Turns of AXT052 game in Apolyton PBEM Tournament - Page 7

Paul · February 13, 2002, 15:19

2161 to J

vitamin j · February 14, 2002, 02:02

From the icey calm Provost Paul...

...to the energy-hogging JDM...

Paul · February 16, 2002, 17:09

2162 to J a few hours ago.

johndmuller · February 18, 2002, 23:50

2162 to Commissioner Skanderbeg of the Peacekeepers

Paul · February 19, 2002, 15:35

2163 to J

vitamin j · February 20, 2002, 00:32

'63 to JDM

johndmuller · February 20, 2002, 14:46

2163 to Commissioner Skanderbeg of the Peacekeepers

Paul · February 20, 2002, 18:16

2264 to J

johndmuller · February 22, 2002, 18:53

2164 to Commissioner Skanderbeg of the Peacekeepers

Paul · February 23, 2002, 11:22

2165 to J

vitamin j · February 24, 2002, 14:21

65 to JDM

johndmuller · February 25, 2002, 13:32

2165 to Commissioner Skanderbeg of the Peacekeepers

Paul · February 25, 2002, 17:06

2166 to J

johndmuller · February 26, 2002, 02:14

2166 to Commissioner Skanderbeg of the Peacekeepers

vitamin j · February 26, 2002, 10:12

Hey folks, just wanted to tell you I'm moving to Colorado on Thursday, so I won't be able to play turns until Monday or thereabouts. Sorry in advance for the delay.

Paul · February 27, 2002, 15:22

2167 to J

johndmuller · March 2, 2002, 19:58

2167 to Commissioner Skanderbeg of the Peacekeepers.

johndmuller · March 4, 2002, 22:15

2167 to Commissioner Skanderbeg of the Peacekeepers.

Voices on the internet are calling for the UN to censure the genocide occuring on University Island.

Paul · March 5, 2002, 16:51

2169 to J

vitamin j · March 5, 2002, 22:12

The way it I see it, it was either Paul now or me later. Such is the University. It looks like he's going to get off on a technicality, anyway, if he's not willing to surrender. (I haven't heard a word from him...) I eradicated him this turn, and the game immediately freaked out. It showed me my score, and started to show the replay. When I exited the replay, it prompted me for my password. When I entered my password, I was taken to the "main entrance" menu. I re-loaded once and tried again with the exact same result. Anybody know what's up? Obviously, I'm holding the turn until I hear something.

johndmuller · March 6, 2002, 01:47

This is only hearsay, but I believe that there is a known glitch that precludes such straightforward (and barbaric, if I might editorialize here) horrific and uncivilized genocides such as you are perpetrating and that require instead that the unfortunate victim (or the CMN) obliterate their own last base or some such ritual in order for the game to continue. I'm sure that others know better than I, but it looks like we will either have to play around to Paul again (without your having killed him this time) or that his previous turn will have to be replayed - in any case ending as a University suicide of some kind. Check around for threads on this; I'm sure I've seem something about it somewhere.

johndmuller · March 6, 2002, 12:09

I did some of the legwork; the Poly search has become useless - it only seems to find recent stuff (it doesn't make the site any less prone to being effed up either) - found these threads on ACOL
http://www.planetacol.com/ubb/Forum8/HTML/000541.html (doesn't get into that bug right right away)
http://www.planetacol.com/ubb/Forum8/HTML/000516.html (a lot of whining mixed in with it)
http://www.planetacol.com/ubb/Forum8/HTML/000007.html (not very helpful)
If you read all these, you will note 3 workarounds, each with pros and cons and various levels of detail on how to actually apply the workaround:
1) Victim (or CMN) obliterates or (starvation + final CP)'s base to death; its main drawback is that the conqueror misses out on the booty of that last base;
2) CMN turns over control of the base to AI - it doesn't explain exactly how to do that, but Tau Ceti probably knows how or could figure it out. This would force you to take the base from them with vendetta etc, but maybe the defunct Gaian faction would come in handy here. Its drawback is said to be that the remaining players in that round miss a turn; if I recall correctly, I that wouldn't be a problem here;
3) You do some kind of song and dance with the save after eradicating the victim, then immediately restart the game/computer(?) and apparently sometimes it works - given the correct song and dance; its drawback is apparently that the conqueror gets an extra round of goodies such as production and research from his whole faction; other drawbacks include possibly scrambling the data and/or resetting base pops to 1. Sounds undesirable, but if we went this way, I for one, would require a generous settlement to balance the extra resource/research bonus.

I'm sure that there is a better description of this problem and the solutions than these, but I've had enough of this quest. I've also had enough of trying to post these solutions on Poly; last night when I tried, my message got sent to limbo and Poly went passive aggressive on me wasting too much of my time.

It also gave me grief just trying to edit a little of this post - it even got MS to ask me for debugging info when IE crashed trying to do the edit.

vitamin j · March 6, 2002, 15:19

Thanks for digging up that info. It would be helpful if Paul would stoop to respond here, or send me an email, or something. Before you get all weepy about my supposed injustice, you should know that Paul ignored my repeated attempts to contact him when I first joined this game. As the Spartans, you can pretty much only do one thing well. IMO, the Uni is at the top, or close to the top, of the faction-power heap, and allowing them to run a builder game uncontested is a recipe for disaster. Skanderberg approached me with a pact offer right after I joined the game, and Theohall never seemed like much of a threat. Throughout my entire invasion, Paul never contacted me once, neither offering to submit or to work out some other deal. Anyway, if you take offense at the way I've played, fine. It's a game, and I think I've played well with what I had. If you'd like to settle your grievances in-game, I look forward to the encounter...

Paul · March 6, 2002, 16:41

I'll obliterate my own base if that's the best workaround to this bug. I hadn't heard of that one yet. In an earlier game we just let the one base sit there producing nothing, but this seems like a better solution.

vitamin j · March 6, 2002, 22:08

That sounds good to me. I'll do the turn again and send it asap.

johndmuller · March 7, 2002, 02:45

2169 to Commissioner Skanderbeg of the Peacekeepers.

This is the turn of the reload.

Sorry for my reload; it just crashed shortly after I loaded it up - for a while I thought it had something to do with whatever we are doing to work around the bug, but I guess it was just a random flake out since I guess that we will be doing whatever later on in this round.

I also had funny stuff happen when I was sending the file - it looked to be completed, but it said there were errors, see details below (however, there were no errors detailed below); anyway, I sent it again, so if it arrives twice, apologies, but that's why.

VJ, I can't tell whether you are ashamed of being a genocidal barbarian conqueror or proud of it

. Why don't you try some Xenocide for a while? I understand it makes a good chaser

.

vitamin j · March 7, 2002, 12:39

I'm not a genocidal barbarian conqueror, so whether I'm proud or ashamed is a moot point. I guess it would somehow be more palatable to you if I went after the Aliens? Don't worry, I don't have any immediate designs on your territory.

johndmuller · March 7, 2002, 13:56

OTOH, we would like to help you design your territory; perhaps lots of frilly pink lace curtains and stuffed animals; you need to get in touch with your feminine side a little more; maybe some finishing school or ballet lessions . . . .

Paul · March 9, 2002, 10:59

2170 to J. I obliterated my last base, so I hope that everything's ok now and my faction is properly eliminated.

vitamin j · March 9, 2002, 19:42

Thanks Paul. I'll be watching my back in Lost Secrets...

I sent the turn to JDM yesterday.