Wall of text DEPLOY!
To put things into context, I started the game by sending this message to all players. It contained everything I could want for a final verbal communication:
I thought that in past games I had an issue with being too domineering and bossy. If I took that out of the equation, maybe other players wouldn't be so hellbent on my destruction. I also wouldn't need to ever explain myself, because I simply couldn't.
The unfortunate part was that really only 3 of the 11 other players ever engaged me:
Frakes right out of the gate reached out since we were neighbors. He helpfully communicated his plans for expansion so that we wouldn't butt heads. When he asked how he could get my weapons technology, I sent it over, with the belief that he would reciprocate (which he didn't!)
Lollie also communicated with me about our borders, but he had a tendency to speak all to everyone that I did not enjoy. It fit his all caps lizard-lord well, but soon after he learned anything he would be tweeting it.
Darth grew at the same rate as me and was on the opposite side of the galaxy, so I sent technology over and was quickly greeted with technology I didn't have myself. Very simple tech relationship.
Sending tech and money were my only ways to show agreement, so many times I would send out $25 or more after receiving a message, depending on my enthusiasm. I am really not sure if people understood it, but it made them happy.
My strategy with the galaxy was to focus on the core. While the outside stars help with economy, I did not want to bother managing so much weight with such little worth. I also didn't want to have a 4-day delay in bringing reinforcements to the front lines (the galaxy is huge!) It worked well but the center of the galaxy had all stars accounted for by major powers. While I sat on them, the other players swallowed smaller players and their peripheral stars and grew. Because of this, for most of the game I was in the middle of the leaderboard. That I was taken down by the most powerful player without having ANYONE else jump on and fight the guy still astounds me, and I wish I had had a voice to yell everyone to action.
Things were rather quiet till Darth decided to make a move on Lollie, and rightfully so. Lollie had taken up another homestars to be in the lead and given no resistance, would have become huge. I logged in and saw Darth had sent me every tech I did not have and took it as a plea for help. Sticking with my original message, I returned the gesture by allying with him and helping him defend.
I had preferred to stay on the defensive, not starting any fights with Lollie, when I received a message from him stating that he recognizes I would attack him and would not retaliate, as long as I did not help defend Darth. I figured why not, and moved my ships off.
Somehow Lollie changed course and decided to go on an all-out offensive against me. This is where I thought Darth really should have stepped in. I had held up my end of the relationship by helping him, but instead he sat and watched us beat each other down, which was all the more insulting because I was at war on behalf of him. All the while, Frakes grew. It's this kind of passivity that drives me insane in Neptune. For their own sakes, I wished that Darth and Jake made a move or did something. Had Frakes been occupied, I would have been able to roll through Lollie and stay in the game.
Lollie was clearly worn out and was short on reinforcements when I received a message from him: back off and we can fight Frakes together. I wasn't sure if I could trust him, but I realized that of all the players, he had communicated the most to me, so I thought that ought to buy him some sort of credibility. I gave him *4* levels of weapons technology as a gesture of complete agreement and peace. Soon after, Lollie gave all the technology to Frakes, essentially sealing the game in Frakes' favor. Before that, Frakes had been slightly behind in weapons, but was slowly swallowing up my stars (once again, while all other players sat idle *facepalm*) and now he had full clearance to swarm me.
I hope in future games our players are less passive.
Also, a fun side-note: to stay in character, I named all my fleets using a random word generator to create one uncommon adjective and one uncommon noun. I did spin it a few times if the word spat out wasn't interesting enough. A couple of my favorites were "Scallawaggy Bastion" and "Nonmutinous Catamaran." There was also "Nonproblematical Obstructiveness" which was stationed on a uncertain border with another player.
