Team Sirius

[Lord Parkin]

Team Sirius

Welcome! Here you can learn more about how Team Sirius will roughly be structured, and decide whether it sounds like the right team for you.

- Our empire will be run as a whole according to the decisions and votes of the people. Every member is welcome - and indeed encouraged - to have their say on what they think would be the best course of action in any place at any given time. All ideas will be listened to with respect and without derision, so no-one should feel afraid of speaking up, regardless of how experienced or not they feel they are. If there is not a clear consensus through discussion about what to do on any given turn, we will put the item to vote, in which case majority (or plurality, as the case may be) wins.

- There are no rules about who has to be a turnplayer and when. Anybody is welcome to step into the shoes of playing the turn, provided that they play the turn according to how the members of the team decide in our private forum. I (Lord Parkin) will almost always be available as a default turn player, so there will be no real pressure on anyone else to step up to the job if they don't wish to.

- Each time a turn is played, the turnplayer is expected to post at least a brief summary of the actions they took in a turn tracker thread, as well as posting a relevant screenshot or two. This allows the team to easily see what happened on the given turn, and begin discussions about what to do for the next turn.

- In the early game, the team members will likely discuss an overarching strategy that will plan out several moves at a time, so that we can play our moves quickly and move forward with the game. However, anyone is welcome at any time to propose any changes to the plan, and if the majority (or plurality) of the team agrees, we'll switch our path accordingly. Nothing is set in stone, and everyone is welcome to support or constructively criticise any changes they wish. Besides, even with a gameplan stretching a few turns ahead, there are always unforseen circumstances that pop up and require fresh discussion, so there will never be a stagnation of banter.

- As we move into the later game and have more things to do, we will likely take each turn as it comes and discuss our moves accordingly. We will still have a general strategy in mind, but we will be much more fluid and adaptable on a turn by turn basis, especially if circumstances of war arise (which are more than likely). This will allow for plenty of discussion even in the later stages of the game.

- As the game advances, we will come into contact with new teams. Anyone is welcome to volunteer to be a diplomat and draft messages to send to these teams. All messages should be posted in the private forum at least 24 hours before being sent, so that any feedback can be recieved and tweaks made if necessary. After the team has agreed to send a particular message, the message will be sent by the diplomat (with his or her signature if they desire) to the team in question.

- We are first and foremost here to enjoy the game, so whether your enjoyment comes from analysing game mechanics, casually discussing the game, lurking and watching things progress, or role playing, you are welcome on Team Sirius.

- Early on, we will very likely start up a small private pitboss game amongst interested members of our team. This will allow those who are unfamiliar with multiplayer to gain some experience with it in a fun and friendly realm.

- Everyone is welcome to join Team Sirius, no matter how much or how little time they want to commit to the game. The casual lurker is just as welcome as the very frequent poster. You get to decide how much you want to participate on the team; no one will be forcing you to post more frequently, or telling you off for posting too much. Team Sirius will accommodate you with open arms, regardless.

All who are interested are welcome to sign up.

Simply:

1. Reply to this thread stating you wish to be on Team Sirius. (You must not already be on any other team in this game.)
2. Go to this page and apply to join Team Sirius.

Confirmed member list:

1. Lord Parkin
2. hell_hound
3. caveman1917
4. HUSch
5. AlphaShard
6. Toch
7. pindicator
8. T. Claudius
9. fed1943
10. azzaman333
11. BLubmuz
12. Allan79
13. champinoman
14. GoSkins
15. wabatt
16. Irgy
17. Zjoekov
18. DaveShack
19. Trystero
20. Alexander0976
21. Altjung
22. Zertuals_Ovrlrd
23. Azkul
24. grant2004
25. BuddhaBubba
26. Methos
27. dima42
28. dutchfire
29. Gressh
30. french civ fan
31. Seidrik_The_Gray
32. seroni
33. Alltriia
34. 1889

 

[BLubmuz]

Even if i am a decent player in solo games (see the HoF) i'm new to this kind of games.
Thus i need guidance on many things.

I think your proposal seems interesting, so i'd like to join, at least unofficially. I will confirm when teams will be officially formed.

Of course if i'm welcome

 

[donsig]

I'm not ready to make a decision about which team to join. I like some of Provo's ideas and I'm waiting to see what Sommerswerd's team will be like. I do like that you've specified how diplomacy should work on this team and I agree with your approach. I think it's probable that we will have teams that will prefer instant messaging as the primary means of communication between teams. Any idea how you'd like to see your team handle this?

I also like the idea of an intra-team pitboss game. I certainly want to join a team that will have one.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Even if i am a decent player in solo games (see the HoF) i'm new to this kind of games.
Thus i need guidance on many things.

I think your proposal seems interesting, so i'd like to join, at least unofficially. I will confirm when teams will be officially formed.

Of course if i'm welcome

Absolutely, you're definitely welcome.

I'm not ready to make a decision about which team to join. I like some of Provo's ideas and I'm waiting to see what Sommerswerd's team will be like. I do like that you've specified how diplomacy should work on this team and I agree with your approach. I think it's probable that we will have teams that will prefer instant messaging as the primary means of communication between teams. Any idea how you'd like to see your team handle this?

We did do instant messaging a bit in the last game. Generally, I find the way it tends to work best is:

(1) Decide what we want to discuss ahead of time.
(2) Agree not to stray too far from these topics, even if pressed by the other team for information. (It's alarmingly easy to inadvertantly give things away in a chat with an experienced information-grabber, such as oyzar in the last game. )
(3) Get as many people as possible involved in the chat as possible, so as little of the team is left out from the discussion.
(4) Trivial matters (such as temporary Open Borders, temporary resource trades, etc) might be decided while in the chat if there are a few people around.
(5) More serious matters that are brought up (such as long term alliances, major tech trades, etc) will need to be posted in the forum so that all members can see and express their thoughts before anything can be confirmed.

In this way, chats are not so rigid that we have to refuse to discuss anything outside our main objective, and yet not so lucid that major agreements can be made without having input from the people who didn't have the chance to be involved in the chat (perhaps due to a timezone conflict). This avoids making those people who couldn't get to the chat feel left out and powerless.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Added some pictures to the first post just for the sake of it.

 

[hell_hound]

If you intend to run this team like Saturn was run as it sounds, this is the team for me .

While I am posting I do think that the idea of haveing several teams based on philosophies begin to form is the way to go. Once people have a team they will advertise it, people will be more inclined to join, decisions on settings etc. can be agreed and a concensus reached. However doing things this way may leave people without a team for them, so if we reached four teams as a preliminary number, and then people expressed an dislike for the current teams it could be expanded to six teams with the other teams suiting the needs of the other players. Also the sooner private forums are up the easier it is for people to get to know each other, completely establish the workings of their team and help newer players through both discussion of the main game and intrateam pitboss games ( I learnt a lot last game despite my relatively low posting and our team's failure )

Just my opinion though...

 

[Lord Parkin]

Yep, as you guessed, I intend that Team Sirius will pretty much be Team Saturn II. (The naming was probably a giveaway too.) So for anyone who's read over the archived private forums for Team Saturn from the other game, that's pretty much how I expect it to be run (with the exception of more activity and involvement from me in the later game).

Interestingly, Team Amazon also sounds very much like Team Kaz II.

 

[azzaman333]

I will probably be joining this team.

 

[caveman1917]

Count me in.

Honestly, the picture did it

 

[Lord Parkin]

Hehe. Always glad to have more interest! You're all very welcome.

 

[DaveShack]

The important thing for me in deciding which team to join is whether I'm going to learn how to win multiplayer games from it. Any comments on that?

 

[Lord Parkin]

Sure! As I mentioned above, I intend for the team to base its decisions more on discussions than polls (like Team Saturn in the previous game). As such, when we're trying to figure out which particular strategy to follow at a given time, you'll be able to watch (or participate!) and learn as reasoned and logical arguments are made for why different ideas might or might not work in our particular situation... as opposed to having poll after poll where you just see the outcome and nothing much is explained. I find that leaving the majority of decisions to discussion, and just saving polls for the odd occasions when the discussion isn't going anywhere makes the game a lot easier to learn from, not to mention more interesting for the players (IMHO). To me, a healthy logical discussion of what we're doing and why is far more fun (and educational) than just tallying up votes for "what do we do now".

All in all, it sounds like Team Sirius might suit you well. On top of all I mentioned above, we'll also probably be having an intra-team pitboss game run in a similar way to the game within Team Saturn, which was a great chance for new players to learn in that game. This is largely because we had a policy of complete openness, at least for the key early to mid game. People would openly discuss what they were doing and why - what the starting location was like, what to research, what they planned to build first off, where they might settle, who they'd met, and so on - so everyone got to see roughly how others played. I intend that the intra-team game this time would be run in a similar open way to the last time.

Anyway, I hope this has been useful to you in making your decision.

 

[HUSch]

I think I 'll join also. Reason: I know I don't have to play along time as solo TP, additional I can look how you play it. espionage for ISDG

 

[Lord Parkin]

Absolutely, you're very welcome. Even if part of the reason is for ISDG espionage. At least it works both ways I guess.

 

[Methos]

(3) Get as many people as possible involved in the chat as possible, so as little of the team is left out from the discussion.

I can agree to this only if the only people doing the actual negotiations is the ambassador/diplomat. A second chat window should be opened that includes the team only, so that the team can discuss what is taking place in the primary negotiations discussion.

I haven't yet decided on which team to join.

 

[hell_hound]

I can agree to this only if the only people doing the actual negotiations is the ambassador/diplomat. A second chat window should be opened that includes the team only, so that the team can discuss what is taking place in the primary negotiations discussion.

I haven't yet decided on which team to join.

I am pretty sure that is how it would work otherwise the other people would just watch the chat rather than participate in it

 

[Lord Parkin]

I am pretty sure that is how it would work otherwise the other people would just watch the chat rather than participate in it

Exactly. By "get as many people as possible involved in the chat", I was simply referring to having a high number of people online and available. Of course we would have a separate window for our private team chat while the chat with the other team went on... otherwise we couldn't discuss anything in private. I thought this was self-evident, but perhaps I should have explained myself better in my earlier post.

In essence: In any MSN chats, we'll definitely have a private window open as well as the diplomacy window.

 

[Methos]

I just wanted to clarify. I've seen chats done with multiple people all discussing, so just wanted to be sure.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I just wanted to clarify. I've seen chats done with multiple people all discussing, so just wanted to be sure.

Okay, no problem. I hope that helps in your decision making process.

 

[DaveShack]

When using a chat for diplomacy, would you follow it up with email? And would the email be the official version if there were differences?