PBEM, Anyone?

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Buster13
I'm in, playing as random. How do you propose to assign Civs to players? The administrator will have to pick them for the players? Shall we draw electronic straws?

I was more thinking about, the one who's fastest to choose a Civ, gets the Civ. So if someone claims he wants to play as Egypt, then nobody can choose Egypt, unless he/she decides some other Civ.

On the AI civs: I wouldn't mind playing against them, but I wont vote for having them in the game either...

Shouldn't we just say Max number of Players?

[Buster13]

Sure, let's say 8 players max. If we get a huge map, we'll just have BIG empires!

I wouldn't mind trying one of the new civs, but if that's how we're picking, gimme the Aztecs!

[Jon Shafer]

I'm in, as random. 8 players is good.

[alva]

Thanks for not including me ADG , afterall, I only started this thread

No AI
All random
Including random civs
(don't care about map size)

BTW: I think you can have only 8 human players!!

PS: remember that Europe might get PTW later than our American friends

[Adagio]

Originally posted by alva848
Thanks for not including me ADG , afterall, I only started this thread

Sorry, but I didn't include anyone, since I have already set some of the rules for the game, and I couldn't make sure if everyone, who said they wanted to be in a PBEM game, also wanted to play with those rules...

In case someone missed it (The already set rules for this game): There's NO voting about the map (climate, etc...It's all random), and there's NO voting for culture...it's ON

Originally posted by alva848
BTW: I think you can have only 8 human players!!

Yes, that's the Max, but we could set the Max players to (e.g.) 5, to make the turns go faster

[Buster13]

However you guys want to do it is fine with me. Obviously we could have a couple of games running with 5 humans civs. My international politics class in college taught me that 5 was the optimum number for balanced foreign relations since it's usually 1 and 4 versus 2,3 and 5...

If you have a method to determine random civs for each player I'm in. You could start a game on your own with (number of human players) +1 (yourself) and see who it picks and assign them to your list in the order that you discovered them...or something like that. Of course, since this would involve us trusting you (first diplomatic agreement... ), you might as well draw them from a hat!

Whateveryou think is a good idea.

As a side note, I'm thinking about creating a custom map with established cities and a "game board" feel for a PBEM game centered around the middle ages. I'm not too familiar with the scenario creation stuff, but can you set penalties for science (to slow it down), estanblish cities with improvements and assign starting units?

If I created something like this, would anyone be interested in playtesting it?

[Lung]

Originally posted by Buster13
I'm concerned about it being particularly slow, especially early on. Is there any way (I wonder) to play several turns at a time early in the game? Probably not...

Trust me, you're better off not. As boring as the early game is, the lack of play keeps all players keen, as everyone wants to get through them as quickly as possible.

As an experienced PBEM'er, i suggest you follow my advice Limit numbers of players to five or less, as players will inevitably drop out without warning (usually when the going gets tough). Also, make settings player-friendly, as you want to be fighting each other rather than battling to survive, and keep maps small. Otherwise, your games degenerate into empire building as there is little threat of interference in the early game.

I also suggest that you don't worry about squeezing into games, as after a few months there will be hundreds or even thousands of PBEM games happening simultaneously. In CtP, PBEM is so popular there are entire ratings lists and tournaments to satisfy demand! Considering how much more popular CivIII is than CtP, CivIII PBEM promises to have a healthy number of players

[Tiberius]

My votes:

Max human.players = 8
Map size = Standard
Babarians = the standard option
AI civs: NO
CF: ON

PS Even though I'd like very much to join, don't count on me for the first games. Like I said, I can't buy PtW ASAP. To be more precise, I'll buy it ASAP, but "as soon as possible" means 1 or 2 month delay for me

[Tiberius]

What should be the max. delay for sending others the saved game? One day?

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Tiberius
Max human.players = 8

Having 8 human Civs would be too many. If you have 8 players who want to join you'd be better off playing two 4-player games than one 8-player one. Smaller games are more interesting because each player gets to have a turn more often, it keeps interest in the game up.

They also take less time to play, a PBEM game with 8 people will last for more than a year. Take the advice of people (like Lung) who have experience of playing CtP PBEM games.

Something you might want to consider is using the Accelerated Production option. That will help speed things along to the interesting part of the game.

[Tiberius]

OK. I'm changing my vote then:

Max. nr of players: 6

[alva]

something we forgot!
What kind of game !!!!

It seems we are not used to the new options

[alva]

@ ADG: do you mind if I copy your list into the
first post???
Might be easier to follow

[Adagio]

Originally posted by alva848
@ ADG: do you mind if I copy your list into the
first post???
Might be easier to follow

Go ahead...that means you'll do the updating also?

I updated til this post, and based on what those who's familiar with PBEM games said, I'll change my vote to 5 human players...

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Tiberius
PS Even though I'd like very much to join, don't count on me for the first games. Like I said, I can't buy PtW ASAP. To be more precise, I'll buy it ASAP, but "as soon as possible" means 1 or 2 month delay for me

Does it take that long, to get a preordered game?

[Adagio]

Originally posted by alva848
something we forgot!
What kind of game !!!!

It seems we are not used to the new options

Can't we just play a normal game? Since it's a PBEM game, we have enough time, it's not like have to finish the game in an hour (like in the other game-modes)...and I don't think we can play simultaniusly in PBEM games

[Tiberius]

Originally posted by ADG
Does it take that long, to get a preordered game?

Unfortunately.
Shipping all the 5 (if not less) preordered PtW games to Romania is not very profitable, I suppose. If I'm lucky it will be packed with other games and will come faster than I think. Maybe it would be a better solution to buy it from Hungary, directly from a shop. Hmm. Damn!!

[Adagio]

Should we just delete you from this game, then you'll just have to start up a new game when you get the game...?

[Tiberius]

OK. Put me in as a possible reserve, though; just in case.

[Adagio]

ok...

[Tiberius]

Could somebody (preferably with experience in PBEM) answer my question, please?

What is the max. time period that should be allowed to make our moves / send the savegame ?

[Buster13]

You're all probably right about number of players. I suppose that more than 4 or 5 players would mean that you wouldn't see the game but once a week, and that would be if there was a maximum delay of one day like Tiberius suggests. I do like the idea about accelerated production for these games as well.

While under normal circumstances a day is more than enough time to play a turn and email it to the next person, should something happen if a person's life...like the occassional out of town trip...or the girlfriend starts whining that I spend more time with the computer and other pursuits than with her...(you all know this one)... should there be some kind of occassional grace period? Maybe each player can take two days up to three times without notice and more with notice?

I don't know...trying to solve problems in advance. How has some of this stuff been handled in the past Lung?

[Adagio]

I also vote for having accelerated production...

I must warn you, sometimes (up to 5 days a month, though not all day) my internet connection is down...

[FrustratedPoet]

If Tiberius is going to be a reserve then I'll volunteer to be the 5th player. I'd like to play as one of the new PtW Civs, but I don't care which...

(If I've stepped up to the plate too soon here, just let me know and I'll back off. )

I vote for:
Accelerated Production.
Small World.
Normal game mode.
Random everything else.

I'd like to have some Barbarian force in the game, but I don't care how big it is. If we put it on Random then we might get 'None', which would be a shame.

I assume we're gonna leave all Victory Conditions on?
If so that's fine with me.

We also have to have Preserve Random Seed switched on. (I'm assuming only reload-cheaters would argue with this. ).

On the max. period of time for passing on a save:
I think 48 hours should be the limit, with the understanding that all players should strive to do it in 24 hours if they can. I someone explains in advance that they'll be unable to play their turn then everyone will understand and give them an extension, of course.

I'll be getting the game as soon as it is out in England, whenever that may be....

[Buster13]

So who's in this game then? Alva?

I didn't see where it was posted, if at all.

[Adagio]

FrustratedPoet >> I added you to the players list

[FrustratedPoet]

Thanks ADG

Once a final list of the players hs been sorted out we should PM each other with the e-mail addresses we want to use for the game.
There's no huge rush on this, though, we won't be starting the game for 3-4 weeks anyway.

[Adagio]

Players:
- ADG (Playing as random)
- (Tiberius (Playing as random))
- Buster13 (Playing as Aztec...Playing as random, if everybody else is)
- Trip (Playing as random)
- alva848 (Playing as random)
- FrustratedPoet (Playing as 'one of the new Civs')
- (Calc II)

I think I might have screwed up the votings, and not everybody has taken a clear stand for everything, so I'll just post a "template" for the players to use for the voting: (And you can only vote up to MAX 6 human players...otherwise it might take too long)...

For what there's no voting:

Map specifications: Set to random
Game mode: Normal game
Culture flip: On
Preserve Random Seed: On

(If I forgot something, please tell me...)

Here's my votings (Just use it as template)

Map size: Standard

Max number of Human-Players: 5

Number of AI Civs: Wouldn't mind if they're there or not...

Babarians: Random

Accelerated production: Off

Victory condition: All on

[FrustratedPoet]

OK. Good thinking.

Map size: Small

Max number of Human-Players: 5

Number of AI Civs: None. The players who start near the AI Civ(s) will have an advantage because they'll have an easy target to dominate and extort techs from. This is part of the reason why I want a Small map.

Babarians: Random

Accelerated production: On

Victory condition: All on

For what there's no voting:

Map specifications: Set to random
Game mode: Normal game
Culture flip: On

[Buster13]

Map size: Random

Max number of Human-Players: 5

Number of AI Civs: No

Babarians: Random

Accelerated production: On

Victory condition: All On

For what there's no voting:

Map specifications: Set to random
Game mode: Normal game
Culture flip: On

Thanks for the templete ADG. I saw the list, also...so no need to post it again. Thanks.

If everyone else is going to be a random civ, I will to...to help ensure additional fun and surprises!!!!

Hey, should we get MarkG's blessing as the "FIRST PBEM" game? Maybe one of us can write a story about it for the contest? I'm not much of a writer, though...but perhaps I'd give it a try...