Murdoc

Funny you mention that squid, I came up with an awesome strategy when I woke up this morning in case I ended up in your position. Well maybe not awesome, but a way to exist and play the game differently. I'll let you in on it one day (want to try it out for myself one day)

Well I don't mean i sit there and calculate it, I suppose thats what people are doing, but just looking at the situation doing a brief calculation in your head and thinking it'll be alright. I leave it more to chance, probably why I lose I guess. Anyway, got bored at work because I cant get Neptune there so I made my own narrative for the thumbs game going on:

Yeah I just like use my noggin and having that chance for error, makes it more fun.

Indeed true. What I don't know is if you(or others) are searching that tech and someone sends it to you, does your research then get put into the next level of research or is it lost? edit: stuff like battle calculators and tips just seem to suck the fun out of the game for me. I hope it doesn't catch on.

Do we have a list of people that wanted to join but couldn't? I'd be willing to do another since I've pretty much become absolutely addicted.

At least the hero(I hope?) characters look a little more well done then previous screens. Getting back into that Fable 2 proportions, which is good(because I think they hit a decent style with their characters in f2 opposed to f1) Still I remain hopefully by with a skeptical eye on this iteration.

If we're waiting for 8pm, we're waiting for tomorrow I guess? (in north america)

Ah cool Miffy, though try ordering a book from them sometime only to see a 200% price increase from amazon.com and you'll understand my hate. Not to mentiont he selection is abysmal. Also at one point it took several months to get my order and when I tried to order some more I think it was around 6months for estimated shipping (weird I know) Anyway, if I was closer to that side of the country I'd totally order games from them now.

In absolute awe.

Don't worry, I haven't really taken a close look at the game, just a few screenshots and was like "that looks neat" and the game play does sound fun. I also love intentional whismsical(Twisp and Catsby) but the name(I know, this is terrible to harp on) just goes too far for me to make entry. It's like a good looking chick that's friendly and your like "Your pretty ok, I'd like to do you, but your name is Ruth and I just can't get passed that"

Toblix: Ouch man. Pushing towards empty stars only leaves your borders undefended and leaves the surrounding guys to get close to your core systems. Prison rules man. Start a gang(at least non agression two of the weakers, though your in a shitty position to side with) and make a run at the largest guy on the map. I'm going to start a new game to try a strategy of just directly attacking with my starting fleets to the closest guy to see how that works. Sort of like a civilizations strategy to take out a civ quick and easy. *** Day 2: Jarankarn thanks for the advice, unfortunately within a day the territory of the map has changed considerable. I'm playing the political game and have a lot of things on the go. I'd explain them in great detail so we can see if they either work or not work, but going to keep them for myself in the upcoming thumbs game, I'll catelog the ploys that don't work though. Basically expansion and treachery. I'm eating stars and making so many different kind of pacts(tech, info, non agression for so many days, etc..) My plan however is to militarily expand into teals territory, crush purple, then deal with red. As long as the timing works out and my tech exchanges work out it should be fine, hehe.

I have to wonder if these were just photoshoped to get me to play it and learn something. tricky educational sobs. edit: Ok I tried it. Turns out if you play life as a game from the get go, even with an intelligence of 11 you can make money hand over fist by the time your 25. My truck driver was certainly doing a lot better then I am in real, real life. Too bad he died at 34 from alcoholism, I figured the smoking would have gotten to him first.

If hes ordering from amazon.com? But hes in Canada, which I doubt he would be ordering from that abortion amazon.ca(It truly is wretched) but I'd imagine he'd still be paying for shipping international, then exchange rate(which still would come out cheaper then the stores here) but then possible courier customs fuckery, I dunno. I'm only asking how that works out for him, because if it's a good deal I'd want to do the same

Yeah I'm not inclined in any direction, just thinking the time thing being out of wack is part of the fun... probably. But yeah if we launch the game at a time when everyone is available then we all at least start at the same time and can be counted to be around when the money comes in, even if we aren't, it'd just a nice way so one side of the globe doesn't have some sort of advantage.(I guess? this is all theory to me)

I see the logic in this, but, and correct me if I'm wrong, but timing is kind of a big part of the game in terms of making moves, plotting waypoint moves, etc... I know it's the kind of game that just eats your nerves because of it, but I wonder if we won't lose a quality of the game if we are treating this like chess where we all make our moves around the same time and trade at the same time. Though I agree that if we can launch at a time when everyone is around that'd be helpful.

I like the art, but the name is so painfully whimsical I can't support it enough to give it a go. (Sorry I'm not contributing anything to this, I just needed to say how much I hate names that try too hard somewhere and this was the opportunity)

Yeah, dark red(odd) had the same starting position in my first game I lost, only he was top left, but same situation, he just ate stars. edit: Gentlemen, If I may have your ears and thoughts on this early situation: Dark red and purple are not a concern. Red may not be, but his silence tells me that he will bring war. Teal could become a problem. As I mentioned I am expanding(the north and east) and taking the closest cluster of stars in the west and south... they will be mine by morning. I am upgrading speed to level 2 which will be done by noon tomorrow where I will switch to weapons. It is another 24 hours until the next pay cycle and I spent my money on science(so it would take 12 hours instead of 20+ for that speed) I have enough left to either increase a couple of star economies or create an armada of 20 ships. Do I go for the money in hopes no one will attacks within 24 hours or do I take the safe bet and create some defense on the border of red, or even just send it to take one of his stars as a warning that he should agree to NA. I await your counsel. The Map (I am orange) http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/3396/idlecounsel.jpg

obviously in.

Isn't that shipping just going to bump it near the $10 your saving?

From that screenshot it looks like you've been playing for an hour, maybe give it a day or two to see how things shape up? Constructive advice from someone who has only lost: From the looks of the map and depending ont he next 24 hours, red isn't your problem and I bet yellow isn't either. The distance between you and red is pretty big without a chain of stars easily connecting you two. Yellow is chaining up the closest stars which leads right to red. Not to mention red has a lot of open stars to the east he can easily expand into. Dark blue, however, is close and without know his starting position it looks like he is moving to the west(towards you) But with open stars to the south east, will he make that big of a push? You have open stars to the south north, I'd take a small fleet (5 or less) and start sucking those up, take the rest of your armada(meaning everyone and push them towards dark blues border. Wait awhile and see where he expands, if he attacks you, your defense will help and he will most likely lose, if you see him taking up a bunch of stuff to the south west(like I mentioned) move into his terriroty. To keep it safe, try to make a pack with yellow and red seperately(not together, you want those two to fight for a small control of thier chain of stars while you take the north. In which case after that you may have orange and green to deal with, but with NAPs on yellow and red your safe to conquer. That'd be my inclination.

I'll remember that if you're ever in my galaxy....

God damn space puffin Bojo! yeah that sucks, I'd side with any thumb and honor that agreement before doing anything like that. It's good to know other peoples games play out similiarly to one and another, it means I'll learn faster and adapt. Should be interesting.

You were in the Mu sualocin galaxy? *** I have moved onto another galaxy(Nu menkalinan)to start a new game and these people seem way more chatty then my last game, people wanting alliances, tech, etc... I'm in the middle right hand side so it may not be so bad. A couple of NAPs and I should be ok. My strategy now is EXPANSION; the more stars I get the more monies I have. Take as many stars as fast as possible, all my money went to economy initially and in 6 hours it will go to science for speed upgrades. From there I will work on industry to create a massive armada and start expanding into enemy territory. That's the plan anyway, I'll let you guys know how it's goes, not too sure really. OT: If this game was on the ipad and since i can't log in at work(google banned) I'd probably get an ipad, so I guess that's a use for the ipad. Also the fact it reminds me of the thing kirk always was looking at would be pretty rad if they jazzed up the interface to look like some scifi data pad displaying the daily results of my empire.

I couldn't tell you where my warcraft, warcraft2, tides, and diablo disks are; but I know where my manuals are. I think that's a testimate to blizzards kick ass manuals back then. Most manuals suck though so this isn't too much of a concern, but if a company went all out(like the classic games) then by all means print it; it can't be any worse of the environment then that shit they make for special editions.

Yeah I did science and economy at the start, but I dont have anyone to defend, so that didn't work. I think starting place has a lot to do with what strategy you use. I just need to play more games to figure out what goes with what.