How long should you have to play before you can ask for the game to be saved?

[TrailblazingScot]

Was playing PTW tonight.

6 humans, 2 A.I.


Down to 3 humans and 2 A.I.


Hours had passed, midnight approaching, I need supper, I need a break (fast moves and my army is vast). Being in Britain, it is alot later than for American players so I and every European is at a disadvantage on that score.


In an attempt to decide the matter I launch my offensive of Chinese Riders in the middle of my Golden Age...the other remaining human player joins my crusade as I've been a good ally.

The Germans (the other human, slightly the biggest civ, mainly on culture) lose their border cities but due to a well placed capital, a vast empire and the clever use of Knights in defence to negate retreats the war will take longer. Too long as I said it was getting late, so I ask if we can save, I send out my e-mail address and ask we can continue later.
Why attack when I know it is late and I can't play for much longer? Simple. My experience of PTW players online is most will quit when faced by what appears to be an overwhelming force attacking them out the blue, very few, stomach a good fight.
Indeed I could have expect this player to be the same when he immediately asked for me to "give peace a chance" and a few other mournful gestures as I send in the Riders (main problem is timer in that game didn't give enough time for all my units to be used, not by half. But that will favour me should I ever need to defend I suppose.)


That I need sleep, have a life outside of PTW and a job and want to save up and continue later the weekend, I get abuse... He was lucky I didn't have time to retaliate in kind


How frickin' long should a game continue at a stretch before you can save, call it a day and continue another time?

I'm no short stinter, with games continuously lasting over 9 hours at a stretch.


I'm just wanting some feedback as to what the general consensus would be?



In the end, I said "I have to go" provided my e-mail address and made sure I had a save of the game. I don't think I was unreasonable and certainly I know the other human player did not.

 

[DiamondzAndGunz]

If you get a nice game going, that looks like it'll last a while, I'd say 4-5 hours would be a good cutoff point, after which you can take a break. Of course, you can play longer, but after four hours, I'm sure most people could agree to take a break.

Haven't played all that many games under the new patch, but generally, under 1.14, we would agree to take a break after our game crashed/desynched (assuming we'd already played a couple of hours). That would interrupt our train of thought, and sometimes allow us to rethink our strategies.

Heh- and I know what you mean about the fact that most people will quit when faced with a large force. I was in a game with what appeared the be a newbie, since he set up 2 cities, and then started the pyramids . We were alone on the continent, so I had built up a sizeable empire, 12 or so cities. I sent 5 or 6 Numidian Merc's towards his capitol, and he quit . Ahh yes, whole continent to myself .

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Wow, kitten, 9 hours is a darn long stretch...

Yeah, you'll find many people like that - poor losers. Guess you'll have to hook up with 'trusted regulars', if you want a game with steadier players.

So, what happened, finally?

 

[WildFire]

Just press the pause button

Well, as you can see, I have played against Dave a couple of times. Those dont last 9 hours

If you dont like to play a really long time (at one time) do what I do. Insist that the game be a tiny or small map and than leave if they dont change it. Or take a really good early civ (like Dave) and make everyone hate you.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon
Wow, kitten, 9 hours is a darn long stretch...

Yeah, you'll find many people like that - poor losers. Guess you'll have to hook up with 'trusted regulars', if you want a game with steadier players.

So, what happened, finally?

They never got back to me


The German player would have immediately have accepted the surrender of the Persian player with me gone. Persia was my lackey as I had supplied it the tech to fight any wars. A tenth of my army could take his empire in a turn

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Thought I'd post a screenie from another multiplayer game I won after a bloody war recently


I'm Spain with over 600 points and the vast cavalry stack. The person I supplied with money and tech tried to take over the world with the tools I had supplied him, it was then I knew he had to die

In a vast cavalry battle outside the Celt capital the Celt cavalry was destroyed and the war was mine!


P.S myself and the Celts are the two significant powers, the English are big only because Carthage gave them alot of cities as the Celts attacked (I turned down the offer), but England was stone age in terms of tech!

 

[TrailblazingScot]

There WERE 6 players...


The first to die were the Americans to my Arabs



Full credit to the Vikings, they fought like heroes, but my empire was a tad better

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Nice screenies.

Seems MP is actually working, for you.