Dear Expansion Is The First Principle,

It appears that we have come in contact in the Mesczante system. Alas, your fleet commander decided to open fire on my Heavy Cruiser which was peacefully seeking out new life forms and new civilizations, boldly going where no Coconut has gone before.

After reflection on your Empire name, I have decided to adopt your policy. Please vacate the Mesczante system as it is now under Coconut control. After all, expansion is now the first principle

Thank you for your rapt attention.

Numero Uno Coconut (aka Coconut Prime)

So I guess you are not taking the Second Principle to be "Peaceful Co-existence and Getting Along with your Neighbours" ?

Hehe that was a reminder for me to keep moving outward. So that when I found nasty people like you it was as far away from home as possible. Which in this instance worked nicely. BTW the fleet you slaughtered was unarmed. Mesczante is not much of a system you can have it. Peace is my goal. I am ever a nice guy.

I don't understand. Who shot first?

Han shot first!

I'm a bit curious as well. Who initiated the attack?

It is my understanding that both fleets were set to Quebec and neither crew was paying attention to were they were flying. When the proximity alarms went off on the bridge of the Coconut ship the captian yelled ‘look out for that ship’
Well, thru the pina colada induced haze the gunner heard something else and ‘took out that ship’
It could happen to anyone.

Hmm interesting. Either of the two actual combatants wish to answer? I am genuinely curoius to see if what I expect will be growing hostilities were indeed brought about by a glitch in the game ( if the story of both sides being set to Quebec is true), or if one of the participants is fudging the truth a bit to make themselves seem like the proverbial nice guy.

Well, I'm not one of the combatants. Its no secret that I am a friend of the Coconut and niether of us are nice guy's, but other than the embellishment, the account is correct.

With an avatar like that , you have to be a nice guy......

Well truth be told from the conduct of one of your reported allies to other empires he runs across I didnt think the particulars of the first contact would have made much of a difference in the end result. I just found it interesting that one guy said "You shot at me!", and the other guy said "But I didnt have a gun!"

Not having a gun does not prevent a fleet from initiating hostilities.

Exactly. Thus my curiosity as to who actually initiated combat.

Rhat is a question for the almighty one.

Although, even if your fleet is flying quebec it is a good idea to fully read the report before jumping to conclusions.

I thought Quebec meant "Ignore any alien encountered unless attacked", so how did Han or Greedo fire first? Or is this one of those little game nuances that I was unaware of and should quickly change a few fleet ROEs because of

Assuming the report is correct that both ships were on Quebec its likely a bug, not a nuance. I would just be sure to check those combats that do occur and make sure the other side really did shoot at you.

OK, looks like my communication officer had had a lot of tequila when making his report. After personally reviewing the transcripts a slightly more accurate account of the events would be:

One fleet was on Romeo and the other ships were set to Quebec and neither crews were paying attention to were they were flying. When the proximity alarms went off on the bridge of the Coconut ship the captian yelled ‘look out for those ships’
Well, thru the pina colada induced haze the gunner heard something else and ‘took out those ships’
It could happen to anyone.

Human error ?

And for a Romeo setting to trigger a battle, the empire with the Romeo setting had to already have the other player declared as an enemy. So either this is not the first time these empires have met or the player with the Romeo setting got the other player's empire number by some other means (like from an allly that had seen this other player in the area).

So then according to Blends updated account Coconuts had this guy on his war list even tho they had never run into each other and opened fire on him. Then came onto the boards and claimed he was the victim of an unprovoked attack (when he wasn't) and was now going to expand through the other empire's territory because of it.

Does that pretty much match what happened then?

Hahahaha, , there would have been expansion thru that territory regardless.

No PAP of war, it was first contact. Stated, well, correction to stated fleet settings correct.


someone shot off there mouth before fully reading results.

I think this was the last wrong conclusion you could have jumped too, but if there are more, keep'm coming.

So you are saying he was going to expand in that territory anyway? So had he not attacked the ship he was going to claim and make war anyway regardless?
The more you post to defend Coconut the more accurate Jemanari Public Relations assessment of the situation seems right.

This has the hall marks of a Cestval white hat PR campaign, stage an encounter and claim the moral high ground.

Flagritz is like a broken record...everybody is the bad guy except him .

Thats not true, Id say 95% of players are good guys, but you and your master Cestvel are definitely in the 5% of bad guys...


Your so whine.... you admitted you were a bad guy anyway so you should be happy when all your bad deeds are reported right? :}

Geez , child , I am not whining , I am laughing at you all the way.....

RF has never claimed to be a "white hat" He very openly admits he will do what is best for him. I applaud that. Anyone who meets him knows what to expect. I just find it odd that in a game with really no consequences for telling the truth as to why you decided to wipe out another empire someone would need to twist the facts. This isnt like Desmodus' post where he talks about coming to visit and hiring away the workforce. That was easily seen as a nice way of saying Im going to take your planet.

Im referring to an actual misstating of the facts to make it appear that you are the person who was the victim to justify doing what you most likely planned all along. Blend's last reply seemed a bit jumbled, but he does seem to say that Coconuts initiated the attack. If Coconuts was set to Romeo as he is claiming, unless it was a coding glitch, there would have needed to be a PAP of war for the Coconuts ship to open fire. Blend has claimed all along that Coconuts was the one who opened fire.

So is Blends account accurate and Coconuts initiated the attack with the intention of waging war on the other empire. Then come to the boards to claim he was the one wronged? Did Blend have one to many Pina Coladas and has totally botched the facts in his drunken stupor?

I'm genuinely curious. I am not trying to bash either side. I have played the game for the last couple years, read over the forums, and watched the universe go by. I have friends that I would like to suggest Supernova to as a fun hobby. Yet more and more recently I am starting to see that a large portion of the older empires ( those 4 to 6 years old) simply view the younger empires as a feeding ground. Yes war is a part of the game, and I understand that younger empires have a wealth of knowledge that older empires didnt have. A younger empire may know how to get to Mk IX widgets whereas the older empires had to find the tech paths. Yet it still takes time to do the research, and it takes time to be able to build to the point where you can put 500 million, 1 billion, and even larger ships into space.

People have said before that its not really that bad. Yet it does happen. So what is the motivation for playing, or bringing new people into the game when all they are doing is spending their time and money to build up an empire till the empire that is 2,3, or 4 years older than theirs shows up at the door and says "Nice empire. I think Ill take it"

I posted because you were interested.
If you do not believe me, oh well. I have no reason to lie.
The original post happened before the entire turn results were posted. Pushing buttons in a artistic way is fun.
Facts without fun
No War PAP
Coco on Romeo
RF on Quebec
No weapons on RF

Boring!

Hey , wait a minute...is RF meaning me ? If it is , my ships that I put together go under the doctrine that I will fire something back . Usually , it will be something unpleasant , like some kind of spinal meson , or some gravitic weapon...or maybe a swarm of drones or fighters ....but always something that goes " boom " . I don't want my death to be boring

So then Blend you are saying it was a glitch in the game that caused Coco to fire on the other empire? Thats what I was wanting to know. Someone should have Pete look into that.

I am just saying the facts. I won't be contacting Pete.

But, Pete, if you are reading this, should this combat have occurred?

For what it's worth...

I have blown up total allies fleets, even though our ROE settings were peaceful. I have seen plenty of fleets fail to engage when a PAP of war had been declared and have seen quite a few fleets on Zulu fail to engage. Sometimes these were my fleets that failed to engage and other times my fleets were the lucky buggers who got a reprieve of a few turns. In some cases it is strategically important to contact Pete in order to get a correction, other times it isn't worth the bother.

Face it. The fleet encounter system has a bit of "fog of war" in it, whether it was intended or not.

Don't hang your hat on a first encounter that goes bad. Wait until you have a couple of bad encounters to support a pattern. Of course, if you are looking for any excuse then you don't need to wait....



Now, about newer positions being gobbled up....

A new position should be able to get themselves up to speed quite quickly these days. There has been enough information posted on the boards or passed out by myself and others to pretty much negate the information gap that exists between veteran players and new players. the biggest problem has been in the area of weapon choices and finding your way down the path that leads to a level 9 or 10 weapon. With the recent weapon tree expansion that problem has pretty much resolved itself. Pick a path and stick to it. The biggest advantage that older positions now have is experience and production base, which you really have to have if you are building btonners.

What new players really need to fear is the veteran who starts a new position and then just manages it better so that they seem to be well advanced at first contact. But then all would have started on relatively even footing...

And on a final note. It is my understanding that the universe grows in response to new players. The more new players/positions, the faster it grows and the farther the "new" players/positions are from the "old" players. So, if you want more buffer space just get more people to sign up for positions.

But then , there is the odd example or two with empires 3 years apart being neighbors...of course , the older position expanded to the newer position's borders.....but the other point , with fog of war , would be the best way to see the encounters....make sure the settings are as if you want them , and then hope for the best .

From someone who spent 3 years building up an empire to then lose it and have to start again I would still say it was totally worth it.

I loved running the Flagritz Empire and I wish I still had them but even when I was losing it was exciting! :]

it was a huge learning curve and I do think that my case is the exception not the norm.

Ive started new empires and other then a brief glitch that put one of them right next door to a older empire they are doing well, building and expanding, making new friends and forging new allies.

Overall most players are pretty decent, most of the older players if they do come across you will give you a chance (sometimes even help), in any game there are the warmongers out there but however much you hate them they do make all those weapons and shields have meaning.

I recommend getting a few players to join at the same time and then you guys can form your own portion of space and enjoy.