*shrug* - oh well

looks like it is time to break out the restart strat :-)

*yells abuse at NBK*

yay - I got some love.... both spy countries gone. 300+ SPAL on each lol.

Edit: Chaoswind - this is my second set playing FFA..... ever. I played for some 5 years on alliance and then had 5 years off.

QM - i've broken a few of your qountries (I assum they are the ones with QM in them)

Popcom - yeah we were killing little guys due to high oil..... and the fact there were no troops on the market. Trying to break 3-5mil troops is a costly run and with no troops and a small PM it would have left them overly vunerable.

Popcom - you can break them now I'm online and can wall

Seriously..........

way to screw with wars lol

I still remember seeing NBK countries with 2-4bil cash onhand and 150+mil bushels and fluffing myself. Glad we got rid of them then, but hell there are still some scary countries in there that we need to get rid of.... pronto.

the longer they take, the more top-rankers I can solo-kill

NBK --->TKO 18637 hits 85 kills 219 HPK

TKO --->NBK 21559 hits 96 kills 224 HPK

Nice close war - NBK is catching very quickly and still has some scary countries. NBK members also need to get a life and stop walling.

Dear NBK - I feel unloved.

I still have the same 16 countries I started this war with. IMP gave me more loving than you have so far (they only killed 2 of mine). The only love I received has been a handfull of failed missiles and even more failed spy ops.

:'-(

Simply put, self-farming is utilising the resources you have with 16 countries. It is available to all people - instead of whinging about it all over the place, do as NBK did, refuse to pact self-farmers, even go to war over it..... Admins have had ages to change it, and it hasn't. Adapt to combat self-farming or be left behind - simple.

lol - come on NBK...... a measly 6 hits across all 15 of my countries :-(

*trolls*

can you wait about 5-6 hours please and then kill one of the, I will be around to wall.

Crippler, that might have been me by mistake - my appologies. If you want reps send a message to the country that hit you.

*wanders through*

rebel - yep

we'll do the same for your CS :-D

I just did a bit of a comparison of EM's vs other missiles and harmful spy ops on the TKO forums, which is leading to this post. I'll compare EM's with Demo's and CD's. Given EM's do destroy both offensive and defesive units, but in all practicality they are not used to reduce the effectiveness of the offence of another country. They do have their use though..... to lemming down someones SDI before a chem rush lol.

The minimum readiness multiplier a defender can have is 70%.

To reduce a country to 70% of its original mil strength, at best it takes (non-tyr):

Demos: 7 turns (69% readiness)
CD's : 9 turns (69.25% of original troops)
EMs: 22 turns (89.5% of original units @ 78% readiness)

Given that for most governments it 2-3 x the amount of turns to get the same results from EM's as Demo/CD then the gains from EM's seems out of proportion. I've got a couple of ideas to change EM's

1) Each successful EM reduces readiness by 3% and military by up to 1.5% in relation to the mil numbers the attacker is carrying (ie a country with 10k troops couldn't destroy 1.5% of the troops/turrets/jets/tanks of a country with 1mil troops/turrets/jets/tanks)

2) No readiness loss and up to 3.5% (compared with the attackers mil levels) of the defensive units (troops/turrets/tanks) are destroyed by each successful EM. This could also be useful in solo games to try and retal a grab (though the missiler would risk being AB'd to fluff lol).

3) Each successful EM reduces readiness by 2% and the defenders turrets by up to 2% again in comparison to the attackers turret level.

Personally I'd prefer something that takes in to account readiness as it brings another element when calculating a break.

fell free to flame away.

Earth games only have a finite length of time. Primary (which I think you are referring to) resets every 2 months. After that 2 months is up, you have a chance to beat your previous networth etc etc. It also means you can improve and try different strategies each reset.

Brink - just don't run out of food as a TMBR after you have made your jump and are reselling lol

Socialism
+30% Per Capita Income
+25% Land Exploration
+15% Military Strength
+20% Military Costs
15% Market Commissions
+30% Technology Effectiveness

Damn that is waaaay overpowered. The tech effectiveness nullifies the market commisions as does the mil strength. The mil strength also nullifies the military costs somewhat. What you are left with is basically a powerful casher that is able to get its techs up earlier and grow at the same rate.

I'd drop the military effectiveness bonus and drop the tech effectiveness to 10% at the absolute most.

Anarchy:
-20% Per Capita Income
+20% Military Upkeep
+35% Military Strength
+50% Industrial Production
Triple GDI Expense
1 Turn To Attack

This is making a really strong indy - 1 turn attack means more time to build CS and land. The mil upkeep penalty would mean players would have to double or triple sell earlier to keep costs down. The GDI penalty is nullified as it would have to grab to make the most of all of its bonuses. It would also make a really strong bottomfeeding techer as well.

erm cerberus.... the game is starting to grow again

dagga - ask your heads about Slagpits previous statement. Though the current SoL heads will just probably spin some fluff as they usually do.

Seeing as you are bringing up history. SoL have a long history of honourless play.... including breaking FDPs, dropping FDPs and FSing the next reset, FSing for no reason and taking part in trying to wipe alliances off of a server. If the SoL heads acted with a shred of honour then SoL wouldn't be in the mess they are now. Instead of blaming everyone else for picking on poor little SoL and how these actions will bring impending doom for the game, how about you question the SoL heads about how they got your alliance into this situation. It is arrogant, poor leadership that got SoL gangbanged. That is what you should be whining about, not how the the game is going downhill because alliances are standing up against it.

"I've spent a long time in this game fighting alliances and this is one of the few fights I've had that was justified."

Well said.

IMP - thankyou for the war. I would have liked the chance to wall against you guys but unfortunately I wasn't around when you got to my countries.

I'm going to refer to the more loved child of Mehul Patel (Utopia). When I played that before the war system there was a gentlemans agreement for wars.

Kingdom A would contact Kingdom B with a declaration of war. It had a start time, and any terms (things like if no black ops, dragons etc etc were going to be used). Alliance B didn't have a choice to say no, but they had some warning. It was usually at least 24 hours.

The war meter was then brought in and things changed rapidly.

For Earth Empires.

I'd like to see a formal war dec system based on the gentemans agreement.

1) Formal dec is made ingame. Alliance A decs on Alliance B with start time (at least 24-48 hours notice is given).
2) No hits allowed between the parties for the length of notice. Spy, Mil Spy, Alliance Spy, Market Spy all allowed.
3) Reduced gains for alliances grabbing Alliance A and Alliance B to avoid 'seftening up the target'.
4) Start time arrives and all hell breaks loose.

This gives the advantage to the bigger alliance, but could encourage some interesting political movements.

and someone who is randomly missiling countries with 85% SDI

I love Ravi

good luck both sides - having played in LCN in the swirve days I'm obviously rooting for them.

sorry guys..... you are gonna get your fluffty butts kicked outa the stadium

LCN/Laf War..... was on the losing side of the 1 v 1 but then the joint chats with IX and co forn the TIL war.

and that initial grab wouldn't have happened if the moron TKOer (me) had any thought about NW difference impacting land gains :-/

martian - great interview and I agree and disagree with your sentiment.

In terms of the commercial music industry it is very mush relevant. Musicians in the popular scene are very much packaged to a product to appeal to a certain marketplace. It sucks but people like Justin Bieber will always be marketed becuase the 10-15 year old girls will gobble that sort of stuff up.

But, the technology available to 'cheaply' set up a reasonable home-studio and the internet means that many musicians are able to get their music out ther, bought, downloaded than before. So, in some ways the old guys that go 'I dont know lets try it' have been replaced by the semi-underground music scenes that pop up on the internet.

I also know in Melbourne (the awesomest city in Oz) there is the beginnings of a move away from the higly produced fluff that get marketed to teenage girls and back to a more organic music sound. Fingers crossed it takes off.

Iovan,

Assuming all countries are teched up.

A rep casher makes approx $600-610 per acre of land (before expenses).

A rep farmer needs food prices to be approx $50 to have the same production. (it does happen, not for long though)

A fascist farmer needs prices to be above $44 to have the same production. (feasible for a few weeks of a long reset, haven't played tourney in ages).

A commie indy needs turrets to be around $170 to be competative (but they need big techs to compete)

Oil needs to be above 171 for a fascist oiler to compete (it only gets up there in times of war and not for long.... usually)

I can't be bothered working out tech prices needed, but they generally ensure that techer has the highest production per acre of land.

Now, increasing the PCI to +30% would mean rep cashers would get an even bigger boost. They would probably end up as powerful or even more powerful that a techer.

Exploring - Reps exploring is what makes them one of the more powerful governments. An all-x can easilly get top 50 in alliance, FFA haven't played primary or tourney in ages but they definately used to do really well.

No, PCI doesn't need to be increased, neither does the explore rate.

rank 50 for me..... first netting reset in 5 years

First netting reset in 5 years

8 Countries:

should finish with 1.04bil TNW
Ave 130mil

T10: 0
T25: 0
T50: 1-2 Depending on T50 cutoff
T100: 7 Depending on T100 cutoff

good good - keep growing and buying indy tech.

Hey BigBB

BPT looks good.

The important thing is to specialise. That is only build one or two building types. Your best to go with a casher strategy, and the only buildings you need are Ent Zones and Residances (and maybe 300 indies with 100% spy production).

Dont be worried about losing food every turn - it is just cheaper to buy it from the market. Same with oil and technology. If you want someone to go in the numbers behind that statement just let us know and someone will post.

In order, convert your Mil Bases, Labs, Rigs and then farms to entzones and residences. Then focus on getting your business and residential techs up as they will boost your income (ALOT!).

the 80(160) option probably works better IMO. It means that someone can be away for 72+ hours and still not lose turns..... ie they can go away for the weekend and still do as well as anyone else in the game. Given a lot of our players are old farts, the 80(160) option means that they are not disadvantaged in any way.

mazooka - nice perspective

My completely unbased opinion is at least 100mil for top 100, probably 150+ for top 50.

No, SoL is ranked too high....

LCN was/is/always will be ranked 11th

Nice - are you going to RAID 0 the raptors?

mrford - that kid has a 'typical' country Australia accent..... I've met plenty of guys that talk like that.

I remember seeing the adverts for that episode this is the first time I have seen it..... WOW! Listening to the chords and the melody lines he is playing it is quite feasible that he is self taught. I'm going to sound like a complete fluff-tard here (this is my B. Mus talking). The chords are all 3 notes and the progression is based on one of the more common progressions found in popular and film music. When he does use notes outside of the key of A minor they are blues-based which nearly everyone in the Western-World can recognise.

That being said...... what a freak his sense of rise and fall in the music is great and his facility around the piano is amazing.

Bsnake - that looks like a nice rig.

Can I suggest maybe a 1TB drive for storage and the like?

Donny - I want your monitors. I'm assuming that is either a hardcore gaming rig, or you do some sort of graphic design/video editing on it?

How does the Caviar Black compare to Sata II 3.0 GB drives?

I spashed out on a dedicated music production PC about 6 months ago.

ASUS PSDX58 MB
i7 950
24gb Patriot Viper Sector 7
1 x Patriot Inferno 128gb SSD
1 x 160gb Velociraptor
2 x 500gb WD Blue (I think) HDDs
Basic Video Card
M-Audio 2496 audio card (10 year old technology still works great)
2 x 22inch monitors

I'm really really tempted to grab a revodrive or a revodrive x2 in the next couple of months and move some of my samples to that.

I haven't played indy in years (literally). When I used to play it I'd have about half my turns with 95% turrets and 5% spies, and the other half with 95% jets and 5% spies.

I would always purchase troops and tanks with left over funds as I found it was cheaper to buy them rather than produce them.

Its a similar idea

Casher - you build ent zones and residences and buy bus/res tech to help with production. You buy everything you need from the market.

farmer - you build farms and purchase agri tech for production (and also bus/res to keep expenses down). You sell food on the public market to generate income and buy everything you need.

I have to agree with H4 - the LCN v Laf war was one of the best.... my first war and even though we lost the 1v1 I think LCN ended up on the winning side once it was engulfed by the TIL war.

The SoL v Sof war that was not long after the LCN v LaF..... the trash talk on AT was first rate.

Although we were on the losing side, the SLIT v Anti-SLIT war was great fun if only for the first couple of days. Having chats with 250+ people in them was great fun.

more tanks? You are just asking for some random idiot to AB you.

looks much niceer :-)

I'd even dump the rigs as well unless oil is crazy high ($300+)

Main thing is to sell as much military as you can at the end of every days turns. Any left over cash should go to indy tech.

Rockman - you just answered a question I had on the TKO forums about end of reset prices.

Looks like I'm switching everything to TMBR. First reset in 5 years, hoping to finish with average of 120mil nw.

thehiphopdrug - this player should probably just get rid of the farms. All of the top finishing countries are specialised in one way or another.

thehiphopdrug

Hybrid Countries (Rainbows) tend not to work unless there are extreme cases. Even then, you would only add farms or oil rigs, and nothing else.

This game is built on numbers and formulae. I'll try and give you a rough rundown without scaring you away with masses of numbers.

Ent Zones, Residences, Military Bases and Research Labs: The formulas to define their effectiveness are based on the % of land that they cover. So, the higher the % of land they cover, the more effective they are ie 500 of one of those buildings out of 600 acres will work more effectively than 500 out of 10000 acres.

So, logically speaking unless you plan on filling up a good portion of your land as either Military Bases OR Research Labs OR Ent Zones/Residences (these work to increase cash flow together) then it is an inefficient use of those buildings.

Farms, Oil Rigs and Indies have a set production per acre. I know that some people in express tend to produce their own becuase the market is thin.

But at the moment in primary average prices for turrets on the last 12 hrs are $113. An industrial site produces 1.86 turrets per site. You're gov is communism so you get a 35% bonus. This means you produce 2.511 turrets per IC per turn. At current prices including commissions it is producing $255 per acre.

A farm at this time of reset produces 5.3 bushels per acre. They currently sell for ave $33 so that is $157 per acre of farms.

By building farms for food you are losing nearly $100 per acre per turn.

There are a lot more variables that go in to this but but hopefully it helps.

Don't produce troops or tanks IMO it should be cheaper to produce jets/turrets, sell them on the pub market and then buy troops tanks.

I'd keep exploring for the time being, maybe to 2-3k acres whilst producing 95% turrets and 5% spies. When you run out of cash then sell max turrets on the public market.

During that time try and increase your CS count to approx 180-200. Once you are there, switch to 95% jets 5% spies and start attacking for land. Half way though your turns then switch production from jets to turrets and start building your def again.