GAME IS NOW FULL

Hello all. If you are reading this, you are probably in some way a newbie. The kinds of players who are welcome to play in this game are: those who are brand new or still fairly new to Civilization Multiplayer. If you are a Civ III MP veteran, but a newbie to Civ IV, then this game will NOT be for you. If you've only played some Civ III multiplayer, then you could still be considered newbie enough for the likes of us playing in thie PBEM game! Note that being a newbie to PBEM, but being a vet to Internet or LAN games does NOT make you a newbie!

In this game, players will be encouraged to try out any style they want to win with, but that does not make it open season for you to join our game and purposefully use tactics that take advantage of everyone's inexperience.

So far, these players are signed up:

Qin Shi Huang (me) - obviously as himself of China
Shoegazer - Asoka of India
Lemmy (djohnson68) - Random Leader
Banedir - Frederick of Germany
SITS - Random Leader
Zilch - Random
Kolyana - Ceasar of Rome
Ricki - Isabel de la Espana Catolica
jay_nz - Elizabeth of England
ranathari - Hatsepshut of Egypt
Affo - Random Leader
tazman8 - Kublai Khan of Mongolia


If you want to join, please post the following information:

Name you will use (required),
E-mail address (required),
Leader Preference (first come, first serve),
SMTP server address (optional),
Any customized civilization information (Leader Name, Civ Description, Short Description, and/or Civ Adjective).

{New!}*No Instant Messenger info, please! I cannot enforce it, but I prefer to keep all discussion about the relegated to emails and PMs only AFTER contact with a particular player is made.

If you would rather PM me the information, that is fine. Just make sure that you post me a notice here first, so I can count you as having made a claim to a particular leader in time!

I'll start the game as soon as we newbies become too impatient and wish to play. Keep in mind that, since this is a PBEM game, I personally prefer to have as many players as possible.

Commitments (Must read!)
By requesting to play you commit to the following:

You agree to contact me (through e-mail, private message, a third party or other means) as soon as possible if you encounter technical difficulties or other circumstances that prevent you from fulfilling these commitments.
You agree to act in a courteous manner toward all other players at all times in your "out-of-game" communication.
You agree to inform me when you are going to be unavailable for a period of greater than 24 hours.
You agree to check your e-mail at least once daily (at least twice daily is preferred).
You agree to promptly respond to all messages - immediately, if possible.
You agree to complete and forward your turn within 24 hours of receiving it.
You agree to play the game to completion unless personal or technical circumstances render it impossible for you to do so.
{New!}All game-contextual communication MUST be made in game continuity. This means that you are not meant to communicate with each other before you have made in-game contact. Once you have made in-game contact, you may begin to PM or email that player and make whatever negotiations you wish, to your heart's content!

{New!}"game-contextual" communication refers to sharing information about your civilization or other players' civilizations, making deals, proposing alliances, etc.. Anything that simply refers to getting the game running, or how much fun you're having, etc is "out of game" communication, and is encouraged in the forums. There is a chance that I will nab us a special forum for us to have discussions about our game (so as not to bog civfanatics down).

Tentative Game Settings
Unless we choose to vote otherwise:

Map: Continents
Size: According to Player Size
Climate: Temperate
Sealevel: Medium
Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: None
Victories: All
Game Turn Limit: 0
City Elimination Limit: 0
AI: If Desired

Final
It is well known that reloading is possible and cannot be prohibited. It's not really a problem though, since the algorithms are set from the game's beginning, and reloading the game does NOT alter the outcome of a battle. If you try to reload the game because you lost a battle, you are wasting your own time!

Special thanks goes to heihojin for his knowledge and experience in starting PBEM games. It has helped me to communicate more effectively. This will be my first PBEM game which I have run, but I assure you that, since my credibility is on the line, I will do a fantastic job. I am new at this, and you are too. This means we will make a few mistakes as we learn how to do this right!

=$= Big J Money =$=

This thread got buried rather quickly, so I'm going to bump it once since I've gotten one email. Please make sure you also POST here, when you email me so this thing stays afloat.

=$=

Count me in.

Thanks, Big J.

I'd like to join up too.

Count me in - I'll PM you with my details...

I played SMAC via PBEM but not Civ III. I don't consider myself to be a great player and I would want to use the game to try and develop a MP playing style for myself.

Good. We've finally hit that roll where people stream in fairly easily. I hope this turns out to be a good game, and that our skills prove to be a decent match for each other. You all are "in" so far. Let me know if you get restless for a start. My imaginary sweet number here is 8 players. If you want to start sooner and fill it with AI, that is an option, too. If everyone likes the idea of a locked teams game, that is doable as well. Since we are new, I am going to allow anyone who wishes to choose the "Warlord" difficulty for themselves, but no lower than that.

PS -- I'm going to the thread "next door" and asking them if they'd like to join forces, here. There is no reason we should compete!

=$=

Name: ckknight
E-mail address: ckknight@gmail.com
Leader: Saladin of Arabia

PMd the info.

I want to start, but I prefer to wait as I wouldn't like to play with AI or with too few civs. Eight sounds like a good number to me too.

sent you a PM :)

Would like to join also - Egypt and (ranathari [a] hotmail . com)

Seems a lot of people jumped onboard as soon as I went to sleep last night. :) Adding you guys now...

=$=

Ill join if u still have room. PM'd the info.

I'm in if there is room. Sent you the info

GAME IS NOW FULL AND READY FOR PRELIMINARIES
I'm sorry, but we are no longer accepting players at this point. However, since this is a newbie game, I am under no spell that prevents me from realizing we might have some jumpers at the last minute. I will keep this thread informed about the status of all the players during Turn 1.

Since this is the first time for many of us, do not be surprised/upset by any false starts we may have trying to get this going. Since we are all newbies, I expect patience in the early stages. Once the game is rolling smoothly, we can raise our expectations of each other as peers.

Let's get moving, people!

I need passwords from everyone. I need these as FORUM PMs, rather than emails. It will keep everything in one place. The game will begin once I have all passwords, but I expect responses within 24 hours. A copy of this thread is also being sent to everyone via email. Here, also, is a reposting of the above commitments. If you have any problems with these, let me know immediately, so I can take you off the list. It's much easier to do so now that later. It would be impolite for you guys to dampen our fun by deciding mid-game that you can't cope with the committment! I know you will understand. Note that I have made a minor adjustment to the way game communication will function. I had made a little error in my earlier form.
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Commitments (Must read!)
By requesting to play you commit to the following:

You agree to contact me (through e-mail, private message, a third party or other means) as soon as possible if you encounter technical difficulties or other circumstances that prevent you from fulfilling these commitments.
You agree to act in a courteous manner toward all other players at all times in your "out-of-game" communication.
You agree to inform me when you are going to be unavailable for a period of greater than 24 hours.
You agree to check your e-mail at least once daily (at least twice daily is preferred).
You agree to promptly respond to all messages - immediately, if possible.
You agree to complete and forward your turn within 24 hours of receiving it.
You agree to play the game to completion unless personal or technical circumstances render it impossible for you to do so.
{New!}All game-contextual communication MUST be made in game continuity. This means that you are not meant to communicate with each other before you have made in-game contact. Once you have made in-game contact, you may begin to PM or email that player and make whatever negotiations you wish, to your heart's content!

{New!}"game-contextual" communication refers to sharing information about your civilization or other players' civilizations, making deals, proposing alliances, etc.. Anything that simply refers to getting the game running, or how much fun you're having, etc is "out of game" communication, and is encouraged in the forums. There is a chance that I will nab us a special forum for us to have discussions about our game (so as not to bog civfanatics down).
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"So, why am I sending you my password?" you ask. If you don't, the player who sends you your turn will be able to take a peek at your starting location before you ever do! That's not good. Also, this prevents players from deciding to "screw everyone" by simply not playing their turns, resulting in a ruined game because I can't log into someone's turn and resign for them.

Now...PM those passwords, people!

=$= Big J Money =$=

Name: Gargamel
Email: joegloseng@yahoo.com
Leader Pref: Random

Hope I've signed up in time.. I played 1 MP civ3 game like 2 years ago that lasted ~2 hours in which I got trounced.. PBEM's much more my style (strategizing, slow pace, etc). I'd like to play! Thanks.

Edit: Nevermind.. hehe

Emails have been sent. If anyone does NOT get an email for any reason, please post here, ASAP. I will be lenient about the 24 hour mark if it was an email typo or similar mistake. Also, it seems stujmaker is going to allow us to join his network and use his forums. After this game is successfully underway, I will ask that we move any public discussions to that location. Information will be incoming on that when it is the appropriate time. Good luck, everyone. I hope this starts well. Be sure to give me ASAP notice if you need to cancel your spot. There are at least 2 more people who have stated interest in our game, and who do not have a spot.

3 votes for Large map, 3 for Huge map -- I and a few abstain. I'd also like to state that, although the requirement for making your turn is "within 24 hours", it will be a good strategy for us to figure out a schedule that allows the game to flow at exactly one turn per day. For me, this could be anwhere between 5PM and 7AM GMT time. If we can fall into a good "round-robin" cycle, then things will go fairly well. Since there are 12 of us, I have serious doubts that we will be able to get 2 plays a day, but who knows? During our run through the first turn, please make sure you play during a time that you will be able to consistently keep up, at least during week-days. Please do this, even if it means turn1 takes us several days to complete. If you haven't quite caught on to my method here, imagine this: 5 players can play consistently at ~5PM GMT. Those 5 players should all be connected to each other so that their turns all get knocked out at the same time, every day. However, if they are all spread out in the turn order, it might cause the game to be severly delayed, and turns running more like 1x a week rather than 1x a day! This is why the first turn will probably be a trial run; trust me, the small initial delay is worth it! The less flexible your schedule is, the more important it is for you to play this first turn when you know you can consitently keep it up. The more flexible your schedule is, (like mine) the more freedom you have to play whenever you get your turn in the mail. Please post if this is confusing, or you think you are reading something that sounds dreadful. :)

=$=

Quickie Update: 5 Votes for Huge, 4 for Large.

One person has stated that their single player game will not allow them to run maps larger than Standard. If there are any problems with this, there isn't much I can do. We've already committed 12 of us, with 2 more waiting in line, so we can't go down to that size if there are technical difficulties. We shall see what happens, I suppose.

Another note: some of you have multiple email addresses for multiple locations where you can play the game. If you have a work or school address where you can access the game during other hours, please let me know. One of you has brought this to my attention already.

I am currently waiting on passwords for: SITS and ckknight. 24 hour notice ends tommorrow at ~8:15 GMT (3:15 EST, my time). I have one guy who has given me a password and is waiting for an open slot...:satan:

=$=

"The storm cloud approacheth, but it was no storm cloud. Lo, it was an army."

Final Notice

SITS and ckknight have still not sent me their passwords. I will give them a small amount of time to PM them to me, past the 24 hour deadline, which is in one hour.

Two players, first Zilch and then Gargamel, are waiting for a spot; and I have all their info. I am ready to begin the game with these two if I don't hear from SITS or ckknight.

=$=

Just sent you my password...