New Tournament Idea

[Zelda's Man]

I have been trying to come up with a good head-to-head tournament idea to see some of the best players from this site go at each other. Let me prefice this by saying that the winner would not necessarily be a better player, they would just be the winner of that game. I believe the games would be most entertaining and others could learn a lot. Here is the idea:

1. The games would have to be modded to put the players on opposite sides of the map, ie one on the top right, the other on the bottom left. This is for several reasons including a stale match where 100 horsemen show up at the other player's front door early in the game without warning. I have noticed that most (if not all) random multiplayer games start the players next to each other, thus it would have to be modded.

2. The starting positions would have to be the same, thus the map could be a mirror image across the middle or the diagonal so neither player gets an advantage of resources. AI starting positions would be the same too.

3. Each player has exactly 3 AIs on their side of the map (for a standard map). The AIs would have to be some combination to give the same starting techs for each side. Possibly limit the players' diplomacy to the AIs on their side to keep a 7 vs. 1 war from occuring.

4. Level would have to be at least deity to keep a fast tech pace and keep it interesting.

5. Continents (not pangaea) so that builders have a shot at culture or space ship. A good player could probably defend an island/continent vs. another human.

6. Victory is one player beating the other; not one player eliminating the other, then the AI winning.

What are your thoughts? Is this even possible, or is it just a pipe dream? I just thought it would be cool to see how SirPleb handled the AI and the same starting position differently than Moonsinger and then to see how they handled each other. (Sorry for involving you two specifically, but everyone else seems to.)

[Tomoyo]

Isn't this how all PBEMs are pretty much done?

[Whomp]

I like the idea. I think it would be cool too.
However, I think you'd have to eliminate the AI altogether. Too easy to farm the AI for your benefit. To me, this adds an element of randomness.

I am currently involved in a PBEM at CDZ with 8 teams all very high level players. The biggest issue we are having is deciding who gets what ag civ specifically the Iroquois and Celts.

[Zelda's Man]

Originally Posted by Whomp

I like the idea. I think it would be cool too.
However, I think you'd have to eliminate the AI altogether. Too easy to farm the AI for your benefit. To me, this adds an element of randomness.

That is why I thought it would be good to have the AI involved. It would be interesting to see who could use them to a greater advantage. Playing against a human is entirely different than an AI, but can these players manipulate the AI to beat another human. That is the aspect I was going for.

Originally Posted by Whomp

I am currently involved in a PBEM at CDZ with 8 teams all very high level players. The biggest issue we are having is deciding who gets what ag civ specifically the Iroquois and Celts.

Limiting the players to two would allow them both to be ag, or neither. Then the AIs would have the same traits for each player too. This is as far as the balancing would go.


@Tomoyo: Though I have not played many PBEMs, from what I know, they always seem to start the players right beside one another so removing the other player seems to occur in the AA (unless they agree beforehand not to) and is completely warlike. I thought the separation would allow for more use of regular epic game strategy (expansion, trading with AIs, exploration, etc.)
Plus with PBEMs, the starting positions are not equivalent, often giving someone a huge early advantage.

[Whomp]

I still think adding the AI and some of the stupid AI behaviors would have to be eliminated. Humans deserve to be punished for their mistakes IMO.
Anyhow, here are the teams at CDZ. There are some top notch players in this game. BTW Tomoyo why aren't you doing this?
Tomoyo, RegentMan and I are also in an interesting PBEM against the Civ Russia team.
[team1]
- Markstar
- Whomp
[team2]
- romeothemonk
- grahamiam
- bed_head7
[team3]
- Eldakkar
- Kemal
[team4]
- Beam
- Kingreno
[team5]
- barbu1977
- Melifluous
[team6]
- kryszcztov
- Darkness
- Banzai
[team7]
- bathsheba666
- Ville
[team8]
- Matrix
- Lt. Killer M

[Himalia]

Just a thought a random map can still be used with out a pregenned map. The main concern seems to be everyone starting on top of each other. All you need to do in the mod is change the part that dictates the minimum amount of tiles that players can be apart at the start of the game. Problem solved. Then i go back and read it again and realise its a symetrical map so no on gets an advantage as such. Ill shut up now