SUBTERFUGE Forums

This is a day by day account of Pandasecret's experimental game 1. The only modification is that people can only communicate through the public chat. People will not be able to discuss things privately, and we are testing to see how this affects diplomacy. As it seems to be the custom, I will be posting my reports a few days behind. I will try not to post to much game spoiling information here, as this is more a report on how diplomacy is affected, and not so much about the actual outcome of the game.

Participants

• R10t--
• TopKilla
• V3XT
• RoadKiehl
• Yottawatts
• Chariot Rider
• 6PAYH
• Janitorial Duties
• Ner0
• Pandasecret

Day 0:
A ridiculous amount of chat notifications. There were at least 100 during the waiting period.
This game, everyone started with 4 factories. I have mostly generators to expand to, so I'm not worried about capping right now.
Border negotiations were different than usual, as was to be expected. After about an hour of hectic chat, we all decided we should just take the outposts closest to us.
My first hires are not excellent in my opinion. Princess, Thief and Inspector. I will likely get the Inspector.
After only a few hours, a second chat was created that contained everyone. A rule was made that the Public chat was to be used for game info, while the other was only for general discussion.
Many people already seem annoyed by the amount of communication.
There have been no definitive alliances formed yet.

Day 1:
I took the bases I'd set out on, I appear to have the lowest production rate.
Several players decided to attack Ner0. He sent drillers to other outposts but did not hold them for long.
I hired an Inspector, and saved my second hire for the next day.
Janitorial Duties has a large stack of drillers that he keeps moving around. It makes me slightly uncomfortable.
I'm not sure what direction I should expand, there is no one that appears an easy target.
Some people attempted to communicate using codes. 6PAYH didn't like this, and a group vote decided against codes.

Day 2:
Yottawatts and R10t-- coordinated an attack against 2 of my generators. I have more generators than I need, so I'm not actually worried about losing them, but I hope they don't continue their advance.
I hired a Pirate and a Thief, which I'm hoping I can use to intercept subs before they attack me.
Ner0 declared that he is diverting everything he has to attack Chariot Rider.
Ner0 also negotiated some kind of specialist trade with Pandasecret. I'm not sure if it actually worked out.
Hopefully, Ner0 and Chariot will weaken each other to a point that I can take some of their territory easily.

What was the issue with using codes? The only way I can think of to coordinate the codes would be in public chat. Unless people discussed them outside the game, in which case, they could just talk there anyway and ruin the game.

I personally had no issue with them, but others seemed to feel that they were against the spirit of public chat. The code that was used had been mentioned on the Subterfuge Cryptography thread, which means it was discussed outside of the game, but it also means that anyone could find it if they so choose.

I'm sure the hatred for codes was brought about by both frustration and laziness. Like the mild annoyance when you can't understand someones language when they talk to you- This mixed with the idea of homework for a mobile game bred a generally negative responce from the less code friendly people.

I was in the middle. I think it might be neat if there was a hardcore public chat where codes where the primay means to communicate. Trying to solve the enemies intel while trying to make your own covert means of communicating.

I agree JD. That idea seemed to emulate World War 2 and the German Enigma machine. Intercepting enemy codes seemed entertaining and amusing.

Day 3:
More notifications. I estimate about 300 a day.
I've been rather silent in the chat mostly, only posting a few things a day.
Topkilla seems to be making others uncomfortable with his "jokes".
Ner0 agreed to let me take a factory of his on his way to Chariot Rider's territory. I don't know if he is telling the truth, but it doesn't matter much, I don't need the factory.
R10t-- and Yottawatts continued their assault on my generators. R10t-- also launched an attack against a factory. Using my Inspector and Thief, I should be able to keep everything and lose less drillers than they do.
Currently, my goal in this game is to simply outlast others. I don't have a location I want to mine, as I feel it would weaken me to much. Hopefully a few other people will be eliminated and I can claim some of their abandoned land.

Day 4 - 7:
Apparently I'm bad at staying dedicated to things like this. Oh well.
Things are not going well for me. Yottawatts took one of my factories.
R10t-- took 2 factories and a generator. Janitorial Duties took 2 generators and a factory.
I currently have 2 factories and 2 generators left.
Yottawatts captured my thief, pirate and inspector with his own pirate.
I targeted R10t--'s queen hunter with a pirate, double agent.
Yotta targeted my pirate with his. R10t-- redirected to target Yotta's.
The 3 pirates were stuck in an infinite loop chasing each other.
R10t-- launched a large attack against my queen.
I used a martyr to take it out, along with his revered elder, and by a struck of luck, his Nav Pi Assassin combo was in the blast radius.
I'm slowly being forced to turtle. I haven't done anything impressive this game and simply hope to not be eliminated.
The chat has continued to remain active, but I have not been talking much.
It's became laggy and I can see 2 public chats at once.

Day 8:
The game is almost over. Yottawatts is set to win in 22 hours.
I currently have 3 outposts.
I decided to drill a mine so as to place in 9th.
For some reason, Janitorial Duties gifted me 69 drillers. I'm not sure if he was recompensing me for the outposts he took, or simply just getting rid of them because he was capped. With only Public Chat, I didn't feel comfortable asking him.
The atmosphere in this game has been interesting. Quite conversational, but the game itself lacked excitement. From my limited sonar view, I saw no perfectly timed strategies, no last minute escapes. The most interesting thing was that R10t-- accidently had his Queen Hunter blown up.
When the game ends, I will supply Pandasecret with a personal review of this experimental rule modification.