Forbidden Magic: Darkness and Light!

[Hoplosternum]

Well I am very interested however you split the teams. I would suggest you keep the player numbers small - even if the game map is slightly larger if you want a long game - you want to get to tartarians & abominations for the theme surely?

This is because with only two sides you want all players to have a front line. It won't be much fun for the player who is surrounded only be his own side and just ends up as a gem & magic item factory! And rememeber that even if you place people next to enemies some people spread quicker and if a weak enemy goes down some players may find themselves cut off from the enemy. Swapping provinces is fine for access if its just the odd territory but will hardly work if huge chunks of territory need swapping for access.

I would think 4v4 is probably about the maximum you would want or you risk people being cut off early and often? You could always have multiple games if the demand is there. Then you can have a Life v Death struggle, a Order v Chaos struggle, a Good v Evil struggle etc.

[llamabeast]

Here's an idea for player layout to maximise contact with the enemy. First of all, choose a wraparound map. Then put the players on like this:

O X O X
X O X O

That way everyone has 4 enemies as neighbours.

Unfortunately it only works with 4, 8, 16 etc players, but a fudge with some intermediate number of players should be possible.

[Ylvali]

I love the idea and would very much like to be involved.

[Tuidjy]

Interesting idea, but I do not think that most magics are inherently good or
evil. For example, Pythium is definitely a holy, good nation, despite having
strong astral, and Abysia is an evil nation despite having elemental fire.

I think you are better off just choosing an era (for example MA) and a theme for
the fight, for example [RACIST HUMANS] vs [DEMONWORSHIPPERS] vs [NON-HUMANS]:

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon17.gif[/img] organized, lawful, good to their people, but hate non-humans
Pythium, Marignon, Mictlan, Arco, Ulm, etc...

think humans are cattle and use them as such:
R'lyeh, Abysia, Pangea, Vanheim, Jotunheim, etc...

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon27.gif[/img] want to subjuggate humans, but abhor demons and blood sacrifice
C'tis, Shinuyama, Eriu, Bandar Log, Caelum, etc...

They should start at war... write some history why it is so, and why no peace is
possible. Allow trash talking on the forums... and make damn sure that players
understand that they are supposed to HATE, HATE, HATE the enemy, and while it is
OK to gang up on the current leader, backstabbing the third party for immediate
advantage is righteous and encouraged.

Use a random map with about 20 provinces per player. Yes, that is big, but
remember, the win condition is one faction remaining, not one pretender.
Let people start randomly, and the in-faction communication and planning
will be a great advantage.

Or alternatively, make a custom, wrap-around map, and have each faction starting
together, but in possible contact with other factions. It's tricky, but far
from impossible.

By the way, I think that if this game ever happens, you better make sure the
teams are right from the very beginning.

[otthegreat]

Since there is so much interest in thematic games, I also suggest multiple games. Maybe tie them together as wars across plains/dimensions in the same universe. That way the 'good" team in one game would be cheering on their counterparts in another game and vice versa.

Also, perhaps Sauromatia as an evil/dark nation?

[AlgaeNymph]

Tuidjy said:
I think you are better off just choosing an era (for example MA) and a theme for
the fight, for example [RACIST HUMANS] vs [DEMONWORSHIPPERS] vs [NON-HUMANS]

Ooo, I really like this idea!

[moderation]

Ah, I found it. The map is called Pangaea and is modeled on Pangaena Earth. I'm going to test it out a bit later to see if it works well for 8 players. It doesn't seem to have chokepoints, which is probably a good thing for making sure people get in touch with their opponents.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...er=477668&page

[Cerlin]

I would like to be in on this, either side. And each side playing with their own morals seems really fun. Not quite the RP game Llama was talking about in another post but it is close.

Edit: I would happily RP chaos or order. Abyssia for chaos, and it depends who for order depending on age.

[Kheldron]

Well, I've been reading the forums for a while now and I'm quite excited by this theme.
I've only got 2 MP behind me with friends irl but if you'll accept another newb...I'm in !

[moderation]

@DryaUnda: Yeah those alliances would be really strange...

@llamabeast: Actually I think your idea is really good since it ties together thematically a lot better. I started off on the Good vs Evil track because I had this huge Lord of The Rings campaign in mind, but I think it would require a more complete set of modded nations. It just feels weird with the Dom 3 nations because no one is really that "good".

However I'm wondering if the O X O X setup would be a good idea since it would give each team an incentive to gang up on one or two players and eliminate them quickly. I sort of like the idea of having a "common front" for each team, with some territory swapping between teams as necessary if someone gets cut off from the front. But of course since there is so much interest we can experiment with multiple setups to see how they work.

@Tuidjy & otthegreat & Hoplosternum: The common theme here seems to be humans vs the non-humans of various varieties. I think hosting a number of smaller parallel games is probably a good idea.

I'm not sure the game mechanics are available for one victorious army to make a gateway into make a gateway into another game, but this is a pretty cool idea. It would almost be like a strategic MMO, without the shortcomings of MMOs.

Does anyone have suggestions on good 4v4 maps that we could get started with? I'm going to look through my folder of downloaded maps and see if I can find the one that I had in mind.