[LTUAE - the game, Part 3] Secondary Goals. The secondary goal of LTUAE is to acquire net.friends and charisma. The person with the most net.friends (when Gerry finally goes mad) wins the game. In the case of two or more players getting the same number of net.friends, the person with the least number of net enemies will win. Similarly, if multiple players have the same highest number of net.friends, and the same number of net.enemies, then the person with the most charisma will win. If you lose too much charisma, you lose net.friends, and gain net.enemies. A person with no charisma is unlikely to have any net friends. You can also battle against other players rather than just 'The Gerry' - each person has their own 'sanity points' [100 each], and they are rendered insane/impotent if their sanity count recedes to between 3 and 11 points [randomly chosen]. A person who has lost more than 75% of their sanity points will no longer be allowed to use addons/powerups. The rules are similar to those governing 'The Gerry', except that the 'I'm leaving!' rule will immediately and permenantly wipe out a player - who will be confined to his or her room until the game is complete. Players who wipe out other players may collect all unused bonus points, but any addons the defeated player had, are not available to the victor. Bonus Points, Addons, Power-ups and Saving Throws. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The game is made somewhat easier with the addons and power-ups. Unfortunately, as a raw newbie, you don't have any addons available, and you must amass bonus points in order to purchase them from the regional Fidonet coordinator. Bonus points can cascade around your ears, or be as elusive as unicorns. The way you play the game *will* affect how well you fare in collecting bonus points. Bonus points can be cashed in for addons at the start of a day's mail session. Addons do not appear until the next mail session, when they are available for immediate use. Current addons and power-ups include Item I Cost I Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ V32Bis Card - 10 bp Increase your baud rate to 9600! Get an early start on getting those messages out. Minutes can make the difference between a coup and a complete flop! Bamboozler - 5bp Enables you to infect up to five messages in any one day with 'Bamboozle magic'. Each bamboozled message will reduce, or rend inappropriate, a response from any computer simulation. Doesn't affect 'The Handlinger' or 'The Rimmer'. TNT Registration 20bp With the registered version of TNT, you're able to quote better, and your individual message length limit it upped to 12Kbytes. Your session limit is also increased so that you can call twice per day! This power-up lasts the entire game (Unless pinched by by The Dac) UUENCODER/ 3bp Most useful for sending encoded files UUDECODER to net.friends, and similarly clued up froods. Stops 'The Heppell' dead in it's tracks. Has been rumoured to cause consternation with other simulants too! Macquarie Dictionary 3bp Stops pedants. Only useful for newbies, and actively reduces the number of messages that oldbies can post, by 10% per day. Friend of 10bp Allows you to get the Sysop to The Sysop badge. screen your messages for a single day, and avoids unpleasant confrontations - you get to decide which messages you won't get. Limited to 10 messages in any one day, and only has a 1/3rd chance of working when invoked. Dupechecker 10bp Excellent for when the MessageMonster comes to town. Can cut the MM down to size in a single day. Once used against the MessageMonster, it is rendered useless. Zen Mysticism 100bp Allows you to see the stats of up to ten players in a single mail session. Check out their net.friends, net.enemies, sanity points, bonus points, addons, and their current message stats. Reusable until revoked. This is a very useful item, and almost compulsory to win the game! Capricious 5bp Cancel someone elses message. Cancellation Can only be used once, and the message writer is informed that their message was destroyed. (But not who did it!) Cannot be used to destroy any of the standard LTUAE simulations messages, but can destroy messages addressed TO those simulations. Excellent value for money. Chicanery Star 5bp Send a message as another user to any other user! Other players cannot detect any difference between your forgery and the real thing - but the computer LTUAE simulations aren't fooled by these messages. Excellent for stirring up a dull game, or getting your own back after middling defeats in energetic arguments. 6 Pack of 12bp These are phantom players who are Coruscating designed to be complete lamers, whom Newbies! you, with your inner knowledge, can set up, and slaughter without fear of retribution. Just the thing for building up your echo-presence, and working up to Oldbie status. 14" Rotary 2bp A spellchecker for those times Debugger when only 'perfect' will do. Single one-shot usage, definitely no refills. Sensayuma 4bp Stops 'The Rod' in his tracks. There is a limit to how many addons and power-ups you can have at any one time. This limit is essential random, but you'll know when the computer sez 'Tshk, too much cheating', and your least expensive addon/power-up is vaporised. Saving throws are made with a six sided die. 1-3 means failure to connect. A four or a five is success, and a six entitles you to roll again. The computer has the die [ROLLDIE.COM, in C:\], and each roll result will be posted echowide for all to see. Some notes on the MessageMonster. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Sandy can invoke the MessageMonster, in fact, she invokes it everyday, whether or not she wants to, and loses 30% of her incoming mail, and 30% of her outgoing mail. She can direct the MessageMonster onto any other player, including other computer simulations. The MessageMonster, once sicced upon your computer, will cause between one and ten days worth of complete havoc. You have no control over what the MessageMonster will do, and the best course of action is to lay low for a while until the Monster leaves. A small MSDOS utility program called 'AMISAFE.COM' is available to inform you if your computer is currently infected. WARNING, the MessageMonster can, and regularly does, infect multiple players at the same time! Watch out you don't pull out of an alliance due mainly to the antics of the unpredictable MessageMonster. Owning a Dupechecker will remove the bad old MessageMonster in a day, but that day's mail [incoming and outgoing] is still likely to be affected. Be prepared. Some notes on EmilyPostNews ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The concept is a direct-rip-off from David Brin's _Earth_. A group of hackers concoct a style-daemon which sends reprimanding messages to posters of ill-formed, or ill-meant messages. In LTUAE, EmilyPostNews is weiled by The Val, and causes any affected player to lose mail posting ability for two turns. Acquiring Bonus Points. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Write nice fairy-floss messages to 'The Byrne' a lot, and do things that attract the attention of The Heitman. Notice the inbuilt limitation of The Byrne, and the catastrophic affects of overtaxing the resource - The Dac really does remove all addons, and that can be a crushing blow to sycophants of The Byrne. Get stuck into 'The Gerry', it is the one 'enemy' you know you can trust to do the wrong thing. Manouver, wheedle, cajole, and generally hassle the simulation as much as you can. Thirty messages from one person is far more effective than a similar number of messages spread out between many users. And be wary of having too many users attacking the Gerry at once - its attention seeking algorithm will start to strengthen its resolve to persevere. If you think you can counter the questions of The Handlinger, then you may want to challenge it. Those who attack Spewbabe unprovoked are just looking for trouble. Most of the simulations should begin posting within the first 14 days of the game, excepting _The Rod_, but that isn't a great loss. It is rumoured that there is another simulated player in the game, called the HVG persona. It's behaviour is largely unknown, and you would be well advised to sit back and observe, before rushing into an encounter where you come off second best. Take special care to note the Statistician's messages; with judicious application, the figures will prove invaluable to your quest. TWILTUAE and The Solo perform important functions, and should not be taunted. Undefined results can occur if these usually benign simulations are attacked. /// [end of LTUAE RPG Rules] Dac