Cripple Fight! - And the Lame shall inherit the earth!

[Burnsaber]

Disclaimer: The good jokes in this post are by Calahan. The bad ones are by me. I decline from taking any credit for the good ones.


--------------------------

This game will only feature nations that have not yet won a single MP game, according to the thread on victorious nations (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=33275). If someone gives some info on a nation winning a non-blitz game, I'll remove it. This is your chance to play your favourite weak nation without some stupid niefels bounding you into dust in turn 14, although there are some nations that are consider pretty good in the mix. Well, there must be some reason for them not having won a single game.

Name of the Game - CrippleFight
Type - llamaserver PBEM (Play By EMail)
Map: Etruscae 158 land + 22 water (about 14,3 provs per land player and 11 per water nation)
Download link for the map: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...light=etruscae
Mods: CBM 1.4, Multi-age mod (Downloadable from this post:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showp...0&postcount=41)
Players: 13
Settings: renaming on, Large HoF, magic sites 40

Hosting Schedule:
24h per turn until turn 20, then 36h to 40, then 48h to 60 and finally 60h after turn 60

Delays:
-Each player will be granted a one day delay on request. If there are longer delays (especially in the first 20-30 turns), please try to find a sub. But if push comes to shove, delays are highly preferred over setting someone AI. If someone has trouble keeping up on the schedule, just speak up and can negotiate a better hosting schedule.

Victory Condition
- The surrender of all other losers.


Nations in the game:

EA

Ermor - Calahan - SURVIVED - But declined to fight like a man at the end, and instead wimped out like a little girl waving his white handbag in the air.
Abysia - Frozen Lama - SURVIVED - Fuelled the MA Atlantis war machine with Nexus gems for many turns, then got hit in the face with said machine. There was much pain.
Tir na n'Og - Valerius - SURVIVED - But never did find a cure for his arachnophobia.
Atlantis - TheDemon - DEFEATED ON TURN 11

MA

Machaka - Meglobob - SURVIVED - And is currently in the process of suing the J.R.R. Tolkien estate for inventing Elves in the first fecking place. -- Gregstrom won Joker with Machaka, so won't be in the sequel.
Vanheim - Burnsaber - AI, from turn 36 -- MA Vanheim won the Spellchecker game, won't be in the sequel.
Bandar Log - veto - DEFEATED ON TURN 32
Atlantis - Zeldor - WINNER - After taking over the ship mid voyage, managed to successfully steer the aquatic society through the Giant lands of Fire and Shade.
Eriu - Fakeymcfake - AI, from turn 16

LA

Arcoscephale - tgbob - DEFEATED ON TURN 64
Gath - viccio - AI, from turn 63 -- Gath won the Wildpansies game, won't be in the sequel.
Atlantis - Jazzepi - AI, from turn 27
Bogarus - Alpine Joe - DEFEATED ON TURN 68. -- Bogarus won the Artefacts game, won't be in the sequel.


OPENING SOON!

Cripple Fight II - The Lamepire Strikes Back.

Final Castings

EA Ermor - Fired their agent after an embarrassing final scene in the first movie, and are now looking for new representation in the sequel.
EA Abysia - The shocking finale to the original now sees these being hastily written into the script for the follow-up.
EA Tir na n'Og - The Elves are back girls. So start practising your fan-girl screams.
EA Atlantis - The script for the sequel has long been based on these, with the story revolving around how their peaceful, predator free life underwater, comes to a crashing end.

MA Machaka - Axed after Gregstorm persuaded them to appear in a Batman spin-off after stealing the show in the "Joker"
MA Vanheim - Booted out after demanding a huge pay increase after receiving an Oscar nomination for "Spellchecker"
MA Bandar Log - Monkeys! Monkey Magic! Can all Pigsy look-a-likes please leave your details with the producer.
MA Atlantis - In true dramatic, unforeseen, plot-twisting style, announced in the very last line of the original that they wouldn't be returning to the franchise.
MA Eriu - A safe bet to once again be partnering their cousin Tir-Na in the sequel.

LA Arco - There wouldn't be a film without them.
LA Gath - Got a shock 11th hour offer to shoot Wildpansies2 instead. So now won't be appearing again.
LA Atlantis - Well known to be down on luck and short of cash. So is certain to be snapped up for the sequel.
LA Bogarus - Signed an exclusive contract with award winning director Micah to spend the next 17 years shooting "Artifacts - The Movie", in Real Time and Split Screen.

Check you local cinema listings.

[TheDemon]

EA Atlantis, and god help us all.

[Dragar]

I really really shouldn't play in another game, but have to give EA Abysia another shot, this time maybe with a chance ;)

[don_Pablo]

Winterstorm: winner LA C'tis
That's not a weak nation

As for me - MA Atlantis please

[Burnsaber]

Winterstorm: winner LA C'tis
That's not a weak nation

As for me - MA Atlantis please

Ok. LA C'tis removed from available list.

I know that some of these nations aren't *that* weak, but there must be some reasons for them having no reported victories on the sticky thread.

[Zapmeister]

Discharge was won by LA Patala, played by Revolution.

[Calahan]

Lets have a bash at EA Ermor.

[Meglobob]

Fun game concept...:up::)

Can I have one of the weakest nations in the Dominions universe...Machaka. Its now or never for the cool but utterly useless spiders.

[Burnsaber]

Fun game concept..


Yeah, one of the best ideas I've had in a while.

And once this game is finished, we could start a new one (with at least one nation less, not suprisingly). After that, another one. Rinse and repeat until only there are only two nations left to compete for *not* getting the tragic "Worst nation ever" mark.

[coobe]

machaka weakest nation ??? no way.... maybe even top5 nation in MA imo

[viccio]

I'm interested to play with Gath

[GrudgeBringer]

EA Arco has won a game?

[GrudgeBringer]

Nevermind....I see they squeeked one by:up:

[don_Pablo]

Sign Veto as Bandar Log please :)

[Meglobob]

machaka weakest nation ??? no way.... maybe even top5 nation in MA imo

Really?

Care to write a nation guide (in the main thread please) backing that up?

I rate them as the 2nd weakest in MA, Ma Oceania being the weakest.

[Valerius]

Great idea, Burnsaber! Tir na n'Og, please.

[Alpine Joe]

I'll see if I can do something with Bogarus

[tgbob]

Can I get LA acro?

[Jazzepi]

I'll take LA Atlantis.

I think this game should be renamed CRIPPLE FIGHT!

Jazzepi

[Fakeymcfake]

I think this game should be renamed CRIPPLE FIGHT!

Jazzepi

And this post made me want to join the game, put me down for MA Eriu

[Digress]

I will take the last of the losers - if you please.

[Burnsaber]

I will take the last of the losers - if you please.

Unfortunately, the last loser nation was reserved for my amusement. I'm sorry if it was confusing and got your hopes up. (Hence there was only 1 open slot althought two nations were free). Can I place you as a sub thought?

Okay, please make your pretender designs. The map and the multi-age-mod are in the first post of the thread. I assume that each one of you losers is skilled enough to get your hands on CBM 1.41 without guidance. Remember that there are some strong sacred nations (3 glamour nations & Abyssia) in the mix, so you probably should have plan for sacred rush.

I'm going to work in 10 minutes and after that, to a nice 13km long jog. Then I'll start mediating with the allmighty llamaserver and put the game up. Hopefully we can get this game started on saturday/sunday.

Also, all in favour of renaming the game to a cheesy South Park reference (CRIPPLE FIGHT), please speak up. If there seems to be other players than me & jazzepi who think that this is a good idea, I'll do it.

[Dragar]

Cripple fight is good :)

Don't fear the abysians, we come in peace! (shoot to kill)

[Fakeymcfake]

I joined this game in part because it should be called cripple fight. If it does not become so I will be sorely disappointed.

[Meglobob]

I like south park too, so okay with me.

[Calahan]

I think it's now impossible to come up with another name for this game besides Cripplefight.

[Burnsaber]

The game is up on the llamaserver, by the name of CrippleFight.

IMPORTANT:
All of you will need to download the new single-age mod in the first post!

Remember to have cbm 1.41 active when creating your pretenders!
/IMPORTANT

The game is (hopefully) due to start sunday. Here's a story post to get you riled up.

The awakening god rose and looked down on his people. It did not know why he was cast down to this strange dimension trough time and space. Why where these seemingly random people of strange nations also sent here? Using its highened divine senses the awakened one tried to divine the cause for this cosmic mayhem. But it could it be? The movement of the cosmic strands of creation are weak and hard to translate in this world. The Clues, cryptic. The prophecy, nonexistent.

But.. it realized.

Could it be? All these pretenders, all these people, even this world? All send down here due to some arbitary measure of war winning ability in alternative dimensions? It pondered this mysteria for long. But then it realized that it did not matter. The playground has been leveled. The bullies have been exiled. This is the time. Now is the chance. It will lead these meek folk to glory! Divinity is within its grasp!







The Cripple Wars have begun..

[Burnsaber]

Okay. I'm an idiot. The Llamaserver is thrice the awesome I thought it was. It apparently already support multi-era games.

So you just need this mod: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showpost.php?p=608870&postcount=41 + CBM to play.

If you downloaded some of the early mod I added to the first post way back, you can delete them. They'll do you no good.

[chrispedersen]

Fun game concept..


Yeah, one of the best ideas I've had in a while.

And once this game is finished, we could start a new one (with at least one nation less, not suprisingly). After that, another one. Rinse and repeat until only there are only two nations left to compete for *not* getting the tragic "Worst nation ever" mark.

Its a great idea burn..
However, while the player should go in the hall of fame, I don't think the *nation* should.

Just like in UlmishCivilWars, (where everyone is playing ulm), reporting a game victory as ulm wouldn't reflect one of the purposes of the hall of fame - to answer the question of which players and which nations were the strongest.

[Valerius]

Hmm, it looks like a pretender has been submitted for Hinnom. No fair picking on the cripples!

[Fakeymcfake]

Who the heck sent in a Hinnom pretender?

[Jazzepi]

You can just over write it by submitting your own.

Jazzepi

[Fakeymcfake]

Well yeah, but the thing is that Hinnom isn't supposed to be in this game.

[Burnsaber]

The Hinnom pretender has been obtilerated by my radioactive admin powers. Hopefully it was a honest mistake and not some guy trying to bully us.

I'll keep a close eye on the game and eliminate any other "accidents" when they pop up.

[Valerius]

We seem to be plagued by bullies - now Mictlan is picking on us. Niefel is sure to arrive any moment. :hurt:

[Calahan]

Hope to have my EA Ermor Pretender uploaded by the end of the day. It seems to be a tough Pretnneder build normally, but the small-ish map for this game is making it doubly so.

We seem to be plagued by bullies - now Mictlan is picking on us. Niefel is sure to arrive any moment. :hurt:

Guess they've heard that all their favourite cripples are going to be in one place at the same time! Bullies don't like running round too much :p

[Meglobob]

Go away bullies, only cripples allowed!

Also, ignore Chris, anyone who wins a game with one of these crippled nations fully deserves there Hall of Fame place. Especially in a open-ended game with 12 opponents.

Will upload my pretender tonight.

[Alpine Joe]

Sorry i'm the guy who sent in EA Mictlan, it was a complete accident, as I was signing up at the time for another EA game as well. I will send in my real [U]Bogarus[U] pretender shortly.
Once again apologies for slowing down the process.

[Burnsaber]

Sorry i'm the guy who sent in EA Mictlan, it was a complete accident, as I was signing up at the time for another EA game as well. I will send in my real Bogarus pretender shortly.
Once again apologies for slowing down the process.

Sorry for the angry sounding e-mail.

I was just having a blast with this long pen & paper RPG session and was checking on the game while my lunch was cooking in the micro. When I noticed that the Hinnom joker guy had returned*. I was pretty annoyed to hold from my delicious meal and exciting RPG game for a moment to take precautions, hence the tone in the e-mail. I actually tought that there was some guy out there trying to pester us.

However, I've disabled autostart so that I can manually make sure that the right nations are in the game before starting. I'll probably be the last to put my pretender in sunday(due to complete lack of testing today). But I'll start the game right away once the 13 nations are in.

The first turn will be with 48h limit so that no-one is caught by suprise.

To Chris: You kind of have a point there, but since with this amount of players this is almost like a real mp game. I'd agree with you if this game had less than 9 players with "weak" nations. But I don't really care that much and Tyrant is the final arbiter on the issue.


* in retrospect that probably someones honest mistake too.

[Dragar]

Hey guys,

Out of the blue it seems very likely that I'll be away for 2-3 weeks in June sometime. In the interests of the game I'd better pull out before it begins, rather than risk not being able to get a sub at that time

Sorry for the late notice, just glad the game hasn't started yet

[Burnsaber]

Hey guys,

Out of the blue it seems very likely that I'll be away for 2-3 weeks in June sometime. In the interests of the game I'd better pull out before it begins, rather than risk not being able to get a sub at that time

Sorry for the late notice, just glad the game hasn't started yet

Duly noted. I've contacted Digress if he'd be intrested in taking your place. I'm going to wait for his anwser before I start open recruiting.

[Burnsaber]

Update on the situation: Digress declined, so we'll have to wait for a player to appear.

Once a replacement appears, I'll negotiate with him on much time he wants to stragedize a pretender.

[Frozen Lama]

EA abyssia? if you still need someone, i'lll take it

give me like an hour to make my pretender

[Burnsaber]

EA abyssia? if you still need someone, i'lll take it

give me like an hour to make my pretender

And the place is yours. Welcome to the game!

No need to rush your design. There are still 2 others pretenders yet to be sent. Remember to have cbm active when making your pretender, and the single-age mod to play. You can see the download links from the game page on llamaserver.

http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=Cripple_Fight

[Frozen Lama]

well i don't take long. not expecting to last that long, but i never use fire magic much. may as well try. pretender sent in.

[TheDemon]

Just waiting on viccio's Gath pretender now.

[Meglobob]

Just waiting on viccio's Gath pretender now.

I hope it wasn't him who submited the Hinnom pretender. You know getting mixed up between Ea Gath and La Gath.

Perhaps PM him if he does not send in a pretender soon?

[Burnsaber]

I'll contact him in the morning if Gath pretender hasn't shown up by then. But now, sleep.

[Burnsaber]

And the game is on! First turn is at 48h, and we will be going with 24h until turn 20.

I must say that I'm deeply hurt by the choice of pretender names. I refrained from naming my pretender "Timmy" just because I thought that everyone else would be doing that too. Not even a single Lord of the Underworld, too!

And it appears that all ages of Atlantis share the same flag. If people perceive this as a problem, I could whip up a simple fix for it.

Anyways, lets start bashing heads. Remember that it's okay to beat a cripple if you're one too!

[TheDemon]

There's a mod for banners http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=39989, but I'm not sure how to use it when the game's already started.

I can imagine this will be confusing for those of us playing Atlantis assuming provinces are ours when they in fact aren't.

[Burnsaber]

There's a mod for banners http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=39989, but I'm not sure how to use it when the game's already started.

I can imagine this will be confusing for those of us playing Atlantis assuming provinces are ours when they in fact aren't.

You can't add mods after the game has started, but I have other solution. I'll test it next turn to be 100% (instead of 99%) sure that it works.

[chrispedersen]

Create a new mod by appending what you desire to the end of the old mod. Do not change the names or the version number.

If all you are changing is graphics et.al.. works like a charm.
The user can do it himself, if he wishes (doesn't even have to go through llama server)

[tgbob]

I must say that I'm deeply hurt by the choice of pretender names. I refrained from naming my pretender "Timmy" just because I thought that everyone else would be doing that too. Not even a single Lord of the Underworld, too!


I was this close in naming my pretender Timmy, but alas.

[Calahan]

I'm slightly disappointed that everyone didn't take the thematically crippled Forge Lord. Shame on you all.

[chrispedersen]

I'm slightly disappointed that everyone didn't take the thematically crippled Forge Lord. Shame on you all.

...and call him Timmy

[Meglobob]

At least I called my prophet t..t..TIMMY!:)

[archaeolept]

this is a most amusing game concept, at least. Also, I think certainly it should count for nation wins... really there's not that big a difference with a normal game.

although it is amusing that all three atlantises have the same flag :p

[Jazzepi]

Oh man. Is there a way we can get a fix for this atlantis flag thing? It's turn 3 and it's already annoying as all get out.

Jazzepi

[Burnsaber]

Okay here is how you fix the flags. First, if you don't possess the streamers & standards mod, search for it and download it. You need to have the "sns3" folder in your dominions3/mods for this to work!

Then copy the following text in the code box. Then open the SingleAgeComplete.dm file (it is a pure textfile, so notepad will do best) and paste the text at the end of it. Save the .dm file and quit. Fire up dom3 and test the Cripple_Fight game for changed flags.


#selectnation 66
#flag "./sns3/la_atlantis_icon.tga"
#end

#selectnation 46
#flag "./sns3/ma_atlantis_icon.tga"
#end

#selectnation 21
#flag "./sns3/ea_atlantis_icon.tga"
#end


I have now hosted trough with the changed mod file and it seems to have caused 0 errors. Remember thought that only purely graphical changes are error free.

Changing Ulm's flag to this?
http://xs538.xs.to/xs538/09145/flag170.jpg
- Completely fine, althought childish

Changing your troop costs to 0gp?
- Trust me, will cause an error.

[Frozen Lama]

do we NEED to do this if we are not atlantis? or at least not right away?

[Burnsaber]

do we NEED to do this if we are not atlantis? or at least not right away?

No, it's not compolsory. Althought you might want to do it eventually. Since you are changing the mod on your computer, the changes will be only shown in your end.

[Jazzepi]

do we NEED to do this if we are not atlantis? or at least not right away?

No, it's not compolsory. Althought you might want to do it eventually. Since you are changing the mod on your computer, the changes will be only shown in your end.

I'm sure only HILARITY can result if two Atlantis nations team up on one guy who hasn't put the mod changes in for flags.

Jazzepi

[Calahan]

Aaarrrgghhh I'm crippled!!

Two unrest events in my capital on the same turn :cry::cry::cry:

I can only just about afford the maintenance fees! Ermor hereby applies for disability aid.

Please give generously :help:

[Fakeymcfake]

This game is already off to a hilarious start.

[Frozen Lama]

well i have absolutly no understanding of modding, so when i have time, i will undertake to mod my game. lol

[Calahan]

Ermor is truly blessed to be in a world full of such generous rulers :ghug:

We really are not worth to be in such company :bow::bow::bow:

Due to the kind spirit of others, and as a result of the recent Ermor Aid concert :jam: a new scout can be recruited this month. Things are looking up :re:

[Burnsaber]

Yeah, all games go like this. Sure, in the beginning it's all about love, rock & roll, power of love and all that stuff.

But once someone realizes that you need to kill all other players to win, things get.. not nice. At least your expansion seems to go smoothly (you're having a tie for the second place with me). MA atlantis seems to be exploding, by the way! 8 provinces. Niice.

[Meglobob]

Ermor can afford mercenaries! We spider people are so poor Cartman has had to go on a diet!

[Calahan]

Ermor can afford mercenaries! We spider people are so poor Cartman has had to go on a diet!

Those fine Archers were hired during the boom times, before the current economic troubles :hurt: and every month the scholars of Ermor curse at those expensive Mercs for taking their research supplies. At least they are doing their job well enough, but pretty sure they'll want paying again very soon :(

And it appears another month has just unfolded, but the King of Ermor is half a days ride away in the lands of RealLife. I wonder what fortunes or misdeeds will be reported upon his return?

[Calahan]

Bloody Circle Masters :mad:

[Burnsaber]

Bloody Circle Masters :mad:

Yeah, Circle Masters are pretty "bloody". It must be because of that blood magic they use.

[Meglobob]

Looks like Ea Atlantis is not long for this world. Using my spidervision to see beneath the waves from the cliffs above, a mighty Ma Atlantis army lays siege to there early age fathers Dark Citadel. Well we cannot see what is inside the Dark Citadel, it looks bleak.

Still, at least we can only mix Ma and La Atlantis up now!

[Burnsaber]

Looks like Ea Atlantis is not long for this world. Using my spidervision to see beneath the waves from the cliffs above, a mighty Ma Atlantis army lays siege to there early age fathers Dark Citadel. Well we cannot see what is inside the Dark Citadel, it looks bleak.

Still, at least we can only mix Ma and La Atlantis up now!

That can be pretty bad. It's always a big risk if a single UW nation gets hold of all water so fast. Only Pantakrator knows what they'll start cooking in the depths once seas are theirs.

Hey LA Atlantis! Shape up and conquer the seas so that I won't have to start buying snorkels for my vanir.

[Jazzepi]

Looks like Ea Atlantis is not long for this world. Using my spidervision to see beneath the waves from the cliffs above, a mighty Ma Atlantis army lays siege to there early age fathers Dark Citadel. Well we cannot see what is inside the Dark Citadel, it looks bleak.

Still, at least we can only mix Ma and La Atlantis up now!

That can be pretty bad. It's always a big risk if a single UW nation gets hold of all water so fast. Only Pantakrator knows what they'll start cooking in the depths once seas are theirs.

Hey LA Atlantis! Shape up and conquer the seas so that I won't have to start buying snorkels for my vanir.

Send me money :O

Jazzepi

[tgbob]

To Abysia and Bander Log:

Woah there woah, what's the dealie-o with them armies on my boarders?

[Frozen Lama]

Those would be expansion parties..... they are to kill indies yes? your elephants are doing the same thing. calm down. :)

[Jazzepi]

Fightttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

[Meglobob]

Fightttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

No Cripple_Fightttttttttttttttttt, remember!:)

Crutchs at dawn (flaming ones in the case of Abysia), you get the idea.

[Burnsaber]

Send me money :O
Jazzepi

Done. Once you receive the money, just hit underwater. Remember how sorrowful your nation is about the death of deep ones. All that angst.. It was all for nothing! They were just hiding in that stupid lake all the time! Take action in your hatred! Strike down those who have brought you such grief!

I wouldn't normally be so.. pushy, but our snorkel research isn't going so well. Apparently you can't fight well in the bottom of the ocean when you have a stick with lenght of several hundreds yards in your mouth.

Fightttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

Exactly.

[don_Pablo]

The Kings of the Deeps wonders about position of Vanheim.
Should this agressive tone be interpreted as a declaration of war or just a manner of communication of your primitive race?

Also we see no reason to conсeal our current NAPs with LA Atlantis, Tir na n'Og and Machaka.

[Burnsaber]

The Kings of the Deeps wonders about position of Vanheim.
Should this agressive tone be interpreted as a declaration of war or just a manner of communication of your primitive race?

Also we see no reason to conсeal our current NAPs with LA Atlantis, Tir na n'Og and Machaka.

Well, to be honest..

We are just worried about the biological diversity of the only land of water in this realm. While commencing our snorkel research, the graceful people of Vanir were touched by the beauty of the underwater biosphere. Should one race dominate the seas, the ensuing aftermatch will greatly damage the underwater biodiversity.

Since you are bringing your cards to the table, I'll show mine too. I'm at war with Machaka and have NAP with Tir na n'Og.

Also, our dwarven hammer factory has been started by well.. Dwarfs, so anyone intrested in a shiny hammer should contact us with an offer. We accept gold, blood slaves and thug equipment.

[Jazzepi]

Looking for gear! Send a PM if you have construction 4 or higher. Happy to pay in gems.

Jazzepi

[Valerius]

What happened with EA Atlantis, anyway? It seems like they never got an expansion going. Rushed?

[Jazzepi]

He got subsumed by MA Atlantis. When there's only two water nations, one tends to rush the other.

Jazzepi

[Calahan]

Think we might need to do something about Gath. They have staled the last two turns, with another one looking to be on the cards in 12 hours time.

'viccio', who's playing them, seems to have gone (temporarily) AWOL, and is also currently staling as Mictlan in the 'Legends of Faerun' game. So it's not just this game.

[Burnsaber]

Think we might need to do something about Gath. They have staled the last two turns, with another one looking to be on the cards in 12 hours time.

'viccio', who's playing them, seems to have gone (temporarily) AWOL, and is also currently staling as Mictlan in the 'Legends of Faerun' game. So it's not just this game.

As a starter, I have extended the clock by 24h to give time to solve this. Hopefully nothing serious has happened.

I'll send him an e-mail and see how it fares. If he doesn't report in 24h, let's try to find a sub.

[Calahan]

'viccio' has recently posted on another thread that he is having problems with his internet connection, and that it is ok to look for a sub for him/her in that game (Legends of Faerun). So I'm guessing that the same will probably apply to this game as well.

I'm happy to post for a sub (if a volunteer is needed to do this job), since Gath are in my part of this crippled world so I can give some info with regards the state of their position, their diplo status and Pretender build.

Also if Gath do get turned AI, can I please request a delay of the current turn. I have the turn all done (I'm Ermor) and ready to send in, but I'm holding it back because it will need some serious revisions if one of my neighbours is suddenly turning to the auto-bot.

[Burnsaber]

This is mysterious. Gath has submidded a turn.

I'll e-mail viccio and ask him if he is able to continue.

[Fakeymcfake]

I'm out, God's dead, troops are minimal, and it appears I have a second elephant rush coming in from the east which I know I can't hold off. Enjoy the rest of the game.

[Burnsaber]

I'm out, God's dead, troops are minimal, and it appears I have a second elephant rush coming in from the east which I know I can't hold off. Enjoy the rest of the game.

Second elephant rush? You got sandwiched between LA Arco and MA Bandar Log? That's something you don't see in every game.

Viccio has managed to fix his internet problems. So the game is now going on at the regular phase.

Oh, and meglobob, sweet battle (at least for me). I was really wondering if I should cast Mist, but it proved essential to my victory. Your sorcerers just "Frighten"end your own spiders because they couldn't see anything. Your spiders are so fat-***, on the other hand, that I'm able to hit them even with minimal precision. :D

[Meglobob]

Yep...the troop quality of Machaka is far inferior to Vanheims...thats why I was so keen on a early NAP. Machaka morale is very, very poor. You would think spiders would scare others but it just seems to scare the spiders.:re:

You would have won even without the spells you cast. Not really too hopeful in this war, having weighed up what each nation is capable of, but I will keep plugging away.

Everyone should be aware that Van could end up with all the land in the West/South West of the Sea if they just sit back and do nothing and thus of course be very, very hard to stop/beat in the future.

[tgbob]

Poor Eriu, I was going for the indie provinces above you, buuuut I guess I'll take a detour!

[Calahan]

The crippled nation of EA Ermor is currently in the market for a Thistle Mace. Can pay in any gem type except Earth, Nature or Blood Slaves. Please PM me if you are interested.

[Burnsaber]

Okay, turn 20 rolled in. Hosting interval is now 36 hours, like advertised in the first post.

Also, my next weeks will be hectic at work and will severly cut down my forum time. I've also appointed Calahan as a secondary admin. He has the admin password and is able to grant extensions and stuff should I be absent.

[Burnsaber]

Damn you machaka! Damn you to hell! *shakes fist*

Twice I've been 'this' close to taking your capital, but no avail! Without those damn merc trolls I could have won. Those elementals were really a smart move on your part, I've been negleting them all my life, but fire elementals are actually pretty good counter to my Skinshifter hordes.

I still have some tricks up my sleeve, but should they fail, I'll be the one playing the defense game..

[Meglobob]

Wow! Close fight, surprised my spiders morale held up, perhaps it was the undead?

Yep, if you had won, I would have been done for, let the mutually destructive carnage continue...:)

[Meglobob]

Ouch! Where did that other army come from?!?

You also outbid me for the raptors...this doesn't look good...:(

[Frozen Lama]

I will be gone tomorrow thru Sunday.
since that would be a long delay, Trumanator will be subbing in for me. since nothing major is happening for me, this should be ok. just letting you guys know in case you need to PM him.

[Meglobob]

The heroic spider defense continues...:)

Perhaps the Vanir should sue for peace, giving me back what you stole from me? Its obvious now that you cannot conquer the Machaka capital, 3 pitched battles there, 3 Machaka wins.:D

[Burnsaber]

The heroic spider defense continues...:)

Perhaps the Vanir should sue for peace, giving me back what you stole from me? Its obvious now that you cannot conquer the Machaka capital, 3 pitched battles there, 3 Machaka wins.:D

Those Raptors really didn't like that storm, did they?

Well, the Vanir lack options, hence the early assault on your nation. We would never betray our kindred in north and scuba diving against Atlantis would just be madness.

Besides, once you get those drakes of yours to front lines, it'll be over for me. Those guys can really fry the wolves!

Well, this was a great learning experience. But I really can't understand why no one has manged to win with Vanheim. Skinshifters + Blade Wind + Thunderstrike make for a good early game.

[Meglobob]

Those Raptors really didn't like that storm, did they?

No. I assume you thought they could fly during a storm?

Well, the Vanir lack options, hence the early assault on your nation. We would never betray our kindred in north and scuba diving against Atlantis would just be madness.

You where spot on with the early assault, you really SHOULD have won at least 1 of those 3 battles at my capital, very, very unlucky not too. If you had taken my capital, you would have won the war, no question of that.

I have sent you a truce offer, think it over. I am not suggesting you attack tir na nog (I don't think the vanir and tir are related btw in dominions mythology but I could be wrong) and certainly not our Ma Atlantian friends. Simply, sign a peace treaty and develop your nation peacefully and see what happens. You can blood hunt, forge earth stones and even strike any nation in the world if you think about it very carefully. Peace would be good for the Vanir and you might eventually get another chance at world dominion.

Well, this was a great learning experience. But I really can't understand why no one has manged to win with Vanheim. Skinshifters + Blade Wind + Thunderstrike make for a good early game.

Well to be honest I can. A nation that can't defeat Machaka has problems. I wasn't kidding when I said Machaka was a very, very weak nation. The problem with Ma van is its units flatter to deceive, the skinshifters for example, great for expanding against indies but against a nation with a few levels of evocation magic? Essentally a waste of gold, just a few blockers in there way to hold them and fire clouds, bladewind and even magma bolts makes short work of them. There are loads of other evocations as well which will seriously spoil there day, they are really a 'poor mans' jaguar warrior but not sacred.

[tgbob]

Sigh, I wish I was in a interesting war...

[Calahan]

Sigh, I wish I was in a interesting war...

I'm very sorry to hear that tgbob :( Therefore I cordially invite you to bring your walking frame around to Ermor and join the huge 'Bang a Cripple' party that is currently taking place there :)

And at least that way you will be the only guest who does have an invite! Greetings Gath by the way. Hope you brought a bottle with you, and none of that cheap supermarket stuff :D

@ Jazeppi. :doh: I killed half my own mages during our showdown by forgetting to change their postitions.

[Calahan]

A load less sacred giants in the world is a good thing yes?

[Frozen Lama]

I am back, ready to lead Abysia to victory.... though at this point, it's going to be a research victory seeing as how i have no whimpy neigbors to beat up on... :(

[Calahan]

@ All

Apologies everyone, but I am going to have to ask for a 24 hour delay of the current turn. Work just did the dirty on me by dumping a huge problem on my lap, so have no hope of getting home at any time resembling sense now. And trying to hold off three enemies means that a stale at this stage will be the equivalent of game over for Ermor.

[Burnsaber]

@ All

Apologies everyone, but I am going to have to ask for a 24 hour delay of the current turn. Work just did the dirty on me by dumping a huge problem on my lap, so have no hope of getting home at any time resembling sense now. And trying to hold off three enemies means that a stale at this stage will be the equivalent of game over for Ermor.

Done.

[Valerius]

I'm not at the game, but according to the llamaserver it looks like one of the two remaining Atlantis' went AI?

[tgbob]

Just a heads up, I'm going to Hong Kong on Sunday and flying back on Monday. I'll be taking my laptop so there shouldn't be a need for a delay. The flight itself is only 2-3 hours long too.

[Calahan]

Congratulations to Meglobob's Machaka and his Crippled Warrior Champion, 'Abuu'.
Never before has this land witnessed such awesome raising of the skeletons.

[Meglobob]

I scripted him to do flame eruptions but never cast a single one, must have been out of range, never mind.

All hail Abuu, champion of (very few) champions!

[Frozen Lama]

So since Gregstrom won Joker as Machaka, can we force Meglobob to go AI since he is officially no longer a "cripple?" :p
lol

[Burnsaber]

So since Gregstrom won Joker as Machaka, can we force Meglobob to go AI since he is officially no longer a "cripple?" :p
lol

Well, Gath is also winning in the "Wildpansies" game. I think the sudden presence of an "uncripple" should be handled by diplomacy. Well, this will just make "Cripple Fight 2: The Night of the Living Lame" a smaller game.

Also, to Tir'na'Org.

ouch, Ouch, OUCH!

Damn that was a nasty air drop invasion. But once I manage my research to "Construct anti-aircraft turret" for my smiths, things will be different.

[Valerius]

Damn that was a nasty air drop invasion. But once I manage my research to "Construct anti-aircraft turret" for my smiths, things will be different.

LOL. Well, we'll see if I can hold onto those provinces. In other games with Tir/Eriu I got a lot of provinces through raiding but was unable to win army vs. army and eventually lost them again.

[Meglobob]

So since Gregstrom won Joker as Machaka, can we force Meglobob to go AI since he is officially no longer a "cripple?" :p
lol

Has he? Well done Greg!:)

Bogarus could well win artifacts...eventually and Arco/Atlantis are in pole positions in this game, so there may be alot less crippled nations by the time this game ends.

[Calahan]

I hereby bag EA Ermor again for the re-match. Since I have no doubt what-so-ever that they will still be firmly classed as crippled by the end of this one.

[Burnsaber]

I hereby bag EA Ermor again for the re-match. Since I have no doubt what-so-ever that they will still be firmly classed as crippled by the end of this one.

It's official, LA Gath has won a game in "Wildpansies". The number of cripples is going down by the minute!

At this point, "Cripple Fight 2: The Lame Strikes Back"* seems like a 10 player game. Players of the first one will be given first pickings. But that's in the future.

* If you have any good cripple punchlines for the second game, PM them to me. As you can see, I suck at this.

[P3D]

Well, why do not push the punchline to its full potential?

Cripple Wars 2: The Lamepire Strikes back?

[Frozen Lama]

Well, why do not push the punchline to its full potential?

Cripple Wars 2: The Lamepire Strikes back?

I love it!

and good, now we can set Gath AI too. :p
now come on someone, win as LA arcos!!!

[Frozen Lama]

Huge congrats to Bandar for the nastiest Soul Slay spamming i've ever seen. that was disgusting.. glad it wasn't me. lol.

[Valerius]

Round 2 goes to you Vanheim. Thought my army would do better than that but the lightning really hurt my sacreds and the blade wind destroyed my archers...

[Meglobob]

I am confused by the battle at the Bandar Log capital.

I saw a devestating victory for Bandar, with La Arco running for the hills. Yet the graphs/map shows La Arco has captured the Bandar capital, hence a victory?

Am I getting misleading battle replays?

Two enjoyable battles this month, Bandar vs Arco and Van vs Tir. Glad I got to watch both of them. The soul slay spam was fab, best I have ever seen! Must have destroyed 1,000's gps worth of elephants!

[Frozen Lama]

I was wondering the same thing. how did Arco win..?

[Burnsaber]

Sounds like an another instalment of the battle replay bug. The battle you saw didn't actually happen as you saw it. It has something to with DNR rolls getting corrupted..

[tgbob]

I would like to know how Acro won as well. :dk:

[Valerius]

Looks like MA Atlantis staled the past couple of turns...

[Frozen Lama]

that is really annoying. they owe me boots of quickness lol.

[Calahan]

Anyone have any suggestions what we do about MA Atlantis? They've staled the last three turns, and don_Pablo has also gone MIA in the 'Legends of Faerun' game as well, so it's not just this game.

Usual procedure now is to either get a sub, or turn them AI, but not sure if both have some drawbacks here. Turning them AI is just out of the question for me, since MA Atlantis seem to easily have the best position right now (although still crippled obviously) and turning the game leader AI is never a good thing. Also an AI water nation could be a nightmare for anyone near the water right now, which I'm guessing is probably most nations. Could try to find a sub of course, but would that run risk of the sub doing something that wasn't part of don_Pablo's gameplan (assuming he/she is coming back of course).

Bizarrely, it might be better to let them stale, since that doesn't have the drawbacks mentioned above, and can't imagine MA Atlantis are hurting too much right from the stales right now in their unassailable underwater paradise. Biggest danger seems to me is them maxing out on one of the research trees!

Thoughts anyone?

[Valerius]

It looks like don_Pablo set Atlantis AI. As much as I hate roll backs I don't think we have a choice, for the reasons Calahan outlined above. Either finding a sub (preferable) or just letting them continue to stale would work.

I would like to request that we not resubmit turns when we roll back - just have a sub remove the Atlantis AI command and then rehost. I had a fairly good turn and while the random number generator might not be as kind the next time around at least I won't have to redo everything.

[Calahan]

It looks like don_Pablo set Atlantis AI. As much as I hate roll backs I don't think we have a choice, for the reasons Calahan outlined above. Either finding a sub (preferable) or just letting them continue to stale would work.

I would like to request that we not resubmit turns when we roll back - just have a sub remove the Atlantis AI command and then rehost. I had a fairly good turn and while the random number generator might not be as kind the next time around at least I won't have to redo everything.

+1 (or +1 Million if it counts)

Can't believe that! An AI Atlantis would turn this game on it's head right now. I'm still in work, so haven't seen the current turn yet (always a good thing if a rollback is on the table. Better not to know what you missed IMHO). But just checked the llamaserver and can see that Atlantis has indeed disappeared from the turn waiting roster.

Burnsaber has given me the admin password, so I could do a rollback now, but I won't until a few more players give their views, and of course Burnsaber giving the ok.

Edit: And of course no submitting of new turns during the rollback is a given.

[Valerius]

Thanks, Calahan.

It was when I was looking at my turn that I realized Atlantis was probably AI. That or he was feeling generous since he sent me some ... stuff. I can safely say that a sub would have some resources to work with. ;)

[Calahan]

Yes, I'd guess Atlantis's almost double research to their nearest rival offers them more than just an artificial advantage by now :D

Might just start a sub hunt post now actually, since I'm just twiddling my thumbs in work until I go for after work drinks.

[Meglobob]

Well the usual course of action with a inactive position his put AI or a sub found. Just letting a nation stale is not a good solution, in fact its the worst, as he does not even defend himself. Sooner or later someone is bound to use a thug/SC to swallow his provinces with no risk of retaliation and thus gain a unfair advantage.

A sub is of course the best solution but hard to find subs.

Atlantis going AI is a reasonably good solution, he will not hold the game up, always do his turns and defend himself. Of course he is just normal AI so is zero threat to anyone long term. Even cripples can defeat normal AI.

So I vote no to a rollback, unless a sub is found then I am okay with it.

[Valerius]

I agree we should go ahead and look for a sub. It can be difficult to find them but this is a good position (but also not a late game micromanagement nightmare) so perhaps we'll have better chances. It's worth spending a few days to try to find a sub.

While the AI isn't a threat long term in the short term it's a problem if you are already involved in a war and have an extensive coastline. Still, I see your point about just letting him stale not being a good idea.

[Calahan]

I've never been in a game where a nation that was leading by so much suddenly turned themselves AI, so not sure how it will affect things overall, but to me it just doesn't seem right to allow it to happen.

I understand the logic behind it from a 'at least the AI doesn't hold the game up and can defend itself' point of view, but in this specific case I think it does more harm than good. As if nothing else some nations may be able to take advantage of an AI Atlantis by attacking them, and some may not. But one thing for certain is that nobody is going to decide to attack them right now if they were human controlled, since that would be suicide. So to me this just seems too unbalancing for the game right now.

Of course I also have a pure hatred of nations going AI in MP games, so am probably very biased in my views :) but happy to go with the majority on this.

Have created a new post looking for a sub anyway. Can't hurt to look I feel, since finding one would at least give us the option of using the sub.

[Burnsaber]

I agree on the sub finding policy. Let's wait till monday. If no sub is found then, Atlantis will stay AI.

[Zeldor]

I can take a look and I may be able to find time for one more game. Others are in early stage :)

[Frozen Lama]

The turn before atlantis went AI, me and atlantis had agreed to some trading. i sent the gems, and then he started to stale. if we do set him AI, can i get the gems back first or the items in question?

[Valerius]

Hopefully Zeldor will be able to take over the position and that will solve the issue. If for some reason we don't roll back PM me what the gems/items were and I should be able to send at least the gems (if the items weren't forged) from what Atlantis sent me.

[Zeldor]

It looks like I will take over. So PM me about diplomatic relations etc. Bribes to attack someone accepted too.

[Frozen Lama]

so are we doing a rollback?
if so, i'm confused about the ettiqute of it. should i redo all my orders since my opponents know what i'm about to do, and thus need to plan accordingly, or does everyone simply re-submit their turns and we slip Zeldor's in?

[Zeldor]

All turns are stored for rollbacks. It shows that no one has submitted their turns, to notice if anyone submits smth changed. So only Atlantis has to submit the turn [so me].

[Frozen Lama]

ok thanks. lol was worried for a sec. it was a good turn

[Calahan]

So is there anyone here that is against the rollback now that Zeldor has kindly offered to sub for Atlantis?

So I vote no to a rollback, unless a sub is found then I am okay with it.

Megalobob, I am going to take the above as meaning you are ok with a rollback now that a sub has been found. Please post though if that is not the case.


Never had to do a rollback before, but my understanding is that all the turn files from the previous turn are kept on the llamaserver, and these will be used to process the turn if no new turns are sent in to replace them. So once the turn is rolled back, nobody should send a turn in apart from Zeldor, and then as soon as he sends his turn in, the game can be force hosted. After which we should be back to where we are now, only with Zeldor on board as Atlantis.

I will be retiring for the night soon, so if I don't roll the turn back tonight, then I will do so in the morning (unless of course we get objections) or I could just pass Zeldor's email onto Burnsaber for him to arrange the rollback. Although not sure what time zone he is in.

Any questions? ... Yes I have one, what will we do if someone besides Zeldor submits a new turn during the rollback? Answer, uuurrgghh, I don't know to be honest. Since you could call it cheating to alter your turn using the knowledge you gained. Just have to hope that everyone plays fair I guess.

Edit: Damn, got ninjad all over the place. My typing speed goes down the drain after a few beers :)

[Zeldor]

I'm going to get some sleep now anyway and will be able to do the turn tomorrow evening [busy day] - European time.

[Calahan]

Ok, 'Morning has broken' as they sing, and no objections to the rollback to be seen.

But I won't rollback the turn right now, since Zeldor has indicated he can not do his turn done until this evening, and rolling back at this moment would mean an extra 10 hours for someone to "accidentally" send an altered turn in when they shouldn't. So I will ask Zeldor to PM me when he's around this evening, and sort the rollback out then. Hope that's good with everyone :)

@ Burnsaber - Hope you don't mind me taking the admin lead with this rollback issue. Seems I was just the one around the forums at the time the issue came up. But you are more than welcome to arrange the rollback if you wish, since you are the main admin after all :) :secretly prays the rollback doesn't buggar things up leading to the lynching of the second admin:

[Burnsaber]

@ Burnsaber - Hope you don't mind me taking the admin lead with this rollback issue. Seems I was just the one around the forums at the time the issue came up. But you are more than welcome to arrange the rollback if you wish, since you are the main admin after all :) :secretly prays the rollback doesn't buggar things up leading to the lynching of the second admin:

I don't mind at all. I have a bunch of yardwork to be done and I'm heading for a late saturday night shift after that so I'll be away from my computer a lot.

You seem to have things under control.

and for futere reference, I live in finland, and thus live in GMT +2 time

[Calahan]

The turn will be getting rolled back in the next few minutes. Fingers crossed that everything will go as planned.

And a final reminder to everyone not to submit any new turns during this time.

[Calahan]

Zeldor's just got his turn in, so I am going to force the hosting now.

[Zeldor]

Cool. I already have some evil plans :)

[Calahan]

Right everyone, the rollback seems to have been successful, the llamaserver is up-to-date, MA Atlantis is no longer AI, nobody apart from Zeldor submitted a turn, and the staling log shows that nobody staled. Which is all good.

If anyone spots any problems as a result of the rollback then now is the time to shout it out. Sometimes weird things can happen like regular units becoming commanders, or mages gaining magic paths etc. But that usually only happens when there are multiple rollbacks, or several sets of new turns getting sent in. Since this has just been a pretty straightforward rollback, we should hopefully have avoided all of these issues.

'Thank You' everyone for your patience and cooperation during the rollback. The normal schedule has now hopefully been resumed. Happy crippled gaming to all :)

[Zeldor]

Calahan:

There is only one situation when such bad thing can happen - when someone uses an old .2h file for turn N, when you roll back to N-1 and generate new N turn. You get new commander IDs at turn N and if someone submits N+1 turn from previous hosting, you can get stuff like that. So you can remind people to erase old .2h and do current turn from scratch :)

[Calahan]

Cheers for the explanation Zeldor. Just sent out a message telling everyone to delete anything and everything to do with the old turn 34 (and telling them again here now). Hopefully everyone will follow it so that nothing freaky starts happening on the next turn.

And BTW, regular evil plans are not allowed in this game. They have to be evil crippled plans. Hope that's ok with you :)

[Zeldor]

Looking at what previous player left for me, they will surely be crippled :)

[Burnsaber]

And the Vanir are defeated. I know this. With only our capitol left standing, the few remaining forces of MA vanheim have been afflicted with strange disease. They keep on sputtering random nonsense and getting stuck in the simplest obstacles (like a bucket). Some soldiers have been apparently trying to walk through a wall for three days, like they couldn't even think about going around it. This is surely madness! The frightening thing is, I can feel the disease in me. It's a strange sensation of utter logic, creeping from the back of your mind. It's no use to resist...

..So I'll embrace it.


1101101100110111010111*

-- Extract from a half torn journal from the ruins of MA Vanheim.

*I totally stole that joke from the Joker thread. Just so that you know.

But in a more seroius matter. Calahan is now promoted to main admin, so direct all wishes for delays and such to him. I'll keep an eye on this thread for any news about how the game is going, but I probably won't be too rigorious about it.

[Calahan]

@ All - I'm going to delay the game by 6 hours at my own request. Sorry everyone, was hoping to get the turn done this morning before I went to work, but I just ran out of time as Ermor turns haven't been simple affairs since turn 15. It's only my turn outstanding though, and should be able to get it done when I get home from work (19:00 llamaserver time). Apologies none the less though for the slight hold-up.

@ Burnsaber - Good game. Sounds like you had those spiders on the run for quite a while, and only lost some of those major battles by the narrowest of margins. But Dominions is a cruel master, and any failed offensive always put a big dent in your own overall lifespan.

But I'm sure the creator will be back for the sequal to his own Cripple Fight series :) And I'll do my best admin wise to serve the players of this current game of yours as best I can.

[Burnsaber]

@ Burnsaber - Good game. Sounds like you had those spiders on the run for quite a while, and only lost some of those major battles by the narrowest of margins. But Dominions is a cruel master, and any failed offensive always put a big dent in your own overall lifespan.


Yeah, it was a good game. I learned a lot (don't underestimate summon lesser elemental spells in early game wars, when you make a army to conquer a capital, make sure it's big enough to do it 100% sure). I managed to corner Meglobob 3 times, but each time he managed to fight his way through.

Once I had bumped heads with him enough times, I knew that I couldn't win this fight. So I made a NAP with him and tried my luck with Tir'na'Og. Tir, however, hadn't spend his all of his gems in a vain attempt against other player, so he was just able to out-thug me (althought I managed to sting him a little with my main army). But that fight wasn't in vain, learned a lot about thug warfare. I should have had some anti-thugs ready in my main army.

[Meglobob]

Like I already said, Van was very unlucky not to win one of the battles at my capital. Particularly the 2nd battle, alot of my mages morale had broke and they had legged it off the battlefield, it was a miracle the rest of my army made its morale checks to avoid running away too. But luck was with me and Vanir morale broke first. One of those battles if you re-run get slightly different DRN rolls and I would have lost.

That's the fortunes of war!

[Meglobob]

Can we move the turnaround to 48 hrs, permanently?

[Valerius]

The game is scheduled to go to 48 hours in three turns anyway. I'd prefer to keep the quicker pace as long as possible.

[Calahan]

Valerius is correct. According to Burnsaber's guidelines on the status page, the game will be switching to 48 hour hosting on turn 40. We switched to 36 hour hosting on schedule, so I see no reason not to this time as well.

I for one wouldn't mind 48 hours a few turns earlier, as I always appreciate the extra time so that my brain works properly :) but I certainly won't be doing an earlier hosting increase unless there is a big majority backing it. And again, I will only not increase the hosting at turn 40 if there is a big majority wishing to stay at 36 hours.

Think everyone is in some sort of war right now, and I wouldn't want to see or hear of anyone making stupid mistakes just because of having to rush their turns :(

So the game is changing to 48 hours at turn 40 unless there's a sudden surge of feedback on the matter.

[tgbob]

I would---! No I'm kidding. I already stopped you from getting longer turns in CarCrash, doing it here too would just be mean.

[Meglobob]

Works a bit*h at the moment!

Can I have a 12hr extension? Doubt I will have enough time to do my turn until Fri afternoon.

[Burnsaber]

Works a bit*h at the moment!

Can I have a 12hr extension? Doubt I will have enough time to do my turn until Fri afternoon.

Done.

[Calahan]

Works a bit*h at the moment!

Can I have a 12hr extension? Doubt I will have enough time to do my turn until Fri afternoon.

Granted (and ninjad by the ghost of Burnsaber:)). Know only too well about work interfering with your Dom life!

[Valerius]

It seems no one objects to switching to 48 hours early, and it would help some players, so I withdraw my comment - I'm fine with switching to 48 hour hosting now.

[Calahan]

Thanks for your comments Valerius.

I will wait another 20 hours or so for others to have their say if they wish (basically wait until a few hours before the current turn hosts).

But if nobody objects to changing to 48 hour hosting three turns early, then the new 48 hour hosting timer will be in effect from next turn onwards.

[Zeldor]

I am fine with both.

[Zeldor]

Atlantis has Bag of Winds for sale. PM me with offers.

[Frozen Lama]

Here's a funny one for you guys.

Abysia is looking to trade W and A gems for...... FIRE! gems on a 1:1 basis. PM with offers

[tgbob]

I have W gems, oh wait.

[Frozen Lama]

geez, Ermor has really been fighting the good fight this game. under attack from multiple enemys pretty much the whole game, and still winning.

Congrats Calahan!

oh and Abysia is still looking to buy Fire gems from people

[Zeldor]

They were faking it, I guess. Dunno what was happening there earlier really, but now some action is happening at last :)

[Calahan]

geez, Ermor has really been fighting the good fight this game. under attack from multiple enemys pretty much the whole game, and still winning.

Congrats Calahan!

oh and Abysia is still looking to buy Fire gems from people

Cheers Frozen Lama.

Was touch and go for a while, but I've definitely done a full bounce off the ropes now, and currently charging pell-mell towards the centre of the ring :)

Although one of my opponents being unable to accept losing, and just quitting to the AI played some part in it.

[Jazzepi]

geez, Ermor has really been fighting the good fight this game. under attack from multiple enemys pretty much the whole game, and still winning.

Congrats Calahan!

oh and Abysia is still looking to buy Fire gems from people

Cheers Frozen Lama.

Was touch and go for a while, but I've definitely done a full bounce off the ropes now, and currently charging pell-mell towards the centre of the ring :)

Although one of my opponents being unable to accept losing, and just quitting to the AI played some part in it.

Actually, I quit because the whole process of playing LA Atlantis was extremely frustrating, instead of being fun which is why I play this game. While I thought it might have been interesting to play an "underdog" nation, Atlantis is just absolute garbage. They have awfully expensive recruitables, and I actually can't think of a nation with worse mages (woo-hoo, W1D1H1 in all but capital). I also went a non-bless route, which only made it worse.

But really, don't speak when you don't know what you're talking about. I generally stick around, even when being run over roughshod (go look at first or third mega game), but in this case submitting turns would have just been an exercise in frustration. At some point, I really don't care if it makes the game harder for other people (and easier for some), I'm not going to drag myself through the mud to do exactly what the AI would do; lose.

Jazzepi

[Calahan]

But really, don't speak when you don't know what you're talking about. I generally stick around, even when being run over roughshod (go look at first or third mega game), but in this case submitting turns would have just been an exercise in frustration. At some point, I really don't care if it makes the game harder for other people (and easier for some), I'm not going to drag myself through the mud to do exactly what the AI would do; lose.

Jazzepi
Maybe you are right, maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about. It's happened before. It can happen again. But all I saw in this game is someone who lost a big fight, and then quit immediately after it. And I might add, without even so much as a polite message informing the other players that you were doing so. You say LA Atlantis is no fun, but you chose to play them, and many other players really enjoy playing them (Baalz for one I believe). So maybe they are not fun for you because you find it hard to win with them.

I also notice you recently went AI in the 'Beyond' game, and upon checking the llamascores, your nation of C'tis (which the game status page says you were playing in that game) had a huge load of provinces and gem income at the time. Still does in fact, even with the AI in charge.

'Beyond' thread - http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=42374
'Beyond' llamascores - http://www.llamaserver.net/showScores.cgi?game=Beyond

Of course I do not know the whole story of the 'Beyond' game, but to my way of thinking, quitting in such a position (high province/forts/gems) is completely unthinkable, and destroys the balance of the game for the other players. And to be honest I dislike playing in games with any players who think it is acceptable to destroy the balance of the game by suddenly quitting, because I view that as a very selfish act which strongly diminishes that games enjoyment for others. That of course is just my opinion.

But I know for certain I would have struggled far more in this game, and probably have already lost, if LA Atlantis had been human controlled. So this has subsequently hurt my other two enemies Gath+Bogarus. So that is myself, 'Alpine Joe' and 'viccio' all affected because you quit to the AI, plus all the other fine 'Cripple Fight' players of course who now have an alive EA Ermor in the game when they should have had a dead EA Ermor.

To me these two incidents are not the actions of someone who claims to stick around and fight until the bitter end. If I am wrong then I apologise unreservedly, but I can only go by what I see, and what I see is someone who has quit two games because they were in the very early stages of losing a war. Although in the 'Cripple Fight' case you weren't even losing the war, you just lost a big fight.

We all play this game for fun, but some people only consider something fun if they are winning or succeeding.

[Jazzepi]

No, let me repeat again, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

I hung around for several turns waiting for anyone to respond and offer some help agaisnt Pythium in Beyond which I posted in the thread. Nobody sent me a single message. I had /hundreds/ of gems to offer in payment or support, and I tried to defend myself agaisnt Pythium, but I had no SCs after a protracted war with Neiflhem, and I had nothing to throw agaisnt armies sporting fog warriors, lots of artifacts (including medusa shield on his uber-buff pretender and sword of alguemereter) and tons of troops. I also had very low research.

Frankly, if people are completely unwilling to offer *any* support when Pythium is devouring one of the largest nations in the game, and I'm /telling them/ that they're going to lose if they don't rally right away, then they don't deserve to win, and I don't feel bad about setting myself to AI. I'm not going to hold out agaisnt an impossible enemy for other people who simply don't care about their long term stakes.

The crux of what you're saying is that I leave when I'm losing, but you're biased because I went AI in two /recent/ games. What you haven't done is actually looked at the large sample of other games where I've played to the bitter end. I got dogpiled by four different nations in the first epic game, and I fought to the very, very bitter end. But you could find this information out yourself if you did a little digging. I don't need to prove it to you, it's all there in the threads.

You're biased by recent events because that's how people work. Try asking someone if there are more Rs at the beginning of English words or at the third position. They'll say the first because it's easier to recall words that begin with R regardless of the actual distribution. Airplane travel gets an unsafe rep for the same reason. People remember the disastrous failures, not the many repeated successes.

Lastly, I was /never/ allies with any of the other nations attacking you besides the fact that it was convenient. I never traded with them, I only signed an NAP with the giants, and we never communicated about attacks or offense. It was largely a free form deal.

So, get your facts straight before you libel someone, I've been here for a very, very long time, and I don't need you trying to give me a bad rep for bogus reasons that you haven't investigated.

Jazzepi

[Jazzepi]

And just for reference's sake, in case there is any doubt that I didn't give sufficent warning to the rest of the players in Beyond that they were going to get steam rolled by Pythium.

"Oh god.

C'Tis is being raped by Pythium.

As a warning to the rest of you.

He has the gorgon shield, sword of algurematur (or however you spell that), the death gem scythe. I'm sure he has the chalice and many other artifacts. He also has an air queen, an earth king, an SC God, and a tartarian.

If someone can put some serious hurt on Pythium, ASAP, I would be willing to pay. C'Tis has 600 or so gems just sitting around doing nothing, plus cash.

Otherwise we'll simply do our best to hold back Pythium. But this fight isn't going to last very long.

Be careful of earthquake, fog warriors, and ridiculous *** beatings.

If no one moves agaisnt Pythium, and soon, he'll control a huge amount of gem income, some important discount sites, and three capitals (mine, Caelum's, Nieflhem's)"

and then later

"I'm probably just going to set myself to AI. Nobody has offered any real assistance, and once I'm gone Pythium will have won the game."

that post was met with zero objections from the rest of the players in Beyond

Jazzepi

[Calahan]

Yes I have based my conclusions on recent examples, as that's all I had to go on. Two examples, two incidents of you turning quickly to AI. I could trawl through all your posts from your previous games to find counter evidence, and maybe I will if I find the time, or have the desire to. And those examples may well change my opinion. But if anyone wishes to change someone else's opinion of them, it is usually they themselves who have to put the effort in, not the other way around. I never stick doggedly to one view-point if there is strong evidence to suggest my views are wrong. But at the moment I have no counter-evidence so........

I seen your post on the 'Beyond' thread, and to me it only backs up my view point. You asked for help in fighting Pythium, nobody responded, so you quit. Nobody has any obligations to help you fight your wars, and they will only do so if it's in their best interests. Deal with it. Also, maybe they couldn't help you at the time you asked, but could have a few turns down the line. But you didn't exactly stay around to find out did you?

And to quote

Otherwise we'll simply do our best to hold back Pythium.

So your best attempt at holding back Pythium was turning AI was it?


You are a very experienced player Jazzepi, far more-so than me, and you have been playing MP Dominions a lot longer than I have. You are also a very fine player, and again probably far better than I am. None of these things I am questioning or disputing. But I don't see how that makes my views any less valid than another persons on this issue. Since we are not discussing finer tactical / strategic points of the game itself, as what we are discussing is more along the lines of polite game etiquette. But if you are so experienced, then surely you must know how much players turning AI spoils the game for others? And I'm sorry, but there is no way you can argue that turning AI at any point has 'no' impact on a game, because it has spoilt every game I have ever played in at one stage or another.

I believe that when a player signs up for a game, they are making a commitment to that game. A commitment to play fairly by the rules of the game, and to ensure as best they can that their actions help others to enjoy the game (in a broad sense). As in theory, if everyone does that, everyone will enjoy the game :) And to me this commitment doesn't end the moment a player is no longer having (their type of) 'fun'. Again this is just my opinion, and may very well differ to the opinion of others.

It is understandable that nobody wants to acquire any bad reputation, but everyone is free to make their owns judgements on each and every person they encounter in life. I have done so here. You have quit two recent games I can see, one I was involved in, and I know first hand the consequences of your actions in that game as a result. It was not a positive consequence.

So because of this my first impression of you (purely as a Dominions player) is someone who quits games quickly when things go against them, and who doesn't mind if they spoil the enjoyment of these games for others. How can I conclude otherwise? This impression I have can / maybe will, change, but it won't happen without a reason. And at the end of the day, if you don't like other players thinking you are a quitter in games, then don't quit games. That appears to be the most logical solution to me.

[Jazzepi]

You expect me to do more for people in Beyond, then they are willing to do for me, or even themselves.

Had I fought Pythium one-on-one, I would have been decimated very quickly, and Pythium would have double his own gem income with something like 8 capitals under his belt, not to mention the fact that my territory was growth 3.

Like I said in my original post, if I fell, everyone else was going to lose. There's no difference between me going AI, and condemning everyone else, and me not going AI and losing a protracted fight to him one-on-one where he /still wins/. In either case, the net result is that Pythium wins the game. You might be able not see that, but I don't really care, you were never part of the game, and nobody else raised any objections when I said I was going to go AI. You're also not as experienced, nor did you see the individual battles.

Your conclusions are based on only two games, where I happened to go AI with very good reason. If you even bothered to look at other games I've played in, and I've told you where to do so, you'd have a very different opinion, but really, feel free to wallow in your own ignorance since you so clearly enjoy doing so. I bet you think that if you flip a coin once, and it comes up heads, it must /ALWAYS/ come up heads.

Jazzepi

[Zeldor]

Huh, I didn't read even 10% of that, but I can assure that Jazzepi is not a quitter and does not resign after lost battles.

I can also confirm that LA Atlantis [and not only LA] is one of the crappiest nations in the game. Baalz loves every nation, we can't blame him for that. Some nations are just really really weak. And it's not fun to play them, having to outsmart every enemy. It's just not cool. And there are many extremely easy nations that are really overpowered [like MA Pythium] and QM does not want to fix that in CBM [that's why I'm working on a modpack with Burnsaber to fix some of that issues].

And I will also agree with Jazzepi that you don't have to be weak or almost dead to abandon the game. Sometimes you get stuck with people so stupid or clueless that there is no sense in continuing. I know very well that some people are just blind or well... stupid? And ignore obvious things, like overpowered nation going for win. And later they just complain that no one was trying to stop the winner.

[Executor]

Wow! I know I don't belong in this thread but you people need to cool down a little, especially you Jazzepi, you turning this very personal.

But I have to agree with Calahan to a point, one shouldn't quit the game just because it seems like they're gonna lose, if I did that I don't think I'd have a single game going on now.

And you're forgetting one important factor in Dominions, the leading player on score graphs can very well be the weakest and that's the beaty of this game. The enemy can appear to be 3 times stronger on graphs and still be weaker than you, it's all relative.
From my experiences hard fought wars and evidently loosing wars can be turned around very easily to your advantage, and the weakest nation can grab a win in front of everyone's noses.
I also know that people don't fight solo wars, and that's a sad fact which just proves that everybody's in for the win, wining is fun, losing isn't.
Maybe just one good blow against Pythium could have entered a new nation to the war? I've seen it happen, it happened to me.

I have been in 3 games with you I think, you killed me in one, one is ongoing and one you gave up one after loosing a large battle from me even doe you were pretty damn strong. People make oppinions from the info they receive, you can't blame Calahan for that.

IMO entering a game is committing to the game, I'm certain Fearun would be a much different game now if half the player didn't quit or vanish thus enabling some players very strong undeserved positions.

If you lose interest and want to quit for whatever reason, lack of interest, lack of time or whatever else, I think you should try and line up a sub at least before turning AI. If no one want to, than It's no longer your concern. If you did try to find a sub but no one wanted to take over than my deepest apology.

Oh Zeldor and I don't agree with you, the most fun part of this game is outsmarting your enemy for me.

[Calahan]

I freely admit that I have serious issues with players quitting games, and / or turning themselves AI. I seriously dislike it, have no problems in disliking it, and I have posted many times before on several different threads that I dislike it. In fact, I would certainly go as far as to say I absolutely hate it. I will also therefore immediately have a negative opinion towards any player who does such a thing. And I believe I am free to do so if I wish. I choose to form these opinions because when it happens in the games I am playing in, it seriously diminishes my enjoyment of those game, which I consider to be a valid reason for me to strongly dislike something.

Every game I have ever played in has been affected by this problem (and I view it as a problem), and as a result I have sadly never played in a game which I consider "hard fought by all players over the course of the entire game", which is my one overall wish for every game I play in. I am currently playing in one or two games where my wish may come true, but some of my other games, and Legends of Faerun is a great example, have already been somewhat soured for me due to the high number of players dropping out / turning AI. These games are still enjoyable, but I would have found them far more enjoyable if none of the players had decided to drop out or turn themselves AI.

I thank you Jazzepi for the references you supplied regarding the games you did fight in until the very end, but I think you are missing an entire point here. I am not vetting you in any sense. I have not been charged with investigating your Dominions history. I am not a police detective. And you are not important enough to my Real Life for me to use my time and effort to disprove my current opinion of you. I have no problems with the opinion I hold, it does not worry me, and I am not going to desperately search through archived game threads in order to prove my opinion is wrong. And my opinion may well be wrong, and I have no problem admitting I am wrong if that is the case. I have already mentioned this, but nothing so far leads me to believe I am wrong in my opinion. In fact your posts about the Beyond game only serve to strengthen it.

I watched the new Terminator film today, I didn't like it. I thought it was very poorly directed. This is my opinion. Others have different opinions. This is called 'How Life Works'. The film also means nothing to me, so I am not going to spend hours of my time researching other films directed by the same director in order to try and change my opinion. And my first opinion, based on the only evidence I have to date (the new Terminator film) is that the director of this film is a bad director. I may well see another film by the same director that changes my opinion, but my opinion won't change just because someone else says "you are wrong, he/she is not a bad director", even if that person is the director her/himself. Since that is just their opinion, which happens to be different to mine.

Jazzepi, I have formed my first opinion of you as a Dominions player based on the evidence I have seen to date, and this has only been slightly lessened by Zeldor's positove comments about you (although I disagree with many of Zeldor's other points, but I do agree 100% with Executor that outsmarting your opponent(s) is where the real enjoyment in Dominion games comes from, at least for me). I have nothing against you as a forum member Jazzepi, and I actually think you are one of the more humorous posters on these forums, and often provide some much needed laughter to many different threads. I know I have smiled / laughed (in a good way) at many of your posts :) But if you cannot understand how someone forms their opinions based on the knowledge they currently have on the matter, then you will have many problems in a lot more important areas of life than just in Dominions games.

'Benefit of the Doubt' is in very short supply in today's society, and occurs only in small amounts where it does exist. Ultimately, everyone will always be judged by their actions, so as I said previously, if you do not wish people to form the opinion of you that you quit your games, like I have done (as a result of your actions), and which you have taken objection to (which you are quite entitled to do), then do not quit any of your games in the future. Not all problems have such simple solutions.


At this point I would like to thank everyone for their comments on the issue I seem to have unintentionally created. But as admin of this game, and therefore I guess also of this game thread, I would kindly ask that we now take our ramblings off this thread as I think it has strayed a long way from being connected to the 'Cripple Fight' game. I am happy however for anyone who has commented so far to post their final responses if they want to, and will gladly allow Jazzepi to have the last say on the issue if he so wishes. If anyone wants to continue this debate via PM's then please contact me in that way with your views and opinions, as like I said, as admin I think this would be best for this game thread. I also think the forum moderators would agree that this is the best thing to do with this debate :)

[Frozen Lama]

Ahh geez, so close in that battle tgbob.
killing 23 mages, and still barely losing.....
:doh:

[tgbob]

Only my pretender, an indie commander, a Sibyl and a hand full of troops survived that battle! And I can't even watch it because the graphics lag me so bad.

My poor Sibyls!

P.S. I'm selling Gate Cleavers, on the cheap too!

[Frozen Lama]

lolz, now i get to wait to destroy iron walls again... grrr

[Calahan]

12 hour extension granted by the request of Zeldor.

[Zeldor]

Huh, I had really nasty battle replay bug at 122 [Polmania]. I wonder what Gath saw.

[Zeldor]

Another battle replay bug, province next to 122, 121 that time. Again shows my Kraken getting killed twice, which does not happen. And it shows me losing battles [but I won and got the province].

[Valerius]

I saw the battle in 121. My replay shows the kraken getting killed once, the elixir brings him back, and then he survives the rest of the battle.

[Frozen Lama]

Zeldor: i was being plauged by battle replay bugs earlier, but i just deleted CBM, and re-downloaded it, and since then it's worked fine.

[Zeldor]

3rd battle replay in a row... huh... all with my Kraken.


Oh, a question to Gath:
How does it feel to have some many extremely expensive sacreds getting owned by... tentacles? :)

[Calahan]

Game delayed 6 hours due to a player request.

[Meglobob]

Errrm...I just love the sweet smell of sulpher in the morning.

Nice new mountain range you have there Eriu! But not yet complete!

[Valerius]

Uh oh, that doesn't sound good. Better go check my turn...

[Valerius]

Hmm, 5 gems for killing a third of a province's population? Volcanic eruption seems a bit underpriced in CBM. Oh well, I'll just have to raid your provinces more so you can make up for my revenue shortfall. ;)

BTW, nice work with the mind burning/soul slaying communions. I'm disappointed my MR 25 thug didn't last longer.

[Meglobob]

Hmm, 5 gems for killing a third of a province's population? Volcanic eruption seems a bit underpriced in CBM. Oh well, I'll just have to raid your provinces more so you can make up for my revenue shortfall. ;)

Boo hiss!:(

Your raiding has been excellent, Valerius. Its driven me nuts and totally kept me on the defensive.

Volcanic eruptions a difficult spell, overpriced in vanilla (so no one casts it) and probably a bit too cheap in CBM. Difficult thing balance.

BTW, nice work with the mind burning/soul slaying communions. I'm disappointed my MR 25 thug didn't last longer.

Thanks. Astral magic is probably my only chance vs you. If it makes you feel any better, I remember at least two of my previous gods with MR 26 and MR 28 going down to early soul slays.

Oh, thanks for all the magic items btw, shame I have few thugs/scs of my own to put them on.

[Zeldor]

You didn't dome your caps, Valerius? :)

And my Kraken is still owning giants...

[Frozen Lama]

You know, the sad thing about fighting humans is that its so much less glorious. "HAHA i just incinerated 200......phalangites......" much less epic. especially since Bandar killed all the elephants. :(

[tgbob]

Welp, time to wish for Armageddon.

[Valerius]

Your raiding has been excellent, Valerius. Its driven me nuts and totally kept me on the defensive.
Thanks. If it wasn't for raiding you would have marched straight to my capitol, since I was in no shape to fight again immediately after battling Van. Though I had to be real careful of my thugs initially since most did not have gear to get them to FR 100.

Volcanic eruptions a difficult spell, overpriced in vanilla (so no one casts it) and probably a bit too cheap in CBM. Difficult thing balance.
Yeah, I agree that 15 gems is too much. They should maybe cost a little more than 5 gems. OTOH, I agree with your assessment of Machaka earlier in the thread and it can use all the help it can get.

Thanks. Astral magic is probably my only chance vs you. If it makes you feel any better, I remember at least two of my previous gods with MR 26 and MR 28 going down to early soul slays.
Curse those lizard shaman. You know, that brings up an interesting point: with the exception of those lizard shaman, you, me and Van fought these wars with only our national mages and whatever our pretenders can bring to the table. That's kind of different - usually one of us would have found some useful indie mages.

Oh, thanks for all the magic items btw, shame I have few thugs/scs of my own to put them on.
Ugh. This is the thing I hate most about sending out thugs. But like you say, at least I don't have to worry about the equipment being used against me the next turn, like I did with Van.

You didn't dome your caps, Valerius? :)
Well, I had a dome up - just not stacked ones. That stopped the first two attacks, anyway. Machaka hit me with a total of 12 last turn. Nothing this turn, though. Thanks for the break, Meglobob!

[Calahan]

I've delayed the hosting of the current turn by 4 hours at my own request. I am out all day today, but hope to be able to get my turn done when I get home late tonight. But I may need to extend hosting a further 12 hours if I get home a lot later than expected.

A sleepy Dominions player is a bad Dominions player.

[Calahan]

Game delayed by 12 hours at the request of myself and Meglobob, who both found themselves out all day today.

So apologies to everyone for the slight delay.

[Frozen Lama]

It was a typical day in Halbathria for Duma the Annointed of Rhuax, a lazy day while the 3rd battalion of Abysia sat around and besieged the Arcoscephaleian fortress. Things were going well, the Abysian army had been crushing the puny humans, and a good retirement was in store for Duma.

Then, on the horizon, a huge being was seen. "What in Rhuax name is that!" cried Duma.

"It appears to be an Arcoscephaleian Chayot sir."

"WTF!!! Where'd they get one of those!"

Suddenly Duma knew it was going to be a bad day..... Nonetheless, he ordered the Burning Ones into battle. Duma figured he would die this day, and even though the Chayot was clearly 100% fire resistant, Duma wanted fireworks on his deathday, so he cast fire storm.

As the Burning Ones charged forward, the Chayot lazily buffed itself, and then charged. As Duma had predicted, it was pretty much invincible, and many brave abysians fell to its mighty frost brand.

Suddenly Duma had an idea. he did have a spell that could hurt the Chayot.... maybe. He ordered his fellow Annointed to cast Smite. Alas, for the Chayot's MR was too powerful, and he simply shrugged off the divine power.

In the midst of all this, the Chayot (by the name of Polydamus) was thinking about what he would do when he got home..... Suddenly he realized to his horror, that he had forgotten to set his DVR before he left to kill the Abysians. He was going to miss Dr Phil tonight! Unfortunatly for Polydamus, at the same moment he realized this tragedy, another Anointed cast Smite. Polydamus was so distracted that he forgot to shrug off the Smite, and took massive damage. "F*** this" said Polydamus, "I'm getting out of here." So Polydamus ran away.

Unfortunatly for Polydamus, he'd forgotten that Abysia owned all of his retreat paths and thus died a horrible death by starvation, exhaustion, and boredom as he could not find a safe place to land.

And so it was that Polydamus the Chayot, mightiest of all beings, died to chaff and Smite casters.

[tgbob]

I love it. I also love how morale doesn't take into account the extra 4 lives the Chayot has.

[Frozen Lama]

Yeah, even I feel bad for you after seeing that.

[tgbob]

It's alright! I got another Chayot waiting.

[Frozen Lama]

yeah i saw that.... how many clams did you manage to get geez? lol.

[Calahan]

@ All

I've just been informed by Frozen Lama (Abysia) that he will be going on vacation soon for nine days, and as a result, has asked if this game can be put on hold during this period. I know long delays are unpopular, but they are far from being unheard of, and it is not that rare for them to be allowed either. (for example, Pasha's RAND game recently had a week long delay due to a player vacation, and that was in the early stages. Although it was announced before the game started)

My take on this is that given the increasingly late stage nature of the game, the war(s) Abysia are fighting, and the strong position they hold, that forcing Abysia to be played by a sub for 3-4 turns could have a significant, and unwanted impact on the game, which is something I would not like to see happen. Especially seeing as how it will be an impact caused by factors outside the game, rather than in it. I feel strongly that any nations success or failure in any game should be determined by events inside the game, and never by events outside the game.

I'll be looking for some feedback from the players before I make a final decision on this. So if you have any thoughts, then please voice them so that I can get a sense of general opinion.

[Zeldor]

I have no problem with that, we have summer now after all. I won't complain if I have more free time. My turns don't take long though. I guess Abysia is planning some next invasion already :P

[Zeldor]

BTW, it looks like EVERY battle with my Kraken involved generates a battle replay bug. It happened again - report says I lost, but replay shows easy victory. And mercs that died in that replay are now for hiring.

Oh, and Gath false pretender lives no more :)

[Calahan]

Zeldor, have you updated your CBM 1.41 mod to the version that was altered by llamabeast for his server? Doing that seems to have helped a few people solve their battle replay bugs.

[Meglobob]

I am ok with the delay.

[Zeldor]

I think so, but I will replace it again to be sure.

[Valerius]

I'm also ok with the delay.

[Zeldor]

BTW, anyone got some blood slaves for sale? I am also looking for:

- blood stone
- rainbow armours
- boots of flight
- A gems

I can offer cool items and gems :)

[Zeldor]

Calahan:

I think it helped. Weird, I think there was just one very minor change that shouldn't apply here.

[Calahan]

@ All

Thanks everyone for all the feedback regarding Frozen Lama's delay request. As a result I will be putting the game on hold while Frozen Lama is away, which he tells me will be from 16th-25/26th July. I will post and send out reminders about this nearer the time, but just a heads-up to everyone on the expected dates of the delay.


@ Zeldor

Yeah, it's strange how even one slight difference between mods can change the battle replays even when the change shouldn't have any connection to the units involved. My guess is that the Dominions engine throws out a set of numbers based specifically on the mods being used, and if the players mods don't match the hosting mods exactly, then the numbers throwen out don't match up, and the battle replays can go out the window as a result (although the battle reports are still accurate).

[Valerius]

Hmm, Machaka's new stacked dome piercing version of volcanic eruption is impressive (one casting each at my and Van's capitol and both succeeded).

On another note, I hope lycanthrope's amulet gets added to the list of items that can't be picked up on the battlefield. It was no fun getting one of those from a dead Machaka bane lord. :mad:

[Calahan]

On another note, I hope lycanthrope's amulet gets added to the list of items that can't be picked up on the battlefield. It was no fun getting one of those from a dead Machaka bane lord. :mad:
I second that. Had it happen to me loads of times in games. Especially annoying when it happens via a scout attack, and one of your most important of all national heroes picks it up, meaning he can't cast those critical battle spells ever again :mad:

[Meglobob]

Hmm, Machaka's new stacked dome piercing version of volcanic eruption is impressive (one casting each at my and Van's capitol and both succeeded).

On another note, I hope lycanthrope's amulet gets added to the list of items that can't be picked up on the battlefield. It was no fun getting one of those from a dead Machaka bane lord. :mad:

:lol

Still only a minor victory compared to your army marching south to gobble up the, 'mostly harmless' spider lands.

[Zeldor]

Wasn't taht turn going to be delayed? Or it is going to happen later?

[Calahan]

?? There were no delays planned for this game apart from the one for Frozen Lama starting on or about the 16th July.

Having said that though, I think I might need a few extra hours on the current turn. Was hoping to get it done this evening, but it has turned into a night of distractions instead for one reason or another. So probably going to admit defeat on getting my turn done tonight, and tackle it in the morning instead.

[Zeldor]

Oh, if you are adding few h it will make me happy too. For some reason I thought that Frozen Lamas delay is happening now :)

[Calahan]

@ Zeldor - Just added 4 hours, which should be enough for me. Is that enough for you as well?

[Zeldor]

Yeah.

[Calahan]

????? That's odd, I sent my turn in a few hours ago before coming into work, but the status page still shows my turn as outstanding?

No idea what's happened to my turn file, but have added 4 hours to the hosting as I won't be able to check on anything until some time this afternoon. If my turn file email just got delayed somewhere, then the turn should host as soon as it gets through. How annoying :(

[Calahan]

Sorry for the hold-up everyone. Had a busy work day, and not had a moment to sort out my missing turn file problem until now. Guessing my original turn file got lost in the mail, but just resent it for a second attempt.

Edit: Second attempt arrived without incident. Game should be hosting any minute now.

[Calahan]

Game delayed 12 hours by the request of a player.

[Calahan]

@ All

Turn 57 just hosted, so it's time to deal with Frozen Lama's delay. I will change the hosting interval to 120 hours, so that if Frozen Lama gets Turn 58 in (the current turn) before he goes away, then the rest of us will have about 10 days to do two turns in, with Frozen Lama being the last (or one of the last) to submit turn 59 when he returns. But I will of course adjust the deadline for Turn 59 as necessary to ensure that it does not fall before late on the 27th July at the earliest.

If Frozen Lama does not manage to submit Turn 58 before he goes away, then I will simply change the hosting deadline for Turn 58 (the current turn) to not early than late on the 27th July.

I hope all that makes sense :)

@ Frozen Lama - Enjoy your vacation, and don't worry, I'll keep control of the hosting deadline to make sure you don't stale in this game while you are away.

[Calahan]

It appears that Frozen Lama has now gone off on vacation, so he obviously won't be able to submit the current turn until he gets back. Meaning my above idea of a turn hosting while he is away goes out of the window.

Therefore I will be adding 220 hours (!!!) to the current deadline to push it back to late on the 27th July. As Frozen Lama says he's due to return late on the 26th July.

Enjoy the mid-game break everyone, and hope the weather's good where you are so you can go out and frolick in the sunshine :)

[Frozen Lama]

Well i'm back. since its about 1:30 in the morning my time, i won't get my turn in until probably this evening, but expect it in the next 20h or so.
thanks again everyone for the delay

[Calahan]

Well i'm back. since its about 1:30 in the morning my time, i won't get my turn in until probably this evening, but expect it in the next 20h or so.
thanks again everyone for the delay
Good to have you back Frozen Lama, hope you enjoyed your vacation :)

The current turn deadline is Monday 27th July at 23:45 (llamaserver time), so no need to rush to do your turn within the next 20 hours.

[Frozen Lama]

is that Arco wishing in its hole again? i warned you about that. ;)

[Calahan]

I might be needing a 24 hour delay for this turn. Attempted the turn yesterday evening, but that map nuking spell really did a number on me, so this turn is going to take a lot of time to work out what and who I lost exactly.

Won't know for sure if I'll need a delay until I get home from work and begin my second stab at the turn, but chances are I will. So thought I'd give the heads up.

[Calahan]

Game delayed 24 hours by my own request. A lot to get my brain around this turn, and very litte time to do so tonight :( Apologies to all for the hold-up.

[Zeldor]

Cool, I won't have to rush that turn. Quite busy recently.

[Calahan]

@ All - The status page for this game says that the hosting schedule is due to increase to 60 hours at turn 60, which is the next turn. This game has so far followed the hosting increases that were advertised at the sign-up stage, so I'm inclined to continue to follow it, and increase the hosting to 60 hours after the current turn.

But want to get some player feedback on this if I can before I do it. Since if everyone is happy with the current 48 hours, then there's no need to increase it (for the moment at least).

[Zeldor]

I am happy with either, normally I'd be against 60h, but with holidays now [and lots of things to do] I am fine with both.

[Meglobob]

Ever so slowly being destroyed by the evil elves which makes my turns shorter and shorter.

So I am okay with staying at 48hrs. But can live with 60hrs if the majority want it.

[Valerius]

The evil elves will place their usual vote in favor of sticking with quicker hosting.

[Frozen Lama]

my usual vote- i can make 48h just fine, but if even one person is likely to stale due to it going too fast, i'm ok with increasing.

[Calahan]

Thank you all for the feedback. With the majority learning towards staying at a 48 hour schedule, and with nobody speaking strongly in favour of an increase, I will now not be increasing the hosting to 60 hours as advertised/stated on the games status page.

My current intentions now are to think about moving to a 72 hour schedule at turn 72. So I will bring up the subject again near to that time, when I will again ask you all for your thoughts to see what you all think :)

Thanks again everyone for all the replies.

[Frozen Lama]

It's going to get a little hot guys! hope you like the sun.

[Meglobob]

Nice! The spider people love the sun!:mean:

[Frozen Lama]

i got your back man!

[Valerius]

Well, so much for my hope no one would notice Mother Oak had fallen. Note to self: when risking your lich pretender in hostile dominion full elemental resistances would be a good idea (in particular fire when fighting Machaka). :sick:

[Calahan]

Seems like Alpine Joe has staled the last two turns. I think the Bogarus position is pretty much hopeless, but I'll do some chasing up I think since Alpine Joe still seems to be around the forums regular enough, so hard to excuse letting his nation stale.

I'm also sure Bogarus has enough mages left to cause me some problems still, so I'll see if Alpine Joe fancies honouring the Baalz Pledge he signed up for, and stick around to fight until the last man :)

[Alpine Joe]

Seems like Alpine Joe has staled the last two turns. I think the Bogarus position is pretty much hopeless, but I'll do some chasing up I think since Alpine Joe still seems to be around the forums regular enough, so hard to excuse letting his nation stale.

I'm also sure Bogarus has enough mages left to cause me some problems still, so I'll see if Alpine Joe fancies honouring the Baalz Pledge he signed up for, and stick around to fight until the last man :)

Yeah sorry about the stales guys, although I doubt most people even realize I am still playing. However they don't matter much since my last province is being seiged and I have no gems to summon anything. Basically I will continue to spend my cap income, and prep my final few mages for a last stand. Congrats to Calahan for eliminating me, he deserves props for doing as well as he has with EA ermor.

Also this is the last time I play bogarus without an expansion pretender. Playing a 40-game turn and never breaking 10 provinces is a little frustrating :)

[Valerius]

Speaking of stales, there is a chance I won't be able to submit turn 65 on time. Calahan, could you keep an eye on the llamaserver and if looks like I'm about to stale, postpone hosting by 24 hours? Thanks!