Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

That should work, but it'd be cleaner to cluster all the mods to each nation # in the same place.

It shouldn't take long, though.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

All players will have to have a copy of the mod before they can pull down their first file.

I was going to merge the mods also but I was waiting for it to include all 80 slots. Should work for the standard 60 nations though. (well except for Tir na N'og which should be in the game by the time you start)

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

Holy crap. I'd like to be part of this just to say that I was. In any case, I'm guessing there'll be a market for replacements. I'd definitely suggest waiting for the patch, what with some nasty bugs in the current version.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

I would like to play too. It would be great experience.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

This game both fascinates and scares me.

I would suggest some kind of managed nation assignment. It would be a pain to have to read through five pages of forum posts to figure out which nations were taken and which weren't (if you were one of the later sign-ups). And you know people will make honest mistakes and double-claim nations. But if you go first-come, first-serve, I would suggest you open it up on a weekend, so people who can't check the forums while at work have a chance at not being last.

If there is someone out there with too much time on their hands, they could go through all the games currently active on this forum and count up how many different active players we have. I wonder how close that number is to 60.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

There're over 60, I reckon. Hard to know though. Also hard to know what proportion would be up for such a huge game. I'd be scared, although I might be tempted when the time comes.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

I would never play this game with Arcane Nexus in the spell list. In my experience you get around ~200 astral gems in a normal full game. So count 500-600 in a big one like this. You would have enough gems to recast it for 999 in the turn after you cast it.

I can second micah, the global shouldn't be in effect in the turn cast (from manual) but up to date it works in same turn.

Utterdark on the other side isn't a real problem. 90% of the nations are affected and so nobody from them got a real advantage.
The 10% which got some advantages from utterdark will be in trouble very soon. Remember there are dozen of nation which can spend for a dispel.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

I agree that game-balance is less important than getting this game working at all. On the other hand, it's going to be a looooong game and it'd be nice if people felt it was reasonably fair.

How's about this.

Everyone makes six choices in descending order. Players are randomly assigned their first choice until everyone is either assigned (unlikely) or everyone's first-choice is taken.
Then, players are randomly assigned second-choice positions until all the second-choice positions are taken, and so forth.
Finally, players will be assigned to remaining positions at random.

If you get your first choice, you get nothing.
If you're forced to take your second choice, you get an extra scout with richness 4 random magic items.
If you're forced to take your third choice, you ALSO get +50% of your starting army and an extra commander.
If you're forced to take your fourth choice, you get 50,000 people in your capital. Yes, LA Ermor still gets this (you can pillage them for precious money to build forts/temples and soulless, it's actually good.)
If you're forced to take your fifth choice, double your starting army (instead of +50%) and the extra commander also gets richness 4 random magic items, in addition to the scout and population.
If you're stuck with sixth choice or a random nation, also start with a loremaster with a ring of water breathing and your capital has 60,000 people in it.

I'd be willing to administer all this if-need-be - it would only require customization of the map file.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

Yes lets get the first one going before we throw in too many things that can cause problems.

I commented in my big-game thread (which I never started) that Id expect the blitzing crowd will love early game and late game. In mid-game when it gets to be micromanaging they might decide to turn their nation over to a sub. If that nation ends up on the losing curve then at a later date when its gotten small again but has lots of research completed then the MM player might give up on it and the blitzer can get it back for all kinds of new fun.

Of course everyone is abit of blitzer and MM so there will be a variety of drop-off and return levels but I think if the game doesnt crash the server then it will probably continue to completion with many subs swapping in and out. OR a possibility is that the ebb and flow of subs might create a never-ending game where no nation stays on top long enough to be declared a winner. Scarey huh?

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

DrPraetorious,
With those bonuses I would try to get assigned the sixth choice. There's easily 6 nations I am happy playing and the bonuses you are describing are quite big.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

I like it, if you don't think it would be too much of a pain for 60 edits.

Kind of makes you hope you'd get your 5th or 6th choice as long as you can stay away from a random. And if you get your first choice, well hopefully you either put your fav in there or at least something powerful.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

Doesnt a bonus system like that require set starting positions on the map? I think that a 6 nation list of preferences would be enough, and hard enough to manage.

Easier than editing for bonuses would be to just allow all choices even if they conflict and edit the mod.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

hmm, clamming and gem producing items would probably be a HUGE factor in this game.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

Yes, it would require me to randomly determine the start positions before assigning the bonuses.

I've got the scripts set up to do this already, however, so it wouldn't be that difficult to do.

Ter - yeah, those bonuses might be too large. What level of bonuses do you think would be fair?

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

perhaps an increase of 5% pop for each nation choice you passed on.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

If you've never actually been on the recieving end of Utterdark then you arent really in a position to vote on it.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

The real question is, where are you going to scrounge up 60+ players to play this type of game? BTW, I want to play! 59 to go.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

I really doens't think any global will cause any problem. With very hard research you won't see utterdark or AN anytime soon. When it does arrive however we can work together to dispel or kill that nation. And if we don't do anything about it, then we deserve to lose.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

DrPraetorious,

Not sure, but those seem quite high. I'm not sure I see the need for any bonuses, but if they are deemed necessary something more like Evilhomer would be IMO better.

Utterdark will cause huge amounts of desertions, prevent most recruitment, and all battles are fought under Darkness. That doesn't mean I think it should be banned from the game though.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

I obviously disagree http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I've only been hit with it once, and didn't remember didn't check if it hit gems because it got dispelled the next turn.

Its not a matter of how nasty a spell is, its whether or not there are realistic ways of countering it. Even if gem income were reduced to 90% it could still be dispelled.

You can counter AN as well, but as mentioned before it has the chance of enabling a 999 cast, repeatedly.

very simple, get the 60 and vote it.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

Actually it gets simpler than that. To quote a couple of bits from the first post of this thread......

But of course it never works to say "no discussion" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

Btw, the map you chose looks awesome. It looks like the generator even put a choke point island towards the middle. Great map.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

Velusion, could you bounce me the .map file? I want to try placing start sites on it in any case.

We need 53+ land and 7+ sea, correct?

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

It takes forever for me to finish a map.

I literally spend days just generating maps until I find ones that look cool. Then I go in an photoshop it up (usually add few straits) then edit it so all the water and land provinces that looks like they should be connected are. Then I go though and flag all the land provinces that only border 3 or less other land provinces and sea provinces that border 2 or less sea provinces as "no start". Then I make sure that all the mountain blocking makes sense, removing a lot of connections that shouldn't be there. This time around I marked some of the Border Mountains as normal Mountains.

Tweaking the map is a long process for me, I hope everyone likes it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

I'll PM yo with a link to get it once I'm finished and with more details.

Re: 60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread
 

Alright I think I know how I want the game to look like now. Thanks to everyone that contributed ideas and helped with the discussion. There is no way to please everyone but hopefully, even if people don’t agree with all the settings, they will manage to have fun!

Soon I’ll start a sign-up thread with details on what exactly it will look like.