Cookbook University games discussion thread

[CellKu]

Dirk1302, I am fine with the weekend, but would be glad if I were allowed to post my final report for this voting round (until 1AD) on Saturday, since I will be on a business trip during the next days.

I found our discussion with regard to the 1800BC saves very helpful and eye-opening. It is a pity that I am gone for a few days now, so that I won't be able to ask questions/discuss the 1000BC save in a similar way.

Just some random thoughts:
It won't change much, but what do you think about having a 3-4 day (play-and-discuss) period for reporting only dates and 4 days (play-and-discuss) for voting dates? On the other hand, a weekend for the discussing the saves that we should vote on would be good. So, perhaps we should stay with your timetable.

 

[Dirk1302]

The weekend is not that important i think for discussing/voting. I've noticed that input is fairly even over time on this forum.

Do you propose we really stop playing at a report checkpoint as we stop now at a voting checkpoint? I'm not really against that though i sometimes like to play larger chunk's in one go. I can imagine others have one free day on which they play the whole chunk and assemble the reports for the various reporting dates. Well they can post when the time's right so this is not really an objection to your idea. Compared to the open game format where some would be at 1500 AD , others at 1000 BC there's huge improvement already. I'd be interested to hear some more opinions on this.

As for the voting this weekend, i'll wait for your save. I'll put up a reminder for others that have submitted the 1800 BC point on friday.

 

[CellKu]

Sorry, that was a misunderstanding on my side. I didn't mean to make anybody stop playing for the reporting dates. I hadn't considered that. I just referred to the amount of days that we have to play and discuss the game. I had the feeling that we had more discussion with regard to the 1800BC save than with regard to the 1000BC save so far. That is why I mentioned the weekend. But perhaps I should adhere more to "wait-and-see" approach to look how things play out during this first installment. And then we might change things once we start the second game.
Thanks for waiting for me regarding the 1AD save. I will try to be quick!

 

[Dirk1302]

Well there has been some prelimary discussion regarding 1000 BC save and 1 ad save. But the bulk of it is still to come as there are quit a few players that have only submitted the 1800 BC save sofar. I think i'll put up a summary for 1000 BC tomorrow if i have >= 6 saves then, 1 AD on friday/saturday.

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

Thanks Dirk for your investisment in this cookbook...
I unfortunaly had to rush through 1 AD last sunday as I have a busy week... so couldn't wait for experienced player's advices... Great summary at 1800BC! thanks again...

 

[shyuhe]

I have also played up to 1 AD but haven't had time to post yet. Hopefully tonight if my PC cooperates...

 

[silverbullet]

Dirk,
I suggest changing the regular voting day to Friday. This way we can start playing on Saturday. It's too late to change the deadline for the 1AD vote, but maybe we can do it for future votes.
This will mean that saves must be submitted by end of Thursday.

At least for me, I can mostly play on weekends and we cannot continue the game when voting is in progress.

 

[Dirk1302]

For the upcoming vote i can't do that. Judging from the other cookbooks threads voting'll take a few days too. For future votes we can see if something like this can be arranged, it might be difficult though. Personally i don't like very hard deadlines if this means players are dropping out. So i'd prefer to extend the deadline by a week in such a case as there seems to be enough discussion anyway about the various intermediate saves submitted. Like to hear some opinions form others on this too.

 

[Gliese 581]

I'm fine with cutting down voting to say 3 days but 1 day is not enough I think to give everyone enough time. Even if most people make the time they might not give a good evaluation over such a short timeframe it's better if there's at least a couple of days for each voting then extending playtime like you suggest Dirk.
Some balance has to be maintained though because if too much time passes then that will also cause people to drop out or make worse evaluations from not being "up to date" with the current progress.

 

[silverbullet]

I see. I didn't know voting takes a few days. In that case maybe it's better to start voting on Mondays, so that everyone can start playing by friday.

 

[Abegweit]

Yes. Voting should take place during the week, allowing people to play over the weekends. Two week schedule with the new round starting on Thursday or Friday and voting lasting about three days.

 

[Dirk1302]

This doesn't sound too bad, so it looks like this:

Play Saturday until Tuesday 10 days later.
Vote from Tuesday until Friday
Play Saturday until Tuesday 10 days later..... repeat.

As it is now we have 7 days playing, 3 days voting, so voting'll be sometimes in the week, sometimes in the weekend.

I can't set the day for the first upcoming vote sooner but i can postpone it from Saturday to Tuesday if that suits people so we can implement the new schedule right away. As it is there are still some 1 AD saves out atm. Still like to hear some more opinions, is 10 days playing time too slow? Compared to some others here i probably play a lot, but i don't think it's too slow, there's probably enough to discuss, more so since there's always one or two report points in between.

 

[silverbullet]

Another option would be to have 4 days of playing, 3 days of voting. We will have to break the turn sets to smaller chunks probably if we reduce play time by that much, so people may not like it.
I don't mind either way.

 

[Dirk1302]

This is indeed an option too.I'll have to check but iirc they began with shorter voting intervals in the IC. They changed this too longer intervals since the saves didn't diverge enough.

 

[Dirk1302]

Just to make some things clear, i have some sympathy for silverbullet's idea. If there aren't any other reactions supporting this idea though i'll just go ahead with the original idea for now. This moment that means voting when CellKu's save's in probably next Saturday. I'll put up a notice both here and in the discussion thread when voting can be done. I'll notify everyone tomorrow for those whose saves for 1 AD are not in yet.

I know i said i'd make a summary of the 1000 BC saves. I do it but it'll be short. Saves i've got clearly pursue what the saves from 1800 BC did. Also i don't have too much too work with, some players went straight to 1 ad. I was looking today however at CellKu and Gliese's game , they have done their best to document their games in detail.It's quite easy to comment on their games in detail, since they're finely contrasted with my own and Snaaty's game until 1000 BC which is also nicely documented. i think i 'll put up a short summary of these games here tomorrow.

I'll also summarize the other games 1 AD before the vote. As it stands now i'll begin the vote once CellKu's save's in Saturday, well maybe after i made the 1 AD summary but that won't be too long after CellKu's save.

 

[silverbullet]

Looking forward to the vote.

If no one objects, I suggest shortening the playtime for the next round and vote on 500AD saves after next weekend (Monday Dec 15th).

 

[CellKu]

Do we vote on the 500AD?

With regard to the turn length: If we had "voting" and "report only"-dates alternating we could go for a 10/14-days period with regard to the voting, but have a report-only date in between after 5/7-days (allowing for silverbullet's "smaller chunks"-approach and balancing it with the need for having sufficiently long intervals to see some differences). That would allow players - who don't have much time and can't "report only" - to play their full turnset over the weekend and report for the vote (about their full turnset) while others could play during the week 2 smaller turnsets and report and discuss it in between.

 

[Dirk1302]

I think that silverbullet and i proposed something similar a few posts back. My preference here is clearly to go for the longer schedule with in between reporting dates. 500 AD is 20 turns from 1 AD, to go for a whole voting round on it is too much imo.

I like the longer schedule with playing over weekends. I hardly see any objections to this.Seeing you also like a turnset over the weekend besides silverbullet i think i'll implement this schedule. If i read Rusten's post correctly there's a chance he can join next round in this case .

 

[CellKu]

Dirk1302, good!

Btw, sorry, I didn't mean to copy your idea a few posts back. I hadn't understood that you were also for an alternating scheme (report only - voting - report only - voting...) and thought you wanted to always vote. But I see that I misunderstood you.

 

[silverbullet]

Suggestion for the next game:
1) Pick a more difficult map. How about being boxed in to 2~3 cities? I am talking about these deity maps that we roll and sometimes think are not winnable at all.

2) Have shorter rounds in the BCs. First voting in 1AD is too late. The early game is critical in deity, especially with a tough start. It will also enable the less experienced players to see in detail how a strategy unfold.

A nearly impossible map could use the extra luck provided by voting and picking the best save.

3) Allow anyone play to from the top 2 or 3 saves - if you believe the voting for 1st place is wrong - go ahead and prove it. Make a win from a lower rated save and show everyone. I think it's a great opportunity for players to show alternative ways of playing. This will make the thread more messy and a bit difficult to follow, so we might wan to split it to shadow threads or give some code names to each save.