Writing in Gunpowder

[Eclipse4449]

Thank you for posting in the other thread. I wish I could pasword protect it since i hope comments will be put here rather than clutter up the writing post.

I'm going to PM a previously writen message to a bunch of player/writers now to see what happens

 

[Nighthawk419]

So what about the world-size and the mapscript now? IIRC the PerfectWorldGenerator-Script has "Start in Old World" as default, so we could use that instead of Terra btw.

Cheers.

So I just looked into a few things:

1) With advanced start, you don't gain any extra units for starting in Medeival times. So we can either do a normal start with 2 settlers, 2 workers, 2 longbows, etc or an advanced start and choose our units/techs/etc. My opinion is to go with the regular start.

2) The "PerfectWorld" mapscript does have the "Start in Old World" option, however I personally am not a fan of this script. The ideas it puts out there make sense, but in practice it doesnt work as well. Resources seem to be very thin in my experience, not to mention large swaths of land that is all the same. You'd think from the description that it would be the best map generator out there, but it doesnt seem to translate in practice for me. I mean if everyone wants to do it, then by all means I am fine with it, but my vote is for good old "Terra" map, large size.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

The "PerfectWorld" mapscript does have the "Start in Old World" option, however I personally am not a fan of this script. The ideas it puts out there make sense, but in practice it doesnt work as well.

AFAIK there are several Perfectworld-scripts, did you use an old one or a current version?

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Btw I have one important question for both this story and the Gm18bnoE one: Are the leaders immortal? If yes, only them or everyone of the population too?

 

[Nighthawk419]

AFAIK there are several Perfectworld-scripts, did you use an old one or a current version?

I used the most current version, I think version g or h?

Just go run a few trials and see what happens... resources are scarce and that has a much bigger impact than you'd think. I'm not completely opposed to it or anything, but my vote is for Large-Terra thats all.

 

[Nighthawk419]

Btw I have one important question for both this story and the Gm18bnoE one: Are the leaders immortal? If yes, only them or everyone of the population too?

For Gm18bnoe - thats totally up to you. That game is flexible since only the 3 of us + Calanthian appear to be writing much, we can work with whatever.

As for this game... I'd again say that whatever approach you want to use can work. I haven't really thought out much for my story yet, but I see no reason why we all have to be immortal or all be human... I have some ideas that (I'm admittedly stealing from a book) I know that would allow me to have a human character thats mortal but still last through the ages. I see nothing wrong with my human character who may or may not time-travel having to interact with an immortal Russian Czar! We can interlace our stories with whatever features we want, if anything it will spark our imagination and create a better story!

Thats just my opinion though, I dont want to steal Eclipse's thunder, he may have a different opinion...

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Just go run a few trials and see what happens... resources are scarce and that has a much bigger impact than you'd think. I'm not completely opposed to it or anything, but my vote is for Large-Terra thats all.

As far as I can see from my two trials with the g-version the resources seem to be okay in numbers, though sometimes resources like Incense or Gold seem to clutter up in deserts, but such things happen with Fur/Silver in Tundras in most other map-scripts too.

On another note, I have a memory allocation failure in my first LoR-game, which I have never had in regular BtS although I play long games with big maps, slow time and many civs.

Cheers.

 

[Nighthawk419]

On another note, I have a memory allocation failure in my first LoR-game, which I have never had in regular BtS although I play long games with big maps, slow time and many civs.

Yeah I think this is a common bug and happens to everyone. I get the same thing... if you shut down the game and restart it for the next turn you should be fine. Which, for a PBEM game, is common practice anyway, so it shouldnt be an issue.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Oh okay then it´s alright I guess, I actually thought I would never again be able to play that game now.
Btw what is the in-story explanation for the start in medieval age? Was there some kind of Roman Empire that collapsed and we are the remnants, or a plague or an Ice Age that prevented us from extending, but still leaving us with some technological level?

 

[Nighthawk419]

Oh okay then it´s alright I guess, I actually thought I would never again be able to play that game now.
Btw what is the in-story explanation for the start in medieval age? Was there some kind of Roman Empire that collapsed and we are the remnants, or a plague or an Ice Age that prevented us from extending, but still leaving us with some technological level?

Knoedel I love your imagination, you always get me thinking about things I never thought about!

I say that we sort of use group-think to come up with a reason for what happened. Our early stories can refer back to the event(s) in question but stay very vague. If we all imply bits and pieces, eventually we will form an idea of what happened and then can write up the full story as a group as a sort of "Intermission" story.

And I say that because all of your explanations sound valid and can be used almost in combination. Also the story of my main character should have some ability to explain/infer what happened and I have some ideas that can be used in conjunction with some of yours... and I'm sure Eclipse and Player #4 might have their own ideas too, and we can sort of mold it all into one great back-story.

 

[Eclipse4449]

Btw I have one important question for both this story and the Gm18bnoE one: Are the leaders immortal? If yes, only them or everyone of the population too?

I'm very glad you asked this, I had been waiting to approach all of us on this subject. As I see it your leader lives as long as your Civilization does, You have chosen your leader to lead your people threw the ages, threw "We Love our Leader Day" and the Wars that inevitably happen. You Leader will write a history everyone one day will read, not only do your people know who you are but so do world leaders you have met, Diplomatic victory condition will be selected, Cultural pressure will be applied to your neighbors and relations threw trade will occur. YOU are this Leader and these stories are about your Test of Time.( I don't mean this on a personal level this is just a game)

Whether you sell your sword for a gun or trade your quill for a pen, the tools you will use will carry you to your destiny.

Personally what I do most of the time is appoint important characters to carry out my leaders mission, I go as far as naming units these names and walk them into other territories. In a recent Civ3 game I was Washington and moved around a settler named John Adams, here I will probably use a Great Prophet etc. Killing this non-threatening representative would be an act of War but on the other hand entering ones land with such a unit could allow you to see their land and too, not allowing him to enter gives an idea of your hiding something. Anyway you look at this, these Characters provide a story. Whether your story is based on Religion or spreading a Corporation the amount of options we have is enormous, when you are out of ideas just ask your Advisors, surely your Military advisory or maybe your Economic advisory will give you a bump. Here in Civ4 each of my city's population have a name and a job, whether they are Miners or Farmers a Quarryman or operate a Pasture, each can get sick or to mad to work, yet describing these things could paint a picture you may not want framed.

Lastly you can write about anything or anyway you want, this is your opportunity to do what it is you've wanted to do.

P.S. Great story Imp. Knoedel

 

[Eclipse4449]

Knoedel I love your imagination, you always get me thinking about things I never thought about!

I say that we sort of use group-think to come up with a reason for what happened. Our early stories can refer back to the event(s) in question but stay very vague. If we all imply bits and pieces, eventually we will form an idea of what happened and then can write up the full story as a group as a sort of "Intermission" story.

And I say that because all of your explanations sound valid and can be used almost in combination. Also the story of my main character should have some ability to explain/infer what happened and I have some ideas that can be used in conjunction with some of yours... and I'm sure Eclipse and Player #4 might have their own ideas too, and we can sort of mold it all into one great back-story.

The only real reason I wanted to start in MA was to get to Ships sooner or the bigger picture of meeting everyone sooner.

What ever we come up with prior to the MA era back story is totally up to you. And NightHawk you bring up a very good point here about a group effort on such a back story. I believe we are breaking new ground here.

 

[Nighthawk419]

Yes I agree - having a massive 4-way 4-person story like this definitely opens up new options for us and also brings about new challenges!

As for immortality... my leader in "18" is going to end up being immortal (or close to it) mainly out of laziness on my part, but "Antonio" (who may end up getting renamed actually) will most definitely NOT be immortal. However he will be able to last the entire game... you'll see The Spanish leaders will be nothing but human. I will clearly be putting more writing effort into this game over "18" once we get started, so I need to take the lazy approach in that game haha.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

This weekend I tried playing LoR Hotseat with a friend and it was bugged as hell. Are you actually sure it works in multiplayer?

Also I thought more extensive about the immortality-stuff, so much that I can´t further write my Gm18bnoE-story for now. I know this might be an Accepted Break from Reality, but has anyone ever thought of the consequences? With an immortal leader what sense would any of the Government Civics except for Despotism and Police State make? Hereditary Rule is kind of pointless if the king never has any successor because he can´t die, Universal Suffrage is also moot if you can´t vote a new leader. Doesn´t it hurt the self-esteem of my citizens to know that they are just pawns on my chessboard? Well, they could be controlled in a theocracy under me as god-emperor, but what about a democratic government? Even if I would allow, say, a parliamentary monarchy, in the end everything is run by me, and no matter how fair and close to the people I seem to rule, altogether it will always be a dictatorship.
But maybe I´m just thinking too much.

Cheers.

Edit: Now something else entered my mind: With me being immortal, don´t I grow de facto infinite knowledge over time if I don´t get Alzheimer or something like that?

 

[Nighthawk419]

This weekend I tried playing LoR Hotseat with a friend and it was bugged as hell. Are you actually sure it works in multiplayer?

Also I thought more extensive about the immortality-stuff, so much that I can´t further write my Gm18bnoE-story for now. I know this might be an Accepted Break from Reality, but has anyone ever thought of the consequences? With an immortal leader what sense would any of the Government Civics except for Despotism and Police State make? Hereditary Rule is kind of pointless if the king never has any successor because he can´t die, Universal Suffrage is also moot if you can´t vote a new leader. Doesn´t it hurt the self-esteem of my citizens to know that they are just pawns on my chessboard? Well, they could be controlled in a theocracy under me as god-emperor, but what about a democratic government? Even if I would allow, say, a parliamentary monarchy, in the end everything is run by me, and no matter how fair and close to the people I seem to rule, altogether it will always be a dictatorship.
But maybe I´m just thinking too much.

Cheers.

Edit: Now something else entered my mind: With me being immortal, don´t I grow de facto infinite knowledge over time if I don´t get Alzheimer or something like that?

I think the easy answer is immortality, but the people don't know it (or realize it)... and you can also have an immortal leader in a democrazy (see what I did there?)... the democracy aspect is the Senate, with a head of state that has veto power, duh!

For my story, the main character is just going to be a "special advisor" type of person, who is NOT immortal, but does have the ability to travel through time. The leaders of the Spanish Empire will be constantly changing and be normal human mortals. Of course they will be puppets of the main character, but still...

 

[Nighthawk419]

Oh and as for the LoR comment - I am currently doing 2 multiplayer PBEM games with the LOR mod and it seems to work fine. There are some bugs, but the additions are worth it I think.

That being said, going back to play "18" with good old BTS is calling to me as well... I like knowing how stable and slick it is.

But for our purposes of this game, I think LoR is good because of the actual revolutions aspect, and having Barbs that turn into actual minor-character civs... its all great for storytelling. Without that we just lose another aspect that leads to more storylines and sparks the imagination.

Eclipse - have you head from anyone else about a 4th yet?

 

[Eclipse4449]

@Nighthawk419
No 4th yet, so maybe we go with 3

@Imp. Knoedel
It seems stable we haven't seen it in compression mode (many things out PC has to process).
You raze a good point on Immortality, How does this sound? What if every generation you had 3 sons and those sons have sons, its the same blood line but they have different idealisms. at least your people have options pertaining to your civic choices etc.

 

[D!CK_VII]

4th way didnt you ask. i love me some LoR

 

[Eclipse4449]

4th way didnt you ask. i love me some LoR

You understand this is a writing game?

I didn't know you'd be interested you haven't written in the 18 player game of than Blah! Blah! Blah!

 

[D!CK_VII]

i could be the silent player