New PBEM game

[Scouse Gits]

Two Scouse Gits seek takers for a new PBEM game - any start / rules considered. Please post below ...
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The SGs thoroughly lubricated on a Friday night

[DrSpike]

I would be up for a quick (relatively few players) 1x1x no AI game.

[DaveV]

I'm interested. First suggestion: no city bribe. The Rome game is a perfect example: there's not much point in building anything except diplos and caravans (unless, of course, you can't establish any profitable trade routes ).

I'd strongly recommend a scenario or accelerated start. I'd hate to have to spend weeks waiting for my city to produce its first warrior. Wonders are a potential problem; again, a scenario could address this problem by distributing the wonders fairly at the start of the game. I think some people were working on scenarios explicitly intended for multiplay, but I'd prefer not to have lots of new units, altered terrain values, etc. I liked the reveal map option in the Rome scenario; it removes the urge to use closest city tricks, clicking on black squares, and other stunts which I'd hate to think people were using against me.

Another possiblity: a standard random start, but start everyone with 5-10 settlers, so the game gets off the ground more quickly.

A final thought: no huts. Finding a fast unit in a hut early on can let you find more huts, and the game can be over early. I hate early rushes.

[Scouse Gits]

Having never played anything but 1x1x - that certainly suits me - I had looked at the 'Samurai' scenario, but that has a big AI and changed units - I agree with DaveV having now played city bribe with human players - it really is a bit of a nono.
Does accelerated start work with multiplayer games? That might be an option.

I would prefer Deity - again not played anything else for a long time.

[DrSpike]

1) Any difficulty is fine.

2) I'm not too keen on playing a scenario.

3) The reason I said a relatively quick game was that PBEM can take forever and I can't guarantee my time too far into the future. (I know, I know, how dare I let real life interfere with my civing ) Hence I like DaveV's idea of starting with multiple settlers. I have played something similar with SMAC to speed up the tedious opening and it works ok, even if it does change the dynamics slightly. Another possibility as you're fellow brits is to start the game in one or two MP TCP/IP sessions and see how it goes. We can switch to PBEM when necessary. This would save a month or two of tedium. Actually you could help me out by indicating now roughly how long your PBEM's usually take.

4) I thought everyone played with no bribing on.

[Deity Dude]

I'd be interested, if you still have room.

1x1x deity sounds good as well as no huts and no city bribe. - I've never done a PBEM game so I'm not sure how the mechanics of the actual game play work but I would love to learn. If u decide to start with tcp/ip mode then switch - please keep in mind I am in the Eastern Time Zone USA - so we'd probably have to do that on a weekend.

[DrSpike]

I just noticed DaveV is in the US as well. For some reason I thought he was a brit (sorry to get your hopes up Dave ). I would be fine with playing weekends. However SG haven't replied yet, and it's their thread and they suggested PBEM. They may not wish to play in real time.

[-Jrabbit]

What the heck is PBEM ? -- and too lazy to research it.

All I have so far is that it's *not* TCP/IP.
and apparently takes a long time.

OK, this is a guess -- Play By E Mail ? Is that it?
omigawd that sounds slow.
But not so vicious re phone bills.

I'm willing to try most anything, but with vacation, family, business travel etc, I would need to know the boundaries before committing.

[DrSpike]

Turn based MP gaming is awesome......but bloody annoying. PBEM (your guess was correct) is slow, but you don't wait for others to move, or have to arrange times for everyone to play. Also you don't have to worry about disconnects or phone bills if you use a 56K modem.

Personally I prefer real time, but it tricky to find European players, or players in other time zones that play at weird times.

[DaveV]

Originally posted by Scouse Gits
Does accelerated start work with multiplayer games? That might be an option.

Accelerated start can produce wildly uneven starting strengths, and you are likely to spend your first few centuries recovering from the damage the AI has done to your civ. I'd be willing to play an accelerated start, though, because power tends to balance out in a multiplayer game - most players will put their own agenda on hold to keep someone else from dominating .

Suggested settings: deity 1x1x, no communication between civs (prevents a host of abuses at the expense of disallowing gifting of money and units; of course, units can still be given away with enough creativity ), Kengel's civfix program may be used to keep from building 200-shield temples when someone aces you out of a wonder.

Jrabbit and Deity Dude - PBEM is indeed very slow moving, but can be strangely compelling. If you can find a good group and schedule properly, you can play a turn a day. I'm in a couple games that have gone on for over a year and are not close to any kind of conclusion. As DrSpike implied, the game tends to go more slowly as you add more players. I'd vote for a minimum of four players, though, since that number presents some interesting diplomatic dynamics.

[Scouse Gits]

A real-time start at the weekend or at some bizarre time is not impossible with notice, but like many of you I have family and other RL commitments - I can speak for both of us (SGs) when I say we are MP virgins - so you would have to bear with us - always assuming that our versions are fully compatible - this (obviously) has never been battle tested - although patched to specification our underlying Civ 2 MP is the 'Ultimate' variant found only in the UK so there might be problems - none detected thus far in on-going PBEM or succession games so I might be worried about nothing....

[-Jrabbit]

So let me get this straight...

This is turn based, so turn position is based on color chosen, right? Then (it would appear) you need to start it as a hotseat game. First player takes his turn and when the prompt for the next one comes up, he saves, zips, and emails it along?

That player unzips, plays a turn, saves, and passes it on.
Then -- etc. ad nauseum.

Is that about it?

I'd like to give it a try, but have some business and personal travel that would interrupt. (I'm travelling 3/22-31 and for at least 2 weeks in July.) So if that's uncool, I guess I'll have to wait.

Preferences -- deity, raging, no bribing cities (assuming no AI civs). Don't see anything wrong with huts.

Diplomacy seems like the odd duck here. How do you trade, ally, etc.? Or is that just a nicety dispensed with?

Tell me more...

[Chris 62]

Are all of you sure what PBEM is?

It sure doesn't seem so, from some of your answers.

It means playing a multi-player game by e-mail, you play your turn, then mail the save to the next guy, who plays, and so on.

You can password protect your civ to prevent tampering (a determined cheat can get passed this).

Ay the end of your turn, while the "end player turn" is blinking, hit Ctrl+n. This ends all movement of your units ( the AI will move your units, like those you fortified, in the next player's turn, whether you like it or not if you don't).

Then you save, and stop playing, NEVER hit "end player turn".

Mail the save (it will be a .NET save) to the next player and so on.

A standard civ game is 400+ turns.
To give you an idea how long it takes, I'm playing in several that are at about 70 turns or so in, that where started a year ago, so this is long term.

You all MUST have the same civ version, and it must be MP compatible, with all patches, or it won't work.
We often agree to ignore diplos/spys, as they unblance the game, and having an AI civ is no big deal, it's just another obsticle.

The beauty of these is you can play when you have time, and you can go on-line to negociate, otherwise the AI will do it for you (a bad thing).
It might be wise to agree on "house rules" about tech trading, as well as demanding tribute(we don't allow it, it is considered an act of war).

The micropose scenarios often have serious playbalence problems, some also have tech problems.

I hope this helps.

[Scouse Gits]

So to clarify:

Players

1. SG[1] -- confirmed
2. SG(2) -- confirmed
3. DaveV -- confirmed
4. DrSpike -- scratched -- deity -- confirmed
5. -Jrabbit -- confirmed
6. Deity Dude -- confirmed

Though I'm not sure all of those are up ... looks like we are go!
Agreed

1. Deity
2. 1x1x

Can we refine this now ...

[DrSpike]

Sorry SG, don't think I can commit to this game, so you'll have to count me out. Since you are in the UK and also relatively new to MP I'd love to play you in real time if there is a time you have free. My e-mail is spalmer@mfindex.co.uk