Re: Hosting tonight?
 

It's official: Sauromatia has been reassigned to llamabeast.

We are still looking for a substitute for Niefelheim.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

I'd like to play. I can't promise the best performance, but I need some experience in big multiplayer battles.

Jazzepi

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Let Sauromatia's enemies beware, Beast is a Sauromatian expert!

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

OK, Jazzepi, you're in. I'm going to let the current turn run w/ johnarryn's turn, though. You might be able to get the .trn & .h files from him if you want to see what's going on. I'll PM you later on today w/ instructions to take over the position.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

A ringer! Who's responsible for this? Who?! I think the appropriate solution is for Jazzepi and llamabeast to switch immediately! (Just kidding http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif )

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Why, thankyou Ty. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Indeed, everyone fear me! Roar!

(You have to visualise a llama roaring at this point. It's scary, eh?)

Later on when I get to look at the game, I'll know exactly how much you should fear me. I may be only a small llama in this instance.

What's a ringer?

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

ah, maybe "ringer" is an americanism. A ringer is someone brought into a competition who has excellent experience/talent/skills for the game in question, but whose background and abilities are intentionally unknown to your opponents (and who will therefore have the advantage of surprise).

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

I don't know about you, but I definitely have seen some fearsome llama's in my time... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Just tell me what I need to do to get setup! I can figure it out from there.

Jazzepi

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Hi guys, sorry, it's taken me a little longer to get to it than I'd hoped. I'm just about to look at it and take the turn now...

Sorry to keep you waiting.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Ermor is no more. I have set them to AI.

Thanks for letting me play this posistion. It was interesting.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

I certainly didn't want to imply that Niefelheim is a lost cause... we were defeated in a battle or two, but I have a few more than 3 Jarls running around =) As well as a good number of giants and such. So the position is a good one... I just don't have the time to play it.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Server appears to be down.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Should be back up now.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Nop, still down for me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

looks like they gave me a new IP address, here's the new one:

IP: 24.17.189.161
Port: 1024 (same as before)

I edited the initial post, to include this correction.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

This works fine now.

Cheers Hellboy.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Helheim is having a chronical shortage of earth gems. Anyone willing to trade will have my eternal gratitude - in addition to payment in any kind of gem except nature. Anyone willing to trade earth for fire will even receive payment at 4:3 ratio.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Kailasa is interested in trading earth gems for other gems. After I check the map I will send you a proposal through a private message.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Wow, I'm honestly a little overwhelmed. I didn't realize how terribly complex/large this was going to be! I apologize, but you should find a sub for me. I don't want to wreck the game because I'm subbing in for a large/important nation and am not sure what I'm doing exactly.

I'll happily play custodian until then, and try to keep the giant's borders from shrinking too much.

Jazzepi

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

I talked with Hellboy and as long as people are okay with me being really inexperienced at running complicated magic kingdoms, I'll give this one a shot. I'm just not sure how well I'll do.

If anyone was in an alliance, or had a treaty with the Nieflam's, now is the time to speak up! I didn't really get a handout on what the current political situation was before getting into this.

Jazzepi

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Treat it as a learning experience, I made sooo many mistakes in my first MP game I cringe now... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif

Not certain about this as your not in my part of the world but you and Abysia may have 'tense' relations, your cold and he is hot, a bad mix. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Exactly! That was certainly my experience. All that said, if anyone knows a good Niefelheim nation guide or good post for discussing Niefelheim strategy/tactics, this would be a very good time to post a reference.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Niefleheim had just realized that their invasion into acro territory was unjust.They agreed to repent, withdraw all troops from acro land, and let Acroscephale have it back.

Re: Hosting tonight?
 

Hey, thanks for jumping in Jay, it sure sounds like you were able to get in a few hard blows before going down - certainly an improvement over the AI!

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

Sorry about the stale! I didn't realize I wouldn't get an e-mail after the hosting. Too used to Velusion's server.

I won't be staling anymore, and I think I have a bit of a handle on the giants now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Jazzepi

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

I just reset the server schedule at llamabeast's request. Apparently there is some technical problem ocurring, but hopefully this will be resolved quickly.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

Hello everyone, sorry to keep you waiting. I had a bit of a stressful evening.

I got home to find that my computer bluescreened every time I turned it on. Bad. It's a long story from there, involving installing linux from scratch, getting everything working, reinstalling dominions (didn't work for a bit for still-inexplicable reasons), downloading the patch, downloading the map, downloading the mod... eek. I knew the turn was going late tonight (UK), but I wasn't sure exactly when, so I was just hoping I got it working in time. By the time I got on e-mail and asked Hellboy to postpone the turn apparently I only had 11 minutes left! Thanks again Hellboy for waiting in case I e-mailed.

The game runs really really slowly now I'm running linux (hopefully I'll get windows working again on my machine soon). It was almost unplayable in fact, but fortunately I didn't have too much to do this turn. It was also almost impossible to type messages, hence my slightly bizarre in-game message. Does anyone who uses linux have any idea how to get it to run faster? I can't imagine how you'd cope.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

Haha, that explains the message. Sorry about your computer dilemma. If I knew anything about linux I would gladly help. Goodluck getting it fixed, the longer timers between turns should help you resolve the problem before it damages your position.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

I'm running linux, Fedora 6 in fact, and it runs smooth. My machine is a 1.733 AthlonXP with 1024 RAM and a 128MB nVidia Geforce 6800 with the 1.0-9755 drivers. I'm using normal battle graphics.

If you are using a nVidia or Ati card download the appropriate drivers from their sites. The X11 native ones suck at advanced 3D graphics at the moment.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

Afraid that I cant help. For all my talk of linux, I dont run it in gui mode at all. Only text mode for hosting.

If you get really stuck then you can email Johan. He totally seems to live in linux gui mode (which I sometimes find irritating). And BTW does all the programming of the Dominions game in it also so Im sure that Dominions is meant to be able to run happy that way.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

If possible I would like to hand over this game to a sub - everyday life takes to much time and im in to many games as it is.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

Seems like your position is in good shape, I don't think we'll have difficulty finding a replacement. Thanks for not disappearing on us!

Edit:
And I don't mean that last statement to sound in the least way sarcastic - you are doing this position hand off in a considerate fashion, so again, thanks.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

Hi, thanks to all those who offered help with my linux woes. After a very long and confusing evening, I've managed to install the proper nVidia drivers - and it's incredibly fast! So I think that was worth doing anyway. Thanks for the hint Dedas, and thanks again to everyone else!

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

In general Linux is able to do amazingly more with amazingly less resources than Windows. Some old throwaway computer in the closet can actually be the ISP for a small town. I know. Ive done it.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

Still looking for a sub? I can step up and eat all your brains!

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

Awesome, you're in! Can you PM Evilhomer directly and get his player password? Also, hopefully he can give you some amount of briefing on his status and plans.

He has not taken his turn for turn 40 (and it's probably better for you to take over for this turn anyhow), but that's due in 12 hrs, so let me know if you need an extension.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

Welcome aboard Baalz, i'm looking forward to your AARs.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

Thanks Tyrant. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif 12 hours should be fine HB, I'll be able to take a turn when I get home from work (assuming I can get the password by then).

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

pm sent, with 8 hours still available.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

I've set the server to host tonight at around 7:50pm PDT, and turned off QH (I need to make some changes to my turn tonight, and I wanted to be sure it doesn't host before I have a chance to do so).

Anyhow, I'll turn back on QH as soon as I get a chance, and so long as Baalz can get in his turn tonight, we shouldn't have any problem hosting tonight.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

The lord of the void speaks, and all should pay heed. The former mind lord has been called to the void, and I have stepped forward to continue his conquest of the world. All treaties with the lands of R'yleh are null and void. Any wishing diplomatic relations should petition the new void lord before our plans for conquest have been set. Let it be known that our nation has large caches of valuable earth and death gems of which we have little need, but we are desirous of astral and water gems.

Re: The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Running]
 

OK, I'm back and had my chance to update.

Turning back to QH in 10 minutes.

Where have all the unique magic items gone?
 

Someone has been busy, building every unique magic item, I wonder who this could be?

Was it?

T'ien Ch'i?

Yomi?

Helheim?

Abysia?

Or someone else?

Oh my god you killed Ermor, you b%*t$*d!

P.S.
All those who watch south park will get the jokes! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Where have all the unique magic items gone?
 

Many apologies for staling this turn, everyone. However, my Cunning Plan for this turn actually consisted of Sitting Still in a Cunning Way, so all is not lost. It's hard to do much else to be honest, when your upkeep is larger than your income.

Anyway Yomi, fear me! Muwahaha!

Re: Where have all the unique magic items gone?
 

T'ien Ch'i knows nothing of artifacts, but we must note that these words come from the nation who has had the Forge of the Ancients spell up since turn 39. Could it be that these comments are but a diversion?

If there is anyone Faerun that does not already know just how potent the Forge of the Ancients is, you should consider the following. FoTA reduces forging costs by a whopping 50% and also is stackable with all other bonuses. But that's not all! This also adds one to every magic path a forger has, making it far, far easier to forge the most difficult artifacts. Make no mistake, the result can be devastating to all other nations in the land, if this spell is allowed to stay up indefinitely.

It should also be obvious that FoTA is but one level beneath that required to forge Artifacts, so to imagine that Atlantis has only just gotten access to artifact forging, seems rather a large stretch, in our humble opinions. Surely a nation with this spell is far, far more capable of forging artifacts than any other nation. If somehow, despite this gargantuan advantage some other nation has managed to deprive Atlanatis of the opportunity to forge all the artifacts, we applaud that nation's efforts!

Now, in the interests of dissemination of information we encourage leaders of all nations to look to the following thread, where the details of FoTA are exposed, as backed by tests: thread. To excerpt a relevant analysis of costs, here is a particular scenario which could easily apply to Atlantis:
First note that it is unlikely that any nation other than Atlantis has the hammer of the forge lord. Also, it is entirely plausible to us that Atlantis could well have a steel oven - does any nation (other than Atlantis) know otherwise?

Even if one were to do the same calculation without the steel oven and without the hammer of the forge lord, the gatestone should come out to: 24/24, which is still a dramatic savings, and still a very potent advantage (and likewise a ring of wizardry goes from 65s to 24s).

So, after having said all this, we of T'ien Ch'i hold no particular animosity against Atlantis, beyond the fact of their having cast this very agressive spell. Having had 3+ turns of this spell already represents a large advantage for Atlantis (plenty of time, for example, to forge the gatestone, the forge of the hammer lord, so on and so forth), and they have gained enough advantage from this global already.

We believe it is in the interests of all the nations of Faerun (even those who consider themselves allies of Atlantis) to see this spell cast down, and in the future not to allow its like to stay in effect for more than a single month.

Da-yu,
High Priest of Pak Taelin,
T'ien Ch'i

Re: Where have all the unique magic items gone?
 

Point 1:- Applaud away then because someone most definately beat me to the unique artifacts and I strongly suspect T'ien Ch'i, given the size of your empire and your many magic paths of your mages.

Ember, Winter Bringer, The Summit, The Stone Sword, Hammer of the Forge Lord, Barrier, the Aegis, Crown of the Ivy King, Boots of Antaeus, Boots of Calius the Druid, The Ruby Eye, Krupps Bracers, Bell of Cleansing, Orb of Atlantis (thats mine, I tell ya http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif) and loads more all gone. Most certainly not built by Atlantis. I personally think T'ien Ch'i has them but if I am wrong then I am sorry.

Point 2:- Why you T'ien Ch'i would want to organise a dispel of my Forge of the Ancients when I am on the other side of the world I have no idea. Obviously you already see yourself as master of the world, how many wars have T'ien Ch'i diplomats helped start btw?

But go ahead dispel away, I have already used up all my gems forging. Atlantis views this as an act of war by T'ien Ch'i and will dispel any global they try to put up, ever.

Lords of Atlantis.

Re: Where have all the unique magic items gone?
 

The people of Kailasa find these arguments of who can forge what and who can do it better to be most bizarre. Kailasans know that forging is a slave's job.

Through the methods of forging you propose, it is indeed cheap to make a magical artifact. But in kailasa, we find the cheapest way to acquire artifacts is to pry it from the cold dead hands of our enemies. 0 gem cost is indeed nice.

Kailasa

Re: Where have all the unique magic items gone?
 

Guess there's not much point in researching past con-6 then, is there? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Where have all the unique magic items gone?
 

Simply because Forge of the Ancients is a spell that left standing, will lead inexorably to world domination. At this point, we invite the comment of other nations: Has T'ien Ch'i butted in where we don't belong? Would the land of Faerun be better off had T'ien Ch'i simply left well enough alone? Or could it be the case that Forge of the Ancients is truly a spell aimed at world domination, and must be opposed by those who have the resources to do so?


None.

We were attacked by Mictlan, and successfully defeated the agressor. After Sauromatia attacked Yomi, we responded to Yomi's request for assistance. When new leadership took over in Sauromatia we accepted their plea for peace (perhaps upsetting Yomi in the process), but we are now at peace with both Yomi and Sauromatia.