After the best CIV experience I've ever had and a couple of lousy PBEMs, I'm coming to realize that certain stars need to be aligned for a PBEM game to be successful. I propose a game based on the following criteria:
- Version: BTS 3.19
- Balance: 5 players, odd number to avoid polarization.
- Balance: A bunch of random A.I.s, noble for difficulty.
- Balance: First come first served for civ choice.
- Synchronization: Player is in one of the following timezones: Pacific, Mountain, Central or Eastern.
- Game flow: Player has an occupation that lets him take turns. You have CIV on your work computer or a laptop and the boss is cool with a turn here and there. This doesn't mean you need to walk out of a meeting to take your turn. This means when you have 5 minutes, keep the turns flowing for everyone.
- Games flow: a pace of at least 2 turns per day is aimed for. This means the game is expected to take around 6 months worst case.
- Availability: Player is around for the next 6 months.
- Dedication: Player had PBEM'd before and is eager to do it again. One sentence conveying previous PBEM experience will be provided by Player and voted on by current players. Player will become current player upon positive vote result.
- Dedication: Player is the type of geek that carries a computer around everywhere & stays connected (vacation, conferences, et cetera). This doesn't mean that Player has to take his turn at a funeral.
- Dedication: Player is the type of geek that carries a smart phone and will want to get an alert during the day to let him know that his turn is ready.
- Dedication: Player will play the cards that are dealt to him, no matter what & until the end. There will be lame start spots, backstabbing, treason, A.I.s with fat stacks pillaging your cities not to mention what we'll do to each other. Player realizes that making the most of crappy situations is where the fun is.
- Technical: Mac PBEM is incompatible with Windows PBEM, we'll need to decide beforehand which platform we all want to use. This might mean we're spending $$ for Civ on steam.
In exchange for being an awesome player, an equally awesome PBEM infrastructure will be provided:
- A mail server it at the ready with custom scripts on the back end to receive turns and send them to the next player. This means you don't need to upload your savegames to a crappy web interface, you don't need to email them manually to the next player. All you do is get an email, click on the link, take your turn and click "send". Done.
- A forum will be provided for our communication needs.
Anything I missed? I'm curious to see if this will get anyone interested.
- Version: BTS 3.19
- Balance: 5 players, odd number to avoid polarization.
- Balance: A bunch of random A.I.s, noble for difficulty.
- Balance: First come first served for civ choice.
- Synchronization: Player is in one of the following timezones: Pacific, Mountain, Central or Eastern.
- Game flow: Player has an occupation that lets him take turns. You have CIV on your work computer or a laptop and the boss is cool with a turn here and there. This doesn't mean you need to walk out of a meeting to take your turn. This means when you have 5 minutes, keep the turns flowing for everyone.
- Games flow: a pace of at least 2 turns per day is aimed for. This means the game is expected to take around 6 months worst case.
- Availability: Player is around for the next 6 months.
- Dedication: Player had PBEM'd before and is eager to do it again. One sentence conveying previous PBEM experience will be provided by Player and voted on by current players. Player will become current player upon positive vote result.
- Dedication: Player is the type of geek that carries a computer around everywhere & stays connected (vacation, conferences, et cetera). This doesn't mean that Player has to take his turn at a funeral.
- Dedication: Player is the type of geek that carries a smart phone and will want to get an alert during the day to let him know that his turn is ready.
- Dedication: Player will play the cards that are dealt to him, no matter what & until the end. There will be lame start spots, backstabbing, treason, A.I.s with fat stacks pillaging your cities not to mention what we'll do to each other. Player realizes that making the most of crappy situations is where the fun is.
- Technical: Mac PBEM is incompatible with Windows PBEM, we'll need to decide beforehand which platform we all want to use. This might mean we're spending $$ for Civ on steam.
In exchange for being an awesome player, an equally awesome PBEM infrastructure will be provided:
- A mail server it at the ready with custom scripts on the back end to receive turns and send them to the next player. This means you don't need to upload your savegames to a crappy web interface, you don't need to email them manually to the next player. All you do is get an email, click on the link, take your turn and click "send". Done.
- A forum will be provided for our communication needs.
Anything I missed? I'm curious to see if this will get anyone interested.
. This is why I'm throwing that out there, to see what responses are thrown back.
But its a very much 9-5 type of job in an office and if I was to sit there and take a turn during the day and get caught I'd very likely get fired. There's lots of flexibility with my job, but playing video games in the office isn't part of it unfortunately. I've taken turns during the day before, but its on my lunch break and it involves downloading the turn from the internet, packing up the laptop, taking it to my car or a separate location, doing turn, uploading it back again when I come back. Just a painful process that I've only done rarely for very key points in a game that I get too excited to wait for lol. That being said, I do have a laptop with my job, civ is loaded on it and I take it literally everywhere with me. I am available literally almost every day for turns, either after work or on weekends. Anytime I'm not available I know in advance and can give warning.
