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Rommel2D
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ACS Staff Member / Hosted Site Admin
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Upper Midwest
Feb 2003
time: 23:34
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I've been playing Civilization for over ten years now. I've usually been fascinated by the game, and I've usually been disappointed by the competition. The rules are designed to make you believe your opponents are intelligent like you, but it is readily apparent they are not. While playing the game may be about nurturing cities and commanding units, winning strategy actually comes from unraveling a complex series of algorithms that make up an artificial intelligence. Somehow this puppet show always fell short of what I expected from the program. Bring on the actors!
When Civ2 multiplayer came out, I was without regular internet access. Once I found stable access, SMAC was the latest offering, so I tried that. Play by Email seemed to be what I was looking for, and to an extent it was. Unfortunately, by the time I started to really get into my first game, I had my net access again interrupted. And then came Civ3...
Over the last year I've finally experienced the whole PBEM experience. Early on, I tried some online MP, but the simultaneous moves thing isn't really what I'm looking for, and few people seem interested in online turn based games. The PBEM games offer what I want when they move at a good pace, but I have yet to experience this pace over the span of an entire game. Interest seems to inevitably wane over time and the games just end up lingering around in limbo.
At the beginning of this year, a tournament was started for PBEM players. It consists of five games of four players each, with the winners of each to play a final five player championship game. This has given me the best PBEM game I've been in yet, averaging over a turn per day. Unfortuantely, some of the other games are barely managing a turn a week. This lack of synchronicity looks forboding, but only time will tell.
With a watershed C3C patch on the horizon that takes care of some important PBEM problems, I think its a good time to start a second tournament. I'm volunteering to organize and administer the Tournament.
Who wishes the title of Iron Civer?
Confirmed Entrants:
ricketyclik
Masuro
smellymummy
Paddy the Scot
Andydog
sabrewolf
Aqualung71
Flandrien
Trip
alexman
Conqueror
MickeyJ
Iron Jackson
LzPrst
Moonbars
Soltz
Player Pool:
Iron Jackson
LzPrst
ricketyclik
Andydog
Paddy the Scot
smellymummy
Soltz
Masuro
alexman
Conqueror
Mickeyj
Moonbars
sabrewolf
Trip
aqua_lung
Flandrien
MFCamillus
McMeadows
Beta
playshogi
A couple things to keep in mind: This is a long term proposal. Everybody should be available on a daily basis for the next year or so with only limited periods of expected absence. Also, all turns will be played with the new patch (1.22) unless everyone agrees to upgrade at some future point.
I'm approaching this with an eye toward developing protocols and a code of conduct that will make PBEM more exciting and enjoyable. I'd like to discuss rules and arrange player groupings in advance, to build a solid framework before setting the games in motion. In the long run, I believe this will give the best result.
Although I've never participated in any of the Apolyton University projects, I was impressed by the changes they have been able to implement within the existing code. I even noticed some of the features of the PtW mod show up in the Conquest expansion. Would anyone be interested in forming a complimentary organization to focus on promoting PBEM structure? Or perhaps AU could use an athletic program to develop a new MP mod and provide scholarships for aspiring chieftains?
Last edited by Rommel2D on 19-04-2004 at 06:10
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Rommel2D
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ACS Staff Member / Hosted Site Admin
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Upper Midwest
Feb 2003
time: 23:34
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Proposed rules, fifth draft:
1) 16 players, two rounds, all four player games
2) Tiny pangea with 70% water, random civs (first round only)
3) Players in final round choose tribes in order of first round completion
4) Players organized by geography for fast play (future tournament groups can be randomized if desired)
5) Turn order in east-west progression with exceptions only for players who give specific availability variances
6) Games started by referee, first turn skipped
7) Each player has the option, once per game, to call for a restart before the completion of their first turn
8) Replacements are allowed while game is still BC
9) Replacements for final game will be highest scoring runner-up from first game to finish in first round
10) 24 hour 'play clock', actively enforced
11) All players expected to make simple 'sent' post in tracking thread each turn, listing year played, except when technical problems interfere.
12) All turns to be played with version 1.22 until it is superceded by another stable upgrade which all players agree to adopt.
13) There is to be no...
rule 13.
Last edited by Rommel2D on 18-04-2004 at 13:51
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Rommel2D
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ACS Staff Member / Hosted Site Admin
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Upper Midwest
Feb 2003
time: 23:34
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Issues so far:
1. More accomplished players tend to favor a previewed and balance assured map. This causes problems with Seafaring Tribes' starting positions for one thing, but if desired, I'll do my best to work around it and generate the maps.
2. Does MPTournement.biq work [edit: well] with PBEM?
3. How will extensive planned or emergency absenses from a game be handled?
24 hours after the last post is made in a game's tracking thread, I'll start looking into where the save is at. If the next player is not responding, I'll take the save, play their turn, and pass to the following player. I'd simply like to keep the game going, not punish anyone for being too busy in RL. If someone is a few hours late and still get their turn off before the following player plays the defaulted turn, no problem. 24 hours is the minimum, in practice it will usually be 30 or 40 hours before the turn is passed on.
For extended absences, assuming we don't make other arrangements, I'll play turns with minimal upkeep of cities and forces. I'll also follow strategies for anyone who leaves instructions on what they want.
Last edited by Rommel2D on 17-03-2004 at 08:50
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ducki
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I thought it was about Caesar.
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Rommel2D
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ACS Staff Member / Hosted Site Admin
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Upper Midwest
Feb 2003
time: 23:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Iron Jackson
2) Yes, it works in PBEMs.
3) If a player plans to be absent for a longer time (surely we need to define "longer time", I´d like to say longer than 10 days)
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2) With the MPTournament.biq, I meant to ask whether it should be used for PBEM. I think the mods were made with online simultaneous move games in mind. Are they also good to have in PBEM? I'm not sure what rule mods are in the present version, but we need to go over what is being changed for 1.20 also.
3) By absences, I'm talking about anything over 24 hours. I'll explain the 24 hour clock idea more by editing the earlier post, but the basic idea is that I'm not playing in the tournament myself, just setting it up and making sure none of the games sit inactive for more than a day.
One problem is that many players don't want to entrust their game to a substitute, as it can really mess up strategy. For extended absences, an idea that's been proposed is to give each player two weeks per game to 'take holiday' as they wish. It could be one two-week vacation, or seven weekend excursions, however they wish to use it.
The basic idea is to keep all first round games on a similar schedule, to keep interest up in the games themselves, as well as to prevent three of the winners from having to wait a few months to start the finals because one group couldn't pull things together.
quote:
Concerning my tournament group in the other game, I´d like to say your proposal about organizing the groups geographically makes more sense than we did it in the other tournament. |
In game one, on weekends when we are all up and available at the same time, we've squeezed in three turns in a seven hour period with no formal arrangement. Geographic grouping doesn't ensure fast play, just as random allocation doesn't necessarily make it slow, but it should help more often than not, I'd hope.
quote:
I think I´m predestinated for the title of Iron Civer. |
You might have to vie for destiny's hand with Uber KruX, who's avatar is something like 72% iron... :-)
Last edited by Rommel2D on 15-03-2004 at 08:08
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Iron Jackson
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GMT +1
usually playing turns (all times in local GMT+1) 06:00 - 07:30 / 17:00 - 23:00
currently no vacation etc. planned
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Dominae
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GMT+5 (or -5, whichever is West)
I can play turns anytime, depending on the day of week.
Vacation planned for August (I think).
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Andydog
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London
Jan 2001
time: 05:34
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I'm always up for a bit of madness.
GMT+0, shooting to Greece around June for a few weeks but otherwise can play whenever.
Last edited by Andydog on 17-03-2004 at 14:42
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smellymummy
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I'm interested too
we don't really need restarts right (7th rule)?
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Soltz
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I'd be interested. My play times are usually 9-midnite PST
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All times are GMT. The time now is 05:34.
Apolyton Time is 00:34. |
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14-03-2004 14:09
Interested.
(In the finals ;-)
. But I won't start new PBEM games for a while, especially not with Conquests. After it's fixed, maybe, but it doesn't look like this anytime soon. Best of luck for your tournament, and may the best get the Iron Civer title. 
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