Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

Sorry guys, I missed by 30 minutes. Damn snow blower... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

Well, we can give people a few minutes to see if they come back.

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

I think we lost WSZaboPeter (Mictlan), I'll come back w/ some frequency over the weekend, I would be happy if we just got in 2-3 turns/day. If we can still schedule a blitz, I'd be up for that and I'm generally free (outside of superbowl time)

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

A new turn is up.

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

Another new turn is up.

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

Deleted.

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

So, was that 3 turns today? Pretty good, I say!

BTW, I am with Frank on the general ugliness output by this map generator. I haven't seen enough of it to judge the quality of gameplay on the maps produced, although I also wonder about the lack of mountains.

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

PB can fix the lack of mountains easily.

As for ugliness, you guys should take a look at the output on his webpage. He can fill them with sprites but that part wasn't working quite right when this map was generated.

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

Waiting on ewierl / Agartha.....

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

I'm a little surprised Agartha hasn't been expanding - is he being attacked by someone? I mean, on a map with this much water, I was actually worried that Agartha would just crush us all.

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

Might be worth PM'ing or emailing him. If he is being attacked, the pattern I often saw in games w/ newbies in a losing war was: stale, stale, quit (which is not to say that I have any reason to expect this of Ewierl). I'd hate to see a double stale on 36h QH, especially this early on.

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

OK, guess we can call that egg on my face http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif Sure enough, minutes after I make my post, Ewierl is there submitting his turn. My bad.

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

Sorry folks, was out last night and woke late this morning http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I am getting attacked, and by a double-bless Tien Chi; those defense-19 Warriors of the Five Elements are tough for my clumsy old ancient ones to hit! it's slowed my expansion, but I'm not getting crushed quite yet http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

No, not nearly so crushed as I expected!! <grrr>

And I can say that I do not have nearly enough of those Warriors of the Five Elements, as everything else I have just melts away in the face of those Ancient Ones.

Re: Semi-random-map test game - STARTED
 

Deleted.

Bug?
 

Maybe it's just me, but is anyone else having a weird bug on this map/game? I haven't encountered it anywhere else.

Sometimes when I hit Esc to leave a window (or maybe hit it one too many times), everything except the map itself disappears. From then on, hitting Esc just switches back and forth between the map and the wood-panel background. The only way to get out of it seems to be force-quitting and reopening Dominions.

Re: Bug?
 

"You call those demons? I'll show you demons."

The forces of Lanka have fallen on their weaker cousins the Yomi in a bloody confrontation which left many slain. Our band of Palankasha are just too much for the lightly armored Yomi, and after cutting through their masses like a buzzsaw, they surrounded the huge Dai Oni and chopped him into 77 pieces.

Yomi flesh is inedible, but the human bandits which serve them are quite tasty when braised in a light wine sauce. We hunger for more (we do so tire of monkey), and know where you keep them. Expect guests for dinner in your home province shortly.

Re: Bug?
 

Your "victory," if such it was, was pyrhic. Not only did you fail to take the province, but you were left with naught more than a half dozen palankasha.

Re: Bug?
 

The aggressive humans of T'ien Ch'i are finally pressing towards the home of the peaceful Agarthans... the rest of the world should beware, if they succeed, they will have all of the side island to themselves to grow and fortify and crush the rest of the world at their leisure!

Re: Bug?
 

Peaceful Agarthans??? The people of Arnbeg province simply begged us to come to their rescue, and we could no longer ignore their piteous pleas for assistance. We are merely civilizing this island (and along the way removing these last few holdouts of cavemen we continue to find here and there), for the purposes of making one grand nation of scholars and academics. We have no notions of "crushing the world", that would disturb the meditations of our elderly Celestial Masters - such things are not even conceivable!

Re: Bug?
 

Do not spread your lies across this world like you have your armies! You could have had half of our island to your peaceful expansion, but instead you chose to storm down my peninsula in search of war.

We hear your chattering armies outside our gates, but we are not beaten yet. You may try to cloak your aggression in evasive little human words, but it will not go unpunished!

Re: Bug?
 

Deleted.

Re: Bug?
 

Ah the nattering of cavemen - does anyone wonder why we took it upon ourselves to civilize this island?

Re: Bug?
 

Gems for sale! Gems for Sale! Gems for Sale!

We are looking for earth gems, and we have surpluses in astral, nature, air, fire and death.

Let us know (via PM) if you are interested in trading on turn 19 or 20

Pan Taewon,
T'ien Ch'i

Re: Bug?
 

Don't do it! With that island all to himself, T'ien Ch'i is a threat to the entire world, and we need to band together against him!

On that note, I have excess air, water, nature and fire, and I would like earth and astral gems.

I will trade fire for earth at 3:2.

On a related note, we are well on the way to restoring Democracy to the poor towntrodden people of Marverni. After a brief period of transition, the Marverni Provisional Government will be able to take over peacekeeping duties within the Special Administrative Zone.

Long live the Republic! Long live Knife Bright Insight!

Re: Bug?
 

Yes, going bare chested against the burning ones, not a recipe for success.

This game seems remarkably fast for my first time.

Re: Bug?
 

This coming from the land of the ever feared Niefel Jarls. The land that tops the charts for Income, Gem Income and Research (and nearly tops it for province count).

You draw your own conclusions...

Re: Bug?
 

An island like this one is a very large place to fortify, grow, and send forth flying and underwater Celestials! T'ien Ch'i, for all his lies of peace, has more capacity to rule the waves than anyone else... save perhaps we poor cave folk, but the charts make our plight clear!

Re: Bug?
 

Anyone wishes to sell some blood slaves, I can and will give gems (1:1 ratio!!!) and/or gold. Thanks a lot in advance.
About the Lanka vs. Yomi war... Well, I would not bet on Lanka's survival.

Re: Bug?
 

Heh, no doubt. That was certainly the fastest I've ever gone from "sitting pretty" to "completely decimated". Immediately after committing all my forces into a struggle with Yomi (after a neat diplomatic feint from Mictlan, and believing that they were more occupied with Abyssia than they were), a massive hoard of savages broke all along our long border screaming for blood. They neatly hamstrung us, cutting off the reinforcements intended to overwhelm the Yomi nation with 2:1 odds. Cleverly destroying several of our smaller armies before they could regroup, a massive Mictlan army is about to storm one castle while the Yomi counterattack (which overwhelmed my now unsupported invading forces) prepares to take another and almost all of our forces have been most heinously slaughtered. Having no chance at this point against either one of the two nations carving up our empire, viceroy AI has been left in charge while I go into hiding in exile.

Good game all, and I look forward to playing again in the future.

Re: Bug?
 

Well, you made the mistake of having multiple small forces spread across your big(ish) territory. If you have had one or two main strike forces I would have considered to go after some easy pray, since you had 3 forts that time. But this way it was a chance that comes only once in a decade.
Thanks a for the game anyway.

Re: Bug?
 

Now looking to trade for nature gems: I have astral, fire, limited quantities of air, limited quantities of death

Gem Brokers, Unlimited
T'ien Ch'i

Re: Bug?
 

Give violent humans nothing! They can still be stopped from owning whole island, if other folks not give them what they need!

They in need because siege force all wiped out when try to storm cave castle. We like fight in darkness!

Re: Bug?
 

Yeah, as I mentioned I thought you were tied up with Abyssia (at least briefly), and I was routing everything I had into Yomi to try and press my advantage to bring that to a quick end so I could quickly swing around to move on you. You were too on the ball for that though. You had about a two turn window before my armies would have been built back up and able to repulse you (or at least stall you while my eastern armies finished up Yomi), and you capitalized on it perfectly. Well done!

Advice for Marverni
 

Other people should feel free to expand.

Firstly, maerverni is not a strong position in the early game, even in experienced hands. Starting out in between two double-bless face-huggers, you were probably screwed no matter what you did.

But and however, you did make some defensive mistakes -
1) Don't split your army against a stronger opponent. Against a weaker opponent, you can split your army, but against a stronger opponent, it enables me to eat you piecemeal. If this means leaving one border completely undefended, this is what you have to do.

2) You want to fight as close to your capital as possible, so that you've had a few extra turns to reinforce. In fact, you want to make me *siege* your capital with your forces in it.

3) Get useful combat magic as soon as possible. Druids with gifts from heaven probably would not have been enough to save you - but it would have caused me horrific losses, especially in the afformentioned castle siege.

If you were heading for Gifts of Heaven as fast as you could and hadn't reached it yet, you probably should have just retreated. I know that's hard to do being attacked from both sides, though.

In general, I think Marverni is a poor choice for novice players, especially in MP, because you're so vulnerable to the rush. It's very powerful in the mid-game (with the ability to recruit druids everywhere. Aiee!) but the marverni national troops are weak even by human standards, even though they have competitive requisites.

Good game and good luck!

Re: Advice for Marverni
 

Thanks for the sound advice.

I've learned that MP is very different from SP.

It didn't help that my first battle against the independents resulted in 50 out of about 65 casualties. The only guys holding the field were the two commanders. That set me back a bit.

I was still in exploration mode when the south front got attacked. My first battle with the Abysians was both forces unknowingly moving to the same province. The battle was won, but at horrific cost. I was unprepared for that encounter.

I agree though, that I should have pulled everyone to the home castle to at least cause some pain.

BTW, I set Marverni to AI. I have no leaders or money.

Thanks for the game.

Weird bug
 

Okay, that's really odd. And frustrating.

Terrel, read the report from the battle in Tirranea. Then watch the battle, all the way through to the end. My forces actually won the battle, yet the report credits yours with victory in the province. The report's casualty counts appear accurate, but it claims that you held the province while the battle movie shows that you did not do so (and nor was it a double-rout). The strategic map shows a big army there now, as if you hadn't routed at all.

DrPraetorius, is there a turn file you can send in on the bug report thread?

Fighting a losing war can be fun, but the fun seeps out fast when a bug just reverses my successes.

Re: Weird bug
 

Ewierl - are you running 3.04?

I'll put the entire game in a .zip - and post it in the bugrep - you can explain the bug in your reply.

Re: Weird bug
 

No, I'm in 3.06. I've added my commentary in the bugrep thread.

Grumble... trying to decide whether or not this has sapped my enthusiasm enough to hand over to the AI. I'll be going away for the weekend regardless, so if I do keep playing, I'll have to make you all wait from Friday night to about Monday midday (eastern US time) regardless.

Re: Weird bug
 

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been locked out of the forum all day today (totally bizarre - I saw nothing but sql errors when I tried to pull up the web page...) Anyhow, things look pretty much as you describe them on my end, as well. The only thing I can say is that I have several times seen odd things that seemed quite inconsistent in the battle replay before, and usually at the end of the battle (I think I've seen commanders disappearing before without any conceivable cause of death).

Anyhow, I'm not trying to paper this over, or anything like that, but the one possible explanation I can think of is that if there is a limited duration for which the battle can last (and I think there is). If there is such a duration, and you did in fact rout me, but the rout was complete on the exact same turn that the duration limit was up, and their rules are such that ties go to the defender, then that might explain all the displays that we both saw.

Regardless of the explanation of this bug/inconsistency, I would say you're putting up an extraordinary fight Ewierl, and through all the mistakes I've made, I've gotta say that I'm really enjoying this war. Hope this bug doesn't leave too much of a sour taste in your mouth!

Re: Weird bug
 

I've seen that time limit hit in vast SP games (usually in SC-vs-army fights), and you get a "X's armies have routed" message for both sides. Besides, it wouldn't explain why your armies didn't move out of the province in either case; a double-rout would've left the province empty, not in your hands!

(And yes, the forum was down for quite a while on Thursday.)

It has been a good war! That's why having it upset by weird game mechanic issues is so frustrating, it's been such a beautiful nonstop skin-of-teeth scrape. I suppose I will stick around, but then you all will have to wait for me over the weekend!

Re: Weird bug
 

Terrel, DrPraetorious, can you go chime in on the bug thread? It seems like it might matter which OS's each of us are running.

Re: Weird bug
 

This means I have to admit hosting the game under windows?

Re: Weird bug
 

I have to restart my machine.

I'll take another turn in the morning.

Re: Weird bug
 

Bugs aside, I'm going to head off for the weekend later tonight. After then, I won't be playing again until probably Monday afternoon.

Will the game wait for me, or will a turn go stale? This will affect my choices this turn...

Re: Weird bug
 

And I'm going to be gone myself soon after (from the 13th - 15th), I'd vote for waiting, but of course I'm biased

BTW, I no longer live in isolated security - Niefelheim has begun his invasion of TC territory. Looks like the Agarthan quagmire has left me vulnerable to Niefel http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Weird bug
 

As I just posted you within the game...

The only chance to hold back the giants from the world is to let me recruit my 30-melee-damage seal guards again! My mages and troops are ideally set to fight the Niefel giants... but to do so, you'll have to let me use them!

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Weird bug
 

No-one will stale, I will turn off the host interval tomorrow morning.

Re: Weird bug
 

Hmmm, and all I have to do is allow you to move straight through my territory so you can move forthwith to confront said nasty, evil giants right? Such a deal!

Well, sad to say I have yet to inflict a single casualty upon the Niefelscum, but given what I've seen of your cavemen, I have even less confidence in the chance of their even so much as landing a blow upon these giants! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Weird bug
 

Our demands:
1) Abyssia should stop interfering with the internal affairs of Marverni, so that we may restore a legitimate democratic government and then withdraw (a timetable for such withdrawl would only embolden the bare chested anarchists.)

2) The vile eunuchs of T'ien Ch'i have overthrown the legitimate Emperor and installed a false and despicable God in his place. Their usual crimes: pederasty, incontinence, sophistry, we need not go into the details, are bad enough. However, the imposition of a false emperor is intolerable to freedom loving giants such as ourselves, and we call upon all the people of T'ien Ch'i to aid us in restoring the rightful Emperor to the jade throne.

Your friend,
Knife Bright Insight,
Iron Lord of the Jotuns