Author Topic: Welcome! (Read 5092 times)

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #60 on:** April 30, 2019, 06:38:09 pm »

Updated. Doing things without Rarity is making things messy

I've added a couple of the dead players as I think it helps to see where certain alliances originated. Big Daddy Mccolt wasn't technically in the Foursome of Awesome, but it was created after he was voted out as a replacement for Pony Island, which was the same group of players + Big Daddy. The Fantastic ~~Six~~ ~~Five~~ Three is now essentially the same as the Thabulous Three, but I've left it on temporarily to show where Lede placed in this whole thing.

The Foursome of Awesome, kinda surprisingly, seems to have survived relatively intact. I think Pinkie understands about going with the majority there, although I don't doubt that she will harbour some bad feeling over it. I'm starting to feel a bit closer to Chrys than I am to her, which isn't really represented in this chart, but I think that four might be able to continue working together.

Flim, Flam, Flom and Flem was something that was in the process of happening last round and I think all of us wanted it, but we never actually got around to officially declaring ourselves a three (four, but three votes

). I really connected well with DJ through FlimFlam, and I think him going has strengthened that quite a lot. It's not something involving Rarity (!) and it's not something she even knows about. I'm not sure whether this is me starting to take steps in a more individual direction, or whether it's just backup... I get the feeling it might be the former. I'm starting to feel like Rarity and I might be drifting apart a little over the fact that she's much closer to the Foursome, and I'm much closer to the WTA. I don't think that'll split us, but it does make sense to make preparations for if it does.

Speaking of which, probably the most important thing to have come out of last round from my point of view - the Big Moves Appreciation Society. Derpy and I talked quite a lot towards the end of the TC about what was going on, and ended up making a deal to work together in the process, at least as far as information sharing is concerned, without letting anypony else know we were doing so. As far as I'm aware, nopony else even remotely suspects that's a thing. I ended up giving him info that led to him casting his vote for FlimFlam instead of Pinkie (specifically, telling him FlimFlam had been pushing his name in the first place), and in return, he filled me in on a lot of the things that I was trying to figure out (like why FlimFlam had thought Rarity was against him - turns out she had told Derpy that there seemed to be bad blood between the two of them, but the actual info leak did come from Pinkie).

Possibly the weirdest thing to come out of this was the proposal from him to tie the vote up for the sole purpose of causing a spectacle (by having me and Rarity switch our votes). Which, er, obviously wouldn't have worked because idol, but I love stuff like that and I'm glad he feels comfortable approaching me about it. Unfortunately it was in the last couple of minutes of the round, so there was no time whatsoever to get it together, but I'm really hoping he wants to do something like it again in future. It tells me that he's the kind of person who's likely to be really into doing some huge stuff with this secret alliance we've got going, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where that goes.

Apple Dumpling · « **Reply #61 on:** May 01, 2019, 04:13:10 am »

That is a very fancy chart and I appreaciate it even if I don't have the education to understand it.

Flurry Heart · « **Reply #62 on:** May 01, 2019, 05:27:18 am »

Your alliance charts are amazing. Thanks for keeping us spectators updated.

Discord · « **Reply #63 on:** May 01, 2019, 06:32:55 am »

I like Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #64 on:** May 01, 2019, 01:12:32 pm »

I am also a fan of Rainbow Dash tbh

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #65 on:** May 01, 2019, 04:37:12 pm »

Hohboy

So the vote was supposed to be Soarin vs Pinkie - Granny, Coco, Pear, DJ, Soarin on Pinkie, and Starlight, Chrysalis, Derpy, Pinkie on the other one with, waddaya know, Rarity and I as the swing votes. We'd initially settled on voting out Soarin but then Pinkie started threatening Pear over the vote and telling him she'd idol him out if he didn't vote with her, which is kind of insane and meant we couldn't really justify voting the other way to Coco, Granny and Pear. So we locked in on Pinkie.

But now the Big Moves Appreciation Society is coming into play, with Derpy saying he's got DJ, Soarin, himself and Starlight on Coco and would just need me to make it go through. That's probably a godawful move for me, but the idea of throwing my vote on that wagon and having literally nopony (except Derpy) know where it came from is kinda amazing. I need to think this through.

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #66 on:** May 01, 2019, 04:45:16 pm »

Derpy is the most beautiful of chaotic messes and I want to marry her

Apple Dumpling · « **Reply #67 on:** May 01, 2019, 04:46:53 pm »

derpy is female please i cant take this abuse

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #68 on:** May 01, 2019, 04:49:25 pm »

I don't know what you're talking about that always said her

(also I've only had time for like the first two episodes okay there are so many characters I know nothing about ;-;)

Apple Dumpling · « **Reply #69 on:** May 01, 2019, 05:04:23 pm »

(yeah its ok you can tell by the shape of the face. round = girl squareish = boy)

Princess Celestia · « **Reply #70 on:** May 01, 2019, 05:18:52 pm »

That doesn't apply to colts and fillys but yeah it's a good general rule.

Apple Dumpling · « **Reply #71 on:** May 01, 2019, 05:53:01 pm »

See? Celestia has a square head, so that makes him a male, and I have a round head, so I'm female.

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #72 on:** May 03, 2019, 11:14:53 am »

A short update (all updates will have to be short while I'm here as I barely have time to PM as is)

Last round, I knew Starlight was leaking info like a sieve because Granny and Coco both mentioned the initial Coco vote Derpy wanted to go after (Pinkie made a group chat of me/Rarity/her/Chrys/Starlight/Derpy and there was a discussion over whether to go Soarin or Coco there, which ended up deciding on Soarin). I let Derpy know about that and told him that if we do anything together, it is an absolute necessity that my name was not mentioned at all, otherwise I had no doubt it would reach other players very quickly.

We did end up trying to pull something off together (he tried to get himself/Soarin/DJ/Starlight to vote for Coco, which with me was 5 and that should have been enough given Chrys would probably go Coco on the revote over Pinkie), but it didn't work, and he didn't let me know that it wasn't going to work until too late for me to change it (1 minute before deadline kinda thing). So my vote ended up on Coco and that's caused a lot of confusion.\

Obviously, immediately after the vote I'm asking around about what those Coco votes were, since clearly I didn't know anything about them, and waddaya know - the moment I even bring up the subject with Starlight, she's telling me literally everything that happened in that round, including that Derpy had a 5th vote from a 'Mystery Person with a good reason to hate Coco' - although she'd misinterpreted something and thought that mystery person was Rarity.

It was a weird experience having my own actions told to me by somepony who didn't know they were talking about me. I was like 'Thanks for filling me in on all this, it's great!' but what I was really thinking was how much less a tub of Starlight-flavoured glue would be leaking.

Anyway, this posed a problem, because I did not want people being able to trace that vote back to me - so I ended up talking a bunch to Rarity and Coco about it and coming to the conclusion that Derpy was pushing a Coco vote, but the detail about the mystery person was either made up to cause distrust, or that mystery person was Pinkie. Either way, I *think* I'm in the clear for now. I did tell Derpy that Starlight had told me all of that, and he was just 'alright she's dead'.

Which kinda sets up where we're at now. Derpy goes all in against Starlight, Starlight gets very upset about Derpy, people generally start talking about a Derpy vote, and then that's completely shut down by him winning immunity and people are left having to decide between the easy vote (following him onto Starlight) or going a more difficult route and finding an alternative who isn't Derpy himself.

This situation kinda benefits me in the sense that there seem to be two easy targets for the next two tribals, but I don't know that those 2 going is a good thing for my game at all. It feels like a lot of people are so much more interconnected in this tribe (people like Granny & DJ) that Rarity and I will inevitably be under fire at some point soon if the obvious targets go before any of those do. But I'm not sure that I have the time to do anything here, because my time playing this game is going to be drastically reduced over these next couple days.

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #73 on:** May 04, 2019, 04:48:11 am »

So that was an easy consensus vote. It seems like there's another one, maybe two easy votes in Derpy/Chrys if the game just goes down the path it's already on its way down.

Is the consensus vote the vote that's best for my game? With Starlight, maybe. With Derpy, probably not. With Chrys, definitely not.

I've been playing this game from the middle as much as I can, and the only way that both Rarity and I are going to survive is if there is conflict elsewhere and both sides are looking for that swing, because when they need numbers, getting two for the price of one is more a benefit than it is something to be scared of. The current path goes all in with the WTA (Granny/Coco/Pear/Rarity/Me) and just prays that once the easy votes are out, those three stick with us - and I know that Granny/Pear in particular are close to DJ and Soarin, so I don't think we both survive very long in that situation.

So how do we keep that conflict going? Well, there's a very easy answer to that. Last round I told Derpy about Starlight leaking, and he straight up murdered her, taking full responsibility for the push. I wonder if I could exploit that further here?

Derpy is already paranoid about the SAA three working together, but til now he's had his sights set on Coco. I would far and away prefer those sights set on Derpy's old penpal Granny, because she's both got an in with him and a big in with Soarin and DJ, and that's something I'd like to get rid of.

If I tell Derpy that Granny and Coco are throwing his name out already (emphasise Granny more) I think I can direct his happy murder spree that way. If there is a way to get Derpy in control of the game, he should continue to be the main opposing vote, Rarity and I will be much wanted as a double swing, and I should be able to continue to direct Derpy's target by whispering in his ear. It would be the perfect position.

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #74 on:** May 05, 2019, 05:15:12 am »

Trust in me, just in me
Shut your eyes and trust in me
You can sleep safe and sound
Knowing I am around

Once again I'm successfully positioned as the swing vote! Apparently Soarin's first target was Rarity, talking to him and Derpy a fair bit has successfully moved that to Pear - it's no Granny but it's a better vote for me than Rarity would have been.

So once again both sides are relying on me and Rarity (and in this case Chrys too) as the swing votes. Coco/Granny/Pear are on Derpy, Derpy/Soarin/DJ are on Pear. I have no clue which way I'm actually going yet, the important thing was to create conflict and make sure I was in the deciding position. God, the Big Moves Appreciation Society has proved useful in that respect.

Now I just need to feel out where Rarity is on the whole thing and which way is actually best for our games. Having Chrys in on the swing vote with us will hopefully solidify our relations with her quite significantly, which should help a lot going forward!

I want to make another alliance chart but I can't til tomorrow night

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #75 on:** May 05, 2019, 02:31:32 pm »

Going to take out Derpy and *hope* I've done enough to convince her not to play her idol. Talked to Rarity a fair bit about it and she brought up some very good points - namely, Derpy's idol is a thing, Derpy is unpredictable and might target us (okay that one's not such a good reason but she doesn't know how much of an in I have with Derpy) and killing Derpy here leaves us in good with the Apples and pitched against the people who have just voted against the Apples, so we will probably be in a solid spot going forward.

So me/Rarity/Chrys are voting Derpy. I'm debating whether it's really a good idea to run headfirst into a potential idol like this without attempting to split the vote, but it's not me at risk (I hope) so it doesn't concern me enough to do anything about it.

Hopefully my secret of being Derpy's mystery ally dies with her. An idol could screw that up, but then I guess I'll have to improvise a solution.

Filthy Rich · « **Reply #76 on:** May 06, 2019, 06:19:47 am »

1. Rank the other ponies from who you trust most to who you trust least
2. What do you think each other pony's answer is going to be for question 1?

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #77 on:** May 08, 2019, 07:12:22 pm »

I can do my own ranking... I am a bit too unclear on where everypony else is at exactly to figure that out.

1. Rarity
2. Chrysalis (weirdly)
3. Pear
4. Coco
5. Granny
6. DJ
7. Soarin

I think I blundered a fair bit last round being so openly manipulative with getting in the swing position, because the result is that I have alienated two players (DJ and Soarin) and as a result have no chance at that this time around. As a direct result, I think my best gameplan moving forward is to kill those two ponies asap to get back into a position where people are mostly good with working with me again.

I spent a few hours prior to the deadline last TC live chatting with Derpy, and he told me some interesting things - the main one of which was that he believed DJ has the merge idol. How true this is, I'm not sure, but I'd be an idiot not to play around the possibility given it's possibly my neck on the line if we run into it. So I'm considering either a 3-3-2 or a 4-2-2 split here on DJ/Soarin with the other five ponies and myself.

"But RD", I hear you say, "Splitting the vote is a massively risky move that encourages people to make B I G M O V E S and flip to add to their resume".

And uh, yeah, you'd be right. I'm not exactly confident about this, but I feel slightly better about it because of the number gap - with this split, either 2 people need to flip, or 1 person needs to flip and the other side needs to have an idol. In my mind, it's unlikely that two people will flip - the most likely would be Coco and Granny, but I can just assign them to the 2 in the 4-2-2 split and without an idol all they could do would be tie it - and if an idol is present, then one flip probably screws us even if we don't split the votes because that flip would tip them off as to who the vote was on.

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #78 on:** May 09, 2019, 03:21:55 pm »

Well, vote's on me. At this point I am certain that my actions last round were a massive blunder, even though they kept Rarity and myself in the middle, because it's moved us away from that middle spot now (and maybe even made he a bit less certain on trusting me, because she hasn't talked to me in a while =/ ).

I'm still going for the split vote. I probably wouldn't, except that Derpy told me DJ had the idol last round and it felt like he was being honest with me. If it's my end, so be it I guess? I really hate being on the block now after managing to avoid it all the way up to this point, but I'm paying for my mistake, and this is the test of whether the connections I made are strong enough to make up for it.

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #79 on:** May 09, 2019, 04:05:58 pm »

Ugh. So the split was kinda half set up before I got here with Coco/Pear going for DJ, which really isn't ideal. If I had it my way, I'd have the 4 people I trust most (Pear/me/Rarity/Chrys) on DJ, and Granny/Coco on Soarin, to discourage Granny and Coco from deciding to flip together, since it would just result in a tie. But I've had to go me/Chrys on Soarin, Pear/Granny/Coco on DJ instead - *technically* Rarity should be on DJ as well but I'm talking to her about joining us on Soarin instead. If only one person decides to flip (and it's one of Coco/Granny), they'll tell DJ/Soarin to idol DJ and flip so that (in their minds) it would be 3*-2-3 and I'd go home, so if Rarity secretly votes Soarin instead, it goes 2*-3-3 if somepony does that and we still have a chance to keep me in the game.

I guess we'll see what she has to say about it. I have a seriously bad feeling about this phase, but I think that's because I'm on the block after having avoided it for so long - there's always going to be a certain amount of paranoia there. I just have to keep my fingers crossed and take the trust test.

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #80 on:** May 09, 2019, 04:50:12 pm »

I'm pretty sure I'm getting the silent treatment from a bunch of people right now

I am starting to properly panic now but there's really not much I can do about it...

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #81 on:** May 09, 2019, 05:17:58 pm »

I went into overplay mode last round and ended up paying for it.

I feel like this was my strongest game to date by far. Went all the way up to F9 before

Spoiler

ooking it all up

[close]

Love y'all and sorry for the sparse confessional

Florina Tart · « **Reply #82 on:** May 11, 2019, 12:28:55 am »

Your confessional is quality :]

Iron Will · « **Reply #83 on:** May 20, 2019, 06:20:24 pm »

I’m enjoying your live Onitama commentary. Thanks!

Flurry Heart · « **Reply #84 on:** May 20, 2019, 06:32:54 pm »

Agreed, the live commentary is excellent!

Rainbow Dash · « **Reply #85 on:** May 20, 2019, 07:08:17 pm »

Thanky

I'm planning to give a bit more of a retrospective in my confessional soon (not torchwalks, I don't know that I have time for them, but important moment thoughts at least) but I'm travelling tomorrow so it'll probably be wednesday