Murdoc

Neptune's Bountiful Pride: The Sequel

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YES. I can now rename stars(as a premium player)! Let the juvenile designations begin.

What about fleets? I guess by renaming the star you rename a newly created fleet, I guess that's okay.

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Sold! Though I already bought premium anyway, but you get the idea...

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I can't wait to write about the game I've been playing the last couple of weeks. The concept of not making a move has been a valid strategy for myself and another player in the game. The constant fear of the retaliation is so good.

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Oh man!!! Some absolutely bonkers metanarrative just happened in Game 1. 

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I can't wait to write about the game I've been playing the last couple of weeks. The concept of not making a move has been a valid strategy for myself and another player in the game. The constant fear of the retaliation is so good.

Yeah, I'm in the same situation in another game right now. My neighbor and I have been in a pretty good alliance all game, even as I creep pretty far ahead in every category. It can't last forever, but I think he's afraid to end it first because he'll be utterly destroyed. Plus at a certain point in the game, sneak attacks become very difficult.

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Where do you guys get the energy to play stalemated Neptune's Pride? If I was in Game 1 right now, I would've said "it's not worth it" and quit weeks ago.

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Game One is finally over! I feel a tiny bit responsible for dragging the game out for so long, but it would have been over much sooner had everyone gone along with the plan(s) (including me). 

 

Also, this was the second time I've been assigned the name Jake Rodkin. I still have no idea how to RP that other than signing my messages Baboo and Bird Noise. Some sort of voice interaction would have made it a bit easier, I think. 

 

K6Lpbeu.png

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I was Grated McCheeseballs and got my SAS handed to me. I did my best to stay for as long as possible as I didn't want to just give my stars away to Murdoc, but being awful at this I was effectively just giving them away for free.. It was depressing. But to be honest, I would've given up at some point if I had continued for so long as you guys!

Also, writing Pieter Weinhandler's blog kept me interested in the game for a big longer than it otherwise would've. At first I hoped maybe it would create some tiny bit of confusion regarding alliances and whatnot, but I doubt that ever happened (I did get a like 10 star dollars out of someone for reporting to them the blog's bad mouthing of them, a proud moment!) In the end it was just a fun, second way of roleplaying the game.

I don't even think I learned how to be better at this game. I sort of had fun, then depression and now I'm not sure I'd ever want to try it again.. Unless I come up with some good strategy beforehand.

Playing a Dark Galaxy game might be enough to get me into a new game, though. Sounds exciting and even scarier.

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I don't even think I learned how to be better at this game. I sort of had fun, then depression and now I'm not sure I'd ever want to try it again.

 

This is like NP in a nutshell. 

 

I've never been in a situation where I had an opportunity to save another player and I really wanted to make that work. Of course, this was after I turned on Murdoc because he started cruising through my stars and I thought he was trying to gather intel to attack me. Then Deleric turned on me and I went crawling back to Murdoc (which was the reason the game took so long).

 

I'm not sure how I made it as far as I did since I had such a horrible starting position. Obviously the AFK people helped, but that mostly benefited Murdoc. I would love to play another game with the dark galaxy option. I'm going to need a little break first though. 

 

Edit: Also, Congratulations Murdoc!

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Finally. So, I was Roll Fizzlebeef in Game 1, and here are some cool things to look at:

 

First off, the very first message I received:

 

mzwJT9M.png

 

Later on I pretty much had Dickhead on the ropes:

 

5KWR9AB.png

 

This was 12 days in. 

 

c6QuuYJ.png]

 

Here's a picture of my awesome tranport system. I had one hyperspace planet to cover a certain constellation of stars, with ships constantly circling around picking up new ships and sending it on the rails to defend the northern front.

 

But the very best part was this incredible string of messages between me and mingus.

 

Not gonna post it in full because it's quite vertical, so here's a link.

 

The best part was that a couple days after the last message, Jake Rodkin attacked Mimosa, which completed the narrative that mingus was my friend that was killed on a path to destroy me, which is awesome.

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I was Mingus.  I figured you were Roll when Mimosa got sacked and you posted.  I had also assumed that the blog was written by you because of the post about sharing Terraforming.  

 

The messages were definitely the best part of the game for me.  I realized pretty early on that I didn't really have it in me to be a dick, but there's still a lot to do in the game besides being a Breckon.

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I had also assumed that the blog was written by you because of the post about sharing Terraforming.  

 

Amazing! I guess I got lucky there. I thought it would be obvious that I wrote it, since I was the first to post it in the thread.

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As soon as Mingus informed me (Complete Dickhead) his alliances would be with Roll Fizzlebeef, I knew I was boned, so I funded The Famous (the only one not allied with you guys) for the rest of the game. Pretty much all my money went to him, as well as intel as I spied on the movements and ship positions of all the Jake Rodkin/Charles Mingus border planets. My chief goal was just to insure that Roll Fizzlebeef wouldn't win.

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As soon as Mingus informed me (Complete Dickhead) his alliances would be with Roll Fizzlebeef, I knew I was boned, so I funded The Famous (the only one not allied with you guys) for the rest of the game. Pretty much all my money went to him, as well as intel as I spied on the movements and ship positions of all the Jake Rodkin/Charles Mingus border planets. My chief goal was just to insure that Roll Fizzlebeef wouldn't win.

 

Dickhead.

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My chief goal was just to insure that Roll Fizzlebeef wouldn't win.

 

It's nice to see someone commit to a thing for the entire game. 

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Congratulations to everyone playing the game, it was carried out a lot longer than any of us expected, but it was a lot of fun characters in the early - mid game was awesome and I'd totally play another, smaller round with anyone of you again.

 

For the record, I didn't really win, Jake Rodkin (Lauren) decided I should win. Since I think most of the interesting stories were happening outside of my communication, I'll try to keep my accounts  as short as possible.

 

There wasn't much political discourse after the initial bit, so it doesn't make for the most engaging story.

 

Early Game

I was surrounded and pretty much expected I would be the first to go, my only chance was to contact everyone around me, have a cease fire and take out person next to me, and fast.... so prison rules. Since I couldn't trust anyone, building a civilization on defense was my only option. I went all in with industry and researched manufacturing more than anything. This was mostly my strategy until the end.

 

JFK, Broadcast Jones, Jake Rodkin, and Grated McCheeseballs all agreed to a cease fire. Since I had industry, within the first week or two I could properly defend, but also mobilize a fleet together to start and advance on someone. I was mainly in contact with Broadcast and Grated, I started to move into their direction, unsure of what the actual plan was going to be. I recall being friendly to both of them, but Grated McCheeseballs science advantage started to worry me, my space Mongolian horde wouldn't be worth a damn if I was going to be technologically outwitted. So I convinced Broadcast to attack and he eventually sacrificed a hefty number (100+ ships) weakening McCheeseballs starts. I jumped on this opportunity and started to acquire his empire at a cheap price.

 

By this time I was very worried about JFK and kept a watchful eye on Jake Rodkin. I started to move fleets towards JFK, thinking Grated McCheeseBalls was inconsequential. I was wrong, and he proved that he could still cause some trouble, so I decided to take the rest of his empire leaving him a couple stars in the farthest reaches of space.... he eventually retaliated from there too, teaching me to always kick a guy when he's down in NP, or else it might bite you in the ass.

 

 

MidGame

 

So I was doing well, with my industry being high and acquiring McCheesballs science, I felt a bit safe and started to plan out who was next. Then both Broadcast Jones and JFK when AFK and it changed the game forever. I honestly didn't acquire anything that useful from them until much later in the game. I soaked up a few mid resource stars from JFK and Jake Rodkin took a bunch too. If I would have known Broadcast would have gone AFK, I would have honored my alliance with McCheeseballs (Sorry), because I could really have used an ally at this point. 

 

Looking at stats, I started to get a big head, the communications and RP pretty much stopped and the game got dark. Jake Rodkin was the only functioning player I had to worry about it and with my high manufacturing and industry, he couldn't attack. I figured it came down to a numbers game, so I didn't want to take JFK or Broadcasts high resourced stars as it would weaken me too much. 

 

Dickhead was awesome, we were trading tech early on and he was giving me intel from below. I heard of the plot to destroy me by Mingus, either real or not, so with an inflated ego because of my ship numbers and noticing that he was taking stars on Rodkins left side border, I figured they were staging an attack. So I mustered up the largest fleet I could see at the time (Something like 1000 ships) and set it right through Rodkin's territory to take Rigil, presumably, Mingus' home star. I figured it would distract them and hurt him enough that Rodkin would have taken advantage and moved on him since I heard he was a little on the fence.

 

 Dickhead started to send me money, but a lot of it just went to sending him weapons tech so Mingus/Roll couldn't so easily take him.

 

Turns out, I guess, Mingus was leaving the game and Roll was cleaning up. I even tried to send Mingus a message warning him about Roll's increasingly large numbers (since I guess he was conquering Dickheads empire)... turns out I sent it to Roll, so I made a silly mistake, but no matter.

 

Sending the large fleet towards Mingus was my downfall. It took forever and while hurting Mingus, apparently, just made it easier for Roll to take him over... For some reason I didn't think about the long term benefits either Rodkin or Roll would have got from taking over Mingus. I didn't get to keep a single system down there, which wasn't the plan, but thinking back, I'm not sure why it wasn't. What I should have done with those resources was take over either JFK or Broadcasts mains, or started to slowly take over Rodkin since I still had a ship advantage on him.

 

 

End Game

 

No communication for days, it was a numbers game and I was losing. Roll was coming for me and Jake had fleets lined up for an attack. I was on the defensive, losing out the economy and science game, I pumped everything into industry, weapons and manufacturing. Rodkin could attack, but be vulnerable, even Roll could attack, but be vulnerable, but if/when they attacked together, I was done.

 

So I was drawing the game out by making sure my fleets were in high numbers along the border and constantly bringing them to the front.

 

One day I got a message. 

 

Hey Buddy,


I've really screwed up here. I was lured away by the flashy lifestyle of the southern galaxy. I turned my back on you when you needed me most. I know it's too late for forgiveness. I just want to say I'm sorry, old pal. 

Jake

 

I didn't have a choice to trust him, I was going to be finished off anyway, so what the heck. Even without the overt help of Jake attacking Roll, not having to worry about his offensive, I could take JFK and Broadcasts stars and so I did. It was time for a come back, with the newly acquired systems I was starting to catch up to Roll's science and economic numbers, but he was overshadowing me in industry, which was worrisome as it was my only salvation.

 

Anyway, long story short, both Jake and I slowly acquired Rolls stars one by one until Roll decided to cash in and let us take the final 12 to win the game. Even when I thought that was a plot, it was crawling to an end.

 

Summary

 

I was having a lot of fun in the early game, and think the large game went on way too long. I was playing a vicious political game at the start, but after the AFKs it sort of went downhill from there, I made a huge mistake that should have costed me the game (plowing through Rodkins territory to get to Mingus with no intention of keeping it) but with the grace of Rodkin became the winner by a technicality. 

 

Again, was a pleasure playing with everyone and the RP/political I got to take part in was amazing. Apologies the game went on for so long, I'd probably never do a large game again, but thanks to everyone that helped me and sorry to the people I screwed over.

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In a game right now where I have more than twice as many stars as anyone else, and am two-three days ahead of my nearest competitor as far as Econ/industry goes (with 2x science). Leading can kind of be an alienating experience, though. I don't really trust anyone and don't want to fall prey to hubris, but not NEEDING to involve others means that I strongly prefer going it alone, if only to cut down on the number of unknowns. I'm also way ahead in research, and hoping that will continue to give me the edge; while they can pool their ships to attack me, they can't pool their research to get ahead in weapons.

I'm currently almost done taking out my weakest opponent, while another one at the opposite end of my empire just started attacking me. I think if I can decimate that other opponent, I should have enough stars to win. Once you're that close, your strategy goes from taking the built-up stars to eliminate their economy and production, to aiming for the thinly-defended, worthless stars to get you over that magic 50%.

One very useful tip: to disguise how well you're doing, do any Econ spending right before the day turns over. You'll still get paid the same amount, yet it gives the impression that you're one tempo behind, which can disguise a lead. It also means that you can spend it on unexpected expenses like fleets or industry. Never a good idea to unnecessarily tie up that money.

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Turns out, I guess, Mingus was leaving the game and Roll was cleaning up. I even tried to send Mingus a message warning him about Roll's increasingly large numbers (since I guess he was conquering Dickheads empire)... turns out I sent it to Roll, so I made a silly mistake, but no matter.

 

Sending the large fleet towards Mingus was my downfall. It took forever and while hurting Mingus, apparently, just made it easier for Roll to take him over... For some reason I didn't think about the long term benefits either Rodkin or Roll would have got from taking over Mingus. I didn't get to keep a single system down there, which wasn't the plan, but thinking back, I'm not sure why it wasn't. What I should have done with those resources was take over either JFK or Broadcasts mains, or started to slowly take over Rodkin since I still had a ship advantage on him.

 

For the record, Roll never invaded and took my stars, I gave him my stars.  That's what the first message in http://i.imgur.com/nFDQ6YC.png was about. 

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For the record, Roll never invaded and took my stars, I gave him my stars.  That's what the first message in http://i.imgur.com/nFDQ6YC.png was about. 

I now understand that, but at the time, from my perspective, I thought Mingus was on top down there and you were slowly growing because off of the acquisitions from yellow(dickhead). It's been pretty fun to hear what was actually going on, because, after the two went AFKs, I had very few replies back for weeks, so figured everyone was in alliance against me, which was sort of the case, but had no actual evidence of anything or knowledge that Mingus was leaving.

 

.

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Originally the three of us in the south were only interested with ourselves since in the middle of the galaxy me and Rodkin both had walls of stars that stretched the entire width of the nebula so the only threat would be from someone who first tried to plow through Rodkin and then through me to get to the rest of our stars (Me and Rodkin had had an alliance since the start of the game which basically created this situation and I didn't think he (she) would make a move since it would make an opening for Famous to move in form the other side and at this point he was in first place by a comfortable lead.  Me and Roll had an alliance and Dickhead was basically done, but we realized after the two afk's that there were enough stars for Famous to win the game before ever even getting down to use so we called a cease-fire and focused on him instead.  

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Reading the summaries almost even makes me sadder that I got wiped out so early.. It just feels even more like just bad luck (although Murdoc does confess it was my scientific superiority that pushed him to attack !! ..) I did let my guard down at the time, so it was my fault in the end.. But damn. It was so maddening when after I got beaten down the first time, two neighbors to Famous AFKd which left me completely fucked. Maybe with an even struggle between all neighbors I could've fought back. But as it is, I only remained as an insignificant thorn in his side.. :(

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I find myself miss waking up in the middle of the night to buy industry... I sort of want to start a dark game now...

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