The Nobles' Club Bullpen: Second Cycle

@Amao: Wow! Thanks for all that work. Given that you put all that together, I might be able to run my size-of-land script for the whole first cycle without too much trouble.

Some people don't have WinRAR, though; how easy would it be to produce a .zip file instead? I can do it myself later if it's any trouble.

How do we know when the game starts? I've never played with the Noble's Club yet. I understand we all play at the same time and compare to learn? How long does a game usually last? Real time.

Normally there's a new thread for each game. Just look into the forum each day and you'll see it. It doesn't matter if you don't notice it on the first day.

Everybody who plays, downloads the game and plays at his own pace. People just post their games of dates given in the first post. (If you don't do that or take different dates because you missed them, nobody minds.) Everybody posts their games in spoilers, so you can look after you played the same period and help the player or critique his play.

You can play these games long after they have been posted.

My current schedule is posting a new game every 2 weeks on a Friday. Last game started 13 August, so if I'm on track next should be this coming Friday, the 27th. Feel free to start any of the games, like Sirian Siran said; NC 56 Willem is the current one.

Has there been any discussion of the next leader? Is it a democratic thing or does someone just decide? I'd like to see a nice Terra or Earth2 map to change up the standard.

dalamb said:

My current schedule is posting a new game every 2 weeks on a Friday. Last game started 13 August, so if I'm on track next should be this coming Friday, the 27th. Feel free to start any of the games, like Sirian said; NC 56 Willem is the current one.

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The name is Siran. I believe there is somebody here on these forums who goes by the name "Sirian" but that's not me. I don't play that good.

@Siran: fixed.

@Ergo Sum: For the moment I pick a leader somewhat based on peoples' comments -- perhaps kind of like a benevolent dictatorship. However, lots of people have posted their own maps in the past, so it's not like anyone in particular could claim to be in charge. So maybe s/he who does the work gets to pick? The Little Red Hen philosophy of management?

I'd be willing to do an Earth2, though I've never tried it before. Does it give you a decent map on standard size or do you have to go large or huge? We had a Terra map (huge, I think) in the first cycle and some people said they disliked the kind of map that resulted.

Edit: tried one Earth2 map. Continent shapes are roughly earth-like, everybody starts in the old world in random places, and the terrain and resource distribution aren't much like what I've seen on Earth18 (the only Earth map I've looked at in detail). It might make sense for the hypothetical Joao game, where I'd want to see how much difference his carracks made. Early invasion of the new world, along with constructing the Forbidden Palace there ASAP, might make for a decent game -- though I'd want to edit the map to put Joao some place on the west or east coast of the old world. Joao in central Asia might be rather less fun.

I think the main objection to Huge is for people with older systems. My old computer couldn't handle anything larger than standard.

happyturtle said:

I think the main objection to Huge is for people with older systems. My old computer couldn't handle anything larger than standard.

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QFT. I get bogged down during the late game on Large maps, and don't see a new computer in my future until maybe Spring.

EDIT: I also find the games last longer as the map gets bigger, to the point I end up not finishing.

dalamb said:

@Amao: Wow! Thanks for all that work. Given that you put all that together, I might be able to run my size-of-land script for the whole first cycle without too much trouble.

Some people don't have WinRAR, though; how easy would it be to produce a .zip file instead? I can do it myself later if it's any trouble.

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@dalamb: uploaded the zip package.

BTW: I'd be apprieciated if TMIT or you updated the missing links for the NC games from NC 49 to NC 55 on either of your bullpen frontpage. I had to go through TMIT's thread page by page in order to dig them out.

Amao, thanks a billion for doing that!

Amao said:

BTW: I'd be apprieciated if TMIT or you updated the missing links for the NC games from NC 49 to NC 55 on either of your bullpen frontpage.

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Done. I can't update TMIT's bullpen thread, so I've put it (spoilered) in the first message of this thread.

Eventually it might be a good idea for me to put your .zip file in that message, too, but if I have the energy I'd like to create the Monarch etc. WBsaves for those that are missing them. Takes 5-10 minutes each, I think -- the main work is in getting the Noble map right in the first place, which is already done.

Im looking forward to latching on for the next one.

No reason why you can't latch on to this one! People are still playing and commenting.

Edit: I'm currently leaning towards the next one being Joao on Earth 2. All 6 AIs start in the Old World with us, and the New World is empty except for barbs. Does anyone know what happens if I turn the barbs into a Minor Nation in the Americas? They're still at war with everyone all the time; do they get better tech progress? I don't want to do it if it makes the game too tough -- just wondered what would happen?

dalamb said:

Done. I can't update TMIT's bullpen thread, so I've put it (spoilered) in the first message of this thread.

Eventually it might be a good idea for me to put your .zip file in that message, too, but if I have the energy I'd like to create the Monarch etc. WBsaves for those that are missing them. Takes 5-10 minutes each, I think -- the main work is in getting the Noble map right in the first place, which is already done.

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You are my heroes. All of you the NC hosts.

@dalamb: You missed NC 36 Gilgamesh in your list of the first round.

Great work on this! These have been a lot of fun for me even though I havent posted a lot of the time.

dalamb said:

No reason why you can't latch on to this one! People are still playing and commenting.

Edit: I'm currently leaning towards the next one being Joao on Earth 2. All 6 AIs start in the Old World with us, and the New World is empty except for barbs. Does anyone know what happens if I turn the barbs into a Minor Nation in the Americas? They're still at war with everyone all the time; do they get better tech progress? I don't want to do it if it makes the game too tough -- just wondered what would happen?

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I have no clue about Minor Nations or anything but I'm excited to play Joao and Earth2. I was trying this morning to get a good Earth2 start but I guess I can just wait til friday!

I'm fiddling around with world builder saves, and I'd like to know which techs and/or units you add for the different difficulty levels. Is there an article somewhere about it? I watched TMIT's youtube about it, but I'd like to see the actual changes in writing. Thanks!

The techs I add are described in the boilerplate of any recent game -- archery at Monarch, hunting at Immortal, agriculture at Deity. I got the list from someone else at some point, but don't remember who.

Do they get additional units, or just the techs?