I would like a Multiplayer game...

[Maquiladora]

8th is a Sunday so i wont be home at all. 9th all day.

Am good for a game on the 30th, and any days after can be decided then. The earlier you want to start on 30th the better.

[Toni]

Hi Maq glad that you can make it, ok about our coming game on the 30th i can start 6pm your time, I can play for atleast 4hrs even more. That sounds good? Any preference for which game you wona play, I'm leaning towards the CivIV more.

[Toni]

Maq make it even a 5:30pm start on the 30th, so we can put more game time into it

[Maquiladora]

5:30 ill be on ICQ. Civ4 is also fine by me, dont know how much of a competitor ill be at first though, will need to practice more.

BTW just refreshing myself on CtP2, look at this nice land i got, didnt even start with religeon, i couldnt research a straight path to Monarchy, 10 ruins i opened were either empty or had barbs in lol Makes me wonder about using the default rules again

[Toni]

Thx for the screen shot Maq. Can u post a couple of more when u finish a game. Ok so we have the game set for 30th 5:30pm. Hey about the CivIV I consider myself to be a bigger still, so no worries we will have lots of fun.

[Toni]

Ops ment Beginner there

[Maquiladora]

More pics to see my strategy? Ill post if i have anything interesting though.

Im just playing the AI so theres not a lot to see, i usually quit if there isnt any pressure to improve timing, like bad land, water crossings etc.

Plus like this you cant recreate the constant danger of a human attacking. Ages of Man is hard but its lots of different rules to what we normally play in MP, and other mods the AI usually attacks with slow balanced stacks, so its all about bombarding and cheap tactics lol, i dont often get to use bombarding in MP so.

I remember that game you showed me where you and Maz played with lots of barbarians, like 12 units defending every city, perhaps that will be good practice too.

[Maquiladora]

How many Civ4 MP games have you played anyway Toni?

Ive played a grand total of two. One i won a duel (or rather he quit because he was losing ) and another a 5 player game i was 3rd then everyone started leaving when 1st player was doing too well lol

[Toni]

Maybe 8-10 Mp games Maq, from which just 1 was a 1vs1 game and I lost, the rest where games with 5 or more players and never completed.

Nah not trying to see your startegy, just trying to remind myself what was the game alike, I bareley remeber it.

[Maquiladora]

8-10, id better practice lol

Actually coming back to CtP2 it all comes back quickly, im not sure whether thats because everything we learnt takes a while to forget, or because the game isnt that varied. A bit of both perhaps.

If we get into CtP2 again i think we need to make some improvements to keep things interesting. One thing i really like about Civ4 is the multiple routes through the game, and that they actually work in the right situations.

[Maquiladora]

Just thinking about the governments/civics in CtP2 and Civ4.

The bonus differences in Civ4 civics is actually quite small, but if you prepare beforehand and use a civic to its fullest it can give you a good boost, so it rewards planning.

CtP2 governments are trying too hard to be realistic and giving a passing thought to game balance it seems. Big differences, straight choices, youre basically just racing through the tech tree climbing a ladder of governments.

I had a thought that we could give ALL governments the same stats for collecting resources, so every government collects the same food from grassland with no extra factors involved, generates the same science/gold, all governments have a maximum of 100% science tax (dependant on player choice), but separate govs by only the following factors:

*City Caps (these would stay the same, or perhaps smaller gaps in step ups, particular Mon/Rep/Theo to Fasc/Comm/Demo)
*Martial Law effectiveness
*Unit/Building/Wonder/Gaia Controller Rush Buy costs
*War Discontent
*Unit Support Costs
*Infrastructure/Capitalization Rate
*Crime
*War readiness

(other possible factors: conquest distress, pollution, capital distance)

so you would have pretty similar governments, but rewards for planning and using each governments strengths at the right times.

For example:

Monarchy
*high martial law effect

Republic
*low building rush-buy cost

Theocracy
*low wonder rush-buy cost

========

Fascism
*low war discontent
*moderate martial law effectiveness

Communism
*low unit support cost
(low capital distance?)
(low martial law effectiveness?)

Democracy
*100% infrastructure/capitalization conversion (all 50% in default game)

========

Corporate Republic
*low unit rush-buy cost

Technocracy
*low crime

========

Virtual Democracy
*instant war readiness changing

Ecotopia
*low gaia controller rush-buy costs
(low pollution tolerance?)


Stats not mentioned are the same for all govs.

Another important factor balancing this would be in the tech tree. Each stage of new governments should require the same amount of overall science cost. So from the beginning of the tree (Toolmaking only) through to Monarchy, should cost the same to Republic and to Theocracy, same for the other governments, roughly the same time, but this would take some more balancing.

Govs would not necessarily on the same branch, but each branch would have different advantages and disadvantages.

Military, building, wonder, and tile improving techs would branch off from the government paths for example, to create difficult choices.

I had some other thoughts on balancing military, buildings, wonders, land and tile imps, but will have to wait til after xmas now.

So what do you think, bad ideas, good ideas, other possible changes?

[Toni]

Hey Maq great ideas, but you see I need to play ctp2 first to remind myself of the game concepts, I just have lots of holes and it's hard to give you any suggestions right now.

Hey for the CivIV what sets do you prefer. Do you want to play with some Ais, and will a small map run smoothly on your pc? Are we playing via IP or Gamespy

[Maquiladora]

Ill play any settings.

With the new patch i can actually play quite well with standard maps now but havent tried it in MP, that would be my maximum though.

Say first game a small continent map with 2 AI? Playing through the in-game browser seems easiest so may aswell use that.

[Toni]

Small map sounds just fine, good that you can play standard maps as well. Two Ai's will be fun, maybe just increase difficulty level so they are stronger and make us think twice before we fight them.

[Toni]

Maq now try not to have too much practice before we play, I would like to be competitive