MP Etiquette

[Kel]

bleach168 said:
1. Emails.

I do. Though I wouldn't necessarily mind a game whene noone knew each other and were limited to the ingame system, might be fun.

2. Non-Aggression Pacts. When someone says "NAP" I know it means a non-aggression pact but does it also imply a 3-turn warning to break? Or does that have to be explicitly stated? Also, what happens if someone breaks the treaty without the 3-turn warning. Does this ever happen?

I don't assume 3 turns and, though that is probably the average, it should be stated. Several of mine in the past have been 2 turn and a couple have been game long.

3. Alliances. If you ally someone, is it your responsibility to announce it? If you want to prevent yourself or your ally from getting attacked, I would think you would want to announce it as a deterrent.

It depends on the situation but I don't think I would ever announce it to everyone, it would encourage people to ally against you as well.

4. War. Is it okay to attack someone without warning if there had been no previous agreements? Or should you give them at least a 1 turn warning?

If it's someone I haven't established any trust/peace with, I wouldn't warn them.

5. How common is it to gang up on the "supposed" leader?

As others have said, it's really common.

6. Do people carry grudges over from one game to the next?

Personally, I always try to remember what people are like, whether it's being treacherous, honorable, aggressive, communicative, etc. It's not a grudge, it's just experience with that person.

7. Trading. Is there a universal guide as to how much items and gems are worth in trades? Like how much a gem would cost in gold? Or does this differ in every game?

I usually see items/gems traded for like items on a 1-to-1 basis. One path enhancer for another, 10 of these gems for 10 of these. Gold and blood slaves are the two that vary a bit from person to person.

8. If two of your neighbors start exchanging blows do you:

No etiquette, all depends on your political/tactical situation. It can be an opportunity to make a new friend in that war or just a chance to deal with a problem somewhere else.

9. At what point, in your opinion, is it okay to go AI.

The etiquette here varies so wildly, I hesitate to call it etiquette. The nice thing is that you can often make your turns much faster and still be 90% efficient by not micro managing too much. This is usually still way better than going AI or, worse, just not showing up for turns as some people do.

10. Mutual victories. How common is it for an alliance to just be declared the winner and the game ends like that?

Well, there isn't usually a lot of official declaration in my games. The goal is to make sure that noone is alive to object when you make the declaration

- Kel