Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Nop, no second email unfortunately http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

And I didn't get the turn either, unfortunately... I'll restart my computer and try again, sometimes that helps, but... (in 30 minutes, I have to run to the store before it closes first http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif )

Next host tomorrow? Sorry if I'm confused, but wasn't hosting changed to every 48h? I'm perfectly fine with 24h too, mind you, just want to make sure how much I have to hurry to play my turn.

Edit: Nop, still nothing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Hadrian send all turns in one email. Maybe your email provider block the email because its just to large?

I could invite you to gmail (google mail account) if you want to join it.

However i'll attach your ulm turn to this post.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Well, if you think it'll help... just tell me what to do http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Ok i've invited you. I hope you get at least this email http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
If not pm me.

Just follow the instructions to create this account, it should be easy. You've almost 3GB folder size for emails and a very good web access.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

I did not change to 48h i just asked that i might do it if someone wants it. My english is not that good, so im sorry if i caused any confusion.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Hah, I got myself the gmail account as Calmon suggested, and now the new turn arrived just fine at both adresses http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Thanks for all your patience, and I think we're set to go now.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Both adresses?? sometimes i suspect pcs to be inhabited by evil little goblins.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Only sometimes? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Well, not that one problem seems to be solved I'll annoy all of you some other way... (I think it's this psychosomething need for attention I have or something http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif )

My sister is getting married on friday, so I'll be out of town - and away from the computer - from tomorrow afternoon till saturday evening.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

No turn today? Or have I just missed it?

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

No, i didn't get anything either.

Edit: I got it now.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

You seem to have send me last turns turn instead of the new one Hadrian. It says it's turn 24 when I log in, but then I get the traditional 'you have already played this turn message', I get a short glimpse of my messages (last turns messages), and then the game crashes. (the nagot gick fell thingie)

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

No i did send the new turn (it is impossible to send the old turn, as the new turn overwrites the old while processing). I will resend you the turn in the naive hope that it will work, but it sounds like a new addition to the bug thread.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Amhazair, try out a new game folder and copy only the .trn file in this folder and start this.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

I feel so stupid... I must have been very tired last night, cause I never once thought to try what 'redo turn from the start' would have as effect.... that worked fine. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I still think weird things went on, but hey, at least I can play again.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

I owe all of you my apologies. I was planning to get back home earlier today and play my turn, but there are several foreign visitors staying here at my sisters place for my wedding, and we've been having such tremendous fun (at the wedding, before the wedding and after the wedding) that I just had to stay a bit longer. (Especially this Swiss girl that's staying here has me quite intrested )I'll be getting home tomorrow evening instead. (wich would be within 24 hours)

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Hey everyone,

I was just considering hosting a new PBEM on Hadrian's altered Faerun map. His changes look sensible, and I've played a number of turns SP, and it still looks good, but before I take the plunge I wanted to ask the experts.

So, is Faerun a reasonable map for MP?

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

So far i could say its fun to play on it. A litte bit too huge maybe. You should try to play with a max set of players.

The starting provinces seems to be a little random. There are players set very next to in very desertlike areas. There should be a center of players around the big farm provinces in western faerun and fewer players in the eastern part which is really wild and population poor.

I found some bugs on the map but don't know who is responsible for it:

for example northern thay (land 307), some good features in this province and very well defended. You need dozens of troops to conquer it. The 4 features should worth all the work.
But because someone forgot to set a #killfeatures before the feature list, the better half of the features don't exist and the province isn't worth all the troops needed to conquer it.

-- Northern Thay
#land 307
#nostart 307
#lab
#feature "Catacombs"
#feature "Graveyard of the Damned"
#feature "Marble Mausoleum"
#feature "Halls of the Dead"
#commander "Lich"
#comname "Szass Tam"
#clearmagic
#mag_death 6
...

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

I'd say that some of the victory point provinces are too well guarded. You can't take them without crippling yourself in the process.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

How is the game going for everyone?

This turn, the brave archers and mages of T'ien Ch'i delivered a stinging defeat to R'lyeh, slaying dozens of illithids in the process. Meanwhile, Shinuyama is taking a long time to die, being attacked by Ulm, Machaka AND Mictlan, with the blood-worshippers currently sieging the goblin capital.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Bah, Shinuyama was saved by an unexpectedly powerful ghost king (blame my inexperience) a couple of rooky mistakes and a stale turn, but my armies should get going now and trample the lowly goblins under our iron-shod boots.

Ulm is marching the road to destiny now!

(Well done though Dimaz, you're certainly causing some trouble)

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

about the map: the Victory Locations are mostly guarded well. If you don't like that you might use the normal faerun map. I designed the Victory Locations to be hard to get, maybe they are a bit too heavy defended. My armies of man lost a battle against a VP defending army (25 Knights are harder to kill than they look).

What might be a problem is, that lots of the Victory Points are in the Northwest of the map, so you should set the needed VPs to win high enough or the players there will have an advantage.

@calmon: the features are all from the original map, but i might fix that for FaerunPBEM II (somehow I'm thinking I'll start a new one when this is finished [or just when i am killed])

About the game: The Kingdom of man is peacefully expanding his borders, and we are now waiting for the return of our god that might be any turn now. But we are very interested about what Caelum and Pangea have to say about their doings as our scouts report that they are at war for a very long time now.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

When Tien Chi started attacking me with coastal Shamblers I thought "bah! what does the fool think he is doing!", but things are not looking good at all. Illithids are cripplingly expensive and fairly ineffective. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

In addition to that, I will not be able to do my next turn for 12-14 hours or so. Staling now would be bad + bad, but it's not like it seems to help much when I do finish my turns.

I shall accept the host's decision.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Well as there are 3 more people missing their turn, i will postphone the next turn until i get the one of Teraswaerto.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Some corrections from Shinuyama.
Machaka is not at war with us. OTOH monkeys declared war this turn, but i saw powerful Arcos armies marching to the monkey lands, so i hope that i have to fight only against Ulm and Mictlan. This is not very easy also, but at least I think I have some chances here.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

I don't have any experience in editing maps, but just from looking at the file, it seems that the only functionality you have within the map is prohibiting (or not) a specific province from being a starting location.

I saw Dr. Praetorius has a fair site script that he's done - maybe something like that could be done to influence placement in the way you describe.


It's easy to go through the map, and make sure all the specials have the #killfeatures line. Have you found any other bugs that don't involve #killfeatures?



At least what I've seen from SP so far, I like. I think it is great if some of these special locations are around quite a while, before they can be taken out.


Did you end up by going with 30 VPs, as you say in your opening note? And from what you've seen of the game so far does it look like you have enough?

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

If you open the map in the editor, you can see that a lot of the provinces already have nostart.

I'd only put the #killfeatures in provinces that have multiple good sites, so that the other provinces still might get random sites.

Yes we are playing with 30VPs needed to win, and we are now in turn 28 and most VPs my scouts can see are still untaken.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Since it's one of those dark and rainy fall-evenings (actually it's winter, but it feels like fall), and this thread is somewhat quiet - and maybe also a very tiny bit to prove that I can do other things beside annoy everyone with technical problems http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif - I've decided to tell you all a story. Gather close around the campfire, fill your cups one more time, and don't look behind you into the dark, for this is a story about a dark and malefic ghost, in a world far, far away, called Faerun...


Topigog cursed loudly when a particularly thick drop of water managed to find it's way from the trees above him through his collar, straight onto his shoulders. Great! Now he was even reduced to swearing like a common soldier. This endless "campaigning" was getting on his nerves.

It had been in the nice days of early summer when the summons had arrived at the Crystal Citadel - nice to take a walk in the gardens that is, not nice to march for hours under the sun. He was to join Ulm's main army as soon as possible, together with two of his colleagues, but only after creating a powerful magical item to increase his mental strength. A variety of reasons were given for this sudden order - magical reconnaissance and advice, support magic - which the crude magic of the so called 'master smiths' was equally capable of - even divining the best course of action through astrology. As if that was even possible without the extensive library on the subject he wasn't allowed to bring with him! It was too heavy they had told him. As if the soldiers armour wasn't heavy… It hadn’t taken long for him to figure out the true reason he was here… and that was the first time in his life he had understood the saying ‘ignorance is bliss’…

Ulm’s enemies, the goblin nation of Shinuyama, were commanded by an incredibly powerful ghost. A veritable king among ghosts, so powerful the gullible goblins even hailed him as a god. While he was not as stupid as to believe that, there was no denying his power: Three times already the ghost had suddenly appeared in front of one of Ulm’s proud armies, all by himself, and three times he had killed dozens of brave men and sent the rest of the army – with all of it’s commanders and magical support - running for the hills.

And the reason he was here – after months of marching through dusty, heat-parched steppes, cursing the sun every step of the way, and then marching even more weeks into fall and into the Fireshear Mountains, up one muddy slope and down the other, cursing the never-ending rain, and begging to see the sun for only a little while, in the company of uncouth soldiers and the completely uncivilised lion tribe auxiliaries – was to fight that Ghost when next he showed up. Somehow, he was supposed to attract this hideous creature’s attention – the mere thought of meeting the thing’s gaze made him shudder already – and engage him in a battle of wills, to distract him, disable him, and if possible kill him, while the foot soldiers around him made short work of the goblin rabble. Luckily his colleagues were there to lend him their strength, but even so… he’d rather march straight through fall and into winter without seeing a single ray of sun. And to say that as a kid he had dreamed of becoming a soldier…

Oh, how jealous he was of his brothers who had stayed behind at the Crystal Citadel, who’d now be enjoying a cup of hot tea in a comfortable chair, next to a huge fireplace, a library full of interesting reading close at hand.


At the exact same time Topigog was bemoaning his luck Wagiobath was sitting in his comfortable chair next to a huge fireplace, with some interesting books piled up around him. He had been trying to find a way to calculate the possible density of magical crystals in the earth at specific location related to the positions of the constellations at the time of the shaping of that fold of the world… without any luck so far, but in all honesty he hadn’t been trying too hard, instead enjoying the warmth of the fire, and the exquisite new and exotic taste of the substance before him. Chocolate it was called, and dissolved into a cup of hot milk with or without a dollop of honey it gave all the warmth and wellbeing of a cup of tea, but at the same time offered an amazing layer of tastes. Ulm’s new allies of Mictlan might be crude and uncivilised savages, but the fact they had introduced chocolate into Ulmish lands made up for a lot of shortcomings. *

He had finished up his chocolate (might he bother himself to call for a servant to bring him a second cup?) and was slowly dozing off when suddenly a large, armoured figure burst into the room, treading thick black mud upon the carpet. Before Wagiobath could even begin to formulate a protest the newcomer barked: “Urgent orders from the high command! You are to report to the building site in The Landrise immediately!”, while throwing a folder of official-looking documents onto the table.

A quick scan of the seal told him there would be no escaping this one: The orders did indeed come straight from the high command, and from looking at the date (only 5 days ago) the large messenger had probably ridden several horses to their deaths on his way to him. So reluctantly he opened the letter - and nearly fainted upon reading its contents. Only a few weeks ago a small probing force had attacked the hugely superior forces defending the strategically important border province of The Landrise. To make matters worse there wasn’t any enemy force in that area that could possibly have any use of the intelligence gathered by the reconnaissance force. So the only reasonable thing would be to expect an attack by the enemy Ghost-pretender, who had enough magical power to teleport himself to wherever he wanted. And so Wagiobath had to do the same: teleport to building site and face the Ghost’s vast mental power. Alone. As only with the help of a magical crystal coin could he and his colleagues amass enough magical power to teleport, and only one of those artefacts was currently available in the laboratory.

So after humiliating himself in front of a total stranger by being violently sick in a corner – the chocolate suddenly didn’t taste that good anymore – he went to the laboratory, hung the crystal coin around his neck, and chanted the complex magical formula required to travel long distances instantly. At his destination he found the camping site of a medium-sized army, strangely silent, since half of the army consisted of animated magical constructs. Not far off work could be seen progressing on the nearly finished Citadel that was being built at that location. If the Ghost didn’t attack soon the entire army could take refuge in that imposing building. So it was best to assume the attack would in fact come soon.

Which indeed it did. The very next morning Wagiobath was startled from his morning tea (No chocolate was to be found in this corner of the empire) by the bronze alarm calls from several trumpets. Quickly the disciplined men fell into ranks, mages went around to set the magical constructs into motion, archers nocked their bows and planted arrows into the soft mud in front of them. But despite the franatic activity all of them(except the constructs obviously) kept an eye on the frail, robed man who was supposed to be their saviour… and noticed he had turned a sickly shade of yellow.

As the ghost came slowly floating out of the woods ahead Wagiobath called upon the powers of the magical spheres to strengthen his mind for the ordeal ahead, and then – while the first arrows where fired in vain, and the infantry began their doomed assault upon the lone translucent figure – he made contact with the mind of the thing. The icy, bone numbing cold of the grave reached out to him, the dust of endless ages intruded on his mind, and through it all he could faintly sense the mind's amusement at the valiant attempts of the army to attack him, and then also its disdain for him, the mere mortal who’d attempt to grapple with the mind of eternity. The disdain roused Wagiobath’s anger, and he called upon reserves of strength he did not know he possessed, the will to live and survive, drawn from the depths of his living soul the undead abomination could no longer understand. For an eternity the battle of wills raged – an eternity or a heartbeat – an eternity in which he was aware of every fibre in his body, in which he drew from every fibre in his body. An eternity in which he felt triumph and elation as the Ghost started to realise he could not submit the will to live of the mortal before him. Could not even resist the energies of life fuelling the mortal’s assault on the strands of will holding together its ghostly form.

And then the eternity ended, and Wagiobath could vaguely hear the cheering of all the other life forms close to him, before he succumbed to unconsciousness.


* In no way do the personal opinions of the characters in this story reflect my own valuation of my esteemed ally. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

And a public service announcement: I have reached construction 6, so anyone intrested in buying stuff is free to make me an offer. (Stuff able to be made by master smiths => up to 1A2F3E will be relatively cheap, I do have at least minimal access to most other paths, but much of that will be my pretender who might have other stuff to do, so that might be a bit more expensive. Making offers doesn't hurt though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif)

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Congratz! Amhazair, You did a number on Yomi! More than I could say.
-Yc

I'm out of this game.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

if you are out, could you plz set yourself to AI (as in i forgot to set a master password).

This means that the fearful 3x Bless Mictlan has fallen?

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Amazingly, the Pythium AI is still fighting on. It was down to one province, but now has two and is sieging a third. Whereas Mictlan seems to have run out of juice.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

todays turn will be posphoned for 5h or until i got the turns. in the moment there are 4 ppl missing.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

I left Pythium with one province so that it's positive dominion effects would keep my aweful Dominion from affecting many provinces. Yomi's archers did a number on me! And the stale turns really hurt. I'll play some turns here and there. Going Ai in the middle of game play really sucks for allies. I won't go Ai any time soon. Neighbors be warned. Mictlan may turn against you in the future!
-yc

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Ulm is currently in need of death gems. Payment can be made in most kinds of gems (preferably nature or astral, but others work too) and/or crafted items up to level 6.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

I am more or less dead with Pan's troops being too resistant to my lightnings. Probably will continue some more fore I switch AI.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Seems combined efforts of Ulm, Mictlan, and somewhat less, Bandar Log and Atlantis are finally crippling the mighty goblins. Ulm armies were seen marching through goblin lands, and even sieging castles. Goblins have some surprises left for them, but the economic advantage of Ulm empire is huge, so goblins will soon become history.

Re: Faerun MA PBEM (mail pretenders)
 

Wich obviously is as it should be. Goblins are a pest and should be exterminated. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I'm looking forward to your surprises, btw. This is the first MP game I started (even though I have finished a smaller one by now), and watching you has tought me a thing or two about being an annoying pain in the *** when facing superior forces http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Turn Rehost
 

Im sorry that i had to rehost turn 34. But Vanheim get his turn in early enough. I suppose its best if you dont look in the old turn, as now every battle might end different.

p.s. in the first variant i got a lab from event, in the new one a lab burnt down (duh)

Re: Turn Rehost
 

Crap, a new turn? I got a free fort event in a valuable province in the first try http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Turn Rehost
 

patch 3.06 is out.

Current turn in 3.04 and after next host upgrade to 3.06?

Re: Turn Rehost
 

i patched up to 3.06 so you might do it too.

Re: Turn Rehost
 

next turn will be delayed until i get enough turns in. (hope it does not take too long)

Re: Turn Rehost
 

maybe you could write something about nations which don't send a turn for a couple of time or are set to AI. Because there are no graphs its quite difficult to find out who is playing and who is not.

Re: Turn Rehost
 

The only Nation set to AI is Pythium.
Caelum and Mictlan both had announced that they are beaten, but are still in the game.
Abysia is stalling for 20 Turns now (i forgot to set a master password, and the player did not answer to me) but i will anhillate him in 4 turns.
Ulm and Atlantis are stalling sometimes, but mostly playing.

All otheres are playing regularly (but on this turn i just have 9 turns out of 15 and this is to slow).

Missing for the next turn are:
Abysia, Mictlan, Pangea, Bandar Log, Atlantis and Rlyeh
Bandar Log announced, that he wants to play his other games before this and so has to wait with his turn on this one cause the other games are not patched. (somehow it sounds like he wants this game to wait until every other game he is in has patched to 3.06 :/)

Re: Turn Rehost
 

@Bandar Log: Did your email change, i get errors?

I attached your turn to this post

Re: Turn Rehost
 

The aquatic forces of T'ien Ch'i delivered a fearsome blow to R'lyeh this turn, slaying over two hundred sea creatures and fifty illithids, including the R'lyeh prophet. A pity that this victory was tainted by R'lyeh having a stale turn...

Meanwhile, Shinyuyama strongly resisted an Ulmish assault on their home fortress, using powerful magic that inflicted terrible casualties.

Re: Turn Rehost
 

From the main thread:

MA Man Spell "Summon Black Dogs" is missing a description, and it summons 20 Baghests instead of Black Dogs, which is a big problem.

MA Man Spell "Summon Baghests" summons 9 Black Dogs instead of Baghests (spell description would be fine if it actually summonned Baghests, but it doesn't, so it's wrong). Not that big of a deal, compared to the above.


Man player shouldn't use the spell "summon black dogs" in our game. It seems real bugged.

Re: Turn Rehost
 

My email has not changed, but it craps out sometimes, thanks for posting the turn here.

You did receive my post-patch turn, correct?

Re: Turn Rehost
 

doh, i would actually be able to spam it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Yes i did, why did you get a stale turn???