There should be a Badge for most F'ed started position

So I’m in the 16-user Little Boxes game - a clever 4x4 design by @Spectrefish … and it’s obvious at the start of the game that Brian Boru has been dealt an absolutely TERRIBLE starting position. He’s severely Range limited for expansion … 48 ticks into the game, he has 11 stars (bottom of the board) … and he doesn’t get a 12th star until tick 152 … and that’s only because Futanari Face has allied with him. BTW, did I mention that game is trade-scan ONLY … so he can’t even trade tech with anyone for a bunch of cycles!!!

Now, many players would have quit from the get-go … but I’ve never seen Brian quit (even when I’ve been kicking the sh*t out of him … heh, heh!) so he hung in there. With some deft play and after some unexpected AFK/QUIT’s (grrrr - hate when those happen) from other players, he’s now got a pretty decent position … and depending on how things go, he might decide to do a bit of payback with “SMASH the Hulk” if I’m not careful! :wink:

Regardless of how it turns out, @JayKyburz should create a non-quiter badge, especially for players that start with the most F’d possible position … :wink:

If Brian somehow pulls this off, he should get the comeback of the century badge also!

brian is a darn good player. never count him out.

Yeah, I’d have been ashamed to admit I did quit right about now, but I just couldn’t stomach the length it took to accomplish anything. I still prefer real time games versus turn based.

agreed. I hate turn based games.

Agreed @Golden_Ace that Brian is pretty sharp - also very crafty - great for NP!
He’s kicked my giant green a** a number of times … fun playing against him.

@JayKyburz needs to transplant his brain into the AI algorithm! :wink:

oh, pshaw…I am a firm believer that 80 percent of life is just showing up, or sticking around in this case. Quitting destroys optionality, both for the quitter, but also for everyone else. I understand why a non-premium player quits, as they are limited to two concurrent games, but I just don’t get why so many premium players seem to make it a policy to quit when they get behind.

wrt TB vs RT, I am a convert. In addition to allowing me a good night’s rest, TB games force a different, more strategic thought process. However, the wait can be infuriating. 24H deadline, 8H turns where someone always doesn’t submit can make the game stretch out interminably Which inevitably causes those to quit who didn’t know what they are getting into.

@HULK theducky shows that your tech levels exactly match Brian’s at tick 344.
Your stars are not in scan range.
Is there another player trading techs between the 2 of you ?

Are you in that game @eplazaguest … and if so, playing as who?

Good observation on the tech levels - no secret (to even the casual observer) that there is a 4-way alliance in the East … I actually thought that would be the only way to have even a chance to survive as there was a strong 3-way alliance in the SW and the NW should have banded together and rolled into the NE cluster with Brian being unable to expand.

But after all the QUIT/AFK’s, we are totally dominating … but obviously the 4-way alliance is no longer necessary when there is only 3 other active players all with much lower tech.

I actually brought this up a week ago … and just did again … asking the other players what they want to do about it. While I’m top of the leaderboard, have the most ships, just finished weapons, and am “secure” in the corner, my only chance of expanding/winning is to back-stab one of my allies … but that’s my not style and at the risk of ruining my fearsome/angry green reputation, I’m having trouble doing that here! :wink:

I was pretty impressed how we got a 4-way alliance going - takes a bit of trust, and especially with trade scan ONLY, it’s a leap of faith to hope your credits and tech end up where they are supposed to go!

I’m not in any NP2 games for now. awaiting better schedule availability. I just spectate a bit based on some of the forum postings.

In late 2014 - early 2015, I launched a 5-way dark galaxy alliance where WG’s were cheap. We gained a technological lead by tick 200 as the AFK’s fell before our fronts.
I was on one of the growing border edges, 2 of my allies became alliance trapped. I thus conveyed a plan where we develop 3 more levels of scan and Hyperspace Range. I was willing to abandon about 4 stars to my trapped neighbors for them to channel fleets counter clockwise to the active front.

I got stabbed before tick 300, had to rejuggle alliances, and ended up 4th.
Our 5-way alliance did have a renown agreement that was honored in the end. Thus I mainly got renown and the +1 rank. One of the original 5 allies did achieve 3rd place and +6 rank.
The backstab timing by my 2 neighbor allies makes sense. The 1st star abandoned would have been around tick 288, then tick 312, then another 23 ticks to combat the front (that empire became my ally, ended up rank #2). The further back trapped ally would not have attacked the front until about tick 370 if all plans proceeded perfectly. Growing only 2-3 stars over 80 ticks will appear to be a rip off, when players you cannot reach, are growing 12 - 15 stars in that same timeframe.

My original launch envisioned a 4 way alliance, but an outer member of the 4 brought in player #5.
The goal was to place #1, #2, #3 and then the last player got extra renown from the top 3 placers. #5 was also known by one of the other 4 allies (many NP2 games between a few of them). We still had enough renown to spare, so player # 5 stayed.

You can still survive as #4 with a renown deal. Hulk and Brian already have plenty of both.
The other 2 allies may still be building their stats, thus open to such dealing.
They should pay you renown to not quit ( sparing them aggressive AI) and keep trading tech as a turtle.

I’ll nominate Duarte The Keeper for the award, from the recent 64 player game (Iota Talitha). The settings indicate empires getting 16 stars each however it’s actually about 13.4 per empire.

I have colouring the above based on on assigning stars to the closest original homeworld (straight line distance). Homeworlds are highlighted with warpgates and numbers are star counts. In reality Duarte couldn’t get the lowest of his planets because it required HR 2, though he stuck around for a few days with 5 stars.

Edit: Also, bacause I have the code lying around:

Which kind of highlights the need to take into account starting jump distance… hmm, I will be back!

Edit2: Based only on stars reachable through HR1 and using full path time from homeworld:

It never occurred to me to negotiate for renown. That’s probably more highly prized for many players than third. Clever!

@eplazaguest: That game you had at the turn of the year sounds like a serious pitched battle! I hadn’t really thought about “dealing” for renown … I just let those chips fall wherever.

WRT to the Little Boxes game, always happy to have spectators and thanks for stopping by. It sounds like the 4-way alliance will hold (bummer for the remaining three players) - again, I was impressed by the level of trust by the other players to get it going in the first place so just don’t feel right stabbing the knife in 'em. Given our positions in the “back”, I’m guessing that Futanari and I will “battle” for 3rd/4th place (whoever ends up with more stars in our natural expansion), Brian will take 2nd, and Xtrafresh will take 1st - both of them have played masterfully and deserve the top two spots IMHO.

As mentioned before, it’s a really cool map … so I’ve suggested to @Spectrefish that he consider making another game (with some slight alterations in the starting parameters) and see if we can get 16 motivated (and deadly!) players to all join in!

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Here’s an update on the Little Boxes game.
As we complete cycle 20, Brian Boru has gone rogue … or perhaps “LEEROY” would be a more appropriate as in the infamous Leeroy Jenkins - hilarious World of Warcraft video here :wink:

As expected, the 4-way alliance was overwhelming … and Brian had a lock on 2nd place based on board geometry, but rather than eliminate the last player, LEEROY decided he would mix things up and attack the leader of the game … presumably with the support of the other players. Except from what I can see so far after 3 turns, he’s the only one attacking - D’OH! :wink:

So maybe we need to have a LEEROY badge?!?

P.S. Brian is a good guy … so for the humor impaired, I’m having some fun at his expense … but I do respect his attempt to mix things up and make a play for 1st place.

I could get behind a YOLO badge.

We sure need new badges if Brian is to get anything interesting out of it… It looks like he just has ALL the badges :stuck_out_tongue:

This is the most punishing position I’ve ever seen in a game before. Total Isolation. No possible expansion for at least 2 days. By then, all borders would’ve been taken. Man this guy needs a reroll.

Ironically, I conceded defeat in this game for the second time in my NP2 career. I tried to organize an alliance between the third place player, fourth place (me) and fifth place against #1 and 2. #3 instead joined 1 and 2 against me and 5. #2 refused to attack #1. Optionality was destroyed. I had to choose between playing to the death and a weekend of Jameson. I chose wisely.

“I had to choose between playing to the death and a weekend of Jameson”

I usually combine the 2.

yeah, me too. But I was traveling, with only my phone available. It was more of an either/or situation.

I noticed that HULK has surged to the lead, trampling my AI like a big green goof through a field of daisies. I wonder if the former #1 will challenge?

Wellll … once the Hulk gets carried away, it’s hard to stop him! :wink:

So yea, I kinda jumped into the lead … heh-heh … much to the chargrin of my ally and former #1 @xtrafresh … who ironically did write in this forum post:
“One of the biggest strengths of the game is that dark possibility of a friend giving you an evil backstabbing.”

We’ve been friendly allies since the beginning - he’s been reliable and brilliant … so while I’m tempted to take his “advice” above, don’t think I can bring myself to back-stab a long-time ally as that just isn’t my speed.