Christmas, Tiny Empires 3000 style

In the original game, the Santa Trader showed up again this year, making his third set of appearances. Shortly thereafterwards, another Mysterious Vessel appeared in Tiny Empires 3000, with its own version of holiday cheer. Here is the record of my encounter with it:

Assuming it follows true to form, this evening and tomorrow should see another appearance or two. Tell your chef to have plenty of milk and cookies ready!

On a game performance note, the huds were running very slowly when both of the gift bringers were in. Both times (games) had gifts being given to everyone at once (all kingdoms, all guilds). It would seem that the great servers that were set up last year aren't quite enough to handle that much traffic! Things just keep getting bigger and bigger out there.

But regardless, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May the coming millenia bring much profitable trading, and even more important, many good and true friendships!

Changes to TE3000 Gift Boxes

This message from Ultralite Soleil

Greetings all,

This note is to explain some recent changes to how Tiny Empires 3000 Gift Boxes work. Previously, Gift Boxes could be freely transferred around and then used by anyone who was not yet a paid player of Tiny Empires 3000. Now, when you buy a Gift Box, you will also get a GiftCode with it. This GiftCode is like a password that must be used by the gift recipient to redeem the gift. This change was made to increase security of Gift Boxes and to ensure their authenticity.

A GiftCode is a 16-character string of letters and numbers (e.g. 39f98a77ea7c4aa0) that unlocks the Gift Box. To give someone the gift of Tiny Empires 3000, you must send them the GiftCode as well as the Gift Box itself. When they rez the Gift Box, it will ask them to enter the GiftCode on a specific chat channel. This is an example of the message the recipient will receive:

"Please copy/paste the GiftCode into the Local Chat window on channel 4545 like this: "/4545 GiftCode" (without the quotes, and replace the word GiftCode with your real GiftCode)."

Note that the channel number will be different for everyone. If the GiftCode is accurate and authentic and has not been previously used, the recipient will automatically be sent the Full Version of the Tiny Empires 3000 HUD.

Because the GiftCode can be difficult to type in correctly, it is suggested that you copy/paste it instead.

When someone successfully uses one of your GiftCodes to redeem the Tiny Empires 3000 Gift Box, you will receive an automated IM to that effect.

GiftCodes are sent to you, the purchaser of the Gift Boxes, at the time of purchase. Because a GiftCode can be used to unlock any Gift Box, it is suggested that you keep it safe, and only give it to the desired recipient of the Gift Box. One idea is to copy/paste the GiftCode into the "Description" field of the Gift Box itself. That way the Box and the Code are tied together, making it easier for you to keep track of the codes.

As for existing Gift Boxes that have not yet been used, they are now obsolete and will not work. If you have Gift Boxes that were purchased on November 16 or later, and whose purchase can be verified, those Gift Boxes will be refunded at 100% of the purchase price so that you may buy them again. For Gift Boxes acquired before November 16 or for Gift Boxes whose purchase cannot be verified, I will deal with those on a case by case basis.

If you have any questions about the new TE3000 Gift Box system, feel free to ask me.

Ultralite Soleil

Mining Colonists for Fun and Profit

"They wouldn't be called human resources if they weren't meant to be strip mined." -Mr. Kornada

Anyone who has colonies, and therefore colonists, soon sees disasters approaching. The triple threat of pirates, disease, and corruption continually diminish your colonists unless you take decisive action to stop it. Since you get money from your colonists every two years, it's important to do whatever it takes to make sure you have as many as possible.

Or is it?

If the goal is getting the most money possible from your colonists, having a lot of colonists may not be necessary- or even desired. First, a review of the facts.

For each disaster, there are four options in how to handle it. From most expensive to least:

1. Research the causes of the disaster. This costs a lot (roughly one ship cost) and you do not get anything up front. But if you do the research option for twenty times on a single type, you will have it fully researched and you will automatically handle it well from then on at no further cost. This is a great long term option.



2. Take decisive action against the disaster. This is not as expensive as research, but is still a lot of money- approximately half the cost of a ship. It gets you an increase of one percent in colonists (though since you lost some already, the net gain is a bit less)



3. Take some action against the disaster. This is far less expensive-- about one tenth ship cost-- but you get no colonists back. On the other hand, you don't lose any more, either. This is also the default option. If you choose nothing, you automatically spend the amount of credits required for this option.



4. Cash in on the disaster. This option will lose you even more colonists-- approximately two percent-- but you get enough credits out of it to buy half of a ship. (Assuming they sold ships by halves...)

*Note that actual costs will be slightly lower if you have the right kind of colony.

Your colonies start out at about seventy percent of capacity, and you can not go higher than 150 percent. (Colonists move among colonies automatically, there's no benefit in having them in one colony over another)

When your percentages are low (under a hundred percent), you will occasionally get colonist windfalls-- colonists will move to you from some place that did not treat them as well as they hope to do in your colonies.

That said, as a new colony owner, you soon realize that the more colonists you have, the more income you get every two years. At that point, players begin spending lots of credits choosing good disaster options, and the prudent ones select a disaster to research. Many times, players make themselves poor by caring for their colonies.

But there may be another way to make money from them. How so, you ask?

First, always research a disaster fully. Once you have fully researched a disaster, you can in theory mostly ignore all disasters. The automatic "do a little" option, which does lose you some colonists is usually made up for by the occasionally well handled disaster that you researched.

Second, a disaster will happen approximately every four to six years. This means there will be two to three revenue Januaries. Multiply the amount of credits you get for your colonists by 2.5. Compare this to the amount of credits you pay for half of a ship. Is the half of a ship more? Then you can get more in a single "sell out" disaster from your colonists than you could in all the revenue they generate normally. It's time to sell them out to pirates, corrupt warlords, or disease (whichever two you haven't taken care of already.)

When doing this, your percentage falls precipitously. There is a temptation to occasionally do a "really good" option to counteract this, but that is probably not a wise thing. A well-handled disaster costs half of a ship for one percent-
so to gain colonists, you spend one ship's worth to gain two percent, but receive only one half of a ship's worth while losing two percent.

There are two ways in which your colonists can be replenished if you are consistently "strip mining" them. Have an ally pass you colonists, and the occasional colonist windfall. Also, if you miss a disaster and take the "some action" option (either accidentally or on purpose), you can slow the loss until more windfalls or an ally can help out. The "some action" option costs 1/10 of a ship, so one profitable disaster gives enough for five some action disasters.

What about upgrading colonies? If you are selling colonists out, does having larger colonies help? Possibly. With more capacity, you can still get more gold from the same percentage (and buying a new colony automatically gets you more colonists to sell... er care for.)

On the other hand, if you have an ally passing you colonists, having smaller colonies may be a better idea. Let's say that your ally has considerably larger colonies than you do. The number of colonists your ally can give is based on the
number of colonists they have. If you have smaller colonies, they can give you a larger percentage at one time. And since you lose colonists by percentage, that means the colonists they give you last for a longer period of time!

There does still remain one question... how low can you go? Is there anyone out there crue... smart enough to continually sell out colonists who can answer that question? Feel free to speak up now!

You've Now Entered "The Twilight Zone!"

Madmaz2 Holmer formed the 10th Guild today at 11:23 am.
Madmaz2's Guild is called, "The Twilight Zone" and is a Second Generation ascension from the Alliance of Hera (Hera being the only First Generation) and takes a Top 10 ranking from the start.

I asked Madmaz2 if he had anything to tell the blog upon his ascension, he said he was too shy and that I should since I was his superior. Which is true, but I was only in that position for about an hour before his ascension. So Best wishes to Mad and his line, you were the best line one could ever have for an hour!

Generosity Comes to Tiny Empires 3000!

After months of begging for some more social aspects in TE3K for players to get together, today, Ultralite Soleil added a new feature. You don't need a Black Diamond Vessel to do it either, all you do is stand beside your direct Subordinates and you will see the following.
So, being a wonderful Superior, you check YES, and the following will appear next round!Apparently the option to give comes every two hours.
Is available for all ranks.

TE3000 Compact Edition HUD Released Today

This from notice sent in Tiny Empires 3000 Chat:

TE3000 Compact Edition available
Wednesday, 16 Sep 2009 16:56:07 GMT

Greetings, space fanatics!

By popular demand, you can now get the Compact Edition of Tiny Empires 3000 at the TE shop
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kitster/150/15/53

It takes up about 1/4 the normal screen space, and the size is totally configurable by you. Note: many of you will need to make it slightly bigger to avoid text spillover. Instructions are included, along with a graphical example of how to resize.

The price is L$350. Come and get it! Spread the word!

Compact TE3K HUD in Testing

Just a glimpse of what maybe taking up less of your screen in the future.
Compact Tiny Empires HUD on the left, current sized on on right.
Many visual options to tailor to your preferences.
Look for more details when released.

Ship Capacities, Metals and Jumping to Another Guild

An issue concerning what happens to your gained ship capacities, titles and metals when you leave one Guild and join another came to light. Ultra responded kindly in the TE Directors Chat last night with the following to clarify.

Ultralite Soleil: Ship capacity is now totally separate from which guild you are in. If you leave a guild, your titles and medals do not come with you, but your increased ship capacity does. However, little known fact: if you return to the guild, your medal(s) automatically return to you (but not the title.) You cannot change title after third medal within one guild. If you change to a new guild you can get a new set of three medals. Of course the ship capacity does not get increased repeatedly. Essentially ship capacity is taken from the highest medal you've received in ANY guild. There is (currently) no inherent value of medals, except for bragging rights --- BUT, the level of medal received in a guild determines eligibility for further medals, ship endowments, and capacity increases (unless already maxed via a different guildleader)

Thank you Ultra for allowing me to quote your response.

Amadeuss Rosca: GuildLeader 9

The announcement, hot from the HUDs, speaks for itself:


This, on the heels of Buckaroo Mu's founding of a guild, leads to speculation as to how many more may be coming in the relatively near future? Though it seems unlikely Guilds will ever become as common as kingdoms, we may see more than the first handful we have now...

Buckaroo Mu Becomes 8th Guild Leader!

Congratulations Buckaroo Mu!

After a long dry spell the eighth Guild in the Tiny Empires 3000 Universe is formed.
Late evening on August 22, 2009, Buckaroo Mu took the final steps to form his new Guild, The Guild will be know as "Mu Trade Federation." Buckaroo ascended from the Alliance of Serenity.

[22:19] Alamiga Anatine: Any words of wisdom, comments about forming a Guild you'd like to tell the world?
[22:19] Buckaroo Mu: Personal ships get EXPENSIVE!
[22:21] Buckaroo Mu: I have the most kick-ass downline in the game. I seriously am doing this for them - a place that's a home, away from drama and in-fighting.

Presently no complete rank information is available, but check the standing page in near future.

Tiny Empires 3000 Companion Now Available

Here's some news from Ultralite Soleil, creator of Tiny Empires 3000:

Are you never quite sure who is bribing you?
Not sure if those sabotage targets are worth the risk?
Do you keep forgetting which Guildleader leads which Guild?
Curious about the number of players in someone's downline?

Then you might find the Tiny Empires 3000 Companion VERY useful.

By the way, you can try it for FREE for two weeks, to see if the cost of L$250/month is worth it to you.

What is this thing?

• The Tiny Empires 3000 Companion is a HUD object that you wear while playing Tiny Empires 3000 (Don't worry, it takes up very little space!). It helps you keep track of other players in the game and in your vicinity. It also allows quick lookups of players and guilds without having to visit the TE3000 standings web page. In short, it acts as a companion HUD to the main Tiny Empires 3000 HUD.

What does it do?

• Looks up Tiny Empires 3000 player names to see their rank, superior, direct subordinates, size of downline, lineage, and guild without going to the Standings page.
• Scans your immediate area to find other Tiny Empires 3000 players (and shows their rank, superior, guild, and other information)
• Shows rank, superior, guild, and other information about about any other players mentioned on your game hud this turn
• This includes any bribe makers or potential bribe takers, the list of sabotage targets, promotions, special titles, etc.
• If you see a name in your offers this turn, it will be clickable on the Companion
• Looks up a guild name to find out the name of its Guildleader, and the guild's rank in the galaxy
• Shows the latest gossip without having to visit the standings web page

What kind of information does it give?

• For any nearby players, or names shown in your current set of offers, simply click the name to see the person's name, rank, special title if they have one, guild name, name of their guildleader, the entire line of people above up to the Chancellor, a list of direct subordinates, and the approximate number of people in the person's downline. Here is a example of the information:

You type: "/3 beth frankle"
You receive: "Trade Baroness Bethany Frankle, subject of Broker Arnold Rimmer, under the leadership of Guildleader Aristotle Landry of the Alliance of Hera.
Line: Emperor Soleil → Guildleader Aristotle Landry → John Smith → Frank Black → ... → Rick Astley → Arnold Rimmer → Bethany Frankle.
Direct subjects: Trader Louise Ciccone, Courier Fred Express.
Size of downline: 4 people."

• You can get this information for ANY player in the game, even guildless players, by typing their name (or partial name) into your local chat window.
• You can also get information about a guild by typing the name (or partial name) of the guild. It will show the name of its guildleader as well as that guild's ranking in the galaxy according to total fleet size. Here is an example of guild information:

You type: "/3 /k hera"
You receive: "The Alliance of Hera, Guildleader Aristotle Landry, currently ranked 10"

The Companion will also show the most recent Gossip, normally viewable only at the standings web page.

HOW CAN I GET IT?

Come to Ultralite Soleil's shop at this surl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kitster/147/41/54

You will be able to get a free trial of the Companion that lasts for two weeks.
After that, the cost to continue using it is L$250 per month.
You can pre-pay for as many months as you'd like.

Check it out!

Preserving Reputations

I just received word of another new feature in Tiny Empires 3000. Unlike the classic game, this one forbids you to change superiors very quickly:



Now, ignoring the cat-calls from the peanut gallery about "what reputation?", the question is, just how long does one have to wait? The player in question here was a Trade Master with 349 ships total, 152 personal. Might one have to wait longer, depending on how many ships were in their fleet?

For the record, this was not from some drama-laden story, it was simply part of a line re-arrangement scheme. It would appear that any line "managers" in the new game will have another factor to calculate in who goes under who!

Followup
The Trade Master in question was able to switch the following morning, perhaps twelve hours or so later.

Jail in Tiny Empires 3000, Not so Bad?

[Feb 3949] Galactic Puppeteer Faith Garnet was imprisoned by Guildleader Kronik Lockjaw of SpaceBall's The Guild.

[14:36] Faith Garnet: so far, my HUD is acting normal, I'm lounging on the guild's dime in prison and watching movies ... not too bad!

[14:41] Alamiga Anatine: so your saying there is still offers on the HUD?

[14:41] Faith Garnet: yep .. .buying a ship now!
[14:43] Faith Garnet: and gaining credits, as always ...

So it's either a bug, or prison in TE3K is sorta like in real life.

Thank you to Faith Garnet for allowing us to use her quotes from the Tiny Empires 3000 Chat.

This just in:
[15:39] Ultralite Soleil: That was a bug, now fixed.

Guess it's back to bread and water.

Anarchy Comes to Tiny Empires 3000!

Earlier today Anarchy was started by BigJohn Troglodite. It's the 7th Guild run by a real player.

Born from the Alliance of Hera, Anarchy hits the map at 6th place knocking the former #1 ranked, Hera to 8th position.

Congradulations BigJohn Troglodite!

6th Guild Formed!

Congratulations to Flonne Ninetails!

Today at abount 3:00 pm Flonne Ninetails took the reigns of the sixth Guild to enter the Tiny Empires 3000 Universe. The new Guild, called `Alliance of Serenity,` and spawning from Shadow Guild just a few hours after first player purge. The Alliance of Serenity hits the map ranked at seventh place.

I asked Flonne how she was how she was feeling minutes after her Guild launched: `I'm very excited right now, and feeling very giddy lol. I really was looking forward for this, working hard for it, I am very happy with it!`

Thank you Flonne Ninetails for the quote.

The Big Purge!

Earlier today Ultralite Soleil performed the first purge of inactive trial accounts from Tiny Empires 3000. Many players suddenly noticed they lost a few ships and subordinates. For the most part, most active players welcomed this event to cleanup the lines. The average loss from the number I gleened from some of the Guilds is about a 3.5% loss of total ships. that would probably vary greatly on smaller lines. It is possible active players may have fallen from lines, if they were under inactive trial players. I suspect that number would be small and they will easily find their way home again once the realize what occured.

Ultralite Soleil later said: "I lost about 3.6% too. But keep in mind that not all of those were removed. Some will be coming back because they were paid subordinates of deleted players."

Thank you to Ultralite Soleil for allowing the quote.

No Fourth Title! - Operations Assistant?

On Kronik Lockjaw's fourth attempt to title Durk Gothly he received the above message. Now, we don't know if Durk can go to another Guild and get more, but for now, staying where he is, isn't getting him anymore titles unless he becomes big enough to be an "Operations Assistant."

I'm going to assume, Operations Assistant is like a Viceroy in Classic Tiny Empires. and while I'm assuming, lets assume there is an "Operations Manager" too, like a Grand Viceroy in classic.

Thanks to Kronik Lockjaw for the image and information.

Cross of the Guardian +20 Ships

The Cross of the Guardian denotes a third title for the recipient, also the ship reward gets bumped up to twenty ships, another five from the second title, "Order of Merit."

Durk Gothley has also received three increases in Maximum Ships, he's not near cap, so we still have no idea yet what it means exactly.

Thanks to Kronik Lockjaw for image and information.

Order of Merit +15 Ships

JDevilone Nephilim received his second title today, notice its not called "Star of Hera." Also at no additional cost to Guild Leader Anastasia Mathilde, 15 ships were awarded. On the first title only 10 are given to the recipiant. JDevilone also recived the "Increase in Maximum Ships" which he never got the first time he recieved a title.

Thank you to Anastasia Mathilde and JDevilone Nephilim for sharing this information.

Increase in Maximum Ships?

This image is thanks to BigBadaBoom Bing who noticed the odd wording when giving Mirani Cheney a Guild title. We can only speculate to what the "an increase in maximum ships" means. Personal ship limit is 3000 ships, and if a Guild Leader can boost that. how does the Guild Leader get a boost themselves? Unless the 3000 Ship limit has changed somehow? This raises many questions, hopefully the answers will be found soon!

5th Guild Launches!

Congratulations BigBadaBoom Bing!

Earlier today BigBadaBoom Bing bit the billet and decided to take his line and form the 5th Guild in Tiny Empires 3000. Cosmic Paradise debuts as fifth largest Guild out of the six presently in exsitance. Cosmic Paradise is the second Guild to spawn from within the Shadow Guild.

Spaceballs Drops Off Map!

Tonight at 10:30 pm, it was noted that Spaceballs Guild no longer showed on the map. The map has no "Minor Sector" or "Black Hole" to check for minor Guilds, which is what could happen to a Guild if it falls below 100,000 ships total. Probably an oversight by Ultralite Soleil and we would think will be resolved shortly.

11:13 pm After some website probing I found the "Smaller Guilds" page at:
http://www.tinyempires3000.com/standings/MinorGuilds.html
There is still no main page link for Minor Guilds.

SpaceBalls Guild Launches!

Congratulations Kronik Lockjaw!

Today the 4th Guild Leader came to power in Tiny Empires 3000. The new Guild is called "SpaceBalls Guild." "SpaceBall's are going to rock this Galaxy!" said Kronik Lockjaw in a brief interview. He rose to power from Shadow Guild, knocking them down to number two in rank from being number one. At this writing it is not known what rank SpaceBalls Guild will start at. Check the standings for latest rankings.

Some Changes, Part Two

It didn't take long for "some changes" to make their appearance:




Clicking "yes" gives you:




So what is this all about? Clue one is that it gives you a current count, so this isn't some black hole with no limit: the count is important. The next clue comes from the Guild Leader, who got this message:



So we have both carrot and stick. On the one hand, there are "future risks" that you need to prepare for. But you could also "receive certain benefits". How long will it take for a guild to get that reserve fleet? My personal estimate is two to three weeks, but we shall see.

In the meantime, we now have something for potential new Guild Leaders to consider. The old game saw "major" and "minor" kingdoms. It's likely the new system will as well, but now we have another difference: guilds with or without the advantages and protection of a reserve fleet. Any new guild starts out without one... how much of a disadvantage will it be?

Only time will tell... stay tuned!

Some changes

Announced today:

Some changes
Tue Jun 23 13:51:30 2009

Greetings.

In-guild bribes and in-guild sabotages are no longer possible in Tiny Empires 3000, among some other changes. Enjoy!

Sincerely,
Chancellor Ultralite

This isn't a huge surprise. When the game started with one guild, "in-guild" sabotage and bribes were the only option. Now that there are several guilds, this rule makes more sense and brings things more "in line" with the original game.

But I suspect that the most interesting part may be concealed in that bland little phrase "some other changes"

Guild Leader Path

So with three player-formed guilds, and more coming, a few more details about "the call to leadership" have been released.

One of the most interesting things is that in one of the latter steps, you must submit the name for your new guild- and this is done some time before you finish! No more scenarios of a new monarch, with a kingdom, trying to submit a name for it. If a new guild is formed, it is named, in effect, immediately, since that name has been prepared for it for some time.

It also means that the Chancellor knows the names of the next few guilds some time before they're actually formed.

...not that he's telling anyone what they are...

Limits...

Well, now we know. Just as in the original game, there's a limit to how many personal possessions you can have. To be particular, the 2,000 acre cap of the olden days has been replaced with a 3,000 ship cap. (You can try to get more, but you're forced to sell any extra off.)

...with thanks to Director BigJohn Troglodite for the screen capture showing this in action.

Coming to a HUD Near You!

In case your curious, here is what you will see if your Guild Leader decides to award you a medal, and title you. For most, will get the choice of choosing their title, that is up to the discretion of the Guild Leader. Tiles must be no longer than 20 characters long (including spaces, hyphens and apostrophes, no other special characters will be allowed). Now the order is different from Classic Tiny Empires, where you got title first, then and 5 acres, In Tiny Empires 3000, the ships are awarded first, then the title.Hmmm, Star of Hera, from the Shadow Guild? Apprently Ultra is concidering making the medal names something Guildleaders can chose. Which should add a little varity to the game, if in fact that comes to be.
Oh look 10 ships were awarded! Now I assume, like in classic, if anyone were to re-title you once you got your 10 ships, that any Guild Leader thereafter might have to pay a shipload of extra credits the second time the option to award you 10 ships comes along. No matter what Guild Leader you happen to be under.

Now lets say that you want to be the one to give away ships and metals, a Guild Leader. First get 2000 personal ships and 100,000 total ships. At 1500 ships you can choose your Guild's name and it will be pre-approved and reserved for you. I didn't say it was going to be easy, especially now that new players joining has settled down to a trickle compared to the first days. So these two screens below are the final steps, the Guild name has been chosen, again like titles, following the 20 character limits of naming.
Only a little more than 120 billion, looks like a deal to me. I'm going to assumes this figure is based on total ships since its not rounded to the nearest billion. Notice the YES/NO are not highlighted. Guess this lucky person is still a bit short on credits.

Thank you to BigBadaBoom Bing for the interesting screen shots.

Third Guild Launches

Congratulations Zippo Waco!

A notice from Ultralite Soleil proclaimed the event:

"Zippo Waco has formed the guild named "The Rebellion". I'm sure the name is not referring to a rebellion against our beloved Chancellor.

Congrats to Zippo on this difficult achievement!

Who will be next?"

Second Guild is Born!

Congratulations to Steve Fallingbridge!

Just minutes before noon on June 17th, 2009 Steve Fallingbridge formed the second Guild in Tiny Empires 3000, called "Shadow Guild!"

Steve had this to tell us: "I'm just honored that everyone was with for this amazing thing and the almost 400k ships is really shocking!"

Congratulations to Steve and his line!

Standings are Up, For Real This Time

http://www.tinyempires3000.com/standings

Custom titles, Part 2

Speculation regarding custom titles has been confirmed!



As suspected, the new GuildLeader can give out custom titles AND ships, so it looks as if the monarch abilities of the original game have come across largely intact. The ultrabot, Aristotle Landry, has apparently not chosen to use those abilities yet. Will he, now that he has competition? Time will tell!

(p.s. and congratulations to The Reverend Doctor Buckaroo Mu!)

Anastasia Mathilde Becomes First Guildleader!

Congradulations to Anastasia Mathilde!

Just before 10:00 pm on June 1,2009, We all see the First Guildleader arrise. The ascension to Guildleader was not without incident. Apparently the game crashed briefly due to Anastasia's move up the ladder. Ultralite Soleil apologized to Anastasia, as the official announcement was not seen by her or anyone. We all learned of the new Guild, Federation Alliance, when a announcement about being in Top 10 appeared. The image above is what people in the new guild will see when they first login afterward. The lower image is what the rest of us saw first to indicate that a new guild had been formed.

Special Titles in Tiny Empires 3000?

Earlier this week, Kronik Lockjaw decided to sabotage an Ultrabot, Guild Leader Aristotle Landry and admits to it in Tiny Empires 3000 chat. As a reward, or punishment, depending on how you look at it, Chancellor Ultralite Soleil gives Kronik a Special Title, "Saboteur Elite." Was meant as a humourous act and Ultralite did offer to remove it from Kronik. Kronik decided to keep it and wasn't until a sabotage incident with another player that the rest of us saw his Special Title today.

Details of what Special Titles will include are not know at this time. All we know is that they can be done in Tiny Empires 3000. Our first Guild Leaders will probably discover what options they have once they reach that status.

Thank you to Kronik Lockjaw for providing story behind his "Special Title."

The 11th DIrector!

Congratulations to Buckaroo Mu!

Buckaroo Mu had to wait for ages for the final Comm Unit and the final stage. Then that long wait ended at 11:27 pm May 24th 2009 (July 3926) to become the 11th Director.

This will be the last Congratulations for new Directors. We had planned to stop at 10, but I felt I should announce this one and say we wont be doing anymore new Director announcements officially. Next we await the Guild Leaders to arise and we hope to acknowledge the first 10.

Congratulations to all future Directors!

More Risks, More Rewards!

BigJohn Troglodite alerted the media this morning when he found this new one. Finding ships is great! I'm just curious what the bottle of her favorite beverage was.

The Jack of all Jack Pots!

Found by Mogul Elite DigitalJack BlackHawk:



Can anyone say Class is IN?

Risk and reward with the shipwright always was an iffy proposition- expensive. You risked a ship and, if you were lucky, gained a new one. But with TEN ships being a possible prize (no matter how unlikely), it's likely that a lot of inexperienced or crooked shipwrights will be doing great business with traders eager to try them!

Let the fun begin....

Fond Farewell to Johnii

Last night, I asked who did I think would most likely be the first guild leader. My response was Johnii Nowhere, but mostly because of seniority. As the first Director, it was obvious that he had a head start on everyone else, and from talking with him personally, I knew he had an incredible amount of time and persistence put into the project- far beyond anything I would ever attempt.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Johnii has apparently looked at his life and decided Real Life needs more attention and Second Life less- including Tiny Empires 3000. So, he has publicly announced that he is leaving the Tiny Empires universe in favor of the more physical one.

His avatar is still in the game, with all of its holdings. It moved to Director Steve Fallingbridge. He publicly asked everyone to give his people good homes if they needed it, though my personal reaction was to say "why would they worry?" His immediate subordinates do lose the chance to earn bonus money from the most dedicated human player in the game, but other than that, there's no direct in-game loss. (The morale loss of losing a good superior and friend is definitely something to consider.)

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I keep thinking of King Celty of Wessex in the old game, the first King ever, who quit early on to pursue other interests.

But, in the meantime, best wishes to Johnii as he finds his way in that big, strange world known as "Real Life". It was a fun ride, and he set the mark high for all of us.

New Ranks Added!

Just before noon today Chancellor Ultralite Soleil posted a notice in Tiny Empires 3000 chat that new ranks had been added.

Greetings all,

After receiving well-reasoned feedback from many of you, I have added several new ranks into TE3K, starting above Trade Baron, and filling the large spaces between the existing ranks. Each new rank, once reached, offers a better commission rate, and a better price for buying ships.

And of course, the existence of more ranks allows for more flexibility in having subjects of various rank.

I welcome feedback regarding the new ranks, and also any bug reports.

Sincerely,
Chancellor Soleil

Check the Tiny Empires Wiki for new Rank information at http://malixu.me.uk/tinyempires3k/index.php?title=Ranks Information is presently being gathered and updated there.

Nine & Ten: Two More Directors are Born!

Congratulations to Swankhaven Blitz & BigJohn Troglodite!

Swankhaven Blitz and BigJohn Troglodite, became Directors May 14th and 15th respectively. Swankhaven being BigJohn's superior, had issues getting the 20 non-conformities required and delayed the both of them a short time.

Here is a short recap of the 10 first Directors and when they achieved the rank:

• Johnii Nowhere - April 22
• Anastasia Mathilde - April 29
• Tristan Stovall - April 30
• BigBadaBoom Bing - May 2
• Zippo Waco - May 3
• Steve Fallingbridge - May 4
• Addison Arashi - May 12
• Flonne Ninetails - May 12
• Swankhaven Blitz - May 14
• BigJohn Troglodite - May 15

Seven and Eight!

Congratulations to Addison Arashi & Flonne Ninetails!

On Tuesday May 12, 2009 Addison Arashi & Flonne Ninetails became the seventh and eighth Directors. First Addison, then about two hours later, shortly after the arrival of the Black Diamond vessel, Flonne's promotion was announced on all Tiny Empire 3000 HUD's.

And Then There Was Six!

Congratulations to Steve Fallingbridge!

Steve Fallingbridge became the 6th Director today after a long arduous wait to get Purified Soleinium from the Mysterious Black Diamond Vessel. Just a couple of months after its arrival Steve's Directorship was announced on all HUDs.

The 5th Director Rises

Congratulations to Zippo Waco

Zippo Waco made it to Director on the afternoon of May 3, 2009.

Does look like the floodgates have opened.
Although, the stream of people getting Captain seems to have ebbed somewhat lately.
Still a lot to be discovered. We wait in anticipation!

Board of Directors

Probably the biggest remaining unknown in the universe of Tiny Empires 3000 is the set of requirements for creating a guild. A Director needs a number of things, and that has been published. But a guild is still unknown territory.

One thought that has occurred is this: what if one requirement is to have a Board of Directors? After all, every corporation has a Board of Directors, so a potential Guild Leader could well receive the message "Before you can form an official guild of your own, you must have a Board containing X Directors".

In game terms: have this many of your direct subjects be Directors. It would be a very effective way of requiring a guild to have a minimum fleet size. Say you need five Directors, each Director needs at least 25,000 ships to have that title, so the minimum size of a guild immediately becomes 125,000 ships- more, in reality, since it would be unlikely that five Directors would have just barely the minimum amount required.

Add that to the possibility that much "guild business" requires a "quorum of X Directors", and you could have the perfect way to "de-activate" smaller guilds. It would also give a Guild Leader a motive to keep his or her Directors in the guild- if one of the Directors leaves to form their own guild, it could put the old guild out of business if they had only the minimum number of Directors required to do business.

At this point, pure speculation, and very likely off the mark... but it just fits together too neatly to be dismissed quite so easily.

Director Number Four

Congratulations to BigBadaBoom Bing!

"With a great sense of pride, you launch your flagship into orbit. You can't resist testing the engines, which produces a fiery display in the sky for the planet's inhabitants. Your power in the guild rises accordingly."
Three Directors in four days... now, the only question is, how many more before the weekend is out!

Our Third Director

Congratulations to Tristan Stovall!

Just about 24 hours after the second Director came to be, Tristan Stovall becomes our third Director, just before midnight April 30st, 2009. Congratulations Tristan!

Is this a sign that the floodgates to directorship have opened? We will see soon enough.

Our Second Director

Congratulations to Anastasia Mathilde!

On the evening of April 29th, 2009, Anastasia Mathilde became only the second Director, 50 days after the game started. From this achievement we learn something new! A Director can not be under a lower rank player. Anastasia received the above message in the HUD. So in Anastasia's case she got her Superior to prune her and then she took an auto assignment and joined Ultrabot, Director Avaricious Rector, so she could move up. Congradulations Anastasia and thank you for sharing this with us!

It appears that no one is safe from saboteurs in this sector...

...and as proof of it:



No, he wasn't sabotaged.

This time.

Our First Director

Congratulations to Johnii Nowhere!



Our first Director! So one large part ot the quest has been finished- the flagship all built. Now to put together a Guild! This one should be good.... there has to be a reason for a 300 billion credit colony with virtually no citizens on it, in proportion to its price.

Mysteries solved, but the Quest continues

Well, a couple of speculations have been solved, and further news is revealed on the Quest to become a Director.

When we last left off on the Director's story, a base was needed to build the flagship, but it couldn't be done because the people that were needed to do it were non-conformists, so twenty non-conformist votes were needed to gain their support.

Now, there are Captains that have done that, and as the story continues, we find that the next step is to get hull material, which happens to be Enectrium produced by mining colonies. After you gather ten thousand kilotons of enectrium, you have the hull.

The next step is to get power for the flagship's engines. They can't use normal plasma. This fuel has to be purified Solienium from the Mysterious Vessel.

Next comes furnishings: VR rigs, Comm Units, and Zero-g beds. The only place you can get them is to find them as salvage on ships you buy.

No word on what will happen after that. One interesting thing about this is that these restrictions are based on chance- and not always just a one time chance (Mysterious Vessel, one time gift of purified solienium) but multiple chances (salvage found on ships, enectrium from the mines), so the would-be Director often has to sit and wait, perhaps buying ships or the like, to try and get the chance to continue.

It all adds up to one thing: time. Time spent playing, and lots of it. This one isn't going to be fast. Glacial, perhaps. After seeing the Chancellor remark in open chat about "IF new guilds happen...", there's probably more than one aspiring Director beginning to wonder if it's worth it, or if they really have a chance.

But, as the trite saying goes, time will tell...

The Most Mysterious Material

So as the fleet continues to grow, and you continue to get options to upgrade your fleet's efficiency, you eventually get this:





Amazing stuff! The next upgrade tells you more about this fascinating liquid:





Expensive is right! The last two upgrades to your fleet also involve this substance. And they're even more expensive. Now, if this were all, it could be dismissed as an oddity- some sort of fluke that the last four fleet upgrades all involve this wonderful metallic liquid known as 'Solienium', whatever that is supposed to mean.

But there's more. Buckaroo Mu made a deal with the mysterious vessel, and the message he received was as follows:

"You match velocities with the mysterious vessel. Your minerals vanish, to be replaced by.... nothing? Wait. Searching again, you find a liquid metallic sphere encased in a carbon shell. This must be purified Soleinium."

What? the material that provides ultimate armor plating, that is super-efficient fuel, that will in the end replace all of the circuits in your ships and give them "jump drive" capability... wasn't even purified? THIS prize from the Mysterious Vessel is the 'purified' stuff? What sort of possibilities lie ahead for it?

Who knows... stay tuned.

(oh, and one more note... Solienium? What an odd name. What was Ultralite Soliel thinking of when he created that, anyway??)

Chancellor Ultraliite Recruits on Behalf Too!

Unfortunatly, for Ultralite, this time he was denied!

Another Guild?

Word is there has not been another Guild created yet...
Or has there?

Turn of the Millenium

As was pointed out to me (thanks, Flonne!), Tiny Empires 3000 has send the end of its first millenium. As its clock ticked over from December, 3999, it went back to January, 3000. This puts the cyclical time at 1,000 years-- 36,000 minutes -- 600 hours -- 25 days -- or about 3 and a half weeks. A bit longer, probably, since a 3 minute year tends to slide a bit long due to processing lag.

Mining profits and Entities

So, today I bought a mining colony, and this is one of the messages that greeted me:



"Certain entities"? That phrase sounds familiar... and interested in ores? I wonder...




Could these dots be connected? Possibly. From Captain BigJohn Troglodyte, I have this:



So far, my colony has produced only credits. But if it ever does for me what is shown here... and I have those ores on hand when the Mysterious Vessel comes... I could just give that entity the ores and not pay to buy them first, right?

In other words, could one of the side benefits to mining colonies, under certain circumstances, be in effect "free" Mysterious Vessel benefits?

Something to think about, and if anyone has more definite information, feel free to let us all know... in fact, please let the rest of us know!

Nonconformist, Part Two

The quest of the high ranking captains to prove themselves as non-conformists by voting against the majority continues. The word on the street (or blog) was that it would require ten times to convince the citizens of that system to let you build your flagship. It turns out that was a guess... and one Captain has already achieved 10 contrarian votes with no noticeable results. Now the guess says 20 are needed.

In the meantime, unity remains elusive. If you try to fail and succeed, have you failed? 69 percent said no, so we failed to succeed at unity.

How many times does it take? Is it all an elusive hunt? Who knows, but we shall find out... stay tuned!

Standings are Up!

What you missed for April Fools from Ultra!
If you go to the site now, it is blank again. http://www.tinyempires3000.com/standings
Click on the image to see full size.

Name that colony?

While discussing colonies one day with a friend, we talked about the upgrading feature. After you get three colonies, any new one will replace your smallest one. I wondered if anyone would ever replace a colony if they had named it!

The principle is fairly simple, and based on another truism that farmers and others raising their own animals for slaughter know... once you name it, you're not going to be able to eat it. Or, in this case, sell it, right?

Who knows, but it seemed like it'd be a fun thing to try. You could even have a fancy christening ceremony, pay for a huge gala festival, perhaps attract more colonists after you advertise it and give it a name so they can call it home.

All in favor of being able to name your colonies, raise your champagne bottles!

Nonconformist

You know your a Nonconformist when.... [insert Jeff Foxworthy type joke]

Apparently later in the game, when you need to build a Flagship, you have to prove to the workers building it that your not just another sheep. So it's thought that voting opposite the majority will get you the reputation you need to get your Flagship built.

Now, if everyone starts being a Nonconformist, they'll end up being Conformists and no one will get their Flagships built. But we'll get our Unity Money... maybe.

Research

As soon as you acquire a colony, disasters befall it. Corruption, Pirates and Disease will plague your colonies constantly. One choice you have is to do research, whenever you get a disaster.
You should pick one of the three types and stick with it. Switching back and forth between them will lose any progress you made with the one you were on. It will take twenty of these researches to complete your knowledge on one.

Once research is completed, you gain immunity from your chosen field of research and also gain 200 ship credits. When that disaster reoccurs it will be dealt with automatically and you will receive some more colonists. Trying to do a second research after completing one, will cost you all you gained from the first one you completed. Completing anyone of the three disasters, appears not to benefit anyone in your downline in anyway at this point in time. So it appears completing research on one disaster, is no better than doing research on another. All three get you immunity and 200 ship credits.

I would like to thank Deltek Minotaur, RoJoStar Darkstone and Patience Porta for their contributions for this article.

Call of Leadership, Part Three

You're a Captain, you had enough total ships, you hit 450 Personal Ships and the Path to your own Guild begins... How many ships to the next step? Someone suggested every 50 ships. I'm thinking it will be a progressively higher amount of ships for each step.