BTS Game : To Do

[Ginger_Ale]

Ginger Ale, would you like me to organize the map setup efforts? With your approval, I would like to set up some polls in the individual team forums related to game and map settings. The general polls here provide some good ideas, but they're kind of... disorganized. And the sooner we get moving on this, the sooner we can get the game started.

Please, go ahead. There's no reason we can't have map making going on at the same time as other discussion.

 

[CommandoBob]

How do we plan to select our Civs/Civ Leaders? We don't want two FDRs in one game, do we?

 

[Sullla]

Sullla: Can I ask that you not do traditional forum-controlled polls? Typically you would post a question, and we would argue that for a bit before each of us reaching a decision, but if there's a poll in the first post then people tend to vote right away without waiting for the discussion. It should be easy enough to count the votes of 10-20 people manually.

I agree completely - you pretty much read my mind. I actually hate forum polls, for all manner of reasons that I won't get into here. Deciding on the settings needs to be a TEAM decision, with discussion and bartering and arguing and all the rest, not simply the highest number on a straw poll.

Well, GA gave his approval, so I guess it's time to get to work...

 

[IamJohn]

How do we plan to select our Civs/Civ Leaders? We don't want two FDRs in one game, do we?

As far as I know we basically we flip a coin if we get a conflict. Loser gets their second choice.

 

[oyzar]

There isn't really a problem with having 2 of the same leaders..

 

[Niklas]

There's no technical problem, but it would be a lot less fun IMO.

 

[Diamondeye]

I agree with Niklas...

Now, what is the public opinion on two different leaders, but same civ? (Ottomans, Persians, Mongols, etc...)

 

[Viva_Chingon]

I was thinking about this too...I guess we just pick an alternate? I've never done this before...but I wouldn't want to tip my hand at selection until I was discovered in game.

 

[Niklas]

In the Civ3 MTDG2, each team listed their top 5 choices in private. The admins and map maker then assigned the teams based on the wishes, with duplicates being randomly decided. I think this is the best way to go at it.

Viva Chingon brings up an interesting point. Do we want to keep choices hidden until contact? That would certainly spice up the early game a bit, and probably put a wrench in some strategies. I'm all for it.

I don't mind two different leaders from the same civ being played, but I don't feel strongly about it.

 

[peter grimes]

Yes - absolutely keep the civ choices hidden!

That worked really well for the civ3 game.

 

[oyzar]

I don't think that is really possible in pitboss... You chose which leader to play when you log in...

 

[Viva_Chingon]

Now that I think about it...I think you might be right, Oyzar. What a bummer. Maybe there's some clever way around this, but I don't think so...cause soon as the turn player logs in, as said before, all the leaders would be available for selection.

Does that also mean that anyone can connect to the game and start up as any of the other civs? So...could I just go log in as Team 2 and check their city defenses, for instance?

 

[oyzar]

Not unless you had their pw...

 

[CommandoBob]

I don't think that is really possible in pitboss... You chose which leader to play when you log in...

Would it be possible for the Map Maker / Admin to do this once for each team before the game gets started?

I can see that might waste the first turn, but if all the Admin does is log in, select the leader and does nothing else (or does the same thing for each team) that might be acceptable.

 

[Calis]

I like the thought of not knowing the opponents at the beginning, if technically possible, of course.

I am not too fond of having the same civ twice on the map, not to mention the same leader We should not start cloning people

 

[Niklas]

Me and oyzar did a test, and it is unfortunately not possible to hide which the other teams are. Unless we anonymize them with custom names and custom leaderheads. But I don't think we'll go through that trouble.

 

[General_W]

Nice idea - but not practical for PitBoss.

Now... about finding a host for this shindig....

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Here are what I see as the remaining tasks:

Finding a host: This is one of the most important, obviously, but it's relatively straightfoward. I'm thinking about asking in the PitBoss forum to see if anyone is willing, unless someone here is able to host or knows another member that can. Any ideas?

Determining the game settings: This is currently underway and Sullla has set the deadline of Wednesday, November 19th. Here is what needs to be agreed upon:

- Huts: On/Off
- Events: On/Off
- Vassal States: On/Off
- Barbarians: None, Normal, or Raging
- Tech Trading: Normal, No Tech Trading, No Tech Brokering
- Difficulty Level: Low (Noble/Prince), Medium (Monarch/Emperor), High (Immortal/Deity)

Making the map: We already have a map maker, thanks to Sullla, so this is another pretty straightfoward step that can take place after November 19th, when teams have given their input on various map types.

Choosing civilizations and leaders: If you haven't already done so, teams should begin discussion of what leader they want to play as (I think Unrestricted Leaders will be OFF, so stick to normal combinations). Teams can also come up with custom nouns, adjectives, and the like. We need to decide whether duplicate leaders/civilizations should be allowed -- any thoughts?

Deciding upon team names: This is up to individual teams to do at their own pace: when you are ready, let me know via PM and I can have TF change the names of your forum and member group. This also needs to be finalized before the game can start, so that the map includes these changes.

Recruitment of more members: This never hurts, considering that the ranks inevitably dwindle as the game goes on. I will put up an announcement for the Civ4 forums when the game is really close to starting (i.e. a final date has been set for the launch).

Finalize a ruleset: There is already some good ruleset discussion underway, so we just need to iron out any complaints and hopefully get teams to agree to it (or, just let it pass, since a vast majority of users already approved it).

Password decisions: Pretty simple -- teams need to decide on a password for the game.

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Missing anything?

 

[DaveShack]

On hosting, earlier discussion mentioned DaveMcW.

I'm capable of hosting but sometimes keeping the game computer's connection going has been an issue. And I'll almost certainly have business trips and definitely will have vacations over the next 18-24 months, and it's not something I can leave up when I'm not here.

 

[oyzar]

I've never seen anyone host from being asked in the pitboss forum so that seems rather useless, should make an anouncement here, maybe someone have a spare server lying around?

Also a password: it is largely useless as all civs will be pw protected anyways so noone not in the game can log into the game anyways. However it does take 2-5 seconds of your life every time you log in. While this doesn't seem like much it really does add up if you login say once per day for 2 years...