Community Project: The Alternative Metaverse

Our community never fails to impress.

Published on May 10, 2007 By Zoomba In GalCiv II News

From time to time, members of our community get together and build something for Galactic Civilizations II that really impresses us. Sometimes it's a really cool graphics mod for the game's planetary textures, or maybe it's a pack of really well-done ship designs, but whatever it is, if it wows us, we figure it'll wow you folks too.

Today I'd like to shine a spotlight on the new Alternative Metaverse Project, AltMeta. As the name implies, the project and site is an alternative to the official Galactic Civilizations II Metaverse. It calculates scores differently and applies a different philosophy as to how players and games should be ranked. Here is a bit of description from the AltMeta about page:

The AltMeta was made to provide a different system of ranking from what the official metaverse does. As the scoring formula on the official metaverse keeps scores permanently, but uses a growing reduction factor based on the number of games you've submitted, it can be difficult for new players to break into the upper rankings, while frequent players find their games contributing less and less to their overall scores.

The AltMeta comes at the problem from a different direction, focusing primarily on activity. The scoring system is simple; every score you submit is worth its full value when you submit it, but scores are depreciated at an accelerated rate of 1/6 of their value every 30 days. And unlike the official metaverse, there is no lower limit on the value of a score; once six months have passed after you submit a score, it is devalued completely and ignored in the rankings and graphs.

The Alternative Metaverse was coded by GalCiv2.com Community Manager Kryo, with input and testing from community members AlexAtticus, DethAdder, G.W. Swicord, M.B.M, Macmatt, MarshallOneil, Mumblefratz, Quixen, Syrrus K, Thagee, TheGreatEmperor, and Vukasika. It's impressive work and these folks deserve a big round of applause for pulling this off.

Click the link below to check out the AltMeta system, and click here for the forum post describing it and how it works in greater detail.

Comments

Wheeloffire

on May 10, 2007

Fantastic. Can we have Metaverse Scenarios now?

Mumblefratz

on May 10, 2007

Fantastic. Can we have Metaverse Scenarios now?

Getting closer. Cari has provided an endgame.xml in the latest v1.6 Beta 2 build that's intended to allow the posting of non-metaverse games to some kind of game/score list.

We hope to use this functionality to support Metaverse Mods, Metaverse Scenarios and Tournaments. There are still a number of issues involved. We'd like to be able to incorporate these directly into the AltMeta but there's some concern about the lack of any kind of security in the file. We are hoping that perhaps some kind of data hash or other security could be provided. Lacking this I suspect that we'd want to keep it separate from the rest of the AltMeta data. Regardless we *will* do something with this but it remains to be seen exactly what. Certainly the first step is to understand exactly what can and cannot be done with this data and then set up some kind of infrastructure to allow the submission of games directly to the AltMeta or a separate part of the AltMeta dedicated to these functions.

This is not going to happen overnight so don't expect instantaneous results. The AltMeta in it's current state took a lot of work from a lot of people (most of them Kryo, but many other people contributed ideas) for about three months. I think this will probably be a bigger job than what's been done so far and it's just barely started. But yes, the goal is to support metaverse scenarios in whatever manner possible.

Anyway, this is a bit off the topic and purpose of this thread, but I feel it's instructive to partially address this question because it indicates that the AltMeta (like the game itself) isn't a static entity and will certainly grow over time. I really want to encourage folks in the community to get involved and to contribute their ideas and suggestions. After all the AltMeta is for the benefit of the entire GalCiv2 community.

It's also nice to see that Stardock appreciates and encourages the effort that's been expended. I'd like to take a moment to thank Stardock for their support without which none of this would be possible.

Shadowmaster King

on May 11, 2007

How do I join?

kryo

on May 11, 2007

How do I join?

Just submit games to the metaverse normally; the altmeta gathers its data off the RSS feeds on the official meta.

If your empire isn't listed (you must be in an empire of some sort), just request to be added on the altmeta help thread stickied in the metaverse forum.

You specifically weren't covered yet, so I just added you.

Wheeloffire

on May 11, 2007

Our community never fails to impress.

Zoomba, is your name Latin for "cheese"?

TheGreatEmperor

on May 12, 2007

Whooo!!

We got a community spotlight, this should help activity.

And Mumble is right we are close to getting mods and scenarios in thanks to D.A. 1.6

Mumblefratz

on May 12, 2007

And Mumble is right we are close to getting mods and scenarios in thanks to D.A. 1.6

Close? Ah, the exuberance of youth.

If by close you mean we have just started thinking seriously about how this might actually get implemented then I guess we're close.

I probably shouldn't even have mentioned it because there really is a lot that needs to be done. There is a whole different infrastructure that will be required. There are also the issues that I mentioned. The reason I mentioned it was because the specific question was asked and I wanted to make sure folks knew that we are commited to providing these features. Besides that I definitely want folks to know and understand that the AltMeta isn't a finished thing and there is plenty of need for people's continued input and participation.

Mumblefratz

on May 12, 2007

I really want to stress that the purpose of the creation of classes is specifically for the benefit of folks that prefer to take an alliance or influence victory and get on to the next game and/or folks that prefer large/medium or small/tiny galaxies. These types of games are at a serious disadvantage in the official metaverse. Giving these kinds of games their own place to compete is an attempt to address issues of 'fairness'. However, no one is making any claims to perfection. We need the input and participation of those that have been specifically turned off by the official metaverse to continue the work that we've started.

Philocthetes

on May 12, 2007

Zoomba, is your name Latin for "cheese"?

Again with the cheese=evil thing. Isn't it really a question of whether the particular cheese is ripe or foul? I've seen the same cheese (Stilton) used for a nasty-good workplace stink prank and as a way to make someone you love very happy.

Shadowmaster King

on May 12, 2007

Thanks Kyro

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