New MP Game - Random, Anonymous, No Diplomacy

[Jurri]

How about commander renaming? I know some do it and some don't, so it could possibly tip off who's who. (Oh, look, that player has named all his commanders Cainehill. I wonder who it is.) On the other hand Boron will go crazy if he can't rename his clam-carriers, as will I if the nation in question has random mages. Hence, I'd suggest allowing only certain kinds of renaming (preferable), or disallowing it completely (more reliable). Here's a discussion about the possibilities of renaming even if direct communication is not allowed. Of course these would be cheating, but I'm more interested about renaming your mages: I like to rename them based on their random magics and empowerments and items (like, an earth Warlock empowered in blood, holding a clam and having cost a global would be named EBc+, to seek as complex an example as possible). Thus, if you encounter a player that doesn't rename his mages you'll know it's not me and will perhaps spare him owing to that, which would then be a decision influenced by diplomacy

Now, the options are either disregarding the matter, agreeing on a common renaming scheme, or turning renaming off altogether. Thoughts, anyone?

[Huntsman]

I was in the original Anon game and I'd like to do it again. Count me in.

[Cainehill]

I think we can trust that people won't be doing the cheesy, cheating renaming of scouts that was discussed there. In addition, if the host uses the master password to quickly skim through everyone's turns, it'd immediately be apparent that someone had cheated.

While on the other paw, nations with significant random magics (Tien Chi, etc) are pretty well screwed with renaming turned off, imo. If you're Ulm or the 2 Pangaean themes with no randoms, you're fine (until you take a jade amazon province), but...

And if someone names all their commanders Cainehill or Jurri, I think it's a safe bet that isn't us.

[Cainehill]

Oh - we could have an agreed upon format for renamings. All Pretenders must be named "Pretender" or "God" - that way you can't immediately tell that someone chose a lich or whatnot.

All Prophets are named "Prophet" or "Profit"; all mages, if renamed, are renamed in the D2F8A7 format - much as I hate that naming scheme for killing any sense of immersion in the game, it does give the player the information he wants, without giving away who the player is.

And mages shouldn't _need_ to be renamed - after all, 20 mages named "F1E2" for Ulm is kinda pointless.

[Shmonk]

I was going to say that turning renaming off is probably best. But... if everybody knows renaming is allowed and others might see your renaming scheme and give away who you are, you will need to consider a new renaming scheme for this game.

For example, naming your units "BOB-WATER DUDE" like you've always done in other games will be a give away to the regulars (not me) who know your naming convention.

And this means if I name all my commanders "JURRI-AIR DUDE", JURRI-WATER DUDE", etc. the best assumption is I'm not Jurri, but someone trying to masquerade as Jurri. Unless I'm really Jurri.

So I think renaming is okay now, because it could be interesting (as long as it's not abused), and is needed/preferable for nations with randoms.

[Cainehill]

Or, "Jurri Bites" (b is for blood), "Shmonk Eats Dirt" (Earth and death random), "Cainehill's Awesome!" (air)

[The Panther]

Please check my settings from the orginal post. It clearly says NO renaming and has from day 1. I also requested that all players use the default name for their pretenders when making them.

As for TC mages (and other nations), I have found that the F1 screen is a much easier way to determine the schools on your mages rather than renaming. I used to name my mages F1, D3, N4 for either a random school or the most empowered one. I even tried for a while to keep up with modifying the name when you add boosting artifacts. But I always missed some and got off far too often.

I also had a game where an opponent miraculously picked off my best mages from afar. He told me he did that because I had a mages named F5 (for casting Flames), or S6 (for wish with boosting), etc. So I don't do that anymore.

Of course, this does not help with your clam hoarders, I know. But clams are nerfed anyway, so it is not as big a deal as it might seem.

We are up to 15 players now and need but 2 more. The single biggest problem still remains the host issue. Anybody have any ideas on how to solve this?

EDIT: JM over on the QT3 forum has agreed to use his server for hosting this game. Stay tuned!

[PashaDawg]

I could probably host, but it would need to be a PBEM game.

I assume that the host could send all turns out via a bulk email to all players (that is, all players would get all the files, but they would be locked up by passwords). That would make sure that the host would not need so send out a bunch of personal emails.

Oh... and I am a lawyer... so I am good at keeping identities confidential.

[Jurri]

Ah, I must be going blind. Still, I would prefer to have renaming on, but I guess not. I only hope I get Ulm!

[PDF]

What's the status ? Alneyan asked me to sub him if game started these days but it looks like we're far from that ...