Other Neptune's Pride - 12-Player BT/CPC - Game #1!

Sorry not to make the end more interesting but didn't really have the time/willpower to organise any challenge, 140 planets and $3500 a turn is just a bit tedious to manage....especially as it would likely go on for a long time until his superior economy started to make an effect.

 

economy can be destroyed

http://np.ironhelmet.com/gamestats?game=10558121

 

Wooo i survived, basically on pity.... but i survived!!

 

It's over then? FINALLY!

Anyone care to post a screenschot of final rankings?

 

Sweet, thx.

Ending Credits and Bufo802, you are hereby invited to join the Invitational Game! Let's see what happens if we ride with the titans!

I'm a bit hesitant to extend the same invitation to Krikkit, since there were rumours of him going AI. Did he come back by the end, did he have a good reason going AI?

 

I was still running around, capturing planets etc. right up until the very end, i even managed, all be it briefly, to recapture my home world that was 2.5 light years into enemy territory at that point

I'm sure Ysul must have been most fed up with me by the end

Krikkit went AI, came back, moved a couple of fleets then I believe was on the verge of going AI again, though ending Credits will have better information as he was right in his territory. He definitely didn't spend anything on Economy, Industry or science between him going off AI and the game ending.

Also, Ysul/Bufo, what was the deal with you two, did you have a pre planned 1-2 finish?

 

impressive

You should apply for the invitational man!

 

gratz y'all!

i couldnt muster 3rd place but i still have a couple of stars due to pity!

 

We made an alliance at the start and focused on expanding and defeating our neighbours but towards the end when I could have made it more interesting I didn't have that much time to play and have to admit that I didn't feel like organising a mass attack over such a huge border-spending the daily income was bad enough.

Also due to being behind it economy it would have probably gone on for while until that advantage began to tell, and as krikkit didn't seem to be around I wasn't sure if I would be able to get any allies with a decent number of ships.

 

I was predicting a final battle between me and Bufo from the start but I think we all just wanted the game to end at that point - it was pretty nice how our alliance ran thoughout the entire game. Krikkit wasn't doing a lot at the end of the game apart from moving a few ships around and I met no counter-offense from him apart from the ships that were already there.

It's hard to say who did best oher than me and Bufo: Judoc/Neat was our biggest threat for most of the game but he didn't push out his borders when he should have, Rujak/RedBeaver was quite opportunistic and was booming at one point but he suffered from a poor early game, Cinead and Garfy both crubled under the weight of simultaneous invasions so it's hard to say how they would have fared otherwise, Kirkkit was fairly benign however by the end of the game he was an obvious third place (so a good overall turtling strategy). You can even say Whispy/Journeyer was just a victim of unfortunate circumstance.

 

EC, would you mind handpicking the nessicary people to fill up the invitational, together with Zinfandel who won the other game? It's not really fair, but this game just never is

 

I was hurt by going on holiday - I missed the crucial attacking and star-seizing phase, not to mention being savaged as soon as it put me on AI control.

 

Secret Diary of Ysul the Dweller​

Introduction - 22:47 17/08/2010
I'm not sure how many people will have spotted this by the time I release this, perhaps the reference is too obscure, but Ysul is a character from Scottish Sci-Fi writer Iain M. Bank's (if you haven't read any of his stuff then you really should) latest novel, The Algebraist. Ysul is a Dweller which is a gas giant dwelling - hence the name - race which is categorized as part of 'the slow'. Dwellers are characteristically easy going and slow paced with lifespans streaching into the billions of years, if they survive into adulthood; dwellers ceremonially hunt their young. On a galactic scale Dwellers are generally apathetic to the concerns of 'the quick' and are notoriously difficult to extract information from as they tend to absent minded and finicky, often comeing across as childish and eliteist. This is not to say that they are not militarily capable as their antiquity and general internal secrecy means that they are easily capable of throwing up the odd fleet destroying suprise, rather like an old man well versed in the martial arts.

The reason I chose the Dwellers as my model (actually I probably chose them because I'm reading The Algebraist at the moment and it was the first thing that came to mind) is due to their slow paced nature and deceptive incompetence; as a new player I doubt very much I'd be able to rush in and dominate from the outset so a more slow paced game would suit me better which would give me more time to learn the game. In terms of alliences I want to get into a few alliances where I don't have to trust my ally too much or I can get my fleet in a place to crush them easily. I have no problem with an actual proper mutual alliance but there's 12 players and only one winner in this game and although a strong alliance is a must to get ahead in this game, eventually one side has to betray the other and I'm not planning on being the betrayed.

The last thing I'm going to mention is that I'm going to be naming my fleet after Culture warships which is all based on other works by Iain M Banks (seriously, go order Player of Games, it's a fantastic book) which should seem quite comic which has some strategic value in making me appear more benign although it's more to do with me being lazy and choosing something familiar since I can't remember any of the ship names from The Algebraist and Wikipedia has a large list of culture Ships of which i can actually remember a few names. I've picked a list of the few best ones and I'm going to make some sort of record of every fleet I have as they seem like a nightmare to keep track of otherwise.


Pregame Thoughts - 19:37 18/08/2010
The game will start at an awkward time for me, I've got to collect results tommorow morning, we're going away for the day at the weekend, I've got to practice driving for my test in September and I've got my personal statement to write. This might not sound like a huge amount especially saince I don't have to return to school for 2 weeks but it eats into the slight advantage I have timewise. One thing I was thinking is that I have a massive advantage over my competitors login times since I have internet access at school and regular Electronics and Physics lessons which I can use my netbook fairly easily however it occured to me that many members of Bit work at a computer and I doubt many of them are too afraid to have a little window running the game in the background. I plan to learn the login habits of my fellow players although actually it may be a futile excersize as I'm already risking appearing too serious and devious which is against the "don't worry about me, I'm harmless" nature I want to perfect and the information isn't that important anyway. The main thing I'll have to look out for is the weekend on the 19th which roughly marks the one month mark into the game on which I'm away so I'll have to think a few days in advance for that.

My next task is going to be programming a battle simulator which I plan to run loads of simulations on to get a feel for the combat. I'd like to have already done this but I'm a bit lazy and I hope doing it during the game will encourage me to give more thought to my actions. I'm going to discipline myself to think a few minutes before I make my moves as, other than fleet movements and research, none of your actions take effect until your next payday and even with the afformentioned actions, 5 minutes sooner on the timescale of hours is not worth the 5 minutes less thought although the biggest reason for due thought and care is probably the fact that almost all actions are unreversible.

I've also entered a small free game and my first impression is that research is pretty important. For those in a wide open area of the galaxy, Range is of utmost importance, while for those in a tight cluster, weapons will be key for fending off those who share the area. Speed and Scanners seem more like luxuries however they probably have their own tactical niches and I imagine both are usefull in lategame (especially with the longer distances to travel from the homecluster). The game is starting with level 2 Range and Scanning which is going to be an advantage for those occupying the sparser regions of space. All that said, grabbing as many stars as possible is important in the early game and speed is very usefull at this stage so if I find myself in a highly contested starting position I might just throw everything at getting my speed up and my fleets out there.

For my opening post I'm considering coming across as arrogant to make me look a bit more incompetent and a bit less calculating although if I find myself in a denser region of stars nearer the other players I might have to reconsider this as a strong 2-player or 3-player alliance would porbably win this game and appearing too aggressive may scare other players away. The other issue with this is that the loudest player is going to become the most targeted player (for wars AND alliances) and the former I certainly do not want.


The Opening Titles - 20:46 22/08/2010
(Game started at 19:58 22/08/2010)

So I find myself plonked down in the middle of the game in the south-West quadrant of the galaxy surrounded by 4 other players; this was not the place I wanted to start in. I question the sheer nerve of the RNG to be so biased towards the north of the galaxy and completely shafting those of unfortunate enough to live in negative latitutde. Perhaps the generator is actually a political satirist drawing a parrallel with earth's own economic north/south divide, I don't know. What I do know, however, is that there's some advantage to be wrought from my situation. Two of my neighbours are likely to plough north to the denser clusters of stars leaving feelers to capture the nearest territories south of them. Meanwhile I am sitting in the middle of a small vein of stars which makes a diagonal slash about 3 lightyears long from northwest to southeast, unfortunately one end of this is in the middle of both my other neighbours so my tactics are to race down there immediately and gain what footholds I can; the defence bonus is going to be crucial early game.

As I am typing this I decide to ping off a message about technological trades to one of my northern neighbours, Bufo (Yellow), in the hope of forming an alliance later down the line and then lo-and-behold, I get an message from him in my inbox asking for exactly that. Has my biggest threat just become my strongest asset? This game is getting interesting already...


Day 3 - 09:38 25/08/2010
The third day into the game and already my ally, Bufo, has taken a startling lead, well ahead economically and industrially with a total of 27 stars versus my measly 18. It seems however that he has reached the edge of his limits with 4 more stars to his north unoccupied and a few stars to the east (although, looking at the expanse, he could easily burst out into the far east side of the galaxy). All I can say is that I am glad that he is my ally. On my end of things, I still have a few days to go before I reach my limits with a couple of whispy lines of stars fairly untouchable by anyone but me and a mad dash to secure two vital entry points into and outof my empire. Fortunately, the one to my north seems like it should go uncontested so I can send my fleets to foray into 'Territoire Bleu' although keeping my stars could become an issue. There is also the opportunity to spread into the empires of Cyan and Pink however, currently I have a small agreement with Cyan and if I were to spread southwards, I could not leave my south-east peninsular unguarded as it contains some of the richest stars. So the question becomes, do I fortify my boundaries now, or do I push out and fortify my expanded boundaries? I think I will keep my fleets around for one more turn while I strengthen my economy and then I'll focus on my industry.

Diplomatic relations have continued to have developed and I am in contact with Light-Green and Cyan, in addition to my ally Yellow who reports to be in contact with Dark Red and also, White. Me and Bufo have made plans to chose a third ally to act as a triad so overwhelming that the galaxy will not be able to withstand us. Our other tactic is to try and play off the other factions against each other by diplomacy as well as by attempting to control the flow of technology through the galaxy. It is a complicated tactic but one that could work and I believe that between us we have the tactical finesse to pull it off.


Day 4 - 14:27 26/08/2010
What to say, what to say... Already there is a complicated web of alliances and dealings revolving around me and Bufo. Firstly we have hatched an elaborate plot to "steal" range technology from Dark Red whereas I pretend to plot against Bufo and ask Dark Red for support; he seems to have walked into it with very little persuasion which makes me feel a bit sorry for him, almost like he's a cat and I'm PICKING HIM UP AND PUTTING HIM IN THE BIN (if you would please forgive me for that poor attempt at topical humor). The other things we are looking at is appeasement of Purple in order to obtain information and tech, negotiations with White for tech and a possible alliance and a possible alliance with Cyan.

If I had to rank the Galaxy it would go like this:
1st - Yello (Bufo) - Strong all round, only place anyone bests him is in science.
2nd - Purple (Judoc II/Neat69) - Very close to Garfy except with more stars and military might.
3rd - Cyan (Garfy) - Another good all rounder but clearly inferior to Bufo and is at his borders surrounded by other players.
4th - Red (Ysul/Myself) - Poor industry and terrible military but 2nd best economy and best technology. I also have a lot of very good stars.
5th - White (Phalanx) - Strong tech and decent all round. His extra science makes him look worse than he actually is. I expect him to move up a few places.
6th - Blue (Redsnake77) - Poor tech but stronger military than Phalanx. I hope I can take him down a place with a military conquest of his southern region (no, that is not an innuendo).
7th - Dark Red (Wispy Combover/Journeyer) - Fairly nice stats but his position is rubbish; he's now forced to research range or invade another's territory.
8th - Pink (Murdoc Dearth/sleepygamer) - Poor in everything except industry and his number of ships which is scary. I'm probably most scared of him than anyone else
9th - Dark Green (Cinead Naoise/steveo_mcg) - All rounder with ships slightly under par, pretty boring.
10th - Orange (Krikkit) - For someone I expected to do well he has really underperformed although he has a good military.
11th - Brown (Murrynt) - All rounder with ships slightly under par, pretty boring.
12th - Lime (Rujak/Red Beaver) - Tech is good but very poor industry. Hopefully a sacrifice for pink to feast on.


Day 7 - 21:29 29/08/2010
I start day 7 in first position with 41 stars, a booming economy of 55, strong military capabilities with 358 ships, 11 fleets and 52 industry, technological superiority despite my average science of 7 and, most importantly, a very strong alliance with the 2nd best player. Together we leave the other players in the dust.

Our ploy against Dark Red worked fantastically and now we are 2 of 4 empires who have Level 3 range. The attacks by Yellow have also devastated his economy although he still maintains a 200 strong fleet. In a way this is quite relieving as while I want my ally to do well, ultimately this game is going to come down to the two of us and I plan to come out on top. My war against Blue is going well and I have yet to lose a battle, I think the tally is 5 fleets and 6 planets although this will soon become 6 and 7 if everything goes to plan although a 43 ship fleet on the horizon looks to muddle with things slightly. At the encouragement of my other ally, Cyan, I have also set my fleets into Pink territory although I am very wary of the possibility that he is duping me and I shall follow the exchange of stars in the southern half of the galaxy very closely lest he tries to pull of a similar move to the one between me and Bufo on the star Furud whereas I invaded the unihabited star which we were going to exchange anyway to make it look like we were at war with each other.

In the last 3 days I really have been feeling the strain of the game, particularly the paranoia element. I hate to say this but I have no confidence in my off-green-coloured whatsoever and when I saw a 41 ship fleet arriving at one of our border towns I made a desperate struggle to strengthen up my defences, not only against Cyan, my trusty ally but the ever pressing threat of a Pink invasion. This area is a very lucrative one for me with 6 stars with natural resources over 35 and losing it would be a disaster for my war effort. Fortunately that crisis has abated with a gentleman's agreement to leave no more than 20 or so ships at each of our bordering stars.

The main weakness with my empire as I see it is that it covers such a large area and it takes several days to get from one end to the next. This means that my main source of worry now is the placement of my ships and trying to get all the ships I'm producing to the areas where they are needed which means that my theoretical force of 350 is more like 250 as 100 or so ships are in places where they simply aren't needed. I've come up with a network of trawler ships which take ships from all my outlying stars to where they are needed which is more economical than continually producing fleets.

My attack plans are simple but effective: attack and hold. The defender bonus means that commiting your fleets is always a risky business and the only way you can really lose a fleet of ships is if you attack a star and the enemy sends a fleet while you are in transit (I know how effective this can be as I've used it a couple of times already). My philosophy in this game has been "never lose a battle" and so far I have succeeded. Of course there will always be times where you will send a fleet to take the brunt of an enemy attack or an unwelcome suprise but the basic idea is to only commit to a battle that you can win, no matter what the enemy will throw at you. The upshot of this is that Scanning Tech becomes a godsend - I can currently see as far as most people can jump which gives me a huge edge in holding areas - speed is also useful as you can outrun enemy fleets to a planet and beat them with your defensive bonus and crash their expensive carriers. A tactic I'm trying out at the moment is waiting for a fleet to come from a planet, splitting my fleet and attacking the planet that the opposing fleet came from and hopefully take it which means that I can grab a planet with relatively little fear of opposition. I shall have to see how it works out for me.

Day 9 - 21:36 31/08/2010
Things have not been going swimmingly for me recently with multiple fleets totalling about 100 ships from Dark Blue to contend with and more immediate resistance from Pink than I had hoped. As a result I started the day firmly in 2nd place. Fortunately calm rationialising and a bit of risk taking meant that I was able to rectify the situation on both fronts and my preparation for further expansion is coming along nicely. Me and Bufo were contacted by Cyan demanding to be made a member of our alliance, my reply was a disaster from a diplomatic point of view as I was far too keep to secure a vital ally against Pink and Green who, whilst fairly weak individually, form a strong alliance. Reflecting on this, Dark Blue is a far more substantial threat to me as two thirds of my fleet reside in my south-east and my invasion against Pink would have been easy to postpone. Despite all of this I have saved the http://i53.tinypic.com/3129xsn.jpg]reply as it shows my opinions on the state of my alliance with Bufo. Ultimately we decided that trusting Cyan with Range Tech would be too risky as it would put him in an excellent position to attack both of us. Instead we plan to ally myself (and Ultimately Bufo) with Orange who has been doing well recently in order to gain his superior science, a third alliance member and also to help me with my invasion of Dark Blue.

I have decided to start taking snapshots of the galaxy every day to show how things are changing and for myself to study. (You can find these in the thread)


Day 12 - 20:51 03/09/2010
I open today with a slight lead over Yellow in terms of stars but a large margin in terms of industry and economy, the problem is is that while both me and Yellow have been growing steadily, Purple has shot up in the rankings and is now competeing with Yellow in terms of economy and industry. The real issue is that he has lots of space to expand with only an AI controlled White and a small Brown to compete with while Yellow has run out of empty stars and must start invading either Purple, Cyan or Dark Green all of which are formidable foes. It is slightly comforting that Yellow has now passed the 1000 ship mark however this may not be enough to keep things in our favour. As a small rebellion against Purple's expansion we've been passing tech to Brown in order to thin the numbers, while this is a small effort it does seem to have made some impact as Purple only has around 800 ships and Brown even managed to recapture a few planets.

Bufo is going away for the weekend and has asked me to look after his empire however the login details he game me don't seem to work so I'm a bit stuffed at the moment.

My conquest of Pink is almost complete and I have almost made it through to Blue's capital systems with about 150 shipps en-route to his central stars. Of Course, that still leaves 150 ships against a potential force of 300 but if I can keep hammering him, eventually those 300 will trickle down to 0 while I can keep a steady flow of ships moving north. Anyway, by now my forces have swollen to a total of about 700 ships and my industry means that I will produce a further 250 ships every day and this is while I still have $665 dollars left from my payday.

On the diplomatic side I have made a small alliance agreement with Orange, although it doesn't seem likely to bear much fruit, and me and Light Green have made a border agreement which is one fewer thing to worry about.

 

Day 16 - 21:28 07/09/2010
I'd say that the game is now in its mature stages with 3 strong empires (Red, Yellow and Purple) and a few lower power empires jostling for a "4th power" position. Pink, Brown, Dark Red and White are now all out of the game. I can also predict the two players who will bow out next as my victory over Blue now looks certain and me and Yellow have made plans for a simultaneous invasion of Cyan and I know Light Green has similar ideas. This is the point I have to start thinking about the Purple mass spreading across the top of the galaxy which now has only two ways to expand; through Yellow or through Orange. Idealy Purple and Yellow will engage each other in costly war with yellow emerging victorious (although the victor is not so important) while I am left unhindered to conquer the entire galactic south. This is something I shall have to give some thought to over the next few days.


Day 19 - 22:09 10/09/2010

In 3 days:

• Cyan has fallen completely
• The remenants of Blue have been swept up
• About 10000 ships have been destroyed (a rough estimate)
• The remaining players has fallen to 6
• Purple has been ruined
• Light Green has become the third power
• I've passed the halfway margin (and the 100 stars margin)
• Orange has done ****-all

A red victory is looking increasingly certain and the only thing that would possibly topple me now is a betrayal by Yellow (which, all things considered, is entirely possible). My plans now are to grab as much as I can of Dark Green and Purple and then to set my sights on Orange and Light Green.

The game feels surreal at this very moment and relations are very amicable. I'm not sure if this is just because the outcome seems inevitable or if everyone is just sick of concentrating on the game. My concentration has become a bit lax recently as well which is a typical point for me to miss something important and let a strong advantage slip away (as I have seen happen in countless games of SupCom although the slower pace of Neptune's Pride is a bit more forgiving). Despite this whole departure from reality, my fleets seem to be where they need to be although this is probably partly due to the sheer numbers, nevertheless, maintaining a force of 1000 battle ready ships (even if that is out of 2000 ships) at opposite ends of an empire that over three quarters of the length of the galaxy is still a noteable feat. I have also managed to maintain minimal losses with just one carrier KIA (and even that was due to a quirk of the game).

In honour of being the most victorious fleet in my empire I decided, on a whim, to rename "No More Mr Nice Guy" to "Louise la Blanc De Valliere". The reasoning behind this is so complicated and disconnected I'm not even sure I can make the links but it's to do with the answer to "The Algebraist" (that book you need to buy) which is zero (for the connection between Zero and Louise you need to be an anime fan). Hopefully she can continue tsundereing her way through the galaxy.


Conclusion
(Or Should that be "Ending Credits")

The game ended late on Thursday night (the 16th I believe), just in time for my departure up to Scotland for the weekend where I'd be without internet connection for 3 days. How do I feel? Relieved.

In this game there is lots of luck involved, as well as skill: you are dependant on your neighbours to leave you alone or to present you with opportunities and 10 minute differences can and did make the difference between gaining and losing a star. In terms of strategy all I can say is that I think that three key tactics helpedme to the top. Firstly I immmediately sought to form a strong alliance with someone with no common border to me but common interests and I was very lucky that the idea was mutual, both of us also benefited hugely from trading tech between us and managed to stay ahead of the game despite our low science levels, one thing I will add to that is that you can have too many allies as I found out in my invasions of Pink and Cyan where there was lots of landgrabbing between us (me and Green) to the extent that none of us really benefited. The second tactic was to continually push forwards and ships sitting round idle are wasted ships; being aggressive has the advantage that if you capture a star, you gain the industry of that star as well as the opponent losing it meaning a successful invasion can almost double your industry as many of us found out. To some extent a stong economy boosted this tactic which, while leaving me vunerable, gave me the advantage later in the game. My final tactic was a philosophy of "trust no-one!" which didn't show many immediate benefits but gave me a sense of security, building on this I also tried to maintain a strong fleet economy and only attack what I knew I could win (I only lost one carrier in the whole game) which meant I could streach my forces almost twice as far which was vital in my invasion of Dark Blue. Scanning was suprisingly usefull and I'm sorry that I called it a luxuary before.

In reference to my opening paragraph, I actually managed very little of what was said there. My diplomacy was aggressive if a bit benign and I gained a reputation as a warlord from the start. This wasn't a bad outcome and I did win the game in the end so oh well. I'll add to that that two other people also decided to name their ships after Culture Ships so any thoughts that I had that no-one would spot it were misguided (although, no-one mentioned the Algebraist reference).

What were the high points?
My long lasting battle with Blue
Me and Yellow conning Dark Red out of his Range Tech
seeing how easily Purple fell

What were the low points?
The collapse of Cyan and Dark Green before I could get any of their stars
Being stupid and letting a 500 ship fleet run amok amongst my stars
Never seeing my 1000 ships against another 1000 ships
Not getting the epic finale between me and Yellow

What were the WTF points?
Peace Makes Plenty, victories: 17
Light Green's opportunistic attacks on pretty much anyone who wasn't me or Yellow
Giving both of the Greens a few stars so they could continue to live in peace

 

An interesting read, and this reminds me i should get to work on my own log from game #2! Great stuff, have some rep!

 

At this point in the game I knew that if I didn't secure a strong alliance immediately then I was done for, I wouldn't have attacked you honest

You took my homeworld!

Garfy (Cyan)

 

Nice write-up, wish I had made a note of progress throughout the game now. It's a shame that we did not have a final battle at the end but although interesting the effort required (and time spent checking the progress of fleets) would have been huge and as I was soon going away on holiday thought I would just let it run its course and expand as far as a could up to red's borders.

I agree with most of your conclusions and especially the surprising usefulness of scanning, which is what enabled me to defeat the vast majority of purple's forces-I could ensure that my planets had sufficient ships to defend as he blindly built up and sent out his fleets, allowing me to counter attack and initiate the final collapse of his empire.

One possibly interesting point that you didn't mention are the couple of incidents in our alliance were misunderstanding of fleet movements almost led to conflict (at least the 2nd time in my case - I even started to divert fleets to the area and sent out messages asking for assistance against you).

 

light green Cheesecake!!

yes, opportunistic is good... if u dont tick off the wrong people. i only worry about the survival of my species... not to be numero uno. thats why i did what i did. i have no shame.

shouldve build more industry instead of going crazy on in science.... at least that should make me a tough enough meat to chew when red decided to swallow me whole at the last minute....

gg all around tho!

 

To be honest there's a lot of things I forgot especially if it happened on i day I wasn't writing up. The second incident did seem a bit paranoid on your part as well.

Yeah, but we did well by invading you instead.

I need to read it all now, can't even remember half the stuff.