[Nagot Gick Fel]

bleach168 said:
1. Emails. As far as I know, it's okay to contact and discuss things through emails even though there is no ingame mechanic to allow it. Is this true for all games?

Unless otherwise stated by the host, yes. There's no way to enforce no-comm rules. Anyway I've seen "no email, ingame Messages only" and "no communications at all" games.

2. Non-Aggression Pacts. When someone says "NAP" I know it means a non-aggression pact but does it also imply a 3-turn warning to break? Or does that have to be explicitly stated?

It should always be stated.

Also, what happens if someone breaks the treaty without the 3-turn warning.

I guess someone else will feel pissed off.

Does this ever happen?

Sometimes. Although most often, devious players will try to use some sort of 'magical time compression' to argue they didn't violate the NAP warning. Consider this: A and B agreed on a NAP with a 3-turn escape clause. Turn 39, A (who used only email so far) sends an ingame message to B to notify him he wants to cancel the NAP. Turn 40 A issues his armies orders to invade B's provinces. Turn 41, A's orders are effectively carried on. A will argue that the 3 turns-delay was respected (39-40-41, implying he sent his notice at the beginning of turn 39, and his armies invaded at the end of turn 41), while from B's viewpoint, only 1 turn passed since he received the message in turn 40 and was invaded in turn 41. Or even zero if he considers that the attack was actually initiated in turn 40. Sounds silly? Yet I've seen that happen, exactly as described.

3. Alliances. If you ally someone, is it your responsibility to announce it? If you want to prevent yourself or your ally from getting attacked, I would think you would want to announce it as a deterrent.

Whatever suits you.

4. War. Is it okay to attack someone without warning if there had been no previous agreements? Or should you give them at least a 1 turn warning?

Whatever suits you. Remember, you're a pretender god at war with every other pretender god, so by default your neighbours are your enemies, and enemies don't need warnings.

5. How common is it to gang up on the "supposed" leader?

Fairly common.

6. Do people carry grudges over from one game to the next?

Some don't, some do.

7. Trading. Is there a universal guide as to how much items and gems are worth in trades? Like how much a gem would cost in gold? Or does this differ in every game?

No universal guide, although most assume 1 gem ~ 10 gold. I you trade items for gold or gems, expect to pay an extra for the mage(s) who spent a turn to forge each of these items, and don't expect to get a discount because of a forge bonus.

8. If two of your neighbors start exchanging blows do you:
a) Help the person losing
b) Help the person winning
c) Don't do anything and let it resolve

Whatever I think will benefit me the most, in term of relative power to these neighbors.

9. At what point, in your opinion, is it okay to go AI.

(1) Both arms broken, and can't find a sub (and you tried hard).

(2) You just realized your opponent in this game is Norfleet in disguise.

10. Mutual victories. How common is it for an alliance to just be declared the winner and the game ends like that?

Not uncommon, if the host allows shared victories.