[Newbie PBW] Master of Orion 3

[Fyron]

What about replacement players?

He meant, "what procedures are you going to have for finding replacements if and when people drop out of the game? What will be done with turn processing while looking for replacements? etc."

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Unknown_Enemy:
But anyway, there is still a bug in the PBW interface. I cannot accept new players. It is aknown bug due to problems experimented by the server some days ago.

So when we have reached a suffisant number, I will ask the PBW admin to accept all players.

This is not neccesary. You can accept players yourself. You will get a 500 error, but they will be accepted. Once you have them accepted at some point later they will revert to pending if the players don't upload their empires right away. To avoid this after you have them accepted go to the game admin screen and hit the button to "Update Options". You don't have to change anything, just hit the update button.

Geoschmo

[ March 17, 2003, 23:19: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Unknown_Enemy]

He meant, "what procedures are you going to have for finding replacements if and when people drop out of the game? What will be done with turn processing while looking for replacements? etc."

DUUUUHHHH !
I will evaluate the position of his empire. If it is hopeless, I will mark it as dead. If not, I would say we'll wait a max of 3 days while advertising to find areplacement. If no replacement come out you'll have another AI to trample.

[tbontob]

Originally posted by Unknown_Enemy:

quote:

---

He meant, "what procedures are you going to have for finding replacements if and when people drop out of the game? What will be done with turn processing while looking for replacements? etc."

DUUUUHHHH !
I will evaluate the position of his empire. If it is hopeless, I will mark it as dead. If not, I would say we'll wait a max of 3 days while advertising to find areplacement. If no replacement come out you'll have another AI to trample.

---

Fyron got it right.

Possibly our host hasn't read the postings in the Newbie Galactic Conflict threads.

In a nutshell, the game was cancelled because of 7 or 8 players had the same IP addresses in Russia. Most of them came into the game as replacement players.

The evidence points to one or more players running 2 or more empires. This is clearly illegal.

But there is another aspect of the game which is not normally addressed. The replacement player can be encouraged to join by another player for the purpose of forming an alliance against others. This is not illegal but is considered by most players to be improper. The fact that the two empires are located side by side makes them a very powerful alliance.

I was blockaded in a corner by such a powerful alliance and I really do not want to repeat the experience. And, I wasn't the only one, apparently the Fiery Gekhos found themselves in the same position.

A much fuller explantion of this phenomina is given in the Newbie Galactic Conflict threads.

[Unknown_Enemy]

Hmm...
Most of the time, there will be alliances in the game. It is a vital part of the game.

If an alliance decided in game cornered you and killed you, well I am sorry to hear but that's the game. The only problem I would see is that you could be cornered so easily. Problem of player placement then.

On the newbie galactic conflict problem, I am afraid if it cannot be detected by the email adresses, then it is a game killer. Any suspicious behavior should be reported ASAP.

[tbontob]

Originally posted by Unknown_Enemy:
Hmm...
Most of the time, there will be alliances in the game. It is a vital part of the game.

If an alliance decided in game cornered you and killed you, well I am sorry to hear but that's the game. The only problem I would see is that you could be cornered so easily. Problem of player placement then.

On the newbie galactic conflict problem, I am afraid if it cannot be detected by the email adresses, then it is a game killer. Any suspicious behavior should be reported ASAP.

Yes, alliances are part of the game. And a fun part of the game too. I like the diplomatic aspects of it.

But as I pointed out in the NGC thread, there is a fundamental difference between an original player and a replacement player.

An original player has to take the "luck of the draw" of placement. So, two players who want to enter into a symbiotic alliance may find themselves separated by other empires and thereby unable to have an effective alliance.

Not so, with a replacement player. Stalin and I found ourselves with an abandoned empire positioned besides our oun. Stalin and the replacement player live in Russia and Stalin admitted he knows the replacement player.

It is possible the replacement player was not a warm body.

But warm body or not, an empire with whom I had a good relationship, immediately turned into an implacable enemy.

Now, this could happen with a "non-aligned" player. But it is virtually certain to happen if I do not have good relations with the original player of the symbiotic alliance who is willing to use unfair means to win.

Essentially there is no randomness of the placing of the replacement player as there is with the original players.

Now, I have a choice. I could do the same thing as Stalin when a replacement player is needed.

That would be improper. And I choose not to win by unfair means.

But I also have no desire to lose by improper means.

[Unknown_Enemy]

But honestly, I think you went into a bit of bad luck. We do not get such cheaters very often. Most of the time cheating someone is just another word for deceiving/lying on the diplomatic part of the game (Copyright Kutuzov, PBW Paranoia TM ). I'll try to be very careful on replacement players, but should your cheater have been a bit more careful, he would have stormed the game without any possibility for you to understand what was going on.

Last, I prefer a max of 10 players. You have less dropout then.

PS : Atrocities, you are NOT a newbie.