PBEM game \"Not Stupid But Slow\": Running
 

The settings for this game are currently as follow:

- A PBEM game hosted by myself (not TCP/IP)
- Turnaround is set to 48 hours, and will run every 24 hours if everyone gets their files in before this moment. The turns should more or less run at the same hour of the day (as much as real life and Murphy's laws will allow).
- Independent Strength: 9 (as asked by En Forcer)
- Magic Research: Very Difficult
- Magic site frequency: 50
- Map: Karan
- 2.13 Version
- All else set as default

The current players are:
- Blofeld: Marignon
- Boron: Ermoria
- Cainehill: Jotunheim
- Deccan: Man
- Enforcer: Pangaea
- Graeme Dice: Pythium
- Ighalli: Abysia
- Vicious Love: Atlantis
- Yellow Cactus: Ulm
- Myself: Arcoscephale

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I, for one, would LOVE to play in this game. I always play at very hard magic and maximum drain and with Indie 9 (I'd kinda like to see Indie 9 here) because it forces one to stay with conventional troops longer and to be more careful with which magic paths to research.

However, I have one issue. I have no choice but to play PBEM. I am talking to Illwinter Tech Support about my network issues but so far no luck.

If you PBEM, I would like to play.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I might want in too. I'm a bit busy at the moment, so I'll post more later. Nations I'm particularly interested in are Ulm and (depending on map) Atlantis.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I would have no problem with going PBEM myself; however, it will either mean I will have to be only the game host (and not a player), or that the players trust me enough not to do some cheating while nobody is watching (mainly reloading the turn if something goes awry for my nation).

I am fine with Indie 9; it shouldn't be *that* meaner compared to Indie 6. Hopefully.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I personally would like ideas to improve national troops too but the problem with very hard research is that it makes blood even stronger . LVL 3 is enough for Bind Devil / Crossbreed .
Blessable troops have an edge too .
So i think especially Vanheim/Jotunheim/Abysia might have an almost unfair advantage with these settings .


I am curious and would like to participate as ermor though , probably AE http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I am none too sure about blood nations in this setting; you still have some research to do, and early expansion may be slower (making it harder to get the blood economy up and running). Feel free to mock me when/if my castle's gates are knocked down by a few happy go-lucky devils. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

At any rate, it was the reason why I prevented myself from being able to say dibs on any nation. Not that I would have had a great idea, but...

Any comment about the PBEM matter? Is anybody against using PBEM? And are you fine with someone being both host and player?

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I am fine with you as host and pbem http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

In theory you could always ask Sheap for hosting too . I play 3 games on his server atm http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I am fine with it. PBEM it is then?

I would like to try Pangea.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Sounds like fun. I've always favored the very hard research setting, myself, for the same reasons En Forcer mentioned.

I'm also worried about the whole blood nation thing, especially since Vanheim, DF Marignon, and Mictlan can all make excellent use of blessings for earlygame expansion, and Abysia... is not the sort of nation that has trouble against indies, even level 6/9 ones.
Then again, I've never really cared all that much for game balance, and this sort of thing could add some flavor.

In as Atlantis, if deccum doesn't mind. If he does... C'tis or Marignon, I suppose. That oughta be fun.

Update: By the way, shame you missed so many turns on Try Something New. It's never easy, bidding farewell to someone who owes you money.
On the bright side, you're being avenged as I type this.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

It's okay, Vicious Love, I'll take Ulm then.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I am still left puzzled as to why I was unable to play in Try Something New, even when I had no problem with Yarnspinners. Part of the problem came from Mosehansen (to the best of my knowledge), but I should have still been able to connect to the server by brute forcing my way through (in other words, playing with connect/reconnect several times). Odd.

The current cast of players is as follow:
- Boron: Ermoria
- Deccan: Ulm
- Enforcer: Pangeae
- Vicious Love: Atlantis
- Myself: To be determined later

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Well, at least you have this game.
As scant consolation, you have been avenged, and a profitable vengeance it was, at that.
Am presently debating pros and cons of further exacting vengeance upon the world at large, in response to unhappy childhood and vague, ineffable ennui of undeath.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Vicious Lowe: Well, if T'ien Ch'i cannot rule over the world, then do take care of this matter yourself. It would work especially well if you happen to be a theme Ermor; killing all living beings should be an adequate punishment of their refusing to acknowledge the supremacy of T'ien Ch'i.

Boron: My apologises, I had forgotten to answer your post. While Sheap's server may indeed work, En Forcer has stated he cannot play with a regular TCP/IP server, and can only do PBEM.

Besides this:
- Does anyone have a suggestion regarding the map? Cradle may be nice (and is rather small to download), but would perhaps be too small if we are only five players.

- For the deadline, I would suggest something along these lines: the turn around should be of 48 hours (more can be considered if one player requires it), running at more or less the same time. However, if all player files do get in before the end of the first 24 hours, the turn would still run.

The advantages are that the turn will always run at the same hour (well, I will do my best in this field), and it gives a safety margin in case of email problems. The main problems are that the minimal time between turns would be of 24 hours (I wouldn't expect all the turn files to be sent in a matter of a few hours though; but who knows?), and the actual hour where the turn is proceeded may wary depending on real life and Murphy's Law.

Any comments, suggestions or complaints about the way to handle the deadlines?

- Incidentally, I intend to send a confirmation message when I receive your player file, the purpose being to avoid some email related problems (such as a player file lost in the mists of Internet). If you are against this, please do tell me so and I will not send such Messages to you.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I was going to suggest a 24 hour turnaround for the first 20 or 25 turns provided everyone agrees. After that, slow to 48 hrs?

Cause we all know how the first 20 turns in an SP game can be cranked out in like 30 minutes...

Fellas?

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Np Alneyan .

I am fine with your suggestion of 48 hours limit but more likely we have only about 24 hours for the first turns because they will come in rather quick .

With map for 5-6 players old aran might be quite nice .
Desert eye is though probably fairer because it is wraparound so the ones who start in the middle aren't disadvantaged while in Aran if you start in the middle of the map is a disadvantage .

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Oh and whatever map you guys want is fine with me.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Hmm, since this game hasn't started yet I'd like to change nations. I was planning to play Ulm BF, but I'd had a lot of trouble expanding with them early. I think Ulm BF is a little too "advanced" for me. I'll think about what nation to try and post again later. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Oh, and I'm okay with Alneyan hosting and playing. Heh, that's what we did for our SEIV KOTH game as I recall. What are we supposed to do next? E-mail pretender files to Alneyan?

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I'd like to play Pythium. I won't play however, if the map is going to be the original Cradle map.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I've decided to take man instead. You can't go wrong with longbows. Once Alneyan says everything is okay I'll e-mail the pretender file.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Graeme, is the matter with the original Cradle the problem of having very poor start provinces? The Version I have been using is Zen's modified Cradle (in Yarnspinners), and it fixes such problems if memory serves.

Deccan, if your Pretender will not change (depending on the map for example), feel free to email it to me. Longbows are a good value, but then, I am too fond of archers. And yes, we did the same in a SEIV rated game (outside KOTH, as KOTH games must be played on PBW according to the rules; Asmala might have been a tad suspicious if we had done our game while PBW was offline). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

It's not just poor starting provinces, all the provinces on the map are poor, and the terrain limits all armies to a crawl.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Isn't cradle with 221 provinces too big ?

Nice that you are in graeme this should be the first time we are together in a game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Oh yeah, it was a Slynky game. Anyway, I'll hold off e-mailing until everything's settled. Let me know what map file to download and from where.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I hadn't noticed that Cradle has lower income values; I guess that explains why I am having a tough time doing my regular Man opening then (even if my income is one of the highest for now).

I would prefer Desert Eye in your own list Boron, as it is a warp around map. Any other suggestion regarding the map?

The current cast of players is as follow:
- Boron: Ermoria
- Deccan: Man
- Enforcer: Pangaea
- Graeme Dice: Pythium
- Vicious Love: Atlantis
- Myself: Arcoscephale

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I do have a concern about the Desert Eye map. If a player starts in the neck between the two bodies of water, I think he's basically screwed.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Well, it should be possible to forbid the game from putting a player in such provinces. If memory serves, the command used would be #nostart. So removing provinces deemed very poor for a start should work out to resolve this matter.

Were you thinking about specific province numbers?

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Hmm, I actually need to use my brain for once. How annoying.

Okay, I just opened up the .map file and three provinces are already no-started: 8 (little island all by itself), 82 (the Desert Eye province) and 92 (cul-de-sac province next to the Desert Eye).

In addition to these, I suggest that the following should be nostarted as well:

1) Province 8 on a neck between two bodies of water. I actually had a start here while playing an SP game with an AI at either end. It has three land neighbours, two water neighbours.

2) Province 51 at the end of a mountain next to a body of water. Two land neighbours and one water neighbour.

3) Province 114, a peninsula. Two land neighbours, two water neighbours.

But really this is map with plenty of chokepoints, so some start locations are really a lot better than others. Just take a look at the map. Up to the other players if they think it's okay. I'm fine with it if the others are.

Atlantis will run riot on this map I bet, easy access to lots of places.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Say the word when you want pretender files mailed to you.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I'd like to jump in as Ulm. But will need some Tech Support from other players if your using 2.13 patch.
-Yc

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I'd like to join as Abysia unless the consensus is that blood nations are off limits here.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Yellow Cactus: thanks for reminding me to ask about the game Version! I could do either 2.12 or 2.13, and so do not care much either way. While 2.13 fixes some bugs (including cheating options), it also brings a couple of problems from what I heard (Alchemists' Stone and one other magic item).

Ighalli: I would have no problem with having a Blood nation in here.

You can start to email Pretender files, unless you feel that a map change will force you to change your Pretender design, or even to switch nations.

Speaking of the map, with the other matter brought up by Deccan, there is also the small size of Desert Eye that will become a problem. We are currently eight players (assuming both Yellow Cactus and Ighalli join in), which is probably a bit too crowded for Desert Eye. Karan might do the trick here; it should have enough provinces for Atlantis, and enough for land-based nations. As usual, feel free to comment on the map and/or to suggest others.

Lastly, here goes the current settings as discussed during this thread. My apologises for forgetting to update the first post previously.

- A PBEM game hosted by myself (not TCP/IP)
- Turnaround is set to 48 hours, and will run every 24 hours if everyone gets their files in before this moment. The turns should more or less run at the same hour of the day (as much as real life and Murphy's laws will allow).
- Independent Strength: 9 (as asked by En Forcer)
- Magic Research: Very Difficult
- Magic site frequency: 50
- Map: to be determined (Desert Eye? Karan? Another?)
- Version: either 2.12 or 2.13, depending on the preferred Version of most players.
- All else set as default

The current players are:
- Boron: Ermoria
- Deccan: Man
- Enforcer: Pangaea
- Graeme Dice: Pythium
- Ighalli: Abysia
- Vicious Love: Atlantis
- Yellow Cactus: Ulm
- Myself: Arcoscephale

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I'd prefer to play with v2.13. My pretender is in the mail!

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

If someone does not know my mail address (it should be displayed publicly in my profile), it is alneyan AT yahoo DOT fr (replace AT with @ and DOT with .)

If you would like to receive a notification when I receive your turn, I will be setting up a separate mail for this purpose. It will enable me to make an automated answer when I receive a mail on this address, and so you will know whether your mail has been received or not much more quickly. And if you do not wish to use this mail, you will only have to keep on using my regular mail address.

This mail will be available on dominions2@yahoo.fr (no need for spam protection here; spammers will only get more spam in return), but there will be no other difference with my standard mail.

Edit: However, the subject of these notification mails cannot be changed, and will be "Yahoo - Message d'Absence" (Away Message). Grr.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I just realized site frequency is still at 50(10 above normal, if I'm not mistaken). Methinks it's settled; With ordinary gem abundances, blood nations won't have an edge. At least, no more than an infinitesimal edge.
True, Mictlan can(Sort of) get by by only researching one path(Plus construction up to 4, for those sweet, sweet contracts), but they'll still need alteration/enchantment to make use of their summoned SCs, evocation and thaumaturgy(Or conjuration) for searching, and a bunch of other paths to exploit the full versatility of their priest-mages. And Abysia without evocation is hardly Abysia at all.
When all's said and done, I suspect Caelum and Ulm both need research far less than most blood nations.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I will be sending my pretender shortly. So far you guys are doing just fine figuring out the map. I'll go with whatever gets picked. No need to change or adjust my pretender.

All Hail CONIFEROUS! King of Berries!

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Hello

Is it not too late to jump on board with Marignon?

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Hello Blofeld, and welcome! It is not too late to join the game, as long as you do not mind our company. Feel free to bring up any suggestion or comment you may have about the map as well; this particular detail hasn't been decided yet.

On the matter of the game Version, we currently have two votes in favour of 2.13, and none for 2.12. So it would seem like we are going with 2.13 (if you are playing games using the 2.12 Version, you should be able to setup both the 2.12 and the 2.13 Version with the same installation of Dominions).

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

OK, I sent my pretender. Karan map seems OK to me. I don't recommend Parganos - it looks pretty and has nice chokepoints but suffers from the same problems as Cradle.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Assume I know nothing of computerizing....
What steps will I take to set up 2.13 without over-writing 2.12?
-Yc

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

The following steps should enable you to use both the 2.12 Version and the 2.13 patch.

1) Download the 2.13 patch.
2) Copy and paste your dom2.exe file that can be found in the Dominions 2 directory (C:\dominions2 by default). It will give you a second file called "Copy of Dom2.exe" (I am not positive about the "Copy of" part, since I am using a French translation of Windows).
3) Rename the "Copy of Dom2.exe" file in "Dom2_212.exe" (or any file name you would like).
4) Run the patch file ("dompatch213.exe") and apply it to your Dominions directory (which should be found automatically).
5) The patch will make changes to the original "Dom2.exe" file, which will effectively be patched to the 2.13 Version. The other executable file ("dom2_212.exe" in this example) remains unaffected however, and will be used when playing 2.12 games.

The 2.12 and 2.13 Versions should be close enough to be comptabible with each other. However, there will be problems with combat replays should you use the "wrong" Version in a game, but hopefully nothing more than that (at least, Shrapnel says so on the download page for the patch).

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Hmm...I believe that actually worked!
-Yc

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Probably we should hold off on map selection until we have a final player count.

Myself, I would prefer 2.12 as I don't like having to discover new problems as I go along. But it's a majority voting thing so I'd go with the majority.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

I'd like to jump in with Jotunheim; my vote would be for the 2.13 Version - someone needs to get a significant game going to kick the new Version's tires. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Hopefully by the time we get to the troublesome, game crashing construction-8 artifacts, Illwinter will have a new patch out with fixes.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Oh dear, now we're attracting the pros. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Okay with 2.13 now that you put it that way.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Welcome aboard Cainehill!

We will then be going the 2.13 way, as all the players who expressed a preference went with 2.13.

The current players are:
- Blofeld: Marignon
- Boron: Ermoria
- Cainehill: Jotunheim
- Deccan: Man
- Enforcer: Pangaea
- Graeme Dice: Pythium
- Ighalli: Abysia
- Vicious Love: Atlantis
- Yellow Cactus: Ulm
- Myself: Arcoscephale

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Is Karan decided on for the map, or is it still up in the air depending on whether more players join? I'm wanting to email my pretender after I know the map, if that's okay.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

As there has been no other map suggestion, we will be going with Karan. This map is available for download on Illwinter's site; click here for the direct download link.

All Pretender files have been received except Boron's (Ermor), Deccan's (Man) and Cainehill's (Jotunheim). So the game should start as soon as these Pretenders have been received.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

sent now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

On a sidenote, I am looking for a name for this game. If left to my choosing, you are likely to get stuck with an unimaginative name such as "Brainwashing", or even a Zorkian homage (somehow, I feel that "Dimwit Flathead" might not be such a good name for a Dominions game). So any name a tad more original would certainly be welcomed.

Re: MP game; very hard research. Any takers?
 

Working on my pretender now. Incidentally, I don't see a mention of it, but - renaming on, I trust?

For a name - "The_Wall"? ('We don't need no ... education' - Pink Floyd.)

Or "Not_stupid_just_slow", or hmmm.... "Brute_Force" - if research and intelligence doesn't work, what's left? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif