Cool.

Preparing my pop corn to see who rules the cluster. Good luck for everybody.

Draven

PS: Where can we bet for a player? XD

I suppose this is only for premium members? Does currently non-premium members get the invite?

Does the rules prohibit info exchange/ship trading etc? Or is it just no full alliance game? It makes a big difference...

admiral_thrain,

Based on the Oct 1 date a non-premium member will probably not want to play since Joshua has decided that the line of separation between premium and non-premium will be tech 7 at a starbase much like the old shareware limitations.

What if someone isn't interested in playing the match? Do you just cycle down the list until you finally hit someone?

Veldan - I know, but a non-premium member (like myself) might get premium to be able to play in the Scorpius War...

Will there be weekly or bi-weekly updates on the state of the competition? I'd be interested in a Galactic News Network kind of update with VCR supplies, planets gained/lost, good-natured taunting by governements, etc.

I love that the losers in fact lose all their achievement points! Fantastic, this should make for some stiff competition. Good luck people.

Admiral_thrain, safe passage, share intel and ship trading are permitted. You just can't ally to meet the win conditions. So creating an alliance is permitted, but you can expect they are going to turn on you at some point.

I read that the starting positions are carefully balanced for fairness...........

Should that not be the case for every game, not just this championship game?

Though I won't be in this particular match unless a bunch of people ahead of me don't want to play, I am curious about the rank drop. I do like the idea, but I'm curious if that means these people won't be able to join officer games until they rank up again?

I understand they will have their achievements reuced to zero but their rank will remain. Otherwise they will have to play again minor games until they qualify again for offecer's games, and it would not be fair in my opinion.

If player achievements don't drop then there would be no chance for anyone, particularly a new player, to ever catch the leaders so long as they consistently keep playing Nu. You would have the same people vying for emperor over and over. This way is balanced, fair and promotes a hell of a good competition - you're playing for all the marbles. Let's see the fireworks!

I really like the risk/reward aspect of playing the matches this way, and think its totally cool as far as the players go. I just wonder how someone new to planets will feel when he's playing his first game with 5 (just a random number...could be more, could be less) guys who until the week before were #1 for their races.

As someone who may quite by surprise be in the running for this emperor game I have a few thoughts on the proposal.

These are thoughts to provoke constructive discussion(hopefully).

Absolutely the emperor game should be high stakes (the prize is a great incentive) and also must be seen as attainable by all players in a fair way as each invite goes out every 6-8 months.

Having said that I don’t think removing the achievement points of the losers is the best route I my opinion as it doesn’t address underlying issues with ranking.

There has already been good discussion on this topic in several threads including the use of league tables(galaxies) for each race leader board with progression from the outer quadrants (new players) into the inner quadrants(experienced players) with promotion/demotion based on performance. This would allow the top player from each race’s highest quadrant to be put into the emperor game.

Alternatively a more simple reset at the time of each emperor game of all players active achievements (keeping historical high rank) so that everyone is on level playing field each new ‘season’.

If you remove all the achievement and rank of failed emperor contestants (Yes I know we keep destruction and experience but what does that affect on their own?) it will be next to impossible (read lack of motivation) for that person to keep playing that race to fight back up to the top for a ‘rematch’ in another emperor game as the other 9 players on the top of the race will have a massive head start of active achievement points, this will only get worse after a couple of emperor games.

If they play and have rank in only one race (and they have this removed) does this mean a failed emperor contestant can no longer compete in officer games?

Where is the motivation for someone to keep playing their favourite race and come back for a rematch when they have been demoted and have such a long time to regain achievements.

If we follow this approach this also says that new players in 6 months times will have next to no chance of achieving emperor places until everyone in front of them has progressed to the top spot, this is a time served model (assuming constant decent performance) vs a meritocracy of performance in a defined time period of who should be on top.

Yes the emperor game should be open to all but we should rather address the issue of people playing many concurrent games from the same race and racking up points quickly i.e the long discussed volume over quality discussions that are on the forums. (yes I am happy to make this point while playing 3 running EE games)

If all the losing races get their achievements reset does that imply the winning emperor does not? Does that mean they are in prime position to reclaim the entry for the next emperor game (assuming they continue to play and win games), further, does the reigning emperor get invited back as the defending player race? If so then that effectively locks out all other players of that race from competing—what if one player dominates for 2-3 emperor games that totally blocks other players…

If the next emperor game (in 6-8 months) is being prepared before a winner of the first who will you invite to the 2nd game if you haven’t wiped peoples achievement scores (assuming they continue to gain more and stay on top)

I think this needs to be thought through a little more before implementation as I feel we are skirting over some of the more fundamental issues of the ranking system raised on the forums, hopefully my points above illustrate just a few of the implications of things working in this way.

All that being said… looking forward to it (if selected!)

no risk, no fun.

officer's games will still be possible in most cases, because nearly all players who can reach the pole position until september have at least a small rank in a second race...

if i understand this right, the next emperor's match will very likely start before the running one has finished - if you manage to survive that long AND stay top in the list, you hopefully will be able to compete in a second one.. a third one will then be up to your results from the first game..

from the rules and the line-up "the scorpius war" has the potential to become the planets game of your life.
having the achievement points reset is hard (if you fail), but does not weigh the honour to participate.

I'm fine with risk as it makes it all the more interesting. I just thought i'd post to make sure people have thought through the implicatons of starting the first emperor game with this approach given the pretty heated debate about the scoring systems in the forum previously. expected more comment than this actually.. maybe people have come to terms with it..

In reality from my persepective I'm fine whatever, I'll keep playing and keep trying to beat people regardless of the ranking approach :)

Just one question(as i will never be able to join an emperors game): If Achievments will be reseted, but not the Destruction, does that mean you regain your historical achievments for the mass of ships you destroyed immediatly?
And in my place, as an not good/bad player i would prefer to play the games with someone, with my ability for the game and not the first looser of the emperors game, who kills me without the need to switch on his brain for that.

It all sounds good to me.

ephes7, halion is a supreme player no doubt, but I am sure he would at least need to use half of his brain (the right side?) to win in that post-Scorpius galaxy ....

richard .. I too am hoping that we hear plenty of updates and even good-natured banter from the contestants as well ....

This sounds awesome and I love that the losers get their achievments reset. Don't like it, then don't accept the challenge.

This has me wishing that I'd found VGAP-Nu sooner than I did....

Es interesante, pero,... creo que la acumulación de puntos de algunos jugadores mediante 3 o más juegos con una raza es un poco desequilibrante, los logros o méritos deberian ser respecto el nivel de los jugadores en cada partida. Cabe decir que tambien hay sospechas de algunos jugadores que juegan simultaneamente dos y tres razas en una misma partida e incluso "amigos" que hacen crecer imperios para luego cederle ese imperio al jugador ALFA, en fin, creo que las limitaciones por nivel no deberian existir.

a10

So cool! Good luck to everybody!

less than one month to go...

So basically if I read that right players that join today will have to play for 5-7 years before even seeing a chance to join an emperor game if the ranking system stays the way it is.

Well, would have been nice to have found this place earlier. Congrats to the beta players and those who have been here for a long time. You'll be the first 12-20 emperors. By virtue of a flawed system that promotes longevity over performance.

*Hyperjumping back to the outer quadrants*

Or the top twelve per race play a game with each of the 12 being the same race in a game with say 20 planets each. Sort of a competition within the race it sort of fits the Nu Scenario. And the winner of that represents the race in the championship.

the losers of those and the championships lose rank and achievements. Thereby emptying the upper ranks faster which will rotate through each race faster giving everyone a shot. Doesn't really answer about the ranking system I suppose some people would manipulate it to get to the final game faster. But that should be eventually worked out anyway I would assume. As a better system can easily be thought out.

Ok now hyperjumping back to my outer quadrant

kokunai, I made captain for the borg on 1 game. I'm ranked 6th. If you start just 2 games right now, you're going to be at the same place I will be when my second game ends. The top borg players have just 2-3 games played.
What you say may be true in 5-7 years but it's definitely not true now. Go fight and fight hard.

I've seen some that way but quite a few are harder to move up in. Personally I'm very biased towards playing EE cause I happen to like the style but very rarely does enjoyable style and a victory happen for me. So slow moving I'm supplementing EXP from training games in hopes of moving a bit faster to the top shouldn't take me long but some people prefer ( or are limited to) only running the turns they have in the games they are in and just can't spare the time to play the training over and over again or play in a lot of games.

I just think their should be some bonus for performance that equals longevity. They both have a place among top ranked players I think.

Obviously this game has survived for a very long time and the rankings system won't keep people from playing and it takes nothing away from the game by having it. I just think it could be a bit more reflective of the nature of the game.

It's not impossible to rise quickly in the ratings, even if you're just coming in now. I started playing here just a few months ago, in April. I'm now the #9 ranked officer for the Colonies. If I were a more aggressive player, I'd be higher ranked than that.

rawr

RAWR!!! Only ten days to go...

Romulan Star Empire has assigned Admiral Thrain to fight for glory in The Scorpius War!

Conkratulationsss, Attmiral Zrain !!

I take it that the full player list will be released soon?)

We are beginning to send out invitations for the match. The full player list will be disclosed when the game begins.

You are in charge of the fleet now, Admiral!