Pitboss Diplomacy Game

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by MMC
I like the idea of starting where you are in RL. But I agree with Ozzy about skipping ages. It's not very fun when you have to start a game halfway through.

I just proposed Classical not anything radical like Dark Age or Industrial, diplo games get there in less than a 100 turns...



BTW I have another idea. Lets play the first 200 turns like a normal diplo game. Well actually, two diplo games, both using the same premade map. One game would be in the old world the other in the new.


We then get an "enthusiast" to use the world builder to "build" the world we "created" during our two sessions of play (techs that are being reashearched are valued and are turned into gold, we wouldn't bother with known or unknown land since players have a good memory). This scenario is then used for the pitboss game with the same players. It would allow us to compress the first few months of play into two weeks.



If we were a bit more creative, we could even use the transition for stuff like leaking geographical knowledge, or a slight buff for the weakest player of each group.

[Pinchak]

I'd say a simple solution is to designate one player to wait and play the last turn

Looks good on paper, but not sure how this would work in practice. The 'designated' player would have to keep a close eye on the game so as to not miss their turn before the timer runs out. Not to mention their ability to get on a computer during the now much smaller turn "window" this designated player would have for that week. Alot of players find that they tend to play their turn at the same time each day. Worrying about being the last to play for 7 days in a row would be a very real problem for some.

I tend to think Snoopy has the best solution (CS mentioned something very simular). Bottom line is once we do decide on a protocol for double moves, we need to make sure everyone is aware of it, and adheres to it.


PS: I agree with MMC and Ozzy about skipping ages.

[condor223]

classical era is not half way through. You still need to do a lot, but you can slave and have organized religion. ironworking not done, load up a test game and see what you get.

A slightly advanced start would help a lot. It gets rather old waiting for turns when all you do is punch enter, while building a warrior for 8 days. If you forget to make a turn, everyone has to wait and wait. Time zones are also a consideration. We played chase and wait for a world wide group. Blake is in Australia, and the rest of us were scattered everywhere else.

http://apolyton.net/forums//showthre...4&pagenumber=1 Here is the great pitboss game I subbed in at the end. You might ask Solver what he thought about it and what settings he might advise.

[vondrack]

Marathon speed for a Pitboss game... ... guys, I'm not sure you know what exactly you are considering. I'd say that Normal will be plenty for you - everything feels so much s....l.....o......w.......e........r in a Pitboss game.

As for double-moves - the game Nolan linked to was extremely competitive, yet we did just fine with a "gentlemen's agreement" only (basically what snoopy suggested). Double moves generally become an issue only during wars and wars usually involve two parties - it's not at all difficult to agree on splitting the usual 24-hour turn-window into two halves, each of the warring party (usually) using one of them.

Using CivStats also helps a lot, since if you agree on that one warring party goes first in every turn (it was Blake in our case), then the other party (in our case, it was the rest of the world combined) only needs to wait for the first one to finish his/her turn and then can go ahead and play his/her turn.

The thing is... it should not be difficult to make sure everybody understands what constitutes a double-move. If everybody knows what it is and everybody knows it's not to be used, it shouldn't be a problem. It's in fact not that difficult to avoid double-moves - the most important thing is to make sure everybody is aware of that they are to be avoided.

[MMC]

Marathon or epic get my vote.

[Robert]

I don't like the idea to skip an age either, eventhough the ancient age may be boring, it's also a very fun part (settling cities).

I like Heraclitus' idea to maybe start normal style and play 50-80 turns. (though it may be hard to get 18 people connected.....)

Vacations don't have to be problematic indeed.
Queues are your friend! It's easy in civ to queue many things, worker actions, tech development, city building.
Missing up to 10 turns is no problem at all in peace time.

We could have a 'real' session once in a while as well, if schedules match.

[deity]

Count me in of course!

I still don't understand the double move thing. Is it really a double move or just timing the moves?

[Toni]

No diplo game is a real diplo without old Deity

1. CyberShy
2. Heraclitus
3. Toni
4. Pinchak
5. OzzyKP
6. MMC
7. Rasputin
8. Deity

[Toni]

I would advice that we go with Epic average game time 1yr (mara will take 1.5yr maybe more)

Game speed will depend on how fast we move: I see no problem getting 2 turns per day.

I have to find a way to say End Turn

[Robert]

We'll create a special "Turn" thread for you, Toni

@Deity: yet, is't more about timing your turn.

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by CyberShy
I don't like the idea to skip an age either, eventhough the ancient age may be boring, it's also a very fun part (settling cities).

I like Heraclitus' idea to maybe start normal style and play 50-80 turns. (though it may be hard to get 18 people connected.....)

Vacations don't have to be problematic indeed.
Queues are your friend! It's easy in civ to queue many things, worker actions, tech development, city building.
Missing up to 10 turns is no problem at all in peace time.

We could have a 'real' session once in a while as well, if schedules match.

Well if you have read my idea, you would have noticed that I suggested "two" games which would then be merged to lessen connection issues. Also I suggested 200 turns since that is the time needed to get an empire where you have at least something to do each day.



As to my other idea:
Also people start up a game on the classical start, you will see that it isn't very different from an ancient start.

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by MMC
Marathon or epic get my vote.

I fully agree with this position. What do you think of my proposal to jump start the game with a normal session. But avoid the connection headache by making it two games instead of one?

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Toni
I would advice that we go with Epic average game time 1yr (mara will take 1.5yr maybe more)

Game speed will depend on how fast we move: I see no problem getting 2 turns per day.

I have to find a way to say End Turn

This was my third suggestion that we untill like 1000AD have two turns per day.

[Beta]

Beta in.

Pitboss.

24 hour turn timer.

Pinchak hosting.

Ancient era start. (it moves fast enough)

NORMAL SPEED!!!!!

I know with MP epic or marathon made sense for a diplo game. For pitboss, I suggest not. Work it out at one day per turn - and it usually ends up being more with down time and reloads etc, (and with 18 players - at least one person per turn will max out the turn timer.)

And no 'fixed' teams or separate games. 18 players in one game works well. I can think of other games like the Iliad (won by Toni btw) which worked well with 18 players.

I have had a fair bit of experience with pitboss - having hosted Bohemian Epic for over 18 months now, and involved in about 10 other pitboss games. Great format - and it will be great for diplo gaming.

We will need to re-state, or re-establish, the diplo gaming rules - things like razing of cities (which IMHO should be allowed), etc.

We will also need rules on public posting - as certain information may be given away before it would be normally known in-game. IMO, let the public posting fly. Afterall, this is a diplo game.

[Beta]

Originally posted by Heraclitus


This was my third suggestion that we untill like 1000AD have two turns per day.

Way too much. The Iliad had a 16 hour turn timer, and believe me, that got to be work.

24 hours per turn for a game like this works very well. It is still a bit of work, but manageable.