What kind of game would people like?
 

I just started a series of newbie games and they filled up insanely fast - we certainly still have an impressive flux of new players considering the game's been out more than a year now. In fact I think there're more new players than ever before, which is awesome.

However, I also just started a non-newbie game, and it's filling up unusually slowly. That's fine, I'll just leave it open for a while. But it made me think that when starting new games I just take an arbitrary guess at what people would like to play, in terms of which age, the number of players and the game settings. So - what would people like to play? Does Uakari not scratch your itch for some reason?

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

When I hosted games, I liked to run Dominion-based victory-condition games. I'm not sure such games avert the common win-by-acclaim scenario seen in many games, but something just seems *right* about having Dominion be the victory condition in a game of this name. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

Also, I prefer EA or LA to MA, which I notice is your current game setting, so I'd have skipped over it for that reason. Not that I never play MA, but I'm currently in one such game already.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

I prefer EA or MA, with difficult research. Between 10-15 provinces per player, somewhat prefer smaller groups so the game moves faster. 30 hour quickhost provides the perfect pacing. I like the commonly used mods. All other settings I'm pretty much neutral on.

I think the idea, voiced recently on the forum, of starting some games for players with mid-level experience (e.g. about 5 MP games or so) is great. I am just reaching that level, and although I still get beaten all the time and am clearly no match for the true veterans, there is a big difference with my first 2 or 3 MP games. At least I now manage to avoid most of the game-breaking newby mistakes in pretender/magic/scale picking (mostly).

Llamabeast, I have been (still am) very much tempted to join your latest MA game Uakari (btw, what kind of exotic animal is that?). Only reason I didn't sign up (yet) is that I am in 3 games already, all of which are past the beginning phase and turns start to take more time. I might be eliminated soon from at least 1 of those games though.

Other people might be in similar positions given that a lot of games have been starting over the past few months.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

I'm not joining any more games as I'm already in three and they're getting to the point that requires a lot of time to take turns. I'd be interested in any alower paced games (like Megatherium is going to be).

I'd also say that there have been way too many MA games started recently, try to look what has just been started and try to start a slightly different game.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

The problem with the win-by-acclaim is that alot of people take a long time to realize how comprehensively they have been beaten. It also appears it sometimes takes a little while for the player who has won to actually realize they have.

I have some direct experience with former outcome and none, directly, with the latter http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/Sick.gif

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

How about a game for Veterans only? I have never seen such a game, but it seems like it would be interesting. I'm not sure how you would qualify the players... game winners only would be too short a list, I think. Maybe you could judge by number of MP games played?

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

A LA game would be groovy. LA gets no love. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

I'm for any game where I can build up my nation without getting rushed.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

If you guys do a Veterans-only game I, and I'm sure plenty of others, want some kind of coverage.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

Less newbie games and more normal games! They need to cut their teeth somewhere... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

Yeah, I want a no-rush game too. And one that does not give advantage to rushers http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif And I want llamabeast in.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

I like epic games on large maps with many players. I prefer early and middle age and strong indys.
I would like to try some team game, too. But I have to finish some of the games I'm in before I join another one.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

I want a game that I will win. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Seriously, I would like to see some crazy game settings, Anything that changes up the rules.

There was one discussed (never went anywhere) that sounded uber-cool where players got to design thier own national troops with mods based on certain point rules, and they only get access to one pathof magic (like fire). And another where players would only be allowed to research one branch (such as construction).

I am greatly enjoying the no indy game, Foresti.

Strangly I did not like the mod nation only game i played.

I would like to see more late age. Also games with more provinces per player like around 40 per would be cool.

I would like to see a low or no magic game. Set research to very hard, sites on zero. Perhaps nerf the national spell casters and pretenders through modding.

How about newbie vs vet game with nerf mods for the vets. Lets see how good they really are.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

Thanks for all the neat ideas guys.

I am somewhat disinclined to set up a weird-settings game that I don't intend to play myself, and I won't be joining games for a little while (since I'm going to Thailand in April). And of course I can only be in (and therefore give proper attention to) a finite number of games anyway.

However, I hope you all know that I am always happy to host games on the LlamaServer! So if one of fancies trying something crazy, just organise it. I would kind of like it if you asked me first, but I will almost certainly say yes.

Actually I would really like it if more people organised games on the server. Because then there will be a greater variety of interesting games going on, and it will be less work for me.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

I'd like to see LA with no Ashen Empire or Dreamlands and possibly the site freq kicked up to MA level.

The question of provinces per player is tricky- it depends on the number of players. I like a fairly roomy map that gives a little space to develop in the early game, but if there are lots of players that makes the total map size so big that the end game becomes management nightmare for the survivors.

I also prefer some sort of victory conditions. More than once i have had to concede a game in which i was unbeaten because various, shall we say "less than stalwart", other players have prematurely declared the leader unstoppable, usually because they had most of the overrated elemental royalty or some other dang thing.

I played one game hosted by Reverend Zombie with the dominion victory he mentioned above, and it worked great. I do not understand the math involved well enough to set the level but RZ got it right. In the alternative, most VPs at turn x would do.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...art=1&vc=1

I think that this summarizes what peoples want http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. We have newbie (<2), we have "hardcore" (>10) and we have intermediate (2<x<10). The problem is to go from newbie to hardcore or to survive enough early games to know what a late game is http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

So what about some intermediate games to be filled by those people that begun 1 1/2 month ago 1 or 2 newbie games?

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

Huge games are the best. In my opinion. Like 16 players on massive maps. Woot. Other than that I have no preferences.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

I still haven't managed to join a game, so I'm looking for a newbie match.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

Actually, this gives me an interesting idea. Maybe a big huge team game with two sides, perhaps themed after the Titans vs the Greek Gods. Of course you might have some thematic problems unless you could make every faction Arcos. Maybe you could toss in Pythium for variety though. I kind of like the great big war with two sides concept though -- it would be different way to play the game. A Lord of the Rings theme would be cool too, and you would have more faction variety. Only thing is you would need more modded nations.

I think the thing that has been bugging me about Dominions lately is that everyone is busy minimaxing the crap out of the game mechanics, which makes the "story" of why there is a war to begin with starts to feel a little threadbare. And of course, no self-respecting strategy gamer sacrifices power for the sake of thematic correctness right? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

All the role-playing I've seen seems to be along the lines of "our powerful nation/god/whatever will crush yours for we are mightier", which is okay for a while, but starts to feel boring after a while. Maybe I've just been reading too much about WWII lately, but I want a good story to go along with my bloody mini-maxing war! [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon02.gif[/img]

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

I hope there are room for some team games. And some themed gamed like you are suggesting.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

I am not partial to eras. I don't care too much about mods/no mods. Matters little. Map choice is not a problem. I suck at all of it.

I only want a game with a 24 hour timer and one that doesn't blow up after 20 turns.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

Moderation: I agree completely, but there really is a lot of good roleplaying going on, if you read the right threads. There were a couple I read on the second or third page where the guys were having all sorts of adventures talking about their prophets fighting trolls or whatever. It owned.

Of course there are some people who are bad at it and break character immediately when other people don't play their way...IndyPendant comes to mind. But you have to take the good with the bad and you can just avoid guys like that if you need.

So don't give up hope! I much prefer that my nation works thematically. I absolutely don't care about min maxing and will probably do pretty poorly when it comes to actually playing. For instance I absolutely won't pick a pretender who doesn't fit perfectly with the nation concept (the Pheonix with Abysia makes no sense to me, for example, even though it's probably a great choice).

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

Hrm, with the game the way it is now, it might be possible to have a "forbidden magic" theme. For example, "evil" (blood, death, sorcery) magic vs "good" (fire, air, water, earth, nature) magic. Of course the elemental magics and nature aren't really good, but perhaps they could be neutral. And while some astral spells are "evil", like Master Enslave, some aren't, and some specifically target undead. So you'd have some interesting problems figuring out who is allowed to use what and what is forbidden. Maybe it could be addressed through modding at some point, though you can also just do it through the honor system once you agree on some rules.

And of course, you can think of all kinds of good thematic reasons for why the evil magic is forbidden and why some of the gods have banded together to purge the world of those who use it, etc.

Another problem is that I have heard these evil paths, blood, death, and astral are arguably the most powerful paths in the game. Of course, maybe you can come up with a good thematic reason for this, and maybe find other ways to balance it. Or you can also let the good guys use certain astral spells, barring spells that curse, call horrors, or enslave.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

@moderation: Check out the Primea thread. I´d say we´ve got some nice role playing going on there. Acouchi was good to, but much of the role playing there has migrated into private PMs now.

I would like games with a focus on role playing. Like with a rule you have to introduce your pretenter properly with a personality, motivation etc.. And contribute to the forum thread a little bit every turn. There could also be a main story created beforehand, a kind of scenario.

I would like to organize such a game when I have finished my newbie games and got some more experience, but that may take a while.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

I like the good vs. evil idea.

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

This sounds interesting, which threads were these?

Ah, but the difference is I do prefer to minimax as much as possible within the rules. I'm competitive that way. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Of course the downside to this is that every nation starts to feel the same, like an evil empire that wants to beat everyone else. However if there are commonly accepted rules limiting what you can do to more thematic choices, well I think that could be fun. That way you don't have to limit yourself strategically to become more thematically enjoyable. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

Okay, I don't want to hijack Llamabeast's thread too much so refer to this thread for more details on my crazy Good vs Evil game idea. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: What kind of game would people like?
 

Here's another idea: Design a large, perhaps pie-like map with each nation owning a slice of the pie. You could separate each slice perhaps with some mountains or other terrain as desired. At the beginning of the game the map is very large, but as time goes on, the map shrinks as provinces towards the edge slowly die to population 0. Like being surrounded by an invisible Ermor. Anyway, it would be some fancy modding but it could save some late game management issues while allowing room to expand early on.