Summer Term: AU 601 - Introduction to Multiplayer

[alexman]

I know, I know...

Unfortunately we have an odd number of European players, and the East Coast of the US (5 hours difference) was the closest I could find. I think you two might be at a comparable skill level.

Let's wait and see if anybody else becomes interested, or if anybody can make better matchups than what I posted above.

[sabrewolf]

france and netherlands aren't a bad choice. but as this is a scenario and created map anyway, SR could edit the civs so both human civs have exactly the same traits, starting techs and possible even UU (or something ecqually "useless" like F16 and hwachas)

france's UU is just waaaay much more expensive than the dutch UU and is only slightly stronger. and the commercial trait won't be that powerful because conquering AI civs is not allowed and big empires (where commercial profits) is therefor unlikely.

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by alexman
Also, this is the best I can do with pairings. Any objections?

Difficult task, I know. However I am GMT+7 while Strollen is GMT-10, and since I am available mostly in the evenings, Strollen will be asleep before I'm online (unless he does shift work!), which may make it pretty difficult to do more than a turn a day.

But if there's no other way, so be it! We shall do our best.

Oh, and France and Netherlands huh? Hmmm....well I'm not sure about how well balanced they are, but I know which one I'd prefer How about Sumeria instead of France? Also Ag, and UU though quite cheap and earlier is also essentially defensive (didn't the AU Mod increase its cost anyway?)

[snoopy369]

Hmm... netherlands + france ... icck. I'd rather do like sabre suggests and artificially make 2 civs equal or identical. And perhaps with a useful UU particularly in the mid to late game (when we'll probably be actually attacking).

Second question -- if we successfully elim the other player are we supposed to play it out? (IE, are we supposed to be trying solely to beat the other player, or beat the AI as well just not militarily initially) (This would have a substantial impact on strategy methinks ... especially in terms of helping one or more AIs to the point that the AI might be able to beat yourself)

[alexman]

Well, the civs don't have to be perfectly balanced. If you get France, just chalk it down to bad luck along with all the other random factors in the game. The starts will not be perfectly balanced either, or we can even tell Sir Ralph to give France a slightly better start. However, if there are strong objections to France versus Holland, I propose France versus Greece.

Aqualung (and the others concerned), would it better to put you against Paddy, and Strollen against smellymummy, even though the skill levels might not match that well? Let me know.

I'm not sure what happens to a PBEM game once there is just one human player left. Does it turn into a normal SP game? If so, it's up to the winner to continue the game, if he wants to do so.

[snoopy369]

France vs greece would be interesting ... though different UUs by quite a bit, i'd consider Greek UU better in the scheme of things anyways (personally) so that maybe offsets their early-defensive-UU slight disadvantage (in my opinion)...

[Backpack]

Pairings look good.

Snoopy, your post mentioned concern about being eliminated early... Don't worry. I'm frankly not that much of an ancient warmonger. I did notice that our pair was the only group not using the Mod. (Probably because we both said, "Mod? Huh? Yeah, I guess."

What's the general take on things in here? Would the overall purpose be better served if it was an across the board use of the AU mod?

Hehe, Also don't forget that the COTM at Civ-fanatics is being released within the next 6 hours or so, so no need to rush on that map release for a few days.

[snoopy369]

neh, i'll survive the early game a-ok, as long as the AI doesn't do me in. Mod is fine with me if it's fine with you -- first time for both of us anyways, so even.

[jshelr]

I think you may actually be able to make both human players have the same civ just by asking for the civ twice, if that is of any interest here.

[Harovan]

I got alexmans message with the details and am ready to set up your game within the next two days. However seeing this thread, I think you should take your time to discuss the details regarding the civs in question and the relative qualities of the starting spots. Remember, PBEM games last over months, and my experience is, that it's definitely better to sort everything out before the game starts, even though it may take a few days, than to rush it and regret some annoying issues over a long time. I will be at home over the whole weekend, will check in here regularly, and am ready to make your map anytime.

[jshelr]

I vote for a very good starting spot for each human civ.

If we can't agree on Alexman's French conncection, and I could easily agree to it, perhaps two ag civs is a decent alternative. It might even be interesting to let players select their own human civs, leaving only the AI and map the same from game to game.

[sabrewolf]

jshelr's idea sounds good, but i doubt it's possible without sending everybody the scenario and therefor opening up the map.

i also vote for a good starting location for both humans so we're not completely lost in the REXrace against the AI, where AI attacking isn't allowed. agricultural for both sounds good too

[Harovan]

I'd have to setup 8 generic games anyway (with mod/without, regent-demigod), so it would take little extra effort to create 8 individual games instead.

[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.

Sir Ralph, it's better to set up the general games with fixed civilizations because people often start AU courses late, so we might end up with more than 8 games. (There is even talk about converting old vanilla civ AU games to C3C so people can play them).

[sabrewolf]

SR, from the looks of the matchups ( http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...67#post3111367 ), you'll currently "only" need 3 types:
- AU mod emperor (4 games)
- AU mod monarch (3 games)
- stock rules regent (1 game)