MP Game - Newbie Game (by Aku)

[PashaDawg]

It appears the Drool is still AWOL. Has he responded to your inquiries, Aku?

I am playing another MP game currently, and someone in that game is AWOL, too (which is not very much fun for the rest of us).

If it becomes clear that someone has dropped out, do we have the power to turn his/her empire over to the computer's control? (This would be a drastic remedy, but in some cases it might need to be done.)

Perhaps, we could set up a standard. For example: if a player misses his/her turn for 10 turns in a row and has failed to communicate an explanation to the other players, then the other players shall have the discretion (perhaps, after a vote) to turn the missing player's nation over to the computer's control until the player returns.

I think things would be different if the player had a reason to leave the game temorarily and requested that the other players indulge him by pausing the game, etc. (For example, I know I will be traveling to Italy in late September. )

[Boron]

Originally posted by PashaDawg:


I think things would be different if the player had a reason to leave the game temorarily and requested that the other players indulge him by pausing the game, etc. (For example, I know I will be traveling to Italy in late September. )

hm finding a sub is better . because in a 10 player game most likely about 5-8 players will e.g. be in holidays 1-2 weeks at least too .
so only pause if the player in holiday doesn't find a sub or if there are 2+ players in holiday at the same time .


oh and enjoy your trip to italy then Pasha

[Boron]

Originally posted by alexi:
yeah.. i figured standard vanheim was better. and sloth3 prevents you from building a bunch of 20 unit squads of skin shifters within a few turns.

but today i started playing around with the Midguard theme, and it kicks ***!! much better then standard theme. Cos in midguard you get cheaper researchers with astral2. This didn't strike me as more usefull then the other magic unit which has A2 and 2random. But imagine the sight of a squad of 25-30 skinshifters that are all ethereal and lucky, making them almost impossible to hit, and if you do hit them, they go into beast form and regenerate!! And then you have 6-10 Stellar Cascades stunning your entire army so that even your best units are unconscious, just waiting for my impossible-to-hit-regenerating-beasts to rip them to shreds.. its extremely effective.

All that WITHOUT a pretender! No bless, no rainbow, no supercombatant.

Anyways, I'm sure you could adapt this strategy for any race that has cheap S2 mages. And it would be even more powerfull with sacred units and a F9 or W9 bless.

hm good strat i never thought of that problem :
etheral effect is canceled by magic weapons .
caelum has magic weapons .
every race with f9 bless too .

+ you need 2 turns with your mages casting etheral + luck and your skinshifters on hold orders .

so archers/x-bows espeically with wind guide/flaming arrows can cause severe damage while you buff

so do any flying armies with attack rearmost orders or something similiar


but otherwise a really nasty idea . evil


Last problem that comes to my mind :
enemy = ryleh / pythium :
they mind duel your S2 mages to death with ease

[Klatu]

**IMPOTANT ANNOUNCEMENT**
Hey All, This your server host Klatu.

T'ien Ch'i (Drool) has just missed his 4th consecutive turn. What should we do about this race? The turns would have played much faster, but we keep having to wait for his no show.

Please post so i can get a general concensus. I guess the options would be: 1. Keep waiting for him in case he plays; 2. Leaving T'ien Ch'i as it is, but force a host when all but he has played; 3. Put T'ien Chi on an AI setting; 4. (not even sure if this is possible) Delete T'ien Ch'i from the game.

[archaeolept]

uhh, i'm not in this game, but 4 stale turns in a row is beyond the pale. can his cowardly ***.

(hopefully you have a master password. otherwise, your only alternative is to try and PM him and plead w/ him to go AI).

force hosting each turn is a pain, and an insult to you and the other honorable players. just turn him over to the AI if you can. deleting a nation is not an option.

[ August 01, 2004, 16:31: Message edited by: archaeolept ]

[starwarsluke]

I vote for option two.

[Lex]

"etheral effect is canceled by magic weapons"

yup. But this tactic doesn't stand on only one leg. Luck stops 50% of hits. It's also counting on the units special ability. Using this with regenerating means that their lifespans are extended by 50%. In most cases, since they have the wonderfull ability to swarm, that's enough to prevent casualties.

"+ you need 2 turns with your mages casting etheral + luck and your skinshifters on hold orders."

When I tested this out, I found that the "hold and attack" command is enough to have them stay two turns for both etheral and luck to be cast on the troops.

"so archers/x-bows espeically with wind guide/flaming arrows can cause severe damage while you buff"

I also found that leaving even a handfull of troops up in front (with orders to hold and attack as well) attracts all the missile fire. And even if a player sets their archers to fire rear (which already limits their accuracy), you should always carry a Staff of Storms. There's also the option of casting Arrow Fend or producing amulets of missile protection for your casters.

"so do any flying armies with attack rearmost orders or something similiar"

Since the army that's being "mass-buffed" is literaly surrounding your casters, they act like bodyguards. In my tests, I had plenty of flyers suicide themselves on my army.


"Last problem that comes to my mind :
enemy = ryleh / pythium :
they mind duel your S2 mages to death with ease"

A very real possibility. Although with S2 casters, you should be equiping all of them with a +1S item anyways to have them cast teleport and Soul Slay. This probably won't save them from mind duels though. I guess it might be safer to keep them out of combat with pythium/ryleh.

"but otherwise a really nasty idea . evil"

Indeed. I've yet to try it with sacred troops. My guess is that you could use a smaller army with fewer casters. And that's the key to having lots of seperate armies doing differenting things on all your borders. I think if you need large armies to accomplish anything, you can't cover enough fronts to battle more then one opponent at a time. And depending on diplomacy to keep you safe is risky (although being completly new to MP, I've yet to discover the advantages of diplomacy to gameplay)

Edit: it true that this strategy will suffer against some races (like Boron mentioned, Bless F9 and Caelum). But if you go up against Caelum or F9, you simply take etheral out of your scripts. Nothing works against everything, so I guess this is just one of many other strategies that give you a slight advantage. But like in professional gambling, that's all you need.

[ August 01, 2004, 17:39: Message edited by: Alexi ]

[Lex]

oh, and lets put him on AI if he doesn't respond. it sucks, but its holding the game back (not to mention that the longer he stays AWOL, his nation suffers, and becomes too easy of a target for whoever's close to him)

[Aku]

I guess we just turn him AI. He is doing his turns in another game that a bunch of us have with him but not in this one so wtf. So far only lukes brother and drool need to do their turns. I will send him another pm and see if he responds. If he doesnt respond then I say we turn him AI.

[Aku]

Alexi I assume you are trying these strats in our current game so nobody attacks you lol?

Anyway about Drool I sent him a pm. I guess when Lukes brother does his turn we could force host it but if no response by tomorrow I say we then turn him into the AI.