two v. two v. two v. two v. two (full) - Page 25

The Panther · #**241** September 20th, 2005, 04:53 PM

Machaka is in a tough battle with Arco. Hard to say who has the upper hand, but I think the Man/Machaka team is nearly down for the count.

Tauren (Abysia) will probably be staling for a bit while he is moving over the next few days. I almost did his move for him, but I had no idea if he wanted to storm the Man capitol or not, so I declined to do anything. I do not have the slightest idea what army is inside the Man capitol.

I have my hands full with endless undead with 3 strategic moves. Did I ever mention how much I hate to fight Ermor? I have killed maybe 200 undead riders, and there is at least that many still around, for I have been unable to kill even one single commander other than his immortal pretender (who did not have the decency to stay dead). Most of my troops are starving and diseased from lack of proper supplies. My income has been trashed. I don't think I am in danger of being eliminated soon or anything like that, but both Marignon and Ermor will come out of this war very weak, no matter who gets the upper hand.

I also think that T'ien Ch'i is in very bad shape, from what my spies can see.

The stales have been a problem for sure for our team. Both my son and I are chock full of RL these days, and a 2 day forced schedule is problematic at best. This would have been a lot better game under PBEM, in my opinion.

The only thing to do is keep plugging away until the game is over.

The Panther · #**242** September 20th, 2005, 06:16 PM

By the way, I would have to say that the Arco/Pan team has this thing mostly won. With Man nearly dead, Machaka will soon die from a 2 on 1 (it has already begun). And with TC nearly dead, Ulm will also soon follow. This would be the end of the game when those 4 are dead.

Ermor and I are in a huge death battle with neither side dying soon. After Man is gone, Abysia will probably jump on C'tis, but I believe C'tis is currently unscathed and will take an immense amount of effort to kill. The only good thing for Abysia is that all his powerful devils are immmune to the Miasmi.

At this point, I don't see any possible path for the Abysia/Marignon or the C'tis/Ermor team reaching victory by destroying the other team.

Zooko · #**243** September 21st, 2005, 10:27 AM

Hm. I may be fooling myself, but I don't perceive the Tien Chi/Ulm team as really down for the count...

Zooko · #**244** September 21st, 2005, 10:28 AM

Panther: what if it were quickhost with no forced-hosting time-limit? I, too, have been disappointed to see lots of stales in this game (including on my team).

Also I think a game like this ought to have score graphs on.

Any other ideas about how to improve my hosting?

Zooko · #**245** September 21st, 2005, 10:36 AM

Another idea: I could set it up so that players could participate *either* via e-mail or via TCP, at their choice. Would that be cool?

The Panther · #**246** September 21st, 2005, 01:41 PM

Actually, Zooko, you have been a good host. The limitations lie in the TCP/IP method. As I see it, there are but 2 options:
1. Forced hosting. No matter the host schedule, there will always be stales. This is true of every single TCP/IP game I have ever played.
2. No QH option. The problem with this method is that the game can easily die when people drop out or leave on vacation or their computer dies or just plain whatever. Eventually, such games must move to QH option if they ever intend to finish.

On the ther hand, PBEM gives the host complete control over the schedule. If somebody is gone for the weekend, the host knows this and can delay a day or so. If somebody is out for a week or more, a sub can be arranged instead of automatically forcing stales. The host always has the option to force stales for non-responsive players, so the game never has to completely die.

If I had unlimited time (retired) and I was waiting every day just to play Dominions, I would prefer TCP/IP. But few people have this kind of time in RL (I don't). It seems that something always is happenning in RL, and often unexpectedly to boot.

I have not staled as yet in any of my PBEM games, even when I went on vacation to France in June and then my computer died in early August. These kind of things will happen.

The Song of the Blade game went into haitus for weeks while Alneyan was fixing his system. We had many a message to determine how the remaining players wanted to handle this before deciding to wait. PBEM allows for this. TCP/IP does also, but the impersonal nature of that hosting method makes it far harder to actually make things like this happen.

As for our 2v2v2v2v2 game, my spy has left the TC homeland and perhaps that nation has since recovered. If TC is not near death, then there is still more game to play. If TC dies, then Ulm will have big trouble (actually I really mean no hope) in the eventual 2 on 1. My comments were based on the assumption that TC cannot recover from the extensive invasion of his homeland.

Zooko · #**247** September 21st, 2005, 03:07 PM

I see. Thanks for the explanation about the hosting issues.

Also, thanks for the compliment about my hosting.

Zooko · #**248** September 21st, 2005, 03:08 PM

Ah, well, if Tien Chi can recover from the insult to our sovereignty is still in question. It will help plenty if Machaka will put up a stiff fight against Pangaea. :-)

Zooko · #**249** September 23rd, 2005, 04:13 PM

It's T-6 hours and those busy busy real life Tauren and Panther haven't committed their turns. I'm planning to reset the clock for them if it gets down to 1 hour or so and no signs of life.

Zooko · #**250** September 23rd, 2005, 09:37 PM

Well, the great Tien Chi resurgence to dislodge the Pangaean oppressor is going well, but our sister Ulm is being invaded by not one but two masses of nasty undead. One army has a Saurolich and about ten Marshmasters summoning hordes of skeletons. The other army has almsot 600 Ermorian undead.

Does anyone have any advice on how to resist such an onslaught?