The Middle Way - Faerun EA [Need Replacement]

[Hellboy]

This game will be played on the Faerun map in the early age. I am starting with the map that Hadrian II edited (starting from Edi's map) for his Faerun PBM game (here). Hadrian II's map is attached here, but I'll be doing some edits prior to starting, most notably I'll remove all the indy fortresses.

I'm looking for 16 players in this game and I'm aiming at intermediate players, but newbies are welcome. I'll not turn away veterans, but if you're a top player in veteran games, this game might be underpowered for you. For newbies, the one thing I really don't want to see is a turn 2 or 3 drop (and I've seen 4 of those in my first two Dom3 games). For that reason please be sure you're ready for a 6 month commitment on a large map game. You should have at least played the tutorial and/or a SP game through 20 turns, with a pretender similar to the one you're playing here.

I would love to see this game get started w/ a 5 - 15 turn blitz, but I know that will be difficult in a large player game. If we're having difficulty getting 16 players, we might considering starting w/ some AI positions set on "impossible"


Server:
IP: 24.17.189.161 Port: 1024

Settings:
Hall of Fame: 15
Magic Site Frequency: 50
Renaming: on
Graphs: off
Others are standard

Hosting Schedule:
28hr QH, moving to 52hr QH later

Victory Conditions:
Consent of surviving players

Mods:
Worthy Heroes

Contacting Host:
kirkpp at yahoo dot com

On Stales and Lost Causes:There is no hard and fast rule, but 3 successive stales are sufficient cause to be set to AI, unless you have communicated with the host (me). A complete lack of communication combined with numerous stales also justifies setting to AI.
I know from experience that it's depressing to playing a losing position, but your fellow players will appreciate it when you "give hell" to those taking you out. Still its clearly better to go AI then to stale indefinitely, but it would be appreciated if you would announce your intention to go AI on this thread, prior to doing so.

On Lost Internet Access, Broken Computers, or whatever: If you have for any reason lost your ability to contact the game server and get your turns in, in order to get an extension, you will still need to contact the host (me) directly with two pieces of information:
1) ETA on resolution of your issue, and
2) player password

Otherwise I may reassign the position or set to AI, at my discretion. I realize that in this circumstance it is likely that whatever technical difficulties are occuring will make it a problem to contact me. Nonetheless, internet cafes exist, friend's computers exist, work computers exist, and all that is necessary is bare minimum internet access in order to contact me (either by email or PM).
With contact, reassignment is still possible, depending on how long the ETA (but generally substitutions should be temporary). As the game goes on it will become more likely that extensions will be given.

Sheap's Rules of Diplomacy (multiplayer tips 1 and 2) will be in effect. (You don't have to role play, although it is encouraged, but you do have to be civil.)

Players:
1. Abysia - Sandman
2. Agartha - Tyrant
3. Arcoscephale - Darrel
4. Atlantis - Meglobob
5. Ermor - Jay Thomas (AI)
6. Hellheim - Amhazair
7. Kailasa - Foodstamp
8. Lanka - Shovah32 (defeated)
9. Marverni - Teraswaerto (AI)
10. Mictlan - WSzaboPeter (defeated)
11. Niefleheim - jazzepi
12. Pangaea - Dedas
13. R'lyeh - Baalz
14. Sauromatia - llamabeast
15. T'ien Ch'i - Hellboy
16. Yomi - Izzyz


Links:
Location for downloadable Faerun map (you will need Faerun_large_v2, and Faerun_large.tga within that).
Worthy Heroes v1.6

[Foodstamp]

Thanks for adding me!

Feedback:
CB: Either way
Worthy Heroes: Yes (sounds fun)
Graphs: Either way

[FrankTrollman]

Deleted.

[DrPraetorious]

I'd like to try EA Ulm.

I am mainly agnostic with respect to mods and settings but cannot tolerate CB.

[Evilhomer]

graphs on would be prefered if this will be victory point setting, since else the game will just end and many will just surprised about the end, having no clue that player x was winning...

[Tyrant]

That's a good point Evilhomer, i'll vote yes on graphs if we are playing VP and abstain if we are not.

[Teraswaerto]

I agree with Evilhomer on graphs. Usually I like graphs off, since all that information really is supposed to be gathered with scouts - or not gathered, if you think you can risk being ignorant.

However, with some kind of victory conditions that can end the game suddenly for no apparent reason, graphs should be used.

Furthermore the victory condition, if any is used, should be such that in order to win one player would have to control more than half of the provinces/VPs, maybe 60-70%.

I prefer games without victory conditions since they end naturally, and you can't use the mechanics to win before you've actually beat all your enemies. A player may lose practically all their provinces to raids and still come back, just as someone may attack 50 provinces in one turn with Cloud Trapeze or some such and not be in a position to win if there are no victory conditions.

[Evilhomer]

Teraswaerto consider how large this map actually is. If the wictory condition is more than half the provinces/60-70% victory points the winning player will have to rule an empire of 250+ lands. I shudder at the thought of making all the scripting/strategic decisions for such an empire, not to mention the 100's of turns getting to that size.

Victory condition should preferably be attainable within a reasonable amount of time.

[Teraswaerto]

It's true that the map is rather huge... That doesn't change the fact though, that with something like 40% of provinces there is no quarantee that the winner is in an utterly dominant position.

In the late stages of the game, on large maps, winning isn't just a matter of skill, but also of endurance. If there are no victory conditions it's not uncommon that the few remaining empires agree to allied victory simply because they balk at the amount of work going to war would be. Is that a bad thing? Don't know really.

If owning more than half of all provinces is too much, then VPs are better, since it's easier to grasp what exactly is needed to win.

[Dedas]

My votes:

CB: No
Worthy Heroes: Yes
Graphs: Yes