Tarzan PBEM

[alexman]

I liked Korea! Solid traits and a powerful UU in human hands. I would take Korea over India or a seafaring civ on a pangaea any day!

So if Dominae is checking the map, there is no reason to allow for restarts, right? Also, can we agree to follow the Iron PBEM etiquette and rules (including the optional ones)?

[Dominae]

On these settings, Korea would be one of my top choices as well...

[Krill]

Why? Sea faring civs will get the bonus gold from the centre tile that will help to offset the maintance of the laborers, and to speed research. The UUs will let fast movers go from core to core with out having to spend time going through Jungle and mountain et al at one tile per turn.

While Commercial is normally a good trait, with alexs' corruption changes, I get the picture that they will only have an extra 2 productive cities. While they might make a difference since there are so few (efficient) build queues, a few hills and rivers will surely equal 2 extra rivers?

My main quarrel is that COM and SCI make slow starting civs, but, fine Stick with Korea then.

[alexman]

I sent a PM to jshelr and Rommel2D to make their civ selections. Since we're getting close, I'm listing the specifications again here for easy reference. So please speak up if you have any objections or concerns for the following:

• AU mod (all changes listed below are relative to AU mod)
• All citizens have a 1gpt maintenance
• All mounted units (including Samurai) are wheeled
• Mobile SAM is wheeled
• Settling allowed only on plains, grassland, and flood-plains
• Forest impassable to wheeled units.
• Road movement cost decreased to 1/4.
• Clearing/planting forest/wetlands not allowed.
• 3 billion, wet, temperate, large pangaea map with small-map tech rate and corruption.
• Distance corruption reduced to huge-map levels. See note below for details.
• Emperor level
• Raging barbarians, Keshiks as advanced barbarians, privateers as barbarian sea unit.
• Strategic resources increased to PTW levels.
• Minimum research time increased to 5 turns.
• 3-city elimination mode
• We follow the Iron PBEM etiquette and exploit list, including optional items.

Corruption note: think of it as playing on a small map, but with all distances stretched out. Distance corruption corresponds to a huge map, but rank corruption and tech rate correspond to a small map. Small-map OCN is 17 and tech rate is 200, to match the number of players (6). Corruption is multiplied by 81% to get huge-map distance corruption, so the percentage of OCN is also multiplied by 81% to keep rank corruption at approximately small-map levels. The distance between starting locations is also increased to huge-map levels to deal with underpopulated map.

Here is a better picture of the corruption setting.

[alexman]

And here is the latest scenario file, in case anyone wants to try it out:

[Dominae]

Hm, why is alexman putting the bottom line on Corruption in the fine print?

[Rommel2D]

Originally posted by alexman

• Iron PBEM etiquette and rules, including optional ones.

Just to clarify: the IC Tournament Rules are specific to the tournament and wouldn't apply here (will we do any kind of turn timer/ nexting of turns?)

In the rules under the Ettiquette and Exploit List, the options under 1-2 are to be used, but ship chains will be allowed. Is this what you had in mind?

If Dominae is previewing the map I have a proposal: All seafaring tribes be guaranteed a coastal start. If not: Leave all seafaring tribes out of the pool. The map preview destroys the correct odds of coastal starts for seafarers. These tribes are perhaps less powerful with no AI to exploit, so giving them 100% coastal starts might help balance them.

Either way, I'll nominate the Ottomans, to give Russia a sparring partner in the late middle ages.

[Rommel2D]

I thought I understood Krill's original plan: Put the two worst tribes into the pool so that there will be like a 1-in-100 chance that Sir Ralph and alexman end up with them- then someone else might stand a chance.

Originally posted by alexman
I liked Korea! Solid traits and a powerful UU in human hands. I would take Korea over India or a seafaring civ on a pangaea any day!

Now I realize it is all futile. ;-)

[Harovan]

Just a thought...

... would it make sense to give one unit per era "hidden nationality", as I saw in other games? After all this game is about unconventional warfare and harassing each other, so I imagine this could add to the spirit of the game. These units should be available to all, upgrade to each other and expensive to build, so they remain "Special forces".

My candidates would be the Jaguar Warrior (30 shields) and the Guerilla (~135 shields) and some unit in the medieval age (I would imagine a modified gallic swordsman with 3.3.2, costing ~80 shields and available with Feudalism, maybe Chivalry)

Whaddya think?

[jshelr]

If we wait for me to figure all this out before the first turn, we will wait forever....meantime, Alexman asked me to select a civ with medieval UU -- Holland, or China would be fine by me.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Rommel2D
If Dominae is previewing the map I have a proposal: All seafaring tribes be guaranteed a coastal start. If not: Leave all seafaring tribes out of the pool. The map preview destroys the correct odds of coastal starts for seafarers.

Why? I can arrange things in a disinterested way...

[alexman]

Seafaring civs: Dominae can arrange the starting positions by civ, not by player, making sure seafaring civs get a coastal start. With only six playable civs, starting the game with random civ assignments will guarantee Dominae's personal safety from the guy without iron.

Iron PBEM rules and etiquette: I edited the post above. We will follow etiquette and banned exploits, but not the rules, obviously.

Corruption in fine print: to give myself a chance, obviously. Seriously, not everyone wants to deal with the corruption numbers. The details are not important as long as you remember that it's best to have as many cities as you would playing on a small map, but they can be more spread out, like playing on a huge map.

Hidden nationality units: Kind of like player-controlled barbarians. I like the idea, but we might be getting too far from the standard game. So I'll go with what the majority wants.

Civilizations: we have our six!

Korea
Netherlands
India
Russia
China
Ottomans

(3 scientific, 2 Industrious, 2 Commercial, 1 Seafaring, 1 Agricultural, 1 Militaristic, 1 Expansionist, 1 Religious)

[Krill]

Leave out the hidden nationality units, the game will become very complicated if we have them.

And shall we start it soon?

[Rommel2D]

Originally posted by Dominae
Why? I can arrange things in a disinterested way...

It all depends on how the random assignments are made. If the map is generated, previewed, and the players placed on the MP setup screen with 'random' selected for their tribes, the Netherlands will have good chance of being landlocked, which will suck for them. I would ask that we restart on any such map.

If you can place starting locations in the scenario and will give them a coastal start, then no problem.

I'm not too keen on the hidden nationality units- I'd prefer a minimalist approach to developing the initial concept (though Jane doesn't go far enough ;-)

[alexman]

I see that not many people have tried the scenario in SP yet. Hmm, if we find bugs during the game, don't blame me then! I tested it once more, and I think it looks OK.

It feels like a huge-map game because corruption is quite low in the beginning, but with luxury slider expenses, building upkeep, unit support, and citizen costs, the tech rate becomes very slow. Like huge-map games, I would not be surprised to see 50-turn research rates for the first few techs. The difference with real huge maps is that we won't be able to build as many cities, so the tech pace will not accelerate as much, but that's OK because the tech rate here corresponds to a small map anyway. The citizen maintenance becomes less of a factor as libraries/marketplaces are built.

So are you guys ready to start? Krill and I are!