What to do about techs?

[Cyber-Spyder]

I'm sure many of you understand the pain of restarting a game multiple times before actually playing because the host gets given a few starting techs. Especially when a few players are involved, this can kill 15-20 mins of gametime quite easily. {Not to mention the pain of seeing that settler sitting on a river system with a whale and silk in sight before hearing 'restart'}.

But what else can/do people do about it? Sometimes I let it go {my subsequent creamings are totally unrelated to that generosity}, in one game the host said he'd just wait a few turns {haven't calculated how fair that actually is, I just went with it}. Any one else got any good ideas how to quickly and expediently level the playing field and get going with the game?

[Alexander's Horse]

The best way is just get out of the game as quickly as possible and restart. They don't take long if people are disciplined.

[Ming]

Yep... that's the best solution... be efficient at restarting. We can do a restart in under a few minutes. It doesn't take long at all. Having the host "wait a few years" isn't the solution.

[Alexander's Horse]

One thing that can speed it up is people dial your IP while you'e re-loading. Then they appear on the host's screen the instant the player window opens.

[Ming]

As long as they don't enter before the host exits the first game, that does help. It's just a matter of having people trained to back out quick so the host can close it down and get the next game up as quick as possible. Our group is pretty fast at it.

[Alexander's Horse]

makeo is quite good at timing it, so is hydey.

[Ming]

One thing I did notice when we had the three machines hooked up in my basement. The person would say he was out of the game, and it would take a minute for it to appear on the host machine that he had backed out.

But I still waited until I got the message... didn't want to cause any "hang" problems, and have to reboot.

[Alexander's Horse]

how did it play as a network game? was there any lag or issues like that?

[Ming]

No lag what so ever. And we had no technical problems once we got things set up and working. It was a real joy. We ran all three machines through my router, and it worked like a charm. It was funny though... Our house had the network built in when built it. And there is only one port in the basement at the moment. So rah brought in some 60 foot cables so we could just plug them directly into the router which is located in the far corner of the basement in the laundry room. They were PINK. So for 6 or so days, we had these pink wires running across the room. We had to be careful not to trip over them... and after MANY beers, it was a challange

[Cobra]

The easiest way to make it:
Settings: one civilization more as needed and „destroy civ when leaving“ (don´t know the correct english words). So there is an AI. Host takes white color and quits game, his civ with techs is destroyed. So any other player becomes host. Previous host joins game again and takes the AI.
Sure, no one can ever take the white civs, but it´s a solution.
Better solution: Anybody who doesn´t want to play and has 2 minutes time starts the game as host and quits after starting.

[woke26]

what do you do when the ai got tech?

[Makeo]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
makeo is quite good at timing it, so is hydey.

i watch that little icon of the two computers and when it flickers green it means i'm about to get an icq message saying ok. so i just click enter game when i see that.

[Cobra]

Originally posted by woke26
what do you do when the ai got tech?

That´s another reason for my „better solution“

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Ming
No lag what so ever. And we had no technical problems once we got things set up and working. It was a real joy. We ran all three machines through my router, and it worked like a charm. It was funny though... Our house had the network built in when built it. And there is only one port in the basement at the moment. So rah brought in some 60 foot cables so we could just plug them directly into the router which is located in the far corner of the basement in the laundry room. They were PINK. So for 6 or so days, we had these pink wires running across the room. We had to be careful not to trip over them... and after MANY beers, it was a challange

You can get a switch ludicrously cheap (or Rah can no doubt liberate one from work), which would save you having a tree of cables in the future.

[woke26]

Originally posted by Cobra


That´s another reason for my „better solution“

No!

you say: if the host gets tech, the host leaves and takes over the 1 AI you put up. BUT, at the same time the host has tech, that AI you put up can also have tech. So leaving and coming back with the AI wont help you anything, you will still have tech advantage.