Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

*bump*

Re: Solicitation for Advisors and Alternates in NaV II
 

*Bump*

Re: Positions still available in NaV II
 

*Bump*

Alternates and Advisors slots still open!
 

Are you a tender young noob?:o

Are you fresh and green? :D

Are you tired of playing in games and getting wiped out quicker than you can say "Dominions3"? :cry:

Are you tired of maps and game settings that don't give ya any breathing room to research, experiment, and explore? :banghead

Would you like to learn directly from the some of the most experienced players in the game? :happy:

Well, Noobs & Vets II: Days of Infamy is what you've been looking for. :idea:
Don't go it alone if you don't have to. Check us out today and sign up as an alternate on the team of your choice.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=45227

Are you a caring and unselfish experienced player who wants to mentor and help out other players? :angel

Make a difference today, by pledging your assistance and joining up as a team advisor, alternate, or standby Captain. Or join the New Player Helpdesk and commit to helping noobs on a regular basis. Visit the links below today:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=45227
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44924

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Seriously, can you get any worse when it comes to spamming? This thread has 4 posts in a row by you, and now you're once again using it as just another topic to advertise for your pathetic game. Reported for spam.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Might as well report me for calling sept a dip**** while you're at it.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Well you know, Ballbarian did tell me I could retain one thread for recruiting purposes (the multiple posts are seperated by several days each, a week in one instance). Only using it occassionaly. That is what I had done/am doing.

So report it as spam if you like. But don't take the moderator role into your own hands please. Glad you like the game and me. I love you too. And I welcome you as always. ;)

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

he told you that you can have 1 thread for recruiting. you already have the main thread in the MP forums for that exact purpose. therefore this thread is against the rules as Ballbarian himself told you. I'm sorry to say this but this is purely spam, and you're way over board with all those different threads you opened about NaVII, you have 1 thread, like everybody else, and it's more than enough.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Blackguard you are not completely correct. I am quoting here:

"... I would limit your game to a single thread, maybe two at most. (One for recruiting and one for the actual game.)"

I have only posted every week or so on this one, so this is hardly spam. If you guys keep posting though, you will simply keep this thread at the top of the list. That works for me, but was not my intention at all.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

So the fact that your game is manifestly inferior in its recruitment success compared to others gives you the right to spam threads in an attempt to fill it?

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Please, I'll have to agree with others, let this nonsensical recruitment posting and advertising end. I personally also grow sick and tired of seeing a NaV ad thread everywhere I look. If people are not interested in your game, perhaps you should turn to look a bit closer on the settings of the game in question, instead of trying to recruit people for it for whoknowshowmany weeks.

This is my opinion. You don't have to agree with it, but I think it'll start to be the time to bring it up, I'm certain I'm not the only one besides these few gentlemen here.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

These are all actually good points, so you should heed them, Septimius Severus. You are not going to gain anything by alienating large swathes of the board MP community and you are certainly doing yourself no favors if that alienation causes fallout that I and the other mods have to deal with.

If the same things are being reported by half a dozen different users and not for the first time, it starts to be telling.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Edi, you are one of the mods so I will honor what you say and will refrain from using a secondary thread if the mods are against it. I was just doing what I thought Ballbarian had indicated was permissble in the quote above. No cause in my estimation for Sombre to jump in with an insult or any other negative comments about the game. Just let the thread operate for its intended purpose which was occasional/targeted recruiting, that is all I really wanted.

All starting positions are actually filled right now, so I was just looking to fill the traditionally tougher to fill alternate and advisor positions. That is all.

I beleive firmly in constructive posting. Don't run down a game because you don't agree with the settings or you don't like the admin. And Sombre, I also believe that if ya can't say something good about someone, it is best not to say anything. That insult above is not gentlemenly at all. But I say you have the right to express that opinion if the mods allow it.

I actually wouldn't mind turning this post to something perhaps more constructive than just recruiting if it bothers people so. Say a discussion on the benefits and drawbacks of direct connect for team games (although it may need to be moved to another forum). Does anyone have any opinions regarding direct connect or PBEM for team games?

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Benefits: If you don't have a set of automated scripts to handle email, then direct connect is easier on the players. If everybody who is playing is going to be connected for the entire duration of the game, then file transfer is made easier.

Drawbacks: Requires the server to run copies of Dominions constantly instead of when needed. Passwords are needed on all games to prevent everyone from just downloading everybody's turn. You don't get the turn emailed to you to let you know that it's time to play. The server requires a static IP.

Team games are no different from normal games in the server requirements for each player, unless you're cheating by having every person's turn be actually played by one person.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Don't highjack the thread by moving it off topic. If you want to seriously discuss direct connect vs. PBEM, then start a new post. That's a reasonable topic although it's been beaten to death. The result is that we have both options kindly donated by forum gurus.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Thanks for the reply Graeme. Yes, I was thinking that direct connect for a team game would facilitate team play more so than PBEM. If a substitute or an alternate were needed to come in, if PBEM and your playing on Llamaserver, you've got to go through the whole route of changing the e-mail address for the player, then requesting a turn resend and so forth, then you have to do it again when the normal player resumes. With direct connect, that sub/alternate would just need the password. And a team could use the same password for all of it's pretenders if they wanted. Making subbing a breeze if you know the team password. According to Gandalf, passwords don't need to be unique. But even if different for each team member, only the team would know the passwords.

I think it would also allow captains or advisors to view the turns of other players on their teams more easily so that they could gauge the strategic situation.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

while we're switching subjects mid thread, what about allowing mods in newbie games? CBM is the most popular mod around, yet NaVII as well as a few other newbie games stick to vanilla. to me it seems counter intuitive, cause eventually everyone will need to acquaint him/herself with CBM... also what about other mods? such as the various mod nations(mostly made by Sombre mind you)? some of them are growing in popularity, so they should at least be taken into consideration as well...

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

That is completely lame 12lackgu4rd. Only by playing a dozen or more team games under the guidance of a capable vet is a noob qualified to work with something so l33t as CBM.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

I think generally some newbie games opt for vanilla to first aquaint players with how the game plays out of the box. Starting out, I really didn't know enough about battle mechanics, units, magic, and so forth frankly to be able to tell the difference between CBM or Vanilla (aside from the pretender changes).

CBM is quite comprehensive in it's changes to the game. If you play vanilla first, if might give you a greater appreciation for the changes made by various other mods including CBM. You can then make an informed decision as to what mods you prefer playing with. I think everyone should have choices though.

I guess also too having fewer mods, means less things you've got to download. Some noob players may also not be that familiar with how you enable mods for certain games and where to put them, etc. Mods that make changes to pretenders need to be enabled on pretender creation, whereas other mods might not.

As far as whether you learn more playing alongside vets or against vets, that is possibly debatable. It might be safe to say if your a complete noob and playing against a seasoned vet head to head without any help (such as in a FFA non-diplomacy type game), you might not survive long enough to learn very much.

A single team game can teach you a lot. You learn from the other players in the team (and also from the enemy), you learn how to work together, how different nations interact, which can help you in non-team games when dealing with alliances and so forth. You can play alot of FFA type games and get eliminated quickly before you might learn from your mistakes. Generally, I am in favor of games and map configurations that allow noobs time to experiment, research, and perhaps learn from their mistakes in the game they are currently in, without necesarrily having to worry about getting rushed or overwhelmed at the start.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

You can also join the newbie only games with coaches offering support. Those games start in a day, have 4-6 players, and have a coach along for the ride. They end in a month or two. Great learning experience and I vastly prefer them for learning to huge big team games.

When I joined NaV I, I thought it would be a great learning opportunity. Frankly, it was much less than my other 4 games started at the same time. Why? Mainly because it was so slow. And secondly because gank the noobs is just as prevalent in a big team game as any FFA game. Two of us noobs were ganked by another team and destroyed in 20 turns. We crippled along after that but really it was game over. What do you learn from that?

And did the team help? Frankly no it didn't. It basically let us die.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Well, actually you are to blame your team for that because by letting you die they died themselves 100%. So, basically the game concept is fine, the problem is in who is called a vet and why. Also, team game and regular MP are two different things. A person may be a fantastic MP player and do very poor in a team game despite he is called a vet. That's quite usual.
And there're the opposite examples. I played some game with chrispedersen and, although it was rather long ago, I never thought he was a really good player. And he was not. But after having read the NaV forums of the chris' team I understood that he is a really good captain even if he is still not the uber-level player. I'm absolutely sure that people who played alongside him, learned a lot.
That's what it's all about. You just happened to play in the wrong team, believe me.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Ano:

I had to read your post a couple times. There's a gramatical problem in the first sentence which had me misunderstanding it. I believe you mean that my team failed by letting me die. I agree.

My point was about using team games to learn to play Dominions. I'd break it down a couple more ways.

1) Team games don't stop noob ganking from my experience. I've played 3 team games and they aren't any better than FFA for that.

2) Big team games are brutally slow. Therefore, while you learn hopefully from good players you can learn a heck of a lot faster playing in smaller games. Blitzes, small team games, small FFA.

3) Your mileage may vary. Which is much like you say. ChrisP is incredibly dangerous in a team game because he's a tyrant :) So his team plays like one big player and doesn't make many mistakes. Guys on his team learned massively. No matter how good a captain is, if he can't afford time for lot's of coaching you might as well be playing on your own.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Yes, that's what I meant. English is not my native language, so sorry for that.
Everything depends on a personality. Some people don't even need to play much to be terribly effective, the others will play for ages and learn nothing besides the basics. The examples are numerous and it is especially true for Dominions as a very complex game. So, personality is a key to everything.
When you join the team game, especially the one like Sept's, you need to understand what you want from it. Play for fun or learn? If you want to play for fun, then indeed it is even worse than a regular MP because it is slow, complex, leaves little place for improvisation etc. But if you want to learn, the first thing you need to do choose your captain. That's terrifically important, maybe more than anything.
Yes, and that is where you should learn. Good captain will explain each and every of his decisions in much detail and always leave an option to act alternatively if you're able to prove it's better. Is it tyranny? Well, maybe, to some extent. It resembles the army structure more and that's why it is efficient. The difference is that in the army you're not given explanations or place for alternative thoughts. Can you learn from it? I think yes.

Not only time, he should also have the wish to do it. Only then he can be called a good captain.

p.s. I'd suggest that the title of this thread is renamed. It makes me nervous :) :)

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

not renamed, more like closed, because there is already another thread for the actual game itself... this thread started as another advertisement of Sept for his game, and than, as always, he deflected by changing the subject to something not directly NaVII related...

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Some interesting discussion on team games, which could benefit readers.

I think basically you get out of team games what you put in. As with anything. I know I enjoy communicating and working with others.

Maerlande, I'm sorry you didn't have the experience you hoped for in that particular game. I've played in FFA games as well and didn't get all that I hoped for, but it hasn't stopped me from joining them.

I don't know if DrP, targeted individual noobs on a team or there were other factors involved. I would wager though that, the confluence of events that led to the early attacks by Neifelheim probably had more to do with proximity, early conflicts, diplomacy, nation strengths and weaknesses, and so forth. Generally though, you stand a better chance with allies than without them.

In a game with more experienced players (or even players of the same experience level, you know the saying two heads are better than one) on your team you can learn from them and the enemy at the same time (this was one the things people asked for after the NvV series (to play with vets on the same team), whereas facing just enemies in non-diplomacy games you really only learn from what you can discern of the enemy while your busy removing his axe from your skull. :)

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Sept, he cannot read this. He is banned. If you want him, you have to go to the other forum.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Actually I think he can read it. We tend to have 5 times as many unregistered lurkers as registered people so Im pretty sure its viewable even if he cant respond

Of course, whether or not he wants to might be a different matter

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

He is IP banned actually. (His words).

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Yeah, maerlande is IP banned, so no amount of account juggling is going to let him respond. Nor should you probably be saying such a thing. That sounds naughty of you.



And for the record we never targeted noobs specifically on our team. It just was advantageous for us to hit who we did at the time. We needed to clear kailasa off of caelum, so that's who got hit. And yomi was in dire straights for most of the game.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Sorry. How was I supposed to know?

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

I was joking with you, in case that wasn't clear :)

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Actually, I just finished the last NvV game and it had it's share of arguments, rollbacks:rolleyes:, bickering, NUMEROUS comings and goings of players, and a failed ending (from my perspective).

However, I was under chrispederson's EXPERT leadership. I have never played against him so his expertise as a player I can't answer for other than what I saw in this one particular game.

But the guy KNOWS this game, inside and out, front to back, and has strategies that only fail because either you let him down (as a team) or the other team makes a Sun Szu like move.

You want to learn this game, play with chris as your captain. He will push you, make you scream, and you wonder what he is doing...but once you catch on, your mouth will drop(Of course we also had Squirrelloid on our team who also is very, very good).

I am NOT saying the other captains where not great. I am only saying that from my experience you could do a LOT worse than play with chris as your captain (and yes using lower case for his name is the way he uses it).

I have played in 2 of these games. And for me other than the learning experiance I got watching good players, two was more than enough for me.

Re: Welcome home noobs. Click here!
 

Personally I was impressed with ChrisP in that game for his management skills.
He quickly came up with procedures and coordinating policies. And he was right on top of problems.
Im not saying that I think all team captains should operate that way. Its definitely not my style.
But what he did, he did well. I couldnt fault that.