HOTW XII Diplogame Organization Thread. Part 2

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by Diplo Mongolia
The young man gazed across the vast plain. The countless tents and houses spread out in small clumps, small columns of smoke rising from them. The herds of cattle and horses grazing peacefully in the distance. Children riding rambunctiously without care. All is well, all are at peace. How infinitely dull...

*SNIP*

The young man finishes his tale. His companion, Koba, stares at him. Silence lingers for a long time. Koba then speaks. Yes, perhaps a war is necessary, lest we become weak, fat and complacent. Let us bring this to the next Tribesmoot, tell your tale as you have done now and I am certain they will call for blood, dear Temujin.

Took me a bit to read it, but outstanding post!!

You truly are the best and most eloquent writer here. I am continually impressed. Very well done.

[Diplo Holland]

Originally posted by OzzyKP


Took me a bit to read it, but outstanding post!!

You truly are the best and most eloquent writer here. I am continually impressed. Very well done.

Yes, it takes quite a bit of novel writing to justify ongoing war attitudes

[OzzyKP]

Hey, someone's got to keep you guys honest.


*hopes I'm not on their victim list*

[OzzyKP]

Ok, I voted for session 9.

Everyone vote.

[Diplo Mongolia]

should I host? dont see the game in lobby...

and many thanks to oz for his kind words

[Diplo Mongolia]

I'll take that as a yes. yaaaaawwwwn. bit tired.

game up

[Diplo Holland]

Just a heads up - major thunder storms here.

Please wait at least 30 mins if I get discoed...

[Pinchak]

Great session guys!


Joking aside... we need to figure this out. I would suggest setting up a time for a practice run perhaps on friday.

[Diplo Holland]

Thanks Inca for trying to get it going and finding subs but alas...

I'm pretty sure my lightning storm was not the cause. The lobby seemed to be having trouble and/or someone's firewall settings have changed?

[Diplo France]

I’ve calmed down, so what I originally wanted to post seems a bit harsh. But considering I had a high fever and still showed up at a time which only worsened my headache.

I have a list of a few things that really pressed my button:

- What happened to the game being up 30 min early? We had this rule and and enforced in the early sessions. Please lets stick to it.

-We should also beforehand determine who will be the host for the next session, not leave poor Mongolia to guess whether he is or is not the host.

-Thirdly, remember the rule that all players must be on MSN? It is the only way to communicate. Someone has pointed out that it doesn’t matter if it is running or not since he plays full screen. But this is flawed thinking. When the game took suspiciously long to finish I minimized the game and took a look at the MSN chat we had going.

-Also. We once said that all players should be online 10 min before game time. Game time is when we launch, not the approximate time to turn on your computer. There is no problem if you happen to be slightly late, as long as you are logged in and in the lobby when the time is up. Today people were late, we can’t really blame subs since they aren’t used to punctuality and are doing us a favor, but even counting them out we still had 7 players. And we somehow managed to be so disorganized that we had the first launch attempt 30 min after game time!. May I remind you that this was also the case last time we played. Remember the 2 session when everyone was rightfully mad at me for being 16 min late? What happened to your fire people? Why are we suddenly ok with wasting our time? 30 min is a sixth of the session!



The above got me mad, more than the technical difficulties. It was precisely this kind of thing that made the last played session a rump session. And trust me this diplo game needs one good session to renew its lease on life.

[Diplo France]

Originally posted by Diplo Holland
Thanks Inca for trying to get it going and finding subs but alas...

I'm pretty sure my lightning storm was not the cause. The lobby seemed to be having trouble and/or someone's firewall settings have changed?

Very true.


Every player should try to join a big game sometime this week.

[Diplo Inca]

No one had a fault yesterday, our problem was that we needed all players to play the game. Save was such that without Mali and Ottos slots filled we could not advance.

Our tries with Mongolia as hosts were good - but without all civs present even god won't start the game.

Of course at the end i really grew angry with people. Why do we have everytime the same problem with people being slow to rejoin. Some disappear for 5-7 mins no where to be found. Some work extra hard to find people to help us start the game and when that happens regular players go A-wall while subs like yesterday as KC agent and DD waste their time waiting to start our game.

Now our official HOST is Mongolia and aways has been - I help out when I can hosting if issues arise.

Good News is that Otto and Mali didn't miss anything - that KC agent player was great to stay and wait with us to start the game - I hope Nolan can keep in contact with him being buddies and such to help us another time if someone is missing.

He looks like a great Diplo material.

So another week without a game. As ALL i really wanted to play and my frustration proved it - Sorry if i was becoming a bit too annoying there at the end.

What i see important is that all reg players except the ones who gave 10 days notice were here. We have a very reliable group of players- and currently seeing that no one has given any notice of not being here for next week the April 19th game will be back on track with all original 9 players in!

Luck wasn't on our side yesterday - Overall we are very lucky in HOTW12 compare to old HOTW. New players as France and Carpathia should be aware that this game has been the most problem free of the last 4-5 diplo games. So YES as Holland said it sometimes the game tests us - so we should hold tight.

AGAIN there was no problem yesterday with the game - we needed two people to fill in the slots to play the game AND THAT IS IT!

[OzzyKP]

I agree with Inca.

And France.

[Pinchak]

We had this rule and and enforced in the early sessions. Please lets stick to it.

not leave poor Mongolia to guess whether he is or is not the host.

I think these go hand in hand. If we don't determine the host ahead of time, then how would he know to start the game early?

It is the only way to communicate. Someone has pointed out that it doesn’t matter if it is running or not since he plays full screen. But this is flawed thinking. When the game took suspiciously long to finish I minimized the game and took a look at the MSN chat we had going.

You have to realize that my computer has a habit of freezing up sometimes when I run messenger with civ. Therefore, I open messenger when there is a problem with the game to get instructions. Now, the error last night (stalling out at the "finishing" stage) was something I had never seen before. I highly suspect it was gamespys fault. Question... have we considered running this game direct IP? Might be more stable.

And we somehow managed to be so disorganized that we had the first launch attempt 30 min after game time!

I fully agree with France. People are getting sloppy. We need to make sure we are all on time!

AGAIN there was no problem yesterday with the game - we needed two people to fill in the slots to play the game AND THAT IS IT!

I somewhat disagree. Not having all the players was PART of the problem. There was something going on with connections/firewalls/gamespy as well. People need to make sure THERE FIREWALLS ARE OFF!!!! Not adjusted, not tweeked, not opened.... ****ING OFF! If you have concerns about someone hacking your comp during the 3 hours we play then you need to either not play, or keep your secure info on a seperate computer/hard drive.

[Diplo France]

Originally posted by Pinchak

You have to realize that my computer has a habit of freezing up sometimes when I run messenger with civ. Therefore, I open messenger when there is a problem with the game to get instructions. Now, the error last night (stalling out at the "finishing" stage) was something I had never seen before. I highly suspect it was gamespys fault. Question... have we considered running this game direct IP? Might be more stable.

Well off course its ok then, I just meant people who can safley do this. The same goes for Nols whos computer also has some hickups with MSN. But that still leaves 7 players who can run it and civ 4 just fine. My message was directed at them.

Originally posted by Pinchak

I somewhat disagree. Not having all the players was PART of the problem. There was something going on with connections/firewalls/gamespy as well. People need to make sure THERE FIREWALLS ARE OFF!!!! Not adjusted, not tweeked, not opened.... ****ING OFF! If you have concerns about someone hacking your comp during the 3 hours we play then you need to either not play, or keep your secure info on a seperate computer/hard drive.

Somewhat? I completley dissagree! (or agree with Pinchack to be more clear). There WAS A PROBLEM. I don't think with the save but with one of the players. I mean we had 9 players, no civ was AI on several attempts! The problem was something else and all the players should do connectivity tests. We must organise a test session sometime this week.

IF this is not possible everyone needs to see if they can play in old large multiplayer games. Some problems don't show when playing with 3 or less players.

I also propose we all show up 30 min early for the next session, and that we launch the next session 20 min before normal game time.


Direct IP sounds an interesting proposal. In my opinion its worth one try.