Okay, so perhaps the title is a tad sensational. But I've heard some rumblings that lurker participation has been waning as of late. One of the special things about this place is how much of a community has been built around playing a game that's nearing 10 years of this planet. It stands to reason that if everybody is playing in the same game than lurker participation will be lower -- or perhaps it's that people are out enjoying the summer (this is a mostly northern hemisphere crowd after all), or doing other things with their time?

So I just wanted to throw it out there to discussing what they thought about participation of late. Is having such a large game having adverse affects on the community as a whole? Is there an over-saturation point of games where people are spending all their time playing and reporting but nobody has time to read and offer feedback? Or do you want to tell me how this is just all nonsense and you have no idea why I would think such a thing?

(Personally, between work and classes, I don't have the time I did three months ago. I wish I did; I know there are lots of wonderful stories being told right now and I try to read little bits here and there as I get the time.)

Any interest in a PBEM? I'd like to try my hand again at multiplayer. Preferably 4-5 players who will be committed to the game(turn/day in general) but don't mind taking a few days off around the various holidays or if other work/life things come up (but DO communicate and let us know, don't just disappear for a few days). I'd like a competitive game, so more intermediate than green. I'd rather fight hard and lose than run away with the game. PBEM, BtS (no mods), no tech trading, and no communication are non-negotiables. Ai Diplo is preferred over AW, but everything else is somewhat negotiable with my thoughts/preferences below ...

* PBEM is a must - I don't want to join a pitboss game right now
* BtS, no mods
* speed Normal
* map - I prefer a more lush map, non-mirrored but reasonably balanced. For size I'd lean more towards cramped than roomy
* No FIN, India, or Inca ... anything else that should be banned?
* Scout start for everyone

* AI Diplo - no communication and no city gifting/trading
* huts off/random events off/vassals off/
* barbs on ???
* Elephants - banned
* no blockades
* Difficulty - ??? prince/emperor?
* No nukes
* No espionage missions. Spies/GSpy allowed to explore
* GLighthouse ban at mapmaker's discretion
* AP victory banned ... other AP resolutions banned (AP for hammers only)

My play window is 6pm-10pm Eastern Time US.

If this (or something close) interests you then sign up. If you're looking for something significantly different then you can raise your voice, but I'm not in a hurry and I'd rather end up with something pretty close to the above unless there's something obviously game-breaking that I've overlooked. I'd also be open to other more creative options for choosing civ/leader if the normal snake pick is too boring.

Oh hey, it's another Imperium. Another chance to improve my win-loss ratio. Or make it worse. The rules are fairly simple, which should help me not screw them up . On the other hand, no transports? In Impossible?

This calls for a bit of a strategy change. Besides using transports to help shore up new colonies, I find transports are crucial to the mid-game to help overcome the usual a tech gap by invading my opponents and capturing their tech. In impossible, this is usually climbing a ladder, where I go after the weakest opponent, and use their techs to go after the next weakest, etc. until I work my way to the top. This won't be an option in this game, so assuming I fall behind in research (given this is impossible, that's going to be pretty much a given), I'll have to reduce any tech gaps by other means. In addition, without transports it will be hard to gain worlds by conquest. Usually a planet with a lot of captured factories can be stood up fairly quickly, but having to bomb a planet to dust and start over from scratch, without the ability to even send reinforcements, will make expanding in the mid-late game a lot more challenging.

On the upside, I'm the almighty Klackons which I find to be the easiest race to play.

My basic strategy will be as follows:
-Try to minimize any tech gaps through aggressive espionage efforts. To help with this, I will emphasize Computer tech the entire game and as a self-imposed rule, anytime Computers show up on the espionage screen, always take Computers.
-Assuming I even last long enough, don't trigger final war until I have a winning position as I don't think I'd win a real final war in impossible.
-Try to remember to go after Orion at some point.

Well, lets get started.

2300 - Per the rules I have no ships, but a bit of cash in my reserves. I plow the scrap value back into Kholdan, and order up some stock Fighters to use as scouts. I take a look around the neighborhood. I can deal with the Humans and Alkari. Mrrshans won't be a big deal if they aren't right next to me. But the Psilons are in this party too?

2303 - Scout Stalaz, a 65 Ocean world, and Dunatis, an asteroids world. First colony ship will likely be going to Stalaz.

2304 - Scout Celtsi, which is also an asteroids world. Looks like Stalaz is the only habital planet within range. Design and order up a LR Laser design.

2305 - LR Laser is done, dispatched to yellow star to the east.

2306 - Second LR Laser is done, dispatched to green star to the southeast.

2310 - Scout Gorra, a barren yellow world to the east.

2313 - Scout Imra, toxic green world to the south east.

So far, the neighborhood is not looking too favorable. I have one habitable world, two asteroid worlds, and a couple of the more promising colored stars instead have hostile worlds.

I notice the same turn that the number of factories I have exceeds the population that can run them. I design the Colony1, which is a standard colony ship with a laser attached and start construction.

2316 - Scout Reticuli, a Jungle world to the North. Same turn I scout Orion with a LR Laser. It's the green star due south. Miraculously, the LR Laser manages to escape almost certain destruction by retreating before the Gaurdion blows it to bits. Lucky!

2318 - The Colony1 is completed and dispatched to Stalaz.

2319 - Scout Selia, a poor Jungle world to the Northeast.

2320 - Scout Spica, desert world to the south west. Stalaz founded. I resist the urge to send transports. I had hoped this would bring Reticuli within range, but it's 4 parsec away. Rats!!!

2322 - Open up techs. Take ECM Jammer I, +10 Terraforming, Dueterium Fuel Cells. I focus on planetology to cheapen my colony ships.

2325 - +10 Terraforming pops. Go for Tundra base so I can push east by picking up Goora.

2330 - Psilons are being... well, the Psilons.



2332 - Kholdan maxed. Peek at my fledging empire:


2333 - Chase away an Alkari scout at Lyae (another asteroids world).

2334 - Range 5 pops. I have been trickling production into a second colony ship, which I have timed to be almost ready for when this happens.

2335 - Second Colony1 completed, dispatched to Reticuli.

2337 - Scout Gienah, which is a freshly founded Alkari colony.

Make contact with the birds. They seem friendly enough, but relations are at unease. Strike up minimal trade.


Compared to me, their empire is... uhhh...



2338 - Kholdan can now crank out Colony1's at a rate of one every three turns. Go Klackons! Third Colony1 is completed and dispatched to Spica.

2340 - Scout Zoctan, an artifacts world to the northeast. I don't get a free tech, so I'm not the first one here, but the world is still open. It's 8 parsecs away with no easy route to get there. I would like to snap it up though.

2341 - Found Reticuli. Both Alkari and Psilons are sending scouts this way, so I quickly dispatch a fighter to Reticuli to keep them from being able to get in orbit around my new colony. I have Stalaz crank out a few more stock fighters to help defend my new territory.

2342 - Scout Romulas. Another unoccupied artifacts world that has already been scouted by someone else. This one would be easier to get to than Zoctan, but on the other hand it's in a location where the Alkari should be all over it pretty soon. Fourth Colony1 completed and sent to Argus.

2343 - Found Spica.

2345 - Fifth Colony1 is completed, dispatched to Selia. I decide to try and stand up some of these desirable, out-of-colony-ship-range worlds, so I slap a Mark I computer on the LR Laser, christen it the LR Laser2, and tell Kholdan to crank some out.

2346 - Three small, laser-equipped Mrrshan ships use their superior gunnery skills to chase away my LR Laser at Romulas. Meanwhile, pirates show up at the Reticuli system. Wonder if the single, stock fighter stationed there can handle it?



2347 - Argus founded.

I updated the MoM random game generator (MRGG) by adding a small chance that MRGG will generate an Arcanus race even when the Myrran retort is chosen.

What you guys think of the games it generates?

is this a known bug? i was pretty surprised today. i was fighting a chaos node with many hell hounds and gargoyles. i had bahgtru and rakir. baggtru had good items (one of them with lionhearth, in case that matters) but only 1 hitpoint left and the enemy had 1 pack of hell hounds left at 80 % health. the hell hounds kill rakir and in the same round, bahgtru attacked and killed the hell hounds and i had won the fight.

next round, bahgtru shows 10/11 hitpoints on the overland map, but when i enter a lair with just him, he has 0/11 and the game freezes. waiting a few rounds his hitpoints on the overland map did not change (still 10/11). i reloaded and took another unit with him when he entered a lair. bahgtru is not visible on the map (entirley not visible, not just the invisible grafics), but when i move the mouse over the space that would contain him, he shows in the upper right corner and i see that he has no hitpoints left. a healing spell worked on him though, and after healing he is visible again and can fight.

version 1.40m

Currently playing a mirror map against Mardoc. We are also playing the same leader / civ combination.

Anyone interested in something similar?

We've had a bunch of opinions in the tech thread but no consensus, so lets use the medium of Poll to find out what everyone really thinks, then do nothing about it.

Please vote for EVERY option you would be happy to play with (ie I can cope with 24 or 48 hour timers and would really like to see option 5 given a go, but I don't mind if the consensus is for one of the other options, so I didn't tick 7).

Edit: I couldn't add notes because the options had a character limit on them, the notes were:
2 & 3 (I want to make LP's life hard)
6 (ie if peace suddenly reigns switch to 24 hour turns)
7 (okay, maybe this should read: "I won't be able to cope with the options I didn't vote for, please don't force me to", but I thought the original was more thematic.)

My wife is about to gave birth ,I dont know exactly the date(duh) so i will need someone to sub for me for 2-3 days in pb 18(i supsoe will be not hard for parkin to take another turn),unfortunately he cant sub in 20 any takers?if not i am forced to ask for a pause.

EDIT: For current information on the active NatNeg and Lobby server hosted by Zulan, see this thread.

After Gamespy shut down their servers people have been unable to connect simultaneously to Pitboss games. They "bounce" and are told that the peers don't have their firewalls configured correctly.

The reason for this problem is that Gamespy shut down their NAT Negotiation (NatNeg) servers which were needed to establish connections between players. We now have a working replacement.

How to avoid bounces:
You need to modify your windows hosts file to redirect requests to Gamespy's NatNeg servers to the replacement server, currently hosted by Zulan.

Run a text editor as administrator, and open the file C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts.

Add the following four lines to the hosts file, and save it. You should overwrite the existing file, which should be named "hosts" with no file extension, so not "hosts.txt".

(This last screenshot shows the wrong IP address, it has changed since the screenshots were taken