengsta walked onto the shores of GROSS bay dressed as a young man heading home to see his family. His staff was carefully reshaped into a concealable wooden rod. His robes were left at the house of several kind peasants at the foot of the Blue Mountains. When the pirates found him walking by the sea, they readily took the bait, bound him and took him to their ship. There were five other prisoners onboard with him, and one of these five was the Drop Bear of the Freedom Force. The other four appeared to be unfortunate peasants from the surrounding lands. The six of them were tied securely to mast with little freedom to move around. They were, however, free to talk amongst themselves and observe the activities of the pirates on the deck.

Several pirates were raising the sails into the sky. A couple were securing the riggings. One pirate was at the helm guiding the ship out to sea. One pirate brought out the Jolly Roger and prepared to raise it into the sky. Many pirates were swabbing the deck and clearing off all the disgusting puke strewn about. Others were swabbing the holo deck and clearing the device of stale beer. The cook was making dinner and the quartermaster was carrying up the finest stale ale for consumption.

Long before the other pirates were finished toiling five pirates stopped working and started talking. These five were among the biggest names at GROSS and earned their posts because of their tremedous contributions. Naturally the spymaster would have to be among these five big fishes. Gengsta recognized several of them.
He had seen Pontius several times before. Now if there was a captain that loves to hear himself talk, Pontius was it. Naturally, Pontius was not the skilled spymaster since he never stopped to listen. Sitting next to Pontius was the fearsome warrior, Staffa. Staffa was the most famous name in Meta and had the most recognizable face in Meta. Because everyone recognized him so readily, Gengsta eliminated Staffa as a possibility as well. Next to Staffa was EBZ, another fearsome warrior. Gengsta decided to eliminate him for the same reason. EBZ was just too recognizable to slip around spying on other empires.
The other two pirates were named KitWarrior and Gerakkan. Gengsta was not familiar with either, but he was confident that he could eliminate one of the two as a possibility during the ensuing conversation and be left with the spymaster. Sure enough he was correct. KitWarrior showed his wild tendencies very early during in the conversation and often exploded at the slightest comments about his character. How would he take it when he heard the people at MWC name his pirate clan the number one menace to Meta? Gerakkan remained calm and cool throughout the conversation. In fact sometimes the other four pirates forgot that he was even there. What a useful skill to a spymaster.

Having determined the spymaster, Gengsta listened in to determine the reach of his spy network. Gengsta listened to every exchange, watched for every expression, and looked for other methods of communication, but he could not determine the depth of intelligence infiltration of every major empire. From what he was hearing and seeing, the reach of the spymaster was beyond comprehension. He seemed to know everything Pontius and the others wanted to know, but hinted at various times that what he was revealing was only the tip of the iceberg. This was disturbing news and Ray would probably send many members to tighten up its security around Fellowship Halls. But those tasks would be for another day. Gengsta had to figure out how to extricate himself from capture.

The pirates were very vigilant about escaping prisoners especially before dinner. After all, losing a prisoner often meant losing dinner for the pirate in charge. Thus Gengsta did not have a chance before dinner. He waited patiently with the other prisoners bound nice and tightly to the main mast of the pirate ship. Then Gengsta remembered the pirate ritual of walking the plank and realized that he would be in no danger. Guarenteed safety, Gengsta returned to pay full attention to the crazy antics of the pirates around him.

The rest of the pirates had finished their work and geared up for a evening of festivities. Gengsta pondered the foolishness of these pirates. Didn't anyone tell them drinking and sailing was a dangerous business? What would happen when the ship sailed into a storm or was blown off course into a reef? At best, GROSS might escape with losing half its crew. At worse, all forty pirates would perish. There was not any other time, Gengsta wished the pirates would just hurry up with their stupid walking the plank ritual.

What happened next was nothing anyone could have expected. Right before the opening toast was to be made by Pontius, Mrs. Pilot charged onto the deck of the ship from the lower cabins, grabbed a saber sitting next to the entrance and broke the bonds tying Drop Bear to the mast. Mrs. Pilot then proceeded to slash every keg of ale the pirates had just brought up from the hold - all nicely lined up next to each other on the deck. Everyone stared at the scene. None of the pirates dared to do anything - after all it was Mrs. Pilot. Pontius didn't dare do anything either - after all it was Mrs. Pilot. All of them just watched as beer flooded across the recently swabbed deck and spilled over the recently swabbed holo deck and they watched as Mrs. Pilot picked up Drop Bear and charged back into the lower decks.

The ensuing five minutes were total chaos. Some pirates scrambled to drink up the ale from the deck. Some attempted to empty their full skein and ladle some from the floor. The general reaction was a deafening weeping from the majority of the pirates. Many started fighting each other for full skeins. Some charged over to Pontius and demanded an explanation. A few held their cool long enough to get smashed in the head with a wooden plank.

The ferocious fighting was ended about three minutes later when Gerakkan yelled from the entrance to the lower cabins, "Don't we have a hundred more kegs in the hold?"
The pirates looked at each other puzzled for a minute and realized he was right. All them then proceeded to trample over Gerakkan on their way to the hold.

Many pirates had been bloodied from the fierce fighting, but it wasn't anything alcohol couldn't take care of. Every pirate that went into the hold carried back an entire keg of ale. Pontius determined to show his mateys that he was still in control decided that he would attempt to kill a keg by himself. The pirates cheered as the sea captain slowly but steadily drained a keg of its contents. The effect, of course, was quite the opposite of the intent. Not only did Pontius lack control over everyone else was doing on the ship, he also lacked control over his own actions. After about half an hour of not comprehending anything that was happening, the sea captain went to his quarters and passed out.

Meanwhile on the deck of the ship, the pirates continued to carouse as heartily as ever. They started bringing the prisoners up to the plank to make them walk. Stealthfrequency, the one holding the rapier, was quite drunk and could not balance himself on the plank well enough to prod the prisoners into jumping. Two prisoners ended up languishing on the very edge of the plank contemplating their choices for minutes on end before finally taking the plunge. Gengsta was the fourth one brought to the plank and Stealthfrequency was in no better condition than before. However, Gengsta was very quick about his ordeal. He walked to the end of the plank, and ... floated on the air. A couple pirates looked over, rubbed their eyes, and deemed themselves too drunk to continue. Stealthfrequency was not convinced proceeded to walk the plank on his own volition. Others screamed ghost and ran to hide themselves in their covers and pirate pajamas. Many started fighting each other for any weapon they could find. A few held their cool long enough to be trampled by the crowd of fearful pirates.

Anyways Gengsta grabbed the three prisoners and Stealthfrequency from the waters and deposited on the deck, before he left for his next mission, the inspection of the MWC empire.

An alternate Metaverse is certainly a good idea, vincible.

My suggestions for the map size and difficulty weightings (keeping it simple) :

Tiny x1.0
Small x1.5
Medium x2.0
Large x2.5
Huge x3.0
Gigantic x3.5

Calkwalk x0.1
Easy x0.25
Beginner x0.5
Simple x0.75
Normal x1.0
Challenging x1.5
Tough x2.0
Painful x2.5
Crippling x3
Maso x6

Of course, this would be a simplistic ranking model which does not take abundancy and speed to victory, etc.

I personally don't have a problem throwing out pop, tech, econ and victory conditions from the scoring.

Out of Place

In Meta, one of the most absurd empires would have to be the Mid-West Confederation Empire. It was not Mid-West. The empire was situated in the northwest corner. Maybe they should have called it Northwestern empire. The "Confederation Empire" bit manages to confound everyone who sees it. In fact the two words by definition are mutually exclusive. Confederation suggests a loose decentralized government. Empire, on the other hand, means centralized government. However, Gengsta did not want to bicker with their simple scholars about the problems with their simple name. He was here on a tour de force to show off the new power that had come to join the Fellowship.

Gengsta walked up to the sea-faring ship located at a dry-dock thousands of miles from any ocean. The Mid-Western empire had called their ship The Manifest Destiny. It didn't make any sense. The ship certainly wasn't going to manifest its destiny by parking itself in a dry dock. And what were these land-lubbers doing with a ship in their possession anyways?

Gengsta walked up and met all the big names at the MWC: Plephart, Zoshan, Idleprocess, Kryofx, Surther. The only thing that seemed more glaring than their non-sequitirs was their hatred of the band of GROSS pirates. Their entire band shook their fist viciously as Surther gave a speech to rouse the farmers into action against the 'scourge' that was GROSS.

If Gengsta remembered Meta history correctly, at one point, these two Empires had very good relations with each other. The relations were so good that the two leaders were considering a merger. What happened to that friendly atmosphere? Only a careful examination of history would reveal that the two empire had more than their share of imprudent hotheads that escalated simple disagreements into inter-empire shouting matches.

And there was that bit when the pirates sold the Manifest Destiny to the MWC for a hefty hefty price. So far the only application that the MWC has found for its huge expenditure is to serve as the immovable headquarters - a very cramped one at best.

Gengsta was done with the Mid-West Confederation. Aside from the occassional outburst against GROSS, the MWC was powerful but quiet and uninteresting. They conducted their business primarily on private channels and in their little northwest corner of the Meta. It was time for him to return to Fellowship Halls. He needed to give Ray an excellent report of his observations and probably leave on another mission.

There were tons more to come, Ray.

Halt!!! Gengsta turned around. But Pontius, you were uh uh drunk I saw. No Gengsta, you saw what you wanted to see. My keg was full of water. Poof, Gengsta tries to throw down his transport magic powder. Bwahahahahahha, Magic Dampening field son. Now Back down to the brig with you spy. It's the Dr. Quinn Marathon for you. Tonight's Brig supper is Liver and Onions, with Brussel's sprouts. But Don't worry. You can always catch a whiff of the nice barbeque we're serving in the galley. Ray always pays the wine ransom within 3 or 4 shows.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Sheesh play anight of Fallout tactics and I am three pages behind on the list.

I like the idea of maintaining our own top 100 list very much if it was more reflective of skill and we got it working would be funny as hell. Strat First would be crazy not to adopt our model then!

I like Rays parameters and would like to add the following: Score should be the cumuluative total of all points after weighting by map size and difficulty. (and otehr factors if decided). DO NOT MAKE THE SCORE SOME KIND OF AVERAGE OR SQUARE ROOT. by making teh score a cumulative total even the loss game where you get 200 points will help your score rather than hinder it. This will encourage players to submit ALL games not just cherry pick them. That would make the metaverse much richer IMHO.

I think we need to decide a weighting method for teh victories that makes sense. This will require some debate because I think the consenses is that all roads are not equal.

a) Is cultural victory way to easy like everyone says? now here's the key HOW MUCH easier is it on any given map size?

Military victory IMHO is not always the hardest victory and should not always get the highest ranking. On my last huge map I could have had a military victory *much* sooner than tech victory, but I stuck out to tech victory to see the ending graphic and watched my score get hosed.

c) Some people say tech victory is too easy on larger maps. Maps it should have a negative multiplier on large maps but a positive on smaller?

d) Hmm Alliance victory...not sure how to classify that one so many variables there.

One other possibly multiplier Ray mentioned was timing. While it is fun to empire build, I have to say the faster you win the game generallyu the more skill you have. So I think we should make an inverse multiplier for that based on finish date...

Wow. If I had known that this thread was going on here, I wouldn't have posted my other thread on scoring systems. Anyway, I am the newest member of the empire, and hello to all.

Personally I think that your score should be based on the number of turns it took you to win, compared to the (1) size of the galaxy (2) victory type and (3) difficulty. Use metaverse data to average out the victory types so none of them has an advantage over the others for sure. Probably do the same thing for size and difficulty, though I can see where somebody might want to allow higher scores for size or certainly for difficulty (even though the scoring would then no longer reflect skill). Then only each player's highest score counts, or maybe his highest score for each victory type or something. You should not be able to make up for quality by way of quantity. *Cough* *cough* not that I would know anything about that.

-Drake

~SDC~

BTW, I am dying to see what effect my joining of the empire has on the galactic map after the daily update. Before I joined we were at 447705.9 and controlled 11% of the galaxy. Oh, the suspense!

-Drake

~SDC~

Welcome to the Fellowship Halls, Richard.

Yes, you really made an impact with your arrival.

Alright guys, I preparing another segment for our MMORPG and would like to write as many of you in as possible. Do share with me your favoured character's race and class. So far the Fellowship is lacking in Fighters and Thieves.

Current characters:

Fellowship
Ray the Wanderer, Human Wizard
Gengsta, Human Wizard
vincible, Human Wizard
philopoemen, Elven Wizard
Theleb, Human Druid
H50, Halfling Alchemist

NPCs
CariElf, Half-Elven Cleric

That's a really intesting idea, vincible. And, actually, the whole thing could be automated--we might not even need the web forms, since everything we need out there is right on the web. Well, I guess we'd need the Metaverse Account ID of everyone who opted in to the system.

Makes me wish I knew something about programming.

Hmm.. Thinking over this I have... hmm.. In, me you should write!

Name: Yoda
Race: Gherkin Jedi
Reason for being: Joins you because he feels you are mindful of the force...