Cyborg's Community Challenge: Play It Forward

[Cyborg]

I have this idea that as a community we could tackle some hard challenges together, win or lose, in a way where we all get to experience a slice of a campaign. So I'm proposing that we create a challenge, and one person can take the challenge for two hours of in-game clock time.

I'll post the first couple hours, whoever wants to take it next should post here and "claim" the game, and come back after two hours of game clock with however the campaign looks. Keep going until the situation is victorious or unwinnable. Discuss strategies, issues, and so on.

I thought we could take on a moderately hard challenge first.


Map type:
crosshatch
80 planets
seed 548611156
0/60 increment
Normal caps/combat

Ships:
complex
core shields off, everything else on

Game options

Minor factions:

Human rebellion
human resistance
Wardens
enclaves
rocketry
Dyson sphere
Zenith trader
Fallen spire
civilian leaders
spire moderate
golem moderate

AI modifiers:
schizophrenic
reveal AI types

AI 1: - Camouflager
hybrid hives
8.3 random moderate

AI 2: - Everything
8.6 random harder
advanced hybrids



Report:

Researched:
Crystal and metal harvesters Mark III
advanced warp sensor
teleporting leech Mark II
Fortress Mark I

The first thing I did was secure the home front and try to create a box up against the edge of the board. Since we are playing with hybrids, I poke the nests to release the pressure and run back to my defense. You're going to find that the three planets I've taken, you may have to run back and forth with your fleet. I'm using reclamation units to test out whether or not reclamation is overpowered. So far, it isn't, because the AI gets so many ships that it doesn't matter. Also setting up fortresses, but it takes a long time to get the resources for it given the constant combat and planet-taking in between the whistles.

You also want to set up rally posts on every planet so that your reclamation units have somewhere to go and look at the controls I set up. Right now I'm doubling up power sources, because we have lots of power critical units like force fields and fortresses. You can turn those off when they're not needed to save power and get more resources. I've labeled the map, went with the economy first, and got a nice fleet going.

Good luck, let's see where this goes.

[Martyn van Buren]

This is a really cool idea but I can't do diff 8+; if I started a 7.3/7.6 are there some other n00bs who'd want to join me? I'll probs turn on basic hybrids and FS, but in two hours there's no way I'll be far enough along FS for the exos to start, so you'll be able to choose whether to continue it or not. Likewise medium golems and spirecraft.

I was thinking 80 worlds with one easy ai type and one moderate, probably aim for a Neinzul bonus ship. Most options on but not Neinzul minor factions or the avenger. But since I'm going to do the first two hours I'm happy to take requests for options; most of them matter more mid-to-late game.

Judging by my usual playstyle I'll probably be handing the game over with a 3-5 world core set up and largely fortified and a few thousand k in the bank.

[_K_]

The idea was nice, but Comic Sans kinda ruins it completely.

[Diazo]

Hmmm.

I'd prefer "challenge" posts.

IE: Play a game until a certain point, then challenge the community to "acheive X in Y minutes".

The problem is that everyone plays and prefers different settings.

And difficulty is relative to the player.

In my opinion this is an extremely tough setup, even with spire and golems medium (so no exo-waves), there are very few players I would expect to still be alive at the 5 hour mark and expect most players (the average) to be game over by the 3 hour mark.

I'm not sure I'd want to take the save and go with it, I'm not confident I could make any progress at all, your science unlocks are totally different then what I would do.

D.

[keith.lamothe]

I'd take it, but I'm a bit slammed time-wise.

As far as the challenge, it does look a bit stiff, but I don't think "don't lose" is necessarily a requirement to the experiment

[Diazo]

Well, I suppose we could have survival challenges, but I get enough of that on my 10/10 attempts.

Regardless I may take the save and play a session with it once I finish my current game just to see how it goes.

I always play spirecraft and golems on hard when I enable them, I may be overestimating how hard this is with them on medium.

Going to finish my current game first however.

D.

[Cyborg]

That's right. You don't have to win, it's just for fun. See how far you can go before it all goes to hell, and you might even win. I have done something very similar to this successfully, so it's not impossible, although the map type makes it a lot harder. A minute ago we were all about crosshatch, and now it's too hard? 

Just for fun. See where it goes.

[madcow]

Oh, cool, this sounds like a community Dwarf Fortress line which always looked fun (if I knew how to play dwarf fortress that is, I've tried without much success ). I'm probably too noob for this one, but if other new folks want a different group challenge game I would be game.

[zoutzakje]

I'll go with that. Let me know when it's my turn.

[keith.lamothe]

I'll go with that. Let me know when it's my turn.

I think you're in luck

whoever wants to take it next should post here and "claim" the game, and come back after two hours of game clock with however the campaign looks

[Cyborg]

I'll go with that. Let me know when it's my turn.

That's the spirit.

[Wanderer]

Wanderer plays.
2 hours later.
You have your homeworld.  luck!

[zoutzakje]

We probably need at least some sort of rules to avoid confusion.
May I suggest we use rules similair like the ones found here:

http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/Update%201-1/

Perhaps a list of players who want to play, displayed on the first post would be nice. That way everybody who wants to play can quickly see when it's their turn.

So basically, you get a week to play your turn. And if you don't play your turn, the next player will take it. Also, being noob doesn't matter, since this is just for fun and by no means a serious game. Just don't screw up the galaxy on purpose (mk III nuke for example), or the game will revert to an older save.

Do you agree with this Cyborg or did you have something else in mind?

I guess I was the first one to accept, so it's time to start playing then


EDIT: I'm also up for a 7/7 community game, as I doubt this one will last very long

[Cyborg]

If that's what people prefer. I personally didn't think it was that difficult for people to post "I'm taking it, will post the next save." What I don't like about rosters is it discourages folks who may just want to drop in and play. We have some regulars on here who haunt the forums like it's their job, and then we have folks who check in once a week. I'd rather leave it open.

Anyway, please post your save after claiming it/playing it.

[zoutzakje]

Since I find my own 9/9 crosshatch game hard enough already, this one will most likely be extremely deadly considering the settings, even though the difficulty itself is slightly lower.
Ah well, we'll see how far I get =)


Research stations all seem to have vanished so I figured I'd built one and spend some of our remaining knowledge. Gravity turrets and mk II scouts it is. Time to build some defenses first and scout the area. There doesn't seem to be any valid target nearby yet.
My leadership is being put to the test right away. Less than 2 minutes in and already a wave.
The wave was a joke, but we need tachyon stuff. I still got a few space planes left in my system.
Discovered the first Co-processor at oorark.
first SCL at Mikdesne, second one right next to it at Matyuhdark and another one also right next to it at Heve. I guess that's where we should advance towards for now. Not sure if I get there during my leadership though.
Next wave incoming so I unlocked tachyon beam emitters and Heavy beam cannons. Half the wave dies from a single volley of my HBC's, so that's working for sure.
Tunehas has already gone out of control and can't seem to get neutered no matter what I try. 2 Emp guardians there. I can manage to destroy them both just before my fleet gets wiped out and then the massive threat moves in and kills my systems. Even the massive turretball I've build can't stop them. There's one more thing left for me to try, but I need asteroids for that.
Guess I'll take Reweras then.
Meanwhile I got some hybrid attacks, some waves and some roaming enclaves going after the homeworld. The fortress the previous owner has built is holding them off fairly well, except for the youngling tigers (or was it weasels?) which are made of polycrystal. Build a few extra turrets and that's the end of that.
I barely managed to destroy most of Reweras' ships. Now i just need to do a full rebuild before I can take it.
Oh yeah, and an abnormally strong hybrid is now somewhere in the galaxy. Since I'm not capable of scouting everything in a 4-hop radius, this little warning will become our doom in a few hours.
Captured Reweras and put up some basic defenses. And this is as far my leadership goes. I've only played one hour, but this game is too hellish to play any longer. Constantly getting attacks from hybrids and enclaves and making progress is nearly impossible. Because we're playing against an Everything AI type, mk IV worlds are impossible to take out at all and the dyson sphere + hybrid plot will ultimately be our defeat.
Moderately hard challenge my butt This is definitely the very hard / impossible kind of challenge.

May the poor sucker who is the next overlord do a better job than I did ^^
7/7 community games will probably be more my thing ^^

EDIT: that's true Cyborg. It would probably be best to leave it open then and let people claim it whenever they want.