New badge of honor: Barbarian

Right on…thanks! I like this version better, good job :smiley:

And yeah, I stopped and thought about 'whose" too - but I wasn’t sure. haha!

Thank you for the thoughtful and fun to read reply. What a great community here!

I shall take your words to heart and continue to play as I have - I may be defeated, but I am never beaten!

Hi Solrax!

I’m the player in question and no, you shouldn’t quit. The fact that I didn’t is what irritates our pal here.

You see, she was counting on me to roll over and fold when she stabbed me. Instead, I opened up my backyard to her #1 rival and let that guy take 60 planets, all the while fighting ithinkchaos to a stand-still on our mutual border.

At the end of the game, she had to NAP with her rival because of what I did. He got four of my planets, and only because her rival let her.

I killed close to 12,000 of ithinkchaos’ ships while losing about 8000 of mine (being that I had a 5 level tech advantage over him during all this). I captured ten of her planets while she captured three of mine. More importantly, I stopped her advance cold for three days: she’s right wheres he was when she first stabbed me. And did all this with a force that was never more than 1/4th the size of chaos’.

When I got stabbed, I knew I was going to lose. From that moment on, my priority was making sure ithinkchaos’ rival won, while doing as much damage to ithinkchaos as possible.

ithinkchaos might not be able to grasp this as “strategy” because he seems to be the kind of player who was raised by an over-achieving Little League coach of a father who thinks winning is everything. Thus, if she can’t win, she’ll drop out and start another game.

Me? I’m old school. 48 years old and brought up on SPI board wargames. To me, THE GAME is everything. I will stay in one as long as it is interesting and fun. And when ithinkchaos’ rival exploded in my direction, I knew I was going to lose. At that point, I determined I was just playing for the fun of it. When ithinchaos stabbed me, my goal changed to helping her enemy win and doing as much damage to her as I could.

Those two goals I met and exceeded.

And I must say, even while “losing”, the game has been a hell of a lot of fun precisely because of those two goals. More fun, in fact, than many games where I’m winning.

So it all boils down to what you are playing for: do you play to win or to hone your skills and have a good time? For me, it’s the second option. And nothing hones your skills better than fighting a delaying action and a guerrilla war. It’s usually a knuckle-biting good time, too.

1 Like

First of all, I love this badge idea and I would wear one with pride if ithinkchaos were to choose to buy one for me. Ultimately, what this badge says is “This guy is unpredictable and thinks outside the box”.

I would even buy one for you, ithinkchaos, but frankly, your strategic abilities need to come up a notch or two before you’d be worthy of it.

Regarding the planet name changes, I am happy they irritated you. That was the point.

You probably won’t recognize this as you seem to think you are some sort of rational strategist, but every time I insulted you by changing a planet’s name, you jumped at that planet like a frog tapped with a cattle prod.

On several occasions, you could have gone after my feeder worlds, hit warpgates, done any ammount of mischief, but you were apparently so focused on removing those “insults” that I could pretty much rely on you to head right where I was waving the red cape.

And you are right: it’s a thirteen year old boy’s trick. And for that reason, it generally only works on thirteen year old boys.

You might want to ponder that one a bit, ithinkchaos. :wink:

Wow…just wow. I don’t even know what to say. And I’m not really sure you get how important diplomacy is to this game or what truly transpired…but that’s besides the point.

You obviously missed my meaning here entirely. I am not irritated at all by someone who doesn’t quit and digs in instead (see my comment above) - I myself never quit either. I enjoy a good opponent and actually don’t want anyone to quit before the game ends.

It is your entire demeanor - and, quite frankly, complete lack of grace that bothers me. You are beyond annoying. If you are truly a 48 year old man, then I feel sorry for you.

I am done responding to you, I have absolutely no desire or time to join you at your level. But as long as you are enjoying yourself - what the hell - by all means, do what you do best.

Strength and honor,
ithinkchaos

I’d give this as recommended reading for everyone: When going AFK is better than Conceding! (or why to never concede)

EDIT: Whoops! Someone already linked it :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

Would you like some cheese to go with that whine, ithinkchaos? :slight_smile:

1 Like

I like the idea of Barbarian badge but, except for one, badges are a positive reward for people you enjoying playing with, not as some kind of black mark against their game.

I like this. somebody who will stick around and have fun even if they are not going to win. Sound exactly like what @Macunaima is doing.

The Toxic badge is a bit of an experiment and I wear mine with pride. I pissed some guy off so much he spent 10 Credits to brand me with it. I think sometimes it does hinder my ability to get into a good alliance but hey, if I’m going to have it in the game I feel like I should be walking around with one.

Some people are using Cheese as a negative badge, but its not meant to be and is kind of ambiguous so if you have lots of cheese just tell people it’s a good thing.

Regardless, the more badges you have, the more you have contributed to the game, regardless of whether it was as a heroic ally or a pain in the but enemy.

Ah, my fofolete! You are amusing, you know that? I mean, you really make me giggle, ithinkchaos.

I NAPed your enemy, fought you into a position where YOU had to NAP the same guy and effectively took you out of the alliance which was the only chance of stopping the game winner.

And I don’t understand diplomacy?

Please, sweetie. Menos, por favor.

I’m a bit hurt by your opinion that I lack grace, however. I may be a 48 year old wargamin´ ex-punk rocker, but I put a lot of effort into cultivating grace. In fact, I have a bunch of it budding away in my grow bucket right now. Amazing Grace. It’s supposed to be the shizz. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

[Your favorite faux macho comicbook quote here]
Macunaima

1 Like

Jeez guys, get a room!

2 Likes

Why? You want some Amazing Grace? :two_women_holding_hands:

1 Like

There’s more truth in this than you suspect. Very often, the games we play come alive if and only if you find an opponent worth hating. Enemies make the game, not friends. One of the biggest strengths of the game is that dark possibility of a friend giving you an evil backstabbing. That sinking feeling when you see his fleets go the wrong way and the tech trades stop flowing. Was that fleet headed to a key planet a misclick like he claims, or is he getting an early vantage point for assault? The possibility of being trolled, harassed, double-triplecrossed, enraged, scared and so much more all stems from the evil side you know is lurking in all of your alliance mates. The most visceral of all rewards that the game can deliver is bringing such an opponent down, but first he has to exist.

So, by allowing yourself to be evil, you are doing the game and all it’s players a service. I will go so far as to state the opposite: by always honoring your alliances and your deals, you are being selfish, and putting easy wins above engaging gameplay.

Therefor, I take my hat off to @Macunaima for fighting spirit and sustained motivation when faced with doom. However, there’s a limit, and onesided trolling and needling is never funny, no matter how good a target @ithinkchaos presents for it. Take your win, and go to the next game :smile:

disclaimer: like all human beings, i suck at taking my own advice, and often succumb to the temptation of building a steamroller alliance. I apologize to everyone involved, and vow to worsen my ways!

3 Likes

I always found your toxic badge really funny. I’m also very proud of my little hat. But the negative thing is an issue.

The only thing I thought of was when you were presented with a badge, it also came with an avatar. So toxic would come with a really scary, disgusting avatar. An exclusive avatar for badge holders, so you got something positive out of it as well.

2 Likes

What win? :sweat_smile:

Anyhow, I think the Barbarian badge is a smashing good idea. It’s a way for some people to warn others without being really negative. I think anyone who gets this badge would take it as a heartfelt compliment to their ability to be a royal pain in the a** when the chips are down.

1 Like

More to the point, on quitting or going out with style…

I think @xtrafresh is right: what will keep you in the game is interest and nothing generates more interest than either winning or spite.

I’ll drop out of games – or go AFK if dropping out would screw my allies – if the writing’s on the wall and the amount of effort needed to manage my declining empire outweighs the fun involved. So a more-or-less trusted player stabs me at just my most vulnerable point, but I really can’t blame him because we didn’t have a NAP, after all, and stabbing me was the logical thing to do… Hell, in that sort of situation, I’ll drop out and let him fight bots, sure. Before I go, I’ll do everything I can to screw him over: transfer out tech, make a few runs at key planets he owns, whatever. But the bot does a fine job of just digging in and holding on. I don’t need to be around for that.

But say you have a player who did something you really hate and thinks he’s going to profit from it. Well, you can’t win now, but you CAN make that player’s life just miserable.

Here’s the strategic secret to any game like this, which some people apparently have a hard time grasping. It’s the key to finding fun in a losing situation:

This is a game, folks. That’s all it is. There are no prizes here. Seriously.

You don’t get anything other than fun from Triton. No one cares if you win. In fact, if you are a premium player, you LOSE playing it. Not winning and winning are exactly one and the same thing in this game in real wolrd terms.

So once it becomes clear you WON’T win, the question you need to ask yourself is: “Is there another goal I can shoot for that will be just as satisfying in terms of gameplay?”

Here are some that work for me:

  1. Guaranteeing another player’s win, particularly if you can get something out of it in the “metagame” (i.e. a good rep, some badges, renown, favors in future games) or if aiding her would piss off people you hate or please people you like.

  2. Fighting no holds barred against someone you really dislike. The reason ithinkchaos feels my strategies are “barbaric” is that she just can’t grasp that they weren’t taking their reference as “can I win the game or not?” Their reference was “Can I help Magic win and can I prevent ithinkchaos from expanding any further?” We are down to the wire in that game and, the way things look, I might actually end up at the end holding more of chaos’ planets that she holds of mine. That, to me, is a victory.

  3. Alternatively, guaranteeing another player’s LOSS. Sure, you’ll go down, but you were headed that way anyhow. As your empire collapses around you, you’re going to make DAMN sure that son-of-a-b**** over there will be taken down with you. Or, atr the very least, you will knock them down in the end game’s standings.

  4. Just holding on and surviving while facing overwhelming odds. Call this one the “Finnish Defense” based on what they did during WWII. Sure, you’re going to lose, but you’re going to make damned sure it takes far many more resources to conquer you than what your opponent originally figured.

…and finally…

  1. Go “true barbarian”. Put all your fleets into one basket and start wandering the galaxy, picking up resources where you can. Negotiate to become someone’s mercenary if they’ll give you a little homeland, temporarily, where you can make ships. Offer to give it all back except for one planet at game’s end, This way, they can use you to attack NAP-bonded rivals and pull other such nasty tricks.

In other words, if you adopt a “sandbox” attitude to Triton instead of the “Winning is everything!” attitude of the person who had over-achieving tiger parents, you can have a hell of a lot of fun, even in a “losing” situation.

And let me remind everyone once again: the difference between a winner and a loser in Triton, in real world terms, can be measured in precisely how much fun you had.

I had a blast in my recently concluded 64 player game. ithinkchaos not so much, apparently.

2 Likes

sigh…I realize you are just trying to goat me, @Macunaima and it’s plain to see you get some weird sadistic satisfaction from that.

And at the risk of feeding your ego, I wanted to respond to simply clear up one point here:

I am not complaining about players that refuse to quit, or as @xtrafresh put it, players that have a

“fighting spirit and sustained motivation when faced with doom.”

Re-reading my original post, I can plainly see how I gave that impression, but I thought I had explained myself in my response to @Solrax above. I completely agree that people should fight to the last star - especially if you are in an alliance. And I applaud persistence in the face of impending destruction! (No one likes a quitter.)

My complete disdain for @Macunaima stems solely from his sophomoric behavior and conceited attitude. I won’t digress to insults, but some choice words certainly come to mind to describe your constant shit talking and name calling.

Indeed, at the end of the day, NP is just a game. And one I thoroughly enjoy, especially when playing with challenging and thought provoking players. Good sportsmanship is a thing and can contribute to the enjoyment of playing as well. It’s unfortunate that some people get their kicks from trolling others, but, alas, I suppose that is the nature of the beast that is the internet.

Goat, goat, goat.

1 Like

Ithinkchaos, hon, my “conceited attitude” comes wholly, 100% from your ignoring the warnings I gave, which were quite clear, then claiming I didn’t know s*** about strategy or diplomacy when I whupped you at both.

After all, you told all and sundry I deserved to die for NAPping Magic, then you came across the border when I told you, very clearly, that if you did, I’d fight you to the death while handing my empire over to Magic. You then said you were going to overrun me. Then you proceded to get fought to a stand-still by a guy with one fourth your ships and half your tech. And THEN you went ahead and NAPped Magic yourself.

Finally, after all this, you decided to come on the forum and whine about how I am a barbarian because I just didn’t roll over when you farted in my general direction.

Your original complaint was that my strategy didn’t make sense and was stupid. Let me quote your exact words, to save you the trouble of scrolling up. You complained specifically about my “tactical moves - constant taking of stars but not holding them (like an AI’s death rattle desperate moves). And apparently he doesn’t realize how slow moving this game is, because I correctly told him he had already lost but he somehow doesn’t seem to realize it yet (or refused to admit it). Anyways, I was reminded of this scene from Gladiator in which one of the generals says, ‘People should know when they’re conquered.’”

I mean, it’s really quite clear: you didn’t have the slightest idea as to what I was doing, even though I told you before hand what it would be. And you started ranting about my not knowing how to play even as I was racking up 50% more kills than you were and burning your industry, left and right, all the while preventing you from taking my planets.

In spite of what you are saying now, kiddo, you really did indeed mean that you were upset with me because I didn’t let you roll right over me. And what’s more, both on the game and here, several times now, you’ve been attempting to school me on proper tactics and diplomacy – when it was your lack of both that lost the game for your alliance.

And I am supposed to be the one who is conceited here?

Why?

Because I’m ribbing your pretensions of being a great strategist?

Look, chaos, if you don’t want to be teased, don’t act like a sore loser. If you don’t want your pretensions poked at, don’t wear them on your sleeve in public. And if you don’t like “13 year old boy tricks”, then maybe you should stop falling for them every… single… time.

Your definition of good sportsmanship obviously differs from mine. Mine includes not running around telling people they’re playing the game wrong when they hand me my ass on a silver platter. Your mileage obviously varies.

1 Like

Enough’s enough thanks folks.

Lets move on!

6 Likes