Wrath of Circe

Scott Hardie | November 26, 2012
I'm thrilled to announce that the winter 2013 event in Pirate Paradise has begun! Game on! :-)

This should last several months. This is a much more complex event than we've played before, challenging you to go through a series of steps: Evade the villain who's out to rob you, find other players somewhere in the Caribbean, defeat them in battle to steal pieces of a treasure map, use the treasure map to gain a powerful new ability in the game, and apply that ability to defeat the villain in battle. That's a lot to do, so I've put a tutorial message at the bottom of each page that I hope will keep you on the right track. Please feel free to ask any questions.

Please also let me know if you discover any apparent bugs. This turned out to be a much bigger project than I expected, a few thousand lines of code with upgrades to the game infrastructure. It wouldn't surprise me if there turned out to be an issue here or there with so much complexity written on so little sleep. :-)

I can't wait to start playing! Let the competition begin!

Steve West | November 26, 2012
What an awesome notion on the ocean! This is great - I've made one move and am super pissed that I have to wait another day for move two. I'm that excited. Niiiiice.

Chris Lemler | November 26, 2012
You really did a great job on this Scott Nice job!!!!!!

Chris Lemler | November 26, 2012
Scott it says You should sail into port to stash that money! what port are they talking about?

Scott Hardie | November 26, 2012
Thanks guys! I'm excited too! :-)

Any port will do for stashing money. Sail into any of the white dots on the Caribbean map and whatever money is on your ship will be transferred to your stash where Circe can't steal it. (Click the "ports" checkbox below the map over and over to make the dots blink. Mouseover the dots to see the name of each port.)

The game sometimes tells you to sail into port to learn information, such as the location of another player. In this case, any port will do. The only exception is that you can't sail into the same port twice in a row and learn new information; it will repeat the old information if you try that.

Erik Bates | November 26, 2012
[hidden by request]

Aaron Shurtleff | November 27, 2012
Quick question: Does it really matter which order you get the map fragments in? It has a line where it says my next goal is to get "X" part of the map (the X is illustrative, in case I don't want any of you to know what I'm going after!). Do I have to get that part of the map first, or can I pick up any part of the map?

Scott Hardie | November 27, 2012
You can pursue the map fragments in any order that you like. In the interest of simplicity, the tutorial text at the bottom of the page picks one fragment and focuses on that, but you might have a good lead on a different one that's closer to you.

Scott Hardie | November 27, 2012
I just clarified the wording in the rules about a couple of things. Allow me to be even more clear here:

When you sail ahead on the map, you will always fight any human player who you sail close to, unless you're already in battle against that person. If you sail into port, you will not face any AI opponent (Circe or merchant). You will face a merchant only if you do not sail into port and do not face any human opponent or Circe.

I would have liked to make Circe's movements random, but my tests indicated that she would likely stay in the same corner of the sea for months. I didn't want to control her myself, because I want to preserve the element of surprise for myself as a player. The best solution I could think of was to have her chase specific people across the sea until she catches them, and to enable that, have her fly over land masses that get in her way. She will pursue the most accomplished players (best win/loss ratio) in descending order until she catches them, but she will also attempt to spread her "wrath" around evenly, so that everybody gets chased and attacked the same number of times. Thus, hiding from Circe in port is only useful sometimes: If you see her nearby and you hide in port and she sails on past, then she's after somebody else and you successfully evaded her. But if it's YOU she's after, she'll park her ship just outside of port and wait for you to come out. She's evil!

Chris Lemler | November 27, 2012
I was gonna say Scott that if there is draw and nobody wins maybe if there is time you can add something like if there is a draw then both people get 5,000 for the draw if the person that gets a victory gets 10,000

Steve West | November 27, 2012
I get a sense that there's swine in my crew soon.

Scott Hardie | November 29, 2012
Apparently I chose a bad week to launch this, because I'm working most nights on a big project for my job and not getting much time to follow up. I'll try to do a few things tonight and comment as I go.

One glitch has been found and fixed: Sometimes when two player ships passed near each other and appeared on each other's maps, one's coordinates would be off slightly, leading to sightings in the wrong place. I have fixed all cases. Sorry about that.

Scott Hardie | November 29, 2012
There's now a daily reminder on Dashboard, since it can be easy to forget to keep moving your ship. There's no need to subscribe to activate it.

Scott Hardie | November 29, 2012
Another glitch has been found and fixed: Battles were starting without any techniques, as you may have noticed in the first or second battle to date. It should be resolved now for all future battles.

Aaron Shurtleff | November 29, 2012
Oh. I thought that was what was intended. heh.

Scott Hardie | November 29, 2012
Chris, I like your idea! With so many fair battles, many draws might be inevitable. In the event of a draw, each opponent will now get 2500 gold coins.

Scott Hardie | November 29, 2012
That's all for tonight. I have a few more minor improvements in mind (displaying some additional data on the event page) but they will have to wait.

Steve Dunn | December 9, 2012
Suggestion: the circles showing the area where a player might be get much too large to be useful, covering almost half the screen in some cases. Maybe consider limiting the radius to 2 or 3 days and then the circle disappears?

Scott Hardie | December 10, 2012
I agree. Originally the rings were limited to 15 days before they disappeared, then I shortened them to 12 days this morning, and just now 10 days. Let's see how that looks and maybe I'll shorten them further.

Scott Hardie | December 11, 2012
I'd still like to create really smart A.I. for the game's computer-controlled opponents when I get a chance, but in lieu of that for now, I have programmed a small change for Circe in future battles that should make up for it. Anyone that fought her already should be able to spot the change if they get into a second fight.

Chris Lemler | December 13, 2012
I have a questio about the Wrath of Circe....It says if we beat her we get 1 million for defeating Circe....If someone doesn't have all the map pieces and they have to face her do they still get the 1 million for beating her or is the million for the person that beats her at her location with all the map pieces? I think that if you don't have all the map pieces and you beat her than you should get rewarded something. Cause if she beats you she takes all of your money than the players that face her defeats her they should get something for beating the Circe. What do you think?

Scott Hardie | December 13, 2012
I would be open to some kind of bonus for beating Circe early, without finding her secret weakness using the map pieces. I didn't consider one already because doing so is nearly impossible, mathematically. I figured some ambitious player might try to promote his/her crew in such a specific way as to make that mathematically possible and try to beat her early, so that's why I put in the little warning near the end of the rules page, that it only counts to win the event and the million gold pieces if you beat Circe using her secret weakness. That's not because I'm trying to be some kind of control freak and force people to win the "right" way; I'd feel disappointed but still congratulatory if someone pulled off victory by beating Circe only a week into this thing. It's because her secret weakness is a new permanent element of Pirate Paradise that this event is designed to introduce to the larger game, and so somebody needs to get it.

I'm not going to bother editing the rules page or the battle code because I don't think anybody is going to pull this off, but here's officially offering 100k as a one-time bonus per player if they manage to beat Circe before learning her secret weakness. Let me know if it happens, because I'm not paying attention to any Circe battles but my own. (Obviously, I'm going to confirm it in the database rather than just take your word for it. :-D) Considering that it will cost you far more than 100k to promote your crew in such a way to make that possible, I hope nobody seriously considers pursuing that goal, as all you would really get are some very expensive bragging rights.

Just to be super clear in case there's any confusion: Merely having the four map pieces isn't enough to beat Circe. You gain all four, then you sail into ports until someone "recognizes" the place at sea depicted on the complete map and tells you where to take it, then you sail to that location with the complete map and follow the directions there to learn the secret.

Chris Lemler | December 13, 2012
Will Circe be fighting with the same amount like if someone as a jolly roger flag of 8 5 4 2 1 will she come to the battle with the same numbers and still be hard to beat?

Scott Hardie | December 13, 2012
That, you will have to find out for yourself by fighting her. :-)

Chris Lemler | December 13, 2012
fair enough :) Thanks Scott

Aaron Shurtleff | December 13, 2012
OK, now I have a question. The weakness is already programmed in, you say? Is it possible to accidentally stumble upon it, then, without going through the map pieces and all the rest? I would hate to do something accidentally (and I do screw up a lot) and inadvertently reveal the weakness. :(

Scott Hardie | December 13, 2012
No worries. It's something that has to be unlocked.

Scott Hardie | December 13, 2012
Extra tip if it helps: You can always go to the port URL, below, to re-read the information that you learned at the last port that you visited.

http://funeratic.com/pirate-paradise/events/wrath-of-circe/port

Steve Dunn | December 19, 2012
What's the rationale for not awarding prize money in battles between players who recently battled?

Seems to me if you've got a map fragment, players are going to keep attacking you until they get it. If you can't get any money from winning or drawing those battles, it's strictly a losing proposition - you just keep getting attacked until you lose.

Scott Hardie | December 20, 2012
The goal was to avoid two players parking themselves in one corner of the map and just playing each other endlessly, racking up 10k daily for a few months.

There are ways to minimize this. It happens if either player was the last to fight the other, when the battle begins. So, by playing a variety of opponents at once, and by timing your moves so that you end another fight in between two against the same opponent, you can reduce the frequency of this happening. That's easier said than done, and probably not worth the effort to coordinate unless this really bugs you.

Speaking just for myself, if I have a map piece and people keep trying to defeat me, I want to beat them because I want them to take that much longer to advance. I might even coordinate simultaneous battles so that, if I have to lose a map piece, I lose it to someone who is further behind and poses less of a threat in the race for the endgame.

Steve Dunn | December 20, 2012
I'm not lacking in motivation to win. I just want the loot!

Chris Lemler | December 20, 2012
I'm not gonna win I'm just having fun playing and doing the best I can :D

Matthew Preston | December 20, 2012
Does the gold in your stash count towards the "Have 500,000 gold coins" technique? Or not until the event is over?

Scott Hardie | December 20, 2012
Not until the event is over. It sounds like a bunch of us are going to accomplish that feat simultaneously.

Erik Bates | December 20, 2012
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | December 20, 2012
Maybe I should just have a feat to "win 500 gold 1000 times."

Erik Bates | December 21, 2012
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | December 22, 2012
The bottom of the progress page now lists all player-vs-player battles in this event so far, and how many times players have lost to and drawn against Circe. My thanks to Steve West for partly inspiring this with a question.

Scott Hardie | December 22, 2012
The "current objective" text at the bottom of each page is now much more specific about your next step.

Scott Hardie | January 17, 2013
Remember how I said that defeating Circe early would only earn you some very expensive bragging rights? Steve Dunn now has the right to brag. He defeated Circe today, without completing the treasure map or learning her secret weakness. It's a good thing Chris proposed that 100k bonus. :-) Steve will continue in the competition with the rest of us, trying to complete the map and defeat Circe the "right" way, but he'll have an extra 100k in his prize when the whole thing is over. Congrats Steve!

Chris Lemler | January 17, 2013
Congrats Mr Dunn Nice Job!!!!!!

Steve Dunn | January 17, 2013
Thanks Chris, especially for proposing the bonus $$ for beating Circe without the secret weakness. I probably would have tried to do it anyway, but the price certainly sweetens the deal.

Chris Lemler | January 18, 2013
Yw Steve I thought if the Circe could take money from you if she beats you then I thought that you should get an award for beating her!!!!!!!!! :)

Matthew Preston | January 19, 2013
Steve, that is not only impressive, but damn intimidating!

Scott Hardie | January 19, 2013
Several players suggested that the progress page should list players like Steve who have defeated Circe early. Now it does. Thanks for the idea. :-)

Steve Dunn | January 19, 2013
Matthew, it might be impressive, and it might be intimidating, or... it could just be lucky. I'll never tell.

Scott Hardie | January 23, 2013
Speaking of impressive and intimidating, Steve West just became the second player to beat Circe and earn a 100k bonus. My hat is off in astonishment, again.

Steve Dunn | January 23, 2013
WEST!!!!

Chris Lemler | January 23, 2013
WTG!!!! Mr West

Steve West | January 23, 2013
It's definitely harder than it looks. Hats off to Steve Dunn for being first.

Matthew Preston | January 23, 2013
I'm way out of my league here... by about 20,000 or so I'd guess. Nice job Steve W!

Erik Bates | January 23, 2013
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | January 26, 2013
Just a reminder, the site sometimes has trouble choosing two balanced crews of five, and when that happens, it will skip initiating a battle between you and another player when you sail beside one another. I made some adjustments today that should make this happen less often, but it will still inevitably happen sometimes. You can keep trying in subsequent days.

Scott Hardie | January 26, 2013
Minor (imo) rule change: You can no longer acquire the same map piece twice. If you already owned the upper-left piece, say, and you win a battle against its current owner, you can't reclaim it by defeating him. But if he also has the lower-right piece and you have not yet owned that piece, you will claim that piece.

This was the simplest way to avoid too many map pieces ending up in the hands of the same player. Right now, one player has two pieces of the map. Sooner or later, either he would win a third piece or someone with another piece would take both of his, and eventually the fourth piece would join the trio. From that point on, the set could not be broken up: Whoever defeated the current owner would gain all four at once, and instead of chasing multiple players around the sea, everyone would just chase a single player.

Preventing you from re-acquiring an old piece should help to break up the set by letting you only collect the pieces that you need. You had nothing to gain by picking up an old piece (the 100k bonus applied only the first time), except maybe screwing with other players by taking a piece they need and sailing to the far edges of the map with it, and, well, the game doesn't need that. :-)

Scott Hardie | March 19, 2013
We have a winner! At 11am this morning, Matthew Preston defeated Circe using her secret weakness, a new condition called Handicap. Congrats, Matthew! It was a long road getting here, but the million-gold-coin prize should more than make up for it.

Over the next few hour, I'll distribute the earned gold, restore "pig pirates" to their former states, and close up the Wrath of Circe page. Handicap is now a permanent part of the game, with two players having unlocked it so far (Matthew and me). I hope Matthew will join me in challenging other players with it so that everyone can play with this new condition -- all that you need to do to earn it is win a battle with it in effect.

Thanks for playing, everybody! This was a big event that went well, and turned out just like I'd hoped. It also added a map-exploration element that I hope to re-use in some future events. I hope everybody enjoyed it. :-)

Justin Woods | March 20, 2013
Congrats Matthew...

Chris Lemler | March 20, 2013
Nice job Matt well played

Scott Hardie | March 20, 2013
All prizes have been awarded. There are currently five "Wrath of Circe" battles still going with a prize on the line (Justin vs. Matthew, Justin vs. Erik, Russ vs. Justin, Chris vs. Russ, and Justin vs. Tony). I'll keep an eye on these and retroactively modify your prize winnings based on the five outcomes. Three other battles are currently underway without prizes available.

How far did everyone get?

12 players defeated a merchant: Aaron, Chris, Erik, Justin, Kelly, Matthew, Russ, Samir, Scott, Steve Dunn, Steve West, and Tony

10 players defeated other players: Chris, Erik, Justin, Matthew, Russ, Samir, Scott, Steve Dunn, Steve West, and Tony

9 players found one map fragment: Aaron, Chris, Erik, Justin, Matthew, Russ, Scott, Steve Dunn, and Steve West

8 players found two map fragments: Chris, Erik, Justin, Matthew, Russ, Scott, Steve Dunn, and Steve West

6 players found three map fragments: Justin, Matthew, Russ, Scott, Steve Dunn, and Steve West

4 players found four map fragments: Justin, Matthew, Scott, and Steve West

4 players reached the secret island depicted on the map: Justin, Matthew, Scott, and Steve West

2 players earned Handicap on the secret island by defeating its inhabitants: Matthew and Scott

1 player defeated Circe using Handicap: Matthew

2 players defeated Circe prematurely and earned a bonus: Steve Dunn and Steve West

Steve West | March 20, 2013
What a marathon! Congrats and well-played Matt.

Matthew Preston | March 20, 2013
Thanks all! With all of the unbelievable competition, I forgot what it feels like to actually win an event. I'll take credit for having the skill to beat opponents, but I was extremely lucky as well. I was just in the right place at the right time. Ironically, it also helped that I don't have a crew powerful enough to beat Circe. Getting beat by her and having crew turn into pigs is what lead to her secret weakness.

The "Handicap" condition should actually be renamed to: "How to beat Steve West".

Steve West | March 20, 2013
I think I'll take that as a compliment not having seen it. You da man!

Steve Dunn | March 20, 2013
Congratulations Matthew, and also to Scott for creating a very fun game. I'd love to hear more about the final challenge and Circe's weakness, whenever the time is right.

I wish I could have been in the mix, but Steve West had the final map piece I needed and... well... you know how that goes. I had him in my sights once but made the mistake of PUI (playing under the influence) and let it slip away...

So congrats to you, too, Steve West. You're a great competitor.

Scott Hardie | March 20, 2013
I intend to post a full summary of the storyline asap, for those wondering what happens after you complete the treasure map.

Erik Bates | March 20, 2013
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | March 22, 2013
Here's how the completed map looks:



Once you have all four pieces, you sail into ports until you find someone that recognizes the island (50% chance each port). They tell you it's a tiny island due north of San Juan and due east of St. Augustine. This explains why several players seemed to hang out in the apparently vacant northeast corner of the map in recent weeks.

When you reach those coordinates with all four map pieces, one of two things happens. If you have fewer than five pigs in your crew, you get this message:

You sail to a tiny island far to the northeast, exactly where you heard it was. You recognize from a distance that it matches all four pieces of the treasure map. After docking in the village, you depart with your crew on foot, taking a winding path around the island and up into the mountains. When you reach a narrow cave entrance, too small for a man to fit, you hear a whisper from the darkness beyond: "It is yet another product of the witch's mischievous temper that only beasts created by her foul magic can enter this grotto. If you would challenge us in battle, you must bring a crew containing at least five swine."

"You have found us at last! We invented a way to get stronger each time we lost a battle, and to make our enemies weaker each time they won. When Circe learned of this, she trapped us in this enchanted grotto, where we perished searching for a way out. But we refuse to go to Davy Jones's locker until the witch is defeated! If you can beat us in combat, you'll gain our ability to handicap future battles, and we hope you'll use it to defeat that witch once and for all! If you lose to us, just leave this island and return, and we'll be a weaker opponent next time. Try not to draw, or you'll never get anywhere. To arms!"

Scott Hardie | March 22, 2013
To be clear about the mechanics of Handicap: The number is not usually the same as the exact number of victories. Steve West has beaten me 37 times and I've only beaten him 9 times, but I won't have a +28 against him with Handicap because that would be silly.

In most cases, Handicap is based on a tenth of the percentage of wins. Steve has won 54% of the time against me. That number, minus the 13% of the time that I have won against him, and divided by ten, means I should have a handicap of +4 against him. That's a big advantage, but still surmountable given Steve's amazing skill at this game. It's the right amount to even the playing field between us. Plus, it's self-correcting: If I'm wrong and that number is too big of an advantage and Steve can't possibly beat me with it, then he's doomed to lose a few times and the +4 handicap will morph into a +3 handicap and later a +2 handicap, eventually reaching a stasis point where he can beat me sometimes and I can beat him sometimes and the game truly is balanced, which is the point.

However, the formula gets screwy when there are few previous battles to base it on. Imagine that "Joe Newbie" joins the game and Steve beats him one time. Should Joe then have a handicap of +10 against Steve in their next battle (100% - 0% / 10)? For players who have fought each other fewer than ten times, the handicap is limited to the number of previous battles regardless of outcome. After a single battle, Joe's handicap against Steve would be limited to a mere +1. That's why the handicap against the ghost pigs and Circe was able to match the previous number of losses so precisely. I just want to be clear about why Handicap won't work against players quite the same way that it worked against NPCs.

Scott Hardie | March 28, 2013
Handicap has been mildly controversial (examples: 1 2 3 4) since being introduced to Pirate Paradise. One problematic aspect of it has been the huge numerical discrepancy between affected players, which wouldn't always be so bad, but has been really egregious in certain cases. I have just now reduced the number difference to half of what it was. Handicap is meant to provide an advantage, not a virtually guaranteed win.

Let me address the other aspect of the controversy, that some players simply don't like the idea of a handicap, by discussing my inspiration. It was nothing fancy, just an old copy of Smash Bros that we dug out when some friends asked to play it. There's an optional handicap feature in that game, such that each time you win, you get slightly weaker, and each time you lose, you get slightly stronger, and the game remembers this for your login across multiple play sessions. What appeals to me so much about this handicap effect is how smoothly and effectively it improves the video game, so much so that I refuse to play without it: When the handicap is in effect, every player from newbies to veterans has a decent shot at victory, and it spreads out the challenge level so that everyone must put in some effort to win. It helps a lot toward sustaining long-term replay interest in the game.

So there I was, enjoying the heck out of this 10-year-old video game, when it dawned on me that Pirate Paradise might benefit from the same system. We had been playing for almost a year at that point, and there had become a pretty entrenched hierarchy of who consistently wiped the floor with whom in battle. A new feature that could even the playing field, give the weaker players a fighting chance, and force the stronger players to work a little harder, might be a good addition. It bothers me to see eager players (I won't name names but we know who) try to enjoy the game for a few weeks or a few months, but consistently lose again and again, and finally leave the game in frustration. And for the players who usually win, it must be at least a little boring always to have the same outcome. Who doesn't root for an underdog?

All that said, I wasn't able to incorporate the Smash Bros handicap system as well as I would have liked. For one thing, their system is able to work invisibly, subtly changing the game mechanics without you realizing how much. Our game is about pure math, and you have to be able to see the numbers, so you know exactly how much effect it's having. (I suppose I could have an invisible effect where you know it's happening but not how much, and so you make moves in hopes of defeating the enemy pirates but some fail inexplicably, but that doesn't sound fun at all.)

Still, one aspect of the video game that I did manage to keep was the fact that the handicap is optional: In their game it's off by default, and in our game it's off by default. If you are generally opposed to the idea of any handicap, and you think every player should compete on his or her own talent, then by all means, play without Handicap. If you'd rather share some of the victories, and you like the idea of an opponent getting sweet payback after you trounced them many times (or you ARE that underdog getting payback), then play with Handicap. The automatic battles system is flexible enough to satisfy everyone: When you choose "some battles should use Handicap," you'll be able to play against the opponents who say "all battles should use Handicap" and the opponents who say "no battles should use Handicap."

Handicap got off to a rough start in Pirate Paradise, because the players with the biggest discrepancy got to try it out first and make it seem scarier than it was, and because the (imo) neat story aspect in "Wrath of Circe" that introduced it was only visible to Matthew and myself. But I still think it has a lot of potential to eliminate some of Pirate Paradise's competitive stagnation, and I think it will make the game better and more fun overall, so I hope everybody will give it a fair shot in the weeks and months to come.