New MP Game - Random, Anonymous, No Diplomacy

[PashaDawg]

Goblin said:
If Dragonfire11 steps into the game maybe I shouldn't ask him to submit for me...

Goblin

You're right! Since we are sooooo early in the game, I could probably follow your simple directions. We would not be playing very many turns while you were away.

We will probably need to play a turn before we have a sub for Bill Paxton. So, I will probably play that too just to keep things moving without stales or AI.

Pasha

[PashaDawg]

Hi All:

I just sent all players an email about this, but I will repeat it here because it makes me feel important.

Here is my proposed policy on stales:

In situations where a player will stale, I will open his/her turn to prevent a reported stale, because otherwise, it would give players clues on who is playing what. However, I will not play the turn. The overall effect will be a stale.

With Turn 5, it seems that there is some confusion with King Lear's substitute, who has not responded to any emails. So, I will play King's turn (but only because the game is young and there is little or no chance that I will run into other players). I can also play Bill Paxton's turn if necessary until we find a sub.

Obviously, I will not be able to act as a substitute later in the game because it would be unfair to other players (due to my omniscient-host-ontological-essence... you can refer to that as OHOE, if you please).

Pasha

[Cainehill]

Mmm - players don't see the stale, only the player who staled and the host can see that.

[BillPaxton]

Shmonk said:
Bill -

You really should stay and try. It's not that big of a loss in the 2nd turn. In my 2nd MP game, I practically lost my Pretender on the 2nd or 3rd turn to a curse and getting FeebleMinded, with Indy 9. Having to wait for 5 or 6 turns to get him back up to being semi-usable didn't sound like fun, so I was going to quit. But I decided to stick it out and give it a try, and now I'm doing pretty well (Paradise Lost game as Arco). I would think if you didn't lose your Pretender, you're not that bad off. So you lost 400 initial gold and an army. You can still bunker down and have this be fun/learning experience for you. And if you ended being in the top 5, that would be cool, wouldn't it?

Just my 2 cents.

I wouldnt have quit except research is so hard. The 400 starting gold is crucial in a game like that.

[Turin]

BillPaxton said:

I wouldnt have quit except research is so hard. The 400 starting gold is crucial in a game like that.

Care to explain?

400 gold less means ~4 less researchers. That meanse after 50 turns your research will be ~1200 rp less. That sucks, but doesn´t mean the game is over, especially if you get lucky and find sages.

Besides you don´t have to pay upkeep for those troops anymore. Judging from the hall of fame, it doesn´t seem as if your pretender died either, so you should be good to go.

And if you have a lucky 500 gp event you are as well of as you were at the start. Surely you don´t want to imply that getting 500 gp in the first few turns automatically wins games?

[PashaDawg]

Cainehill said:

Mmm - players don't see the stale, only the player who staled and the host can see that.

Really? Ugh! Well, slap my fanny and learn me some new poodle tricks! So, I can just let 'em stale? You guys won't see? I would swear I have seen other players' stale turns, but maybe it was always ME doing the stale-ing.

Pasha

[Cainehill]

As they say in the security business - trust, but verify.

Start a trial game with 4 human players, you playing them all. Do a couple turns for 'em all. Then only do one nation, and force the hosting. The next turn, each nation that staled should be told that they staled, but not that anyone else did.

[The Panther]

BillPaxton said:
I wouldnt have quit except research is so hard. The 400
starting gold is crucial in a game like that.

I would mention that the research is quite hard for everybody. Nobody is making fast progress, but that is the point of very hard research.

I would say that you ought to stay around. I can surely guarantee that it will be a learning experience for you. After all, the point is not winning (since 16 players won't win). They point is to enjoy playing. As somebody once said, you don't get anything for winning. And you also don't get anything for finishing second or even 17th!

[PashaDawg]

We might have a replacement. Please stay tuned. I will play the missing player's turns until we have the replacement.

[PashaDawg]

Turn 6 is up and out!