STARGAZER BULLETIN

[Wayward Device]

Wait, you can still actually trade with Mesophon? Ever since I have been playing I've been under the impression that they were a spent force with no capital that you couldn't trade with.

[Finnian]

They have still a sector capital

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

You can trade with Mesophon at any Mesophon hub, not even the sector capitals. There are still a bunch of them in the south and a few in the southeast. I tried taking a bunch of chtholon to one in transports and they paid aes for it, although there isn't anything useful that you can buy from them other than jumptransports. They won't pay for some things, like graviton launchers. Charminium knows more, he's been buying ramjets from them.

[catfighter]

Mesophon has not been buying any resources from me for some reason, but I've been purchasing large ramjet fleets by selling insanely large numbers of transports. I've sold millions and they don't seem to have a buying limit. The only ships they'll buy/sell are jumptransports and all ramjets except hammerheads and cerberus'; I have no experience trying to trade resources. Mesophon has no real capital, just one sector capital; whenever the old one is conquered, a random trade hub is designated as the new "capital". When I was younger, I attacked their "capital" and got one hub to defect, but a new one was immediately created (I think the current one is about halfway up the board due north of Newbie's capital).

[Wayward Device]

Thanks for the info, as usual I should have read the relevant Gameplay Guide section. I managed to sell 40 million hexacarbide then found out about the "only 1000 at a time" thing when buying. Still, I might get some ramjets just for fun.

[catfighter]

Long overdue, the next Bulletin is posted!

This is the official bulletin of the Barricades Pact.

Headlines:

~Lord Newbie abdicates.
~Lord Riproviamo is declared dead! Both emperors will be missed.
~Lord Hallucination voted into Council of Four to replace Lord Riproviamo.
~Lord Mandalor' decrees that no fleets will be tolerated on his capital. A short grace period will be given for ships to clear off. [EDIT - his apologies to TV)
~Elder Confederacy confirmed to be in limbo. Experiments with messaging are currently being run, so everyone please try to find a Confederacy world that accept messages.

Current Pact Members:

Council of Four:
~Finnian Ambassador (Finnian) of the Finnian Empire
~Wayward Device (Wayward Device) of the Republic of Reason
~Jaerevarr, Felor Urlassehld'drosshai (catfighter) of the Felor Urlann
~Lord Hallucination (Watch TV, Do Nothing) of the Hallucination Empire
Pact Members:
~Lord HOA0004 (AdmiralZo) of the hoa0004 Empire
~Lord Mandalor' (sharksaver) of the Mandalrian Empire
~Lord Charminium (6cef) of the Charminium Empire
Hopeful(s):
~Lord Accipiter (Vannor) of the Accipiter Empire [Council of Four, please vote as group PM]

Arena Events:

Current Event(s):
~Free-For-All: random tests of whim and fancy to experiment with game mechanics, blow up whatever the heck you feel like as long as it's parked on an Arena world ; no rules, no reward, and none of Charminium's famous biscuits .
Upcoming Events:
~First Galactic Rift Race: someone racing someone else from somewhere to somewhere else at some time for some prize [I think I even confused myself there . The point is, it's really vague and I think an explorer fleet is a fitting prize.]

Imperial Stats:

Current Great Powers:
~1) Dogeland
~2) Finnian
~3) Republic of Reason
Oldest Surviving Empire(s):
~Faorn Empire [killed by Scarran after post!]
~Iota Ashlain Society
(over 350 cycles and counting, although believed to have been abandoned)
Youngest Empire:
~DOMINA'S POSSE

Weekly Watch Advisor:

~♫If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands! *clap**clap* If you're happy and...♫ But seriously, just have fun playing. If you take the game too seriously, the stress is going to mess up your thinking/strategy; just keep calm and fight hard.

---

Anyone with news or tips they would like to share is welcome to PM me (tell me whether or not you want to be named). We need eyes and ears all over the galaxy!

To-do list:
~current galactic map? [image may be too large to upload]

[catfighter]

Do any of the larger empires (ones who have scouted the entire galaxy; I don't expect newbs to do it very fast) have reasonably powerful computers? I want to post a map in the Bulletin, but my laptop isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Or the strongest. Or the least sarcastic. So, yeah. Is anyone willing/able to send me maps, or could someone just post them separately below each Bulletin? Any and all help is much appreciated!

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

Some quick notes:

Faorn's not on my map anymore. The oldest empire I see is Iota Alshain Society, an AI empire formed out of old Mesophon worlds via secession or capture and revolt. They formed a couple days after the beta went live, almost a few years ago. Abandoned empires apparently disband after a month (I didn't know this) so any tiny, really old empire is AI-run.

The oldest player empire is Scarran in the galactic southwest. Scarran is also the only present Strength and Honor empire. All small empires are F&M, all large empires are L&O. Nobody has tried run a T&E empire since nor took out evil space pirates.

The newest empire is United Alliances, which I assume is the same player as the old United Alliance.

And begging your pardon: I am a Great Power .

[catfighter]

Yep, Scarran killed Faorn soon after my post.

And those three are still more powerful than you. For now. DOMINA'S POSSE has knocked a whole bunch of worlds loose just begging to be conquered. Go kill the rest of Riproviamo's dying clusters and you could probably make it to the top of the list.

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

You're ranking power based on Imperial Might?

[AdmiralZo]

You're ranking power based on Imperial Might?

How do you actually gain imperial might?? When I had about 80 worlds, my might was 100. Now that I have around 210 my imperial might has not changed at all.

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

Your own imperial might is always 100. You can only compare it to other players', which are given as % of your own rather than as specific numerical values. AFAIK imperial might is pretty much entirely based on population, so an old high-tech empire will have the same imperial might as a young low-tech empire of the same size even if the young empire is much weaker in terms of ships, production, etc.

[Nor]

Imperial might is a relative index measure with your own IM *always* set at 100.

As you get stronger, your own IM from your own perspective doesn't change. What changes, from your perspective, is everybody *else's* IM when you click on their "Empire" tabs. (Though from everyone else's perspective, your IM does indeed change as you get stronger.)

[catfighter]

Yes, I'm doing it by population. More people means more building capacity and I assume that everyone is not constantly at war and therefore allowing at least a few of their shipyards to max out attrition rates. The trading and the Trade Doctrine could screw this up quite a bit, but I don't think people use it very much except for nebula empires.

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

If you say so