PBEM Game: Yarnspinners 2 (Running)

[The Panther]

Map sizes:
Inland - 154
Cradle - 221
Orania - 279

Actually, Cradle could work because of all the choke points, for the starting spots in the middle are not as bad as they may appear at first. Still, corners are far superior, of course. Also, the 60 turn limit means the game won't drag out into the tedious phase typical of the larger maps like Cradle and Orania.

Wraparound is far superior for balance issues. Overall, Inland is perhaps the single bast Dominions map there is.

[quantum_mechani]

I would prefer inland, the other maps are to big.

My nation choices: Pythium, Atlantis, Ermor.

[Alneyan]

The updated roster:
- PashaDawg: T'ien Ch'i
- Griffin: Ulm
- The Panther: Man
- Sedna: Marignon
- Djo: Vanheim
- Puffyn: C'tis
- Alneyan: Pangaea
- Quantum Mechani: Pythium

[The Panther]

With 8 players (did Zen drop out?), Inland is perhaps the perfect size for this game with almost 19 land provs average per player. Also, I think we have a dedicated group of gamers here (admittedly, I do not know Djo, though) and we should not have the problem of people quitting like in the first Yarnspinners attempt. Though I will ask right now for a pause in late June, as I will be out of the country for 12 days. Even God himself had to rest on the seventh day!

As for the observer, Tauren can take R'lyeh or Atlantis with a fixed start in that single water province. I think he may need some help with creating his observer race to get the necessary astral income plus the Eyes of God as a national spell (and the pile of gems to cast it). I would not really know how to do all of that. Or even how to put the 140 province defence in every capitol. Or even how to do the simplest mod.......

By the way, how do you keep the observer race from dying to dominion later in the game?

The (ignorant) Panther

[Alneyan]

About Zen: he has expressed interest in joining the game, but didn't give any nation preference. So, he is still in the "top three nations" list (at the beginning of the thread), but not in the "who plays what nation" list (for the time being at least).

I will likely set up the independent nation, or give a full explanation on how to do it. Basically, they will have an unconnected province, so their Dominion won't spread (and vice versa). Even if the province was connected, Dominion kill would require active work from the players, and the independents would probably retaliate then.

Getting the gems will imply heavy use of the Wish spell, which will become a nation-only spell for part of the game (the first ten turns or so). Wish will then cost *no* gem and will only require Astral 1. If possible, the independent nation will start with thirty or so Astral mages, allowing them to cast no fewer than 30 visa wishes on turn 1, so they will have a lot of virtual astral gems.

Building up the PD will either be part of a mod (highly unlikely if memory serves), or will be done the hard way, with the independent nation giving gold for that purpose (and increasing PD themselves). PD 100 would cost 5000 gold, so that would be a nice number, avoiding any mistake like "how much gold can I actually use?". Again, the money will be gained via alchemy, probably by picking an Alchemist Pretender (with an increased alchemy value, if possible) and wishing for the Alchemist's Stone. That should give 50 gold per fire gem or so => 1250 gold per visa wish, and some more alchemy will be possible.

Unfortunately, I do not believe there is any actual modding command allowing to do the above, so workarounds seem to be necessary. That will mean some setup work for the independent nation in the first few turns, but it will no longer be necessary afterwards.

[Alneyan]

Well, the settings should be more or less final now:

- The game will start on May 1 or so.
- Map: Inland if 8 players are involved, perhaps Cradle or Orania if other players join in.
- Independents: 6 strength
- Magic research: Very hard research
- Magic sites at 50, Hall of Fame with 15 entries, renaming is on.
- Mods: Zen Pretenders and Scales, unless someone objects to that other one. The Spell Mod is out, as there is no documentation for the time being.

- No outside judge giving awards; 5 astral pearl per yarn, 10 if most players find the yarn to be interesting.
- Game ending on turn 60, unless most players would like to go on for a longer while (after turn 45).
- Beefed-up PD for all players, along the lines of 100 PD.
- Nation picking will be done on a "top three" basis.

[PashaDawg]

Hmmm. Orania would be interesting. Shall we check in with Zen to see if he still wants to play?

[The Panther]

Graphs on or off? I would vote for on, as it may help with the yarns.

And I was hoping to try out the spell mod sometime soon. Zen needs to get cracking on that one!!!

[quantum_mechani]

The Panther said:
And I was hoping to try out the spell mod sometime soon. Zen needs to get cracking on that one!!!

Hmm? Do you mean the item mod? The spell mod has been out for some time.

[The Panther]

Yeah, I did mean the item mod, in which I hope he nerfs clams and life drain.

I did play the spell mod a few times, and that one is very good. It really balances some of the worst excesses (like Flames from the Sky and Wrathful Skies) and makes many of the lower level summons (Cave & Ice Drakes, for example) actually worthwhile!

Panther