Some kind of... long-running play-by-email (or similar) game?

[Tyler]

I had a look at MP civ when I was playing it recently. I found a good blog, here is an entry that suggests what rules to play. I would be interested in trying it out.

http://fastmoves.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/the-cton-1-getting-started/

edit: elsewhere on that site it says that "noble" is the most played MP difficulty

[Grishnag]

it downloads quite fast the link grilly gave us btw

[Tyler]

Here is another post about common settings.

http://fastmoves.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/a-summary-of-the-ways-civ4-is-played-in-multiplayer/

The problem I see with ffa, i.e. alliances and tech trading etc, is that the whole game become about that. It is probably better to do a team game if ppl want that.

It will be fun whatever rules we play though.

[Palmar]

I agree with no tech trading.

However, I don't really see a reason to force always war, since there will be alliances anyway, they just won't be registered in the game (ie: I won't attack you if you don't attack me and we can both focus on our other fronts).

So yeah, FFA, no tech trading, all victory conditions, diplomacy on is what I think is best.

[delling]

Patch Beyond the Sword:
http://www.firaxis.com/downloads/Patch/Civ4BeyondTheSwordPatch3.19.exe

PitBoss works great tho'. Can quit, rejoin... and so on!

[delling]

The turn-timer thing is cool -- after a given period, your turn executes. You don't have to be at your keyboard for that to happen.

If you set a turn timer for 1 hour (or similar), you could have quite quick games. You can queue up turns throughout the day, if you're working -- and over night. 24 turns a day... each game might last a week, two weeks. Might be a good way to start -- not sure if I'm ready for a year-long game.

Could have arranged times when everyone (or almost everyone) is at their keyboard for combat and stuff.

[Palmar]

Basically the idea is you only fire up your client to do your turn. We can set it to loads of different settings really. Here are a few ideas:

We're doing standard FFA game with no tech trading. There are a few settings we might need to tweak.


1) Map type: Continents is classical, Archipelago favourse naval warfare and stops rushes, Terra is some kinda thing where everyone starts in one continent and another one is waiting to be discovered. My personal opinion: Continents

2) Map Size: I think for 6-8 players standard map is good, bigger means less early warfare and more macro.

3) Speed: meh, we'll just do normal and see how it goes?

4) Turn Timer: This one is probably the most interesting one, basically this guy will forfeit your turn automatically if you don't move for X amount of time, making sure the game keeps going.

Now, we can do this in several ways:

a) very long turn timer (48h+) this only covers for people really going missing
b) one day (24h) this one keeps the game going at a steady pace, requiring at least daily attention
c) short turn timer (6-8h) this one makes automating stuff (yes you can queue up buildings/units and actions) into some sort of a strategy, could be cool, and it'll speed up the game quite a bit.

I'm torn between 24h and the short timer, automating is fun since you really have to plan ahead, but yeah, w/e.

In addition: Delling mentioned having game nights every once in a while (1-2 hours 1-2 a week) where we sit down and play a few turns to keep the pace rolling, this could be a good thing to do on weekends, it'll definitely speed up the game.

4) Victory Conditions:

Score: default if none of the others is reached
Time: Same, highest score when the game ends (no idea when that is)
Conquest: hurr durr I accidentally the other civs
Domination: weird one, no idea how it's different from conquest, basically if you own like 75% of the world, you win.
Cultural: interesting one, if you spam 3 cities with culture you can win?
Space Race: classic civ stuff, outtech and outproduce the others and build the millenium falcon
Diplomatic: if you can somehow convince the rest of us retards to actually _vote_ you a winner, you clearly deserve to win.

I think we should just leave them all on?

We will probably be starting tomorrow, I will create a new thread tomorrow.

[Archz]

civilization 4 you're all jabbering about?

Looks fun, is it kinda like hotset heroes on a massive scale?

[Cwave]

The link Grill posted is very very fast.
Gogo download it.

Also, i prefer a 24h timer. 6-8h is just too fast imo for us working peeps
And also yes @ having 1-2 hour sessions every now and then.

Cool stuff!
Looking forward to it.

[Tyler]

I don't think, as newbies, we should stray too far from the "standard" MP rules. We should use the rules that the more experienced players have refined. After we have had a game or two ourselves we can think about varying a few things. I can understand not wanting always war and 2 cities lost = dead though. They seem quite newbie unfriendly rules.

I also think that a 120 turn limit for our first game is a must. A 400 turn ironman would indeed be awesome, but that is roughly one year on a 24 hour turn clock... We can get a 120 turn game done in two months or less. 24 hour turn timer with a start and end session sounds good to me.

I think inland_sea is a great idea as a map type. Continents can be really imbalanced, one guy stuck on his own with no space, four others trapped together, and the winner being the survivor of two players who are placed on a large otherwise empty continent.

[Cwave]

Does tonight involve a session of playing?
Or just the opt-in....?
Or was it wendesday that we try and start?

[delling]

I much prefer the shorter turn-timer. It's not like much happens in between turns -- especially early on. Let's not forget that improving a patch of land takes 5 turns. It's not uncommon to just mash enter for 5 turns in a row while other things happen.

I guess we can't alter the turn timer as the game progresses...?

Cwave -- we can start tonight if the raid ends at 10-11 rather than 12. Hard to predict with certainty if that will happen

[Hugman]

I've downloaded, and followed the instructions for the one grilly linked (which was quite fast and simple).

Also, i prefer a 24h timer. 6-8h is just too fast imo for us working peeps

I concur, though isn't their a 12hour turn? That would be more ideal.

Looking forward to annexing Cwave's civilization into a minor colony of my great empire.

[Palmar]

Well as I mentioned last night, actions can be (mostly) queued, so if you're good at macro, 8h turns should be too bad.

How about we settle for hugman's idea of 12h? worst case you queue up 2 turns, best case you play twice a day?

I'll create a new thread gathering people soon-ish.

re: Tyler

Inland sea sounds good I guess, mediterranean feeling or something. I think I actually agree with tyler on the turn limit, since even if we could in theory always stop playing, it's better if everyone knows ahead how many turns there will be. We'll probably only reach the middle ages with 100-200 turns, but meh, we can always do another one in a month or two

[delling]

Still think it's better to have something like 5'ish turns a day. That's one building/upgrade per real time day...

Long-running games are good, but let's not take it too far.