The Water Hole – Term 1

[gbno1fan]

So now that it is Term 7 and I no longer hold an elected position, I am trying to determine what my role will be on the team this next 20+ turns (since we do try and do a little role playing in this game with our different ministries).

I want some opinions...should I be:

A. Disgruntled Citizen
B. Retired Provost who is adamant that our Civ's academics, culture, and overall atmosphere has gone down the drain
C. Political Activist - Supportive of establishing a Monarchy
D. Political Activist - Supportive of establishing a Communal Government
E. Political Activist - Supportive of the destruction of the state religion and the implementation of Free Religion
F. Political Activist - Supportive of the lower class and all things "against the man"
G. Other - make a suggestion.

 

[peter grimes]

Other ideas:

1. Xenophobic Piffle-Hater

2. Retired Provost who is now a 'Consultant' to "The Epsilonian Project", a Neo-Liberal economic think-tank

3. An orphan whose parents were sent to a mining camp to aid in the completion of one of The Leader's projects.... a granary, maybe?

 

[General_W]

Maybe you could start some kind of internal religious sect?

I mean, in the Civ3 MTDG, on team MIA we had two competing religions (Meleetism, and the RNG cult) – but here…

Well, we have some half-hearted mentions of Sirianism, and 1 semi-lackluster celebration of Confuciusmas… and that's about it.

Maybe you could craft some special religion organized around The Leader, may he live forever, as the ruler divinely appointed by Sirian, and Confucius as his Prophet?

 

[azzaman333]

Definately F. Gotta stop the man, cause the man is evil

 

[peter grimes]

I know that there is a strong Folding@home community on these forums. But I'm part of a different one: Seti@home.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0102135741.htm

They need more computers - a lot of them. The software works on almost all common platforms (only mac's OS 8.x isn't supported). I've got it running on my work computer and my home one.

Just imagine when a signal is uncovered: the feeling you'll get knowing that you were part of the project that changed humanity's place in the universe forever!

 

[classical_hero]

SETI is a waste of time, which is why they are trying to get ordinary people to try and help them.

 

[peter grimes]

Thanks for that productive comment

If seti is such a waste of time, why are so many people devoting unused processor time to it?

Really, now.

 

[classical_hero]

Because of their A Priori beliefs.

 

[peter grimes]

No, it's not due to a priori beliefs. On the contrary, there's a pretty solid line of reasoning that leads to the conclusion that life is almost certain to exist beyond Earth.

The Drake Equation

 

[Memphus]

Nice of Aloha to play in a timely manner

 

[Methos]

Nice of Aloha to play in a timely manner

Once on a very rare occasion isn't bad IMO. It's when it becomes normal that is bad.

 

[gbno1fan]

For those of you who participate in fantasy football...

I am in a simulation/fantasy league with 32 teams. The goal is to mimic the real NFL as best as possible. Currently we are discussing rule changes and looking for new General Managers for a couple of teams in the league. The person who has created the game also is planning on opening a second league for next season, beginning in March.

If you're interested, visit http://www.fangm.com/affl/ for more information.

 

[peter grimes]

This may be premature, but I've been thinking about the next MTDG.

It seems to me that all of the problems with this game stem from one source: Slow Pace

Either the next game should be on a pitboss server with a time limit (24 hours in the early game, 48 hours or 72 later on), or the game should be actively administered to keep the turns moving. Even if that means an admin opening a save, hitting enter, and passing it on.

Clearly the pitboss system would be preferred. But I can't host one, and the experience from the pitboss game hosted by Daveshack illustrates that being the host is a major commitment.

Anyone have other thoughts?

 

[DaveMcW]

Pitboss doesn't work very well with "Teams" or "Democracy".

Our main problem is lack of admin enforcement in this game. If they put in as much effort as a normal pitboss host we wouldn't be having these problems.

 

[peter grimes]

Why do you say that Pitboss doesn't work well with Teams? Do you know if anyone has tried it yet? I think it would work a lot better than this has!

The Democracy part of this game is a relic - the mtdg was a spin off from the original democracy games, where everything was polled. That format wasn't really adopted by any of the teams. Therefore these team games have been loosely associated with democracy, at best.

I really think a team pitboss game is doable - and I'd offer to set it up myself if I had a computer I could use as a server. The trick will be that the Host will certainly have to pause the game sometimes. It's perfectly reasonable to need to hold the game for big decisions, or to wait for a response from another team. That's why I imagined that the length of time for a turn would need to vary with the stage of the game.

 

[General_W]

I hear what you're saying Peter - and I agree that a pitboss game would be better than the current method.

However - I still think the best method would be the PBEM mechanic - but one that's actually administered with time rules that are enforced.
With PBEM, there's just fewer things that can go wrong and there's also a much lower technological barrier for people to get the save and be involved.

I think a BTS game on a smaller map with actively enforced time limits is the way to go for the next game. I'd rather play - but I'm willing to be an Admin if needed.

 

[Empiremaker]

As a lurker in this game, I like PBEM because it gives more time per turn for discussion and diplomacy.

 

[peter grimes]

Technically, in this game each team has 24 hours to play the save after receiving it.

When each team has abided by the 24 hour rule, the save has taken around 72 hours to come around again. That's how I came up with the 72 hour turn-timer.

But it's irrelevant if we get some active game administration going on. I'm open to either pbem or pitboss format; it's just that since game administration has been so negligent, I figured that pitboss would be an easier game format to administer. Especially when it comes to enforcing turn-times.

 

[Kylearan]

Dave, I'd be interested as well why you think Pitboss won't work well with teams. Over at Apolyton, a Pitboss MTDG is about to start, so... (Although administration is very chaotic there, as are the teams - two teams left the game already even before it had started. We, that is Team Realms Beyond, kind of regret already to have agreed to participate...

If somebody, i.e. an admin, would enforce a timer, I think the PBEM format would work well. You can at least ask for an extension then, in times of war or diplomatic emergencies. But this involves a lot of work on part of the admin with no return.

-Kylearan

 

[Methos]

We, that is Team Realms Beyond, kind of regret already to have agreed to participate...

Don't force yourselves to play. If you all prefer not, then back out before it starts. You can always join as Team Rabbit!