"The Metaverse League" Help Desk.

Very good job. Everyone should remember that this is evolving as we go and all comment and suggestions are welcome.

I do have a couple of questions. First where will the assigned team rosters be announced? From the title it would seem that these would be announced in the "Player Sign Up & Roster" thread. I suppose that people will be joining over time as well as the team rosters may change over time and so the need for this thread will continue over time. The other question is how will the players will assign the team for the commisioner? If there's a good way to do this then fine, but I have no objection to the commisioner randomly assigning himself to a team as well.

Another question is which of these threads should be made sticky? Making all 4 threads sticky just for the purposes of the Metaverse League seems like a little much but I think there's good reason to keep all of these easily accessible within the metaverse forum. Perhaps it might be worthwhile to see if this takes off but it shows every sign that it will. Anyway, a few more folks should probably express their opinion on making these threads sticky and if folks agree we can make a "formal" request to Kryo to do so.

[edit] Also in regard to these four threads, is there any specific reason that 2 of them are in the GalCiv2 general forum and the other 2 are in the Metaverse forum? I would suspect that all 4 belong in the metaverse forum unless there's a reason for this that I'm not seeing. [/edit]

Yes and in the Results and League Ladder thread.



My plan was to simply assign 3 of the 4 players into teams, leaving a vacant spot and then asking the players to simple select a, b, c or d for myself, then fill in the last spots.

As to making threads sticky, i had not yet asked Kryo about this, not until we were sure we were up and running and would need it. As for which threads. I'd say the main "The Metaverse League" thread and the Result's & League Ladder thread would be needed, but if all 4 were stickied then that would be fine too.

Not sure why those threads are not in Metaverse, i did intend that to be the case, don't know what happened but if Kryo could move them please into Metaverse that would be appreciated. Thanks.

Also i'd like to encourage all to use the Metaverse League banner too. The more we can promote the league the more players will sign up and ultimately the healthier the league will be.

Sure I guess that could work.

In this same subject while people are signing up we probably should consider how to deal with odd numbers of people that would like to join. I don't think we would want to exclude anyone but it would be foolish to assume that we'll get a number exactly divisable by four and even if we do I would expect that over time people will express interest and join as we go along.

Certainly we could make folks wait until there's four and simply create a new team but that could make someone go away and not bother. I'd just as soon assign any extra players to current teams as alternates. Once there are enough alternates to fill a new team then a new one can be created. While a member of an existing team these alternates should be considered full members and everyone in the team would be expected to sit out one game in turn to accomadate all players as much as possible.

It might even be an advantage to have 5 players on a team with everyone getting a month off every 5th game. It might be nice to have an occasional break. Although the month timelimit shouldn't unduly stress anyone's schedule.

We need a better method for displaying all the banners we have. I think Marshall mentioned something about doing something to cycle through a number of banners. I have Empire, MVC, AltMeta and Metaverse League banners to display. That gets a little busy. If we could cycle through them like the virtual signage in a soccer game that would be cool.

I have no banners because, well.... I dont know how to put them on     Maybe i will learn more on this machine besides email and games  

I had thought about the odd number of player issue. One thing i had thought of was in a given team with 5 players, they each play their game as normal and submit then the lowest scoring game could be dropped, or the higheest scoring game if you want to spice it up. Or we could simply select a game randomly to be dropped, either way the fifth player is playing, if we have to have someone sit out from the start, yes i could see the benefit's but i think we would lose the player in question as their interest would wane.

Personally, i like the idea of dropping the lowest scoring game. Thoughts?

As for the banners, yes i have many also, i have seen Marshall's revolving banner in the HCH thread, it looks great, i think he used an animated gif. Now i have no idea on how to do that but i really like the look of it.

I like the idea of allowing everyone to play and the lowest score being dropped when there are more than four.

I use a program called Adobe ImageReady to make animated gifs - it's an older program that came with Photoshop when it was a standalone product. I've seen freeware animated gif generators on www.tucows.com, but haven't tried them out. Basically you just add each separate image as a layer, set the timing between layers, and export.

Problem with the AltMeta banners is they're dynamic, so they can't go in the animated gif. I wanted to come up with a code-based dynamic image generator, but I can't find anything that works with the forum code.

I am planning to wait until we have teams set up, then make a new one for myself with HCH, MVC, Tyranny, ML (with team logo in corner or something), and Gerontocracy in there. I wouldn't mind making versions for other league players, too, once this gets off the ground.

I'll have a go at making my own animated gif, if i can get hold of the program, it sounds reasonably easy but i'd like to impose on you to create the different team banners, once the teams are sorted.

I know this is like the 3rd time i think i've asked you to make banners, but you do a great job at it and they look quite uniform when together. Time permitting of course.

Why not? My plan for the banner for whatever team I end up on was to use the League banner and put the team logo where the planet is. That should be fairly easy to do for all of the teams. And once you have all of the still images created, animated gifs are a breeze to make.

Good man. Thankyou kindly..

Neilo, isn't it like 3:00 am where you are right now???

The only banners I use are down below. But the original Tyrrany of Evil banner didn't link to the Tyranny of evil post, but I fixed that. But I'm curious about the High Command Hemoragy, is that an Empire or what? And once the teams are set up I think I have a cool banner for my team. I won't reveal it though untill teams are announced.

---

The very instant you show your weakness, your downfall will begin!

Nice! Yes, it was the first empire I signed on with. Its forums have been mighty quiet lately, and the emperor seems to be AWOL. Maybe he's off traipsing around Europe or something, who knows? My goal for that character is 50 games or top 25 in the original Meta, but I think top 25 would take either a small miracle or a computer that could handle the military buildup you need to get those scores.

After that I'll leave him there to hang on to that 1st place empire medal, but retire him for a while and alternate between the Tyranny and the League with my other two characters.

It was yes, it is now 8:50am. Why am i awake at such an odd hour like 3:00am? I work nights, so even if i am not at work i'm used to being awake at that hour. It is hard for me sometimes to be in bed by 3 or 4. That's why you will see me posting at those times, and sometimes it's because i'm on the computer at work.

Hehe, i do security work, so all i have to do is just sit there. So i read, watch movies or play the laptop....all the while being paid!!!!

That must be the most secure building anywhere!

I work midnights too, by the way. I've read 50 books so far this year. And written one!

I don't even get the pleasure of a building, it is a work site and i sit in my car. Hehe, it really get's secure around 5am, that's when i snooze for a while...

I have read so far this year every novel (nearly) by Harry Turtledove and i'm well on my way to knocking over Clive Cussler by years end. Good authors the both of them.

My only beef with Turtledove is that all of his characters think alike. They do a lot of thinking, and they all kind of turn into the same person after a while. I wish he had some characters whose heads he didn't get into, to make them more of an unknown. I've read a ton of his books, but in his latest series I bogged down at the end of the book where the opening shots of WWII are being fired on D.C. and just haven't been able to pick up another one yet.

I want a job like yours. If the fundamentalist wackos start to seriously take power in the U.S., I'm planning on packing up the family and leaving for Australia. (Canada's nice, but it's too close.) How hard is it to emigrate there? 'Cause heck, I'd take a job maintaining the Dingo Fence if things got bad enough here.

If you are young, got loads of money and a good education, then it is easy.  

There is a points system, but it can be avoided, it is complicated.
At present, we are desperate for workers.
There is a massive boom and shortages of skilled workers in every field.

It is said to be not an easy task. Though anyone with half an education will get through fine, i think they mainly look at if you have a clean record,and if you are going to work. The welfare system here is easy to abuse and they look pretty hard at that.

If you have a trade, you would be a shoe-in. Like embird said, there is a massive shortage of workers, too many people like sitting at home on the dole (welfare) instead of working.

Yea Turtledove lost me in the colonization series, especially when he released the final book, can't remember it's name, where we go to their planet. It kinda had no where to go and was all about developing a character that is 8 or 9 books old and in decline...

Very original ideas in his early stuff though.

Need just a few more names people, if we can all spread the word about the league we might get started in time for the weekend!

My dad wants to move to Australia. My mom's the only thing stopping him.  
She keeps making excuses. (Yes, I live with my parents, I'm 14)

I live in Ohio ,but as long as it snows in Australia, I'd go! But my backup plan would be Canada...

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the league!

Were we supposed to have team captains. I know it was discussed at one point but at this point everyone is playing the same game so the need for a captain is basically moot. Anyway let me know because it may make a difference in how I set up private forums at the Core.

Are we allowed to submit only one game?

So the fifth player is a backup?
I AM PLAYING AS A BACKUP?!?!?

-Scot

No not at all. The rule is that in a team of 5 the person with the lowest score will not have their score counted. That way only 4 players from each team are contributing to the teams tally, but at least every player participate's.

As we get players we are adding them to new teams. Once we have a few more players, those new players (the 5th player from the teams) will each by taken and used to form a whole new team. It would of course be totally unfair to you, to have you in a team of just you and 1 other maybe. As the players come we will just juggle the teams around.

Just a thought.

But since you are a commissioner AND a player for team B it wouldnt be fair if YOU chose the challenges. Not saying I dont trust you or anything. But you could easily make up a challenge that suits you or your team. So I SUGGEST (NOT demand or anything else which is serious and suggests I dont trust you) that someone not involved in this be the judge that picks the challenges. Someone who has no ties to any team.

Dont get me wrong YOU should still be the one tallying the scores and announcing the winners and doing the Metaverse league stuff and you know.

-Scot

P.S Dont take this as I am saying I dont trust you.  

This point was discussed and it is clear that anyone interested enough to contribute this kind of effort would also want to play themselves. In fact when we randomly selected Neilo to be the commissioner of the league he said he would do it but only if he could play as well. This is only reasonable.

As far as picking games such that they would give favor to his team, I really can't imagine what conditions he could select that would give any team any real advantage over any other team. I think we all as players have enough experience with the game that we can handle different situations. In fact that's kind of the point of this league from my point of view is that it forces you to play a game that may be different the game you normally play.

If you'd be willing to sit out and not participate so that you could pick "random" games that had no ties to a particular team then I'm certain that folks would be willing to let you do it. However, I think that's an unreasonable thing to ask someone to do all the work involved and then not allow them to play as well.

I know you didn't mean any criticism by this but it really isn't a practical suggestion. Anyway as long as games change from round to round it would be pretty clear that the games were not being selected for the benefit of one particular team.

As far as the 5th player thing, it is an advantage to a team to be able to select the best 4 out of 5 games to submit. Even if your game is the one that wasn't submitted you have contributed to the success of your team. Also next time it may not be your score that gets bumped. Finally, the alternative would be to have people wait by the sidelines until we had enough people to form a new team. I think between the possible alternatives the one proposed by Nielo is as fair as possible to all involved.

Few questions I might have missed in the thread from earlier.

1. Are scores kept secret until the end of the tourney? If not, I'm assuming we can continue to play games to try and better our score.

2. Related to that, can we submit a game, but then try to beat it and have that score count? Or is it a one time thing?