Mp etiquette
 

Looked around and can't seem to find a good thread on MP play do-s and don't-s. Off the top of my head I'm wondering about NAP binding, private pm, forum broadcast/smearing enemy info for instigation, making backroom deals ...etc

As it seems like I'm about to play in a MP game, was wonder if anyone can enlighten me what is generally allowed and what's not.

Edit: oops, this should go into MP forum...

Re: Mp etiquette
 

Here's a good place to start for the basics.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com//showthread.php?t=32050

Re: Mp etiquette
 

thanks a ton! the search didn't pick this up >.< (at least not in the first 3 pages)

Re: Mp etiquette
 

MP etiquette:
1) Try not to stale
2) Don't just stop playing because you're bored/losing/etc..
3) Don't just set AI for the above reasons
4) If you must stop playing, find a sub
5) Don't suck more than is reasonably expected. (Failure to expand to at least ~10 provinces year 1 is inexcusably bad with most nations on standard maps and settings). Ie, some basic competence is expected. Less so in new player games, but even then, you can learn how to expand against indies in SP, so there's no reason not to do so. This mostly applies to expansion phase - getting clobbered while fighting against another player is part of the learning process with MP games.

That's really about it. Unless the game has specific expectations, diplomacy is based on 'how much do you care about short-term advantage vs. the diplomacy metagame', ie, Machiavellian with likely chances to reap what you have sown. Do feel free to announce whatever intel you think gives you an advantage, or trade it privately for profit. Make up intel when its to your advantage. Get on a soapbox and get your propaganda machine going. Whatever floats your boat.

Re: Mp etiquette
 

Sounds about right. though I can't find an exact read on whether agreements are binding, my searches turned up some debates on that issue, I guess it's game specific and up to host. I'll assume it's non-binding unless stated.

btw loved your LA Ryleth guide! The only thing I'm debating is whether to take luck for MA r'yleth despite order, for the void gate summoning...

Re: Mp etiquette
 

I think the "dont suck" is a bit harsh but I must admit it is rather expected.

On the other hand I will point out I often see conversations where new players are told "Skip solo because it sucks. Jump into MP and learn fast." We cant have both. Solo play is where they can spend lots of time quitting the game if it turns against them to just start another. So going AI at the first hit, or failing to keep up with the other players, is automatic fallout of the "jump on in" syndrome. (not to mention that some people actually turn out to like solo)

Re: Mp etiquette
 

There's a reason why I spent so much time qualifying 'don't suck'. Its mostly meant in the context of expansion, where you really should have test driven your year 1 plan a couple times before showing it on primetime.

By skip SP people mean 'its not worth playing a game against the computer', and very much not 'don't practice expansion strategies'. Year 1 is the only part of SP i've played in a year at this point, but I probably spend as much time on year 1 run-throughs as actual MP game turns.

Re: Mp etiquette
 

I've actually did hours of yr 0-2 simulation playthrough on my upcoming MP game (my 1st) without knowing its semi-requisite (or good practice, rather).

My playthrough narrowed my pretender choice down to 2 setup, but still haven't yield any conclusive choice between luck or misfortune For MA R'yleth. I'm starting to think that with luck vs Misf its impossible to playtest lol due to the random nature, a good set of event with gold / hero in first 6 months makes such an enormous difference if you get it...

Re: Mp etiquette
 

It's possible, but difficult. It simply takes using a lot of time and information to find the averages.

Re: Mp etiquette
 

Well order/misfortune and a dash of growth seems most consistent and I'd go with that normally, in this case I'm biased toward getting better void summons (I'm crazy about the dreamland!) even though that alone probably doesn't justify getting luck on a gold hungry nation like MA R'yleth. LA R in that respect is much easier as you get better void summon (or chance of) in all your province under your dominion... and not like you need to buy chaff

Re: Mp etiquette
 

The more important considerations with luck vs. misfortune are:

unlocked events:
-Can you handle barb and knight attacks with your PD? How much PD? (Only happens under misfortune - see Edi's thread about unlocked events).
-Do you want access to the events unlocked by high luck (or Luck AND other scale you're taking)

Gem Income:
luck will get you more gems, and more variety of gems, than not having luck will. (Especially when combined with magic scales). This can be important for diversification or just funding a summon-based strategy. While unpredictable, more gems is more gems.

Heroes:
There is a 3% chance per turn of getting a hero +-1% per point of luck/misfortune (as appropriate). So Luck 3 has a 6% chance of a hero per turn, which is something like a 50% chance of seeing at least one hero by the end of year 1. Note that each point of misfortune is actually worse for your cumulative chances at a hero than each point of luck is an improvement. (The most obvious being going from 1->0% chance from Mf2->3, but Mf1->2 halves your chances at a hero every turn, whereas 0->Mf1 only decreases it by a third). Depending on your nation, you may or may not care. (Some nations have good heroes, others don't. Some nations can get magic diversity via heroes).

Re: Mp etiquette
 

I've pored over the event list and shivered at the death/misfortune combo haha, and high magic/luck combo unlocks 1 or 2 very very good events, though I'm not sure how the event selection mechanic work, the chance to actually score those unlocked super event could be very very small (I'm happy with the +1-2k events!).

What gets me for MA/LA Ryleth is how exactly luck affects void spawns, e.g. +10% successful summon per point? +10% chance to get one grade higher? Do you need luck 3 to unlock vastness? does luck pendant on summoner affect summon (as an easter egg i guess)? for LA, does it impact your non-cap province void spawn? (I seem to get more void creatures in random province with luck, but hardly conclusive). Code diving would be very enlightening here...

Re: Mp etiquette
 

Death/Misfortune is fine so long as you dont run both to 3.

It all boils down to probabilities. The doomsday event is a plague in your capital - pretty much everything else is just annoying or inconvenient. Basically only on your very first turn of the game, when your only prov is your capital are you in serious danger. And I think that the devs said they actually protect against this for the first few turns? Once you have X provinces, your chance of your capital being plagued is only ever 1/X - and thats not even including the low chance of a plague happening as the event you get!

IMO, Death/Misfortune is a point mine.

Re: Mp etiquette
 

Well even non-doomsday event can cripple you in the first few turns. I've had more then a couple of unrest event on Turn 2 even with luck sometimes, a 40-50 unrest in capital on T2 kills my expansion rate by a good third or so in the 1st year. It's one of my unspoken fears in playing MP games: getting unrest event in the first turn.

Re: Mp etiquette
 

Sure, anything can happen. But its all about the probabilities. Play it safe and lose like 60 design points. Or gamble on expanding faster than a bad event could cripple you and have a better pretender or better scales. I like the later.