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The Metaverse Review - The News of the Metaverse
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| Please don't think of us as a dying empire.. we are strong and dedicated, Friendly and chearfull, We dfon't believe in a no win situation.. |
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I am sorry that I offended you and your empire. My statements were based on altmeta statistics showing 2 active out of 12 this month and 7 active out of 12 last month which was higher than the previous month but I do not have those statistics anymore.
          
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Star Fleet is going strong.. New recruits on the way sir.  I plan to submit about 6 games a month not a lot but not that bad either. 
    
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The Metaverse RAG
September 28, 2004
by Newfyscotian
All the news that is fit to print and some that is not.
The Fight for 1st Place
The fight for first place is staying very interesting. In Stardock Metaverse, The Galactic Guardians are solidly in 1st and The Foundation is 10 million points behind. The gap is large but closing slowly. In the Alternate universe  Link things are a bit different. The Foundation is in the lead for raw points submitted in the month of September and the Guardians are behind but very close.
3 Million Points
The Foundation's emperor, Technician, has just broke the 3 million mark. Technician has been submitting 3 games or more each day, 7 days a week for several months now. He has over 600 games submitted and is showing no signs of fatigue.
The Top 25
The 12 top spots are the millionaires of the Metaverse. To get to page 1 spot 25 a score over 800K is required now. New players may feel that this is an impossible goal this is not true, see the next column.
Getting to Page 1
A careful examination of some of the players in the top 25 show that getting to Page 1 is not as hard as it seems. Players like Chippero (61 games), JT Qwerk (78 games) and tgrz (75 games) are on page 1 of the metaverse. These players show a small amount of submissions and a steady submission rate of 60K games can bring a player to a top 25 spot easily.
Other players such as Peace Phoenix (44 games), Vision of Tomorrow (38 games, retired?) and murgatroid (51 games) have been showing that a steady submission rate of 45K plus scores can bring a player up the ranks very quickly. These players are on Page 2 and if they keep playing at a steady pace will soon be on page 1.
Some recent milestones
Technician is the first player to get 3 million points! Is he going to retire or go for 4 million points?
Technician has over 600 games played almost double of the player with the next most games. How does he do it? Some suggest that he may actually be a reconditioned YOR called ROY who plays 24/7.
The Galactic Guardians continue to show why they are the number 1 empire in the Metaverse they still have 10 players in the top 25.
Metaverse Map Scores
Most players forget that there are other top positions to aspire to in the metaverse. At the top right side of the Metaverse screen select the drop down box labeled size and check out other top positions. There is a bug that has prevented the Gigantic Maps from being updated correctly. Technician should be in 1st place on Gigantic Maps so these scores have been omitted.
Huge Maps
1 Weyrleader (Active)
2 Exalted Druid (Active)
3 Naqmir (retired)
Large Maps
1 Greldon (Retired)
2 littlewotts
3 Magnumaniac (retired)
Medium Maps
1 Moser the Alchemist
2 Aldar
3 uncleBernie
Small Maps
1 Genghis Hank
2 Theoden of Rohan
3 Moser the Alchemist
Tiny Maps
1 NewfyScotian
2 Capricorn 76
3 jmgarth
Morality concerns us all
Who is the most Good, Neutral or Evil player in the metaverese?
Good - Technician
Neutral - Exalted Druid (Active)
Evil - Naqmir (retired)
Supporting Stardock
Recently it was discovered that Strategy First the publisher used by Stardock has filed for Bankruptcy Chapter 11. Frogboy made a comment indicating that Strategy First does owe back Royalties but direct sales of the Galactic Civilization expansion pack Altarian Prophecy has helped keep Stardock alive and well. For more information see Link
This is not the fist time a Publisher has almost tanked Stardock. During the heyday of OS/2 another publisher going bankrupt almost put Stardock out of business. This was again sales relating to Galactic Civilizations OS/2 version.
Stardock is one of few companies that maintains support and actually enhances game play of a released product for quite some time after a release. Players tired of buggy games and poor support from other developers should commend Stardock for this dedication. Stardock not only develops games but other windows related applications as well. For more information go to Link.
Recently Stardock announced the Total Gaming.Net. This is a new idea that allows people to purchase games and download them over the internet. Several developers have joined the Total Gaming.net and are releasing top quality games with more to come. If you haven't already, check this out. Link
An interview with Technician
The Technician has agreed to a small interview this week. The interview was edited for content.
The Rag: Welcome Technician and thank you for talking with us and congratulations on your 3 million milestone!
You have been playing Galciv for over a year now, many other players that have played this long are retiring. What do you attribute your longevity to?
Tech: I have been loyal to Galciv since it was released as an OS/2. I like turn based strategy games, the scifi theme, the flexibility, the humor. I played other games but they just do not have enough in them to keep me going back. The only game the came close was "Master of Orion".
The Rag: Can you give us any hints as to your game play style?
Tech: Sure I play taking advantage of the governement parties and bonus picks that give me a huge diplomatic bonus. Of course, for members of the Foundation I posted a walk through in our corner of embassy.
The Rag: What mods if any do you use?
Tech: I use Research.inc for the high diplomatic bonus and the Saints and Sinners event Pack to give me a good morality.
The Rag: What makes Galciv a game that keeps your interest?
Tech: Never the same game twice. You get tried of playing one style you can change your game play.
The Rag: Do you have any words of encourgement for new players that feel the top positions in the Metaverse are unobtainable?
Tech: The metaverse is setup to reward players that play games at a steady rate. Not a player that only plays lots of games.
I played for almost a year as only a top 50 player and I went from a top 50 player to number 1 in the metaverse is 6 months. So yes anybody starting today can make the top 10.
The Rag: You have created some milestones that are exclusively yours, first person to get over 400, 500 and currently 600 games and now the first to get 3 million points. How do you feel about this and what are your next targets?
Tech: I think my next records depend on how long it takes Stardock to release a GC 2.0 beta. I expect I can keep and average of 2 games a day for a long time. So, I have 620 games now, in October I should see 700, games, January 880 games and March should be over 1000 games
The Rag: You are the leader of a new empire called The Foundation. What is special about this empire?
Tech: Many players have been around since the glory days of Galciv but Galciv is over a year old, and active players often find themselves the only active player left in their empire. The Foundation was created to give these active players a place to come together.
The Rag: When you are not playing Galciv are there any other games that you play?
Tech: Not really, the last game I played was Tron 2.0. If I get the time I may play Fable.
The Rag: Technician, thank you for your time.
The Final Word
Empires are fun, if you have not joined an empire you should consider it. Explore the Empire forum Link and check out the different Empire threads. A new player may be surprised to discover a very close and active community that is dedicated to the game and each other. All empires support each other whether with gaming tips, advice on beer, computers, school or even work. The camaraderie is a great thing that has evolved partially due to the metaverse and more because of similar interests. You will find people ranging in age from 14 to over 65 all sharing their experiences.
[Message Edited]
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Double posting 
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I want to post this on my site for the heck of it if you do not mind NewfyScotian?
Excellent writing dude.. seriously.. I agree this should be posted in the main forums of this site. 
Not that I think any players would see it at my site and not here. I like the way you typed out the article. This makes me think that maybe we should keep a weekly or bi-monthly article like this one going from now on? 
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| I want to post this on my site for the heck of it if you do not mind NewfyScotian? |
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Thats ok with me. Just make sure that any links I put in the news letter work correctly.
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Mace can you please confirm that you will sticky this in the main galciv forum on this web site? If so then I agree. I do intend to keep publishing the news on a semi-regular basis.
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Hey Mace - how's being a dad....
Alex
   
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BTDTGTTS
But think of all the games you can play while the offspring is bawling/teething etc. 
Alex
[Message Edited]
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The Metaverse RAG
October 12, 2004
by Newfyscotian
All the news that is fit to print and some that is not.
Resurections from the dead
The Diplomats empire was all but dead earlier this past month with only one active member left. Then out of the blue and some shabby dungeon Mace Griffin appeared, the former leader of the Diplomats? It has been suggested that Mace Griffin is a leader that changes his name more often than Damoose snacks the Guardians. Formally known as Dream Warrior he has reshaped the Diplomats mission into a new empire devoted to fun and friendship. The new empire under the name of the Intergalactic Bounty Hunters is a bit leaner and more active than the old Diplomats Empire. We wish them well.
The Quest for 1st
The Guardians have had a resurgence during this past month and are once again outstripping all comers in raw point submissions to the Metaverse. The Foundation is starting to gain ground again due to the Galciv playing Machine they call Technician.
Empire activity dropping?
Both the Guardians and Foundation empires are able to say they are the most active empires with 9 and 10 players this month so far. The European Alliance currently the 3rd active with 6. There are a couple of empires with 3 and a couple with 2 all the rest have 1 active player.
Is this another indication of a decline in interest in this great game? The metaverse ranking from 1 to 75 are still very busy. The race up the ladder has not slowed down amongst many of these players.
The Millionairs club
There are now 13 players with over a million points with 2 of these players over 2 million and 1 over 3 million. Congratulations to the following millionairs:
Technician - 3105259
Weyrleader (Active)- 2127596
Greldon (Retired)- 2080925
Exalted Druid (Active)- 1828795
ricbayer - 1595121
Jackey Jackey - 1534524
Naqmir (retired)- 1497174
Moser the Alchemist - 465106
Magnumaniac (retired) - 1409008
Primipilus Alexus - 1238216
JaxomCA - 1172174
Wulfer - 1126259
J.T.Qwerk - 1033270
Players on the Move
Here is further proof that new players can move up the metaverse ladder in a very short time.
Here are the movers and shakers since September 14, only 1 month of play:
Chipperoo has moved from 31 to 18, up 13 positions
Newfyscotian has moved from 27 to 21, up 7 positions
Aw Nuts has moved from 39 to 33, up 6 positions
Murgatroid has moved from 49 to 38, up 11 positions
Dignavi has moved from at least 76 to 43, up 33 positions
Lost_in_Space has moved from 54 to 47, up 7 positions
Spacepundit has moved from 51 to 45, up 6 positions
Evil Roy has moved from from 72 to 57, up 15 positions
MoseyingAlong has moved from 73 to 65, up 8 positions
Rumours of a Major Metaverse Scandel
Weyrleader was working in his lab late one night when Littlewotts walked [some say stumbled] in. Littlewotts being a little under the weather was reportedly a bit clummsy. Weyrleader was busy on another breakthru that would clone and enhance the patened Butt Protector to ward off Cod Sling undead did not notice his friend. Weyrleader just yanked down the 2 gagillion volt lever to send the current through a beaker of his special mixture, when littlewotts reached over and grabbed the beaker, wires and all, downed the solution as the current was applied. Shortly after the smoke cleared Littlewotts stumbled out the Labs south enterence with smoldering embers coming out of his clothing. Meanwhile on the other side of the room Littlewotts_ was walking out of the north enterance determined to submit another game so that the Foundation would have to work harder to keep up.
That night it was discovered much to everyones dismay that there were 2 Littlewotts trying to submit games to the metaverse. Both are insisting they are the prime individual. Acting seperatley they each have enlisted CariElf to remove the other from the Metaverse.
Unbeknownest to both there was a third Littlewotts created that night which Weyrleader has sequestered in his laboratory. The rumor has it that Weyrleader is a little upset with his "Friend" Littlewotts. No further information is available at this time.
An interview with CariElf
I tracked down our favorite Stardock tech support person and stole her away from Brad and the crew for a few minutes.
The Rag: Hi CariElf, thank you for taking some time out of you busy schedule for us.
You have been one of the main contacts the players have with Stardock. From reading the forums you have gained quite a Fan base. How does that make you feel?
CariElf: I think it's really cool. It's really nice to be appreciated. The Gal Civ community is just great. Experienced players often answer forum posts about game questions, etc, which is a huge help to me. And Gal Civ wouldn't be the great game it is without the feedback from our beta testers and players.
The Rag: Be honest now, is frogboy green with envy because of your Fan base?
CariElf: No, Brad is a very generous person and he doesn't begrudge me the
fan club.  He's also very good at letting people know when they're doing a good job. He comes into the lab a lot and talks about how cool the stuff we're working on is.
The Rag: Can you tell us a bit about your role at Stardock?
CariElf: I'm one of the game developers. Since Stardock is a small company, my job isn't terribly specific; I get to work on a lot of different parts of the games. I like that, being able to work on a variety of coding tasks. I also handle a lot of the second level support on the games; anything that the support department can't answer gets forwarded to me. And I help out on the forums, but you've probably noticed that.
The Rag: How long have you been with Stardock?
CariElf: I started at Stardock as an intern in June of the year 2000, when I
only had a semester left for college. My first project was LightWeight Ninja. It was supposed to be just a quickie learning project, but it got out of hand. When I started classes again in the Fall, I continued to work for Stardock part time and used LightWeight Ninja as my senior project (a required class for Computer Science majors at Lawrence Technological University) so I was in the enviable position of getting paid to do homework. This allowed me to put a lot more time into it than I otherwise would have been able to do while working part time, and I had the coolest senior project that semester.
The Rag: For you what makes Stardock special?
CariElf: Stardock is a great place to work. Brad makes a point of only hiring people who are easy to get along with and who can work without micromanagement. We don't have to work insane hours and even in crunch time we don't have to work more than 6 days a week. Our design docs are very dynamic, so we can make adjustsments as we go to make sure that the games are going to be great. It also means that if a member of the team gets a good and feasible idea, we can put it in, which really gives you a sense of ownership of your project.
The Rag: I liked the feature in Galciv that allows the gamer to play MP3s. Do you still play Galciv? When you were playing the game what music if any did you listen to?
CariElf: The user playlist was one of my favorite things that I coded. I always wanted to be able to put in support for .wma files, Windows Media player playlists, and randomized playlists, but I didn't end up having the time. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, depending on how I'm feeling that day. In my collection I have Celtic, Renaissance Folk, some more modern Folk, classical, various kinds of non-hard rock, and soundtracks. I also have a pretty good collection of Christmas music which I try to expand every year. I'm always in search of new and interesting Christmas music because it drives me crazy how the radio plays the same music over and over and over every year.
The Rag: What project are you working on now? Galciv2?
CariElf: I haven't really played Gal Civ to play since I was testing the campaign for Altarian Prophecy, I've been so busy with Political Machine, etc.
I am working on GalCiv2 right now and I'm really excited about that so I tend to put more time into that. Our first deadline is at the end of the October, so I'm trying really hard to make that. Having to deal with all the support for Political Machine has taken up a lot of my time; we didn't get a lot of feedback from the Political Machine beta testers, and so when it came out in stores, there were all these people with different systems that had hardware issues with Political Machine. It gave a lot of people the impression that we pushed it out too soon, and that the game was buggy, but there's only so many systems that we can run for testing here at Stardock so we just didn't run into those issues during QA, and apparently Ubisoft didn't either.
The Rag: Do you play any other games that are not developed by Stardock?
CariElf: Yep. My favorite genre is actually RPGs. My favorite games are the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights series. I also really like Creatures similar concept to the Sims), Warcraft 3, Dungeon Siege, and games by Bethesda Softworks like Redguard, Battlespire, Daggerfall and Morrowind. I've started Knights of the Old Republic, but I haven't gotten very far in it. I'm currently playing Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. I don't play a lot of console games. I have a Game Cube, but I mostly play party games on it with my friends Like Mario Party, Super Smash Bros, etc.
One of these days I might get around to finishing Super Mario Sunshine.
The Rag: Finally, if I do not ask this I will be kicked out of the metaverse, are you able to leave us with any juicy bits about Galciv 2?
CariElf: Brad goes over the major concepts for Gal Civ 2 in his thread
Galactic Civilizations II Concept Thread so I'll try not to repeat too much of
that. Link
At the moment we're focusing on getting the basic code from Gal Civ running
in the 3D engine, then we'll start adding in the new features. Like with The
Political Machine, we're desiging the interface with our program DesktopX, which allows the artists to build the interface without needing any code from us. It also alows us coders to throw the screens in about a third of the time it took us to do it in Gal Civ 1. The graphics code is much less bulky and cumbersome than it was in Gal Civ 1, and it's also separated from the data. That way, when we destroy a ship, we don't have to worry about getting a crash because the screen was trying to paint it at the same time.It'll also make it that much easier to change the graphics in Gal Civ 3. Most of my initial work on Gal Civ 2 was stripping out the 2D Graphics code and separating the data from the graphics.
One of the things that I just finished a few days ago was to write code to allow Gal Civ 2 to run in higher resolutions than 1024 x 768, which will still be the default. This means that people with widescreen monitors will be able to have more visible map areas, which isn't something that a lot ofgames take advantage of, and that is suddenly very easy for us to do because of DesktopX. With Gal Civ, we couldn't have done that as easily because we had a lot more constraints with the 2D code, but it's much easier to stretch and tile graphics using Direct3D and the information we get from DesktopX. We also had to be able to move graphics so that they are always in the same relative position on the screen. I really enjoyed working on this because it's such a cool feature.
Since the planets are going to be on the map now, a lot of the functionality that used to be in the stars has to be transferred to the planets. I've been working on that the past few days. One thing in particular has been the trade routes, which were kind of a mess in Gal Civ. I've been doing a lot to clean them up, so assuming that it works maybe I can apply some of the cleanup to Gal Civ 1. The problem with cleaning up the trade routes or fleets (which is another feature that doesn't always work quite right) is that it's not a trivial thing, so I've been wary of starting it when I have so much to do with Gal Civ 2. Also, since I have to clean up the code anyway, I figure it's better to get it working in Gal Civ 2 firstso that I know that it works.
Having the planets on the map is going to make playing Gal Civ a lot more intuiative. No more messing with colony ships and transports to try adjusting the population of the planets in your star system! We will have to deal with the slider issue for colony ships, probably by scaling the numbers once the population of a planet gets beyond a certain limit. We're also going to allow colony ships to park in orbit of colonized planets, but when you colonize a planet for the first time, you'll still be using your colony ship to create your base of operations.
We are going to be depending a lot on user feedback for Gal Civ 2, moreso than for any other project we've done so far. There's a LOT of new code with the 3D engine that has to be tested on multiple systems, and we'll need good analysis of what works and what doesn't as we go through the beta process.
The Rag: CariElf, thank you for your time.
The Final Word
Empires are fun, if you are not part of an Empire you should consider joining one of the many that exist. Even start your own. If you decide that you do not want to join an empire please do not hesitat to drop by and chat. The empires are really just groups of people sharing common interests. You will find that there are many interesting and likeable people here willing to talk about almost anything.
[Message Edited]
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