Re: Possible issue
 

I actually can't http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif I believe the master password was lost for this game a long time ago, which means people have to set themselves to AI.

Jazzepi

Re: Possible issue
 

Ok, in that case I will hold those three swamp provinces till the last man.

Re:Prince of the Pits
 

Let the word go forth, from this time and place, that the blasphemous rites practiced by Ermor must stop.

The summoning-up of evil things and conversing with all manor of ghouls, undead and other demonic dwellers of the black catacombs must end.

Pythium asks any who would help to do what they can, overtly or covertly, to help stop Ermor from continuing to preform such unholy rites as my soul shuddereth to contemplate.

Long live the Divine Emperor.
Long live the Monkey King.

Re:Prince of the Pits
 

So the Baboon and his lapdogs have come out to play. Let them come. Let them learn what it is to face death. Their crops shall rot in the fields while their people die. Remember your foolish hubris when your very souls are crushed beneath the bony foot of death.

Sub Agony
 

I have been looking for a sub without success - tried a couple of people who I have subbed for in the past and they have full plates at the moment. Anyone out there know someone that would be happy to sub in a big game with some micromanagement for 1 or 2 turns ?

Have managed one sub for one of three games and am struggling.

Have the current turn in and will get the following one in after she hosts but could we delay hosting by an additional 48 hours ?

Or I can stale ... which wouldn't be the end of the earth unless you know all my neighbours took advantage of that fact.

Re: Sub Agony
 

Have returned. Will PM Jazzepi pronto.

Cheers all.

Re: Sub Agony
 

We're back on a regular hosting schedule now, guys.

Jazzepi

Re: Sub Agony
 

I won't have access to my computer this weekend. Can you delay the hosting by 24 hours?

Re: Sub Agony
 

I'll take care of that.

Jazzepi

Re: Sub Agony
 

Postponed the game by 72 hours. Just get your turns in when you can.

Jazzepi

Re: Sub Agony
 

I am sending the turn, but I was wondering if we could then postpone this game until saturday(sunday, 4am english time) as I will be unable to play my turns.

Re: Sub Agony
 

Sure.

Jazzepi

Delay, and then run without time to turn in turn
 

Last night I sent in my turn and then looked at LLamaserver to see if it had been accepted. A message in the BAG screen said Llamaserver was having e-mail problems, and that I would have to wait to send in my turn. The message said I would have plenty of time to send in my turn. Since this game has often, very often, been delayed for a week or more without any explanation, I thought "plenty of time" meant more than six hours after it was supposed to host. It turns out I was wrong.

The game has hosted, and my turn file hasn't run! This is Turn 68 and it takes more than an hour to do a turn! My current opponent turn DID run! So his armies did move, and my DIDN'T!

Nobody has played their turn for the "new" Turn 69 yet, no doubt because they thought it would be a while before the turn ran. I would like the turn to be rolled back right now, and a 12 hour wait for everyone to get their turns it, like the message said! I re-sent my turn right now.

Re: Delay, and then run without time to turn in tu
 

I responded to the PM. Check your e-mail for further instructions.

Jazzepi

Re: Delay, and then run without time to turn in tu
 

Come on, Jazzepi, say it in public. You have nothing to hide!

I'm glad Jazzepi doesn't know who I am, even though my posting name is the name of my god in the game. He played the game for over four months as R'yleh, so it's quite remarkable that he doesn't know who I am. Quite remarkable. Of course an ordinary person would have trouble figuring out which of these nations was led by The Monkey King:
Midgard
Caleum
Ermor
Patala
Utgard
New Ulm
Pythium
Pangeae

I wonder what nation of monkies is in that list?

And fortunate, because if he did know who I was, I would suspect him of getting back at me for the fights we had with his declaration "I need verification that you aren't a cheater, even though you had nothing to do with what happened".

Of course, he also says he can't do anything. Dumps it all on llamabeast... but still feels the need to make a bunch of demands to HIM, so that I can't get my turn unstaled. Good way to "stay out of it" while not staying out of it at all.

I feel that he is being impartial, because he claims to not know who I am, even though it is almost impossible for him not to, and refuses to help. Also, he adds restrictions to make it difficult for others to fix the problem.

This has all the hallmarks of a fair and impartial moderator. A real straight shooter.

Oh, and I can criticize him without worry, because he has already declared that he will do nothing to fix the problem.
If you had trouble seeing that, just re-read his post.

****Edited to remove violation of PM rules.

Re: Delay, and then run without time to turn in tu
 

I appreciate the fair and impartial moderators current response, as it is more honest:

***edited to remove violation of PM rules.

Re: Delay, and then run without time to turn in tu
 

You have no control over the demands you make? So consumed and totally controlled by your emotions and petty grudges that you HAVE to act in a certain way? Yes, yes that's exactly who I thought you were. And by the way, I don't really hate you, but I would never trust you with a nickel.

***edited to remove privacy violations.

A short pause in proceedings
 

Whilst I don't really want to weigh in to this at all it is worth pointing out what an admin/moderator can do on the llamaserver.

As I understand it llamabeast is the only one who can go in and roll a turn back - it may well be an easy thing to do but the llamaserver is hosting 30-odd games at present, and doing so smoothly. The llamaserver doing a wonderful job when compared to those games I have played by PBEM or by TCP/IP in the past (the hosts of whom I thank for taking on the job).

I would understand if he (llamabeast) is loathe to regularly roll turns back especially when there is no consensus amongst the players playing the game. It would certainly set a precedent that may cause problems, for llamabeast, in the future.

I have no problem with the turn being rolled back and imagine that other players here may well share my opinion, it might well be worth asking.

edited to correct spelling

Re: A short pause in proceedings
 

And I'm aware of the stealth preachers you put in my land. So many that I had to put a temple up and four preachers in every area just to maintain my own dominion in the mountains.

[In an attempt to maintain that ever elusive 'balance' New Ulm has recruitable everywhere, stealth, inquisitor Holy-1 Preachers]

Re: A short pause in proceedings
 

Oh man, I hate these ruckusses.

Okay, firstly, about rollbacks: my policy on rollbacks is that I am extremely loathe to do them. I have done a few, and on almost every occasion regretted it. In a situation of such uncertainty, I am especially loathe to do it.

Secondly, here is the LlamaServer message:

"The LlamaServer seems to be having difficulty reaching its mail server at the moment. Fear not. Games won't host until it is fixed, and hosting times will be delayed to allow plenty of time for e-mails to come through once the mail server can be reached again."

Now, this doesn't say what The_Monkey_King says it said.

I'll explain how it actually works. If the LlamaServer can't reach the mail server, it decides it had better not host - after all, if it can't check its e-mail, it might be missing out on some 2h files people sent at the last minute, which wouldn't be fair. So it waits until it can reach the mail server again. Further, it waits a bit more than that - for every 5 minutes it can't reach the mail server, it waits 5 minutes even _after_ it finally is able to reach the mail server. So if it is out of touch for 6 hours, it waits 6 hours for hosting even after the problem is fixed. This is to allow time for e-mails which were previously unable to reach the mail server to filter through the system and arrive.

Right, so the correct thing to do on seeing that message on the LlamaServer is to send in your turn immediately anyway, since the LlamaServer will get it sooner or later when it's fixed.

I am open to suggestions as to how I could make the message clearer. I think it is reasonably clear, but perhaps not amazingly so - so suggestions are welcome (I actually found writing all the LlamaServer messages surprisingly tricky).

In any case, The_Monkey_King's interpretation was a risky one at best - his idea that the turn would be delayed for a significant amount of time was in fact a misunderstanding. I can see how it happened, but nonetheless it was a misunderstanding. I can't go doing rollbacks every time there is a misunderstanding. This message has been there lots of times before, with no problems.

So anyway, to summarise, I am disinclined to do a rollback. I hope the fact I've written all this shows I've taken some effort to think about it. This is despite me getting no fewer than 7 PMs asking me to do stuff this evening, and despite the fact I am meant to be packing for my early morning return to university tomorrow. This has been a reasonably nightmarish evening to be honest.

As I say, I'd welcome suggestions as to how to improve the message. And I'm sorry you ended up staling The_Monkey_King, that's highly regrettable.

Finally, The_Monkey_King, I'd like to ask a favour: could you please remove my e-mail address, which is quoted in one of your messages above? I really, _really_ don't want to get spam on that address, which I will do very quickly if that is left there.

Re: A short pause in proceedings
 

Also, enough on this issue. I don't like to see threads get full of the kind of unpleasantness we've had in the last few posts. If you have further concerns, The_Monkey_King, please PM me and I'll do everything I can to address them. But no more from either of you here please, or I will abuse my power and kick you (I have decided (unilaterally) that a benevolent dictatorship is the best form of government for such situations).

On with the game!

Re: A short pause in proceedings
 

Worse, it's in a quote from a PM, which are supposed to be private. Board Rules: "Private Messages received on these forums are to be considered private and are not to be posted publicly or forwarded to other users unless the sender of the private message agrees."

The_Monkey_King should just delete all those PMs he posted.

Re: A short pause in proceedings
 

Good point, that is pretty naughty.

Re: A short pause in proceedings
 

Deleted, because I'm not allowed to respond to public posts without being kicked from the game. This rule was just created.

Re: A short pause in proceedings
 

Yep. Feel free to PM me, The_Monkey_King. I don't want you to feel your views aren't being heard. But thanks from refraining from continuing the discussion here.

Re: A short pause in proceedings
 

I will be gone for a day and would ask for a 12 hour extention on the turn time. Thanks

Re: A short pause in proceedings
 

No problem. 12 hour extension put in.

Please PM me in the future. It's easier for me to catch those.

Jazzepi

Re: A short pause in proceedings
 

Good game everyone. While Midgard is no more, we at least got to see Ryleh crippled before we went out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A short pause in proceedings
 

We have a problem:

Något gick fel!
dnf: bg area 0
Något gick fel!
dnf: bg area 0

Meaning Dominions wouldn't host. I tried rolling back and rehosting - no luck.

So, I guess the options are to just host the turn without your 2h files so everyone will stale, or else people can redo their turns in the hope that they will change something which will make the error go away. Neither is ideal. Anyone have any thoughts?

Re: BAG (Started!)
 

Pangaea just went AI. That leaves only Ermor, Patala, Utgard and Caleum.

I think he went AI a little prematurely, but I understand that the loss of the Water Queen to the Stygian Path'ed Fiends of Darkness was upsetting. And it only cost me 29 astral gems, 6 air gems, and 15 death gems to set that fight up... and the gems spent in combat as well. + the 10 astral gems spent on Returnings and Vortex's of Returning.

Also, I think his attack on the non-castle defenses of Behemoth's Rest would have succeeded because I had simply forgotten about Black Centaurs being stealth. It was alarming when the AI popped all those stealth units up. I would have lost two entire Troll King summons and an E4 cyclops. However, two Send Horrors did kill a E4 cyclops of his that turn... and I have the Chalice. He would then have had to bring in siegers next turn to break down the walls, and that would have given me more than enought time to prepare all manner of nastiness on the storm. I had death mages and a large number of Monkey astral in that fortress... and the monkey researchers were unsurprisingly above the death mages. Add in some Crystal Matrixes and things get bloody fast on the first turn. I also had air mages there.

Me and Utgard VS. Pangaea and Ermor were fairly evenly matched, but Utgard was having the better of Ermor. I'm not sure Utgard was aware of it, by Flames From The Sky was being used to kill... LARGE numbers of undead... just look at the Hall of Fame. I was holding Pangaea... except that my wishers, the Chalice, and the Forge were giving me far more gems and gem efficiency than Pangaea... so he was probably exhausting himself and I could have kept up the current rate of combat forever... while forging 14 clams a turn.

Without Pangaea, Ermor has no chance at all against Patala/Utgard, and I would like the game to end before I have to spend six hours on another turn. The insane turn lengths are probably one of the main reasons Pangaea quit. They had a lot of fight left in them, but eventually the Forge, and the Chalice would have told. I was also putting up Gift of Natures Bounty next turn with a little more than 200 gems. It would have had a 60% chance of taking down an Ermor/Pangaea global, a 20% chance of taking out defeated R'yleh's Mother Oak, and a 20% chance of bouncing off my Forge of the Ancients. That would have put me another leg up, and I'm done summoning Wizard Towers and Dark Citadels to protect me from raiding. Had to summon 4 castles over my empire to bring me up to end-game level.

I would also like to say that no matter what Pangaea *thought* he saw, he had failed to kill a single Nagarashi. They all returned back to Patala, where the Chalice cured their afflictions... except the nasty Never Healing Wounds.

Anyway, I would like the other players to weigh in. This game is not any fun at the six hours per turn point. But I will slog through if I have to.

Re: BAG (Started!)
 

All hail the Monkey King!

Re: BAG (Started!)
 

Let me apologize to the current moderator of the game. I have been having some trouble completing my turns in time the past couple of weeks with many sent near the last minute. I can't say that I agree with all the Monkey Kings conclusions but in regards to the turn lengths he is correct. My time constraints at the moment are likely to last until late June/ early July before I could properly play turns and avoid occasional stales.

The creators of this game have the deepest fantasy computer war game I have ever seen and since this is my first multiplayer game I do not think I can accurately judge my position in regards to an endgame. I don't know how to respond to what the AI decided to do with Pangaea but I will post my last turn received before I went AI if anyone is curious.

Re: BAG (Started!)
 

*I* would like to see your turn. If you say you could have been first... our gem exchange was pretty even. But I did have the Forge, and the Chalice. And that is really tough to beat. Or course, I still had Ermor on my back, and that is a big deal to.

Re: BAG (Started!)
 

It might take a little while, but I will lose. I am willing to graciously bow out. I can accept defeat.

Re: BAG (Started!)
 

I'd like to add that BigAndScary has really progressed as a player, and I am very glad that I didn't have to deal with his current tactics forty turns ago. Because I would have lost the game, hands down.

Meant to send this a while back, but oh well.

Re: BAG (Started!)
 

Thanks, I went the wrong way with magic research and had to compensate quickly. I was wondering if my strategy was being at all effective.

Re: BAG (Started!)
 

Y'know, I learned something today. If your supercombatants are with an army that throughly thrashed, they'll retreat even when they're winning.

All those gems and equipment. Plus there's that huge naga economy to deal with. However, my nation's still in good shape, albiet behind all the other ones. Should I continue?

Re: BAG (Started!)
 

Hosting has been postponed 48 hours to give players a chance to discuss the state of this game. I won't terminate the game until there is a strict consensus.

Jazzepi

Re: BAG (Started!)
 

Bumped for visibility.

Re: BAG (Started!)
 

Hm, this game may end for another reason; I tried to play turn 96, but the game just conked out on me without a word. It's only when I haven't loaded the map right that I see that kind of program shutdown, but I can't help but think it has to do with the new patch.