Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Yes remote admining is on todays "worklist" along with something to avoid double-hosting :)

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

You know, I've always wondered how some players can join and play in 3, 4, 5 or 6 games at once or even more. Frankly for me a personal limit of two is about all I can handle, especially if one of them is a team game, and still have time for real life things. I suppose veterans can execute turns quicker and some people have more free time, and it means faster experience gaining, but I've always wonder it twas such a good thing for the community as a whole.

Sometimes what happens is that inevitably life gets in the way and some of them end of going away, leaving 4 or 5 games requiring subs. Just my opinion, I myself and very detail oriented and micromangement inclined, like some of the other players in this game, so for me two is about all I can do. Just a strange thought that popped into my head from a confirmed noob skilled player.

Umm, Gandalf will be working on getting me some direct control of the server, any other comments, objections to just using the most recent .trn in your inbox and moving on?

Edit:

Very well, no other comments, Onward we go! Onward and forward! Time marches on and no man can change it. It is do or die time.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

lol.. um .. sept... Until this very moment I havent even seen my turn...

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

OK - What now?

I've just looked at my turn(s)...

Shrug it off and move forward(my choice), or roll back? If we roll back 2 turns, Lanka might be able to get back the 200g he sent me! :confused:

sorry SS, didn't see your edit - for'rd then

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

I wouldn't be terribly bothered by a one turn rollback, but like you sept, I don't know that we really need one.

Having played with you in the past, I am well aware of your limited availability ;) I think that to avoid delay issues as much as possible in the future we should probably just send extension requests directly to gandalf. Since we are granting delay requests when asked for anyway, I think we can probably live with skipping the middleman. Unless you have any objection to this.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

well I think its a good idea.. but my last delay request I *did* send to gandlaf directly I don't think he got it either...

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

It's very nice that delay policy is liberal, but how many consecutive turns have you requested a rollback? Also, there's no way we can accept that people haven't seen their turns who staled.

So we can rollback the turn where *everyone* staled (which isn't really a rollback, to my mind), but past that? C'mon.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

56 hours extended to 80 with a request to extend it to 92? Yeah I got that. :)
If it was changed to forward it to me with instructions to agree to each one I think it would be easier to turn force hosting off and just process requests to host.

Hmmm... I wonder if anyone has ever created a game on LLama and posted the admin password to the thread? Someone should try that.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Oh whatever, game on. I'm going to assume there's going to be no rollback. It would have been nice to have the extra 24h. My turn was a mess and caused problems for my team, but we'll live, I think. But its done.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

I'm not asking for a rollback more than one turn. I do expect we will roll it back one turn.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

We are moving forward! Onward! Upward! I say. We can and we shall live with the results of the double host. It really is not a big deal. Now lets get our turns in and concentrate on future actions. Current turn = 37. There is blood to be spilled and a victor to be declared. Let us look forward rather than back. :up: And for those of you who don't quite know what to do with your extra gold, you may send it to me, care of Fomoria. I will know how best to use it. :) If anyone needs a replacement turn 37 (the last .trn in your inbox) or is unsure of something, ask Gandalf or myself and it will be sent to you.

With regard to cutting the middleman out (me) well that sort of weakens my over all control of things and can result in a nightmarishly confusing situation where every player in the game sends a delay request to Gandalf, resulting in the need for clarification from Gandalf on the total delay or else in turns running on forever. We need to balance liberality of delays with the need to actually keep the game from getting mired in endless delays and rollbacks. As admin that is generally my job.

Gandalf is working on a system to get me direct control so this may be a moot question. Failing that, yes, we could work out something where the delay request comes directly to Gandalf from say the Captain's only. But as I say, it will probably not be neccessary, I am online enough that if I have direct control of the server I can handle most delays myself without bothering Gandalf.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

I have no problem with just forging on ahead :D

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

No offense people but if I had wanted to run another game I would start a thread and run a game. A long time ago I got out of that. I much prefer to host other peoples games.

At any time I have from 20 to 60 Dom3 games running on my server. Presently 4 of those are larger multiplayer games like this one. Besides that the server also does webhosting, email accounts, personal logins, and two online worlds. All of which I take a personal hand in. And all of that is besides my #1 job which has total unconditional control over my time 24 hours a day.

I am the server running Septimius game the way he wants it.
I am also willing to run your games the way you want.
http://www.dom3minions.com/HostingGames.htm
In fact, I hope some of you decide to run your own game. *evil grin*

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Hurray for Gandalf! I now have direct server control via e-mail and can implement delays and force host myself. So no need to bug him. Let us give him thanks in the above post. He is working on other commands/controls for this and or future games.

And now I perceive that is time for another installment of the Thread Bumper Interview series:

"Recently, I had a chance to sit down with the legendary DrPraetorious, veteran Captain of the mighty Deva's Darlings. The Dr. was kind enough to take some time from his busy killing spree to answer a few questions for us."

"Q: Doctor, the Deva's are clearly a powerful team with strong nations helmed by experienced and skillful players. Perhaps because of this, and for other reasons, there are some including your arch rivals (ACGHHS), who say that the Deva's are evil and must destroyed at all costs lest they corrupt the world entire. What do you have to say about this? Also, can you tell us what this 'slay-o-matic' thing is?

"A: I'm merely notorious, not legendary. Team ACHOO view us as their primary rivals, so their opinions are hardly unbiased. I say that ACHOO is much closer to a tartarian factory than we are, and need to be killed before they can launch it. That said, neither the Mysterious nor Blessed Ones should do anything that isn't to their own advantage. Everyone still has a chance to win. But hitting the most immediate threat (us) so that the long term threat (team ACHOO) can build Tarts without being challenged is exactly the wrong way to do things. Easy-slay(TM) is a whole new way of marketing violence. It cuts down on all the red tape and just butchers people. As a long-time savagery enthusiast myself, I'm very excited about the synergies that the easy-slay(TM) approach brings to the entire enterprise."

"Q: Have you found the position of team Captain difficult or challenging in any way? And if so how?"

"A: It's more work, certainly. The players on my team have really risen to the occasion, they're playing very well with excellent flexibility and teamwork. If we're doing well, the credit goes to them. If you've got a good team, being a captain isn't that hard, really, although you have to play well enough yourself to be taken seriously. I think I'm playing better this game than I usually do, with that extra motivation."

"Q: On a scale of 1-10, (10 being most likely) how likely do you rate your team's chances at winning?"

"A: 10! Seriously? Less than 50%, but more than 25%. 4? It's hard enough to predict the future, harder still when your prediction might change the outcome."

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Thanks gandalf =)
When do you put it on the server page = ).

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

I've actually run several of my own games, so I know what kind of headache they can be. :)

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Pyg, now I know what Cacrolinaas is. :) At the time I thought perhaps you had gotten into the moonshine on that small farm of yours.

If anyone needs me to update the opening post to more accurately reflect your team's current roster of active and alternate players just let me know.

Team update:

The Mysterios have decided that we will fight on to the finish, until we are victorious or are the only team still standing, or else we are defeated.

Game update:

3 hours till host, 5 turns still outstanding:

Arcoscephale
Caelum
Helheim
Mictlan
Tienchi

Strangely no requests for delays have been received yet.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Well, not knowing whether these 5 stales are purposeful or not, to give people some more time, and to test out the new e-mail control (yipee) I am going to extend the current turn by 10 hours just in case.

Edit: Done, hmmm, though should say +12 hours till hosting rather than -10, hmm, somewhat odd results. Maybe I should revoke my thanks from the previous post. :) Anyway, Gandalf has been informed of the delay and the display thing.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

I just checked the site where all the info is and it says 12 hours. This morning at 7 Am CST USA (five hours and fifteen minutes ago it more than ample time for me too get a turn in....

Then I get a message from Chris that I had 3 hours to get a turn in at approx noon my time.

So I ask...How long do we have from turn to turn in hours and minutes. I don't want an approximate or an about... I want an exact amount of time from the time the turn is sent out to when its supposed to be sent in. All these problems about stales and different amounts of time is making this a royal pain.

I have a business to run and don't sit around a computer all day.

I am also in 3 other games and don't seem to have problems getting those turns in.

If you think I am Bi******, you are absolutely correct.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Sorry Grudge, me and Chris are on EST, so sometimes I forget that everyone is not in the same time zone. Like in the above post I said 3 hours till host, I should have said 3 hours EST or 6 hours PST. PST is more accurate as it is the actual server time. Same thing applies with Llamaserver (except the server time is GMT not PST). But in any event it was getting rather close so I gave everyone an extra 10 hours just in case, though I'm sure you'll probably not need to use it all.

The current hosting interval is 56 hours/0 minutes.

At turn 41, depending upon your vote, this will either change to 48, 56, or 64 hours.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Er, no.

The number of hours until hosting does not change with time zone.
Only the time of hosting changes...

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Thank you...that is all I needed.:up:

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Chris is correct in the absolute sense. The hosting interval does not change. Everyone keep in mind that current hosting interval is 56 hours and all hosting intervals are measured from server's time zone. So it may effectively seem as though some people have more time and some have less. That is what I was trying to get at.

Edit:

For example: At the location of the server hosting may occur at 3 PM Monday PST, if you were in EST, the hosting would appear to occur later in the day at 6 PM EST (so it seems as though people in EST have 3 hours longer than those people in PST). It is Monday for everybody across these time zones, but it appears that you have longer to get it done (I.e you've had the whole day and now tis past sunset).

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

"If a Rudra wore four wristwatches, would it have too much time on its hands?"

- SlipperyJim (Stacking Luck thread)

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

the game hosted again????
how is this possible when van, hel, and TC all staled?

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

How is it possible that we staled? I thought I sent my turn in. This server really needs turn reminders.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

I'm pretty sure this morning Vanheim's turn was in. Only Helheim & TC on my team were missing.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Well, here are my guesses:

1. I'm guessing the nations that staled submitted the wrong turn. I've tried to recommend that the turns be verified that they are for the correct turn before they are accepted.

2. I'm guessing either sept advanced the timer the wrong way (doh) or gandalf is still counting turns received, which you cannot do.

GP: whats the matter with doing a simple

Set processTurn = True

if not exist nation1.2h then PT=False else ProcessTurn
if not exist nation2.2h then PT=False else ProcessTurn
If not exist nationn.2h then PT=False else ProcessTurn

If Countdown to host = 0 or ProcessTurn=True then KickOffHost.Script


Also, in terms of the game: I'm glad to hear from algae and some of the blesseds, and to see Lanka got a turn in.

Can we get a list of who isn't getting played?

And before its asked, yes team Ax supports a rollback. Two of our members got incomplete turns in, so we'd like it for everyone - but we can live if its only staling members.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Vanheim was showing the whole time as being "wrong turn"
We had 2 matched serials.
And 3 nations did not submit a 2h
../NaV/early_helheim.2h: No such file or directory
../NaV/early_tienchi.2h: No such file or directory
../NaV/early_caelum.2h: No such file or directory

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

I'm pretty sure that vanheim was not displayed as a wrong turn.
I'm not 100% sure - but I was watching pretty closely as Grudge and I were trying to get a turn in for arco.


But the question is Gandalf - I know that it showed 10 hours or so to host. How did it come to host with three nations unsent in?

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Vanheim was definitely a wrong turn. I watched it display that over and over. I got sent notices over and over.

I dont know why it processed. But I now have logging to keep track of all changes to the timers so I will have a better idea next time. Possibly an overlap in the file editing trying to add admin functions.

Do the players who did not have a file in want to turn one in?

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Hey sept. What was that fomorian king doing cloud trapezing onto one of your allies provinces...?

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Chris, how dumb do you suppose me to be? Come now, lets remain constructive and avoid finger pointing. I put 10 hours on the clock without anyone asking for a delay as a favor to those 5 nations who appeared to not have submitted .2h files as of the 3 hour mark.

I followed Gandalf's instructions to the letter and did comment about the pecularities I saw after this (and no I did not advance the timer the wrong way), which Gandalf appeared to have corrected. Why the turn hosted after that, only Gandalf can tell us for certain. It certainly was not my fault.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

At this point I believe the game to be winding down and a victor will emerge shortly if they've not already. I am inclined to just say lets keep going on and finish this thing (server issues aside). If the players desire another rollback, no problem we can do that as well and it would certainly be warranted if the server malfunctioned again in some way. Have these issues been severe enough to render a victory decision one way or another invalid or to necessitate the declaration of a draw at this stage? I personally don't believe so. I think teams have accomplished what they've accomplished based mostly on their own accomplishments and I think people probably know whether or not that team has a good shot at winning in the long run. But that is only my opinion.

That is where we stand at this juncture. The floor is open for suggestions and opinions to the contrary.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

It was server error (well admin error). It seems to have hosted on the initial 56 hours even though another timer was set for the extension. Quite possibly trying to add that as an admin option put multiple timers in place but thats fixed now (the extension routine now clears all timers, and logs all timer changes).

Whether it warrants a rollback I dont know. The players who didnt send in turns dont seem likely to send them in if we roll back either. The players affected by wrong turn or serial matches would have a chance to fix those altho if it hadnt hosted at 56 I dont see that would have changed anything for them.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Ok, I've completed an analysis of the score graphs as follows as of turn 38:

Provinces:
ACGHHS 72, Devas 94*

Forts:
ACGHHS 23*, Devas 17

Gold Income:
ACGHHS 6226, Devas 6459*

Gem Income:
ACGHHS 163, Devas 252*

Research:
ACGHHS 24192*, Devas 18515

Dominion:
ACGHHS 782, Devas 883*

Army Size:
ACGHHS 2515*, Devas 2492

Verdict: Deva's lead in 4 of the 7 categories, have a lot more provinces and the lead in the army size by ACGHHS is really quite small. While ACGHHS has a good research lead, the Devas are closing the gap. Both teams still have an equal shot to win, but I see the Devas in the lead at this point in the game.

Commentary?

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

If ACGHHS doesnt already have a specific goal in the research they might take their their research notes to the Oracles at IRC for enlightenment (along with a sacrificial newbie of course)

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Its the province count thats killing us.
and the gem count is both better and worse probably than your statistics account for. After accounting for globals, its something like 193:275.

And this is of course exacerbated by ulm's forge bonus.

I'm actually very happy with how our team is performing, and in a normal game we'd be either first or a close second. But, this is shaping up pretty much as expected. The only hope to beat hinnom is ganging up on him something like a 2:1.

And, in a team game maybe the best you can do is a 3:2. Im not opposed to hinnom being in games - but the problem that the choice mechanism weighted hinnom the same as any other good nation (formoria, neifle, Sauro etc).

Perhaps in the next installment we can use a point bidding system.

Each team gets 10 points. They can freely bid for nations.
They get however many nations they can afford.

So for example, if three teams bid for Hinnom, and the highest bid is 7 points... that leaves them 3 points whether that gets them one more nation - or 3.

this might have set teams up like:

Hinnom .....Sauro....Vanheim
Ulm.........Pan......Helmheim
............Arco.....Formoria



HOWEVER, that being said- I don't in anyway want to quit on this game. The Devas have a 50% advantage in gems and provinces - and they are pressing it against the Blesseds. Can they do it against the whole world? Will they have to ? = )

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

See, I'd rate Niefl as meaner than Hinnom. The only advantage Hinnom has over Niefl is better PD...

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Well, score graphs are a funny thing, in that they tell you an interesting story, but not the whole story. For example, the score graphs tell how the armies of the devas and ACGHHS are very close in size. They say nothing, however, of the fact that the majority of our armies are ulmish women, followed by indies and more or less uninteresting units hired by niefelheim to patrol his cap when it was bombarded with toads. They also say nothing of how ACGHHS has hundreds of jaguar warriors and androphag archers on our borders.

We have the most provinces not because we've been beating team ACGHHS, but because we've been more aggressive in marketing violence to our neighbors, especially the blessed ones. I find the income tally very interesting, personally. Despite having 22 more provinces than team ACGHHS, they have nearly the same income as we do despite the fact that I am currently overtaxing a few provinces, and despite the fact that they have at least one nation on their team that should be fairly into bloodhunting by this point. Clearly they are doing something right here.

I would be similarly cautious before saying too much about our gem income disparity at this point. We JUST put up a global, which is going to skew the numbers about. And as I said already, team ACGHHS has some serious bloodhunting ability on their team. It is not unlikely in the least that they are making 60+ slaves a turn. In fact that would be a ridiculously easy benchmark for them at this stage of the game, and I would suspect a significantly higher slave income. I would also like to point out at this point that we have seen a number of artifacts in their possession and suspect the hammer of the forge lord and the chalice to be among them. While it is true that, as ulm, I am an excellent forging nation, I do quite a bit of forging for my team without using smiths. We've also had a bit of difficulty scraping up earth gems, so we have far fewer dwarven hammers than you would expect us to have by now. The disparity is not as bad as it looks. And need I remind you that sauromatia has had the well of misery up for quite some time....


Now research, that is clearly not in our favor. I am the only member of my team with respectable research at this point. Every single member of team ACGHHS is above every other member of my team in research (though it looks as though caelum may soon overtake pangaea). I would also be willing to wager that team ACGHHS's research has been much more optimal than ours. Between sauromatia and arcosephale, it is obvious that they have at least level 8 in conjuration and construction, and I would be willing to bet mictlan is up there in blood. Can anyone say elemental royalty, artifacts, and unique blood summons? All on the same team? With a very obvious road to late game tartarian dominance? Meanwhile my team chooses to focus on things like evocation ;). Of course I have more than just this, but for the moment I'll leave you to keep guessing.

So, just think about what I've said, and ask yourself. Is the slight edge in raw material wealth that the devas possess, coupled with strong natural raiding potential, decent recruitable SCs and forge bonii sufficient to overcome team ACGHHS' far superior troop line up, artifact possession, significant research advantage, and tartarian spam coupled with access to all of the unique SCs in the game? It is definitely much closer than the score graphs imply.


This has been a public service announcement from the Devas Department of Looking Less Scary and Enabling the Greater Enjoyment of the Easy-Slay brand :D

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Rdonj makes some very strong arguments indeed (thanks for the commentary Rdonj, btw), I just did a quick superficial calculating of scores and presented it, that is all. The two teams are very, very, closely matched. The verdict part of course is just the opinion of an outsider of sorts looking in as to who has the slight edge at this point overall. I suspect (and I hope) that sooner or later one of you, either ACGHHS or The Deva's, will pull out far enough in the score graphs that there will be no question really. We can't all sit around holding hands forever, afterall. No fun in that. :)

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Chris, the problem I have with a point system is that it is subjective. Who decides how many points a given nation is worth?

I still cling (perhaps niavely) to the assumption that the developers believed that every nation, properly helmed, had an equal chance of winning. They also believed Fever Fetishes, etc, were important to that balance. This is part of the reason we are an island of vanilla in a sea of CBM, also the reason I never outlaw any nation.

The concept of course I understand, to prevent a repeat of the Devas deadly duo. I think though a simple rule like not allowing the ranked lists for any team to contain both Hinnom/Gath and Neifel would be enough. The first choice priviledge of the Captains, is another check on this (when used correctly) and combined with the the focus on team themes (Death, Blood, Astral) should prevent at least some of the other conflicts that can arise in the nation selection process. So I am not worried.

Game Note:

DrPraetorious has requested a 24 hour delay, which I am graciously posting for him to this thread for the benefit of all. :)

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Sept, the developers not only failed to balance the game, they weren't trying to. Anyone who has even looked at MA Man or EA Agartha would be painfully aware of that fact.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Yeah, nations aren't really balanced. There are just some nations that do better than others, most of the time. Of course, all nations have weaknesses. Some of them just have more weaknesses than others.

Lanka, mictlan, and niefelheim were all very solid and top level nation choices by the various captains. Vanheim isn't really near the same general power level as those three, though it is still a fairly potent nation. Hinnom is certainly a top level ea nation as well, but I wouldn't hesitate to put sauromatia in the same category either. So certainly, I would admit that my team and team ACGHHS are a bit stacked given that we both possess two top tier ea nations.

Anyway, I agree with you, a rule to just prevent two top level picks in any one team should probably be sufficient for further iterations of the series.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

You're just itching to start the next game. After all, this one has already gone on longer than any of the NvV games ;). The Devas have been warring with ACGHHS and the blessed ones for a number of turns now. So we are not exactly holding hands. However, so far the battle between the Devas and team ACGHHS has not really involved our best armies. When that happens, we will probably start to see a winner emerge.

Oh: I also wanted to say that so far I don't think the hosting time postponement has gone through. It's at 19 hours atm.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

I think the devs did a fantastic job of balance (but Im probably biased since I was involved in it). Especially since they took the difficult road to it. But the rock-paper-scissors balance for many different types of play is hard to see.

It is however, unarguable that the game is not balanced if you are looking at 1-to-1 balance for MP games on maps of 100-500 provinces which is where most of the comparisons occur (and the reason for a couple of mods)

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Certainly, pretty much every nation is balanced on a big enough map, because gradually all end games begin to look the same. With a long enough time span and sufficient gems available to players, and let's not even talk about clams... a 1500 or so province game would have the last couple of nations alive so closely balanced, I highly doubt anyone would ever win. But yes, in general and for much of the game, it would be very difficult if not impossible to find two evenly matched nations. Any given nation is stronger on some, weaker on others, and those strengths and weaknesses can change (to a point) depending on how a given player plays it. The strong nations are generally strong because they are likely to be able to defeat a larger number of nations than most other nations can. And the opposite of course for nations that are weaker. Of course, some of the "weaker" nations actually become quite strong later on, and their real challenge is surviving a certain stage or two of the game mostly intact. There are only a few nations in the game that are just never really competetive imo. And what do you know, none of them are in this game!



On a more game-related note, I don't know if you're aware of this septimius, but my team is having trouble getting in contact with illuminated one. And the hosting timer STILL does not seem to reflect the amount of time I believe we should have left on the clock at this point given a 24 hour extension. Gandalf, can you please make sure all is well here and take a burden off my worried little mind? I'm a bit worried, I think we may end up having to call in a sub. Keeping my fingers crossed though.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Illum. is not answering querries. I'm worried that his computer is down, and I haven't heard from either of my subs in some time.

I'm pretty sure I can get Frank Trollman to do a few turns; but I may need yet another 24h to get him up to speed. Hopefully not.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

No the timer does not reflect a 24 hour extension.
Ive seen the request, and the explanation, but no response.

But it does show that you still have 12 hours before this should be a problem (unless we get 16 files turned in).

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Running.
 

Yeah, the alternate concept is a good idea, but the actual implementation is a bit difficult. The problem is, I think, that if you go too long into a game before needing the alternates, you're going to lose them due to their doing something else/losing interest. Not sure how to maintain interest in people who aren't even playing the game for several months or more. In our case I think both alternates were also pretty new players and I don't recall seeing either of them having posted at all recently.