Time to mix things up, I realise I will never net in peace but hey ho, it’ll be like primary but with bots :D

LG policy:

I accept 1:1 retals

Anything else and we spin the wheel :)

None of this is personal <3

Ggs!

2024-04-26 10:57:26 PS The Great One (#92) UgolinoII (#2) 1064A (1504A)
2024-04-26 06:53:54 PS UgolinoII (#2) The Great One (#92) 541A (791A)

Who is your FA?

Yeah I was doing that last set, this set I am going to be tied up most of the weekend so I think I need to just farm bots like everyone else; I won't be able to outrun the retals for long enough to make it worth it.

I am thinking about bringing back the Iron Mike persona for Express though, I went through some of my old posts the other day, that was fun. :)

What, you picked me because I messaged you?

Don't worry, I'll catch up.

Your tech levels are trash btw, buy more tech.

lol, sorry I didn't even register it was you who had messaged me :)

nice retal!

Exactly proves my point. Never worth it to grab players.

Unless you do it right and you pick the one guy with 0 defense and you farm him into the ground with 360 turns on hand and some in storage.

All you gotta do is immediately hit after he voids GDI and you LG some more cuz he out of DR and then you BR him all within 60 seconds before he has time to react lol

It just isn’t possible against a decent player because it requires you to maintain 3 units maxed on hand where they only need to overcome one of those unit types.

I almost always carry 0 defense. Pointless to carry any with the rules of EXPRESS gdi.

Thanks, I honestly want to help push forward more of a players hitting players culture again, but not like the GOAT of Earth up there is talking about.

Did you spy me first? Cuz I have a ton of mil strat tech. I would've passed on me as a target.

I wasn't grabbing strategically, more to create a little action.

I've sucked up some big retals and fair play, they are justified, all in good sport :)

Back in the day you used to have to try balance defence or you risked top-feeds from players that weren't grabbing smartly (as I am demonstrating now!). As much is it was annoying to get grabbed it was usually OK cos you got more back in the retal. The problems came when people double tapped or RoR. Thats not very sporting in my book, and I think the way GDI works is perfect for deterring that kind of thing :)

What I am seeing now though is what's going on in Alliance. People are running little to no defense, and just expecting to free ride. That should be a risky bet, maybe when bots tart attacking that will shake things up, in the meantime maybe the prospect of a wildcard player that grabs humans will do the job. I'm trying not to hit anyone more than once (thats asking for war!) and you all got a good chance to retal (especially as CI is getting hammered this set so I can't even grow properly!)

There are a bunch of players I have passed up on due to them having defence, I even messaged them to praise them that they dodged a grab because of it.

Maybe nothing will change, but its a bit of spice eh?



Application accepted :D

Yeah I spied, if I am gonna grab a player I am going to make sure I don't bounce!!!

You have convinced me. Iron Mike Tyson will return to Express, and we will change the whole vine of this server. 😈

The irony is I quit liked “peacefully” farming bots without being hit back.

Thanks, this was fairly valuable data. A few comments:

* We used to grab each other back in the old days before NPC countries so it is possible.
* In the current era, I think part of the problem is that there aren't enough countries punishing those who run with very low defense. I personally think the game works better when the player feels a tension between buying enough defense and enough tech. Perhaps making the NPC countries grab will solve this problem.
* It feels pretty hard/annoying to play techer and indy right now because the public market is too slow at times. A single player can easily dominate the market as well. I think I checked a few years back and as a farmer I bought around 33% of all agri tech sold on the market? It was some ridiculous number.
* Changing the culture to one where countries should expect to get grabbed with low defense may make indies easier to play. If we can make the NPC countries good enough then we can increase the number of them to improve public market activity.
* I am starting to like more and more the idea of reducing max turns to 240 (240) or something. Players can hold up to 40% of the round's turns right now without losing any. The current setting of 360 (360) makes retals too unpredictable, can lead to huge spikes in market activity, and makes private market destocking incredibly powerful.

Yeah, the demo at the top right now is almost certainly just dominating the entire market singlehanded right now. Most likely reason for some of the pricing swings.

Wait, is this the OG Vic?

And emopit is back?

Different Vic

Odd, same Vic I knew from a decade+ ago

Wild to see you too tho. Taken that tin foil supeority cap off yet bro?

As much as I don’t like this, it’s the axact thing I think is needed. The fact I don’t like it is what makes me think it’s essential.

I think back to a kid and finding cheat mode in old games and thinking it was great, but in reality it spoils the game. Something you only realise when you are older.

It’s the danger that makes for the fun. Without any danger there is no risk/reward. It’s purely formulaic, and as much as I like the min/maxing optimisation (my favourite kind of games) the element of chance is crucial. It feels like express (as in alliance) had drifted a little too far one way.

I think 360/360 was right in terms of allowing players not to fall behind (720 total was fair if you e.g missed a day).

I liked that it made it *just* possible to do a kill. (I like GDI stopped 1:Kill policies)

I don’t like that 360 on hand makes it too easy to retal.

I think dropping turns on hand would work but maybe do 240(420) or something? (Ie same number of maxed turns but can’t play so many at once. Perhaps give 2 stored turns per turn back?

Or going to the extreme allow eg 120(600) so it’s more like the other servers in terms of how much you can do in a single “day” of turns and give stored turns back 5 at a time?

You still don’t lose turns (no more than before).

Getting 6 turns per turn (1 + up to 5 stored) would be fast like it would be in line with the pace of an express server but without some of the more extreme effects of a single country being able to play too many turns all at once?

Yes sir Ford! Llaar pulled me back in. Great to see you around you ornery cuss.

Vic =/= VicRattlehead, Vic from ARROW is a different guy, I have plenty of old message logs with him in this account. I was mad at him for using my real name on the forums.

does mr ford still drive a chevy?

I grabbed this set but because if the turns issue that has already been mentioned, you can only target countries that are >25 percent the size of typical targets. If you get any more aggressive you get hit back and half the time you still get hit grabbing on this server. One of the things I look for is players using standard strikes. If I see someone using all all SS and no PS, they are getting spied for a LG.

Why so?

Strat dictates which type of strikes you should use. I was running C/I and I think I PSd 2-3 times all set, was the highest finishing CI, only one in the t25 even. If I were a techer I would PS like mad but as an indy can't afford to.

Unrelated, next set I will be around bad internet most of the weekend so it's a bad set for Iron Mike to return. Following set.

I don't recall ever seeing a set so bad for commies.

Yeah it was pretty rough. I am going to play a lazier strat next set, thinking demo farmer or demo casher.

Chevy and a couple of toyotas actually.

Corvette and a Supra?

Old camaro, new tacoma and camry actually. 😅 Who wants a Toyota BMW?

I just keep checking every couple months. Going to play next year atleast, out of principle.

If you look very closely at the elite players most of them rarely if ever use standard strikes, it’s almost exclusively planned strikes.

You get +50 percent gains AND +50 percent military strength which means half as many units lost on attacks.


Over the course of a long set this percentage is devastating, although I do use standard strike if I see easy targets or if I have all of my construction sites built already and am rolling full speed ahead.

Obviously the math is better in a vacuum, but again there are strats that just can't afford to PS all the time. I was playing this game when the PS was introduced for the first time I am well aware of the benefits, the fact remains that if you want to play a strat that has to keep grabbing and building to spend turns, you can't afford to have your jets out on PS all the time. SS a lot, PS when you find a low def target with a small enough proportion of jets that you can afford to not have them available to keep running turns.

And, if the jets are your income as well, that changes things too. It's not just a simple "PS is better because +50% calculation" as you suggest.

So I stand by my statement that this is heavily strat dependent.

FTR - my profile here on EE does not reflect my "best days" in Earth. I see that you have won most of the servers and have excellent finishes in the ones you haven't won outright. I've done OK myself.

I'd agree it's different as CI, I haven't run it much on express but doing so last reset I could see a lot of ways that it could be done much better than I did it even if you ignore the atrocious grabbing ;)