Game: Shadow People (started)

[Zachariah]

OK, I couldn't help myself, and kicked off another game.

Server IP Address: 205.217.155.218
Port: 8096
Late Era, random map of 15 provinces per player, renaming enabled.
Quickhost or every 48 hours.

join now! I'll start it once a bunch of folk have joined.

[BigDisAwesome]

I CALL DIBS ON PLAYING MAN!

But I'm headed out and don't have a chance to make a pretender right this moment. I'll get one uploaded tomorrow morning ASAP.

[Saint_Dude]

The sign in page looks as though this game is MA instead of LA. Not a big concern, but it may cause some confusion.

[jutetrea]

I'm in, justnot sure what nation I want to play yet be back in a few minutes http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Late Era T'ien Chi for me

Middle Arco if that's what it'll be

[jutetrea]

agree with Saint_dude, looks like an MA game with Machaka in there. That the goal?

[Digress]

I would like to give Ulm a go if it is indeed LA.

Would prefer Pythium if it remains MA - as it appears at the moment.

ULM IT IS ...

[DrPraetorious]

I'll play as Machaka.

If the game really is late era - Mictlan.

[vfb]

Edited: Thanks for hosting these games, Zachariah. At first I couldn't resist the temptation. Luckily I got a second chance to make a morale check, and this time I passed! So, have fun everyone http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. Sorry for the dud post.

[Xox]

I would like to play as r'lyeh ( dreamlands) if late age, not sure what I will play if it is middle age. will check back on that. Let us know.

[Catquiet]

Abysia for MA
Ermor for LA

[Herbacious]

I feel like trying Pangea again...

[Vathmoth]

I would like to try Bandar Log for MA or Black Forest for LA.

[Zachariah]

sorry folks: I meant for this to be a late era, but started it as a middle era. I'm restarting now...

[Stelteck]

I would like to try Marignon LA or MA.

Stelteck.

[Tequilich]

Ill give Patala a try.

[BigDisAwesome]

I'm in as man, that makes 3 of us uploaded

[solo]

I'll join as Utgard.

[Saint_Dude]

Signed up as Atlantis.

[Uskglass]

In as Midgard.

[Herbacious]

Was going to take TC but I seem to recall someone calling LA TC already so I went Jomon...

[jutetrea]

Yeah, called LA TC but keep changing pretenders. Trying out my 4th now...work really cuts into testing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[jutetrea]

sigh, k I'm in. Trying something a bit different for me

[Vathmoth]

Changed my mind, I'll play Ermor.

[Catquiet]

I already called Ermor for LA.

[jutetrea]

12 so far, how many total provinces?

[Digress]

Ulms been taken I will try Pangaea instead.

[Herbacious]

I believe the province total will be the amount of playersX15 Jutetrea

[jutetrea]

Just checking http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif sometimes folks expect like 12x15 and then get more.

[WSzaboPeter]

If Ermor is not taken I would play it. I think a list at the beginning would be helpful.

[Zachariah]

ok, i kicked it off! see you on the battlefield...

[jutetrea]

First turn in, would be cool if we could bang out the first few turns quickly between today and tomorrow

[BigDisAwesome]

What's the deal with the little crowns on the map?

[Saint_Dude]

I really do hate to gripe about the map (which looks nice by the way), or my start position (which is lame), but I think this layout may potentially produce a very unbalanced game.

Has anyone else noticed that there is a vast ocean in the south? By my count 20 contiguous water provinces, plus an island (5 provs), that are all presumably off limits to everyone except R'lyeh. I am playing Atlantis, but I am no where near this vast ocean (I would probably have to carve through 2 other empires to get there). In addition to these 25 contiguous uncontested provinces, R'lyeh can easily expand into the southwest corner in order to pick up an additional 3 water provinces by simply crossing a 1 province land bridge. In other words, R'lyeh should be able to easily put together a 30 + province empire without having to confront anything but low level independents. LA R'lyeh is not a major powerhouse, but this is an incredible starting advantage.

I really feel guilty posting this - seems like bad etiquette.

But if this is map is designed to have 15 provs/player, and 1 player has nearly uncontested access to 30+ provs, then the other players have 13.5 provs/player. Not only that but it is very difficult to expand efficiently into your allotted 13.5 provs without coming into conflict with your neighbors. Wars are likely to break out before any other player locks up more than 7 or 8 provs.

Seems like it would be easier to restart at turn 1 on a different random map, than to embark on a clearly unbalanced scenario, no?

[jutetrea]

yup, going to be insanity everywhere...ick

[vfb]

BigDisAwesome said:
What's the deal with the little crowns on the map?



They are Victory Points, and don't let anyone tell you they are unimportant because you don't have a victory point conditions set up in your game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

They will act as a Dom strength 5 temple, and help spread and defend your dominion. This could be very useful if you have an imprisoned pretender, low dominion scale, or cannot afford to build more temples. Even if that's not the case for you, it's a good idea to take the crowns to deny them to the other nations. (Note the crowns do not contribute to your temple count for the purpose of adjusting the limit on the number of recruitable holy units).

[BigDisAwesome]

Really? I've never played a game with VP's.
So if VP's aren't in the game setup, then how did they get in the map?

[jutetrea]

Did the server get restarted again? 23H till next hosting? What's up with Caelum?

[solo]

According to the first post, the server is set to quickhost or will host every 48 hours.

I did not notice anyone signing up as Caelem so it's hard to tell why the turn is delayed.

[jutetrea]

Hmm, sorry another game had the first 18 at 24, then moved to 48...

Still, considering the first turns only take a few minutes this is going real slow.

[BigDisAwesome]

So, should we all patch now?

[Tequilich]

Since no one knows who Caelum is and the new patch just came out. Maybe we should restart the game under the new patch?

[Saint_Dude]

I second that motion.

[Uskglass]

Thirded

[Xox]

4thed

[BigDisAwesome]

/agree
maybe a little map touchup to ensure the water areas are fair would be in order too.

[DrPraetorious]

We could just start yet another game at that rate, no reason to abandon this one.

If your start is dreadful, just consider it an additional challenge http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

[Xox]

one reason among many.....they took care of the y castle finding bug which lets you know where everyone start castle is (if you know the bug). I just found out about it in these latest patch notes. Thats huge. Wonder how mnay people were using that and not telling everyone.

[Catquiet]

I notice Stelteck didn't show up to claim Marignon. If we start a new game, I would like to switch to Marignon. That way Vathmoth could have Ermor.

[DrPraetorious]

Very well, lets restart then.

[solo]

Seems to be the consensus.

[BigDisAwesome]

Did you abandon us Zach?

[Saint_Dude]

Don't know if abandon is the right word. But I suspect that Zachariah may have been called away by real life (hopefully nothing too serious). He may have even been the person playing Caelum.

[Zachariah]

present! Marignon appears to be on the ball. Right now we're waiting for Jomon, Pangea, Atlantis, and R'lyrh w/ 24 hours left.

if anybody skips their turn more than once in a row, i'll turn them into AI.

-Z

[jutetrea]

If possible, could we crank out some turns this weekend? and who's Caelum?

[Xox]

I am confused, did we not just decide to restart?

[Saint_Dude]

Confusion here as well.

[Zachariah]

i was thinking that there would be no restart necessary, since marignon is active.

If you want a restart, send me a message in the game. if the in-game consensus is to restart, we will.

[Xox]

the game restart was, for me, more about the patch, then anything else. Since we had just started.

Please lets restart, I think we have a big majority who would like that, if not every single person.

[Vathmoth]

Yes, lets restart.

[Zachariah]

still waiting for a few more turns, then i will tally the votes, and post results here.

[Zachariah]

ok, votes are in via in-game messaging, and only 4 folk asked for restarting, so we proceed.

If you want to bail, please set yourself to AI, but I hope you stay, cuz it'll be a lot of fun w/ this many folk.

[Tequilich]

yeah lets finish this one, its going fairly fast.

[Zachariah]

i just AI'd jomon, cuz they had 2 stale turns in a row.

[BigDisAwesome]

This game has been moving pretty slow.

[BigDisAwesome]

How about T'ien Ch'i? The game always seems to be waiting on them now.

[Zachariah]

they haven't staled yet, so i want to stick to the 48 hours.

[DrPraetorious]

Who's playing Agartha?

I don't think I agreed to an NAP in this game, but I'm in a lot of games right now and I'm not 100% sure what I agreed to http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

So if Agartha insists that we have an NAP I'll wait 3 turns before attacking. Otherwise, I'm attacking now.

This would be a PM except there's no list of who's playing who on the first page - is the Agartha player even on the forum?

Also - anyone want to sell me a dwarven hammer or two?

[lch]

This might be one of the Gandalf sightings. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif
Is he winning or losing? (now I know why he's playing incognito...) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Zachariah]

If you can't send a message to Agartha, then they're being played by an AI.

[DrPraetorious]

I can send *in game* messages to Agartha, but I haven't seen him post to the forum. We were discussing the possibility of attacking Man and I don't remember if I agreed to an NAP. I don't think I did. By the time an in-game message would make it both ways, I'll already have attacked.

[DrPraetorious]

I think Agartha has quit playing - he's practically dead and he's not taking what should be an instantaneous turn. Can we set him to CPU?

[BigDisAwesome]

So anyway we can set Agartha to CPU?
He's actually eliminated from the game, all he has to do is log in and hit end turn.
Everyone else has the turn done, and it'd be kinda silly to wait 32 more hours.

[BigDisAwesome]

We need to band together to dispel Ry'leh's Arcane Nexus. He's already in the lead in provinces, forts(behind ermor of course), income, army size, 2nd in gem income, 2nd in dominion and 3rd in research.
We all know this is an endgame seal the deal spell. PM if you want in. I'll be sending a message out this turn too.

[Zachariah]

Hourly updated scores now available at:
http://www.evilzombies.com/dom3/ShadowPeople.html

[DrPraetorious]

(accidentally double-submitted)

[DrPraetorious]

It's been proposed that we band together - against me! - by of course R'lyeh.

At this point there are only three of us left so I think it costs nothing to band together against R'lyeh.

I'm still gearing up to put communions under the water - and unfortunately I failed to put up the Forge. I'm open to suggestions on how to deal with this situation. I'm confident that I can deal with R'lyehs hordes ON LAND, but getting my forces underwater is proving difficult without the Forge. Suggestions?

[DrPraetorious]

For the record, casting "Dreams of R'lyeh" at my provinces is a violation of an NAP, obviously.

[Zachariah]

One more turn folks, and unless something drastic happens, it looks like R'lyeh wins...

[Tequilich]

Patala declares war upon the underwater beings and calls out to Man to rid the world of R'lyeh!

[Zachariah]

Looks like R'lyeh dominates! I'll leave this server up for the rest of the turn if you want to see the final results, then I'm going to start a new game, same settings, and start a new thread.

[BigDisAwesome]

What? Unless I'm missing something, the game isn't over yet.

[Xox]

I think I am doing well, not sure if the game should be called on the strength of my position. Unless all the other players agree. There are no victory conditions I have fulfilled or anything are there?

[Zachariah]

the original post was for a 60-80 turn game, and R'lyeh is clearly way in the lead, so I'm ending the game. I'd like to let the game run its course, but my server can only run so many games, so I think its time to put this one to the rest and start a new one.

[Zachariah]

oops my bad: i didn't state this limit in my original post, altho i did in my other game posts.

[Xox]

Although I have been declared winner, this game has a ways to go. Is there another host capable of taking on host duties?

[llamabeast]

I can (if you can deal with the PBEM aspect of my server). I'll just need the ftherlnd file from the host, and e-mail addresses for each player.

[Xox]

I really really try to stay away from the pbem games,

But that is very generous of you LLamabeast.

1. if there is no network hoster available

2. If the rest of you want to continue this game which obviously has more life to it.

If both of the above are true we should accept Llamabeast's very helpful offer.


P. S. If anyone else hosting has a drop dead turn limit to there games let us know. I would not have entered. I do not like being declared winner (or loser) by arbitrary ruling.

[llamabeast]

It doesn't bother me at all, but I'm intrigued - what is it about PBEM games you don't like?

[Xox]

Its just so much easier to jsut upload your turn in game rather than vai email. Nothing other than that, saves a step or two. Also less to go wrong,

[DrPraetorious]

While R'lyeh was in the lead in several respects, he had yet to actually win any battles against me, and I was rather looking forward to a brutal final war http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

All the astral pearls in the world will not save him! (Which is good, because that's how many he has.)

[BigDisAwesome]

So the game is taken down already huh...rather disappointing.
I'll be trying to stay out of your games now.

[Xox]

Hehe, oh i still think i will win, but I admit its not a sure thing at all and it could be important how Man and Patala go, which is why this whole premature win thing kind of sucks because it puts me in a bad situation diplomatically with them.

I say to Man and Patala you can choose a life of servitude, torture and the blood sacrifice of your people raised as cattle under Mictlan or we can all just go to sleep in the empire of Dreamlands That doesn't sound so bad, now does it? Just dreaming until its time to pick a new Pancocreator?

Now I know Patala kind of swings that blood sacrifice way anyways, but I ask you, who will be the blood slaves in the empire of Mictlan? You or Mictlan? I think you can figure that one out.

Oh yeah and which one do you hate more?

My Arcane Nexus which is really just a green recycling initiative to pick up those gems the rest of you were wasting in inefficient magic item production and summoning.

Or Mictlan's Astral Corruption that assasinates your hard working mages.

One is a friendly knock on the door (ME, Dreamlands), ssking you to sort and curb your recyclable gems and the other is a visit from a HORROR ( HIM, Mictlan) who sucks your life out and marks you for repeat horror attacks throughout all eternity.

Again, I think the choice is clear.

I agree though, this is where the game gets pretty interesting with all the late game battlefield magic and summons.

[DrPraetorious]

I think you're underestimating the economic *benefits* of blood sacrifice. Full employment! Those blood spattered alters don't clean themselves!

I put up the astral corruption as a disciplinary measure - this way, the CPU players won't be able to spend their gems out of combat. I would never have raised it if he hadn't put up

Anyway, my real argument is this - you have a much better chance of defeating me after uniting against him than the reverse. Can either of you even get into the water efficiently?

[Xox]

The Eater of Gods killing our mages is one heck of a "disciplinary" measure.

Wow, again easy choice here people!

MIctlan offers disciplinary measures and employment cleaning blood splattered altars to his false God.

As for me I offer dreams. You may say that I am a dreamer, but am I the only one? Man? Patala?

In any case Mictlan offers a false choice. Either way he wins or I win, there is no benefit to Man or Patala unless one of them wins. Your jedi mind tricks will not work on them. Well maybe they will. Not sure.

Now, look into my eyes, you are getting sleepy, very sleepy.

[Zachariah]

I've zipped up the saved game files if someone else wants to continue hosting it:
http://www.evilzombies.com/dom3/ShadowPeople.zip

[llamabeast]

Okay guys, please PM me if you want me to run the game.

[BigDisAwesome]

Well what do you guys think? I consider the pbem a little bit of a pain with the extra steps, but I'm all for it. I wanna see all the crazy stuff that Mictlan and Ry'leh are about to do to each other!

[llamabeast]

Okay, unless there are any objections then I will host this game (I have heard from a couple of players that they would like me to).

Can you all PM me your e-mail addresses please?

And in fact could someone tell me which players are still in the game so I'll know when I've got them all?

[llamabeast]

Okay, it seems that the remaining players are Xox, Dr P and BigDisAwesome (Tequilich has asked to be set to AI). I'm just waiting for an e-mail address from Xox, then I can get the game going again.

[BigDisAwesome]

Ouch, an AI right in the middle on all our borders.

[Tequilich]

sorry i dont like playing PBEM.

[BigDisAwesome]

It's ok, I still like ya.

[llamabeast]

Guys, it looks like there should be an Ermor player too. Anyone know who that is?

[BigDisAwesome]

I'm not quite sure who was playing Ermor. I think I did all my talk with him in game.

[Xox]

I think it was Catquiet.

[llamabeast]

Okay, I've PMed him.

[BigDisAwesome]

Thanks for all the effort llamabeast.
Yeah I'm not exactly in a spot to win, but this is by far the closest to end game I've ever gotten in a MP so I'm just excited to see it through.

[llamabeast]

Okay the game is restarted! Hopefully the three survivors will all have got an e-mail from the server containing a message from me, which tells you how to play your turns, followed by another message with your turn file.

Make sure to look at the website for the server (www.llamaserver.net ).

Let me know if you have any questions. Have fun!

[BigDisAwesome]

We got a problem. You sent me Mictlan's turn.
And then you sent me an email with the password and stuff.

You got mine and DrP's email mixed up. I'm man...

[BigDisAwesome]

So did you ever resend the turns? I see options on page, but I don't wanna screw with anything myself.

[llamabeast]

Er, I thought I had, possibly I didn't.

If you haven't received your turn, just go on the website, and click "ShadowPeople". Near the bottom of the page there's a "Request turn resend" button - you can use that to get it sent again.

Also feel free to screw with stuff, it is all fairly slef explanatory and you can't break it or anything.

[BigDisAwesome]

I gotta say llama, I never really cared for pbem. This is a phenomenal setup you've got here though.

[llamabeast]

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Thanks! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Xox]

I postponed hosting 12 hours as none of us had gotten our turn in and there was ( as I read it anyways) only 4.5 more hours to host. I definitely needed that time myself. I hope that is ok with you two other guys, If needed we could even turn it to 72 hour qhost. What do you think guys?

The pbem thing is a pain, but the llamaserver helps a lot. Thanks again, Llamabeast, for helping us out.

[llamabeast]

No probs http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[BigDisAwesome]

I'm down with a 72 hour host. I didn't find my turns taking that long before, but after the big break I kinda forgot what all my commanders were up to.

[BigDisAwesome]

So I see that Patala and Ermor are both still player controlled because you don't have the master password, but who's controlling them?

[llamabeast]

Noone. They haven't actually taken their turn, I just faked it so the server wouldn't wait for them. But I've just heard back from Zachariah with the master password, so I should be able to set them to AI as soon as I have a chance.

[DrPraetorious]

Something weird happened, I'll take my turn sometime tonight. Sorry for the delay.

[llamabeast]

I postponed hosting by 1 hour because it looked like you might stale - maybe that was the funny thing? Looks like that gave you the time to postpone it more.

[DrPraetorious]

No, no, something odd with my client. I've got it fixed but now I have to go to work, thanks for the hour, though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

[Xox]

yeah, the game just keeps getting postponed.

But heck, thats ok, better that than stale turns. Honestly I have no problem wiht the game taking longer.

[DrPraetorious]

Gah, those void spectres are *annoying*! It takes me forever to do my turns because I have to painstakingly move armies and orders away from units that have gone completely bonkers. Not an ideal situation.

[Xox]

Thanks again Llamabeast so much for helping us out after Zachariah dropped the ball on this game.

It is quite interesting and complicated at this stage and I am having fun and learning a lot doing the late game stuff. It is almost a different gamge really in these later turns. I would have hate to have missed that. Though it does take a long time to do a turn these days.

But, one example of why i try to avoid pbem games. I sent my turn in about 15 minutes before host and it just won't register, so I have to extend the deadline by an hour and wait, contiunually checking , maybe resending the turn to see if it gets through. thanks by the way for giving us the admin pw, else i suppose I would have staled, even though i did send my turn in time.

Still no confirmation my turn was received. I guess i will resend and wait some more, I may have to extend the host for 8 more hours.

[llamabeast]

That shouldn't happen. Unfortunately it seems that a very small proportion (maybe 1%?) of e-mails to the server get lost in the aether, and take ages to arrive. Normally your turn should arrive in less than 5 minutes easily.

Mostly resending the turn will do the trick, although occasionally the mail server seems to have a grumpy day with regard to one person. Anyway, try resending. Copy me in on the e-mail too if you want. I agree this is a very annoying issue, although you're quite unlucky to have run into it. Unfortunately since the e-mail doesn't actually arrive at my end I'm not sure what to do about it. I wonder if perhaps the mail service I'm using isn't super reliable, but any better one would cost money.

[llamabeast]

Hurrah, looks like it worked. Now I'm holding you up because I forgot to set Ermor and Patala to AI... oh actually I can't anyway - no map file. Could someone post it please?

[DrPraetorious]

I concede. Unfortunately, I mailed the 2h file from the wrong HD just before I went to bed and staled.

As a result, I lost the teleportation cube, and my reinforcements did not advance towards the front.

My apologies, but I think I have to concede at this point.

[llamabeast]

Teleportation cube?

[DrPraetorious]

The gate stone. Guy who had it was going to hand it off to a stealthy commander to prevent it from getting zonked, and he did indeed get zonked when I failed to send in my turn.

[BigDisAwesome]

Well if you're out I'm out. The only chance I had at winning was playing the war out between the two of you.

[Xox]

Woot!! tough fight though, very, very tough.

Once we swithced to PBEM (maybe not related, but I am biased I admit) I was gettng wierd stuff happen with my armies inexplicably having there orders change from what i set them. It happened repeatedly and the turn before last I carefully saved everything and later verified with Llamabeast that the files were identical and still critical changes happened. Like armies that were set to move, got set to patrol somehow.

Should I put that in the bug list? We have the 2h and turn files saved to show the situation.

I kept losing battles, but fortunately I was ahead enough I could absorb the losses.

Nicely played though DrPratorious, I was having a difficult time against your major armies till this last turn.

[BigDisAwesome]

This is still hosting? I'll post in the winners thread and tell llamabeast he can take it down now.

Grats Xox!

[llamabeast]

Okay, I'll take the game down.

Incidentally I'm quite sure Xox's issues were not PBEM related. Basically PBEM and direct connect are just different ways of getting a 2h file into the right place - then Dominions handles the rest. And the files can't be corrupted since Dominions checks them before using them. So it must be some other issue. Sounds really weird and annoying though.

'Grats on winning Xox! That was pretty rapid - doesn't seem like many turns since you restarted the game on the LlamaServer. You must have managed something decisive.