Shared AAR Experience (pre-thread) (game initiated- see game thread)

[Immaculate]

game thread:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?p=799807#post799807

First off start with acknowledgements: THANK-YOU to Feinne who set up the start positions for the map we are using. (http://www.mediafire.com/?apv3ewcsvi1f7p4)

Some of you may have read a few of the multiple-player point of view after action reports that have been posted:

Doomed to Fail (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3454638)

and to a more limited extent:

Dominions 3 Newbie Game (http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/User:Matryx/Guides/Dominions_3_Newbie_Game)


There are other examples out there but some you have to pay to see (because the threads are old and 'archived') while others i can't seem to find.


Regardless, the idea is to get a couple of handful of dedicated players to play a group game (everyone together in the same game to clarify) and to post descriptions of their turns with screenshots and analysis as well as their thoughts on how things are progressing. To prevent other players from abusing that information, we would not post our turn details until about 20 or so turns after the turns actually take place.

Ultimately we create a story of the battle for the lands as told from many different players perspective.

So this thread is to invite players who think they can dedicate the time to not only a game but to a write-up of said game to share in an experience of that nature. If we can get at least 7 dedicated players, we will proceed.



Questions and thoughts?



Players with some level of commitment:
Corinthian, LDiCesare, Jotwebe, Greyjoy, Excist, Bluemage142, Warhammer, and Immaculate

New players are welcome to join during this planning stage.

Nations Selected:

Corinthian: Formoria- "I have an interesting build in mind"
LdiCesare: Pangea- "Pangaea could be funny, but the maenad micromanagement may well be a pain. I think I'd go with Pangaea"
Jotwebe: R'lyeh- "prepare to be probed by your new tentacled overlord"
Roland Jones: Helheim- "Because why not"
Bluemage142: Maverni- "Try Something Different"
Warhammer: Caelum- "Cue up Ride of the Valkyries, ah... er... Helheim's in the game... right... OK, let's go with Thunderstruck instead then"
Excist: Abyssia
Immaculate: Acrosephalae



Game Link (http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=SharedAAR)

Map Link (http://www.mediafire.com/?apv3ewcsvi1f7p4)

[parone]

id love to join in on this immaculate. but i am in 3 games now. i can write, but i really can't play. makes me a good fit. if i am eliminated any time soon from these other games, i am in

[Zywack]

My thinking is the same as parone: AARs are great, shared AAR are even better (at least the few I've read), but I'm currently saddled in two games. As with parone, I'd love to join if one of the two finish soon, but it's unlikely unless the recruitement for this game takes a long time... I'll make sure to read this AAR religiously though, and I give the idea a big thumbs up :)

[Immaculate]

Okay, so maybe we should just come back to it in a few months or something...

[curtadams]

I was thinking about an AAR in my current game, but I've made so many lame-brain mistakes I'd be too embarrassed now. :re: Maybe next game.

[Corinthian]

I could be interested in such a game. After all, I started playing this game in the first place because of one of those LP's on the SA forum. And I have always wondered what I would write if I was playing in their stead.

Still, a game like this requires more planning than a normal game. Both for me and for the game in general. It has to be something special and I have to find a crazy fun build to style in front of the veritable camera.

Also, the players playing in such a game must not be complete noobs either. Its always best if the readers can learn something from the game after all.

[megawidget]

I am intending to keep notes in the three newbie games that I'm in. Hopefully something fruitful will come of it.

[Immaculate]

So to clarify, the project would involved a game we all play in at the same time and we all post our AAR here on this forum. Not seperate games. So everyone gets to hear the tale of the great battles for this land from different perspectives. and what prevents others players from knowing what you are up to? a 20 turn delay...

hope that clarifies.

[megawidget]

So to clarify, the project would involved a game we all play in at the same time and we all post our AAR here on this forum. Not seperate games. So everyone gets to hear the tale of the great battles for this land from different perspectives. and what prevents others players from knowing what you are up to? a 20 turn delay...

hope that clarifies.

I'll have to second parone then. I'm in three games currently. If I get eliminated early I would be up to doing AAR in a new newbie game.

[jotwebe]

Hmm, those threads got me into MP after a hiatus from mostly SP. Color me interested.

[LDiCesare]

I'd be in. There would have to be some time in order to both write and play the game (starting 36 or 48h instead of 24h, and maybe 72h later instead of 48).

[Immaculate]

Okay, so i am thinking that we have three committed players and a bunch of maybes.

Definitely start at 36-48 hours. I think also, if people are committed and we have a good group of responsible players i'll probably just make it so all the players know the password to the game so they can add extensions themselves if they need to.

In:
Corinthian, LDiCesare, and myself.


Do either of you have any ideas for the game itself? I think i want to keep it mod minimal- no new nations etc. but i do want to use cbm 1.92 unless there are strong objections; i think the developers did a lot of good for the game by making some spells and items that were just plain ignored (occasionally) usable. I would also prefer not to use the middle age unless others really strongly wish to use it. I find both the ea and la way more interesting but maybe thats just me.

[jotwebe]

Yeah, MA is a bit bland compared to the others, so either EA or LA would be my preference of an aar game, too. How about Streamers and Banners? A lot more pretty than the defaults in most cases, IMHO.

I'm in, too, BTW. Let there be tales of heroes and villains, of prophets and apostates, of gods and pretenders!

[Immaculate]

sure streamers and standards too.

So we have four players.


Maybe we should reach across the partisan divide and invite some goons? I know a few that might be interested. They'll want to play FF but i'm sure they can deal without- we'll just see tons of Zmeys- they love those things (rightfully so).


EDIT: I'll probably make it so we post the updates both here but on the CIV Fanatics (other games) forums as well (http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=23) -to get better coverage and hopefully entice some more players from outside the establishment to get into Dominions III.

[Immaculate]

looks like we got some players coming over from goon chat (http://wbe004.mibbit.com/?server=irc.synirc.net&channel=%23dom3goons&nick=dom3goon_%3F%3F%3F) and we might be able to launch this thing pretty quick. just got to wait for them to get their account activated.

[Greyjoy]

I'm willing to join in, provided we do use CBM.

[Immaculate]

Mods would be 'CBM 1.92' and 'streamers and standards'.

[Roland Jones]

Since my account has finally been activated, I'm just posting here to confirm my desire to participate. Has an age been decided yet? I still find myself interested in LA.

[Immaculate]

I like LA too myself.

[Bluemage142]

Joining the game.

As far as age, I'll play any of them, but prefer EA. I like the magic better.

[Immaculate]

Okay, i think thats enough players to launch.

Anyone else have an opinion on age or map?

i'm thinking parganos, aran, or streamlands... but maybe someone has another appropriate map in mind? Shadowshore is maybe appropriate?

[jotwebe]

Hmm... for the purpose of an AAR a non-wraparound is probably better, since wraparounds can easily get confusing if you're not involved with them.

[Corinthian]

Shadow shore is great. But for fairness maybe we should have custom starts. On a non-wraparound, the starting position is much more important.

[Immaculate]

How do you do that?

[Corinthian]

I have never done it but according to the manual:

2.5.1 #start <province nbr>
By creating at least one start location for each
player, every player will start at one of these
locations. If #start provinces are set, nations will
start at these locations unless there are more
nations than #start provinces. If there are more
nations than #start provinces, the extra nations
will start in eligible random locations.
If a province is set as a #start province but its
terrain mask includes the value 512 (nostart), the
nostart will override the #start command and no
nation will start there.
If no #start provinces are set, all provinces are
available as random starting locations unless set
nonstartable with the #nostart command or in
the map editor.

Keep in mind that some nations must start in the water or in coastal provinces witch can cause problems for these commands.

[Immaculate]

I'll ask around if anyone is willing to do this for us. I bet feinne would if we asked him.


EDIT: Does anyone have any objections to this plan?


I guess now that we've had 2 people say they want LA and one person say that they want EA, we progress with an LA game unless someone says otherwise?



Any non-default settings beyond 'renaming allowed' and 'allow 15 in HOF'? set magic site frequency up 10?

[Warhammer]

I am interested if there is room. I would prefer EA. I do have limited knowledge of cbm 1.92 (I prefer 1.5 or 1.6), but that is not a problem.

While not a great player by any stretch, I'm not a noob either.

[Immaculate]

Its not your experience that is important, its your dedication (and your ability to write up short reports complete with screenshots and opinions/analysis). Remember this is an AAR. Everything else comes second.

That said, if you are ready to commit the time and energy to this project, welcome aboard.

So now its all tied up EA vs LA. next person to say what they prefer gets to decide what we play.

[Corinthian]

Humm, humdihum dum, bumbum...... EA

I already have 2 LA games going on right now. Hopefully they will not mature at the same time as this game.

[Immaculate]

okay- claim your nation.

Me= that nation with the androphag archers and hydras who's name i always forget.

[Warhammer]

okay- claim your nation.

Me= that nation with the androphag archers and hydras who's name i always forget.

You mean EA Agartha! :D

On a serious note, which map are we playing on?

Also, how will we handle the AAR? I will probably work on mine on a turn to turn basis. That way I won't get behind and I'll have a fresh "What I am thinking is..." vibe.

[Immaculate]

I think i'll leave the presentation up to the players somewhat but try not to fall behind. Generally we should be about 20 turns behind the actual game. So when we reach turn 21, present your turn 1, etc.

[Corinthian]

I will go with Fomoria personally. Not sure how I'm gonna role play them, but I have an interesting build in mind.

[Corinthian]

Oh and lets not have EA Agartha in this game. Currently they are quite broken.

[Immaculate]

how?

[Roland Jones]

Well, I was planning on Jomon for LA, but since we're doing EA... I think I'll try Helheim. Because why not.

[Corinthian]

EA Agartha gets darkness in their 20+ PD witch many nations have no counters for early. They also get severely underpriced earth elementals. On top of that they have gotten many other spells and troop changes that means that even without these things they are not underpowered any more.

[Roland Jones]

Actually, scratch Helheim for now; rethinking what nation to use. Will post my decision when I make it, I suppose. (Cant edit my post to reflect this apparently, so new post instead.)

[Warhammer]

Oh and lets not have EA Agartha in this game. Currently they are quite broken.

Immaculate was referring to EA Sauromatia, and I was joking when I mentioned EA Agartha.

I'm looking at several nations right now. Will figure it out tonight.

[Bluemage142]

I think I'll try Marverni this time. Do something different.

[jotwebe]

Been looking into EA R'lyeh lately. Now that they get everything amphibious, there's no need to jump through hoops for amulets of the fish anymore. Much more fun. So, prepare to be probed by your new tentacled overlords :D

[Roland Jones]

Okay, sticking with Helheim after all. Let's see if I do better with them now than I did my first game with them. (Which probably wouldn't have gone so poorly if my first action hadn't been to pick a fight with Hinnom.)

[Warhammer]

I need to re-examine some pretender builds since they do not work under the new versions of CBM. Looking at T&C, Abyssia, and Caelum. Don't be afraid to pick any of these though.

[Warhammer]

Have we settled on Shadowshore as the map? I would like to do a test run using some possible builds. Also, to get a feel for how far apart we are going to be.

[Immaculate]

Okay, i've talked to feinne and he's agreed to set up the map for us (Shadowshore). It will have seven land starts and 1 water start. Everyone should start near or on the periphery so no one is sandwiched in the middle. The start positions should be like positions on a clock. There will be at least a few coastal start positions because formoria is in the game and they need a coastal start.

[Warhammer]

Thanks!

[LDiCesare]

Hesitating between various blood nations. Mictlan, Lanka, or Pangaea... The problem with Mictlan is I'd feel compelled to be an aggressive bastard. Pangaea could be funny, but the maenad micromanagement may well be a pain. I think I'd go with Pangaea.

[Immaculate]

Okay, so warhammer is working on some builds and we need to hear from GreyJoy.

I don't really like the placement of all nations that Feinne suggested- though i really really appreciate his work on this project so i am going to have a try with editing the map myself (Ldi suggested some stuff that should help). Once those things are done (hopefully tonight?), i will launch the game and the AAR thread.

At that point, you will all need to introduce yourselves and your nation, maybe trash talk a little, whatever. We'll play twenty turns (taking notes and screenshots as we go -or even writing the AARs as we go so they are ready to post), then when we hit turn 21 we'll post our turn 1 after action reports.

Looks like things are coming along nicely so get those pretenders designed and i'll get the map fixed up (probably tonight after the kids are in bed) and we'll be ready to go soon enough.

[Warhammer]

Alright, I'll go with Caelum. Cue up Ride of the Valkyries, ah... er... Helheim's in the game... right... OK, let's go with Thunderstruck instead then.

[Corinthian]

Hmm..... Fixed starts.... But if I end up on the Isle of Balor I will be crossed! No mater how thematic it might be!

[jotwebe]

Talking about cueing music -- the official soundtrack of R'lyeh is this:

http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/762727

[Immaculate]

Here is the link to the modded map, thanks to feinne.


http://www.mediafire.com/?apv3ewcsvi1f7p4



Also, can anyone get in touch with greyjoy?

[LDiCesare]

I'm still trying to find out a decent pretender/design/strategy. I'm tempted to go with Pangaea.

[LDiCesare]

I think I've got a pretender design done.
Question about victory conditions: What do we pick? The default ones tend to degenerate in never-ending end-games, particularly with water nations available (though less so with CBM). Would controlling more than half the capitals be fine?

[Corinthian]

Well, either that or concessions. I think most people can tell when a player has won. And if a majority agree then we end the game.

[jotwebe]

There's plenty of ways we could roleplay the pretenders dividing up creation two- or three ways between them and forming a pantheon of sorts.

[Immaculate]

I've PMed Greyjoy and asked around and no answer. Should we replace him?

p.

[Corinthian]

If we cant reach him then sure. We do need dedicated players for this and its better get another guy if he is unsure of weather he wants to play or not.

[Warhammer]

Well, either that or concessions. I think most people can tell when a player has won. And if a majority agree then we end the game.

Agreed.

[Immaculate]

I can't quite get my SP play-testing with sauromatia where i want it to be so i think i'm going to try acrosephalae instead.

[Excist]

Okays, I've been successfully bribed to fill out the final slot here (nation tbd).

The one thing I'll ask for is a sample AAR that can be used as a style guide for our AARs so that we are consistent in what we're documenting and how we write our AARs.

[jotwebe]

Hmmm, I was going to employ a idiosyncratic style -- not only using hoary and ancient words and phrases reminiscent of certain unspeakable works, but even echoing the very structure and literary techniques used in those damnable stories. Yet only instead of a wholesome letter or the mumblings of a wizened mariner it shall be the very format of the AAR that becomes the vehicle of horror, mockingly chronicling my descent into madness. I fear I have no other choice than to continue on this path. My one remaining hope is that it is yet time for others to seek refuge in whatever different formats they prefer; alas it is a fleeting hope, for in the end THE STARS SHALL ALIGN!

Iä! Iä! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Yöt-Webbogoth R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

[Immaculate]

This is gonna be awesome.

Yeah- i'll post an update zero article soon after we start, if you want an example. You are free to do whatever you want though.

[Warhammer]

I can't quite get my SP play-testing with sauromatia where i want it to be so i think i'm going to try acrosephalae instead.

I may wind up switching to T'ien Ch'i, if that is ok. Still trying to get my Caelum build to work though.

[Immaculate]

OKay. I'll probably but the game up tonight. No one had any difficulties downloading the map?

[Immaculate]

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

there is the game link.


again, the map can be found here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?apv3ewcsvi1f7p4

[jotwebe]

It was in one of the most open and least frequented parts of the encircling ocean that miles beneath the wind-whipped waves a fateful change took place. Mermen and atlanteans shunned the region, fearful of what lurked in the lightless depths. For in the ancient aboleth city of R'lyeh vast and ageless fish-creatures move sluggishly on the shores of the benthic brine-lakes, served by slaves that their loathsome and mercyless minds have bound in unbreakable fetters. Beneath the dark and cyclopean towers monstrous polypal growths squat, spewing forth a disgusting stream of writhing, tentacled spawn, eel-like scaled things that burrow into the rotting flesh and decaying bones of whales that the detestable aboleths lured into the abyss, singing mindless ditties alone in the cold and crushing deep. Since long before man has stared in slack-jawed wonder at his first flaming torch or raised his dull gaze to the uncaring stars, the aboleths have lived in their unbreathing city, disdaining the lesser godlings of the sea and land and even the Pantokrator Himself. Yet now a terrible emptyness yawns in the heavens, and even as the aurora proclaims the Pantokrators disappearance in sickly colours, a chill wind blows from the gaps between the constellations. And in the deepest recesses of the hadopelagic zone, something vast and monstrous stirs.

The reign of the aboleths is at an end, yet perhaps their time has just begun.

[Immaculate]

here is the game thread:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?p=799807#post799807

jotwebe- i suggest you repost your story there.

[jotwebe]

It was more of a roleplayed announcement that my pretender was uploaded, so I'll go over it after it had a chance to settle again before posting in the AAR thread, I think.

[Roland Jones]

Putting the finishing touches on my pretender, should have it in tonight or tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.

[Immaculate]

sounds good and don't worry too much about it.

[Roland Jones]

Okay, just to be sure, Excist is playing Abysia and submitted his pretender, right? Game seems to have started but I don't see a post here from him, nor one in the game thread announcing the game starting, and the first post hasn't been edited either. Wondering if he submitted his god or some random person submitted a god and that started the game automatically or something.

Edit: Also, is there an IRC network or something for diplomacy here? The in-game message system is just so bad, and it'd be convenient to talk to you guys another way.

[Immaculate]

i use the goons one and there is a chat function for this board but usually only BBZ is on there (link in the top menu- far left)

Also- i got this message from Excist:

*bats pretty eyelashes*
I've settled on Abysia and have a rough draft of pretender.

I just got home, finished cooking and I saw Dojango came back into the picture today so I need to send in my Good Bad Ugly turn in before 12:30, double check my New Years turn and send it in and then finalize my AAR pretender and submit :b

It would have been better if Dojango had fixed his PC tomorrow since I am SO tired tonight haha

so its probably him.

[Warhammer]

Where I can get one of those nifty national banners?

[Immaculate]

I don't know where to get a caelum one from. I stole mine from the "Let's Play" image host (its actually Lilli's upload). If i were you i would check out old something awful AARs.


EDIT: maybe use this:

http://www.dailymotion.com/thumbnail/160x120/video/x5tz0v_caelum-birdman-project-intro_creation

[Excist]

i use the goons one and there is a chat function for this board but usually only BBZ is on there (link in the top menu- far left)

Also- i got this message from Excist:

*bats pretty eyelashes*
I've settled on Abysia and have a rough draft of pretender.

I just got home, finished cooking and I saw Dojango came back into the picture today so I need to send in my Good Bad Ugly turn in before 12:30, double check my New Years turn and send it in and then finalize my AAR pretender and submit :b

It would have been better if Dojango had fixed his PC tomorrow since I am SO tired tonight haha

so its probably him.

'Twas I!

I did my turn and promptly went into sleep mode.

[Excist]

Ok.

I took a look at the AAR thread and I see this is quickly going to become a useless mess of unorganized AAR snippets that will make it impossible to

A) follow a race that you're planning on playing in your next game

and

B) cross reference a turn from 2 or more viewpoints.

Does anybody have the ability to customize a blog website or something so that we can have a blog thread for each nation and label each blog post by the corresponding turn number?

Ie Abysia - National troops and Pretender Design

Abysia -Turn 1

Abysia -Turn 2

That way people can see the flow of the game from a nations viewpoint and then cross reference the applicable viewpoints from the nations that they are at war with during the turns they're at war without having to sort through hundreds of forum posts in a single thread.


The current format will quickly become useless to future generations of Dominions fans that are yet to be born and for whom I suppose this is being done for.

[Immaculate]

What if i just put a table of contents with links in it in the first post?

[Warhammer]

That would probably be best.

[Excist]

That would make it functional, but it would also be a lot of manual labor.

If nobody is eliminated in the first 3 game years that's over 400 links to catalog.

You may run into the upper limit on characters/post with all those links and descriptions of what they're linking to.

I think a blog website would be much easier with 1 link in the AAR thread to each nation.

[curtadams]

What about an indexing thread? You could have one post for every nation with posts listed in order, and maybe one post for every turn (since they'd be grouped together in the real thread that's less valuable). I think such posts would come in under the size limit, and it would even let you partition the work. We could sub-partition if even that is too big. I'd be willing to assist.

[Immaculate]

This forum doesn't allow edits of anything other than the first post in a thread after about 20 minutes or something like that.

[Roland Jones]

Oh, question. Are we posting our first turns on turn twenty, or twenty-one? The latter puts it at exactly twenty turns for a buffer, which seems good to me since it's pretty easy to remember. Also I like round numbers.

Unrelated, some of you should get on the SA IRC Dom3 channel; I can only talk to Bluemage and occasionally Immac at the moment, at least without PMs or the in-game messaging, and it isn't convenient.

[Immaculate]

turn 21

[Warhammer]

OK, I am a complete IRC noob. What do I need to do to get started? I don't want to be left in the cold with diplomacy.

[Immaculate]

click this link:
http://wbe004.mibbit.com/?server=irc.synirc.net&channel=%23dom3goons&nick=dom3goon_%3F%3F%3F

done.

[Excist]

yea, I never understood why Dom3 isn't on xfire or any of the real online gaming chat systems

[Immaculate]

i had to postpone hosting 12h. sorry.

[Roland Jones]

Hm, for the little nation banners things to put at the top of our posts, is there going to be a standardized size or design for them, like whether or not we use their flag and such? I was going to start making mine but if there are any standards I should keep too I'd like to know.

[Immaculate]

Use whatever you like. I'm not too worried about standardizing things... Make it fun for yourself. :P

[jotwebe]

All right, I'll be on dom3goons then when I'm online, but I won't be following the main chat. /msg me to get my attention.