New Player wanting a PBEM game

[LogiK]

I'm bored useless with CTP even on Deity with the Awesome AIPS. Looking for some decent competition I can play every day from 22:00 - 23:00 GMT
If any1's interested drop a reply, I hope to check every day or so for follow-ups.
Cheers
LogiK

[Lung]

There is a spot for a replacement in Kel-en's "Looking for a good PBEM game" topic, if you're interested in coming into an existing game. I've agreed to fill in and find a replacement at my leisure. For all i know, he may be leading, or he may be coming stone motherless last.

Reply here or e-mail me if you're interested.

[LogiK]

I was looking more to start in a new game Lung but cheers for the reply. Is there a site/page I can goto to find new games I can join?
LogiK

[Notuncommon]

LogiK, ive posted a thread to begin a new game. I´m looking for 3 - 4 human players and then additional 3 - 4 computer players to pace the game. Whatya think? Drop an e-mail by if you want

Notuncommon

[The True Demosthenes]

Anyone fancy an accelerated start game? Maybe Dutcheese Quickstart, or the semi accelerated? It's just that I'm in a couple of normal games and they're taking ages to get going. We're at the stage when all you've got to do is press end, which is pretty boring when you've got to wait at least three days for your turn to come around.

[Notuncommon]

To The True Demosthenes
What is the "Dutcheese Quickstart" that you speak of and how does it differ from "semiaccelerated"?

If you have got to wait 3 days or so to get your next turn then you must be like 8 human players or so, else its just some really slow co-civers youve got

I would like to get into a game myself but no one seems to reply to my thread

Notuncommon

[Jon]

Sophix's Semi-Acc has been going at a pretty good pace, 5 Human no AI, until we ran into some technical problems.

Slamp's Semi-Acc looks a good bet and the game has been going at pretty well a turn a day with 5 human players.

Dutcheese is great, though the pace seems to have dropped off, 8 human but a good bit of role-playing to keep the fun going even when the turns are slow. Disadvantage of DC is that the initial garrison of two Musketeer units is really far too strong as, unless you get lucky with some ruins, nobody is anywhere near Cannon Making. Effectively the Cities founded in the first three turns are invulnerable for a very long time and until you get Ind Rev it's very expensive to build a garrison for any City founded thereafter.

I reckon that you need 5 human players, if they're keen turnaround shouldn't be too slow, to keep the game interesting. People play the game so much better than the AI and if it's 4/4 or 3/5 you have the problem that the AI can kill you at the beginning, if it's normal start, can't cope with Acc-Start so you'd have to play them through the first turn as human and then set them to AI, and then anybody surrounded by AI Civs would enjoy such an advantage as to totally distort the game.

AI/Human works well enough with Acc-Start in SMAC because the game is set up for it but CTP isn't as well as the fact that the AI in SMAC is much tougher than in CTP even at the higher difficulty levels.

All human, any number, from the very start can be a real bore unless you can arrange an online blitz of turns at the beginning to avoid the 'end turn' whilst waiting for even your first Warrior.

I'd be into either a normal or Acc-Start game but if it's normal then there would have to be a prearranged online start.

I'm working on an individual start on separate continents, then combine scenario but it's proving to be a real dog getting the game to merge.

[The True Demosthenes]

Notuncommon

Dutcheese is a scenario pack, which allows players to have a 'quickstart' to the game. Start with ten settlers, which if building a city before turn four is a size five with two musketeers in it. You also start later in the game, with around twnty advances and much gold and PW.

Semi Accelerated is the same as above, but not as adavnced. Cities are a size three, less advances, less settlers, garrisoned with only a phalanx.

In a PBEM game it is difficult to get through the early turns, to the point where the game starts getting interesting, if you start as a normal game.

Read Jon's post above, he's got some good ideas.

Jon, tell me more about this scenario? It sounds interesting, separate continents for each player? With semi-acc game? Please inform!

[Jon]

Demos

I cannot take any credit for the original idea as it is based on a SMAC team deathmatch but it worked so well there that I thought it would be a way of getting a different kind of accelerated start in CTP rather than using Super Settlers and Mega-Transports.

The downside is it needs a moderator, for the start only, in order to make it work. Basically it's played as a normal start single player game on a custom map that gives each player, four or five maximum, a roughly equal sized continent. The first twenty turns are played solo, a matter of minutes, and then the save game is posted to the CMN. When all the saves have been received they're assessed to see the level of development. If the game is not ready to be merged then the saves are returned and a further 5 turns played and then rechecked. When the Civs are firmly established the seperate games are then merged into one PBEM game. From the tests I've done the likly merge time would be around turn 40.

If, big if, I can guarentee a seamless merge I believe that this could be a way to get a normal game underway very very quickly with each individual following their normal research and expansion paths rather than engaging in a land-grab with huge quantities of PW's and Gold.

[The True Demosthenes]

Just remember to make sure that everyone has exactly the same setup! You don't want to experience the problems we're having in Semi-Acc at the moment.

If needs be, civers can set up a second game directory to play on so that we do all have the same setup. Exactly the same. I can't stress this point enough, I'm experiencing difficulties in Semi-Acc due to my odd setup for the game. In fact, I think I'm suffering from the changed government stats. Theocracy isn't what it used to be when you've got CD's Mod installed.

Sounds good though. Do you think that you can pull it off?
[This message has been edited by The True Demosthenes (edited March 02, 2000).]

[Jon]

I'm working on it Demos. I can get two to merge but even though it's on my machine with my set up I still get conflicts!?!

I'm following the same route as in SMAC but, though I prefer it as a game, it is quite frankly a pretty shoddily put together piece of software.

My aim with this is not to make any kind of radical changes to the setup but merely produce a scenario that will enable a straight game to be playable MP which at the moment it isn't. If I can get a stable platform for normal CTP then there is no reason, that I can see, why it should not be able to work with CD or WW or any other mod.

To play PBEM CTP from scratch requires a boredom threshold of colossal magnitude and what I hope to do is try and get the best of both worlds. Twenty turns of CTP at the start might take 10 minutes? Forty perhaps half an hour. Unless you are very fortunate, or maybe unfortunate, you are very unlikely to meet your nearest neighbour on a Huge or Gigantic World in PBEM inside that timeframe if it's a four or five player game.

I can but try!

[The True Demosthenes]

Well Jon, all I can say is that you must have a greater boredom threshold than myself. I wouldn't have the foggiest what to do, I only know what I know, and I know this sounds good.

The best of both worlds. You get to play the normal turns at the start, but just your own, without having to wait five days just to press end turn. But then once you're in a position that is feasable to meet and interact with other human opponents the game merges. Fan-****ing-tastic!

[Jon]

That's the idea.

It works beautifully in SMAC, much better than the Fast Start option, as you get to make all your own choices.

If I can reproduce it for CTP then I would reckon it to be able to give a more 'genuine' feel to the game. In the last DM I played in SMAC we merged a four player game after 55 turns in 3 days. When your first Warrior/SP will take 3/5 turns to produce I don't think that this is an unrealistic goal. From the tests I've done I reckon the merge time to be a bit lower in CTP but it really doesn't matter if it's not.

When you've got five or six Cities and are thinking about a Wonder things are starting to get interesting. If the turnaround is 2-3 a week, after that, it doesn't matter as you've actually got something to do.

As I have said, the downside is that you need a Moderator who cannot fairly particpate in the game, but once merged their job is over and maybe someone else would do the same job for a game they were in.

I believe it to be worth the effort as it would be a different kind of Acc-Start without the silliness of having units to build without the tech to build the facilities to build them economically. In Acc-Start games units are redundant before you start; who ever builds an Archer or a Knight when you have Cannon and Cavalry around the corner?

I'm sure, I hope, that if it can be done in SMAC then it can be done in CTP.

[The True Demosthenes]

Jon,

Any progress with your adaptation yet?