Game size poll

[llamabeast]

Recently I've been running quite a few games that I've not been in myself. When choosing parameters, I'm sort of flailing around, guessing what I'd like to play myself. The one I'm really unsure of is how big the game should be.

Now, I think huge games are really exciting. Having 22 players or so is really cool. But after a while in such games, I sort of begin to suffer a sense of hopelessness. There's no way I can ever conquer a map that big, and obviously the game will go all weird and late-gamey a good while before it finishes.

Small games lack the big game excitement, but can still pack some really interesting gameplay, and are feasible to finish. They are also missing some of the more interesting diplomacy of the bigger games though.

At the moment I'm leaning towards running games with 8-10 players I think, as a compromise. But really I may as well run whatever people are most keen to play in. So please let me know your thoughts.

Also I've been running quite a lot of games for newish players recently, so the same questions apply there. Should I throw them in at the deep end with a huge exciting map full of different nations? Or just go for smaller games? I would like to know what people think.

[AreWeInsaneYet]

I think games not that big are really there for newish player like I am as I can't even handle the mid-late game well, but personally I do enjoy a messed 22 players game that, well, you could really LEARN FROM. All those latey weird ideas you know. So I vote for 22 in the first question and 15 for the second, while thinking that 9 or 10 could be a better option. (for some reasons I *HATE* the number 8.....ya know )

[Zoshan]

After playing all size games I have a rule not to join a game smaller than 15 players. I enjoy the diplomacy too much to play the small games.

Also just made this rule I will never join another game that set to x amount of turns or x score to win.

[jutetrea]

Opposite here, I like the smaller experience. So far I've played in a 6,8,11,13,62.

6's were too small, but newbie game so good for learning.

8 was a newbie game as well, again good for learning. I like the size too, seems enough to get into a good middle game.

11 seems to be a great size, same with 13.

13 was on a pretty large map though, and I'm finding the late game to be un enjoyable even in a good position.

62, well that's just wierd.

So, 8-12 would be my vote for newbies. I'm actually leaning more towards the 6-8 size now.

[Tyrant]

There's a gap in your poll where my opinion goes- i think 12 is about right. I also think that the more players the fewer provences per player so that game remains managable after the early knockouts.

[Ubercat]

Why not make a big game, but limit the victory condition? Say 50-70 provinces (as opposed to 400+) or maybe base it on VP's?

I'll probably try to start a big game on your server when I take the time to figure out how. I'd love to use the Glory of the Gods map (regular).

[llamabeast]

Victory conditions are surprisingly tricky. Some games have been won by a relatively small player suddenly teleporting SCs onto enough VPS to win in a single turn, which tends to make people feel the game was a bit pointless. I'm sure there's a way round this with a bit of thought though. In particular it should be possible to have an arbitrary victory condition since the server could parse the debug output and work things out itself - for example, you could say your average number of provinces over the last 5 turns must be at least n, or you must take and hold VPs for 5 turns.

I'd be very happy for you or anyone else to run a game on my server (although not quite now as I think I may have used up most of the demand for games for the moment). At present there's nothing to work out - just tell me the settings you want. When I get round to it I want to do a "Create Game" form on the website, but that will actually be quite a big job.