60 Player MegaGame Discussion Thread

[Hadrian_II]

I would like very difficult research, because this game will be so big, else everyone will have researched everything too early.

About the selections, i think random assignment is not so good here, as this game once started will likely take ages before it is finished, so everyone should have a nation he likes. Maybe a system, where everyone has to give 5 proposals he would like to play and then he would get a nation out of the proposals. (this would still be work for the host, but id like a system, where you still have a chance to get a 'good' nation, even if you are late to sign up)

[Velusion]

solo said:
Otherwise I agree with Meglobob to allow players to select nations, and think first come first served is okay, because many nations have similar versions.

If not all nations are taken, I think it's best to leave out the ones not selected. If only 30 or so want to play, we might consider have each player control two nations instead of one!

Right now I'm leaning to announcing a sign up time(to be a bit more fair to people who don't monitor the forums 24x7) in advance and simply start letting people pick during that time.

[Baalz]

Very hard research sounds good to me.

Dr. P's bidding system sounds interesting, but I think getting this thing organized is already going to be difficult. I second the suggestion to wait for the patch, we can start organizing now.

You probably want to state up front a policy on staling (are you switched out after 3 consecutive stales?, etc). With 60 people, somebody is always going to be staling, people are going to just disappear, etc. Also, you might want to set a time for the game to start if all slots don't get filled "we'll start when we're full or next Sunday, whichever is first"

I don't personally care if Arcane Nexus is banned, but a few of the globals are going to be more powerful than they usually are because of scaling. I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to get 10-15 players (or more) to pool gems for a dispel on anything that looks too threatening. My guess is this will be a self correcting thing. The thing with AN is any MP game that you can get it up and keep it up, you've pretty much won already anyway so it just speeds up the cleanup.

I don't think having people play more than one nation is a good idea. That might be fun in another game but we're already doing something quite different here so I'd suggest doing one thing at a time.

Yeah, it is a bit different with such a potentially long term game. It might be better to do a first come first served approach so that people signing up could pick from what's remaining. The down side is we might have trouble filling in the last few nations that few want to play, but the up side is that the people playing will be more satisfied with the nation they have and more likely to stick it out for a longer time.

[Velusion]

Baalz said:

You probably want to state up front a policy on staling (are you switched out after 3 consecutive stales?, etc). With 60 people, somebody is always going to be staling, people are going to just disappear, etc. Also, you might want to set a time for the game to start if all slots don't get filled "we'll start when we're full or next Sunday, whichever is first"

I already do that with all my games! Though I do cut some slack every so often... something that wouldn't be possible here.

[Gandalf Parker]

How about first-come first-served unless bidded thru paypal?

[Velusion]

Meglobob said:
Nation selection, I really think in a mega longterm game like this a player should get a nation they really, really want to play. How about everyone gives a top 5 in order of preference?

I agree it would be nice to give people what they want - but even if people gave me a top 5 or top 10 its pretty likely that with 60 players a number of players still wouldn't get the nation on their list.

Meglobob said:
Patching causes alot of hassle, especially with new players, also it looks like its going to be a pretty big patch so everyone will be keen to use it. Having the 2 new nations will be fun too. So I say wait for the patch. It will probably take some getting going, a game like this anyway.

I wouldn't mind waiting for the next patch if it is going to come out in the next 2 weeks or so. I'm not going to wait a month+ however. Anyone have any rumors on when it is coming?

Meglobob said:
Finally, what if the game does not fill up ie... all 60 nations or not taken? Leave them out or have them in as AI?

Probably put them on hardest or second to hardest AI.

[lch]

I'd suggest to use a wraparound map, but I know that it might be a problem to get such a large map for so many players...