Lego CIV PBEM?

[Kloreep]

Well, we have a big new patch; good time to start a new game. You guys interested?

I'll send out PMs to make sure this gets noticed. Dead forum and all that

[ZargonX]

You can count me in!

[vondrack]

I would love to be in, but it seems that I will only get the game in about a month (finally!)... I have been waiting for the complimentary copy from Firaxis since the game was released (there is an unbelievable, yet apparently true story about why these haven't been sent out yet...) and because of all the stuff happening in my real life, was not terribly concerned about how long it's taking (read: I have not played a single CIV game since the release - sad for someone mentioned in the game manual, is it not?).

So, depending on how long the game setup takes, I would love to be in.

Come to think of it, I could ask a colleague of mine - he might be able to lend me a copy until mine arrives...

[Kloreep]

We've waited a while, we can always wait a little longer. I'm going to be a somewhat unreliable turnplayer over the next four weeks anyway. (Last two or so weeks of school, then travelling around the northwest and visiting family with my parents.)

And in the meantime we still need to come up with game settings, civs, etc.

[Tiberius]

Hi guys,

it's nice that you thought about me (I got a PM from Kloreep) but I haven't played Civ4 for months and honestly I'm not interested in playing it at all. For some reason I lost my interest completely in this game.

I played all versions of civ for years and I gave up playing this one after 2 or 3 months. I could not explain completely why, but that's the situation. IMHO there were lots of improvements over the previous versions and now I could not go back to them without regreting the new features, but somehow civ's magic has been lost in the process. Not all of it, since many are still as addicted as ever, but apparently it was the part that was keeping me addicted.

[ZargonX]

I can understand that point of view, Tibi. I've actually played CIV very little since it first came out. I have a few slow PBEMs, and I've joined the DG. But for single player play, something was just not sitting right. Like you said, some little piece of magic wasn't there, though I don't know quite what it is. I've been trying to get back into it since the new patch, so we'll see how that goes!

[Kloreep]

I have to agree that somehow, the magic just isn't there in SP.

I have high hopes for MP, though.

[vondrack]

For me, that little something that's missing is... well, you would probably call it "polish" or "feel".

A handful of people burnt literally thousands of hours on making CIV mechanics as solid as possible... and I think in THAT department, CIV a huge success. On other fronts, though...

For me, the magic was always in the fact that civs were GAMES. They LOOKED like games. They FELT like (cute) games. Civ3 was pretty much perfect in this regard - it was the mechanics that lacked. CIV is a giant improvement as far as the mechanics are concerned, but a major letdown in how it "feels". I guess the 3D look is never going to grow on me. But it's not only the 3D map. It's the 2D interface as well. It just feels half-baked...

Yet I had some really good MP games during the beta session. Not sure if I fall for CIV in SP, but I am sure looking forward to some PBEM, maybe even MP.

[Kloreep]

What's your status, vondrack?

I'll be going on vacation two days from now, returning the 20th. After that I'm game for some PBEM.

What kind of game shall we play?

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Kloreep
What's your status, vondrack?

Still not operational, but it should now be a matter of days, as other testers have already received their CIV copies...

Originally posted by Kloreep
What kind of game shall we play?

Something relaxed, suitable for n00bs...

[Kloreep]

If it's a relaxed game we want, and considering we only have three people, we could try a cooperative game vs. AI. We'd have to have more of them than us and/or a high difficulty level, but I think we could make it challenging enough.

[vondrack]

Alright... I am operational.

[ZargonX]

[Kloreep]

So, to get this moving I present some options...

1. 3-person duel: the 3 of us on a tiny-size map.
2. 3-person build-a-thon: the 3 of us on a larger and thus fairly empty map, such as small or standard. Raging barbs could make things even more interesting.
3. Standard game: Small or Standard map, 3 of us, 3 AIs.
4. Co-op allied game: the 3 of us vs. some AIs (# and difficulty level TBD).
5. Vs. allied game: Each of us on a team with an AI partner.

[vondrack]

Out of these, #3 sounds most attractive to me.

Perhaps... #4 with a twist: what about the three of us vs like 6-8 AIs - but we wouldn't be a team (cooperating whenever and wherever we would need/want, but as individual players).

I honestly do not like teamers that much (and even less when I am on a team with a dumbass AI...).