Summer Madness, a game of strategic exploration.

[Anthropos]

We are happy to announce "Summer Madness", a game of strategic exploration.

The game has begun!

Settings:

Server: Llamaserver ................................. Era: Early Age ............................... Mods: CBM 1.5
Magic Research: Easy ............................ Special Site Frequency: 50 ............ Indie Strength: 5
Score Graphs: On ................................... HOF: 15 ........................................ Random Event Frequency: Common
Money, Resource, Supply Multiple: 100...Starting Provinces: 1.......................Renaming: On
Map: Urapparand (145 land, 35 sea)

Game Administrator: Anthropos

Hosting Interval: 24 hours.

Victory Conditions: Last man standing, or mutually agreed upon capitulation.

Delays: Liberal.

Qualifications: Players should understand the goal of the game is "Strategic Exploration".
Exploitation of known winning strats is discouraged. Deviating into new territory, experimenting with weird pretenders/domains is encouraged. New to MP? Check out the Llamaserver FAQ

Players:
SciencePro: Hinnom
Anthropos: R'lyeh
Binarysolo: Arcoscephale
Raiel: Yomi
RabitDynamite: T'ien C'hi
Sil: Formoria
Kianduatha: Pangea
Ossa: Ermor
Iainuki: Atlantis

Game is running.
http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=SummerMadness

[Raiel]

Heh... in MP it's ALL new territory to me, so please count me in as Yomi.

[Squirrelloid]

I really shouldn't join any more games, but I'm really tempted to try something incredibly stupid with EA Atlantis. *Incredibly stupid*.

I should warn people that if I do join, I'll be gone for a good chunk of time in August. (like 10 days and later ~4 days). If that's not too much of a pain let me know and I'm in.

[Squirrelloid]

Which map is this going to be on anyway. I've just been noticing that my underwater fortresses don't receive any production bonus from adjacent non-underwater territories. That's rather annoying.

[RabbitDynamite]

If nobody minds another newb in the game, I'd like to take T'ien Ch'i.

[Sil]

First I was insanely busy for two weeks and now I have huge amounts of time, so might as well join a game especially as EA has the most interesting nations. I'll take Fomoria.

[kianduatha]

Ditto; If you don't mind another newbie in the game, I'd love to try something utterly silly with EA Pangaea.

[Anthropos]

While I woud LOVE to see what silliness you do with Atlantis, I think that planning for 14 days out of the month is a bit too much AFK. So for now, I prefer not to add you to the game.
Sorry.

I really shouldn't join any more games, but I'm really tempted to try something incredibly stupid with EA Atlantis. *Incredibly stupid*.

I should warn people that if I do join, I'll be gone for a good chunk of time in August. (like 10 days and later ~4 days). If that's not too much of a pain let me know and I'm in.

[Anthropos]

Let's get started this week with the players we have signed up (+ or - one more).
This gives us 6-8 players.

I have been examining Maps.
I am considering the following three smaller maps:

Name (Land Provinces/Sea Provinces)
Ossya (49/12)
Silent Seas-wraparound (45/8)
Urgaia (51/8)

Does anyone have strong feelings for/against any of these?

[iainuki]

Since Squirrelloid's out, I'd like to take a turn at EA Atlantis. I will be gone later this month around July 25th, but otherwise I don't have any commitments that will prevent me from getting turns in that I'm aware of.

As for maps, my personal preference is for maps bigger than that. Especially, those are a bit short on water for 2 water nations.

[Ossa]

I'd like to join as... Ermor. This should be experimental enough;)

[RabbitDynamite]

If we're going 9 we could perhaps afford something a little chunkier. Land of Legends maybe? (131/18) That said, I think I favour bigger maps anyway, so my view may not be entirely trustworthy

[Raiel]

My personal preference if for about 15 provinces or more per player, but I'm in regardless and I will happily defer to the game admin/starter.

[Anthropos]

Game is ready, please upload pretenders.

We are using the mod CBM 1.5
Get the mod here:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=43120
Load the mod
Use the game tools to create a pretender god (early age, for your nation)
Mail the god to pretenders@llamaserver.net

Further instructions here:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showpost.php?p=529316&postcount=2

[iainuki]

Quick comment: I uploaded my pretender, but Urraparrand is 150% money by default. The original post said 100% money. What is it actually? I admit I was planning for 100% gold/resources/etc. settings.

[Anthropos]

I set the 'gold' setting at 100% in the map setting when making the game.
I assume we will then get 100% gold.
If some one knows more, and the map itself overrides that, please speak up.
Otherwise, expect 100%.

Bye for now
Anthropos

[iainuki]

It should be fine, then.

[binarysolo]

Hey all:

I'm the "tbd" player; planning on joining in as Arcoscephale. I'm more or less a complete noob having only played Dom3 a couple times offline as the overpowered Nifelheim race and have no multiplayer experience at all, so hope y'all will bear with me. :)

Anyways, I'll tinker around with a build that should... well, at least be interesting, though probably not SUPER effective. :)

[AlgaeNymph]

Sorry I'm late! Is it too late to join?

[Anthropos]

While I thought you might make it, looks like the game started just before you squeeked in.
As a lazy administrator, I am not inclined to rollback or remake the game so that everyone has to join again, so unless you joined as Arcoscepahel instead of procrastilogger, I'm afraid we cannot accommodate.

Sorry I'm late! Is it too late to join?

[Anthropos]

Greetings Nations of the Earth and Sky.
Ullukulukas of the deep believes that your frail mammal forms may profit from knowledge of the deeps.
Speak to us in emails to warpweaver at in the yahoo dot com if you wish to negotiate.
We are amenable to all diplomatic overtures.

Wave upon Wave,
Sands ground to sands,
Until the tides take us all,
Ullukulukas.

[AlgaeNymph]

While I thought you might make it, looks like the game started just before you squeeked in.And I just sent in my pretender too.

Perhaps we could have two Summer Madness games?

[iainuki]

Sorry to ask so soon, I was hoping the game would get started sooner, but I will be at a wedding (a friend's) from Thursday to Sunday this week. Depending on how the timing works out, I can probably fit a turn in on Thursday morning before I leave and one on Sunday, but in any event I'd like a delay covering Friday/Saturday for certain, probably to Sunday midnight EDT or so?

[Anthropos]

The game is afoot.
However, the beginning seems to have caught us by surprise.
We still await orders from T'ien C'hi.

As I mentioned in the beginning post, I wanted to try and get a few turns done as a lump, with us all logged on together. That may not be practical, but I would like to try. Our goal would be to do 5 turns in a row, each taking less than 10 minutes. I would expect, with a bit of organization overhead, we could get this done if we all had one hour free at the same time.

I am in the pacific time zone, but I can be up for an hour practically anytime.

Please respond here with your availability over the next 3 days.

Nation:Viable Time Range (GMT)
Ryleh: 00:00 hours till 24:00 hours

[Sil]

9:00 to 22:00 GMT.

[iainuki]

12:00 to 23:00 (GMT), or so.

[binarysolo]

General free time: 18:00-01:00 PST (GMT -8), with some flexibility in schedule; I'm busiest Tues/Thurs/Fri.

Converted to GMT that would be... 02:00-09:00 (I think, right?). Hrm, not compatible with you guys yet. Lemme see... my hours of nonoperation/sleep are 01:00-09:00 PST (which would be 09:00-18:00 GMT). I can try to wing a day 18:00-22:00 GMT given some advanced notice so I can schedule all my work and appointments around game time. :)

[kianduatha]

I'm most free 3:00-13:00 GMT, but I could handle doing something perhaps on Friday from 19:00 on.

[RabbitDynamite]

Tsk. Sorry about that. Thought we wouldn't send turns in until after we'd agreed on a rapid group session and wasn't watching my mailbox. Just sent in turn.

I'm generally available from 10:00 to 24:00 GMT but I'm not sure of my availability on Friday - like iainuki, I'll be at a wedding, but I should be available long enough to send in a turn if we don't miss Friday.

[Raiel]

Sorry for the delayed response, guys... my house got hit by Denver's freak/surprise tornado a couple of nights ago. My time for gaming was limited, but now I should be back on track.

I'm available from 06:00 to 22:00 MST (12:00 to 04:00 GMT, I guess). I can probably work in something right before or right after that window, but I won't be at my sharpest. Just give me as much warning (via PM) as possible.

[Anthropos]

Unfortunately given our wide time zone dispersion, some particular events and regular weekly periodicity, no hour slot is available to all in the next 72 hours.
We will continue with 24 hour turns.

Please let me know if you need a particular turn delayed.
To reduce my cognitive/note taking overhead and reduce my error rate, please message me immeditaley before you need a delay.

So far, I know to hold off hosting friday's turn until I hear form the wedding party.

Bye for now
Richard

[binarysolo]

Hi there good sirs and esteemed Pretenders:

As the MP newbie, what's proper protocol for communication between players, especially those whom we've made contact with? Is it typically via the in-game chat (once per turn, in delayed PBEM-esque fashion) or outside through more real time forum/IM/email means)?

Your friendly, peace-loving, happy group of pacifists and lazy Greeks :)
Aaliyah of Arcoscephale

if preferred: procrastinating -at- gmail -dot- com (take that, spambots!)

[Raiel]

There seem to be quite a few of us noobs in this game, so while I imagine that PMs through this forum are probably a good place to start, I don't know the answer to that question.

[Anthropos]

In my limited experience (two MP games, both still going)
the effective method of communication is through private messages on his forum

the dominions IRC channel is quite a good resource and can be used for negotiation
one can make deals there and learn all sorts of arcana which may help
irc.gamesurge.net #dominions

fell free to ping anthropos there if you want to negotiate


There seem to be quite a few of us noobs in this game, so while I imagine that PMs through this forum are probably a good place to start, I don't know the answer to that question.

[binarysolo]

Hey all:

Just checking, but I noticed the game's on hold this weekend?

[Anthropos]

I'll be out of internet contact friday eve till monday morn. Hosting will be suspended during that period.

Hey all:

Just checking, but I noticed the game's on hold this weekend?

[kianduatha]

Unfortunately I will be out of town this weekend, until Tuesday actually. If the game could be put on quickhost, I would greatly appreciate it.

[Anthropos]

hmm, your comment is not clearly interpretable
quickhost is already on

i will assume you want automatic turn processing suspended until teusday

:(

[Raiel]

I'm on the road and won't be able to submit a turn before Monday morning; please delay the hosting of Turn 18 till 19:00 GMT on the 10th if turn 17 hosts between now and then.

[Raiel]

O.K... I didn't expect another turn to host so quickly. I've submitted turn 18, but I do not expect to be able to submit turn 19 in time. Please delay the hosting of Turn 19 till 19:00 GMT on the 10th.

[Sil]

Fomoria is looking for Dwarven Hammers. Two would be preferable. We can trade items, A or D gems.

[Anthropos]

Come on back Pangea, we hope you have enjoyed your long weekend.
Lets get this game rolling again!

Thanks everyone for so many prompt and effecient turn responses.

17 turns for 9 nations and only one stale turn so far is just great.

I hope everyone is enjoying the game so far.
Feel free to speak up if you need anything.

Please, if you can stay in the game even after you feel you have lost a good chance to win.
This is not only really fun, but its important to keep game balance. Setting your nation to AI after a major defeat can give a HUGE advantage to whover beat you down. You don't want THEM to win, do you???

Bye for now,
Anthropos

[binarysolo]

Hail.

Our mystics are seeking water gems and have moderate amounts of fire, air, and astral gems for trade.

We are also willing to take commissions to construct any non-unique magical items provided that we have the paths available.

Kindly direct all inquiries to our trade representative on this forum, binarysolo. :)

Your humble servant,
Arcoscephale

[iainuki]

I could use some rainbow armor. I can pay in items (including hammers) or gems in W, F, or E. (Also nature gems.)

[iainuki]

Anthropos, you have RabbitDynamite's name spelled "RabitDynamite" in the first post.

[binarysolo]

Quick check - did we move to a 48 hour hosting interval? Was expecting to process a turn right about now.

Edit: I guess someone (Fomoria or R'lyeh?) asked for a turn delay, since the game set back hosting by 36 hours from the email note of "The next 2h file is due in by 10:10 GMT on Monday August 17th." I guess delays are quite liberal as advertised (augh I'm going into withdrawals!) :)


In other news:
I'll be gone from Aug 30-Sept 8 (going to Burning Man). I've gotten a friend to sub for me (a fellow Dom3 newbie) so I won't imagine there to be much impact. Just FYI to all.

[binarysolo]

Wanted:
Gems - D, N, E, A, W... okay, basically everything. :)



Arcoscephale's Shop of Wonders-and-crap-from-random-events:
Snake Bladder Stick
Black Steel Plate
Black Steel Helm
Pocket Ship x2
Berserker Pelt
Slave Collar
...as well as anything up to Con6, given appropriate magical paths. Prefer 1-turn prepayment (since I'm running low on stuff).

Items listed will be sold at cost, and things purchased in bulk are subject to a delicious discount! Outfit yer naked thug! Delightfully surprise your unsuspecting, non-NAPed neighbor with your watery ride! You're on a boat! :)

[iainuki]

I still need astral pearls. Trading FWE items or gems for them.

[Sil]

Fomoria is looking for N boosters. Can pay W, A, D.

edit. Also 1-2 Dwarven Hammers. Can make lots of stuff in exchange as well.

[RabbitDynamite]

Need A and E gems. Will trade SWF gems, item forging services (const 4).

[Sil]

Fomoria has not been getting its turns from llamaserver for the past 3-4 days. I always need to go there and request a resend. I am 100% sure that the turn is not being sent initially.

[kianduatha]

Yeah, I just got that myself. Llamaserver never gave me Turn 34 and I didn't catch it in time :\

[Sil]

My turn came fine today. Weird.

I will be flying back to college this Sunday and will not have internet access for about 22 hours. Just to be safe, could the turn hosting for whatever turn starts on Sunday(to be turned in on Monday) be postponed until Tuesday? I am 90% certain I will not need the extra time, but I would hate to stall.

[binarysolo]

Hrm, given that people are talking about llamaserver problems now... I've been noticing a few problems myself in regards to sending multiple .2h files in a day (I generally spend 20-30 min and send a quick one off first, get all my work done, and then focus on a more carefully thought out one later on at night). So it's happened twice, but some times llamaserver doesn't seem to register the second .2h file (I verified vs some in-game actions such as forging). I suppose I'll file that under the llamaserver bug thread but just thought I'd give a head's up as well.

[Anthropos]

I'm afraid our admin is on his way to Canada and in transit Internet may not be so reliable.

I'm going to postpone the next turn until monday the 31st, but I may get time to do my brief turn between now and then.

Bye for now,
Anthropos of Ryleh.

PS: thank you to all of you using effective troops to kick my various armies asses. (do aboleths have asses?) It's interesting to watch, although I am somewhat dismayed at the result. :(
Live and Learn.

[Sil]

As one of the ***-kickers I feel that you made two errors: an excessively aggressive and incautious diplomatic policy and too much focus on chaff units and land invasions.

To start with the latter: EA R'lyeh is very waterbound(mainly due to fish-mind blasters), your focus should have been expanding in the oceans and ignoring the land. Additionally when you started hitting back against me you should have attempted to raid my provinces, moving in and out of the relative safety of the water. Of course due to my forging gearing up that would have been too little too late as well.

Regarding diplomacy: I had no intention of invading you in the water until I heard that you were trying to build an alliance against me. I would not have been so aggressive on land either, except you claimed multiple farmland provinces, several of which I had already conquered. I felt that was an absurd claim for a nation that is as weak on land as R'lyeh especially against Fomoria in the early game.

Now don't get me wrong. You played a ballsy game and it MIGHT still payoff if my besieging army gets creamed by your capital's defenders. But you could have played it much safer.

Now trading: I am selling Pearls, looking for Earth gems.

[Anthropos]

Sorry, so busy at work, forgot to email last turn after I processed it and now I really am dead.

However, busy as I am, must respond to mischevious diplomatic slander.

A) I invaded no province held by Formoria until AFTER he held, sieged (and failed to conquer) my capital province.

B) I offered a diplomatic treaty upon first contact, upon which time his dual blessed giants immediately took my most valuable province and drove me back into the sea.

C) No alliance against Formoria was ever proposed. I expect my short comment to Yomi, was then leaked to you, who had already attacked several of my provinces and was in open war against me from abotu the 5th turn. My comment, was that I could enter into a NAP him as long as he had a NAP with you, and that he should choose which border he should secure, as you had already initiated war against me after my initial generous diplomatic initiative.

While I will soon die, please take note that Formorias army is in the sea on a slow siege.
Many of his forces are now diseased and a good chunk will be gone in the next few turns. He is, if you like, prime pickings. I welcome all vultures to come pick over his incipient corpse.

I reccommend you attack from the north.
The main force is composed of sacred unamarked who both regenerate and have additional defense. He backs this up usually with a single glamored nemedian, but on other cases with a few formorian kings who carry little to no equipment, self buff and generally spam 'ghost wolves'. Occasionaly Morrigans are involved. As sacred blessed troops, their defense is substantial.

Best wishes,
Anthropos of Ryleh.

[RabbitDynamite]

Is it kosher to paint a bullseye over ones conqueror in a forum thread? To be honest, it seems a tad unsporting to me. But maybe I'm thinking of the wrong sport.

[Anthropos]

Given that the ostensible reason for my invasion was a grossly misinterpreted private message that was leaked to my unprovoked invader. I feel justified in exposing both Yomi's treacherous ways and providing any who wish with the details of Formorias troop disposition.

If you want to PM me, I may tell even more.

[binarysolo]

re: Anthropos
I think Sil didn't mean any offense in his reply to ya; just giving you his PoV on all that's transpired.

re: Rabbit
I'll have to side along with R'lyeh on this one... due to its PBEM nature, parts of this game's meta-strategy kinda reminds me of Diplomacy to a certain extent, with all the treachery and enjoyment of that game. :) I suppose we can do it more no-diplomacy style, but that's a lot of the charm of the game (as well as a lot of the stress). Maybe he's feeding off of that for RP purposes, too.

At the end of the day, though, Dom 3's supposed to be fun, so let's keep it fun and enjoyable. Even when some of us [coughyourstrulycough] are getting our butts kicked over and over by a certain battlefield spell ad nauseum.


Oh and now for something completely different... I was under the idea that we're taking a break this weekend since Anthropos is traveling or something?

[RabbitDynamite]

re: binary. Oh, I wasn't for a moment calling into question the appropriateness of some backstabby dimplomacy. Indeed, if what Ant says is true I find it admirable in a Machiavellian, Bismarckian kind of way. Diplo is as much a part of the game as tactics or research orders. This being my first MP game,I was merely asking more experienced players if it was considered appropriate to handle such things in the main thread, as opposed to by PM.

Battlefield spells?I have no idea what you could possibly mean :p

[Raiel]

Treacherous. Machiavellian. Bismarckian.

Fascinating.

[Sil]

Anthropos, no offense intended that was just how I perceived things. Specifically I initially invaded your land holdings because I felt you made somewhat rude territorial demands that you could not back in any way militarily. Later, yes, I invaded based on a rumor but I already had an impression of you as a dangerous neighbor and the rumors were just fuel to the fire.

I do not think it is unsporting to attempt to screw your conqueror from the grave. In all games that has been my #1 goal as soon as I realized I was a goner.

Finally, I am not as confident of my own victory as you are, mainly because Mind Blasters can be unpredictable at times.

[binarysolo]

Treacherous. Machiavellian. Bismarckian.

Fascinating.

Awww poor Yomi... and after being such a tech-happy pacifist (for now :) ).

I gotta give credit where it's due that the technologists of the game have shown remarkable restraint not getting into wars early on, as they are a huge drain on resources that could be going to things that pay off mid to late game.

Yes battles are a lot of fun and have an immediate payoff now (first MP game and I'm having the time of my 4X-gaming LIFE!) ... and yeah, I know I'll learn to regret it in a score of turns when armies led by the mad, freed gods of Tartarus kitted out with the artifacts of yore stomp over my old, disease-ridden, and decrepit troops. :P

[binarysolo]

Hey y'alls:

I'll be gone from the game 8/31-9/7 to go chill out at Burning Man. My sub will entertain all offers of diplomacy and fight all wars at his discretion.

Just to simplify things, I'm having him conduct all forms of diplomacy through my dom3-gmail account at "dom3stuff-at-gmail-dot-com" (replace stuff within quotations as appropriate). All current NAP's and alliances agreed by me will be respected by him. Since he also lurks on the forums a bit I figured I wouldn't begrudge him with maintaining my forum account as well, so kindly send all your diplomacy via email.

Hope to see y'alls in a week. :)

[Ossa]

To bring you some news from Ermor... I have never ever had a game where my intitial phase went so smooth and pleasant.

[kianduatha]

That is because for no discernable reason nobody is really trying to kill you, despite being on top of half the score graphs.

[binarysolo]

Hi,

I would like a 1-day extension for turn 38 (turn in Thurs instead of Wed), thanks.

[iainuki]

I could use a skull of fire or a fire helm, if anyone could trade one. I would also like to trade for astral pearls.

[binarysolo]

Wanted: D/E/N gems

Can offer: S/W/F, as well as forge requests of all types

[Ossa]

As everyone should have noticed by now, Pangea broke their NAP with Ermor and attacked us, for whatever reason. Yomi decided to join them but they weren't NAPed with us in the first place.

Feel free to break any treaty with Pangea at any time.

[binarysolo]

Hey just a quick check - are we doing 24hr/48hr/??hr turns? Just wanted to check so I don't have to ask for extensions. I noticed (and appreciated) the large gap of time waiting last week while I was gone on break, but I just wanted to make sure if I somehow missed an announcement re: schedules changes.

[SciencePro]

Feel free to break any treaty with Pangea at any time.

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

[binarysolo]

Yeow... Zing! :)

[Ossa]

Some more bread would be nice too.

[Squirrelloid]

From what I understand, the NAP got broken because he already had too much cheese and wasn't sharing it... =)

[binarysolo]

I know Ossa's leading by a fair margin in this game in terms of everything basically :) but to be fair I can certainly understand him taking a "Lawful" approach to dealmaking. I know I'd be pissed and whining in RP-mode if people broke all my NAPs, heh.

Not sure if it helps him build his case, given that several nations around him are united against him. Does make for plenty of epic drama though. *passes popcorn*


PS - Kindly leave all out-of-SummerMadness-game drama by the door, though. :)

[Elegy]

Hi, I will be temporarily subbing for Anthropos who is overloaded with work at the moment.

I will also handle all admin duties as they are needed. Let me know if hosting times or other options need to be changed.

I will be joining the game starting turn 47. I have been apprised of the diplomatic situation already but am receptive to new diplomatic overtures. All former diplomatic treaties will be followed, and new, friendlier relations welcomed in PM discussion.

[Ossa]

I'm officially renouncing any claims I have on any lands - Pangea's dagger is too much for me to handle with all those Yomi SCs jumping around.

I'll probably be out of the game in a dozend turns. I went for tart spam too early, and now I dont have the items or spells to equip my monsters.

I'm still pissed at the NAP breaking though, whatever the reasing. Casting Leprosity or anything on your partner is one thing, but outright attacking... ;)

[Elegy]

Just to doublecheck, are people fine with the turn pacing? I noticed a few players submitting their turns really close to the clock and a stale these past turns. Let me know if the timer needs to be relaxed, otherwise I think 48-hour turns seem to feel about right.

(says the Aboleth with little to play around with, yes)

[binarysolo]

Dear Secret Admirer:

I know you like me and all, but please stop leaving Lesser Horrors and Monster Boars at my doorsteps. It's not you, it's me. :(

Love,
Arcoscephale

[RabbitDynamite]

Dear Secret Admirer:

I know you like me and all, but please stop leaving Lesser Horrors and Monster Boars at my doorsteps. It's not you, it's me. :(

Love,
Arcoscephale

Awwwwwww. That's so kyoooooooot. :o

[binarysolo]

Hey quick check -- who took over as Atlantis? I've been trying to reach the player and just realized there's been a(n unannounced) sub a few turns ago.

[AlgaeNymph]

That'd be me, I'm the new sub for EA Atlantis.

[binarysolo]

Wow.

I am officially scared of using Phoenix Pyre in a communion now. :shock:


Those were some good battles though... and before THAT happened I really thought the fortress was gonna hold.

[AlgaeNymph]

Could we extend the turn reminder time to 12 hours?

[Elegy]

Done. Sorry to see you stale the turn. :/

Let me know if you guys want a longer timer than 48hrs. Seems like we've had a few stales come up.


Binarysolo, did you have a chain reaction phoenix pyre explosion? :)

[AlgaeNymph]

Actually, I would like 72hrs.

[binarysolo]

I'm fine with it as is 48-hours or 72-hour turns as long people don't lose interest. :)

re: Elegy - uhm, yeah, I kinda saw the fireworks happen (me and two other people Astral Window-ing in, in addition to the two parties involved there...)

[Elegy]

I'll be putting it on 72-hour turns for the next turn ONLY, as I would like to get more input from other players before I make this a permanent change.

Given the state of my nation and its lack of competitiveness at this juncture, I actually would prefer to see quicker resolution to things, but don't have a strong preference for it. Diplo me to be a spoiler, dammit! :)

So far, votes for 48/72 hr turns:
Yes: 1 vote
Don't care: 2 votes
No: 0 votes

[binarysolo]

Hey I think Fomoria's gonna stale again; I'd like to ask for an extension for him if possible.

[edit] Hrm, never mind. Guess I was too late. :)

[Elegy]

Binarysolo, do you know Sil's status? Is he still around or do we need to find a sub or set him to AI?

[binarysolo]

Uhm. I have no clue; I was trying to diplo him (whether to attack him or not :) ) and he dropped off his messaging. Given his prior stales I figured I'd ask for an extension for him.

[binarysolo]

Actually, I would like to get an 24-48hr extension for him (or perhaps look for a sub), as I just negotiated peace with him and had other plans, though if he's AI/staling out I'd like to grab part of the carcass, understandably. :)

[Elegy]

48-hour extension granted. Do the other players want me to start readying a sub for Fomoria, or should I just set him to AI and be done with it?

I am concerned that certain nations have significantly more to gain out of the situation than others should Fomoria be set to continual staling or AI, which would be less fair to those who have negotiated NAPs with Fomoria or are not readily adjacent to it with fresh troops. Let me know what you guys think about this.

[Elegy]

I managed to get my dormmate to sub for a few turns until we get a new Fomorian player, woot! Adjust your strategies accordingly. :)

I will have him create an account after he submits his turn.

[binarysolo]

(Please disregard my former message.)

Can the Fomorian player please drop me a PM, thanks. :)

[Elegy]

Okay. This is kind of a logistical clusterf*ck right now but here's the low down.

1) My dormmate "Dirge" has submitted a turn for this round just to defend Fomoria, move research around, etc. He is unable to get forum access immediately since it needs to be verified by the admins here.

2) Ossa is going to take over Fomoria permanently after this turn in the spirit of strategic exploration. I ask that all of you leave whatever metagame baggage and prior encounters with Ermor behind. Those with diplomatic dealings with Fomoria, please PM Ossa directly.

<s>3) I will extend the turn by 24 hours in case people need to change their positions, minds, whatever due to a non-AI Fomoria.</s> Ye gawds, I didn't do this in time. :(

[binarysolo]

I'd like to get a 24hr extension for myself NEXT turn due to upcoming work for the next two days.

In addition, I am asking a friend to sub for me for the next week (10/24-11/1) since I will be traveling. I'm handing him my forum account and Dom3 email so he'll be able to deal with everything. All NAPs and other forms of agreement will be respected.

[Raiel]

I got hit with the movement bug while trying to invade Fomoria's capitol. I'm raising the question of a roll-back&force-host (no resubmission of turns) on the off chance it won't hit again. Frankly, I probably have more to lose than to gain as I can probably expect to lose at least one additional SC on a re-host, but bugs really piss me off. What are everyone's thoughts?

[binarysolo]

What exactly is the movement bug, and how'd it affect you on a high level? (EDIT: Ah, saw your other forum post, http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44182&highlight=movement)

I think the major action this turn happened with Fomoria (Ossa) so it's mostly his prerogative. Oh, and to some degree probably R'lyeh/Mr. Admin too, given that he's one candle away from getting domkilled, and it would totally suck for him if the randomness of turns lost him the last candle.

[Ossa]

I also wondered why my units didnt attack that petty goblin camp outside of my capital:/

I'm ok with anything, either forced rehost or just getting on with everything and just do it one turn later.
____

I'd prefer to just go on a second though, but if you insist we can roll back one turn.

[Elegy]

Looks like my fate is sealed this game. I tried to buy time for a war-torn R'lyeh and managed to wheel and deal my way to peace with all his neighbors, slowly consolidate my forces into something mildly respectable.

Good game, lady and gents. I have to give it to Pangaea for that bloody dom push, pun intended. I've completely underestimated the relentless power of blood sacrificing, and it is only now that I realize the brutal effectiveness of it.

To my dear allies and enemies I have a few parting gifts for for each of you. ;)

In terms of admin duties, I can hand them down after I expire. (Arcoscephale, Pangaea, or Yomi probably?)
_____

I similarly prefer to go on just to minimize variables, but I can do a rollback if people strongly desire it collectively, for bug-checking or what not. I would be kinda pissed if I lost my last candle with it though.

[kianduatha]

I ended up doing the dom-pushing just as an afterthought midway through the game. Turns out it doesn't actually play too nice with carrion woods though...even with growth 3 the provinces near my cap are half the population they used to be.

[Raiel]

Thanks for the understanding attitude from everyone. My feelings on the subject haven't changed, but since someone else has at least one compelling reason not to roll-back and I could possibly lose as much as I could gain, I hereby rescend my request for a roll-back/force-host.

I'll just pretend that Ossa sent a single spy to block my army. Funny - that doesn't make me feel much better. Oh well. :rolleyes:

[binarysolo]

Sorry Elegy, I didn't realize your faithful were so stubborn to the end.

I will make sure that they be treated with utmost respect and dignity under new management. :)

[Elegy]

No offense taken, you do what you have to do. Inciting me to make a final attack against my killer while assembling such a large strike force was mildly disingenuous though. :P

I'll try to stay alive as long as I can given Pangaea's dompushing graces, but I'm not going down without a (short) fight with you though. Have at thee!

[binarysolo]

Hey guys,

Elegy passed me the admin password so I'll be able to help out with turn postponement and what not. Given that llamaserver is being moved around and what not I'll put a 24hr postponement on the game just to make sure our turns don't get processed behind our backs.

[Elegy]

I'll be adding another 24hrs to the timer as well, as llamaserver does not seem to be accepting my turn submission.

This is a known issue given that the server is being moved. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44190

[Elegy]

Hrm, this is kind of distressing... I tried to add 24 hours awhile ago and submit my turn but neither seemed to have come through.

If things catastrophically fair and people massively stale, I'd like to ask all to brace for a potential rollback to be fair. As good practice, I would also encourage everyone to send in their turns via email just in case the game will auto-process it based on when it received the email.

[binarysolo]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if we could move to a 72 (or maybe 74) hour timer. Due to out-of-game (and possibly in-game, eventually ;) ) reasons I really could use a bit more time.

Let me know, I'd like to put it to a vote if possible.

74-hour timer:
1 yes
0 no
0 don't care

[AlgaeNymph]

74? Sure.

[binarysolo]

I noticed a convention that people wanted 24-hr increments plus 2 to 3 hours. Since the timer generally runs a few hours short of the limit (no stales), if you just have a 24 (or in this case, 72) hour time increment then the end of turn creeps up on you over time.

2 yes
0 no
0 don't care

4 not yet voted

[kianduatha]

74's fine with me. It might even keep me from having to ask for an extension over the weekend(I'll be out of state)

[Elegy]

74 is fine with me for however long I last. :) Ditto to the Halloween weekend extension.

[binarysolo]

74-hr turns:
4 yes
0 no
0 don't care
2 not yet voted... we seem to have a majority of votes so I'll implement it first (and if people have issues they can raise it subsequently).

This would lead us to have a turn this Friday and next Monday, which should effectively let us deal with most Halloween issues. :)

[Elegy]

gg :)

[binarysolo]

Hey guys,
Sorry about this but I have to give myself a 24hr extension since I've done a bit of traveling and am away from my gaming machine.

-Arco

[binarysolo]

Sorry one last extension for myself... someone cast Infernal Disease on me in real life. I'll try to submit it after my fever subsides. :(

[binarysolo]

Hey sorry guys, my .2h file for some reason is not getting accepted by llamaserver, so I'm giving myself a few extra hours while I figure this out. :/

[binarysolo]

Lemme know if any of y'alls need a Thanksgiving break/extension, otherwise see y'alls' turn on Friday. :)

[binarysolo]

UGH, I'm really sorry I'm asking for another extension, but I came home from the extended weekend, spent 3-4 hours lining up my turn, and the computer crashes on me before I save. I'll submit it after I get back from work today. :/

[Raiel]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone think they can still stand against Arcoscephale at this point?

[binarysolo]

You pre-empted my plans for a turn (I was waiting for ONE more thing to happen :) ) but I think some circumstances need to be brought to light...

So I'd say around midgame, right about when Ermor's short-lived ascension happened, Iainuki and I made an agreement to share endgame victory given our amicable relation since an early-game alliance. We were pretty middle-of-the-pack back then, with me locked in a stalemate with Tien Chi and her suffering losses against R'lyeh.

Nations changed hands, MP noobs were enlightened (so I realized this meta-strategy is... unconventional at the least, blasphemy at the worst), circumstances differed greatly... and while I think I am significantly better positioned at this point I would still like to honor this agreement, pending approval from the surviving players. And if not, we can always defeat the rest of y'alls and then call it amongst us two. :)

[binarysolo]

Of course, there is no small part of me who wants to use my well-loved collection of Elemental Royalty named after American rock stars, English queens, and Burning Man art themes.

As well as the obligatory Tartarian assembly named after X-men. Inspired by my first tartarian Cyclops, which I immediately named Scott (Summers). :)

[Raiel]

I figured that was the case, since our dialogue evaporated. :)

Honestly, my heart hasn't been in this game for the last 40 turns.

Does anyone object to declaring Arco and Atlantis the winners?

[binarysolo]

No worries, I tried to keep myself occupied with constant war (with 1 and only 1 player) to provide tactical combat fun (which is what I really dig in the game).

I had some really solid tactical exchanges with Tien Chi midgame and Pangaea late-game. Sadly my wargame-y OCDness is getting the better of me at this point, and managing communion armies and battlegroups in addition to the chore that is slave/gem-gen management is a huge time suck. Doesn't help that I have a lot of grad school commitments lined up over the next two weeks too. :-/

Pangaea, Atlantis, Fomoria... what'll y'all say?

[kianduatha]

I'm more than happy to declare you the winner. Nice job, and it was a blast.

[AlgaeNymph]

You the winner? Sure. :)

[Ossa]

Snief - I aimed to high with Ermor in the beginning.

I'd happily concede this game at this point.

I'd like to draw attention to the fact that I smashed Yomi's SC army last turn in an epic battle;)

[binarysolo]

It was an epic battle indeed, with a third of Yomi's Dai Onis dead in the field and Fomoria's blessed forces damaged and plagued (a lucky plague roll from the Ark robbed Fomoria's pretender's sight at the last turn before he cast and retreat).

I was exceptionally impressed at how Fomoria w/ a bless strategy ended up getting defended by Ossa against a tech/item-superior Yomi. Definitely beyond my expectations, as I hoped that my support to Fomoria would merely slow down Yomi as he invaded the nation. Good job though... though I don't think I'd be able to call a winner in your war just yet.


Should the game have progressed, and given that I was counting on doing this should Yomi's SC legion be smashed, I have (this turn) queued up about 8 seeking arrows on #97 (capital) to break the domes, and a smattering of Earth Attacks and Mind Hunts on the surviving Dai Oni stack. I'd drown my Stellar Focus caster via teleport and cast Astral Nexus the turn after. And oh I would cancel my NAP-3 with Yomi and get Atlantis to do so as well. But all that's just in theory now. :)

[binarysolo]

And here are my chronicles, my confessions, and my journey:

EA Arcoscephale, w/ awake 4N4D4B Vampire Queen, 3Tur3Slo3Luc2Dra

Early game
NAP with all neighbors -- Yomi, Ermor, Atlantis; chose defensible borders over excessive expansion, though still tried to aggressively take lands with army and immortal flying VQ. Yomi, Ermor both had amazingly storng early games; Atlantis felt weak but I wanted no distractions from sea. Forged a secret alliance with R'lyeh to eventually take out Atlantis when time came.

Forged a Stone sphere, used it to determine rough locations of other players. Noted Tien Chi in defensible island; forged NAPs with Pangaea, Hinnom to avoid complications of amphibious assault. Allied with Atlantis to take out Tien Chi island.


War VS Tien Chi (~1 years, 2 seasons):
Amphibious landing took him completely by surprise; early battles took out half his communion mage force. TC starts deploying Fog Warriors ad nauseum and the war grinds to a standstill as I sacrifice forces keeping him bottled at his capital, moving around with constant raiding, till I ready my aerial anti-mage force + my own Fog Warrior counter. Managed to finally crush his remaining forces using "attack flyer" on the main BE/communion mages and casting Fog Warriors myself.

Dedicate heavy research towards artifacts; nab a few pivotal ones for own usage (Gate Stone, Flying Ship, Soulstone of the Wolves, The Sickle Whose Crop is Pain). Soulstone pivotal in shift from high-maintenance myrmidon/chariot formations to no-upkeep, stealthy Wolven chaff + massive communions. Soulstone stunningly good over long run given Werewolf commanders who are stealthy, have better-than-human HP/regen, and can summon more wolves per turn. For the 40 or so turns I had it I got ~1000 wolves and 40 thugs out of it... I can't say enough good things about it, it's ridiculously good for nations needing chaff armies to supplement their mage force. Start empowering mage hero for S9/Wish to ready for endgame Astral Nexus/SC summons. Littered the lands with scouts and sceptics.


War VS Ermor (~2 seasons):
Join with alliance (Atlantis, Pangaea, Yomi) against Ermor. Wiped off the last vestiges of Hinnom, then warred against Ermor. Nab southwestern Ermorian territory as the Old empire struggled to fight off the hoards of Pangaean manikin and the relentless flying SCs of Yomi. Offered potential alliances to turn against Yomi should Ermor incentivize with the Chalice, Scepter of Dark Regency... but to no avail. :)

Race to build Ermorian artifacts after his fall. Didn't get the Chalice. :( Made sure the balance of power in the water between my two water allies were in place till I were to take advantage of it. Readied assault on Fomoria but hostile Pangaean globals + dompush of doom made me set my sights elsewhere. Secured most Elemental Royalty and diversified to Blood; thank goodness, since every other surviving race had better SC/thug chassis. Hit research peak.


War VS Fomoria (1 month)
The Fomorian pretender cancelled his NAP-3, abdicated his godly throne, and went missing. Yomi swept across his lands and I decided to join in on the spoils. One turn in the new pretender sued for peace with me, and after consideration decided to supply him with some money, items, and equipment in trade for gems and the promise for him to be at war with Yomi. Creatively "babysat" a few Fomorian provinces and gave back the taxes to make sure his rear provinces weren't raidable by Yomi's flying SCs and I suppose give the illusion that I was attacking Fomoria with Yomi. Made my own preparations to invade Pangaea soon afterwards.


War VS R'lyeh (2 month)
Persuaded R'lyeh and Atlantis to push against Pangaea as his dominion was enveloping the world. Decided that my water allies were not gonna last against the domcrush. After getting him to boat all his land forces across to Pangaea, I did massive teleport/cloud trapeze/gate attacks versus R'lyeh to seize all his land holdings one turn before he was domkilled, while somehow managing to stay in his good graces (we had no official NAP, granted). :)

With S9 hero in hand, managed to convince Yomi to trade me the Chalice instead of having me Wish it off his hands. (Incidentally, I never cast Wish a single time in the game despite the ability to do so... was saving up for Astral Nexus.)


War VS Pangaea (3 seasons)
Rallied my aquatic allies vs Pangaea, starting off with anonymous Ghost Rider raids, Mind Hunts, and Earth Attacks to disrupt his army backbone... I delayed my entry into the war "due to my NAP", hoping Pangaea would eliminate my dominion-weak water allies and I can waltz right in via cloud trapezing oreiads with water suits. Atlantis was 3 candles away from being domkilled. Oh well, in it for the long haul now. :)

Dissolved NAP with Pangaea; surprisingly effective use of Undead Mastery, Army of Lead, Arcane Domination alongside 10-12 mage reverse communions w/ power of the spheres and various elemental boosting magics so each typical rainbow slave ended up with 3F3W2E3S with an occasional 4th path thrown in. Closely astral window-ed all conflicts between Yomi and Fomoria to see how I could disrupt Yomi's efforts (via Leprosy, Ghost Riders, Baleful Stars and Dream Horrors) and when I needed to enter the war (either to loot Fomoria's carcass or to obliterate Yomi's weakened SC stragglers with Mind Hunts and Earth Attacks so the equipment doesn't return to fresh generals).


And so it goes...

[SciencePro]

congrats to the winner(s)

[Elegy]

Grats on the win. I'm still bitter about you tricking me into attacking Pangaea then stabbing me from behind. :P (j/k)

To be honest I overestimated my own ability to maintain dominion with all those chaff-generating priests that come with Rlyeh and didn't treat Pangaea seriously enough until it was too late. Oh well maybe next time.

[iainuki]

I feel like I should add my own wrap-up to this game note. My variant strategy was, obviously, a living pillars bless. I knew it was a bad idea, I just didn't realize how bad an idea it was. The major problem was that everyone else in the game took dominion that ranged from "high" to "maxed," so from the very beginning of the game I was struggling to avoid dom-kill. Urraparrand greatly exacerbated this problem because the water twists around in one-province-wide channels, meaning it's virtually impossible to hold dominion in the water, even if you have strong dominion. I think the take-home message is that even in a variant game, low dominion is not a viable strategy, but especially on this map.

My other problems stemmed from plain terrible starting luck. While I was taking my initial provinces around my capital, I had independents recapture one of them, and then not much later independents killed my capital's PD and besieged it for a turn. Between these and having to puor money into temples to avoid dom-kill, my start was abysmal. Moreover, the living-pillars bless is a rush build, and I didn't have any good choices for rush targets: Yomi was close but not easy to overwhelm with living pillars, and Hinnom, Pangaea, and Arcoscephale's capitals were all too far way by the time I managed to find their capitals. From the situation in the first year, I could tell I was more or less not a contender in the game.

I tried making diplomatic overtures to R'lyeh, but they went to war with me. However, while living pillars are useless against gibodai, BK/BQ thugs are quite good and so while I was initially frightened, once I saw how long it would take R'lyeh to reach my capital, I figured I could manage to hold them off, and I did. However, the war with R'lyeh accentuated another feature of the map, which is that the distance between our capitals was so long that by the time either of us managed to reach the other's capital, we would have in place a counter to whatever we were using. (Yay for water movement.)

Meanwhile, I'd be frantically trying to avoid being attacked by anyone else, and had succeeded. I helped get Arcoscephale to go after T'ien Chi, and participated in that war to an extent. I also, somehow, ended up starting to organize the grand anti-Ermor coalition that characterized the midgame. I gladly took Arcoscephale's offer of a mutual win since I knew I wasn't going to win in any conceivable universe. On the whole, I'm amazed Atlantis managed to survive to the end given how terrible my start was. The best summary I can give of the game, I think, is that it was a learning experience.