Summer Term: AU 601 - Introduction to Multiplayer

[Harovan]

Well, as alex says, there might people join later, with other preferences.

[sabrewolf]

playing later after all DARs have been posted?
that's ok in SP, but in MP?

oh well, the extra work for additional difficulty levels isn't too big i hope

[alexman]

DARs for some games might be posted from day 1. As mentioned in the first post, it's up to the players to be honest and not read them.

[MotownDennis]

Perhaps the human players could select their own non-agricultural civs.

If I understand correctly, the point of the exercise is to manipulate the AI. It might be interesting to analyze how different civs go about accomplishing this.

Just a thought.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by sabrewolf
oh well, the extra work for additional difficulty levels isn't too big i hope

If I preset civilizations, names (will be generic anyway) and turn order in the scenario properties, it's only four steps per game: set the difficulty level, choose "load scenario", hit "launch" and rename the just created autosave.

[Harovan]

How would you guys like the turn order anyway? Human - Human - AI - AI - AI - AI - AI - AI? Or Human - AI - AI - AI - Human - AI - AI - AI perhaps?

[alexman]

I think the two humans first will be closest to SP, so we should do that unless there are reasons to separate them that I don't see.

[Harovan]

Since this is about diplomacy with the AI civs, my second suggestion could be more fair, or else the second player would always have a chance to "overrule" the first before the AI gets the turn. I'm unsure about the consequences, though; it's more a gut feeling.

[sabrewolf]

i vote for the second option.
the last player always sees the next AI's turns. with "Human - AI - AI - AI - Human - AI - AI - AI - barbarian", it's evenly matched

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by alexman
Aren't you guys sick of that over-used Agricultural trait yet? All post-C3C AU games have been with Agricultural civs. Let's play some less popular, but more or less equally powerful civs.

Well, AU501 wasn't with an Ag civ, but still I absolutely agree Alex. Let's play no Ag civs. I only suggested Sumeria as an offset to the Dutch. I think either both humans should be Ag or neither, since we all know how powerful the Ag trait is. Preferably neither, as it will make it a little harder against the AI.

So why don't we pick a couple of "out of the box" civs, like say England and Portugal on an archipelago map to see if their UU's are useful at all? Or if that feels too much like AU501, let's try something historical such as France vs Spain, or even better, some combination of Rome/Greece/Carthage, all of which have pretty nice AA units?

As to the other suggestion of each pairing picking their own civs, I strongly disagree. If we do that, we may as well all just go off and post our own tracking threads in the PBEM forum. As far as I am concerned, the whole point of AU is to learn through comparing playing styles and strategies based on the same civs and same map.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by alexman
Aren't you guys sick of that over-used Agricultural trait yet? All post-C3C AU games have been with Agricultural civs. Let's play some less popular, but more or less equally powerful civs.

Other than the Power of Seafaring (then again, I did give you a 4-turn pump in that one...).

[Dominae]

What about the Zulu and the Mongols? Same traits, comparably powerful UUs, almost never played, and...not Agricultural!

[jshelr]

Originally posted by alexman
Aren't you guys sick of that over-used Agricultural trait yet?

Couldn't agree more. Let's make sure either both civs are ag or neither is ag. Prefer neither being ag.

[ZargonX]

No Ag civs!

[alexman]

I'd say to give expansionist civs to either both or none of the humans. This trait is powerful on a pangaea. Preferably no expansionists, so that the players are forced to heavily commit to exploration if they want to meet all the civilizations as soon as possible.

Given the restrictions of this course (no attacking AI cities), the Zulu and their pillaging Impi seem more powerful than the Monglols.

I like the idea of a historical confrontation. How about a European conflict with England against Scandinavia? The English player will have the better economy with their commercial trait versus the militaristic trait of the Vikings, and the MoW will rule the seas, but they will have to always be on the lookout for amphibious Berzerkers. The AI would be France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, and Russia. What do you think?