Battle on the Silver Seas

[Makuta of Time]

I'm feeling the flow of this game already just by listening to Blackbeard vs. Al Capone. Just wish I can move further.

[Toarobot18]

Round 1: First Voyages Begin

At last the preparation had finished and all the warships were ready for launch. One by one, in the harbors along the coast of each mainland shore, the great vessels headed out for sea. Some were powered by wind, some by paddles, some by jets, some by elemental force. From the lands of the Blue Team, the BTS Iron Wolf sped ahead, while for the Red Team the RTS Fishing Boat led the way. Following behind these speedy ships were others swift vessels like the Red Lightning or the Harvest. Still closer to their native shores were the slower but larger ships: battleships like the mighty RTS Ultra Glacier and cargo vessels like the wide-hulled Kakama.

 

Location of Allied and Enemy Ships

RTS Space Yark Doge of Destiny 1: 0428
RTS Ultra Glacier 2: 1230
RTS Red Lightning 3: 1327
RTS Maskswift 4: 1527
RTS Marauder 5: 1028
RTS Heartlight 6: 1628
RTS Fishing Boat 7: 1326

BTS Incendiary 1: 0802
BTS Kakama 2: 0502
BTS Iron Wolf 3: 1304
BTS Black Takea 4: 0702
BTS Harvest 5: 1103
BTS Metal Gear RAY 6: 0101
BTS ShadowVezon 7: 1202

Map of the Silver Seas

Captains' Orders
For this round, as an experiment, I am going to give every player the option of sending in their actions for as many rounds in advance as they are willing to play through before seeing the movement of the enemy. For example, if you were a Blue Team member headed to the island at 1614 no matter what, you could simply tell me to have your ship head in that direction every round until you get there. On the other hand, if you only wanted to go to a certain hex halfway there before you got a chance to see any changes in where the Red Team ships were headed, you would tell me that hex instead. Then, whoever chose a destination that takes the fewest number of rounds for him to get to, I will have everybody move that many rounds at once, then publish another report. Obviously, once ships get into firing range and mining is happening more often, we'll have to go back to one-at-a-time rounds, but this should speed up the beginning of the game.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Toarobot18

[Shadowhawk]

Alright, I'm going to bring up the Red Team group PM idea again. Blade, you're the only Premier Member on the team; think you could do that? I just don't see how we're going to effectively discuss cooperative strategies without it.

[fishers64]

I'm willing to brave two rounds. Also, I second the group PM thing - I've sort of been waiting for that to happen, and am slightly confuzzled as to how this whole team thing is going to work. Right now the only thing that I'm considering when moving is my boat.

 

Edit: Actually, make that three rounds.

Edited November 27, 2013 by fishers64

[Blessed Blade]

Someone on Red shoot me a PM, then I'll add the others once on a laptop. =P

[Toarobot18]

The Blue Team seems to be pulling off the team thing quite nicely in their discussions so far. On that note, when you guys do get your PM started, don't forget to include me for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

 

As far as rounds go, you don't have to tell me how many rounds in advance in this topic. Just send in your actions via PM as normal but with your long-term destination, and I'll take it from there.

[Makuta of Time]

I might do one round, but I'm still unsure.

[Toarobot18]

To be clear, while I said "stating their actions for as many rounds in advance as they are willing," I meant "sending in their actions for as many rounds in advance as they are willing."

 

So, for example, instead of PMing me that you would like to move from 1605 to 1606, you could PM that you would like to move from 1605 to 1625, and if that takes you 24 rounds and everyone else also specified that far in advance, I could publish 24 round's worth of results at once. On the other hand, if anyone only specified 1 round in advance, then I would only publish 1 round's worth of results at a time. But even in that case, if you specified 24 rounds worth, you would not have to send in another PM after that 1 round's worth, since I would already know your long-term course for 24 rounds.

[ShadowVezon]

So... any news?

[- JL -]

Yeah....what'sup with the PM's?

[ShadowVezon]

Yeah....what'sup with the PM's?

Snake still needs to PM his moves, I dunno about Red.

[Toarobot18]

Actually, Snake is now in contact with me, but I'm still waiting on a couple more people. If those people do not respond by the end of the day, I will post results without their actions. Normally, I would have gone around prodding people a little earlier, and then already cut it off, but due to my trip this weekend I didn't have that opportunity so I'm being a bit more lenient.

 

EDIT: Also, as you may have noticed, something happened to BZPower and all the formatting has been ruined in posts. I have begun working on fixing the formatting in the rules post, but have not yet finished. I will eventually fix my other posts in this topic also.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Toarobot18

[Burnmad]

TR has again asked me to post some stuff for him so he needn't double post.

 

Location of Allied and Enemy Ships
RTS Space Yark Doge of Destiny 1: 0420
RTS Ultra Glacier 2: 1228
RTS Red Lightning 3: 1220
RTS Maskswift 4: 1321
RTS Marauder 5: 1223
RTS Heartlight 6: 1622
RTS Fishing Boat 7: 1220

BTS Incendiary 1: 0806
BTS Kakama 2: 0707
BTS Iron Wolf 3: 1210
BTS Black Takea 4: 0706
BTS Harvest 5: 1209
BTS Metal Gear RAY 6: 0005
BTS ShadowVezon 7: 1206

Map of the Silver Seas

 

He will be along shortly to post some story information and instructions for the next round.

 

Edit: Go home IPB/BZP, you're drunk.

 

-

Edited December 4, 2013 by Burnmad: Toa of Emoticons

[Blessed Blade]

Okay, this is just getting odd now, the formatting broke again, and it was perfectly fine when that post was made. ._.

[Shadowhawk]

Yeah, the formatting... Black Six is working on it. The only preventative measure I've found that seems to be effective is to simply use as little formatting as possible, and stay completely away from font and color customization. They're what seems to be causing the problem; everything else seems to be just a side effect.

Just my two cents.

EDIT: Just went and looked, and, to my dismay, found that even my essentially format-less 'preventative measure' didn't seem to be able to resist the last breakdown. My happiness has been ruin't.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Shadowhawk

[Lara White]

Okay, wow, if I'd known this was a thing I would have signed on a lot sooner. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while.

 

Is there any way for me to jump in or do I have to wait for the next round?

 

[Underscore]

The game has already started...

You should talk to Toarobot about that because technically, each round is like each turn.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Oryx

[Canis Lycaon]

If you find another person to play with, you might be able to join.

[Lara White]

I'll look into that. Better question: Will this be running repeating games like Mafia does? Or is it a one-shot thing?

 

[Underscore]

No idea. That would also be a good question for Toarobot

Edited December 4, 2013 by Oryx

[Toarobot18]

Lloyd,

 

If this game is successful, I'm certain there will be a second one. Because I have to try and keep the teams balanced, you'd have to wait for or find someone else to join, so there would be eight on each side. Since we've only just begun, if there is someone else who will join with you, your joining would be perfectly fine.

 

Later on, when some players have been eliminated, a new player will only be able to join with the advance agreement of both teams, even though they still have to find a second player for the other side. This is because it is conceivable that each team gaining one player would still provide considerably more benefit to one team than the other. For example, if the Red Team has six ships remaining and the Blue Team only one, the Red Team might rather stick with the six ships and finish off the Blue Team faster, rather than give the Blue Team a second ship. I don't want to mess up someone's grand strategy by introducing unforeseen new factors.

 

This post will be edited later tonight with the story narrative and information for the next round that Burnmad mentioned I would provide.

 

EDIT1: The formatting of the rules post has been fully restored to its original, readable state. I plan to take some screenshots of it for a backup option in case it gets messed up again.

 

EDIT2: All previous round results have been restored also. I decided to put the story and information in a new post with the stuff Burnmad posted for me earlier.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Toarobot18

[Lara White]

That seems fair enough, I'll see what I can do.

 

[Toarobot18]

Here is the promised narrative and the instructions for the next round. I've added the information Burnmad posted earlier to this post so that all the information is in one place.

Rounds 2 & 3: The First Islands are Reached
Fishers64 was sitting inside his quarters aboard the RTS Fishing Boat 7, intently reviewing a map of the Silver Seas he had laid out on a table in front of him, when someone knocked vigorously on the door.

"Come in," said Fishers64. Vakama entered and gave a quick salute.

"Captain," said Vakama, "We have arrived."

"Good. Ready the Scarlet Banner and a boat."

Fishers64 and Vakama left the captain's quarters and went on deck, where Vakama scurried off to the forecastle leaving Fishers64 to observe the ship's surroundings. The Fishing Boat had anchored in the bay of a small sandy island, which bore little vegetation and no other signs of life. The island was mostly flat, with the occasional hill or bank, and here or there a little pit in the sand. Since the island was so barren, to the uninformed sailor it would have been an unlikely destination. But Fishers64 knew that there were treasures here that even Artakha himself would envy.

Just then, Vakama approached the captain, carrying a red flag.

"The boat is ready," said Vakama. "What are your orders?"

"I will go myself," replied Fishers64, "and be the first to claim this land for the mighty and glorious Team of Red!"

Fishers64 had just uttered these words when a ta-matoran rushed up to the two officers.

"Captain!" said the matoran. "We heard water churning in the distance, and the lookout took a good hard look, and we think Red Lightning has just arrived around the edge of the bay!"

"That is good," said Vakama. "But, Captain, it looks like you might soon be only the second to claim this land for the mighty and glorious Team of Red. Should we depart?"

"You are right. To the boat!"


At the same time the Fishing Boat and Red Lightning were arriving at that sandy, barren island, a ship of the Blue Team was arriving at a very similar sandy, barren island, far in the distance. In fact, every last detail about this other small island was exactly the same as the first, except for its location. Some Great Being must have had a thing for symmetry. Mirroring the similarity of the islands, the captain of this Blue Team ship, Canis, set out in a boat with his blue flag just as Fishers64 was setting out with his red one. Canis left his First Mate, Kurahk, in charge of his ship.

Kurahk didn't speak a lot. In fact, he really didn't speak at all. But when he pointed his Staff of Anger at something, most of the crew managed to figure it out, somehow. Right now, he was alternating between pointing his staff at the giant gun on the bow of the ship and a bucket full of soapy water and rags. This was the only gun aboard the BTS Iron Wolf 3, but it was no ordinary gun. It resembled a Midak Skyblaster, but was at least three times as big, and was set on platform which allowed it almost 360 degrees of rotation. Since the jet-powered Iron Wolf had no masts and had a generally low profile, it could also be fired in almost any direction. But to the weary crew, its most menacing feature was its large surface area, which seemed to take an eternity to polish. Who would have thought rahkshi were so particular about how shiny their weaponry was?

One matoran aboard the Iron Wolf, however, had no concerns about polishing giant blasters. From his position on a small platform on the vessel's stern, Kirop was well-occupied manipulating a mirror to signal the BTS Harvest 5, which could already be seen in the distance. Though he carved a few symbols into a tablet he had at the ready, he devoted most of the message to memory. The Harvest with its great hull was on the way, and the Blue Naval Bureau had strict instructions that Kirop would relay as soon as Canis returned.

Location of Allied and Enemy Ships
RTS Space Yark Doge of Destiny 1: 0420
RTS Ultra Glacier 2: 1228
RTS Red Lightning 3: 1220
RTS Maskswift 4: 1321
RTS Marauder 5: 1223
RTS Heartlight 6: 1622
RTS Fishing Boat 7: 1220

BTS Incendiary 1: 0806
BTS Kakama 2: 0707
BTS Iron Wolf 3: 1210
BTS Black Takea 4: 0706
BTS Harvest 5: 1209
BTS Metal Gear RAY 6: 0005
BTS ShadowVezon 7: 1206

Map of the Silver Seas

Captains' Orders
I apologize for the delay in the results for this round, which was primarily due to a a trip I went on last weekend which deprived me of internet access for a couple days, and a mistake I made in my messages with one of the players. Luckily, the system for specifying multiple rounds of actions allowed for some of that lost time to be made up. If you specified more than two rounds of actions, which is the number published here, than you will not need to send me another message, unless you wish to change your destination in light of these results or specify even further ahead. Otherwise, let me know your actions as soon as you are ready!

[- JL -]

Wooo

 

Blue shall die

[Shadowhawk]

Wooo

 

Blue shall die

Seconded. *beats loudly on drum*

 

Death! Death! Death to Blue Team!

[Burnmad]

Do your worst, and be glad I've no flamethrowers on my ship.

 

-

[Constructelf]

Wooo

 

Blue shall die

Thy overconfidence shall betray you in the end.

[Underscore]

Thy Bionicle trash-talking is difficult

[Toarobot18]

Round 4: Treasure!
As it happened, Fishers64 and Blade both reached the highest point of the first barren island right at exactly the same time, both with flag in hand. They stared at each other for a brief moment, and then plunged their flagpoles into the sand.

"THUD."

The two captains looked at each other in wonder and surprise! Both of their flagpoles had gone a single inch into the sand before striking something hard. Could it be that this island was covered with rock, with just a thin layer of sand on top? No, the wind would have exposed some to the eye. This could only mean one thing. Obviously, their twin flagpoles had struck upon buried treasure!

The captains stooped over to begin digging, but thinking better of it, they delegated the chore to some nearby crew members. Shoveling away the sand, the crew members revealed a large metal chest onto which was taped an ancient treasure tablet.

The tablet read, in ancient matoran scroll:

"ON THIS ISLAND BE
HIDDEN KANOHI
POWERFUL STAFFS
MYSTERIOUS SPEARS
DECEPTIVE KANOKA
FANCY LAUNCHERS
AND YE OTHER STUFF.
BEWARE BEWARE.
NOTE YE WELL
THERE BE TEN
CARGO HULL UNITS
OF TREASURE
ON THIS ISLAND BE.
NOT BE THERE MORE.
NOT BE THERE LESS.
GOODBYE."

At once the captains ordered the chest opened, in which they found one hidden kanohi and two mysterious spears. Upon removing the treasure chest, they discovered another treasure chest buried underneath it. Under that one, they found another. In fact, it was treasure chests all the way down. Without delay, the two captains ordered as much treasure as could fit in their ships' hulls to be mined and brought back to the ships. This order was carried out without delay too, and soon both ships with full of deceptive kanoka and fancy launchers, although Red Lightning carried twice the load of the Fishing Boat. Normally, a captain would worry about traveling the open seas with so much valuable cargo. But the two ships would not be without protection. RTS Marauder 5 had just arrived. . .


As the giant cargo ship, BTS Harvest 5, was anchoring in the bay of the other barren island, Captain Canis of the Iron Wolf was on top that other barren island's highest point, making a discovery very similar to that Blade and Fishers64 had made on the first barren island. This is not particularly surprising, for as I stated earlier, the two islands were exactly the same. So the fact that the flagpole belonging to the Brave Flag of Blueity made the same "THUD" noise as did the Scarlet Banners' should not be very shocking. But when Canis ordered the sand removed, he found something quite different from Blade and Fishers64. This was the message, well-glued to the top of his treasure chest, and written in matoran writing of a long forgotten age (the writing, itself, I hasten to explain, was not forgotten, lest you think I am committing a critical error in plot design):

"O Wandering Sailor who Sails the Silver Seas,
Forget not how the Great Beings Perifhed on this Very fpot.
Here was many the villain flain, who dared to Try and fteal the treafures of Purity and wing-ed Beauty.
Be thou a Virtuous Makuta? Be thou a Turaga of untarnifhed Manlinefs?
Then lift up the lid of this Cheft.
And lift up the lid of the others.
And lift up all lids
And"

Here the writing became difficult to read, but in all probability, nothing of too much importance was lost. Luckily, he was able to make out one more portion, halfway down the tablet:

"Will thou feek out treafure to fill each bit of thy fhips' hated hollow hulls?
Not fhall thee be rewarded more than ten times over.
For treafure here does not dwell in units more than ten.
Nor does it dwell in units lefs than"

Here it cut out again. We may never know what else the great being meant to say. Anyway, I will be brief, since you are doubtlessly lamenting that loss to history, and only say that Canis hastily ordered his ship's hull filled with the treasures of Purity and winged Beauty.


Back on the other half of the map, a Red Team captain was on the was about to make an important discovery. As Captain -JL- approached the mighty cliffs of—

Say, is it past midnight? TO BE CONTINUED.

Location of Allied and Enemy Ships
RTS Space Yark Doge of Destiny 1: 0717
RTS Ultra Glacier 2: 1227
RTS Red Lightning 3: 1220
RTS Maskswift 4: 1020
RTS Marauder 5: 1220
RTS Heartlight 6: 1619
RTS Fishing Boat 7: 1220

BTS Incendiary 1: 0808
BTS Kakama 2: 0710
BTS Iron Wolf 3: 1210
BTS Black Takea 4: 0708
BTS Harvest 5: 1210
BTS Metal Gear RAY 6: 0106
BTS ShadowVezon 7: 1208

Reports of Treasure
The island at 1220 had 10 treasure on it to start. It now has 7 left.
The island at 1210 had 10 treasure on it to start. It now has 9 left.
RTS Red Lightning 3 mined and now carries 2 treasure.
RTS Fishing Boat 7 mined and now carries 1 treasure.
BTS Iron Wolf 3 mined and now carries 1 treasure.

Map of the Silver Seas

Captains' Orders
Hear ye, hear ye! There will be a deadline of 48 hours for this round! If I do not get an action from you within that time frame, sent as a response to your "Silver Seas: NAME" message chain with me, then your ship may not have an action for the upcoming round! If you believe you have already sent me instructions that will cover the upcoming round, double check to ensure you do not miss out.

Also, I will be editing my second post in this topic shortly, to include a new list of all the ships in the game and their cargo. This list will reflect the current status of each ship, while the list in the rules post with reflect each ship's status when first launched. That way, if you lose some guns in battle, you can refer to my first post to see your ship's former glory and plan for your ship's repair, while you can refer to my second to see how many guns you have left and how much treasure you are carrying.

 

EDIT: RTS Heartlight 6 should have been at 1619, not 1519. The map will be has been corrected shortly.

Edited December 9, 2013 by Toarobot18

[- JL -]

I just realized the island charted at 1515, 1514, 1614 and 1615 leans towards Blue team.

[Canis Lycaon]

We Blue team ships are losing! YAY!

 

But the Red's advantage shall not last.

[- JL -]

Our redvantage will exist for ever.

[Trijhak]

Arrogance is not going to make us win.

 

Our advantages are not infinite, and right now while the two sides have not yet made contact with the alien life they regard as each other, we soon will.

[fishers64]

The crew members of the fishing boat are complaining because of slack in posting what was supposed to be a 48-hour round.

[Burnmad]

Well, you know, it's been just under 47?

 

Edit: Ah, never mind, that was 12 AM, not PM.

 

-

Edited December 11, 2013 by Burnmad: Toa of Emoticons

[Toarobot18]

48 hours is the amount of time I gave to send actions in, and does not include compilation time on my part. The results will be published in the next several hours, and in this post, unless someone else posts again.

[Canis Lycaon]

THIS IS A FILLER POST SO TOAROBOT18 DOES NOT HAVE TO EDIT HIS POST.

[Toarobot18]

Round 5: Treasure Found at Largest Island!
From the deck of the mighty RTS Space Yark Doge of Destiny 1, Captain -JL- of the Red Team eyed the mighty cliffs of a giant island, far larger than either of the two little sandy ones I have already already described. Here, he thought, there is bound to be treasure, and a lot of it.

The Space Yark had anchored near a sandy beach to the right of the mighty cliffs, for as Lerahk had advised, "grunt grunt growl grunt," which roughly translates to, "no one buries treasure in rock." He was actually wrong about that, but we shouldn't worry ourselves with that. -JL- ordered a mining expedition be sent out right away, and they soon returned with astounding news.

"O Captain! My Captain! We've found treasure galore!"

"Tell me then, sailors, what treasure is in store?"

"There are twenty-five treasures, the tablet did say!"

"Why, that is a bounty! It quite makes my day!"

Actually, their verbal exchange wasn't anything like that and didn't rhyme. But seeing as -JL- commanded his ship in a very matter-of-fact and unperturbed sort of way, that was more entertaining to write. The point is, there were twenty-five units of treasure on that island. I say "were," because the expedition had returned with boats laden with three of them, enough to fill the Space Yark's hull. As -JL- was admiring the load they had retrieved, the lookout suddenly shouted out.

"I see a ship! A ship is coming!"

Because the ship was traveling from the direction of the Red Team lands, her arrival was probably nothing to fear. Still, -JL- ordered the treasure hastily stored away, the largest Scarlet Banner hoisted, and the gun readied. Soon the ship came into view, and it too flew the Scarlet Banner.

"It's Maskswift!" cried the lookout. "I see Maskswift!"

This was somewhat of a surprise to -JL-, as he had not been expecting another ship to arrive anytime soon. It was a good surprise, though, for RTS Maskswift 4 was better armed, and while -JL- would not have said so with a crew member nearby, he was a little uncomfortable sailing without escort so far from their homeland.

He might have been more uncomfortable had he known that as his sailors were busy hunting and digging for treasure, a Blue Team ship had arrived on the other side of the island. It was the BTS Kakama 2, and while the Kakama alone would be no great threat, the Black Takea and Incendiary were not too far behind. . .


Back near the first little sandy island, the Fishing Boat and Red Lightning had already pulled up their anchors and left with their treasure. Normally, they might not have been so rushed about things, but the crew of the Fishing Boat had complained so much that both captains were eager to leave the island and head back home as soon as possible.

The Marauder did not follow them. After some heated discussion, the three captains had resolved that the best thing to do was to keep the Marauder there to guard their treasure claims. So the Marauder remained, anchored right off the beach, guns at the ready.

From that sandy island's counterpart on the Blue Team side of the map, the BTS Iron Wolf had also headed back out to sea. The Harvest was still there, and her crew were all hard at work. The Harvest could hold five units of treasure, and Toa Onaku was making quite sure every last cranny was packed. The firepower of the Iron Wolf had been replaced at the island by that of BTS ShadowVezon, coincidentally captained by ShadowVezon, who had anchored his ship nearby just as the Harvest began mining.

Location of Allied and Enemy Ships
RTS Space Yark Doge of Destiny 1: 0717
RTS Ultra Glacier 2: 1226
RTS Red Lightning 3: 1224
RTS Maskswift 4: 0717
RTS Marauder 5: 1220
RTS Heartlight 6: 1616
RTS Fishing Boat 7: 1225

BTS Incendiary 1: 0810
BTS Kakama 2: 0713
BTS Iron Wolf 3: 1408
BTS Black Takea 4: 0710
BTS Harvest 5: 1210
BTS Metal Gear RAY 6: 0208
BTS ShadowVezon 7: 1210

Reports of Treasure
The island at 0717 had 25 treasure on it to start. It now has 22 left.
The island at 1210 had 10 treasure on it to start. It now has 4 left.
RTS Space Yark Doge of Destiny mined and now carries 3 treasure.
BTS Harvest 5 mined and now carries 5 treasure.

Map of the Silver Seas

Captains' Orders
Once again, I request that, if possible, you would have your orders in within forty-eight hours. However, please note that I expect to be exceptionally busy over the next several days, so it is quite possible the round will actually take longer than that, maybe even by a day or two.

 

By the way, if anything looks weird or missing in this post, I ran into issues with the coding, so that's probably why.

[Underscore]

Maskswift has mysteriously disappeared from the map

[Toarobot18]

What do you mean, Captain Oryx?