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!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
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.
Friday, March 27, 2009
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.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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.
Recruiting on Behalf
Captains and above can "Recruit on Behalf" of players below them in the their lines. Like the classic Tiny Empires, a Captain or above can opt to spend an amount of credits to try and recruit another player as a subordinate for a lower level player in his or her line.Thank you to BigJohn Troglodite and Anastasia Mathilde for this information
Monday, March 23, 2009
Oh Standings Page, where art thou?
"You might be a TE Addict if... You spend more time looking at your TE standings page than your friends list."
Those words were written by me about the original Tiny Empires game, and were published on July 17th, 2008.
The legendary standings page, where you could go to see who had what. When we first started the original game, Erzsabet would take snapshots of it for us to track our progress, and they still remain fond treasures.
But as the game opens onto a new time, with a brand new set of players to track, we find nothing but a blank spot for a standings page. And there's no word on the site about one, either. So why are we playing without one?
It can't be because Ultralite forgot about it. He's spent way, way, too much time and effort on it in the old game, including a total reworking of it not that long ago. He knows that the standings page traffic is most of the traffic on his site (or if it is, I assume so- but I'm sure he knows.) In short, ignorance or forgetfulness is not possible.
Being pressed for deadlines that force one to publish before something critical is ready isn't a likely issue, either. No one knew when the game was coming out- no one knew there was another game- so there were no public deadlines. Unless there were some real life deadlines, it seems unlikely that this can account for it.
Lack of capability isn't likely. The new server came online not long ago, and it would seem obvious that it was all part of the plan for this new game as well. If there were going to be problems with it, he would have known about them before the (surprise) release-- at which point, see above.
All of this leads to the conclusion that it was a deliberate decision. Which leaves a big, fat, obvious question: why?
One theory is that since he started the game with a number of "UltraBots", he is withholding the official standings page until he can slide them out. Of course, with the biggest UltraBot being the guild leader, it's pretty hard to slide them all out!
I advanced one theory to a friend who told me to slap myself, that that idea was just too evil. Maybe. I'll not reveal it here, since I don't want to take the chance that it would be realized because I said it too loudly. Let's just say, I hope not!
Another possibility is that Ultralite is deliberately holding off on doing a standings page to either reduce drama or reduce line-shifting as people find others they want to play with better (or people look through the page to find others to recruit to them.) In other words, give people time to learn their own superiors, subordinates, and likely whatever group has formed around that, and develop their own group identities without active "line search" recruiters, or pre-existing loyalties destroying possible new friendships. It seems a bit far-fetched, but it's certainly possible.
One thing this has done, however, is cause people to create their own workarounds. I suspect the amount of creativity that is going into 3rd party standings pages would be surprising, if known. But just as a for instance....
There is a service called "Cogmap". You can start your own organizational chart on it with a free account. A quick search finds three TE 3000 charts:
Caledon
Rouge Armistice
Bratt Lunasea
And a couple of more from other places:
Steve FallingBridge
Angels of the Universe
...and I'm sure there are more out there. If you know of any, please put them in the comments below to share them with the rest of us!
And what other possibilities exist out there? Only time will tell. I'm almost beginning to wonder if an "official" standings page might have to start fighting the competition if it waits too long to come out!
Those words were written by me about the original Tiny Empires game, and were published on July 17th, 2008.
The legendary standings page, where you could go to see who had what. When we first started the original game, Erzsabet would take snapshots of it for us to track our progress, and they still remain fond treasures.
But as the game opens onto a new time, with a brand new set of players to track, we find nothing but a blank spot for a standings page. And there's no word on the site about one, either. So why are we playing without one?
It can't be because Ultralite forgot about it. He's spent way, way, too much time and effort on it in the old game, including a total reworking of it not that long ago. He knows that the standings page traffic is most of the traffic on his site (or if it is, I assume so- but I'm sure he knows.) In short, ignorance or forgetfulness is not possible.
Being pressed for deadlines that force one to publish before something critical is ready isn't a likely issue, either. No one knew when the game was coming out- no one knew there was another game- so there were no public deadlines. Unless there were some real life deadlines, it seems unlikely that this can account for it.
Lack of capability isn't likely. The new server came online not long ago, and it would seem obvious that it was all part of the plan for this new game as well. If there were going to be problems with it, he would have known about them before the (surprise) release-- at which point, see above.
All of this leads to the conclusion that it was a deliberate decision. Which leaves a big, fat, obvious question: why?
One theory is that since he started the game with a number of "UltraBots", he is withholding the official standings page until he can slide them out. Of course, with the biggest UltraBot being the guild leader, it's pretty hard to slide them all out!
I advanced one theory to a friend who told me to slap myself, that that idea was just too evil. Maybe. I'll not reveal it here, since I don't want to take the chance that it would be realized because I said it too loudly. Let's just say, I hope not!
Another possibility is that Ultralite is deliberately holding off on doing a standings page to either reduce drama or reduce line-shifting as people find others they want to play with better (or people look through the page to find others to recruit to them.) In other words, give people time to learn their own superiors, subordinates, and likely whatever group has formed around that, and develop their own group identities without active "line search" recruiters, or pre-existing loyalties destroying possible new friendships. It seems a bit far-fetched, but it's certainly possible.
One thing this has done, however, is cause people to create their own workarounds. I suspect the amount of creativity that is going into 3rd party standings pages would be surprising, if known. But just as a for instance....
There is a service called "Cogmap". You can start your own organizational chart on it with a free account. A quick search finds three TE 3000 charts:
Caledon
Rouge Armistice
Bratt Lunasea
And a couple of more from other places:
Steve FallingBridge
Angels of the Universe
...and I'm sure there are more out there. If you know of any, please put them in the comments below to share them with the rest of us!
And what other possibilities exist out there? Only time will tell. I'm almost beginning to wonder if an "official" standings page might have to start fighting the competition if it waits too long to come out!
Interview with an "Ultrabot," Avaricious Rector
"Ultrabot" Avaricious Rector (left) with Alamiga Anatine in his home.Alamiga Anatine: Thank you for inviting me to your, umm... home.
Avaricious Rector: [stares into space]
Alamiga Anatine: Are we inside one of Ultra's computers? I like what you've done to the place!
Avaricious Rector: [stares into space]
Alamiga Anatine: Right, lets move on to some questions about your role in the game. I noticed that you're online, apparently 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Don't you ever sleep?
Avaricious Rector: [stares into space]
Alamiga Anatine: I see, maybe you're too tired to answer that right now. I was switched from a previous "Ultrabot" to you, a couple of days into the game. Do you have any plans on sending me to another Superior? I know I can be a handful at times.
Avaricious Rector: [stares into space]
Alamiga Anatine: OK, well... I'll take it by your silence, that you have no immediate plans for me. Do you have any ambitions on becoming a Guild Leader?
Avaricious Rector: [stares into space]
Alamiga Anatine: Well I see your a bit indecisive about revealing your goals. I'm going to field questions via IM now and relay them for you to answer, Avaricious.
HanosunnesWoom Root: will there be any other avenues that join the two TE's? Like with the Dreams, maybe a "wormhole?"
Avaricious Rector: [stares into space]
Alamiga Anatine: I'm not sure if Ultra consults his "Ultrabots" on those matters Hano.
Zippo Waco: Why do you show me NO benefits whatsoever?
Avaricious Rector: [stares into space]
Alamiga Anatine: I've noticed that every time I decline an offer to join another Superior, that Avaricious Rector sends me a nice Loyalty Payment. Thank you for those, Avaricious. Perhaps Zippo, your too high to get offers? I'm sure you'd be a valuable commodity for anyone, Zippo.
Swankhaven Blitz: Why do you keep wanting me to rank up Bethany? I hate you sooooo much! She's bossy!
Avaricious Rector: [slams hands onto desk leaving imprints]
Alamiga Anatine: I'm not sure this is the place to discuss why the "Ultrabots" seem to favor Bethany, I'm sure Bethany deserves their loyalty regardless. Also, in defense of Bethany, she has paid our Alliance Dues occasionally. Some free ships would be nice though.
Kelly Barron: To what do you attribute your incredibly fast rise to the top? Do you believe in taking care of your downline? What were you thinking when you picked the your name?
Avaricious Rector: [stares into space]
Alamiga Anatine: That may have been too many questions for him to handle at once, Kelly. I'm sure he'll get back to you on those.
Bruce1 Spyker: Why are we overworked and over taxed?
Avaricious Rector: [stares into space]
Alamiga Anatine: Your one of my subordinates Bruce, hush and get back to work, we'll talk later.
Avaricious Rector: [stares in space with look of approval]
Alamiga Anatine: Wonderful, Avaricious, you've shown us that your definitely are the strong silent type. An asset you and the other "Ultrabots" should be proud of! Thank you for allowing me to interview you and inviting me into your domain!
Avaricious Rector: [stares into space]
Alamiga Anatine: Ummm, I'll just let myself out... Where's the door?
Blog readers, please feel free to ask your own questions in the comments for Avaricious Rector and any other "Ultrabots" since well, they apparently are all the same.
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