1st Unofficial Apolyton MP tournament.

[Maquiladora]

That sounds abit strict, we dont even have 8 players

Lets just wait and see if we get 8, then get someone impartial to do the draw, (ie not taking part) then its upto the players to arrange and complete their games in a reasonable amount of time, maybe a week or a little over, like you said.

As for rules i think we should leave it totally in the hands of the 2 players to decide what rules they want to play. For example id want to play with no AI's on a regular map with very little ocean, to keep the game fairly short, but exciting...... but thats only my preferance.

For standard rules we should definately play without settlers, cities and advances from ruins.

[Barley]

My initial idea's for the game format.

Huge Map (land setings to be agreed by players)
No AI players (pure 1 v 1)
Barb settings - No Barbs
Doughnut World
Start in Ancient era
Victory conditions - Conquest or Oponent Surrender Wonders, Slavers, Pollution & Nukes disabled

Games to be played with original version of CTP2 with 1.11 patch. A slightly modified 'Risks' file is probably to be used, the only changes with will incorporate are the removal of Techs, Settlers and Cities from Ruins, this is done to negate the significant in-balance such finds can cause. If your not familiar with changes to single game files dont worry I am a complete techno phobe and I found it easy, all you will have to do is overwrite a file in the CTP folder with one which will be posted in this thread.

Im sure ive forgot some stuff but these are my initial thoughts.

Maq - they were just initial thoughts - maybe a bit strict but its open for all to agree.

[Daniel Kesinger]

I like the sound of the initial setup. Though it could be a longer game then most would like.

[Barley]

Thats a good point Daniel and also raises the question of how strict the timetable is given a Huge map game could potentially require 10+ hours of gameplay to complete. Maybe a smaller map or more flexible rules.

[Maquiladora]

Thats why i prefer regular map, theres a massive time difference between regular and huge.

Other factors can also increase time like huge swamp/glacier fields between 2 players lol or obviously starting on different islands far away from each other can slow things alot too.

[EPW]

I would also like to join in. I have played ctp2 off and on for the last few years but I'm sure multiplayer offers more of a challenge.

[Maquiladora]

Welcome EPW.

Barley
Maquiladora
Toni
Daniel Kesinger
EPW

Quimby (tbc)
Cloud (tbc)
Mazaika (tbc)

[Toni]

Its nice to see how the Tournament is starting to take shape. Hey Maq yes we should try to finish the 4th player game lol. Sounds nice that each two player could pick their own rules for their game, i think it would be much more interesting to play without ranking graphs, this spices up much more the game. Looking forward to start playing, but seeing the players which have joined i should try and practice a little, try to get into top shape

[Maquiladora]

Well id still say youre the best player in the Tournament as of now, im not sure Maz will have the time or desire to join but certainly ask him, Cloud ill ask too, Quimby is a regular so thats a pretty safe 6th player.

The thing about Ranking graphs is its very unusual to play without them, i agree it really does make for an even more interesting game but its hard to get used to, i know the first time i played without graphs my first game i was pretty lost. We can leave that to the players involved to decide though, but because its unfair for someone whos never played no graphs to suddenly force them to use none too, it gives the other player an advantage.

[Toni]

Yea Maq i guess you are right. So when is Quimby coming back, is he 100% playing with us? Best as Barley says to have a 4 serious players and build on that, even with just 4 it would be fun to have a tourney.

[Maquiladora]

I havent heard from Quimby in a few days but im pretty confident he'll join.

Me and Daniel played a game this afternoon which basically confirmed the decision to play without techs from ruins, i was almost researching Gunpowder but he didnt have Feudalism yet I mustve got around 10 good advances from ruins. Good game though we both had our fair share of scares early on.

The game lasted 3 and a half hours, regular size map, and we were seperated by about 8 lines of forest, so it was a nice speed but decided the tech gap between us was too big so he surrendered.

[EPW]

How do you disable the graphs? I would like to practice a little with it in case it is decided that they will be disabled.

[Maquiladora]

I have to say i dont know how he did the graphs thing i havent inspected the changed files enough, but Mazaika made a patch that would have the following effects.....

* No Setters, Cities or Advances from ruins. (on ''ruins only'' barb setting)
* No Ranking Graphs.
* Gigantic map is 2x bigger.
* Scientists allowed from start of game.
* All but "City Manager" and "National Manager" rushbuy buttons disabled.
* Science costs (roughly) 5.5x more.

The zip file is attached, if you extract make sure you know what youre doing, its not a mod made for modswapper, it will change your files for good if theyre arent backed up.

[Barley]

Sounds an interesting Mod Maq (my compliments to Maz), a few stupid questions.

1) Why is rush buy disabled in all but City Manager and National Manager?

2) Im assuming by the 5.5 science thingy that this means it takes 5.5 times as much research to gain each advance (this was the stupid question I was referring to in the first line lol).

Not sure about the scientists being able to be changed from the start I think its right that this should be a benefit of Classica; Education, what are your thoughts/experience with playing with this (how did it work out).

On a modification related point, im sure your aware of the City Manager bug in MP games, i.e. opening City Manager to change scientists medium way through a game causes the game to crash? Is there a fix or a way around this?


Toni, now that weve set up the thread to canvas for players to join the tournament I think it would be unfair to restrict it to 4, having said that there is no reason, you, Maq, I or anyone else that wants a 4 player tournament to put one together.

[Maquiladora]

1) Why is rush buy disabled in all but City Manager and National Manager?

Well his aim (i assume) was to disable every rushbuy button, except the National Manager one, so it makes it alot harder to use rushbuy bug. But at the time he made it he missed the City Manager one.

2) Im assuming by the 5.5 science thingy that this means it takes 5.5 times as much research to gain each advance (this was the stupid question I was referring to in the first line lol).

Yep, thats exactly what it means.

Not sure about the scientists being able to be changed from the start I think its right that this should be a benefit of Classica; Education, what are your thoughts/experience with playing with this (how did it work out).

On the positive side, it did add a new depth to the early game, managing scientists in different ways, on the negative, it made the growth number (the green bar) even more important, more growth means you can apply more scientists with less loss to growth. Personally its not something id definately want, either way is good for me.

On a modification related point, im sure your aware of the City Manager bug in MP games, i.e. opening City Manager to change scientists medium way through a game causes the game to crash? Is there a fix or a way around this?

Hmm, have to say i havent ever had this bug.......

Toni, now that weve set up the thread to canvas for players to join the tournament I think it would be unfair to restrict it to 4, having said that there is no reason, you, Maq, I or anyone else that wants a 4 player tournament to put one together.

We should finish this Tournament first, then maybe we can make a league? Hopefully using the sourcecode rushbuy fixes etc...... ?