Are Replacements becoming a problem?

[dumbluck]

Thanx, BG. Now it's your turn to gloat.

[Makinus]

I read your discussion about replacement players and i simply can't understand why the people don't like to play replacement spots....

I love to play in replacement spots, because every time you take over an empire you have differente chalenges, because normally the spot you pick is losing in a way or another and you must think hard how to survive....

I love challenges and love to start a game from a losing position and fight "uphill" to a better position, i don't care if i win or lose, the only thing that i care is the "fun factor" and fighting from a losing position is a lot of fun...

Actually i'm playing 4 games, being 3 of that replacement spots that i picked up... In 2 i managed to better the position i take over and in the other i'm going "downhill", but, like a friend used to say: "screaming and kicking all the way down".

Just my two cents.

Makinus

[geoschmo]

Taking over replacment spots is cool. The other players in the game love you cause you are giving them a real live person to beat rather than an AI. If you manage to win or at least do well you get more credit than normal because you started from such a poor position. If you lose you can blame it on the previous owner, or the AI. It's a win for you either way. If you are concerned with the amount of free time you have, well that's a legitimate concern. But keep in mind that many replacment spots are for smallish empires so there is less to do.

Geoschmo

[Phoenix-D]

"But keep in mind that many replacment spots are for smallish empires so there is less to do."

Like the Parinoia game for example. The only reason the empire I took over is even still around is if it dies, everyone except the killer looses!

I have more planets and ships in one SYSTEM in my main game than I have total in Parinoia.

Phoenix-D

[Shoujo]

I'm not too fond of replacing a player once the game's been going on for more than 2-3 years because for one thing chances are the player might be dead, and also by then a lot of the critical early game decisions have been made by then. The early game to mid-game is what I enjoy the most because there are a lot of critical decisions to be made and not everyone's flying around with maxed out ships.

The other reason why I'm not too fond of joining replacement games is that I have no way of knowing (until joining) what sort of a race I'll be taking over. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a psychotic race, and other times I want to be all goody-goody. If there was a way to check a race's biological/social/historical description before replacing a player, I'd at least be a lot more eager to fill up a replacement slot.

[Skulky]

Speaking of Paranoia, what player are you? I remember being the guys with all the drones for a long while, but nobody ever told me who my target was so it was sorta difficult. It seems that game is going to Last a long-long-long time (i played 40-51 turns), i think it might be the Transcendant Order. But i think it'd be a cool fan-fiction piece too, fun as well. I also remember a game a while back that might have had a save game called rim2 or something, it was cool, b/c i worked my way up from a loser position to getting another guy to surrender to me and getting into top 3 or four. then RL intervened and i had to quit or leave another oneof my baby's (PBW games). So maybe when i get more free time ill try something like that again.

[Slaughtermeyer]

One drastic way to take care of the relative scarcity of replacement players would be to prohibit the creation of new games on PBW until the amount of available replacement slots falls to a low level. I personally would be in favor of a policy like this.