First PTBS Game!

Hi All,

I've been playing Civ IV for a few months now and I think I'm ready to try playing multiplayer. I think I've figured out how to run Pitboss and would be willing to host a game with a few players, preferably newbies like me .

Question is, what kind of game would people be interested in? In single player, I usually play Marathon games on large maps using Noble. Any suggestions from those willing to play a game with me are welcome.

One last thing: I've got Civ IV Beyond the Sword and I'm about to patch it to #303.

Looking forward to your replies!

-- Raba Yuugi (Game Lover)

Hi!
First, welcome to Civfanatics

People rarely want to play Marathon speed with PTBS, because it would be a very, very long game... So,normal speed is desirable...
Then, large maps are OK, with many people... Usually it's terra, but it can be fractal, or continents, or hemispheres...
Noble is some kind of "default" settings...
If you want to launch new PTBS, I'm interested. But, my advice is that you consider reasonable settings- such as normal speed, 24h turn timer and so and even more important- try to be very direct and permanent in your demands. This is important because many people wants their own settings and you must be decisive.
So, just get a quick look at the other PTBS that currently are running and you will now 95% what is normal...
So, if you want to start new PTBS, I would like to join

Thanks for the welcome and advice. I'll go and do just as you say. Once I know what I need to do, I'll post details of the new game.

Thanks again!

You're welcome
So, hope this was helpful and it will be a great game

I like to join your game also. I prefer original but BTS is OK.

Okay, was about to start a PTBS game but I thought I'd test it first. So Pitboss game is up and running and I tried starting my Civ IV game on the same computer and connect to it. It connects but the game crashes shortly afterwards.

My PC has 1.5GB of RAM plus a high end graphic card with its own video memory so I'd be surprised if lack of memory was the problem. Any ideas?

I could set up PitBoss on another PC but I wouldn't want to install the entire Civ IV app on it. Unfortunately, the web site containing instructions regarding copying only the absolute minimum files for Pitboss is down so I guess I'll wait for that to come up before I can test this again.

I'll update the first message to announce the opening of the game for invites once I've tested this successfully.

Welcome to the world of PiTBoSs!

I have been running the game called The Iliad for some time now.

A few months ago I was like you. I knew little about PiTBoSs and yet wanted to to start a game. I had joined one that had folded very soon after it had begun so I decided to set up my own. The first thing I realised is that you do not need much in terms of CPU resources to run the game as PiTBoSs does not use the graphics a high end card was unnecessary. As long as you have the minimum requirements for the game you should have no problems as neither the speed of the CPU nor memory are that important for the PiTBoSs server. I had an old computer that I decided to set up as a dedicated server and I added an uninteruptable power supply.

When it came to game speed I decided on Epic. Before that I had played most of my games on Normal speed but the first PiTBoSs game I played was on the slower speed. One of the criticisms of Civilization IV on Normal speed is that units are obsolete by the time you build them. I played a couple of SP games on Epic peed and I found that player's get more opportunity to develop their civs. While slow at the beginning it is a better option later in the game.

With the turn timer I thought a lot about this. I did not want the game to drag on forever and I liked the idea of taking two turns a day, morning and evening. Some players only like to take one turn a day and for them the 24 hour timer is more appropriate. I thought about twelve hours but I realised that it would be too difficult for some players including me soo I decided to compromise and go with a 16 hour timer as most people are awake for 16 hours of the day. It has worked out well; it has helped speed the game along and some days players can play two turns.

Your idea of running a test server first is a good one. It will help you iron out any problems with program conflicts, port forwarding, if necessary, on your router and the like.

One last point. If you are going to run Beyond the Sword and a major patch is anticipated soon I would wait until it comes out. Patching during the game slows things down as each player has to patch to ensure compatibility.

If you need any advice feel free to ask either in the forum or PM me.

Bolkonsky.

raba.yuugi said:

Okay, was about to start a PTBS game but I thought I'd test it first. So Pitboss game is up and running and I tried starting my Civ IV game on the same computer and connect to it. It connects but the game crashes shortly afterwards.

My PC has 1.5GB of RAM plus a high end graphic card with its own video memory so I'd be surprised if lack of memory was the problem. Any ideas?

I could set up PitBoss on another PC but I wouldn't want to install the entire Civ IV app on it. Unfortunately, the web site containing instructions regarding copying only the absolute minimum files for Pitboss is down so I guess I'll wait for that to come up before I can test this again.

I'll update the first message to announce the opening of the game for invites once I've tested this successfully.

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