Airstrip One Palace Court - No Players!

[Krill]

lol, now regoarrarr doesn't even want to attack. I wonder what Broker is thinking about this turn of events, or Shadyforce...

[athlete4life10]

I'm actually a little flattered that you think I am such a good player that it takes 10 to 1 odds to defeat me.

I stopped lurking players threads a long time ago and have really only followed the public player and the no player thread. I've gotten only a slight understanding of the all the shifts that have taken place and how the game has developped so is the above really an accurate statement? I would have thought it was due to the massive size of the civ he inherited...as from what i've read he's kind of blundered it's potential (though is starting to use it properly) if that makes any sense. Anyways I'm one for giving credit where credit is due so if he deserves the self-flattery all the better for him but from the limited I read a large part of that flattery should go to his predecessor(s).

[Sullla]

Eh, I think that Exploit has butchered the diplomacy in this game, personally. Just reading these threads, he comes off as by far the most unlikable person in the game; there's the grudge against regoarrarr, constant threats against everyone else, the bullying and demands of his own allies (!), and now a verbal attack against all the other players in the game. If there was an alliance forming against my team, I'd be coaxing everyone out of it and spinning furiously to break it up, not whining that they were all a bunch of cowards!

Seriously, beyond all the rhetoric, what has Exploit really achieved so far? He inherited the largest civ in the game, with a firm alliance of teching partners. Since then, he managed to lose a half-dozen cities to regoarrarr and become diplomatically isolated. Maybe he'll turn things around, but past all the talking, I'm not seeing much in terms of results so far.

[Yazilliclick]

He sure doesn't appear to have any finesse in diplomacy from what I've seen which is a shame He had everything in good shape from what I can tell, not sure exactly what happened in his negotiations to team up with shady maybe I missed an update on those. At least it appeared that the anti-exploit alliance was dead before it started (not terribly surprising) but now going around calling out everybody I don't think he's going to have any friends in game. He's basically done what rego couldn't do. Convince everybody to not work with him.

I spoke to sunrise about getting copy of save, said he'd send it round.

[Yazilliclick]

Got hold of the save and took a look at exploit (and may have found way to see others as well). Don't have time to post screenshots right now but I will say that rego and others are certainly underestimating the teching ability of exploit. Rego estimated that he maybe does 400bpt, others seem to think less. Right now breaking even (2gpt) he's putting out 525bpt. He's also got 4 universities and 2 libraries building and coming online in next few turns it appears.

Rego definitely has the bigger, more up to date army. But his infrastructure doesn't appear to even compare to Exploit's right now. He can just barely pass exploit's research by going 100% at around -280gpt. Exploit also has a lot of forges and more being built and good espionage.

[Krill]

Exploit reaches 709 bpt, -215 gpt at max science...200 bpt and +359 gpt at max tax, obviously massively configurable depending on need, but he can fund himself at that via building wealth everywhere. Obviously not great if he is being invaded though, but for short sustained bursts...

18.07% world pop, next closest is regoararr at 12%

For all intents and purposes he is self sufficient by t180 (well, earlier but this is the first we knew of it), and like it or not that civ isn't going to fold except under mismanagement, if DSP and Shady are warring with Imhotep. And the real kick in the teeth to everyone else? These are the happy res the Incans have: Gold & Silver (popped), Silk, Ele, (hooked) Fur, Whale (not hooked due to negligence) and ND. If he'd listened to me and shoved Markets everywhere like I told him to he'd have an extra 6 happyness in every city.

I do think Exploit is misplaying it atm. I don't like a fair amount of his MM, (could there be a worse insult ), specialists choices or tech path. Comments on his diplomacy I don't really feel like I can comment on though, considering my history in the game He might understand the metagame but he can't do much in game.

[Whosit]

I missed the updates in the Public Player thread, but I just looked and . . . wow. There really are no words that can do justice to what Exploit has done. Even going back to his threat to gift his civ to regoarrarr, and generally much of what he's posted in his thread and such, I just get the impression that he's completely full of himself, tactless, and a bully (interesting that he accuses everyone else of such). (I'm sure that, once this game is over and he reads this thread, my comments won't endear me to him, but oh well.) I have to agree with Sullla: If it looks like the tide of public opinion is turning against you, go into a Public Relations overdrive! Even if you're not successful, it's probably better to be able to depict yourself as the victim rather than a jerk.

@Krill: I'm rather surprised that he's left happiness resources unconnected, and hasn't built the Marketplaces needed to improve the happiness bonuses. I wonder where he'd be if he had to build himself up from the ground up.

Sort of edit: Well, I've also just taken a look at the last few posts in his spoiler thread, so now I see some of the logic behind his actions, but I still think it's a pretty foolish kind of logic. And while he doesn't seem to understand allies working together even if it lets someone else win, I have no problem with such a concept. I can imagine playing MP Civ as a non-zero-sum game. That is, I can try to pretend it's a "real world" and that the survival of my own civ and support of longstanding allies is more important than sabotaging everyone who gets close to 1st place. Dunno. My few cents. I can't really pretend to understand the goings-on of MP games.

[novice]

Exploit seems to have a somewhat unusual approach to the game, but that doesn't mean it's not interesting to watch him play. He sure seems to have many strategic initiatives. His latest plan involving an invasion at Axehead sounds quite clever, although it's hard to judge without more numbers and/or screenshots.

All the diplomatic upheavals and the lack of updating is making this game harder and harder to follow, though. Most of the reporting now is about the metagame.

[Krill]

It's always about the metagame though. If you don't get it you aren't going to win...

Your secret plan (the one involving axehead) that you only trust your own lurkers with looks quite cunning. But the stack involved doesn't sound that impressive, and your demands are pretty steep. Have you considered that DSP may sacrifice a city and buy enough time to stave the attack off?

Get those tiles roaded for the slowmovers, or move the fastmovers from further behind, and Wolf359 that contains DSPs GT draft city will be toast. That is a very important city that DSP can't afford to lose...Exploit really does have a large hold over DSp if he can move up with a strong stack (minimum 5 Cav, 3 cannon and 5 rifles in first wave IMO).

[Whosit]

As for maps, I am not really comfortable providing them at the moment. I know these forums are supposed to be safe from spying eyes but I am not totally confident of that.

. . .

I expect Rego to spy bomb me when he gets the great spy from Communism. If Rego has city visibility on my lands then I will post maps.

It seems he has a case of Paranoia that more than rivals my own. Kind of a shame, though, since screen shots really spice up the threads. I guess it's nice that he does to the trouble of transcribing his chats, but a summary would a lot easier to digest.

I'm not really sure who I'm rooting for right now. On the one hand, I'd like to see Exploit take a fall since his attitude just grates me. On the other hand, it would also be funny to see Exploit steamroll everyone, and watch as all their schemes turn to so much dust. It might happen, since it sounds like he's on a roll with tech.