Optional
Deity
A Succession Game (SG) is a single player game, played by a group of people. Each member takes a set in turn.
While playing each player keeps notes of what happened that set. This turnlog will get posted with the save, to inform all players. Screenshots can be added to the turnlog for further illustration. Some technical help with screenshots is here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=434358
Between sets it is usual to have some team discussion based on the current save. Important decisions, like where to settle the first couple of cities, which policies or which techs to take or who to declare war on are democratically taken. An SG is team play.
Still, the person who plays will often have big decisions to make; the team isn't always outspoken one way or the other, so then it's up to the person playing to make the final call.
The person starting the SG will often set some basic rules or make some suggestions for rules. Normally, before an SG gets under way, you will need:
*a team and a roster - it doesn't need to be a complete team yet, also the constitution of a team can shift during a game, but you'll want the rough framework of a team;
*a difficulty level, a map type, a civ - although civ can be random - and preferably a victory condition;
*to have dicided how many turns a set is; 10 is normal, it can be a bit more during the first round;
*to have determined variant rules or gentleman's rules, if applicable - example of a variant: we won't sign any research agreements - example of a gentleman's rule: we won't steal workers from City States.
That's basically what a Succession Game is.
Following are more guide lines for how to play it, also covering issues - it looks like I've put down a whole text book there, but I think a lot of it you'll understand when only half-reading it:
How to pick a difficulty level:
Players of a different level in one team is absolutely fine. But don't go for the average level! You're playing as a team, so you're putting your wisdom together, and the result of that is much higher than your average level. Rather stay close to the level of the best players in your team. The lower level players may be a bit apprehensive about playing at a level that's higher than what they're used to, but they're playing with input of the team. They may overlook a detail, but that's fairly insignificant compared to following a decent general strategy path, and that gets determined by all of you. It's not a solo game - your level as a solo player is less important than you may think.
If your SG will follow specific variant rules that'll make the game more difficult you will naturally need to adjust the level to make up for this handicap.
How to keep the game rolling smoothly:
When a new save has been posted, the next person on the roster will need to confirm that he or she is now taking the game. Some SG's state a strict rule of 24hrs to say you've got the save, 48hrs to play. But it's basically up to the team how quick they want the SG to be played. Most important is that it's clear where the game is. If the game is with someone who has only time to play to play in a week's time and the team prefers to wait for that, that's fine. Some people have busy lives, it's okay to accomodate for that.
A problem is when it's someones turn and there's no news from this person whatsoever. Anybody can at least be expected to check in and post what's going on. If the next person on the roster appears absent it's best to suggest moving the game on to the next player. Sometimes the game hangs somewhere and it turns out to be a simple misunderstanding of the roster. Crucial is that somebody rings a bell when it's too quiet in an SG thread for a while, to wake everybody up and get things back on the rails.
The opposite problem is also possible: turnsets being played too quickly - players being too eager to play. If you take the game immediately after it's been posted and you play before others have even had the chance to look at the save, chances are not everyone will appreciate this. It can be okay in the later game, when the direction of the game is very clear, but in most phases of the game there will still be major strategy decisions to be made, and then it's better to let everyone have a say in these. Be mindful of players who live in different time zones.
Try to avoid making decisions beyond your own set:
What should be avoided in SG's, if possible, is making decisions that stretch into the next set.
Make your own decisions in your own set, but leave it to the next players how to organize things then.
Most obvious example is units on auto-move. Don't use auto-move! The next player will at best see a unit shooting across the screen but has idea where this unit is going. At worst the player won't realize anything until the unit gets mauled by some enemy unit that wasn't accounted for. In both cases this is frustrating, so refrain from auto-move.
Also queueing techs or queueing builds isn't a great idea for an SG. In the case of a research agreement coming in it may be needed to queue a tech, to make sure the beakers are going the right way, but apart from this exception these choices should be left to the management of the player who plays then. Don't try to rule beyond your own set, use a post to make your suggestions, but leave things open for the next player.
What is possible in Civ 5 is to switch builds halfway and save the hammers for later. There can be good reasons for doing this. For example; you're halfway a circus, but the prerequisite tech for a wonder is coming in and you want to start this wonder immediately; you might otherwise miss it. Let the other players explicitely know about the unfinished circus! Hammers invested in a building stay intact for 50 turns, for units it's 10 turns, after that decay starts. Especially with buildings you have a lot of leeway, but be careful in SG's with switching builds; don't do it too easily. It wouldn't be nice for a player to receive a save with a lot of unfinished builds in it. Chances are that player then needs to finish those builds or lose the beakers, so it takes away freedom of making own choices. It's not a big no, switching builds, but be mindful. If there's good team play you shouldn't be needing to switch builds that often.
Compatibility:
We seem to have some other problem; some of us are having DLC and others don't. Can we still play together?
As I'm writing this post there's no Gods & Kings out yet, just vanilla + DLC. At the moment it's just about with which DLC the game got started. If DLC was enabled, the game gets tagged as requiring that DLC, even if it's a civ that isn't even in the game. What you could do is let the person with the least DLC start the game. Another option is for someone to remove the DLC files temporarily out of his or her game. This may be a bit awkward if you're not used to toying around with your game registry, but it's relatively safe; even if your DLC file gets lost Steam will automatically replace it.
The individual DLC files are in C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization v\assets\DLC. Polynesia, for example, is DLC_3. If you remove DLC_3 from your DLC folder and then start up a game, this game will not feature Polynesia and will also not be tagged with it.
Even if all players in the team have Polynesia, you may still want to start without it, to keep open the possibility to recruit new players halfway the game. This is up to your own judgment.
There are mods that affect the save and there are mods that don't. Most mods affect the save, meaning the game gets tagged as requiring that mod. As a rule SG's get played without mods for compatibility reasons.
An example of use of a mod that doesn't affect the save is a modified mapscript, as that just gets used to generate the map and has no effect on subsequent saves.
There are lots more mods that wouldn't need to affect the save, but if the mod maker hasn't unticked the box 'affects saves' the game will still get tagged with it, and either everybody needs the mod or you simply don't play with it.
Not many SG's use mods, but there's no reason why as a team you couldn't decide to go with a tried and tested mod!
While playing each player keeps notes of what happened that set. This turnlog will get posted with the save, to inform all players. Screenshots can be added to the turnlog for further illustration. Some technical help with screenshots is here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=434358
Between sets it is usual to have some team discussion based on the current save. Important decisions, like where to settle the first couple of cities, which policies or which techs to take or who to declare war on are democratically taken. An SG is team play.
Still, the person who plays will often have big decisions to make; the team isn't always outspoken one way or the other, so then it's up to the person playing to make the final call.
The person starting the SG will often set some basic rules or make some suggestions for rules. Normally, before an SG gets under way, you will need:
*a team and a roster - it doesn't need to be a complete team yet, also the constitution of a team can shift during a game, but you'll want the rough framework of a team;
*a difficulty level, a map type, a civ - although civ can be random - and preferably a victory condition;
*to have dicided how many turns a set is; 10 is normal, it can be a bit more during the first round;
*to have determined variant rules or gentleman's rules, if applicable - example of a variant: we won't sign any research agreements - example of a gentleman's rule: we won't steal workers from City States.
That's basically what a Succession Game is.
Following are more guide lines for how to play it, also covering issues - it looks like I've put down a whole text book there, but I think a lot of it you'll understand when only half-reading it:
How to pick a difficulty level:
Players of a different level in one team is absolutely fine. But don't go for the average level! You're playing as a team, so you're putting your wisdom together, and the result of that is much higher than your average level. Rather stay close to the level of the best players in your team. The lower level players may be a bit apprehensive about playing at a level that's higher than what they're used to, but they're playing with input of the team. They may overlook a detail, but that's fairly insignificant compared to following a decent general strategy path, and that gets determined by all of you. It's not a solo game - your level as a solo player is less important than you may think.
If your SG will follow specific variant rules that'll make the game more difficult you will naturally need to adjust the level to make up for this handicap.
How to keep the game rolling smoothly:
When a new save has been posted, the next person on the roster will need to confirm that he or she is now taking the game. Some SG's state a strict rule of 24hrs to say you've got the save, 48hrs to play. But it's basically up to the team how quick they want the SG to be played. Most important is that it's clear where the game is. If the game is with someone who has only time to play to play in a week's time and the team prefers to wait for that, that's fine. Some people have busy lives, it's okay to accomodate for that.
A problem is when it's someones turn and there's no news from this person whatsoever. Anybody can at least be expected to check in and post what's going on. If the next person on the roster appears absent it's best to suggest moving the game on to the next player. Sometimes the game hangs somewhere and it turns out to be a simple misunderstanding of the roster. Crucial is that somebody rings a bell when it's too quiet in an SG thread for a while, to wake everybody up and get things back on the rails.
The opposite problem is also possible: turnsets being played too quickly - players being too eager to play. If you take the game immediately after it's been posted and you play before others have even had the chance to look at the save, chances are not everyone will appreciate this. It can be okay in the later game, when the direction of the game is very clear, but in most phases of the game there will still be major strategy decisions to be made, and then it's better to let everyone have a say in these. Be mindful of players who live in different time zones.
Try to avoid making decisions beyond your own set:
What should be avoided in SG's, if possible, is making decisions that stretch into the next set.
Make your own decisions in your own set, but leave it to the next players how to organize things then.
Most obvious example is units on auto-move. Don't use auto-move! The next player will at best see a unit shooting across the screen but has idea where this unit is going. At worst the player won't realize anything until the unit gets mauled by some enemy unit that wasn't accounted for. In both cases this is frustrating, so refrain from auto-move.
Also queueing techs or queueing builds isn't a great idea for an SG. In the case of a research agreement coming in it may be needed to queue a tech, to make sure the beakers are going the right way, but apart from this exception these choices should be left to the management of the player who plays then. Don't try to rule beyond your own set, use a post to make your suggestions, but leave things open for the next player.
What is possible in Civ 5 is to switch builds halfway and save the hammers for later. There can be good reasons for doing this. For example; you're halfway a circus, but the prerequisite tech for a wonder is coming in and you want to start this wonder immediately; you might otherwise miss it. Let the other players explicitely know about the unfinished circus! Hammers invested in a building stay intact for 50 turns, for units it's 10 turns, after that decay starts. Especially with buildings you have a lot of leeway, but be careful in SG's with switching builds; don't do it too easily. It wouldn't be nice for a player to receive a save with a lot of unfinished builds in it. Chances are that player then needs to finish those builds or lose the beakers, so it takes away freedom of making own choices. It's not a big no, switching builds, but be mindful. If there's good team play you shouldn't be needing to switch builds that often.
Compatibility:
We seem to have some other problem; some of us are having DLC and others don't. Can we still play together?
As I'm writing this post there's no Gods & Kings out yet, just vanilla + DLC. At the moment it's just about with which DLC the game got started. If DLC was enabled, the game gets tagged as requiring that DLC, even if it's a civ that isn't even in the game. What you could do is let the person with the least DLC start the game. Another option is for someone to remove the DLC files temporarily out of his or her game. This may be a bit awkward if you're not used to toying around with your game registry, but it's relatively safe; even if your DLC file gets lost Steam will automatically replace it.
The individual DLC files are in C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization v\assets\DLC. Polynesia, for example, is DLC_3. If you remove DLC_3 from your DLC folder and then start up a game, this game will not feature Polynesia and will also not be tagged with it.
Even if all players in the team have Polynesia, you may still want to start without it, to keep open the possibility to recruit new players halfway the game. This is up to your own judgment.
There are mods that affect the save and there are mods that don't. Most mods affect the save, meaning the game gets tagged as requiring that mod. As a rule SG's get played without mods for compatibility reasons.
An example of use of a mod that doesn't affect the save is a modified mapscript, as that just gets used to generate the map and has no effect on subsequent saves.
There are lots more mods that wouldn't need to affect the save, but if the mod maker hasn't unticked the box 'affects saves' the game will still get tagged with it, and either everybody needs the mod or you simply don't play with it.
Not many SG's use mods, but there's no reason why as a team you couldn't decide to go with a tried and tested mod!
