Help with Pirates! Yarr! by Paasky

[The Guardian]

Oh yes I've played many multiplayer games. this one is at least a 6+ hour game and these days I can't devote that kind of time to a single game. Its not out of the question but would take serious scheduling

What I am thinking of doing is creating a web site on my server. I can create a site dedicated to this scenario. Anyone wanting to start, form or join a group to play multiplayer games can post their info there and contact other players to form groups. How and where they play does not really matter. They can determine that for themselves. They can submit final scores for rankings which can be tracked and posted. I can work on making additional scenarios using the same scenario files to create small faster games, tactical games or games covering different areas (Mediteranian, Indian ocean, the china seas, pacific, North american colonies, etc). I could even create scenario with different numbers of players from 2 - 8. I can create scenarios with different game lengths also. Short games and long games.

It's just an idea that I had. I would be willing to do it if enough people would be interested.

 

[Cyc]

Downloading Pirates Beta for testing.

 

[The Guardian]

Downloading Pirates Beta for testing.

Thx Cyc, looking forward to hearing (reading actually) your comments.

 

[Lanzelot]

I wanted to start a test game with the latest version now, but unfortunately at the moment I only have 56K modem access at home, so downloading 186MB is out of the question. I downloaded at work, but then my USB stick broke down, so I can't take it home

Anyway, I have two more comments, based on the previous version (so don't know if they still apply):

• In the standard "Age of Discovery" scenario that comes with C3C, there is a well known exploit: you can disband your capital at the right time, so that your palace jumps right to your colonies, and then you no longer need to ship the treasures all the way back home. You just move them one or two turns into your new capital and have a very easy win. I think a similar exploit might work in this scenario as well. Is there a way to prevent it? For example you could turn the Palace into a "Small Wonder", which can only be built once. So if you loose (disband) your capital, you can no longer collect victory points and consequently have no chance of winning anymore.
  
• I noticed that the special resources like "London", "The Netherlands" etc are tradable. I didn't try it yet, but I assume it would have funny consequences, if I swapped my "London" resource with "The Netherlands"...

Lanzelot

 

[The Guardian]

I wanted to start a test game with the latest version now, but unfortunately at the moment I only have 56K modem access at home, so downloading 186MB is out of the question. I downloaded at work, but then my USB stick broke down, so I can't take it home

Anyway, I have two more comments, based on the previous version (so don't know if they still apply):

• In the standard "Age of Discovery" scenario that comes with C3C, there is a well known exploit: you can disband your capital at the right time, so that your palace jumps right to your colonies, and then you no longer need to ship the treasures all the way back home. You just move them one or two turns into your new capital and have a very easy win. I think a similar exploit might work in this scenario as well. Is there a way to prevent it? For example you could turn the Palace into a "Small Wonder", which can only be built once. So if you loose (disband) your capital, you can no longer collect victory points and consequently have no chance of winning anymore.
• I noticed that the special resources like "London", "The Netherlands" etc are tradable. I didn't try it yet, but I assume it would have funny consequences, if I swapped my "London" resource with "The Netherlands"...

Lanzelot

This is very good observation.

First, treasure and raw materials can only be redeemed at a capital that has a VP marker. That is "suppose" to be the way that works. I am not sure that it does work that way because I haven't tested it, but but it suppose to work that way. Since the VP markers are pre-placed I don't think moveing your palace will change that. But as I said I haven't tested it.

Second, the special resources are used by building that produce units, like the academy to produce officers, or for units like the city defender. Since there is no sea trade or ocean trading plus the fact that the resouce must be in the city radius for the building to produce the unit, garentees that the unit can only be build in the home city. If you would like to test this and advise me, I would appreciate it.

Making these resouces non tradable would be easy of course and if you find that any of the items you mentioned does cause a problem in game play, I will correct that.

 

[tom2050]

I'm 99.928% sure that Guardian is right, the capitol cannot cash in on the treasure/raw materials by itself, it needs a VP location, such that any VP locations can be used to cash in on them. Of course, I have not tested it either...

Tom

 

[The Guardian]

I'm 99.928% sure that Guardian is right, the capitol cannot cash in on the treasure/raw materials by itself, it needs a VP location, such that any VP locations can be used to cash in on them. Of course, I have not tested it either...

Tom

New avatar TOM? I like it. BTW I am going to change some of the special resource and make them not tradable, just to get them off the screen and eliminate them so the screens are not cluttered with them.

 

[Lanzelot]

Stupid me: I bought an MP3 player recently so I can listen to my favorite Beethoven symphonies while riding to work. And I remembered that these little things can be "misused" as USB stick... I have it all moved onto my MP3 player now and will do some testing over the weekend.

I'll try the Palace Jump and let you know the result...

Cheers, Lanzelot

 

[Lanzelot]

I am considering setting up a website to facilitate a multi-player league for this scenario. Before I do so I would like to know how many players would be interested in establishing such a league.
Please comment

Sorry, I can't really stay online for such long periods. These days PBEM is the only way for multiplayer, I think, because it's so difficult to find enough reliable people for a "real-life" game. I tried a LAN session once with a couple of friends, meeting once a week at a predefined hour, but after 2-3 sessions some lost interest and the whole thing just died. This was with friends that life in the same town. Now imagine how it would be with "complete strangers" that you meet on the internet... There's no way such a game would ever get finished. (I would estimate it takes at least 10 sessions to get a game done. No matter how you set up the dates, there will always be one person missing...) On top of that: a lot of people with whom I play PBEM these days, are from different timezones all over the world. I consider them very reliable, but still it would be impossible to get everybody at the computer at the same point of time.

Even though a "real-time" Civ3 game has been my dream for a couple of years now, it just isn't practicable. We have to be realistic and stick with PBEM.

Cheers, Lanzelot

 

[Eclipse4449]

I'm pretty sure I understand The Guardian
The scenario and later versions are designed for human only play so it natural to want this. The best that can be had here though is a game channel on Gamespy, these people are there to play hours of C3C. But 90%+ of those players are there to play a standard game because they have a tried and true strategy that gets them wins. They are not there to have fun but to apply their skill, if that made any sense.

The Guardian mentioned smaller scenarios and scenarios with less players, this my friends will be the key to this happening but alas their is still a problem. When you launch gamespy you are taken to a lobby chocked full of games full and needing players and you must scroll around to find this type of game. Unless a game (lobby) of this type is up 24/7 it is a needle in a haystack.

I'm not technical in this area but nevertheless full of ideas, If a game/Lobby was created for scenarios of this kind "AND" the game/Lobby was to refresh (remain at the top of the list) you would over time collect a fanbase.

Using CivFanatics by means to lacate this server might be veiwed as competition towards CivFanatics and this might be fine and ok. An example of this is my "CivPBEML" a yahoo group established to create a Ladder environment where 1 vs 1 games are played constantly. I am a member here but can not beat one of them in a 1 vs 1 game, so I do not perticipate but I do play games with some of these players but these games are not mentioned in the group.

So these groups and Forums etc stay separate for the most part with a small amount of duel participation. So what I mean is the founder of that group wouldn't appreciate me posting drawling players to other servers.

So these are a few of the problems we are confronted with, but I've never presented a problem before coming up with some kind of solution.

We need a modern approach. Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, this is the new medium, there might be more but these are the big 3. Here's an example; Go to one of the first 2 networking sites, chances are very good that you will eventually see an advertisement for "EVONY" a web based browser game, my point is it is an advertisment that brings in players by the droves. We can Advertise C3C and this 186mb file is free just click here. This takes you to a new channel Hosting these scenarios. The requirements are the Hard disks of the game but the scenario(s) are exclusive to these channels. This gives good credability with Firaxis Games and possiblly their support.

Sid Meier Bringing Civilization To Facebook <
http://kotaku.com/5386984/sid-meier-bringing-civilization-to-facebook>

Sid Meier is taking two of the most addictive games ever created -
Civilization and Facebook - and melding them into one. Today he announced
Civilization Network, coming to Facebook in 2010.

Civilization Network will allow you and your friends to band together to
create the most powerful, wealthy, or most intelligent civilization. Think
Mafia Wars, only with shifty Romans instead of shifty Italians. I suppose
that's pretty much the same thing these days. Toss giant plumed helmets on
the mobsters and off you go.

Twitter Pirates would collect followers that like post thier exploits, diplo and trash talk.

I don't know how to make this kind of ads on these sites but the channels are easy enough. Me being a truck Driver with hit and miss connections I might not make a good host but I would surely be a contributor

 

[The Guardian]

With generous help of Vuldacon I have created three new leaderheads for the game.

Spoiler :

 

[The Guardian]

I am talking about putting this on my own dedicated server. The only ones that will be able to paticipate will those that log on through the website on my server.The site will be totally dedicated to this game.

I'm pretty sure I understand The Guardian
The scenario and later versions are designed for human only play so it natural to want this. The best that can be had here though is a game channel on Gamespy, these people are there to play hours of C3C. But 90%+ of those players are there to play a standard game because they have a tried and true strategy that gets them wins. They are not there to have fun but to apply their skill, if that made any sense.

The Guardian mentioned smaller scenarios and scenarios with less players, this my friends will be the key to this happening but alas their is still a problem. When you launch gamespy you are taken to a lobby chocked full of games full and needing players and you must scroll around to find this type of game. Unless a game (lobby) of this type is up 24/7 it is a needle in a haystack.

I'm not technical in this area but nevertheless full of ideas, If a game/Lobby was created for scenarios of this kind "AND" the game/Lobby was to refresh (remain at the top of the list) you would over time collect a fanbase.

Using CivFanatics by means to lacate this server might be veiwed as competition towards CivFanatics and this might be fine and ok. An example of this is my "CivPBEML" a yahoo group established to create a Ladder environment where 1 vs 1 games are played constantly. I am a member here but can not beat one of them in a 1 vs 1 game, so I do not perticipate but I do play games with some of these players but these games are not mentioned in the group.

So these groups and Forums etc stay separate for the most part with a small amount of duel participation. So what I mean is the founder of that group wouldn't appreciate me posting drawling players to other servers.

So these are a few of the problems we are confronted with, but I've never presented a problem before coming up with some kind of solution.

We need a modern approach. Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, this is the new medium, there might be more but these are the big 3. Here's an example; Go to one of the first 2 networking sites, chances are very good that you will eventually see an advertisement for "EVONY" a web based browser game, my point is it is an advertisment that brings in players by the droves. We can Advertise C3C and this 186mb file is free just click here. This takes you to a new channel Hosting these scenarios. The requirements are the Hard disks of the game but the scenario(s) are exclusive to these channels. This gives good credability with Firaxis Games and possiblly their support.



Twitter Pirates would collect followers that like post thier exploits, diplo and trash talk.

I don't know how to make this kind of ads on these sites but the channels are easy enough. Me being a truck Driver with hit and miss connections I might not make a good host but I would surely be a contributor

 

[Eclipse4449]

They are nice!!!
So will you put the black guy back into Black Jack's slot then?

Where you putting them? France, Undead English

I see 3 pics but I see errors where pics might be in the post

 

[Eclipse4449]

I remember you said that

what I was trying to refer to is getting them there

 

[The Guardian]

I remember you said that

what I was trying to refer to is getting them there

That should not be too difficult. First, I want to know if there are enough people to make doing it worth while.

 

[BadKharma]

I am talking about putting this on my own dedicated server. The only ones that will be able to paticipate will those that log on through the website on my server.The site will be totally dedicated to this game.

Are you creating a new site? Or do you allready have a site and plan to add it in?

 

[The Guardian]

Are you creating a new site? Or do you allready have a site and plan to add it in?

Yes I have a site and a server. I would be putting this on a dedicated server. (standalone)

 

[The Guardian]

Not getting much feedback on gameplay so, I guess its time to post this on Completed scenarios Thread. I will be posting the completed scenario sometime this weekend for general consumption, evaluation and comments.

 

[Civinator]

I'm 99.928% sure that Guardian is right, the capitol cannot cash in on the treasure/raw materials by itself, it needs a VP location, such that any VP locations can be used to cash in on them. Of course, I have not tested it either...

Tom

This belongs how you set the "treasure-options":

With the "Reverse Capture the Flag"-settings you need victorypoint-locations, with the "Capture the Unit"-setting the treasure-unit must be escorted to the palace of the civ.

In a German civ-forum I described all parts of the needed settings for the second variant (and that´s the working present variant used in my mod CCM). So the post is in German, the important parts with the setting for the "Palace-variant" should be understandable as I used the English terms of my editor for the description.

The settings for the "palace-variant" come in the second part of the article, starting with "edited". As there is a change for understanding it even if you don´t have knowledge of the German language, here is a link:

http://www.civforum.de/showpost.php?p=2377140&postcount=97

 

[Cyc]

Not getting much feedback on gameplay so, I guess its time to post this on Completed scenarios Thread. I will be posting the completed scenario sometime this weekend for general consumption, evaluation and comments.

Sorry, haven't had much time to put into this. But the time I have put into it has required a lot of Civilipedia clicks. I chose to play the Portuguese. True, I could have done a lot more reading in this thread than I have, but I just wanted to jump right in.

The problem is I have no civilipedia information available. This could be standard for the Portuguese, but like I said, I haven't burned through much of this thread. The game looks fun, the map is good. With the good graphics, before I discovered the lack of info, I expected a good game. I will try the Spanish next and see what their pedia looks like.