Planning games in advance?

Would the GOTM / COTM community prefer to know months in advance what the civilization and / or difficulty for each game is going to be?

I think that I am not getting this right at the moment - I am trying to move towards the GOTM / COTM difficulties being out-of-phase and I was thinking it might be easier to just set a timetable now, and work to it.

For example, we could take it to a very structured approach, with oscillations from (warlord) to regent to monarch to emperor to deity / demigod then back down again, and set the civs in an order as well - the Classic and C3C and COTM could be truly out-of-phase like this.

I've slapped a few options into a poll, along with the "other" option. Please use that if you have other ideas.

Because its not really practical to add COTM / GOTM variants into the poll, please tell me if you want the two comps. in-phase (a similar difficulty in both games each month), out-of-phase (generally different difficulties), or purely independent / random.

purely independent / random is best for me. I'm a Monarch/Emperor-player but wouldn't mind a rare deity/demi-god and also an infrequent regent game thrown in for a change...

anyway, keep up the great work, ainwood! I really enjoy the games (my family already knows not to bother me too much around the 1st and the 15th of the month!!)

I voted for the option in which you tell us everything in advance. Perhaps you could even play the games for us as well.

I think in phase is good for cotm & gotm: otherwise lazy plyers like me can just play the easier game all the time.

Ehm... I voted for 'status quo'... let Ainwood do all the work

Acutally, I like a lot the surprise -and having everything planned long in advance would make it feel a bit too much like work to me.
If there was really the need for a change, then I would vote for knowing both civ and level in advance, but I would suggest the planning to span only one or two months.

I voted for Status Quo, though ainwood doesn't really annoy me . I'm happy not to know anything about the game until I play it, so ainwood's drip feeding of information in the Pre-Game discussions doesn't bother me. Having said that, it's nice to have the start image available in the pregame discussion so that the fog-gazers out there can tell me what's around the start (I can never see those resources under the fog!).

With regards to difficulty, deliberately making COTM/GOTM different difficulties seems like it could influence the global rankings a little. I.e. players can choose to play the easier game and so get a higher ranking. I think making sure there is an easier game for those not yet used to the higher difficulty levels is more important though.

Hmmm..I'm not sure whether choosing to play the easier game (if the COTM/GOTM are out of phase) will have much impact on veteran players GPR. On a regent level game elite players will be turning in sub 500 AD and BC conquests and the rest of us will be judged accordingly. So say you got a 10K game at regent then Sir Pleb clocks in with a 12-13k game its no different from a diety or emperor game where you get 8K and he gets 10k - you will still get the roughly the same GPR points.
Fundamentally, this is the same argument that takes place in the HOF over which is the strongest game over all the levels. People make the assumption that Moonsingers Sid game is best played game because of the level it was played at. IMO you would have to look down at chieftain level for the best played HoF game.
Elite players will play elite games regardless of the level. Regent/Monarch level games give junior players a better chance to score a win and hence get more GPR points. But for the rest of us it doesn't make a difference as our games are still going to be compared to that of an elite players.
I think we should keep the COTM/GOTM out of phase for the moment with a harder and an easier game as we seem to have a lot of new players who are not yet comfortable on the higher levels. If we threw two diety games at them in the same month then they might get hacked off and stop playing altogether.

Status Quo - Surprise me!

What could I do with prior information? Play practice games? I don't have time for the games as it is, let alone trying to play more. And I just the suspense every couple of weeks, waiting to see if the submissions and scoring systems will hold together under each new set of game parameters

I voted Status Que. But upon consideration I might change it to know difficulty. I do like the oscillations. I think of more like waves. Low to high, low to high. I think people trying to improve their game benefit from the steadilly increasing difficulty. I think I do/did/will. If you don't catch this wave maybe you will be ready for the next one. The low levels give you a chance to reqroup and try new things.

AlanH said:

Status Quo - Surprise me!

What could I do with prior information? Play practice games? I don't have time for the games as it is, let alone trying to play more.

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I totally agree - I enjoy watching the mind games that Ainwood plays with us and seeing how they pan out. A lot of the fun would be taken away from the GOTMs/COTMs if we knew in advance who/what/where we were.

Keep it as it is, please! You do an excellent job as it is, already.

AlanH - I agree about the time constraints as well. Although I wouldn't want to change the present set-up, as I can easily fit the two games in each month. But I do need time for other things in my life, and practice games are a non-starter for me just now. More's the pity...

Status Quo, please. The bi-monthly pre-game threads are generally great fun.
Though I'd go with trying to have an Easy/Hard option oscillating, though where do you put Monarch? There have been 'easy' Monarch games (COTM04), and 'hard' Monarch games (COTM02).

Neil.

I'd like to know the difficulty in advance to help plan my time better. If I know that a hard game is coming up then I can make sure that I don't overcommit in other areas (such as real life) so that I can make a decent showing.

I'm quite "hard nosed" with regard to this. I even think that the pre-game discussion is spoiler information.

For me, I would like to open the save, and only then find out anything about the game. I would relent, and allow the map size to be advertised in advance.. but nothing else.

Would your settler know he was on a continents planet, with a temperate and wet climate etc. ? Nah. All he knows is that he is standing on a patch of dirt, and it's either good enough for him or he moves on in hope...

samildanach said:

Hmmm..I'm not sure whether choosing to play the easier game (if the COTM/GOTM are out of phase) will have much impact on veteran players GPR. On a regent level game elite players will be turning in sub 500 AD and BC conquests and the rest of us will be judged accordingly. So say you got a 10K game at regent then Sir Pleb clocks in with a 12-13k game its no different from a dEIty or emperor game where you get 8K and he gets 10k - you will still get the roughly the same GPR points.

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You are right! However, it involves much less time and effort to drift along and collect 10000 or so jason points in a regent game. I prefer playing higher level games really, but they take me longer.

Scaring off new players would be very bad, so I have to agree that games should be out of phase because of this.

The pre game threads can be a bit frustrating at the moment because of the drip feeding of info, and maybe this could be speeded up. At the moment the full pre game info is available only just before the game starts, and there is a lot of wild speculation.

Offa said:

The pre game threads can be a bit frustrating at the moment because of the drip feeding of info, and maybe this could be speeded up. At the moment the full pre game info is available only just before the game starts, and there is a lot of wild speculation.

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On this point I tend to agree with you.
The teasing that comes with dripping info is nice, but it could probably stop a few days before the game is released in order to leave more room for some (partially, at least) informed discussion. That's part of the anticipation too, after all.

I like the way things are, but I voted for difficulty to be known in advance. I like the surprise factor but I sympathize with the players that don't have a lot of time and have to pick their games carefully according to the challenge.

You (ainwood) must be allowed to stay free to add a final touch at the last moment, although it would be fun if the difficulty was intensified step by step, then, as a relief, brought back to warlord or regent.

MOTH said:

I'd like to know the difficulty in advance to help plan my time better. If I know that a hard game is coming up then I can make sure that I don't overcommit in other areas (such as real life) so that I can make a decent showing.

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Indeed. I want to add that it would be nice to know map size too.
As for civilization, type of map, climate, location etc., sure suspense is appreciated.

I enjoy the pre-game discussions and I feel as though a complete description of the game weeks in advance would give those who had time to practise too much of an advantage (as it happens, i struggle to notch up a good score ). So the only parameters that I would be interested in knowing before the pre-game discussion would be the map size and difficulty, for pure logistical real-life reasons.

I would also like to see custom maps once in a while (although I know it's a lot of work), like 90 % land or 80 % water on a large/huge map. Additional civs would also spice things up even though it would mean more downloads. I really liked the Minoans (or whatever they were called) way back in the Greece GOTM. The Austrians come to mind for COTM....

How about - you don't even know all the settlings at the start! I went through a phase of playing everything random, and it improved my game flexibility and early analysis no end. OK so certain things would be easy to figure out (e.g. CIV, difficulty when cities start to riot) but settings such as land mass type and setting, barb level could be left so only ainswood knows

Actually ... Is that so different from what happens now?