Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Not until we fill up + Patch comes out or the 11th. Which ever is sooner.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Ah.. I was sure I wouldn't join, because it's way too big... but it's so tempting since it's a rare event.

The blood hunters will be in 50 different provinces, so you need domes and armies in 50 places rather than just a few. In theory population destruction works too.

Gem generating items will be important. Either mod away/ban all or none... game might be fun either way.

40 is default for middle era. Is that considered low?

You are right in that quite a lot of nations will be wiped out early by bless nations. But I dont think banning dual-9 blesses will change that, and those aren't a no-brainer choice for anyone except mictlan in a game this size.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Don't forget that since clams are items they can be yanked out of the castle in question and redistributed before any assassination attempts occur, even if you were able to kill a patrolling army deep in enemy territory. So now we're talking about a large force and/or several SC's teleporting/Astral travelling into a province (since you can bet that it'll be patrolled by stuff that'll kill a single SC off easily) and then spamming remote attack spells at every location that's likely to have a lab and a couple of commanders in it.

Oh, just remembered, all those domes prevent travel spells, don't they? Well, now we're talking about teleporting in next to the target province and then attacking it the next turn after showing the defender the composition and capabilities of your army from taking out the PD. Maybe you could put scouts there and then outfit your SCs with stealthed-in items for surprise. Good luck with that.

There is no effective counter to clams. Guarding 5-10 forgers from Corruption horrors to get them into play isn't that hard, and once the clams are made they're nigh-impossible to get rid of short of the complete destruction of the owning nation. They don't show up in the income graph, and they're maintenance-free. Leaving them in the game is going to be akin to making them like recruiting troops. There might be some other stuff you can do with your gold besides buying troops, but you kind of have to do it to some degree.

Flames from the sky has about a 5% chance of getting through a quadruple-domed province, and costs 35 gems per cast, so that's about 20 castings, on average, or 700 fire gems. It will hit half of the units, and kill most of them if they're in the realm of 10 HP, so that means your attacker has to expect that there are about 1500 gems' worth of clams in a province to make it cost-effective to spam Flames, which works out to about 1 castle/quadruple dome/patrolling army per 50 clams to be on the safe side of the cost-effectiveness curve. Even with some liches crawling around to spam Drain Life on any teleporting SC that might come calling that's not a particularly heavy infrastructure investment to keep your clams safe. Add in the obvious problem of actually figuring out where the clams ARE and the advantage for the defender in this situation is pretty insurmountable.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I think making a mod that makes clams work like fever fetishes would be a comprimise.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

FAJ, that was going to be my suggestion, kindof. I think modding the clams to have higher costs and higher path requirements would be fair. Or take them out all together.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

It varies a lot from nation to nation.

I don't think any of this twiddling is needed. By the time a game of this size really gets into the late stages, every player will have hosts of independents. Everyone will be clam-hordeing, people will be bootsrapping into a bloodeconomy, empowering mages of the iron order to make bloodstones, all kinds of crazy crap.

If you have nature on your God there will be entire stacks of units, choking and near death, with sacred shrouds and fever fetishes built off of enchantresses.

GOOD.

A game like this should be all about the crazy. I want 128-member communions. I want them to fight a force of 80 mindless golem super-combatants (your master enslave is useless!) The only reason to even keep playing a game like this into the late stages is too enjoy watching the absolute insanity unfold.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I think that when the game does start, when we post in here, we should put the name of our nation and it's age at the beginning of our posts to make things easier for everyone.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I completely agree.

Jazzepi

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

As far as this game being too big.. If 60 people join then it wont be. Whats that map? 1000 provinces? 1500? If its 1000 provinces then we are only looking at 16 provinces per nation. If its 1500 (the maximum allowed) then its 25 provinces per nation. Its not quite the games of wide-open wilderness that allows for massive changes of strategy such as I like to play.

And whether or not this type of game will make certain things too powerful or not is something Im interested in seeing. The devs might also.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

The map is 1000 provinces so 16.6 provinces per player.

Gandalf - there will be lots of wide open wilderness... it will just probably belong to someone else http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. You should join just to shock everyone... If you win I swear I'll never make fun of your posts ever again http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Maybe we can rope a Dev into playing... How about it Kris? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Joining Ive done, winning Ive done. I dont really see an advantage to doing either as Gandalf Parker. I think the same would be true of devs or staff. You probably wont know if any are in your games Im afraid.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I would like to play.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Suuuuuure Gandalf.... sure.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Edit: Just Kidding!

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I would like to join the crowd. My choices by mail. Cheers.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Count me in, a PM is on the way with my choices and votes.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I'm in.

Although I have submitted my choices and votes, I will say here that I support the effort to ban Arcane Nexus as it would simply break a large game such as this. I don't support banning anything else (although it may make sense to mod the clams so that they are more expensive).

I look forward to the crazy end game in 2010. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I'll publish the initial results of the voting once we hit 30 people (2 more to go!).

P.S. If you signed up and you don't see your name on the list it's because I haven't gotten your password.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

If someone has multiple domes in a province and a bunch of clams and a bunch of commanders and an army big enough to catch assasins....who cares? He's just invested a crapload of gems, money, and hero time on focusing his power into a laser point. It'll take so much of his resources to pull this off that he'll most likely lose his current war. It'll take dozens of turns before he breaks even on the gem expenditures, much less turn a profit.


----------------------
As for other people's ideas of things they want to mod out, I have this to say:

Some nations have troops that are objectively better in every category than other people's troops of the same cost, so we should mod out different kinds of troops. Heck, if you get lucky and find good gem sites, you get a huge advantage over your enemies, so we should play on a map with no sites. Oh, and some people are placed in more strategic positions with chokepoints and terrain that slows movement, so we should eliminate all terrain and make sure each province is like a square with four entry points. Last thing, we should mod out the spells in the game because some nations get better spells, since we all know that some types of magic (I'm looking at you Air) are worse than others in the early game.

Maybe we should just play a nice game of chess?

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I would like to give it go.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I'd be happy to join in too.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Count me in too !

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

This is almost as exciting as the Council of Wyrms. I hope it gets off the ground running. (I'm in, by the way)

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

We we are already over half way full!

Here are the initial vote talleys. I think some people were waiting to see the initial results before committing...

Should we ban Utterdark? 8 Yes, 16 No
Should we ban Arcane Nexus? 21 Yes, 6 No
What should the research speed be? 10 Difficult, 15 Very Difficult
What age should the indys be? 7 Early, 9 Middle, 1 Late

So basically unless there is a huge change Arcane Nexus will be banned and Utterdark will not. I'm still hoping that the "difficult" will over take the "very Difficult" research speed, but we shall see. Looks like the Era will be Early or Middle for sure (though its a toss up).

Also we will of course be using the new patch. Feel free to revise your lists since there are two new nations available.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Im pretty sure I've played against/with Gandalf. Back in the Dom II days. The name kinda sticks with you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

vote for hard research.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I will play as well.

I vote for difficult research, and against Arcane Nexus, burden of time, and utter dark.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Need that password before you get on the list http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. Plus your email if you want email notifications.

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

We are getting close to being 2/3rds of the way full!

The following people expressed interest but I haven't gotten thier passwords/selections so they aren't on the list yet. There is no hurry to send me the info, I just wanted to remind ya'll.

Lolomo
Xietor
Amhazair

I'm missing passwords from the following people, though I have everything else:

StrictlyRockers

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I would like to play, will email password

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I'd like to sign up. I haven't played MP since DOM2, and have to admit I miss it. I'll send you an email with my info and votes tonite.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Be looking forward to it!

P.S. Like those storms the last few days? <<< *lives in Valley Ranch*

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Ack! Storms!! I live in Arkansas and we always seem to get Texas' crappy weather. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Hey all that crap starts out in Cali... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

lol Damn El Nino!!

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Ahem. Nothing but sunny skies all year round here, thank you very much.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I don't like difficult research as it benefits Bless Nations.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Regular research in a game that is likely to last a couple hundred turns would make Bless strategies worthless. Besides, it would be nice if everyone had not already completed research in all paths midway through the game.

I am rooting for very difficult research. That way players will have to make strategic decisions about which pathways they want to research. If you don't employ very difficult research in a game as large as this one, when would you employ it?

Re: Perpetuality - The 60 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Updated!

There are only 18 spots left - it would be fantastic if we could actually fill up!

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I totally agree - which is why "normal" research isn't an option.

The downside is that with VD heavy magic nations will be at a distinct disadvantage for many, many turns. After much thought I think 60 for the first research level rather than 100 sounds like a more reasonable compromise. 100 just seems awfully harsh.

As to your question "when would you?" I think a game with a higher provinces per player would probably be more appropriate - something like 25/30 provinces per player rather than 16 per player.

So I'm rooting for just Difficult - but, this is sort of a test game, so I don't mind trying it with the VD if that is the vote count. Either way should be interesting.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

The VD is going to make many nations completly non-viable IMO. Various caster centered nations are for sure and for certain going to have to defend themselves against uber bless rushes for many turns until they get the magic to defend themselves and i predict it will be a 40 player game by turn25. Five hundred research to level three if i have it right.

How much time will we have between when the settings are set and the pick list is due?

BTW, the nation pick procedure is very cool, it's like a little game of it's own.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Current Vote Tally:

Should we ban Utterdark? 10 Yes, 25 No
Should we ban Arcane Nexus? 31 Yes, 8 No
What should the research speed be? 19 Difficult, 18 Very Difficult
What age should the indys be? 9 Early, 17 Middle, 2 Late

So it's pretty much a forgone conclusion that AN will be banned and UD will not. It also appears that the age fighting in will be Middle.

It's still a complete toss up in the research area though. Had a lot of "difficults" come in yesterday/today.

Also - looking at the submitted nation selections it would appear that provided you sent me 4 choices, chances are you will get one of those, provided you didn't pick the most popular ones. Of course, as we get more players the chances of that decrease. If we fill up quite a bit of people who didn't provide 8 or more preferences will be stuck with random assignments in the lowest seed.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Im not a modder, but it would be cool if it was possible to have different research dif at different magic levels. Perhaps "normal" reserch for level 1-3, difficult for 4-6 and v.difficult at 7-9. This way the magic nations would be able to reach some magic to counter the bless nations, and it would still take a long time to finish all research.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

oh any hint what the top 5 picks are ?? would be funny to know what nations people like/consider strong.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Probably exactly what you think would be popular! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Actually, once assignments are done would people like to see everyone's picks and how they were assigned? I'm going to use random numbers from random.org, but I'd be happy to break down the process for clarities sake once completed.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

A stab in the dark for the 5 most picked nations are : EA niefel, EA helheim, EA lanka, LA ermor and LA R'lyeh. Was I even close ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Also - there has been some questions on the seeding process.

Namely: "So if get my forth pick on my list then I'm automatically going to get %20 extra pop on my capital?"

No. Or at least - not necessarily. How it works:

After the first seed I look at the remaining players and *discard* all nations from preferences that have already been assigned in the first seed. So... for example:

Player A choices:
Vanheim MA
Niefelhiem EA
Pythium
MA Marignon

Player B choices
Neifelhiem EA
MA Ermor
MA Miclan
MA Oceania

Player C choices:
Pythium
EA Abysia
Tir na n'Og

Player D Choices:
MA Vanheim
MA Caelum

Player E Choices:
(none)

Would resolve like such:

Seed 1
Player B auto gets Nifelheim (no conflict)
Player C auto gets Pythium (no conflict)
Player A vs. Player D - Player D wins the random roll off and gets MA Vanheim

Seed 2
Player A auto gets MA Marignon (no conflict)

Seed 3
Player E gets a random assignment.

Now this is going to much more complicated with 62 players - but keep in mind if you pick the most popular choices, even if your list is long you still probably won't get into a low seed.

I would be surprised if lowest seed is higher than 6.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Would be interesting...perhaps the most definitive indication of what players really think are the most powerful nations.

I went for 2 in that list in my choices and give serious consideration to the other 3.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Not true, a lot of players pick nations they are comfortable with and like (cool theme, fun to play etc) not just nations they consider powerful. In my case i consider 1 of my picks strong, 3 above average and one average in strenght for example.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

I think the listing would tell you more about players - like who plays to win vs. who plays with nations they thematically like.

We all play for fun though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Most people are somewhere in the middle I would guess. Like Meglo they threw in a couple well known heavy hitters, but have a few soft spots for favorites. There are probably about 10 nations that are VERY popular - so getting those will be tough. It's good to throw in another average/sub-average nation you just enjoy playing in case you don't get those.

And of course there is a small but not insignificant number of players that choose the "Random" route.

Re: Perpetuality - The 62 Player MegaGame (Signup)
 

Yes, rule no.1 never pick a nation you do not like playing, so no Helheim or Vanheim for me!