YARG - Yet Another RAND Game [Isokron's Midgard wins!]

[ano]

By magic sites, of course.
Also, if the map has no specified province names, the capitals will be named after nation

[WraithLord]

yeah, I guess this is the only way. The method is somewhat annoying, well unless the winner makes it easier for rdonj by giving the province numbers of the 9 capitals he controls.

It also means that the players will not be able to know who controls more VPs or is closer to victory by the score graphs.
Are you sure you want to give up on this indication?- The alternative is relying on scouting and speculation. Theoretically, a player could go very close to victory undetected.
I'm not sure I like this side effect of going that route.

[ano]

It would be ok in a game with diplomacy where a player who scouts well could tell the others "Guys, watch up!". In a game like this it may not be good, I agree with you, WL

[Micah]

You could have the admin post in-thread when a cap is taken or lost with the appropriate information, it would be the same as a graph.

Edit: Any player getting a cap should notify the admin so that the admin wouldn't have to check in constantly, of course. Since VPs aren't exchanged too often in most games this shouldn't be too much of a burden for anyone, though some sort of sanctions should probably be enacted for failure to notify the admin. (If you don't notify the admin the turn you get the capital then your VP doesn't count until 5 turns after the notification, perhaps? If you have 2 late notifications it takes 10 for them to count, etc.)

[Dimaz]

Hm, in my experience it's almost always obvious when someone takes a capital from another player by income/gems graphs, and I don't think it's such a good idea with these "capture notifications", it's quite easy to forget this when game situation requires much attention, as in the case with your/neighbor capital owner changed.

[ano]

When it's obvious for you it doesn't automatically mean that it is obvious for everyone and in no-diplo game you can't just cry "Guy! XXX is going to won!"

[Executor]

Trust me it's not that obvious to see who's winning, if you remember what happened in Beer with Vanheim Ano.

[WraithLord]

I 2nd ano here.
Micah's suggestion is good - however I don't see why we have to go to all this hassle just to defend players from early rush. Take an awake SC if you are afraid to be rushed. Rushing is part of the game and while I wouldn't have minded hiding the capitals I don't think it's a good idea given the consequences on end game (the original suggestion) or annoyance/overhead (the obvious draw back of Micah's otherwise excellent suggestion).

I say we go as planned.
Micah, now that you've made a visit here - care to join us as the 19h player?- (Although this will probably significantly drop everybody's chance of victory )

[Micah]

No, thank you. I do not care for the settings (I doubt I will play another open-ended gem-gen game at any point) or large map size (especially with gem-gens active), nor the large volume of inexperienced players. I find that it skews the game heavily when there are so many soft targets available.

Plus I'm still spending hours on arti and am going out of town tomorrow. Just waiting on llama now though, I'm hoping to be done with the first problem soon, though it's almost tempting to wait until the anniversary of the game at this point, it's so close...

[Micah]

Oh, and 9-indies is a further kick in the nuts to some already-weak nations (I pity whoever gets Jomon...have fun never leaving your cap.)