PBEM game "Not Stupid But Slow": Running

[Alneyan]

The settings for this game are currently as follow:

- A PBEM game hosted by myself (not TCP/IP)
- Turnaround is set to 48 hours, and will run every 24 hours if everyone gets their files in before this moment. The turns should more or less run at the same hour of the day (as much as real life and Murphy's laws will allow).
- Independent Strength: 9 (as asked by En Forcer)
- Magic Research: Very Difficult
- Magic site frequency: 50
- Map: Karan
- 2.13 Version
- All else set as default

The current players are:
- Blofeld: Marignon
- Boron: Ermoria
- Cainehill: Jotunheim
- Deccan: Man
- Enforcer: Pangaea
- Graeme Dice: Pythium
- Ighalli: Abysia
- Vicious Love: Atlantis
- Yellow Cactus: Ulm
- Myself: Arcoscephale


The original message was:
Would anyone be interested in a game featuring a very hard magic research? The tentative settings would be as follow:

- A very hard research cost (duh!).
- Likely standard magic sites frequency (50) and independent strength (6).
- As many players as will fit, if possible. Ten or twelve would be a more reasonable figure though (and more likely to happen I guess).
- The map will depend on the number of players; suggestions would be appreciated regarding the choice of the map.
- The turn duration would be either of 24 hours early on, switched to 48 hours once the game grows bigger, or 48 hours right from the start. Quickhost would probably be disabled so that the turns will run at a fixed time.
- Lastly, I will only claim my nation once several players have already done so (or, if we only have a few players, I will pick my nation Last). This rule stands even if I am no longer host for this game.

There remain the matter of hosting the game as well; Mosehansen has reached its limit, and I do not know about any other similar server. If all players are fine with it, I do not mind doing this game in a PBEM way.

If you are interested, please do post in this thread. If the very thought of playing in this game makes you faint, what part of the settings bother you? With the exception of the research setting (which may or may not be popular enough to warrant creating a game built around it; we shall see), none of the settings is written in stone.

[En Forcer]

I, for one, would LOVE to play in this game. I always play at very hard magic and maximum drain and with Indie 9 (I'd kinda like to see Indie 9 here) because it forces one to stay with conventional troops longer and to be more careful with which magic paths to research.

However, I have one issue. I have no choice but to play PBEM. I am talking to Illwinter Tech Support about my network issues but so far no luck.

If you PBEM, I would like to play.

[deccan]

I might want in too. I'm a bit busy at the moment, so I'll post more later. Nations I'm particularly interested in are Ulm and (depending on map) Atlantis.

[Alneyan]

I would have no problem with going PBEM myself; however, it will either mean I will have to be only the game host (and not a player), or that the players trust me enough not to do some cheating while nobody is watching (mainly reloading the turn if something goes awry for my nation).

I am fine with Indie 9; it shouldn't be *that* meaner compared to Indie 6. Hopefully.

[Boron]

En Forcer said:
I, for one, would LOVE to play in this game. I always play at very hard magic and maximum drain and with Indie 9 (I'd kinda like to see Indie 9 here) because it forces one to stay with conventional troops longer and to be more careful with which magic paths to research.




I personally would like ideas to improve national troops too but the problem with very hard research is that it makes blood even stronger . LVL 3 is enough for Bind Devil / Crossbreed .
Blessable troops have an edge too .
So i think especially Vanheim/Jotunheim/Abysia might have an almost unfair advantage with these settings .


I am curious and would like to participate as ermor though , probably AE http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Alneyan]

I am none too sure about blood nations in this setting; you still have some research to do, and early expansion may be slower (making it harder to get the blood economy up and running). Feel free to mock me when/if my castle's gates are knocked down by a few happy go-lucky devils. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

At any rate, it was the reason why I prevented myself from being able to say dibs on any nation. Not that I would have had a great idea, but...

Any comment about the PBEM matter? Is anybody against using PBEM? And are you fine with someone being both host and player?

[Boron]

I am fine with you as host and pbem http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

In theory you could always ask Sheap for hosting too . I play 3 games on his server atm http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[En Forcer]

I am fine with it. PBEM it is then?

I would like to try Pangea.

[Vicious Love]

Sounds like fun. I've always favored the very hard research setting, myself, for the same reasons En Forcer mentioned.

I'm also worried about the whole blood nation thing, especially since Vanheim, DF Marignon, and Mictlan can all make excellent use of blessings for earlygame expansion, and Abysia... is not the sort of nation that has trouble against indies, even level 6/9 ones.
Then again, I've never really cared all that much for game balance, and this sort of thing could add some flavor.

In as Atlantis, if deccum doesn't mind. If he does... C'tis or Marignon, I suppose. That oughta be fun.

Update: By the way, shame you missed so many turns on Try Something New. It's never easy, bidding farewell to someone who owes you money.
On the bright side, you're being avenged as I type this.

[deccan]

It's okay, Vicious Love, I'll take Ulm then.

[Alneyan]

I am still left puzzled as to why I was unable to play in Try Something New, even when I had no problem with Yarnspinners. Part of the problem came from Mosehansen (to the best of my knowledge), but I should have still been able to connect to the server by brute forcing my way through (in other words, playing with connect/reconnect several times). Odd.

The current cast of players is as follow:
- Boron: Ermoria
- Deccan: Ulm
- Enforcer: Pangeae
- Vicious Love: Atlantis
- Myself: To be determined later

[Vicious Love]

Well, at least you have this game.
As scant consolation, you have been avenged, and a profitable vengeance it was, at that.
Am presently debating pros and cons of further exacting vengeance upon the world at large, in response to unhappy childhood and vague, ineffable ennui of undeath.

[Alneyan]

Vicious Lowe: Well, if T'ien Ch'i cannot rule over the world, then do take care of this matter yourself. It would work especially well if you happen to be a theme Ermor; killing all living beings should be an adequate punishment of their refusing to acknowledge the supremacy of T'ien Ch'i.

Boron: My apologises, I had forgotten to answer your post. While Sheap's server may indeed work, En Forcer has stated he cannot play with a regular TCP/IP server, and can only do PBEM.

Besides this:
- Does anyone have a suggestion regarding the map? Cradle may be nice (and is rather small to download), but would perhaps be too small if we are only five players.

- For the deadline, I would suggest something along these lines: the turn around should be of 48 hours (more can be considered if one player requires it), running at more or less the same time. However, if all player files do get in before the end of the first 24 hours, the turn would still run.

The advantages are that the turn will always run at the same hour (well, I will do my best in this field), and it gives a safety margin in case of email problems. The main problems are that the minimal time between turns would be of 24 hours (I wouldn't expect all the turn files to be sent in a matter of a few hours though; but who knows?), and the actual hour where the turn is proceeded may wary depending on real life and Murphy's Law.

Any comments, suggestions or complaints about the way to handle the deadlines?

- Incidentally, I intend to send a confirmation message when I receive your player file, the purpose being to avoid some email related problems (such as a player file lost in the mists of Internet). If you are against this, please do tell me so and I will not send such Messages to you.

[En Forcer]

I was going to suggest a 24 hour turnaround for the first 20 or 25 turns provided everyone agrees. After that, slow to 48 hrs?

Cause we all know how the first 20 turns in an SP game can be cranked out in like 30 minutes...

Fellas?

[Boron]

Np Alneyan .

I am fine with your suggestion of 48 hours limit but more likely we have only about 24 hours for the first turns because they will come in rather quick .

With map for 5-6 players old aran might be quite nice .
Desert eye is though probably fairer because it is wraparound so the ones who start in the middle aren't disadvantaged while in Aran if you start in the middle of the map is a disadvantage .

[En Forcer]

Oh and whatever map you guys want is fine with me.

[deccan]

Hmm, since this game hasn't started yet I'd like to change nations. I was planning to play Ulm BF, but I'd had a lot of trouble expanding with them early. I think Ulm BF is a little too "advanced" for me. I'll think about what nation to try and post again later. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Oh, and I'm okay with Alneyan hosting and playing. Heh, that's what we did for our SEIV KOTH game as I recall. What are we supposed to do next? E-mail pretender files to Alneyan?

[Graeme Dice]

I'd like to play Pythium. I won't play however, if the map is going to be the original Cradle map.

[deccan]

I've decided to take man instead. You can't go wrong with longbows. Once Alneyan says everything is okay I'll e-mail the pretender file.

[Alneyan]

Graeme, is the matter with the original Cradle the problem of having very poor start provinces? The Version I have been using is Zen's modified Cradle (in Yarnspinners), and it fixes such problems if memory serves.

Deccan, if your Pretender will not change (depending on the map for example), feel free to email it to me. Longbows are a good value, but then, I am too fond of archers. And yes, we did the same in a SEIV rated game (outside KOTH, as KOTH games must be played on PBW according to the rules; Asmala might have been a tad suspicious if we had done our game while PBW was offline). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Graeme Dice]

Alneyan said:
Graeme, is the matter with the original Cradle the problem of having very poor start provinces? The Version I have been using is Zen's modified Cradle (in Yarnspinners), and it fixes such problems if memory serves.



It's not just poor starting provinces, all the provinces on the map are poor, and the terrain limits all armies to a crawl.

[Boron]

Isn't cradle with 221 provinces too big ?

Nice that you are in graeme this should be the first time we are together in a game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[deccan]

Alneyan said:
Deccan, if your Pretender will not change (depending on the map for example), feel free to email it to me. Longbows are a good value, but then, I am too fond of archers. And yes, we did the same in a SEIV rated game (outside KOTH, as KOTH games must be played on PBW according to the rules; Asmala might have been a tad suspicious if we had done our game while PBW was offline). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif



Oh yeah, it was a Slynky game. Anyway, I'll hold off e-mailing until everything's settled. Let me know what map file to download and from where.

[Alneyan]

I hadn't noticed that Cradle has lower income values; I guess that explains why I am having a tough time doing my regular Man opening then (even if my income is one of the highest for now).

I would prefer Desert Eye in your own list Boron, as it is a warp around map. Any other suggestion regarding the map?

The current cast of players is as follow:
- Boron: Ermoria
- Deccan: Man
- Enforcer: Pangaea
- Graeme Dice: Pythium
- Vicious Love: Atlantis
- Myself: Arcoscephale

[deccan]

Alneyan said:
I would prefer Desert Eye in your own list Boron, as it is a warp around map. Any other suggestion regarding the map?




I do have a concern about the Desert Eye map. If a player starts in the neck between the two bodies of water, I think he's basically screwed.

[Alneyan]

Well, it should be possible to forbid the game from putting a player in such provinces. If memory serves, the command used would be #nostart. So removing provinces deemed very poor for a start should work out to resolve this matter.

Were you thinking about specific province numbers?

[deccan]

Alneyan said:
Were you thinking about specific province numbers?



Hmm, I actually need to use my brain for once. How annoying.

Okay, I just opened up the .map file and three provinces are already no-started: 8 (little island all by itself), 82 (the Desert Eye province) and 92 (cul-de-sac province next to the Desert Eye).

In addition to these, I suggest that the following should be nostarted as well:

1) Province 8 on a neck between two bodies of water. I actually had a start here while playing an SP game with an AI at either end. It has three land neighbours, two water neighbours.

2) Province 51 at the end of a mountain next to a body of water. Two land neighbours and one water neighbour.

3) Province 114, a peninsula. Two land neighbours, two water neighbours.

But really this is map with plenty of chokepoints, so some start locations are really a lot better than others. Just take a look at the map. Up to the other players if they think it's okay. I'm fine with it if the others are.

Atlantis will run riot on this map I bet, easy access to lots of places.

[En Forcer]

Say the word when you want pretender files mailed to you.

[YellowCactus]

I'd like to jump in as Ulm. But will need some Tech Support from other players if your using 2.13 patch.
-Yc

[Ighalli]

I'd like to join as Abysia unless the consensus is that blood nations are off limits here.

[Alneyan]

Yellow Cactus: thanks for reminding me to ask about the game Version! I could do either 2.12 or 2.13, and so do not care much either way. While 2.13 fixes some bugs (including cheating options), it also brings a couple of problems from what I heard (Alchemists' Stone and one other magic item).

Ighalli: I would have no problem with having a Blood nation in here.

You can start to email Pretender files, unless you feel that a map change will force you to change your Pretender design, or even to switch nations.

Speaking of the map, with the other matter brought up by Deccan, there is also the small size of Desert Eye that will become a problem. We are currently eight players (assuming both Yellow Cactus and Ighalli join in), which is probably a bit too crowded for Desert Eye. Karan might do the trick here; it should have enough provinces for Atlantis, and enough for land-based nations. As usual, feel free to comment on the map and/or to suggest others.

Lastly, here goes the current settings as discussed during this thread. My apologises for forgetting to update the first post previously.

- A PBEM game hosted by myself (not TCP/IP)
- Turnaround is set to 48 hours, and will run every 24 hours if everyone gets their files in before this moment. The turns should more or less run at the same hour of the day (as much as real life and Murphy's laws will allow).
- Independent Strength: 9 (as asked by En Forcer)
- Magic Research: Very Difficult
- Magic site frequency: 50
- Map: to be determined (Desert Eye? Karan? Another?)
- Version: either 2.12 or 2.13, depending on the preferred Version of most players.
- All else set as default

The current players are:
- Boron: Ermoria
- Deccan: Man
- Enforcer: Pangaea
- Graeme Dice: Pythium
- Ighalli: Abysia
- Vicious Love: Atlantis
- Yellow Cactus: Ulm
- Myself: Arcoscephale

[Ighalli]

I'd prefer to play with v2.13. My pretender is in the mail!

[Alneyan]

If someone does not know my mail address (it should be displayed publicly in my profile), it is alneyan AT yahoo DOT fr (replace AT with @ and DOT with .)

If you would like to receive a notification when I receive your turn, I will be setting up a separate mail for this purpose. It will enable me to make an automated answer when I receive a mail on this address, and so you will know whether your mail has been received or not much more quickly. And if you do not wish to use this mail, you will only have to keep on using my regular mail address.

This mail will be available on dominions2@yahoo.fr (no need for spam protection here; spammers will only get more spam in return), but there will be no other difference with my standard mail.

Edit: However, the subject of these notification mails cannot be changed, and will be "Yahoo - Message d'Absence" (Away Message). Grr.

[Vicious Love]

Ighalli said:
I'd like to join as Abysia unless the consensus is that blood nations are off limits here.



I just realized site frequency is still at 50(10 above normal, if I'm not mistaken). Methinks it's settled; With ordinary gem abundances, blood nations won't have an edge. At least, no more than an infinitesimal edge.
True, Mictlan can(Sort of) get by by only researching one path(Plus construction up to 4, for those sweet, sweet contracts), but they'll still need alteration/enchantment to make use of their summoned SCs, evocation and thaumaturgy(Or conjuration) for searching, and a bunch of other paths to exploit the full versatility of their priest-mages. And Abysia without evocation is hardly Abysia at all.
When all's said and done, I suspect Caelum and Ulm both need research far less than most blood nations.

[En Forcer]

I will be sending my pretender shortly. So far you guys are doing just fine figuring out the map. I'll go with whatever gets picked. No need to change or adjust my pretender.

All Hail CONIFEROUS! King of Berries!

[Blofeld]

Hello

Is it not too late to jump on board with Marignon?

[Alneyan]

Hello Blofeld, and welcome! It is not too late to join the game, as long as you do not mind our company. Feel free to bring up any suggestion or comment you may have about the map as well; this particular detail hasn't been decided yet.

On the matter of the game Version, we currently have two votes in favour of 2.13, and none for 2.12. So it would seem like we are going with 2.13 (if you are playing games using the 2.12 Version, you should be able to setup both the 2.12 and the 2.13 Version with the same installation of Dominions).

[Blofeld]

OK, I sent my pretender. Karan map seems OK to me. I don't recommend Parganos - it looks pretty and has nice chokepoints but suffers from the same problems as Cradle.

[YellowCactus]

Assume I know nothing of computerizing....
What steps will I take to set up 2.13 without over-writing 2.12?
-Yc

[Alneyan]

The following steps should enable you to use both the 2.12 Version and the 2.13 patch.

1) Download the 2.13 patch.
2) Copy and paste your dom2.exe file that can be found in the Dominions 2 directory (C:\dominions2 by default). It will give you a second file called "Copy of Dom2.exe" (I am not positive about the "Copy of" part, since I am using a French translation of Windows).
3) Rename the "Copy of Dom2.exe" file in "Dom2_212.exe" (or any file name you would like).
4) Run the patch file ("dompatch213.exe") and apply it to your Dominions directory (which should be found automatically).
5) The patch will make changes to the original "Dom2.exe" file, which will effectively be patched to the 2.13 Version. The other executable file ("dom2_212.exe" in this example) remains unaffected however, and will be used when playing 2.12 games.

The 2.12 and 2.13 Versions should be close enough to be comptabible with each other. However, there will be problems with combat replays should you use the "wrong" Version in a game, but hopefully nothing more than that (at least, Shrapnel says so on the download page for the patch).

[YellowCactus]

Hmm...I believe that actually worked!
-Yc

[deccan]

Probably we should hold off on map selection until we have a final player count.

Myself, I would prefer 2.12 as I don't like having to discover new problems as I go along. But it's a majority voting thing so I'd go with the majority.

[Cainehill]

I'd like to jump in with Jotunheim; my vote would be for the 2.13 Version - someone needs to get a significant game going to kick the new Version's tires. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Hopefully by the time we get to the troublesome, game crashing construction-8 artifacts, Illwinter will have a new patch out with fixes.

[deccan]

Cainehill said:

I'd like to jump in with Jotunheim; my vote would be for the 2.13 Version - someone needs to get a significant game going to kick the new Version's tires. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Hopefully by the time we get to the troublesome, game crashing construction-8 artifacts, Illwinter will have a new patch out with fixes.



Oh dear, now we're attracting the pros. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Okay with 2.13 now that you put it that way.

[Alneyan]

Welcome aboard Cainehill!

We will then be going the 2.13 way, as all the players who expressed a preference went with 2.13.

The current players are:
- Blofeld: Marignon
- Boron: Ermoria
- Cainehill: Jotunheim
- Deccan: Man
- Enforcer: Pangaea
- Graeme Dice: Pythium
- Ighalli: Abysia
- Vicious Love: Atlantis
- Yellow Cactus: Ulm
- Myself: Arcoscephale

[Cainehill]

Is Karan decided on for the map, or is it still up in the air depending on whether more players join? I'm wanting to email my pretender after I know the map, if that's okay.

[Alneyan]

As there has been no other map suggestion, we will be going with Karan. This map is available for download on Illwinter's site; click here (http://ulm.illwinter.com/dom2/karan.zip) for the direct download link.

All Pretender files have been received except Boron's (Ermor), Deccan's (Man) and Cainehill's (Jotunheim). So the game should start as soon as these Pretenders have been received.

[Boron]

sent now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Alneyan]

On a sidenote, I am looking for a name for this game. If left to my choosing, you are likely to get stuck with an unimaginative name such as "Brainwashing", or even a Zorkian homage (somehow, I feel that "Dimwit Flathead" might not be such a good name for a Dominions game). So any name a tad more original would certainly be welcomed.

[Cainehill]

Working on my pretender now. Incidentally, I don't see a mention of it, but - renaming on, I trust?

For a name - "The_Wall"? ('We don't need no ... education' - Pink Floyd.)

Or "Not_stupid_just_slow", or hmmm.... "Brute_Force" - if research and intelligence doesn't work, what's left? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Graeme Dice]

Yes, please make sure that renaming is turned on. It's a real pain when it gets forgotten.

[Alneyan]

Yes, I intended to turn renaming on, but thanks for reminding me; it is the kind of detail which can be missed at game setup , and forgetting it would be very, very annoying later on.

I like the sound of "Not_stupid_just_slow", and will likely pick this name for the game. Thanks!

Assuming Deccan drops in at his usual hour, I would expect the game to get started Sunday in the morning GMT (or even in the night, depending on my insomnia). The turns will be proceeded in the evenings however, barring real-life issues. So you should expect turns to run in between 1800 and 1900 GMT (or the proper name for the time zone unaffected by the Daylight Saving Time; is it actually GMT?). UK is one hour ahead of this time, Central Europe is at +2, and the Eastern Coast would be at -4. I do not know what time it would be in the other time zones though.

[En Forcer]

I encourage everyone to check their emails and respond quickly these first few turns. At least the first 10 turns we should be able to crank through.

Let's do it!

[Alneyan]

Most turns went in fairly quickly (I am only waiting for Boron as I am typing this) this turn, so we should be able to go through the first turns without having to wait for too long.

Speaking of which, I would like to add a modification to one of the rules. Instead of running the turns at a fixed hour, wouldn't it be better if I executed the turn as soon as possible, while using the fixed hour as the actual deadline?

For example, if the deadline hour is 1800, but I get all turn files at 1000 and can run the turn, the next deadline would be set at 1800 (making it 56 hours, with 8 "free" hours) and not at 1000. It allows for a quicker turnaround early on, while still giving a fixed deadline and so enabling people to get a routine. Any objections to this change?

[Cainehill]

If the deadline stays the same hour, quickhosting when all the turns have been received seems great to me, a win-win proposition.

[Vicious Love]

Seconded.

[En Forcer]

Sounds good to me.

[Ighalli]

I agree, let's play as fast as everyone gets their turn in.

[Alneyan]

We will be then going this way; the only problem I have with this method is that it didn't occur to me before. But I guess I am indeed "Not stupid; just slow".

Yellow Cactus may be stalling turns in the days to come. Should we be waiting for his turns, or go ahead when the deadline kicks in? From the Yellow Cactus will stale thread (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=294184&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1):


YellowCactus said:
Hello All!
I'm all packed up and leaving the Florida Coast. Expect my turns to stale for a couple turns....but If I don't return. I'm Dead.
-Yc

[Ighalli]

I think we should wait at least 24 hours from our Last hosting, but if he's not going to be around for a few days no sense delaying the game further.

[En Forcer]

Alneyan - I have a suggestion. To save yourself so much work, why not zip everyone's turn and then just do a bulk email? Right now you are doing 17 emails every turn.

Or would this not work because I don't recall us setting passwords...

Just a thought.

[Alneyan]

There is very little work involved in sending seperate emails: sending the mails themselves take two minutes (I have a template for each of you, and only need to attach your zip), and the zip files require less than one minute to be done.

There is also the matter of passwords; if you do not have one, everybody can access your turn (assuming they have your nation turn file). And then having only your nation-specific file is probably more convenient for the players themselves; it is much lighter to download, and you only see your own nation in the list. And Lastly, having only your own nation file should prevent any crafty player from "spying" on the other players through the hex-editing of their nation files.

So going with the current method doesn't take a lot of work at all, and is likely better for the players themselves.

Sadly, I do not know when will Yellow Cactus be able to play his turns again; himself may not be sure however. The best I could do here would be to "force" him to be replaced, and that's assuming he hasn't set up any password.

[En Forcer]

Okay, makes sense.

If you have any contact with YellowCactus maybe you could play his turn for him? Or just default to buying troops, researching, preaching, etc. with no attacks or movement.

The moderator for my other pbem game plays your turn if you miss it which is better than just a turnover with nothing done or purchased.

We could probably all agree to some basic guidlines is such a situation where you have the authority to play a turn on someone's behalf in the interest of keeping the game moving.

[Alneyan]

Hmm, it should be possible for me to do the standard stuff (which cannot hurt a player) such as research and recruiting. I am keeping the old turn files in case a third party check is required; for example, if someone claims there have been quite a few gifts going to Arcoscephale.

Ulm (Yellow Cactus) is password protected in this case however, so doing any kind of turn for Ulm will not be possible, unless I get *very* lucky.

[Ighalli]

Now that 2.14 is out, we'll be switching to that right?

[Alneyan]

We will eventually switch to 2.14 indeed; I guess once Yellow Cactus is back and fully settled. The main bugfixes of the 2.14 should affect the late game rather than the first few turns.

I am currently waiting for two player files: Pangaea and Ulm (Enforcer and Yellow Cactus respectively). Since I cannot play Ulm's turn because of the password, I guess Yellow Cactus will miss a few of the turns to come.

[Boron]

Alneyan said:
We will eventually switch to 2.14 indeed; I guess once Yellow Cactus is back and fully settled. The main bugfixes of the 2.14 should affect the late game rather than the first few turns.

I am currently waiting for two player files: Pangaea and Ulm (Enforcer and Yellow Cactus respectively). Since I cannot play Ulm's turn because of the password, I guess Yellow Cactus will miss a few of the turns to come.



Hm perhaps we could wait in this special case for Yellow Cactus . It was force majeure .

[En Forcer]

Sorry. Got a few phone calls and then the wife beat me to getting on the internet. You should have my turn very soon.

[Alneyan]

Waiting is a possibility in this case indeed. The problem is that Yellow Cactus probably didn't know when he will come back, so we cannot be sure for how long we will have to wait.

[deccan]

I vote to wait for Yellow Cactus. It's a freaking huricane after all. I also vote to move to 2.14. I don't want to maintain three Versions of Dom2 on my computer!

[Alneyan]

Incidentally, should I run the turn with 2.14 and then tell you to upgrade, or should I say "from turn 3 onward, we are with 2.14"? In other words, do I have to change the Version before running the turn, or after?

Two votes in favour of waiting for Yellow Cactus then.

[deccan]

I don't think it matters either way Alneyan. So long as most players agree, just make the change however is the most convenient to you.

[Alneyan]

It may matter if it creates boggus combat replays. On the other hand, there may be no battles on the coming turn; or are some nations already on the offensive?

As I have both Versions installed, I can make the switch at any moment without a glitch; at least, if I don't confuse my two exes.

[Vicious Love]

Three votes to wait for Yellow Cactus. Add that to your two, and we're up to five!

[Alneyan]

Under the Official Rules of Game Administrating 101, no game owner may cast her vote either way. For purposes of counting her forbidden vote, it will only count as a regular ballot, and not as two different voices. Likewise, the game owner cannot pressure players into voting, especially if she attempts to make the said players vote in the same direction as her two non-existant votes.

In other words, we will be waiting for Yellow Cactus, as it seems to be the will of most of the voters. Note, however, that the whole digression about my own vote is, well, simply a digression. Do I get a cookie for this sentence which should qualify as being "the most useless statement of the year"?

[deccan]

Man's castellans are the wimpiest leaders I've ever seen. He routed when I had 0 casualties. *Huff*

I wish Dom2 had an execute commander command. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

[Alneyan]

Ah, that was it. It happened to me as well, but only the archers routed then (fortunately). They took exactly two arrows for little damage, but routed nonetheless.

You can execute your commander actually; send the offending leader to any province nearby alone, with orders to attack the closest enemy. It should be much better if this province happens to be filled with cavalry, and even gives you a very accurate report of the defenders of this province. Be careful not to let know your other commanders about this unfortunate accident; somehow, it might have an impact on their own morale.

[Alneyan]

Yellow Cactus (playing Ulm) has withdrawn from the game. I believe I will be playing them for the next few turns, until a replacing player can be found. If nobody steps in, they will likely go AI.

[Cainehill]

Feh. Yellow Cactus and Ighalli couldn't be bothered to search for replacement players before bailing out?

Let me just add them to Cohen, Boron, Stormbinder, and others whom I will either avoid getting into games with in the future, or seek to wipe out early since they're going to screw the game up after.

[deccan]

Incidentally, Alneyan, didn't you say that you started next to Abysia? No offense, but having you play Abysia in addition to Arco then would be a little unfair... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Should probably post an official advertisement here too for the open positions. If everyone agrees, I'm all for pausing the game until replacements are found, or if not, the nations are set to AI.

[Alneyan]

It was Marignon and not Abysia; I had expected Abysia due to the Magic+Heat heavy scales, but it was Marignon instead (much better for me by the way). Abysia is more or less in the middle of the map, while I am on the right side, so we are not neighbours (Marignon at least is between us, and other nations to the south). We are not neighbours for the few turns to come at any rate, as later on Teleport and the like will make "neighbours" a loose term.

I would much, much rather have a replacing player for Abysia as well. Ulm is in a weaker shape (more or less like the Mictlan you have seen in Yarnspinners Deccan), so it will matter less in the grand scheme, and could either go AI or be set up as beefed up provinces to take. Abysia, on the other hand, still has potential and a decent situation, and would be worth being replaced.

I cannot believe I have forgotten to make a public ad though. Give me a Flagellant to slap myself. With a Fire 9 blessing if possible.

[Blofeld]

Heat? Me? Must've been the weather http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif. I'd say we wait for a while, I sent a word of a vacancy to my fellow players, perhaps someone willing will come up.

[deccan]

*Bump* I suppose we're not having any luck finding replacement players? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[Alneyan]

Indeed, you are correct Deccan; nobody wants to take the Fiery Nation of Abysia, or the Ulm enclave of the North.

- Wait some more. Or wait a lot more.
- Turn the nations in question to the AI. The main problem is that it will help their respective neighbours.
- Leave these nations to one of the players in the game, and either give information about them or make one turn fully available to all for information purposes. Alternatively, or in addition, the nation(s) concerned would go AI as soon as a war with a genuine human player is started, to prevent said player from getting intelligence about the attacking player.

If the third option is chosen, someone else may be needed for Abysia, as they are not so far away from myself (I believe they are next to my own neighbour, Marignon). Ulm is almost as far away from me as you can get (they are in the north-west), so I can probably keep them and build them up to make them harder to conquer by their own neighbour. I would turn them AI once someone wants to move against them if we went with this plan.

Suggestions, opinions, comments and insults welcome. Well, perhaps not insults, but you get the idea.

(Just noticed my typo. I called Deccan Duncan. Hmm, I guess I have been reading Dune too much, or something.)

[Alneyan]

The turn has just run, with Crash stepping in as Abysia. I have given something like an explanation about the fate of Ulm in my standard "new turn has arrived" mail.

[Crash]

Hello,

Thanks for letting me join your game.

I'm looking forward to razing your provinces and sacking your castles.


Respectfully,
Crash (Reborn heirophant of Abysia)

[Cainehill]

Remember, raze, pillage, _then_ burn, in that order. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Alneyan]

The Karenon Monthly: the best gazette on the Eastern marches. A summary of the present events happening in the known world.

- The rumours of demoncial influences within Arcoscephale: A growing rumour in agoras has it that the powerful Pyromancer leading our glorious nation would actually be one of those fiends we so despise. Such lies are ludicrous, and an infamy. Our ally was not born in the Shadeworld of Hades, but from the elemental power of fire, the lifegiver. Any claim to the contrary shall be met with the full force of the laws.

- The fall of Ulm: travellers have reported a collapse of the archaic kingdom of Ulm, far to the west. The once-proud nation is said to have fallen prey to invasions and, above all, the intrigues of infernal lords. It is now widely known that Ulm fiddled with the powers of the abyss, the most heinous of all corrupted powers.

The Karenon Monthly failed to determine the current status of Ulm; nonetheless, we strongly urge our readers not to travel to the area. We have full confidence that their neighbours will remove the anchor of these devils, allowing us to resume normal trade with the protectorate of Ulm.

- Marignon reports the capture of several spies: In the course of the past few months, Inquisition authorities have claimed to have seized a few illegal travellers in their lands. The Holy Office pretended that these passers-by were actually employed by the Strategon Council of Arcoscephale, accusations left answered by Arcoscephale.

However, the Ekklesia admitted the responsibility of Arcoscephale in this matter, but dismissed the incident as being "a mere misunderstanding between the Ekklesia, the Council, and their servants. These were rogues in our midst, and their actions do not reflect the policy [of Arcoscephale]". Marignon answered that "they have means to unravel the truth".

- The thrice cursed land of Pythium: Following many hardships, the Southern elite phalanx finally rescued the Reunification forces, who were besieged in a Pythium fortress by errand knights. The disgruntled hoplites rejoiced as the reinforcements were sighted, putting to rout the finest knights this part of the world had ever seen. The core of our elite troops repelled a cavalry charge without a loss; a living testimony to the quality of our training.

Meanwhile, reclamation of lands in the former Empire of Pythium (a vain title for the heirs of the glory of the Old Empire) has begun. Religious renewal has been declared the most important aspect of this plan, as the faith of Pythium has radically changed since the days of the Empire. Above all, faith will be needed to keep the darkness at bay. The abomination stemmed from the collapse of the Empire is indeed too close to our borders.

- The future of Arcoscephale: an overview. With much of our lore rediscovered, our treasury filled with silver talents, and our army unchallenged, the eyes of our people may now turn to our neighbours. While we do not share their outlook, Marignon seems a trustworthy partner, despite rumours of a war involving them and some demon-kin. Who would we be to blame them for fighting the fiends?

The Summer Land remains nearby, their kingdom a haven of peace and prosperity; or so it used to be, as our relationship had deteriorated for the past few years. But the biggest threat to the continued survival of our cities is the resurgence of the Enemy, the Living Dead of Ermor. These are the foes of tomorrow, and they herald the coming of a period of despair, blood, and death. Little will be gained by crushing them once more; but securing the peace of future generations, and the harmony of the Greater Sphere, is our only duty.

(If possible, I will add something like a schematised map, with boundaries and approximate locations of the various nations, and probably some more details on the current situation)

[Blofeld]

The mighty forces of Marignon and Pangea rid the world of demonic Abysians. Not a moment too soon, as they, in their wickedness, had already started summoning infernal beings, which would wreak havoc upon the face of the world.
Oh, a glorious war it was. I personally shredded Abysian phoenix to pieces (twice) and our soldiers stood valiantly against supehumanly strong, fiery and armoured enemies.

Hail to Crash - good game, hope to meet you on a battlefield soon.

[Crash]

Good work Marignon and Pangea.

I look forward to more battles with you in the future.

Crash.

[Blofeld]

... and the eleventh point of order of monthly proceedings of the Venerable Akademeia of Arcoscephale would be devoted to discussing the Origin and Nature of recently observed Caelestial Phenomenon...
... which is undoubtely a Stella Nova, similar in nature to the one mentioned in the manuscript recently unearthed in.. - esteemed Theophilos did not finish his sentence as he was in turn interrupted by impatient Anaxymenes:
- Rubbish! This is a Comet, returning near Earthly Spheres to prophesy victory to our glorious Empire and demise to barbarians of Marignon!
- Hrmph. Even a half-wit can deduce it is a Meteorite Swarm, soon to provide us with a picturesque night spectacle! - proclaimed irritated Philocrates.
- Colleagues, civil discu...

[The rest of the protocol from the meeting was charred beyond recognition, along with a dozen or so bodies of most sagacious Academics, suddenly struck by fiery death from the sky]

Spokesman for Arcoscephale's Ekklesia refused to comment on the speculations that research grants and admissions to Akademeia are to be subject to a much more scrupulous scrutiny from now on.
Additionally, a number of surviving Astrologers barely escaped lynch mobs of angry customers, somehow doubting the professionalism of comissioned horoscopes and divinations.

[Alneyan]

Could someone please explain why I put my clams and my most precious mages in my capital city, along with a nice sign saying "BLast that place to dust with Fires from Afar"? *Slaps self repeatedly*

[deccan]

Since I'm leaving on holiday on the 20th, and I'm just about dead and Alneyan is dead himself, I have asked him to take over my empire (or its remains anyway) for one final showdown against Marignon.

Good play Blofeld!

[Alneyan]

In other words, I successfully crippled Ulm (though they somehow survived until turn 50), I expertly destroyed Arcoscephale, so I shall now preside over the fall of Avalon. Beware Marignon!

That post was the best excuse I could make up to get my promotion. I will slap myself with one of Marignon's flaming fail now.

[Blofeld]

Let the carnage continue!
Thanks for playing, deccan. Enjoy your holiday.
Alneyan is reincarnated? Greetings, your welcome will be _warm_ as usual.