managing empires

[Skulky]

A long time ago, there was a thread about managing several games at once, i searched several times for it but came up empty handed, does anyone have any ideas as to where this might be?

[Gozra]

I know if you are unemployed or have plenty of time on your hands it is a snap. If you really are playing the game then 2-4 hours is sufficient to play adaquatly. If you intend to win then 4-8 hours per turn is needed. Some folks may deride me for the times but they include running simulations to see what your opponet can do.

[geoschmo]

I rarely am in less than 10 games at once. Right now I am in 13. To be fair though probably only 4 or 5 have turns every day. At times it gets rather overwhelming. Like the days when I log on and 7 or 8 games have new turns all at once. But I just take them one at a time. It's times like that I start to think I am in too many. But then there are the days when I get no new turns for 12 to 14 hours and I start trolling the open game list on PBW for games needing replacment players. I try to fight the urge though cause it never fails when I join a new game three days later I am back to thinking I am in too many games.

I won't deride you at all Gozra. I know I am probably at the low end of time spent on turns. I can't comprehend taking 4 hours on one turn. Even in heavy duty complex games the most I ever take on a turn is maybe 30 minutes. And to take that long I have to be distracted by something like my kids, or work.

Geoschmo

[ August 31, 2002, 22:51: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Gozra]

I tend to do 30 min or less in turns myself. But I have a friend who was spending 4-6 hours a day on one turn. I was stunned that anyone could put so much time in. So I took a second look on how I did things and in one turn I concentrated on maxmizing one factor and played the turn. It took me close to 2 hours. Also I don't do too many simulations. This fellow was trying to beat the Talisman and getting games to the point where he was running fleet battles from both sides. Going all out and using enemy ship designs. It is hard being an Admiral and Emperor and Researcher and pushing all three roles to perfection.
However if you met this fellow in a game you would know it.

[Fyron]

But all that knowledge can be acquired from experience in other games, leading to a lack of a need to do such things in newer games.

[DocShane]

I play 7-8 games at a time. 4 hours a turn is a little excessive. Has your friend seen a psychiatrist? Winning isn't everything.

Experiencing the game is worth more to me. In one game, I only have a colony ship left, no planets. I merely continue playing because it is cloaked and I want to explore the rest of the universe, to see what possibilities could have been. If I get lucky, I will colonize a planet. More than likely, I will be detected and eliminated. But life goes on.

I spend as little time as possible in each game. Oh, I have had the rare game where an hour needed to be invested in a turn, but it is usually 10-15 minutes and I am on to other things.