Public discussion before contact?!

[Ennet]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Earlier it seemed to be the opinion of the varoius players that we should, at some point, open up the forum to discussion of how the game is going, regardless of teams having contact between each other.

At what point should we do this? This is a discussion thread, and it is non-binding barring a consensus.

Reasonable optoins are anything from "now", "when X tech is discovered", "when all teams have contact", "when some team(s) from each continent have contact with other continent(s)", etc. Or make up your own

Once a reasonably small number of options appear, we'll have a team poll.

Please discuss..

[Blake]

Now.

It'll be entertaining. And what are we playing for if not entertainment?

[Mudhut]

Hmmm.

On the off chance that Banana haven't yet met Vox (slim I know), we don't want them to talk, do we? In which case we should wait as least until Vox is dead before agreeing to contact between all teams.

Also, even if Vox have got contact with Banana, we probably don't want them to talk to any of the other teams, do we? It just means they can run a PR campaign against us, basically, which we don't want.

So I'd vote for a criteria that pushes contact at least 60+ turns away. For example, once all continents have at least one point of contact.

[Arrian]

I like the "when everyone has either sailing or writing" option.

-Arrian

[Blake]

I really don't think that Vox can do much worse than we can do by ourselves just by killing Vox in an early rush. That's pretty darn hostile and everyone will know what happened due to score. And we can switch to Hinduism to make it clear.


In fact part of my motivation for wanting to open communications now, is so that Vox can have their fun with the propaganda, instead of their main mark on the game being a hindusim holy city symbol blinking out. In short, I feel sorry for Vox in their hopeless position (okay... and it's sure to be entertaining). Killing them is still the optimal course of action but I don't feel that we should force them to die quietly.

The problem with Writing/Sailing is it can give one team veto power for quite a while - like long enough to sword rush or whatever.

My preference is "Now". I'd find "All teams bar one have Writing/Sailing" quite acceptable. I'd find anything stricter to be a little disappointing but it wont be a sticking point for me - whatever we decide, that's fine.

[Krill]

[q=Blake]In fact part of my motivation for wanting to open communications now, is so that Vox can have their fun with the propaganda[/q]

LOL!

Look at it this way; It can't go any worse than last time!

[Cort Haus]

If there's a 4th Civ up there and they find out now what's happening to Vox, we face the possibility that they & Banana might decide to intervene, to prevent us from getting too strong.

[Blake]

The question is, would a 4th civ survive screening?

The only position for a 4th civ would be above Banana.

Where would that leave the the other 3 civs? On another land mass.

Okay. Team merc.
If the 4th civ is team merc, then that would mean that their only customer is Banana, or their only victim is Banana - in short, Banana is their Customer, Victim or has veto power over their operations.

If the 4th team isn't team merc. Then that means that on the other continent are 2 civs and team merc. Wouldn't that mean whoever bribes Merc first wins? The only way Merc can be employed is part of a 1-sided dogpile.

If I were screening the map, I would have Merc in a position where they can help break up the dynamics of a 3 way FFA, or I'd put them in a neutral position where they have to operate from the sea.

I figure it's most likely one of these two configurations:

Two large continents. One inhabitaed by GS, Vox and The Bunch, the other inhabitated by the other four teams.

Two medium continents and one island. 3 civs on each continent, Merc on the island.

It seems that those two options have the best symmetry and balance - which is what we expect from screening.

The other configurations which don't result in the merc dogpile effect are 3/2/2/1 and 4/2/1 (in both cases, Merc being the 1).

I think that the 3/3/1 would be most likely to pass screening and would provide the most interesting merc dynamics.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Krill
[q=Blake]In fact part of my motivation for wanting to open communications now, is so that Vox can have their fun with the propaganda[/q]

LOL!

Look at it this way; It can't go any worse than last time!

QFT!

Beta is, after all, now on a different team...

-Arrian

[Metaliturtle]

yeah open it up now, it'll be fun to read the "rumors" of a civ being destroyed by GS

[Hot Mustard]

Vox doesn't have Beta, and The Bunch are desperate for reliable turn players - open it up.

[DeepO]

I don't care which way it goes, but for me personally, I wouldn't risk opening the public forum before everybody has met everyone. Or e.g. everybody has met minimum of all but one team (so we don't wait indefinately because 2 teams refuse to do any exploring)

OTOH, I didn't even know the forum closed. Guess I'm so partial to it, I don't even check

DeepO