High rank random tithing

[freesoul]

For those of us at the top looking for some benefit, and for those of you aspiring to gain rank, some more incentive.

For the top ranks, you get a % chance of tithing one random item from one random neighbor per production.

for example. Rank #1 has a 50% chance of tithing a random neighbor. Rank #2 has a 45% (or 40%) chance of doing tithing.

Reasons for this? Top players will A get rewarded for their rank, and B targeted for revenge by angry neighbors.

The percentages can be adjusted for fairness. Even at 50%, the chances of you being tithed an ICBM is low, due to a 1 in 8 chance of you being the neighbor, the 50% chance of him tithing anyone, and the 1 and ## chance of picking that out of your INV.

[vilhazarog]

Sounds fine to me, although to make it interesting, after you make your 50% roll, you do a roll to see which of the 8 squares you tithe from, and if it is a Sea of Rust square, you get nothing. Then high ranking players would have an extra incentive to get off the coast.

[Rasteroid]

This would frustrate low ranked players.

There's not meant to be much benefit of high rank.. it's something that one accumulates undesiredly as one gains power in the game.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have some slightly unusual ideas on how the mechanics of multiplayer games should go. The best player on WoW can't be beaten, period. in this game, the best player is frequently beaten, with bountiful reason.

[psiweapon]

It makes it all much more exciting and compelling! And If there are long-term games where making it to the top with effort is feasible, those are yours! (wow I sounded a little bit lackey-ish, did I ?)

[spamwise]

In another great mmorpg, GoG (you might have hear of it ), there is a motivation to be the top dog (Pope) -- you get a benefit from destroying anybody's buildings. For all non-popes, you can only score by destroying folks in the top 3, or with significantly higher faith (but there's no real way of knowing who that would be ). Plus, being in the top 3 allows you to score by upgrading buildings to the top level.

In BM, there used to be the benefit of being top dog in that you'd receive a reward when you beat anybody, whereas non-top players would only profit from beating those above them, and in the top 10. With the new reward system, I don't see any benefit from being numero uno.

No, I don't think it should be the end all be all, there's-no-way-to-dethrone-me-because-of-my-supreme-power type of perk from high rank, but there should be some motivation for greatness.

[jc]

Exactly.

As it stands, I see no reason to try getting points at all. I avoid building anything, and I fear raising my Tech Level and getting Hull Upgrades more than anything - I haven't had space concerns at all, recently.

My current goal is to do what I can without actually gaining score: increasing my Senate votes and smuggling Palantirs to people to avoid getting attacked as much as possible.

Then again, I'm not sure what you can give to the #1 player which wouldn't give them a large edge over anyone else...

Maybe give them an additional +1 TL... And if they're TL 14 and Technocracy, give them an even bigger benefit than the spy-zapper XD

[Rycchus]

But you can't actually PLAY the game if you're not doing anything, JC!

[jc]

Nah uh, now I have something to do

I'm going around the world now. It'll be hard, though. I'll need to get some glass or sand to myself, somehow, so I can put in an Outpost or two as I go, which will let me get the coal I need to keep going

[spamwise]

Uh oh, Rast, looks like someone's trying to have some fun in this game without increasing their risk of being targeted by prize hunters... I think we need to add a "distinct neighbor count" and add it to the ranking...

[Rasteroid]

It's fine.. All his spies will get blown away in the next Doomsday blast.

[Rycchus]

Actually you could finance your round-the-world trip by corruption, if you keep adding new spies for your whole journey. That'd be pretty cool!