Ancient Empires #2

[Palaiologos]

I played both the Babylonian and Assyrian turns.
It only prompted me to put a password in the first time it loaded the end of the hittite turn.

[Peaster]

I was not asked about a password. I saw the Assyrian position, but didn't pay any attention - will be careful not to look until the 2nd enter next time.

[RobRoy]

Originally posted by Peaster
I was not asked about a password.

I don't think Palaiologos set a password. ST's link indicates it might not be necessary, if you exit using with CTRL-H, rather than CTRL-Q. It was primarily to avoid having to cycle through all the other Civs to quit.

Or do you think it might have made it a tad easier for you to avoid looking at the Assyrian position, if you had had to enter a password? (by knowing, better, when to press "Enter" "Enter"). I'll leave mine on for a few turns then remove it and the Babylonian player can give his opinion on whether it makes any difference.

So, we have progress!! Great! ST, you're up if you're joining us.

I guess after that, assuming no volunteers step up, we assign the remaining two (Greeks, Minoans) to each of us on a rotating basis? I'll do them this turn...PlatRex next turn (assuming he's still with us)...then Palaiologos...Peaster...ST...

Does that sound reasonable? Or should a couple of us double up?

24 hours works for me, esp since it's sort of a sandbox game. But different time zone people might prefer 36. Let's assume silence is consent though, so speak up if it's a problem for you.

[SlowThinker]

I can't accept a regular duty now but if you send me an e-mail and I have time I will send a save with a mindless content.
I set no password.

Or do you think it might have made it a tad easier for you to avoid looking at the Assyrian position, if you had had to enter a password? (by knowing, better, when to press "Enter" "Enter").

A password slows down the turn and I think the warning that indicates who plays is clear.
A problem might be with looks in SP mode: if you press Esc when you are choosing the civ then you get the map of a civ that "owns" the save. I guess with passwords this could be prevented?

[Peaster]

Originally posted by RobRoy

Or do you think it might have made it a tad easier for you to avoid looking at the Assyrian position, if you had had to enter a password? (by knowing, better, when to press "Enter" "Enter"). I'll leave mine on for a few turns then remove it and the Babylonian player can give his opinion on whether it makes any difference.

I doubt this will be a problem. This time, I was expecting a password screen, and was not being especially careful since this is just a test game. IIRC ST and I played hotseat for about 75 turns without any serious problems of this type. I caught a glimpse of his map just once, but looked away quickly and didn't learn anything.

ST's suggestion to center on blackness before the save is a good one though. Also, looking away 90 degrees before Enter Enter seems to help. Side vision is good enough to detect a problem, but it's not good enough to get map info.

RobRoy - Yes, please go ahead and finish the turn. You can finish every turn for us if you like. Unless that could somehow mess up the barb test.

[RobRoy]

Originally posted by Peaster
RobRoy - Yes, please go ahead and finish the turn. You can finish every turn for us if you like. Unless that could somehow mess up the barb test.

I guess there is no test reason why I can't do the last two, regularly. I'd like to involve as many different machines, configurations, and platforms as possible, but you don't really expand that by rotating. Odd as it sounds, platforms can influence the performance of most programs in ways not immediately apparent. While it seems unlikely that such might be the source of the Game #1 anomalies, we'll be more confident if we have more involved. So if any of you have access to multiple machines, try executing your turns from each.

By the same token, if someone else wants to execute one or both of them regularly, sing out, the job's yours. I'll plan on doing it until I hear another volunteer or objection.

So, lacking a volunteer for the Greeks/Minoans, I executed them, before the Hittite turn. Greeks popped a hut and got a Horse. Nothing else special.

PlatRex, you're on if you're joining us. Palaiologus, can you just assume that role if he doesn't resurface after 24 hours?

And I agree with Peaster and ST...centering on black really helps minimize the glimpse you get of the other player's screen (Ctrl-X, too). The password just seems to add a useless step, so I went ahead and removed it.

[Addled Platypus]

yes I could help test, if this will be a pbem format

24-48 hours will help me, due to overtime issues at work

[Peaster]

Platypus - Good! The turns go really fast at this stage of the game. Probably they will take you about 5 minutes each, unless you have start-up problems. You can DL RoBRoy's save and see how it goes (see his instrux above).

RobRoy - I notice the year on the saves just changed from 3950bc to 3490bc.

[RobRoy]

Originally posted by Peaster
RobRoy - I notice the year on the saves just changed from 3950bc to 3490bc.

Yes, I've never figured out why that is. But it's standard for this scenario. The first save should read 3500BC, but it always reads 3950, at least for me.

I interpret Platypus's post as a request for 48 hours, due to current work pressures? So I guess Palaiologos should give him another day, before doing it as before. Nice thing is, with two units, it's unlikely that he's done much the Babylonians would object to, maybe popped a goody hut or two.

[Palaiologos]

I'll be leaving for Athens tommorow morning returning on Wednesday evening.

If my turn(either Babylonian or Assyrian) comes up before i get back i strongly urge you folks to play it.
Let Peaster have the honour.

Lets just keep this game rolling.

[Addled Platypus]

what is a .hot file ?

[Peaster]

It was intended for "hotseat" games (several people taking turns playing on the same computer). It's like a .net file, I guess, but we hope it will work better for this PBEM. There are small differences, which SlowThinker has listed (I think he put a link in this thread). I don't know much more than that.

Have you tried RobRoy's directions ? Any problems loading ? (you DO have Civ2 MGE, don't you ?)

[Addled Platypus]

Yes to MGE

will have to reread the instructions later

[Peaster]

Platypus - this is just a test game, so we want to keep it moving along. I hope you will jump in soon. I have played for 3 civs:

Babylon - not much to report.

Assyria - a new city, units approach a barb warrior.

Egypt - a new city.

Not sure it matters, but I went thru the "Control N + save + Control H + reload" routine all three times. Is it OK to just "Control N + Enter" when you intend to play the next civ ?

[RobRoy]

Originally posted by Peaster
Not sure it matters, but I went thru the "Control N + save + Control H + reload" routine all three times. Is it OK to just "Control N + Enter" when you intend to play the next civ ?

Though it shouldn't matter, in theory, I did the same thing. It better simulates our "production" environment.

So ST is up, if he's available. Else I'll go tomorrow.

ST, if you're up to it, why don't you do the Greeks, too? I've no problem with doing both the Minoans and Hittites, they're reasonably far away, for awhile anyway. But with the Greeks and the Minoans, I'm already making de facto agreements between them and establishing spheres of influence in my mind that could be questionable if real people were involved.