EpikBattel - Started

[MartialDoctor]

Hmmmm, after looking through the maps, my vote is for Cradle of Dominions or a similar sized one. Dr. P's suggestion sounds good except don't we have a couple of water nations?

World of Geometry is far too large, with 337 provinces, for 12 people.

[DrPraetorious]

If you guys want to make sure that the game finishes in a reasonable amount of time, use Victory Point accumulation. First player to reach threshold - his team wins (even if he is eliminated.)

Arrange six pairs of start locations like spokes on a wheel on any old random map. With one water team, ~1/6 of the area should be water (which is about 1/10 of the provinces so the water players have to have some presence on land if they wish to compete.)

Place 6 victory points on the map, one in between each spoke. You might want to put some other bonuses in those province as well.

Someone will certainly have accumulated 7 VP by year 4, 10 VP by year 5, or 15 VP by year 6 - and that's an upper limit, it could easily end much sooner.

Getting the water right is actually the hardest part of such a map - but if you tell me how many provinces you want I can post an example.

[FrozenFalcon]

How does victory points actually work? You get one from a VP province each month and a certain limit is set?

Another question: WoG has four "Gateways" that supposedly lead to the isle. How do they work? Is there some sort of teleportation on game mechanics of is the Gateway part just some lore stuff and you cannot really go through gateways?

But since we have gathered 12 players, and we have 2 water nations, just for WoG, I want to try it.

Our team experiences are near similar, so I'll randomize the rest (Zeldor and HJFudge gaining a minor advantage when choosing teams but let's just not care about that).

Llamabeast is probably right that listening to everyone's opinion takes time, so I'll declare myself a dictator and make the rest of the decisions.

Teams:

HJFudge and Zeldor
FrozenFalcon and Torin
DonCorazon and Niarg
Bananadine and Gregstorm
otthegreat and MartialDoctor
BigandScary and Networkingguru

Since there's new information (the teams and map decided) everyone absolutely against these decisions can leave now. We cannot make everyone happy. The teams (except for the first one) are completely random.

Then, I need to decide on Pretender deadline (is 3 days ok?) and then Llamabeast can host the server.

To make decisions about victory points I need to know the answers for my questions asked in this post.

[Zeldor]

I have played WoG in SP to check it [not the last version though] and just started MP game on it [turn4].

Twan made it and suggests to play on cumulative VP of 3. From what I know about mechanics of VP they are given at the first summer month of a year. And you do not need to keep them in a row, for 3 VP you need to have that province for 3 first months of any years.

There are I think 8 provinces connecting to the center island + water provinces around it [8 too, I think], co 16 including 4 gateways.

I don't know how many cumulative VP we would need for team-play. Oh, do not set any additional VPs

Gateway is just a name. There is simply long arrow connecting gateway to the center island. So a player doesn't have to go through plains but can go through caves instead.

P.S. I am not so heavily for WoG, I am just really a huge supporter of making the map as balanced as possible [I wish Twan set every indie province on the map to make it equal ]. I know that not wrap-around provinces are not fair.


I haven't check the map Dr. P suggested, I have nothing against non-water maps, but it is just me.

[DrPraetorious]

There are two different VP systems.

In one system, you have to control X VP provinces, and then you win.

In the other system, each VP province you control gives you one VP/year. I forget when in the year the VP accrue. This is the system that I (not to mention the designers) recommend if you want to control game length.

It's also a nice system because it becomes more difficult (albeit not impossible) to win in a single turn by ambushing a bunch of VP provinces at once.

[FrozenFalcon]

Ok, Victory Points are settled then. I think 2 will be enough (map readme recommends 2-4). Think about the length: 6 teams charging to the center (one player needs the points, not a team), taking few years to travel there, at maximum. Then, the province will be always controlled by someone (if teammates organize, they will try to get the second point to the player from the team who got the first one) and after six years of center fight, if the game has not ended, each team should have a victory point. Next team to get one wins. Traveling included, this would be 8 years maximum, or 76 turns. So with 24h quickhost, it would take 76 turns max. And this is the absolute maximum IMO. I think that would not be too much.

Edit: is there a connection from land provinces around the island to it? Zeldor's post would tell that, but there seems to be no land connection. But there apparently can be, and if so, there should be connection from land, otherwise water nations gain an advantage.

[Gregstrom]

I might want to change nation choice for synergy with my teammate - will that cause any problems?

[FrozenFalcon]

Since you are not playing water nation that's ok.

And everyone else have this opportunity too. But for the water nations, it would be good that they remained.

When you have absolutely sure about your nation, start making pretenders already (mine is ready). Then we just need Llamabeast to set the game up.

Checked the center province connections: The Victory Province has a land connection from both sides. 10 provinces from you can access the province, as for total.

[Zeldor]

FrozenFalcon:

I have just checked to be sure:

- 2 land connections from plains [one north, one south]
- 4 gateways
- 4 water provinces around it

The central island has:
- Sphinx 6E6A6D, with stone idol and gems
- Celestial General, with Hell Sword, Spirit Helmet, Jade Armor, Chi Shoes, Pendant of Luck, Amulet of Resilience
- Lord of War with Sword of Swiftness, Shield of Gleaming Gold, Horned Helmet, Boots of the Messenger, Amulet of Missile Protection, Ring of Regeneration
- few Crushers

[of course it could change in newer map versions].

And with team game I think 3-5 VP are better, counted for a whole team, not one player [so set a double limit for a player and end game manually if one team has enough VP].

P.S. If one player from a team dies and he had like 2 VP cumulated, does that team lose that VP or keep them?

[Zeldor]

Oh, standard settings or a big higher [125 or 150] for gold? Just asking because I want to make pretender