I am trying to bring back Diplogames...

[The Capo]

Whoah!

Is the date really 2399 ad or whatever? Or is that just when the game is set to end?

I agree with Deity; these are the first games so I think complaining about how they won't work out well is unwise at this juncture.

I agree with the idea to provide two settlers at the begining of the game, true it slows growth down a little but, but I don't think it will wind up being that substantial, if we give each player two settlers, a worker and two warriors I think the development from the worker will fix any problems with growth we may experience. If we have some it shouldn't be that substantial.

I am almost entirely for doubling, or at least increasing, tech costs at this point, I feel like we can already safely say we will fly through technologies without having to play the wole game to determine whether this is true. If we have diplogames finishing in a month, or two months time it will seriously hamper the diplomacy that the games are meant to have.

[Frank Johnson]

From what I've seen there's a pretty good threshhold for cities starting out before they cause serious impact to your economy. Usually it isn't until the 4th city that I end up having to move my tech slider down to 90. Right now I realized in my current game that the new trade routes I'm getting from cities are covering their initial costs, even at 80 or 90% tech rates. Although I usually run negative awhile spending hut gold....

[OzzyKP]

Going with an increased starting pack with 2 settlers is a good idea. And decreasing city maintenance. But fine tuning that to be just right will be difficult to do.

Another though on tech (in addition to greatly increasing their cost) is we could prohibit setting the tech slider up past like 80% or so. Rhys had a mod for Civ3 that was very well done, and it was on a world map. One of his goals was to slow down tech so the game can be drawn out more naturally, and in addition to delaying tech trading, increasing the cost of techs, he also stopped civs from setting the slider at 100%.

But yea, this is all the necessary learning experience we need to find our groove with this new game.

[The Capo]

Does anybody have any guesses as to how long these games will last?

I know someone said that the Saturday Night (US) game is going quickly; so I guess what I'm asking is what year it is in the game? How far from the finish do you think you are and how many more sessions do you think there will be?

I think if we figure out exactly how long the game will last in CivIV we can determine what to do as far as extention of the game-clock, or increased tech values, or what ever.

If it goes by quickly enough maybe there can be something said for a lot of these discussions, if we have interest in making the games longer that is.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

Howdy Capo. I think we agreed to end our game at 1530 or 1535AD, which means that we probably only have a few more 3 hour sessions to go before the game is over. Just so people know. I WILL be able to make this weekends game-after all-but won't be around for the 24th (for OBVIOUS reasons) or probably the following weekend (recovering from New Years Eve !) So, can I either get someone to sub those games for me or-preferably-hold off playing for those weekends?

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

[Rasputin]

why do you have an agreed end year?

cant you just play till the end !

[deity]

It seems to me we are debating two conflicting ideas:

1) Change settings to improve economy/growth

2) Change settings to slow techs!

They are at odds!!

Anything we do to improve economy, like reducing mantenance, improves tech rates...

I don't think we should change the normal settings too hastily. BUT I think maps must balance forests. I'd rather keep chopping in the game, along with all the other normal settings.

I vcote for NO changes yet.

I've got lots of time for the next 3 weeks to play a few new diplo sessions BTW; either one of the existing games or a new one (maybe on a random terra map which might solve the forests issue)

[deity]

Hey guys, vote in the Hall of Fame thingy!

Get two diplo-gamers in... which just happens to be ozzy and me with te best chances

[deity]

Originally posted by Rasputin
why do you have an agreed end year?

cant you just play till the end !

It's in the game pre-sets with a max of 999 turns.

[OzzyKP]

999 turns isn't 1530. Did you guys forget to change the timer? Normal is like 450 turns, and Epic is 630 (or something like that). So did you pick Epic and keep the normal turn limit?

And Capo, I think the game is around 1350AD ish, and since game year doesn't tell you a lot, our tech development has reached assembly line, steel, and industrialization. So obviously the tech and year don't match, and tech needs to be slowed down to match the year I imagine.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by deity
Hey guys, vote in the Hall of Fame thingy!

Get two diplo-gamers in... which just happens to be ozzy and me with te best chances

You forgot to add the link. Not like I'm paying attention or anything...

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=145388

[Frank Johnson]

I don't think anyone is aruging that the game or this thread is not constructive. And it will get interesting. It'll just get interesting with tanks and planes instead of knights and pikemen.

I don't think that the tech/time issue is really a big one. I reguarlly jump eras in SP on average settings, and I'd probably fall behind the clock in harder games. Plus its just a stat off the top of my head, but I feel like almost all our civ2 games were like this also.

The question is does a "good" diplo game have three, four hour sessions of civ building before border tensions, territory, or diplomacy even become a major issue. I'd say no and look for ways to cut that down to 1 session of "just building" at the most. The other sessions can still be exciting with colonization in terra style maps.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

Hah, it may be the industrial age in YOUR neck of the woods, Ozzy, but in deepest Africa, we are still struggling with the concepts of the Renaissance .

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

[OzzyKP]

Build more cities. Seriously.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

Trust me, I wanted to-but you try losing the same city to barbarians-TWICE, and another one to culture (well, not completely true, but I really couldn't hold onto it for long!)

Yours,
Aussie_LUrker.