\"Survivor 2\" Round 11 is about to start
 

Announcing the long awaited Space Empires IV "Survivor 2" Multiplayer Tournament.

This tournament will have as it's goals the same things that were the goals of the first Survivor Tournament. To be a fun, competative, and fast moving event for players of all skill levels and playing styles. There will be some changes in format from the first tournament, hopefully we have learned some things that will make this one be even better.

Instead of multiple games, this year the tournament will be multiple rounds of progresivly smaller single games with all entrants pitted against each other in each round. Up to and including twenty players per game. If more than twenty players join the tounrament then they will be split into two games of equal, or nearly equal numbers. Each game will be played to the elimination of one player from each game. This will be repeated for as many rounds as are required until such a time enough players have been eliminated so the remaining players can be combined into one game.

The first round game will be played until one player has been eliminated. At that point the first round will be over and all the surviving players will move on to the next round where things will start over once again. This will continue from round to round until only one player remains.

All games will be played using the latest patch Version of Space Empires IV, Gold edition. (Currently this is Version 1.78)

All games will have default settings except for the following stipulations. No computer or neutral players. All quadrants will be randomly generated midlife quadrants. Early rounds will be large quadrants (Though not more than 100 systems). As the pool gets smaller in later rounds the size will be reduced. Ships and units in space per player will be set to the maximum. (20K I believe). The events will be turned off.

The following are default settings, but they bear mentioning for clarity. Each game will be a low tech level, medium tech cost, one average starting planet start. Each game will be 2000 Racial points. No techs will be disallowed(including intel and drones). All trading will be allowed (including trading of colonies). Surrender will be allowed, and not restricted. Since surrender eliminates the surrendering player, it brings an immediate end to that particular round and therefore there is no reason to disallow it.

Players may, but are not required to use the same empire file throughout all the rounds. Players will be required to use a shipset, either a custom one or a stock one, that no one else in the game is using. In the event of duplicates, the first player to join the game will have precedance. For conveience I ask that you include the name of the shipset you are planning on using in parentheses after your empire name when you apply to join. If you are using a custom shipset I also ask that you make sure it is in the PBW shipset file library and that you use the shipset linking system provided by PBW when you upload your empire file.

All games will be set to 36 hour, fully automatic turns. There will be no breaks for vacations or illness. The only stoppages will be in the event of PBW failure, or extroidinary circumstances affecting multiple players. If you need to take a break for any reason, post a message in the game forum and the game owner will attempt to find a temporary replacment for you until you return. You may as an alternative find a replacment yourself that is not already playing in that current rounds game and provide their name to the game owner. You may as an alternative allow your empire to revert to AI control for the duration of your absence. In such a case the turns will be allowed to go to their full 36 hours before running, limiting the number of turns the AI will play in your stead.

Obviously any player that surrenders to another player, or is completely destroyed in the game will be eliminated. Additionally any empire that is reduced to the point of having no planets will be deemed as destroyed and will be eliminated. This includes an empire with ships remaining, even usable colony ships. You must at all times have an exsisting colony with or without population to remain in contact and in the game. Additionally any player who by means of stellar manipulation closes themself off from the rest of the quadrant will be deemed to have been eliminated. You may close off some of your warp points to restrict enemy access to your territory, but you must retain at least one point of access to all of your systems. And there must be at least one path of access, however circuitous, from any system on the map to any other system on the map. The determining factor in any case in doubt will be if an empire loses contact with another empire. If that occurs then either one of them has lost all their planets, or someone somewhere has broken the chain of systems by closing too many warp points.

Any player that misses five consecutive turns in a row (approximatly one week) without notification in the game forum will be declared to have abandoned the game and will be eliminated. Additionally, any player that qualifies for the next round and fails to join the game and upload his empire within a week of the creation of the game on PBW without prior notification will be declared to have abandoned the tournament and will be eliminated.

In the event that more than one player meets one or more of the qualifications for elimination on the same turn, all said players will eliminated from the tournament simultaneously.

[ July 23, 2004, 01:12: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

I am in... Can we start in Sept.... I would hate to be elimated on the first one because of a 4 day vacation. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Well, it'll probably take a week or so to get everybody joined and empires loaded. After that, it's find a lieutenant, or trust the AI. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

I'm in! And I will win, too! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Well, maybe not. We'll see. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Sounds like fun. Count me in.

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

For anyone scared off this tournament by the prospect of the games having 20 players and taking forever, I'd like to point out the following.

Firstly, I intend to ruthlessly enforce the 36 hour turn time limit. No Mr Jones I don't care if your dog ate your .plr file. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

And secondly, the early rounds should end quickly at any rate because they don't have to play to a normal Last man standing completion, only to the elimination of one player. In fact I expect a couple of rounds to end simply because someone drops out. That's the nature of these things often. The beauty of this format is that abandoned players don't hinder us, in fact they speed things up because they end the rounds sooner. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

The determining factor in any case in doubt will be if an empire loses contact with another empire.

Does this mean that everyone will be in contact with each other ????

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Oh boy! Oh boy! My first tourney! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No, not at first. But once you make contact with another race the only way to lose contact is either to lose all your planets, or be cut off from them by someone closing warp points all the warp points between you and them.

I honestly don't think any of the games will Last long enough for the second option to come into play. At least not in the early rounds certainly. I only included that as an official position to prevent someone "turtleing up" and closing all the warp points and building systems shield generators and thereby guaranteeing their survival.

Technically I suppose you could do that with part of your empire and leave a single planet outside, thus maintaining contact but still violating the rule requiring all systems to have a chain of open warp points. In the unlikely event someone attempt such a manuver I will simply declare them eliminated.

Geo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Hey, count me in. And no Fyron, I'll win! Well most likely not but I gotta have some self confidence right?

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Another great thing about this format is truely anybody can win. You can play aggresivly and try to knock out the first guy you meet. Or play defensivly and ride it our till someone else buys it each round. And even if you aren't a very good player you can make it deep into the tourney by being good at making alliances and political stuff. And late in the tourney a lucky break here or there and who knows what might happen? All the "Favorites" could get knocked out early in the tournament for that matter.

Geoschmo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

A brilliant concept! I have to be in that one!
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Assuming I and He plays, can we change the rules of the first round to include:

Team Play Everyone Against Askan := True

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

How does it work?

Will all the details be given on this thread...or do we need to access another one?

And where do I sign up? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Tbon, it's going to be played on PBW. If you aren't familier with that go to http://seiv.pbw.cc and register and read the FAQ.

Geoschmo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Thanx Geo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

I have already signed up!

Thanx, Geo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif
Six hours in and we already have fourteen players signed up. It is appearing very likely we may get more than 20 players.

What will happen is when the 20th player signs up I will open a second game. At first I don't want any of you to move over. Just stay where you are. After a few days and things settle down to what appears to be the final number I will ask for volunteers to withdraw from game one and join game tow. You can only be in one game obviously. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

If we make 20, I don't anticipate much more than that, so it shouldn't be more than a couple rounds we have to play multiple games. Just until we get down to 20 total.

Geoschmo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That could make things interesting...

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Who is Askan?

Is he "the man" to beat? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You're probably safer sucking up to Askan and getting him to attack someone else. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Kim

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Askan won the first survivor tourney.

He is a force to be reckoned with, or quietly cuddled up to as Grandpakim has suggested http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

I can take him. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

So he is the boogyman? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Geo, You're going to keep enticing me until I get Gold aren't you?
I'll have to 'talk' to my wife this weekend...

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Good to see I'm in for some early action, I hate nothing more than those slow, no war before everyone has level 5 PPBs type of games.

I thought it my simplify my strategy (and make it easy to remember who my target is) if I just worked through the player list in reverse alphabetical order.

Good fighting.
Askan

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Bring it on! Wait... that means I'll be a while. Go in reverse player # instead. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Hi Askan

Been to the game site & I see your are ready and itchin to go!

The rest of us still have stuff to do before we can play!

Are you always this prepared? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Saw the game, joined, got accepted, uploaded my empire, wait for first turn.
What more is there to do?

Askan

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Prepare to be destroyed by Zanar'ri battle fleets? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I love all the big talk and bravado. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Reminds me of the Survivor 1 Tournament.

(Maybe I should have retired a champion, instead of being whipped like an old hasbeen)

Askan

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

I wasn't in the 1st survivor tournament. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Enough chest beating for me today. Its past 5 and the pub is calling.

But if your keen for a ultra violence match up we can play a 4-6 man in a small galazy with no trading. Drop us an email.

Cheers,
Askan

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Who's us?

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeh.

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

What??? That makes no sense! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Ok. So if I take my warp closers and stealthily cut someone else off from the rest of the map, does that mean that I've eliminated them? That would suck! Enough warp closers, and you are unstoppable! Just make a treaty with someone, place your WP closers on the strategic warppoints, then close them all at once. Presto, instant elimination!

Maybe the map should look something like the one in Adamant 4. There is an average of about 6 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif warppoints per system. (I'd really like to know how he did that!) It would be nigh impossible to play the turtle defense on that map, except that it's a cluster map. So there are strategic WPs to close. If it was midlife, with the same # of WPs....

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Dumbluck, go into QuadrantTypes.txt. Look for these lines:

Max Warp Points per Sys := 5
Min Angle Between WP := 60

Double the max WPs and halve the min angle. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Dumbluck, as I said I really don't think it is likely to come up, but if it does I am going to come down hard on the player doing the closing, not the one being closed off. That's not a valid method for eliminating someone in my book.

Geoschmo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Geoschmo, I really like this Tournament. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
But I have a slight problem; i'm off for my honneymoon to mexico http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif from 20 october till 8 november. I can offcourse let the AI running my turn and fill in all shiporders and research. Would you approved such a player http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif (ME).

Sparhawk

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Well, congradulations by the way. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

As long as I know you are gone I don't have a problem with extended leaves like that. Anything over five turns without a notice and you get booted, but you can go past five turns as long as I know ahead of time you are leaving and planning on returning.

However, that is almost three full weeks. Assuming your new marriage survives being cooped up with her for three weeks, I am not sure your empire will with you gone that long. I would advise you try and find a replacment player for while you are gone. If you can't find one I will try to find one for you.

I don't suppose the new bride would let you take your computer with you? Nah.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geoschmo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

He, if I take my computer with me, then it will be the shortest honneymoon ever. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif
And no we will be to busy to have time for a computer.......

Sparhawk

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Also, since we already have more than 20 players, we are going to have two games, at least for the first couple rounds. Since both games will function independantly, a player is to be eliminated from each game in each round, I would have no problem with a player that is in one game acting as a temporary replacment for a player in the other game that is on an extended leave such as this.

By the time we get down to 20 players and have only one game we will have a pool of eliminated players that we can draw from as temporary replacments, assuming they are willing. Of course you are free to get someone from outside the tourney to serve as your lieutenant if you wish. They just have to have SEIV and access to PBW.

Geoschmo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

Tournament registration has slowed down now. We have 26 players signed
up across the two games, which is about what I expected total. We might
get a couple more here or there, but it's doubtlful. Some of you have
already started uploading your empire files, which is fine. What I want
to do is start equalizing the two games so they have the same, or
nearly the same, number of players.

If no one else joins the tournament from this point, I would need to
move 7 players from game 1 over to game 2. What I would like is if anyone
in game 1 currently that HAS NOT already uploaded your empire file
wouldn't mind moving, you go ahead and withdraw from Game 1 and apply to
join game 2. Before you withdraw though check and make sure a bunch
haven't already done so. We only need to move a few.

If not enough people do this on their own I will randomly boot some
people and assign them to game 2. I won't do that for a couple days though
I want to make sure there aren't anymore people that want to join the
tourney.

My plan is to leave registration open until Sunday morning, then start
"encouraging" you to upload your empire files if you haven't already,
with a tentative goal to start the first round on Tuesday sometime. If
all the empires aren't uploaded by then I will start making noises about
booting people. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Have fun!

Geoschmo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

I have a few questions about the mechanics...
- How do we know when a player has no planets (unless we play on View All Scores, perhaps)
- How do we know a player has been cut off? (ie, will the administrator know somehow, or is it up to a player to tell him?)

And a few things you might want to clarify, so there are no hard feeling later in the game:

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">- this statement makes me think you should either ban Stellar Manip, or state the rule explicitly. What if one player accidentally closes off another? (likelihood near zero, but you never know)

On player Communications:
- Is it ok to send email to a player you haven't met in the current round. Most players (myself included) follow this guideline, but since this format is a bit different, you might want to make a house rule...
- Is it ok to make a deal with another empire that extends into future rounds (for example, can I beg Askan not to kill me in the current round, in exchange for my promise not to attack him for the next three rounds...)

Thanks! The game sounds like a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to playing.

-Spoon (Spoo to the Nth power?)

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Unless he gets killed off before you meet him, you will know he lost his Last planet because you will get the "lost contact with player X" log message. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">same as above. You will get a "lost contact" message.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">- this statement makes me think you should either ban Stellar Manip, or state the rule explicitly. What if one player accidentally closes off another? (likelihood near zero, but you never know)</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ok, I will think abou tthis one and make a decision before we start. I don't want any abiguity if we can avoid it. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Normally I don't allow it, but for the purposes of this tournament, I'll allow it. In fact I am looking forward to seeing people do this. I think it will add to the cutthroat nature of the tourney. You can think your making a deal with someone, and he's got deals with someone else too and planning on backstabing you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif See other thread on the subject. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is allright with me. What would NOT be ok is if you said, "Askan, don't kill me now, and in a later round I'll lay down when you are about to get eliminated." Promising to assist each other is good and ok. Promising to take a dive so another can move on is bad and not ok.

Geoschmo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

If I were about to eliminate Empire A, say, in 4 or 5 turns, but someone esle is about to eliminate Empire B before I can get to Empire A's Last holdings, can I gift a few planets to Empire B solely for the purpose of keeping them around so that I could instead have Empire A elminated?

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Why sure you can. But you can also expect that sort of tactic not to sit well with everybody. So be prepared to deal with the "consequences" of your actions in later rounds. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Geoschmo

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

They have no way of knowing if I did that. For all they know, Empire B colonized planets in far-off locations without their knowledge. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: "Survivor 2" Round 10 is about to start
 

This is true, but keep in mind that Empire A's friends can do the same.