The MVL Rulebook

Published on October 19, 2007 By Mumblefratz In Metaverse

This is where we will keep all the rules used for the Metaverse League (MVL). The point is to have a single place where all rules are defined and so there's a single place where people can refer to resolve all question.

I will continually update this OP to reflect the current state of rules that we have all agreed to. The point is to make this as simple and concise as possible. As we have seen argument and upset occurs when different people have different interpretations of what has been agreed. Keeping these rules as simple and short as possible will help reduce potential conflict.

Rule 1) Rule changes are not allowed in the middle of a round. If an unanticipated situation develops in the middle of a round all effort should be made to deal with it as consistently as possible based on current rules and precedent. In the hopefully rare cases this is not possible the Commissioner will make an arbitrary ruling on how the matter will be resolved for the current round. Once the round is over then the issue can be revisited and a more permanent solution can be decided by the members of the League. Note that this arbitrary ruling can only be made by the Commissioner. Also the Commissioner is the only person that can grant an exception to any rule, but this power should be used judiciously.

Rule 2) Team Size. People may join the League and start playing at pretty much anytime. In the middle of a round a new player should be randomly assigned a new team by either the Commissioner or Vice Commissioner. The only limitation is that at any point in time no team should have more than one more player than any other team.

Also people may have to announce that they can't submit during a round. This can be treated using the scoring rules related to non-submission or if it's early in the round the teams could be re-balanced by the Commissioner. The decision to re-balance or not, and if so who to move, is soley the decision of the Commissioner.

The ideal team size is 5 since it provides some protection against an unforeseen non-submittal without being too unweildly. Team size at the beginning of a round should never be less than 4 or more than 6.

Rule 3) Honor System. Each round of play consists of a game (or games) of randomly selected settings and victory conditions. Very few of the required settings can be verified, namely galaxy size and victory condition. The fact that all other settings cannot be verified requires the league to operate on the honor system.

From time to time various versions of the game may exhibit a bug that temporarily allows some particular exploit. When and if this happens people should make sure the league is aware of the situation but no rule will be made to prohibit the particular exploit other than the same honor system that ensures everyone is playing the same game.

A final point about the honor system is that abuse of the honor system doesn't debase a single game played by a single player but debases every game played by every player. When seen in this light I'm sure that no one would be tempted to risk shaking the foundation of the league just to gain a miniscule benefit by intentionally bending a setting or rule. Also everyone should realize that honest mistakes do happen and if occasionally someone makes a mistake in a required game setting that it's no real big deal.

A corollary to the fact that only galaxy size and victory condition can be verified, along with the practice of taking a game submitted to the metaverse but not submitted to the league as a persons "intended" league submission, results in the rule that people should not have games submitted to the metaverse under their league character that might be confused with a legitimate league game. Note that clearly once a player has made a submission for the current round there can be no such confusion.

Honor System Addendum

The deliberate and determined use by a Player, with full knowledge and intent, of repeatedly and excessively, exploiting bugs, quirks, or other miscellanea in a game to achieve an outcome not normally possible is hereby prohibited in the MVL.

Rule 4) Reported Difficulty Levels and Race Customization in MVL Games

Every MVL player is honor bound to ensure that the effective difficulty of any game they submit is accurately represented by the games posted difficulty. To support this requirement the following guidance is provided.

External modification of any game related files are prohibited in MVL games.

In-game modification of opponent characteristics is prohibited in MVL games. The only choices allowed are the selection of opponents from among the default standard races and default custom race and the selection of their difficulty levels.

All opponent starting relations must be set to "Unknown".

DA games must be set to Allow Surrenders.

Rule 5) MVL Member Behavior

In the case where a MVL member has been found to be cheating, being overly disruptive, or detrimental to the League in some form, the commissioner is free to levy the following punishments as he deems necessary and appropriate. Such punishments may include; the loss of a team Captaincy or other MVL Administrative Position, the loss of the Player's points earned in a particular Round, forcing the Player to sit out a Round, or any other temporary punishment deemed appropriate.

For anything deemed worthy of a permanent ban from the league then besides the recommendation of the commissioner it should also require the consensus of the captains and other MVL administrators to make the ban permanent. Once banned then continued disruption of MVL threads and activities will be appropriately reported to forum authorities.

Scoring

A team's score consists of the sum of "base" scores plus individual and team bonus points.

Base Score

A player's base score is simply 2 points for a win of the designated type, 1 point for a win of the wrong type and 0 points otherwise. A team’s base score is the sum of the four top player base scores submitted. This is done so that a team having more players has no advantage over a team with fewer players.

There are two types of rounds that are treated slightly differently. One is a “Single Victory” type round where all players play for the same victory condition. The other is an “All Victories” type round where each team must submit at least one game of each of the 4 different victory types.

Non-Submission

In the Single Victory round if a player neglects to submit a game then there is no issue as long as the team still has at least four other players that submitted a game. However, if the team only had four players to begin with then they would be missing one potential contribution to the team’s base score. If this non-submission is pre-announced (this is highly encouraged), then either the Commissioner or Vice Commissioner may randomly select another member of the team to submit another game to count towards the teams base score.

In the case where no notice is given, if the player has a single game that fits the rounds criteria as to date, galaxy size and victory condition posted to the Metaverse but not yet submitted to the league then that game will be presumed to be submitted "automatically" to the league during the last minute of the round. If there are more than one qualifying game posted to the metaverse under the players MVL character than the game with the highest score/year ratio will be the game submitted to the league. If two or more games have identical score/year ratios then the submitted game shall be randomly selected from these games by the commissioner or vice commissioner whichever is not a memeber of the team in question. Note that players should make sure that any games that "appear" to match the current rounds criteria posted to the MV do indeed satisfy all the current rounds criteria. This can always be accomplished by simply waiting until your official has been made before posting a game to the MV that might otherwise be confused with the current MVL game.

In the case where no notice is given, and if other members of the team have other games that satisfy the round’s criteria that have already been submitted to the metaverse then either the Commissioner or Vice Commissioner may randomly select one of these games to count towards the teams base score. In this case the team should identify *all* such games that satisfy the round’s criteria for possible selection not simply the *best* such game.

If the non-submission is not pre-announced and the team has no “extra” qualifying games then the team gets credit only for the number of base scores properly submitted.

Note that a team of 5 players with two players that failed to submit a game would be in a similar situation as described above and the same rules apply. The same is true with 6 players and 3 non-submissions, etc. It is also possible for a team to be more than one submission short of the required total of 4 in which case the same rules can be applied to possibly allow the team to make up for more than one non-submission.

Finally these same rules apply in the case of an All Victories round but with an extra qualification. This extra requirement is that in an All Victories round each team is required to submit at least one game of each victory type. In this case the team may be required to use an “extra” game as described by the rules above that duplicates the victory type of an already submitted game. In this case for base scoring purposes that game would have to be considered a 1 point victory of the wrong type. Note that such a game could still receive individual and team bonus points based on the correct victory category.

Individual Bonus Points

In the case of a Single Victory round a single bonus point is granted for the 4 top scoring games and the 4 fastest games.

In the case of an All Victory round a single bonus point is given to the top score and the fastest game in each of the 4 different victory conditions.

The fastest games are determined by the number of years reported by the metaverse. Game speed ties are broken by score and score ties are broken by speed. Any games tied in both speed and score will be left unbroken and both players will receive the identical bonus.

Team Bonus Points

All team bonus points are based on the average of the team’s submitted games. Just as in the individual bonus point case only wins of the correct type are counted. The 1st place team receives 2 points and the 2nd place team receives 1 point in the following categories.

Team Score

Team Speed (speed of game reported by metaverse)

Team Submission (number of days into the round before game is submitted to the league)

Any teams tied in any team bonus category receive the same bonus. However, any fractional result is not subject to rounding and any tie must be exact.

MVL Voting Rules

1. Any MVL member can call for a vote among any number of competing proposals which must be seconded by two other MVL members to be considered official.

2. All votes will occur in the Galciv II Metaverse Leagues forum at the Core and notice must also be given in the current MVL Round thread.

3. All votes should run for a period of time specified in the OP of the voting thread. This period should be no shorter than 1 week or longer than 3 weeks. It's encouraged but not required that votes should be completed before the start of the next round of play if at all possible.

4. A valid vote requires participation by at least 50% of active MVL members. An abstention counts as participation. A proposal requires 60% or more of the cast ballots to be accepted. If less than 60% is achieved by any one proposal there will be a runoff between the two most popular options. The winner of the runoff will be the proposal that achieves a simple majority of votes cast with no quorum requirement.

5. Editing of your vote is allowed although any changes should be made in such a way as to make it obvious that a change has occured.

6. Once the time specified for the vote expires the thread will be locked to maintain an accurate record of the vote. The results of any vote are final and can only be changed by a subsequent official MVL vote.

Rules accepted by Consensus

From time to time minor issues may crop up that may not warrent the full attention of the League. In such cases a limited number of members may discuss the issue and come to some agreement. As long as no member of the league voices any objection to such an agreement and as long as such an agreement has been posted in a prominent thread (the current round thread or the MVL Rule thread) for a period of one week then that rule will be considered to be "official" by the league.

Besides any MVL member voicing an objection to the proposed rule, thereby invalidating the proposal, any member could also move to have a vote taken on the proposal which, as specified in our voting rules, requires a vote be taken as long as the motion is seconded by two other MVL members.

Last update Mar 28, 2008. Added Race Configuration Rule and Honor System Addendum

Comments (Page 19)

271

PlayJeff45

on Mar 05, 2008

Strawdogs being banned seems to be the best bet, as for screenshots, Everybody is quite trustworthy on that. Besides we want to encourage more people to come aboard.

272

Mumblefratz

on Mar 05, 2008

There are possibly other ideas that have been brought up. Ferrel mentions the idea of specifying the race as part of the game configuration. It's an idea but I'm not sure how practical it is. To be DL/DA agnostic that would restrict races to the DL races only.

Also the idea is to keep everyones game similar but not identical. Certainly that could be another way to play this is for one person to check out a game and save it and then everyone play that identical game. But there are many problems with this idea as well. How do you handle different difficulties. Certainly only one of these games can be submitted to the MV.

The league is clearly a compromise between the desire for each player to play *similar* games but still leave some level of player input into configuration as well. Certainly good play will beat bad play with identical setups but isn't it also part of the game to intelligently use racial ability points, political party selection, race selection as well as in game strategy? In fact as we've seen there is no one best racial, ability and party choice because the best choices in these categories will go hand in hand with what your in game strategy will be.

I have thought that a shared game start for individual tournaments would be an interesting idea to implement but not within the context of the MVL.

I'd still like to hear input from others in the league that haven't yet shared their feelings but from what I'm seeing I don't see any real support for eliminating this practice although I do see some willingness to say that it should be prohibited for opponents.

For those that truly dislike this that might not seem like much of a concession but like I said we can if folks wish push this to a vote and see how that works out but my guess of the outcome of that vote would most likely end up with no change whatsoever.

I'd hate to lose even a single member over this issue so please if anyone feels strongly in either direction over this issue you need to let us know if this proposed compromise helps at all.

273

FireBender

on Mar 05, 2008

Sorry I've been on hiatus for awhile but just wanted to say something on the matter rather then nothing.

Straw Dogs, thats obviously an advantage.
As for ARC, although I wouldn't say that it is not an advantage, its certainly not a be-all end-all advantage or even a very big one at that.. How you play, come up with the best way to use an ARC, spend your money, etc is still up to you.
...But as for advantage over DL, just as much advantage as inherent race abilities and SAs provide but as you all know there are drawbacks to DA too.

For those that truly dislike this that might not seem like much of a concession but like I said we can if folks wish push this to a vote and see how that works out but my guess of the outcome of that vote would most likely end up with no change whatsoever.

I confess I use ARC most of the time and so would be expected to vouch for it, but I wouldn't say this calls for a vote. Anyway, I'll go with the Silver on this. Whichever way the league decides, I'll go with that.

274

KzintiPatriarch

on Mar 05, 2008

I dont have a very strong opinion one way or the other. Originally I said that I thought editting the raceconfig files should not be allowed, but after seeing that you can only change a few things, I dont view it as a problem. My initial reply was based more on my experience with computer games over the last 20 years, where on occassion I have gone and screwed around with the game files in circumstances where I thought the game was grossly unfair or the parameters made the game not very fun. Mostly though, I refrain from doing that because I generally like to experience the game as it was intended. X-Com and Colonization are two games that immediately come to mind where I did edit the game files...for X-Com I made it so my soldiers actually had some skills to begin with, and werent just cannon fodder!

I havent editted anything with GalCiv2, because there are so many options with setup and strategy within the game, that for myself I dont feel the need to take that step.

I'm usually for minimizing rules, so taking that into account too, I dont see any need for an additional rule.

Sentient species taste better...

275

Silverbeacher

on Mar 05, 2008

Ah yes, we did talk about the setting of Relations; though i think we had agreed to that they should always be set to Unknown. Anyhow, I'm for that.

I do have to agree with Neilo that its kinda an all or nothing scenario. Even in DL you can choose weaker opponents and drop their abilities (esp. since in DL few abilities are actually inherent, which means stock races can actually be weaker in DL vs DA).

But...that being said, even that I don't see as big of an issue as some are. On the highest difficulties the AI, with any race or ethical choice or personality, is still going to out colonize you, out research you, and out produce you. They are still getting their 300% (?) bonuses not withstanding and they still use the most advanced logarithms.

And you start looking at your lower difficulty levels, the AI is hamstrung anyhow.

I don't necc. agree with using straw man opponents, but I don't really see it as a huge benefit to the player either.

I think that this game is remarkably well balanced and the AI is incredible and the little things we do aren't gonna make that big of a difference one way or another.

276

Sole Soul

on Mar 05, 2008

Admittedly, I don't play Metaverse, and I'm not in the MVL, but Mumble may remember my comments in the thread he linked, and I feel this may be an appropriate place to insert my opinion on it as well. If not, well, feel free to disregard it.

I understand that ARC is possible within the confines of the code, but it seems to me that it shouldn't be; that is, it was unintended. It makes sense that if it was intended, it would be doable from within the game itself.

I like having ARC, and I've come to use it, here and there, but I would prefer not to have it, as that would, in my mind, make the game more fair. It also seems to rob the playstyles the super abilities support from a given race and, in essence, give them to every race, which makes the game not unlike DL, where every race is almost the same. This is one reason I like TA, as the races are more clearly defined. Admittedly, you can get around this with a custom, but then again, with a custom you can't have -everything- you want, either. A prime example of this would be that most if not all of the stock races have more than the 200 or whatever it is RP worth of starting techs.

As I see it, the problem is simply this: with a custom, I can't get everything I want. With ARC, I can. Maybe this means I should want more? I don't know. It's just my take on it.

I'm aware I'm concentrating primarily on the super ability here, even though other things, for instance home system, can be changed, but in my mind that's the biggest one, and to be honest I think you're all crazy (in a good way!) for the home systems you choose anyway. In all honesty, though, one of my primary problems with ARC is that the MV does not show any of the things that have been changed. So you see someone got score X in Y years on difficulty Z in a size D galaxy with say the Krynn, but you don't know that they slapped Super Hive on them and changed the home system to, for instance, New Iconia.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, per se, other than my above points, but doesn't it make you look at the game differently, from a strategy point of view?

Admittedly, the MV doesn't show random to abundant values for planets/stars/etc, either, but that would seem to be less relevant to the MVL, as most of you, if not all of you, play by the same set of "rules" in that regard, per round.

I see that most of you don't see it as that big of a deal, and that simply means that the stock races aren't all that bad to begin with. Which brings me to the issue of whether it should be specified that you must play against the Drengin rather than the Iconians. I'm sure we would all agree that the gap between the Drengin and the Iconians is far smaller than the gap between the Iconians and a straw man. I mean, at least the Iconians get two extreme environments, right? (Wow, two defenses of the Iconian super ability on the forums in a day...how much weirder can this day get? Note-the first one wasn't me.)

As for the straw man/straw dog issue, it should seem simple enough to specify that in an MVL game you must use stock opponents. One of the selling points of the AI is that it can intelligently choose its customization point attributes/etc, so why anyone would bother trying to choose for the AI, I don't know-other than of course the straw man example, but even that is stretching it.

And, as Mumble has noted, any rule that does come up via this discussion will most probably simply be enforced by the honor system.

With all of that said, if the MVL does keep (?) ARC legal, I would personally prefer it if people could specify that they've changed things. I don't really care what color your ships are, but if you've put Super Dominator on the Torians, that's something I'd like to know. It'd also be hilarious. Not saying it should be a rule, but I'm not saying it shouldn't, either.

Just my 2bc, and, again, take it as what you will, since I don't even play here.

277

Mumblefratz

on Mar 05, 2008

Thank you for your input and yes I remember your comments in that thread and as well as that you came up with the formula for the cost of building upgrades.

In any case comments from non-MVL members are appreciated.

Also I'd be lax if I didn't say that you should give some thought to the metaverse in general and to the MVL specifically. We generally have a great time playing games that we would probably not choose to select if left up to ourselves. It also gives you an interesting thing to look forward to each month and really requires a very small time commitment.

However I do have to warn you that this can become addictive and you could find yourself playing 10 games just to polish up a particular strategy. In any case whether or not this interests you now keep it in mind because it may appeal to you later.

278

Mumblefratz

on Mar 05, 2008

Ah yes, we did talk about the setting of Relations; though i think we had agreed to that they should always be set to Unknown. Anyhow, I'm for that.

That's how I remember it as well, although I guess I negleted to write it down at the time. Also on a similar vein we did take a vote and decide that DA should have "Surrenders always Allowed" which is a default settings thing as well so these two things are in a similar category. Finally if some rule comes out of this current discussion even if it's only to prohibit ARC for opponents it falls under this category as well.

In any case Silver had mentioned that he will be taking a week off in Las Vegas. I see no great rush to resolve this issue instantly and think that any resolution can await Silver's return. I'd still like to let this topic percolate a bit because I feel we really haven't heard from everyone that has strong feelings about this topic, but there's still plenty of time in the round left for this to be resolved before the start of the next round.

279

JustinSane4

on Mar 05, 2008

On the whole, I guess I would be slightly in favor of a "no straw-dogs" rule (and strongly in favor of it if the league member who raised the issue would be satisfied with this compromise). ARC is one thing, but that would seem to grant a much larger advantage, though I've never used it and so can't speak from personal experience.

Additionally, banning straw-dog AIs, in my opinion, enhances ARC. For instance, in the current game you could make a reasonable argument for a customized good Korx with good opponents. That way you'd get a diplomatic bonus and trade bonus with the other empires, who tend to be less aggressive to start with. With straw dog AIs, there are ways around this where you could just go neutral or evil for the larger benefits you could get that way, without having to worry so much about getting conquered.

I think generally something that encourages someone to consider playing as morally virtous Korx is a good thing. That's very much a subjective, aesthetic preference. An equally subjective opinion is that somehow it seems more fair to customize yourself than it is to "customize" (cripple) your opponents. I do rather feel both to be the case.

280

CraigHB

on Mar 05, 2008

Lots of perspectives on this issue. I find the flexibility granted in race selection and configuration an attractive feature of the MVL. It makes the games more interesting and encourages the use of race setup to the fullest extent. Pidgeon holeing every game into one exacting configuration would do the MVL a disservice I believe. OTOH, if a setting or a group of settings circumvent the spirit of the MVL, then it might be a good thing to rule against them.

281

PlayJeff45

on Mar 05, 2008

Thanks Sole Soul for your comments. I was'nt the one who brought this up because as I said earlier, it never occured to me. I do however agree with JustinSane4.

282

Mumblefratz

on Mar 05, 2008

To me this is one of the most compelling arguments for allowing the practice.

There are a lot of things people can do to gain a minor advantage. They are truly too numerous to name. Simply someone that plays games at both crippling and tough but only plays crippling in league games is a kind of advantage. All in all that means that some people may be playing with a bit of an advantage.

If the only point of the MVL were simply who wins and who loses then I would be more concerned about stuff like this. However the actual winning and losing and associated "bragging rights" are far down the list of reasons to play the MVL.

I think the idea that playing MVL games is simply fun should be the prime motivation and if ARC adds to someones fun then I see no harm in the practice even if it may make the player appear to be a bit better than they actually are.

Secondly the idea of playing in the MVL is a way for everyone to improve their game. Certainly the "regular" players gain valuable experience from being on teams with so-called "experts" if a modded ARC allows a "regular" player to occassionally beat an "expert" I would expect that expert to take the defeat good naturedly. The more people learn the more they enjoy the game and I do believe that virtually everyone in the MVL has improved their game and that goes for the so called "experts" as well. Everyone has gained from the league.

Thirdly the camaraderie that develops among teammates and opponents alike. Only after all of these other things would I place the importance of actually winning or losing. So if someone takes some minor liberty that lets someone that I feel is not as good a player as I am beat me, I don't feel bad about that at all. My feelings of self worth do not hinge on any requirement that I must win any competition that I enter and the value of the MVL is far greater than merely who wins and who loses.

283

CraigHB

on Mar 05, 2008

I think the idea that playing MVL games is simply fun should be the prime motivation...

That's pretty much the main motivation for me, that is the games are are really fun and don't require a huge time investment. It's also a motivator to try game settings I probably wouldn't attempt otherwise. The competition is good because it motivates you to improve your game. It's a great way to play and compete without the BS that goes on in the Metaverse and AltMeta.

284

IztokBitenc

on Mar 05, 2008

Hi!
When I entered the MVL I've read the "rulebook", but until I've recently seen posts about it, I was simply not aware that races for metaverse and MVL games can be modified outside of the game! I'm glad this is now a public knowledge, and since neilo volunteered

for changing races for those that can't, it is no more a real concern to me.

But I'm still against "straw man" opponents. I'd even suggest the commish to "prescribe" the opponents for the 8th round. I like Ferrel's suggestion about something loosely based on the mythology of the campaign. Some role-playing background for a game never fails.

BTW Sole Soul, good points!

BR, Iztok

285

Ferrel

on Mar 05, 2008

For the record, I never used ARC, but I have used straw dogs in the past. I thought I needed an advantage when making the leap from Crippling to Suicidal. Turns out that was unnecessary. If your level of play has reached the point where you can beat a straw dog on suicidal, then your game is good enough to win against stock races. Hence, I don't use straw dogs anymore. That being said I'm siding with all or nothing. Either we mandate race and opponents, or it's a free for all. If it's a free for all, anything within the rules of the Metaverse is allowed.

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