No Diplo EA Game - No Wankers Allowed - Game Over, Baalz/Abysia Wins

[Marmaduke]

I would like to know what are the civilizations in game before having to send my pretender, would it be possible to announce them first? This way, we could better design our pretenders and scales.

[Calahan]

Originally Posted by Marmaduke

I would like to know what are the civilizations in game before having to send my pretender, would it be possible to announce them first? This way, we could better design our pretenders and scales.

Tough call that. On the one hand, I know if I was playing, I'd prefer to keep the nations in the game secret as an extra design challenge. (as knowing pre-game what other nations are in the game will be a big help to some nations during design)

But on the other hand from experience I know that because this game is on the llamaserver, those submitting their pretenders near the end can gain an advantage by seeing which other Pretenders have been submitted before them. Meaning whoever submits last will know all the other nations

I'll see what Executor has to say (since it is his game) but right now I'm thinking that once sign-ups close, I'll post the full list of nations. Unless someone has a sensible suggestion of how to keep the info hidden on a llamaserver game (easy enough of course if it was private hosting like PashaDawg does, for those fortunate enough to have played in his games)

[Kobal2]

Originally Posted by Calahan

Unless someone has a sensible suggestion of how to keep the info hidden on a llamaserver game (easy enough of course if it was private hosting like PashaDawg does, for those fortunate enough to have played in his games)

It'd be a bit work-intensive for you, but you could ask everyone to send their pretender design picks and password by PM, create the .2h files on your side and register them all at once. If I'm not mistaken, the game doesn't check or use the pretender file in /newlords once the game has started, the host sends a new one along with each .trn file.

[Calahan]

Originally Posted by Kobal2

It'd be a bit work-intensive for you, but you could ask everyone to send their pretender design picks and password by PM, create the .2h files on your side and register them all at once. If I'm not mistaken, the game doesn't check or use the pretender file in /newlords once the game has started, the host sends a new one along with each .trn file.

I did think of that, and while I probably wouldn't mind everyone sending their designs to me, and then I send them to the llamaserver, a potential problem arrises when I have to change every email address to the correct player. As the llamaserver automatically sends the turns to the email address it recieved the pretender from. ie. They'd all come to me.

The problem then is that if I make one mistake with the nation-email matchups, the wrong player gets the wrong turn file, and those secret ID's start to get busted. I can't say I'm one for making mistakes though, as I'd never survive a day in my RL work if I did. But there is a potential mistake there to be made, which means it is a possibility. So if you all think doing that would help enhance the game a lot, then ok. But doing it only keeps info secret that immediately becomes known once the game starts.

Now if the game and the llamaserver didn't automatically tell you which other nations were in the game from the in-game Pretedner screen/web status page, then it'd surely be awesome keeping nations secret until you found them in-game But otherwise, I'm not sure the gain vs potential loss ratio is worth the hassle. (loss being a complete re-start and nation re-roll if I get an email address wrong)


Edit -
Just realised getting the email address wrong wouldn't actually reveal ID's, since if a player got the wrong turn file, then he/Fantomen () still wouldn't know which player the turn file should have gone to. But it would still give design / Pretender / start location info away etc, and that in itself is bad enough.

[Kobal2]

Originally Posted by Calahan

Edit -
Just realised getting the email address wrong wouldn't actually reveal ID's, since if a player got the wrong turn file, then he/Fantomen () still wouldn't know which player the turn file should have gone to. But it would still give design / Pretender / start location info away etc, and that in itself is bad enough.

Wouldn't even give that away, since the wrong guy wouldn't have the right password to open the turn file. Unless there are ways to hack into the file itself or read its contents outside the game, but that would be a massive jerk thing to do.

I'm not sure the ephemeral secrecy is worth that much troubling yourself over myself, or that people would even pick their own gods based on nations they might never encounter in-game but hey. If you want to, you can do it.

[GrudgeBringer]

There IS one more way to do it, and since I am more than likely the most computer challenged it is a way that it shouldn't be that hard on Calahan but harder on the players.

First, if one of us REALLY wants THAT much of an advantage, then there are going to be a number of things they can do in a game like this to give themselves little advantages. I think there has to be some measure of trust that we are all adults and have just a smidgen of honor.

When we get all the people in that are going to play.... designate a time (I know getting 14 or 15 people at one time to do this will be rough) and within THAT time (whether it is an hour or just 15 minutes (I mean we SHOULD have already got an idea of what we want to do anyway)we all send them in at that time.

IF we can do that, problem solved on that issue (ahhh, I think)

[Calahan]

Originally Posted by Kobal2

Wouldn't even give that away, since the wrong guy wouldn't have the right password to open the turn file.

The admin should ask everyone NOT to password protect their Pretenders, as that makes it very tricky to sub-out their nation should the player go AWOL. The llamaserver is PBEM rather than direct connect, so you can't access any other players turn files (hence no need for password).

Hey wait, I'm the admin


@ All - Please DO NOT PASSWORD PROTECT your pretenders, as it makes it very difficult to sub your nation out should you go AWOL for any reason.

@ Executor - can you put that somewhere in the OP. Cheers.