"On air. On sea. On land. Still the Internet's greatest wargame simulation."
Lord of the Rings Empire II
| Deity: | Geoff Cashman, Roman Parparov and Eric James |
| Start Date: | September 8th, 2003 |
| End Date: | December 19th, 2003 (102 days) |
| Code used: | Wolfpack 4.2.12 |
| Winner(s): | Iron_Hills Mirkwood Rhun Rohan |
August 27, 2003
----------------- GAME ANNOUNCEMENT ----------------
Lord of the Rings Empire
----------------------------------------------------
"Three Rings for the Elven-Kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."
----------------------------------------------------
Coming soon to an Empire server near you, LOTR Empire II!
No matinee prices, no long lines for tickets, no
crunching popcorn underfoot and pealing gum off your
shoe after you leave...this is the real thing! You
will be transported to Middle Earth to run your land,
challenging your wits against bands of Orcs, hordes
of Goblins, Oliphants trampling your villages, waging
war with such kingdoms as Gondor, Rivendell, Mordor,
and yes even Mirkwood!
Can The Shire rise up and control the world? Can
Khazad-dum be born again and brought back to its pinnacle
of power? Will the Dark Lord spread his power over
all the lands and dominate the Third Age? Come one,
come all and see for yourself!
Main details:
There is a website for this game at:
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/
WHEN:
WHAT:
WHO:
WHERE:
WHY:
To sign up, please visit the online registration form located at: http://empire.tau.ac.il/~romm/empireme.html
Registration is open now.
Questions regarding the game may be mailed to me. Offerings of rings of power in the form of six packs of beer will be gladly received and may influence your placement in the game (well, you're welcome to believe that if you want...doesn't make it true :)).
-Geoff Cashman
Istari Deity of Middle Earth Empire
aka Mithrilien
Empire 4.2.12 (KSU distribution 1.04, Chainsaw version 4.00, Wolfpack version 2.12)
The following parameters have been set for this game: World size is 184 by 88. There can be up to 99 countries. By default, countries use their own coordinate system.
An Empire time unit is 1440 seconds long. Use the 'update' command to find out the time of the next update. The current time is Tue Sep 9 18:49:46. An update consists of 60 empire time units. Each country is allowed to be logged in 1440 minutes a day. It takes 8.33 civilians to produce a BTU in one time unit.
A non-aggi, 100 fertility sector can grow 0.12 food per etu. 1000 civilians will harvest 1.3 food per etu. 1000 civilians will give birth to 5.0 babies per etu. 1000 uncompensated workers will give birth to 2.5 babies. In one time unit, 1000 people eat 0.5 units of food. 1000 babies eat 6.0 units of food becoming adults.
Banks pay $250.00 in interest per 1000 gold bars per etu. 1000 civilians generate $8.33, uncompensated workers $1.78 each time unit. 1000 active military cost $83.33, reserves cost $8.33. Happiness p.e. requires 1 happy stroller per 10000 civ. Education p.e. requires 1 class of graduates per 10000 civ. Happiness is averaged over 48 time units. Education is averaged over 96 time units. The technology/research boost you get from your allies is 25.00%. Nation levels (tech etc.) decline 1% every 0 time units. Tech Buildup is not limited
Sectors Ships Planes Units Maximum mobility 127 127 120 96 Max mob gain per update 60 90 60 48 Max eff gain per update -- 100 100 100
Ships on autonavigation may use 6 cargo holds per ship. Fire ranges are scaled by 1.00
Options enabled in this game:
BIG_CITY, DEMANDUPDATE, GODNEWS, HIDDEN, LANDSPIES, NEW_STARVE,
NEW_WORK, NEWPOWER, NO_FORT_FIRE, NOMOBCOST, PINPOINTMISSILE,
PLANENAMES, RES_POP, SAIL, SHIPNAMES, SHOWPLANE, TREATIES,
UPDATESCHED
Options disabled in this game:
ALL_BLEED, BLITZ, BRIDGETOWERS, DEFENSE_INFRA, DRNUKE, EASY_BRIDGES,
FALLOUT, FUEL, GO_RENEW, GRAB_THINGS, INTERDICT_ATT, LOANS,
LOSE_CONTACT, MARKET, MOB_ACCESS, NEUTRON, NO_HCMS, NO_LCMS, NO_OIL,
NO_PLAGUE, NOFOOD, NONUKES, NUKEFAILDETONATE, ORBIT, SHIP_DECAY,
SLOW_WAR, SNEAK_ATTACK, SUPER_BARS, TECH_POP, TRADESHIPS,
"info Options" for a detailed list of options and descriptions
The person to annoy if something goes wrong is:
Geoff Cashman, Eric James and Roman Parparov
(empire@empire.tau.ac.il).
You can get your own copy of the source using:
ftp://ftp.wolfpackempire.com/pub/empire/server or
http://www.wolfpackempire.com/
Blue coloring on countries in the power charts indicates the eventual winners of the game.
One week after start, September 18th, 2003
Update for Lord of the Rings Empire
-----------------------------------
[editor's note: Since this game is hidden, the deities are reluctant to divulge any significant information. Thus, this post is vague by necessity.]
Lord of the Rings Empire has now had five updates, and the number of free sectors is rapidly diminishing. All countries broke, though one needed to be replaced.
At least one major war has broken out, with the death toll rapidly rising. The war initially went the way of one country, and now the balance has swung in favor of the initial victim. The initial aggressor has learned the hard way that his victim
was not so fodderish after all!
One nation managed to capture a traveller (deity flavoring in the game) who divulged some information regarding the wilds of the world. There's rumors of rangers, merchants, and other travellers making their way through various countries.
Smaug has been reported over a handful of countries, most notably Dale. Will Smaug bring ruin to Dale or will the Men of Dale bring about his ruin? Also, black smoke once again belches forth from Orodruin, and the forces of Mordor are afoot.
Some early alliances are being made, while players feel out which countries are likely to be strong kingdoms and which are doomed to be fiefdoms of other realms. At least one alliance of the world has an unclean taste about it.
The leader of The Shire is apparently a drunken dotard, prone to fits of epithets hurled at his guards. Any mention of Tourette's Syndrome has been met with hurled breakable objects, and various slurred epithets. Apparently, it's been a bad crop of weed in the South Farthing this year.
The Palace of the Elven King is abuzz with all sorts of chatter coming from the Elven Insecurity Service. They are apparently thinking about demanding the Misty Mountains be leveled in the customary 42 seconds.
Lastly, all the fish in the River Anduin have been killed off in an ecological disaster caused by Lord Celeron of Lorien washing his feet in Galadriel's mirror (which was promptly emptied). Galadriel says she'll kill him if he does it again. Some details
regarding this event and its consequences can be found in an announcement from Gondor:
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Thu Sep 18 02:00:26 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 9:
Hazmat teams investigating the mysterious death of the Anduin have
determined the cause - Elves washing their scaly 2000 year old feet in
the headwaters. Team is fearful the entire ocean could be sterilized,
coastlines and rivers already dead.
Have received anonymous "Modest Proposal" detailing a simple solution to
the Elf problem. Forward units are to confiscate all chemical and
biological weapons (Elf Feet) for incineration by blast furnace. Legions
enthusiastic about this solution (suspect they were the source of the
original proposal).
There is a visitor account available for this game.
EMPIREHOST: empire.tau.ac.il (132.66.152.50)
EMPIREPORT: 1617
visitor/visitor
People interested in registering to co-rule or substitute in the game
may do so at this page: http://empire.tau.ac.il/~romm/empireme.html
[Deity perspective: At this point in the game, there was an alliance between Gondor and Mordor, and also Gondor and Rohan. There was another alliance between Forochel and Arnor. Arnor's domination of Angmar means the Kingdom of Arnor has been restored! The following power chart was of course not posted to rec.games.empire when this update was posted there.]
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Thu Sep 18 17:57:34 2003
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Arnor 95 27% 5.8K 150 4 0 0 650 50 50 0 0 4 10K
233.82
Minhiriat 65 45% 3.9K 300 0 0 0 250 250 0 4 0 3 15K
209.42
Rhun 80 20% 3.8K 500 0 0 0 150 50 0 0 3 8 20K
195.81
Lorien 105 15% 3.9K 350 0 0 0 400 25 150 0 1 4 20K
193.63
Bree 95 15% 4.0K 250 0 0 0 350 100 200 0 0 10 15K
189.74
Rohan 185 12% 4.0K 250 0 0 0 600 150 26 1 1 3 10K
187.48
Rivendell 115 18% 4.0K 200 0 0 0 150 300 0 0 0 7 10K
184.55
Dunland 75 20% 3.9K 250 0 0 0 300 150 100 0 1 0 20K
184.36
Harad 145 13% 4.3K 100 0 0 0 500 38 100 0 0 10 15K
184.09
Cardolan 65 24% 4.1K 100 0 0 0 400 50 100 2 2 0 15K
181.88
Eregion 90 26% 3.5K 500 0 0 0 200 50 100 0 0 10 20K
181.78
Dol_Goldu 120 14% 4.2K 150 9 0 0 400 50 35 2 0 9 15K
181.49
Nurn 115 15% 4.0K 200 0 0 0 200 100 100 3 2 0 10K
180.39
Iron_Hill 130 16% 4.2K 150 5 0 0 250 100 24 2 0 3 5.0K
179.49
Wainrider 105 14% 3.7K 400 50 0 0 550 31 0 2 0 5 15K
178.53
Mordor 170 14% 4.2K 150 0 0 0 100 150 0 2 1 6 5.0K
177.50
Dorwinion 75 21% 3.9K 200 0 0 0 350 50 0 0 3 0 20K
176.55
Dol_Amrot 100 17% 3.9K 250 0 0 0 400 50 0 0 2 7 15K
176.36
Easterlin 105 16% 3.9K 250 0 0 0 600 50 100 0 0 5 15K
176.28
Harondor 100 18% 3.7K 200 3 0 0 150 100 17 3 0 4 15K
174.72
Mirkwood 180 9% 4.0K 250 10 0 0 300 150 50 5 0 10 5.0K
173.89
Dale 105 14% 4.2K 250 4 0 0 500 3 0 2 0 3 10K
172.91
Forochel 95 19% 4.0K 200 0 0 0 500 100 38 1 2 4 5.0K
172.16
Umbar 85 14% 3.8K 350 0 0 0 350 200 0 0 0 5 10K
172.14
Anfalas 65 22% 3.9K 200 0 0 0 350 15 0 1 0 3 20K
171.05
The_Shire 95 20% 4.1K 100 25 0 0 400 100 46 2 1 6 2.5K
164.00
Harlindon 100 18% 4.1K 150 0 0 0 450 100 0 3 3 6 494
163.41
Erebor 80 17% 3.1K 300 0 0 0 150 100 0 1 0 3 20K
161.54
Gondor 135 12% 3.6K 250 0 0 0 300 150 22 0 2 8 5.0K
157.47
Balchoth 160 10% 3.8K 250 25 0 0 200 100 32 4 2 4 4.8K
155.17
Khand 25 53% 2.5K 100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25K
130.10
Gladden_F 55 20% 2.5K 21 0 0 0 250 33 0 2 0 0 15K
125.13
Angmar 35 3% 350 15 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 25K
62.07
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 3.3K 17% 127K 7.4K 150 0 0 11K 3.0K 1.4K 40 30 150 460K
Two weeks after start, September 25th, 2003
=====================================
Update #2 for Lord of the Rings Empire
=====================================
[editor's note: Since this game is hidden, the deities are
reluctant to divulge any significant information. Thus, this
post is vague by necessity.]
Lord of the Rings Empire has now had eight updates. There
are still free sectors to be had out there, but nations are
now going to war against each other with abandon.
Several major wars have broken out, and we've seen the demise
of six nations, and others are under assault as I type. One
nation in particular seems to have made a catastrophic mistake,
and is now under severe onslaught. Bodies of Elves, Dwarves,
and Humans lie everywhere. The stench of rotting flesh is making
Orcs hungry.
Several nations have now captured travellers in the world,
and discovered just what profits they yield. Additionally,
three nations have managed to capture Gollum, only to have
him escape shortly thereafter. There is rumor that some
wizards might have made it to Middle Earth as well, to
counteract the rising power of Sauron.
Smaug continues to fly. Despite the entreaties of Erebor, who
was under attack from two other nations, Smaug would not come
to his aid:
> Telegram from Erebor, (#17) dated Sat Sep 20 23:36:13 2003 Hey mighty Smaug, I heard some disturbing news, my scouts have heard some things at a nearby Dale / Iron Hills campsite meeting... They were saying and I quote, "That Smaug is a coward, he just flies around..". Thought you might like to know.
Meanwhile, the peasants are beginning to get restless. Several nations
have found peasants stealing food from their stocks. The responses
have been rather funny:
> Telegram from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Thu Sep 25 00:36:22 2003 Not only do I have 5 countries stealing sectors, now the worthless peasants, who have been kept well fed in the realm of Mirkwood, are stealing food from the warehouse! Head Accountant
> Telegram from The_Shire (#1) dated Thu Sep 25 01:43:09 2003 Bastards! I'll shag you to death!
Several strong alliances have formed, and all of them are on
the move, getting involved in wars that are determining the
outcome of the game.
There appears to be a beer brewing contest happening between
the realms of Bree and Harondor. While the Bree brews are well
known through the world, the Harondor ales are certainly nothing
to sneeze at. Both breweries have insisted they are not using
Elf-feet contaminated waters.
Rohan seems to have gotten into the horse selling business, and
complaints have arisen from Lorien. Lorien apparently unwittingly
purchased three legged horses from Rohan.
All is quiet along the lines of the Ephel Duath and Ered Lithui.
What horrors are brewing where the shadows lie, few know. At
least one nation seems have borne the brunt of the Dark Lord's
wrath.
This week's funniest announcement:
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Sep 19 22:22:40 2003 Remember, Every Wednesday is Hobbit Bowling Night down here in Harondor. Enjoy the Hobbits squeals of delight as they get hurled down our beautifully polished Entwood floors. Bring Friends. Bring Hobbits. Hell, bring Dwarves or Elves if you must. We're not picky(1). So come down, Enjoy a Pint(2), and watch the excitement!
Harandor Board of Tourism.
(1) Orcs, Undead, and other vile evil creatures must be
properly bathed to be admitted.
(2) Elves must be over the age of 2100 and possess a valid ID
to drink.
There is a visitor account available for this game.
EMPIREHOST: empire.tau.ac.il (132.66.152.50)
EMPIREPORT: 1617
visitor/visitor
People interested in registering to co-rule or substitute in the game
may do so at this page: http://empire.tau.ac.il/~romm/empireme.html
The next posted update to r.g.e. will not happen for another two
weeks, as the game will be experiencing a break during that time.
[Deity perspective: Mirkwood made a catastrophic diplomacy error
which has resulted in the attack of 6 nations against the
wooded realm. Lorien, Dale, Iron Hills, Dol Goldur, Rivendell
and Arnor have all joined the attack against Mirkwood. This is
by far the most significant war in the game to this point.
Mirkwood was, at one point, far larger than any other nation
nearly reaching the 300 sector level. He was stretch thin
though, and their diplomatic faux pas seems to have sealed
their fate.
Other wars are happening, with Harlindon, Rhun and Mordor
becoming significantly strong. Harlindon is doing an
excellent job of keeping potential enemies at bay while
advancing on his enemies. Rhun is becoming the quiet,
menacing
force in the east, that none seem to realize yet.
More war is about to break as Rohan and Balchoth are soon to
join the war-like. The Shire must soon make a move if he is
to remain powerful, and Dol Amroth can not remain on his own
soil for long if he intends on having an impact on the end
game.]
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Thu Sep 25 22:07:18 2003
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money Rhun 180 31% 16K 650 22 0 0 1.5K 600 150 2 3 20 10K 602.95 Mordor 260 23% 12K 850 25 5 0 750 350 250 1 1 8 1.9K 499.35 Harlindon 155 26% 12K 400 50 0 0 1.2K 300 150 2 5 10 477 460.81 Dol_Amrot 155 25% 12K 150 75 5 0 750 300 100 1 2 10 10K 428.68 Iron_Hill 210 22% 10K 300 50 1 0 650 300 50 4 0 9 699 406.25 The_Shire 115 29% 10K 400 125 10 0 650 450 350 1 1 4 130 399.84 Dale 150 28% 11K 450 13 0 0 1.1K 100 48 2 0 5 519 393.56 Arnor 130 30% 11K 400 25 0 0 900 450 150 0 0 7 210 386.43 Rohan 235 17% 9.6K 300 50 2 0 650 350 50 1 2 20 462 377.42 Mirkwood 225 15% 9.4K 350 10 0 0 1.0K 300 100 5 0 10 530 374.42 Dunland 95 36% 9.1K 350 0 0 0 100 550 100 0 2 6 5.0K 347.44 Balchoth 210 15% 9.2K 250 25 0 0 200 400 25 4 2 7 483 347.08 Forochel 130 27% 8.6K 300 50 10 0 500 200 50 1 2 8 130 331.96 Dol_Goldu 140 19% 9.3K 300 25 10 0 750 250 47 2 0 10 4.7K 331.89 Harondor 125 29% 7.8K 300 50 0 0 50 550 17 6 0 5 1.3K 322.36 Bree 105 27% 8.4K 550 50 10 0 850 100 300 0 0 20 3.9K 321.59 Harad 250 13% 8.9K 400 12 0 0 800 200 100 4 0 10 1.3K 319.15 Rivendell 155 16% 8.5K 350 0 0 0 450 200 200 1 0 9 2.3K 319.03 Lorien 105 26% 8.6K 250 0 0 0 750 300 200 1 1 2 4.6K 318.16 Minhiriat 70 64% 7.5K 350 0 0 0 800 200 0 0 0 10 2.0K 316.28 Wainrider 105 25% 8.0K 550 175 0 0 850 50 28 3 0 6 10K 305.29 Umbar 125 19% 8.2K 450 50 15 0 700 300 50 0 0 7 1.8K 301.20 Gondor 125 23% 7.2K 250 25 0 0 100 450 37 0 2 8 981 295.50 Eregion 70 44% 5.2K 550 1 0 0 350 100 250 1 2 20 5.0K 227.25 Khand 30 85% 5.3K 250 0 0 0 100 50 150 0 0 0 25K 225.64 Easterlin 60 30% 4.2K 300 0 0 0 0 35 50 0 0 1 1.7K 157.46 Anfalas 5 59% 1.4K 400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 5.0K 60.25 Angmar 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25K 51.99 Nurn 70 7% 1.2K 150 14 0 0 0 0 14 2 0 0 818 43.66 Dorwinion 1 3% 12 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 5.0K 16.70 Gladden_F 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K 15.36 Erebor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 979 2.07 Cardolan 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 586 1.24 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- worldwide 3.8K 24% 245K 11K 925 70 0 17K 7.4K 3.0K 40 30 220 170K
Seven weeks after start, October 31st, 2003
Lord of the Rings Empire II has now had 15 updates. Which, given
the recent spat of problems the game has had, is a miracle. There
are still some plains sectors out there that remain untouched,
but the world is essentially occupied now.
Multiple wars have broken out since the last update, with a
number of nations falling by the wayside, some of them in
very quick fashion.
One nation that was expected to die has made a miraculous
recover and has managed to turn the situation around in
a stunning diplomatic victory.
The winner of the First Country to Zero Sectors award goes
out to Cardolan, who managed to fold like a house of cards
in a gale. Gladden Fields and Angmar raced him for the award
though, making it a near contest for 2nd place. Gladden Fields
got the nod by a nose for 2nd.
One nation found out the value of a ranger unit, but did so
the...uh...wrong way :) His telegram...
---
> Telegram from <x>, (#x) dated Fri Oct 24 09:42:25 2003
Repeat after me, kids:
"Always trust a Ranger. Always trust a Ranger. Always trust
a Ranger. Before you throw a snowball at him, always trust
a Ranger."
---
The beer continues to flow freely from the breweries of
Bree and Harondor. The threat of Elf feet contamination
has subsided. Meanwhile, there are rumors of a beer shortage
in Mordor...
---
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Fri Oct 31 15:31:30 2003
Sauron is down to his last case of beer (sniff)
---
Rhun put out a rather funny and topical announcement...
---
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Fri Oct 31 07:24:21 2003
"Bring out your beer!! <clank>
"Bring out your beeeeer!! <Clank>
"I'm not drunk yet!!"
Gulp!
---
Certain major alliances have formed, with rather unusual
diplomatic twists to them, not the least of which is one
nation that has become nomadic.
Pirates have been observed on the high seas. So far, there
have been no reports of victims, but sailors everywhere are
concerned.
Darkness grows in the east, and a threat in the hearts of
Elves and Men has been growing for some time now. Few have
come out of the East to report on the goings on beyond the
Ephel Duath, but at least two nations were abruptly silenced
over the last few weeks.
There is a visitor account available for this game.
EMPIREHOST: empire.tau.ac.il (132.66.152.50)
EMPIREPORT: 1617
visitor/visitor
People interested in registering to co-rule or substitute in the game
may do so at this page: http://empire.tau.ac.il/~romm/empireme.html
[Deity perspective: Mirkwood managed to work their way out
of the diplomatic disaster they found themselves in, and
have gotten some of their former enemies to be their allies.
They have not returned to the power they were, but they are
having a significant effect on the game.
Mordor has vaulted into first place, and has a 10% gap on
the #2 country. The Shire's sacked Forochel, and immediately
following the replacement of the Arnor ruler, sacked them
as well. Arnor's still alive, but the attack was unexpected
and resulted in Arnor's capital falling.
Balchoth, under diplomatic pressure, peacefully caved into
Rhun, granting Rhun a large swath of territory. A war almost
erupted between Mordor and Rhun, but it was not to be.
The war in the south, between Gondor and Harondar (now with
Harad's help) is stalemated. Dol Armoth is supposed to be
entering the war shortly on Gondor's side, but no entry into
the fray just yet.
The world is getting pretty tight now, with just 18 nations
of 33 starters remaining. 15 dead.]
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Oct 31 15:26:41 2003
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Mordor 410 55% 83K 3.1K 450 50 0 3.0K 2.2K 1.4K 5 1 40 4.6K
3010.34
Rhun 375 60% 75K 1.1K 175 35 0 3.0K 2.5K 500 5 7 20 10K
2743.42
The_Shire 250 78% 70K 2.5K 50 25 0 4.2K 2.5K 700 1 0 30 4.2K
2669.90
Rohan 325 58% 70K 1.9K 75 45 0 4.8K 2.5K 500 1 7 40 5.0K
2556.21
Harad 385 38% 70K 2.8K 300 4 0 7.5K 2.4K 2.3K 4 0 20 3.7K
2362.75
Harlindon 205 71% 57K 2.2K 50 30 0 2.8K 2.5K 200 2 10 40 1.7K
2044.37
Iron_Hill 345 35% 59K 750 75 35 0 3.0K 2.5K 150 4 1 20 10K
2008.21
Dale 155 69% 61K 1.2K 125 30 0 4.2K 1.4K 1.3K 6 0 20 5.0K
1991.13
Balchoth 160 65% 51K 1.8K 175 30 0 2.4K 1.6K 550 4 0 20 2.6K
1766.48
Bree 170 55% 55K 1.2K 200 40 0 3.8K 1.8K 900 3 0 20 1.4K
1751.45
Umbar 140 62% 51K 800 175 75 0 2.5K 3.4K 500 1 1 20 10K
1744.75
Dol_Amrot 170 60% 48K 550 350 55 0 3.8K 1.4K 550 8 2 30 4.0K
1615.67
Mirkwood 235 43% 47K 1.6K 400 50 0 5.5K 900 300 2 0 20 1.7K
1594.43
Harondor 125 91% 40K 1.9K 24 10 0 1.4K 1.6K 150 4 0 10 1.9K
1531.24
Rivendell 140 77% 43K 2.0K 50 10 0 1.7K 1.9K 700 5 0 20 1.9K
1477.67
Lorien 120 73% 42K 1.9K 11 5 0 2.4K 1.4K 2.0K 3 0 10 1.1K
1420.61
Gondor 115 66% 36K 2.0K 50 20 0 2.9K 1.5K 100 8 2 20 5.0K
1331.26
Arnor 130 70% 40K 900 100 15 0 1.6K 500 450 0 0 20 5.0K
1256.27
Dunland 45 56% 14K 1.3K 75 0 0 1.8K 150 100 9 1 10 5.0K
635.57
Minhiriat 35 97% 13K 1.5K 5 3 0 700 300 250 0 1 5 4.3K
443.78
Girion 2 89% 6.7K 150 10 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 40K
236.95
Forochel 25 88% 5.8K 750 19 0 0 250 150 0 0 2 1 -247
195.34
Wainrider 10 88% 3.3K 300 1 0 0 400 2 0 0 0 3 5.0K
116.31
test 5 83% 1.2K 100 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 3 20K
100.25
Angmar 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25K
52.14
Khand 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
14.42
Gladden_F 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
14.40
Dorwinion 0 0% 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 5.0K
13.00
Dol_Goldu 3 99% 350 36 0 0 0 0 250 0 0 0 0 -11K
3.45
Erebor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 979
2.07
Cardolan 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 586
1.24
Eregion 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 415
0.88
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 4.1K 59% 1.0M 34K 3.0K 585 0 64K 35K 14K 80 40 430 180K
Ten weeks after start, November 18th, 2003
Lord of the Rings Empire II has now had 22 updates.
Major wars have been fought in the last several updates, with
some seriously powerful nations going toe to toe, seeing who is
the first to succumb. Fully half of the starting nations have
now been knocked out of the game.
There have been several unexpected twists in the game, with
one nation suffering due to the inability of its lawyers to
ratify an NA agreement that actually made sense for them. The ink
wasn't even dry on the NA when their nation came under heavy
attack from the very nation they signed the NA with, and they
had nothing but their lawyers to blame. Word is all the lawyers
in that nation have been executed.
A shocking piece of news came out of Rivendell, where Saruman
was discovered by Elrond's elves. As Saruman was getting into
quite a rage and destroying some property of Elrond, Wormtongue
sprang out of the bushes...
sar saruman #236 was shot and killed.
Gandalf has also been out and about. He cast a good spell on an
Ent of one nation. Then, travelling east of there, he encountered
a nation that was claiming to serve against Mordor, yet housed
Nazgul, Orcs, Wolfriders and Cave Trolls, with nary a 'good'
unit to be seen. Gandalf saw the lie for what it was, and
promptly blew up the sector he was in.
Over the last week, one nation built a truly massive set of
ships, and now owns more than half of the ships in the game.
When asked about this new development, the Admiral of the Fleet
shrugged his gold encrusted shoulders and said, "Oh, just
tinkering you know, doing this and that". Rumors are this
nation intends to make an assault on the Undying Lands.
The winner of the Artistic Cartographer award goes to Rohan,
who managed to make the map of his country look like a horse.
(I kid you not!)
The end game approaches now, as the armies of light gain
momentum. Meanwhile, the Dark Lord has been musing about
his beer...
---
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sun Nov 16 23:46:03 2003
Sauron's bleary eye begins to focus ...
the map seems greener than before ...
must have had too much bree last night, or was that beer ...
Spelling was never Sauron's strong point ...
Oh my aching head, time for more coffee ...
Its understandable losing count of how much beer you've had,
but you know you had too much when you can't count how many
cups of coffee the next morning
---
Other news on the hops front, the breweries in Beer were nearly
shut down over the last week, as a nasty Elf party ran amok and
nearly destroyed the breweries...
---
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Sat Nov 15 02:13:16 2003
Please bear with us as Elves and Hobbits block our beer delivery
routes. We hope to keep the beer flowing everywhere, but wherever
you get low on stock, don't hesitate to come and get some for
(your)(s)elves...
Just keep the Elves on a leash...
Barliman.
---
Probably the funniest announcement over the last week came from a
player disguising himself as visitor (not wanting to show the world
he was travelling)...
---
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Nov 13 04:51:02 2003
Must playsss itss. We mussst! Stuppiddsss hotelssses, nasty little
dataportsss, trickess us they doesss. No internetesss theresss. Hates
them, we hatesss them! Musst playssss!
---
There is a visitor account available for this game.
EMPIREHOST: empire.tau.ac.il (132.66.152.50)
EMPIREPORT: 1617
visitor/visitor
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Tue Nov 18 20:46:46 2003
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Mordor 445 97% 274K 7.4K 675 175 0 21K 3.0K 2.6K 110 3 160 30K
9659.75
Harad 475 66% 272K 9.0K 1.1K 120 0 25K 10K 2.5K 60 0 110 3.4K
8801.48
Rhun 365 81% 262K 6.0K 1.4K 215 0 17K 1.9K 3.7K 40 9 210 95K
8761.62
Rohan 425 86% 234K 13K 1.8K 150 0 18K 1.4K 800 20 20 190 75K
8403.79
Mirkwood 380 77% 199K 6.5K 775 195 0 22K 3.2K 350 20 3 170 5.0K
6747.81
Iron_Hill 345 66% 190K 2.6K 575 135 0 16K 7.2K 450 4 3 150 65K
6333.47
Harlindon 210 84% 158K 6.8K 725 80 0 14K 1.1K 900 30 70 60 85K
5636.77
The_Shire 265 88% 162K 3.2K 425 25 0 17K 700 1.4K 10 0 50 10K
5333.84
Dale 175 95% 171K 2.6K 800 90 0 10K 2.6K 1.8K 20 1 100 75K
5248.75
Dol_Amrot 200 95% 144K 6.0K 325 65 0 9.7K 700 1.1K 20 40 70 20K
4486.24
Rivendell 185 96% 116K 7.0K 475 60 0 10K 3.3K 1.4K 5 0 70 5.0K
3823.43
Balchoth 180 73% 103K 7.0K 1.8K 145 0 9.1K 150 300 30 0 100 15K
3577.35
Umbar 130 75% 97K 1.6K 150 80 0 9.2K 750 250 7 0 20 285
3310.18
Gondor 110 97% 85K 1.4K 700 30 0 12K 850 250 40 220 60 10K
2962.11
Lorien 110 99% 84K 2.1K 975 120 0 6.8K 4.0K 2.5K 2 0 40 10K
2800.25
Harondor 110 88% 60K 2.8K 50 1 0 5.3K 1 100 2 0 40 4.2K
2239.73
Bree 65 95% 34K 1.3K 50 10 0 3.4K 23 2 0 0 10 25K
1013.10
Angmar 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25K
52.24
Wainrider 3 92% 1.6K 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 346
41.16
Khand 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
14.43
Gladden_F 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
14.23
Dorwinion 0 0% 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 5.0K
11.76
Erebor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 979
2.08
Cardolan 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 586
1.24
Eregion 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 415
0.88
Nurn 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48
0.10
Anfalas 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 4.2K 83% 2.6M 90K 13K 1.7K 0 227K 41K 20K 400 370 1.6K 635K
[Deity perspective: A giant alliance, consisting of eight nations, has formed.
The alliances members include Rhun, Rohan, Mirkwood, Dale, Iron Hills, Lorien,
Balchoth and Mirkwood. At least one nation (The Shire) has complained about
the size of this alliance, but no winning conditions were placed upon the
players at the outset of the game. This alliance has destroyed the West,
recently forcing Harlindon to the sidelines and shortly thereafter, The
Shire.
Harlindon's exit was hastened by his attack on Bree, which left him
ill prepared to deal with an onslaught from another direction. Worse,
Harlindon signed an NA agreement with Rohan that allowed Rohan to exit
the NA if Bree attacked Rohan. Harlindon attacked Bree, Bree then
attacked Rohan, and Rohan's hands were untied to attack Harlindon.
The game is all but over at this point. The big alliance controls 50%
of the world's land now. Mordor stands in their way, but is speaking
tones of resignation now.
The war in the south has continued to be a quagmire despite Dol Amroth's
entry into it. Gondor/Dol Amroth vs. Umbar/Harondor/Harad has proven to
be an equal match.
The big alliance expects to make a turn south now, and if successful
while maintaining the integrity of their alliance, they will win
the game. ]
Three months after start, December 8th, 2003
=====================================================================
Update #5 for Lord of the Rings Empire II
=====================================================================
Lord of the Rings Empire II has now had 29 updates.
Since the last posting, a large number of major wars ended,
with the west of Middle Earth being overtaken by a large
alliance. Peace has return to the region, and farmers everywhere
have return to their pastoral lives, chasing hobbits that steal
their crops.
Shortly after peace broke out in the West, a win declaration
was made by the nations of Iron Hills, Mirkwood, Rhun and Rohan.
Several nations stepped forward to acknowledge the win.
Then, the world stood in shock as Harad proclaimed:
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Dec 2 12:54:49 2003
Us stupid south-eastern barbarians do not accept
the victory declaration. Come and beat us to pulp!
Harad, and his allies Umbar, Harondor and Mordor have now come under heavy
assault from the four declarees plus several other nations acting
as henchmen to the winning coalition. The war has not gone well for
Mordor and the South realms, though Dol Amroth and Gondor were
finally thrown off of their holdings on the east side of the River
Anduin. Little other good news has come to the South in the last
several days.
Umbar fell to a lightning invasion conducted by Rohan with ships that
sailed quite some distance over the open ocean to reach their shores.
The remnants of Umbar are now a cratered battleground, where children
fear to tread.
Meanwhile in the North, the sound of trebuchets has risen to a 24/7
cacophony. Few trees have been left standing, and what few there are
show little hope of leaves. Recent rains in the region have resulted
in a muddy quagmire east and west of the lands of Mordor.
The fate of the South realms seems to be sealed, but there is much
war yet to be faught before all will be decided.
The most humorous recent anno came from the illustrious nation of Visitor:
--- > Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Dec 4 02:03:15 2003 Supply Check Time!
40 ounces of home grown, dried and rolled. A pound and a half of uncut peruvian cocaine, in individual serving sizes. Three prescription refills of oxycontin, finely ground. Two fiths of Jack Daniels. And a straw. 25 grams of high quality heroine, complete with an IV drip. 12 of the little red pills. I don't know what they are but they sure do work. A small zip-lock bag filled with methanphetimines. Five hits of LSD and a box of sugar cubes. (Note to self: Have plenty of sugar left for next purchase.) Two hookers from Chicago (I prefer the red-head over the blonde. But sometimes I like to be over the blonde too.) One large, deep dish pizza with extra cheese, black olives, and thick sliced pepperoni. A case of Sam Adams. Chilled.
Okay, I'm ready for the update. ---
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Mon Dec 8 18:53:45 2003
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Mirkwood 645 86% 467K 18K 12K 635 0 50K 1.4K 1.6K 30 370 440 35K
17331.17
Harad 570 69% 317K 7.3K 3.4K 470 0 69K 2.1K 5.9K 140 0 300 265K
13304.37
Rohan 545 85% 384K 18K 1.6K 420 0 49K 800 500 50 40 310 20K
13244.73
Rhun 485 84% 365K 13K 7.4K 620 0 39K 1.1K 2.4K 90 10 330 25K
12514.83
Iron_Hill 450 71% 244K 7.2K 4.3K 475 0 25K 2.0K 1.9K 60 7 320 25K
8812.12
Harlindon 210 87% 168K 12K 3.4K 375 0 23K 1.6K 1.8K 90 290 180 145K
6987.44
Dale 205 94% 224K 6.1K 2.3K 195 1.9K 14K 1.8K 900 8 2 190 5.0K
6933.68
Rivendell 210 97% 163K 10K 3.2K 165 0 21K 4.3K 2.4K 6 6 160 4.2K
5590.27
Dol_Amrot 175 99% 154K 4.7K 3.8K 105 0 17K 650 2.2K 50 190 130 10K
5243.79
Balchoth 240 78% 142K 7.6K 3.8K 565 0 15K 600 400 30 0 130 25K
4938.15
Gondor 80 100% 140K 2.2K 925 190 0 7.5K 150 300 50 220 60 20K
4319.27
Harondor 175 89% 104K 10K 425 205 0 9.3K 200 150 20 0 110 10K
3827.45
Lorien 110 99% 98K 2.5K 3.1K 255 0 8.4K 1.6K 4.9K 2 0 60 115K
3677.47
Bree 70 99% 61K 2.1K 275 55 0 10K 150 1.1K 0 1 30 15K
1837.11
The_Shire 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 125K
271.35
Mordor 10 96% 5.2K 200 1 0 0 2.5K 10 0 3 1 2 4.2K
157.46
Umbar 15 93% 3.5K 450 12 0 0 1.0K 12 2 0 0 0 -2.9K
148.99
Angmar 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25K
52.32
Khand 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
14.47
Gladden_F 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
14.06
Dorwinion 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
10.85
Wainrider 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4.1K
8.69
Erebor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 979
2.08
Cardolan 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 586
1.25
Eregion 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 415
0.88
Dol_Goldu 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Dunland 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Nurn 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Forochel 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Easterlin 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Anfalas 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 4.2K 84% 3.0M 126K 50K 4.7K 1.9K 360K 19K 26K 610 1.1K 2.8K 845K
[Deity perspective: <gandalf>"The end is come"</gandalf>. Harad hopes to
put up some resistance to the win declaration by the ACME (Alliance to Conquer Middle Earth)
alliance but it's a futile effort. He knows this, but resists anyways because he thinks the
alliance should have to work harder for the win since they are large. There's very little hope
that he can win the war. It's just a matter of time now.]
[Editor's Note: There is no 'game summary' for this game, but rather a deity's diary. This is long, but gives far more detail than a typical game summary]
September 5th, 2003
Today, I started working on country placements. The original
from LOTR:I works, but we have 31 registrants instead of 39. So,
we have to pick out which countries we are going to drop and which
we are going to retain. The ones that we're dropping we'll turn
into mostly plains.
We're also working on final determinations of units/ships/
planes/sectors statistics. There are some changes from the first
game, but nothing seriously dramatic.
September 7th, 2003
Lots of work today on the world. Screwed up a couple of times
while re-designating some sectors into plains. I was designating
plains to respond to the missing six countries from last go
around on this world.
Ran into a some boggling problems with setsector until I
remembered that you have to use setresource. Ahg!
I sent individual e-mails out to every registered country
with their country info, connection info, historical info,
and etc.
I used the resource list from LOTR:I to create a list of
sea sectors that needed to have fertility. That made setting
up the ocean fertility very easy, thankfully.
I also discovered significant differences in plains designations
from the first game to the second. I once again used the first
game as a baseline to create a designation set to redo the
world a bit to make it like the first go around.
Very tired. Spent 8 hours today working on stuff.
September 8th/9th, 2003
More work.
I redid the .pdf and .jpg maps of the world to reflect the
countries that are in the game this time around.
I'm a bit concerned about the impact of the missing countries
on people's perception of the world. If a person would think it
all the way through, they should realize that we wouldn't just
remove the nations and not compensate the world in some way
so that the nations that got to the empty areas got a big bonus.
But, at least one person seems to have missed on that and he's
one of if not the most analytical player in the game right now.
This may influence what nations do, until they discover all the
plains.
I also redid the units/ships/planes/sectors lists on the
website. Markus found two typos, one listing the dragons and
another with differences in mil between elven infantry and
orc band (should have been the same). I corrected the former
and sent on the latter to Roman, who immediately corrected it.
Game opens. Gondor's the first to get in and the first to break.
I awarded him $25 for the achievement.
Not everybody shows up. In particular, four countries don't
show their heads. I e-mailed all four of them, and two of them
showed up relatively shortly thereafter. A third showed up some
time later, and the fourth never showed. By a stroke of luck,
a player who hadn't signed up for the game e-mailed Wolfpack
looking for help with his country in another game. I asked him
to join LOTR, and after a touch of cajoling, he did. Everyone's
broken now, though Anfalas is a rank newbie and needs tremendous
help. He'll die early, very early. Dol_Amroth, Dunland, or
Rohan stand to gain. Though, I think Dol_Amroth will get to
him first.
September 10th, 2003.
Our first update, and everything goes well. Only Anfalas did
not expand to the maximum possible 10 sectors. Anfalas and
Minhiriath were going to starve at the update. With Anfalas
being so new, I decided to help him out just this once. I also
helped Minhiriath, (who needed 1 food) because he had agreed
to join the game and help save it to a degree. No more help
will be given though.
September 11th, 2003.
Khand has royally screwed up. He pushed all of his food
into a warehouse that has no mobility. He'll starve a bunch
of his sectors at the update. I sent him an e-mail suggesting
ways out of it, but I won't directly aid him. It's unfortunate.
That could potentially destabilize the south of the world.
Second update happens, and Anfalas hasn't shown at all.
Can't do anything about it now. Anfalas will die.
One of the players points out a bug where you can build
a unit/ship/plane if the number of lcms and hcms the thing
needs to get to 100% is less than 10 for each. A unit is
built with 10% of the materials required. Bug is logged into
SourceForge, and at player's suggestion we look for sectors
where it would be possible to do this. But, nobody yet has
a headquarters or airbase >59%. Only two countries have
harbors >59% and they don't build any ships before the
second update, thus no abuse of the bug early on when it
could have been crucial.
Eric (Dristonia) discovers that sector 0,0 has 50 land
mines in it for some reason. I suspect this happened when
I was attempting to set resources for the world, but I
really don't know where it happened. I removed them, after
futzing around with the fecking deity commands that need
a major workover.
Players come in contact with each other for the first
time.
Came up with a new idea for adding flavor to the game.
Have units like gollums and ringbearers that will travel
the world...merchants, travellers, and rangers. These
units will be at tech 102, so players can 'see' that they
can be built but can never build them themselves. This
might prompt them to look around their nation for them
via spy. If one is caught, depending on whether the
capturing nation tortures them, bribes them, or invites
them to dinner to gain trust, there is a variable d10
chance % that the traveller will reveal truthful information
regarding the world. Otherwise, they 'reveal' lies.
September 12th, 2003
Angmar draws first blood, taking two sectors from Arnor.
Fri Sep 12 10:39 Angmar shock troops overrun one of Arnor's
sectors two times
He should win some kind of award for that :)
Approximately 18:30 server time, everybody loses connectivity
to the server. I scrambled to try to regain contact with the
server, with an update pending in six hours. No dice. I tried to
raise Roman to no avail early on at least. Later, he sent an e-mail
from a Yahoo account of his, and we regained contact. As we later
find out, the building the server is in suffered a power loss. The
hub the server is connected to took it on the chin, and didn't come
back up. Update's cancelled, and as we later find out we do not
have to do a rollback, as the server boot sequence does not include
starting up the Empire job. Several e-mails are sent to players to
keep them informed of what is going on. The server is restored to
connectivity on Saturday. We plan the next update for Monday at
17:00 server time.
September 15th, 2003.
Update goes off as planned. I'm a bit concerned that Khand seems
to have vanished, but not sure. He's definitely been gone since
before the Thursday update. This is troubling. Anfalas has fallen
off the face of the planet. Of that there's no question really.
Brand new player, and I think he became less than enthralled with
the game. Not a peep out of him for four plus days. Losing these
players can cause balance problems for the game.
Rohan expands massively after the update, and picks up some
key sectors both east and west of his central area. His
expansion plans worked very well. He even captured Cair Andros.
Roman rebooted the server today, adding in the "merchant"
"traveller" and "ranger" units I asked for. I intend on using
these for flavoring in the game. The players can capture them,
then bribe them, torture them, or invite them to feast with
them. They get variable chances of success with each, and
if success happens they will get 1d3 pieces of true information.
For example, "A great starvation happened somewhere to the south
of Mordor some days ago". That would be true...Khand starved a
bunch of people. Another true.."Smaug overflew Dale last week,
but there are no reports of injury". False; ships from Cirdan
were reported along the central coasts of Middle Earth recently".
There's a brewing discontent between Iron_Hills and Erebor.
Arnor and Angmar are actively in war. Nurn took a sector from
Mordor. Gondor, using a script, accidentally attacked Dol_Amroth.
September 16th, 2003.
Yesterday, I contacted the two countries that have gone
missing of late, Khand and Anfalas. Khand is now back and
playing. Anfalas, a newbie, calls the game boring and doesn't
want to play anymore. Sigh. Oh well. I called for a replacement
player on rec.games.empire. We're five hours out from the update.
I'll give it until just before the update, but after that I have
got to turn his area into plains, else Dol_Amroth could gain
an unfair advantage. I certainly can not let Anfalas' cap sectors
be taken intact. It's disappointing to have a player drop. But,
considering this is the only player that's dropped in this game
and in the last LOTR game, the record is pretty good.
The game's first alliance has been officially declared:
Tue Sep 16 09:39 Arnor announces an alliance with Forochel
Tue Sep 16 02:25 Forochel / Arnor alliance declared
Arnor's under seige from Angmar. Arnor's lost six sectors
to Angmar so far. Only one of them has more than 1 civ
though. It's an airbase, so it could be devestating to
Arnor if Arnor doesn't respond. Forochel doesn't have much of
an avenue to aid Arnor. I suspect Arnor will be the first
country to fall in the game. Time will tell.
Nurn took one sector from Mordor. I don't know if it was
intentional, allowed, or what yet. Mordor's reaction should
be...interesting.
Lots of negotiations going on between The_Shire, Cardolan,
Bree, Forochel, and Arnor. Nothing terribly clear yet. Arnor
understands the threat he is under, but nobody besides Angmar
is being overtly aggressive near as I can tell.
The rulers of Mirkwood are doing a pretty good job of
fooling people into thinking they are the real Mirkwood.
At least one of the rulers of Rohan thinks they may be
legit:
> Telegram from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Sep 16 21:13:00 2003
If it's not Mirky himself, then it's a damn good impostor!
I played around with ship #666 (Valinor Earrame). No reaction
yet from players.
As expected, I've been forced to wipe Anfalas. Otherwise,
Dol_Amroth or possible Rohan would have captured his capital
sectors and shifted the balance of the game. I turned 40
sectors into plains. Still gives a geographic advantage to
Rohan/Dol_Amroth, but it can't be helped. I really wish he
hadn't bowed out of the game. Mutter mutter mutter.
Arnor fights back!
Arnor seized fourteen sectors from Angmar
Looks like there might be a real war going on here :)
The_Shire also started taking bites out of Forochel.
Rohan's expansion has been nothing short of stellar.
Enedwaith's absense has caused a hole in the map. Anfalas
falling away just makes it worse. This is bad. It's up
to other countries to go after Rohan hard, and take what
they have...but few countries may figure out just how
much they have.
Good news! Someone competent has stepped forward to
be Anfalas! I re-initiated Anfalas, and gave it a bit
of a boost. It's equivalent to most countries in civs,
but behind in sectors. It can make up for lost ground
somewhat, but will be behind in total. It's enough to
fill the geographic vacuum I think. I hope!
Easterlings is inquiring of Iron_Hills about the
possibility of an alliance against Rhun. Rhun didn't
expand as I hoped he would...hasn't taken advantage of
the water or the air much. This could be a problem
for Rhun.
Looks like Gondor and Mordor might get along. Gondor
thought the black gate was empty but found out otherwise :)
They are apparently both concerned about Balchoth. I suspect
Mordor's doing the "nice doggy" trick until he has a big
enough stick to whack him with. Gondor and Mordor both
know who the other is now. Ahg!!! Look now..
=== Foreign Affairs ===
Wed Sep 17 00:21 Gondor announces an alliance with Mordor
Wed Sep 17 00:21 Mordor announces an alliance with Gondor
Wed Sep 17 00:27:09 2003
Gondor does not yet know who Rohan is.
September 17th, 2003
Arnor's made a harsh attack for an early game against Angmar.
Angmar lost his warehouse. Arnor's really sticking his nose out
far though, and has put most of his mil into that warehouse. It
is vulnerable to counterattack by what mil Angmar has if Angmar
figures out that capitals have offensive ability too. Angmar
could be against a wall if he doesn't win out on the next update.
Woohoo! One of the players finally lboarded one of the tra/mer/
ran units! Mirkwood captured a traveller. I sent this to him:
> Telegram from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 20:09:16 2003
You have encountered a traveller. You might be able to
gain some useful information from him. Do you
a) Torture him
b) Bribe him (cost $100)
c) Gain trust via inviting to your halls for dinner
He decided on dinner, and by the random generator he got truthful
information:
> Telegram from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 20:23:09 2003
The traveller partakes of the proffered meal. During dinner,
he tells you some tales from the wilds of the world:
"There was a great starvation somewhere in the Southlands
some days ago. I wanted to go there to sell some dried stores
I had, but the way was blocked. I've heard there's an
alliance forming in the south that may be strong. I
also saw a very strange ship bearing the banners of the
West on the river Anduin."
After some more chit-chat, the traveller takes
his leave of you and departs from your realm.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the halls of Mirkwood
right now :)
September 18th, 2003
Angmar's finished. It's just a matter of time. Arnor has
totally whacked him, captured both his cap sectors (no
cap sack though). Angmar's only hope is rebellion. He's
down to ~370 civs, and virtually no mil. It's still possible
to fight back. It's been done before. But, he'll have to
be very, very tenacious. BTUs is a serious problem too,
since he won't be able to build a real cap. He'll have to
recapture his own. It's looking like the Kingdom of Arnor
is restored. With the boost in civvies from the take over
of Angmar, Arnor is now on top of the power chart.
Rohan still in first place on sector count at 185, though
Mirkwood is hard on his heals at 180. Mordor third with 170,
and Balchoth 4th with 160.
Still nobody but Mirkwood has found one of the tra/mer/ran
units.
Gondor's managed to capture half of the Ephel Duath. Gondor
and Mordor have made an alliance. I told them it was unclean :)
They don't care. A war between Gondor and Mordor erupted early
in the first game. So, this game will play out differently.
Rivendell became the second nation to figure out the riddle
of the merchant/traveller/ranger units. It's about friggin time
someone else got it :) He invited the traveller to dinner, and
the randomizer said to give him truthful information. Here's
what he got:
---
> Telegram from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 21:46:57 2003
The traveller partakes of the proffered meal. During dinner,
he tells you some tales from the wilds of the world:
There was a great starvation somewhere in the Southlands some
days ago. I wanted to go there to sell some dried stores I had,
but the way was blocked. I've heard here's an alliance forming
in the south that may be strong. There's a big war going on
a ways north of here. An old kingdom is about to be restored.
After some more chit-chat, the traveller takes
his leave of you and departs from your realm.
---
Second victim of the game. Erebor appears to be falling to
Iron_Hills and Dale, with dale getting 9 of 17 sectors taken
so far, but Iron_Hills capturing both capital sectors of
Erebor's. Iron_Hills and Dale have popped up to #2 and #3 on
the power chart.
Looks like some vultures may be gathering to pummel Arnor.
Rivendell, Bree, and even Mirkwood around the north of the
Misty Mountains might be coming to avenge Angmar's defeat.
Arnor's position on the top of the power chart may be very,
very short lived.
One of the players at least is affected by Hurricane Isabel.
One of the co-rulers of Mirkwood apparently has to bug out
because of the storm.
Gondor launched an ill-fated attack against Harondor. It
would have worked if Harondor had been totally clueless, but
he wasn't. He's lost 4 eored in the process, and about 100
mil. But, he's safe behind the Anduin, so there's not much
Harondor can do in response.
September 19th, 2003
Lots of action in the last 24 hours. Angmar's toast. It's
all over for the Witch King. Cardolan fell to a vicious attack
from Harlindon, with some assistance from The Shire and a
vulture pick from Minhiriath. Rhun launched an attacking against
Easterlings. It's not a devastating attack yet, but it's not
looking good for Easterlings. Erebor continues to be picked
apart by Iron_Hills and Dale. Surprisingly, Mirkwood hasn't
jumped into the fray. Anfalas was attacked primarily by
Dol_Amroth, though Rohan came into the fray as well. It's
looking very grim for Anfalas. It appears Harlindon has the
first cap sack of the game, sacking Cardolan's cap at 11:22
game time today.
Mirkwood has passed Rohan on the sector count race. 245
to 205 now. My original projection that the game would be
won by either Mirkwood or Rohan or both seems to so far
be coming true.
It's official. Cardolan is the first nation wiped out.
No sectors left.
September 20th, 2003
Pretty calm today, with the next update still three days
away. Dol Amroth discovered my deity error, that the
restoration of Anfalas was not done properly. Anfalas' 0,0
and 2,0 sectors had 100 level resources. Oops. Couldn't
reward Dol Amroth for coming forward as it would give the
appearance of deity impropriety.
Flew Smaug all the way around the world, west-east. It
was only detected over Balchoth and Dunland.
Created a Gollum unit, and placed it in Forochel, who was
next up on the random generator. Moved the other three
currently alive units around. They've still only been
detected by Mirkwood and Rivendell. Strongly suspected
Dol Amroth was going to detect one, as he saw it inside
Anfalas territory, but then didn't spy again once he
took the sector it was in. Oh well.
September 22nd, 2003
Gollum was detected by Forochel and captured. I awarded
him $500 for the capture. Got a rather funny telegram from
Forochel after doing so and taking Gollum back from him:
---
> Telegram from Forochel, (#2) dated Mon Sep 22 12:44:43 2003
Come on, give Gollum back NOW! I'll give you 500 back. Heck,
I'll give you my job and my kids. Just let me search his pockets
for the FLINKING RING !!!
---
Mirkwood and Iron_Hills are in negotiations. There might be
a north-west alliance forming. Mirkwood has plans to push down
through Gladden Fields and into Lorien. He's going to have a
battle on his hands with Lorien/Rohan if he makes it that far.
Eregion captured the traveller unit. The traveller's the
most captured unit. All captures (other than Gollum) have been
of that unit!
Some players are confused by the 'update' command not
reporting the correct update time. I've explained it twice
now in announcements. Hopefully the confusion will go away.
Eregion answered up on the (a), (b), and (c) choices.
Everyone's chosen "Invite to dinner" so far. Hrm. Anyways,
here's what he got (truthful):
---
The traveller partakes of the proffered meal. During dinner,
he tells you some tales from the wilds of the world:
"That writhing, stinking figure Gollum was captured in
Forochel yesterday. I've heard he managed to escape though.
There's a great power rising north-east of here, across the
Misty Mountains. Over the Southlands, there's an unusual
quiet as the Lidless Eye is making some unusual alliances."
After some more chit-chat, the traveller takes
his leave of you and departs from your realm.
---
Mirkwood continues to grow at a fast pace. 260+ sectors
now and growing. In ~12 updates when they are fully
populated, they will be a very serious power to contend
with. If they are not challenged within the next 5-6 updates,
the game's outcome will be determined by what they do. Rohan
is in this category too, but I think they are playing a bit
conservatively right now.
At this point in the game, Anfalas, Gladden Fields,
Erebor, Angmar, and Cardolan are dead or dying. Khand
should die, but is not currently under attack. Harad
knows Khand is a newbie.
Bree seems to be negotiating things for his survival
well. he's really pinned between some strong nations.
So far, he's managed to swing it, but I fear Bree will
fall eventually.
Dunland and Minhiriath are apparently forming a secret
alliance. Their first target appears to be Eregion.
Dol Amroth and Rohan area cooperating peacefully in the
digestion of Anfalas.
Gladden Fields is trying to get Dale to sack his cap,
rather than let Lorien or Dol Goldur sack it.
Erebor is doing a good job of trying to convince
Mirkwood that his best option is to come to his aid
in defense against Dale and Iron_Hills. He's playing
it out well. Needs some sort of "best dying" award or
some such, including his efforts to get Smaug to come
to his aid :) Erebor's managed to convince Mirkwood
to provide an enclave for him of some small number of
sectors. This could potentially anger Dale and Iron Hills.
In fact, Iron Hills is already demanding he vacate:
---
> Telegram from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Mon Sep 22 00:21:25 2003
You are on former Erebor territory that is mine.
Leave it at the update because I'll be seizing it.
Dain II Ironfoot, King under the Mountain.
---
Mirkwood is attempting to pacify him. It's probably
another "nice doggie" until he gets a bigger stick. Though,
in a later telegram Mirkwood offers the possibility of
alliance with Iron Hills and Dale.
Mirkwood is aware of the Dol Amroth/Rohan/Gondor/Mordor
alliance that has formed. Of course, at this point it is
not a strong alliance and Rohan suspects Gondor of
potential wrongdoings. Mirkwood is concerned though.
He's communicated as much to Rivendell.
Arnor is not pleased with Mirkwood's rapid advance
to claim a good portion of Angmar. This could be the
spark that starts a war.
Rivendell is concerned about the strength of Eregion,
and wondering whether Eregion will fall to forces
from the south. He's also concerned about Lorien's
state of mind! :)
Ah ha! Mirkwood's capturing of the traveller is starting
to breed some interesting results! He's apparently informed
Dale to some degree of the traveller's tales of a power
forming in the south. Dale's curious...
---
> Telegram from Dale, (#16) dated Mon Sep 22 00:55:03 2003
Dear Thranduil,
Do you have more information on that alliance from the south ?
Do you have some name to put on this uprising So we could eventually
prepare ourselves ?
Girion,
Lord of Dale
---
Dorwinion's sharing bmaps with Dol Goldur apparently. He's
allied with him now.
There's a coming war between Dol Goldur and Lorien I think.
Rohan may chip into that war too.
Balchoth is testing the waters for the possibility of an
alliance with Rohan.
At least two clueless players not understanding when the
next update is, or reading anything that is getting posted
about the update schedule, or reading the MOTD, or reading
the e-mails that have been sent to them. Sigh. Posted several
announcements in the game lambasting players for not reading.
Probably won't help.
September 23rd, 2003
Mordor 3rd country to cross 200 sectors. Mirkwood's got
295 now, and will be the first across 300. Only 8.2k civs
though. Very empty countries for everyone. Harlindon/Rhun
in 1st/2nd place, opening up a gap on Dol Amroth and Mirkwood,
in 3rd/4th respectively.
7th update today. 23 players on for it. Respectable showing.
Arnor is happier than a drunk in a bar. Happiness level is
currently at 50, twice second place (Dale at 25). Harad is
stunningly educated. I think they're all professors down there.
Education at 60! Dunland leading the research race at 11.65.
Balchoth found Gollum last night. Rather funny:
---
> BULLETIN from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Sep 23 03:35:04 2003
Balchoth planes spotted over land units in 53,-1
> BULLETIN from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Sep 23 03:35:44 2003
Balchoth planes spotted over land units in 53,-1
> BULLETIN from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Sep 23 03:37:10 2003
Balchoth planes spotted over land units in 53,-1
> BULLETIN from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Sep 23 03:54:02 2003
Diplomatic relations with Balchoth downgraded to "Hostile".
Balchoth (#23) lost 0 troops boarding glm gollum #107
We lost 0 troops defending
> Telegram from Balchoth, (#23) dated Tue Sep 23 03:57:58 2003
Gotcha!
---
Tue Sep 23 17:31:07 2003
Mirkwood wreaks havoc on Gladden_Fields!
Mordor wreaks havoc on Nurn!
Rhun wreaks havoc on Dorwinion!
VIOLENCE ERUPTS! -- Rohan wages war on Anfalas
VIOLENCE ERUPTS! -- Gondor wages war on Harondor
The details of Empire news since Sat Sep 20 22:34:56 2003
Tue Sep 23 17:17 Rhun sacks Dorwinion capital
Tue Sep 23 17:25 Mordor sacks Nurn capital
Tue Sep 23 13:08 Mirkwood sacks Gladden_Fields capital
Tue Sep 23 16:50 Mirkwood captures and pillages Erebor's capital
=== The Bottom Line ==
Mirkwood seized thirty-one sectors from Gladden_Fields
Rhun seized twenty-four sectors from Dorwinion
Mordor seized seventeen sectors from Nurn
Dol_Amroth seized sixteen sectors from Anfalas
Mirkwood seized eight sectors from Erebor
Rohan captured seven sectors from Anfalas
Harondor captured seven sectors from Gondor
Arnor captured six sectors from Angmar
Rhun captured six sectors from Easterlings
Rivendell captured five sectors from Gladden_Fields
Iron_Hills captured five sectors from Erebor
Rivendell captured four sectors from Angmar
Mirkwood captured four sectors from Angmar
Forochel took three sectors from Harlindon
Harlindon took two sectors from Cardolan
Minhiriath took two sectors from Harlindon
Lorien took two sectors from Gladden_Fields
Lorien took two sectors from Mirkwood
The_Shire stole one sector from Cardolan
Arnor stole one sector from Mirkwood
Dale stole one sector from Gladden_Fields
Dale stole one sector from Erebor
Dol_Goldur stole one sector from Gladden_Fields
---
Forochel seems to be getting some grief from Harlindon and
perhaps even The Shire, though relations with The Shire seem
to have not soured entirely yet. So far, he's made some headway
against Harlindon. It's in the plains area where Forlindon was
in the first game.
Arnor is aware that Mirkwood has sacked at least two
capitals, and possibly three. He's considering attacking
Mirkwood for fear of Mirkwood becoming too strong. He's
asking Bree for assistance.
Looks like Harlindon and Minhiriath are going to come
to blows. Harlindon will win if that happens.
Lorien tipped his hand to Rivendell, that he wants to
perhaps attack Mirkwood. Rivendell promptly communicated
this to Mirkwood. Oops. Still, Rivendell does not fully
trust Mirkwood. Lorien's at war with Mirkwood now. Lorien's
also asked for help from Dol Goldur against Mirkwood.
Yet, I know Lorien also intends to potentially attack
Dol Goldur.
Mirkwood is not granting Erebor an enclave after all.
It's all over for Erebor.
Rhun's launched an assault on Dorwinion. Dorwinion's
toast. Loast his cap, and Rhun got all the money (100%
cap). Rhun's now in control of all of the northern part
of the sea of Rhun, and the entirely in control of the
River Celduin. He's now in 1st place with 20% more civs
than second place (Mordor, with 10k).
Harad continues to attempt to assist Khand. It's
probably to no avail. I suspect that if he doesn't
defend Khand, Mordor will wipe him out. Mordor's
chewing on Nurn right now.
Four countries now with 200 sectors. Harad crossed
the threshold today. I think we're seeing the major
powers formed, with some others possible but not clear
yet. Mirkwood, Rohan, Mordor, and Harad. There's a bit
of a power vacuum west of the Misty Mountains. Someone's
going to have to die before a power arises there. My
money's on Harlindon, and I expect Minhiriath, Dunland,
Forochel, and Eregion to all fall. The victors will be
The Shire, Harlindon, Rivendell, and Rohan.
Undeclared alliance between Balchoth and Rohan is
firmed up.
September 24th, 2003
Dorwinion's toast. It's all over there. Rhun's done
a masterful job.
Iron Hills joined the 200 sector club. That makes 5
nations controlling about 25% of the world. If the
countries with less sectors understand their peril,
things can (and should) shift rapidly.
Bree and The Shire might be forming a loose alliance.
They're working on a non-aggression pact now.
Rivendell has put out the suggestion to Bree that he
might be willing to attack Mirkwood. Could be a lie.
But, Rivendell is concerned, as is Bree, regarding Mirkwood's
fast expansion.
Minhiriath is hoping to patch up relations with Harlindon,
which recently went south.
Mordor continues his conquest of Nurn. Another 25
sectors have fallen. Nurn's designating everything
significant into enlistment centers. It'll probably only
slow Mordor down.
Iron Hills and Rhun have allied.
The war between Lorien and Mirkwood is afoot. This could
decide the fate of the game, as Lorien is attempting to
bring together a coalition against Mirkwood. Mirkwood's
*really* stretched thin. Fighting one country at a time,
he's doing well. More than one, or even several, he's
in trouble.
The game's afoot! With update #8, an assault has been
launched on Mirkwood:
---
=== The Bottom Line ==
Arnor seized twelve sectors from Mirkwood
Dale seized eleven sectors from Mirkwood
Iron_Hills captured six sectors from Mirkwood
---
Lorien and Dol Goldur are in on the fun too. Five nations
on one! Woot!
---
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Wed Sep 24 23:31:13 2003
How yellow can you be?
Does it really take 5 countries
to stop the Elven King?
You will all pay!
Bwhahahaahahhaha!
---
The lost sector count is now up to 50 sectors, and Rivendell
has told Mirkwood he might need to attack:
---
> Telegram from Rivendell, (#6) dated Thu Sep 25 00:21:13 2003
Greetings,
How are things holding up?
I am under pressure from
multiple sources to join
in attacking you. I would
rather not, but there were
implied threats in their
requests. I do not see
how you can prevail over 5
attackers, though I only
know of 3 so far with things
hidden the way they are.
Elrond
---
Looks like Minhiriath and Dunland just launched an
attack on Eregion. Not much ground lost yet, but it's
been launched.
Peasants began stealing food from large stockpiles
of food around the world. The only country to respond
so far has been Mirkwood...and rather hysterical at that :)
---
> Telegram from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Thu Sep 25 00:36:22 2003
Not only do I have 5 countries stealing sectors,
now the worthless peasants, who have been kept
well fed in the realm of Mirkwood, are stealing
food from the warehouse!
Head Accountant
---
Oo! Nasty stuff coming out of Mirkwood..
---
> Telegram from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Thu Sep 25 00:54:39 2003
<coruler>,
I thought you would be back by now. We are screwed!
My attack against Lorien was a success. However, we were
simultaneously attacked by Dale, IH and Arnor. I was afraid
this might happen. I have not been part of a diplomatic
disaster this bad since HeatWave II when you got the whole
world to attack the country I was running with Doug.
I have to leave early today. Not that there is much
we can do other than make life hard on them as they
chew us to pieces.
<other coruler>
> Telegram from Rivendell, (#6) dated Thu Sep 25 00:58:07 2003
Well just to let you know that I
do not feel bound by a proposed
agreement. Your somewhat arrogant
attitude and what's in it for me
attitude have not done much to
ease the feeling that I will be next
in a long line of conquests.
I always try to be a good neighbor and
ally first and a deadly enemy if I must.
Even if I stood by and did not attack
you, would you allow me to live long
after you won?
Elrond
---
So, Rivendell's looking like he's going attack Mirkwood, and
Mirkwood's internally thinking they're dying. Wow. What a
change in the world!
September 25th, 2003.
Yep, Rivendell's commenced their attack on Mirkwood. Mirkwood
has dropped 1/4th of his sectors in the last 24 hours. It's looking
grim for the Elves of the wood.
Meanwhile, Rohan and Balchoth seem to be planning an attack
on Dol Goldur, which might take some heat off of Mirkwood,
but probably to no relief for Mirkwood. Dol Goldur will
probably fall rapidly, as he's significantly engaged with
Mirkwood. He'll have to flip around and defend attacks
against him from two different vectors. He'll probably fall.
Bree has joined the attack on Eregion. That's three
versus Eregion. Bree's managed to make it to Eregion's
0,0, but it's not Eregion's cap. Looks like the beginning
of the end for Eregion. Eregion's fighting back, and
not doing bad, but Bree's salient into his heart might
cause fatal cardiac bleeding. Bree's pumped 60 mil into
that sector, which will be very hard to take since it's
at 100%. Eregion currently lacks the military power to
retake his own 0,0. It's not all over for Eregion though.
Harlindon is concertedly attacking Minhiriath, one of
the nations attacking Eregion. Min can not long ignore
that threat. That leaves Dunland and Bree on Eregion.
If Rohan changes their mind and attacks Dunland, Eregion
might find themselves on equal footing, vs. Bree. Dunland's
attack on Eregion is pretty much spent for this update.
Same for Minhiriath.
Rhun meanwhile has sacked Dorwinion's cap. It was already
all over for Dorwinion, this is just cake dressing.
Thu Sep 25 14:49 Rhun sacks Dorwinion capital
Dorwinion has 1 sector left now.
The war between Gondor and Harondar has stalled. Harondar
has a slight edge in materials, and is producing more bars.
Umbar is allied with Harondar, and Gondor's allies will
not likely come to his aid. Gondor can pull this out, but
he's going to need to fight hard to do it.
September 26th, 2003
Mirkwood discovered Saruman wandering about his lands.
I have to admit this deity role playing is rather fun :)
Mirkwood chose to serve the light, and was thus punished
by Saruman, losing 12 soldiers to Saruman's spells.
Mirkwood feels they are not long for this world. They
could very well be right. However, Lorien is about to be
distracted by a war with Dunland, and Dol Goldur is about
to be distracted by a war with Balchoth and Rohan. Mirkwood's
chances are better than they know right now.
Dol Amroth finally finished off Anfalas, sacking his capital
after the last update.
Big news! Rohan just sacked Dol Goldur's capital!
> BULLETIN from Manwe, (#0) dated Fri Sep 26 16:50:10 2003
Rohan just took Dol_Goldur's capital and gained $1969
Rohan and Balchoth have seized about 30 sectors from Dol
Goldur. Thinks could get very bad, very quickly for Dol Goldur.
Bree's assault against Eregion continues. He's nabbed ~25
sectors now. Dunland continues to attack as well, but not
as successfully. Harlindon's joined the fray now too. It's
looking grim for Eregion.
Nurn's demise is upon him, as Mordor continues his relentless
assault. 30 more sectors have fallen. Nurn has less than 1k civs
left. It's basically all over. Just mop up left.
Relations between The Shire and Harlindon may have soured.
The Shire captured a merchant last night, and tortured him for
information. He was given false information that the Elves
were coming for him. I don't think one thing had to do with
the other though.
Gondor's situation may be getting worse, as Harad has now
gone hostile against him. Harad and Gondor are both allied
with Mordor. This could be a problem again.
The Elves of Harlindon are the masters of the seas so far,
building five ships total. Second place to Rhun, with 4.
No one else has more than 2.
October 16th, 2003
After a long break, we're finally back. Very frustrating
problems with the server not allowing logins. We finally got
it solved, but ended up being delayed a week...only to have
the update script *not* force an update for some unexplained
reason. We've also have two instances of the server going nuts
with plane UIDs. The last one caused the server log to balloon
169 megabytes overnight. Ouch! It appears that we've got a lid
on it for now.
Rohan and Balchoth are finishing off Dol Goldur. At least
one other (Dale) is taking some of the remains. Dol Goldur is
trying to negotiate a settlement, but it's basically over
for him.
Rhun continues to grow strong, with a stranglehold on first
place. He's out distancing second plance (Rohan) by 10k civs
with just 29k civs of his own. Very powerful possibilities there.
He's sacked Easterlings pretty hard. I think it's all over for
Easterlings now.
Rumors are that Mordor may attack Wainriders next. He's grown
to be the largest country in land area, and the first to break
300 sectors. Nurn has fallen to him.
Eregion is dying. Not much chance of recovery.
The war Gondor faces seems to have at least temporarily
stalemated.
Mirkwood appears to be attempting to negotiate his way out
of his fix in fighting seven nations at once. He may have
convinced Iron Hills and Dale to agree to stop their attacks.
Lorien is attempting to put together some forces against
Dunland. A smart move most likely. Rivendell also suggested
the same to Bree (whom Lorien contacted about it). Of course,
Bree might be considering attacking Lorien. Whoops :)
The Shire might be trying to organize something against
Harlindon.
[post update]
Dol Goldur's gone way broke thanks to a triple cap sack
by Rohan and Lorien. It's all over in Dol Goldur.
October 21st
After yet another gremlin, yesterday's update was cancelled.
Good thing too, as there was a power outage on campus at
Tel Aviv University.
Today's update rolled, thanks to Roman showing up just in
time to do a manual force. I was just about to do one
myself.
Harad took out Khand, vaulting himself easily into first
place. Rhun doesn't seem to be doing too good a job of
maximizing his potential pop growth. Rohan's closing
the gap on him. Three nations (Mordor, Iron_Hills, and
Harad) are all over 300 sectors now.
October 22nd
Dol Goldur is the first nation to drop off the power chart
entirely, going broke ($-10507) and having nothing left
to counteract the negative, as all his sectors are gone.
October 23rd
The server has hiccoughed at least twice in the last 24 hours.
The machine it is on has rebooted for unknown reasons. I've
restarted the game server shortly after it came back up, but
the stability of the machine is a bit in question now. This
game seems cursed.
Balchoth's role in the world has been greatly diminished by
diplomacy. In a grand diplomatic scheme, Balchoth, rather
than dying at the hands of Rhun, will make a massive land
grant to Rhun. This action was assisted very significantly
by one of the co-rulers of Rohan.
October 24th
War in Forochel as The Shire mounts heavy attacks, vaulting
The Shire to 4th on the power chart. The Shire's seized 44
sectors of Forochel already, including his main capitol sectors.
Minhiriath is still suffering under the onslaught of Harlindon.
It does not go well for Minhiriath. The war is a slugfest, but
Minhiriath is on the losing end of it.
Most other wars have simmered into border skirmishes, including
the major war against Mirkwood. Mirkwood's stablized at a little
over 200 sectors, and has managed to talk his way out of the fix
he was in. Yet, he needs a major kill in order to get back among
the top powers in the game.
Dol Amroth wins the Bad Parenting Award for waking his son up
earlier than normal so he'd take his nap to coincide with the
update.
Rhun's launched an attack against Wainriders. It's a piercing
attack, and has resulted in a cap sack just ten minutes after
the update. Wainriders has no efficient cap sectors left. He's
got lots of BTUs left yet though.
In the battle of the bars, Rohan is leading the world with 1018
bars at this point. The Shire is second, and they are the only
two nations with more than 8% of the world's bars. Here's the
entire list:
Owner # of Bars
Rohan 1018
The Shire 939
Mordor 816
Harondor 790
Balchoth 784
Gondor 693
Dunland 616
Iron Hills 606
Arnor 584
Umbar 561
Dale 532
Rhun 532
Harad 503
Harlindon 496
Rivendell 439
Mirkwood 385
Lorien 339
Dol Amroth 327
Bree 314
Minhiriath 302
Wainriders 181
Forochel 41
Grand Total 11798
In other financial news...Bree's managed to send himself broke.
Oops! This deity cringes on his behalf...but there's nothing I
can do for him.
A super alliance maybe forming with Rhun, Dale, Iron Hills,
Mirkwood, and Arnor as the major players. Rivendell has become
a target for Arnor. Things are afoot in the east. The Shire
does not appear to be strongly diplomatically tied either way.
October 29th, 2003
Arnor has quit. This is very frustrating. It's an important
nation too. In related news, Lorien had an emergency come up
and needed a co-ruler. I managed to get him covered, but I
have no cover for Arnor yet. Argh!!!
Wainriders is dying. 20 sectors left, and cap was lost once.
Down to 7k civs. Rhun and Mordor are picking over the carcass.
Rhun and Mordor might come to blows in that region. Mordor's
taken 9 sectors off of Rhun there.
Dunland is under assault from Rohan, who launched a successful
attack. Dunland knew the attack was coming, but apparently was
not on at the crucial update. Oops.
Forochel is dying as well, with The Shire getting the lion's
share of the nation.
Minhiriath has put up a valiant fight, but is falling to
Harlindon.
Bree and The Shire are recognizing the menace that Mirkwood
poses, as Mirkwood has managed to completely turn the tables
around and placed themselves back in the thick of things after
coming under assault from seven nations.
The Shire notes Rohan's assault on Dunland and suspects they
are getting very big, very quickly.
Definite cooperation between Iron Hills and Mirkwood now, as
Iron Hills is supplying land units to Mirkwood.
The war in the south between Gondor and Harondar/allies
is getting interesting. Gondor's built a bridge over to
Ithilien, and Dol Amroth expects to be joining the fight
soon. Dol Amroth may build a bridge over to Harondor shortly.
Bree managed to run himself broke a bit back. Thankfully for
his sake, nobody figured it out and attacked him. The joys of
a hidden game...
October 31st, 2003
Two updates in a row without a problem. Must be a subspace
vortex distracting the Curse of LOTR:II.
Got Arnor covered with a substitute. The Shire promptly attacked
and sacked his capital. Oops. Really disappointing.
Dunland is putting up a brave, but hopeless fight against Rohan
and Bree. Bree's cutoff Lorien in Dunland. Could be bad juju,
but Lorien needs to be concentrating on Mirkwood anyways.
Mordor continues to digest Wainriders, and has now vaulted to
#1 in the power charts, with 10% more points than #2 Rhun.
Dol Amroth built a bridge over to the island in the mouth of
the River Anduin, but Harondar promptly splashed it.
Minhiriath continues to fall to Harlindon.
At this point, there's generally four groups of nations. There
are the superpowers Rohan, Iron Hills, Rhun, Harad and Mordor.
There's a secondary power group of three nations, comprising
Mirkwood, The Shire, and Harlindon. The third group is all the
current surviving smaller nations, Bree, Umbar, Balchoth, Dale,
Dol Amroth, Harondor, Gondor, Rivendell, Lorien, Arnor. Lastly,
there's the dead and dying that is everyone else. So, we're down
to roughly 18 nations.
Mordor became the first power to break 400 sectors. He currently
has 410 sectors. #2, #3 and #4 have 385, 375, and 345 respectively.
(Harad, Rhun, Iron Hills).
November 4th, 2003
Mirkwood has wiggled out of the 7 vs. 1 scenario he was in.
Rohan has convinced Lorien and Mirkwood to bury the hatchet
and move on to bigger wars. This could be the beginning of
an alliance that could win the game.
November 5th, 2003
A master alliance has formed among Mirkwood, Rohan, Rhun,
Iron Hills, Dale, Balchoth and Lorien with possibly Rivendell
in the mix too. It's a large alliance. If this juggernaut can
wage war effectively, this could be the final alliance to win
the game. The East stands little chance against it, with only
Bree, Harlindon and The Shire to oppose them. The south, with
Mordor, Harad, Harondor, and Umbar could oppose them but I
doubt they have the capability/willpower to do so.
Arnor's rapidly disappearing, under assault from The Shire and
Mirkwood. Rivendell's picking at the edges, and The Shire's getting
the bulk of the sectors. Strike one more nation from the list of
viable nations.
Dol Amroth is supposed to be joining the war against Harondor, but
it hasn't happened yet. It's rather disappointing too. Dol Amroth
could have really surprised Harondor, but it hasn't happened. Harondor
knows all about the possible attack across the Anduin using bridges,
and is prepared. About the only good thing in this for Gondor is that
it's tying down some of Harondor's units. Before Harondor suspected
the attack, the area had no units in it.
With the fall of Arnor, The Shire and Mirkwood are both making
strong bids to being a super power, with The Shire clearly doing
so (being 4th on the power chart now). Mirkwood's re-entered the
top ten. Mirkwood has now returned to the size he made it to 10 updates
ago. Harlindon is also making a run at it, in 6th place.
Nine countries in the middle of the power chart are still struggling
to have an impact on the game. Dol Amroth, Bree (small, but #9 on
power), Balchoth (who is little more than a feeder nation now), Dale
(also a feeder), Rivendell, Umbar, Lorien, and Harondor & Gondor who
have waged war against each other into mediocrity.
November 6th, 2003
Surprise is a major force multiplier. Dol Amroth has lost strategic
surprise in the south. In a stunning move today, Umbar has now established
a corridor along the coast to take up defensive positions against the
possible Dol Amroth invasion so Harondor can concentrate on Gondor.
Very bad news for Gondor, though he may not know it yet.
The Alliance to Conquer Middle Earth (ACME) which comprises several
powerful nations has yet to address the real problems that await it
in the south. Gondor and Dol Amroth may not be able to hold back
Harondor/Harad/Umbar anymore. Mordor is a lynch pin in this. He's
allied with all of them except Dol Amroth with whom he is friendly
and Umbar whom he hasn't made contact with yet. So, it's likely
that Mordor would remain on the sidelines in this war. The next most
likely country to come to Gondor/Dol's aid is Rohan, and their
attention has not yet turned south. Instead, they are focusing on
the East.
The Shire and Harlindon apparently plan to take over Bree and
Rivendell. They do not suspect the ACME alliance yet. The Shire
sees three alliances east of them, each centered on one of Rhun,
Rohan, and Mirkwood. Their plans after Bree/Riv are not yet set,
but could be directed at Rohan, then Dol Amroth/Gondor.
November 7th, 2003
Awfully quiet today. All remaining countries have been essentially
quiet, with just some mop-up operations going on. The most movement
was Mirkwood taking 13 sectors from the remains of Arnor. The quiet
before the storm? Much is afoot, me thinks.
November 10th, 2003
The weekend saw another power outage, lasting five hours.
Mirkwood and Rivendell are at war with The Shire. Things
are moving a bit faster than I expected up there. This might
throw The Shire back on his heals a bit, as he and Harlindon
planned on attacking Rivendell.
Dol Amroth finally launched his attack on Harondor, having to
go through Umbar holdings to do it. Nevertheless, it's a great
move even if it was expected by Umbar and Harondor. It's just
not as strong as it could have been with strategic surprise.
Harondor is depressed about the future of his nation, but
vows to struggle on.
November 13th, 2003
In the first big news in a while, Harlindon and The Shire
have launched a massive attack against Bree. Bree is all
but dead, with his lands split into three zones. This vaults
Harlindon into 3rd place, with The Shire now in 8th.
Rhun is bringing a MASSIVE (81 unit strong) army through Rohan.
This is a balance shifter.
Big, big potential news as Mordor apparently violates an NA
with Balchoth. Mordor must have a reason for doing it, other
than his claimed "wanting to take a few mountains and that
is all". He gained in-game contact with Harlindon yesterday.
If Harlindon has an idea of what's in store for him, Mordor's
move may be an effort to tip the alliance's hand or cause them
pause while Harlindon mops up Bree. Very, very interesting.
Rhun may turn his army around and head for Mordor because of
Mordor's attach on Balchoth. Same for Balchoth's efforts. This
will leave Rohan attacking Harlindon more or less alone.
November 14th, 2003
The situation down south is getting a bit tenuous for Gondor.
Harad has taken over the entire front in Ithilien, relieving
Harondor to fight Dol Amroth. It's a good move. Harondor
meanwhile lost his cap to Dol Amroth. He has no efficient
caps left. He does have hundreds of BTUs still, but if Dol
Amroth can really take the fight to him, this could be the
death knell for Harondor. This war is still being fought
on the south realm's turf, and Dol Amroth and Gondor's
homelands remain secure, though Harad is perilously close
to the bridge at Osgiliath.
Meanwhile Umbar, a nation who should be very prone to naval
action, still has not a single ship. I judge Umbar to be
incapable of dealing with Dol Amroth if Harondor falls.
In the east, the situation between Balchoth and Mordor is
troubled. Mordor may be planning additional mischief. It's
not clear what will happen there yet. Balchoth can not hope
to withstand a concerted attack from Mordor. Yet, Mordor can
not yet hope to launch a truly successful attack against
Balchoth while he does not have the ability to control
the mountains. He has no non-mountain path to Balchoth. It's
likely he wants the mountains to increase their road infrastructure
so he has a path into Balchoth.
In the West, Harlindon and The Shire have had a devil of a time
with che over the last update, with dozens of sectors rebelling.
Harlindon and The Shire had to do a lot of work to retake Bree.
Rivendell has been helping out Bree by helping him increase che
values in sectors where he can. Rivendell is hopelessly out
manned in a war of him vs. Harlindon and The Shire alone.
44% of Harlindon's 9200 mil is tied down in (mostly) former Bree
sectors holding down che. Ouch. There are some Minhiriath sectors
he is holding che down in as well, but it's mainly in Bree.
Up north, Mirkwood and Dale are slogging on against The Shire.
The Shire's doing admirably well right now, and it's a bit of a
stalemate. Still, Mirkwood's managed to level the former Arnor
caps and at least one of the Angmar caps. This helps make the
front there more fluid.
At long last, a few nations have some >50% efficient forts.
Balchoth (1@70%), Harad (1@80%), and The Shire (1@100%).
Shire's fort has a defensive value of ~10,000.
Meanwhile, Rohan is about to launch an attack against Harlindon.
It's a bit of trickery, and there will be cries of 'foul!'.
Rohan and Harlindon had an NA. But, there was a clause in it
that if Bree attacked Rohan, Rohan could terminate the NA
at any time. There was no notice clause. Harlindon attacked
Bree before the ink was dry on the NA. Rohan asked Bree to
attack him, informing him of the situation, and Bree obliged
him. Rohan's hands are untied now and Rohan can attack at
any time. Rhun may help out with the attack. He has a massive
army ready to jump, but may swing the army back east to help
in the defense of Balchoth. That would probably be a mistake,
but we'll have to see. Rhun's got another 76 units at home,
compared to Mordor's 118 units, and Rhun has no enemy on his
borders with the possible exception of Mordor.
November 18th, 2003
The game is in its end stages. Big news in the West is that
Harlindon collapsed under the assault of Rohan. Rohan negotiated
a settlement with them that leaves Harlindon alive, but castrated
and neutral for the remainder of the game. This left The Shire
swinging in the breeze, with little hope of resisting the big
alliance.
Meanwhile, Mordor has made his intentions clear. He's attacking
Rhun now, and seized 30+ sectors from him. Balchoth managed to
swing a cease-fire out of him, but I'd bet it's only temporary.
In the South, Harondor/Harad/Umbar are still in a quagmire with
Gondor and Dol Amroth. No side is really making gains on the
other.
With the big alliance no longer busy in the west, Mordor's fate
is probably sealed. It will just take a matter of updates now
for it to wrap up. I fully expect the game to be over before
Christmas now.
November 19th, 2003
In the news today; Harad has finally launched a major assault
on Gondor, and Ithilien is in flames. Gondor no longer controls
any lands on the east bank of the Anduin, save some mountain
sectors in the Ephel Duath. With the conquest of Ithilien, Harad
is the first nation to cross 500 sectors in size.
But, this latest turn of events may not matter. The big alliance
will soon turns its attention south-east, and when they do Harad
and Mordor will most likely crumble under their onslaught.
Gondor now needs to secure itself against invasion over the Anduin,
to delay Harad from taking any lands on the west bank until help
comes from the north. Dol Amroth now stands alone on the east
bank, against Harondor and Umbar.
Rohan launched an initial attack against the Morannon, which
succeeded in breaching the black gate. However, the attack was
repulsed at the foot of Mt. Doom and Sauron rolled up the
aggressors. Still, this leaves Sauron fighting three aggressors
on his northern side at once. Harad may come to his rescue, but
it may come too late.
Balchoth has re-engaged Mordor, and captured a small handful of
sectors over the last 24 hours. This attack was combined with
Rohan's. Balchoth ended up netting the mountains on either side
of Udun, and controls the black gate. If Balchoth can control
those sectors, then Mordor faces a breach in his flank that he
will not easily be able to plug. The Morannon should have been
more heavily defended, perhaps with a fort or city.
Rhun has begun to retake some of the lands he lost to Mordor as well.
Mordor's best hope now lies in forging an alliance amongst the
southern realms and Mordor. Such an alliance would control more
than 1/4th of the world. Yet, it is still probably not enough.
Rohan and Harad's actions in this are key. Rhun and Balchoth are
both indecisively engaged with Mordor. The balance between them
and Mordor is pretty stable. What Rohan and Harad do will determine
the outcome of this battle over the next two updates.
Harlindon has managed to surround The Shire with a single row of
sectors. This was done of course in agreement with The Shire. Since
The Shire is throwing in the towel, or appears to be, this leaves
The Shire as a protectorate of Harlindon. I think we'll still see
some more noise out of The Shire yet. The big alliance must maintain
neutrality with Harlindon. Harlindon may have done a 'turn about is
fair play' against the lawyers of the big alliance.
November 20th, 2003
Rohan's the first to cross 300k civilians. They've also launched an
attack against Harad, who rolled up Ithilien yesterday. The attack
appears limited to occupying North Ithilien to gain a lower mob
path to the Morannon.
Harad is also moving against Dol Amroth now too. The pressure is really
coming off of Harondor. Umbar remains a non-factor in this war, and has
yet to build a single ship...this for a nation that should be heavily naval.
Mt. Doom is still secure, but it's unlikely Mordor can resist Rhun,
Balchoth, and Rohan indefinitely.
Harlindon still has his protective single-sector curtain around
The Shire. The situation is getting hotter though, and it's likely
it will devolve into war again shortly.
There's some clamour for making a winning declaration, but none has
been forthcoming yet. There's still quite a bit of game to be played
yet I think.
11/23/2003
Rohan and Balchoth have managed to force the Morannon, and have
now captured Mt. Doom. Mordor is still quite healthy though.
11/26/2003
Rohan's launched an offensive against Umbar. It's too late to save
Dol Amroth's position on the east of the Anduin though, as that
position has been eliminated. Umbar's lost his capitol sectors
though. I doubt Rohan can maintain their position in Umbar unless
they concentrate a huge amount of forces there, as Dol Amroth
and Gondor are no longer engaged. Using such a force would
detract from Rohan's assault upon Mordor however.
December 1, 2003
Lots of pissing and moaning by Mordor and The Shire, as the game begins
to come to a close. The only powerful opponent left is Harad, who was
also the first to cross 600 sectors (something not achieved in LOTR I).
Mordor's got 150 sectors left, but he's des * e'd. Pathetic ending for
what was a powerful, powerful nation. Harad's gaining a bunch of sectors
off of Mordor now as well, apparently at Mordor's behest. Rhun, Iron Hills,
Rohan, Balchoth, Mirkwood, and even Dale have taken sectors off of Mordor.
Mirkwood finished swallowing up The Shire over the last week, after
significant diplomatic pressure was brought to bear on Harlindon to
get out of the encirclement border he'd put up around The Shire to
protect him.
A victory declaration should be forthcoming shortly.
Later: A victory declaration was made by Rohan, Rhun, Mirkwood and
Iron Hills.
December 2, 2003
The victory declaration was opposed by Harad, and it appears Harondor
stands with him as well. I think they realize they have no hope of
opposing the major alliance, but want to oppose the win anyway, making
them work harder for the win.
Harad/Harondor have no real hope. Had they taken the opportunity earlier
on in the game, things might have been different.
December 5, 2003
The major alliance is gaining slowly, albeit slower than they should.
I think some apathy is setting in yet they have to finish Harad off
the make the win complete now.
Mordor is completely on the ropes now, being reduced to 69 sectors
currently. He's got but three units, two ships, and one plane now.
He's also been carrying just 1 shell around for an update now. It's
all over for the Dark Lord, outside of annoyance tactics. Dale,
Mirkwood, Rohan, Balchoth, Iron Hills and Rhun have all taken sectors
off of Mordor. Even Rivendell got it on the action a bit.
Rohan's invasion of Umbar is being repulsed, but Umbar is dead.
Harondor and Harad are taking over the remains. Rohan seems to have
no interest in maintaining the beachhead. Dol Amroth and Gondor
have both remained curiously quiet, with neither attempting another
crossing of the Anduin in the last several days. Perhaps they will
take to the sidelines now until the end.
December 10, 2003
The inevitable is happening, as Harad is now dying under the pressure
of the combined ACME (Alliance to Conquer Middle Earth) forces. Harad
has lost 172 sectors to the alliance recently, or fully 28% of his
country. It's just a matter of time. Rhun and Mirkwood have seized the
lion's share of the lands.
At the beginning of the major phase of this combat, the ACME alliance
had no less than 1300 units in theatre standing in opposition to Harad,
vs. Harad/Harondor's roughly 400 units. This might be the largest
conflict ever fought in a major game of Empire in terms of number of
units deployed.
About the only bright spot for the South realms is Harondor's continued
ability to keep Dol Amroth on the far side of the Anduin, by shelling
down any bridgeheads Dol Amroth attempts to build. Gondor's taken a
back seat apparently, and seems content to remain within his holdings
on the West side of the Anduin.
The defense in Harad is beginning to collapse, as the core of the
country is now laid bare to attacks. Harad is now down to 245 non-plains
sectors, and about 50-60 of those are buried inside heavy plains regions
in the far south. The real core of Harad is now 114 sectors in a group
north of the far south plains sectors. He still has 103 100% units, but
that's nothing compared to what's bearing down on him. One more update,
and this will be nothing more than a mopping up operation, which it
almost is now. Harondor is actually healthier now than Harad, though
Harad is still in 5th place on the power chart, and Harondor is 12th.
All of Harondor's sectors are grouped together, and he's not under
heavy attack just yet.
(later, 19:53 server time) NEWSFLASH: Harondor throws in the white flag
and calls it quits. From deity perspective, a bit sad since Dol Amroth
just figured out a way to get a bridge across the Anduin without Harondor
being able to stop it when he's not logged in, and had a bunch of units
ready to go on the offensive. I would have liked to see that offensive.
Ah well.
Game might be over in one update now, depending on how badly Harad is
pounded by ACME.
December 11, 2003
Harondor is hanging in there for now, and continuing to offer resistance.
A member of the ACME alliance prevailed on him to give his ally Harad
a chance to explain his recent absence in the game, which upset Harondor.
So, Dol Amroth's offensive may happen anyways.
In other news, Mirkwood crossed 700 sectors in size as the death of Harad
continues. Harad is now down to 401 total sectors, 217 non-plain/mountain
sectors. 99 units of his are left at 100%, and of those only 29 have more
than 1 mil on them. <elrond voice>The end has come</elrond voice>.
December 12, 2003
Rhun has sacked Mordor's cap. Mordor now has a single aggie left. Almost
zero'd. Harad is down to 97 non-plain/non-mountain sectors. 80% of those
are scattered throughout the southern plains, and are thus a fairly non-
viable economic base. None of his plains have road infrastructure>0.
Dol Amroth launched his long planned for attack on Harondor, and Rohan
attack Harondor at the same time. Harondor had been shelling the crossing
point that Dol Amroth wanted to use right after every update, but this
update did not. Aggravating for Dol Amroth has he had hatched a plan to
use engineers to finally force the crossing, only to find he didn't need
them after all at the moment when he was planning on using them, since
Harondor didn't shell the crossing. Harondor's down to 125 sectors. Also
during this attack, Rohan sacked Harondor's capital.
Effective resistance is virtually over in the south realms. One more update
should clinch the win, though I think the ACME alliance will continue
raping and pillaging until their enemies are zero'd, and only then
re-declare victory. Style points.
December 13, 2003
Not much exciting to report. The disintegration of Harondor and Harad continues
as expected. The only other news of note is Rohan became the second nation
to cross 600 sectors, Mirkwood being the first (who also broke 700 first, and
is just about to cross 800 sectors). Rhun didn't stand in that shadow long,
and quickly became the third nation to break 600 sectors. The winning four
countries now control 59% of the world's available sectors.
The next update won't happen for another three days, so it's not likely we'll
see a bunch more action until then. In the northern half of the world, there
are only 56 sectors where oldown#own, of 2,518 total sectors in that half,
or just 2.2%. Peace has broken out. Only one slot of the top ten nations is
held by a nation not directly supporting the coalition win, and that is
Harlindon who was brought to heel some weeks ago. Harad hasn't logged in for
more than 24 hours now.
December 16, 2003
As expected, Harondor and Harad have collapsed. Both lost their caps over
the last 24 hours. Harad's down to 80 sectors and Harondor to 25. One more
update should do the trick.
December 18/19, 2003
The big alliance re-declares, and the declaration goes unopposed.
No surprise. Game over.
Blue coloring on countries in the power chart indicates the winners of the game.
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Dec 19 20:27:14 2003
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Mirkwood 865 86% 645K 26K 36K 1.3K 0 74K 800 2.7K 70 720 650 50K
24790.48
Rohan 740 83% 526K 17K 4.4K 645 0 67K 850 3.0K 50 50 370 190K
18824.52
Rhun 665 83% 496K 19K 17K 855 0 72K 450 2.4K 100 10 350 100K
17332.34
Iron_Hill 475 79% 286K 12K 11K 815 0 42K 2.5K 4.3K 60 10 460 250K
12353.01
Harlindon 220 95% 197K 16K 6.9K 690 0 28K 1.6K 2.0K 100 380 250 50K
8512.65
Dale 220 99% 250K 7.7K 5.9K 280 1.9K 23K 1.4K 1.0K 9 2 210 75K
8199.08
Dol_Amrot 255 89% 203K 8.2K 6.2K 205 0 26K 650 1.8K 50 320 260 45K
8101.21
Rivendell 245 94% 184K 9.3K 7.0K 260 0 28K 2.6K 1.9K 10 10 200 4.3K
6718.93
Balchoth 270 85% 176K 8.4K 7.0K 885 0 17K 1.0K 350 60 0 160 30K
6307.39
Gondor 85 100% 179K 4.2K 2.1K 320 0 8.3K 200 400 60 220 80 160K
5737.39
Lorien 110 98% 109K 1.2K 3.9K 325 0 10K 250 5.0K 2 0 60 225K
4212.39
Bree 70 100% 68K 2.5K 775 260 0 12K 10 1.1K 2 1 30 35K
2291.62
Harad 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 135K
296.80
The_Shire 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 125K
270.67
Angmar 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25K
52.32
Harondor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20K
40.20
Khand 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
14.47
Gladden_F 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
13.96
Dorwinion 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
10.87
Wainrider 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4.0K
8.48
Erebor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 979
2.09
Cardolan 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 586
1.25
Eregion 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 415
0.88
Umbar 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Mordor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Dol_Goldu 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Forochel 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Dunland 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Easterlin 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Anfalas 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Nurn 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Arnor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Minhiriat 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 4.2K 87% 3.3M 133K 108K 6.9K 1.9K 408K 12K 26K 570 1.7K 3.1K 1.4M
Blue coloring on countries in the report indicates the winners of the game.
Fri Dec 19 20:36:14 2003 # name tech research education happiness capital 0 Manwe 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0,0 1 The_Shire 100.00 30.17 0.16 0.02 -56,-30 2 Forochel 100.00 13.68 0.00 0.00 -47,-33 3 Arnor 100.00 11.21 0.00 0.00 -6,-32 4 Bree 100.00 42.60 0.04 56.65 -5,-15 5 Angmar 100.00 7.74 0.00 0.00 -7,-35 6 Rivendell 100.00 69.26 15.76 27.64 -2,-20 7 Harlindon 100.00 68.43 30.40 19.71 -52,-10 8 Cardolan 100.00 8.49 0.00 0.00 -27,-13 9 Eregion 100.00 5.04 0.00 0.00 0,-14 10 Minhiriath 100.00 8.44 0.00 0.00 -35,-1 11 Dunland 100.00 12.39 0.00 0.00 -24,-4 12 Rohan 100.00 68.28 11.13 21.52 -6,4 13 Lorien 100.00 77.67 20.96 33.66 3,-7 14 Gladden_Fields 100.00 10.67 0.00 0.00 19,-17 15 Mirkwood 100.00 73.04 11.71 22.81 20,-24 16 Dale 100.00 105.31 19.43 34.77 37,-27 17 Erebor 100.00 14.63 0.00 0.00 32,-34 18 Iron_Hills 100.00 85.39 13.69 30.32 63,-37 19 Easterlings 100.00 12.03 0.00 0.00 73,-19 20 Rhun 100.00 82.09 15.36 32.51 57,-15 21 Dorwinion 100.00 14.21 0.00 0.00 51,-9 22 Dol_Goldur 100.00 17.24 0.00 0.00 14,-8 23 Balchoth 100.00 80.61 16.37 22.94 26,-8 24 Nurn 100.00 11.34 0.00 0.00 63,11 25 Mordor 100.00 32.48 0.28 0.22 72,38 26 Wainriders 100.00 9.88 0.00 0.00 73,1 27 Anfalas 100.00 11.94 0.00 0.00 -33,15 28 Dol_Amroth 100.00 78.30 18.86 17.43 -1,13 29 Gondor 100.00 79.93 16.64 0.00 15,15 30 Umbar 100.00 48.27 0.65 0.05 11,27 31 Harondor 100.00 18.05 0.45 1.52 23,33 32 Khand 100.00 7.30 0.00 0.00 70,22 33 Harad 100.00 80.96 4.76 13.04 38,38
Dol_Amroth gets the award for Most Honest Player. When confronted with sectors in a conquered nation that had the wrong resources, he reported it rather than taking advantage of the deity mistake.
Harondor gets the award for Best Announcer. Though a relatively new player, his announcements were often very funny. His best announcement was a parody of "The Night Before Christmas". He had many other very funny announcements as well.
Harondor also wins the Viet Cong award, for turning his nation into an absolute nightmare for Gondor and Dol Amroth. Gondor launched a very early attack on Harondor. The attack would have been a mortal blow for many lesser players. Harondor, despite his inexperience, fought valiantly and made Gondor and Dol Amroth pay dearly for their attacks. The war between these nations lasted for more than 20 updates. It mostly ended (until the very end game) when, with the help of his allies, Harondor was able to throw Gondor and Dol Amroth off of the East bank of the River Anduin.
The "I'm Not Dead Yet!" award goes to none other than Mirkwood. Early on, he was under assault by no less than seven nations. With some masterful diplomacy on his part and that of Iron Hills (who worked on his behalf after initially attacking him), he was able to turn the situation around and ultimately became by far the largest nation in the game. His icy cold hand of death was felt in many nations all the way from the Ice Bay of Forochel down past the Sea of Nurnen. Stunning turn around from a nation that once complained of Gandalf blowing up a dozen or so military in one sector of his when he desperately needed mil.
The "Biggest Bully" award goes to Rhun. Ticked that Balchoth had taken
sectors that he wanted, he decided to attack Balchoth. Through some
diplomatic maneuverings (read: "Ok ok I'll give you my lunch money!"),
Balchoth managed to appease him by giving him >150 sectors.
The "Best Cartographer" award goes to Rohan. Through intrepid nation conquering, Rohan managed to turn his nation's map into a picture of a horse. Later on, the horse changed a bit and it then appeared to be peeing on Mordor.
The "I'm Allergic to Water" award goes to Umbar. Hemmed in by two nations he was allied with by land, Umbar stared at a vast expanse of waterfront property and decided to never build a navy, despite the historic nature of the Umbarian fleets. The ever intrepid water, in the form of the Rohanian Navy, put closure to the matter by wiping out their nation in a single update. The Umbarian leader broke out in hives and was never seen again.
The "Best Beer" award from the Middle Earth Beerfest goes to Bree. This
nation decided early on that his name was an anagram for beer, rather than
the other way around. Despite rumors of 2000 year old elf-feet contamination
ruining some of his brews, he still managed to put out some very fine brews
until he was nearly over run by the combined forces of The Shire and Harlindon.
Rumor has it the invasion was just a party that had gone bad, and hit Bree
in the small of the back, while looking for more beer.
The "We may not know how to comb our beards, but we know how to breed Elves" award goes to the Dwarves from Iron Hills. Hemmed in by allies after the everybody-pig-pile-on-Mirkwood war, he vicariously fought other nations by supplying Firstborn Cavalry in prodigous numbers to Mirkwood.
The "Worst Ecological Disaster" award goes to Lord Celeron of Lorien, who washed his 2000 year old elf-feet in the upper Anduin. The resulting fish kill took a dozen updates to clean up, with disaster response teams from at least six nations being involved.
The "Worst Lawyers" award goes to Harlindon, whose team of pin-striped thugs managed to leave a clause in an NA agreement that left the back door to Harlindon wide open. Harlindon came under assault from Rohan, who was lead by barristers of Rohan riding briefcases for saddles. As they crossed the Rivery Greyflood, they were heard to proclaim "According to our NA agreement, subsection 3, paragraph 17, article 12, line 982, we claim right of attack against your nation without notice or termination". It was rumored that from that time forward, any young upstart in Harlindon wishing to pass "the bar" got his head beaten by a steel bar wielded by the elf leader of Harlindon.
The "Best Drunk" award goes to The Shire, run by Mr. Ed, aka Resvon. Read his announcements, especially the early ones. You'll understand!
The "Here Birdie, drink this oil and you'll fly better!" award goes to Dale, who despite a number of warnings from the deities, produced petrol to 'fuel' his birds (no 'planes' in this game, but there were birds). Birds don't drink petrol! It may just be a coincidence that Dale had one of the smallest collections of birds in the game...or it might not. They might have died from drinking petrol.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Mon Sep 8 21:04:15 2003 Free drinks on the house at the Prancing Pony in Bree
Come get it while the beer is cold
Bill
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 8 21:06:37 2003 WARNING TO ALL PLAYERS: Be very careful about designating those capitals. They are worth a LOT. See 'info lotr'.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 8 21:13:45 2003 There's a fun link here, where you can find out your Middle Earth name, and what you are: http://www.barrowdowns.com/middleearthname.asp
-Geoff, the Lonely Orc...aka Nazw?rz the Crazy
> Announcement from Wainriders, (#26) dated Mon Sep 8 21:44:33 2003 B O O M !
From a grim and filthy hut, far to the east, wardrums of the Riders of the Wain beat again! Let fear and sweatiness fall upon our enemies!
Free beer and hobbits in Bree!
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Sep 8 21:50:06 2003 Have you noticed already that Bree and Beer are a close anagram.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Mon Sep 8 22:21:06 2003 Wainriders,
By the time you get to Bree, the beer will be luke warm and with a bit of luck, the Hobbits will be cold... ;-p
Bill Ferny.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Sep 8 22:41:16 2003 King Antonatar III awoke drenched with sweat. Images of the dreams, nightmares actually, were vivid enough to blur the distinction between the world of sleep and reality. Antonatar propped himself up in bed, "Gaurds, summon my servant at once", he screamed.
Antonatar then sat back and pondered the images. A firey mountain. A man in white. Men, thousands of men, rising from their graves, rotten flesh and clumps of earth dangling from bone.
The door to the chambers burst open and a young man hurried inside. "Yes m'lord? What rouses you at such an early hour?", said Vannor.
"Vannor, I've had visions and their meaning is quite unmistakable", said Antonatar.
"And what do they speak to you m'lord?"
"Summon my Generals, then awake the troops Vannor. The time of peace is over. Today, Middle Earth returns to War."
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 8 22:42:58 2003 Today, Harondor learns that WinACE doesn't automatically truncate announcements at 80 characters :)
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Sep 8 22:52:06 2003 I knew that, I just prefer to write on scrolls long-ways.
King Antonatar, III
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:15:53 2003 Ok... now that I've broken I can't seem to explore. What's the deal?
expl c 0,0 1 g
It's not working, why?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 00:17:26 2003
That's explained in 'info lotr'.
To quote:
o Not unusual, but seen a fair bit...all uncontrolled deity
sectors are starting the game with one militia each in them.
You will have to attack a sector to destroy that one militia
and then occupy it. This prevents massive expansion of nations
minutes after the game opens.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:19:28 2003 attack? Dammit. I'll have someones balls for this. I'm not ready to attack anyone yet.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:20:01 2003 Besides, I just demob'd all my mil. What a damn waste.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 00:20:15 2003 Ah, so you're going to attack someone because you don't want to attack.
Hmm. Have the Elves of Lorien gone insane of late? :)
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:21:43 2003 WTF ... my 10 mil LOST to 1 diety mil That just isn't right!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:22:25 2003 Wait, sorry, it was only 1 mil, duh!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 00:22:46 2003 I thought Elves had skinny fingers, not fat ones!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:23:10 2003 HURRAH! The peace loving elves of Lorien strike a blow for world terrorism and take out one of the Dieties.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:23:39 2003 Hmm, that didn't come out right.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:24:17 2003 We deny any allegations to the fact that we have skinny or fat fingers.
Any reference made to the above is categorically denied.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:24:52 2003 Who's messing with my announcements.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Sep 9 00:30:16 2003 >> Announcement from (41) Mithrilien dated Mon Sep 08 14:22:42 2003 >I thought Elves had skinny fingers, not fat ones!
The hobbits of The Shire truly wish the clearly experienced nation of Lorien were its neighbor. We are quite jealous of Rohan, Gladden Fields and Dol Goldur.
Mister Little Ed
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:31:27 2003 Come on now, let's all group hug and sing - Come on let's all be friends.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 00:32:14 2003 I hate you, you hate me Let's go kill Barney
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:32:22 2003 Ooo, I like
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:32:45 2003 Hey now, no fair painting my country purple.
> Announcement from Wainriders, (#26) dated Tue Sep 9 00:33:36 2003 B O O M!
The Wainlord scribbles a name in a dark and scroungy notebook.
"Perhaps Bree is too far after all..."
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 00:33:45 2003 Here's another version:
I hate you, you hate me, We're a disfunctional family. Then a shot rang out and Barney hit the floor, No more fucking dinosaur.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:35:01 2003 Dammit, now I'm not going to be able to let my kids see that Barney.
You're a meanie.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 00:35:26 2003 Oh, and another...
I hate you!You hate me! Here's another way to kill Barney! With an uzi and a .48 slug, I'm using Barney for my bedroom rug!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:35:46 2003 In all seriousness, how do you distribute something. I've read the info, but it doesn't make much sense.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 00:36:50 2003 Ooo! Wainriders has a black book!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 00:38:33 2003 A black book? WTF is a black book? Never mind. Someone just told me.
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Tue Sep 9 02:37:09 2003 Argh! Hello there, someone be saying a thing or two about free beer?? I have a few thirsty Dwarves coming your way!
Flint Fireforge of Eregor
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Tue Sep 9 02:38:28 2003 <hic> seems I don't be knowing where I live... Eregor.. Erebor... <hic> What's the bleedin' difference!
Flint Fireforge of Erebor...
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Tue Sep 9 02:50:47 2003 Are there interface problems at the moment?
~d ^D ^d
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Sep 9 05:07:04 2003 Lorien...I hope your anno's are some sort of attempt at subterfuge, but if not, you can type info distribute and get all sorts of useful information...
On a side note, why is it info instead of help? If you type help, you get an explantion of how info works. Wouldn't it make more sense to code it so they both work?
(I know, I know, if it's that important to me, I should code it myself...)
Galador - Prince of Dol Amroth
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Tue Sep 9 06:18:29 2003 sigh, another game, missing the most crucial element of empire...
Beer Factory sectors (which can be upgraded to "breweries" for you drinkers of elite premium brews like kilians, etc.
Sheep Herder units, for tending the flocks of the sexy beasts, which increases the happiness, ie, improves morale of land units doing battle in adjacent sectors.
-Bungy
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 06:53:52 2003 Uh, Dol_Amroth, from my chair help seems to behave precisely as info does. Completely interchangeable.
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Sep 9 10:08:03 2003 The man crushed the scrap of parchment in his fist, and tossed it to the fire in his tent. "Our lord has spoken, we ride again... first Gondor, but ultimately Forlindon. Prepare the men, we leave at dawn."
The man of Harad
> Announcement from Angmar, (#5) dated Tue Sep 9 11:51:40 2003 Your country is now peaceful ... but it won't last it's a promise of the Senechal
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Tue Sep 9 15:57:29 2003 A donut without a hole is a danish.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 18:40:16 2003
It's quiz time! Through the game, we will be posting quizzes to you, the players. The first country to telegram the correct answer to me will receive a empire-cash prize.
The game's first quiz question:
What ring did Gandalf have in his possession?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $25 Empire gold.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 18:52:06 2003 Thanks for the info Dol_Amroth I'd already looked at it, and while it was of some help, it wasn't answering my questions. So, I sent a message off to the dieties. They've been more than helpful in helping me locate the information I need. All further questions will be directed toward one of them, instead of announcing it, like a fodder - as one of them pointed out.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 18:52:27 2003 Correct answer received!
Gandalf had Narya, one of the three Elven rings of power,
in his possession. It was given to him by Cirdan the
Shipwright upon Gandal's arrival in Middle Earth. This
ring was also referred to as the Red Ring and the Ring
of Fire.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 19:51:41 2003
Alright, I've been trying to
calculate this, and the dieties have
not responded yet, but how much food
do I need to put into a sector to keep
the civies from starving, without
putting too much food in there, so that
if I do get over run, at least the
conqueror won't benefit.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 19:53:21 2003
-=[ EMPIRE NEWS ]=-
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
! "All the news that fits, we print." !
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Tue Sep 9 19:52:58 2003
Relative calm prevails.
--
As usual, the news lies.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 19:57:41 2003
Ok, here's a new one.
If it takes 129 civ's to make a sector
50%, then why does it take 257 civ's
to make a sector 100%?
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 20:14:07 2003
I suppose I should get serious and declare
my political platform.
It stands about 5' from the ground
with stairs leading up to a 6'x6' wooden
standing place.
At this height, even I stand taller
than the tallest elf within my army.
Err, when they aren't farming that is.
As such, let it be known throughout
the land that I, Celeborn, do hereby
declare this to be the Watchful Peace.
Let they who would declare themselves for
peace through the world, declare themselves
and stand forth to defend their borders
from those who would support the Watchful War.
Let this not be called similar to those who
support Active War, as those who support
Watchful War get their jollies in just
watching. Of course, WE support
Active Peace. Only through Peace will the
world be save from those perverts.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 20:18:36 2003
Alright, I'll shut up now. I've been
told I could be smited, if I made any reference
to a certain person, whom shall remain
un-named and a certain four footed
creature, named Maaaaaary, in a certain
gondola located in the far west of the land, on
one particular sunny day, this past month.
As you will note, no real names were
presented, as the creatures real name is
Baaaaaarbraaaaaaa. But this is after the
fact and as such isn't subject to the
terms and conditions as stated above.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 20:21:45 2003
(contents sold by weight no by volume. Some settlings of
contents may occur during shipping)
> Announcement from Balchoth, (#23) dated Tue Sep 9 20:37:56 2003
Manwe,
I believe Lorien should receive one of the
prizes...he is the longest winded fodder
ever played the game.
The Ax Man Cometh
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 20:44:28 2003
I am NOT fodder.
Get it through your mind, if I was
fodder, I wouldn't be asking these
questions and would be keeping my mouth
shut. You stupid git.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 20:46:29 2003
THERE! .. to PROVE I'm NOT fodder.
Tue Sep 9 20:45 Lorien gets serious with
Mithrilien and declares WAR!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 20:47:06 2003
Holy shit, my country turned into an
inland sea
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 20:47:40 2003
Yeah, des * ?own=13 . has certain...uh..deleterious effects :)
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Tue Sep 9 20:50:40 2003
All this so called elven poetry makes me sick.
Bring the beer !!!!!!!!!!!!
Dain II Ironfoot, King under the Mountain.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 20:51:20 2003
In light of the recent change, WE are
thinking of opening up a beach front resort.
As the current seat of government rests 12 league
below the surface, and we have excellent
fishing grounds and of course the obligatory
water skiing, being towed behind a
ElvenSwan. Well, WE would like to
invite the Peaceful nations of the world
to come and enjoy our sun filled bitches.
I mean beaches.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 20:52:21 2003
It's 20:52:45, do you know where your
sheep are?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 20:53:59 2003
The Shire?
> Announcement from Wainriders, (#26) dated Tue Sep 9 20:56:32 2003
B O O M!
The Wainlord dislikes long winded elves and their open chats about the
varying types of peace. Even if free lunch is included. Even if perhaps
free give aways are raffled off afterwards.
Although... The Wainlord would be interested in further information
about your luxury beaches. Please send details maps and perhaps a list
of scenic military fortifications to visit.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 21:03:28 2003
Alas, after consulting with the Royal Cartographe
We find that paper supplies are in fact, low.
However, due to the recent geological change
I can give you a very good map of what
is now the Bay of Lorien.
- - - - - -
- . . . -
- . . . . -
- . . . -
- - - - - -
I hope that helps.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Sep 9 21:04:34 2003
} On Tue Sep 9 21:03:28 Lorien wrote:
} Alas, after consulting with the Royal Cartographe
} We find that paper supplies are in fact, low.
}
} However, due to the recent geological change
} I can give you a very good map of what
} is now the Bay of Lorien.
}
} - - - - - -
} - . . . -
} - . . . . -
} - . . . -
} - - - - - -
}
} I hope that helps.
}-- End of excerpt from Lorien
Fishie, fishie... lots of Gollums there I bet.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 9 21:06:03 2003
WinACE users:
It has come to our attention that the recently released 2.2.13 version
of WinACE is not entirely stable. We recommend you revert to 2.2.12
and apply the LOTR patch found on the SourceForge WinACE site:
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/winace
If you still experience problems, please let us know. Thanks.
-Nazw?rz the Crazy
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 9 21:59:19 2003
Oh no, no gollums. We prefer to ...
Umm, never mind.
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Tue Sep 9 22:07:59 2003
In a great hall with pillars hewn out of the living stone sat
the Elvenking on a chair of carven wood. On his head was a
crown of berries and red leaves. On his feet a pair of bunny
slippers. He had a grim look on his face. The elven insecurity
service had been summoned. The Silvan Elves of the south had
already sunk into a swamp and the dwarves of Erebor would be
walking the roads of Greenwood the Great on their way to Bree.
The elves merrymaking was no longer safe.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Sep 9 22:15:32 2003
A bit of information
There are three official deities in this game.
Country 0, Manwe - Roman Parparov
Country 40, Maegelen - Eric James
Country 41, Mithrilien - Geoff Cashman.
Use 'play' command to see which of the deities is logged in to get the
fastest reply.
In general, server-related problems, bugs and likewise are best sent to
Roman Parparov. There also go the connectivity problems.
The playing info question, newbie help - to Eric James and Geoff Cashman.
The web site connectivity and web script problems - to Roman Parparov
The web site contents - to Geoff Cashman.
The beer packs - to all three.
The sheep requests and/or offers - to Geoff Cashman.
All other deity countries are for our own twisted purposes and telexes
to them are ignored.
Hope this helps.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Sep 9 22:27:37 2003
Lorien, what client are you using to play?
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Sep 9 22:40:47 2003
Well some of us are using Winace 2.1.1 which worked last time !
A bit buggy but stable
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Sep 9 22:42:57 2003
What exactly are the hazards of the new
version of Winace? I haven't switched back
yet, but also haven't encountered any problems.
(You know the main gripe I have with 'hidden'
is that you can't tele other folx...
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Tue Sep 9 23:38:18 2003
Regards to 2.2.13 WinACE.
The two problems that I found on testing on Sunday are as follows
The ThresholdAll form does not load.
In the move form, you can not change the quantity. You can
only select all. If you change the quantity, the type of comm.
being move it changes.
I have incorporated these corrections into 2.2.14 but I am waiting
for Daniel to release them.
Ron Koenderink
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Tue Sep 9 23:48:04 2003
WinACE 2.2.14
I have fixed version that should work for LOTRII since I think it
has Daniel changes but I am not sure. It seems to be working for
me so far.
I can release as a Beta version if you are interested and
brave enough.
The only thing that I have noticed so far is under Show Land
Capacities - cart, it shows 50supply light. I have not
investigated why there is a 50 showing up.
Ron Koenderink
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Sep 9 23:58:02 2003
I believe the 50supply shows up because the
cart can hold a lot of things that aren't
displayed in the show command. Like 50 civs.
It must be wrapping the info over somehow.
Since I don't use the WinAce functions you
mentioned, I haven't seen any problems. I
usually type in my move/threshold commands.
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Wed Sep 10 00:02:39 2003
WinACE LOTRII
I did a check of the current zip on sourceforge.net.
It appears to have my corrections in it. Daniel updated the
zip file with a corrected version of WinACE.
To ensure that YOU have the newest WinACE LOTR II exe,
check inside your .zip for date of 07/09/2003 5:10 p.m on the
executable file.
Daniel did not change the date on the file at sourceforge.net
so it does not look new but it is newest program.
This version also has two new exploration modes which are being
added as part of 2.2.14. Unfortunately, we can not try them out in
this game. Hopefully they will be useful in the future.
If you have problems with WinACE while playing LOTR II, you can
telegram me and I will have a look at them.
Ron Koenderink
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 00:17:13 2003
CLIENT?!? You mean there's a fucken
client for this game? FUCK! DAMMIT! SHIT!
I was told there wasn't one and have
been using telnet. Fucken god damn pricks.
Alright. Reading back in the wires.
I take it there's a client called WinACE
at sourceforge.net. I'd best get downloading.
Be back in a few minutes.
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Wed Sep 10 00:50:02 2003
WinACE - 50c
Dol_Amroth was right. It is related to civ.
The standard units do not have any civilians on supply units.
I have fixed the problem but it is minor enough that I will not
release a new version as a manual show in the command window
still works.
I will incorporate the fix if and (when) we find some other problems.
Yes, I noticed the problem with HIDDEN today. I assumed that you are
mostly interested in a way add the countries manually to the
telegram list or is there some other place that it would be useful.
Ron Koenderink
> Announcement from Balchoth, (#23) dated Wed Sep 10 02:31:40 2003
?...questions and would be keeping my mouth
?shut. You stupid git.
Mr. Lorien,
Please dun call Git stupid. He really smart.
You hurt his feelings. He sad and angry.
He grind axe alllll day now and mutter:
"Dear god, put us closer to Lorien. Pleeeaaase put us closer to Lorien."
Thank you,
Mrs. Git of the Axemen
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Wed Sep 10 09:38:40 2003
?Lorien:
?Alright, I've been trying to
?calculate this, and the dieties have
?not responded yet, but how much food
?do I need to put into a sector to keep
?the civies from starving, without
?putting too much food in there, so that
?if I do get over run, at least the
?conqueror won't benefit.
I would not worry too much about feeding your
future conqueror, just put enough food in
every sector that they won't starve.
60 is plenty, 30 should be enough for the time
being... if you have some 200 civs you can
get by with about 15 (the accurate numbers are
lower, but as I said don't be stingy in this).
I really hope you know how to use distribute,
otherwise the micromanagement is a pain.
Sinari
> Announcement from Angmar, (#5) dated Wed Sep 10 16:41:45 2003
shit, I realize now (after moving 768 civs in a 0 mob sect)
that RES_POP is enabled.
Is there any prize for the fastest player to screw up the game?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 16:42:00 2003
Ok people, you're doing better on starvation in this game than
in the last one, but we've still got 4 sectors out there starving
if you don't feed them. Use the 'starva' command. See 'info starva'.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 16:42:23 2003
I might give a prize for stupidest move before the first update :)
> Announcement from Angmar, (#5) dated Wed Sep 10 16:46:12 2003
ok, I'll take it
;-)
> Announcement from Angmar, (#5) dated Wed Sep 10 16:49:18 2003
mumble mumble, I was thinking .... I could
put 768 civs in a mountain ... that would have been even
more stupid .... ok, next game maybe
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Wed Sep 10 16:51:01 2003
You can also get better by using up
your start sectors' mobility for moving
those 768 civs to a 0 mob sector,
resulting in no way to feed them.....
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 17:16:36 2003
IMPORTANT: Our first update is TODAY at approximately 00:00
server time, 21:00 UTC time. The update will happen within
+ or - five minutes of that time. This is the 'update window'
of ten minutes.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 17:43:04 2003
Please be aware: If you issue an 'update' command, it
will always tell you "UPDATES ARE DISABLED!" unless an
update window is active.
Thus, simply because you see the UPDATES ARE DISABLED! doesn't
mean there isn't an update today.
There will be an update at 00:00 server time today, Wednesday,
and also on Thurday and Friday. The next update after that will
be on Monday. More information regarding the Monday and subsequent
updates will be posted in the near future.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Wed Sep 10 17:54:45 2003
A correction.
The update will occur between 0:00 and 0:10 server time and not 23:55-0:05
because of the way the update firing script works.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 18:45:30 2003
Dear Sinari, Ruler of Harad
I wish to THANK you for pointing out
ANOTHER thing I now realize I need to
know about. Without helpful hints from
EVERYONE, I would probably STARVE off
my cute little elves - well, not so
little, but still cute - and not even
get my economy off the ground.
To everyone who's offered suggestions
Thank you. To those of you who are
going to make a straight bee line for
my borders. Watch out for the snakes.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 20:04:44 2003
Quiz time again:
Where did Saruman return from that two wizards did not?
Who were the two wizards?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $25 Empire gold.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 20:19:10 2003
Correct answer received!
Saruman travelled into the far east of Middle Earth with
Alatar and Pallando, also known as the Blue Wizards.
The Blue Wizards never returned from the east and little
is known of their fate.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 20:32:32 2003
Yea, verily. Who is that striding amongst
the tall Lorien trees! It is, Celeron,
hands clutching an elven vorpal blade,
and with a booming roar, his voice speaketh,
I'm going to fuck you to the moon and back
and then bake cookies.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 20:34:46 2003
GAWD! .. Doesn't anything happen
around here. There's only so many
times I can do a census and see
that I'm going to starve a bunch of
civ's .. shit.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Wed Sep 10 20:43:53 2003
zdone y
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 20:45:59 2003
Still 2 sectors starving out there people. Get with the program :)
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 20:49:31 2003
I know I need oil for petroleum.
But do I need petroleum in this game?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 20:52:34 2003
Birds don't eat petrol, do they?
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 20:53:19 2003
Umm, birds?
let me look.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 20:54:28 2003
Dammit, where the hell are my sopwith's
CRAP! Now I need to rethink things.
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Wed Sep 10 20:55:02 2003
No, but researchers do.
Hard to get with the program with mobility.
Feck. It'll toughen them up for the campaign ahead.
It's not like I'm starvin *too* many of them.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 20:55:42 2003
researchers?
What the hell does research have to
do with anything?
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 21:02:47 2003
Has everyone fucked thier favorite sheep?
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Wed Sep 10 21:03:08 2003
yes, just what does research have to do with anything?
i've often wondered that myself. if you find out please let
me know.
maybe institute a research program into finding out the answer.
blah, no way you're a newbie, far too provocative for that.
i'd say you're midway between a newbie and sweet fodder.
once the shire, bree and rivendell have been 'pacified',
i'll be coming through the gap of rohan to test your mettle.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 21:03:08 2003
There's lots of sheep in The Shire.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 21:04:00 2003
I have a feeling that The Shire, Bree, Rivendell and Rohan
have something to say on that matter :)
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 21:04:26 2003
Well, near as I can tell
*thumping on chest*
You're just beating your chest and
won't make it even to my doorstep.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 21:04:48 2003
Is that beating chest and waving your dick or
beating your dick and waving your chest?
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 21:04:55 2003
I'm more concerned with those
northern elves.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 21:05:31 2003
Vulcans and Elves both have pointy ears.
Coincidenc? I think not!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 21:05:50 2003
does it matteR?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 21:06:29 2003
Just to be clear again...again...
The update is at 00:00 server time tonight. It is now 21:06
server time.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 21:06:41 2003
We'll deal with you later.
Remember, we taught those pointie
ear'd yahoo's everything they know.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 21:07:18 2003
bored bored bored bored
I get more action from my hand.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 21:08:18 2003
sooon, it should happen soon.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 21:09:12 2003
now?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 21:09:44 2003
Once again...with feeling....
THE UPDATE IS NOT DUE TO HAPPEN FOR ANOTHER ~3 HOURS!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 10 21:10:39 2003
WHAT!
Nooooooooooooooooooo
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Wed Sep 10 21:11:51 2003
how about dunland, rohan, lorien.
could that work?
i mean, there's no point fecking about on
this side of the mountains & my crows would
never make it all the way to mordor.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 21:15:11 2003
From the very secret diary of Meriadoc Brandybuck:
"Got in trouble for setting off fireworks at party. Suspect Gandalf
not actually all that annoyed and was merely excuse to get us young
hobbit boys wet and lathered up. Became even more suspicious when
"washing dishes" punishment followed by "polishing Gandalf's staff"
punishment and "massaging Gandalf's feet" punishment and "nude
leapfrog in the cabbage patch" punishment, I mean, who's he
trying to kid, really? Especially with the foot thing."
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Wed Sep 10 21:38:29 2003
Minhiriath,
You are welcome to stay in one of our inns, but we do not need any
pacification. Just because the great flood drowned most of your tame,
"pacified", dehorned sheep, doesn't mean our sheep need any taming. We
like 'em just the way they are: wild and horny^Hed.
Bleatman Sweetclover,
president of the Bree shepherd union.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 10 23:36:08 2003
24 minutes to go before the update window.
Nobody is starving.
Iluvatar smiled.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Wed Sep 10 23:53:10 2003
A pasture, nestled amongst the idyllic hills of The Shire:
The hobbit youth gazed upon the leader of The Shire with worry in
his eyes. At this moment, the most respected of hobbits, Sheate
Baynger from Harry Hol, was humping a nearby fencepost. The youth
looked from the flask of newly discovered Old Winyard held in his
own hands to the crumpled, smoking cigarette (smelling of nothing
like tobacco) hanging from Sheate's mouth. Yes, he was worried.
"You %&*@)($ tall *%($)#$% excuse for a *(#!*()$ human. It's a
@(*$)@#)($ wonder how you @&*$*@( have infested this (#*(#@) world
as fast as you #*$(#)@# (#*$()@( @@#$%^& did!"
Sheate had been going on like this for some time now. It wasn't
really clear who he was speaking to.
Suddenly, Sheate started to go everywhere - running around in
circles with his pants around his ankles while gesturing angrily
at... something... or someone.
"The last #&*&#&!@# time that a #$^&@(@#( *(!@)#($ accused us of
#(*($%$%(* the ($*)@!#$( &$($*($# we (#*$(@)!@$# shoved the #($*#(@!
right where the #*$)(#*$ don't #*$()#*($* shine."
"They (#*(@)!#$ want to tell *(*%@$$# Sheate Baynger that we hobbits
and #(*$#($* #*(%(#%* to the #*$(#)@ that we #*%($*% raised
ourselves?? Get !@#$%^&*() Dest Royemall from Big Boms *(*$#(#@
#$(*%(%*$( here (#*$%($*%($ immediately!"
The youth took that as his cue to leave. With one last look, he
muttered to himself "Oh, Sheate. What have you done?"
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Thu Sep 11 00:41:21 2003
Important!
Tomorrow morning server time (sometime between 9 and 11 am)
empire.tau.ac.il will reboot.
The expected downtime should not exceed 15 minutes.
Roman.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 11 00:53:44 2003
Reason: Iluvatar will have on fecking big hangover and
will fall out of bed, and ooze to the bathroom. This will
result in the world rebooting after he flushes ;)
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Thu Sep 11 01:53:48 2003
Does this mean the 2.2.1.4 version for this client is working?
I had all kinds of problems on Monday, so going back to the "latest" version
scares me.
Current bug I found is it will not accept IP addresses as numbers. Only as
letters.
Odd
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 11 02:27:42 2003
What do you mean, no one is starving.
Like hell! I had 2 damn sectors starv
because there wasn't enough food in them.
You throw a big party and think you have
enough food there, but then some gate
crashers show up and things goto shit.
BAH!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 11 02:42:49 2003
Ok, Iluvatar is weeping now...
[106:640] Command : starva
Thu Sep 11 02:42:17 2003
Starvation
own sect eff
[...]
47 sectors
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Thu Sep 11 03:33:25 2003
Dear Iluvatar,
If you are gonna reboot the world, could you please
add some highlight patches to map?
Pretty please, with a pint of beer?
Bill
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Thu Sep 11 04:14:25 2003
WinACE - Dorwinion
I tested the current version from sourceforge site and I am able
to connect with IP address as a set of numbers.
Are you using the version made on Sunday afternoon and is
2715648 bytes in size?
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Thu Sep 11 04:46:47 2003
I am using the one from the website...the sourceforage site.
They are all labeled Sept 6th, so I don't know for sure. I was just glad to get
the client working before the update.
> Announcement from Khand, (#32) dated Thu Sep 11 04:49:35 2003
Note to self: don't get all your food stuck in your
warehouse after the first update. Kinda sucks when said
warehouse doesn't have mobility.
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Thu Sep 11 04:51:32 2003
I just applied the 5:10pm patch and the version is showing as the .4 version....
it seems to be working.
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Thu Sep 11 04:54:57 2003
Believe that Daniel put an initial version on Saturday the 6th on sourceforge site.
I found some problems on Sunday with 2.2.13 which would also
have been in LOTR version.
So I think that Daniel update the LOTR zip on Sunday 7th but
did not change the sourceforge download name even through the
file content was updated.
That is why I asked about the date of the exe inside the zip file and
what the size was to ensure that you have the newest version.
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Thu Sep 11 04:57:40 2003
Sounds like we are ready to roll.
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Thu Sep 11 05:08:50 2003
Excellent
See you soon, well maybe not.
Good luck.
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Thu Sep 11 10:52:28 2003
(Palace of the Elven-King)
The Elven-King walked the desolate halls in matching electric
purple Bermuda shorts and bunny slippers. The entire elven
citizenry had been sent to the mines. Occationally a few dusty
and disheveled individuals would return to the Palace to
complete administrative paperwork. Passing one of the fatigued
and dallying workers, the Elven-King grabbed a whip from the
wall and beat him.
"The elves of the south are concerned about us, and judging
from the amount ore being produced, so am I! We have only
extracted half the ore I'm accustomed to. Now, get the hell
back to the mines, and remember to breed tonight," commented
the Elven-King.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 11 16:40:33 2003
##########
Reminder: Our next update is tonight, sometime between 00:00
and 00:10 server time, or 21:00 and 21:10 UTC.
##########
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 11 18:16:46 2003
Just found on the web...a pic of Sean Eddy :)
http://tinyurl.com/n0b6
Kinda looks like an elf, doesn't he? :)
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 11 19:04:18 2003
Who the hell is Sean Eddy?
And WTF does his looking like an elf
have anything to do with this game?
As for our northern brothers, a few
words of advice. Keep 'em sweet, for
I may have to make you eat them.
And another thing. Stop beating your civ's.
You get more work out of them, if you
throw a huge party at the end of each night.
And what self respecting elf walks around
in PURPLE Bermuda shorts and by the name of
Manwe, of all things, BUNNY SLIPPERS?
Good god man, get a grip on reality. You
should know, no self-respecting elf would
wear such a conglomeration as this.
Why, if I could find a way, I'd send my
Chief of Fashion your direction to give
you the latest fashions. But alas, she's
a bit busy, putting together next weeks
fashion show.
Celeron
Lord of Lorien and CHIEF among Elves
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Sep 11 19:08:46 2003
Lorien,
You are either amazingly brilliant, or
amazingly um er 'not brilliant.' I can't
wait to find out which...
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 11 19:09:51 2003
And your point?
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 11 19:11:30 2003
And it pays to make sure you read the
info pages on how many civ's can go into
a mountain. Alas, it does not pay
to put more in there, than can be adequately
supported.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Sep 11 19:11:39 2003
No point, just an observation.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 11 19:14:58 2003
Alright. I never said you were the
smarted cookie in the box. And I will
make allowances for being a few marbles shy
of a full bag. A few bolders shy of a
quarry.
But, I'd be please to call you an enemy.
At least you'd have to trample across the
fertile fields of Rohan to get to me.
Hopefully, I'll last long enough to put up
a good defense.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Sep 11 19:21:34 2003
It may be easier for you to come to me. I
have all of these pesky mountains in the way.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Thu Sep 11 19:27:45 2003
*** Harandor Press ***
News Flash: Population Census Reveals extra person
A recent head count of the Harandor population revealed an extra head! Furthur
investigation did indeed show that one civilian did not possess the proper ID
scrolls required to be carried by all people at all times. This unknown person
was unwilling to join the ranks of forced labor and was later remanded to Elven
Archers for longbow training.
Vannor - News Reporter
Other Headlines:
King Antonatar Demotes Head Servant to press squad. "He needed to work on his
'carriage returns'" was the only comment issued. At this moment we don't know
where this carriage is and where its returning to, but I guess that's why he's
king.
Exploding Arrow a success. Civillians awoke this morning to a loud BANG!! when
the Elven Archers performed their first test of the exploding Arrow. While
most archers were pleased with the demonstration, some miss the familiar twang.
The test subject was unavailable for comment.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Sep 11 20:19:29 2003
O' Powers that Be,
Any decision on next week's update schedule
yet?
- Galador
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 11 20:51:21 2003
There's still 32 sectors that will starve at the update.
Come on people! Iluvatar didn't give you these civvies
so you could put them in concentration camps!
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Thu Sep 11 21:45:42 2003
WinACE
I found a few more problems this morning with WinACE while
testing the HIDDEN option.
There are problems with the following commands.
1) Load
2) FleetAdd
3) Set Territories
4) World Builder
I have fixed all this problems and will try later today to get
a release available on sourceforge.
I will announce when it is available.
Also you while find as you come in contact with a country they
will be added to your country list. This affects at least the
following commands and maybe more:
1) Tech Report
2) Relations - Relations Grid
3) Telegrams
Have fun.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 11 22:03:36 2003
It is now slightly less than 2 hours before the update
window opens. Do you know where you food is?
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Thu Sep 11 22:09:32 2003
About food ...
certainly stolen by this creature known
by the name of SMAUG ...
;)
Girion,
Lord of Dale.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 11 22:35:34 2003
There's still 27 sectors out there that will starve at the
update people...check for starvation!
[103:640] Command : starva
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 11 23:50:39 2003
Quiz time!
Who determined that Radagast should be sent to Middle Earth?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $50 Empire gold
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 11 23:57:22 2003
To clarify the quiz:
I am looking for a single individual, not a group.
What specific individual ask that Radagast be sent to Middle Earth?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $50 Empire gold.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 11 23:58:30 2003
And we have a winner!
Yavanna, wife of Aule, and called the Giver of Fruits, asked that
Radagast be added to the group of Istari that were sent as
emissaries to Middle Earth.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 12 00:00:00 2003
Update window opens now...
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Sep 12 00:26:13 2003
Dammit to hell, what are you feeding these
savages in the mountains.
x,y is a 0% Manwe mountain with approximately 1 m
Number of mil from highway at a,b (max 10)
5
Initial attack strength : 5
Final attack strength : 5
Final defense strength: 2
Final odds 71%
-- Casualties -
Yours: 5
Theirs: 0
You were defeated you pansy assed elf!
Very charming. I suppose you've set
it up for dwarves, orcs and other's?
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Fri Sep 12 00:34:11 2003
} On Fri Sep 12 00:26:13 Lorien wrote:
} Dammit to hell, what are you feeding these
} savages in the mountains.
} x,y is a 0% Manwe mountain with approximately 1 m
} Number of mil from highway at a,b (max 10)
} 5
} Initial attack strength : 5
} Final attack strength : 5
} Final defense strength: 2
} Final odds 71%
} -- Casualties -
} Yours: 5
} Theirs: 0
}
} You were defeated you pansy assed elf!
}
} Very charming. I suppose you've set
} it up for dwarves, orcs and other's?
}-- End of excerpt from Lorien
Don't underestimate my Yetis.
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Fri Sep 12 00:38:35 2003
Funny... Us Dwarves have no problem with the yetti's...
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 12 00:41:03 2003
Dwarves are specially suited to attacking in the mountains :)
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Fri Sep 12 00:42:59 2003
Or maybe what ye mean is that Elves try too hard
to kill the yetti's by using a fine tongue and
Magiks!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 12 00:46:33 2003
####################################################
Update schedule for the next three updates:
Update #3: Friday evening/Saturday morning 00:00-00:10 server time,
or 21:00-21:10 UTC time.
Update #4: Monday, September 15th 17:00-17:10 server time,
or 14:00-14:10 UTC time.
Update #5: Tuesday, September 16th 23:00-23:10 server time,
or 20:00-20:10 UTC time.
####################################################
Update schedule for the remainder of the game:
The schedule is rather convoluted. Bear with us as we explain...
Beginning with Monday's update, we will begin observing 30 hour
rolling updates, with no weekend updates. Please note that "no
weekend" is defined by server time, thus any update happening
between 23:59:59 Friday night and 00:00:00 Monday morning will
not happen, with the sole exception of update #3 as noted above.
30 hour rolling updates will result in four possible update hours
on a given day. We will not skip an update hour because of an
update not happening on a weekend. Thus, if an update was supposed
to happen at 23:00 on a Sunday evening, the next update that will
happen will be at 23:00, but on a Monday or Tuesday instead.
After 13 updates, we will switch to 42 hour updates, and again
will not skip an update hour because of an update not happening
on a weekend.
After 26 updates, we will switch to 54 hour updates, and again
will not skip an update hour because of an update not happening
on a weekend.
The schedule in its entirety is available on the LOTR:II website
at: http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/updateschedule.html
---
The vast majority of votes we received asked for rolling updates.
While we initially envisioned the possibility of 42 or 54 hour
rolling updates, the reality was that 54 hour updates would have
resulted in a game that very possibly could have been the longest
game in Empire history (even exceeding Riverworld). Thus, we
decided to go with the schedule we have. This schedule should make
it easier for nations, which are going to get quite large, to
manage their countries as the game goes on. We realize the schedule
is not perfect for everyone. But, we do hope and feel that it is
good enough for everyone, and is very fair.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Fri Sep 12 00:59:57 2003
} On Fri Sep 12 00:38:35 Erebor wrote:
} Funny... Us Dwarves have no problem with the yetti's...
}-- End of excerpt from Erebor
Well, you're just of right height to sneak between their legs.
Sometimes the horned helmets get stuck, but it doesn't really
benefit the Yetis.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Fri Sep 12 01:13:51 2003
Please repost the link to the sector highlight patch.
It will be reinstalled and server rebooted over the next w/e break.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Fri Sep 12 01:22:27 2003
http://www.stack.nl/~marcolz/empire/hi-patch.txt
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 12 01:31:03 2003
From the very secret diary of Meriadoc Brandybuck:
Day two:
V. promising start to day when discovered carrot that was just
right shape. Even more promising when Pippin nabbed six cabbages,
two bags potatoes, and three ears corn, although cannot help but
think Pippin being slightly over-optimistic. I mean, could
probably manage two ears corn, but not before breakfast.
All went downhill though when bumped into Frodo and faithful
bit of rough trade, whoops, loyal manservant Sam, in cornfield.
Pippin was prevented from extended cuddle with Frodo
by Sam, who in v. surprising butch moment tossed Pippin
down a cliff. In ensuing scuffle carrot was broken. Am v. sad.
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Fri Sep 12 01:37:01 2003
WinACE LOTR 1.1
For the brave at heart, I have put a new version of WinACE
at the sourceforge site. It is a pre-release for LOTR
as we have not completed the changes for 2.2.14 yet.
It will still show 2.2.14.
It is under LOTR 1.1 and is a zip file like the previous
release.
The corrections involved adding back code that was incorrectly
deleted during the code cleanup process so the risk should be
minor.
Also a change to accomodate civ. in supply type Land units was
incorporated as per our discussion about 50 appearing the abilities column.
As I have just upload the file, it may take a little while to
reach all of the mirror sites, the Minnesota site work for me when
I was testing.
Have fun and let me know if there are any more problems.
That we can incorporate any more fixes before the next release.
Good Luck
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 12 02:01:38 2003
From the the very secret diary of Gandalf the Grey:
Day two:
Bilbo's Birthday party improved by substantial amount of hobbit weed.
Everyone sho nice. Bilbo nice too. Lights sho pretty. Frodo not bad
either. Hobbits sho cuddly. Whups.
Day three:
Massive fecking hangover. Off to Minas Tirith for some aspirin.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Sep 12 02:10:08 2003
A discrete military headquarters along the shores of Lake Peedin:
Sheate was steaming hot. "!@#$*&$@ fuming," Dest Royemall thought
to himself. The respected leader of The Shire appeared to be
arguing with an empty cask nestled in the corner of the room:
"%&^!*# dwarf! *#^!$# &#%!@@ nub-rubber! How dare you &!*#%!
sit there and (@*#!$ disrespect me with your ^@$!%#$ insolence!"
Aiming a booted foot at the offending cask, Sheate kicks... and
misses, landing on his backside. Dest figured it was probably
the 4 litres of Old Winyard Sheate had before breakfast.
Like others in the military, Dest was a little concerned with
Sheate. But as long as his leader continued to invest in
providing Dest and his troops with the finest military equipment
in the lands, he couldn't really complain.
Sheate was spewing again. A string of profanities sailed forth,
directed at a pole-arm he seemed to think was an elf. He turned
to Dest and appeared to ask a question.
Dest bowed and replied "That's good, Sheate."
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Fri Sep 12 03:13:03 2003
(Elven Insecurity Service)
"Curses you filthy hobbit. Who are you working for!" The
Elven-King was interrogating a spy caught in Greenwood the
Great. The foriegn agent was found with an image recording
device including several revealing pictures of the palace
grounds. "We know that you're the one who distributed our
likeness. What other information have you been sending to
our enemies?"
The hobbits silence only enraged the King. Grabbing an oddly
shaped object from an operatives desk, he threw it at the
prisoner. Pieces of the halfling soared about the hall as
the gadget exploded on impact. A finger landed on the desk,
a foot by the door, most of the head couldn't be found.
"So what was that item?" inquires the curious King.
"That was a wizard bolt sir," a nearby Elven Insecurity Agent
replied.
"Hmmmm..." his Majesty says,
"...let's make more!"
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Sep 12 04:15:56 2003
Oh get real, Elves do NOT just blow the
hell out their enemies. Let alone a valuable
spy. You must first ply them with nubile
maidens and strong liquor. Sooner than
later, you'll find they become quite
talkative.
As for using a wizard bolt within the confines
of a building. Art thou truely INSANE!
You could have taken out half your palace,
You do live in a palace, don't you?
It would have been better to drop him from
an eagle on high, to see if the filthy
blighter could fly, or even used him as
ammunition in yon catapult, to really
send a message back to his employer. But
just blowing him up? How uncooth!
Alas, the state of elves has sadly
deteriorated, not like it was in the
glory days of yesteryear. When elves were
feared throughout the world. And could
command continents to move or be removed.
Celeron
Lord of Lorien and CHIEF among Elves
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Fri Sep 12 13:54:54 2003
I suppose everyone is keeping silent, because they're
so overwhelmed by the rapid spreading of Harads might :-)
Sinari
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Fri Sep 12 14:19:40 2003
What do you mean we are rebooting? Like starting over rebooting?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 12 16:17:48 2003
No, rebooting the server. The data in the game will remain
the same. We're not rolling back to the beginning. Rebooting
is entirely different than rolling back.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 12 16:46:47 2003
From the very secret diary of Saruman the White:
Day one:
Am bored. No cable in Isengard. Nothing to do but write rude
anonymous letters to Radagast the Brown and Manfred the Slightly Ecru.
Day two:
Have met v. nice guy via palantir. He seems to really like me
for me and not just because am most powerful wizard in
Middle Earth. Wonder what he looks like.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Sat Sep 13 19:26:47 2003
The machine is back up.
The next update is Monday 17:00 server time.
The server did not restart after the electric power outage that took
place here (which also disabled the hub) so no backup restore and
rollback was needed.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Sun Sep 14 19:12:55 2003
FYI
I don't know if this would help as much as an inflatable sheep,
but anyways:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006C298/002-1741678-0951243
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Sun Sep 14 22:03:52 2003
Latest WinACE news
I have found one more minor problem.
The menu item Warload does not work.
It has been fixed and I will do release in a couple of days.
I am waiting to see if any other problems come up.
Also I am sure that nobody in this game would ever need the
Warload command as we are all peace loving nations so I have
not consider it a high priority fix.
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Mon Sep 15 03:15:08 2003
The men of Minhiriath,
once more on the move.
Proud history behind them,
and little to prove.
Fine full forested lands,
now denuded alas.
Though Eriador be no more,
thru Rohan none shall pass.
The west stretches awake,
and awake shall remain.
Dark forces abroad,
thru grace shall be slain.
Though time fed mistrust,
the west must reaquaint.
When dark forces hover,
is too late for complaint.
My missive is this,
pray hear me true well.
This evil in the east,
we must rise up and quell.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Sep 15 16:10:19 2003
Reminder - update at 17:00
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Sep 15 16:19:38 2003
shutdown for 1-2 minutes.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 15 17:26:00 2003
Quiz time!
Name three alternative names for Gandalf.
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $25 Empire gold.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 15 17:35:07 2003
Correct answer received!
Gandalf had a number of different names. Among these were
Incanus, Mithrandir, Tarkun, Olorin, and Stormcrow. He was
many things to many people and his name was varied in many
tongues of Middle Earth.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Mon Sep 15 17:52:43 2003
So, first blood has been spilled? Anything
good?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 15 18:49:22 2003
Yeah, there was some Rokeg Blood Pie served. Not too tasty
though. I guess it's an aquired taste :)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 15 19:17:13 2003
From the very secret diary of Ringwraith #5:
Day 1,000,967:
Got box of chocolates as Christmas bonus from Dark Lord, again.
As per usual, Sauron ate all the toffees and left the strawberry creams.
How I detest this life of vile servitude.
Still disembodied.
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Mon Sep 15 19:26:08 2003
Unlike Forest Gump, Sauron knows exactly what is in each
piece of chocolate...as do the Ringwraiths (those cheap
ghoul bastards, too tight to buy their own confections)
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Mon Sep 15 19:36:46 2003
There was a little blood spilled down this
way also...Hopefully, Gondor won't run any
more attack scripts without checking to see
who was there first anymore.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 15 19:38:43 2003
From the very secret diary of Dol_Amroth:
Day Three
Pervy Gondor Knights came and fondled my sheep. Will have
to put up fence to protect them. V. tired from chasing knights
off. Had a hell of a booze-up celebrating the rescue of our
sheep. Big fecking hangover now.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Mon Sep 15 19:44:52 2003
It is with glad tidings that, that WE
are glad to report that the rumors of
OUR having gone mad, are greatly
exagerated.
Those voices WE have been hearing,
have turned out to be our good friends
Eregion and Rohan. And after careful
negotiations and careful recruitment of
others, we have joined forces to protect
the Homeland against the evil incursions
of Mirkwood.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 15 21:40:03 2003
[266:640] Command : starva
Mon Sep 15 21:39:30 2003
Starvation
own sect eff
[...]
51 sectors
Come on people, open some more pizza shops!
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Mon Sep 15 22:31:10 2003
With the 6 hour (within 4 miles) Guaranteed Delivery service
from the local Proudneck Pizza franchise, I think there is
plenty of time. With over 200 years of distinguished
service to the community, they have only failed 5 times
since the Second Age to deliver on time.
When the new horses from Rohan were brought in, all the
delivery problems stopped.
Your experience may vary, but in Rhun the local store
has been first rate.
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Tue Sep 16 06:01:52 2003
WinACE - Update Sept 15
Two problems were found today.
The first is related to the filter for the units
(ships, planes, and land) for displaying the grid
and for selecting in the various prompt forms.
The unit names are hard coded for each filter.
I have added the LOTR II names to the list as a temporary
solution, in the mean time use all.
I will look at trying to have the filters working from the capabilities instead.
However, this will take little while to get working.
I also found that the fuel menu item does not work.
This is minor issue from the code cleanup and is also minor
as fuel is disabled.
I will package a new release tomorrow and announce when it is
available. Did anyone have a problem getting the 1.1 release?
> Announcement from Angmar, (#5) dated Tue Sep 16 11:00:03 2003
blood spilled?
no, we can't say so, that wasn't blood
it tasted more like water
Dunedain .... bah, soft like butter and tasteless
no, my orcs are still spreading all over to find real
tasty blood
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Tue Sep 16 14:57:06 2003
Which version should we have from the web site...of WinAce?
I'll wait for your new version (patch) today just let me know if there
is a special time/date on it I should be looking to find.
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Tue Sep 16 16:54:46 2003
WinACE LOTR II Release 1.2
I have loaded it on sourceforge and it is available for download.
It was put on last night, so it should already be available at the mirror sites.
Changes
1) Warload menu item - fixed
2) Fuel menu item - fixed
3) Unit filters - should work for LOTR units
4) Sector Menu changes - more qualifications on when commands are available.
5) Center Map - You can center the map by using the right click.
It is under misc in Sector menu and is at the top level for the attack
menu for emeny sectors and unknown sectors, and for the sea sectors.
6) Sect command was removed from Sector->Misc menu.
So let me know if I missed any qualifications for the sector commands or if
the Unit filters are incorrect.
Also since 2.2.13 version the right click menu on an emeny sector, the menu
items bomb and paradrop and launch now work.
I find it a handy feature.
Have fun
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 16 18:55:10 2003
Alright you slackers, some of you still need to make
a run to the local fast food joint...
Tue Sep 16 18:54:36 2003
Starvation
own sect eff
[...]
4 sectors
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 16 18:59:07 2003
From the very secret diary of Gollum:
Day one:
Popped over to attend Pervy Hobbit Fanciers Anonymous
Meeting in Misty Mountains only to discover was booby
trap set by Sauron.
Stupid Sauron.
Day five:
Held captive by orcs in Barad-Dur. Have been forced to watch
Flipper" over and over until give in and tell them where Ring
is. Damn evil methods of torture refined over millennia.
Will not give in. Will remain strong.
Day six:
Orcs have switched to repeat viewings of "The Faculty."
Cannot cope. Have told them where Ring is.
Day eight:
Escaped from Mordor. Have made way to Shire. Am v. disappointed
that in last few weeks no one has responded to personal ad
placed in Shire Weekly: "Toothless, fetid greenish creature
ISO blue-eyed curly-headed hobbit. Must enjoy squatting in darkness,
jewelry-fondling, and referring to self in third person. No
smokers."
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 16 20:30:20 2003
Alright, now that I have a harbor and
have built a boat, why isn't it getting efficient
I have civ's, uw's and mil in there.
I even have lcms and hcms, but it isn't
gaining efficiency.
I thought, after you built a boat, it
would go up in efficiency. I'm missing something
here.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 16 20:30:59 2003
Err, never mind. I know why. Ignore that last.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 16 20:42:32 2003
From the very secret diary of Galadriel:
Day 1,392,873:
Living forever has its downsides. I'm stuck with Celeborn for
all eternity. Maybe I can slip off from Middle Earth without
him knowing. Elrond's wife took off. Maybe I can too.
Day 1,392,875:
Celeborn proving to be more stupid than I thought. Can't
figure out how to make a harbor work. Cirdan weeps.
Day 1,392,878:
If Celeborn washes his feet in my mirror again I'll kill him.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Sep 16 20:51:10 2003
} > Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Mon Sep 15 19:44:52 2003
} Those voices WE have been hearing,
} have turned out to be our good friends
} Eregion and Rohan. And after careful
} negotiations and careful recruitment of
} others, we have joined forces to protect
} the Homeland against the evil incursions
} of Mirkwood.
What's this proclamation? Elven trickery again? I knew we should
have banished those pointy eared merchant swindlers on sight! We let
them go, and now they think we are allied? Maybe we should have
bought one of their trinkets; with the same line of reasoning we would
own their nation by now.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Sep 16 21:04:29 2003
For many days now the last great city of the Numenoreans, Minas Tirith,
has been deserted. The most fit have been in the training camps on the
Anduin, and even now are making landfall in the former empires lands. The
rest of the population has not been seen since being sent to the mines.
A stormy, brooding sky looms over the city as the last government
administrator approaches Deneathors tower, hoping against hope that the
Steward of Gondor will meet and give new direction. The grain silos, once
so well stocked are being depleted. The pastoral countryside has been
ripped apart in the new strip mines, and the forests leveled to fuel the
new foundries. Every horse has been taken by the expeditionary force, and
carts are being pulled by teams of elderly and children. And yet no enemies
currently threaten the realm.
The administrator knocks timidly at the door of the tower, as he has done
every day for the past two weeks. This time the door opens, and it is
Deneathor himself - even his personal staff have been in the mines.
"My Lord, the 1st marine expeditionary legion reports that scouts
are proceeding inland along the length of the Anduin, and have seen
and spoken with similar Rohirrim forces. Three squads foraging in
the West were destroyed by Dol Amroth, but intermediaries have
arranged a cease fire with that state.
My Lord, what orders? Why this mad rush with forces sent in every
direction? What of the harvests, and the people?"
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Sep 16 21:04:39 2003
Deneathor takes a long time to draw his mind back to the present, and the
administrator in front of him. "I have spent these past weeks in Shadow,
dwelling in the Darkness ahead. War is coming to Gondor. Madness has
already come. Gondor is not the mighty empire it once was. It must be
though, once again. Where no alliance or treaty already exists, all lands
and peoples must be seized, to form a buffer against the coming tides.
All forward units are granted full autonomy to proceed as quickly as
possible to the old empirial lands. Let all know that whether they survive
or not, the Legions to follow will be filled with their own children, so
they should pave the way as best they may.
This is a list of directions to the scout units. Signal from the
watchtowers for the next 2 hours, and proceed at full speed to attack
along the borders."
The administrator walks away with the papers, scrawled in Deneathors
now shaky but still unmistakeable hand. The level of detail is amazing.
How could he know which scouts would arrive in which order at the feral
strongholds, and order in such detail their combined attacks? What
wondrous, terrible device does Deneathor possess in that tower, and what
price must he be paying for its use?
> Announcement from Umbar, (#30) dated Tue Sep 16 21:43:28 2003
Anyone else see ship 666 scooting on by their coast?
Damn elves, going out joy-riding again I bet.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Sep 16 21:45:37 2003
Ship #666. The populace tried throwing rocks
at it, but unfortunately, no heavy weapons
were readily available...
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 16 22:49:56 2003
Quiz time!
Where did Durin the Deathless awake?
(be specific...i.e., "Middle Earth" doesn't cut it)
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $50 Empire gold
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 16 22:53:28 2003
Lots of answers received...NONE RIGHT SO FAR
You guys aren't getting specific enough :)
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Sep 16 22:54:45 2003
Methinks he awaketh right were he passed out the night
before.
*hick*
Hell of a unexpect party though.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 16 22:55:18 2003
bwahhahahahhaha!
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Sep 16 22:55:51 2003
The best parties are when you wake *not*
where you passed out the night before...
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 16 22:56:10 2003
Correct answer received (so stop hammering me with wrong answers! :)
Durin the Deathless was granted life by Iluvatar, and set to sleep
in Middle Earth until the coming of the Eldar. At that time, he awoke
at Mount Gundabad in the northern Misty Mountains, where the Grey
Mountains meet them. This mountain was later the site of an Orc capital.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 16 22:59:49 2003
Ok, since I'm *still* getting wrong answers :)
The dwarves were *made* at the Smithy of Aule,
they DIDN'T WAKE UP THERE!
Sheesh :)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 16 23:04:00 2003
<deity sigh>
Did those of you from the first game learn nothing?
</deity sigh>
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 00:15:16 2003
Ok, ok, ok, this deity is wondering how hard he has to
bludgeon people over the head with hints. Argh!
> Announcement from Eregion, (#9) dated Wed Sep 17 00:16:51 2003
Pretty hard I'd bet.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 00:18:08 2003
"I'm sorry, Inigo. I didn't mean to jog him so hard!"
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 01:08:15 2003
From the very secret diary of Frodo Baggins:
Day one:
Feeling much better in House of Elrond after nice long nap. Also,
Sam gave me fabulous backrub and bubble bath. Platonic, brotherly
love so wonderful. Wasn't quite entirely sure why he needed to
suck on my toes, but am assured it has something to do with Elf
medicine.
Day Three:
Have agreed to carry Ring to Mordor. In hindsight, probably a bad move.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 17 03:14:45 2003
After reading the alleged diary of Galadriel,
I can catigorically say, it's a forgery,
as I've read the real thing.
Aside from the fact, that clean feet are
a neccesity in life, I have have yet to
wash my feet in her mirror. The bird bath,
yes, but the mirror, no.
Now, then, where did I leave my socks.
Oh yes, there they are, drying by the
large bird bath.
Note to self, call in the servants to remove
the dead birds.
WE are confused oh great Theodan, Ruler
of Rohan. What ailment of the mind brings
you to think we are swindlers? Is it the
treachery of our northern cousins? Rest
peaceful tonight, in knowing that Celeron,
Ruler of Lorien bids you tidings of peace
and prosperity. While I will attest that
our merchants do offer glittery "trikents"
for the discerning buyer, they are known
throughout the land as top of the line
merchandise.
Why, listen to some of this testimonial:
"There I was sobb'n in m'beer, as I was
need'n 'n anniversary gift for m'love.
When Duey, a Lorien merchant with the firm
Duey, Cheatum and Howe, offered me this
stun'en deal on a glittery silver ring
from Mordor. M'love was happy and I gotta
little, dontcha know," gushed Frodo, leader
of The_Shire.
and then there's
"I can't believe the price I got on these
slightly used dwarven axes, Mr. Howe sold us,"
enthused the procurement officer from the
Iron Hills, "Why, at these prices, we're
getting a better deal than if we'd made them
ourselves."
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Wed Sep 17 16:35:19 2003
WinACE News - Sept 17
Newest problem
WinACE crashes when you deleted an enemy unit with an owner
of ???.
I have fixed the problem and it will be included in the next release.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 17:15:48 2003
Hint for the day:
Players are reminded that they need civs in their capital to
produce BTUs. If you are running low on BTUs, move
some civs into your cap. They do not need to be there
over the update though. Move them out to someplace where
they can produce something, then move them back to your cap after
your civs.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 17:24:39 2003
Also, players are reminded that the deities are, shall we say,
'involved' in this game. I've been hinting about this
for a while now, yet none of you have seemed to have gotten it
yet. You are encouraged to consider what the deities might
be doing :)
Note: The deities will not do anything to significantly affect any country
in a positive or negative manner.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Sep 17 17:52:54 2003
Is there a way to add a country to the list
of available to tele to in WinACE?
With hidden enabled, you get the countries
you have contact with and the deity. This
game has 3 deities, and you have to manually
type tele's to any but Manwe...
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 17:58:25 2003
Ok, heads up people.
"spy *" will do bad things...like consume one HELL of a lot
of BTUs. Bug.
If instead, you did a "spy #0" it would consume FAR fewer BTUs.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Sep 17 18:07:42 2003
You know you are playing too much empire when
you find yourself telling your wife about
problems you are encountering in the game in
an attemp to keep her pacified because you play
so much.
You know your wife is spending too much time
with an empire player when she looks at you,
and quite matter of factly says "Thats why I
don't participate in world domination."
Sadly, only much later did I see the absurdity
in it all.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 18:08:43 2003
Your wife is a very funny woman :)
I made sure my not-yet-wife-to-be knew about Empire before
I asked her to marry me. So, when she said yes, she knew
what she was getting into :)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 18:15:56 2003
Ok, bit of clarification.
If you were to do a 'spy *' it would attempt to spy
from all of your sectors. It would also consume a huge
amount of BTUs.
If instead, you set realm #0 to cover your
entire nation, and instead did a 'spy #0'
you'd get the same info, but with far fewer
BTUs consumed.
See 'info realm' and 'info spy' for more information.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Sep 17 18:24:23 2003
The scientists of Dol Amroth are deeply
concerned about what is wrong with the water
off of the coast. There seem to be no fish
at all. Further exploration is necessary.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 18:24:58 2003
Might have something to do with Lord Celeron washing his feet.
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Wed Sep 17 18:36:49 2003
WinACE question - adding countries to country list
Simple answer - currently No.
I looked into the issue about adding the other countries
so it would be possible to telegram them.
As it turns out the server does not let you telegram other
countries that you have not contacted other then deity
countries.
So I figured that it was not a big deal as you can still
telegram the deities in the command window. I know that I
find it a bother sometimes as well.
Background info if you are interested.
The country list is build from the tech report. The deity
countries do not appear in this report. However, they do
appear in the relations report. So I have thinking about
a way to incorporate them from there as well but the current priority is the
unit filters.
So I am hoping to have a new release by the end of the weekend,
I will try and incorporate the change to add the deities
as well to the country list.
Hopefully, this makes sense.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Sep 17 18:41:41 2003
I'm just impressed with how quick you are
cranking out these updates and bug fixes for
WinACE. Jim Simons did a great job, but he
was not nearly as fast about updates as you
are. Keep up the good work!
> Announcement from Rivendell, (#6) dated Wed Sep 17 18:48:01 2003
I have found if you run the:
View->Refresh Database->Update All
AND
View->Refresh Database->Update Player Info
Then exit and re-enter the game I can see
the newly known players in the WinACE
telegram window.
Also as I understand it ONLY the oceans have
enough fish for a fishing boat to make a haul.
Lakes and Rivers do not.
Elrond
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 18:49:04 2003
'info lotr' is your friend :)
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Wed Sep 17 18:54:56 2003
| The deities will not do anything to significantly affect any country
| in a positive or negative manner.
Except for borrowing a fresh eored and return it completely
fatigued and exhausted... We nearly had to put the poor horses
down.
And I thought Bungy wasn't deitying...
Bill Ferny
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 18:57:50 2003
The horsemaster who did that has been fired.
He suffered from a rare form of dyslexia.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 19:10:54 2003
From the very secret diary of Gimli son of Gloin
Day One:
Grr. Argh.
Day Two:
Faffing about in Rivendell with stuck-up elves v. bad for my
digestion. Have asked Elrond to move me to second floor as cannot
get into bathroom here without being subjected to sight of hobbits
bathing amongst scented candles. Is ridiculous. Got splashed with
strawberry bath foam yesterday. On plus side, beard now silky
and conditioned.
Day Three:
Elrond refuses to move my room. Walked in on hobbits again this
morning. What WERE they doing with that carrot? Inbred bunch of
halfwits, no wonder they can't even grow decent beards.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Wed Sep 17 19:10:59 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 8:
Taps not working. Should perhaps have kept water system operators from
mines. Getting very thirsty.
Went down to Anduin for drink. Some noxious evil in water, feel it
infusing body and soul. Should have noticed all the dead fish before
drinking.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 19:11:49 2003
Ah HA! So, there ARE fish in the Anduin!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 17 23:27:23 2003
re: feet washing
Well, if you hadn't turned my start
sectors into a damn bathing pool.
There, just might be fish in there.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 23:28:10 2003
If there were fish in there, you've already used them as a
special under-arm ointment.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 17 23:28:47 2003
Not me, blame the other sods
on the southern end. My end is just a
small tributary
> Announcement from Umbar, (#30) dated Thu Sep 18 01:52:12 2003
Ooo.. I spotted a Valinor plane... I sure hope that wasn't
Smaug.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Thu Sep 18 02:00:26 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 9:
Hazmat teams investigating the mysterious death of the Anduin have
determined the cause - Elves washing their scaly 2000 year old feet in
the headwaters. Team is fearful the entire ocean could be sterilized,
coastlines and rivers already dead.
Have received anonymous "Modest Proposal" detailing a simple solution to
the Elf problem. Forward units are to confiscate all chemical and
biological weapons (Elf Feet) for incineration by blast furnace. Legions
enthusiastic about this solution (suspect they were the source of the
original proposal).
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Thu Sep 18 02:36:14 2003
A flophouse in the harbour district of The Shire:
Dest Royemall looked on with ill-concealed impatience. "Sheate just
goes on and on," he thought. With the recent influx of men and elves
into The Shire, the ruler had become even more eccentric of late.
Take that incident with the elven lass, the jug of imported Bree beer
and the blind mule. If word made it back to the pointy-eared ones....
Dest shuddered to think.
He was due to make a report to Sheate on the latest relations with
the surrounding neighbors. Unfortunately, Sheate was busy
experimenting with using live bunnies as some sort of diaper. While
they didn't seem to function as expected, Sheate was clearly getting
some sort of pleasure from it.
"It's a &*!@(*$ #*%()*@) tunic that #(*$(#$ you #(*(#$* #($#(!"
Sheate beamed a smile.
"Your #*($)! men have done a #(*(# (#*)!_# job with the (#$)!$#$*
borders. And the #*(#)@(! dealings with the (#*$@()$ ()$#*%(
neighbors. #*(# I (*#()$ couldn't have (#*$(@# #$*($ done it any
#*$($*%( better."
Ah, yes. Sheate had clearly been smoking and drinking again. Well,
it was 8am.
"Sir, I have to te...."
"You $#(*%(! want %*$( something, *%(!)$ don't you #(*%( #(@)#???
You can #(@!)# have any #*$(# thing you #(*$(#@ want - as long as
you #(*$(#$ assure me that we #$*%($% won't give any #(*$(# quarter
to those (#*$( $#(*$#( (#@$*#()$* %#$(*%()*# $#(*(s!!! Just #(*$#(
tell me how much you *$#(*$(# require. *&%#$ loads or (*%$ tonnes?"
Dest thought a moment... "Sheate, loads."
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 17:25:25 2003
Ok people, don't anger the Gods. Feed your people!
Thu Sep 18 17:24:56 2003
Starvation
own sect eff
[...]
48 sectors
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 18:07:40 2003
Quiz time!
Q: What was the name of Treebeard's wife?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $50 Empire gold
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 18:22:06 2003
Correct answer received!
Fimbrethil, or Wandlimb, was Treebeard's wife. She left
Fangorn when she travelled with the other Entwives to the
east of the great river to plant gardens in a region known
as Brown Lands. Not much is known of her fate. She may have
been lost when Sauron blasted the region during the War of
the Last Alliance at the end of the Second Age.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 18 18:57:38 2003
Have you noticed that the dude who
wrote these books, had very little regard
for women. Killing them off by the
handfuls. At least he could have gotten
a little before killing them off.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 19:03:36 2003
And just what has Lord Celeron been doing with
Galadriel for the last 2000 years? Sheesh
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 19:03:49 2003
Everyone pray for east coast U.S. It's going to get very,
very ugly. :(
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 18 19:06:08 2003
Well, in order to spice things up a bit,
we decided to try a bit of the BDSM culture.
Nothing more satisfying than hearing
the crack of a whip on a lovely elf
maidens back. Oooooooo, get's me hot
just thinking about it.
Now, all I need to do is transfer that
aggression to another.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 18 19:07:42 2003
OH GAWD, _PLEASE_ let Isabel wipe the
scum that reside in DC off the face
of the earth. Purge our country of these
vicious vermin, so we may start fresh
and build a new, better society.
Amen
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Thu Sep 18 19:34:48 2003
What, you want Texans running the country or something?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 19:47:23 2003
<sarcasm>
My vote is to let Californians run DC!
</sarcasm>
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 18 19:50:15 2003
But wait, they are. So, gollie gee
Mr Mithrilien, you just stated the obvious.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 19:53:29 2003
No, Texans are currently in charge in Washington :)
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 18 19:55:20 2003
No, they are only in charge of the
Presidency. It's the Congress that really
runs things, and in that, Californian's are
in charge. Just follow the money.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 20:03:17 2003
Hrm. Speaker of the House: Dennis Haster (R - Illinois)
House Majority Leader: Tom Delay (R - Texas)
Senate President Pro Tempore: Ted Stevens, (R - Alaska)
Senate Majority Leader: Bill Frist, (R - Tennessee)
Senate Minority Leader: Tom Daschle, (D - South Carolina)
What were you saying about California?
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 18 20:03:24 2003
Alright, now for the $2500 question.
Why the hell isn't my tech going up.
I have dust, oil and lcms in a 100% eff
tech center. My education is high enough.
It says I SPENT money on tech, yet it hasn't
gone UP! WTF over!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 18 20:04:31 2003
Stop trying to muddy the waters you,
you, you. LIBERAL!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 18 20:06:20 2003
Thank you Mithrilian. NOW, I get to
change it to a research station. At least, I
KNOW that research will go up.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Sep 18 20:07:27 2003
Well now. I thought this was an inovative
twist on the game of empire, but it turns
out this is the politically loonies debate
society.
Personally I would like NOT to see this crap
in empire annoucements, but also I will not
stand by while ANYONE cheers on the destruction
of an entire area of a country just because
someone you don't agree with "won" the election.
This is the last I will say on the subject...
GWB
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 18 20:08:43 2003
Speak not what your country can do
for you, but how many liberals you can kill.
Go Isabel and may god preserve the righteous
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Thu Sep 18 20:11:24 2003
Three things:
(1) Can someone fill me in on what just
happened over there in the good 'ol US.
(3) I thought this was empire but it turns
out to be rec.us.politics - bad mojo.
(2) Give a life people. It's a big round
world and it revolves around an iron core.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Sep 18 20:13:39 2003
Iron? Shit, I knew I needed to make
another mine. I was wondering why
I kept running low on the stuff.
> Announcement from Eregion, (#9) dated Thu Sep 18 20:14:48 2003
I thought iron was what you did to a wrinkled shirt?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 20:15:08 2003
:)
Hurricane Isabel, packing winds of 160km/hr, slammed into
the coast of North Carolina on the Eastern seaboard of the
U.S. today. The winds actually aren't the bad part. The bad
part is the flooding. Rainfall in some areas is expected to
be as much as 25 centimeters. That area of the country has
already seen significant rainfall, especially recently, so
the new water will have nowhere to go but flood. There will
be immense property damage, running into the billions of
dollars. People will die.
> Announcement from Eregion, (#9) dated Thu Sep 18 20:16:30 2003
So, could you put those measurements in english?
Besides, you build your house where they have hurricanes,
don't cry when you need an oar to get your car into the garage!
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Thu Sep 18 20:20:21 2003
Bad mojo.
Weather. A much saner discussion topic
than politics.
We settle flood plains because they are
fertile and then suffer the consequences
when they flood. Wouldn't the insurance
companies be better proactively pumping
the billions into flood defences rather
than rebuilding costs?
On empire - 'show land build' is just
codding us about the tech 102 units eh?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 20:22:13 2003
Eregion, he was obviously not from the U.S. so I converted
to units he would understand :)
Winds: 100mph. Rain: 10 inches.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 20:23:33 2003
Regarding tech 102 units...
Players are encouraged to consider why the deities put
units at tech 102, and to recall THE NUMEROUS FRIGGIN' HINTS
I'VE BEEN GIVING ALL OF YOU that the deities are not on the
sidelines in this game (nor last LOTR game for that matter).
How many times do I have to hint? Sheesh! :)
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Thu Sep 18 20:25:01 2003
Could a LOTR I player please tele me a recipe
for an invincible attack force. I have 100k
to spend.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 20:26:05 2003
Considering that it costs >$100k to train a fighter pilot
these days? Nothing :)
> Announcement from Eregion, (#9) dated Thu Sep 18 21:09:22 2003
Why are there units at tech 102 if we can't build tech?
This is kinda lame.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 21:25:00 2003
Er, I've already answered that. Eregion's lack of reading
annos is lame :)
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Thu Sep 18 21:27:55 2003
}Players are encouraged to consider why the deities put
}units at tech 102, and to recall THE NUMEROUS FRIGGIN'
do I get $25 Gold for figur'n it out?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 21:28:57 2003
No. If you figure it out, and you happen to be in a
position to take advantage of figuring it out, you
will be rewarded. One country figured it out.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 21:58:03 2003
Ah HA! Another one of you mutts finally figured out the
thing I keep hinting about.
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Thu Sep 18 22:41:24 2003
Thanks to correct the "save report function" in
WINACE client (last Lotr2 version not working)...
As it is currently only saving first line...
Girion
Lord of Dale
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Thu Sep 18 22:51:29 2003
WinACE - save report function
I just try a save and it worked. Which particular report
were you trying and were doing a save to disk or save to log function?
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Thu Sep 18 22:59:01 2003
Try to save report to log with the newspaper ...
it has only the first line saved ....
Girion
Lord of Dale
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 23:12:07 2003
Uhg. :(
4in/10cm of rain in parts of north-east North Carolina already,
and the eye of the storm's only just made it onshore.
Here's a great picture showing the scale of this monster:
http://www.osei.noaa.gov/OSEIiod.html
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Thu Sep 18 23:30:15 2003
WinACE - Saved Report problem
I understand the problem now.
It should not be to bad to fix, I will include it in the next release, hopefully
this weekend.
In the mean time, the Save to File does work I believe.
Background information.
The control was changed to text box which can contain multiple lines of
information. When the text from the text box is inserted in the telegram
database, it checks to ensure that the insert string is smaller then 255
(field size), if it is not then it truncates and adds "...". Look familiar.
Keep the problems coming so we can get a good general release in the near future.
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Fri Sep 19 00:08:28 2003
If anybody is using pei as a client and would
like any changes made, let me know, as I will
be updating it for my own use anyway.
So far I've added a novattack and made fdelta
and simu work again.
Some more changes to tools in the pipeline and
probably some changes to mail/wmail.
I would also like to hear about any possible
improvements/new tools you may have ideas for.
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Fri Sep 19 00:10:27 2003
The peaceful Dwarves of Erebor have been attacked by our 'so-called'
friends Iron Hills and Dale!!! This is a call for aid from any in range -
come to our aid for the good of our Children!! These Tyrants must be stopped!
> Announcement from Smaug, (#47) dated Fri Sep 19 00:12:13 2003
I could fly over...
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Fri Sep 19 00:15:44 2003
The Dwarves of Erebor would be in debt for life! We have arranged an
offering for you... burn as many of those Tyrants.. All you can eat special...
> Announcement from Smaug, (#47) dated Fri Sep 19 00:17:02 2003
Mmm. I like Dwarves with a side of Men, dipped in Elf sauce.
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Fri Sep 19 00:23:30 2003
? Mighty SMAUG,
We, Men of Dale, always feeded you,
We were aware of your preference for little
ugly dwarfs for dinner,
We were almost "out of stock" of them, so we decided to please you, to
replenished our warehouses near your moutain with them.
Feel free to take what's left,
Girion,
Lord of Dale
> Announcement from Smaug, (#47) dated Fri Sep 19 00:24:18 2003
Got any men for the side dish?
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Fri Sep 19 00:28:25 2003
We could tumble on some agreements,
O Mighty SMAUG
Girion,
Lord of Dale,
"Official Provider" of fresh meet
for the Mighty SMAUG.
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Fri Sep 19 00:28:29 2003
}The peaceful Dwarves of Erebor have been attacked by our 'so-called'
}friends Iron Hills and Dale!!!
What !!?? PEACEFUL Dwarves are not of my Kind !
How do you dare call us "friends" !?
No need to hurry to help them, there's nothing left to be saved.
Dain II Ironfoot, King under the Mountain.
> Announcement from Smaug, (#47) dated Fri Sep 19 00:31:07 2003
King under the mountain?
BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHHA
NOT FOR LONG!!!
<swoop>
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Sep 19 00:35:28 2003
Sheape Baynger looks to the heavens and sees the mighty
dragon belching flames in the distance.
"Wonder if I could shag that?" he says to noone in
particular.
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Fri Sep 19 00:38:02 2003
The blood of Iron Hills and Dale will spill, if it is not by my glorious
hand, then by the women and children of erebor, If it is not soon, then
in their other lifetimes, there will be vengeance!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 19 00:49:07 2003
Hmm.
Fri Sep 19 00:47 Smaug overflies Iron_Hills territory
Fri Sep 19 00:46 Smaug overflies Mirkwood territory two times
Fri Sep 19 00:46 Smaug overflies Erebor territory eight times
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 19 06:36:36 2003
Still 10 sectors starving at the update. Come on people,
by now you should have your distribution networks setup!
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Fri Sep 19 09:23:03 2003
Welcome to Hell
ATM Hell that is
Went to the store for coffee fix, ended up in the Mount of Doom
Bank of the West ATM Card, debited my account *FOUR* times for the same bill
Never again will his Satanic Majesty trust ATM
Now I know how Mr. Ed's sheep feel, getting fucked up the ass over and over
and over ... Gollum, Gollum ... (where did that ring go?)
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Sep 19 11:33:19 2003
CHOMP! MMM, tastes like chicken.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Sep 19 11:54:03 2003
The bad thing with the 30 hour update schedule is
that there is always at least one that is really
bad for your sleepy time...
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Fri Sep 19 15:07:29 2003
WinACE News
Newest bug is related to Fuel again.
I fixed the land menu item bug not the ship menu item.
I have released a new version.
It is available at sourceforge.net under LOTR 1.3.
As I just updated the site, it will take some time to get to the mirrors.
The newest version shows 2.2.16 as the title.
If you get 2.2.15, the mirror has not been updated yet.
This version as a problem with bulletins not showing correctly (missing LFs).
Problems and Changes
1) Fuel Menu Item
2) Saving Reports larger than 255 into Telegram window
3) Added Deity countries to Country List for telegrams and other commands.
4) Removed the empty frame on load, unload, tend, lload, lunload, ltend
5) Added title to Sea Frame - still not very pretty
6) New Unit Filters - buttons removed and replaced with a combo box.
The unit filters are command and capability/ability based now,
fully dynamic no hard coding.
I have added the filters to number of the commands as well.
You should find that Unit fields are more active now as
they related to the unit grid.
I will be doing some more reorganization and hopefully cleanup
to the way that unit filters work.
My ability test and fix problems has been significantly reduced
as I have been eliminated from the game by Harlindon with assistance
from The_Shire.
I will see what I can do with deities to make some arrangement for
future support.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Sep 19 15:35:26 2003
I just downloaded it. The new version is at
the North Carolina mirror.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 19 20:23:34 2003
From the very secret diary of Legolas:
Day one:
Went to Council of Elrond. Was prettiest person there. Agreed
to follow some tiny little man to Mordor to throw ring into volcano.
Very important mission - gold ring so tacky.
Day four:
Boromir so irritating. Why must he wear big shield like dinner
plate all the time? Climbed up Caradhras but wimpy humans who can
not walk on snow insisted we climb back down. Am definitely
prettiest member of the Fellowship. Go me!
Day six:
Far too dark in Mines of Moria to brush hair properly. Am very
afraid I am developing a tangle.
Orcs *so* silly.
Still the prettiest.
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Fri Sep 19 20:49:35 2003
The Dwarves of Erebor are gathering tonight around the great fire to
mark an end to their empire, come join us in our swift and bitter end.
PS-bring lots of military. Eored's and Ent's welcome.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 19 21:26:22 2003
From the very secret diaries of Erebor:
Day One:
Had one hell of a smashing party under the mountain tonight.
Drunken Dwarves everywhere.
Day Two:
Big fecking hangover headache. Men of Dale pissed at all
the trash around the mountain. Claim it's an ecological
disaster. Told them to piss off, but only after asking them
for aspirin.
Day Three:
Received court order from Iron Hills forcing me to go to
court for violating noise ordinances two days ago. Have
decided to ignore summons.
Day Five:
Armies of Dale and Iron Hills showed up, demanding an
end to parties. Am not happy.
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Fri Sep 19 21:59:42 2003
Flint Fireforge's personal notes:
Day 1: Had a party last night, whew - brutal hangover.
Day 2: I think I am still drunk...cause I just got attacked by a tree...
Day 3: Apparantly the tree's call themselves Ents..time to bring the fire
out. Evil tree's.
Day 4: Out of matches... just my luck...
Day 5: Ok, I can't start a fire, gotta stop drinking...
Day 6: You'd think with the last name of 'Fireforge' I could figure out
a way to start a fecking fire!
Day 7: Tree's and something called Eored's... going to beat my Brother up
for putting funny mushrooms in my drinks last week...
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Sep 19 22:22:40 2003
Remember, Every Wednesday is Hobbit Bowling Night down
here in Harondor. Enjoy the Hobbits squeals of delight as
they get hurled down our beautifully polished Entwood floors.
Bring Friends. Bring Hobbits. Hell, bring Dwarves or Elves if
you must. We're not picky(1). So come down, Enjoy a Pint(2),
and watch the excitement!
Harandor Board of Tourism.
(1) Orcs, Undead, and other vile evil creatures must be
properly bathed to be admitted.
(2) Elves must be over the age of 2100 and possess a valid ID
to drink.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Fri Sep 19 22:34:02 2003
>> Announcement from (31) Harondor dated Fri Sep 19 21:20:33 2003
>Remember, Every Wednesday is Hobbit Bowling Night down
>here in Harondor. Enjoy the Hobbits squeals of delight as
>they get hurled down our beautifully polished Entwood floors.
>Bring Friends. Bring Hobbits. Hell, bring Dwarves or Elves if
>you must. We're not picky(1). So come down, Enjoy a Pint(2),
>and watch the excitement!
Wait a minute, you've got your priorities screwed up !
The hobbits, together with the men of Bree, should be producing the
beer ! Not be tossed along some wooden lane...
Please get your priorities straight, or we'll stop the beer supply.
Barliman Butterbur, expert brewer of Bree.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Sep 19 22:45:37 2003
Sir,
I'm afraid If I consume that beer you offered, I would no longer be able
to properly address you by your name and title. Heck, I'm have trouble with
it sober. Now then, a couple of questions before I sign you up. What is your
weight? And do you own a Helmet?
Vannor, Head of Harandor Tourism.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Fri Sep 19 22:51:08 2003
>Now then, a couple of questions before I sign you up. What is your
>weight?
Including beer belly ? I don't think you need that info right now...
>And do you own a Helmet?
509 gram, 63cm circumference. Why do you need to know ? You'd better be
consuming our beer out of glasses, instead of these stinkin' helmets, it
clouds your vision. Hmmm, maybe that explains...
Barliman Butterbur,
Master brewer of Bree.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Sep 19 23:08:30 2003
Hmm.. Well we have plenty of used helmets laying around here.. Yes, Yes...
This one will do quite fine. Its from a First born Calvary too. You lucky
guy. I really must insist on getting your weight though. We used to not
require it, but then a Nazgul got a hold of a hobbit much too light for him,
and well.... Well it really wasn't pretty, but we've patched up the wall
and every thing is good to go. So come on down, and bring lots of your little
friends.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Fri Sep 19 23:15:06 2003
>Hmm.. Well we have plenty of used helmets laying around here.. Yes, Yes...
>This one will do quite fine. Its from a First born Calvary too. You lucky
>guy. I really must insist on getting your weight though.
Hmm, if you insist: 105 lb +/- 30 lb depending on how much beer I've had.
Damn, why is it so tasty...
>We used to not require it, but then a
>Nazgul got a hold of a hobbit much too light for him, and well.... Well
>it really wasn't pretty, but we've patched up the wall and every thing
>is good to go.
Will I qualify ? We can send some barrels (by trebuchet mail) to tie on
to the Nazgul's back for extra weight... A supply of beer always comes
in handy. What's the maximum load for one of your Nazgul donkeys ?
>So come on down, and bring lots of your little friends.
Ah, we were already wondering: where does he get the hobbits to bowl with ?
It must be glossy holdiday borchures like this you send to the Shire that
keeps'em coming...
Barliman
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Fri Sep 19 23:17:52 2003
Hmm, judging by the degree of nonsense and jibberish, it's
time for yet another update...
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Sep 19 23:21:00 2003
There's not another update until Tuesday. The
gibberish can go on for days and days.
Although I did see where demandupdate is
turned on. I have no idea why. I can't
imagine all of us could agree.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Sep 19 23:23:13 2003
Its not gibberish, its atmosphere you dolt.
By the way, what's your height, weight, and helmet size?
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Fri Sep 19 23:23:56 2003
It's weekend guys...
Try to remember what "life" means :)
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Sep 19 23:30:18 2003
Barliman... Barliman... Where have I heard that name before. Oh yes, you run that
Dancing Horse Bar. In that case, please bring the brew, and lots of it. You see
we are at the bottom of the Anduin, and the water is unbearable down here.
Tastes like old feet.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Sat Sep 20 00:43:27 2003
I was just looking through the info
pages after someone mentioned demandupdates.
Whomever thought of this was cool.
Come on everyone, do a zdone y.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Sat Sep 20 05:45:48 2003
>So come on down, and bring lots of your little friends.
Day three:
Suspect Harondor is another pervy hobbit fancier.
Keeps talking about bowling with them, but I think
he really just wants to 'roll' with them. I hope
he's not after Frodo. If he tries anything, Sam will
kill him.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Sat Sep 20 14:38:50 2003
Shhh.... Thats supposed to be a secret. I just needed a way to both lure the
little guys down here, and get their measurements so the tailor can sew up
the sheep costumes.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Sat Sep 20 16:39:56 2003
Day Four:
Harondor placed an unusually large order for sheep costumes.
Tried to disguise it as preparations for a halloween party.
Now suspect he's a pervy sheep shagger too. Might send Pip
and Merry anyways as they like that sort of thing.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Sat Sep 20 18:31:40 2003
[19:640] Command : zdone c
You DON'T want an update, yet.
2 of a total of 34 lunatics want an update.
What, there's only two lunatics in this game?
Something's wrong.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Sat Sep 20 19:49:02 2003
Quiz time!
Who made the ring of power that Elrond bore?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $50 Empire gold.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Sat Sep 20 19:58:28 2003
Correct answer received!
Celebrimbor made Vilya, the Ring of Air. He originally made it
for Gil-galad. Gil-galad passed it on to Elrond to
aid in the founding of Rivendell.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Sat Sep 20 20:28:44 2003
#############################################################
Players are reminded that regardless of what the output of
the 'update' command says, the actual update schedule is as
shown on the Lord of the Rings Empire website at:
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/updateschedule.html
#############################################################
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Sat Sep 20 22:20:52 2003
For sale: 31 sectors of prime land! Higest bidder wins!
PS - bring some military units as there are nasty tree's afoot!
Flint Fireforge
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Sat Sep 20 22:22:43 2003
Day 10:
Suspect Erebor has been spending too much time in the bath
with the hobbits, as he has some sort of nasty foot
infection involving a tree.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Sat Sep 20 22:42:56 2003
From the very secret diary of Legolas:
Date ten:
Gandalf fell into shadow. In other news, I think I am developing
a spot on my nose. V. serious situation, as Elven spots likely to
last for 500 years or more.
Still prettiest, despite blasted spot.
Day eleven:
In Lothlorien. Suspect Galadriel may be prettier than me.
Also, am quite sure she copied my hairstyle. I was wearing
that same look at least 1,000 years ago. Silly bint. She was
most annoyed that I used her mirrored fountain to take a nice
bubble bath.
I choose to ignore her claim that my hair clogged her drain.
Not one strand of my hair has fallen out in 800 years, why
would it start now?
Still prettiest by far.
Day thirty:
All this paddling about in boats is hell on my complexion.
Aragorn obviously starting to find Frodo strangely attractive.
Sam will kill him if he tries anything.
Still the prettiest.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Sat Sep 20 23:45:20 2003
[235:640] Command : show sex
Printing for tech level '1000'
Build, stats, or capability data (b,s,c)? no
Dammit! This is supposed to be a peep show! Why isn't it
asking me for a quarter?!?
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Sep 22 15:41:01 2003
Try "show sultry sex" and report your findings :-)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 22 16:41:12 2003
Ok, perhaps you need to explain what ships have to do with
sultry sex :)
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Sep 22 16:47:19 2003
info show
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Sep 22 16:49:51 2003
Just trying to see what nifty little toys you tech 1000 guys have access
to :-)
ps disregard last wire, just trying to see what other cute phrases I can make
up.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 22 16:55:05 2003
##########################################################
IMPORTANT!!!!
##########################################################
The 'update' command will NOT report the correct forthcoming
update time. Why? Because to make it show the correct time
we'd have to kick everybody off and recompile the server
every time it needed to be update, which is every weekend.
Thus, the 'update' command is NOT going to report the proper
update time.
The MOTD (message you get when you log into the game) will
report what the last update was and when the next update
will be. Also, you can look at the update schedule posted
on the Lord of the Rings Empire website here:
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/updateschedule.html
##########################################################
##########################################################
##########################################################
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 22 19:06:30 2003
Quiz time!
This one's tricky...
How long did Sam and Frodo sleep after their rescue from the
Mount Doom after the destruction of the One Ring?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $100 Empire gold.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 22 19:30:40 2003
Correct answer received!
Frodo and Sam were rescued from Mount Doom on the 25th of Rethe
(or March) in the reckoning of The Shire. They were placed under
the healing care of Aragorn, who as part of their recovery from
the ills they had endured in Mordor, essentially put them to
sleep. They awoke Ithilien on the 8th of Astron (April), 14
days after their rescue. Frodo awoke before Sam.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 22 19:42:15 2003
A player in the game just sent me this...
"curse you .."
Hmm. I'll take suggestion on the proper way in which
to smite him for his curse :)
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Mon Sep 22 19:43:19 2003
You never know about these elves. More
than likely, Mirkwood was complaining about
something or another and being his
usual self, decided to take it out on
the dieties.
Stupid elves.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 22 19:44:10 2003
Uh, Lorien? Elrond married your daughter.
I'd be more careful with your selection of words :)
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Mon Sep 22 19:45:05 2003
alias "smite : des ?own=$idiot * . "
:)
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Mon Sep 22 19:47:31 2003
Dammit, why'd you have to bring up
that old news. I knew I should have had
my guards riddle the fool with arrows.
But NO!, Galadriel said, Oh, he's so cute.
BAH! Women! Can't live with 'em,
Can't sell 'em. And then they say,
Oh go away for a while. Go play.
Of course, when I do go play, I get
into trouble. Must be that hobbit beer.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Sep 22 19:47:31 2003
In this day and age aren't you supposed to smite those who curse you
*and* their relatives as well?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 22 19:48:01 2003
muttermuttermuttermirkwood<>rivendellmuttermuttermutter
deityneedsmorecoffeemuttermuttermutter
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Mon Sep 22 19:50:49 2003
Damn, this is starting to get laggy
BAD!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 22 19:52:47 2003
From the very secret diary of Haldir of the Silvan Elves:
Day 3,278,932:
Fellowship of the ring arrived on the borders of Lorien
today. Brought them all, including the four Periannath
to Caras Galadhon. Lord Celeron keeps blushing whenever
he sees the Periannath. Suspect he's a pervy hobbit fancier
now. He seems to be especially keen on Frodo. If he tries
anything, Sam will kill him.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Sep 22 20:46:50 2003
From the very secret diary of Saruman the White:
Day Three:
Am becoming disenchanted with palantir guy. Refuses to send
me photo, except of one v. large eyeball. Says he is shy but I
rather suspect he is fat, or perhaps hairy. Have heard some
v. bad stories about palantir relationships. Should probably
cool it for a while.
Day Seven:
Well, wouldn't you know, palantir guy turned out to be Dark
Lord of Mordor. Just my luck. Could have been worse, I guess.
Sauron not fat or hairy, just disembodied force of evil.
Must go now, have to raise massive demon army to scourge
the earth. Also, have manicure appointment. Is no easy task
keeping nails pointy.
Day Nine:
Typical. Gandalf just came waltzing by and he knows I hate
drop-ins. Wanted to yap on and on all about the ring he gave
his new boyfriend, terrible pervy hobbit-fancier old Gandalf is.
Disgrace to the Order. Just wants to show off and remind me that
he's got a hobbit, and I'm just dating an eyeball. Well, Saruman
the White does not stand for this treatment. Showed him my
Wizard Wrestling Federation moves. Have delivered smackdown. Go me!
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Mon Sep 22 23:50:17 2003
Dwarven music classics, vol. 1
"Where have all.. my sectors.. gone.. Long time passing... Where have
all my sectors gone.. Long time ago...". Name that tune, and I'll invite
you and your massive army (please) to come claim your prize!! Some Ereborian
ale and a few Iron Hills / Dale heads!! Yay! Fun, come all!
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Tue Sep 23 00:26:13 2003
Did you find this little yellow submarine inside the lake
we sometime ago we shared ?
If I loose, it's not a problem,
I already invited my armies into your lands ...
:o)
Girion
Lord of Dale
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 23 00:48:59 2003
Note to self:
When dealing with those scurvy, horse
smelling cavalry wannabe's, remember to
check the horses teeth first, before buying.
Well, at least they make some good burger
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 01:12:03 2003
From the very secret diary of Lord Celeron:
Day Eleven:
Was tricked into buy some horses off of Rohan that were
more suited to burger meat or glue. Curse those horse
masters! How was I supposed to know a horse doesn't
normally have only three legs?
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 23 03:10:11 2003
And when I find the thief who
stole my diary, I'm going to kill them.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 03:23:44 2003
From the second very secret diary of Lord Celeron:
Day One:
Have started new diary. Am v. tired of having them stolen.
Hope this one won't get stolen either. Suspect Galadriel
is thieving them and selling them to Orcs.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Sep 23 03:29:15 2003
Note to Galador from the Foreign Minister,
Do more research about these elves. Apparantly
these are what we thought. They do *not* live
in hollow trees. Most distressingly, they are
not responsible for those tasty cookies and
crackers. In fact, no mention of the Keebler
line of elves has been heard at all.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 23 04:42:56 2003
We are pleased to announce a new line of products
Small cookies dunked in chocolate, or
they have chocolate between 2 cookies.
Just visit your nearest store and pick up
a bag or two. You can find them under
the name of Keebler.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 23 05:04:34 2003
Have you counted your sheep lately?
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Sep 23 05:06:21 2003
Yes, in fact, I have. We are are missing several that
graze near your border. We want them back!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 23 05:07:20 2003
Hmmm, rangers did send word to the
palace that they'd found several used ones,
so I told them to turn them into dinner.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Sep 23 05:08:24 2003
The moral officer will be displeased.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 23 05:09:06 2003
I understand they were a bit on the
stringy side. But, well, those in the
field must make do with what they
can.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 23 05:11:17 2003
Umm, where's the update?
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Sep 23 05:11:49 2003
They wouldn't be stringy if they had enough water to
drink! But no, someone had to wash their feet in the river
and not only kill all the fish, but render it unfit
for sheep to drink.
First water tainting, now sheep poachers...
nasty little elves.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 23 05:12:38 2003
In consolation, we'll be sending a limited
supply of elvish cookies made by our
master pastry maker, Keebler.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Sep 23 05:13:15 2003
I imagine they will taste just like sheep dung too!
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Tue Sep 23 05:24:10 2003
Does this mean no update? It's Monday here and already Tuesday there.
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Tue Sep 23 05:25:40 2003
Why does WinAce when you receive map info, only show that info in gray?
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Sep 23 05:28:24 2003
By receive, do you mean via the share command?
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Tue Sep 23 05:31:23 2003
Yes, sharebmap.
> Announcement from Dorwinion, (#21) dated Tue Sep 23 05:32:00 2003
Did I read the update schedule correct oh great deity? There is no
update from Sept 26th to October 8th?
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Sep 23 05:32:52 2003
You didn't get any owner info with the map. share just
pushes over the designations.
I could be wrong... I'm sure someone will correct me
if I am.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 06:10:02 2003
I'm beginning to wonder how many &(*#@$&*(@#&$(*@)#^$@#%^$&@
times I have to announce when the next update is. For
chrissake people, read the damn announcements and MOTD.
Why do you think I put the &*#@($&@#(*&$*(#
"############################################"
around the annos regarding the updates? Why do you
think bother with editing the
every day? I sure as heck don't do it to impress Lorien!
WAKE UP!
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/updateschedule.html
READ IT
It has the &*(#@$&@(*$^#^@ update schedule out to
update 59. It is GOSPEL. Yes, there is a fargin'
break from Sept. 26th to October 7th in the game.
That was sent to ALL of you in e-mail. Will you
people PLEASE read?
Grump deity
aka Mithrilien
PS: I'm not worried about offending anyone with this
announcement because the ones who would most likely
be offended won't read it anyways.
harrumph
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 06:13:05 2003
For the UMPTEENTH time....
The 'update' command will not give you correct information.
The correct update information can be found on the Lord of
the Rings Empire website at:
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/updateschedule.html
In order for the 'update' command to give correct information
all the time, we'd have to recompile the server after every
weekend, and before every weekend too. We are not going to
do that. So, READ the update schedule on the website:
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/updateschedule.html
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 06:15:01 2003
###########################################################
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I wonder if that's enough lines of "###" for people to realize
this is an important post? Probably not.
THE UPDATE SCHEDULE CAN BE FOUND HERE:
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/updateschedule.html
THE 'UPDATE' COMMAND WILL NOT SHOW YOU THE NEXT UPDATE.
THE MOTD WILL! See 'info motd' for more info, or read
the MOTD when it comes up when you log into the game.
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> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 06:17:06 2003
###########################################################
###########################################################
This is not a test. This is an actual message from your deity
telling you when the next update is. I'm going to perform an
example of the very difficult command 'motd':
[14:638] Command : motd
####################################################
# Welcome to Lord of the Rings Empire II #
####################################################
Today is the 1st of Winterfilth in The Shire, and the
1st of Narquelie in the Stewards' Reckoning.
On this day in 3018 of the Third Age the Black Riders
raided Buckland in the early morning in search of The
Ring.
Last update: Friday, September 19th at 11:09:32 server time.
Next update (#7) windows opens:
Tuesday, September 23rd at 17:00 server time (14:00 UTC)
###########################################################
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> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 06:19:08 2003
###########################################################
Welcome to class, class. Today we are going to learn all
about the web.
First, I want you to open a web browser on your workstations.
Then, in the address bar I want you to type the following
address:
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/updateschedule.html
If you can manage that, then you pass this class. Next,
you will go to the "Remedial Reading" class, just down
the hall.
If you, by some grace of God, manage to pass that, then
you will be sent on to the room where you will plonk
down all of your money and get insulted for 30 minutes :)
###########################################################
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 06:25:50 2003
For those of you suffering from some ailament that prevents
you from using the web...the next ten updates are as follows:
Date Server Time UTC
September 23, 2003 17:00 14:00
September 24, 2003 23:00 20:00
September 26, 2003 05:00 02:00
[break from September 26th to October 7th]
October 08, 2003 11:00 08:00
October 09, 2003 17:00 14:00
October 10, 2003 23:00 20:00
October 14, 2003 11:00 08:00
October 16, 2003 05:00 02:00
October 17, 2003 23:00 20:00
October 21, 2003 17:00 14:00
Yes, there really is a break in the game from September 26th
to October 7th. This is because Roman, who happens to
administer the machine this game is on and is one of the
deities of this game, is going to be OUT of his country
and will not be able to respond to problems with the
server should any arise. Thus, we chose to put a break in
the game instead.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 06:26:20 2003
In Bree, bookies are now taking odds on countries asking,
yet again, when the next update is.
> Announcement from Eregion, (#9) dated Tue Sep 23 07:11:43 2003
so what's this crap about a break between oct 22 and sept 19th?
And would someone cor Christ's sake tell me why the
update command doesn't tell you when the next update really is?
AND WHEN IS THE NEXT FREAKIN' UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!
damn, you'd think this deitying business was difficult or something.
> Announcement from Balchoth, (#23) dated Tue Sep 23 09:03:00 2003
Today is the 1st of Winterfilth in The Shire, and the
1st of Narquelie in the Stewards' Reckoning.
On this day in 3018 of the Third Age northern allies of the Sauron
caputred the skulking creature called Gollum and held him for ransom.
From the secret diary of Gollum:
Today is the 297,840th day since we lost Precious.
Nasty, filthy men. Tricksed us, they did. All those beautiful fishes and
then that terrible, slimey net. Wanted my Precious, they did, but that
Hobbits has it. Filthy Hobbits. Take it back, we will. Our Precious.
Preeecshusssshh...
Master set us to spys on those men. Reconoiter their camps. Count their
Oliphants and Trollses and counts their Axesmen. But catch me they did,
and ransoms he payses, a generous ransom. Yessss, but we knows how many,
how many regimen and goblin, how many capapultses and ramses. Yessssss...
> Announcement from Forochel, (#2) dated Tue Sep 23 10:03:52 2003
? In Bree, bookies are now taking odds on countries asking,
? yet again, when the next update is.
"
... two fifty ... two fifty five .. two fifty six ... fifty seven ...
Here, $2.57 on Lorien, good sir. Mummy told me to buy a carrot and a
small bucket of coals, but I know I will win, good sir, yes? And then
I will buy the Snowman Kit Deluxe(R)* sir. It's _so_ cool!
"
----
*) www.snowmanoutfitters.com/snowman.html
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Sep 23 14:25:02 2003
Romm is going to be out of the country???
What's he going to do, bomb Iraq again???
TELL HIM WE OWN IT NOW, CANCEL THE MISSION !!!
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Sep 23 14:47:59 2003
Do I detect a slight tension in one of our deities?
I agree it is strange how many of us seem to be unable
to understand written text, yet they're able to
play empire. Maybe empire is not as complex game as
we've been led to believe?
The Man of Harad
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Sep 23 15:50:28 2003
An Anti-Resvon Sheep:
http://www.worth1000.com/entries/54500/54783EJmI_w.jpg
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 16:36:53 2003
For those of you who still haven't gotten it...
An update window opens in 26 minutes, and closes in 36 minutes
> Announcement from Eregion, (#9) dated Tue Sep 23 16:41:02 2003
what does Windows have to do with updates?
Is this game running on a Windows machine? No wonder there's problems!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 16:42:06 2003
[38:640] Command : smite
Country to smite? Eregion
How hard? VERY
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Sep 23 17:06:24 2003
It seems your RNG is biased towards big numbers :-)
The Man
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 17:07:48 2003
Nope. Just because several updates happened in the latter
half of the window doesn't mean the odds of the next update
happening in the first half is any higher or lower.
> Announcement from Eregion, (#9) dated Tue Sep 23 17:09:57 2003
smite at will deity.
You don't have the marbles!
:-)
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Sep 23 19:11:30 2003
Sheate wipes the vomit from his lips. Blood-shot
eyes gaze around, focusing on nothing. Violent shakes
wrack his body. It clearly takes some effort to
hold his head up.
"You sheep-*$%(@$)$)# $%^&*(&^!! When the #($!@$ are
we going to #$(*@# have this ^&%)# update?"
He passes out again before Mithrilien's tirade can begin.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 19:32:55 2003
{Mithrilien carefully places a large number of easily-hurled-
breakable-objects around the slumbering form of the leader
of The Shire, places an "I Love Sheep" sign around the
poor Tourette Syndrome ridden leader, and walks out...
vowing never to return}
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 23 20:38:27 2003
It saddens me that We are forced to resort
to extreme measures. In our attempts
to help our northern neighbors, Gladden_Field
an evil force did subjugate them. Sadly,
this evil force is a dastardly band of
elves, ruled by a fashioned challenged
mad man. I call upon the world to
help rid us of this monstrosity.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 20:44:02 2003
What, you've got a problem with purple boxer shorts
in a matching ensemble with pinky bunny slippers?
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 23 20:49:22 2003
ARGH! My eyes, I canna see.
Just the thought of such a rediculous
fashion statement. Why. They aught to
be. Shot.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 20:50:26 2003
You can start talking about shooting fashion-challenged
Elves when the feet of Lord Celeron are cut off and burned
as a hazard to fish eaters everywhere.
:)
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Tue Sep 23 20:55:16 2003
We would like to emphasize the fact that the water used for our
breweries is _not_ within reach of the feet of Lord Celeron. Not
even that for the breweries where beer for Harondor is brewed.
All allegations and rumours thereof are not true!
Barliman Butterbur,
Master brewer of Bree.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Sep 23 20:57:33 2003
It wasn't my fault some trumped up
excuse for a demi-god turned my backyard
into a swimming pool, earlier this year.
I remember that day. There I was, taking
a calming stroll through the grass, out to
a small wooded area, where I was to, well, no nee
need to know why I was strolling. When suddenly
I was forced to start treading water. The
land just suddenly sank uncounted fathoms.
When I inquired, I was directed to the
offices of some god with an over inflated
ego and delusions of being a Neptune
wannabe. After a short, but very heated
and somewhat wet discourse, we came to some
small agreement. Alas, I'm unable to
divulge this agreement, as it would
impune on the reputation of this somewhat
small god.
But, I categorically deny any wrong-doing
on Our part, with the great fish kill-off.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Sep 23 21:05:40 2003
Then how do you explain the toenail I had in my pint last night?
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Tue Sep 23 21:10:51 2003
>Then how do you explain the toenail I had in my pint last night?
Maybe that was put in there by one of your enemies ? Anyway, if it
were Lord Celeron's toenail, you would not be talking anymore, so
it's probably just a warning.
In any case, our beer is guaranteed 100% elf-free.
Barliman.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Sep 23 21:11:12 2003
Oh wait a minute....
Its not a toenail. Looks like a piece of a slipper with some pink fuzz
on it
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Sep 23 23:57:13 2003
Quiz time!
What was the name of the Uruk-hai who led the band of Uruk-hais
that assaulted the Fellowship of the Ring at Parth Galen?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $50 Empire gold
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 00:05:15 2003
Correct answer received!
Ugluk, who was in the service of Saruman led the band or Uruk-hai
that assaulted the Fellowship of the Ring at Parth Galen. He later
died at the hand of the Rohirrim on the 29th of Nenime in the
Stewards' Reckoning.
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Wed Sep 24 00:47:52 2003
At least I know now that when I play next time, not to trust anyone at all.
I have one suggestion for the Deities - don't announce in the signup that
Newbies are welcome... This game is obviously for experienced players and
if you are a newbie, you won't last long. It's frustrating when you start
a new game, then 2 weeks later you are dead and didn't really learn anything.
Just a thought.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 00:52:11 2003
Newbies can (and SHOULD) learn from being beaten up on by
experienced players. One of the best ways to learn is to
get soundly beaten by another. It's how I learned. Nearly
got my butt handed to me by Resvon (Mr. Ed) back in 1987.
Playing in newbie games is great and all. I really encourage
it. But, you've got to step up to the plate some time.
Playing against talented players is a fantastic
way to improve your skills.
There are some people in this particular game whom I did not
expect to do well, but have significantly exceeded my
expectations. There was one particular country last game
who absolutely astonished me with his ability, even though
he was a relative newbie.
Fighting the talented is not a death knell.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 00:55:57 2003
Welcome visitor! (first time I've seen visitor logged in :))
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Wed Sep 24 01:10:02 2003
Sheate awakens in a pool of vomit, beer, feces and urine. Lumpy,
unidentifiable objects are caught in his hair. He's a sight.
Staggering to his feet, he first stumbles over, then falls on
a pile of easily-hurled-breakable-objects scattered around him.
They're not that faux-glass material which shatters nicely - this
is the real deal resulting in a good amount of blood.
"!@#$%^&* $%^&*( $%^&* $%^&* %^&*( %^&*(!!!"
He eyes a wooden "I Love Sheep" suspiciously. Not sure if it's
real or not, he *is* pretty confident it wasn't there last night.
Approaching it, he notices a small knothole right about waist
high. Looking around briefly and finally shrugging his shoulders,
Sheate goes to drop his trousers only to realise he's not wearing
any. Even better.
Sheate approaches. Sheate shags. Sheate's over in moments.
")(*&^%$#@ @#$%^&* dieties @#$%^&*( can #$%^&*( do @#$%^&*(
useful after #$%^&*( all."
> Announcement from Forochel, (#2) dated Wed Sep 24 01:32:18 2003
? At least I know now that when I play next time, not to trust anyone at all.
? (...) didn't really learn anything.
So you actually learned a valuable lesson. Might come handy one day
in a game in which you will have invested much more time than in this one,
and save you a proportionally bigger disappointment.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 24 08:38:58 2003
Have we got a deal for you. Join now
the AML (Anti-Mirkwood League) and you
too will be able to either gloat with
triumph or die in a flame of glory.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Sep 24 08:46:00 2003
Earlier today in the pleasure gardens
of Lorien, Celeron was gracious enough
to accept an emissary of Mirkwood.
"Good afternoon Lord Celeron, we bear
tidings of good news. My Lord has
decided to relieve you of your heavy burden.
And take up the heavy tasks needed to
run a country."
- Hmm, And just how the hell is he going
to do that?
"We offer Gladden_Fields as an example"
- Good example. However, please bear him
this message from me.
"Gladly"
- Tell the slovenly dressed goofball, that
when he get's some fashion sense and doesn't
mix and match purple short and pink
bunny slippers, I might just take him
seriously. Until such time, I fart in
his general direction.
"Your words will be said, though it means
my death."
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 17:04:26 2003
#######################################################
#######################################################
Players are reminded that there will be a break in
the game beginning at 18:00 server time (15:00 UTC)
on September 26th. At that point, the game will
be closed to logins. The game will resume at 18:00
server time (15:00 UTC) on October 7th.
#######################################################
#######################################################
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Sep 24 18:45:34 2003
So, if I have looked at it correctly, the game
will come back up for 17 hours before the next
update. The game will go down 35 hours after
an update. Plan accordingly.
P.S. what will we do with our time during
Roman's vacation?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 20:27:22 2003
Build test servers and run simulations 'til you're
blue in the face? Just a suggestion :)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 20:29:36 2003
Oh, and you didn't read it correctly. :) The game will go
down 13 hours after the update (#9) on the 26th. It will
come back, as you noted, 17 hours before the update on the 8th
of October (update #10).
Full update schedule is available here:
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/updateschedule.html
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Sep 24 20:36:36 2003
so whats going on the visitor account
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Sep 24 20:37:30 2003
so whats the scoop? visitor account is
pretty boring with hidden enabled
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 20:46:37 2003
We're not going to enable visitor to see things that
other players can not :)
Weekly updates are being posted to r.g.e. Another one's
due out tomorrow or Friday.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Sep 24 21:34:20 2003
} > Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Wed Sep 24 00:47:52 2003
} At least I know now that when I play next time, not to trust anyone at all.
} I have one suggestion for the Deities - don't announce in the signup that
} Newbies are welcome... This game is obviously for experienced players and
} if you are a newbie, you won't last long. It's frustrating when you start
} a new game, then 2 weeks later you are dead and didn't really learn anything.
} Just a thought.
Let me tell you a story. My first real game was LOTR I. I played
Dorwinion. Boy, was I green. I got invaded by Balchoth. I saw him
coming, but his first raid sacked my capital nice and tidy all the
same. I was a fodder, and what's worse, I now was a crippled fodder.
I knew it. He knew it. Dol_Goldur and Dagorlad knew it, and joined
him.
(cont)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Sep 24 21:35:50 2003
But I was not just fodder. I was a stubborn-as-a-mule fodder. I was
willing to fight a lost cause to the bitter end. I was a
quick-learning fodder. I got excellent advice from my ally Rhun
(fully commited in their own life-or-death war at the time). I got
free Empire lessons from Balchoth (who's a gentlemen and all-around
nice guy, by the way) on the battlefield. When people realized that I
was not going to roll over and die like a nice, little fodder, enemies
of my enemies started to support me, notably Celduin. With this help,
I managed to hang on by the fingernails for almost a month. I learned
a lot. I gained some respect and made some friends.
Of course, I was lucky. I don't deny that. But you have to offer
Fortune a chance to help you!
(cont)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Sep 24 21:36:35 2003
So here's my advice to new players. You can expect to get some
lessons that really, really hurt. Those are the best ones. Use them!
Diplomacy. Talk to people. Initially, all you'll probably manage is
to give away your fodderousness and get clobbered. When that happens,
ask your conquerors for advice! Many Empire players react quite well
to that. And never, never, never give up.
Fodders of the world, fight back! You have nothing to loose but your
fodderousness.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Wed Sep 24 22:00:21 2003
Sheate stunk. He hadn't showered in days. He'd been puking and
shagging, puking and shagging for so long, he could no longer
remember when he started when or finished the other.
Advisors and aides continued to pester him with letters, forms and
reports. He delegated. Everything. He was a man possessed (or
"*&^%$#@ possessed" as he would say).
One recent item did catch his eye, however. A declaration that
"fodders of the world" should "fight back." That they had "nothing
to loose [sic]" but their "fodderousness".
A creepy grin cracked his otherwise bleary features. Sheate liked
fodder. Sheate liked fodder becase he knew something else they had
to lose, aside from their fodderousness.
Sheate knew that fodder had never been properly shagged before.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 22:10:08 2003
I have it on good authority that the 'leader' of The Shire,
"Sheate" is none other than Frank B., uncompensated worker
of great fame from the land of Suboceana.
At least the drunkeness fits :)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 22:16:42 2003
Quiz time!
What day is tomorrow, in the reckoning of the Numenorians,
the anniversary of?
(this one is tricky too :))
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $100 Empire gold
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 22:43:30 2003
Correct answer received!
Tomorrow is the 4th of Narquelie in the calendar of Numenor.
On that day in the second year of the Third Age, the Disaster
of the Gladden Fields occurred, wherein Isildur and three of
his sons, Elendur, Aratan, and Ciryon were slain. The One Ring
was lost in the River Anduin, until recovered in 2463 of the
Third Age, nearly two and a half thousand years later. Isildur's
only remaining son, Valandil, continued his line eventually
becoming the third King of Arnor.
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Wed Sep 24 22:48:14 2003
I agree on this quizz of today...
the disaster of Gladden Fields seems to had been occured
one time again ...
Poor Gladden Fields ...
:)
Girion,
Lord of Dale
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 22:49:27 2003
Bwhahahaahahhaha! Nice one Dale!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 23:10:34 2003
[213:614] Command : starva *
Wed Sep 24 23:09:49 2003
Starvation
own sect eff
[...]
171 sectors
171 sectors????!?!?!?
Come on people, surely you've learned the wonders of the
'distrib' command by now, haven't you? :)
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Sep 24 23:19:06 2003
OK, I lost 120+ mil to che at that update.
Egads! The first update after I took them,
it was minimal in most sectors. Guess the
raping and pillaging must have been worse the
second time around...
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 23:19:28 2003
No, Sheate sent them beer.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Wed Sep 24 23:22:00 2003
Now do you believe that Lord Celeron's feet were not even near
the water we use for our beer ? There wouldn't even be any che if
it were for his feet. Our beer however, well, that's something people
want to fight for !
Barliman.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 23:22:51 2003
And nasty, hairy hobbit feet are any better?
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Wed Sep 24 23:24:06 2003
Hey ! That's a brewers' secret ! Don't go spreading around that kind
of information ! Or we'll brew you a beer with Elven feet instead !
Barliman.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 24 23:27:44 2003
From the very secret diary of Samwise Gamgee:
Day One:
Frodo stabbed by Morgul blade. Oh no! Pippin cried. Told
Pippin it would be all right as Mr. Frodo far too hot to die.
Did I say that out loud?
Day Three:
Have followed Mr. Frodo to Rivendell where Elves will heal
him. Gandalf told me to help poor unconscious Mr. Frodo get
out of dirty clothes. So took clothes off him and gave him a
bath. And another one. Then gave him another bath. Gandalf
came and told me six baths was quite enough, Samwise Gamgee.
Poncy old git probably hasn't taken a bath since the Second Age.
Day Four:
Wonder if it is time for Mr. Frodo to have another bath yet.
Day Five:
Elf bubble bath v. colorful and pretty.
Gandalf no fun at all.
*sulk*
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Wed Sep 24 23:31:13 2003
How yellow can you be?
Does it really take 5 countries
to stop the Elven King?
You will all pay!
Bwhahahaahahhaha!
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Sep 25 03:29:57 2003
Damn peasants! If you need more food ask.
> Announcement from Rivendell, (#6) dated Thu Sep 25 05:20:30 2003
How the Dark Lord must be laughing now.
Elf fighting elf while his forces grow.
I have even heard rumors that Gondor has
fallen under his shadow.
The elves of Mirkwood have shown themselves
to be very capable and very warlike. They
showed no signs of stopping their expansion.
We have joined with our kinsmen of Lorien in
their battle against Mirkwood.
Elrond Peredhil
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Thu Sep 25 06:16:00 2003
WinACE News
I have a found numerous little things as I have been converting
the UnitFilter to be dynamic instead of hard coded. None are
major.
I did find some more hard coding of unit types, in particular
in Attack and Assault functions.
I have fixed these problems and I have a few improvements to
finish. I expect to release a new version next week
sometime.
There are still some issues with civ's on land units that I
will try and resolve them but I expect that I will not be able
to resolve all them as it is not clear how some commands
will be affected. At worst you may have to use the command
line or command window to move the civ's on and off the land
units.
Off to do more testing.
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Thu Sep 25 12:58:31 2003
Hey it's really good of you to continue working on this
even after you have been deposed from Cardolan.
your efforts are much appreciated by all the Winace users.
Crhun, the Crooner from Rhun.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Thu Sep 25 14:57:32 2003
} > Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Wed Sep 24 23:31:13 2003
} How yellow can you be?
} Does it really take 5 countries
} to stop the Elven King?
On a flat hexmap, you can expect six neighbors. Who's the bum
dragging his feet? ;->
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Thu Sep 25 18:03:19 2003
} OK, I lost 120+ mil to che at that update.
Not enough barley fields (dunno why some numbskull code-monkey spelled
that with a p). Feed the horses enough barley, and they start
frolicking in the streets and fields, trampling all these pesky che.
Mind, this might not work with the lame dobbins they use for chargers
outside Rohan.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 25 21:03:36 2003
Quiz time!
Which King of Gondor had the longest reign of any King of Gondor?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $100
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 25 21:08:55 2003
Correct answer received!
Tarondor, the 27th King of Gondor, ruled for 162 years until
his death in 1798 of the Third Age. Tarondor was responsible
for the moving of the King's House to Minas Anor, later known
as Minas Tirith. Tarondor worked throughout his reign to rebuild
the power of Gondor, after that realm had been greatly weakened
by war and plague.
> Announcement from Valinor, (#46) dated Thu Sep 25 23:12:12 2003
A Elbereth Gilthoniel,
silivren penna muriel
o menel aglar elenath!
Na-chaered palan-diriel
o galadhremmin ennorath,
Fanuilos, le linnathon
nef aear, si nef aearon!
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Thu Sep 25 23:22:21 2003
That's easy for you to say.
Grhun of Rhun
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Sep 25 23:36:23 2003
Oh Elbereth Star-kindler
white glittering slants down sparkling like jewels
from the firmament the glory of the star-host!
To remote distance far havining gazed
from the tree trangled middle-lands,
Faniulos, to thee I will chant
on this side of the ocean, here on this side of the Great
Ocean!
Or something like that.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Sep 26 02:11:05 2003
>> Announcement from (46) Valinor dated Thu Sep 25 13:11:53 2003
>
> A Elbereth Gilthoniel,
> silivren penna muriel
> o menel aglar elenath!
> Na-chaered palan-diriel
> o galadhremmin ennorath,
> Fanuilos, le linnathon
> nef aear, si nef aearon!
*&^%$#@ elves have been @#$%^& stealing our $%^&#$%
wacky *!%^&$% tabacky ^%#&* again.
)*&^%$#@! Sheate
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Sep 26 06:04:12 2003
Found a WinACE bug. If you run the production
summary, if gives false info for lcm/hcm. It
includes the lcm/hcm you are using to build
armies/planes etc even if you don't have any
lcm/hcm in the headquarters/airbase.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 26 06:16:49 2003
#######################################################
Players are reminded that the game will go down for
the pre-planned break 12 hours from now, at 18:00
server time on September 26th. It will come back
up at 18:00 server time on October 7th.
#######################################################
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Sep 26 09:11:44 2003
Earlier today, a Eregion diplomat
approached the throne.
"Lord Celeron, we call upon you as
kindred spirits. We ask your help
in repelling these vermin from our
lands."
- We feel your pain as our own.
Return to your ruler and inform
him that measures will be taken.
"We rejoice with your words, I shall
inform him of your words."
And so it came to pass, the word was
spread throughout the land. Our
brethern have asked for succor. Go
forth and do as thou wilt.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Fri Sep 26 16:20:10 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 14:
Armies and spies in revolt worldwide, planning two week show of
solidarity and refusing all orders. What is a dict^H^H^H^H world
leader to do for their power fix for the next two weeks?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 26 16:26:47 2003
Day 15:
Am taking Sheate's advice and going into two week exile
to spend some quality time with several barrels of Bree
beer. Not sure what he means about "take a bottle of
Aspirin" though. What is 'Aspirin'?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 26 17:02:35 2003
#######################################################
Players are reminded that the game will go down for the
pre-planned break in 1 HOUR, at 18:00 server time
(15:00 UTC).
The server will come back up at 18:00 server time on
October 7th.
#######################################################
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Fri Sep 26 17:03:35 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 16:
Should have built more breweries while still in command.
Very bored.
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Fri Sep 26 17:20:02 2003
You mean, there won't be a battle for the next ten days?
Duh! And that after they tricked me in the war against Dorwinion.
'we fight Dorwinion' they said. Great. And when it came to plans,
they got the glorious battles, and me? - - 'You charge there as distraction.'
Distraction, huh! As if I was a little kid. 'Distraction attacks are important
for the campaign' - They win great victories, I get a bloody nose with
distraction operations.
What do you expect if you are sent against the enemy - with a forces
of 15 dwarves. Those bright guys, they command cavallery and all that,
I hang around with dwarves.
And things got better: 'all you have to do is cross the river, secure the
harbor, and wait for our forces to support your position'. which means:
go, get slaughtered, and if you survive by sheer luck for long enough,
we will get another medal just for saving you........
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Fri Sep 26 17:20:53 2003
wait: 'cross the river'!!! &$%)*^^?!! I calmed down, when they told me that
we did not have to swim this time. Ths changed again when I saw the rafts....
You know, I try to be professional as a warrior. I have my orders,
I go and charge. Make a plan, and kill the enemy. We started 125 minutes
before the planned moment of the operation. Five minutes to cross the
river, two hours to get the dwarves onto the rafts.
It took the usual bit longer since a battle axe is no adequate replacement
for a paddle, but we made it to the enemy's shore. Most of us. If anybody
has information about a raft with dwarves somewhere on the sea of Rhun,
please tell me asap.
There I was, happy, as at least none of my comrades awaited me in shiny armor,
only to tell me that the battle was already over, and that I look funny
on a raft with dwarves. There was nobody. No Dorwinion warrior to fight,
no sheep to protect, no hobbit to, errrr.... ok. there was nobody.
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Fri Sep 26 17:21:28 2003
Just a sign: 'Welcome to Dorwinion. You are on the construction site of
our Great Defense Wall, which will attract tourists for ages!'
In fact, the only reason why none of my comrades had been there was the
big victory party in Dorwinions capital. We also marched in that direction
but dwarves are so slow. No beer was left when we arrived, and the
height of the celebration was also over. I swear that we heard the
Dorwinion leader scream, but when we arrived in place, all that we saw of
that event was a bucket of Vaseline ....
And now you tell me, that there is no chance to gain fame, sheep
and glory for another ten days.
Hrhun of Rhun
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Sep 26 17:50:25 2003
With the game down for a few days, this will
give me more time to delete virus e-mails. I'm
only receiving 50 or so a day. Without this
game to interfere, I could handle double that.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Sep 26 17:51:20 2003
Sheate tried to take stock of his situation:
Standing. It didn't work. The earth seemed to be spinning
about a little faster than usual today.
Clothes. Missing. Again.
Appetite. Gone. Most of yesterday's eaten high-sodium,
high-cholesterol, high-fat foods colorfully decorated the
floor around him.
Head. Pounding. But nothing a little pipe weed wouldn't
cure.
He crawled over to his desk (broken - mistook it for an
Orc weeks ago) and tried to read his calendar. Opened his
eyes and tried again. Could it be? Had the time finally
arrived?
How he had managed to convince Manwe, Valar Pimp-Daddy
extraordinaire, to come to The Shire for an epic two-week
rager? Searching through addled memories, he suddenly
remembered and grinned.
That's right, Manwe had certain... vices that the other
Valar didn't appreciate. But Sheate... Sheate definitely
understood, ney, *embraced* these despicable, disgusting,
revolting, sadistic activities.
Oh, yes. It was going to be one HELL of a party. Thank
heavens friendly relations were established in time with
Bree. These activities were going to require a good
deal of beer to stomach. Beer supplies across Middle
Earth could be expected to run low.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 26 17:52:17 2003
The great plague in Middle Earth happened in the middle years of the
Third Age. Naught has been seen of this fell illness for 1400 years.
What virus do you speak of?
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Fri Sep 26 17:55:32 2003
The disembodied spirit of Sauron soars over the wasted lands of the East
It is good to be home
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Fri Sep 26 17:55:43 2003
}Mithrilien (#41): YOU HAVE --5-- MINUTES LEFT GENTLEMEN!.
You use that term loosely oh great one.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Sep 26 17:56:03 2003
For the rest of you scoundrels, GET OUT! :)
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Sep 26 17:59:28 2003
To begin the celebrations, fireworks are launched
from The Shire. The first appears to be a giant
extended middle-finger.
Could it be directed at the disembodied spirits? Or
those booming femme Gods?
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Fri Sep 26 17:59:30 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 17:
No ice. The beer is warm, and not a good vintage.
The sheep are cold. Still very bored.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Oct 10 18:08:52 2003
Welcome back everyone!
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Fri Oct 10 22:55:24 2003
Thank our deities that this party in the Shire did not last for much longer.
Beer supplies were emptying a whole lot faster than could be refilled.
But no worries, Eregion has been so kind to lend us a harbor to make sure
we can resumeshipment of barrels as quickly as possible to our southeastern
customers.
Barliman
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Fri Oct 10 23:00:59 2003
WinACE News
A new release 2.2.21 is available at sourceforge.net/projects/winace.
See the r.g.e posting for details.
This version will work for both regular games and for LOTR
I will look into the production summary problem.
Ron
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Mon Oct 13 09:25:08 2003
<hic>
Whoa, just woke up.. what happened to my land? Damn ale... Someone
want to give me a <hic> city?
Flint
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 14 06:46:58 2003
REMINDER: The update window opens in about 4 hours and
13 minutes.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Tue Oct 14 11:11:00 2003
Err... ?
Shouldn't there have been an update just yet ?
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Oct 14 11:12:09 2003
Think so... I guess they did not get all the
kinks out of the system yet.
The Man of Harad
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Oct 14 11:14:46 2003
Its after 9:00 GMT! Where is the update?
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Oct 14 11:15:30 2003
The Dark Lord emerges from the shadows of his cave
He admires the Zen of the no-update update
then retreats back into the shadows of the endless darkness of evil ...
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Oct 14 11:16:28 2003
And if we go to sleep now will the update hit in an hour, or
be forced by a deity in the next few minutes? Not that we can sleep
now anyway..
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Oct 14 11:19:09 2003
? Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Oct 14 11:16:28 2003
? And if we go to sleep now will the update hit in an hour, or
?be forced by a deity in the next few minutes?
I suggest you take a stiff drink, go to sleep and wake up with
no country :-)
The Man
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Oct 14 11:20:31 2003
It looks like this game is going to take years
to play. We have had 9 updates so far out of
14 scheduled...
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Oct 14 11:21:44 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 32:
No shipments in two weeks. Only beer in the country sent by Harad.
Pretty sure no elves have been near it, and very thirsty.
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Tue Oct 14 11:22:23 2003
*UCK, *UCK, *UCK.
It's bad enough that I'm being pigpiled 7 against 1. I finally get an
update window where my attackers aren't on, and no update happens.
Thranduil
> Announcement from Rivendell, (#6) dated Tue Oct 14 11:23:32 2003
Well some of you attackers were on, but just very, very quiet!
Elrond
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Oct 14 11:26:32 2003
I guess all the deities are where we should also be: asleep :-)
The Man
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Tue Oct 14 11:26:33 2003
I was... hic... there !
Burps.
Dain II Ironfoot.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Tue Oct 14 12:11:07 2003
Hmm, ok, so it isn't a DST issue... It's been more than an hour...
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Oct 14 12:14:49 2003
I think without DST it would have been an hour earlier, not later.
I doubt it will take place now any time soon... most probably they'll
just cancel this one also, and try to figure out what the xxxx went
wrong before the next one. That's just a guess, of course.
The Man
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Oct 14 12:17:08 2003
I wonder if they will roll the game back to
pre-update? Technically, if some folks made
moves to be pre-update, they might want to
take them back since nothing happened. We'll
have to see...
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 14 15:33:20 2003
No, we will not roll the game back to pre-update.
Roll backs are the spawn of Satan.
We are investigating why the update did not fire.
As for the game taking forever...the more observant
of you may have noticed that with the revised update
schedule, we are having *more* updates before Christmas
than before the break became extended. This is due to
peculiarities in the scheduling.
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Tue Oct 14 15:33:51 2003
The deity named Mithrilien was awake
The mortals had preparations to make
His voice told all to hear
That the update was near
But his warning was obviously fake
Grhun of Rhun
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 14 16:21:05 2003
Anyone object to Rhun being awarded $25 for that anno? :)
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Oct 14 16:37:21 2003
Beware of the Grhun in the Rhun
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Oct 14 16:44:31 2003
I won't object, but Smaug has to deliver it :-)
> Announcement from Smaug, (#47) dated Tue Oct 14 16:52:31 2003
? Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Oct 14 16:44:31 2003
? I won't object, but Smaug has to deliver it :-)
No problem :)
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Oct 14 17:02:54 2003
And before you decide to make any detours Smaug, We've counted our
women and children.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Oct 14 17:19:52 2003
but obviously forgot to count the sheep.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 14 17:24:02 2003
I was thinking very much the same thing :)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 14 22:48:25 2003
As you are all aware, update #10 did not fire as planned.
The update has been cancelled, and we are moving on to
what was update #11 (now update #10). This is scheduled for
17:00 server time (15:00 UTC) tomorrow, Wednesday, October
15th.
Beware the ides of October
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Oct 14 23:22:06 2003
dammit, that's supposed to be March
you idjit
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Wed Oct 15 01:08:14 2003
Obviously, Lorien negelected his Latin classes in Elven
School.
I'd come over and slap him silly, if I could ever figure
a way to cross this stupid river, and sea, and, oh yeah by
the way, these other countries that just happen to be in my
path.
No Lorien, you should beware the Ides of October tomorrow, for the
Ides of march aren't for another 5 months.
Not trusting you to look it up, I'll provide a nice
synopsis for you here, for as they say, you learn something
new every day. In your case, it will be learning
something old.
-----------------
The soothsayer's warning to Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides
of March," has forever imbued that date with a sense of
foreboding. But in Roman times the expression "Ides of
March" did not necessarily evoke a dark mood, it was simply
the standard way of saying "March 15." Surely such a
fanciful expression must signify something more than merely
another day of the year? Not so. Even in Shakespeare's time,
sixteen centuries later, audiences attending his play Julius
Caesar wouldn't have blinked twice upon hearing the date
called the Ides.
The term Ides comes from the earliest Roman calendar, which is said
to have been devised by Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome.
Whether it was Romulus or not, the inventor of this calendar had a
penchant for complexity. The Roman calendar organized its months
around three days, each of which served as a reference point for
counting the other days:
* Kalends (1st day of the month)
* Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the
5th in the other months)
* Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the
13th in the other months)
The remaining, unnamed days of the month were identified by
counting backwards from the Kalends, Nones, or the Ides. For example,
March 3 would be V Nones, 5 days before the Nones (the Roman method of
counting days was inclusive; in other words, the Nones would be counted
as one of the 5 days).
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Wed Oct 15 01:08:21 2003
Used in the first Roman calendar as well as in the Julian
calendar (established by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C.E.) the
confusing system of Kalends, Nones, and Ides continued to be
used to varying degrees throughout the Middle Ages and into
the Renaissance.
So, the Ides of March is just one of a dozen Ides that occur
every month of the year. Kalends, the word from which
calendar is derived, is another exotic-sounding term with a
mundane meaning. Kalendrium means account book in Latin:
Kalend, the first of the month, was in Roman times as it is
now, the date on which bills are due.
Grhun of Rhun
> Announcement from Balchoth, (#23) dated Wed Oct 15 04:36:41 2003
Interestingly, the word "Grhun" is derived from the Medieval word
"Grhoan" which meant "a large set of books", and descends from a phrase
that involved coming to grips with the contents of such books.
The original phrase is Greek: "enkuklios paideia", and is made up
of enkuklios, ?cyclical, periodic, ordinary,? and paideia, ?education,?
and meaning ?general education.? Copyists of Latin manuscripts took this
phrase to be a single Greek word, enkuklopaedia, with the same meaning,
and this spurious Greek word became the New Latin word encyclopaedia,
coming into English with the sense ?general course of instruction,?
first recorded in 1531. In New Latin the word was chosen as the title
of a reference work covering all knowledge. The first such use in
English is recorded in 1644.
The common form of "groan" comes directly from those university
students suffering "periodic education" in the form of semesters, exams
and yet another homework assignment due this coming friday. :-)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Oct 15 15:29:35 2003
I think Rhun wins the "Professor Award" for that dissertation
on the Roman calendar :)
Oh, and Lorien? ptbptbptbptbptbptbptbptb! :)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Oct 15 16:21:06 2003
Watch out people:
Balchoth invites you for a party on Friday.
Free sheep, just bring your own eoreds.
;)
> Announcement from Forochel, (#2) dated Wed Oct 15 16:50:49 2003
I was wondering what's the use of eoreds, thanks for the input.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Oct 15 16:58:16 2003
Once again people...
THE UPDATE COMMAND DOES NOT DISPLAY ACCURATE INFORMATION
The update schedule is on the LOTR:II website at:
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/updateschedule.html
We will most likely modify the update command in the
future so it TELLS you it's not accurate, since some
of you haven't gotten it through your thick skulls yet :)
> Announcement from Dol_Goldur, (#22) dated Wed Oct 15 17:00:35 2003
Not even to tell the current time?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Oct 15 17:01:13 2003
Quiz time!
Where and by whom were the following lines used?
"Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen!
Fennas nogothrim, lasto beth lammen!"
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $100 Empire gold.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Oct 15 17:01:14 2003
Not to nitpick, but sometimes the web site
update schedule doesn't display the correct
update times either. Monday for instance...
:-)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Oct 15 17:01:45 2003
It tells the current time on the server, yes :)
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Oct 15 17:05:51 2003
You evil elf. Stay away.
> Announcement from Eonwe, (#42) dated Wed Oct 15 17:12:33 2003
Correct answer received for the quiz.
> Announcement from Eonwe, (#42) dated Wed Oct 15 17:16:50 2003
The correct answer to the quiz...
The lines were spoken by Gandalf at the Doors of Durin, when
the Fellowship of the Ring was attempting to enter the Mines
of Moria. After Gandalf spoke these lines, the silver etchings
on the doors faded, but the doors did not open. The word that
opened the doors was "Mellon", the Elvish word for "friend".
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Oct 15 17:19:24 2003
Lord Celeron!
*sigh* What now Count Ant.
It's come to our attention that the
Royal treasure had a sudden windfall.
Our? OUR? Who are YOU to use the
ROYAL OUR!
Most pardon, gracious one, but I was
just trying to bring to light this most
amazing discovery.
Begone fool, and think about your error.
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Wed Oct 15 21:28:22 2003
WinACE news
A few bugs have been found and fixed.
A new release will be posted at sourceforge.net today.
See r.g.e for details on the changes.
I will also being deleting the LOTR releases from the sourceforge.net site, if possible.
Also see r.g.e for upcoming changes to WinACE.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Wed Oct 15 21:52:00 2003
Getting annoyed with the lack of tasssty fisshes. Nas-sty dietiess,
killsss usss they doesss, taking aways all the pretty fisshess.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Thu Oct 16 00:05:22 2003
A quick restart!
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Oct 16 02:38:53 2003
The fishes are there. Now for some reason,
they like the really deep water that is a few
sectors from shore...
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Oct 16 17:24:09 2003
Well-informed sources have reported
-=[ EMPIRE NEWS ]=-
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
! "All the news that fits, we print." !
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Relative calm prevails.
=== Business & Economics ===
Thu Oct 16 15:56 Mithrilien helps out Mithrilien
We want to know all the disgusting details of this.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Oct 16 17:24:33 2003
Maybe he was giving himself a handjob?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 16 18:04:37 2003
Hmm. It was under "Business & Economics".
I think I forgot to pay myself.
-----
In reality...
There's a nasty bug in the server code that the users don't
get to see the effects of. However, it resulted in the server.log
file ballooning to 169 megabytes overnight. The bandaid required
me to build roughly 1900 planes and then scrap them all. So, I
had to give myself some mil in the build sector in order to build
all the required planes. Thus, the news entry.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Oct 16 18:10:50 2003
From Middle Earth News (MEN network):
Another ecological disaster has been reported
today, hot on the heels of the cleanup efforts
from the Elf Feet disaster in the river Anduin.
Dwarves pillaging the remnants of Erebor discovered
a rather large stash of beer. The dwarves drank all
of it, and a short while later a massive "BELCH!!!"
rang out.
The resulting stink cloud has spread down the Lonely
Mountain, ruining the capital city of dale and
polluting waters in the upper drainage basin of the
River Anduin. Trees in the northern reaches of Mirkwood
are reported to be dying in droves.
Middle Earth Health Organization officials have
been deployed to help in clean up operations.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Thu Oct 16 19:16:05 2003
In a side issue, Lorien archeologists
recently unearthed, what appears to be a
battle song from before the first age.
While this is just a rough translation,
as Lorien scholars are still debating
the exact wording, it's the best we can
offer at this time.
Mine eyes have seen the horror of
the coming of the elves. They tried
to fuck me over and take everything I
have. Since I didn't kiss their ass
they said my attitude was bad. The
elves keep marching on.
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Thu Oct 16 19:27:10 2003
} Trees in the northern reaches of Mirkwood
} are reported to be dying in droves.
Those are called Ents. And so far all of the Ents that died
have belonged to the enemies of Mirkwood. But you are right
in that they have been dying in droves.
Thranduil.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 16 21:17:39 2003
Quiz time!
What was the native tongue of Numenor?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $50 Empire gold
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 16 21:20:20 2003
Correct answer received!
Adunaic was the native tongue of Numenor. Westron, or 'common
tongue' is linguistically descended from Adunaic. Adunaic fell
into disuse following the downfall of Numenor in 3319 of the
Second Age.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 16 21:32:53 2003
From the very secret diary of Gollum:
Day ten:
Finally caught up with Ringbearer in Rivendell, but cannot get
near him as is constantly being half-drowned in bathtub by burly
companion type, and have developed fear of water since being
forced to watch dolphin movie 300 times.
Ugh. Strawberries. Hate strawberries.
Day eleven:
Attempt to infiltrate Council of Elrond in lawn ornament disguise
unsuccessful. Was stashed in storage closet by annoying Glorfindel,
where was trapped for hours while Elrond tried on all Arwen's
dresses in front of mirror, while muttering something about Legolas
not being the prettiest after all. Miss days of yore, when men
were men and dwarves were dwarves, and elves wore trousers. Although
something to be said for Legolas' boots-and-skirt ensemble.
Day thirteen:
Left Rivendell, following Fellowship. Sent Elrond anonymous letter
telling him purple does not suit his complexion. Expect to hear
screams of rage all the way to Gap of Rohan.
---
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Thu Oct 16 23:16:27 2003
So, if the choice was between a Fisher Tassajara and a Cannondale F300,
which would you choose? Would you pay $70 more for the Fisher?
Deore/LX vs Deore & those huge thin-walled aluminum tubes.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 16 23:21:15 2003
What's the att/def value of the Fisher vs. the Cannondale?
:)
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Fri Oct 17 05:26:21 2003
*hic* des ~ secret bunker
and you all thought you killed me... *hic* silly elves, humans, and
stinky other Dwarves...
> Announcement from Dol_Goldur, (#22) dated Fri Oct 17 14:32:45 2003
Contrary to what I remember of middle earth
geography, I belive the "Gap of Rohan" now
extends through the center of (what's left
of) Dol Goldur!
Good Night Everybody!
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Sat Oct 18 21:28:06 2003
We would like to stress again, that we do not let Elven feet
pollute our beer. So if the headlines say
"Bree good deeds further growing alliance with Lorien"
that is _not_ because we let Lord Celeron splash around in our
wells...
Barliman
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Sun Oct 19 22:37:32 2003
} > Announcement from Dol_Goldur, (#22) dated Fri Oct 17 14:32:45 2003
} Contrary to what I remember of middle earth
} geography, I belive the "Gap of Rohan" now
} extends through the center of (what's left
} of) Dol Goldur!
The Rohan government wishes to deny the baseless allegation that
Captain D. Runkard, commander of the latest routine patrol of the Gap
of Rohan, held the map upside down, blundered into a bunch of orcs and
then got carried away a bit. We reject the insulting claim that his
report about major changes of landscape in the Gap of Rohan was
useless. In fact, it proved to be quite useful for lighting our
gracious King's pipe.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Oct 20 14:38:47 2003
winace is going into an infinite loop (something abouts seconds routine)
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Mon Oct 20 14:44:57 2003
You can get WinACE to start if you have Autoupdate disabled.
Do not issue the Update all menu option and do not type
the command 'update'. The deities changed the output
from the update command and have broken WinACE's update
parsing which results in a loop.
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Mon Oct 20 14:46:01 2003
Actually, the 'update' command is fine, just the
Update All processing is broken.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Mon Oct 20 14:59:56 2003
A minor rollback (to 8am server time today) was forced.
[That is like, six hours, back]
Nevertheless to avoid any confusions, the next update is
likely to be cancelled.
Chorus: We want an update! We want an update! We want an update! :)
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Mon Oct 20 15:00:14 2003
The motd actually creates confusion. Is the update canceled, or not?
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Oct 20 15:00:47 2003
Also because of the new WinAce problem the update is officially cancelled.
I will return the old line of update time into the update output with
appropriate comment.
Manwe.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Mon Oct 20 15:20:41 2003
Don't bother the poor deities, we can just do this ourselves.
zdone y
Just 33 more to go.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Oct 21 10:57:57 2003
There was an electricity blackout at the entire TAU campus for half the night.
The update stays on, as there are more than 12 hours until it occurs.
Manwe.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Oct 21 12:16:31 2003
A minor correction (hopefully the last one)
The server did not set the time correctly after the reboot.
This is fixed now.
Manwe.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 21 16:24:28 2003
For those of you experiencing WinACE problems due to the
changed nature of the 'update' command, we are working
with Ron to get a patch available for you.
Thanks for your patience.
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Tue Oct 21 18:35:20 2003
WinACE Problem - Infinite Loop
I tried to reproduce the problem with no luck.
If you are having this problems, please email at rkoenderink@yahoo.ca.
I am looking for more detail to solve the problem.
What version are you running?
Does the red server light stay on?
What was the last command in the command window?
Does it does happen with just a update command?
Is a bulletin or update interruptting a command?
The following is a list of commands that UpdateAll submits.
update
dump *
pdump *
ldump *
sdump *
ndump *
lost *
nation
show sect s
map *
bmap *
report *
report *
relation
sorder *
qorder *
mission land * q
mission ship * q
mission plane * q
I need to understand which one is creating the problem.
So if someone who is having the problem can run them
individually, they we should be able to narrow the problem down.
Ron K.
rkoenderink@yahoo.ca
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Oct 21 18:42:36 2003
it seemed to be fixed when the clock time was fixed
something to do with the wrong time was causing it
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 21 22:47:31 2003
Quiz time!
Easy one today...
What year was The Hobbit first published?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $50 Empire gold
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 21 22:50:20 2003
Correct answer received!
'The Hobbit' was first published in 1937. It would be 17
years before the first book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy
would be published.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Oct 21 22:57:36 2003
WE are pleased to announce, we have
offended the gods. How can we tell?
Aside from the fact there's WAS a small
bay at the head of the Anduin, it's
now been turned into a LARGE bay.
Fish have even migrated into it and
taken up residence..
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Oct 21 23:01:05 2003
Offending the gods is no great task. We in The Shire have
experienced their anger so often it's come to be known
as "Sheate Storms".
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 21 23:07:21 2003
So, Microshit releases Office 2002. Anyone wanna take bets
that they won't release a critical security patch within
two weeks?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 21 23:07:49 2003
Er, 2003 that is.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Oct 21 23:07:53 2003
So sorry, I'm still patching the
OH-Shit 2000 stuff
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Oct 21 23:08:05 2003
I believed you the first time.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Wed Oct 22 19:51:17 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 37:
Received letter from anonymous admirer. No return address listed.
Wonder who it could be.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 23 16:01:50 2003
For those of you that, for whatever reason, didn't get the message..
TODAY'S UPDATE HAS BEEN POSTPONED 24 HOURS
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 23 16:02:38 2003
Quiz time!
How many virgins need to be sacrificed to make this game run smoothly?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins the game
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Oct 23 16:08:59 2003
Anyone know how to remove the update that
didn't happen's info from WinACE? Can I just
delete it?
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Thu Oct 23 16:09:18 2003
The command to tell the deities you'd like an update is
"zdone y". Unless you tell them
they won't know, and will keep postponing and cancelling updates
for various reasons.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Thu Oct 23 16:10:38 2003
I think that delivery of half a dozen of virgins to the deities (two per one)
could if not make the game run smoothly, but at least improve the deities'
mood. :)
M.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 23 16:11:16 2003
...along with all the beer in Bree.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Oct 23 16:17:25 2003
All this talk of beer in Bree makes me wonder
exactly what the First of Blooting is. I think
you might find the answer to the update problem
there. Bunch of drunk elves blooting...
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Thu Oct 23 16:23:36 2003
One solution to the WinACE database problem is exporting your
intelegence and teles and then deleting the game database (MDB) file.
A new one will be created at your next login.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Fri Oct 24 10:42:13 2003
A quick server restart for time fix - for some reason the
time service on empire.tau.ac.il wasn't starting correctly.
Manwe.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Oct 24 10:14:52 2003
ASSASSINATION IN THE SHIRE!
Today, the leader of The Shire, Sheate Baynger, and his military
commander, Dest Royemall, were both killed when their convoy
was hit by an explosion in the Northfarthing of the Shire.
No group or party has yet to claim responsibility for this
terrorist action.
Their murders represent the latest in a series of deaths - normally
attributed to "accidental" actions by the men of Forochel - that
have occurred in the Northfarthing.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Oct 24 10:53:32 2003
Newly elected leader of The Shire, Verge Enewe, says Areglen,
ruler of Forochel, must leave country within 48 hours.
------------------------------------------------------------------
My fellow citizens, events in Forochel have now reached the
final days of decision. For numerous updates, The Shire and
other nations have pursued patient and honorable efforts to
disarm the Areglen regime without war.
This regime has used diplomacy as a ploy to gain time and
advantage. Peaceful efforts to disarm the Areglen regime
have failed again and again -- because we are not dealing
with peaceful men.
The regime has a history of reckless aggression in the Middle
Earth. It had a deep hatred of hobbits and our friends. And
it has aided, trained and harbored terrorists.
The danger is clear. The Shire has the sovereign authority to
use force in assuring its own national security. That duty
falls to me by the oath I have sworn, by the oath I will keep.
All the updates of deceit and cruelty have now reach an end.
Areglen and his cohorts must leave Forochel within 48 hours.
Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict,
commenced at a time of our choosing. For their own safety,
all foreign nationals should leave Forochel immediately.
Free nations have a duty to defend our people by uniting
against the violent. And tonight, as we have done before,
The Shire and our allies accept that responsibility.
Good night, and may Manwe continue to bless The Shire.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 24 16:30:59 2003
Quiz time!
Who founded The Shire and where did they come from?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $100 Empire gold
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 24 16:33:38 2003
Correct answer received!
Marcho and Blanco, two Fallohide hobbits who set out from Bree
and crossed the Bridge of Stonebrows (later named the Brandywine
Bridge). They were granted the area west of that bridge by
King Argeleb II of Arthedain, thus establishing what became known
as The Shire.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 24 16:39:31 2003
Now taking bets on whether today's update will fire as planned...
Bookies are offering 3.5:1
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Oct 24 16:51:16 2003
It the update doesn't fire...FORCE it!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 24 16:53:05 2003
Actually, it's already being manually forced. We haven't
had an automatically forced update for several updates.
Reason: The automatic force failed (one of those missed updates) and we
haven't been able to determine why. So, we're manually forcing the update
at a random time during the window.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Fri Oct 24 16:53:37 2003
} > Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Oct 24 16:51:16 2003
} It the update doesn't fire...FORCE it!
Don't use force, use a larger hammer! ;-P
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Oct 24 16:56:32 2003
>> Announcement from (41) Mithrilien dated Fri Oct 24 07:53:05 2003
>
>Actually, it's already being manually forced. We haven't
>had an automatically forced update for several updates.
So who manually forced the accidental update?
> Announcement from Forochel, (#2) dated Fri Oct 24 16:59:36 2003
Areglen was still packing, when the servant appeared with the news. He
nodded while trying to close the sack.
"Hobbits accuse Your Highness of terrorism, violence, and warn against a
conflict!"
Areglen couldn't believe what he heard. Where can so much deceit hide in
so small a creature! The words were still ringing in his ears: "Those pesky
elves!" "We are getting ready to mount the offensive against them on two
fronts". And now those announcements warning about military actions. He
grinned. Do they really think the world will believe them?! Will noone
point out, that the wolves with Hobbits on their backs were running on the
streets in Forochel hours before the so called "invitation for Areglen to
leave the country"? And hours after they announced that Harlindon elves,
the same bandits who ruined Forlindon, are their dear friends. Always
have been.
He stopped packing for a moment. Actually.. may be nobody will. They will all
worry that they are next.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Fri Oct 24 16:59:45 2003
The first of the deities that finishes a bottle of beer gets to force the
update ? That's why the update is mostly at the end of the 10 minute window...
:-)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 24 17:01:14 2003
Oh no, we drink *far* faster than that :)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 24 17:01:29 2003
(it's working our way through a dozen virgins that takes time...)
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Fri Oct 24 17:02:21 2003
That would explain the premature update.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Oct 24 17:02:45 2003
a dozen virgins in 8 minutes
you are a god
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 24 17:02:49 2003
bwahhaahahahahaha
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 24 17:04:46 2003
Holy Headlines Batman! We had an update!
(ran out of virgins)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 24 17:06:22 2003
(re: The Shire)
>So who manually forced the accidental update?
Nobody. That was an accident in not disabling updates after the update
prior to that one.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Sat Oct 25 04:48:03 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 38:
Just 3132 minutes until the next update.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Sat Oct 25 13:53:58 2003
For those of you who live in the U.S., don't
forget that most of us return to standard time
from daylight savings time. So, when you are
trying to figure out when the updates are, don't
forget to "carry the one."
The other night when the extra update happened,
I actually wondered for a second, "did the game
mess up, or have I looked at the schedule wrong"
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Sun Oct 26 02:41:58 2003
As noted in the MOTD, and lord knows how many other times,
the update schedule as posted on the website is accurate
(well, except for when Gremlins descend). We are not going
t convert time for every single time zone that is playing.
That's up to the player to figure out. We have given you
server time and UTC. All of you should be able to convert
from UTC. If you don't bother to do so, and are surprised
at the update time, tough :)
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Sun Oct 26 06:08:24 2003
>> Announcement from (41) Mithrilien dated Sat Oct 25 17:41:59 2003
>
>server time and UTC. All of you should be able to convert
>from UTC. If you don't bother to do so, and are surprised
>at the update time, tough :)
I can't keep my civies from starving and you expect me to
perform these convoluted calculations w/ timezones and
daylight savings?
Pass that whacky tabacky.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Sun Oct 26 09:52:39 2003
} > Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Sun Oct 26 06:08:24 2003
} I can't keep my civies from starving and you expect me to
} perform these convoluted calculations w/ timezones and
} daylight savings?
`date -u' is your friend.
If you run GameLoader2000 or somesuch instead of an OS,
then you need more than a friend.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sun Oct 26 13:10:56 2003
Sauron stabs the knife in the sacrificial victim
he rips the still throbbing heart out of the noble victim's chest
blood spills over the altar
The God is pleased
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Mon Oct 27 11:10:17 2003
and another missing update.....
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Mon Oct 27 11:10:18 2003
Not bloody again.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Oct 27 11:11:30 2003
someone got the diety phone numbers?
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Mon Oct 27 11:11:32 2003
I take it moving away from this computer
is a safe thing to do?
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Mon Oct 27 11:11:39 2003
I don't see any deities on right now...
Didn't Geoff say that they had to manually
force the updates?
If one of them isn't on, then it won't happen?
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Mon Oct 27 11:12:07 2003
Seems so...
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Mon Oct 27 11:12:55 2003
Perhaps when they said the update window is 10 minutes
they actually meant 10 days?
The Man
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Mon Oct 27 11:13:30 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 37:
Sacrificed Chief Astrologer to my lord Melkor. Perhaps the next
one will be more accurate at predicting the update.
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Mon Oct 27 11:13:40 2003
It's early in Indiana, but it's not so
early in Israel.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Oct 27 11:14:12 2003
this update scheme is *REALLY FUCKED UP*
should have been some sane regular schedule 24 hours or 48 hours
instead of this frigging bullshit idea that never works
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Mon Oct 27 11:15:01 2003
Now, now.
I think it's alarm clocks are to blame
this time.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Mon Oct 27 11:16:47 2003
: I think it's alarm clocks are to blame this time.
As you stated, it's not so early in Israel...
11:15 to be precise. ;-P
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Mon Oct 27 11:19:20 2003
What really sucks is that 1 out of every 4
updates is scheduled at this time right now.
If we are going to miss this one regularly,
this game is going to last forever...
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Oct 27 11:19:30 2003
whoever dreamed up this update scheme shot be dragged outside and shot
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Mon Oct 27 11:20:05 2003
The tensions being as high as they are in Israel I
hope nothing of that has spilled over to our cozy
Empire world.
The Man
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Mon Oct 27 11:21:23 2003
I think we need to send more virgins to the deities..
Dain II.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Mon Oct 27 11:22:19 2003
You think that will keep them from sleeping through updates?
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Oct 27 11:23:34 2003
they could put it on a 24 or 48 hour schedule that at least we know works
this whole damn thing doesn't work
anyone who worked with empire code knows you don't want to change the code
just to implement some idiotic bright idea that some moron dreamed up
because you know something will go wrong with the code
mob_access with a little mod solves the whole update problem anyway
so this whole approach is crazy
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Mon Oct 27 11:25:09 2003
I don't think it's coded in the server, but rather fired from a cron job
or something... Not much could go wrong there...
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Mon Oct 27 11:25:35 2003
According to CNN.com, there is nothing major
going on in Israel. I believe it is because
none of our deities are logged in. If that is
the case, then I feel they have the obligation
to either change the update schedule if this
is a bad time for them, or fix the problem...
I know there are certain countries that plan
pre-update attacks. All you are doing is
showing your attackee what is coming when the
update doesn't fire...
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Mon Oct 27 11:27:01 2003
} I don't think it's coded in the server, but rather fired from a cron job
} or something... Not much could go wrong there...
Yep, that's how you usually do it, and it works. Just not this time.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Mon Oct 27 11:30:15 2003
I played in the first LOTR, and the update
window thingy worked every time. I don't
recall any missed updates. It was working in
this before Roman's vacation. The server
has been messed up ever since then. If I had
a vote, I would prefer 48 hour updates.
However, what if they were always scheduled for
now, or an even worse time I couldn't make
the update for. So, I see the point for having
them at all different times. I would love to
see a polling of how many of us are from the
US, vs. elsewhere...
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Oct 27 12:20:11 2003
This whole damned update system started because of something I did at 3am 20 years ago
there is only one way to fix it, mob_access with the bonus mobility mod
mentioned on RGE
noone listens though, even though I am the only one who went through
the whole damned history of the various update schemes
so that's it, no more on the topic from me
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Oct 27 13:51:50 2003
Hi guys.
Please calm down.
All this crap started because of sequence of holidays in Israel, the
preparation and the opening of the semester in it this week.
Because of the holidays I was forced away from server's keyboard and
my internet connection got screwed with no one to help out, so it was
the first shit. Then during the preparation they here fucked up the
electricity with a number of unexpected shutdowns.
I hope that things are stabilized now. I repaired the script so that
the updates should work normally from the next one on even without
us present.
Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Oct 27 15:51:01 2003
To cheer things up a bit.
Something that made my day -
http://www.gordo.it/gordo/the_tribe.swf
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Oct 27 17:03:01 2003
Dear players,
From the bottom of my heart, I deeply and humbly apologize to you, the
player, for all the troubles this game has had.
It is incumbent on deities to run a game in as competent a manner as
possible. Though we volunteer our time, and as such shouldn't be too
harshly blasted for failure, we also shoulder a great burden by asking
you to join our game. In so doing, we make the moot promise that we
will not waste your time, and cause you to be frustrated and angered
by the abuse of the trust you give us when you join. A game is
supposed to be fun, not filled with frustration and anger.
We have failed that promise, and we are abjectly apologetic for it.
---
Due to the nature of the convoluted update schedule, we decided to
go with an automatic script that would log in and force the updates
per the update schedule. This script worked flawlessly in LOTR:I and
we expected it to work just as well this game. However, some updates
ago, that automatic script failed.
Since that time, we have been manually forcing updates at a random
time during the update window. As you no doubt have observed, this
has had its problems too. The latest of these problems had to do with
Roman contending with his government. Something that should have taken
only a matter of minutes ended up taking three hours, and Roman could
not make it to work in time to force the update. In an e-mail to me,
Roman said: "I felt helpless like shit about it".
The frustrations that you, the players have felt are magnified several
times over at the deity level. Imagine being a deity, knowing the
players are all waiting for you to get to the server to force an
update and having some mindless bureaucrat tell you to keep waiting,
and waiting, and waiting while the clock is ticking by and the other
two deities are asleep in bed on another continent.
I'm not going to give you some crap about "we feel your pain". I do
want to convey to you that the performance of this game is exceedingly
important to us, and we are doing everything we can to make this game
run smoothly. Many of you have been patient through all of this. Some
of you have not. For those that have not, I don't blame you in the
slightest for not being patient. *I* wouldn't be patient during this.
---
So where do we stand now, aside from wanting to get ridiculously
drunk and try to forget any of this crap happened?
Update #14 is cancelled.
We will not do a rollback to data before the missed update.
The new update #14 window, formerly update #15, is scheduled to
open at 05:00 server time (03:00 UTC) on Wednesday, October 29th.
What reason do you have for feeling this update will fire?
First, for the manually fired updates we had one deity present.
We are going to change that policy, and do everything we can
to have two deities present for the immediate future.
Second, we have modified the update script and by the time of
the next update, it will have been tested at least 20 times
over a variety of possible permutations of update situations
against a test server. If it passes those tests, and we expect
it will, the update script will be allowed to force the update.
If not, one of the two deities present will manually force the
update at a random time during the update window.
The update schedule on the LOTR:II website has, once again, been
updated to reflect the above.
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/updateschedule.html.
-Geoff
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Mon Oct 27 17:20:21 2003
As a newbie to Empire, I just wanted to convey my sincerest
thanks for the commitment and professionalism that the Diety team
has shown in this game. The update problems, at least from my perspective,
have not turned me off from this game, or Empire as a whole, one iota.
Keep up the good work. I for one, am having a blast.
> Announcement from Minhiriath, (#10) dated Mon Oct 27 17:29:43 2003
Yes, thanks Deities.
I feel lucky when my computer turns on in the
morning. Who works on these things?
Computers, I never trusted them.
Don't get me started on bureaucrats..
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Oct 28 01:58:06 2003
>> Announcement from (41) Mithrilien dated Mon Oct 27 07:03:01 2003
>
>From the bottom of my heart, I deeply and humbly apologize to you, the
>player, for all the troubles this game has had.
Just send us our own batch of virgins and we'll call it even.
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Tue Oct 28 06:17:16 2003
umm... can we do a "rollback" to the point in which I
had a country still standing?
Just a thought...
Flint
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 28 17:10:21 2003
That would require too many virgins :)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Oct 28 17:10:51 2003
(we'd have to start digging into sheep stockpiles, and
that would make a lot of people angry in this game ;))
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Oct 28 18:26:10 2003
That would be baaaahhhhd news indeed.
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Tue Oct 28 20:02:01 2003
Erebor's people are currently happy under the rule of
Girion, Lord of Dale and Dain II, King under the moutain.
We assure you of the growth of your former people...
:o)
And as it seems it should have been a shame to roll back the entire game for that..
;)
Girion
Lord of Dale
> Announcement from Girion, (#48) dated Tue Oct 28 20:42:34 2003
Hey! I thought *I* was Girion!?
> Announcement from Cardolan, (#8) dated Wed Oct 29 01:54:51 2003
WinACE news
A couple of bugs have been found with WinACE.
1) Runtime crash when moving the cursor over a ship with an order. In
particular, a ship that has got an error parsing the sorder output. The
problem occurs if the sorder output says that the ship "has arrived".
This will also occur if no "route is possible" or "route too long".
It will also occur on the grid if you move over the particular ship with
a problem record.
It has been fixed in the next version of WinACE. Also a change has been
submitted to wolfpack as well to get the server output improved.
There are also couple of work arounds. If you do an update orders while
the ship is not arrived then you should be alright for a while. Also if
there is more then one ship in the sector then the order information is
not display on the bottom status which is where the crash is coming from.
2) Add Fleet/Army/Wing not having the Okay button enabled. This is normal
until you typing something in the fleet area. However if you select an
existing Fleet it does not enable. The work around is to type something
into the field and then select the existing Fleet.
Again this problem is fixed and will be included in the next release.
3) Short Buttons on the build tool do not work. Just use the regular buttons
until the next release.
4) With the server not showing the correct update time, Air Combat History
is affected. I have not done any testing of this tool. If you have a
problem with it, please email.
Ron
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Wed Oct 29 04:57:31 2003
I see deity people.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Wed Oct 29 05:08:37 2003
Congrats, gentlemen.
The update fired, it fired with the script.
See you in 42 hours. :)
Manwe.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Wed Oct 29 06:50:27 2003
}The update fired, it fired with the script.
}See you in 42 hours. :)
A pint of Brees finest ale for the deities on the house.
Barliman
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Oct 29 19:02:21 2003
<glug><glug><glug>
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Oct 29 19:02:49 2003
"BRAAAAAP!"
"HEY!!! THAT SMELLS LIKE ELF FEET! WHAT THE...?"
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Oct 30 02:31:35 2003
Sauron puts on his Dave Nye "Evil Empire Shirt", black with the Red Dragon
on the back
suddenly his vision becomes blurry ... everything appears in shades of red and black ...
kill, kill, kill, is all he can think of ...
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 30 15:30:28 2003
That shirt, of course, being blood stained having been
taken off the back of a dead Sopwith Camel pilot.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 30 16:17:55 2003
Quiz time!
This one should be a bit tricky...
According to Tolkien written legend, when and where
was the game of golf invented?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $150
Empire gold.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 30 16:32:13 2003
Correct answer received!
In 2747 of the Third Age, Orcs of Mount Gram invaded The Shire,
lead by their chief Golfimbul. They were defeated by the Hobbits,
in the Battle of Greenfields. In the battle, Bandobras Took,
a.k.a. "Bullroarer", knocked Golfimbul's head clean off with
a wooden club. The head sailed through the air a hundred yards
and went down a rabbit hole, thus inventing the game of Golf.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Oct 30 22:27:04 2003
You are getting sleepy ... very sleepy ...
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Thu Oct 30 22:31:17 2003
>> Announcement from (25) Mordor dated Thu Oct 30 12:27:03 2003
>You are getting sleepy ... very sleepy ...
Beer is a depressant, so I could use a bit of a nap....
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Oct 30 22:38:33 2003
Quiz Time!
Who is AmheiserBush@yahoo.com.au and which country is he running?
first correct answer (actually every correct answer) gets to help me
sack his cap
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Oct 30 22:57:57 2003
Attn. Peasants: Per the peasant relief act,
the stealing of food is no longer needed. Any
peasant requiring extra food please fill out
Form 321E with your request.
Thank you and good day...
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Thu Oct 30 23:06:55 2003
T+6:40 getting worried
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Thu Oct 30 23:08:28 2003
And no deity logged on...
excitement ! Will it happen again ? ;-p
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Thu Oct 30 23:09:24 2003
1 minute left do you know where your update is?
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Thu Oct 30 23:09:47 2003
Hoppa !
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Oct 30 23:43:34 2003
You guys have such little faith! (gee, I wonder why!)
> Announcement from Balchoth, (#23) dated Fri Oct 31 00:59:46 2003
<> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Oct 30 22:38:33 2003
>Quiz Time!
>Who is AmheiserBush@yahoo.com.au and which country is he running?
>
>first correct answer (actually every correct answer) gets to help me
>sack his cap
Mate, I reckon you spelt his email addy wrong. Maybe try
VictoriaBitter@yahoo.com.au
> Announcement from Rivendell, (#6) dated Fri Oct 31 01:14:06 2003
I've always been partial to
FosterInTheOilCan@VeryColdBeer.AU
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Fri Oct 31 05:40:53 2003
CanadianBeerRocks@yahoo.com.au
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Fri Oct 31 07:24:21 2003
"Bring out your beer!! <clank>
"Bring out your beeeeer!! <Clank>
"I'm not drunk yet!!"
Gulp!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 31 15:26:28 2003
Foster is a half way decent beer, but compared to other
Australian brews, it sucks. It's the Budweiser of
Australia.
And only *some* Canadian beer rocks. A lot of it
is crap :)
Partial to Belhaven Scottish Ale myself.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Fri Oct 31 15:31:30 2003
Sauron is down to his last case of beer (sniff)
Quiz Time: can he make it through the weekend???
maybe Mith can enlighten Mordor further re beer
best discovered so far is Carlsberg "Elephant"
(*NOT* Oliphant!!!)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 31 15:39:54 2003
I heard that was contaminated with Elf feet
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Fri Oct 31 15:41:04 2003
you heard but you never tried it I see
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Fri Oct 31 16:10:27 2003
Sauron admits that he now recollects some wonderful nut brown ale from England
so it may be that Mith is right and the best beer does come from the Tin Islands
though the premise has to be that Danish Beer is best for your health
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 31 16:42:36 2003
Advertisement seen on a billboard for beer...
"If it's good for Sauron, it's good for you"
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Fri Oct 31 17:02:56 2003
} Advertisement seen on a billboard for beer...
}
} "If it's good for Sauron, it's good for you"
Bye two cases, win a free magic ring!
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Fri Oct 31 19:40:24 2003
You guys should have some taste of Eastern European beers.
Czech "Krusovice", "Kozel", "Staropramen" etc.
Russian "Baltika", Lithuanian "Zhigulevskoe", Ukrainian "Obolon'"...
Still, nothing beats the bavarian brewery Andechs and its Doppelbock.
Manwe.
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Fri Oct 31 20:38:44 2003
Bring out your beers ...
Excellent Rhun !!!!
I love this movie !!
:)
Girion
> Announcement from Balchoth, (#23) dated Fri Oct 31 20:47:11 2003
Do we have to pronounce those Eastern
European beers before or after a six-pack?
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Fri Oct 31 21:21:01 2003
} On Fri Oct 31 20:47:11 Balchoth wrote:
} Do we have to pronounce those Eastern
} European beers before or after a six-pack?
}-- End of excerpt from Balchoth
After each bottle. The one who can't manage to pronounce it correctly
doesn't get the next one.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 31 21:29:54 2003
no no no no no! That's not the way it works! It's a
drinking game, fool! You don't STOP drinking! You drink more!
If you don't pronounce it right, then you have to drink
more of them! Sheesh!
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Fri Oct 31 21:37:26 2003
} On Fri Oct 31 21:29:54 Mithrilien wrote:
} no no no no no! That's not the way it works! It's a
} drinking game, fool! You don't STOP drinking! You drink more!
} If you don't pronounce it right, then you have to drink
} more of them! Sheesh!
}-- End of excerpt from Mithrilien
No, you just have to drink Miller instead.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 31 22:17:28 2003
AAAAIIIIEEEE!!! AMERICAN BEER!!! RUN AWAY!!! RUN AWAY!!!!
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Fri Oct 31 22:33:29 2003
Why is drinking ________ (fill in your favorite American beer
name here) like making love in a canoe?
Because it's fucking near water.
Grhun
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 31 22:35:20 2003
Somebody has a favorite American beer?
Poor soul
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Oct 31 22:59:13 2003
Sheepishly (I hesitate to use that word here),
I just came home today with a 12 pack of
Pete's Wicked Winter Brew. An American beer.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Oct 31 23:01:15 2003
Ok, that's at least somewhat acceptable :) I mean the more
mass produced varieties, complete with billions in advertising.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sat Nov 1 05:24:12 2003
Sam Adams is good American beer
though I'm sure it doesn't compare to the Romm Specials
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Sat Nov 1 05:43:56 2003
If you are ever in Boston, I strongly suggest
taking a tour of the Sam Adams brewery. It
is a fairly short tour, and at the end they
serve free beer. Tours start every hour. The
first half hour is the tour. The last half
hour is "sampling" all of the varieties of
beer they make. The beauty of it is that they
are free. My friend and I went on the first
one of the day. We then noticed as ours was
ending that the next one was starting. So, we
went again. By the third time, they were
eyeing us a bit, but didn't say anything.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sat Nov 1 05:56:06 2003
Ah, a soul brother in Boston
Sauron enjoys touring the Napa and Sonoma Valley wineries here
in the heart of the Wine Country
Though I tend to get the eye at the start of tour one, they generally
pretend not to be frightened as long as the money is good
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Sat Nov 1 09:32:32 2003
Winery tours where they talk endlessly about
cultivation
preparation
acetification
acidulation
fermentation
amelioration
fortification
stabilization
maturation
oxidation
Pasteurization
Hey, enough already, where's the free wine?
What about my
inebreation
intoxication
gratification
exhilaration
Grhun [been there (wineries, breweries, and distilleries),
and done that (times beyond remembering)]
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Sat Nov 1 09:56:06 2003
There is a Wine Museum in Budapest.
When you enter it, they don't talk about tours. You make your own tour!
They just give you a glass and a pack of small breads and you're free to
go tasting. You can taste from any open bottle - the total stock is about
4500 bottles and about 1/10 of it is open. The whole "tour" costed about
$7.5 two and a half years ago, now it is probably more expensive.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Sat Nov 1 20:42:45 2003
I prefer Bree beer.
Verge
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Sat Nov 1 21:43:08 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 40:
17 more minutes before afternoon and can start on beer.
Trying to cut back on morning binges.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Sat Nov 1 23:45:23 2003
(to allow for more afternoon binges)
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sun Nov 2 12:15:34 2003
To celebrate the Day of the Dead, Mordor priests sent numerous sacrificial victims
among the ex-citizens of Nurn, Wainriders and Khand to their eternal reward
While the Aztec and Mayan priests prefered to sacrifice specially selected
young virgin females on the altars of their Gods, in this case
it wasn't possible to find any virgins, after the troops
had had their way
The greatest honor the Aztecs could show their defeated enemy soldiers
was to flay off their skin in ceremonial battles, before cutting open
their chests and ripping out their quivering hearts as an offering
meant to appease their Gods
Again it wasn't possible in this case, all the noble enemy soldiers having
already fallen on the field of battle. So ordinary civilians
had to take their places
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Nov 3 10:14:12 2003
Speaking of Beer Games:
for those afflicted with "Empire Beer Belly"
(a chronic disease of veteran players)
Sauron recommends "Beerobics" (which he claims to have invented)
to lose those extra pounds
Rule 1: when you get a craving for a beer, open a bottle
Rule 2: do not drink it!!! instead place it in your hand
Rule 3: Start your stairwalking or other favorite aerobic exercise
Rule 4: drink beer at your pleasure while exercising
Rule 5: don't stop exercising until finished with your bottle
Voila!!! No need for counting stairs or timing yourself,
instead you measure your progress by how many beers you manage to finish
Soon your brain begins to associate aerobics with beer,
so you actually look forward to it!!!
besides there is no more enjoyable way to exercise
than quaffing your prefered beverage while doing it
Beware of losing your balance, or getting beer down the
wrong windpipe!!!
Beerobics is the ideal way to kill time during those long hours
waiting for an update, after micromanagement is done
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Nov 3 16:19:35 2003
Next out from Mordor Enterprises...
Orcs of Steel...the all-body workout for the up and coming Orc.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Mon Nov 3 16:21:11 2003
Do 12 ounce curls count as aerobic exercise?
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Nov 3 16:27:03 2003
One day a Hobbit, a Dwarf, and Sauron walked into a pub
together. They proceeded to each buy a pint of Bree's finest.
Just as they were about to enjoy their beverages, three flies
landed in each of their pints.
The Hobbit pushed his beer away from him in disgust. The Dwarf
fished the offending fly out of his beer and continued
drinking it as if nothing happened. Sauron picked the fly out
of his drink and started shaking it over the pint, yelling,
"SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT!"
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Nov 3 16:34:23 2003
Quiz time!
What was the Dwarven name for the lake that partly inspired
Durin to found Moria?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $100 Empire gold
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Nov 3 16:36:28 2003
Correct answer received!
The Dwarven name for the lake that partly inspired Durin to
found Moria is Kheled-z?ram, The shimmering Mirrormere.
The shimmering mere that lay in the eastern valleys of the
Misty Mountains; seeing it, and the stars that were always
reflected in its surface, Durin the Deathless chose that
place for the delving of Khazad-d?m.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Nov 3 17:38:59 2003
There is no middle ground with that RNG of yours is there?
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Tue Nov 4 00:38:56 2003
GONDOR GUARD :
Sir !!!
We found some barrel of Beer with Capital "B" carve on it
in this new village we just enter.
GIRION :
Beer ??? ok, let's have party.
hum ...
wait a minute.
who was this village old owner ?
LORIEN ??????????????????????????
DO NOT TOUCH THEM ....
they are certainly Feet Infected !
GONDOR GUARD:
Hic ! BURP !
GIRION :
Argh !
too late ...
Close all the countryside
Burn all to the ground !
VOUCHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh
hum no thanks Mister SMAUG,
you are definitly not needed there
:)
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Nov 4 09:02:18 2003
*knock* *knock*
`Good morning my liege! Here's your morning pipe and the newspaper.'
Nothing beats simple delights like smoking a pipe after a good night's
rest and reading the news of you sacking a capital.
WHAT!?
-=[ EMPIRE NEWS ]=-
[bla bla]
Harlindon suspected of harboring Pirates!
Relative calm prevails.
=== Foreign Affairs ===
Mon Nov 3 23:41 Harlindon gives the cold shoulder to Pirates and declares
neutral relations
Mon Nov 3 23:41 Harlindon diplomats disavow former alliance with Pirates
Mon Nov 3 23:36 Harlindon announces an alliance with Pirates
=== The High Seas ===
Mon Nov 3 23:38 Pirates pirates board Rohan ship
Bastards!
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Nov 4 11:35:50 2003
Greek gods meddle. We do more impressive things!
Manwe.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Nov 4 11:36:16 2003
Such as?
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Nov 4 11:40:12 2003
Be ready. :)
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Nov 4 11:41:23 2003
Ummmm... can I take that question back?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Nov 4 18:24:59 2003
[41:640] Command : starva
Tue Nov 4 18:23:56 2003
Starvation
own sect eff
[...]
270 sectors
Iluvatar wept.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Nov 4 18:47:15 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 42:
Received white paper from small agricultural station with regards to
most effective distribution of food. Researchers found in study that
national effectiveness is enhanced by keeping food only in productive
sectors, and letting civil administrators in cities go hungry - surplus
population from rural sectors can be used to replace losses in the civil
administration. Publication of white paper was supressed by lower-ranking
civil administrators, who have now been sent to high-elevation mines.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Nov 4 18:54:01 2003
The amount of practical, real life uses of that white paper boggles the mind
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Nov 4 21:43:46 2003
The thieving peasants are back. Trick or treat
was a few days ago people!
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Nov 4 21:49:30 2003
That would be Gondor's bureaucrats
> Announcement from Pirates, (#45) dated Tue Nov 4 22:50:18 2003
[34:640] Command : news
-=[ EMPIRE NEWS ]=-
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
! "All the news that fits, we print." !
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Tue Nov 4 22:47:37 2003
Relative calm prevails
The details of Empire news since Mon Nov 3 23:18:17 2003
[...]
=== The Bottom Line ==
Pirates stole one sector from Rhun
Muwahahahaha! Send more virgins!
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Nov 4 23:58:06 2003
Only in Mordor is it possible to exceed Max minutes per day
when max = 1440
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Wed Nov 5 00:00:14 2003
I guess you just like to keep an "eye" on things
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Wed Nov 5 00:02:34 2003
First time I've managed to play for longer than 24 hours
in a single day.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Wed Nov 5 00:04:57 2003
Mordor is active 24x7 - be very, very afraid
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Wed Nov 5 00:08:47 2003
and don't forget, all the che are my servants
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Wed Nov 5 14:31:45 2003
Sauron Enterprises announces a new line of energy savers:
"Death Star Lite Bulbs"
The latest product from Mordor Laboratories
Guaranteed to last for 5000 years and use 1% of the electricty
of Hobbit Torchlites
They emit a naseauting sickly green flickering light
(why do you think they use less energy?)
and cost a fortune
But if they overheat and blowup in your face prematurely,
don't blame us, take them to Bilbo Baggins for a full refund
In laboratory tests, they never have worked right yet (it hasn't been
5000 years yet since we invented them, so what did you expect?)
But one of these days we may get it right
In the meantime our marketing gremlins are trying to prove
that not only is a sucker born every minute, but we can
sell this unproven technology to environmentalist Hobbits
and make a fortune while doing it
After all, who is going to go to the trouble of trying to collect
on a guarantee from Mordor?
Any resemblence between this product and other energy saver light bulbs
is purely fictional
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Nov 5 15:45:26 2003
I think Mordor Labs is really a rename of Dilbert Labs :)
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Wed Nov 5 16:08:26 2003
and some interesting twists among the Dieties..
-=[ EMPIRE NEWS ]=-
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
! "All the news that fits, we print." !
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Wed Nov 5 16:06:48 2003
Relative calm prevails.
The details of Empire news since Wed Nov 5 13:59:01 2003
=== Firestorms ===
Wed Nov 5 15:59 Mithrilien artillery fires on Manwe sectors
Finally found the guy who screwed up the updates?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Nov 5 16:10:33 2003
Stone giants tossing rocks at each other for sport.
Move along. Move along.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Thu Nov 6 00:29:44 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 43:
Forward legion found devasted. Apparently blown up from inside. Three
survivors found alive, in agony. Drank beer from abandoned village in DMZ.
Source of beer determined to have been from an Elf-infected territory.
First medical team perished following expiration of first victim. Next team
brought exotic Dwarven device consisting of vacuum pumps, posteror manifold,
and pressue-rated steel vessel. Patient and medics survived treatment.
Trust the dwarves to find a technological solution to a biological and
social problem.
Third operation did not go as well, as only one pressure vessel procured
from dwarves. Substituted eagle egg shell instead. Initial success, but
clumsy orderly dropped shell, killing all within blast radius. Weapon
system engineers believe effect can be used to triple ordinance yields.
All imported beer diverted to weapons facilities.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Thu Nov 6 00:42:00 2003
At this time we would like to point to our terms of use and our
liability disclaimer. We do not give any guarantees about the effects our beer
might have when not properly letting it gush into one's mouth.
I imagine the brewer of the Elf-feet-brew would have similar terms. Please make
sure you check them.
Barliman.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Nov 6 02:19:31 2003
BREAKING NEWS:
Apparently, some malcontented Bree brewers who were
fired after fraternizing with Elves, have been caught
in the hills of Southern Bree. Found intact were a
number of microbrew stills, a large quantity of hops,
barley, yeast, and a large collection of both empty
and non-empty beer barrels proclaiming the contents
to be "Made in Bree". Oddly, a number of Elf children
were discovered in a nearby barn. When one of the
brewers was asked about this, he replied "Fresh Elf
feet are better than 2,000 year old stale Elf feet".
In related news, stock futures of Bree beer plummeted
in after-close trading this evening.
> Announcement from Erebor, (#17) dated Thu Nov 6 06:46:47 2003
resurrect c *
damn...no luck
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Fri Nov 7 19:06:06 2003
Santa's little Elves better behave themselves
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Nov 7 19:07:26 2003
We are not your stereotypical wood elves,
such as the Keeblers. We are Lorien elves.
We have better class.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Nov 7 19:09:39 2003
And smellier feet
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Nov 7 19:10:05 2003
At least my shit don't stink, like
some I could mention.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Nov 7 19:10:24 2003
Relative to your feet, NOTHING stinks!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Nov 7 19:11:23 2003
I really don't notice. I'm allergic to
Galadriels stupid dog. So, my nose is
plugged more often than not.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Fri Nov 7 19:21:13 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 44:
Dear Sauron,
Christmas is approaching again. The Palantir last Christmas was nice,
but only gets one channel, and the carnage is very small. I've been
particularly good this year, and think I deserve a Ring like all the other
kings. Your favorite, roasted baby hearts will be on mantel.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Nov 7 23:32:25 2003
Quiz time!
What king of Numenor made an assault upon the Undying Lands?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $50 Empire gold.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Nov 7 23:36:37 2003
Correct answer received!
Q: What king of Numenor made an assault upon the Undying Lands?
A: King Ar-Pharaz?n. The assault immediately led to the
destruction and downfall of Numenor, ultimately leading to
the founding of Arnor and Gondor in Middle Earth.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Nov 7 23:38:41 2003
I think Bree is on the hunt for more moonshiners...
=== The Home Front ===
Fri Nov 7 22:00 Bree execution squads gun down helpless Dunland civilians
three times
Fri Nov 7 21:51 Bree execution squads gun down helpless Eregion civilians two
times
Fri Nov 7 21:51 Bree execution squads gun down helpless Dunland civilians
three times
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Fri Nov 7 23:47:38 2003
>I think Bree is on the hunt for more moonshiners...
Some people never learn... Producing beer with our recipes _and_ bathing
in our wells... Three Dunlanders and one Eregion elf were sentenced to death
twice...
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Sat Nov 8 16:07:47 2003
?Three Dunlanders and one Eregion elf were sentenced to death
?twice...
Did your execution squads miss the victims the first time?
What's this world coming to when a bunch of drunken, cross-eyed
hobbits even manage to take over a sector.
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Sun Nov 9 17:13:48 2003
The war between the elves had lasted for what seemed like 2000 years.
The debate over whether it was worse to have smelly feet or wear
purple bunny slippers had to end. The Shire had been seen using
nazgul. The men of the north had been enslaved and were now starving
at the hands of the hobbits. This could only mean one thing -- the
ringbearer had succumbed and was now under the influence of the one
ring.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sun Nov 9 17:17:56 2003
Well, the Evil One is always willing to make an alliance with the Elven Bunny
Particularly if there are some tempting victims sandwiched in between us
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Sun Nov 9 20:41:35 2003
The elves of the north insinuate that the hobbits have succumbed
to the influence of the One Ring? This from he who has enthralled
not just aggressors, but defenders? Not just one nation, but 7
nations? He who begins discussions with new neighbors with
acrimonious rhetoric?
I ask you, then, who is truly showing the characteristics of a
duplicitous empire?
The answer is clear: the elves of the sham-Mirkwood nation.
And Rivendell... lowering yourself to the status of just another
Mirkwood lackey? Expected, but disappointing.
Beware - you reap what you have sown.
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Sun Nov 9 21:53:48 2003
Gandalf,
You are invited in our next party,
please come and take a rest in this peaceful country of Dale.
( Just do a little move to the east )
Girion
Lord of Dale
PS : Neighbours are sincerly invited.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Sun Nov 9 21:56:44 2003
Sun Nov 9 21:27 Rohan spy shot by Manwe firing squad
Time to send that form letter again!
Dear Mrs _________,
I am very sorry to inform you that your late husband's life insurance
doesn't cover acts of God.
My sincere condolences,
_________, El Cheapo Insurance Ltd (very)
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Nov 10 11:15:34 2003
There was a five-hour power shutdown of the server because of electricity
problem that crippled... the cable connecting the server.
When I was back to the office, the cable was replaced. Hopefully it's now
ok.
Manwe.
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Mon Nov 10 22:26:23 2003
Some help, please? I just got ADSL at home, and set up the
firewall too. If I enable the firewall, it won't let me
play (does not connect using WinAce). There are three levels
of security, none of them are by default lax enough.
There must be a specific port I must free to be able to
play, right? What might it be? I can fine-tune the firewall
at will, but without knowledge will is not much good :-)
Ignoramus maximus
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Mon Nov 10 22:37:07 2003
What type of firewall? A program? I think
we need more information.
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Mon Nov 10 22:44:16 2003
This may or may not help...before I got my router at home I
used the free ZoneAlarm firewall software for my cable modem
connection.
It was self configuring, when you ran a program for the first
time, it asked if you want to give full or partial rights
, or no access at all to the internet.
Check your docs on auto configuration, or download the
zone alarm firewall and let it configure itself
if they (zonealarm ) changed the way their software worked,
then my info may be out of date
grhun
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Mon Nov 10 22:51:01 2003
The firewall is built into the ADSL modem/router.
Telewell EA-716 is the exact type of the machine.
What other info would you need?
The Man
> Announcement from Rivendell, (#6) dated Mon Nov 10 23:01:35 2003
Hmm, poking at the net I see I am using port 1617 and 3331.
1617 is what is set, 3331 is what is used to come back to me.
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Mon Nov 10 23:02:46 2003
your IP address so we could test a little this marvelous piece of equipment that
do not allow anything to go out !
:o)
more seriously,
generally hardware Firewall/router enable all communication from internal to
external by default.
I'll take a look at the documentation if you want.
Send it with a bottle to the great Lake of Dale.
;)
Girion
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Nov 11 09:54:32 2003
Some hell is going on with the electricity. Today I came to work and found
out that the machine is out of power again and wouldn't just switch on.
The crash occurred circa 1:30am server time.
I replaced the cable again and plugged it into another socket - the machine
turned on.
NOW. I do not know if I solved that problem, but I hope I did.
We'll see if we have to disable updates, but for now the updates continue
as the web site specifies.
My apologies.
Manwe.
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Nov 11 13:39:59 2003
?more seriously,
?generally hardware Firewall/router enable all communication
?from internal to external by default.
Yup... from what little I can understand of the firewall log,
it seems the problem is that nothing gets through from the
server to my client, and thereby it decides there's no
connection.
So if I look at the log, and determine what port the server
is trying to send the data to, and enable that port, should
that do the trick? Is the port # constant, or can it change?
Looking at the log it seems that at least three different
port numbers have been tried at various times (I tried to
connect several times, rebooting the machine & modem).
There are different protocols to choose from, UDP and TCP
at least. Which one should I enable, does it matter?
So this is what if feels like when you're totally clueless :-)
The Man
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Nov 11 13:41:42 2003
Should be TCP. Should be constant port #. So once you
drill open the right "hole" in your firewall, you
should be money, baby.
(Fodder w/ firewalls?)
Verge
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Tue Nov 11 14:19:29 2003
The _source_ port is constant for a game. The destination port
on your machine varies over time...
Harry Goatleaf, Bree gatekeeper.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Tue Nov 11 14:21:43 2003
Viewing from outside, that is...
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Nov 11 14:30:03 2003
>Viewing from outside, that is...
Ah, yes, that is true. Can you configure your f-wall to
explicitly allow connections from empire.tau.ac.il?
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Nov 11 14:54:47 2003
?The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Nov 11 14:30:03 2003
?>Viewing from outside, that is...
?Ah, yes, that is true. Can you configure your f-wall to
?explicitly allow connections from empire.tau.ac.il?
Umm.. I think not. There's just an ip blacklist possibility.
By default all the ip addresses are accepted, it is
the ports that I can play with. The two lists are separate.
If the port # can change, I guess if I want to play I have
to disable the firewall, and trust the NAT to protect me.
Damn.
Why does the destination port vary over time?
The Man
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Nov 11 15:33:39 2003
} Why does the destination port vary over time?
Because that's the way TCP works :)
The tuple (peer1-ip, peer1-port, peer2-ip, peer2-port) identifies a
connection, and therefore must be unique.
Servers bind well-known ports, so clients can find them.
Clients bind whatever port they get from the OS. If the client would
bind a fixed port, you couldn't make two connections to the same
service.
If your firewall doesn't let you accept traffic from a specific port
on a specific host, it's defective merchandise, which ought to be
tossed with extreme prejudice. Of course, if all you need or want is
a magic DSL box...
No offense, but I (and many others) believe a firewall won't do you
any good unless you really understand what it can do, and what you're
trying to achieve with it.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Nov 11 15:37:20 2003
I'll second what Rohan said regarding the utility of firewalls.
If you don't understand what it is they do, they will not give
you the protection you want.
That said, the firewall that came with your hardware does not
sounds particularly robust. Someone else mentioned Zone Alarm.
I've used the trial edition, and aside from the thing being
a rabbid defender of your machine to the nth degree (*), I
thought it a very good program.
(*) - Zone Alarm does a good job of preventing bots from taking
over your machine. Unfortunately, it doesn't recognize the difference
between bots and humans very well (nor can it). Result: It can
be a pain sometimes, when it forces to you authorize things,
and if you do not it disables your outgoing connections.
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Nov 11 15:49:40 2003
?Clients bind whatever port they get from the OS. If the client would
?bind a fixed port, you couldn't make two connections to the same
?service.
OK, I see.
?If your firewall doesn't let you accept traffic from a specific port
?on a specific host, it's defective merchandise, which ought to be
?tossed with extreme prejudice. Of course, if all you need or want is
?a magic DSL box...
It may be the machine is crap, but in this instance I suspect
it is the owner who is defective, not the merchandise. I'll try
to ask some friends how to set it up so that it does what you say
it should be able to do, and let's see what happens.
Reference manuals are fine once you know approximately what you
want to do and how to do it, but for a novice they're just a pain :-/
?No offense, but I (and many others) believe a firewall won't do you
?any good unless you really understand what it can do, and what you're
?trying to achieve with it.
Well, I'm learning all the time, right? :-)
Thank you for your time, and advice.
The Man
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Nov 11 18:41:42 2003
On firewalls - what is currently working, email and web?
What happens when you go to a non-standard web port
(a server on :8080 or something)? Do you have your browser
configured to use a webcache (in which case you're using a proxy
and not actually sending/receiving beyond the firewall),
using the firewall as a real gateway (real IP address on your
machine, not 192.168, 172.16-31, or 10. addresses), or using
NAT (most likely - network address translation).
If you want some help }:} I can provide you with an IP address
to try connecting to, and look at the traffic you're generating.
For true security though, I recommend removing all incoming wires from
your machine and keeping it in a Faraday cage. This will also
do wonders for the security of your country. :)
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Nov 12 00:35:15 2003
What exactly is the criteria for "wreaking
havoc"? Is there a certain amount of sectors
or damage?
P.S. beware the Pirates
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Wed Nov 12 00:54:57 2003
>P.S. beware the Pirates
The Pirates better beware. We've got a bunch of hobbits drunk
on Bree beer navigating ships on the high seas with reckless
abandon. Been a few close calls with other friendly vessels,
not to mention our own.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Wed Nov 12 01:21:12 2003
Drinking while boating takes years of practice. You do not want
saltwater in your beer. On the plus side, with sufficient beer
frostbite and hypothermia are less of a problem, so you
can practice year round.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Wed Nov 12 05:30:43 2003
Sauron highly recommends Buena Vista Sauvignon Blanc
for your dining pleasure
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Wed Nov 12 09:15:38 2003
? Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Nov 11 18:41:42 2003
?If you want some help }:} I can provide you with an IP address
?to try connecting to, and look at the traffic you're generating.
Thank you for the offer. Now that I know a bit more about what
I should be looking for, I'll first take a look myself, and
perhaps call some friends. If that doesn't help, I'll keep
you in mind. I sincerely hope it won't come to that. Maybe
I'll just disable the firewall, and start using ZoneAlarm.
At this point I'm trying to figure this out just for my own
benefit: it would be nice to know a bit more about these things,
even though they're not in my field.
?For true security though, I recommend removing all incoming wires from
?your machine and keeping it in a Faraday cage. This will also
?do wonders for the security of your country. :)
Wonders indeed :-)
The Man
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Wed Nov 12 11:04:36 2003
From the very secret diary of Denethor:
Day 45:
Wed Nov 12 10:21 Harad spy shot by Gondor firing squad thirty-two times
Harad spies much tougher than nazgul. What sort of undead are these?
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Nov 12 14:27:19 2003
Attn. Gondor:
While fun, your method of shooting your enemies
one soldier at a time is not very efficient.
Killing off gobs of them at a time is a much
better solution.
:-)
P.S. Beware the Pirates
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Nov 12 15:29:10 2003
Quiz time!
In The Hobbit, when the spiders captured the dwarves, where
was Thorin?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $50 Empire gold
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Nov 12 15:33:46 2003
Correct answer received!
The spiders managed to capture 12 dwarves, but did not capture
either Bilbo (who ultimately rescued them) or Thorin. Thorin
had previously been captured by the elves of the woodland realm,
though the dwarves and Bilbo did not know it at the time. Bilbo
later discovered Thorin in a deep cell in the elf king's caves.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Wed Nov 12 15:58:05 2003
Real empire players don't need alarm clocks
the natural cycles of their body clocks automatically wake them
an hour before each update
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Wed Nov 12 16:58:52 2003
} Real empire players don't need alarm clocks
}
} the natural cycles of their body clocks automatically wake them
} an hour before each update
True. Quite a bummer when your coruler is actually covering that graveyard-
update %-}
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Nov 12 16:59:42 2003
Any Dieties covering this update ?
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Wed Nov 12 17:01:57 2003
| Any Dieties covering this update ?
Use the 'player' command and find out...
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Wed Nov 12 17:04:20 2003
As if Sauron of the Lidless Eye sleeps.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Wed Nov 12 20:58:28 2003
some folks says you can't have too much money
Sauron sez you can't have too much lcm
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Nov 12 21:00:25 2003
Galador says you can't have enough shells.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Wed Nov 12 21:04:43 2003
}Galador says you can't have enough shells.
You have enough shells.
Trust me
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Nov 13 04:51:02 2003
Must playsss itss. We mussst! Stuppiddsss hotelssses, nasty little
dataportsss, trickess us they doesss. No internetesss theresss. Hates
them, we hatesss them! Musst playssss!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Nov 13 05:46:45 2003
$50 Empire gold for Visitor
> Announcement from Balchoth, (#23) dated Thu Nov 13 07:35:58 2003
Correct answer received~!~ $50 Empire Dollars go to the winner.
Six. The races represented were Dwarves, Men, Elves, Maiar, Hobbits and Half-elven.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Nov 13 07:42:44 2003
Quiz Time
How many men were in the army that fought before the Black Gate at the end
of the THIRD AGE (not the Last Alliance), and what races were represented?
(There were six, technically, though some might say five.) Name as many as you can.
$50 Empire gold to the first and most correct answer.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Nov 13 15:24:50 2003
Uh. Er. mmm. What in hell are you guys doing? :)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Nov 13 15:31:40 2003
God I hate Microsoft. Click on a friggin' hyperlink in MS-Outlook
and the program's gone stupid, taking the web browser with it.
I love my job, except I hate this place's addiction to MS.
MS...not multiple sclerosis anymore. Multiple Stupidity.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Fri Nov 14 05:11:48 2003
Wordz of Wizdom for the Wize
Empire, Chess, and Poker
all have the power to break up a relationship with your wife or girlfriend
so make sure before you get involved with her that she knows
which comes first
or you may regret it later
I still regret missing this great Poker game we had set up during grad school
and letting my poker buddies down by not showing up
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Fri Nov 14 09:55:38 2003
I feel the deities have done an excellent job of
balancing the different units. There are a couple
I've not seen any good reason to build yet, but
overall they present a nice heterogenous mix.
I also like the low mobility max of land units.
Good job!
The Man
> Announcement from Balchoth, (#23) dated Fri Nov 14 10:58:54 2003
Mordor,
Do you speak to your opponents when you play chess?
Bal
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Nov 14 10:59:45 2003
I hear he just stares at them with his one
lidless eye...
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Nov 14 11:08:35 2003
4 out the last 5 updates at 7 past the hour
or later. ?
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Fri Nov 14 13:12:56 2003
Ringleaders of the rebellious ingrates,
Thanks for growing all this food in the swamp. Would you care to
share the secret of your advanced agricultural methods? Our gracious
King will consider an amnesty for you wretches in that case.
Erdred, Royal Rohan Bean Counter
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Fri Nov 14 21:02:12 2003
FYI
During Sunday the server will undergo a maintenance routine
including at least one reboot and possibly a 15-20 minute downtime.
This is likely to occur either between 8 till 11 server time or
between 16 till 18 server time.
You have been informed.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Sat Nov 15 02:13:16 2003
Please bear with us as Elves and Hobbits block our beer delivery
routes. We hope to keep the beer flowing everywhere, but wherever
you get low on stock, don't hesitate to come and get some for
(your)(s)elves...
Just keep the Elves on a leash...
Barliman.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sat Nov 15 20:10:55 2003
Mirkwood, Mirkwood, a country truly worthy of respect
I invite the Elven King to turn to the Darkside and ally with Mordor ...
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Sat Nov 15 20:24:06 2003
Try it... you'll like it....
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Sat Nov 15 20:27:48 2003
The Dark Lord also allied with Numenor
and look what happened to them !
They got used as his Pawn (like the chess joke Tom)
and cast to the bottom of the ocean !
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sat Nov 15 20:35:02 2003
Evil is almost as intoxicating as sacrificing pawns ...
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sun Nov 16 09:09:24 2003
Mordor is looking forward to Monday, November 17, 2003
The Terminator will be officially inagurated as Governor of the
great state of California
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Sun Nov 16 10:05:03 2003
Important
The aforementioned maintenance is likely to occur between 16:00 and
18:00 server time today.
Manwe.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sun Nov 16 23:46:03 2003
Sauron's bleary eye begins to focus ...
the map seems greener than before ...
must have had too much bree last night, or was that beer ...
Spelling was never Sauron's strong point ...
Oh my aching head, time for more coffee ...
Its understandable losing count of how much beer you've had,
but you know you had too much when you can't count how many
cups of coffee the next morning
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Nov 17 04:59:57 2003
Sauron spies some strange mushroom clouds off in the distance
some are white
some are red
white = atomic bombs he imagines
red = hydrogen bombs ???
Sauron can only dream of the days gone by when such things
were common in Empire ...
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Nov 17 20:39:18 2003
Important!
It seems that a major TAU router upgrade that was supposed to go
smoothly between 18:00 and 18:30 and be over, wasn't smooth and isn't
over.
I'm on a sick leave at home, but I will try to keep you updated.
If the downtimes of the network spread into tomorrow, the update might
be postponed. It _seems_ unlikely, though.
Manwe.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Nov 17 23:43:45 2003
I just got an email that the connections to TAU should be stable from
now on.
Manwe.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Nov 18 03:42:51 2003
[please read in a fixed-width font]
It is with heavy heart that the leader of The Shire, Verge
Enewe, must surrender to the Coalition of the Unbelievably
Numerous Territorial States (CUNTS). Never before has he
seen fully 1/4 of the world come together in the common
cause of peaceful domination.
While The Shire cajoled, wheedled, dominated and, at times,
simply overran its neighbors in an attempt to secure peace
in the west, the CUNTS chose to sing, hug and dance around
the campfire. After the love-in was complete, they then
joined arms in a march across the lands, inciting protests,
work stoppages, sit-ins and other forms of dissent in those
nations that came across their path. Clearly a truly
insidious form of warfare befitting The Dark Lord himself.
Despite the deep-seeded desire to say "the CUNTS stink!",
The Shire will instead, acquiesce to their bizarre methods.
Thus, The Shire will put away its weapons of destruction,
implements of death and flamable munitions. In their place
will be songbooks, hemp bracelets, prayer beads and rounded-
off, tube-like devices that one is apparently meant to sit
on (we are still awaiting the instruction booklets from
Rohan).
So the white flag is raised in the capitol cities - flapping
in the wind for all to see. It is a sharp eye, however, that
makes note of the stitching on the back of the flags:
/ _ \
/ / \ \
| \_/ |
| |
| - |
___ | - | ___
/ \| |/ \
__| | | |
/ | | | |
| | | | | ___
| | | | | / _\
: : / / /
:() ( ) ( ) ( ) :/ \/
: \/
: \/
: /
\ /
\ /
\ |
| |
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Nov 18 04:34:53 2003
Well, Gondor and I are hoping to run a game that will make
it fair for a single player who only has a few hours a day to play.
I think I can do that by making some simple changes to the way
mobility is calculated.
The dieties did an excellent job setting up this LOTR game,
by the way. It is some fundamental flaws in the way empire in general
has evolved that I want to fix
(I can see now how we took a wrong turn 20 years ago, missing
a simple alternative solution)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Tue Nov 18 08:04:04 2003
= Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Nov 18 03:42:51 2003
=
=[please read in a fixed-width font]... [censored]
Obviously, the Hobbits have lost the One Ring again! *sigh*
"Hey Dilbo, you're not invisible anymore...we can all SEE your hand...
...lookie, no ringie on your finger!"
Hobbits! *shakes head* Give them a ring of power and they think they
should rule Middle Earth.
Now take a closer look at Sauron's anno. Who can tell if HE'S wearing the
One Ring?
- Naz
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Nov 18 12:56:36 2003
All is silence ...
Sauron is the servant of his allies ...
seeking no victory for Mordor, only victory for his allies
would please him ...
Of course he helps himself to bits and pieces of conquered enemy
territory along the way :-)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Tue Nov 18 19:42:45 2003
The lack of ANY quality announcements in a game that
should inspire extensive "role-playing" is pretty sad.
Is this a side-effect of all these co-ruled nations?
Perhaps these teams should begin recruiting a creative
department so that they can develop a semblance
of a personality and add a bit of color to a game
that is grinding down into a boring has-been.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Nov 18 19:44:47 2003
Er, I rather think there have been quite a few rather
creative announcemens in this game.
One of the funniest was done by a player in this game from
the visitor account (he was travelling on the road). It was
regarding his connectivity problems, and done in the voice
of Gollum. Rather hysterical :)
Also, the Elf Feet incident early on inspired a number of
rather humorous posts. We should also not forget the numerous
fun posts regarding beer in Middle Earth.
What rock have you been hiding under?
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Tue Nov 18 19:47:52 2003
This rock over here. *wave*
The announcements you refer to appear to be limited to
about 3-4 nations. I believe 32 started this game?
How about those countries that are still alive?
Mirkwood? Rohan? Rhun? Rivendell? DA? Gondor? Umbar?
Iron Hills has made 1 or 2... Mordor, while never passing
for funny, has made several.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Nov 18 19:50:38 2003
Oh, so now it's not a lack of "ANY quality announcements",
it's a lack of announcements from certain people that bugs
you?
Perhaps if I show you more evidence of your error,
you will continue to backpedal further? :)
This game has had a rather large set of announcements done it.
I've kept them all, and have periodically added them to the
growing game summary file for this game, which will be posted
shortly after the game ends. I can say that of the 20+ game
summaries on the Wolfpack site, this summary is already by
far the longest, even over such famous games as Harvard Fall
Empire of 1990 and Riverworld of 1994.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Nov 18 19:57:24 2003
Mith,
Found another bug. It seems to be in the visitor account right now.
Was unable to work around it.
dec w visitor
No such country exists.
Usage: declare <all|friend|neut|hos|war> <NATS>
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Nov 18 19:58:44 2003
:) And just how would you propose waging war on visitor? :)
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Nov 18 19:59:59 2003
Well, it's a bug. Use RAID.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Tue Nov 18 20:01:11 2003
Now see... that was funny. Who is this Gondor person?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Nov 18 20:14:55 2003
Quiz time:
Who is the most prolific poster in announcements in the
game that is a playing nation?
First right answer telegrammed to Mithrilien wins $100 Empire gold
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Nov 18 20:20:28 2003
Well, I personally have some high quality anno's planned
Unfortunately they all revolve around me sacking my enemies
cap. Now if my enemies will behave like good little
countries and just roll over and die like they are supposed too,
then you will have the glorious honor of hearing them.
King Antonatar, III
Harondor
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Nov 18 20:26:46 2003
Winning answer received!
777 posts since the beginning of the game through earlier
today. 26 of 32 countries have made announcements.
Here's a ranked list of countries and their number of
announcements (* - Non-player countries):
* Mithrilien 223
Lorien 96
Dol_Amroth 51
Mordor 40
* Manwe 35
Bree 30
Gondor 29
The_Shire 29
Harondor 28
Rohan 26
Cardolan 22
Harad 18
Rhun 18
Erebor 17
* visitor 16
Minhiriath 13
Dale 12
Dorwinion 12
Mirkwood 11
Balchoth 8
Eregion 7
Angmar 5
Rivendell 5
* Smaug 5
Forochel 4
Iron_Hills 4
Wainriders 3
Dol_Goldur 2
* Eonwe 2
Umbar 2
* Girion 1
Khand 1
* Pirates 1
* Valinor 1
> Announcement from Balchoth, (#23) dated Tue Nov 18 20:28:53 2003
Sorry we so boring, what can you expect
from an accountant and an engineer.
Axeman
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Nov 18 20:29:30 2003
Ah, but whats the ranking if you remove posts
that mention the word "update"
:-)
> Announcement from Balchoth, (#23) dated Tue Nov 18 20:30:14 2003
Mith
This is two more annos,
move me up the list.
Axeman
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Tue Nov 18 20:35:08 2003
I think the annos have become less recently
because the active players have been very
busy. All have been in a war on one front
or another and keeping all owned sectors
working efficiently has taken lots of time.
Busy Servant
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Tue Nov 18 20:40:16 2003
***SECRETS OF THE INTERNET REVEALED***
Yes folks, it's true. There is no such thing a pill that
will make your member bigger. Just ask Barsoom and his empty
pants and full Master Card.
But there is a medication for those of you that are significantly
under the 50% threshold.
Buy the 20 pound tub of ***MINI-GIRL*** now.
Only $149.99 for a three month supply.
Just remember our slogan: You're not too small. She's just
too big!
Also available at Wal-mart next to the condoms and whipped topping.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Nov 18 20:41:11 2003
Stamped with "Made in China", no doubt.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Nov 18 20:44:49 2003
War is the perfect time for propoganda, is it not?
For example, I can report that every single woman in
towns raided by the Mirkwood elves has been perfectly
safe.
Our animals have faired less well.
And our spears and staves all appear to have been
used for not their originally intended purpose.
The scrubbing continues....
Verge
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Nov 18 20:47:09 2003
Jason, haven't you retired?
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Nov 18 20:59:19 2003
Well are horse will be safe in the shire !
as long as no one gives the Hobbits step ladders :)
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Nov 18 20:59:56 2003
that was meant to be "our horses" :)
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Nov 18 21:01:08 2003
come to think of it so would our women and sheep :)
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Nov 18 21:09:47 2003
According to the deity, I have made 51 annos.
I guarantee that at least one or two of them
were funny. Sure, maybe they weren't rip
snorting, lose control of bodily function
belly laughs, but I'll bet a chuckle or two
happened as a result of my annos.
So there, Mr. Visitor! Besides, why aren't
you playing in this game and dazzling us with
your witty annos?
P.S. Where have the Pirates gone?
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Nov 18 21:15:14 2003
>Jason, haven't you retired?
I think Jason is still doing movies... though I'm not
sure if he or Freddy won the last one.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Nov 18 21:16:18 2003
>> Announcement from (12) Rohan
>come to think of it so would our women and sheep :)
We just stand on each others shoulders....
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Nov 18 21:18:58 2003
>> Announcement from (28) Dol_Amroth
>According to the deity, I have made 51 annos.
...
>belly laughs, but I'll bet a chuckle or two
>happened as a result of my annos.
Heh.
Oops - there's a chuckle.
>P.S. Where have the Pirates gone?
Word has it that Iron Hills and Dale appeared to
be so fodderous that the Pirates figured what the
hell and actually invaded. They've moored their
ships and are now no longer roaming the seas.
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Tue Nov 18 21:27:00 2003
Bah... I've seen more pirate ships in Longlake than I received shells from hobbits...
Next time I'll fight Umbar and their endless teleporting boats.
;)
Dain II Ironfoot, King under the Mountain.
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Tue Nov 18 21:38:21 2003
Sooooo !!!!
it was hobbits we found in old Arnor !!
It explains why all our shells were going to nowhere,
we targeted to high.
;)
Girion
Lord of Dale
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Nov 18 22:41:18 2003
A strange noise was heard eminating from the
royal palace. Galador was speaking in an odd
sort of timed speech...
"I can't stand it. I know he planned it.
He sent in his wiz to mess up my bridge.
I can't keep attacking him over there,
cause only light units fit on my corsair.
I'm not sure how he got through my line.
The next time I might land mine.
No, it's not espionage.
I'm telling y'all it's sabotage."
The royal advisors are not sure what to make
of this and are suggesting some rest for
Galador...
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Tue Nov 18 23:02:34 2003
Seems to me PIRATES went insane ...
After leaving the Great Lake they are still bothring us !
Leave us pirates !!!
dwarves are near too !
Girion
Lord of Dale
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Wed Nov 19 02:46:56 2003
Apparently, the CUNTS are none too bright either - well, a
collection of dwarves, elves, horsemen and other riff-raff,
what should one expect?
The Shire formally surrenders and raises the white flags in its
cities and the CUNTS continue to kill innocents? Where is the
honor among these haters of war and lovers of allegiance? For
that matter, where is peace?
All the people of The Shire have laid down their arms (they're
close to the ground, so that's easy to do) and dropped their
weapons yet the executions continue. Our war-torn citizens,
proferring their peacepipes to the unwashed, invading hordes
are instead trampelled underfoot (admittedly, easy to do).
Why, these rabble have even incited the youth of our nation
to rebel and burn down all our national banks - in their mind
the ultimate symbols of war and greed. It's chaos!
Truly the cost of peace is great - but how much more must our
little people suffer? Can't we now just all get along?
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Wed Nov 19 03:28:35 2003
Yes, why can't we all just get along?
Sauron is offering free Kool-Aid to all the hostile parties,
in the hope that peace may finally prevail after partaking
of that refreshing beverage
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Nov 19 03:37:28 2003
As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin? for light in the darkness of insanity.
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?
And each time I feel like this inside,
There?s one thing I wanna know:
What?s so funny ?bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
What?s so funny ?bout peace love & understanding?
And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.
?cause each time I feel it slippin? away, just makes me wanna
cry.
What?s so funny ?bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
What?s so funny ?bout peace love & understanding?
So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.
?cause each time I feel it slippin? away, just makes me wanna
cry.
What?s so funny ?bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
What?s so funny ?bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
What?s so funny ?bout peace love & understanding?
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Wed Nov 19 03:55:38 2003
From the secret recipe book of the Mt. Doom kitchens:
Hobbit-Aide (in common language, Kool-Aid)
8 parts water
1 part flavor mix
for "guests" from the West, add 1 part cyanide, leave out
optional ingredients
Optional: add hobbit fingers to taste
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Wed Nov 19 10:29:54 2003
We are the Rhun. Lower your shields and surrender your sheep.
Your culture will adapt to service us.
Resistance is futile. We are the Rhun.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Wed Nov 19 10:46:18 2003
>We are the Rhun. Lower your shields and surrender your sheep.
>Your culture will adapt to service us.
>Resistance is futile. We are the Rhun.
We are the Rhun. We eat and drink extensively only to find
ourselves perched on the nearest toilet because we Rhun. It
Rhuns down our crack and between our cheeks. Your assimilation
is eventual because we stink... we don't wipe the Rhun from our
cracks.
If you get in our way, we will bring our Rhuny allies along
to assist with the mopping up of our Rhun-stains. Were it
true that we could Rhun all over you in isolation, we would.
However, we cannot Rhun alone. We Rhun as a united team,
forever seeking to elevate our status above others through
the virture of organised action. In other words, the CUNTS
have their Rhunny shit together.
Yet our white flags continue to wave in the wind. As of yet,
they remain unstained with Rhunyness. But the almost
indistiguishable symbol of freedom continues to fly, albeit
discretely:
/ _ \
/ / \ \
| \_/ |
| |
| - |
___ | - | ___
/ \| |/ \
__| | | |
/ | | | |
| | | | | ___
| | | | | / _\
: : / / /
:() ( ) ( ) ( ) :/ \/
: \/
: \/
: /
\ /
\ /
\ |
| |
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Wed Nov 19 13:46:08 2003
Dear Mr Sauron,
Due to reports of repeated misconduct such as
- steering a ship under influence and ramming an Elven Swan
- scaring people at a Rhun beach resort by sailing by, dropping your
pants, and exhibiting your hairy derriere
- drinking "Hobbits Head" beer and peeing in the sea, turning a
perfectly usable sand beach to glass
- killing all fish in the Sea of Rhun by washing your feet in it
we have decided to revoke your sailing license EVIL666.
Hrhun,
harbor authorities of Rhun
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Nov 19 16:02:35 2003
Hmm. I think The Shire is hiding something. In reality,
his hand looks like this (note the ring):
/ _ \
/ / \ \
| \_/ |
| |
| - |
___ | - | ___
/ \| |/ \
__| | | |
/ | | | |
| | | | | ___
| |====| | | / _\
: : / / /
:() ( ) ( ) ( ) :/ \/
: \/
: \/
: /
\ /
\ /
\ |
| |
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Nov 19 16:08:24 2003
Well I'll say one good thing about Mrs. Mithrilien's cooking.
It sure broke those dogs from begging at the table.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Wed Nov 19 19:11:43 2003
- Mirkwood artillery fires on Mirkwood sector
- seven times
Err, internal revolt? A difference of opinion?
Inquiring minds want to know.
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Wed Nov 19 19:47:11 2003
Sometimes that last remaining enemy civilian is hard to kill! :)
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Wed Nov 19 20:31:44 2003
Have you no style?!? Dol_Amaroth pin bombed my straglers with an Eagle
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Wed Nov 19 21:00:27 2003
I know why The_Shire is so pissed, the tip of his finger got cut off. We are
able to salute you fully without any pain.
We even had a holiday tatoo added.
___
/ _ \
/ / \ \
| \_/ |
| |
| - |
___ | - | ___
/ \| |/ \
___| | | |
/ | | | |
| | | | | ___
| | | | | / _\
: : / / /
:(E) (a) (t) (M) :/ \/
: \/
: (e)\/
: /
\ /
\ /
\ |
| |
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Wed Nov 19 21:15:43 2003
(From the Department of Redundancy Department,
Ministry of Proper Formatting)
I know why The_Shire is so pissed,
the tip of his finger got cut off.
We are able to salute you fully without any pain.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Thu Nov 20 00:12:26 2003
Clever
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Nov 20 01:55:03 2003
obviously, since the powers that be have set the game up so that
a team approach of weaker players on 24/7 can win by
physically exhausting a country run by a single player,
for example I was up 24 hours straight but finally fell asleep
while the pygmies kept up the attack round the clock
the last couple days
I don't think they did much damage but a game where
the outcome is determined by exhausting the human endurance
of a single player by a team attacking 24/7
is beneath contempt
if anyone wants to contest the win declaration by the pygmies
I will keep fighting but I really do need to get some sleep
sometime, having to be on 24 hours straight and still
that isn't enough is ridiculous
just proves the lack of intelligence of the current
people in charge of the code
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Nov 20 04:52:04 2003
after looking through the thousands of telegrams from the last
24 hours, the result seems to be that Balchoth took 3 sectors in the
corridor leading to the Mount of Doom
Rhun actually seems to have lost ground as well as units
Obviously I can't wade through that much information in all
those telegrams to know exactly what happened, but it seems
like it was a simultaneous attack by Rohan, Rhun and Balchoth
on different fronts
I'm not very good on automatic defenses, but I was trying
to learn them this game, and they seemed adequate for stopping
Rhun and Balchoth, but seems to have been a highly efficient
sneak attack by Rohan, who I wasn't at war with previously,
that got the 3 sectors in the corridor leading to Mount Doom
I've been thinking the last few days about having "slow war" on
if I run a game, and that clinches it, you at least need to know
who the enemy is before the huge investment needed
to set up automatic defense
Rohan seems to specialize in sneak attacks, that at least
seemed well done
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Nov 20 05:50:27 2003
Thanks for the compliments Mordor, re: people currently
in charge of the code.
Regardless, in this case your assertions, though often
bearing fruit on the point you raise, falls wide of the mark in
in this case.
You are a victim of your own diplomacy. Laying that blame at the
feet of the code maintainers is not correct.
> Announcement from Rivendell, (#6) dated Thu Nov 20 06:29:49 2003
Failures in diplomacy aside, it is true
that the game in the current format favors
multiple leader teams over indivduals.
Even for those of us who are willing to
shift our sleep patterns and have the
flexibility in our schedules to do so
find that we cannot be on 24x7 and often
fall prey to the well time attack when
nature or real life forces us away from
the keyboard. It is too bad that a single
such failure can be fatal to a nation.
Often the "impressive" offensives are
executed as surprise attacks against
former neutral or friendly nations who
had left themselves vulnerable out of a
misplaced trust and usually when they aren't on.
The Shire & Harlindon each took 50+ sectors
from Bree in such an attack.
These are real problems with the game and
should be addressed. I prefer slow war.
It stops some of this nonsense, but most players
seem to hate it.
I don't know that the need to always be on problem
can be addressed with the current combat system.
Setting up units on defensive missions is nice, but
again you can game these against someone not on in
order to run the defenders out of mobility, get an
arty piece in close and kill a stack that would
smash the arty if someone was on to give the command,
or the game was smart enough to do it for you.
Well I still enjoy the game enough to keep playing, but
I hate it when I am the victim of being hurt by attacks
when not on. If only I could interface the game with my
cell phone so I could counter attack from anywhere :)
Elrond
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Nov 20 06:45:28 2003
I didn't mean to criticize Mith, he is about the only one
I know of who understands the issues pretty well
I have some ideas to modify "slow war" to make it playable
if Gondor can code it
diplomatically this was the worst game experience I ever had
everything I did went wrong
I did find a couple new friends though but lost several old ones
(good riddance to false friends though)
my diplomatic strategy is to try to put the interest of my allies
first but some people don't respond to that
(they are the "perpetual backstabbers" from the "Prisoner's Dilemma" theory
also well known by those who play the game "Diplomacy" which I'm not
good at)
anyway I have a kind of one dimensional mind, Math is the only thing
I was ever good at, and I finally figured a way to make the game fair
for a single player by using math tricks involving negative mobility
etc (only took me 20 years and it was someone else who first
woke me up to the negative mobility idea
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Nov 20 06:49:45 2003
by the way, I am sometimes proved right in the long run :-)
The "Fuck You Asshole" line, which I got from the first "Terminator"
movie, didn't work too well diplomacy wise
But the Terminator is now Governor of the great state of California :-)
There is hope for the world yet :-)
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Nov 20 07:08:59 2003
Res_pop adds an unbelievable amount of micromanagement
so that a single player doesn't have time to optimize a country
each update
Res_pop has nothing to do with strategy and really doesn't
belong in the game
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Thu Nov 20 09:57:14 2003
: Res_pop adds an unbelievable amount of micromanagement
I like res_pop a lot, because it's a simple way to increase your
income, without the deliveries and thresholds of the venture
capitals and thelike...
It might be a bit more work at the beginning of the game, but then
again, that's where you're already micromanaging a lot; the little
effort that res_pop requires extra (if it even does so) is from my
point of view, negligable...
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Thu Nov 20 10:05:48 2003
Is there some kind of upper limit to the number
of countries that can declare for the victory?
We've heard some rumours about a massive coalition,
and undoubtedly such a beast would be able to
dominate the game and "win" it.
The rumours may of course be false, our poor
country is at the edge of the known world,
after all, and news of the world reach us
but slowly, and imperfectly.
The Man of Harad
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Nov 20 10:37:26 2003
} Often the "impressive" offensives are
} executed as surprise attacks against
} former neutral or friendly nations who
} had left themselves vulnerable out of a
} misplaced trust and usually when they aren't on.
}
} The Shire & Harlindon each took 50+ sectors
} from Bree in such an attack.
}
} These are real problems with the game and
} should be addressed.
I'd be the last one to deny the game has serious problems. Among them
is the `wake up and your country's gone' syndrome.
However, I think players should be able to overrun an undefended or
ineptly defended country. Setting up a defense isn't free both in
game and real-life resources, and choosing not to do it should carry
its risks.
Likewise, screwing up diplomacy should carry its risks.
(cont)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Nov 20 10:38:16 2003
The automatic defenses are flawed in many ways. As you mentioned
further down, it's rather easy to game them when the opponent isn't
on. To make them hold anyway, you need depth and you have to commit
serious amounts of player time and country resources. Well, at least
I do.
I've been whacking my brain to think up improvements, and I'd be
delighted to hear suggestions.
Don't misunderstand me. I want a determined and skillful attack to be
able to punch through competently set up defenses, at a considerable
cost. Otherwise the game degenerates into trench warfare.
Few players seem to care setting up any but the most rudimentary
defenses. Whether this is because they don't know how to, or because
they prefer to use precious resources on offense, I don't know.
Markus, a.k.a. Dorwinion
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Nov 20 11:03:37 2003
Pat's idea of no_mob_cost for units on reserve missions worked well
in practice
instead of running a unit out of mobility I think that in theory
it should be necessary to defeat it by inflicting sufficient casualties
(for arcane reasons too deep to explain here)
same goes for planes, reacting interceptors shouldn't be charged
mobility, you should have to shoot them down
(or damage them under the current scheme)
(Gondor and I have a probabilitic scheme to replace plane
and ship damage by probablity of being shot down or suck)
(probabilistic schemes are much more powerful than deterministic
algorithms)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Nov 20 12:41:23 2003
Mordor,
Re: co-ruler dilema
Mark Ballinger runs the Midshipmans series of games, which disallow co-ruling.
It works because the players respect the etiquette set by Mark.
I suggest you consider this approach first rather than changing the server
code.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Nov 20 12:47:30 2003
the server code is bad (20 years ago it was like mob_access
is now, except mob was set to zero when a sector is captured.
It should have been set negative instead of the present update
scheme which was Muir's solution at the time)
so basically all I'm doing is going back to the way the code
was in the right way rather than sticking a kludge on it
which was the way things were done at the time
all that takes to make it fair for a single player is to have
mobility increase at a faster rate while a country is logged off
that makes it easier for a single player even in an honor code game
as currently a single player should theoretically be on all the time
with a noise to wake him up if something happens (which some
have actually created for themselves :-)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Nov 20 12:49:04 2003
? Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Nov 20 12:41:23 2003
Mordor (continued),
Re: co-ruler dilema
Mark Ballinger runs the Midshipmans series of games, which disallow co-ruling.
It works because the players respect the etiquette set by Mark.
I suggest you consider this approach first rather than changing the server
code.
re: slow war
Lanny Andelin runs the Newbie series of games with the SLOW_WAR option. It's not
that bad, IMHO, but it does slow the game down.
NAs have the same effect, *provided* players follow the etiquette.
re: etiquette
To a large degree, player etiquette determines the quality of play in an
Empire game. Incidentally, the Empire community is head and shoulders
above some multi-player internet strategy games.
I suggest you consider (along with "read-with-a-fixed-font" The_Shire)
setting a better example for us Newbies and Midshippies of a high standard
of etiquette rather than dreaming of code-based solutions that enforce an
etiquette that we all want anyway.
Naz
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Nov 20 12:50:33 2003
it has nothing to do with etiquette
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Thu Nov 20 14:46:45 2003
?all that takes to make it fair for a single player is to have
?mobility increase at a faster rate while a country is logged >off
This would only encourage team of players to script everything to be log on
the less possible time like in IW4 (IIRC).
I'm not sure this is a right solution...
Anyway, modify the code and announce a test game on R.G.E.
Batism of fire is the only to be sure your solution is the good one.
IH.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Nov 20 14:50:06 2003
I've been worrying all day about how you guys might figure
a way to abuse the system, if there is a way
I'm sure you'll find it :-)
(Mith warned me but didn't say what he had up his sleeve)
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Thu Nov 20 14:59:31 2003
?I've been worrying all day about how you guys might figure
a way to abuse the system, if there is a way
I'm sure you'll find it :-)
That's why I'm talking right now. So you have a decent solution with the less
posible abuse. ;)
IH.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Thu Nov 20 15:29:20 2003
}
} all that takes to make it fair for a single player is to have
} mobility increase at a faster rate while a country is logged off
}
Not exactly - because the check of 5 seconds every 5 minutes, for example,
would do the job of "everpresence" without breaking mobility increasing
bonus.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Nov 20 16:11:05 2003
Ok, what follows is long, and covers responses to a number
of announcements over the last 24 hours...
It is often the case that when a given person loses a game,
they want to shift blame away from their own game play to
something else. I've seen this in many games, both in Empire
and other games.
Rivendell comments on a well timed attack, as if that is
the sole dominion of a co-ruled nation. This simply isn't
true. A solo-rule nation is equally capable of the well
timed attack as a co-rule nation. On the victim side, a
co-rule nation is every bit as vulnerable to such an attack
as a solo-rule nation. Conducting a complete attack on a
nation does not take hours. It takes perhaps 30-45 minutes,
sometimes an hour depending on the circumstance. Finding
such a time slice against a co-rule nation is just as easy
as against a solo-rule nation. There are fewer opportunities
against a co-rule nation, but finding one is not hard.
Misplaced trust and surprise attacks are not the sole
dominion of co-rule nations either. I have watched some
very masterful diplomacy in this game, and some very
abysmal diplomacy as well. Such successes and failures had
nothing to do with whether the nations were co-ruled or not.
People often complain about automatic defenses not being
sufficient. This is misplaced concern. The reality in this
game is that despite *ample* opportunity for serious, serious
defensive positions...*nobody* established any significant
defensive positions. In fact, it wasn't until recently that
anyone even made a fort more than 0%, and few people have
properly defended their capitol sectors. So, you can complain
about automatic defenses if you like, but I'm *very* uninclined
to improving them when people aren't using the ample resources
already there for automatic defenses. Why make a car that can
go 400km/hr when nobody drives over 150km/hr?
Mordor's raised the suggestion of mobility increasing faster
when offline, which supposedly gives the solo-rule nation a
fair shake. This is false. In Ice World IV, there was a
limitation on the amount of time a country could be logged
in and the amount of time that a nation could make logins.
This had unexpected outcomes. Instead of decreasing the amount
of time players spent on the game, some player's time actually
went *up*. Several nations managed their nations by logging in,
dumping a bunch of data to a local source, then logging back
out. Then, they would create elaborate scripts (Some of mine
exceeded 200 lines of scripts, most were around 100) that they
would then execute on the next login.
If you don't limit the number of logins, then a player just needs
to create a small program that periodically logs in to check for
significant events, then logs right back out again. Meanwhile,
they create their unbelievably long scripts offline. So, offering
benefits for being offline doesn't work.
Blocking out when players can be logged in doesn't work either.
Figuring out *when* those blackout periods for a nation are
becomes a trivial exercise. I could do it, given a game running
for say two weeks, in about 20 minutes time or less. If you block
out everybody at the same time period each day, then players
from around the world would suffer, and you would have Empire
games that are restricted to a particular time zone +/- a
number of hours that player signing up could tolerate for shifts
in their sleep patterns. For some nations, like Australia, this
would effectively mean Empire players would vanish.
These sorts of behaviors in trying to solve this problem are
*USER HOSTILE*, not user supportive.
Iron Hills is right...it's best to create a potential solution
and run a game with it in place. John Yockey's done a fantastic
job doing precisely that. He has come up with some really off
the wall ideas. While none of them have worked fantastically,
they have generated a great deal of good discussion.
I agree strongly with whoever "Naz" was from the visitor account.
Etiquette is something very well respected and defended in Empire.
It is one of the things that truly sets this game apart from any
other online gaming experience I've ever had. This isn't a kiddie
game.
NAs do generally get respected, because there are reptuation
consequences to violating them. I really enjoy that aspect.
However, there has been an inreasing tendency over the last
few years for NAs to inreasingly become the domain of lawyers
rather than Empire players. Some of the NAs have become quite
complex, and difficult to understand their ramifications. One
nation in this game had his head handed to him on a platter
because he made a serious mistake in his NA agreement with
another nation.
I do and don't like this tendency. I *enjoy* the good complexity
of Empire, and I think complex diplomatic negotiations are a
solid element of good complexity. However, there are serious
drawbacks too in that a beginning player can be utterly defeated
by not understanding the ramifications of a carefully worded NA
agreement. NA agreements have been a creation entirely of the
player base. We can't change that with server code directly.
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Thu Nov 20 16:43:02 2003
A lot of interesting stuff being said, I'd like to
chip in my 2 farthings.
Diplomacy: Perhaps secret deals should not be
secret. In the real world, there a very few
"secret alliances", everyone pretty much knows
what is going on. When Japan attacked the US in
WWII, they pretty much knew who was going to line
up with them and against them. Even present day,
"alliances" can switch, but it is pretty much a
public thing. Iraq was once a US "ally" against
Iran (who was once a US ally itself), and later
Iraq became "the enemy". These changes generally
have occured after changes in leadership or
diplomatic direction of countries.
In all games, but especially in hidden games,
secret alliances and arcane negotiations have lead
to unforseen activity and responses by the
players. In this game, secret alliances have
triggered actions that to one of the direct
participants is a big surprise.
Example: Country A and B are neighbors, and have a
neutral or friendly bordor. Country B has a secret
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Thu Nov 20 16:43:08 2003
mutual aid pact with country X, that is not a
neighbor of either A or B. Country A has it's
expeditionary force in country Y, a neighbor of X.
This force attacks X ignorant of the fact that B
and X are allies, and the B attacks A in response.
If the pact between B and X were known, A would
certainly make different choices in tactics,
strategy, defense, and diplomacy.
Perhaps diplomacy status should be the status
known to everyone. Even in a hidden game if A and
B are neighbors, they should be able to see the
diplomatic status of all the countries that either
have contact with even if the other does not have
contact with that country.
A country's "rep" would then be determined how
they "behaved" in this world where each knows what
the expectation is from someone they meet. Perhaps
an additional diplomatic status should be added.
The status of "Contact". Neutrality, the current
middle ground of the game in real life implies
something a little more than not friendly or not
hostile. It implies that the country has no
interest in any fighting and the other countries
that it declares neutrality to have an expectation
that this country is going to sit and do absolutly
nothing. Perhaps there should be a limit as to how
quickly a country can come out of neutrality (3-5
updates) where their diplomatic status would
revert to "Contact" again. From there, they better
know who their friends or enemies are.
Grhun
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Thu Nov 20 16:53:24 2003
I want to comment on a few of the anno
statements:
Offense versus defense - Either mode
is expensive. Economic efficiency is
a strategic part of this game. Whoever
gets more productivity and cash from his
country will be more powerful! Then
he must decide how to spend that
productivity. I can build an automatic
defense in any standard Empire scenario
and even easier in this game scenario
that will cost the attacker far more
than it does me on defense. However,
if I invest my resources that way, I
cannot expand. Therefore, as has been
said many times before "The best defense
is a good offense". This has to be
coupled with good diplomacy to prevent
being attacked while you are busy.
Also, because a country can defend for
less money than consumed by the attacker
- equally strong countries do not battle
(except for fun!). They will both lose!
That leads to two scenarios: well managed
countries must crush fodder / weaker
countries to get stronger or multiple
countries need to ally against a weaker
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Thu Nov 20 16:53:31 2003
alliance / country. That is how this
game is played and that reality will never
change!
Diplomacy is a must! All players that win
games get to the winner's circle through
successful diplomacy. Sometimes you lose
though good diplomacy but those are the
changes you must take. You cannot win
without good diplomacy!
Zero mobcost for reacting units and planes:
I liked this idea when Pat implemented it
in his Twisted Mind series of games. I
recommend more deities add it to their
scenarios.
Tom
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Nov 20 18:36:00 2003
We have a new record for the most casulties
in one battle...anyone have a battle with more?
Harondor (#31) lost 752 troops taking xx,xx
We lost 544 troops defending
Almost 1300 brave souls lost.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Thu Nov 20 18:50:49 2003
Sadly, That figure did not count sheep casualties.
Our Wizard Counsil remains in mourning.
For the sheep.
Mil are replaceable
Sheep are not.
Appearently niether are hobbits.
But our wizards prefer sheep anyway.
You can stick a sheeps back legs in your boots
so they cant runaway.
Hobbits feet are much to large for this
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Thu Nov 20 18:52:33 2003
>I suggest you consider (along with "read-with-a-fixed-font" The_Shire)
>setting a better example for us Newbies and Midshippies of a high standard
>of etiquette rather than dreaming of code-based solutions that enforce an
>etiquette that we all want anyway.
Whatever that is supposed to mean.
So don't follow my example - take a page from Rhun. Use a
"secretly" broken NA (that you had subsequently reconfirmed
was still in effect) as your pretext for launching an
invasion. Love to hear how that justification was reconciled
amongst its noble leaders. There's "etiquette" for you.
As for code-based solutions that enforce etiquette... that's
not even in the realm of what is being discussed. I don't
mind getting slapped around - as Ski pointed out, while I
could have defended well against one nation for some time at
equal cost to each other - doing this against 4 nations was
simply a matter of time before their resources > my resources.
That certainly is the result of "diplomacy" albeit not
necesarily the sort of diplomacy I like - where a giant CUNT
is the net result. Luckily I can be a giant dick, so the
two should go well together.
So yes, Harad, be warned that the CUNT is coming.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Thu Nov 20 18:54:27 2003
>> Announcement from (31) Harondor
>Mil are replaceable
>Sheep are not.
>Appearently niether are hobbits.
If you saw how fast our hobbits were replicating,
you'd change your opinion there.
>Hobbits feet are much to large for this
But we have soft hands!
Verge
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Nov 20 20:22:00 2003
Probably from all the lotion you use.
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Thu Nov 20 21:33:55 2003
(Copied from The_Shire)
So don't follow my example - take a page from Rhun. Use a
"secretly" broken NA (that you had subsequently reconfirmed
was still in effect) as your pretext for launching an
invasion. Love to hear how that justification was reconciled
amongst its noble leaders. There's "etiquette" for you.
-----
In the scenario I presented, we were country "A", and were
attacked by country "B" because of some pact that between
"B" and "X" that we had no knowledge of.
I would suggest that prior knowledge of a "B"-"X" agreement
may have altered what Rhun would do in various aspects
of the game.
The only reconciliation amongst the leaders of Rhun was
how to respond. I have no knowledge of the example given
of the recent confirmation of a NA confirmation to break.
Grhun
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Thu Nov 20 23:25:02 2003
>> Announcement from (41) Mithrilien
>Probably from all the lotion you use.
Wrong. It's the lanolin in our hair.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Thu Nov 20 23:29:14 2003
>> Announcement from (20) Rhun
>(Copied from The_Shire)
>So don't follow my example - take a page from Rhun. Use a
My apologies to Rhun. I meant Rohan. All the CUNTs
smell the same.
> Announcement from Forochel, (#2) dated Fri Nov 21 01:57:57 2003
:One nation in this game had his head handed to him on a platter
:because he made a serious mistake in his NA agreement with
:another nation.
This sounds very familiar, so although I am not sure if you mean Forochel,
I'll comment. My mistakes were as plentiful, as there are snowflakes still
falling on my lands, even now when my people are dead or enslaved.
The number one mistake was not the misreading the NA, which I indeed believed
I had with Shire, despite no formal wording.
It's true that Hobbits did a lot to convince me we had a safe border.
He did not hesitate to plain lie about being at war with Whorelindon
/ boy, did that last one feel good:> /
But there were PLENTY of signs of what was cooking.
Such as a trm parked on my coast for several updates and then "disappearing"
after my inquiry (but easily found again by my boat re-parked a few sectors
off the coast).
My mistake was I gambled that I can push the economy growth
to the limit (with agressive Near-Bancruptcy-Minimum gold bars growth plan),
AND
push Harlotindon back into murky water /where they belong/ from the
free land-grab area,
AND
convince The_Shire one way or another not to invade Forochel, not yet,
possibly convince him to upgrade relations to friendly,
AND
all this with virtually no defenses of any kind in Forochel Proper,
with all reserves called up on the other side of the Ered Luin, and not a
single mil along the border to have at least a fraction of a percent chance to
capture his spies *SIGH*.
Secret diplomacy or not, from my experience at least
if I spent half of the resources I used to overextend
my territory without means sufficient to protect it, to build up defenses
where the heart of my lands was, my heart would not have been hurt so much
so quickly, when the goblins dressed in hobbits' skins stopped their
"strange war" /a close parallel with WWII phrase but not close enough to my
to my liking; or did Whoreland eventually really invaded Shire?/
:One nation in this game had his head handed to him on a platter
> Announcement from Forochel, (#2) dated Fri Nov 21 01:58:07 2003
:because he made a serious mistake in his NA agreement with
:another nation.
This sounds very familiar, so although I am not sure if you mean Forochel,
I'll comment. My mistakes were as plentiful, as there are snowflakes still
falling on my lands, even now when my people are dead or enslaved.
The number one mistake was not the misreading the NA, which I indeed believed
I had with Shire, despite no formal wording.
It's true that Hobbits did a lot to convince me we had a safe border.
He did not hesitate to plain lie about being at war with Whorelindon
/ boy, did that last one feel good:> /
But there were PLENTY of signs of what was cooking.
Such as a trm parked on my coast for several updates and then "disappearing"
after my inquiry (but easily found again by my boat re-parked a few sectors
off the coast).
My mistake was I gambled that I can push the economy growth
to the limit (with agressive Near-Bancruptcy-Minimum gold bars growth plan),
AND
free land-grab area,
AND
convince The_Shire one way or another not to invade Forochel, not yet,
possibly convince him to upgrade relations to friendly,
AND
all this with virtually no defenses of any kind in Forochel Proper,
with all reserves called up on the other side of the Ered Luin, and not a
single mil along the border to have at least a fraction of a percent chance to
capture his spies *SIGH*.
Secret diplomacy or not, from my experience at least
if I spent half of the resources I used to overextend
my territory without means sufficient to protect it, to build up defenses
where the heart of my lands was, my heart would not have been hurt so much
so quickly, when the goblins dressed in hobbits' skins stopped their
"strange war" /a close parallel with WWII phrase but not close enough to my
to my liking; or did Whoreland eventually really invaded Shire?/
> Announcement from Forochel, (#2) dated Fri Nov 21 02:05:28 2003
One more thing. Harlotindon, in the game where rp was supposed to have a
meaning, albeit minimal, it really pissed me off when you invaded my lands
with not as much as 1 tele or a lousy excuse for an in character anno.
Cant you learn that much from your comrade, that Gulliver from hell known
as Shire?
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Fri Nov 21 11:55:43 2003
} So don't follow my example - take a page from Rhun. Use a
The sights on your mud-slinger must be caked. *wave* We're over
here!
} "secretly" broken NA (that you had subsequently reconfirmed
} was still in effect) as your pretext for launching an
} invasion. Love to hear how that justification was reconciled
} amongst its noble leaders. There's "etiquette" for you.
The NA had a dangerous clause that allowed either side to cancel it
without giving notice in advance, as soon as certain conditions were
met.
The conditions for us were met soon after, and the victim has nobody
to blame for that than himself.
We didn't `reconfirm' the NA was still in effect or anything like
that. All we said was `we are bound by the original agreement'.
Technically, the NA *was* still in effect, we just had gained the
right to cancel it. Which we did seconds before our attack.
Was that nice? Hell, no! Is it against Empire etiquette to set up
nasty diplomatic traps? I don't think so.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Fri Nov 21 15:20:00 2003
another Chapter in the Tales of the Lost Patrol
So there we were, just me, my sergent, two privates as strong and
stupid mules, and the Doc escorting the 14 satin underwear super
models through the Mirkwood forest.
"Doc?" I asked, "Do we have enough agent orange and roundup to kill
off all this forest?"
"Yes Major," he replied. "And I brought a few tanks of Extra
Strength Raid for those damn spiders."
Suddenly the air was filled with the sound of 14 supermodels
screaming. And then giggling. "What the hell is going on?" my
sergent wondered out loud.
"What er thay?" the smarter of the two privates asked me.
"Elves!" I stated. "Mirkwood elves." 7 Elves, each had two 2
supermodels running their fingers over their bald heads, rubbing
their barely satin covered bodies around them, and pulling at
the elves long, pointy ears. The elves liked that the most it
seemed.
(cont)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Fri Nov 21 15:26:53 2003
My sergent looked the situation. "Did you say elves sir?"
I nodded. he continued. "Well where are their cookies? You
know, the uncommonly good ones they bake in trees."
"You enlisted dolt," I replied. "Those are keebler elves. These
are Mirkwood elves."
It was Doc's turn now. "I didn't expect to see any elves this
far from the North Pole. And I don't see any toy making tools."
I just shook my head in disgust.
"No Doc," I said. I hessitated. I didn't know how to address this
depth of stupidity.
"If we leave some break crumbs out in the snow," my one private
asked, "Will they make us all new shoes by morning?"
I surveyed the situation. IT was desperate. The Mirkwood elves
were nearly volcanic. the super models were hyperventalating from
giggling. My squad was stupid and confused. there was only one
course of action.
"Did you have to kill all the elves?" Doc asked
"Yes," I said. "I avoids all the confusion."
"But all the elves?"
I nodded. the entire forest. I was better that way.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Nov 21 17:56:48 2003
>> Announcement from (12) Rohan
>
>Was that nice? Hell, no! Is it against Empire etiquette to set up
>nasty diplomatic traps? I don't think so.
I've never heard an NA referred to as a "nasty diplomatic
trap". And here I thought it was a binding agreement
(albeit largely a "gentlemens" agreement) between two
parties. My bad for not thinking outside the box.
As for being against Empire etiquette... until NA's became
all the rage there were these little things called treaties.
Treaties *were* binding agreements that proclaimed violations
to the world. They were taken quite seriously. Check them
out - the code is still there.
NA's largely came into being because of update schedule
variations which broke the treaty structured implementation.
They've now morphed, apparently, into diplomatic traps,
incapable of being monitored, reported on, enforced, etc.
So apparently what passes for "Empire etiquette" has changed
along with it. In the past, such a "diplomatic trap" would
have been beneath contempt and most would never have gone
there for fear of being ostracized in the empire community.
Good to see the co-rulers of Rohan had no fear there. You
collectively have more balls (albeit hobbit-sized) than I
gave you credit for. :)
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Fri Nov 21 18:09:58 2003
?I've never heard an NA referred to as a "nasty diplomatic
?trap". And here I thought it was a binding agreement
?(albeit largely a "gentlemens" agreement) between two
?parties. My bad for not thinking outside the box.
On a general sense, I can only agree with The_Shire here.
For the next games we should try to move to a more NA "of intentions" and
not a constest of lawyers.
"Ok, I said I won't go yyy but I didn't say I won't go yygu !!"
This is the sort of things I'd like to see disapear...
IH.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Fri Nov 21 18:26:35 2003
} I've never heard an NA referred to as a "nasty diplomatic
} trap". And here I thought it was a binding agreement
} (albeit largely a "gentlemens" agreement) between two
} parties. My bad for not thinking outside the box.
The NA was a binding agreement. Neither side showed any intention to
break it.
The only unusual thing about this NA was a clause that allowed
cancellation without giving notice in advance under certain
circumstances. In fact, the party that ultimately got hurt by that
even proposed that clause. We then discussed and both agreed on the
conditions for such a cancellation.
They were very dangerous. So dangerous that I don't hesistate to call
them a trap.
The trap didn't involve any twisting of words or incomprehensible fine
print. The conditions for cancellation were plain and simple.
I'm not aware of any obligation to warn fellow players of blunders,
whether on the battlefield or at the negotiation table. I'm happy to
explain them afterwards, and I've done so more than once.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Fri Nov 21 18:26:47 2003
} So apparently what passes for "Empire etiquette" has changed
} along with it. In the past, such a "diplomatic trap" would
} have been beneath contempt and most would never have gone
} there for fear of being ostracized in the empire community.
Some things may have changed, some stay the same. For instance, sore
losers still whine a lot.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Fri Nov 21 18:33:42 2003
is Rohan offering the feeder countries a share of the win,
or just to be allowed to stay alive?
this game turned out to be just like a diplomacy game,
only worse. doesn't seem like empire any more
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Nov 21 18:37:46 2003
>> Announcement from (12) Rohan dated Fri Nov 21 08:26:47 2003
>} So apparently what passes for "Empire etiquette" has changed
>} along with it. In the past, such a "diplomatic trap" would
>} have been beneath contempt and most would never have gone
>} there for fear of being ostracized in the empire community.
>
>Some things may have changed, some stay the same. For instance, sore
>losers still whine a lot.
Charming. Sore "winners" are no better. Still working on
padding your country-size so that you're not overly embarassed
when the final maps are published? True, it's going to be bad
enough to be associated with the most lop-sided alliance in
empire history.
Since you're so proud of your diplomacy, please do announce the
entire roster of players managing Rohan so that newbies, midshipman,
and veterans will know that when signing an NA with any or all
of you, they are effectively walking into shark-infested waters
rather than any sort of actual agreement.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Fri Nov 21 18:38:39 2003
EXCESSIVE SHEEP SHAGGING SUSPECTED TO DULL SENSES!
Science long debunked the myth that masturbation causes blindness.
However, recent evidence seems to suggest that certain varieties of
bestiality may result in a reduced ability to distinguish variations
in scent:
All the CUNTs smell the same.
-- Verge
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Fri Nov 21 18:44:27 2003
Verge is just jealous that he doesn't have any supermodels.
Maybe it's because he doesn't like CUNTs.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Nov 21 18:50:54 2003
? Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Fri Nov 21 18:44:27 2003
?Verge is just jealous that he doesn't have any
?supermodels.
What exactly would a hobbit supermodel look
like?
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Fri Nov 21 18:54:05 2003
They'd probably have to be stacked.
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Fri Nov 21 18:54:20 2003
?What exactly would a hobbit supermodel look
?like?
A cheeseburger.
The presence of supermodels in Mirkwood forest certainly explain the starting
rush of all neighbouring countries except Erebor where they prefer smelly
dwarves.
IH.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Nov 21 18:58:36 2003
>> Announcement from (28) Dol_Amroth
>
>What exactly would a hobbit supermodel look
>like?
A hot Chia pet?
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Nov 21 18:59:47 2003
######################## ATTENTION ########################
The CUNTS alliance hereby declares victory. All remaining
viable countries (the handful that are not part of the
CUNTS), please respond to this declaration with an "agree"
or "oppose" within 24 hours of this posting. Such
responses should be made public via announcement. Note
that if you do "oppose", you will be shagged by one of the
CUNTS in short order.
Please be advised that our CUNTS control more of the world
than the winning alliance in LOTR I and represent fully
1/4 of the starting nations of the Middle Earth.
For identification purposes, we would like to introduce the
CUNTS to you:
The Big CUNTS: Mirkwood, Rhun and Rohan
The Little CUNTS: Balchoth, Dale, Iron Hills, Lorien and
Rivendell
Take a bow, all you CUNTS... no, no... not that low. We're
just looking for crowd acknowledgment, not a round of
rodgering.
Thank you.
###########################################################
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Nov 21 19:50:00 2003
Please be advised that Shire's supposed victory declaration
on the part of other countries is completely invalid.
No victory declaration has been made.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Nov 21 20:16:34 2003
Please be advised that Mithrilien's supposed advise
is completely invalid.
No advise has been given.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Nov 21 20:18:18 2003
From the secret diary of The CUNTS...
After we make our scintillating victory declaration, we
must be sure to make equally witty, yet biting awards
decrees. *words smudged* to find medication for that
annoying yeast infection too.
Biggest Tease Award:
Mordor. Bugger kept winking at us. Took a while before
we noticed he only had one eye - cause and effect? Very
possibly. Did our best to bang him anyway.
Best Lay Award:
The Shire. 4 nations had a go with the hobbits. That
lanolin in their hair makes them extra soft - we just
couldn't get enough. Still trying to get some addt'l
sectors with more of these fine-ass sex toys.
Worst Lay Award:
Lorien. Just laid there and did nothing - made me do
all the work. Got bored pretty quickly so I left.
Not just me - everyone says he's a dead fish in the
sack.
Most Wanted Piece of Ass Award:
Bree. Must be a hobbit thing. Everyone wanted to join
the gang-bang. Had a queue of 8 waiting to have their
go. Not much was left of the poor bugger.
Still Respected Me in the Morning Award:
Harlindon. Slipped him a roofie so he didn't know what
the hell he was doing. Then we nailed his ass. Was
so good, we stuck around for a parting morning shot.
He actually thanked us and asked if we could be more
than friends. Some potential here.
Double-Penetration Award:
Wainriders. Kept insisting that he really wanted both
Rhun and Mordor. Worked both into such a frenzy, they
had a go with him at the same time. Proved to be too
much for his ticker - expired before either finished.
Premature Ejaculation Award:
Mirkwood. Sad - came too soon several times. Had to
bring friends along to fluff while we waited. Finally
got the timing right and had a righteous go from behind.
Played off his "problem" as being so excited about
finally seeing some action.
Best Moneyshot Award:
Rohan/Rhun. When these two plan on shagging, they
bring everything they've got to the party and hold
nothing back. Need to work on the facial expressions
though - weird cross between Mr. Rogers and Dirk
Diggler - scary!
Can't We Just Be Friends? Award:
Umbar/Harondor/Harad. Long distance relationships are
always hard - not sure it's worth heading that far
south. Don't get me wrong, I love "going down south".
Will ask Dol Amroth and Gondor if they're shaggable.
Used Them and Abused Them Award(s):
Forochel, Arnor, Angmar, Erebor, Cardolan, Minhiraith,
Eregion, Dunland, Gladden Fields, Easterlings,
Dorwinion, Anfalas, Wainriders, Nurn, Khand. A whole
new generation of player-haters. Gave them the usual
lines about "love", "respect" and "commitment" - they
fell for it. Had some really rough sex before
facializing them and walking out the door. We're
studs!
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Nov 21 21:21:24 2003
?Best Lay Award:
?The Shire. 4 nations had a go with the hobbits.
I think that would better qualify you for the
"Easiest Lay Award"
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Fri Nov 21 22:06:30 2003
: Most Wanted Piece of Ass Award:
: Bree. Must be a hobbit thing. Everyone wanted to join
: the gang-bang. Had a queue of 8 waiting to have their
: go. Not much was left of the poor bugger.
"I'm not dead yet !" ...
Hey, why do I feel like I'm in a MP movie...
But seriously, it was as good for us as it was for all of
you...
Emily Palmreceiver,
Bree public relations.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Nov 21 22:22:45 2003
What do you mean you're not dead. Dang it, I just crossed
your name off my map.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Fri Nov 21 22:24:07 2003
>What do you mean you're not dead. Dang it, I just crossed
>your name off my map.
We'll scrap you from our 'to do' list then... There you have it.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Nov 21 22:26:18 2003
And sorry, I should have preceded that message with....
<THWAP> "Message for You Sir"
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Fri Nov 21 22:33:32 2003
An old dwarf once said, "Never let the truth stand in
the way of a good story".
The_Shire has certainly spun several good ones. But in
every fancy there is a bit of truth as well.
The country of Rhun does hope to be part of a win declaration some
time in the future. But let us clear up
one misconception.
There are reasons why not much is known of our lands, our
secrets are safe; few have escaped and none have found a
way to report what they have seen.
Just because we are down wind from Mordor does not mean that
our average fair day resembles and underventilated foundry.
Our lands and skies are fair
We have discovered that an image was smuggled out of the
country to be shown to Middle Earth. We tried to repress
the publication, but alas, were unsuccessful.
In an unprecedented gesture, I, Grhun of Rhun, will show
Middle Earth from where our Triumviate (Grhun, Hrhun, and Wrhun) rule.
Any (official) win declaration on our part
will come from this place. Your eyes may behold the
countenance of our realm, but will never see them in
living color. Hrhun and Wrhun were unavailable for
the portrait.
If you are interested, point your Seeing Stones to
http://pbskids.org/rogers/make_believe/
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Fri Nov 21 23:44:54 2003
>> Announcement from (20) Rhun
>An old dwarf once said, "Never let the truth stand in
>the way of a good story".
... remainder deleted ...
I think I'd have a better shot of understand Rhun-speak if
I ran it through "jive" first. :)
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Sat Nov 22 07:07:46 2003
Dear Dark Lord
Not interested in any conversatyion?
Sorry not being able to chat...
cheers mate
Grhun
PS in 4 hours England and Australia kick off for
the Rugby World Cup Final...
thank god for Pay Per View :)
> Announcement from Forochel, (#2) dated Sat Nov 22 10:54:52 2003
"A whole new population of player-haters"? Verge, you are getting old.
If I hated everyone who did my "empires", that would leave no space
for people who park double, turn-signal disabled, and Ruud Divenistelrooy.
Besides, I am always open to new techniques, and hard to deny that your
foreplay, when you pretend that you want it up your ass, only to suddenly
find you on top, was very entertaining:) Not to mention, you keep talking
while you are doing it, and you are one heck of a story-teller, if you ask me.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sat Nov 22 11:00:39 2003
he talks very well, doesn't he?
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Sun Nov 23 00:07:27 2003
Shire,
I did'nt saw I_H nor Dale in your "country awards" ...
I'm very disapointed ...
;)
Girion
Lord of Dale
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Sun Nov 23 18:25:22 2003
Rumors of a clear path to Mt Doom only invigurated the Elven army, as
firstborn swept through the Shire. The ringbearer had to be found and
the Ring of Power cast into Mt Doom. Five cities were searched, but
Verge Enewe and his surrender flag had taken to the mountains. It doesn't
matter. They soon will be caught. The same mistake that was made in
LOTR 1 would not be repeated this time. The RING will be destroyed!
Thranduil.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Sun Nov 23 18:59:36 2003
Ah yes, clearly the elves continue to show they
have no honor.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Sun Nov 23 21:22:38 2003
This email was sent to me recently:
-----------------------
Hello,
Due to the physical relocation of the fibre optic cable that connects us
to our Internet provider, tonight, 23/11/2003, between 22:00-00:00, our
connectivity to the world will be down.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
--Ariel
-----------------------
Replace "our" with "TAU".
You have been warned.
Manwe
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Nov 24 02:05:16 2003
I'm thinking about running a game with Mob_Access on, where
mobility_increase = ETU * log3 (ETU)
so with 48 ETU updates once every 48 hours, after
9 ETU since last logout you would get
9 * 2 = 18 mob in ships/planes/land units/sectors
instead of the normal 9 mob
(since log3(9) = 2, the bonus multiplier)
if you logged in 27 hours since last logout you would get
27 * 3 = 81 mob everywhere
(since log3(27) = 3)
if you only logged in once per update you should have
close to maximum mobility everywhere
the idea is to make the game more fair for single players
who only log in once or twice a day, or even once an update
its not aimed at giving players who aren't on very much
an edge, but to try to create a fair balance
I think the advantage would still be with co-ruled countries
but the game would be more playable for single player ruled countries
that would also increase the number of countries playing in each game
since players wouldn't feel a need to only play as co-rulers
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Nov 24 02:07:10 2003
anyway if you have any criticism or ideas for exploiting or breaking
the scheme speak up now (so we don't find out the hard way
during a game :-)
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Mon Nov 24 10:51:58 2003
You'd probably mean ETU * log3(3 + ETU)... I'd hate to lose mob for
reconnecting because of a network upgrade or something... :-p
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Mon Nov 24 11:02:03 2003
Make sure you can take advantage of rounding so that
somebody can't connect a thousand time in a minute to grab few mob.
IH.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Mon Nov 24 14:24:50 2003
Currently, logging in has no serious effects. If you change that, you
better provide means to help players managing logins. Without that,
the only way to find out what effect a login will have without
actually logging in is to manually keep track of log out times. That
would be a truly rotten user interface. Been there, done that, and it
sucks.
At least, add a way to query the last logout time without logging in.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Mon Nov 24 14:27:34 2003
Will the system punish you for a 5 second
log in? As stated, it seemed it went from
how long it has been since your last log in.
If I wanted to attack you, and I knew from the
news that you had been on at 5PM, and wouldn't
be back until tomorrow...that wouldn't be
good. Otherwise, everyone will be using the
visitor account to log in occasionally to make
sure nothing is happening to their countries.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Nov 24 15:11:08 2003
A very nice cartoon:
http://www.antimult.ru/antimults/smokekills.htm
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Mon Nov 24 16:57:10 2003
Tying mobility (or anything precious) to login time tends to favor
attackers over defenders, and coalitions over single nations.
Coalition members can take turns whacking a defender. Each member can
stay offline long enough to gain mobility fast, while the coalition
together can maintain pressure around the clock.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Mon Nov 24 21:23:18 2003
(The setting is an apartment of a person with WAAAY too much
time on their hands. The satellite TV installer has just left.)
"Heh heh, 665 channels now. There ought to be something good on."
<click>
Channel 8, 24 hr Reality Show Network, Survivor - Peoria Illinois
<click>
<click>
Channel 47, 24 hr Cooking with Flem Network, Flem as an Appatizer
<click>
<click>
<click>
Ch 192, FWSABAM Network, Fat Women Sitting Around Bitching About Men
<click>
<click>
<click>
Ch 482, Bukakke on Barsoom, Refinishing the Hallway Floor
<click>
<click>
<click>
C665, 24 Hr Gilligan's Island Network, The Skipper gets a Woody
"Damn, 665 channels and there is still nothing on!"
<click>
Channel 666, The Empire Channel.
"Oooooow, Empire. This looks like a good game. I guess I could
spend an hour or two here. What could it hurt?"
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Nov 24 22:20:34 2003
Your grades, your marriage...
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Nov 24 22:24:27 2003
TV can hurt that too.
And if you dislike someone on TV, you can't lob 700 or 800
shells at them.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Nov 25 01:54:26 2003
Move to LA and you can.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Nov 25 03:48:32 2003
Marriage is for pussys
Marriages is a waste of time
Marriage is a sure fire way of not
getting laid
Marriage kills my time at empire.
-- What's that dear? Of course, I'll
get out shovel the walk after this update.
I'm sorry, yes, dear, I'll do it now.
shit!
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Nov 25 06:35:11 2003
tell the guy coding WinACE that the worst feature is all the line feeds
after you receive new telegrams
the screen keeps jumping when you are in combat that way
even when autoread is turned off
there should be some window or something that shows how many new telegrams
not a line feed each time you get one
makes it very hard to play during intense combat
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Tue Nov 25 18:48:30 2003
Beer!
Beer
Beer beer beer
BEER BEER BEER
Beer
Beer
Beer
Beer
Beer beer
Beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer
Beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer beer
Beer beer beer
Beer Beer
Beer
Beer
Beer Beer Beer
BEER BEER Beer
Beer
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Tue Nov 25 19:28:14 2003
Was that a "bomb | tr 'am-lAML' 'er eERE'" ?
What did we win ?
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Nov 26 16:43:05 2003
Naz's Top Ten Signs That You're Ready for a Win Declaration:
1. You're thinking of three-letter abbreviations for everyday items:
shopping cart = shc; 18-wheel transport = trk; beer = ber; wife = wif; girlfriend = glf;
boss = bos; mother = mom; sleep = yes
2. When you watch Two Towers with friends, and while they're admiring the beautiful scenery,
you're assessing it for its resource potential and trying to decide whether to put an enlistment
center or hwy through the gap of Rohan.
3. When watching TT, you actually try to work out how many hcms it took to build
Helm's Deep.
4. When, in TT, Sam and Frodo catch Gollum, you can't help thinking what unit you'd
like Mith to upgraded.
5. Your wif/glf is bonding with your co-rulers' wif/glf
6. Either you're embarrassed at how many emails you sent to your coruler, compared to your
wif/glf/mom, or she upset about it.
7. In a moment of weakness, you compare yourself to Richard Fenyman, who lived on a 25-
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Nov 26 16:43:13 2003
hour schedule, just because you're living on a 42-hour schedule.
8. Artistic Cartography???
9. You're "cheating" on your co-rulers because secretly you have a country
going in the Zebra blitz, on the side.
10. You realise your daydreaming aloud about LOTR II at the dinner table again when your
daughter bursts in to tears saying "Daddy, please don't put the cat in the mountains and leave
the shells at the beach where they belong!!!"
Enjoy, Naz
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Thu Nov 27 00:00:29 2003
LOL ...
hum ...
where is the beach ?
so we could take all this shells not used by anybody ?
I think we found a good way to use them
:o)
Girion
Lord of Dale
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Thu Nov 27 11:18:39 2003
It seems we encountered another fuckup by the deities :(
The game was rolled back to 1 1/2 hours before the unexpected
update. The update on 28th stays on.
Note to the players - you can help avoid us such a fuckup.
If at any time outside the designated update window you see that
the updates ARE NOT DISABLED (according to 'update' command),
email the deities at empire@empire.tau.ac.il
Thanks in advance, and sorry for the inconvenience,
Roman aka Manwe.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Thu Nov 27 11:44:27 2003
I concede victory to whoever wants it (too late to save this game)
the dieties did a brilliant job in many ways and I learned a lot
so I'm glad I played
the update scheme was a mistake
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Nov 27 16:42:51 2003
The Dark Lord is defeated -
but who is commanding the victorious Army of Light?
(The forces of Light do win, don't they?
They always do in the movies!)
(or was the anno above just the result of some internal
quarrels of the Dark Forces?)
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Sat Nov 29 06:41:50 2003
>> Announcement from (43) visitor
>
>but who is commanding the victorious Army of Light?
That's clear: the CUNTS.
Which is a bit ironic, because, as noted in Slap Shot,
that c*nt is no good.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sat Nov 29 06:54:28 2003
CUNTS: (def)
Contempible
Ugly
Nerds
Taking
Shits
(sorry, couldn't find words bad enough to describe them)
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sat Nov 29 07:10:42 2003
you can substitute "unethical" for "ugly" in definitions of CUNTS if you like
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Sat Nov 29 17:25:27 2003
Dear Gentle Readers,
You may want to keep this issue away from the little
ones, for there may be things that our crack TWATS
reporters have discovered that may not be suitable
for younger readers.
To better interpret this issue, we have included the
following translation guide to allow better
understanding.
From The_Shire, we have for a common term:
Coalition of the Unbelievably
Numerous Territorial States (CUNTS)
From the Dark Lord and Mt. Doom, we have translated
this notation:
CUNTS: (def) Contempible Ugly Nerds Taking Shits
and found on a parchment that was reportedly
sent from the Dark Lord to Verge Enewe
To fight the CUNTS we must rally our forces. From
now on we will call ourselves the DICKS:
Dark-Lord-led
Ill-tempered
Contemptuous
Kuduk-licking
Shire-lovers
The DICKS will strike deep into the CUNTS. We will
straighten out this world, even if we have to do it
5 inches at a time!!
Editors Note: We want to make it clear that we
have translated this to the best of our abilities
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Sat Nov 29 17:25:34 2003
and do not want to state that any claims of size
are accurate. Our DICKS experts from TWATS
believe that is is another exaggeration used
in internal propaganda amongst the DICKS
themselves to urge each other forward.
-------------------------------------
Headlines
Third-Age Worldwide Alternative Tidings Service
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
! "All the news that shit, we print." !
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Sat Nov 29 20:20 2003
DICKS fail to penetrate CUNTS
Piece talks may occur between CUNTS and DICKS
Tensions ease as DICKS go limp
The details of TWATS news since Sat Nov 29 20:20 2003
=== Foreign Affairs ===
Sat Nov 29 20:20 CUNTS is suspicious that DICKS has hostile
intentions
Sat Nov 29 20:20 DICKS is suspicious that CUNTS has hostile
intentions
=== The Front Line ===
Sat Nov 29 20:20 DICKS beaten off by DICKS several times!
Sat Nov 29 20:20 DICKS units severely damaged by CUNTS
several times
Sat Nov 29 20:20 DICKS fail to capture CUNTS several times
=== Sky Watch ===
Sat Nov 29 20:20 DICKS shot down by CUNTS several times
Sat Nov 29 20:20 CUNTS prevent airspace penetration by
DICKS several times
=== Firestorms ===
Sat Nov 29 20:20 CUNTS vibrator battery massacres DICKS
units several times
=== Telecommunications ===
Sat Nov 29 20:20 DICKS told by CUNTS to piss-off several
times
=== The Bottom Line ==
DICKS unsuccessful with CUNTS
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sat Nov 29 17:39:29 2003
well it was quite an accomplishment for the Coalition to cause a bogus update
that hit during the only period I had available to play before Thanksgiving,
so that when their attack by 7 countries hit they managed to break
through the defenses I had left over from the previous update
(which hadn't been strengthened since that only time available I had
was taken away by the bogus update)
instead the CUNTS used the bogus update period to run wizards and spies
over my highway network to get information for their planned Thanksgiving attack
Knowing I was unable to play due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the Seven Sisters
of the CUNT coalition, all run by co-ruling teams of several players
on 24/7, were finally able to break thru the defensive zone of a single
country run by a single player who wasn't able to login to prepare
those defenses which had been damaged during the previous update
or counterattack the invaders
So I'm sure the dozens of members of the CUNT coalition are very proud
of themselves
Contempt
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Sun Nov 30 01:15:47 2003
(whine whine whine)
"I lost and it's not my fault! They don't play fair!
They stole my sand shovel! Mommy!!!"
(whine whine whine)
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sun Nov 30 04:11:26 2003
if Visitor had any guts he wouldn't be Visitor
> Announcement from Forochel, (#2) dated Sun Nov 30 07:53:41 2003
whine.. whine.. whine..
1/2 Forochel, a.k.a Epirus
Is that better?
Come on, "Mordor", you had made your points. Playing 24/7 has advantages over
not playing 24/7. Attacking a country with 7 countries is advantageous, even
if those 7 countries are run by less experienced players collectively, than the
one they are attacking. Having co-ruler(s) gives you a better chance than not
having one because of the server's details.
Now can you change the topic? How about - why didn't you find a co-ruler
when you decided to play a long term game?
Are you so inexperienced that you did not know about advantages of having
a co-ruler before the game started? Or did you think, by chance, that you are
so good that you don't need one? And complaining that someone plans attacks
during a US holiday is really not worthy of a player with a long empire
record, which I suspect you are (even not knowing under which country name
you are better known).
Let me also point out to you, that the LOTR series from its
very essence is not supposed to be the most fair game setup there is.
I truly hope that the game you and "The_Shire" are working on will lead
the way to an improved empire server, where non-coruled countries will
have better chances. In the meantime, find a co-ruler:)
(Not the author of the original "whine..whine..whine.." anno.)
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Sun Nov 30 08:50:33 2003
Thranduil and his elite guard of firstborn riders arrived at the
coast of the north Sea. There where the Ered Luin met the Icebay
of Forochel they found an grave with a headstone with no name but
had an epitaph which read:
ALL CUNTS SUCK, SHEEP ARE BETTER!
Yep, it was the final resting place of the ringbearer. Apparently
the life giving power of the one ring wasn't as strong as people
thought. The Elven King ordered that the body be exhumed. The
corpse was green and gangly -- just like it was in real life. On
it's finger was a ring of pure and solid gold. Thranduil cut
the ring from the finger and examined it for marks. There were
none. It was quite plain, and didn't show a scratch or sign of
wear. So he tossed it into the fire and waited.
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Sun Nov 30 08:50:40 2003
After a while the Elven King removed the ring and looked at it
closely. As he did, Thranduil saw fine lines form. Fiery letters
of ancient Elvish. He handed the ring to his son Legolas and
instructed,"This is the One Ring. Go to the land of Rohan. King
Theoden has captured Mt. Doom. Have him guide you there and
toss the ring in. Once that is done, declare victory for the
armies of light."
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Sun Nov 30 09:19:57 2003
Good that Mirkwood feels comfortable taking creative
liberties. I, Verge, am alive and well. Our capitol
has never been taken and our heart has never been destroyed.
Clearly this ring to which you refer, like the
grave from which it supposedly came, is a forgery.
I suggest you tear about the plains of Rohan and Rhun
in search of said ring. I've a hunch you'll find it
hording amongst the evil creatures that Rhun commands.
From his secret bat-cave,
Verge
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Sun Nov 30 11:47:03 2003
For Mordor ruler ...
known as Sauron,
hum,
Currently not remembering of any co-ruler for my country,
Sorry to disapoint you
Girion,
Lord of Dale,
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Sun Nov 30 17:10:31 2003
?Knowing I was unable to play due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the Seven Sisters
? of the CUNT coalition, all run by co-ruling teams of several players on 24/7
Please, use your remaining stamina to work on the test game to try to improve Empire
instead of using it to publish false anno.
Dain II, sole and only King under the Mountain ! I'm not sharing my throne !!
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Sun Nov 30 22:26:56 2003
Today TAU network was hit by an extreme load, probably due to a worm.
During the day various parts of the campus, including the building our
server sits in were disconnected from the network. In the evening
the tides seem to have subsisded, but, again, it looks like the problems
are back.
To avoid nuisances at the update time, the update is CANCELLED.
When I receive a confirmation from the Computation Center that everything
is fine again, the normal routine will continue.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Roman.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Mon Dec 1 11:44:44 2003
? the Coalition to cause a bogus update that hit during
? the only period I had available to play before Thanksgiving,
Even the best players can't do that, the Dieties must have helped
the coalition..
(Fleer's comment #4)
"If there were not seven countries against me,
and they were not co-ruled, and
I was on over Thanksgiving, I would have totally
whipped your butt"
=> lame parting comment #??
Mordor, you would be have been defeated even if you were logged in
24/7 over the weekend. You would have had your ass kicked, if all of
the seven countries were single ruler countries.
What you achieved this game is to piss enough countries off,
that they have no better to do than kick you around. You asked for it,
now take it and shut up.
Fuck you, asshole!
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Dec 1 12:10:08 2003
The next update is on!
Manwe.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Dec 2 00:25:48 2003
Island of Power - Rohan Capital City
From this day forward, let every breed of Middle Earth live in
peace.
-- King Theoden, according to _End of the Third Age and the
Triumph of ACME_
Theoden gazed at the mountains of the Mordor province from the great
tower crowning the citadel. Turning right, he could just see the edge
of Gondor's realm. Below, the new city shimmered in the light,
embraced by the Anduin like a pearl in its setting, a marvel of Middle
Earth, a harbinger of a new age. Built virtually overnight, it now
served as seat of his throne.
Much had changed for the Riders of the Mark. Rohan now stretched from
the shores of Minhiriath and Anfalas to the Sea of Nurnen. Edoras,
the ancient capital, Helm's Deep, their ancestral fortress, Isengard,
home of the Wizards' order, the newly raised Island of Power, the
former strongholds of the Dunlendings, the somber fields where the
cities of Minhiriath used to be, the City of the Corsairs, even the
former seat of the Lidless Eye himself, all were under Theoden's
domain. In the last days, his fleets dealt with the minions of
darkness as often as his horsemen did. And what new allies he had
gained! Great eagles now called Rohan `the safe nest'. The Tree
Herders had revealed themselves and stood in his armies alongside
elves, dwarves, and wizards. Strangely enough, even some orcs and
goblins had seen the light and now stood with them.
Finally, The One Ring had been recovered from the corrupted Ring
Bearer hiding in The Shire, safely escorted through the vast lands
controlled by the forces of light, and cast into the Cracks of Doom.
Sauron's might was broken forever.
Without averting his gaze from the mountains, Theoden ordered his
herald to announce a solemn declaration to all the peoples of Middle
Earth:
In the name of ACME, the Alliance to Conquer Middle Earth, We,
Theoden, King of the Mark, declare LOTR II to be over with the main
powers of ACME the winners: Rohan, Rhun, Mirkwood and Iron_Hills.
We gratefully recognize the support and valuable contributions of
Balchoth, Dale, Lorien and Rivendell, who were all full members of
ACME.
To all the hostile nations of Middle Earth: We order you, all of
you, to LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS, and henceforth live in peace, lest the
wrath of ACME be upon you!
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Dec 2 00:27:43 2003
Victory has been declared. All viable nations, please announce
whether you concede or contest it, preferably within 24 hours.
Further attacks will be considered `contesting', and will be dealt
with accordingly. We will stop hostilities as soon as you concede,
and we reserve the right to whatever we please until you do.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Tue Dec 2 03:34:34 2003
Gondor accepts the victory of our neighbor to the North, South,
East, and West.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Dec 2 04:20:12 2003
} Gondor accepts the victory of our neighbor to the North, South,
}East, and West.
You've been such a good neighbor to the South, we couldn't
wait to try you as a neighbor from all sides. :)
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Dec 2 04:26:11 2003
As for Mordor, Sauron already conceded in advance to the coalition
Wednesday night after the mistaken update hit, but if anyone
opposes the declaration Mordor can probably be an annoyance
to the coalition for another update or two if lucky
It was 95% certain even before the mistaken update hit that the coalition
would win, but I hit on a plan that gave me I would estimate a 5%
chance of winning that I was just about to carry out when
the mistaken update hit (maybe 5% is too optimistic but it was
a good plan I think)
Anyway after the mistaken update hit Mordor was doomed
Anyway Ice (presumably running Mirkwood) is a better player than I am
these days, I believe, so probably would have beat me anyway in the long run
And even though I hate their guts and hope they die spitting up blood,
I have to give Rohan credit for being a stronger country than Mordor.
Once they intervened on behalf of Balchoth and Rhun, Mordor was skating
on thin ice for the rest of the game
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Dec 2 04:33:01 2003
Balchoth taught me mountain warfare, so I am now (finally) just about up to speed
with the land units (before that I was still mainly using 1980s style tricks),
along with Rhun, who I learned the land unit tactics for non-mountain warfare
from, so it was a very educational experience
plus I finally understand how to use WinACE, so I have to give Escher and successors
running the WinACE code credit for an excellent job
As for myself, as usual I preceded learning new things by a series of blunders
rather than genius (Mith comes up with new ideas because he is a genius,
I do because I am so stupid I blunder into ridiculous and absurd situations
so often that I discover weird things that nobody else was stupid enough
to even try)
(that's how I dsicovered "shell to deity" tactics back in the 1980s, which
everyone now uses: I was bored so I decided to use up all my shells on a sector
with maybe 1 or 2 civs. Suddenly I saw in the news "37 times Morder shells Deity sectors"
or something like that)
light dawned
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Dec 2 04:34:16 2003
As for my allies, I won't embarass them by naming them, and I spologize
for letting them down
I just want to thank them for being such excellent and trustworthy and helpful
friends
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Dec 2 06:07:08 2003
Congrats! I recognize Rohan and their
coalition as winners of the game. It was a
pleasure to be your neighbor. (I think I'm
one of the few who could say that.)
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Dec 2 09:07:32 2003
Looks like the 3 nations not part of ACME have conceeded....
Congratulations.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Dec 2 09:20:40 2003
- Good evening, I am Mersk and I stand on
- the blood drenched fields of Lorien.
- Lord Celeron has asked me to read this
- simple statement.
-- You'll have to kill us all. We'll fight
-- to the last elf. You'll get our gold,
-- wine and women, only after the last elf
-- is dead. You silly excuse for a fashion....
An aide runs up, quickly getting Mersks
attention and whispers urgently in his
ear.
- WHAT!?!? What the hell do you mean this
- is from the Mirkwood war?
The aide hands Mersk a new sheet of parchment.
- Ahem, Sorry about that gentle beings.
- Lord Celeron gladly supports ACME.
- That is all.
> Announcement from The_Shire, (#1) dated Tue Dec 2 09:29:03 2003
Another aide runs up to Lord Celeron and whispers in his ear.
- WHAT?! We're part of ACNE?? Oh! I guess our support is
- a given then. My bad. Back to washing my feet.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Tue Dec 2 11:38:05 2003
Although in peace not as much beer is consumed as in war, we do miss the
pipe weed and hope that The_Shire will be able to resume their shipments
in times of peace.
We accept the the rule of ACME. May the beer be with you.
Barliman, Bill, Mary and Folco.
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Dec 2 12:54:49 2003
Us stupid south-eastern barbarians do not accept
the victory declaration. Come and beat us to pulp!
The Man
PS. If the four future winners had gained their position
just by themselves, I'd willingly concede. As it is, I
feel they should work for it as long as possible. If I've
been misinformed about the coalition of seven countries
or somesuch, please enlighten me?
And who knows, maybe the rest of the small ones will
raise up against the tyranny of the mighty, and tear
them to pieces... (yeah sure)
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Dec 2 14:14:14 2003
Late News:
13:34 Rhun Wizards killed by Land Mines 7 times
13:36 Rhun declares TOTAL WAR on Harad
Hey!!! Those were my land mines, not his
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Dec 2 16:46:05 2003
A short, portly Wizard strides confidently to
the podium and faces the Harandor Press and governing council. He pauses briefly to stroke
the lengthy grayed tips of his mustache before
speaking.
"Gentlemen, after properly reviewing the current
situation, we wish to address these latest
developments. It is the decision of this council
to officially oppose the Declaration of a Win by
Acme. It is also our decision to fully support
The Alliance Against Enormously Large Coalitions
who Need More than Ten Percent of the Starting
Countries To Support Their Claim of a Win, or
AAELCWNMTTPOTSCTSTCOAW for short. Thirdly, we
support a name change for this alliance when time
permits. Lastly, we wish to publically state
that under the rules and guidlines of Middle Earth
Warfare, as set forth in the Isengard Charter
of the Second Age, a Win Declaration to which
a country is not a part of is an Act of War
by the Declarers against that country. We the
Nation of Harondor officially no longer recognize
any Non aggression pacts between these nations.
In parting I offer you the words of our ancestors
'Shoot Straight and Often'
Thank You"
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Tue Dec 2 18:36:18 2003
You fools. You pitiful fools.
Do you think that you can do what Mordor
couldn't? You know not what you have
released upon yourselves. I predict
you'll be dead before I've had time to
occupy my new palace.
I'd wish you good luck, but seeing as
how you've already used up what "good" of
your luck you'd accumulated, all that's
left is bad.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Dec 2 19:11:31 2003
Well, the good is gone. I've certainly had
my share of bad. I guess that only leaves
the ugly, and I fully expect this to get
ugly. Go ahead and sit back, plant your
daisies around that new castle. Who knows
maybe someday you can show the archieved
power chart to your kids and they'll be
impressed that you survived. Heck hang it on
the wall of your new palace. "Yes honey,
daddy lost, but he made it to the end" Or
you can join in the fun, this is fun right?
Take down that Giant Oliphant which is Acme.
If that happens, which I know it won't, We'd all
hate to ruin a perfectly good country after all (even
if it did lose the game) but "if", then who knows
who will come out on top. Besides, a better ally
than Harad I have never met, I'll stick with him till
the end.
You know, I took a look at Harondor in the Last Age,
also know in these parts as LOTR I. That nation
pretty much just sat there the whole game, it didn't
really appear to be doing anything. The rest of
the nations grew, shrunk, or even disappeared (Some
in a very spectacular fasion) But not Harondor, it
just sat there. If I wasn't looking for it my eyes
probably would have skipped over it for something
more interesting. That's not me, and that's not this
nation. I gaurantee you a spectacular finish, be it
when I sack Dale, or when my last che gets mowed down
two updates from now, (and that direction depends on all
of you "also finishes") but it will be spectacular and
I'm going to have a helluva lot of fun in the process.
I've dragged on long enough, so I bid you all fairwell
for now.
To the Pain!
King Antonatar, III
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Dec 2 20:09:11 2003
Apologees to Dale, Iron Hills was the country I intend to Sack ;-)
Its tough keeping countries straight with hidden
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Tue Dec 2 20:40:05 2003
From his winter retreat in the Easterlings district,
Grhun ponders the last message received from the
ambassdor from the West. Protocol dictates that
despite any personal feelings he has with the
ambassador (or his wife), he must still deal with
the insult hidden in the parchment.
Reading:
(yes, I know it's a stretch, but the men
of Rhun CAN read, this being a fantasy and all)
[It is also our decision to fully support
The Alliance Against Enormously Large Coalitions
who Need More than Ten Percent of the Starting
Countries To Support Their Claim of a Win, or
AAELCWNMTTPOTSCTSTCOAW for short. Thirdly, we
support a name change for this alliance when time
permits.]
"All this man does is try to confuse our people,
who does King Antonatar, III think he is. His son
better be out of the crib by now, because he will
soon be the IVth".
Grhun pondors. (yes, we can pondor too, but to
some it looks like we are sleeping in our chairs
with our eyes open). {yawn}
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Tue Dec 2 20:40:16 2003
Bing!!! A torchlight (lightbulbs weren't invented
EVER, not even by the 5th age) lights up in Grhun's
mind.
"I have figured a name for Antonator's rabble
of mongrels...."
-----------
Kunagondar 38, 12321
Deliver by hand to:
Antonator III,
Hail, greetings, King of Harondor (protocol requires
this). I have spent the time that you so desparately
seek. From now on, in Rhun, we will refer to
your Alliance as:
'ALPHABET SOUP'. This is much easier to remember,
and as to its meaning, well, the name does fit
the monicker...
Alliance
Losing
Provinces
Held
Against
Better
Equiped
Teams
Sharing
Outstanding
Unselfish
Plans
{"Yes", said Grhun, "my people can understand this;
ALPHABET SOUP, or AAELCWNMTTPOTSCTSTCOAW".
...
No decision...}
I await your reply,
Grhun of Rhun
cc: ACME
Hruhn of Rhun
Wrhun of Rhun
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Dec 2 20:59:00 2003
Congratulations,
By fabricating such a clever little acronym for our
humble coalition, you have been pre-qualified for
membership. Of course at this point in time, you will
be limited to a support role (Shells, Beer, Sheep, etc)
as we require full members to have a backbone.
Welcome Aboard,
King Antonatar, III
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Tue Dec 2 21:21:02 2003
King Antonatar, III
Greetings, King of Harondor. {damn, this protocol
stuff really sucks}
"Congratulations, you have been pre-qualified for
membership."
Do you deign to insult me AGAIN!!
There is nothing I hate more
(well, actually there are, but for the
purposes of this letter) than receiving
"pre-qualification" letters, promises of this
or that that usually require a monthly withdrawal
of bars from my bank...
And what does this membership offer?
"(Shells, Beer, Sheep, etc)
as we require full members to have a backbone."
Well, as far as shells are concerned. We (or one of
our trading partners) will deliver them, usually from
a range of 1 or 2.
Beer, we will drink your beer.
Sheep, Hah!! Keep 'em. Where's a good Winged Beast
when you need one? (as the founding member of the Mile
High Club, I know)
Your membership offer has been thrown into the fire
of our hearth. Speaking of Hearth's, Antonatar,
we will use your palace as our Summer palace, and
time-share it the rest of the year.
"Welcome Aboard",
No....see you soon.
Grhun of Rhun
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Dec 2 22:13:16 2003
Latest News:
18:59 Nineteen times Rivendale Wizards blown up by Mordor Minefields
19:41 Rivendale declares TOTAL WAR on Mordor
Woe is me ... when will it ever end???
> Announcement from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Tue Dec 2 23:51:21 2003
?> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Dec 2 20:09:11 2003
?Apologees to Dale, Iron Hills was the country I intend to Sack ;-)
?Its tough keeping countries straight with hidden
Feel free to come in our mines for a full 50 year tour in our deepest
tunels.
Dain II Ironfoot, King under the Mountain.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Wed Dec 3 11:56:17 2003
This is an email I received today:
Subject: ILAN network maintenance, 3/12/2003, 18:00-18:30.
During this time frame we will upgrade one of our core routers. There
will be NO Internet services at this time. Connectivity within ILAN only
will be maintained via our backup links. The ADSL service will also be
down during this time frame.
We regret any inconvenience caused.
ILAN is the father network of TAU.
FYI.
Roman.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Dec 3 20:49:45 2003
"I knew a country one time with one sector named beep."
"Really? What did he name his other sectors?"
(and now, back to the day-time job.)
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Wed Dec 3 21:12:20 2003
And no more Mary Poppins for you young man!
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Dec 4 02:03:15 2003
Supply Check Time!
40 ounces of home grown, dried and rolled.
A pound and a half of uncut peruvian cocaine, in individual
serving sizes.
Three prescription refills of oxycontin, finely ground.
Two fiths of Jack Daniels. And a straw.
25 grams of high quality heroine, complete with an IV drip.
12 of the little red pills. I don't know what they are but
they sure do work.
A small zip-lock bag filled with methanphetimines.
Five hits of LSD and a box of sugar cubes. (Note to self: Have
plenty of sugar left for next purchase.)
Two hookers from Chicago (I prefer the red-head over the blonde.
But sometimes I like to be over the blonde too.)
One large, deep dish pizza with extra cheese, black olives, and
thick sliced pepperoni.
A case of Sam Adams. Chilled.
Okay, I'm ready for the update.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Dec 4 04:13:07 2003
Yeah, but you'll consume all of that in about 10 hours.
The update's not 'til Friday.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Dec 4 22:54:59 2003
Friends,
Is your girl friend a few pounds over weight? Does she pack
some extra poundage? Do restaurants close the buffet table
when they see her comming? Do small children and environmentalists
try and push her off the beach and back into the water? Do all
of her clothes come in sizes like "Hefty", "Jumbo", and "Oh my
God, it's moving in this direction?"
After sex with her do you yell "Land Ho!"? Does she have her
own zipcode? Does she have a Lane Bryant Platinum Visa card?
Has she even been asked to use the freight elevator?
Are their bones from the 20 piece KFC bucket trapped in her
love handles? does it take two of your hands just to grab one
of her love handles? Do geologists ask her to wear siesmographs?
Have all the butchers in your town retired early? When she
applaudes, does she use the skin under her arms?
Does she have her own table names after her at Pondarosa?
If so, you need help. Visit us and our on-line support group
at www.stuckwithaheffer.org.
Jack Spratt
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Dec 4 22:56:36 2003
Gee, being spammed by visitor.
:)
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Dec 5 15:39:32 2003
King Antonatar groggily propped himself up on his bed.
The next few minutes were spent unplugging his coffee
maker (The coffee being fed intraveniously into his arm)
staightening his mussed hair and muttering something about
the worst hangover he had experienced. He slowly raised
his eyes to the window cursing that blasted sunlight. The
once narrow slits of his eyes grew round at the sight.
"VANNOR!", he screamed.
The old grizzled servant ran into the room, "Yes m'lord?".
"Vannor, what in heavens name are all these troops for?
Catapults line the streets, military are practicing in
my rose garden, and why in blazes is there a land mine
UNDER MY BED!"
Vannor sheepishly looked up at the King. "Well sir, there
have been a few developments while you were out at your
party" Vannor then began relating the event to the king
in a hushed voice.
The castle reverberated with the kings voice, his words
travelled throughout the country, over the Anduin, and
drifted over the seas.
"I PICKED A FIGHT WITH WHO?"
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Dec 5 17:06:56 2003
Boy, nothing like the endgame portion of a
major game to get traffic on r.g.e hopping.
There have been more posts in the last few days
than there are normally in months...
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Fri Dec 5 19:43:16 2003
One thing Mordor learned this game is that the Finns are the toughest
and most dangerous fighters on the planet (as Stalin learned the hard way)
Its too cold to grow vegetables in those Arctic wastelands, so the only
thing they have to eat is Polar Bear meat
Its bad enough to have to eat that stuff, but imagine having first to
put on your snowshoes, trek over the ice, and hunt those beasts down
with bows and arrows and spears
No wonder they drink so much Vodka, they need it to wash the
Polar Bear meat down
You'd be tough too, if you'd been raised since age 2 on Polar Bear meat and Vodka
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 5 20:11:37 2003
Same with Canadians, living in those igloos of theirs all
their lives. Poor souls.
Hmm. I wonder what that says about people in Southern California,
living on those warm beaches.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Dec 5 20:15:16 2003
Forget about downing that retched Bear Meat, its nothing
compared to the wonderful aroma one is treated to when gutting
the dang thing.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sat Dec 6 01:01:51 2003
a horrible blinding light disturbs Sauron's peaceful slumber
time to fly off to the secret bat cave hidden in the wasteland's
where eternal darkness reigns supreme
will Evil triumph in the end?
Of course, just a matter of time ...
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Mon Dec 8 16:52:50 2003
(Picture the setting of a tacky 70's game show, complete with guady
music and the following participants:
BE: Bob Ewbanks. The Host. I know, I know. He hosted the
Newlywed Game but I can't remember the clown that did this one.
BA: The Bachelorette. A crack-skinny dazzling urbanite with high
platforms and way too much eye shadow.
B1: Bachelore #1. A dark, purposeful, evil looking man that makes
you want to lock your doors.
B2: Bachelore #2. A white guy with a frizzy afro. He sits on his
chair with confidence and is not intimidated by #1.
B3: Bachelore #3. A pasty white, round shouldered shell of a
human. He wheezes when he inhales.
The bad trumpet music silences and the show starts.)
BE: Welcome to the Dating Game. Let's meet our 3 Bachelors.
Bachelor #1 is from MIT and owns a lot of stock in John Deer.
Please welcome Fodderland to our show. (Polite applause).
B1: Hi Bob. they said there was beer?
BE: Yeah. Bachelor #2 comes to us from the University of Washington
(cont)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Mon Dec 8 17:02:58 2003
in St. Louis. Welcome Mirkwood and his fully automatic AK-47.
(Polite applause)
B2: Sorry Brian. There was beer. I drank it all.
BE: Ooookay. Bachelor #3 comes all the way from Provincetowm
Mass., by way of Lakewood Ohio. Welcome to the show Barsoom.
(Impolite booing)
(B3 snarls)
BE: And now let's meet our bachelorette. From 5th and Center
streets in downtown Milwaukee, here is Serentity.
BA: Thanks Bob. So good to be here.
BE: Well, let's get down to your questions, Serenity.
BA: Bachelor #1. Suppose we are at a fiiiine restaurant and one
of the boyz at the table next to us comes over and calls me a skank.
Do you hit him?
B1: Well, that depends. Are you a skank?
BA: What you mean by that?
B1: Assuming you're not, that home boy won't last past the next
update.
BA: #2, same question.
B2: Well, I quess I would take one of his posse, shove his hand
up the guy's arse, duct tape fingers and tongue together and pull
backwards.
BA: Hmmm. I like that. #3?
(cont)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Mon Dec 8 17:10:19 2003
B3: I would sucker punch him after he truned around to leave.
BA: next question. Bachelor #1, if you were a mixed drink, what
would you be.
B1: Easy. A screaming orgasim. A double of course.
BA: Oooooo. #2?
B2: I don't know what I would be. But i would be good and stiff.
(BA bluhes, as if you could tell thru all the makeup) #3?
B3: I'd be a Shirley Temple.
(BA shakes her head in her hands.) Okay, next question. Suppose
we been hanging for a while and do in the thing together. But I
want one of my old boy friends to join us in the bedroom. Is
that okay? #1?
B1: I guess it's okay. Somebody needs to hold the video camera.
BA: #2?
B2: You can bring your old boy friend if I can bring by old
girl friends.
BA: Wow, that bring back memories. I hate to ask, but #3, could
I bring my old boy friend into the bedroom?
B3: Oh sure. And you could leave him there while you left.
BA: Bachelor #2, could you punch bachelor #3 for me?
B2: No way, he gives me the creeps.
(cont)
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Mon Dec 8 17:17:32 2003
(There's a large "POW" and B3 is laying on the floor, bleeding from
his nose. B1 is holding his stool in his hands. One of the metal
legs is bent and has a touch of blood.)
B1: Sean, you never did like to get your hands dirty, always letting
Tom Jones do the work for you while you let the naked groupies
chase you through the airport.
B2: Ah, what would you know. You never got into a game without
atlantis and subby to cover your ass.
B1: right, I took you down once, I can do it again.
B2: You challenging me? Right here? right now?
B1: Right here. right now!
B2: What's the winner get?
B1: Winner gets to kick Barssom in the stomach all day. Loser
gets the skanky bitch on the other side of that wall.
BE: Folks, let's calm down. The game is getting out of hand. How
about if we all go over and kick bachelor #3 in the stomach?
B2: Even the skank?
BA: Who you calling...
BE: Sure, even the skank.
kick
kick
kick
kick
kick
kick
kick
kick
kick
kick
kick
kick
kick
kick
kick
(bad trumpet music fades)
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Dec 8 20:25:14 2003
stop picking on Barsoom
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Dec 8 20:28:07 2003
he's the only guy who helped me learn how to use this damned windows stuff
(I was raised in a Unix environment so am lost at sea dealing with Microsoft windows)
otherwise I wouldn't even be here causing trouble
(probably playing chess instead which probably would have been a better idea anyways :-)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Dec 8 20:39:49 2003
Barsoom was an unremorseful cheater. I didn't make that series of
announcements, but I don't see much redeeming about him.
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Mon Dec 8 20:45:19 2003
There is always some evil in the best of us
and some good in the worst of us
so it behooves all of us
not to cast stones at any of us
(or something like that :-)
Barsoom is actually a very nice guy when you get to know him well
I won't comment on the cheating stuff, I'm just lucky I found cheating
uninteresting and boring or I might have gone down that road myself
I got accused of it even though I didn't cheat
(when I was in the winner's circle, noone has accused me of cheating
since I joined the loser's circle :-)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Dec 8 20:54:46 2003
A general rule of thumb is that success in games breads
complaints of cheating, regardless of the integrity of
the people claimed to have cheated.
However, in Barsoom's case, the cheating was absolutely proven
beyond a shadow of a doubt. He was caught red handed with Lothlorien.
While Loth was remorseful, Barsoom was not and maintained an air
of indignation.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Mon Dec 8 21:18:45 2003
RE: cheating little vermin
Those two disrupted an otherwise extremely entertaining
tourny back in the late 90's (Winterfest). Diety had
apparently suspect bug abuse and added code to flag abuse
of suspected bugs. Multiple warnings were issued. Diety
finally gathered enough evidence to put the issue to a vote
between the active players without revealing the offenders.
Majority vote was "Atlantis" sink the scum's islands.
One tidal wave later I was short two allies.
Soured the whole tourny for me. Planted two countries
firmly on my permanet target list. I despise cheats.
I guess I don't understand the thrill a cheat gets.
Fyi My permanet target list still only has 2 members.
even AK hasn't made it there. :)
-Plundarian part of Rohan
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Mon Dec 8 21:26:58 2003
Dog pile on Mordor for standing up for Barsoom!!
Oh wait. Nevermind.
Yes, he ruined the final round, and therefore the whole winterfest
tournament. Not that I would not have won it had he and Loth
still been around mind you. But still, it's like having a
dented Stanely cup. Or winning the BCS football title.
Other than that, who has the skanky crack ho this update? You
need to keep passing her around please.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Mon Dec 8 21:45:20 2003
BTW, CCCP finished quite a few games in the Mid-90s second to Loth,
or losing to Loth...
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Dec 8 21:55:10 2003
Out of morbid curiousity, and at the risk of opening Pandora's Box,
What in blazes did this guy do?
Mark
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Dec 8 22:13:53 2003
Ahh, nevermind, I did a search on Google.
(He didn't leave many bridges left to burn, did he)
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Mon Dec 8 22:14:06 2003
I think the only interesting thing left in
this game is to see how badly you guys
manage to get in each others way...
and perhaps also to see how many
updates it takes before you take my
capital.
The first time you do that I will
give up, and I doubt Harondor has much
fight left in him at that point either.
The Man
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Mon Dec 8 22:17:58 2003
It's actually an interesting exercise in empire logistics.
Your goal is to figure out how to keep us in each others
way.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Dec 8 23:36:46 2003
Harondor,
I was co-deity in the game where Barsoom cheated. No,
he didn't leave any bridges to be burned. Todd (Lothlorien)
was rather the opposite. Barsoom's behavior was absolutely
despicable. Rather than *tell* us what bugs he had found
(in addition to the ones he was abusing), he demanded we
chase our tails around trying to find them so we'd find
bugs that he hadn't found yet. Empire is complex enough
as it is, with a huge number of bugs, without having to
do crap like that.
One of the reasons Wolfpack was founded was to make
significant strides in eradicating bugs from the server
code, which was tetering on the brink of instability at
the time due to the server code being absolutely rife with
bugs. The product of these efforts can be seen here:
http://www.wolfpackempire.com/ChangeLog.txt
Despite all that work, we stil have a huge buglist:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=24031&atid=380345
So, attempting what he demanded we do was absolutely
counterproductive.
<cont>
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Dec 8 23:39:16 2003
Worse, he was completely unapologetic for his behavior.
He was warned about it in the game, and refused to not
do it despite deity warnings. He treated his cheating as
if it was a right, because he was a player, and we had to
tolerate it because we didn't fix the code fast enough.
Well, it's been 30 years and we're *still* fixing the code
and always will be. It's the nature of the beast.
Barsoom was banned from Empire for his actions. Not that there
is some permanent black list you can get on or anything like
that; he just gained a reputation as an unrepentent cheater and
deities thereafter refused to let him into their games.
It's hard enough running a game without having a player
purposefully try to undermine the deity's efforts.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Dec 9 15:13:12 2003
'Twas the night before the update, when all through the land
Not a creature was stirring, not even an Orc Band;
The Catapults were stacked in the forts with care,
In hopes that Rohan soon would be there;
The Acme Supports were nestled all snug in their beds,
With visions of the next game dancing in their heads;
While The Man in Harad, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When out on the front line there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to the Palantiri to see what was the matter.
The bulletins gushed in and scrolled like a flash,
I Enlisted more mil and double checked my cash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should come into sight,
But an enemy Trebuchet, backed by an army of the light,
With a little old ruler, forces so large and grand,
I knew in a moment it must be the armies of Rohan.
More rapid than eagles their corsairs they came,
He assaulted and attacked, my units he did maim;
"Now, Dwarves! now, Hobbits! now, Calvery and Elves!
On, Cats! on Trebs! on, Rams and Give 'em Hell!
To the top of the fort! to the top of the wall!
Now shell away! shell away! shell away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane flee,
When met with an obstacle, he shelled it to diety,
So closer to my Capital the Units they drew,
With trebuchets full of shells, and Gondor Guards too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard sounds from overhead
of Eagles pinbombing the mil I had once to battle led.
As I drew my bow, and turned around,
Down the chimney came a Wizard's Bolt making a thunderous sound.
My country was occupied, my shells were all spent,
The air defenses were stripped, and my cap was at five percent;
A last ditch advance is futile I thought,
But time for an escape could hopefully be bought.
First I saw Theoden! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, I think he is a fairy!
very odd I thought, for I was expecting a wraith.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Dec 9 15:13:21 2003
I'm not sure about the children, but at least the women will be safe;
Next appeared triplets, I almost dared not watch.
Ruhn leadership was so confusing, I almost regret drinking that last Scotch;
"Next game perhaps, I'll have a chance to even the score,
For this game, I didn't even meet you long enough to properly declare a war".
Then I saw Mirkwood, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
He wore Bunny Slippers on his feet, just as it was said,
Soon gave me to know that he was sick in the head;
Dain spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
While enslaving my civs; He turned and gave me a smirk,
That look told me volumes, probably more than it should,
For then I knew it was my sheep he desired, to love them as only a Dwarf could;
I sprang to rampart, to my Eagle gave a whistle,
And away I flew away like the down of a thistle.
My last words to exclaim, ere I flew out of sight,
"Congratulations to All, And Thanks for the Fight!"
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Dec 9 15:16:57 2003
hahahahah! I love it.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Dec 9 15:28:46 2003
Very skillful Harondor :)
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Tue Dec 9 15:43:36 2003
*CLAP* - *CLAP* - *CLAP* - *CLAP* - *CLAP*
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Tue Dec 9 21:00:21 2003
I bow infront of this performance...
Hail to Harad's leader.
may an other game allow him to enlight us
with "prose" like this.
Girion
Lord of Dale
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Dec 9 21:09:28 2003
Er, I think you meant Harondor.
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Tue Dec 9 21:30:06 2003
EXACTLY !!!
I knew this beer found inside Mordor was too hard for us,
men of Dale ...
:)))))
Girion
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Dec 9 22:13:50 2003
some people just have a different mindset about cheating so I am more hesitant to
condemn than
If you read Feynman's wonderful little book "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman"
you can get an insight into that perspective
As for myself I'm kind of a stick-in-the-mud who just plows straight forward
like in a chess game, and always gets out-swindled when diplomacy starts
becoming more important that military strategy (I'm downright bad at diplomacy,
let's face it, its not that Balchoth was just better at it, they were damned
good and tricked you all into blaming Mordor for what happened, when
really Balchoth conned you even worse than they deceived me. But I handled
the diplomacy damned badly, made things even worse than if I had kept my damned
mouth shut)
Loth was a damned good player even without cheating, so it was hard for me to
fathom why they would even be interested, but that's the mindset some people have
And sometimes we learn a lot from them, though I can understand Mith's points also
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Dec 9 22:33:31 2003
Romm brought up an interesting point also that hadn't occured to me:
Were it not for Loth/Barsoom, CCCP might have been the dominant country
of that era
I think, so someone was on round the clock and you never got
a chance to attack when noone was on
I can see now that was the key to Mirkwood's early success in the 1980s,
rather than being better than the rest of us, having someone on all the
I like a turn based game like chess, where one country attacks against
the automatic defenses of the other country, then the other country
has a chance to attack in turn, when the defender isn't on
more relaxing that way than the style of fighting hand to hand
when both are on, though that has its place also
but I can see now that the co-ruled style where someone is always on
gives a decisive advantage over a single player country which is only on
but it is clear now being on all the time gives a decisive advantage
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Tue Dec 9 22:43:18 2003
my connection has been very choppy so the last announcements were badly
mangled (sorry about that)
I rebooted and now its better it seems
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Tue Dec 9 22:44:18 2003
The connection was horrible here as well... So that wasn't your machine.
Your anno is garbled though; most line endings are missing.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Tue Dec 9 22:45:28 2003
I had to wait 2 or 3 minutes just to get
connected...was starting to get worried.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Tue Dec 9 22:46:28 2003
Same here. Seems better now.
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Tue Dec 9 22:47:16 2003
Same here, rebooted and several logon attempts where server
said "ready"
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Dec 9 22:49:05 2003
I hope they're not doing something with routers...
I haven't received any notices from our network managers.
R.
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Tue Dec 9 22:49:48 2003
a couple of pings failed about 10 minutes ago
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Dec 9 22:51:43 2003
To confirm Mordor's point, we did play sometimes at 3x8 shifts.
DC IV was the greatest example. But still since we lived in the
same time zone our abilities were a bit limited. :)
But rather than the coverage, it was the "ministerial" division
of tasks in CCCP which brought us the successes. Sasha did the
military part, I made most of the economics and Tero was the
diplomat. Everyone's attention got most concentrated on a narrower
set of problems which led to better results.
Roman
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Dec 9 23:47:42 2003
Except, you didn't win DC IV and neither did Barsoom :)
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Wed Dec 10 00:05:56 2003
} On Tue Dec 9 23:47:42 Mithrilien wrote:
} Except, you didn't win DC IV and neither did Barsoom :)
}-- End of excerpt from Mithrilien
Well, Loth won DC IV. ;)
And Pat was oh so frustrated when he was trying to launch a surprise
attack on various hours of the day and was facing a response about
as much as five minutes into the action. :)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Dec 10 00:16:50 2003
True. I remember him complaining about that :) But, he still won :)
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Wed Dec 10 09:54:09 2003
he doesn't play any more though
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Wed Dec 10 11:11:14 2003
} some people just have a different mindset about cheating so I am more hesitant to
} condemn than
}
} If you read Feynman's wonderful little book "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman"
} you can get an insight into that perspective
Worth a read. Worth a reread.
I think you may be referring to his lockpicking in Los Alamos.
There's a difference, if I remember that story correctly. Feynman did
his best to alert the authorities to bad lock security. He reported
flaws in the locks and the policies dealing with them. He was
ignored. When nothing worked, he proceeded to use these flaws to pick
whatever lock he needed open *and* had *authority* to get opened. He
did not use his skills to gain something he wouldn't have gotten
within the rules. When questioned about it, he again gave the
authorities all information about the lock and policy flaws that
allowed him to pick the locks.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Dec 10 15:34:25 2003
Contrast with Kevin Mitnick.
http://www.itsecurity.com/dictionary/mitnick.htm
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Dec 11 01:55:01 2003
(A classic worth pinning up in your cube at work)
Under the Scotsman's Kilt (Author unknown)
Well a Scotsman clad in kilt left a bar one evening fair
And one could tell by how he walked he'd drunk more than his share
He staggered round until he could no longer keep his feet
Then he stumbled off into the grass to sleep beside the street
Ring ding diddle diddle eye di oh, ring di diddly eye oh
He stumbled off into the grass to sleep beside the street
About the time two young a pretty girls just happened by
And one says to the other with a twinkle in her eye
"See yon sleeping scotsman, so strong and handsome built
I wonder if it's true what they don't wear beneath their kilt"
Ring ding diddle diddle eye di oh, ring di diddly eye oh
I wonder if it's true what they don't wear beneath their kilt
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Dec 11 01:59:33 2003
They crept up on that scotsman just as quiet as can be
-lifted up his kilt just an inch so they could see
and there for them to view, beneath his scotish skirt
was nothing more than God had graced with upon his birth
Ring ding diddle diddle eye di oh, ring di diddly eye oh
was nothing more than God had graced with upon his birth
They marveled for a moment then one said "we must be gone"
"Let's leave a present for our friend before we move along"
as a gift they left a blue silk ribbon tied into a bow
around the bonny's star the kilt did lift and show
Ring ding diddle diddle eye di oh, ring di diddly eye oh
around the bonny's star the kilt did lift and show
Well the scotsman woke to nature's call and stumbled towards the trees
Behind the bush he lifts his kilt and gawks at what he sees
And in a startled voice he says to what's before his eyes
"Oh lad I don't know where you been but I see you won first prize"
Ring ding diddle diddle eye di oh, ring di diddly eye oh
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Dec 11 01:59:40 2003
Oh lad I don't know where you been but I see you won first prize
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 06:24:56 2003
(made famous by the singing of it by Seamus Kennedy)
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Dec 12 07:33:17 2003
I believe that something should be added to the
code for shells that don't make it to their
target. When something is out of range, the
shells should fall 1 sector short. If that is
your own sector, maybe you would think twice
about doing it...
> Announcement from Forochel, (#2) dated Fri Dec 12 09:36:50 2003
The pitfall would be if you had no chance to think about it twice, because,
say, you setup your defenses, then get a phonecall IRL. During those 10 minutes
you are away your enemy pins down your fort's eff below 60%, knowing that then
its fire will fall 1 sector shorter, and he cleverly figured out that this is the only
way he can get one of your sectors fired at.
> Announcement from Forochel, (#2) dated Fri Dec 12 09:46:34 2003
I actually do think that in general that is a very god idea, Dol Amroth. May be it
would work, if, for example, sectors/units/ships still fired regardless of how low their eff
was, except the lower eff would not affect as much hitchance, as it would affect dam the fire
causes. To add some incentive to keep the units effy, rather than just build new ones, damage
could scale not with eff, but a less linear function, eg dam=F(eff*eff)
ever used, I
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:01:53 2003
Err .. damn ... I think Harad is ..
like .. toast ... dudes.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Dec 12 20:02:53 2003
Last night was not a good night to have your
country name begin with "Har"
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:05:40 2003
har har har har
Avast ye scurvy dogs
Cry War! And release the havok of hounds!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:05:43 2003
Har har very funny :)
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:06:37 2003
hardy har har har PHTTTTTHPT!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:06:48 2003
Er, it's "Cry Havoc and let loose the dogs of war"
- Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:07:40 2003
OOC: I knew that
OC - Who the hell is Julius Caesar?
Was he an elf?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:09:47 2003
I thought he was a salad?
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:09:58 2003
Oh Great one, please shed some light on
the current world situation. We who live
in the depths of the forest, subsiding
on mushrooms, which sadly are only fed shit,
need to see the light. And no, that
doesn't mean you can mow down the forests.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:10:36 2003
give budlight * ?own=13
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:10:52 2003
Hot damn, a party!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:11:33 2003
I love the U.S.'s sense of humor sometimes :)
http://tinyurl.com/yymn
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:11:36 2003
And why the hell do I alway end up as
Country #13 ... For the last 4 games
I've had this damn number. I'm begining
to think it's "lucky" *shiver*
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:12:38 2003
It's a warning to other people regarding your elf feet.
"Beware country #13"
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:13:31 2003
Don't you have anything better to do
than browse the web .. hell, at least
you could be playing a game ..
like .. EMPIRE! ... sheesh, at least
I'm at work and playing.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:13:54 2003
I'm at work and playing too :)
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:15:48 2003
elvish feet have nothing to do with it
this is just a conspiracy to get even
with me for winning so many games.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:16:18 2003
Soon, my master plan will come into
play and I'll rule the world. Through
my minions.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:16:45 2003
I think you've been consuming too many of those shrooms.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:19:07 2003
You're just a figment of my illusid
imaginarium. A speck in the ether
surely inhaled but once or thrice
and then held for 10, 9, 8, 1 *cough*cough*
And then there's the blue ones, that make you
BIG! or was that small? Oh hell, at
least I know they do something. but
combine them with the yellow and green ones.
Oh are we partying now.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:21:55 2003
Careful. Those blue ones make mountains turn to water,
if you know what I mean.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:22:48 2003
HA! Do you think I'm scared?
If you do that, I'll start washing my
feet again. Take that figment!
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:22:58 2003
I mean ... har har har
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:23:04 2003
Figment? I don't think so.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:25:51 2003
HOLY SHIT BATMAN! ... we appear to have
a damn lake in the middle of the Misties.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Dec 12 20:25:58 2003
You know, many years ago I tried to convince
people that a product should be made that is
a fig newton with mint filling. They would be
called "Figments (of your imagination)"
Sadly, the idea never took off...
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Fri Dec 12 20:26:12 2003
Let's see The_Shire cross that. HA!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:26:30 2003
Ha!
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Dec 12 20:35:27 2003
King Antonatar looked at the tired faces around the table.
"So whats our Status?"
The first Wizard stood and unrolled a bloody parchment.
"Here's the latest report from the front sir, lets see
We've lost 90% of our units. 10,000 mil are dead or missing,
and roughly 35% of our country's useable land."
The king stood up and with a voice laden with sarcasm spat out
"Gee, is that it?"
"Well, no sir. Dol_Amroth ripped apart our warehouse leaving
nothing behind but a few hardy rats"
"Any good news?"
"Well yes sir, we did manage to save all the bars, just as
you requested"
King Antonatar let out a great sigh. "Thank Manwe, I could
use a stiff drink after this"
"No Sir, not those bars, the gold bars"
"WHAT! I don't care about some lump of metal you dolt, where
are my favorite watering holes?"
"Gone Sir"
"Gone?"
"Yes Sir"
"The Nine Horse Hitch?"
"Rohan Shelled it"
"Easing the Badger?"
"Done in by a Sabatour Sir"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!, Dispatch a letter North immediately:
'Harandor Capitulates. Please send humanitarian rations
consisting of beer and tobacco immediately. Congratulations
to ACME. Well fought and Well Played! --Signed Antonatar, III'"
----A note from the man behind the scenes----
Congratulations to the victors! Dol_Amroths punch into my
heartland has left me around one update of any sort of
military/economic viability. Anyway I just wanted to take
a minute to congratulate you all while you are still logging
on to check you countries. I have a few moves, builds and
des's to do, but that will probably by the end for me (one
way or another) Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday
season. See you all next game. (100 Empire Gold to the
person who can tell me the source of the tavern names) ;-)
Cheers,
Mark
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Dec 12 20:38:37 2003
The Wheel of Time series? I have read them
all, but think that the last few are not nearly
as good as the earlier ones...
Rand al Thor
:-)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:38:40 2003
Indeed, $100 Empire gold to the first nation to anno
the right answer :)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:39:37 2003
(we haven't done a quiz in a while, good as any)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:39:45 2003
Oh, and Dol Amroth wins :)
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Dec 12 20:41:52 2003
Geoff, why don't you build an empire world
based on that map? This one has been done
twice now.
(and has there been an unintendedly funnier
concept than "Cleansing the taint" from
that series.) :-)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 12 20:43:15 2003
One, I've never read the series :) I had to Google for the
answer.
Two, there are at least four (yes, *4*) major games already
in the works for 2004. All already have their themes. There
will be a third LOTR (and most likely last).
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Dec 12 20:46:03 2003
Ah, with how quickly you said I had the right
answer, I thought you might have read it.
There is a concept in the books of mind magic
(sort of like the force from Star Wars.) Women
use it with no consequence, but the male side
has something wrong with it that causes them
to go insane. They call it the "taint." They
had to "cleanse the taint." As you might
imagine, my friends and I used to make a number
of off color jokes about cleansing our taint...
:-)
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Dec 12 21:03:49 2003
Wheel of time is definately worth the read. Although, yes, his
latest books are a bit, um, lacking. The quality of the first 6 or so
in the series still makes up for this shortcoming (IMHO)
The map does look like a good base for Empire (Its mostly rectangular)
Who knows, playing diety sounds fun. Maybe in 2005....
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Sat Dec 13 11:09:28 2003
WoT - is a fantasy soap opera...
I realized that about book V. But out of stubborness I decided to finish
it, so I bought Crossroads of Twilight recently (book X).
There are many map ideas :) A Beleriand game and a ME/Valinor game
is also possible.
A while ago in RGE I proposed to set up a library of Empire Maps.
So, you can map whatever fantasy or non-fantasy world and store it
for everyone's usage. :)
I think there never was an Earth Empire with a complete World Map.
That would be a real challenge.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Sun Dec 14 14:24:55 2003
Breaking news from Mordor !!!
Rohan troops can confirm that they have captured the Dark Lord
Sauron.
He was dug out of a deep pit of self loathing.
When he was captured he was wearing a false pair of Hobbit
feet (with made in the Shire printed on them - However it is
assumed that they are a cheap copy produced in Harad)
DNA evidence could not be collected due to him being a
disembodied spirit, however his identity was confirmed when
he shouted "F*CK YOU ASSHOLE" at one of the Rohan guards.
We will bring you more news as and when it becomes available.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Dec 15 16:17:49 2003
Found on a small slip of paper, left behind by a ravening
horde of ACME carolers...
"Dashing through Harad, in a one horse open treb,
Over the slain we go, laughing all the way!
Shells from cats we send, making soldiers die,
Oh what fun it is to kill and sing a slaying song tonight!
Jingle shells, jingle shells, shelling all the way!
Oh what fun it is tear the civvies apart tonight, hey!
Jingle shells, jingle shells, marching all the way!
Oh what fun it is to kill and maim them just so right."
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Dec 15 18:16:21 2003
Goooooooooooooodddd eeeeevening Middle Earth!
This is not a test! This is hate and vitriol!
Slagging from the Anduin to the Ice Bay of Forochel.
We're going to play a little Christmas music for you.
Here's the latest hit from ACME Carolers, "Walking
in a flattened wasteland"...
"Hot shells fall, are you cowering
in the south, death is coming.
A horrible sight, we're seeing tonight,
walking in a flattened wasteland.
Gone away is Harad's leader,
hear to stay is ACME's fodder.
He sings a fight song, and walks away long,
walking in a flattened wasteland.
In his cities we can build a monument,
then pretend he is competent.
He'll say "Are you declaring?"
We'll say "Yes, man"
But we will do the job when you're zero'd out!
Later on, we'll conspire
as we dream, of him on fire.
To face unafraid, the plans that we've made
walking in a flattened wasteland.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Dec 15 19:05:28 2003
Love it!
Can I make a long distance dedication? "Blue Christmas" This one's
going out to my Allies Everywhere.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Mon Dec 15 19:08:27 2003
You have allies?
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Mon Dec 15 19:28:50 2003
The Elven King strongly denies allogations of mass shelling of Harad civilians.
Both the cities of Khand and Harad have been captured intact. The only sector
that was shelled to diety was a warehouse with 3000 Harad mil. The units in
all five Harad headquarters have been treated humanely and have now joined the
armies of light. And the Man didn't just go away. After seeing the efficiency
of the Elven Insecurity service, he issued a "des * e" first -- then he went
away.
Thranduil.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Mon Dec 15 19:40:17 2003
I had allies. Let me check....
Paging Harad to the White, We just got our asses kicked, curtousy phone
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Tue Dec 16 13:17:19 2003
?>> Mirk-o-Vision News Flash <<<
At first they didn't recognize the man hiding inside, with his ratty
hair, wild beard and an orc bow cradled in his lap. But when the
elven firstborn asked who he was, the bewildered-looking man gave a
shocking answer.
The Man of Harad has been caught. The Man put up no resistance. He
was found hiding underground in a spider-hole. He was captured along
with $44605 in Elven silver coin. This is significant day for all
Middle Earth as the capture of the Man may soon bring an end to long
conflict of the second age.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Tue Dec 16 23:36:50 2003
Are connections slow today?
? Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Mon Dec 15 19:28:50 2003
The game is officially over. I hope you enjoyed it. Please
support the LOTR sponsors: Skank-Away and Ho-B-Gone.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Tue Dec 16 23:40:26 2003
The game is not officially over, spoofing anno from visitor or no.
The game will continue until a win declaration is made, and stands
unopposed for 24 hours.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Dec 17 01:44:26 2003
=== Espionage ===
Wed Dec 17 01:41 Dol_Amroth spy captured and shot by Manwe
And what, pray tell, do we tell the poor man's
wife and family happened here?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Dec 17 05:41:28 2003
"The defense department regrets to inform you that your sons
are dead because they were stupid."
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Dec 17 18:02:05 2003
I could love you every day
I could love you every way
But you're gonna have to tell me the truth
have you killed anyone today?
I could love you every day
I could love you every way
But you're gonna have to tell me the truth
have you killed anyone today?
Now this may sound absurd but let me tell of you my first love
She gave me the earth the skies the starts and the moon above
But she gave me too much one night I bitched about my mom and dad
The next day I woke up she had given me both their heads
without their bodies
<click><cluck>
I could love you every day
I could love you every way
But you're gonna have to tell me the truth
have you killed anyone today?
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Dec 17 18:40:26 2003
I don't know who the other visitor was that posted, but that was
a depressing little poem. let's have something a little bit
more cheery. maybe a good beer drinking song.
Do - I use to buy my beer
Ra - The man that sells me beer
Mi - The guy, that drinks my beer
Fa - A long way to go for beer
So - I'll have a nother beer
La - It's time to drink more beer
Ti - No thanks, I'm drinking beer
And that brings us back to
Do - I use to buy my beer...
Repeat as often as necessary, or until you get removed from the
drinking establishment.
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Dec 17 18:52:31 2003
The 'poem' was from Monkey Puzzle, and is pretty damn funny in entirety.
But, since class and culture are obviously lost on this crowd :-) :
From: http://www.rockzilla.net/jud11.html
A couple of frat guys from Abilene
Drove all night to see Robert Earl Keen
And the KPIG swine and soiree dance
They wore baseball caps and khaki pants
They wanted cigarettes and so to save a little money
They bummed one off a hippie that smelled kinda funny
Next thing they knew they were both really hungry
And pretty thirsty too
B double e double r u n beer run
B double e double r u n beer run
All we need is a ten and a fiver
A car and a key and sober driver
B double e double r u n beer run
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Wed Dec 17 18:56:17 2003
(if you want to here the song, go here:
http://toddsnider.com/soundfiles/live-beerrun.ram
)
The chorus is ridiculously catchy, and might give
you a brain aneurism.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Wed Dec 17 22:03:06 2003
ACME,
We regret to inform you that we are recinding our invitation to
tommorrow's Christmas party. It seems we no longer have the facilities
to accomodate you.
Thank you
Antonatar
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Dec 17 22:04:02 2003
Er, Harondor...you still have three mess halls (designation 'm')
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Wed Dec 17 22:12:49 2003
Today is opening day for Return of the King in the U.S.A.
Has anyone seen it yet?
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Wed Dec 17 22:13:55 2003
Have you seen the condition of my mess halls?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Dec 17 22:16:15 2003
Let me guess, they're a mess?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Dec 17 22:16:26 2003
I'm seeing it tomorrow.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Dec 17 22:17:01 2003
21 nations 'In flux'.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Wed Dec 17 22:18:32 2003
If I could find a babysitter for...lets see
here, 30 minutes to get there, 10 minutes early,
10 minutes of previews, 3 1/2 hours of movie,
plus 30 minutes home... 5 hours, I would love
to go.
(Plus I have to convince my wife she would
rather see it than something else...she was
not happy about the third Matrix movie, but
then neither was I.)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Dec 17 22:21:59 2003
Take the kid with you. There's a reason duct tape was invented ya know!
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Dec 17 23:48:10 2003
"I'm dreaming of a win declaration...
Just like the one we used to have..
May your game be over and done
and may all your win declarations succeeeeed"
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Dec 18 04:57:03 2003
Whether the State can loose and bind
In Heaven as well as on Earth
If it be wiser to kill mankind
Before or after the birth----
These are matters of high concern
Where State-kept schoolmen are;
But Holy State (we have lived to learn)
Endeth in Holy War
Whether The People be led by The Lord,
Or lured by the loudest throat:
If it be quicker to die by the sword
Or cheaper to die by vote----
There are things we have dealt with once,
(And they will not rise from their grave)
For Holy People, however it runs,
Endeth in wholly Slave.
Whatsoever for any cause,
Seeketh to take or give
Power above or beyond the Laws,
Suffer it not to live!
Holy State or Holy King----
Or Holy People's Will----
Have no truck with the senseless thing.
Order the guns and kill!
Saying----after----me:----
Once there was The People----Terror gave it
birth;
Once there was The People and it made a Hell
of Earth
Earth arose and crushed it. Listen, O ye
slain!
Once there was The People----it shall never
be again!
--Rudyard Kipling, "Macdonough's Song"
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Thu Dec 18 17:09:00 2003
Ohh..
The south got run over by a coalition,
just a couple of updates before Christams Eve,
Now you may say there's no such thing as ACME,
But as for me and Harad we believe.
Now Acme mad a win declaration,
and eveyone else thought it was swell,
But Harad wanted to contest it,
and to them all to go straight to Hell.
<repeat chorus>
I was drinking to much Egg-Nog,
and took four winners as I would a slap,
So I went along with Harad,
and now Rohan units are in my cap.
<repeat chorus>
Now the game is all but over,
My empire has set like the sun,
I may have been rolled over,
but I certainly had a lot of fun.
...Had a lot of Fun!
Merry Christmas
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Thu Dec 18 17:21:58 2003
Theoden's scribe was sitting in his neatly furnished cabinet. Muffled
sounds of merrymaking came from Meduseld. But he had a few more
things to do before he could join his King. One last message was left
in the incoming basked. He took it and read:
Our envoys duly delivered your order in the name of ACME to the
southern barbarians: to lay down their arms and henceforth live in
peace. In reply, the savages got agitated, shook their puny spears
and bone knifes, and jabbered something unintelligible about `work
for it'. Local armed forces of ACME quickly restored order. All's
quiet now. There might be a few more savages hiding in foxholes.
The ringleaders were arrested; what are your orders regarding them?
Leod, Vice Marshal, from the Wastes of Harad
`Oh well, just another inconsequential report to file away, no need
to trouble the King', he thought. `Maybe some diligent historian will
some day even make a footnote from this. No idea why this fool Leod
needs to be told what to do with a bunch of unruly savages.' He took
a fresh parchment, paused, smiled, and with a few graceful sweeps of
the feather he wrote the reply:
Hark, villains! We will grind your bones to dust.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Thu Dec 18 17:23:18 2003
We, ACME are repeating our victory declaration unchanged.
> Announcement from Manwe, (#0) dated Thu Dec 18 17:31:45 2003
Ok, the victory opposition countdown set till Friday, 19th, 17:23 server time.
:)
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Thu Dec 18 17:34:59 2003
and 18 seconds......
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Dec 18 17:35:51 2003
As one of the (if not the only?) active viable
player not in ACME, I recognize ACME as
victorious...
Thanks to Harad and Harondor for challenging
the first declaration as it allowed me to
grab another 80+ sectors. (Window dressing for
the final Power Report you know.)
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Thu Dec 18 17:36:46 2003
The 2 remaining sectors of Harondor humblely accept the win declaration
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Dec 18 17:43:25 2003
So much for those last two sectors...
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Thu Dec 18 17:49:34 2003
good game all, and congrats to ACME. Thanks to Mith and Roman
for all their time running this. Also thanks to my allies and enemies
who have both given me countless tips on playing. Its been a fun
ride. I'll see you all next long-term game.
Until then have a Merry Christmas, a happy holiday season, and a
joyous and prosperous New Year.
Until Next Time,
Mark.
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Thu Dec 18 17:55:14 2003
Now Mith, get to work on your final report with
maps and power reports and what not. I want to
see it!
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Thu Dec 18 17:56:45 2003
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Rhun 666 83% 496K 20K 17K 854 0 72K 440 2.4K 100 11 353 113K
we admit that we ARE the evil part of ACME
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Thu Dec 18 17:57:27 2003
(Yes, that was for you, Mr. Gandalf)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Dec 18 17:57:35 2003
I'm scrambling to get my *job* related work done right now,
much less stuff for this game :)
The game history is mainly complete, but I've not done
the game summary. I've got a "deity diary" that I kept,
which I will likely post in full to r.g.e. I'll also
possibly post the game history, as complete as it is
right now, before I take off for Christmas (I leave tomorrow)
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Fri Dec 19 10:54:20 2003
Excerpt from _Last Days of Darkness and Spilled Beer_
Island of Power, Rohan Capital City.
...from the highest tower of his capital city; a city defined by
water, land, and man's efforts; on a clear day he fancied he could see
clear across middle earth. Far, far to the south, he could just make
out a dark cloud drifting across the horizon. The King's eyes were
not up to the task of determining what he saw. Troubled he turned to
a trusted ally, "Gwaihir, to the south, what do your great eagle eyes
find? Is there some trouble brewing there? What causes this
blackness to rise?"
With a curt twitch of his head, as all birds do, the great eagle
answered "Lord Theoden, the blackness you see is nothing but smoke.
The hard workers of ACME, burning out the vermin prior to planting the
seeds of prosperity in the barren southlands. Nothing to be harad
by."
"Aye, if it's nothing to be harad by then, I'll be sure to send them
some extra oil. To help in the burning out of the vermin holes."
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Fri Dec 19 18:14:57 2003
PEACE ON EARTH!
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Fri Dec 19 18:16:01 2003
WAR IN SPACE!
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Fri Dec 19 18:46:26 2003
So we had this vegetarian/vegen at work that went on the Atkins
diet. Boy did he loose a lot of weight.
> Announcement from Gondor, (#29) dated Fri Dec 19 18:57:26 2003
What did you have him with, A1?
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 19 20:03:22 2003
That's it. Game over.
Iron Hills, Mirkwood, Rohan, and Rhun are the winners.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 19 20:15:26 2003
Ok, here it is...final power and report:
----------------------------------------
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Dec 19 20:14:53 2003
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Mirkwood 865 86% 645K 26K 36K 1.3K 0 74K 800 2.7K 70 720 650 50K
24790.48
Rohan 740 83% 526K 17K 4.4K 645 0 67K 850 3.0K 50 50 370 190K
18824.52
Rhun 665 83% 496K 19K 17K 855 0 72K 450 2.4K 100 10 350 100K
17332.34
Iron_Hill 475 79% 286K 12K 11K 815 0 42K 2.5K 4.3K 60 10 460 250K
12353.01
Harlindon 220 95% 197K 16K 6.9K 690 0 28K 1.6K 2.0K 100 380 250 50K
8512.65
Dale 220 99% 250K 7.7K 5.9K 280 1.9K 23K 1.4K 1.0K 9 2 210 75K
8199.08
Dol_Amrot 255 89% 203K 8.2K 6.2K 205 0 26K 650 1.8K 50 320 260 45K
8101.21
Rivendell 245 94% 184K 9.3K 7.0K 260 0 28K 2.6K 1.9K 10 10 200 4.3K
6718.93
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 19 20:15:38 2003
Balchoth 270 85% 176K 8.4K 7.0K 885 0 17K 1.0K 350 60 0 160 30K
6307.39
Gondor 85 100% 179K 4.2K 2.1K 320 0 8.3K 200 400 60 220 80 160K
5737.39
Lorien 110 98% 109K 1.2K 3.9K 325 0 10K 250 5.0K 2 0 60 225K
4212.39
Bree 70 100% 68K 2.5K 775 260 0 12K 10 1.1K 2 1 30 35K
2291.62
Harad 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 135K
296.80
The_Shire 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 125K
270.67
Angmar 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25K
52.32
Harondor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20K
40.20
Khand 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
14.47
Gladden_F 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
13.96
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 19 20:15:52 2003
Dorwinion 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.0K
10.87
Wainrider 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4.0K
8.48
Erebor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 979
2.09
Cardolan 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 586
1.25
Eregion 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 415
0.88
Umbar 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Mordor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Dol_Goldu 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Forochel 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Dunland 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Easterlin 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 19 20:16:01 2003
Anfalas 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Nurn 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Arnor 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
Minhiriat 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.00
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 4.2K 87% 3.3M 133K 108K 6.9K 1.9K 408K 12K 26K 570 1.7K 3.1K 1.4M
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Fri Dec 19 20:19:22 2003
The Diety stole one sector from Rhun!!!!!
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Fri Dec 19 20:20:58 2003
- = [ Empire Power Report ] = -
as of Fri Dec 19 20:20:26 2003
sects eff civ mil shell gun pet iron dust oil pln ship unit money
Rhun 666 83% 496K 19K 17K 854 0 72K 440 2.4K 100 11 353 102K
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 19 20:21:19 2003
I did not :) It's just the way the power report shows it from my perspective.
Fri Dec 19 20:14:57 2003
# name tech research education happiness capital
0 Manwe 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0,0
1 The_Shire 100.00 30.17 0.16 0.02 -56,-30
2 Forochel 100.00 13.68 0.00 0.00 -47,-33
3 Arnor 100.00 11.21 0.00 0.00 -6,-32
4 Bree 100.00 42.60 0.04 56.65 -5,-15
5 Angmar 100.00 7.74 0.00 0.00 -7,-35
6 Rivendell 100.00 69.26 15.76 27.64 -2,-20
7 Harlindon 100.00 68.43 30.40 19.71 -52,-10
8 Cardolan 100.00 8.49 0.00 0.00 -27,-13
9 Eregion 100.00 5.04 0.00 0.00 0,-14
10 Minhiriath 100.00 8.44 0.00 0.00 -35,-1
11 Dunland 100.00 12.39 0.00 0.00 -24,-4
12 Rohan 100.00 68.28 11.13 21.52 -6,4
13 Lorien 100.00 77.67 20.96 33.66 3,-7
14 Gladden_Fields 100.00 10.67 0.00 0.00 19,-17
15 Mirkwood 100.00 73.04 11.71 22.81 20,-24
16 Dale 100.00 105.31 19.43 34.77 37,-27
17 Erebor 100.00 14.63 0.00 0.00 32,-34
18 Iron_Hills 100.00 85.39 13.69 30.32 63,-37
19 Easterlings 100.00 12.03 0.00 0.00 73,-19
20 Rhun 100.00 82.09 15.36 32.51 57,-15
21 Dorwinion 100.00 14.21 0.00 0.00 51,-9
22 Dol_Goldur 100.00 17.24 0.00 0.00 14,-8
23 Balchoth 100.00 80.61 16.37 22.94 26,-8
24 Nurn 100.00 11.34 0.00 0.00 63,11
25 Mordor 100.00 32.48 0.28 0.22 72,38
26 Wainriders 100.00 9.88 0.00 0.00 73,1
27 Anfalas 100.00 11.94 0.00 0.00 -33,15
28 Dol_Amroth 100.00 78.30 18.86 17.43 -1,13
29 Gondor 100.00 79.93 16.64 0.00 15,15
30 Umbar 100.00 48.27 0.65 0.05 11,27
31 Harondor 100.00 18.05 0.45 1.52 23,33
32 Khand 100.00 7.30 0.00 0.00 70,22
33 Harad 100.00 80.96 4.76 13.04 38,38
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 19 20:22:05 2003
Awards for this game coming in a moment...
Game summary will come after new years, but a deity's diary
will be posted to rec.games.empire in a while.
> Announcement from Harondor, (#31) dated Fri Dec 19 20:24:00 2003
Woohoo, I had better res than 15 other nations, and
I thought I was neglecting that aspect :-)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 19 20:24:59 2003
Couple more minutes, and awards will be anno'd here. Cut/pasting
now to a script.
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 19 20:31:49 2003
Dol_Amroth gets the award for Most Honest Player. When confronted with
sectors in a conquered nation that had the wrong resources, he reported
it rather than taking advantage of the deity mistake.
Harondor gets the award for Best Announcer. Though a relatively new player,
his announcements were often very funny. His best announcement was a parody
of "The Night Before Christmas". He had many other very funny announcements
as well.
Harondor also wins the Viet Cong award, for turning his nation into an
absolute nightmare for Gondor and Dol Amroth. Gondor launched a very early
attack on Harondor. The attack would have been a mortal blow for many lesser
players. Harondor, despite his inexperience, fought valiantly and made
Gondor and Dol Amroth pay dearly for their attacks. The war between these
nations lasted for more than 20 updates. It mostly ended (until the very end
game) when, with the help of his allies, Harondor was able to throw Gondor
and Dol Amroth off of the East bank of the River Anduin.
The "I'm Not Dead Yet!" award goes to none other than Mirkwood. Early on, he
was under assault by no less than seven nations. With some masterful
diplomacy on his part and that of Iron Hills (who worked on his behalf after
initially attacking him), he was able to turn the situation around and
ultimately became by far the largest nation in the game. His icy cold hand
of death was felt in many nations all the way from the Ice Bay of Forochel
down past the Sea of Nurnen. Stunning turn around from a nation that once
complained of Gandalf blowing up a dozen or so military in one sector of his
when he desperately needed mil.
The "Biggest Bully" award goes to Rhun. Ticked that Balchoth had taken
sectors that he wanted, he decided to attack Balchoth. Through some
diplomatic maneuverings (read: "Ok ok I'll give you my lunch money!"),
Balchoth managed to appease him by giving him >150 sectors.
The "Best Cartographer" award goes to Rohan. Through intrepid nation
conquering, Rohan managed to turn his nation's map into a picture of a
horse. Later on, the horse changed a bit and it then appeared to be
peeing on Mordor.
The "I'm Allergic to Water" award goes to Umbar. Hemmed in by two
nations he was allied with by land, Umbar stared at a vast expanse of
waterfront property and decided to never build a navy, despite the historic
nature of the Umbarian fleets. The ever intrepid water, in the form of the
Rohanian Navy, put closure to the matter by wiping out their nation in a
single update. The Umbarian leader broke out in hives and was never seen
again.
The "Best Beer" award from the Middle Earth Beerfest goes to Bree. This
nation decided early on that his name was an anagram for beer, rather
than the other way around. Despite rumors of 2000 year old elf-feet
contamination ruining some of his brews, he still managed to put out
some very fine brews until he was nearly over run by the combined forces
of The Shire and Harlindon. Rumor has it the invasion was just a party
that had gone bad, and hit Bree in the small of the back, while looking
for more beer.
The "We may not know how to comb our beards, but we know how to breed
Elves" award goes to the Dwarves from Iron Hills. Hemmed in by allies
after the everybody-pig-pile-on-Mirkwood war, he vicariously fought
other nations by supplying Firstborn Cavalry in prodigous numbers to
Mirkwood.
The "Worst Ecological Disaster" award goes to Lord Celeron of Lorien,
who washed his 2000 year old elf-feet in the upper Anduin. The
resulting fish kill took a dozen updates to clean up, with disaster
response teams from at least six nations being involved.
The "Worst Lawyers" award goes to Harlindon, whose team of pin-striped
thugs managed to leave a clause in an NA agreement that left the back
door to Harlindon wide open. Harlindon came under assault from Rohan,
who was lead by barristers of Rohan riding briefcases for saddles. As
they crossed the Rivery Greyflood, they were heard to proclaim
"According to our NA agreement, subsection 3, paragraph 17, article 12,
line 982, we claim right of attack against your nation without notice
or termination". It was rumored that from that time forward, any young
upstart in Harlindon wishing to pass "the bar" got his head beaten by
a steel bar wielded by the elf leader of Harlindon.
The "Best Drunk" award goes to The Shire, run by Mr. Ed, aka Resvon.
Read his announcements, especially the early ones. You'll understand!
The "Here Birdie, drink this oil and you'll fly better!" award goes to
Dale, who despite a number of warnings from the deities, produced
petrol to 'fuel' his birds (no 'planes' in this game, but there were
birds). Birds don't drink petrol! It may just be a coincidence that
Dale had one of the smallest collections of birds in the game...or it
might not. They might have died from drinking petrol.
[end awards]
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Dec 19 20:41:26 2003
OK guys, Harad had 1 unit left. Who missed it?
(I just triple checked. It wasn't me.)
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 19 20:50:06 2003
I had a feeling you guys wouldn't be happy about it :)
> Announcement from Dol_Amroth, (#28) dated Fri Dec 19 20:53:56 2003
I wasn't the one that was worried about it, but
I was questioned about it, and told to make
sure I didn't miss anything...
> Announcement from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Fri Dec 19 21:24:54 2003
Found the reason why Rhun showed with 665 sectors instead of 666.
Only countr 0 can see the actual precise numbers in the chart. That's a minor bug I think.
> Announcement from Dale, (#16) dated Sat Dec 20 18:44:41 2003
I like this rewards,
:)))
But I had to do some Petrol to get rid of tons of oil !!!
I just regret that flamethrowers didn't used that petrol ..
:)))
Fabrice
aka Girion.
> Announcement from Lorien, (#13) dated Sun Dec 21 22:29:06 2003
Damn good job .. :)
Ya'll deserve it ..
And as Lord Celeron, we catagorically
deny any feet washing int he Anduin.
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Mon Dec 22 11:01:25 2003
Congratulations again.
Now: back to our beer.
The diplomatic corps of Beer^WBree.
> Announcement from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Dec 23 00:19:12 2003
Many thanks to the deities for hosting this memorable game! The
second instalment of LOTR was an even better design than the first.
We actually built and used every single unit. We figure LOTR is now
better balanced than the stock game. Maybe catapults were a bit too
tough, trb a bit too short-ranged, and eagles a bit too expensive.
And of course all the little deity twists made this game very special.
Awesome job!
Special thanks go to Balchoth, both for making huge sacrifices for the
common good, and for holding off Mordor at the peak of his might, with
next to no support from us.
Rivendell was a selfless and generous ally. Sorry for the screwup
that cost you some plunder, and sorry for all the mines in your way...
Thanks to Lorien, not only for being a good friend and ally, but also
for making us laugh more than once *chuckle*
Rhun once again demonstrated how much they deserve their reputation.
We're glad we were able to avoid hostilities this time. Thanks for
the long range help with Harlindon!
We saw Mirkwood's fights only from afar, but that was spectacular
enough, both the terrific, desperate struggle against superior
numbers, and the later rise. Wow!
Congratulations to Iron_Hills for multiplying our problems through
diplomacy :) Glad we finally ended up in the same camp.
Gondor was our first friend, and stayed true. Gondor and Dol_Amroth,
thanks for keeping the southern border safe! And congratulations to
Dol_Amroth for beating us to Anfalas :)
We recognize the achievements of Harlindon. Good game, fatal mistake,
ruthlessly exploited.
Dunland and Dol_Goldur will be remembered as honorable enemies who
fought to the last man.
Kudos to Harondor and Dale for most promising performance of new
players. Well done!
A player that shall remain nameless would have received our
recognition here, but we feel he should `work for it' some more.
Rohan was coruled by Dorwinion, Plundaria and Byzantium, with help
from Hildorien.
See you in another game!
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Tue Dec 23 19:24:20 2003
Epilogue:
Deep under the Misty Mountains
"Preciousss! We have's you again. Never to be lossst again. My
preciousss. Stay with Gollum youss will, not like befores. Nevers too
the nassty light again. They would have thrown youss intoss the firess
my preciousss. Ssstuppids Stuppidss hobbitsss. Hatesss then stilllsss.
Horsemenss and dwarvesss burrnss then fromss their holesss. Ssserrves
them rightss. Nassty little hobittsss. No more are theysss...."
The End?
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