Sirian Sirian

Travel to Realms Beyond Your Ordinary Gaming Experience

Travel to Realms Beyond Your Ordinary Gaming Experience

This thread is intended to recruit new players to the Realms Beyond community through our Metaverse Empire. We don't exactly need a thread for discussion, as we have our own GalCiv forum attached to the RB website. (Realms Beyond is a veteran community of gamers with an established presence in several strategy and role playing games). However, some have suggested that our "meteoric rise" in the galactic standings represents a "mystery" and a possible threat to other empires. Surely not, says we. :)

Why not wait for interested parties to find their way to the RBGC forum, if they wish to communicate with us? That seemed wise at first, but the suggestion has been floated amongst our own that we should research "communication theory" and create a device called a "univeral translator" and seek to open communications with other empires on terms they are used to operating, through channels they are used to using. The ultimate wisdom of this idea, and this so-called translation device, remains in doubt among RB leadership, as the first attempt to use the wicked thing resulted in misunderstanding leading to combat and nearly kicked off a minor war, but we are an adventurous people and will give almost any idea a try, so here we go. :D

Our Empire Motto: WE SEEK CHALLENGE THROUGH VARIETY!

http://www.galciv.com/metaverse/empires.asp?id=555


We seek mastery over the game. The ideal at RB is to be able to beat the game on any map size, without choosing to abuse the AI's various inanities, without having to have perfect terrain conditions. Any alignment, any victory condition, any habitability range, any political party, any combination of bonus picks. If a challenge lies before us, we will embrace it. Mistakes, setbacks and losses do not represent failure, merely a chance to learn, from which greater success can sprout and flourish.

No skill level is too high or too low for RB. All we ask is that you play your best and have a good time.

RB players venture beyond the ordinary. If you are like unto our brother in the spirit in which you play, you would be welcome to join our empire. All you need is interest, an RB-style gaming attitude, and the desire to participate. Our mission is to have fun, to pursue excellence, to play fairly, to uphold the integrity of the game, to embrace variety and challenge, push the boundaries of the game and gameplay, experiment, learn, grow, and do it together.

Our passion is the AAR. We live to read a good AAR and to write our own. Fun shared is fun doubled. The RB Epics tournament for Civ3 sees every participant post their own AAR after each tournament game, with the chief entertainment value being sharing insights, experiences, and laughs. Whether we will hold a GalCiv tournament remains to be seen, but the possibility is out there.

We keep a list of rules for our GalCiv gaming. This list will grow and evolve as the game evolves and our understanding of it matures. We voluntarily refrain from (in our opinions) game-breaking tactics that unbalance a game or pigeonhole it into one "best" path to victory. Some game elements may be broken or have loopholes. Some moves may just be "too strong" and kill variety. We do not use these moves. We do not have to use them. Mastery over a game is established by taking the high road, by trudging uphill and building our strength and endurance. Our interests lie in seeing the game refined to where the game balance provides extended replay value and neverending strategic challenge. However, unless and until that state of polish is reached, we will set our own boundaries to create this effect for ourselves, whether or not it can be found in the game as currently programmed.

If this sounds like your kind of gaming community, we invite you to travel to Realms Beyond.

Our forum for Galactic Civilizations:

http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/237344

Players interested in joining Realms Beyond should venture to our forum, read the lastest version of our rules, and confirm their assent to abide by the rules we have set. We place the quality of our gaming experience ahead of our standing in the competition. Excellence brings its own rewards, its own forms of recognition and respect from peers. That is something no measurement or score could ever fully depict.

Anyone who agrees to our playing philisophy and signs their John Hancock pledging their allegiance to our posted rule set will be confirmed onto our roster. Come one, come all, for the time of your life. LOL Our star is rising. Our destiny is written in the heavens. :HOT:

We are also hoping to generate enough excitement to lure out some of the other RB players who have yet to pick up GalCiv. Surely when they see the grand party we are staging at our best starbase, some will be compelled to join in. And as far as "threat to other empires", that's purely propaganda. We have no hostile intentions. Now if some players are impressed with our culture and decide to emigrate to our worlds, that would not constitute hostile action against other cultures on our behalf. ;) We cannot help but to be ourselves. :D


- Sirian

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14,532 views 354 replies
Reply #51 Top
Thanx Alverin!
I saw warlord 4, I don't like it so much... and usually, when I don't like a game, I don't like to dedicate time in writing a review (also, writing a review is sooooooo hard for non-english-mother-tongue guys... believe me!).

Byez

S1mone
Reply #52 Top
I thought we'd lure in more of the RB regulars by now. Oh well. They are all off either with Civ3 Conquests or the new Diablo II patch. At least we have some active up and comers here. :)

I just got onto the Metaverse front page for single players. Not bad for only having been around six weeks. Jaxom is riding those high scoring conquest victories and so is climbing even faster than I did. Kylearan has also started to win on Maso. We are within striking range of Apolyton now, and could break into the top ten within a week or two if our overlords continue to do battle. :D

If anybody out there needs a home, now is the time to get in on the ground floor, before we're famous. ;)


- Sirian
Reply #53 Top
:CONGRAT:

Go RB

:CONGRAT:

Unfortunately I don't have this game yet, but it's on my Christmas list for others to get for me. If I don't get it then I'll just buy it myself. But I'll then have a chance to add to the almighty score that you guys are setting up :HOT:

Keep up the good work. And I notice that the players ranked by average score has Jaxom at 11 now. Better watch out Sirian :P. And congrats on 23rd position (soon to be 22nd judging by the scores!) ;)

-Smegged
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Reply #54 Top
Hello all, just thought I'd drop in for a visit,

I've been wanting to say how glad I am that this empire is in the metaverse, it seems so happy and stable and well friendly.

I noticed someone mention Space Empires IV and as my brother has the game I'd thought I'd add my 2 cents. Ok to star with I've only played the game 3 times and 2 of those times were multiplayer.

In my opinon a great game with some really nice features, especially the ability to select unique tech trees for your race. Having said that I prefer its predessor ;) I don't know why but it could be the interface but I found Space Empires III easier to get into. I also enjoy the in combat rules in the predecessor to this one. I hope there is a new version in the works that cleans up the interface, could be just me but I think the game has a lot of potential.

Its definitely worth a look, if your interested get the demo and find out if the game suits you.

~SDC~
Reply #55 Top
Jaxom will surely pass me on the average score list. He has been doing all good/conquest maso and scoring very highly. I will do conquest for fun or if the game presents it, but I am just not into chasing the score. My style lends best to Alliance victory, and I will take it if it is there. Move on to the next game. Bugger the score. Phooey on the ridiculous scoring imbalances with poor Tech victory the redheaded stepchild, and military the prodigal son. A win's a win. Just give me my win and start a new game. I win almost every game I play. Does it really matter if the scoring system has no way to reflect that? Master of Orion (the original) had it right: when you've won, it's over. On to the next game. :)

Kylearan is already on the first page for average scores, and he's an Alliance player like me. Go RB! We will soon overtake Apolyton if we keep up this pace.


Stydracos: we are happy, stable and friendly because we've been gaming together at other games for years. We have quirks and rough edges, and sometimes firm opinions, but mostly we keep our eyes on the prize: having a good time. It's just a game, after all. :D

All the intrigues and melodrama of people swapping empires, toying around with the Metaverse, joining and leaving, etc etc... We don't get it. LOL I know for me, at least, I must be missing the punch line. Is that really entertaining people? Or are they bored? Or what? :SURPRISED: I can't imagine belonging to any empire besides RB. :HOT: RB's been my home for too long now. And hey, if they haven't kicked me out yet, they must like something about me. ;p You don't walk away from that kind of situation lightly, since you never know when you'll stumble onto it again! LOL


- Sirian
Reply #56 Top
Sirian,
I just went by your forum. What's that entrypass thing that it wants me to install?
Reply #57 Top
Vincible - that is something that we did not set up on the RB forums. The way around it is to just refresh the page. Unfortunately it appears that Network 54 (who is currently hosting our forums) is going to start charging us for useage. When that happens a new forum home will probably be found. Until then, by all means, visit us there :)

New players are definately welcome over at RB, provided they swear an oath to uphold our gaming ideals :)

-Smegged
Reply #58 Top
Yeah, that EntryPass thing is the latest sleaze trick Network54 is trying to pull on their forum users. I don't mind the banner ads, and even the popups are understandable for a site offering that much space and bandwidth for free, but asking users to install predatory memory resident advertising bots for constant use is WAY over the line.

Don't do it. Just say no to the install and you can get in just fine. If that ever changes, we might move our forum. Sorry for the intrusive element.

My personal pages, hosted on warpcore.org, are 100% ad-free.

http://sirian.warpcore.org/galciv/

So is the RB GalCiv page. It's only the forum, where our dozens upon dozens of members post extensively about half a dozen games (and some political debates too hot for public consumption) going back years... with all the posts archived... We tolerate N54 because they do provide a decent service. That EntryPass thing is just embarassing, though. :SURPRISED: Sorry about that. It just started a week ago, and we don't know yet if they are serious or going to back down from it.


- Sirian
Reply #59 Top
Sirian: I thought we'd lure in more of the RB regulars by now. Oh well. They are all off either with Civ3 Conquests or the new Diablo II patch. At least we have some active up and comers here.

I found a copy of GalCiv for a decent price; just give me a couple weeks, and I'll drop in. Still messing around with Homeworld 2 atm, but I expect to start ramping down my time on that and ramping up on GalCiv around the beginning of December.

EDIT: what, this forum doesn't do italics?
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Reply #60 Top
Hi Smegged and Zed-F! It's great to hear that reinforcements for our empire are underway. :) The RBGalCiv forum feels a bit empty at the moment (and I don't like the interface of this forum here - I just check in once every couple of days). I especially wondered about how long it would need for Zed to try out GalCiv, having seen his activities with MoO3. :)
Maybe someday, even KoP's copy will get opened... LOL

Unfortunately my next planned two GalCiv games won't boost our score much, as they will be somewhat variantish in nature - but as a compensation, I'll write another AAR about them.

-Kylearan
Reply #63 Top
Hmm. I spy RB is closing in upon the top 10. Good job! :)

The once supreme Apolyton is reduced to being a speedbump leading to the top. This looks to be very interesting indeed. (Gerakken briefly ponders several fiendish plans.)
Reply #64 Top
Yep. Now within 20k of our friends at Apolyton. I didn't think they would be the ones we'd be looking to replace, but we'd already be in the top 10 if not for two of the larger empires splitting up: GROSS and ANZAC. Jedis lost a couple of players, too. Well, whatever it takes. Our arrival on the "galactic map" will be a day for celebration. :)

- Sirian
Reply #65 Top
I'm counting the days until Christmas. I can't wait to get my hands on this game. It appears to me to be a modern version of MoO 1 without some of the things that bugged me about that game (pop transfer micromanagement anyone?).

Congratulations on getting this far RB, and we'll all throw a party when we hit the top 10 :CONGRAT:

-Smegged the silly Aussie (go the Wallabies!!)
Reply #66 Top
By the way, for any RB players not yet in the know, I've been hanging out a bit in the Fellowship thread. Spying, you ask? Planning sabotage? No, not really. :) That's where some of the most thoughtful issues on the game are being hashed out. Apparently, having lots of players in your empire keeps the thread more active. And if you want to converse with half a dozen top players in the fellowship, it doesn't do to invite them all to your pad when you're just one guy and can pop in on their pad more easily. Go figure. :)

Now maybe once we have more RB players geared up, our own internal debates will generate that sort of energy. We've even been pretty quiet lately on our own GC forum. :notsure:


- Sirian
Reply #67 Top
:CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT:

With exactly 100 battles fought, Realms Beyond has pushed into the top ten!

:CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT:

Drasca's arrival made the difference. :)


- Sirian
Reply #68 Top
:CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT:

Woohoo, partytime! Congrats RB! Top 10!

:CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT:

Meanwhile, in the demo I've moved up to practicing crippling on small maps now :)
Reply #69 Top
Wow! RB in the Top Ten! Congrats, RB players!

Keep up the good "work", guys. I hope to be able to continue playing soon (and to contribute some points to our empire score :) ) ...

- Physicist

PS: A warm welcome to our new overlord Drasca :)
Reply #70 Top
The Metaverse Review is out!

Special Friday Edition!
http://metaversereview.joeuser.com

Headlines Include:

~ Galactic Civilizations: The Altarian Prophecy
~ Battle Wages at 2,3,4 spots
~ Horrible Hobbit Tossing Contest

And Much More!
Reply #71 Top
The review is out and not even a sentence about our "battle" with Apolyton? Hrmph. :p Weren't they number one for a while? And no notice that they've slipped out of the top ten now? Hrmph on their behalf too. ;p

Smegged, up to crippling in the demo? Are you going to be the first player ever with an all-Maso profile?? ;)


- Sirian
Reply #72 Top
Ha, I doubt I'll be able to pull that off Sirian. You can't go past 2190 in the demo, and none of the expansion units are in it either. So all I can do is guage how well I am doing in relation to the other races. Up until crippling I've been first in pop, economy, and very close to the leader in military and tech at game end (or very close to it). What I'll probably do is play a game at each of the difficulty levels until I find my comfortable level and then play 1 higher than comfortable.
Reply #74 Top
Well, I finally managed to finish up a game that I started 3 weeks ago! :) Unfortunately I can't guarantee much playing time until the middle of January - work is really killing me right now. I'm still going to play when I can, and I have already ordered the expansion. I'm really looking forward to that!
Reply #75 Top
No need to feel obligated, Alverin. Play as you desire and as you are able. Our main objective is a good time, after all. :) You meet that, you're on target for our mission.

- Sirian