time for the customary post-set analysis in an effort to help slagpit with any rule changes he may be considering

if you have paid attention at all you know he is considering rule changes

this is the fourth set under the Anti LaEx CSA and a couple of things have become apparent
-GDI is necessary to avoid the madness particularly if your country number is posted on the forum every single set but also if you want a great finish
slagpit's GDI works well in that regard

-Hs are still unduly aided but in the right hands a commie can break the modern record (i.e. post UAHA) for NW
-Fs are an endangered species
there were only three competitive Fs in the GREGG server after only a few in the gregg/LaEx set. the few got pounded by people seeking to acquire farms
Cris who was one of the Fs said he would never do that again
despite the dearth of Fs food prices were low and stable
oil prices were high most of the set but never got ridiculous
originally slagpit said he would do away with oil period perhaps that is the way to go
without numerous spy ops, farming-Fs have no useful way to spend their turns which makes for a tedious set
suggestions to help Fs have appeared on various fora for months
i think to stop the constant pounding on express/gregg
let us not show their gov type on the scores
instead of showing F show H and they can be just one of the myriad of Hs on the board and will not be such obvious targets
i think F's problems stem not from the ALCSA but from the UAHA of a couple of months ago
The UAHA, you may recall, was the rule change which greatly incresed the availability of tech on the server
with ag tech so readily available the 15% bonus to Fs is no longer a proper inducement to play the gov type because Ds and Cs can easily surpass that advantage in short order

the rise in PM prices with mil tech while beneficial has not increased the number of Fs
i think they need help slagpit

the ALCSA 360(360)has stopped the maddening dasher strat
while 2-4 of the contenders were hiding in the forties none of them were able to hide in the seventies as they had in earlier sets
i can not post their strat info on the forum because i never violate forum or game rules but if you want to know Pm me
excellent change slagpit

bottom feeding is at an all time high
in part because the prime targets are all in DR
and in part because GDI no longer protects them from LGs
DR on the bottom players is consistently high
as dantzig posted DR has got to be fixed

since my hope is that express will be the entry portal for new players and the dominant server i strongly urge you to fix this slag

if you checked the war stats on the bottom players you will see they were pounded
i agree with the proposition "if you dont like bottom feeding, stay off the bottom" but it seems excessive to me
i also do not agree with the principal that allx players should have an advantage when it comes to DR
i think DR should be 8 hours max in accordance with Express time frames

as always, i welcome responsible responses

Could you summarize that in 3 words or less pls?

I find any more than about 3 sentences of your worthless dribble tends to make my pancreas start to twitch.

thats ok because it is written for serious players
why dont you go play ffa where you have such superior numbers that game skills are not required?

Oh - I see.

So anyone who doesn't agree with you is not a real player.


How very Christian of you.

you did not say you disagreed with me
you said your psychological issues manifested themselves physically

Well, that too....I can't deny that I get a woody the size of Texas every time I see a Jew doing taxes.

But I do disagree with you. Sorry I don't implicitly state it in every post - I would have thought you'd picked up on a general theme by now. Would it help you if I put it in my signature under my photo tribute to you?

Thanks Lincoln, that was a seriously thought out rational post. Many of your past posts have been annoying and provocotive, and sometimes thoughtless. Thank you for making this effort, you wouldn't be so involved if you didn't care about the game, as do I.

Thats a very good point that farmers should be given an additional avantage( If I undersatnd waht you are saying correctly) Its a boring strategy, but critical to the game

Your use of acronyms is hindering the strength of your argument.

Not to mention you are wrong

Farmers don't need an additional advantage - Fasc/Farmer just isn't a great netting strat in comparison to others. Get over it already.

Strats can't ALL be the best at every game style - if you want to net, run a netting strat, if you want to war run a warring strat, and if you want to be flexible, run an in between strat like a Fasc/Farmer or Fasc/Oiler....but don't complain every god damned set cuz you can't run a dict/techer or fasc/farmer and put it in the top 10......There's a reason for that.

Sorry kiddies, there is ZERO need to tweak government strengths, gregg is just on with his usual hard on for anything anti-Theo.

WTF, AH? STFU apart from that, who was using acronyms, MF? NAP anyhows. GAL

Get a Life :0

I think he mighta been referring to gregg GAF

mods

why not just ban LaEx from the serious threads?
let them post on their threads but when people are trying to serioulsy discuss the game, ban them

You are trying to make every strat equal

they shouldn't be. Also, farmers were recently given a pretty sizable advantage in the military tech change.

As it has been for 15 years, different sets have different market environments. Every set is different. If everyone runs a rep, techers and farmers will profit and win. If everyone runs farmers, then reps will prosper and win.

I don't understand why you can't understand this. Maybe if you played a server other than express you would, tourny is a perfect example.

If a farmer does well, then the next set everyone will run farmers and farmers will suffer because the food supply will be high. If no one runs a farmer, demand will be high and supply low, and farmers get rich.

Believe it or not this game is very environment based and economical dependent. I know that might be over your head.

Reason tech prices always blow? Almost everyone runs a tech start-up so demand is low, techers panic about being undersold, and prices drop like a rock fast as he'll.


Just because farmers have a bad few sets, doesn't mean the entire game needs to be changed. I know you think you are attempting to help, but ease just stop until you think of the larger scope. You know, the rest of the game outside of your ego?

Mods? Quest que ce? OK. LOL
Mother of Damnation. My only dominatrix? Maturbate on donuts? Military offensive dogfluff. plural

ya, too many acronyms... I can't make sense of that first post at a glance....

also, let's keep things mature everyone....

Nowep I am assuming you are referring strictly to express when you say fascism farmer cant net competitively? If not then I see one problem with NA's recent performances :P

"when you change the rules, you change the environment and the market"
-Bernie Madoff

what we should do is analyze how the influx of ag tech, the loss of a possible boom in F's secondary market in oil, and the increased risk of an LG inherent in the reduction of the number of Fs has impacted players' decisions to play the gov type.

"you are trying to make every strat equaL"
no
like the admins, i am trying to bring creative diversity to the game. what good is a game if one strat has a decided advantage over every other? where is the creativity in that? where is the skill and joy of the game?
that is why when the rules favored dashers they changed the rules
deciding which strat to play and why should be an important part of the game but not the only part

"farmers were recently given a sizeable advantage in mil tech"
we are several sets in to this rule change and it is time for an analysis
there were thre competitive Fs in the greggset
12, 35 and 66
all three were pounded repeatedly and were in constant DR
none of the three were able to get much ag tech let alone a luxury like mil tech
since i spied on every country in the top sixty this set i can say that they were not using much tech including military tech and that includes cris, 35, who normally runs with a ton of tech
the mil tech advantage rewards D farmers handsomely but does not aid Fs
the decline in the number of Fs has accelerated under the ALCSA but as i said earlier i trace it to the flood of ag tech
if someone thoughtful would like to respond to that i would appreciate it

fordy would no doubt say that next set there will be a bunch of farmers,
trust adam smith's invisible hand

however
the price of food did not rise in the greggset nor in ALCSA3GREGG1 set
because D farmers filled the void

ask yourself this question
if i wanted to run a fully teched farmer under this rule set
would i run an F or a D or even a C?
under the current rule set
F is a target for every predator
F has to pay full market commissions on sales and purchases
F has no chance of hitting the lottery with oil
F can not play the market and has no tech enhancements
F is not a viable option under the current ruleset

"just because farmers have had a few bad sets"
the issue is Fs not farmers, it is important to draw that distinction. any gov type can farm and Fs have lost their advantage.

we are down to 3 out of 100
how low is low enough to do something about it?

when you change the rules, you change the environment and the economy.
having changed the F's environment and havein given their competition (the farming D ) a competitive advantage, we are driving F to extinction

rep farmer is awesome

demo finish for any farmer is good

fasc farmer ~= rep farmer but demo is a nice finish for them; or TMBR

if anything, farmers may currently be too strong.

there is no point in arguing with you. you just don't seem to see the world the same as the rest of the human race.

there is no point in you arguing with me

if there is any thoughtful person who would like to discuss this i welcome the opportunity

every single thread of any substance you guys have to turn into a spitting contest

that is why warster's attempt to discuss the new changes failed


warster how about this?
i know you want a place where people can discuss the changes
how about just delete the nonresponsive posts

if there is no thoughtful content just delte it
that way we can start a dialogue of rasonable thoughtful players

Agreed that F is a poor choice of govt type for anything but oiler--and Express cannot support more than one full-time oiler. The 24% decrease in revenue + the poor govt bonuses make for a lame combination. How about increasing F's tech effectiveness similar to the bonus for commies? That could solve the problem of Fs being easy targets since they could more easily raise their weapons, warfare, and spy tech levels. Combine that with +25% MAX food production instead of just +15% production to make up for the 24% decreased revenue and you might have a viable govt type again. This change is absolutely necessary if oil is going to be removed from Express. The alternative is eliminating the F govt type altogether.

DR does desperately need to be fixed. I now look for the countries with the highest gain potential when selecting grab targets using the variables of DR%, land, and NW ratio in that order of importance. This frequently results in me bottomfeeding on targets that aren't really landfat but have low DR. I really hate to do it but I get more gain attacking a small country that no one has bothered with than a fat one near my size that has taken a couple hits.

what about removing oil altogether then if the server's nature is unable to support it properly?

or providing a PM source of it, (wasn't that part of the plan atm? or no)



OR making it some other maintenance requirement....

oil is on the PM

buying and selling

plus 25% is a great idea
another option might be just as in real life,

build in economies of scale.
the larger an F gets the more productive each acre becomes
that might be hard to code
but you could just put it in in steps
<1000 acres of built farmland 15%
<3000 acres of built farmalnd 18%
<5000 acres of built farmland 22%
>5000 acres of built farmland 25%


but if you did that you could make it so that a fully teched 10k F could compete with casher

yes oil is currently on the PM
can sell at $30 and buy at $300 influenced by mil tech

i favor removing oil altogether but you run the risk of higher retal rates because the requirement to purchase oil prevents some people from retalling

some other maintenance requirement sounds interesting
you cant fly your jets if you have not spent x dollars to maintain them but you do not need to buy oil
that could work pang

Lincoln I will not delete posts in this thread , some of the posts you want deleted have valid points, fas, dict and tyr's are not good netting strats just like a demo is a poor warring strat in the wrong hands, netting generally involves a switch of gov at some point for u to net well

ok
in that case we can never have a thread where they cant come in and contaminate it with LaExatives

I was planning on making a thread discussing the changes. This thread is an okay starting point, but because of all of the flaming I'm probably just going to close it after I make the other thread.

ok good

When was the last time a R or F farmer won Express (or even placed top 5)? I won't disagree that D farmer rocks--D is pretty much the best govt for any strat as long as you can figure out a way to get enough tech--I've personally had some very successful D farmer countries.

The problem with F is that it has no real strengths. The disadvantages are nearly equivalent to the advantages. Other govts are generally better for warring AND netting. You might as well play an M and then pick a govt when you decide to fight or jump.

im guessing that some of the H finishers in the top 10 were Fs at one point or another, but i would have to check on that


goverment changes ppl, goverment changes

I wasn't really referring to express by itself.

That said, I could try playing a rep->demo farmer on express some time.

/me doesn't play express

Well I'm /only/ talking about Express :-) I'm odd in that it's really the only server that I care about playing anymore.

I bet your rep farmer gets the fluff farmed out of it and fails miserably. I dare you to prove me wrong. Double dog dare you.

Rep farmer does sound like a weak strat choice for express, but it's possible to do well with weak strategies. I made a new thread that hopefully addressed all of the points raised in this thread. If I missed one, feel free to bring it up there.