I am sure that anyone who hasn't played any/many MP games counts as a newbie. It is quite different to playing against AIs, really.
The general format of games is like this (I will explain for the LlamaServer although it is similar for all games):
- The server e-mails you your latest turn. You stick it in the right directory (see my FAQ for details), play your turn and e-mail it back.
- You can see who's taken their turns and when the next one is due at
www.llamaserver.net (take a look now).
- Games normally run at least for a while on "24 hour quickhost". This means that the game hosts 24 hours after the last hosting, or when all turns are in, whichever is sooner. This might sound slow, but it actually works well. Around midgame the timer is often switched to 48 hours, depending on whether players ask for it.
24 hour quickhost actually takes a bit of thinking about. Both of these statements are true:
- You will always have at least 24 hours to take your turn from when you took your last one.
- Each hosting will happen 24 hours or less after the last one.
They seem contradictory at first. Anyway, it works well as a system.