Balance without a Mod? A Discussion (Long)

[Velusion]

lch said:
Nice idea, but I think what this will effectively do is make the game harder and more inaccessible for new players again, upping the already very steep learning curve even higher.

This experiment/system isn't designed for new players at all - so I'm not sure what you are talking about...

Velusion said:
So who plays? Bidding naturally favors those who are familiar enough with all the nations to a point that they can make experienced evaluations of the worth of nations. Also for the test to be good, you need players who can utilize whatever nations they have. The closer that all the involved player’s skills are the better the test should be. So in that vein it would seem that experienced players would be desired. How experienced? I’m not sure. I would *guess* that Dom2 experience would be a plus, that 10+ multiplayer games would be a good minimum and often really experienced players can identify others so a “referral system” might be good. Obviously trying to limit a game to experienced players could be controversial. In the end it might simply be that the top few well known experienced players who are interested in playing each invite one or two people to the game, and those players in turn invite others. We would have to trust that players do the invitations based on their assessment of the skill in other player, rather than personal preference. I’m not entirely sure I should have a hand in determining who plays as I am certainty not experienced enough to take part in the game itself.