Welcome home noobs. Click here!

[Quitti]

Please, I'll have to agree with others, let this nonsensical recruitment posting and advertising end. I personally also grow sick and tired of seeing a NaV ad thread everywhere I look. If people are not interested in your game, perhaps you should turn to look a bit closer on the settings of the game in question, instead of trying to recruit people for it for whoknowshowmany weeks.

This is my opinion. You don't have to agree with it, but I think it'll start to be the time to bring it up, I'm certain I'm not the only one besides these few gentlemen here.

[Edi]

Originally Posted by Quitti

Please, I'll have to agree with others, let this nonsensical recruitment posting and advertising end. I personally also grow sick and tired of seeing a NaV ad thread everywhere I look. If people are not interested in your game, perhaps you should turn to look a bit closer on the settings of the game in question, instead of trying to recruit people for it for whoknowshowmany weeks.

This is my opinion. You don't have to agree with it, but I think it'll start to be the time to bring it up, I'm certain I'm not the only one besides these few gentlemen here.

These are all actually good points, so you should heed them, Septimius Severus. You are not going to gain anything by alienating large swathes of the board MP community and you are certainly doing yourself no favors if that alienation causes fallout that I and the other mods have to deal with.

If the same things are being reported by half a dozen different users and not for the first time, it starts to be telling.

[Septimius Severus]

Edi, you are one of the mods so I will honor what you say and will refrain from using a secondary thread if the mods are against it. I was just doing what I thought Ballbarian had indicated was permissble in the quote above. No cause in my estimation for Sombre to jump in with an insult or any other negative comments about the game. Just let the thread operate for its intended purpose which was occasional/targeted recruiting, that is all I really wanted.

All starting positions are actually filled right now, so I was just looking to fill the traditionally tougher to fill alternate and advisor positions. That is all.

I beleive firmly in constructive posting. Don't run down a game because you don't agree with the settings or you don't like the admin. And Sombre, I also believe that if ya can't say something good about someone, it is best not to say anything. That insult above is not gentlemenly at all. But I say you have the right to express that opinion if the mods allow it.

I actually wouldn't mind turning this post to something perhaps more constructive than just recruiting if it bothers people so. Say a discussion on the benefits and drawbacks of direct connect for team games (although it may need to be moved to another forum). Does anyone have any opinions regarding direct connect or PBEM for team games?

[Graeme Dice]

Originally Posted by Septimius Severus

Say a discussion on the benefits and drawbacks of direct connect for team games (although it may need to be moved to another forum).

Benefits: If you don't have a set of automated scripts to handle email, then direct connect is easier on the players. If everybody who is playing is going to be connected for the entire duration of the game, then file transfer is made easier.

Drawbacks: Requires the server to run copies of Dominions constantly instead of when needed. Passwords are needed on all games to prevent everyone from just downloading everybody's turn. You don't get the turn emailed to you to let you know that it's time to play. The server requires a static IP.

Team games are no different from normal games in the server requirements for each player, unless you're cheating by having every person's turn be actually played by one person.

[Maerlande]

Don't highjack the thread by moving it off topic. If you want to seriously discuss direct connect vs. PBEM, then start a new post. That's a reasonable topic although it's been beaten to death. The result is that we have both options kindly donated by forum gurus.

[Septimius Severus]

Originally Posted by Graeme Dice

Benefits: If you don't have a set of automated scripts to handle email, then direct connect is easier on the players. If everybody who is playing is going to be connected for the entire duration of the game, then file transfer is made easier.

Drawbacks: Requires the server to run copies of Dominions constantly instead of when needed. Passwords are needed on all games to prevent everyone from just downloading everybody's turn. You don't get the turn emailed to you to let you know that it's time to play. The server requires a static IP.

Team games are no different from normal games in the server requirements for each player, unless you're cheating by having every person's turn be actually played by one person.

Thanks for the reply Graeme. Yes, I was thinking that direct connect for a team game would facilitate team play more so than PBEM. If a substitute or an alternate were needed to come in, if PBEM and your playing on Llamaserver, you've got to go through the whole route of changing the e-mail address for the player, then requesting a turn resend and so forth, then you have to do it again when the normal player resumes. With direct connect, that sub/alternate would just need the password. And a team could use the same password for all of it's pretenders if they wanted. Making subbing a breeze if you know the team password. According to Gandalf, passwords don't need to be unique. But even if different for each team member, only the team would know the passwords.

I think it would also allow captains or advisors to view the turns of other players on their teams more easily so that they could gauge the strategic situation.

[13lackGu4rd]

while we're switching subjects mid thread, what about allowing mods in newbie games? CBM is the most popular mod around, yet NaVII as well as a few other newbie games stick to vanilla. to me it seems counter intuitive, cause eventually everyone will need to acquaint him/herself with CBM... also what about other mods? such as the various mod nations(mostly made by Sombre mind you)? some of them are growing in popularity, so they should at least be taken into consideration as well...

[Maerlande]

That is completely lame 12lackgu4rd. Only by playing a dozen or more team games under the guidance of a capable vet is a noob qualified to work with something so l33t as CBM.

[Septimius Severus]

Originally Posted by 13lackGu4rd

while we're switching subjects mid thread, what about allowing mods in newbie games? CBM is the most popular mod around, yet NaVII as well as a few other newbie games stick to vanilla. to me it seems counter intuitive, cause eventually everyone will need to acquaint him/herself with CBM... also what about other mods? such as the various mod nations(mostly made by Sombre mind you)? some of them are growing in popularity, so they should at least be taken into consideration as well...

I think generally some newbie games opt for vanilla to first aquaint players with how the game plays out of the box. Starting out, I really didn't know enough about battle mechanics, units, magic, and so forth frankly to be able to tell the difference between CBM or Vanilla (aside from the pretender changes).

CBM is quite comprehensive in it's changes to the game. If you play vanilla first, if might give you a greater appreciation for the changes made by various other mods including CBM. You can then make an informed decision as to what mods you prefer playing with. I think everyone should have choices though.

I guess also too having fewer mods, means less things you've got to download. Some noob players may also not be that familiar with how you enable mods for certain games and where to put them, etc. Mods that make changes to pretenders need to be enabled on pretender creation, whereas other mods might not.

As far as whether you learn more playing alongside vets or against vets, that is possibly debatable. It might be safe to say if your a complete noob and playing against a seasoned vet head to head without any help (such as in a FFA non-diplomacy type game), you might not survive long enough to learn very much.

A single team game can teach you a lot. You learn from the other players in the team (and also from the enemy), you learn how to work together, how different nations interact, which can help you in non-team games when dealing with alliances and so forth. You can play alot of FFA type games and get eliminated quickly before you might learn from your mistakes. Generally, I am in favor of games and map configurations that allow noobs time to experiment, research, and perhaps learn from their mistakes in the game they are currently in, without necesarrily having to worry about getting rushed or overwhelmed at the start.

[Maerlande]

You can also join the newbie only games with coaches offering support. Those games start in a day, have 4-6 players, and have a coach along for the ride. They end in a month or two. Great learning experience and I vastly prefer them for learning to huge big team games.

When I joined NaV I, I thought it would be a great learning opportunity. Frankly, it was much less than my other 4 games started at the same time. Why? Mainly because it was so slow. And secondly because gank the noobs is just as prevalent in a big team game as any FFA game. Two of us noobs were ganked by another team and destroyed in 20 turns. We crippled along after that but really it was game over. What do you learn from that?

And did the team help? Frankly no it didn't. It basically let us die.