30% Iron Civer Tournament

[richthur]

Snoopy, FYI
To do an instant 2-city Elim game, one simply sets the # of cities to "2" (or any other # preferred) & the game will do the rest.

[Rommel2D]

Tracking Threads

My apologies for all the Pulitzer Prize winning literature getting lost due to the S/N ratio in the PBEM forum.

In this tournament, posting turns is required because it allows me to enforce the turn clock, but I've noticed it is a good idea in any game to save time. If you save 12, 24, or however many hours finding out why the turn is stopped, it can add up to a huge amount of time saved by the end of a PBEM game.

Just a few stats pulled from the tournaments:

C3C Tournament:

Game#1: .95TPD- all four players post turns regularly
Game#2: .24TPD- 3 players posting regularly, 1 semi-regularly
Game#3: .68TPD- 2 posting regularly, 1 occasionally
Game#4: .58TPD- 2 posting regularly, 1 occasionally
Game#5: .19TPD- 1 posting occasionally.

Game 2 is slow because GhengisFarb has been mobilized/demobilized for the Army a few times (hope he got all those extra shields :-), and now won't do a dual install to upgrade the game.

If you want a prime example of the point I'm trying to make, look at the Game#5 thread. The game starts out slowly, with occasional posts. Then they decided posting in the tracker thread would be useless and have had 5 turns in as many weeks since then.

By contrast, in Game#1, I must have sent wrong turns or forgot attachements a dozen times before I reorganized my file system, ADG has had various PC problems, and predesad has had RL issues crop up a few times. We kept each other updated in the tracker thread and got the game back on track as soon as possible. Without regualr tracker updates, I'd be surprised if we would have half as many turns done as we do.

Iron Civer Tournament:

ColiseumA: 1.86TPD- 4 players regular
ColiseumB: 1.58TPD- 3 regular, 1 occasional [edit: should be: .42 ]
ColiseumC: 1.43TPD- 4 players regular
ColiseumD: 1.14TPD- 2 regular, 2 occasional

It's hard to determine posting frequencies yet, but so far our games have fit the pattern. I'd say having well arranged goups is the biggest factor, but I think it's hard to deny a correlation between speed of play and diligence in the tracker thread.

Saying we should only post in the tracker threads when the game has stopped, is like saying we shouldn't worry about sprinkler systems in buildings, just find some water if the building ever catches on fire.

[Rommel2D]

Originally posted by alexman
When the time limit for each player is 24 hours, the games can get in a turn every 4 days and still be within the limit.

IMO our game (D) will not average much more than 1 turn per day for that reason. We are content waiting 12-24 hours to play our turn after receiving it, and that doesn't have much to do with richthur subbing for Soltz.

To strech a turn out to 4 days without exceeding the limit would require a bit of player coordination. I figure the let-it-be average would be more like 2 days per turn, so anything over a turn per day is pretty good.

During the substitution, smellymummy had the turn sent in time, but hadn't noticed the substitution in the thread or posted his sent message so that someone else could catch the mistake. Richthur then had problems because he wasn't familliar with a few Apolyton conventions, and vice-versa. Not to blame anyone for messing up, but you could have had a few more turns done during that time.

[sabrewolf]

Re: Tracking Threads

Originally posted by Rommel2D
My apologies for all the Pulitzer Prize winning literature getting lost due to the S/N ratio in the PBEM forum.

still better than some threads in "other games" where posts consist of 3 lettres (like the chess games) or just 1 (hangman)

Saying we should only post in the tracker threads when the game has stopped, is like saying we shouldn't worry about sprinkler systems in buildings, just find some water if the building ever catches on fire.

i agree about the mandatory posts. it costs 30seconds more of your life but helps everyone!

[snoopy369]

Thanks for the clarification Richtur ... i've never made an elim game before so I didn't know about the #. Still stand by my feeling that 1 city is better than 2 tho

[Rommel2D]

Originally posted by richthur
To do an instant 2-city Elim game, one simply sets the # of cities to "2" (or any other # preferred) & the game will do the rest.

Richthur, where are you entering this number? I've set up a few elimination PBEMs now and just looked at the editor. All I see are yes/no options for elimination mode. I kind of like the idea of double or triple elimination, tho.

[alexman]

Scenario Properties->Victory Point Limits->City Elimination Count.

[snoopy369]

ahh now i feel less dumb, since i never looked in THAT detail.

[sabrewolf]

a general question: should we define some "rules of war" in the iron-civer-etiquette?

issues like:
1) having to officially declare war BEFORE entering the culture borders [yes|no]
against the AI it harms your reputation, but with only humans around they'd only be allowed to react by forming alliances which isn't possible before writing AND will take at least 1 full round to get accepted.

2) unprovoked worker snatching/settler bopping allowed? [yes|no]

it's imho to do that fair against a deity/sid AI, but it's a bit nasty against human players.


i don't they have to be both "yes", but it would be could to say if these things are considered unfair or ok.

ps: to my co-players: don't worry, no war planned yet

[Rommel2D]

I'd think such rules of war are a part of what should be worked out in diplomacy as the game develops. I don't think a delay in forming alliances limits thier effectiveness. [edit: There's nothing to stop you from telling any of the other tribes you've met that you were attacked without provocation and that that player should not be trusted. An embassy/alliance would be required to do something like asking another player to attack on their border the same turn as you plan to.] Unless you can think of an example where war weariness (read: game mechanics) would be warped somehow...

I have limited PC access for a couple weeks. I will probably be a little slower catching deliquent turns and might not be able to update the threads much.

[Rommel2D]

BTW, I should have enough web/email access to organize the replacement games this weekend. If everyone interested would email me with their edress and passwords for the games, we should have almost enough for 2 four-player AP-Elimination games.

[Rommel2D]

Elimination Rounds

For the AP Elimination replacement games, I have definite replies from:
snoopy369
MFCamillus

Probably interested are:
richthur
Bongo
Krill

Anelos has given a definite maybe, and jshelr said 'one more game', but has since taken a spot in the first tournament's game#1.

If Arnelos or jshelr are interested they would make up an American timezone game along with snoop, MFC, and *thur. If both are interested, one could play with Bongo and Krill for a GMT X-Atlantic game.

So, we could use at least one more European/African timezone player, probably more- especially due to the extra coliseum game in the tournament... Anyone?

[richthur]

Rom; Just sent U my preferred password via email reply. Listed my "handle" as "Milo", rather than "richthur" as shows here. Didn't want to confuse thee. Got so many damn handles & PW's between gaming sites & work, can bearly keep up with them.

Hopefully U will start a new thread for the use of AP/Elim games/ And send it to us?

Thanks once again for all your hard work & time for all of our enjoyment. Here, here!!

[Rommel2D]

Arnelos is in for the replacement elimination game. I will set everything up when I next get the chance. We still need players for the GMT regions!

[Rommel2D]

Ok, how about:
MFCamillus (pacific)
richthur (pacific)
Arnelos (eastern)
snoopy369 (central)
for the turn order in the replacement elimination mode game?

If no one objects, I'll start up the game and send it out later tonight or sometime tomorrow...