Warlord-Noble Multiplayer Game

[eris]

I would like to play, and I do fit into your skill range. I am in US Mountain time zone. Scheduling is fairly flexible.

 

[Bluestew0]

Äh, throw in some experienced players, then we have to learn quicker

And they can always tell some tip for us when they see how n00bish we are.

In most games, I subscribe to this theory. Get pummeled by better or more experienced players and you learn. Unfortunately, in a game like Civ, you can't see what the other players are doing, so other than learning to die faster, the benefits are minimal.

Now if teams were used, partnering each strong player with a weak player, THAT potentially has very strong learning potential.

The final trick would be getting enough people together at the same time to actually play it.

 

[Ramesses]

Now if teams were used, partnering each strong player with a weak player, THAT potentially has very strong learning potential.

The Adopt-A-Chieftain program.

Please adopt a hapless and weak player like me today.

 

[Alsark]

Alright. It seems we have quite a few experienced players who would like to play. So here are the options we have, as I see it:

1) Everybody for themselves, a free for all. I don't like this option so much because obviously the less experienced players will be creamed and nobody will learn a thing.

2) Humans versus AI. This could work well if there are a LOT of AI. I feel that the experienced players will probably be able to take on two AI by themselves, so we'd probably need like .75n+2x AI opponents, where 'n' is our number of newbies and 'x' is our number of experienced players (personally I think one AI would whoop me unless I was prepared for the war ahead of time, which is why I did .75). Does this sound like a good formula? Obviously we'll need to play on a 'huge' world.

3) One experienced player with one newbie. This could be a good learning experience for the newbie player... as long as the experienced player doesn't get frustrated with the new player for their inexperience. If the teams aren't well-proportioned we can add in some AIs into the teams. If we do this option, I would prefer there be some kind of no-rush policy. In this type of setting, the idea is for the newbie to learn from the inexperienced individual, and if either one of the team is wiped out... that kind of makes things difficult.

4) A mixture of two and three. We have teams of two, and the AI will be in teams of three (does this sound fair?). We won't fight each other, only the AI so that the newer players may learn from the more experienced players.


In any of the above game types, I would like the inexperienced people to play at noble difficulty (if you really must play at warlord, then I suppose that that is fine). The more experienced players should probably play at at least prince, or possibly monarch (I will leave that for them to decide)...

 

[Lord Parkin]

Alright. It seems we have quite a few experienced players who would like to play. So here are the options we have, as I see it:

1) Everybody for themselves, a free for all. I don't like this option so much because obviously the less experienced players will be creamed and nobody will learn a thing.

I agree, this probably won't be as fun for the newer players.

2) Humans versus AI. This could work well if there are a LOT of AI. I feel that the experienced players will probably be able to take on two AI by themselves, so we'd probably need like .75n+2x AI opponents, where 'n' is our number of newbies and 'x' is our number of experienced players (personally I think one AI would whoop me unless I was prepared for the war ahead of time, which is why I did .75). Does this sound like a good formula? Obviously we'll need to play on a 'huge' world.

I could work with that, although once all of the AI had been conquered it'd be tricky deciding what to do then. By the way, I suggest a huge map with maximum players (18) to keep us occupied with the AI's.

One other thing, there's no point in worrying about using a formula such as you mentioned. On a random map, there's no way to control how many AI's will be near a given player. Just because one player is more experienced does not mean the Civ4 engine will recognise that and put more AI's around them.

3) One experienced player with one newbie. This could be a good learning experience for the newbie player... as long as the experienced player doesn't get frustrated with the new player for their inexperience. If the teams aren't well-proportioned we can add in some AIs into the teams. If we do this option, I would prefer there be some kind of no-rush policy. In this type of setting, the idea is for the newbie to learn from the inexperienced individual, and if either one of the team is wiped out... that kind of makes things difficult.

That sounds like the best idea to me. Team up one experienced player with one newbie. Speaking for myself, I'm perfectly happy playing with and giving advice to newer players.

No rushing sounds fine as well. And as I've mentioned above, having 18 players will give us enough AI's to keep us occupied for a long time without fighting each other.

4) A mixture of two and three. We have teams of two, and the AI will be in teams of three (does this sound fair?). We won't fight each other, only the AI so that the newer players may learn from the more experienced players.

The AI's could be in teams of 2, 3 or 4... whatever most people want is fine with me.

In any of the above game types, I would like the inexperienced people to play at noble difficulty (if you really must play at warlord, then I suppose that that is fine). The more experienced players should probably play at at least prince, or possibly monarch (I will leave that for them to decide)...

I'm not entirely sure what happens when difficulty levels are mixed, with respect to non-civilization related things like barbarians. For example, in a game with teams of Noble/Monarch players, I'm not sure whether the barbarians would be set to Noble, Monarch, or in-between (Prince). If a higher difficulty level than Noble would be set for things like barbarians, perhaps it'd work best if all players went on Noble.

By the way, might I suggest that since there will apparently be quite a few people playing (6?), we should play using Pitboss instead of in sessions. It's very hard to organise more than about 4 people to play in sessions - things come up at the last minute for people, and so on.

 

[Alsark]

So we have one vote for suggestion three using AI to keep us occupied (and with no rushing).

And yeah, as the player count gets higher, it will be more and more difficult to organize an actual time for everybody to meet. My only concern is... I've never played a non-session style game, and I would be inclined to think that a game of PitBoss would go remarkably slow.

 

[Lord Parkin]

So we have one vote for suggestion three using AI to keep us occupied (and with no rushing).

And yeah, as the player count gets higher, it will be more and more difficult to organize an actual time for everybody to meet. My only concern is... I've never played a non-session style game, and I would be inclined to think that a game of PitBoss would go remarkably slow.

In that case, perhaps we could do two different session games, each with 3-4 human players? That would certainly make it more manageable.

 

[r_rolo1]

May I suggest using a 40 civ mod?

 

[Lord Parkin]

May I suggest using a 40 civ mod?

Heh, I don't think my computer can handle that.

 

[r_rolo1]

The server would make the most of the heavy lifting, Lord Parkin. If you are not the server, that would probably be managable

 

[Ramesses]

I now have all the free time in the world. So, when is the game?

 

[Alsark]

In that case, perhaps we could do two different session games, each with 3-4 human players? That would certainly make it more manageable.

Hm... yeah, that may be better. To me, at least, I think it would be a lot more fun being able to play out several turns at once rather than like one turn a day. Also, sessions would be more interactive, providing the newer player with a greater learning experience.

So... one game with two newbies, two experienced people, and another game with two newbies, two experienced people; but each will have maxed out AIs to encourage the human teams from fighting people other than themselves (so that the newbie player can learn, mostly).

Haha... a forty civilization mod... I dunno. I mean, you mentioned that the server bears the majority of the load, Rolo, but I don't quite see how that makes sense. I mean, from my totally unexperienced perspective, I would think that the server does nothing but host the save game file and give all of the players a central connection place. Regardless, each individual computer will still have to be able to load a huge-sized map with forty-some civilizations. There's no way a computer that couldn't run that in single-player could somehow run it online just because the server is supposedly bearing the load. I've played the "giant Earth map mod" online with a friend, and though I was hosting, we were both getting some major lag.

So if we decide to split this up into two games, does anybody have a preference who they'd be teamed with, or at least, who they'd like to be in the same game with? I don't know anybody who posts here, so it personally wouldn't matter to me at all. If nobody has a preference I will randomize the people assigned to each game (because I haven't really gotten good time slots from anybody or time zones from any people; otherwise I'd base it off of that. And we can always switch the teams anyway if the scheduling discussions don't work out after I divide the teams).

Also, I think that it would be beneficial if everybody in the same game had each other's AIM, MSN, or Skype. That way, even if not during the scheduled time, if everybody seems to be online the group can get a game going (if everybody would want to).


List of interest peopled:
Experts
TheMeInTeam
Lord Parkin
Joshua368
dankok8

Newbies
Alsark
LikeTheDog
LikeTheDog's Friend
Bluestew0
Ramesses
Eris


It doesn't really matter as much if we have more newbies than experts... we can always team multiple newbies to one expert. What IS important, however, is that we need at least four experts... so we're one short. Rolo, would you like to play (assuming you fall into the 'expert' category)? If not, any other volunteers?

 

[dankok8]

I would like to play too .. play at Monarch so am I an expert too?!? Oh, and I think we should fit Rolo in as well... I would feel bad bumping him out..

 

[Bluestew0]

Times need to be set. Finding willing players is the easy part. Finding a time period that all those players are available is another thing. Those wishing to participate should list their availabilities.

I'll start. My time zone is EST. or GMT -5:00 for the Europeans.

I am available all day on Fridays and Saturdays (except this Friday 28.11.08 because I'm attending an all day boardgaming event).

Other days (Sunday-Thursday) I am available 1100-1600 EST, 1600-2300 GMT.

 

[Alsark]

Times need to be set. Finding willing players is the easy part. Finding a time period that all those players are available is another thing. Those wishing to participate should list their availabilities.

I'll start. My time zone is EST. or GMT -5:00 for the Europeans.

I am available all day on Fridays and Saturdays (except this Friday 28.11.08 because I'm attending an all day boardgaming event).

Other days (Sunday-Thursday) I am available 1100-1600 EST, 1600-2300 GMT.

I'm bad with military time :/. So that's... 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM Eastern and 4:00 PM - 11:00 PM GMT?


I can't really set my time in stone at the moment because, December 5th, I will be scheduling for next semester classes, which start real soon. That said, it will be hard to know what things will be like until then. However, my Friday nights and Saturdays should be free.

So... M-F I am unsure. Saturday should always be free, unless I go hang out with a friend or something. Presumably, ALL nights will be free (I am Eastern time, so pretty much any time after like 5:00 PM Eastern I THINK I will be free next semester. I think. Again, I cannot confirm anything until December 5th, except for Saturday). Sundays are weird for me because I go to my grandparents either every other Sunday or every three Sundays, so I don't really want to put myself down as being available Sunday, even though I am the majority of the time.

I would like to play too .. play at Monarch so am I an expert too?!? Oh, and I think we should fit Rolo in as well... I would feel bad bumping him out..

Haha, well I guess that depends how well you do on Monarch; although either way, you're significantly better than the 'newbies', so I'll add you to the expert list!

 

[LikeTheDog]

Me and my friends lives in Sweden so +1 hour if you count from London
I´m not sure but I think it is GMT +1 hour, is it right?

I can play from friday GMT 5-10 pm, the whole saturday and on sundays to 10pm. (I think it is right)

Btw, don´t count my friends just yet. I´m not sure how willing they are to play, but I can ask and post here as soon as I now.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'm good on most weekends, especially toward the evening.

Weekdays are touch and go, especially with a big map.

I'll keep an eye on this though in case we can get it set up. It would be interesting.

 

[Lord Parkin]

The server would make the most of the heavy lifting, Lord Parkin. If you are not the server, that would probably be managable

Not really. Have you played online games before? You still need a computer that can actually deal with the map size and number of civs.

Hm... yeah, that may be better. To me, at least, I think it would be a lot more fun being able to play out several turns at once rather than like one turn a day. Also, sessions would be more interactive, providing the newer player with a greater learning experience.

Indeed. For our purposes, online sessions are far better than daily turns.

Although, on the other hand, Pitboss has the advantage that we can both play the sessions and also play (daily) in-between the sessions. This allows us to get in a few extra turns, especially if someone's busy or away for a time. Of course, we'd need two people capable of hosting a Pitboss game (or one person capable of hosting two). If that isn't possible, then online sessions are fine with me.

So if we decide to split this up into two games, does anybody have a preference who they'd be teamed with, or at least, who they'd like to be in the same game with?

I'm in the same team as Joshua368 in the upcoming BTS Democracy Game here, and I'm also currently playing an online game with him too (on a team with him against eight AI teams, Emperor level). I don't know what he thinks, but I'd certainly be interested in playing in another game with him, so you could put us together.

Also, I think that it would be beneficial if everybody in the same game had each other's AIM, MSN, or Skype. That way, even if not during the scheduled time, if everybody seems to be online the group can get a game going (if everybody would want to).

Definitely, sounds like a good idea.

Times need to be set. Finding willing players is the easy part. Finding a time period that all those players are available is another thing. Those wishing to participate should list their availabilities.

I'm available pretty much anytime night or day during the weekdays. (I currently don't have anything else to do during the week. Though I may have work in the near future.)

Weekends are a bit limited for me, but I may be able to play on Sunday afternoons/evenings, from about 4pm onwards. I'm in New Zealand, which is currently GMT+13, so for most of you in America that'd be Saturday night (which hopefully works). (For early risers in Europe, that'd be Sunday morning.)

Overall it's much more convenient for me to play during weekdays though, so I'm probably best paired with people who can also play during weekdays.

 

[dankok8]

I'm in Toronto (GMT -5) and I prefer weekends although I could play on Thursdays and Fridays no problem. I'm pretty much open to game options and such - just keep in mind I don't have a strong machine to run huge maps. Oh, and I beat Monarch fairly easily most of the time.

 

[Bluestew0]

I'm in the same team as Joshua368 in the upcoming BTS Democracy Game here, and I'm also currently playing an online game with him too (on a team with him against eight AI teams, Emperor level). I don't know what he thinks, but I'd certainly be interested in playing in another game with him, so you could put us together.

I've observed Joshua's posts and comments in many threads, I don't think he qualifies as a weak player.

Weekends are a bit limited for me, but I may be able to play on Sunday afternoons/evenings, from about 4pm onwards. I'm in New Zealand, which is currently GMT+13, so for most of you in America that'd be Saturday night (which hopefully works).

My sister is in New Zealand right now. She's spending a month there for vacation. Wave at her if you see her.