Below is copied & pasted from the Succession thread on the main forum page. It is authored by Pggar.

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Succession Game (SG):

A succession game is a Single Player (SP) game played by a group of people.
While playing the person must keep a timeline of the most important events that occur during his reign. When finished, he passes on a saved game to the next player (either by uploading it on the site or by mail) and posts the timeline in the game's thread so that other players are informed of what happened.

It generally works like this. One player (the moderator) opens a thread and post the first timeline log and the first game file. Then other players sign to the game (until the limit set by the game moderator), and the succession begins. Each player plays fixed number of turns (usually 20 turns). The moderator may also add extra rules (usually in the first post).

This can get really interesting as everybody has a different way of playing Civ, and all strategies are tried out in one same game.

Rules normally used:
- 5 players.
- 20 turns.
- 24h confirmation period (you have to say you’re playing; otherwise you’re skipped).
- 48h to 72h (since the saved game was passed) to play the game.

Open Succession Game (OSG):

An open succession doesn’t have a fixed number of players. After one player posts a game file, the next player in the succession will be the first person to post and say he is playing.

OSGs are faster games because the player has a short period of time to play his turn (4h since the person said he was playing, this period gets higher as the late game is a bit slow). That way, every time you get to the forums, there’s a good possibility that you'll find an OSG in which you can play. Another attribute of OSGs is the fact that they hardly stall.

Training Day Game (TDG):

A game where an expert of that level trains newer players. The expert may or may not start off the first 20 turns, after that, the player (trainees) play 10 turns, and post a detailed log for each turn. Play does not resume until the expert has reviewed and commented on the save.

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For additional information:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=67

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Obviously, Pigumon, Txurce, and I were the only ones who played in the current succession game. By the above outline, in Open Succession Games (OSGs) anyone could play, if interested. The person would just have to post saying they're in; however, since the attachment size for files is at 100k, games need to be emailed or uploaded.

Knowing the players is a huge plus. From my initial experience, I prefer closed games. I feel it allows a player to get to know the various play-styles of the other persons.

Also, sincere players should only apply, because it would be a bummer to have someone sign on and not play. It could cause the other players a long wait, at least 48 - 72 hours.

Now, anything in the Succession Game outline can be altered to meet the needs of the persons invloved. However, we found the 20 turns to be very effective, particularly in later stages of the game. Some turns were played quickly (one day turn around) while others took a couple days. As long as the persons playing communicate through posting updates, things ought to go well.

I'm thinking once a group of 3 - 5 persons get a game going, that game's "moderator" should start a thread (give it a specific title; something historical, humorous, etc.) in the main mac forum for game-play/discussion. This way the players will not have to scroll through several non-specific posts to find their game, and this thread can be used for parring up participants, as well as general (not an actual game) succession game discussions.

I hope some others are interested in giving this game style a shot. It really is a neat experience.

All experience levels are welcome! :)

I really enjoyed our game. Starting up fresh each turn is stimulating in the way a scenario is. And it's always fun to talk about whether to turn left or right. I would play in any subsequent ones, and think the idea of a specific goal and conditions makes it even more interesting.

Me, too.
Yes, it make me feel playing scenario. Before start each period, we have to look through all the map to find out what is immediate plan and what is a long term goal. Which city is in danger and what kind of force are heading there. Which civ to negotiate with and which civ to fight with. And the difference from scenario is we know the history all the way our civilization has. That may be worth to write an replay story.

Unfortunately, I am getting busier. So, I do not think I have enough time for next one. I may contribute to OSGs.

But everyone, cheer up! If you are civ3 lover, you will definitely enjoy this succession game. The 20 turns are long enough to enjoy the game, but too short to define the loser.

This thread is stickied at the request of the thread starter :)

Anyone interested in a succession game? What level? Monarch, emperor, or diety?

Deity is tough enough that it would require a lot of planning before each turn, as it's very easy to fall too far behind in a very short amount of time. I eased myself into deity by playing with the sr and UN options shut off, which meant that as long as I survived, I would ultimately win, because the AI never wins by domination. If people wanted to try out deity, i would recommend this approach.

However, I'm open to any level. I'm more interested in specific goals and handicaps.

I've opened a second SG. I think it may present some challenges. The civ is Russia - monarch level. Three players, or four, would be a good pace. The early game moves fast at 20 turns. Thread linked below:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=643906#post643906

:beer:


CLOSED

An OSG is open at below link:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=668205#post668205

Hi dojoboy & fellow CIVers,

I am new to this forum but am interested in the Sucession game idea (this side of PTW for Mac). I run OS 10.2 on a 17" iMAC with a cable modem connection and have the 1.21g patch installed. I like to pursue technology and an expansionist strategy (does corruption stink ). Need to improve my trading and diplomacy skills.

I tried taking the initial Persian hegemony game through a few turns. I won't spoil things by sending the world map I bought of a passing galley but getting out and about should be the way to bypass the Babylonians to the North.

Note the initial Xerxes 3050 BC file downloaded OK but subsequent downloads changed from the indicated xxxx.sav.zip file into a .php ??? Thanks Beamup for the tips on fixing this download /unzip problem with ResEdit.

I may require some hand-holding on the upload side too. Where is the "upload 3" folder / page ?

PS Do I have to post a few things before I can set my Avatar - the FAQs does actually say how you transfer them from the Avatar page to your profile ?

Originally posted by MacBaldrick

I may require some hand-holding on the upload side too. Where is the "upload 3" folder / page ?


To access the Upload feature, for uploads bigger than 102kb (i believe), scroll down all the way to the bottom of the page and click "Upload File."


PS Do I have to post a few things before I can set my Avatar - the FAQs does actually say how you transfer them from the Avatar page to your profile ?

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but i'll try to explain what i can. to change your avatar, click "user cp," and then "edit options". scroll down, and there will be a button to change your avatar.

If you're talking about uploading a custom avatar, you have to wait until you have 300 posts. I believe that was outlined somewhere...

BTW, welcome to CFC!

I am game for trying the SG thing, mostly because I think I will learn a lot from it. I could keep the game and play along after my 20 turns in order to compare with those who are "officially" playing, right?

The rest of you might be setting yourself up for some real challenges, though. As poorly as I apparently play the game, I might be able to (unintentionally) do quite a bit of damage in 20 turns that you-all will have to struggle to overcome..

Heike
:eek:

I'm in too- frankly, I thought I was pretty good until I met some of the players here. I'm up for another SG or a Training Day Game. I'm the trainee, of course!

Dojo- has Persian Hegemony stalled out? That was a really interesting format. I guess SG's progress faster due to the fixed group playing rather than waiting for someone to come along......

MTDG - 1: "Alexander Asimov" is open for business through the below link.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42924

Originally posted by dcaint


Dojo- has Persian Hegemony stalled out? That was a really interesting format. I guess SG's progress faster due to the fixed group playing rather than waiting for someone to come along......

dcaint, I'll pick up the OSG and try to get it going again.

Dojoboy,

I'd be very interested in enrolling in either the MTDG or a SG. Is the Greek/Regent game still available? If not, whenever the next game rolls around, please jot my name down on the list of interested players. I'd very much like to take advantage of the expertise so abundantly obvious in this forum.

Thank You.

Raijer, you can jump right in on the latest save for the MTDG, and the latest save of the OSG. I'll put together a SG soon, for 3-4 players. However, anyone is free to start their own SG w/ whatever parameters they wish, people will join.

There hasn't been any post about SGs for about two weeks. Any starting soon? OSG doesn't interest me because I won't be checking the board every hour to post "first". I usually play Civ3 on this settings:

Regent (Win about 90% of games and prepared for Monarch)
Large ~ Huge
Default Barbarian
Continents
Random for others

I'm intersted in an SG. I'm stuck on Emperor level and could use some new ideas.

SG open to 5 experienced players.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=870406#post870406

Will get back here for further Succession Games when time allows.
Will follow current French exploits with interest :)

Very interesting. I'm too busy right now for a succession game, but I'll follow this one and join another when things calm down.

If anyone wants to join a new succession game, EM5- Imperialist Romans (Civ3) (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?threadid=53548) has opened on the main Succession Games forum. This is a great opportunity to attempt an "integrated" Civ3 1.29 game with our PC counterparts.

The stats are:
Emperor level
Standard Pangaea
Raging Barbs

GOTM20 is giving me an appetite for the next stage of development of my game, and I think something like a SG or training game would help. But almost every SG and training game in the main forum is played using PTW, so there are very few 1.29 game slots available for us.

Would either be of interest here, played on Civ3 1.29 to enable us Mac exiles? I have no experience of setting one up, but I'd be very happy to join in, and I have time to do the admin bits if that's a problem. Of course a training game would also need an experienced player as trainer - that's not me!

I'm about where you're at, AlanH, and my scores indicate that I could use a hand! So I'd love to join in, but I'd be no use as a trainer ;)

I would be interested in a Mac SG or OSG. I miss em. My current level of play is - usually win on monarch, close but have not yet won on emperor (I always get ganged up on):arrow:.
n8mac

Originally posted by feght
I'm about where you're at, AlanH, and my scores indicate that I could use a hand! So I'd love to join in, but I'd be no use as a trainer ;) Well, I'm not even sure where I'm at :confused:

I have played maybe three or four private games though to victory, all Romans 'cos I was too lazy to change the default. and moving up the scale as far as Monarch. I've shadowed GOTM18 and 19 past the QSC stage to try to master the early game. I'm enjoying GOTM20 so far, as I feel I've now hammered some of the early-game basics into my skull, but I can't help feeling I'm riding for a fall now that I'm in less well-known territory.

Anyway, that's three people interested in principle, no trainers yet so no TG for now, but it sounds like n8mac at least admits to having played an SG before? Maybe we can start our own SG if we can drum up a couple more players. How about a Monarch game first to get a feel for it - anyone any preferences for civs and set-up? If we think it's a starter I assume we just set up a thread in the main SG forum and announce it here and in the main SG announcements thread. That way we may get one or two PC 1.29 players as well.

How does an Open SG work, by the way, n8mac? Do you just continue using whichever 10-turn upload comes in first each time? If so it seems like it would be a free-for-all with little continuity, and only one or two fast turnround players would get involved.

Originally posted by AlanH
Maybe we can start our own SG if we can drum up a couple more players. How about a Monarch game first to get a feel for it - anyone any preferences for civs and set-up? If we think it's a starter I assume we just set up a thread in the main SG forum and announce it here and in the main SG announcements thread. That way we may get one or two PC 1.29 players as well.

I'd be happy to go with a monarch game, since I'm not yet winning all my games there, and I'd prefer not to have an input on the game setup - I need to be challenged to improve.
I think we should isolate ourselves from the PC guys for now though :p No real reason, so maybe I'm irrational :crazyeye: but i think we could get a nice five player game going fairly easily over here - we only need two more players!

I just have to get past the problems I'm having in GOTM20 and I'm all go! :thumbsup:

I would love to be included in any sort of training game you guys try. The last couple GOTMs really showoed me that I have to get my act together. (although I think I have gotten a lot better just in the few months I have been using this site)

Monarch level game would be good for me too.

Originally posted by AlanH
but it sounds like n8mac at least admits to having played an SG before?

How does an Open SG work, by the way, n8mac? Do you just continue using whichever 10-turn upload comes in first each time?

If you have the time look back in the mac forums at a OSG that I took part in called 'djb-3: Persian Hegimony' which ended March 10th.
Also you can look at an SG called 'MTDG - 1: Alexander Osimov' that ended Feb. 24th and another called 'djb - 2: A marytime of Russia' that ended Jan. 28th.

The turns have always been @20 intervals. In an OSG no specific order is given, someone can play only once if they want to and everyone doesn't have to wait on one person if they get busy outside of Civ3. The dissadvantage is it will take longer and be less organized.
In an OSG someone posts saying they are next and everyone waits for their turns, then someone else posts and so on.
The choice is yours.

Hi there,

I am happy to join another OSG round - it fell into disuse when the GOTMs became available to the mac community. I learnt some in the OSGs and plenty in the GOTMs but there are getting progressively harder. GOTM 20 at Deity is OK so far 350 bc but how to stay with the techs through trades is hard (generally expensive).

Originally posted by MacBaldrick
Hi there,

I am happy to join another OSG round - it fell into disuse when the GOTMs became available to the mac community. I learnt some in the OSGs and plenty in the GOTMs but there are getting progressively harder. GOTM 20 at Deity is OK so far 350 bc but how to stay with the techs through trades is hard (generally expensive). Then there were four. Sounds like we might be able to rustle up a quorum. I would rather wait for a few more days. My GOTM20 is taking a loooong time. I just broke out of the latest session having made it to Spoiler2. Man, it's hard work, and I'm only playing Conquest.

Originally posted by AlanH
Then there were four. Sounds like we might be able to rustle up a quorum. I would rather wait for a few more days. My GOTM20 is taking a loooong time. I just broke out of the latest session having made it to Spoiler2. Man, it's hard work, and I'm only playing Conquest.

If one of you guys set up one, I'll be glad to join in as fifth man.

Lovely then. I'm still keen. How about you set one up, Alan, after you're done with GOTM?

If I'm going to be responsible for it I'd probably prefer a straight subscribed SG as that's the devil I know (but only from reading SG threads). An OSG can probably work well in a large community where there's always likely to be someone around to pick it up. In a smaller group like this Mac forum I feel we need some commitment from a team of named players to "own" it. What say you?

As I understand the format, we play 10 or 20 turns each, with up to 48 hours between players (24 hours to post "Got it", 24 hours to report and upload). At worst case speed and playing to 2050 this means the game could run for 100 or 50 days. Realistically we could be in for a month or so of elapsed time.

In order to find a format that we can commit to for this sort of period, please can everyone who is interested post preferences for the following game parameters. In a few days, when we can all see our responses, I suggest we try and agree whether there is any compromise game setup that will hold enough people's attention for this length of time.

1. SG or OSG:

2. Preferred difficulty level.

3. Preferred world set-up
size:
land mass/water:
climate:
temperature:
age:
barbarians:

4. Preferred civ:

5. Preferrred opponents:

"Random" or "don't care" are valid answers for any or all of the above.

One thing you might want to consider is the choice between a map made at the official civ3 site or a civ3 generated one. Also a specific goal, like diplomacy only for example.

If a new generated map...
Monarch or Emporer
SG
Standard or large size

Rest don't matter.

n8mac

Righto.

1: SG
2: Monarch for a start
3: Standard or large is good, and as I said before, I'd rather somebody else chose all the rest, just to bring me out of my shell.

also, would probably be good if I'm player number 5 - I think it works better geographically?

I have opened a new succession game Zwi1 - Low Pressure Deity (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=63128) on the main Succession Game forum. It is a deity level game with only 3 AI opponents on a standard map with some extra conditions.

It will run with any Mac or PC with the Civ3 1.29 patch.

FYI: ControlFreak is trying to start up an SG based on the GOTM23 start file (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1281149#post1281149), maybe with multiple teams if there's enough interest. If we can get up some support we might be able to get a v1.29 team going.

Alan, ControlFreak seems to prefer players who didn't already play GOTM23. How do you feel about that?

(I also missed the part about multiple team play - where is it?)

@Txurce:
ControlFreak wrote:

I am ideally looking for players that:

1. Wanted to submit GOTM23 but ran out of time.
2. Wanted to play the GOTM but never started because they knew they couldn't complete it.
3. Players who played the GOTM but were forced to take a different victory condition than the tournament requirement of Domination.
4. Players who played Conquest (or Predator for that matter) that would like to play the Open level.
5. Anyone else to fill the team(s).

Depending on the interest level, we may end up with more than one team and could maybe play different levels. For now, I plan on starting one Open-Level game with 5-7 members.
Categories 1, 3, 4 (and 5) cover people who previously played some or all of GOTM23.

Category 5 has a plural option for teams, and the next sentence refers to multiple teams.

American and British English are different, but not *that* different :)

Alan, this is what ControlFreak wrote in his most recent post, on this side of the pond:

"GOTM23 SG

"The first GOTM Succession Game will be based on GOTM23 - ARABS. It will use the Open Level Save and the victory condition will be Domination.

"The Quick Game Thread is here

"Am seeking a team of 5-7 players that would like to play GOTM23 (preferably for the first time) in a Succession Game format.

"I plan to Compare the team result to the QSC standings, GOTM Jason score and Medal Series when complete."

...Hence my confusion.

Maybe he has changed the order of his list, and #2 has become #1 to #5. Well, I've put my name on his list in the SG thread, he hasn't kicked me into touch yet, and so I'll just have to wait and see :confused:

1. SG
2. Monarch
3. Standard size, no random mass/climate. Age: 4/5 Billion. Barbs: Sedentary - Restless
4. Persians
5. Don't care but no random.

There's a Civ3 version 1.29 Succession Game (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=67030) based on GOTM 24 starting up on 9th November. Might be of interest to all you Mac players who, like me, have watched the PTW SGs come and go. There's a couple of spaces left on the team. I'm in the thick of SG23 at the moment, and I can assure you they're great fun.