How many PBEM games are you in?

[Black Sunrise]

I'm in 8 that are currently running, maybe 4 more that are dead, so far as I know.
And I got
no moves yesterday
1 move the day before
2 moves the day before yesterday
2 moves the day before that
1 move the day before that
5 the day before
1 the day before that
1 the day before that

So, currently I'm averaging just under 2 moves a day.
At 8 games, 1.625 moves a day, most games taking around 200 moves, I expect to be playing Alpha Centauri for about 984 days to finish these games.
Sigh.
Waiting on moves.......


So, is this average? Are you in a couple games, or a lot? Most of my games are 3 or 4 players, I didn't think that was too much when I signed up. What do you think?
I have a LOT of time on the computer, and the 20 minutes a day I play MP just isn't cutting it, but I'm afraid to add more games, because a) my roleplaying suffers b) my gameplay suffers, c) I would HATE to have a crash and hold everyone up.
Indra

[Googlie]

I'm in 22 games, although in 2 I am just subbing as CMN until a player gets back - and in another 6 they are stalled (when CGN Forums went down) with little likelihood of them reactivating.

So of the 14 active, four are 7-player games, two are 5, six are 4 and 2 are one-on-one games.

While the seven-player games are fun, with no AI and devious diplomacy, they do take longer to play, averaging a turn a week. We're well into year 2 in one of these games.

The one-on-ones are fun - typically parallel games (I play the Hive, he plays the Drones, and simultaneously in a parallel game, same AI I play the Drones and he plays the Hive. Or the 2 alien factions.

Last spring, when all were active, I was in 26 games - one evening the stars aligned and I had 26 turns to play - that took from around six in the evening until 3 in the morning !! (half the time was bluddy dial-up modem turn transmitting)

G.

[Paul]

At the moment I'm in 10 games and in the last 24 hours I received 6 turns, 2 of those from the same game. Some games are moving at a decent speed, but most games seem to be moving very slow.

[SITS]

7 games at moment - plus 1 that seems to be in a coma.

Had two turns to play this morning - sometimes it is 5. One game is very regular and we play a turn a day and we've got to the stage where it is taking some time to play the turn (at the dawn of the 23rd century.)

One other of the seven is getting interesting and the others are not very advanced. Fun!

[Flubber]

I am now in 8 games --of these

4 are "regular"4 player
1 is a 2 player duel
1 is a 3 player cooperative game
1 is a 5 player game (just started)
1 is a 7 player game

I find the duel is busy with usually around 3 turns a day (and as many as 7 or 8 sometimes) and the 3 player coop is usually 1-3 turns a day. As for the rest, there is one 4 player game that is averaging over a turn a day (Paul is in it too) and one that seems like a turn a week.

I find I am much more interested in the faster games. Thats why I have taken to requesting faster players when I start a game or seek a replacement. We all have things that cause delays but if you want to play this stuff you need to be reliably quick or the games go forever.

[Black Sunrise]

Everything sped up for a week or two, and I'm back to 1-3 moves a day.
The good news is my favorite game (the one where we are past 2250) is pretty regularly every day (impressive for four players), and it's gotten very interesting.
The bad news is, I am now in about 5 games where I have under 5 cities (call it an average of turn 15 on them all).
Makes me hate fireaxis for not making MP civ. At this point I'd be willing to try a different game, if that was what people were playing.
Sorry I'm griping, I'm probably just tired.
Indra

[Flubber]

Turn rate can be hit and miss depending on what is going on in people's lives. I have a couple of fast games that make up for the slow ones. One four-player game . . . I always seem to play it at least once a day and on a couple of ocassions played it as many as three times. I also recently played my 7-player game TWICE in less than 24 hours so I feel there is hope. There are games where you know that players only check for turns once a day however.

I don't think that another game is necessary since there are fast players out there in SMAC\Smax. Perhaps you should set up a "fast players" game-- I could probably provide you with a few names of who I've seen as fast (in fact, I probably am not fast enough to make my list )

[big_canuk]

I'm in 7 games at the moment. Most of the time I could play more, as most days I have 1 or 2 turns to play. Some days none, but occasionally 3, 4 or even 5 come at once. I try to play turns 1st thing in the morning, occasionally at lunch, if its a quick turn, and after work and during the evening. When there are too many turns, my turnaround suffers, so I don't want to play too many games.

I could *not* keep track of what I am doing in all these separate games, with occasionally more than a week passing between turns, if I did not keep a notepad file for each game. I keep email addresses, rules, and passwords in it and make notes during my turn, on what I am doing metagame-wise, and on any tactical details I need to remember for the next turn. I then load this notepad file while the game is loading to refresh my mind, on what I must do. I am sure this puts me at least 10% ahead of where I would otherwise be.

[Black Sunrise]

I'm gonna try the notepad thing. I've kept notes before, but that seems a good way to do it.

Thanks for the tip!
Indra

[H0bbes]

I'm in 15 at the moment. However at least 4 are inactive & probably won't revive- including my last 7 player games. My best game was a 7 player that unfortunately fizzed & died just as it entered early player conflict- Islanders I on ACOL.

I was in 20+ last year but the numbers keep dwindling. I get an average of 4 a day to play, occasionally none, sometimes 8 or 9.

I don't keep systematic notes about my games- thats waaay to organised! I write post it notes & stick them on the monitor & I use the "name landmark" facility to write cryptic reminders in the game. I only rarely screw up.

[knowhow2]

7 PBEM

2x 2p duel (one of them with Flubber)
1x 3p cooperative
4x 4p regular

and another one with you, Black Sunrise soon.

I've been having lots and lots of free time the last 5 month and having permanent Internet connection means that I could play turns every 15 mins or so..... reaching the top speed of 8 turns a day for almost an entire week. That peticualr game never got finished but about 100 or so turns were played in less than a month (that included 2 weekend break and a 5 days vacation for one player). Unfortunely I won't have this kinda free time next year but I will still make at least 1 turn each day.

[Darsnan]

Heah Black Sunrise,
although I've just joined into MP, why I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in, as well. I'm now in 3 games (ran the trifecta as Bella Hella's replacement), and I've got another game forming up. Just as you noted in your original E-Mail, why I too have lots of time to play SMAC(X), and am not playing my abilities to the limits: maybe it has to do with the region of the world we both live in? If your serious about the time available, and you really want to get into a game where you get multiple turns a day, maybe we should either start another game with similarly capable players, or do a head to head? Let me know what you think: I've read some of the other threads your in, and you sound quite cognitive and capable, so your feedback would be much appreciaterd.


D

[Deimos]

If you two want a good tete-a-tete, why don't you start up Thunderdome III?

Quantaga and I are having a blast in TD I. The map is VERY interesting.

[Darsnan]

Deimos,
your a Godsend!
Black Sunrise: what do you think?


D

[Black Sunrise]

Wow! Bonus for the notepad thing!
If you do the notepad thing, and have to drop out, you can email your notepad with the password to your replacement, they'll have a big head start!
I've also been copy/pasting from it (with edits) for my posts, to the effect that they are now much better than "Move sent"
As to thunderdome, I'm considering it. It confused me, to be honest.
Indra

[Deimos]

Darsnan: Your welcome!

Black Sunrise: Confused? About what?

[Black Sunrise]

Well, I've played weird team games before, and I really suck at them.

Usually they involve build, explore, find your allies, link up, smash the nearby people, go find the other people, smash them too.
My problem is I just cannot accomplish dratted near any of those objectives.
I explore a little, lay down an infrastructure and build build build until one day I hit a critical point where I can expand (explosively), then I take any one of a dozen strategies for stomping my way into the rest of the world.
Most of my strategy involves ways to make friends (a good MP skill), ways to avoid war (again for MP, 3+ players), ways to build borders, ways to improve land, ways to explode rapidly and in unexpected directions. None of it involves finding people far away, smashing people in an ordered way (it's smash everybody in rapid succession for me), holding off multiple determined aggressors, or any of the like.
So, in short, I'd last till 2150, and get killed off the the squids, before making contact with any faction not in vendetta against me.
I'm good, and a lot of my skills are suited to MP. Few are suited to 1-on-1, and in this case, it'd just be 4-on-1, with 2 factions somewhere else.
Shrug.
Let me give you an example from Keygens X. In it, we're at 2260. It's been 140 years since I've put a single energy credit into tech research EVERYTHING has been energy, 100%. No network nodes, no bio labs, no librarians. I had one enemy on my landmass, so I made friends who helped me wage a quick war of extermination, then I traded for the techs I needed. Then I built, and built and built and built. And when the time came to turn on the afterburners, in 20 turns I went from last place to first place, and am trying desperately to pull ahead. So I played a weird weird game, but pretty much totally unsuited to this style.

Sorry,
Indra

[Deimos]

Well, you style and mine are very similar. I tend to not explore or expand as well as I should. I'm attempting to correct that in the most recent games that I've started.

Look at it this way: this could be a chance to to try to expand your horizons. You never know what you can accomplish until you try. "Never give up. Never :"

[knowhow2]

Black Sunrise,

Hotmail is down for the moment and I couldn't send you the next turn. So here it is for now.