Ok, I've received a ranked list of nations from chris' team.
I am awaiting a similar list of 12 or 13 nations from Executor and Psi's team.
While I enjoy these debates:
Bottom line people, as DrP pointed out in his PM, regardless of what method we choose, there is no way that I can see to guarantee that teams will get everything they want in their top choices regardless of who picks first or picks last.
Your best bet if you want to make sure your team gets a good mix of for example a researching nation, a military power, a stealth nation (if that is what your strategy entails) is to ensure that your ranked lists have more than one of these type of nations near the top of your list.
The nature of team games is compromise and cooperation, we can't make everyone on every team completely happy. The goal of this game is not winning, and is not intended for victory oriented players, hence why many vets are not attracted. It's nice but not the be all and end all.
The goal is rather the education of the noobs which comprise 50% of the players. The AI element, aside from it's thematic purpose, is intended not to provide any real challenge to the vets or intermediates but to allow the noobs to gain more experience versus the AI. As a bonus, the human team that takes an early lead versus the AI, will have an advantage going into the MP portion of the game.
Let's not get sidetracked, and not forget about having fun here.
Regarding the map: I hope you all have checked the map (you've had ample time to express any concerns) and don't have any issues with my placement. It is a small map and a cramped situation (NvV I deja vu). A very few starts are in provinces with terrain masks that include forest, swamp, and waste. However, I don't think this will be a significant economic detriment to anyone since the surrounding terrain types count more. If you have any issues with the proposed starts, speak your mind now.
Failing that, lets get it on, get going and see how this first game plays out.
Thanks.
Your humble and overworked admin.
