[MULT] Pitboss Worldbuilding Challenge
- Thread starter sillsworth
- Start date
Teproc
King
Thanks ! Maybe if you guys really need a replacement at some point, but I'm not sure I'm ready to invest that much time (in the long run) in this. Also I'm not much of a writer, and even less so in English.
kobo1d
Chieftain
I have surrendered because this game is far slower and more inconsistent than I thought it would be. I can't really maintain interest in a game where a single turn takes 2+ weeks. Additionally, the community of content generation I was expecting to form never materialized, and there has been radio silence here, on the social group, on the Google doc, etc for months. Sorry to leave but I have got the feeling that the world building experiment has failed. Maybe this is exactly what was originally envisioned, if that is the case my apologies because it is nothing like what I expected when the game was forming. Best regards to all of you and maybe with fewer players these problems would fix themselves.
I'm hoping the content generation will take off once we get into the Classical era, when the "preliminary" worldbuilding is over. I will say, though, that the game's taken much longer than I hoped, but some of that I think is just to be expected...
redwings1340
Emperor
Oh, sorry, I probably should have checked this before making my most recent comment. This game has taken a while, and hasn't gotten too far yet. We also have been pretty distracted by life, and I know that I at least have been dealing with some pretty hard situations of my own, and haven't given this game my full attention. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one, and I'm guessing that everyone's been a bit disappointed after the initial hype that everyone thought this game might be.
I'll admit there have been times the past couple months where I've been tempted to leave. I haven't because I knew this game was going to be like this, and I decided to join anyway. With my summer break beginning, I'm going to personally try to be more active here, with various stories and answering questions and stuff. This is still a multiplayer game of Civ, which I find awesome. Sillsworth is pretty awesome for getting this game together, and with experience of my own leading an online project that has been on the verge of failing several times (and still kind of is), I know what it's like to be super excited about something and then to have so much spirit and participation in the group leeched out over time. It's not fun, and I kind of want to stick around to avoid this happening here. Lastly, when I have written about stuff or thought about my budding empire, it has been pretty fun. This just isn't a thing where you can think about it all the time, but try to think about it every once in a while. We're not all Sillsworth, and we won't all have huge lists of notes on our civilizations, but we can all still have fun here.
Anyway, that's my take on this game. It's still awesome, and I'm going to try my best to be more awesome in it soon.
I'll admit there have been times the past couple months where I've been tempted to leave. I haven't because I knew this game was going to be like this, and I decided to join anyway. With my summer break beginning, I'm going to personally try to be more active here, with various stories and answering questions and stuff. This is still a multiplayer game of Civ, which I find awesome. Sillsworth is pretty awesome for getting this game together, and with experience of my own leading an online project that has been on the verge of failing several times (and still kind of is), I know what it's like to be super excited about something and then to have so much spirit and participation in the group leeched out over time. It's not fun, and I kind of want to stick around to avoid this happening here. Lastly, when I have written about stuff or thought about my budding empire, it has been pretty fun. This just isn't a thing where you can think about it all the time, but try to think about it every once in a while. We're not all Sillsworth, and we won't all have huge lists of notes on our civilizations, but we can all still have fun here.
Anyway, that's my take on this game. It's still awesome, and I'm going to try my best to be more awesome in it soon.
At this point in time, it seems as though we've lost most of our players for this (though obviously there's still interest, at least from myself, Redwings and Heerlo.) So, what should we do? Restart with a smaller game? Continue with the game as it stands, losing a lot of the "Big Worldbuilding" feel to it? I'm enjoying myself a lot, so I'd rather not just quit...
Heerlo
Jedi Master Hearlo
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2012
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- 2,438
I guess I really should have been putting more into this. But I had just planned on waiting until we named things to start writing my civ's story.
I guess we could just keep going. Maybe, when those of us remaining meet the now-AI players, we could do our best to make up their culture. Or we could just leave them alone and only write for our own civs. Anyway, sillsworth, I'm sorry this has turned out like this. Maybe we can keep it alive, though.
I guess we could just keep going. Maybe, when those of us remaining meet the now-AI players, we could do our best to make up their culture. Or we could just leave them alone and only write for our own civs. Anyway, sillsworth, I'm sorry this has turned out like this. Maybe we can keep it alive, though.
sh3baproject
Warlord
yea i still have interest in it,but i have been distracted by school (curse you finals >:O)
have skipped 3 turns
have skipped 3 turns
At this point I'm sort of thinking we should quit and restart with a smaller group (what, with me, Heerlo, Redwings, Sillsworth, and Sh3ba we still have 5, and if we can get maybe kobo1d back we could fill a "small" map). It would entail us replaying the early game but would also mean that the late game would be more "worldbuild"-y without all the AIs making us actually play the game. Thoughts?
sh3baproject
Warlord
i like cpm's idea, but im thinking we play a scernio like scramble for africa.
ialso forgot to mention i have a slight addicition to eu4, so that probably accounted for missing the other 2 turns XD
ialso forgot to mention i have a slight addicition to eu4, so that probably accounted for missing the other 2 turns XD
Heerlo
Jedi Master Hearlo
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2012
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- 2,438
My Steam's always popping up and saying that you're playing that.
Anyway, about this game,
Funnily enough I'm also suffering from a slight addiction to EUIV...nothing says fun like unifying Italy in the 16th century and colonizing the New World ('cause, you know, they did.)
But Sh3ba's idea of playing the Scramble for Africa Scenario is great! It's an area of extreme interest to me (and I have vague knowledge of it, which could be useful) and with 5-6 people we could have a good range of Civs: a couple North Africans, a couple Europeans, and a couple Sub-Saharans. This would mean we'd be having interesting stories earlier, rather than the 30-40 turn "lull" before the interactions start coming in (which I think kinda killed this).
So, if others are interested in this alternative, I'd say we should start as soon as possible.
But Sh3ba's idea of playing the Scramble for Africa Scenario is great! It's an area of extreme interest to me (and I have vague knowledge of it, which could be useful) and with 5-6 people we could have a good range of Civs: a couple North Africans, a couple Europeans, and a couple Sub-Saharans. This would mean we'd be having interesting stories earlier, rather than the 30-40 turn "lull" before the interactions start coming in (which I think kinda killed this).
So, if others are interested in this alternative, I'd say we should start as soon as possible.
redwings1340
Emperor
I feel like a Scramble for Africa scenario would kind of be against the basic point of the exercise, which is all about building an entire world. If we have a world already built, and we're just playing out a scenario, this is no different than a normal multiplayer civ game. It would still be fun, just different.
I know I said I would do more content soon, but... Ugh. I'm also telling myself I'm going to do more content in five other thing, and that's before we add in real important things in to the picture. I'm super annoyed that I don't have the motivation to create a world, but right now I just don't. Maybe I will later. Who knows. I'm sorry, even if I'm not the only one not really creating content, I still feel pretty bad about it.
One thing about having more AI civs in the game is that I feel a lot more comfortable potentially warmongering. We now can attack AI civs instead of other players, which is kind of cool. I don't know what the right thing to do in this game is, but for now I suppose I'll just continue to take my turn and hope eventually I can regain some motivation in this game.
I know I said I would do more content soon, but... Ugh. I'm also telling myself I'm going to do more content in five other thing, and that's before we add in real important things in to the picture. I'm super annoyed that I don't have the motivation to create a world, but right now I just don't. Maybe I will later. Who knows. I'm sorry, even if I'm not the only one not really creating content, I still feel pretty bad about it.
One thing about having more AI civs in the game is that I feel a lot more comfortable potentially warmongering. We now can attack AI civs instead of other players, which is kind of cool. I don't know what the right thing to do in this game is, but for now I suppose I'll just continue to take my turn and hope eventually I can regain some motivation in this game.
MrCasperTom
Warlord
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2012
- Messages
- 107
Hi. I've been reading through this thread and thought I would chime in. I think the problems that have cropped up are related to 'feature creep'; in other words the aim appears to be to include everything possible when realistically that can lead to problems in timing etc. Having thought about how to do something similar myself I thought I would perhaps post an alternative suggestion:
Have only one player play the game - This allows centralisation of the game, turnover of turns can be quicker and it also means if someone goes away (minus the person in charge obviously) it doesn't delay the game as much. The players control the civs by sending in orders and could do so for every 10 turns or something similar. It also means less time consumption for the majority of players.
Furthermore having a localised game results in a few interesting factors for world building - GM controlled 'AI' civs that have various motives as dictated by their story, mods such as IGE to allow greater control of the world, events to be implicated to add entertainment in the lull periods and a few other interesting factors.
On top of this I would suggest disabling science. The reason for this is that science itself is a very big part of the game aspect of CivV which in part detracts from the whole world building. Set the game in a period of time (Only with swords or a game with frigates etc). Not only does this increase the possibility of story aspects as characters created don't die but to a CivV game lasting 4000 years it means less micromanaging and more story-telling.
That's the jist of my suggestion - Include a GM to control the game allowing players to focus on the story aspects - the diplomacy, nation building etc. Also might alleviate some of the problems you've come across. I would also say I'd be happy to take part in something like this is there's space etc.
Have only one player play the game - This allows centralisation of the game, turnover of turns can be quicker and it also means if someone goes away (minus the person in charge obviously) it doesn't delay the game as much. The players control the civs by sending in orders and could do so for every 10 turns or something similar. It also means less time consumption for the majority of players.
Furthermore having a localised game results in a few interesting factors for world building - GM controlled 'AI' civs that have various motives as dictated by their story, mods such as IGE to allow greater control of the world, events to be implicated to add entertainment in the lull periods and a few other interesting factors.
On top of this I would suggest disabling science. The reason for this is that science itself is a very big part of the game aspect of CivV which in part detracts from the whole world building. Set the game in a period of time (Only with swords or a game with frigates etc). Not only does this increase the possibility of story aspects as characters created don't die but to a CivV game lasting 4000 years it means less micromanaging and more story-telling.
That's the jist of my suggestion - Include a GM to control the game allowing players to focus on the story aspects - the diplomacy, nation building etc. Also might alleviate some of the problems you've come across. I would also say I'd be happy to take part in something like this is there's space etc.
dot80
Emperor
Interested in participating (not sure how or where you're all at game-wise).
We're not sure how or where we're at game-wise. There are a few of us still participating, but a lot have left and our pitboss is unresponsive...so you might be able to be a fill-in, or not; I don't know.
dot80
Emperor
Perhaps a new thread and a fresh start is in order then? Seems there are a few of us wanting to join up and you have a few inactive players. I'd be willing to host the pitboss. Never hosted one before, but I do have an extra PC I could use for the purpose. I'd just need to read up on how exactly to do it. I'd also be willing to act as a sort of Admin in charge of finding substitutes for inactive players, as well as keeping tabs on everyone to make sure they are playing their turns.
Heerlo
Jedi Master Hearlo
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2012
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- 2,438
That would be fine with me, and it's very nice of you to offer your PC for this.
dot80
Emperor
Well I have participated in one of these before and that is how it was done. One person hosted the game and had it up at all times so everyone would have 24hours to make their move each day.
I think perhaps a little contest over who has been writing the best stories about their civilization over a set time period (each month or something like that) would add an extra incentive to the game. I'm also in favor of having a public story thread. Currently (don't know if it was intended) but all we can see is this out of character discussion thread and a locked social group.
I think perhaps a little contest over who has been writing the best stories about their civilization over a set time period (each month or something like that) would add an extra incentive to the game. I'm also in favor of having a public story thread. Currently (don't know if it was intended) but all we can see is this out of character discussion thread and a locked social group.
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