Faerun - started

[Soapyfrog]

Well you dont really want Ermor to be an easy rollover, or someone will be getting a nice boost...

[The Panther]

I will be leaving June 17 and returning on June 28. I will spend most of the time in France with a little daytrip to Geneva in Switzerland. Germany is not on the list this time.

My daughter is an exchange student at the same school in France that Alneyan attends. She is now fluent in French and wants to be my tour guide. It is going to be quite a lot of fun, I predict. I think of it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, though the monetary cost is going to be $$$$$$.

So, no Dominions at all while I am gone. For my current games, I will either:
find a sub or
stale or
go AI or
resign.

As for playing Ermor in this new game of yours, I will not be doing that. I cannot conceive of the immense time required to play this game past Turn 70 or so on these settings. I am not going to be investing that kind of time this summer, as I have a lot on my plate until my life settles down.

One thing my current Faerun game taught me is that I will never again be playing an MP game on that map, for it is much too big. I put a semi-humorous post on this subject on the Quarter to Three Forum yesterday.

Probably the best thing for you guys is to find a new permanent Ermor player in this game. Alternatively, you can put in an impossible AI, who will likely pick AE and really hurt his neighbors bad. Cruel, yes, but effective! The idea of selecting the Pretender and turning it AI will not work very well since you cannot force it to be an impossible AI by doing that, I believe. And you can't use the extra Pretender points the computer receives on the more difficult settings.

Anyway, good luck to all the masochists playing in this game! It will be a heck of a lot of fun, I predict, based on how much I have enjoyed my own (one-and-only) Faerun game. If I was retired from work already, I would be joining this game in a heartbeat.

[Alneyan]

The Panther said:
The idea of selecting the Pretender and turning it AI will not work very well since you cannot force it to be an impossible AI by doing that, I believe. And you can't use the extra Pretender points the computer receives on the more difficult settings.

You can force the game to host using impossible AIs, if you are in full control of the dom2.exe used to run the turns (or can setup the command line of the .exe yourself). At least, the command switches doc says so; I have never tried it myself.

It will not help with the extra Pretender points however, though you could work around that, by giving Ermor a special nation-only Pretender. This Pretender would have a cost of 0 and as many freebies as you need to reach a "cost" of 250 points (Dominion 8 or 9 perhaps); all the other stats of the Pretender would be similar to the chosen Pretender. That would give a 500 points Pretender having 250 free points, as many points as Impossible AIs get, and with better choices.

[Oversway]

I like Alneyan's idea. I think just doing an impossible ai is a bad idea.

Personally I think even a 'normal' 500 point well designed pretender is better for the ai compared to the pretender that it may generate.

[Gandalf Parker]

You can also do it thru map and/or mod. Ive built huge gods for AI's. Things not allowed in the game to be used as gods. Also given them spell boosts, extra castles, extra starting units, magic items, additional sites. Providing allied AI's can help also. I have a WEvsTHEM scenario where Ermor, Rlyeh, and Atlantis all start with sibling gods who are allied. All by commands added to the .map file

Anything you feel makes the AI weak can be fixed for one game.

Gandalf Parker

[CyborgMoses]

I'd be willing to take a shot at this. I have three games going right now at various stages, though, so you should probably take that into consideration if someone else is available. Also, I've never seen this map. Hey, I suck.

I do keep wishing that there were more turns available for me to play, if that matters. People play so slowly, especially when they're about to get eliminated.

[Aku]

Sounds like Cyborgmosses is going to be our Ermor player!

Are we waiting for zens nation mod or going ahead with saber cherrys mod? Just let me know when to start the server up for uploading pretenders.