Re: What are we waiting for?
 

Someone (you?) didn't use / have the 2.01 version of Zen's pretender mod, which I don't believe was really intended for general release. Then again, 2.1 and 2.2 (the latest) aren't even on Zen's own site, and the Conceptual Balance thread was never updated to have a single place to get the latest versions either.

Everyone should have, and be using when they create the pretenders, the same exact version of the Pretender mod. Then again, the information about the mods y'all are supposed to be using is kinda buried on page ... 4(?) of this thread, so it's not that surprising people didn't all get synchronized.

Since I have no clue about where to direct y'all to get a proper version of 2.01 (again, I'd recommend using Pretenders 2.2), I'm attaching a copy that I hadn't yet bothered to delete from my local Dominions folder.

In case people don't have the other Zen mods they'll need, I've got a post in here with links to the latest versions of Zen's mods.

Edit : Note that if the game has been started, someone may have a zero magic archmage or some such for a pretender, as the "cheat" detection does that when a pretender is submitted whose point cost doesn't match what it thinks it should be. So : everyone may need to send a new pretender if y'all don't want a gimp pretender on one team. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

2.01 is the edited version of 2.0, so those two are equivalent for all relevant purposes. If you picked the wrong one, just copy your 2.0X mod and rename it. 2.01 can be found at Arryn's site, along with 2.2 I guess. Of course, 2.2 does make changes, so that trick of renaming won't work here.

Don't worry though, the Uber Archmage (it does tend to have great physical stats... for an Archmage, that is) only appears if you used more than 500 points; if you used fewer than that, you will simply have lost some points. Most Pretenders should be fine though.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

Okay, I have all the pretenders backed up here, so if ioticus wants to remake a Pretender using the right mod I can restart the game after he re-uploads his Pretender.

I offer this because it isn't fair to ioticus to have a non-Zen-mod Pretender.

However, if ioticus wants to take me up on this offer he should hurry!

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

If he made the pretender under 2.0 and we are using 2.01, then it will work just fine. Of course, I must admit that I don't know exactly which pretender mod we are using. I have been much too busy lately to pay close attention.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

2.01.

I'll move that info up into the first message on the thread.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

Okay, let's get started! I'm guessing that Ioticus's Pretender is fine and doesn't need to be re-uploaded.

:-)

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

I don't have 2.01, I have 2.2. Where do I get 2.01?

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

I re-uploaded my pretender using 2.01. I hope everything is OK now.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

Hubris, you can find it at Zen's dominions page,
http://www.techno-mage.com/~zen/

Find the 2.0 and change its name as suggested just above, to 201 and you should be fine.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

Or grab the copy I attached to my post a few messages back in this thread.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

Arg, I put in my pretender using 2.2 before all this about 2.01, I left it in because I didn't read carefully assumed it meant we were restarting with 2.2. Now it gave me a pretender with 490 points leftover. If you think the game has been delayed too many times already, though, I understand.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

Okay, the fastest way to get going (aside from telling quantum_mechani to live with a worthless Pretender), is for quantum_mechani to create a Pretender with 2.01 and re-upload. I'll reset everyone *else's* Pretender except for his. If ioticus manages to re-upload a new Pretender too then he gets a fresh start too.

So in short:

a) quantum_mechani make a Pretender with 2.01 and re-connect
b) ioticus if you care do the same -- you probably don't care
c) everyone else sit tight

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

Okay I've restarted the server. The game is now named "2x2x2x2x2c". I put everyone's pretender back except for Machaka, Pangaea, and Man. Machaka is ioticus, and either Pangaea or Man is quantum_mechani. After quantum_mechani uploads a pretender to either Pangaea or Man, and I notice that he has done so, then I will put back the original Pretender for whichever one he didn't upload and put back the original Pretender for Machaka (unless ioticus has uploaded a new Pretender for Machaka by then).

Then the game will re-re-start.

I anticipate that this will be a fairly fast-moving, interesting, action-packed game once we get started.

Remember that I do not plan on changing the server schedule for anybody. If you can't make your turn on a 48-hour quickhost schedule then ask you partner to make that turn for you. If neither of you can do it then ask a friend to do it. If you don't have a friend that will do it then as some random Dominions 2 player on this BBS to do it.

Anything is better than asking the other eight players to wait for you.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

quantum is arco btw. My pretender worked fine even though I created him with 2.2.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

In. Thanks for taking the time to restart.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

arg. I accidently started the game. Sorry, machaka was still missing.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

I'll restart it.

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

Okay, the game is re-re-re-started. Everyone should probably check your Pretender. Mine looks good. :-)

Re: What are we waiting for?
 

Only Machaka left to play.

I seem to be in a time warp, having played that exact same turn over and over and over!

I kept hoping to get a better starting spot, but it never happened...

Who is our nemesis?
 

(Bwoo the Great studies the map, trying to infer which starting spot Panther, Prince of Light, Feeder on Impurity, Eater of Filth, Prince of Patience, got, and whether that makes Panther an enemy or a competitor.)

By the way, I observed that Hannibal the mercenary, employed by Arcoscephale, has suddenly gained much experience (but no kills).

Re: Who is our nemesis?
 

Team Hubris is Team E does that mean we have to kill Teams A and D?

Re: Who is our nemesis?
 

Err, yes, it does. Except that I'm not sure which one "E" is on this map. In any case, you definitely have to kill the two teams adjacent to your team.

Re: Who is our nemesis?
 

Um.. a querry, So the teams portrayed in the first post on this forum are not actually the teams who might have to be fighting each other? If so, it all makes sense.

Re: Who is our nemesis?
 

Fixed the first post to be slightly less confusing.

Re: Who is our nemesis?
 

By the way, the automated e-mailing of new turn announcements is working. If you would rather get an e-mail from "The Chronicler of the Ascension War" instead of connecting to the server over and over and checking to see if a new turn is ready, then send me your e-mail address.

please don\'t miss your order this early in the War
 

There are two people who haven't done their turn yet -- Pangaea and Machaka. The timer is down to 9 hours. By the time I wake up tomorrow, the new turn will be ready!

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

Now it's just Pan out, I would do his turn but I never got his password.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

Sorry I am away from home currently and forgot to bring my dom2 cd, I have sent q_m my pass via email, but I guess it´s too late. I will be back home tonight though.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

Okay. Sorry about that. Everyone should probably go ahead and share passwords with their teammates now. Also this enables you to view your teammates turns.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

I did my turn and now I will be out until Wednesday evening. My son can make my turn for me if there is a looming deadline before then.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

Wow -- not only did Arcoscephale hire Hannibal the Elephant Captain, but suddenly this month Arcoscephale's God Peneios of the Four Names leapt into the Hall of Fame!

My scouts have reported that Arcoscephale started in the South-Eastern Purple Province.

Does anyone else know something about this upstart Pretender?

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

When is this next turn due?

And no, I don't know squat about the Arco pretender. I don't even know anything about my own pretender! How did he do? Is he at the top of the HoF now? Or did he die again? I can't even remember if I was attacking an easy province or the hard one!!!

Oh, the horrors of not having a computer to see what is happening!

By the way, my computer did not survive my move last weekend. I think moving 3 times in 9 months was just too much for the old thing. It appears I now have a computer with a non-functioning motherboard...

*Yuck*

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

14 hours

Can Tauren do your turn for you?

I did the turn for my partner, Arc, since he is moving and his computer is still packed away.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

Sorry Panther, I think he died. Its very sad. Must have been a hard province. Now, where are you at? Does the loss of your pretender cripple your forces... hm.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

So, we're down to three hours on the 48 hour quickhost clock. Are you guys going to make your moves, or persuade someone else to do it for you? I already allowed Turin to miss his turn, in keeping with my announced policy of not-stopping-the-clock, so it would be somewhat unfair if I now relented and stopped the clock so that you guys wouldn't miss your turns.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

We may even want to consider restarting this game. I would hate to win or lose because someone's target didn't play the first X turns.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

Panther and Tauren missed their turn.

Yes, I'm open to restarting this game. I had thought that with the team-mate aspect of it that we could be merciless with the clock and people would still be able to make all their turns (or least all of their first ten!).

But things are never so simple, eh?

If Turin, Panther, and Tauren ask for a restart, I'll do it. I'll recreate the ftherland file and reinstall the Pretender files that you guys already uploaded, so that there will be new random Independents and random magic sites and all that, but nobody will need to re-upload Pretenders.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

Well, we need to reconsider timing and stuff. If they're missing their turns now, they're going to miss them tomorrow and the day after as well most likely.

We need some assurances from everyone that they're playing and not going to stale their first turns again, or we need to find new teams.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

One missed turn isn´t a big deal. I vote for continuing. If Panther and tauren both aren´t able to make their turns though in subsequent turns we should restart.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

By the way, Panther is still at the top of the Hall of Fame, with only one death, beating out the upstart Peneios.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

I should hopefully be back up and running this evening. Because my old computer quit working, I bought a new one last night. Also, cable is supposed to be installed this afternoon at my new house, so I should not miss any more turns. I am delaying in all my other games, but those are PBEM and therefore not a problem. It is far easier to stale in TCP/IP, which is why I much prefer the PBEM method. I just don't have the time to always get my turns done on time, especially with my recent massive life changes and all. I do hope my RL settles down soon...

As for Tauren, he started college less than a month ago and has been very busy since then. I know he is behind on some of his other Dominion games. He likely staled because the email notification on this game does not seem to be working properly. I do know that he plans to cut back his Dominions games and was regretting his decision to enter this game because it was TCP/IP based. Until the notification system starts working, you can expect additional stales, as neither of us are used to TCP/IP games anymore.

I will be driving up to my son's school on Friday to visit him. On Saturday in his dorm room, I should be able to make my moves in all my Domionions games (except RAND) on his computer, but no guarantees on this.

I did warn everybody that there was no possible way I could make my moves until today, so no one should be surprised that I staled. I am glad to see that my pretender has only one death and is at the top of the HoF, so I obviously won that tough battle a turn ago. Of course, our team losing a turn to everybody will hurt.

I will let you all know on Sunday evening when I return home if Tauren and I will be able to continue this game or not. It really depends on just how busy he is at school. Heck, I have not even seen a post from him on this forum in weeks, which is highly unusual for him. Perhaps I can find a new partner (I bet Boron would be interested) if Tauren cannot continue.

I sure would appreciate ending the forced hosting from this game, though. I would also appreciate rolling back the latest turn, but I fully understand if no one wants to do that.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

Well, the reason that this game has forced hosting isn't because it is a TCP/IP game, but because I chose to make forced-hosting the policy. Perhaps that was a mistake.

I could certainly change the hosting policy so that we would delay in order to let people catch up.

I guess my first two preferences at this point are:

1. Restart the game (regenerating the fatherland file but keeping the pretenders), changing the policy so that people do not *have* to make their moves within the time limit on pain of losing their turn, or

2. Restart the whole game-setup process, starting with inviting five teams of two to join, and specifying that only players who want to play 48-hour quickhost with no exceptions should join this game.

I prefer option #1. If anybody strongly prefers option #2 (which may mean that Panther and Tauren will drop out), then please post about it here.

I'll give this issue a day or so to settle before I decide.

Re: please don\'t miss your order this early in the
 

My solution to all the problems is PBEM!

what do you like about PBEM?
 

I think that the issue of whether hosting is forced or not is separate from the issue of whether turns are transmitted by TCP or by e-mail.

I can easily restart the server and set it to not force hosting until everyone's turns are in. Also I can (perhaps less easily) fix the damn e-mail notification service.

If I did those two things, then the server would have all of the features that you desire from PBEM, right?

Regards,

Zooko the Host

Re: what do you like about PBEM?
 

Not really. TCP seems to be plagued with problems. PBEM is much more reliable.

Re: what do you like about PBEM?
 

Can you give me another example of a problem, besides the two known problems:

1. We had to re-upload our Pretenders upon restart (a problem now fixed since I have saved the Pretenders this time),
1. Forced-hosting has caused three players to miss their turns already (a problem that will be fixed by turning off forced-hosting), and
2. People are not receiving e-mail notifications of turns (although it worked at least once, it is currently broken).

If you have any other examples of problems in server operation I would like to know what they are in case I can thus fix them.

Re: what do you like about PBEM?
 

PBEM may be more reliable (and I for one agree that it seems to be), but it can be a pain for who-ever is incharge of the server for it.

I'm going on vacation for a week. ioticus, i've already sent you my password (pm - man). Do as you think best =)

Oh, and if everyone decides that starting over makes sense, you'll have to give me a week and a half: ie till next Saturday, to upload a pretender. Sorry =(

Re: what do you like about PBEM?
 

I believe that I can re-start the game without requiring anyone to upload a Pretender, since I made copies of the Pretenders. However, I've never done so before so I don't know if I did it right.

I'm kind of waiting to hear from Panther and Tauren before I decide whether to restart.

Re: what do you like about PBEM?
 

Hey, I did finally manage to get online late yesterday evening. I loaded Dominions on my new computer and even upgraded to V1.6. However, I was unable to find all the proper mods before I had to get some sleep.

One of the mods I was unable to find was pretender 2.01. Cainehill had attached this mod in this thread long ago, but that attachment was blank. I also found it posted by Cherry in the Zen mod thread, but that was a .rar file which I cannot currently read. I would appreciate if someone would attach this mod in a post here. Alternatively, I think that copying Pretender 2.0 as 2.01 works, and I may try that this evening.

As for the game, I have still to hear from my son about what he wants to do, but I will be seeing him tomorrow. If it turns out that he does not have time for this game, I could try to find a new partner.

Re: what do you like about PBEM?
 

copying 2.0 as 2.01 works unless there are changes to your pretender in 2.01 which isn´t likely http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif .