I had a rich and history with IC…
Joined in at the tail end of Alpha one… didn’t quite get the jist of the game, as it ended very shortly after I had sent out my first ships. Think I had 2 planets =) (I know, rock star!)
Due to time, I played beta one, randomed into StarStrikes family and basically watched him own the MW. But I learned a lot watching his attack styles etc, timing of attacks and waited.
Beta 2 rolled around, and I found myself leader of family 31… the lead family with Thakendar and several other notables, we teamed up with a 3 way alliance, and called ourselves the Confederation. We challenged milky way that would protect sector 2 (back then it was 3x3 sectors in size, and far more spread out than today, also systems had a random number of planets *b/w 10-20… with 12 seemingly being the norm)… StarStrikes family, with guys like Zane and allies like Gwar and supported by a large cast of other alliances, such as IC Mafia lead by mace, basically fought one of IC’s most indelible rounds. Multiple constant war saw the Confederation largely uphold our oath to protect sector 2 families, with late gains by Mace’s group in the end, where they did end up with a few systems.
Was really an amazing round, during which, I was introduced to Stefan and some elusive guy named MasterMike … gave them some ideas, which saw the launch of Chat… (and basically the end of life outside our mothers basements for some 200 of us…) .Being the first chat operator, gave way mid round to being promoted to a MOD and helped see IC round the next 6-8 rounds. I modded along side some really great people, Like Lizzy, Zane, and many more… and helped IC flourish.
The end of my playing days came about during round 6?? where I amassed a massive sum ultilzing the market. There was a fair bit of controversy over it, but 17 hrs a day of modding and playing lended itself to that success. This was the last round of the .00 market, as Stefan changed that the next round, where the process was still successful but no where near as lucrative as previous rounds. Anyhow, Stefan wanted me to delete, due to large pressure being put on him, as many players felt it was an exploit to take advantage of the market. But, after a couple hour converstation, it was agreed I would delete over 100 BILLION in assets from my account. I was still sitting on 108M Network, and larger than 90% of the families in the MW combined… But, a massive player/galaxy wide attack on me, wiped our my air, and I never recovered. I resigned at the end of the round as a mod by deleting my credentials, and have lurked for the past 13 or so years.
During the couple years I was a MOD, I saw IC go from 800 active accounts to over 22,000 in 2003… We did a purge of multi accounts and that reduced it about 20%… but, I experienced IC in its romantic era…so many people loved the game, enjoyed the company, we were like family… I remember crying for days when Tigrane past, and remember many others who have also gone before us, who loved playing this game and its community. It will always be a part of me.
Other part of the game I made notable contributions was the Pretender vs Contender threads. I did stochastic simulations on the game, using a 100x100 grid and several simple variables… Some threads had 1000s of posts as players talked about the families, who was what and where… and was widely, though not entirely, accurate. Which of course, was apart of the game the so amazing.
Anyhow, I didn’t want to write this… PIE made me do it!!
Nai
… there are probably some screen shots on the old forums, but I would stack large blocks of buys and sells above or below the market prices… and collect profit or resources on market movements. In the first couple of weeks of the round, I didn’t have enough to lock down 3-4 or more hours of the market, but, by the time expansion phase was coming to an end, I did… and as the round progress, I ended up with enough I could move the entire market up or down by whatever percentage I wanted… it was exceptionally lucrative, and so once I had “control”, I could start sending resources… thus, there were not many big blocks of aid sent out, as I was heavily invested in on the market. and Static, you remember, the market was down to the hundredth of a GC…So, to step up or down a few points was a cinch… basically everyone bought or sold to/from me while I was online… and I was online A LOT…
