[PB78] Underdogs and undercats: The Mrrshan warlords visit the world of Civ IV

[thrawn]

I'd argue that nothing is more important than the other players.

But I expect to have the full 7-8 tile radius around the capital revealed by the time the settler is out. Or at least the vast majority if the scout doesn't make it back.

[scooter]

There's two main reasons why it's in general preferred that you only log in to play your turn:
1) You might block other players from connecting to the server. These can be unpredictable and random; ie the player who did log on while you were playing yesterday can't do so today.
2) It makes figuring out turn-splits and reloads almost impossible. How can someone play before or after you if you're logged on for the entire turn?

Ok, this makes sense but usually I like to note what there is to be done and then leave it for a while and come back to play the turn later. When it sits on the back of my mind for a bit I get ideas and the game becomes much more interesting. So is it ok at least to log in to have a look, log out, and then log in to play later?

I would avoid it if the game is in a critical state, but I do this occasionally. If I plan to do this, what I do is I login, quickly take a bunch of screenshots to have to look at, and logout ASAP so it's obvious I have not played. But I do play quite soon after that. Or I login additionally after having played the turn and plan out what I'm going to do next turn. This example is a sequential game, so it's a little different, but you can see me doing this yesterday in 77 - I had already played my turn, but I was popping in and out of the game so I could figure out my next dozen-ish turns of worker/tile planning. https://civ.zulan.net/pbspy/game/159/


Maybe a compromise solution for you would be to keep Civ open at all times but not stay logged into the game? With the wrapper, it takes like 5 seconds tops to login anyway.

[Tarkeel]

Agree with what Scooter said. It's also the reason why I take the time to make battlefield stitch-ups for my reports; they really make it easier to think about moves without being in the game.

I have had issues before with players logging in as soon as the turn rolled, and then only playing as one of the last players of the turn, making it all but impossible to declare war against them.

[Krill]

I think I can go on record here and say that as a lurker and especially as a player, the behaviour Tarkeel describes is clear cut bad faith in a pitboss game if done routinely. There are times when logging in at turn roll makes sense (checking you landed a first to bonus) when at peace, but otherwise it's not on and it is one of the reason some players are ostracised (Parkin).

[thrawn]

I can certainly take screenshots to minimize logins. And wait for a couple of hours after turn rolls and aim to finish with a few hours left to give people a chance. But if I can't have gaps for idea incubation it takes away the best part of the game for me and it wouldn't be fun to play that way - should have voted sequential I guess. Happy to step away if Amica or someone else still wants to play and isn't spoiled. Otherwise I'll do my best with the above approach - does it sound reasonable?

Btw if you want to declare on someone and take first half, why don't you do it after the person has finished his turn and before the new turn has started? Isn't it only a matter of notification?

[xist10]

Btw if you want to declare on someone and take first half, why don't you do it after the person has finished his turn and before the new turn has started? Isn't it only a matter of notification?

War declarations outside of the game can be complicated. CF had at least one instance, where there was a discussion over war declaration per PM and not ingame.
I really want a PM outside of the game - there is a chance that you don't realize, your at war if your in the second half (and then play both turns).

One reason not declare in advance - IF you are able to surprise the enemy, they have one turn less to whip.
If this is not the case, I don't think there is somethings against writing a few PM to create a good turn order. (But only for turn order)

[thrawn]

T9

Discovered AH this turn - a direct result of the bonus beakers. After I said I completely trust Refsteel but I'll play it safe I thought - so which one is it - and held the tech until T4 not really even caring about the beakers. And it worked out fine of course.

The only horsies are next to the capital and have left the pasture to be closer to the river.




But the big news is we found SD of Vault 33 and this turn our scouts we are camping together. Hopefully a sign of lasting friendship.




SD's tech - no mysticism or mining, so he must have taken hunting - and his scout does show +200% against animals so it's confirmed. Don't remember why but my initial analysis was that Dreylin was the only one with fishing and there were 2k unaccounted soldiers which are SD's hunting. Which leaves Magic with mysticism. And the question of why but that's for another day.

Next turn SE-SE and I'm thinking to circle the sea instead of circumnavigating to find out where it would make sense to draw the border with SD so we are both happy with it.

[scooter]

I can certainly take screenshots to minimize logins. And wait for a couple of hours after turn rolls and aim to finish with a few hours left to give people a chance. But if I can't have gaps for idea incubation it takes away the best part of the game for me and it wouldn't be fun to play that way - should have voted sequential I guess. Happy to step away if Amica or someone else still wants to play and isn't spoiled. Otherwise I'll do my best with the above approach - does it sound reasonable?

I think you might be over-thinking it and not need to worry that much. I would just play naturally. 0 need to wait for anyone. Login whenever you're ready to play your turn. When not in turn split, feel free to login other times after End Turn to think things over and plan future turns to your heart's content. I do this quite a lot, and I don't think anyone's ever complained. Part of why I play Pitboss is specifically because I like having something to dump spare brain cycles into when I'm going through my day, so I totally get it. But no need to just stay logged into the game permanently. Staying logged in saves you 5-10s maximum (in this small a game at least) at the cost of being mildly annoying to play with, and I don't think that's a good trade.


Also:

I think I can go on record here and say that as a lurker and especially as a player, the behaviour Tarkeel describes is clear cut bad faith in a pitboss game if done routinely. There are times when logging in at turn roll makes sense (checking you landed a first to bonus) when at peace, but otherwise it's not on and it is one of the reason some players are ostracised (Parkin).

What he's talking about here are people who are specifically trying to gain an advantage by doing this. If you show you are able to play your turn, but you are simply choosing NOT to in order to gain some microscopic advantage, that will annoy people. That's clearly not what you're doing here, but it can sort of look like that from the outside if you're perma-logged in even when you're nowhere near your PC.

[thrawn]

Yeah, it should be fine.

[thrawn]

T10




Found SD's capital. He's at 7W 19S (or 7W 17N) from us. Almost halfway across vertically, and ~20% horizontally. My symmetrical distribution had everyone at ~20%/40% so this could be either a different pattern or just a slight terrain-related adjustment.

Hinduism has been founded in a distant land. So Dreylin has been working the lake to race but has switched to the ivory/equivalent - everyone is getting the same 3f5h yields now. SD and Magic also get techs - which I'd put at AH for both though there is a tiny chance it could be masonry for Magic. Gav still nothing but I'm expecting BW in 4.

Drey is now researching a base tech (mining/hunting/wheel) while at least one of SD and Magic is getting a 20% so it looks like SD on pottery? Or Magic on AH in the case that he did do masonry.