Strat Forum PBEM: Game 4 - Thread II - Page 7

jshelr · May 16, 2003, 11:42

Absolutely, didn't mean to suggest excluding people for patch reasons. Is it time to pick civs? I've got to travel this weekend through Monday, but I could haul along the computer if the game is nearly ready to go?

alexman · May 16, 2003, 14:54

Catt has agreed to make the map!

He says he will be done before the weekend is over, but in the meantime, we need to pick civs. Should we limit the max of each trait to 2 or 3, or just let it free? With six players, we can have each trait be present exactly twice.

Anyway, here's what I wrote to Catt about the map:

Settings
We hope to encourage some early warfare. No REXing undisturbed until the middle ages, because that can be boring in a PBEM game. With that in mind, we agreed on the following:

Small (80x80)
Pangaea
Normal Climate
Temperate Temperature
5 billion years
Random Barbs

The reason for 5 billion years is so that the Industrious trait is not as powerful, and the Random Barbs is to discourage all but the worst gamblers to choose the already unpredictable expansionist trait.

It would be perfectly fine if you just let the map generator produce maps and pick one that seems balanced. The only requirement is that we are all on the same land mass.

Luxury resources
In MP war weariness is reduced, so we need to weaken the Republic a bit by having a shortage of luxuries. Just one luxury should be available to each player in the beginning, and the 7th and 8th luxuries should be remotely placed, or even completely absent.

Strategic resources
They should not be abundant, but if a player lacks a resource near his start, he should have a couple of alternative choices for obtaining a source. As for the number of strategic resources, leave them approximately the same as what the random map generator produced.

Bonus resources
It's important that all six starting locations are reasonably balanced in terms of extra food. Other than that, preserve the map generator's quantity of bonus resources.

jshelr · May 16, 2003, 15:11

Carthage please, although I can screw up other civs equally well if Carthage is not available. We should probably not play the same civs as we have in other games to give others a chance.

alexman · May 16, 2003, 15:14

I would prefer two of these three traits:
Industrious
Religious
Expansionist

Dominae · May 16, 2003, 15:19

What about the Industrious trait? Are we removing a starting tech from Industrious civs? At 5 billion years, Industrious civs still have a great advantage in terms of Road networks.

Dominae

jshelr · May 16, 2003, 15:19

Shall the pink frog be yellow men this time

Dominae · May 16, 2003, 15:22

I would like to see an MP game where the Egyptians are not one of the contenders.

That said, I want Egypt.

Just kidding, I'm still thinking about civ choice.

Dominae

Harovan · May 16, 2003, 17:19

I was also thinking about Egypt. If we ban them or Dominae chooses them (well, he said it first), I take Persia.

alexman · May 16, 2003, 17:34

It seems everyone's still picking Industrious. Should we remove Masonry as a starting tech after all? Should we limit the number of occurances of each trait to 2? I vote yes to both.

Nor Me · May 16, 2003, 17:54

I drew Egypt as a random civ in another game so I'm certainly happy to leave it to someone else - provided they don't start next to me close to horses.

Quote:

Should we limit the number of occurances of each trait to 2?

How are you going to make that fair?

How am I then not at a huge advantage in having Persia as my first choice first with only Carthage behind?

If we're only dropping Masonry and going for 5 billion years that's still going to leave me up on the remaining 4 players.

alexman · May 16, 2003, 18:24

I don't know, how about an extra free worker for non-industrious civs?

Or we could pick six more-or-less balanced civs (Industrious combined with weaker traits) and then each one of us could pick only from that list. For example, France, Greece, Aztecs, Zulu, Babylon, and America.

By the way, if we all pick Industrious it's fine with me. Sir Ralph is the one who suggested a more even distribution of traits, because in the last game there were too many expansionists.

Dominae · May 16, 2003, 18:38

Industrious civs lose Masonry, 5 billion years, everyone chooses whatever civ they want.

Those are my votes.

Dominae

DaveMcW · May 16, 2003, 18:41

I want Iroquois.

alexman · May 16, 2003, 20:50

Quote:

Originally posted by Dominae
Industrious civs lose Masonry, 5 billion years, everyone chooses whatever civ they want.

OK, let's do that then. We have:

jshelr: Carthage
DaveMcW: Iroquois
Sir Ralph: Egypt or Persia
alexman: Egypt or Arabs or America (since Dave is Hiawatha

)
Dominae: ?
Nor Me: ?

Nor Me · May 17, 2003, 12:09

I was thinking about Persia or Arabs. But I'm now tempted by the Zulu.
The range of civs considered by anyone will of course be small.

Dominae · May 17, 2003, 12:36

Chinese, please (I've yet to use them, since I pulled out of Minitourney PBEM).

Dominae

Nor Me · May 17, 2003, 13:39

Arabs, then.

alexman · May 17, 2003, 14:57

I started a turn thread.

I'm picking Egypt if Sir Ralph picks Persia, otherwise I'll get... Babylon!

Harovan · May 17, 2003, 15:40

If alexman wants to take Egypt, I don't insist on it. Give me Persia then. Being the only scientific civ is also an asset. OTOH, if alexman takes Babylon I take Egypt.

jshelr · May 17, 2003, 16:47

Geez, you go away for a day and they steal a tech from ya.

game three finally sent, btw.

jshelr · May 18, 2003, 10:48

On another subject, reading between the lines of what you guys have said, the object of this game is to permit and encourage more combat. To that end, I would recommend serious restrictions on tech trading. Last game, there was little time to build up a decent stack in the ancient era because tech trading had us in the middle ages so quickly. Moreover, the Zulu were punished for fighting to some extent in that aggression makes a civ less attractive as a tech trading partner. What do you think of no tech trading unless both civs have researched education?

jshelr · May 18, 2003, 10:48

duplicate post, sorry

alexman · May 21, 2003, 18:03

I'll start composing my AAR today, and I'll post it in the Strat Forum some time soon. Feel free to beat me to it!

Dominae · May 22, 2003, 00:53

I was going to do the same...lots of saves to filter through for screenshots!

Dominae