So, How's it going?
Is the game a success? Too much? Too Big? Cool to see the various ages interacting? Settings working out?
Turn 42 and quite a few are out already.
17 Defeated
7 Gone AI
= 24/62 Humans out of the game
Out of those:
11/22 EA Nations (50%)
9/22 MA Nations (41%)
4/18 LA Nations (22%)
1/8 Water Nations (12.5%)
23/54 Land Nations (42.5%)
Initial thoughts seem to be holding out, Early nations being weaker in the beginning, Late age stronger. Will be interesting to see if the LA nations will be able to hold onto their gains as magic becomes more prevalent.
Water Nations are doing very well early on, 7/8 still surviving and doing well.
Any surprises so far? Players you thought may be defeated that are still holding on (ME!!!), Players you thought might last longer? Surprising nations notwithstanding players?
Predictions? Some pretty hefty leads on troops, provinces, dominion and research so far. Will coalitions such as recently suggested by LA Atlantis knock off the leaders? I could see the game becoming very polarized in short order.
Personally I'm not liking difficult research. I still want a mod that does easy/normal research for the first 3 levels and then moves to difficult 4-7 and very difficult for 8-9. Conj 3 for apsu was painful as I wasn't initially going Conj. Anyway, while my little microcosm doesn't like difficult research, seems like some nations aren't bothered by it *points at LA Ry'leh*.
Kind of disliking the site setting as well, seems low. But again, realizing that there would be TONS of gems floating around if not (even more so than have to be). Late game is going to be disgusting as is. Again, in my little microcosm I wish there were more sites
Wondering if future games such as this should have a turn limit, say 60 turns. Develop a scoring system and declare a winner? Obviously have to see how this turns out, but just imaging micro'ing one of the last 4 nations!
EDIT: Actually a composite scoring system would be pretty cool. Just to give a bird's eye view on the leaders. Weight the different categories per nations (i.e. income not being worth as much for LA Ermor as for EA Ulm), Add scores to the various measuring units (+1 pt per province, +1 pt per 50 income, +1 pt per 50 dominion, etc) analyze by weight and come out with a #. Obviously not perfect as it wouldn't take into consideration troop quality, SC's or position, but would still be nice to see.
Any thoughts?