New EitB PBEM

[xist10]

I forgot to answer here.
We generally want to restart, but I think nobody has an account on the relevant sites and so nobody asked ?

Thanks for the hard work, Ref.
And I learned something new over cIV. I didn't think there is a way to get a new random seed.

For me, the warrior was enough that I want to play with Auro instead of mackoti, the fact you couldn't really reproduce the results are only a nail in the coffin.

[Qgqqqqq]

Thanks for your work Ref. Impressed. Very sad state of affairs, but good to have some hard evidence, which I wasn't expecting.

If you'll end up choosing to replace mackoti and wanting to continue, I might be able to cover either temporarily or permanently. I am thoroughly spoiled, though. I'm also  travelling until near the end of September.

[coldrain]

After some more reflection on RefSteel's explanation of his tests, I have one more thing I'd like to clarify. If one of mine or someone else's turns are replayed that involve combat, can RefSteel or other lurker replicate the exact result by playing the save? I would like to close out the possibility that there's an unknown game or PBEM save related issue that prevents getting same outcomes even if the turn is played exactly as the original player did? So if my combat turns can be replicated afterwards by a lurker in a way that produces exactly the same outcomes as I had, then the likelyhood of mackoti somehow (not exactly clear to me) manipulating combat by changing RNG is more or less the only explanation for the different outcomes? Of course the fact that he has won roughly 30 combats without losses does sound suspicious by itself...

[RefSteel]

If one of mine or someone else's turns are replayed that involve combat, can RefSteel or other lurker replicate the exact result by playing the save?

Yes, I should have specified explicitly: Whenever I replayed your turns from the save, I was able to get exactly the same results, including combat results, that you apparently did: On turns when one of your units attacked and won, its remaining strength after I tried the battle on my machine was the same as its strength at the start of your actual following-turn save. This was also true of some (but not all) of mack's combats when I tested them after carefully duplicating your turn and passing it to myself.

[Miguelito]

First of all Ref, that's super impressive stuff! I hope you enjoyed the detective work, not sure if it's worth it in and of itself to save our puny PBEM... shame the result of your research anyways, and for all of you who played these games for years now to have the suspicions confirmed.

Tbh I'm pretty indifferent to playing on, but I can, and have no objections to Q taking over.

[Aurorarcher]

Wow, thanks Ref for all the work. I believe that must’ve taken more than couple hours…

I can continue playing if the consensus is to replace mack and I have no obejction to Q playing.

[coldrain]

I'm willing to continue the game if we don't have to turn players into AIs. If no one else has done already, tomorrow I will make a user account to CivFanatics forum and post there that we need a replacement.

Alternatively, I'm also open to start a completely new PBEM without mackoti, if that is the easiest solution to continue playing EitB multiplayer in the near future.

One more note: Mackoti, if you have an explanation for why RefSteel is unable to replay your combat outcomes and how you were able to win ~30 offensive combats without losses, please share it here. Otherwise manipulating RNG and cheating are the only reasonable explanations....

[Qgqqqqq]

I'll be home in a week and can play then if you'd like. No idea how my window aligns with Macks.

[xist10]

For me, this would be a good solution.
Even if the windows don't match.

[RefSteel]

One last check, after my long absence: Are players still interested in resuming this with Q as the Malakim, or should we relegate the game to history?