Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

What do you mean? Connect to the server and download it. If email notifications are not set up by Gandalf for your email address which I doubt.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

As Septimius didn't appear since morning and considering the fact that situation is undecided and neither we nor Usurpers (and Atlantis) are waiting for him and not doing our turns, I ask that not 24 but 36h are added to the current turn if the rehost is still not considered (although the absolute majority wants it, not even speaking of game relative power, just quantity of people)

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

My position on the no rollback policy remains the same (would not change even if we all staled). Though I am sympathetic to Numahr, that is what the decision was.

Very simply though, I can only convey my understanding of how delays are handled via direct connect on Gandalf's server. It is an entirely manual process and I have no direct control of the server:

1. I receive a request from a player asking for a delay with enough lead time to allow me to receive the message and convey it to Gandalf (generally you'll want to allow something like 8 hours or more).

2. I convey the request asking for x hours to be added to the current turn to Gandalf.

3. Gandalf must then receive the message in time and then shut down the game. So if he gets a request for say an 8 hour delay, at the 40th hour of a 48 hour turn, the game must be stopped, the interval adjusted temporarily to 16 hours (8 hours left+8 hours added) and then the game is restarted.

4. After the turn hosts, the external timer will still show only 16 hours . So as soon as he is able to get to it, he must then adjust the timer back to 48 hours or whatever the current interval is. Gandalf's least complicated move would be to just reset it to the current interval (but this will of course result in extra time added to the game turn since there will generally be some time elapsed between when the game hosted and when he can get to it). To account for that time, he'd have to again adjust the timer downward, then wait for the next host, and adjust again, etc.

Now why Gandalf didn't get a chance to adjust the timer down to reflect the additional 8 hours and only the additional 8 hours (not an extra 48), I cannot tell you. But when I noticed it (Ano did as well, as I am sure every else looking at it did) I sent word to Gandalf to use the fatherland file timestamp and count 56 hours from then and adjust the timer accordingly.

In any event, the first delay request (for 8 hours) WAS honored. Gandalf says he did not receive another delay request in time to prevent a stale. And another 4 hours past the hosting time went by before the actual host. That is all I can and will say about it. Gandalf would really be able to tell you more.

I really am against further delays on the current turn at this point, but if absolutely necessary I will consider it. Because of this process, the game time will NOT be accurate when delays are processed. I do recall my mentioning some of my concerns with publishing an external timer. I don't really like it for direct connect games. The game already has a lenient hosting schedule to taking into account the team nature of the game. But even so, things are moving far to slow for my tastes. But that is only my opinion.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

This is unwise and unpleasant and will make the game much less fun from now on. At least for me. I'm really losing enthusiasm now. I'm sure the Usurpers may say the same.
But so be it, you are the emperor here and there's no democracy so we have to accept your decision. But we definitely want the delay I previously mentioned. 24h will be enough for us (Supplicants).

Actually, I said all I had to say above and I have nothing more to add. I'm just very surprised with such a stubbornness from admin side after the situation that was caused by improper admin actions. That is hard to understand especially considering the fact that most players are agree to rehost the turn.

But... Enough. I just made the conclusions I had to make.

p.s.
If you said this BEFORE this weird situation occurred, it could be understood. But you prefer to keep secret from the players. In everything. So explaining this now doesn't help the situation at all and doesn't help numahr who had no idea of this.

Maybe it should. Or maybe it shouldn't. People are used to trust the server because if server time may be changed occasionally then who should they trust? If server says 48h it means 48h. At least for people who play at llamaserver. And if 48h means 8h then each and every player who might have no time to monitor the game thread extensively should be privately notified of this. This is what the job of admin lies in. Not just keeping secret...

Well, once again. Enough. I'll try to keep silence on his point from now on.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Yes, I am aware I have to be a go-between between Gandalf who runs the server and players. I made the decision in consultation with Gandalf. The limitations of Gandalf's server are not my fault. I was rather pissed when I saw the extra 48 hours. But we are at the mercy of the server, Gandalf's math, his availability, and so on. Even still, I have to say I commend Gandalf for doing the best he can and giving us whatever we get. I am grateful for it, he's doing it for free and all voluntarily. It is not an entitlement. I can only tell you what I know. If it villifies me, oh well. That is the burden of admin that I have to take. Call me stubborn, perhaps, but I am not about to get into another roll back fest like last game. Too much time has already been wasted in my opinion, I'd like to get on with my turns (Agartha is just hitting its stride), but you are free to do as you wish.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Chris, this really does not sound right. Why would you see only 1 mountain province? Why would I see these and not you?

I am not sure if the server provides you with a temporary copy of the .map file or not. I do know that only the server needs a copy of the actual/final .map file used by the game. The players do not need it. But if you have a .map file on your system though for this game, e-mail me a copy and I will have a look at it. Perhaps you've got an earlier version on your system taken from the main post and this is overiding what the server might give/show you.

I believe I updated the .map file on the main post when I added the freshwater and mountain tags (which is only meant for testing purposes and probably should be deleted before beginning the game, if it is not automatically overridden), but I could be mistaken.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Just to get confirmation on the freshwater tags. One of the provinces where the freshwater terrain mask was added is province 7, near the Southwestern corner lake.

Gandalf, please open the server copy of the .map file and print for us here what you see on the line for the #terrain command for province 7. Lets put this issue to rest.

Thanks.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

#terrain 7 8

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

If anyone has interest in far more discussion than it deserves on the subject of timers
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=45813

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

OK.
I can't say I find the decision very fair, but so be it. As Ano says, there is a decision-making process we ought to recognize whatever decision is made.

On the rationale that the game is going too slow hence the decision, I think one has to understand that there is a trade-off between team game and quickness, that we have to acknowledge.

Also I want to say that I am very thankful to Gandalf as well for his valuable contribution; and also to those players of the game who showed understanding of this weird situation and fair-play spirit :)

So now let's accept there was a tragic distortion of the time continuum, probably provoked by the energy unleashed by the One True God snizzing or something like this...

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Thanks for that confirmation. Chris, as you can see, the terrain mask on the official sever copy of the map file for the province in question is "8". This is in fact the terrain mask for a plains province (0+8) with a freshwater tag. Don't know why there's no Freshwater icon when you right click on it though. As I mentioned, players do no need a copy of the .map file. This is all handled by the .trn files you get. I recommend deleting any version of the .map you may have on your system (if it is causing you not to see the mountain provinces that I see) and loading up your turn and looking again.

Game note:

Ano has requested that 24 hours be added to the current turn (24). I am forwarding the request now. When Gandalf receives the message from me, he will look at how many hours are left on the clock (currently says 17h) and add 24 to whatever is then shown. This is apparently the easiest way for Gandalf to handle at least a single delay per turn. Please note that after this turn hosts (either by quickhost or when the timer is reached), Gandalf will have to re-adjust the timer back to the regular interval of 48 hours as soon as he is humanly able to get to it. This is the way we will have to handle delay requests in the future. We've just got to accept Gandalf's math and be grateful for whatever, however, whenever, he can process these delays for us.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Numahr, please be aware that I don't blame you or anybody for any delays to the game. After the rollback fiasco of last game, I personally vowed never to do another one, under any circumstances (even if Gandalf or Llamabeast were to drop dead, or the world were to explode). But then I personally am not uber competitive, an individual game turn does not mean that much to me. And stales don't mean much to me, even if it is my own team that is hurt by it. I simply want to play as often as possible and get in as many turns as possible so that I can learn and experience as much as I can.

I tried the democracy thing last game and then had to deal with people saying I had no guts and no balls for all the polls and opinions I solicited. Yet when an admin makes a firm stand or makes a decision, they get charged with being overbearing, dictitorial or else. Really guys, I just can't seem to win in public opinion here. :D But I am willing to deal with it, I've and have always been willing to deal with it. It's the hazards of admining a game.

Now, can we get those turns in please! :)

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

As a suggestion sept,

Instead of saying gandalf, add 17 hours - which is hard.
Say "Gandalf, please make hosting time Tue at 3 am EST" which is exceedingly easy (whatever time zone gandalf is in).

Then everyon here can see the time and be responsible for figuring out what time hosting is.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Its actually pretty easy for Gandalf to just look at the log file (from which the external timer is extracted) and add x hours, but Gandalf did suggest what your saying as well, having the players do their own time zone calculations and indicate in their delay request the exact time in PST (server time) they'd like the server to host. They'd decide what time they wanted the server to host in their time zone, then either calculate the equivalent time in PST manually or else use one of the many programs on the Internet to do it.

I have so far been trying to make it as easy on the players as possible. But if all the players (and Gandalf) prefer this method instead, it might certainly make Gandalf's life easier.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Just a few minor updates:

Children of Crom team:

Cammorak back in for Ashdod.
FinalGenesis in for Marignon.

A new poll on Atlantis is available on the team forums:
http://noobsvets.silverforum.net/vie...php?f=12&t=404

Zegc-ben, Market Master, how's it going? Though you've been hard pressed of late, I believe your core water provinces should be relatively safe from the AI. Let us know when new services, forging abilities, etc come on line.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Hey, I tried to download arco's turn to view it.
when I did so, it uploaded a nul turn for arco.

Sept, Gandalf, can you make sure arco has a chance to upload a real turn?

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

There's 16 hours left on the current turn. Any revised arco turn submitted before the next hosting should overwrite what is there. Let me know when you expect to upload a new Arco turn or if you want a delay. I haven't submitted my turn yet, but plan to shortly but can wait. Please send a PM to Willburn to resubmit ASAP. You can also submit for him if you choose.

I actually staled last turn for somewhat similiar reasons. Though I like being able to easily download and view my teams turns, you must ensure that after you do so you hit exit to disconnect from the server and then view/play offline via the "play existing games" menu option.

Then when viewing a teammates turn offline, never hit anything other than "quit without saving". Anything else including "end turn", "quit and save" will generate a .2h file for that nation, which will be automatically uploaded when next you connect (unless you manually delete it). Players should look in their saved games/navii folder for any .2h's belonging to nations that they are not currently playing (from a previous turn or a new turn) and delete them if you see any. They will stay in that folder unless deleted.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

I haven't uploaded my turn yet and I can wait if you want.

And also I have reached construction level 6 and I will soon be able to equip nicely teleporting king of the deeps, let me know if you are interested.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

We've got about 5 or 6 hours on the turn. I've asked Gandalf (if possible) to just shut off quickhost only for the current turn, so that Chris and Co can get another turn uploaded.

Everyone else go ahead and submit. No reason to draw the turn out longer than necessary. But if more time is needed, let me and Gandalf know ASAP!

Good to hear your at construction 6, Zegc, we might could use something.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

I'm told We're good to go sept. Thanks Atlantis.

FYI sept, its not that I didn't hit exit, of course I did. However, the second time you connect(for whatever reason like you didn't have a right password the first time) it uploads a turn.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

That's because you have a .2h for the old turn that (under some circumstances) may be considered appropriate. We ran into the same situation with Ermor before

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Yeah, I'm familiar with that too. Except I didn't have any .2h's - I deleted all .2h files prior to reconnecting.

Weirdly, some of my orders didn't process either.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

As long as you completely delete any offending .2hs from the directory before you connect to the server you should not have any problems. If anyone does make a mistake when viewing another persons turns offline (like hitting anything other than 'quit without saving') just remember to go into the navii directory and delete it before you next connect.

The only way it could upload another .2h file from your system (and I don't think spontaneous generation of .2h's occurs) is if the game looked in other directories and pulled something from there. While it possible it could look in the main Dom3 and saved games folders for a stray .2h, I don't think it will look in a directory for another game with a completely different sub folder name.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

I've got a connection problem. When I try to connect to the network the game just stalls out on me.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

It did that to me for a LONG time as well algae. I let it sit for an hour before it connected.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Don't know why the server is acting slugishly or freezing/pausing on the "getting game info screen". I've sent a PM to Gandalf. The game seems to have hosted fine though, so it should have finished processing the turn awhile ago. May be necessary to stop/restart the game. The timer would be reset to 48 if necessary to allow for this period of limbo.

On another subject: NaVIII due this fall, based on the input I received (thanks), I will likely go with a single human played independent nation for game 3. Most likely either LA R'lyeh (with a dozen or so sea provinces in the center, and perhaps the 4 corner lakes as well, or LA E'rmor. Freshwater masks and mountain masks will be added in either case.

I do think the Merc/Merchant is/was a decent enough idea for inclusion in other/future games, and can be viable in the right situations with certain implementation. But a single nation able to ally as they please with the team of their choice and with a possible solo victory condition may have more of a strategic impact, especially given the power of LA R'lyeh, LA Ermor and the 3 person teams.

I'm leaning toward LA R'lyeh, since it will enable me to add the aforementioned central multi province lake and will provide a buffer zone for the indy player (surrounded as they will be by 4 AI caps). No bonuses will be given to this nation.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

I'm not going to play, but still I have to say that LA R'lyeh is arguably one of the weakest nations in the game now, and even more so in LA. I many times gave lots of arguments for this (having had vast experience with LA R'lyeh before it was severely nerfed and having won a large game with them, I know what I'm speaking of). On paper they may look powerful but in reality I seriously doubt anyone but the most top players is able to play them really competitively without huge luck.
Even if you don't consider them weak as I do, I don't think anybody who has played them after the nerf can still say they are ultimately powerful. They are very annoying and problematic for the nations around them due to their dominion and that's all.
I'd never ever want to play them again in MP.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Wow, you mean their not the powerhouse I thought they were. :D I really am behind on the times. What patch(s) were they nerfed in?
I still think they are fun to play. Since the AI caps surround this player the dominion effects will mostly be on the AI which players should be fine with. And effective preaching/strong dominion should deal with most of it. While I find their dominion annoying sometimes, do you think it as devastating as LA Ermor's pop kill dominion? LA Atlantis is a possibility in the role but would require at least one land province in the center of that sea (have to check the sea/land cap resource gathering thing).

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

ooOO my favorite nation, aside from the micromanagement hell. Is it too early to volunteer myself? =P

edit: I have to agree that their dominion may have unintended impact on the game in the long run.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Probably is, but glad you like the idea of playing LA R'lyeh. We are also working on a completely new customized group of pretenders for each team. Including possibly multi-headed dragons, powerful 4 armed divinites, magnificent angels & demons, and cool new shapeshifters. With some of the more annoying aspects of the uber AIs toned down, I am very much looking forward to it.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

I definitely won't play, Septimius, I'm just expressing my opinion. Popkill rate is huge and money demands are huge even without domkill. And all generated chaff also eats upkeep (10 units eat 1 gold). That's why soon you'll find yourself absolutely crippled and without money at all unless you manage to expand fast and\or kill your opponent(s) which is EXTREMELY hard with R'lyeh because absolutely all of their troops suck except the crab hybrids who are aquatic. R'lyeh needs either magic to win battles (but you won't have money for good research and especially for battlefield magery) or tons of generated chaff (that is generally much worse than skeletons). This makes virtually impossible to make a successful attack on a decent player early on.
That's why I'm talking about huge luck or fantastic skill. These two are the only things that may help this nation in the competitive game.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

People keep thinking LA R'lyeh is an uber power and even sometimes banning it for that but this is just ridiculous. It's a crappy nation even though it's thematically fun to play them. I had to ban them I'd do it because of their crappiness, not their powers.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

You are certainly free to voice your opinion and I respect the input of all players. And yes, I do know you don't like playing against the AI. :)

I think many players playing LA R'lyeh will just find an ally or the AI to assist them in killing off any unwanted units and reducing their upkeep costs. But I'll certainly consider LA Atlantis, or LA Ermor as a possibility in the role as well, as I said before. Though I'm still leaning toward R'lyeh.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Maybe give the water nation merc (if you decide on one) an island in the middle with a forging bonus site or other ritual site. Some trait of rainbowness would enhance the merc's service value too. I'm speaking under the influence of sleep deprivation high, so absolutely no thought went into those suggestions (just so you know).

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

I would like more to see LA R'lyeh & Ermor as part of AI team. R'lyeh would probably look better thematically as a merc than Ermor.
LA Atlantis I think would be fine as an alien nation seeking any allies to break the power of their old enemies.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Some sort of goal or ends for the merc? I could imagine the motivation to play an active merc to be hard to maintain, as you don't really have any goal.

Maybe have 2 competing merc or something... or some way to introduce an agenda / win condition to the merc that makes sense... a random example might be merc wins if there is no clear winner by the end of year xxx, thematically that is because strife and conflict is good (and perhaps necessary) for the merc, this also give losing teams a slight boon as merc is more likely to give them a hand, so they can catch up easier and make for a closer game.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Sometime around 3.23 the domkill effect of LA ermor and La-Rlyeh was increased tenfold.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Hmm, still having the same issue, the game freezing at the "getting game info" screen. So I've so far been unable to download turns (though haven't let it sit for an hour). Gandalf suspects it might be due to another large game on his server eating up processor time/space. Once the issue is resolved we will be able to continue.

Final, the indy nation I'm planning for game 3 won't be a merc in the sense of the current implementation. No rules, neutrality, bonuses, etc. Just a single nation, free to do as they please. Even play off one team against another. A separate VP condition can be provided if the player should decide to go solo. And if they are eventually allied with the winning team, they can share the credit with the team. Haven't thought about other goals, also haven't decided on magic locations or not.

Edit: Gandalf says the game has been reset and should be working now.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Whoa! Was wondering why pop dies so fast playing La R'lyeh.

Atlantis may well be a good choice, once they get going their Arsaturts, Mournfuls, and Unsleeping units (though slow) seem pretty powerful.

LA Ermor may well be left out of the game entirely. Not sure how the AI handles it.

Just thinking, how much can taking a high growth scale compensate for this domkill for the R'lyeh player? Is a growth scale even needed by these nations? I wonder if there are guides written on LA R'lyeh after the patches and what they recommend for the potential R'lyeh player. Reminds me to have a look.

As for the effects on other players, I know I've been playing alongside R'lyeh for more than 60 turns in my other game and have only had a single commander go insane.

Also, regarding R'lyeh's useful crab hybrids (if aquatic only) they'd not be really usuable against anything other than water nations. Tell me, is there a magic item that allows a commander to bring aquatic only units to the surface? A sort of mass amulet of the fish. I know the ability exists the opposite way, but not sure about the reverse.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

I think the G3 can counteract up to 3 candles I think? There's a post somewhere that tested how many candles G3 can counteract.

There's a guide around that advocates just going for Death 3 turmoil 3 and rely on luck, I have to agree. Though long term play is annoying and you eventually run out of pop / income, I get the impression that shifting to void specter and other summons is a must later in the game. Never played them MP however...

I don't think there's a way to bring crab hybrid out. I think the guide advocates using gold for mages / buildings mostly, and rely on your crazy amount of chaff to buy your mages time for casting (and hopefully get as much as your chaffs killed off too in the process...). I think you don't want gold-bought line troops as you already get too many lesser quality free stuff to do the same job.

My noobie take on it base on SP games.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Do I understand it right that hosting has been postponed because of server problems, heh? If I don't complete my turn now and then stale like Pythium did, I will be very unhappy. If hosting has not been postponed, please, let's change the timer NOW so that it shows correct time.
Or another proposal. If we can't trust server time, let's give it up altogether and post valid hosting time here like it is done in manually hosted game (PashaDawg's games are a good example)

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Finalgenesis
Yes, you will run out of gold very fast, much faster than you expect it. And, as I said, words and guides are good on paper and if you manage to make a good and efficient killing machine of your generated chaff, I'll say "WOW!". Seriously, they're absolute crap, especially for LA where armor is so high. If they manage to do 1hp damage each before they die, that'll be great.
Research really turns the tides for R'lyeh. Alteration spells convert this chaff into decent troops but you won't live long enough to see it in action. Or maybe you will live... With 10 provinces, 5000 pop total and 150 research per turn by turn 30. That makes little difference :)

The difference between Ermor and R'lyeh is that Ermor needs little to no money at all and thus can spam castles and temples, recruit mercs, etc. R'lyeh, OTOH, needs money for EVERYTHING (including the chaff you have to pay for, remember it. And you will be crying when you realize that you have 2000 mad tritons eating 200 gold each turn that you have absolutely no way to use and absolutely no way to get rid of. Well, maybe make them starve, but that's tricky and problematic as well)

Are you serious? With 35% sites (LA standard) and 15 water provinces you'll have about 8S per turn unless you're very lucky (or very unlucky). Void spectre costs 25, IIRC. What are you talking about?

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Ano, what are you raving on about now? :D

The server was freezing up sometime after the last host. Gandalf reset the timer and everything seems to be working fine. This gives ya a little extra time to account for the frozen period. I don't show any stales for last turn in the stats file.

I see that AI Eriu is now dead (main post to be updated). Who has done this terrible thing? I suspect it was the Supplicants. Now I man is looking for a fight, and we challenge you to bring it to them ASAP. ;)

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

I'll tell you. I just want things to be predictable, nothing more.
I just want to know if server time reflects real hosting time and if you will not again change 48 to 8 or smth like that. If this time everything is fine, I'm glad because I'm having terrifically hard days now and thus not much time to play.
Didn't understand this sentence

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

No need to overreact there, I am perfectly aware of my inexperience and limitation of having only tried LA Ry in SP games. Those are some good points and I'm getting the urge to wring out more experienced player's advice on these issues, but I'll refrain in this case.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Sorry, if this sounded rude or something. I didn't want that. It's just still strange for me why so many people still consider LA R'lyeh and uber-power. Perhaps, they never tried playing them in a competitive MP. I'm not talking about you here. It's quite understandable that you read what others write and base some of your opinions on that

And the idea that needs to be learned from my post about Void Spectres is that unless you have serious reasons to think you'll have many gems (clams are a serious reason, for example but this way is also not so easy for the Dreamlands) you should not plan summoning many arguably effective things for 25+ gems. You will be always short on gems and never have enough of them if you play competitively.
LA Ermor can count on its summons because it has a 15D income right off the bat. R'lyeh has 3S. It's easy to compare

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Ano, as far as I can tell the current time is as reliable as it's gonna be unless something else goes wrong or delays are requested. I have not asked Gandalf to correct the time down because of the freeze problem. And so people have some extra time to play around with this turn.

Sorry I meant AI Man.

Speaking of turn time, we are scheduled to go to 56 hours around turn 30. I am considering putting that off till turn 40. Personally I have plenty of time right now and not many provinces to worry about, but that is just me however. I will hear opinions on the subject though.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

I strongly object.
Moreover, I must tell you that karnoza will be going on vacation from July, 10 till 24 or so. So I will have to play for 3 nations during that period (currently I'm controlling C'tis and Ermor as you know). That's a bit much for me, especially considering the complexity and size of the turns.
Even if it wasn't so, still the further the game goes the bigger demand for communications is. Team game normally needs much more time than a regular MP and it is currently very hard for us to do turns inside 48h timer. I'd suggest even further increasing the timer but I will wait with this suggestion until there's a desperate need.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

If there are any objections (and looks like there are) then we will proceed as normal as per the schedule until we reach an agreed upon maximum. I will initiate 56 hours as of turn 31.

I still suggest Ano, you not play more than a single nation if you can help it. The time demands on you will only grow as your province count increases, not to mention skewing the experience level of the team. Though with less players, the communication overhead should be less.

I recommend shedding some of those extra provinces to reduce your workload. Children of Crom will be happy to take over those burdensome provinces from C'tis. Just let us know which provinces you need us to take over in the west. Please raze the temples, but leave the labs intact. Thanks.

Re: Noobs and Vets II: Days of Infamy. MA, BI. In Progress.
 

Hmm, regarding the indy nation for game 3, looks like Atlantis in the middle of that small sea would require a resource bonus as their cap can't gather resources from sea provinces.

R'lyeh is a fun option and can be played with high growth, high order, low dom, for players like Ano who are concerned about freespawn MM, income, or dom effects. Not necessarily the best way to play the nation though.

It should also be possible to mod crab hybrids and slave units to be amphibious. Which would be something of a bonus.

Other option is to go with a strictly land based indy, possibly LA Ermor or whatever else is left.