Round 11 of the Metaverse League is on! Welcome back to our continuing players, and a cylon salute to our new players!

Round 11 will ask for extra levels of team planning and coordination:

All Victory Types, Mixed Settings

In an effort to freshen up the gameplay experience, JustinSane and I have discussed a new take on an old favorite.  Teams will fight for victory in at least 3 of the 5 available victory types on entirely different map settings. Below is a little more detail on how this will work; we're also introducing a new victory condition -ethical alignment- and making some tweeks to scoring.  Please take the time to read more about these changes.

Mixed Settings Rounds
A "mixed settings round" is where several different sets of map settings are offered, and teams must play at least some of them to properly secure their base points. In this round, each victory type will be assigned different map settings. Teams are required to submit victories of at least 3 different types to qualify for their base points. Teams with more than 3 players will be allowed to either repeat settings among two players or compete for individual points in one of the other two victory categories. For example, to qualify for their base points, Team X (The X-Men) submits a cultural victory, a technological victory, and a military victory. At that point, their 4th player (Storm) may submit another cultural, technological or military victory, or she may submit a political or ascention victory. How your team chooses to submit its potential 4th game is part of your team strategy. Teams with only 3 submissions may have an easier time securing team bonus points, but submitting a 4th game might allow a team to either improve its average team scores or compete for individual bonus points in another game category. As always, we will champion the honor's system.

3-player teams will be allowed to have a single player submit a second game, but there are conditions. First they must formally request this option in this thread from the Co-Commissioners, JustinSane and myself. Second, every team member must be willing to play a second game, since the player allowed to do this will be randomly assigned by either JustinSane or me (based on whoever replies in the thread first, should both reply without seeing each other's response). Finally, should a forth player be assigned to the team after a player as submitted a second game, the players second submission will be considered null and void. To clarify, not every member on such a team will be required to play a second game; only one player will, but because it's randomly assigned, the team should agree that they are each willing to do so should they be assigned the second game (though, this doesn't preclude teams from having their players attempt secondary games before requesting the option of a fourth game).

Ethical Alignment as a Victory Condition
Rules in round 11 will now require players' victories to have certain reported ethical alignments.  We will use the reported alignment on the metaverse to determine this.  Note: this doesn't mean you cannot pick a race with a different alignment, nor does it require you to research Xeno Ethics. If you complete a game without researching Xeno Ethics, the metaverse will use 'what you're leaning towards' as your alignment.  You can determine this through the Civilization Manager, Government and Ethics tab.  There are seven possible alignment restrictions: any (no restriction), good, neutral, evil, good or neutral, good or evil, and neutral or evil.  We hope this will not only mix up games, but also encourage players to explore Twilight of the Arnor a bit more, as evil is less appealing in TA, and good is in some cases more appealing.

Team Bonus Points
Points awarded to teams for highest average score, fastest average game, and earliest average submission time are being raised to 3 points for first place and 2 points for second place. This will help bring the total number of points awarded this round more in line with what was available in previous rounds (due to the reduction of base points last round).

Victory Settings

(the thread will be updated soon with hyperlinks to screenshots of the map setup screen)

Victory Type 1: Technological Victory
basics: tiny map - abundant habitables - common planets - occasional stars - loose clusters
more basics: abundant anomalies - uncommon asteroids (DA/TA) - very fast research - 7 minor civs (DL: random)
check marks on: all victory conditions
no check marks: super abilities (DA/TA) - mega events (DA/TA) - "disable tech trading" (TT enabled) - "disable tech stealing" (TS enabled in TA) - blind exploration
opponents: one (1)
valid ethical alignments: any
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notes: This one should be very easy and lead to very rapid game times (both game years and real time). We expect zero and one-year victories to be quite common.

Victory Type 2: Military Victory
basics: small map - abundant habitables - abundant planets - abundant stars - scattered planets
more basics: abundant anomilies - abundant asteroids (DA/TA) - very fast research - no minors
check marks on: all victory conditions - super abilities - mega events - "disable tech stealing" (TS disabled in TA) - blind exploration
no check marks: "disable tech trading" (TT enabled)
opponents: six (6)
valid ethical alignments: any
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notes: This one may take the most real time due to the number of opponents and planets, but should offer the highest scoring potential due to the victory type and various settings. It may be more difficult than average.

Victory Type 3: Political (Alliance) Victory
basics: small map - common habitables - common planets - uncommon stars - tight clusters
more basics: occasional anomalies - rare asteroids (DA/TA) - very slow research - 1 minor civ (random in DL)
check marks on: all victory conditions - super abilities - mega events - "disable tech trading" (TT disabled) - blind exploration
no check marks: "disable tech stealing" (TS enabled in TA)
opponents: four (4)
valid ethical alignments: evil
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notes: This one should be rather difficult, quite slow in game years, and pretty low scoring, but it's likely to be less competitive and thus easier to get individual bonus points.

Victory Type 4: Cultural (Influence) Victory
basics: large map - occasional habitables - rare planets - rare stars - tight clusters
more basics: abundant anomalies - abundant asteroids (DA/TA) - fast research - 4 minors (random in DL)
check marks on: all victory conditions - mega events (DA/TA) - super abilities (DA/TA)
no check marks: "disable tech trading" - "disable tech stealing" (TT and TS enabled) - blind exploration
opponents: five (5)
valid ethical alignments: good or neutral
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notes: This should score fairly well and play fairly rapidly, and be fairly easy to play. No evil means Twilight is relatively more favorable.

Victory Type 5: Ascension Victory (TA only)
basics: medium map - occasional habitables - occasional planets - occasional stars - tight clusters
more basics - occasional anomalies - occasional asteroids - normal tech - random minors
check marks on: all victory conditions - meta events - super abilities - blind exploration
no check marks: "disable tech trading" - "disable tech stealing" (TT and TS enabled)
opponents: two (2)
valid ethical alignments: any
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notes: These games should score decently, but will likely have long game times (in game years). It might offer good chances at individual bonus points since not everyone plays (or has) Twilight.

Team Rosters

Team A: Capt. dystopic; PlayJeff45; Loupdinour
Team B: Capt. JustinSane4; Ferrel; VegJed; Lethrin
Team C: Capt. TheGreatEmperor; Davaled; Freeman43; e-stab
Team D: Capt. KzintiPatriarch; Ragnar1; SilverBeacher
Team E: Capt. DethAdder; Pndrev; RhetoricalSun; Galefury

players who haven't confirmed yet and new players will be added to teams with only 3 players. I will update the list as the round roster changes.

Round 11 ends on October 19 at 12:00 noon, Eastern time (12:00:00 reported forum time)

GOOD HUNTING!