[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Jasper:

quote:

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Originally posted by Keir Maxwell:
In all my PBEM and SP play in Dom1 and 2 I've never got to cast a 9th level spell.

Never? Strange... I found games with shifting alliances to often Last longer.

I'm curious, do you tend to play on small maps with permanent alliances? That's the only way I can imagine games consistently having such low research.

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I tend to play with no alliances or team games. As the years goes on most PBEM games I'm involved in include a fair number of players I've known since a teenager but who now live far away. As we play many games together ruthless stab in back type games are not the best way to go. There is also generally a feeling that if the game is as good as over then let the lead player win and get onto the next game as most if not all of us don't not enjoy playing monster sized games at all. Once the game goes far enough it becomes a MM nightmare and this is true of other PBEM games we played before finding Dom.

While I do understand the phenomenon of shifting alliances keeping a game going for ever I have seldom experianced it even playing cut throat games of Stars! with total strangers. Maybe I'm just a bit to persuasive but I find with diplomacy the game ends much quicker. After over a decade of talking my to victory its been very refreshing to have no diplomacy and have to tough it out.

Another reason why games I'm in are shorter is the way I play. I play very fast and aggressive. In Stars! I regularily exceded the economic targets necessary to be a monster race and combined this with extremely aggressive play generally attacking before my opponents thought it was possible. I would often get responses to my warnings I was looking to attack someone of the flavour of "you are an idiot - nobody wants an early war as it ruins their economy so sod off" - the following turn my nicely hidden fleet jumps into their HW which vanishes in a blaze of nucleur weapons. That is generally the end of discussion with that player. I tend to end games quick and thats why most of the games I am in don't reach level 9 magic.

In Stars! I never used Nubians and many players made commments to me similar to yours Jasper - how come? Because the game ended before then.

I've played enough games (I've been a multi-player addict for over 25 years) with a wide variety of settings and different Groups of players that I've come to the conclusion that this is generally the way it works when I'm playing. *shrugs*

Cheers

Keir