(Other) a cereal murder that shoots people with cheerios - task 5 (trial 4, Night 8)

[Bass]

Finally, the long awaited update. Night 4 is over, and Trading 3 starts now. Results PMs have been sent, and remember that stock prices account for money leftover on each individual, nut just your vaults.

Here are everyone's stocks for sale, stock prices for each team are in parentheses.

zorbees and his superfriends ($15.82)
79 shares of zorbees and his superfriends
40 shares of A Rock
60 shares of team name pending

A Rock ($8.01)
81 shares of zorbees and his superfriends
140 shares of A Rock
23 shares of Most Likely To Idle
23 shares of team name pending

Most Likely To Idle ($10.15)
147 shares of most likely to idle
117 shares of team name pending

team name pending ($14.27)
40 shares of zorbees and his superfriends
20 shares of A Rock
30 shares of Most Likely To Idle

Refer to the Trading 2 posts for further clarifications on the special actions and conditional buys. You have 96 hours to complete Trading 3, so until around 10 PM CST, Monday July 2.

[the pugilist]

I will not idle even once, and I will accept any punishment thrown at me if I break this oath.

[Gun6]

I will not idle even once, and I will accept any punishment thrown at me if I break this oath.

[Bass]

I apologize for the late update, I have had a difficult time determining when to post the update, but here it is.

Anyway, the stock prices as a result of Trading 3 were as follows:

zorbees and his superfriends: $14.43
A Rock: $12.58
Most Likely To Idle: $14.32
team name pending: $12.92

Lastly, we have some new recruits joining in on the fun! They are: imperfectluck (A Rock), the pugilist(zorbees and his superfriends), and Gun6(Most Likely To Idle).

Day 5 will end this Sunday at 11 PM. Regrettably, I will have even less time to update this weekend as I will be out of town once more, so the deadline will be long. If you all send me Day 5 stuff before Friday night, I can update and start Night 5 before I leave.

[Bass]

Day 5 results are out. Night 5 Results are due by Tuesday, July 10th, 2012, at 11 PM Central Time.

[Bass]

Night 5 is over. We will now begin Night 6. Yes, I am very busy, and when I have been free I haven't been on here too much so I haven't been able to get timely updates. Hopefully that will change soon, because for Night 6, I will be giving ALL players (both captains and recruits) a survey. I will not say for what purpose, but more details will be revealed when I have it finished.

In the meantime, results PMs are out, and we will now start Day 6. These are the stock prices:

zorbees: $15.93
billymills: $17.58
Pidge: $17.57
Fishin: $13.43

The deadline for Day 6 is Saturday, July 16 at 11 PM CST. Hopefully everything will be ready by then.

[Bass]

Day 6 Results are out, and Night 6 begins now. Deadline will be Tuesday, July 17 at 11 PM CST.

But wait! In addition to night actions, every player must complete a MANDATORY assessment of character. I am going to ask you a question, and you will need to write a response with a minimum of 100 words. It may or may not have an affect on the current trial at hand, but please do your best to give me a good response.

Anyway, consider the following scenario: Suppose you were a powerful knight. A reliable old sword that has been very reliable to his most honorable lord for his entire life. Other lords with many endearing qualities have requested you to be by their side, but your loyalty to your lord has not waivered at all. Then suddenly, you accidentally overhear a conversation between your lord and his mistress. You know the wife of your lord very well and she is a kind and honorable woman. The question is, what would be your course of action, given the context above? Justify your response, making sure you conform to the guidelines outlined above. Please send these to me by the deadline for Trading 4. This is a long deadline, so I am expecting some thoughtful responses.

P.S. No plagiarism allowed. This is an assessment of YOUR character.

[jumpluff*]

I have submitted my answer, and will gladly provide it to anyone who requests it. In return, I ask everyone to forward me theirs, unless they are too cowardly and ashamed to do so.

[Bass]

Night 6 is over, and Trading 4 starts now. Here are the stocks for sale:

zorbees and his superfriends ($15.93)
89 shares of zorbees and his superfriends
80 shares of A Rock
60 shares of team name pending

A Rock ($16.08)
51 shares of zorbees and his superfriends
110 shares of A Rock
23 shares of Most Likely To Idle
23 shares of team name pending

Most Likely To Idle ($16.07):
10 shares of A Rock
147 shares of Most Likely To Idle
67 shares of team name pending

team name pending ($12.92)
60 shares of zorbees and his superfriends
30 shares of Most Likely To Idle
50 shares of team name pending

You have until July 22, 11 PM CST to buy your shares.

Your response to my question in the previous update is also due at that time. Make sure you get it done if you haven't already!

Lastly, I will be discussing some balance changes to the trial with the captains shortly. I will likely implement them by Day 8 at the latest.

[Ketamine]

I will not idle even once, and I will accept any punishment thrown at me if I break this oath.

[Itchni]

I will not idle even once, and I will accept any punishment thrown at me if I break this oath.

[Bass]

EDIT: Income was not applied properly in my update script. Please reread the stock prices if you haven't already.

After a few hiccups with my update script, here is the Trading 4 update:

Current Stock Prices:

zorbees and his superfriends: ($8.68)
A Rock: ($25.91)
Most Likely To Idle: ($21.28)
team name pending: ($14.64)

Forgot to mention the new recruits: Ketamine (Most Likely To Idle), and Itchni (zorbees and his superfriends)

Day 7 starts now (some update PMs were mistakenly labeled Day 6). Send your actions in by 11 PM CST, Thursday July 26.

Now on to the two topics you should be more anxious about. The deadline for sending in your response to my question from Night 6 has passed. I have not finished reading all the essays, so I have yet to pass judgment (I will neither confirm nor deny that I will at all) on certain individuals. However, your assignment doesn't end here. Expect to see the continuation on Night 7.

Finally, the balance changes! They will henceforth be refered to as 'Patch 1.1'. These are some potential changes:

-A hooker type Night Action ($400-$600)
-Setting the capacity of vaults to $3000, but buying new vaults during trading
-Limiting the number of new recruits to 6 (So 7 man teams at most).
-Increasing the cost of protecting a vault to $1000 (or perhaps equal to your team's income, so bigger teams actually have a harder time?)

Patch 1.1 will be implemented when Trading 5 starts. Please contact me any time to discuss your opinions on these changes or perhaps suggest other ones. But not right now. I am really fucking tired and have another little thing I need to finish anyway.

[Bass]

Day 7 is over, Night 7 starts now, and will end on July 28, 11 PM CST. First timely update in a while!

I have discussed Patch 1.1 with the team captains, which has now gone on to "beta status". The patch revised patch notes are as follows:

-Adding Hooker Night Action ($500)
-Limiting teamsizes (minus the captain) to 6 + 2 * (4 - number of teams left). So 6 with 4 teams, 8 with 3 teams, etc.

They will not be implemented until Trading 5, but again, if you suggest more changes, feel free to discuss them with me if I am around.

[Bass]

Finally! Night 7 is finished, Day 8 starts now. Sorry for the late update, 50-50 due to A LOT of people being late with their night actions, me pulling all nighters and feeling too tired to update the following days. Anyway it is all here now. Current stock prices are below.

zorbees and his superfriends: $10.18
A Rock: $27.91
Most Likely To Idle: $23.78
team name pending: $14.64

Day 8 'soft' deadline is August 4th, 11 PM CST

[Mekkah**]

jesus fuck this is still going?

[Fishin]

you imply it's going to be ending sometime soon

[Bass]

Thanks Fishin for explaining it to him in my absence.

Anyway, once again a late update. Again, a lot of people are just being slow, but I was also busy with the GRE afterwards. I have a lot of excuses, don't I? But anyway, let's officially start Night 8 from this point. I will make the deadline slightly more realistic, which is August 11th at 11 PM CST. Results PMs will be sent out shortly.

But wait! As I promised a while ago, and because many of you enjoyed it last time, I am giving you another assessment for you guys to fill out. Again, I will neither confirm or deny whether it will play any role in the outcome of this trial, but completing it is mandatory. I will not publish any responses, but you are free to publish yours.

Your assignment is to consider this quandary: If you had the choice of a card that entitles you to free travel or a card that entitled you to free food EVERYWHERE for the rest of your life, which would you pick? Please submit your responses in a minimum of 100 words to me by the end of Trading 5.

[Mekkah**]

can i declare this dead yet

[Walrein]

please do

this is like playing monopoly, except everyone started with 10 times more money and you dont have to pay a bajillion dollars for landing on a hotel

[Bass]

Well, I already informed the four final players already, but yes, I am ending this game prematurely. I do not want to take the time to type out why, as I have already done so in a PM I sent out a few days ago.

Originally Posted by Fat Bass

All,

It is unfortunate that I am writing this message. However, after the past few updates, the reality should be clear: I have lost all motivation to update cereal. This is for a variety of reasons: Mainly that I have gotten more heavily involved in my academic research, and am starting to worry about applying to graduate school. Couple this with the fact that too many people are sending their actions late anyway and that the final task has grown too stale in general, that I am making this decision. However, before I officially announce this decision, I wanted to hear some final thoughts from you guys, if you had any.

Frankly, you all worked very hard to get this far into the game. I am sure some of you must think that it is a shame that it will end like this. At this state, I cannot give anyone any further punishments, which I am sure some people were greatly anticipating. Much of the fanfare that underscored this game was lost midway through the final task, and it really is a shame. I will end this message here though before I ramble too much. Please just tell me your thoughts on the matter if necessary, as well as any special things I should do before officially ending the game. If a majority of you express a strong desire to continue this game, I may reconsider this decision, but please understand where I am coming from. Otherwise, I will get to work on the postgame. At the very least, I intend to have that completed within a few days of ending the game at the latest.

So there you have it. My postgame is currently about 70% done. I am almost finished writing up the sections of each of the tasks, but I also plan on including some individual player reviews / analyses. I would like to say that the postgame should be complete within a few days since I generally have a good track record of writing them in a timely fashion, but I don't want to be a LonelyNess and make excuses or empty promises.

Other than that, while there will be no punishments, I am planning a special prize for the four remaining players. By the way Walrein, you may change your avatar now if you so please.

And that's that. It was fun, but I guess I'll save all the important comments for the postgame!