New "Ancient Empires" PBEM created

[germanos]

Originally posted by La Fayette
1) "Technical' report (from La Fayette)

Apparently, the only remaining problem is that my foreign advisor tells me that I am in contact with 3 civs (which is the truth), but the 'chat with kings' tells me that I haven't met anyone yet.

It will help if you start up the game as a Multiplayer, but then choose the 'Network' game instead of the 'Internet game' option. (then choose TCP/IP, although I don't think the other option you get there has any effect)
By doing so, there will not be a 'King Chat' option in the menu.
Anyway, it does not really matter if you play the way you did.

2) "Historical" report (from Minos)

A peaceful Minoan skirmisher wandering along the Southern coast of Anatolia met a supposedly peaceful Assyrian skirmisher. The polite Minoan said 'hello', the supposedly polite Assyrian replied 'give me 300 gold'.
The Minoan said 'no thank you'. The Assyrian said 'war'.

Here is the point of view of Minos:

The Hittites asked for help from the Minoans a few years ago, because they had 'problems' with the Assyrians. The Minoans have therefore been allied with the Hittites since then. But meanwhile a cease fire has been signed between Assyrians and Hittites.
Therefore Minos sees no reason to be at war with Assyria any longer. He asks the Assyrian leader to tell his wandering skirmishers to behave more politely and feels ready to forget the incident.

We ask forgiveness for the rude behaviour of our skirmishers. Rest assured the culprits will be punished when they return to Assyria.

Assyria has no quarrel with the Minoans, and we suggest negotiations will start on some sort of treaty between Assyria and Minos.

We deduce from the Minoan report that they have been at war with us during our struggle with the Hittite. Since Minos has tied his faith with the Hatte, we propose a cease-fire to the Minoans as well.

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by SlowThinker
In such situations I think you should refuse any diplomatic contact with the AI.

I guess you are right
(but I found it fun, since there have been some "problems" with Assyrian aggressivity previously)

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by germanos
We deduce from the Minoan report that they have been at war with us during our struggle with the Hittite. Since Minos has tied his faith with the Hatte, we propose a cease-fire to the Minoans as well.

The Hittites asked for help and we said 'yes' and became their allies. Now you seem to have come to some sort of agreement with our allies and we agree to a cease fire.

We also agree to peace negociations (which will require some kind of discussion with our allies, as you can easily understand).

[germanos]

Originally posted by La Fayette


I guess you are right
(but I found it fun, since there have been some "problems" with Assyrian aggressivity previously)

germanos makes note not to forget not to ctrl-N

[germanos]

Bump

Straybow!

[Straybow]

I'm back Have file, will play

I had barely started playing my round in a succession game and ran into some video card problems. Had more problems getting a new one to work. A whole week without Apolyton!
…or CIV2!!

[germanos]

I will resign my postion ASAP.

I cannot keep up with the speed in this game


Once the new year has arrived, I will cease my participation in this game.

I'm sorry for those who have put a lot of effort in this game, but I have grown very bored.

I find this a wonderfull scenario, and I am truly saddened by the lack of progress, for who nobody in particular is to blame.
to Kull.

germanos

[La Fayette]

OOOO NOOOO PLEAAASE!
I can understand that you are truly saddened by the lack of progress. So is probably anyone of us.
But the Italians say:
"Chi va piano, va sano
Chi va sano, va lontano"
Please, give us 3 more months to see if that may come true.

[Kull]

Guys, it really has been taking far too long between some of these turns - and this has already cost us one player (Steve Clark) and now Germanos is ready to head out the door. We have rules in place to govern when a player loses their turn, but none of us wants to be the bad guy and skip past the late player, so as a result the "rule" has no teeth, everyone knows this, and nothing happens. If everyone will concur (and assuming this gets Germanos to change his mind), I'd like to propose the following:

1) I'll be the Bad Guy
2) At some point during the 4th day following the last turn, if there's been no activity, I will post here that the "missing" player's turn is over and PM the next in line.
3) There is no "right of appeal" from this decision - the turn is lost and the AI gets to play your civ.
4) It would help if everyone PMs the next person after they post their save. It's a very simple thing to do, and should speed things up considerably.

[kengel]

Sorry to hear about germanos will leave...
But maybe he might be convinced to play on? I would enjoy to play on this game...

Let me mention that the turn delay is fairly normal in PBEM.
Presently, I still host another seven player PBEM -for four years now
There were times when turns went on very slowly- But it still goes on and on. And it is still big fun. You just need some patience.

I suggest an email notifying system alternatively to the PM system, since I check Apolyton not every day, though I get notified if someone posted in this thread.
KULL: Though I agree to your thoughts, PLEASE let not play the AI the turn. It screws the whole game by several effects. Perhaps some human player could simply load the turn and do the Ctrl-N thing?

[germanos]

Originally posted by Kull
Guys, it really has been taking far too long between some of these turns - and this has already cost us one player (Steve Clark) and now Germanos is ready to head out the door. We have rules in place to govern when a player loses their turn, but none of us wants to be the bad guy and skip past the late player, so as a result the "rule" has no teeth, everyone knows this, and nothing happens. If everyone will concur (and assuming this gets Germanos to change his mind), I'd like to propose the following:

1) I'll be the Bad Guy
2) At some point during the 4th day following the last turn, if there's been no activity, I will post here that the "missing" player's turn is over and PM the next in line.
3) There is no "right of appeal" from this decision - the turn is lost and the AI gets to play your civ.
4) It would help if everyone PMs the next person after they post their save. It's a very simple thing to do, and should speed things up considerably.

I must say my greatest disappointment lays in the fact that we indeed have rules to saveguard continuity in this game (and we have had so from the start of this game), but they indeed proove to be teethless. So, in this game it annoyes me even more then in others...

the fact that we have few cities and units also adds to my anger. I keep bumping and pressing players, but to no avail, nor do I feel I get much support for my efforts. Hell, I often get tempted to bypass even other players and play my turn once the x-times three days have passed

I support the Ctrl-N thing that Kengel proposes. It's easy to do as well: If the next player in line makes the window very small, very little information will be revealed. The only backdrop is if the Civ is passworded. in that case we should let the AI take over.

On a sidenote: passwording your civ is quite useless: if people want to have a look at your civ, a password won't stop them.

If we can keep a reasonable pacew in this game, I'll be more then happy to stay, but if it stayes like this, I'l e gone efore you can say

BUMP

[SlowThinker]

Originally posted by germanos
I support the Ctrl-N thing that Kengel proposes. It's easy to do as well: If the next player in line makes the window very small, very little information will be revealed.

I think you cannot make it small before you open the game. But after you open it you obtain more info when manipulating with windows than doing all work with closed eyes. So I suggest this procedure:

After 'please enter your name' window you close eyes, then you press
enter, ('this is your turn' message) Enter, Ctrl-X (zoom out for a safety), Ctrl-N, Ctrl-S, ('select file name' window) Enter, ('game saved' window) Enter, Alt-F4
then you open eyes

On a sidenote: passwording your civ is quite useless: if people want to have a look at your civ, a password won't stop them.

You forgot you may be banned for these words?
We all know wipping password out is quite impossible and doable by geniuses only.

Seriously now:
I suggest all passwords in operation should be added to the list of players in the first post.

BTW my game is not passworded, neither hittites'. Therefore I will take the role of the bad guy towards Straybow. But since we start to be bad right now, i give Straybow a deadline to show up to Saturday.

Concerning game progress:
I won't mind if somebody will not be able to play for 5 days, but he should announce what problems happen and when he will play.
And I think announcement towards next player about possible time of playing is always a good idea. If I know when I will play then I post an e-mail to germanos like 'I will play this evening' or even better 'I will play before 6pm'. Next player may prepare for his turn and the game may go faster.
And I always post an e-mail that warns I just played to germanos, but I am prepared to post it also to Kull. But Kull must send me his e-mail if he asks warnings.

[SlowThinker]

Straybow wasn't online since 5.12., probably he has some problems, but I think he should get to Internet and let us know...

[Sparrowhawk]

Originally posted by kengel
Perhaps some human player could simply load the turn and do the Ctrl-N thing?

Assuming this is not going to happen to often, I could fill in as this human player, to avoid the problem Slowthinker identifies above.

I have little interest in scenarios (I tried this one out twice, and was lost, too many changes from the regular civ for me), but I am more then willing to help keep this game alive. (I am in the seven player game Kengel refers to above, and while I have only been in the game for 3 of the 4 years, there have been times I too have been impatiently waiting for my next turn).

I would be happy to help out on those hopefully rare occassions this would be needed. (and I check Apolyton on an almost daily basis, and have subscribed to this thread as well).

/me , offering to help

[germanos]

Sparrowhawk.

this looks like a really good solution.

As we have allready a 72 hour deadline, I propose that all players send their password, or lack thereof, to Sparrowhawk if they want to avoid AI mess if they fail to meet the deadline.


Assyria is not passworded, so if Sparrowhawk would be so kind to do the honours for me if I fail, I would be most gratefull.