3.19 Stuck In The Middle With You PBEM

[PieceOfMind]

Stuck In The Middle With You - A Beyond the Sword v3.19 PBEM game, set on the breath-taking coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.

Settings:
Tectonics - Mediterranean
Aridity: Normal
Tiny Map
4 Human players
Starting Era: Classical (turn 50, 2000BC)
Normal speed

No Random Events
No Huts
No Vassals
No City Razing
No Tech Trading

Victory Conditions:
Space Race and Time are disabled.

Civilizations (allocated - not chosen)
Greece (Alexander)
Egypt (Ramesses)
Carthage
Spain

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Game will be Normal Speed. This means the game could go for hundreds of turns, for probably more than a whole year of real-time. Please make sure you are prepared to play the game for this long before signing up.

Please post your preferred play times and what timezone you are in (not just one or the other). This will help me to allocate a sensible turn order.

Difficulty level is Emperor. This is to reduce the city spamming that can happen on lower difficulties like Noble. To play at Emperor, you should be comfortable with at least Monarch in single player.


Four civs will play: Greece (Alexander), Spain, Egypt (Ramesses) and Carthage. The civs will be allocated randomly using a method that is unbiased, before the game starts.

If you have any questions about the settings don't hesitate to ask in this thread. Also, I welcome any comments or further suggestions for the game settings.

Required: You should be able to play at least one turn per day on average. Understanding that work, vacations and other commitments can sometimes keep you from playing, please make a post in this thread (or the vacation notice board in this sub-forum) indicating how long you will be away for. If a player cannot be contacted for 10 days without explanation, a substitute player may be sought.

Signed Up:
PieceOfMind (host) - 1200 GMT
IndianSmoke - 1700 GMT (0800 GMT possible as well)
Woody1 - 2200 GMT (possible at 1000 GMT as well)
sourdiesel - 0200 GMT

 

[fizikis]

I would be happy to join a PBEM game, but I have been holding back because most of them have this "no tech trading" rule. I don't exactly understand why is tech trading bad in multiplayer? I would like to have the tech trading on, but I would like to participate even if it is disabled.

I can play Sun-Fri 2000-0600 GMT+2. Unfortunately I will be unable to play from 0600 on Friday until 2000 on Sunday (with rare exceptions). Since that is usually the best time to play CIV for most people I am willing to pass unless no one objects to me being the weakest link.

 

[PieceOfMind]

I think Tech Trading is often turned off because in some MP games it can be the most unbalancing feature. For example, it opens up the possibility for two cooperating civs to commit to parallel research, effectively doubling their science rate.

In my opinion, when there are as few as 4 players, it is better to leave it disabled.

As for joining the game, can you please post your preferred time of day for taking your turn? Have you played PBEM games before, and do you have experience playing at Emperor difficulty?

 

[fizikis]

I am currently playing one PBEM (with tech trading on ) and I prefer playing Monarch, but I think I can handle Emperor . Preferred times edited in my previous post.

 

[Woody1]

Sign me up, please. Time zone is GMT-4h (EDT). Preferred play time is early evenings, 22:00 GMT (6pm EDT). Also possible in early morning (10:00 GMT).

I have played other PBEM games before, so am aware they go on for many months to complete. Never played Civ4 PBEM, though. I usually play on monarch single-player.

 

[PieceOfMind]

fizikis, that time in which you can't take a turn on weekends is fairly large. Depending on who else signs up it might be possible to work something in, but I can't give you a guarantee at this point.

 

[sourdiesel]

I would like to join this game but there are a couple of caveats:

1. I have only been playing for a little over a month, and am currently getting used to Monarch difficulty in single player.

2. This is my first PBEM game.


I am at GMT-4. Preferred play time is 0200 GMT. I will be able to play daily.

You won't hurt my feelings if you decide to go with other players

 

[PieceOfMind]

sourdiesel,

It sounds like you're ready for Emp difficulty in MP. In multiplayer games, there is not a huge difference between Monarch and Emp anyway. The main thing you will need to be aware of is that it is harder to expand as much early on because maintenance costs and civic upkeep can get expensive.

It is ok if this is your first PBEM game, but as long as you are prepared to stick it out for an entire game then it's all good.

Consider yourself signed up.

 

[Indiansmoke]

I can play. Usual times for turns 08:00 GMT or 17:00 GMT weekdays and weekends it depends.

Only problem for me is that I will be away for 3 weeks in August. If you can live with that then count me in.

 

[PieceOfMind]

I can play. Usual times for turns 08:00 GMT or 17:00 GMT weekdays and weekends it depends.

Only problem for me is that I will be away for 3 weeks in August. If you can live with that then count me in.

3 weeks in August will be ok. I'll put you down for 1700 GMT.

The game is now full. I'll have more info soon.

 

[sourdiesel]

Great! Looking forward to getting started.

 

[Indiansmoke]

When you say civs allocated does it mean that they start in geographical original places?

Also this is my first PBEM so help about setting this up would be appreciated.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Indiansmoke,

I just mean that of us four players, the civs in the original post will be assigned randomly. The actual start position on the map is going to be determined by the mapscript. They won't necessarily be in their historically accurate places.

As for what you need to do, there isn't much to set up. As long as you have an email address and can access your emails each day to download the new save file (and send it on), there's not much more to it. I'm a little short on time at the minute so I'll describe it in more detail later.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Ok Indiansmoke, I'm not sure what you do know and what you don't know, but I'll give a quick summary...

Play Be Email games (PBEM) are played by having players play their turns and pass it on to the next player by emailing the gamesave. Passwords are set by each player to ensure you don't inadvertently see someone else's stuff if you open the wrong gamesave.

When you receive the save by email, it's usually easiest to just double-click the file to auto-launch the game with that gamesave loading right away. On the very first turn of the game, it's important you set your password and your personal details (in the options menu). When you are finished your turn, you hit Enter or the red button or however you like to end your turns normally. The game will then tell you it has saved the game and is ready to be sent to the next player.

Now it is up to you to send on the correct gamesave to the next player (it will be the same every time, obviously, unless that person is eliminated from the game somehow). To send the gamesave, you can just write an email to that player and attach the gamesave as an attachment (the gamesave is found in your \Saves\pbem folder), or it is possible to set up automatic emailing as well, where hitting the end turn button would automatically send on the gamesave to the next player.

The other thing worth mentioning is what you might call the etiquette of PBEM games. I haven't had a long experience with PBEM games yet, but what I've picked up so far is that it's generally considered good practise to make a post in the relevant civfanatics thread whenever you send the gamesave on. This helps to track the progress of the turn and can sometimes highlight problems (like someone consistently having their turn late, or holding onto the turn for an excessively long time). One should always endeavour to make the other players aware of any absence that exceeds a day or two, as it's fairly disruptive to gameflow. Everyone every now and then has unexpected things come up that can keep them from playing for a day or two and not being able to post it in the forum here, but when the absence is a week or more for example, it gets a bit annoying.

Finding substitute players is an unfortunate reality in many PBEM games but it seems there are many people in the PBEM forum who put their hand up to do so. Often the substitutes are permanent.

Anyway, overall I feel PBEM games are the perfect way to enjoy civ MP games at a laid back pace. They require some responsibility and regularity but they offer long-lasting and deep gameplay.

 

[Woody1]

Sounds good. When do we start?

 

[PieceOfMind]

We just need to collect email addresses and allocate the leaders. Please, each of you PM me your email addresses.

Here's how the leader allocation will be done.

Each of you need to work out what your birth day plus birth month is (ignore the year). The sum of mine is 20, for example. Then PM this number to me (preferably in the same PM as when you send your email address). Once I have the three numbers from the three of you, I will post the numbers and their total sum (including mine) in this thread.

I'll add these four numbers up, make it the map random seed, generate a Tiny tectonics Mediterranean map (like the one we'll be using) with Pericles (PieceOfMind), Suryavarman (sourdiesel), Willem (Woody1) and Gandhi (Indiansmoke) as leaders (in that order).

Then whoever starts furthest south will be Egypt (if a tie, the east most of the tieing leaders)
Then of the remaining people, whoever is east most gets Greece (if a tie, north most)
Then of the remaining 2 people, whoever is west most gets Spain (if a tie, north most)
Then the last person gets Carthage.

Note the map generated this way will not be the one we're playing on - when you generate maps in MP games it does not use the custom seed from the ini.

It's about as unbiased and easy a way to allocate the leaders I can think of. Effectively uses the game's RNG to decide for us.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Thanks for the PMs.

Sum of numbers is 20 + 17 + 12 + 18 = 67.

Result of map generation. Note I used Emp difficulty, all settings standard including VCs if that matters.

So I get Egypt,
Woody1 gets Greece,
sourdiesel gets Spain,
Indiansmoke gets Carthage.

I'll get the game started asap.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Ok you should each have the necessary email address in your inbox now.

I've just sent off the first save to Indiansmoke.

I haven't set people's names - they are the default leader names. I think it would be nice if we leave the leader names as they are but it doesn't greatly bother me if you want to change them. I have entered the email addresses for each player so if you wish to set up automatic emailing it should work.

Please remember to post in this thread when you send the save on.

 

[Indiansmoke]

The mail I received had no attachment...and since I go away till Sunday, I guess I will play first turn Sunday EU night..

 

[Woody1]

Uhoh