PBEM, Anyone?

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Buster13
Hey, should we get MarkG's blessing as the "FIRST PBEM" game? Maybe one of us can write a story about it for the contest? I'm not much of a writer, though...but perhaps I'd give it a try...

Hmmm...and call the game: 'Apolyton's first Civ3 PBEM game'

[Buster13]

Okay, ADG...VEEERY cute.

I just thought it'd be fun for you guys to post your glorious victories over little 'ol me. But if not, I certainly don't mind.

((Jaguar Warrior sneaks up behind ADG))



j/k of course....

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Buster13
I just thought it'd be fun for you guys to post your glorious victories over little 'ol me. But if not, I certainly don't mind.

It'll proberbly be me who goes down first anyway

[alva]

Map size: don't care

Max number of Human-Players: don't care

Number of AI Civs: NO

Babarians: Random

Accelerated production: Off

Victory condition: All on

[Tiberius]

I'm not sure if my vote counts or not, since I'm a reserve, but I suppose it doesn't hurt:

Map size: Standard

Max number of Human-Players: 6

Number of AI Civs: 0

Babarians: The standard option (restless?? I don't remember exactly what was the standard option)

Accelerated production: On

Victory condition: All on

Max time for sending the savegame: preferably ASAP, max. 1 day, in exceptional situations 2 days (with pre-notification and explanation)

Anything else random.

[alva]

updated

btw: Tiberius, As far as we know, Europeans will get the PTW later, so being 'reserve' probably goes for all of us
PS: just a thought. It might be a good idea IF we get people playing from different timezones, too get the starting order "culturally linked".
This will make turns go faster IMO

[Tiberius]

Good idea

[Tiberius]

I just wanted to say that even if I'm not going to be in the first Apolyton PBEM game, count on me for future games and/or if somebody quit an ongoing game.

So should we impose a rule, that from the max. size of players only 50% should be allowed be from the same continent? (for ex. 3 Europians + 3 Americans; this could lead to some interesting alliances )

[Adagio]

Originally posted by alva848
It might be a good idea IF we get people playing from different timezones, too get the starting order "culturally linked".
This will make turns go faster IMO

Good idea, though it's a little late for this game, since we already has the Max # of players (taken that 4/5 voted for Max 5 Human players), but would be something to think about for the future PBEM games...


Tiberius >> I'd say your vote counts, since you was among the first to join the game, even though you're not 100% sure you can be ready in time...

[Tiberius]

Thanks.

[Emma]

i won't be in the first game eigther, because i won't get the game when it comes out in america. i'd love to be in an other game, say everything ramdom with cultur flipping.
i'll be getting DSL next month, which is great, because DSL allows me to have a flat rate, so i don't have to pay by the min. then!
but i think pbem will still be a favourite of mine, because i just don't have the time
hope amazon don't take ages to deliver it fromt the uk to germany. [stupid germans bring out their own version that isn't compatible with my uk version of civ 3 ]
(really sorry if this has already been asked before somewhere, but money and time still don't grow on trees, so i havn't got time to read all the posts:
but: will i be able to play my own civ. that i created myself when i play multiplayer?)
{it's not one anyone could object, too. it's based on england, same uu and same traits, just other city names and leader graphics}

[alva]

AFAIK that shouldn't be a problem.
It could be that in order to use your mod, you are the one who needs to set the game.

Too much info, not certain anymore of anything,aaaaarrgh

[Emma]

well, i suppose it wouldn't make any difference to my gameplay, i could just play england. i was going to give my civ a new UU but then i thought i'll wait till i've got ptw and see if there's some really easy way to do it .

[WarpStorm]

Based on experience from other PBEMs, the order and real life schedules of the players determines the turn around time. A little bit of planning as far as who is player 1, player 2, etc. can radically change the turn around time. It's not all geography. You need to find out (in GMT, for example) when a player is likely to play a turn and optimize the turn order around that. We were able to get a whole turn a day (most days) doing this.

Be prepared for delays. PBEM is a single point of failure system. One player going away for the weekend means that the game stalls for that weekend for everyone. It's going to happen, so don't be upset about it; you will be the one who stalls the game occasionally.

Have a backup plan for the "Lost Turn". This is where a turn gets lost forever due to the nature of e-mail. It happens. Everyone should keep the last turn around just in case.

The other major snag is the quitter. Sometimes a player has to quit out due to real life concerns. In other cases because they are a poor sport. In any case, you need a backup plan for that. Have another player be prepared to take over (and know the password). Any other option (say having the quitter retire) will radically change the balance of power that you may have been working with for months (yes, months).

Everyone should know the e-mail (and IM) of every other player. Diplomacy should be handled in the back channels so as not to slow down the game. Know what the trade deal is before iniating it in the game.

[WarpStorm]

Oh yeah, this is very important. If you are going to stall the game, let everyone know as soon as possible before hand.