The perfect PBW game?

[tesco samoa]

geo very subjective.

i personally like 36 hours
proven players or brand new players ( a mix of that )
6 or more

Small map : 1 to 3 planet start
med map 3 to 10 planet start
large 10 planet start

The ability to adjust the turn limit by 12 to 24 hours when needed ( once in a while )

Max 2 player alliance victory or Last man standing

Role Playing

I do not like the end game ... Just the middle of a game... That is when it is fun.

And no talisman. As they ruin the game.

[Geckomlis]

We had the same issue when I played large, long-term, multi-player wargames:
More players = better games
More players = slower games
Slower games = loss of interest

The trick to keeping them moving at a fast pace and interesting was to allow your teammates to take your turn(s) if you were not available.

So, I would suggest a multilateral max player PBW game with predetermined teams. Set up the game and passwords so that you can perform a teammate’s turn, as needed. Let the teams work out their own arrangements on who is playing which empire when.

24 hour turns/full auto and the No AI mod would be fine for this set up. I would be willing to try this if anyone is interested.

What do you think?

Gecko

[ June 26, 2003, 21:10: Message edited by: geckomlis ]

[Stone Mill]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
Or turn on Team Mode..

I am playing in a PBW game like this called "The Good, Bad, Ugly, and Dead." It is a 2-on-2 partner game with 10 TDM races high bonus, on team mode. Some of them started with sphereworlds/ringworlds. Pretty fun... 2 of the humans got beat up pretty bad by the AI.

[Chronon]

Geo, I think you've already created the perfect PBW game: 20 Players - 24 Hours. It goes fast enough to keep everyone interested, and the diplomacy has been great. I also like the small galaxy; it was interesting from the first turn.

PS I should give kudos to Imperator Fyron, too, because Adamant 005 (small galaxy, lots of players) was a lot of fun as well.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Chronon:
Geo, I think you've already created the perfect PBW game: 20 Players - 24 Hours. It goes fast enough to keep everyone interested, and the diplomacy has been great. I also like the small galaxy; it was interesting from the first turn.

Thanks Chronon. I have enjoyed it too. Although I think maybe it was a few too many players and a little small of a quadrant. But it has been interesting.

The biggest problem with it though is there are just so many missed turns. I don't think we've had ten in the entire game theat everyone got their turn in before the time limit. Although usually people dont' miss two in a row. SO I guess it's nto that bad.

Geoschmo

[Chronon]

Perhaps you could have 7 players on a small map, so each one gets three systems at the beginning (3 starting planets). Then set the time limit to 36 hours. I'll bet that would move pretty quickly, and there would be some good diplomacy as well.

[PvK]

I think it's a very subjective question. There are some players, for instance who can't always play a turn within 36 hours. There are others who don't lose interest if the turn pace is quite long, either.

Also, some players want to replay a turn (making everyone else replay the whole turn) if they notice something that doesn't seem right to them, such as they send in the wrong turn file, or an accident or bug occurs. Other players really hate re-doing a turn they spent an hour or more entering orders for, and would rather play through.

I would recommend though that people try games with smaller quadrants. It may seem like "bigger is better", but smaller makes for more interaction between all the players, and gives more tension and decisions to use some of the earlier techs rather than sitting around researching the end of the tech tree before getting around to fighting.

PvK