Forseti (Open)
 

Another Halls of Valhalla spawn, this one has different rules than usual, so pay attention.

The map will be Edi's version of Cradle, with all independents removed. You will be using the custom balance scales and pretender mods. Not the entire CB mod- it's not up-to-date with 3.10. Worthy heroes 1.8 will be in play. All necessary files will be uploaded in a zip later.

1 Water/7 land OR 2 Water/10 Land nations
Will result in 20per/24per OR 10per/20per
Difficult Research, strength 4 independents
Middle Era
Graphs off

There will be a lot more territory than usual, but strength four should prevent hopeless starts, and should reduce the casulties for non-bless nations, helping them to keep up with the blessers. Difficult research will be in play, and indies out, so national troops will be needed more than regular.

This game is a PBEM (Play By Electronic Mail) game that will be hosted by the Llamabeast's dedicated server. I will be administering the game. No other players can see your turn- please do not use a password on your pretender. If you do use a password, be sure to send in your last turn if defeated, and switch to AI if you have to leave.

The first turn will be 48 hours.
Every turn after that will be a thirty-turn quickhost. When enough people ask/agree to it, the timer will be extended to fifty hours.

Nations Taken/Players Joined (5/7) still open...

R'lyeh: IndyPendant OR BigAndScary
T'ien Ch'i: BigAndScary OR IndyPendant
Bandar Log: FAJ
Jotunheim: Cor2
Marignon: Aethyr
Pangaea: Parcelt
Mictlan: vfb
Man: Whollaborg

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

I think, with the Holidays coming up, I will forswear any new games until after the New Year. That said, this seems like a very interesting game.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Well, when you change my mind, check out my Halls of Valhalla thread. I don't start new games often, but when someone posts in that thread, they get a big say in the settings/mods.

Once spawned, though, I'm focused on recruiting and getting up and running- seperate threads like this won't see much change to game settings.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

I would be interested in this game. Have not decided the nation yet.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

I am interested in starting a new game, but I am not sure I understand the rules. What do you mean when you say all the independants are removed? What do you mean by a Halls of Valhalla spawn?

Pencil me in, though.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Watch out for Whollaborg. He's a tough cookie! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Whollaborg: Duly Noted. Will be glad to have you on board if you join.
FAJ:
Q: What do you mean when you say all the independants are removed?
A: IndyPendant has proviced a custom .map file. You will still have to fight independants for control of provinces- but you will be unable to recruit any units or commanders there unless you a). build a fort there or b). find a magical site there. You'll pretty much have to rely on national troops and summons.

Q: What do you mean by a Halls of Valhalla spawn?
A: Simply put, whenever I organize a game, it always starts out first in this thread:
Halls of Valhalla
I do this for several reasons
1). It gives me a convenient place to put links explaining the llamaserver and links for me to find all the games I'm managing. 2). It gives me a place to organize, hammer out settings, ask questions, answer questions and all that. I've learned that once a game is declared open, its not a good time to tinker with maps and mods and such. People are impatient to get started, and if I take too long on modifying a map, we'll lose a few. So... in HoV, I declare a game open, accept a few players, but primarily plan out the settings and options and mods for a game, taking requests. Its kinda the slow pre-game phase. When its ready to go, I create a new thread that usually gets a lot of people joining much more quickly.

If there are a lot of games already open, I tend to allow more variation in the settings, mods and all that. These games tend to take a week or more to decide the settings, let alone start. This game, Forseti, took some time while I checked out mods and maps for compatibility, and indypendant made the noIndie modification.

If there are not many new games open, then I tend to go with the 'standard' settings outlined in the first post and get things started fast. In my 'standard' games, theres no mods to download or organize. I may tweak the rules a little, such as if everyone wants graphs ON, but nothing big.

Long enough?

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Sounds like an interesting game, count me in! I like this map, and the difficult research.

I'll have to think a bit on what nation to play.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Btw LP, furthering our discussion in the Elli thread ; ), I would be happy to send you two updated .map files with 7 land/1 water and 10 land/2 water starting positions preselected. --I want to keep situations like random selection causing three players to be 3 provinces away from each other, while three others have 8 provinces to the nearest neighbour, or such like that. I would try to select starting positions that would be as fair as possible, and *which* position each player gets would still be random--which both allows still considerable uncertainty and randomness, and minimizes any potential bias on my part. I would take into consideration such things as corners, expansion directions, province attributes (such as wasteland clumps, large pop and multisite specials) and so forth when I did so.

What do the rest of you think?

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

PashaDawg: i am blushing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif

IndyPendant and the rest: presenting all the startlocs would be fair if any of the players have knowledge on those. This information adds few things into the "very early strategical phase" when one has to consider which are the priority objectives close to other nations. I'd like us to see the startlocs.

...still pondering the nation.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

IndyPendant, I think what you are describing is exactly how starting positions should be determined and allocated, I'm all for it.

A starting position for all players that is as neutral and unbiased as possible is essential for any good and fair game (or fight, if you will http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif)

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Sounds good, LP.

Sign me up for Bandar Log.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Ah yes parcelt, my poor eyes (=brain).

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

RE: IndyPendant & Map

I have no objections to IndyPendant's offer. However, I would like to remind people I am administering the game, and _not_ playing in it.

So, I see three options.
1). Random start positions
2). Public non-random start positions by IndyPendant
3). Private non-random start positions by me. These can be nation-specific, or not.

I have no personal stake in the matter, so we'll go with whatever you guys decide unless an executive (read: nobody else makes up their mind) mandate is required.

I'm more concerned with how many players will join, and etcetera. Feedback on that is appreciated, but the default plan is:
Plan A). Wait a week. If no other sea nation joins or recruitment is slow, we'll go for the lower number of players. If another sea nation joins or we are close to our target, we'll go for the larger number.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Hello I would like in. I would like to play Jotunheim please.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Marignon please

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

We're at seven now. I'll aim for the 12 player setup, then.

These games really do fill up faster when I kick em into their own thread. Since you came up with the original idea for this game, IndyPendant, would you please come up with the starting positions and share them? After you're done with that, I'll upload a nice mod package, unless everybody already has all the necessary components?

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

I'd like to join as Mictlan, please.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

I have made my choice. It is time to see if legions of Pythium equals their fame.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Nope, I don't have CBM. And all the links in the post are broken. So i for one would like your (mod) package LP. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

I will give Pangea a try.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

A Change in plans,

I would like to have the MAN instead of the Pythium as the hydras new regen might have some problems (possible bug, seethe bug thread).

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

3 days since anyone joined. At what point do we run with what we have?

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

I'd like to join as Ulm.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

If you need more I can try as Agartha.
I have never modded Dominions (added them that is.)
But I have done it for harder games so im sure i can figure it out. They are easy to turn off right?

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

To add the mods, just unpack them into your mods directory.

You can select the mods (for creating your pretender and starting the game the first time) by specifying them on the command line like this (example only, not for this game):

dom3 -M "heroes1_8.dm" -M "CBcomplete_1.1.dm"

Or you can start the game normally and select the mods by clicking 'Preferences', then 'Mod Preferences', then select the ones you want.

To deselect mods, just click 'Preferences', then 'Mod Preferences', then deselect the ones you don't want.

Hopefully Lazy_Perfectionist will provide an attachment of the mods we will using. Please? I'm not sure which parts of CB to use.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Abyssia here, please.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

oceania please

Edited map.
 

...And with that, I've created a map with 10 land and 2 water starting points. I had *no idea* what I was putting myself in for when I volunteered for this. --Still, it was fun, even if it did take quite a long time to work out. ; )

Before you look at the map, I'd like to add a caution: creating a perfectly fair map was absolutely impossible, of course. I did the best I could though!

Here are the starting provinces I selected: 76 (Oceania), 78 (R'lyeh), 18, 38, 37, 103, 99, 207, 172, 196, 148, 131. (The land provinces are listed here in a roughly counter-clockwise manner, starting from the lower left corner, and will be randomly assigned to the players once the game starts.)

Now, most of the rest of this post discusses the reasons why I chose the ones I did, plus a few minor changes I made to the map. Feel free to stop now if that doesn't interest you.

When I selected the starting water provinces, I found that one--76--was an easy choice. For the second, though, I had a number of choices, none of which were ideal. Whichever choice I made gave a totally unfair advantage to one water nation or another. I finally settled on 78 for R'lyeh, so that Oceania has at least a half-chance to gain some provinces that R'lyeh would otherwise get by default. Oceania needs resources though, and 78 has only two water neighbours, so Oceania couldn't start there; R'lyeh gets it.

It's not a perfect solution, but it's the best I could come up with. ; )

For the land starts, I tried to pick provinces that a) had only 4 or 5 neighbours, no more or less; b) had at least 2 forest, mountain, or border mountain neighbours; and c) were at least 5 provinces from the nearest player (not including water players). Now. This was *damned hard*, and eventually I realized I could only do it fairly by changing the properties of certain provinces:

--For start 37, provinces 37, 41, and 54 are no longer Waste, 41 becomes a Border Mountain, and 25 becomes a Forest.
--For start 38, provinces 38 and 39 are no longer Waste.
--For start 103, province 93 becomes a Forest as well as Farm, and 94 becomes a Border Mountain.

Again, these starts aren't perfect, but they're the best I could come up with. And they'll be one *helluva* lot better than completely random starts! ; )

--That having been said, we still have some time before the game begins. If you have any suggestions you think would be better, please let me know.

Re: Edited map.
 

I spent an enormous amount of time trying to choose fair start positions for my 8-player games on Parganos, and only moderately succeeded - it really is hard isn't it?

Re: Edited map.
 

Can we get all the mods we need so we can start building our pretenders?

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

I'd like to join as Abysia.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Hey frozenfalcon, revZombie already got abysia. Sorry. Want something else?

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

I would like to sign up as Eriu in this match

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Ooohsnap, sorry, but if anyone has not already left i think this map should have been filled with enough players.
We're waiting LazyPerfectionist kick the game up.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Ah alright, its ok then

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

we seem complete, so let's go let's go!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

if we can get started in the next few days that would be good, I am afraid I'll have to be asking for a break as of this Sunday for a few days because of christmas and travelling... or if people like lots of time to set up pretenders we could start the 26th or something? what's the plan?

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Given the timing of the holiday(s) the latter probaly makes more sense. What would you say, five days after the mods are distributed to build/test and get pretenders in? Make sense to everyone?

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

We still need the mod pack, too.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Yup.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

I wasn't sure so I had to double check. I'm in another game w/LP and in that tread he posted that his internet had died out and he may need an extension.

So, I'll wait 24 hours and see if he's back on line. If not, I'll see if Llamabeast can help with putting the mod package together and setting up the game so folks can get their pretenders in.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

That seems likely. LP wouldn't just flake out he is always around. I am just glad to hear its not more serious than a downed internet.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Amen to that.

Re: Forseti (Open)
 

Hmm, yeah, LP has definitely dropped off the map in the Elli game. I hope he's okay. : (

I've got all the appropriate mod files on my computer--at home. I will upload a mod pack sometime tomorrow, so we can play around with Pretenders. If LP doesn't show up soon, I'll talk with llamabeast and maybe take over setting up and moderating the game myself, after Christmas.

Here are the players we have so far, if I understand correctly. Please let me know if anything needs changing:

R'lyeh: BigAndScary
T'ien Ch'i: IndyPendant
Bandar Log: FAJ
Jotunheim: Cor2
Marignon: Aethyr
Pangaea: Parcelt
Mictlan: vfb
Man: Whollaborg
Ulm: danbo
Agartha: Cerlin
Abysia: Reverend Zombie
Oceania: Ferrosol

Forseti Mods
 

Okay. First of all, Worthy Heroes 1.8 can be downloaded here.

Conceptual Balance is a strange mod; it seems only able to be downloaded in the original thread sporadically at best. So I've uploaded a zip file that has the 1.1 Pretenders and Scales Complete Balance mods.

I'll check with llamabeast after Xmas to see about getting the game (finally!) started.

Re: Forseti Mods
 

so we use the worthy heroes and the uploaded mod.

anything else?

Re: Forseti Mods
 

I am starting to worry about LP. This is a bit long for you run of the mill internet outtage. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/fear.gif

Re: Forseti Mods
 

I hope he is ok, You never know what random stuff can sneak out of the world and hit you.
I got hit by a drunk driver about a year ago this time so i understand disappearing.
Im sure it is probably just family related things. It is a holiday season and they have a way of taking ones time.

Re: Forseti Mods
 

I was just thinking earlier today, Cerlin, that it was you who was hit by a drunk driver and I was glad to see you back (didn't remember the name right away - I find it difficult to remember forum names). I hope you managed to make a full recovery.

I also really hope LP is okay. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Forseti Mods
 

In my way Ilamabeast, thanks! It took a while and even longer to get back into dominions, but thankfully my life is on track again...which is the important part!

I remember we were in a blitz/newbie game together back then. You have definitely come a long way. It is fun to see you are still around here.