[SPOILERS] RB PB7 LURKER Thread

[Krill]

Random Pangea that has ~120-150 land tiles per player. The actual map script can be e.g. Balanced. World wrap cylindrical, climate Rocky and shoreline natural. Map checker regenerates the map until there are no one behind the tundra and checks that everyone has at least 1 real food resource (at min grassland cows, grass hill sheep or irrigated rice) via putting a lake near rice or changing plains cows and plains hill sheep to grassland. No other modifications. Otherwise you play the hand dealed. Adapt and find other goals than winning e.g. just bash your neighbor in eternal dog fight or play OCC, if you’re surrounded by desert. In all cases do your best to survive don't give anything away for free.

Map checker makes sure that everyone starts with scout and warrior (correctly promoted!). Please don’t die for a wandering single warrior because your capital is empty. If you can’t be certain not getting double moved you should keep your warrior in the city.

Huge pangaea maps throw up islands, and that is public info. I'd just put that one down as part of the hand dealt and carry on.

[Bobchillingworth]

Man, this game looked almost tempting enough to sign up for, but this has "huge giant clusterfuck" written all over it. No way in hell all these teams are going to still be around eight months from now or whenever this game concludes, which means there's going to be a lot of missed turns and abandoned civs. Double moves being allowed means that people have an impetus to delay ending the turn for as long as the timer enables, and it's going to encourage the same obsessive playing tenancies which were responsible for the PB3 dichotomy between the very competitive, hyper-invested few and a barely-interested majority of players. It would have been a lot better, albeit considerably more difficult to organize, to run this as a gamespy-type game with 2 min or so timer, played out over a few weekend sessions.

[Gaspar]

I think as soon as you really do any editing, you're opening yourself up to the [strike]SevenMonster[/strike] players whining about fairness once they find out. While I think it will obviously have some distorting factors, it wasn't in the directive for the map to ensure everyone was on the same landmass, so I'd leave it be.

[Brian Shanahan]

Huge pangaea maps throw up islands, and that is public info. I'd just put that one down as part of the hand dealt and carry on.

I think as soon as you really do any editing, you're opening yourself up to the [strike]SevenMonster[/strike] players whining about fairness once they find out. While I think it will obviously have some distorting factors, it wasn't in the directive for the map to ensure everyone was on the same landmass, so I'd leave it be.

I'd go with these two here as well. The players should have an idea of what's likely to happen, and you can always quote their preferences at them.

[Selrahc]

Could we not just say that one team is on an island(without saying which team), and let the players decide if a reroll is in order?

[Gaspar]

Could we not just say that one team is on an island(without saying which team), and let the players decide if a reroll is in order?

Yeah, on second thought this makes the most sense.

[Krill]

Not really, because you don't always get an island. If playing with an island was a no-no then that should have been agreed prior to kick off.

EDIT: In fact, I think discussing this with the players is a VERY BAD idea. Make a decision to restart the process with the same leaders and civs and new map or carry on, but do not talk to the players.

[Selrahc]

Not really, because you don't always get an island.

Given the ethos of the game, making sure it will be fun is probably more important than keeping map knowledge absolutely inviolate.

I mean just from a personal point of view, I'd be feeling quite miffed if I signed up for a massive, crazy, always war pangaea and found myself isolated on a desert island with no warning at all. At least if there is a public player vote then nobody will be blindsided.

[Krill]

Given the ethos of the game, making sure it will be fun is probably more important than keeping map knowledge absolutely inviolate.

I mean just from a personal point of view, I'd be feeling quite miffed if I signed up for a massive, crazy, always war pangaea and found myself isolated on a desert island with no warning at all. At least if there is a public player vote then nobody will be blindsided.

It was always possible that this happened, and all of them were aware that it could happen. None of them are blindsided. However, I did say that a new map could be created. All that has to be said to the players is that we found a flaw in the map that made it unsuitable. Whatever, just make the decision here (or preferably the game admin, the poor bastard, can make it). All that a discussion will create is an argument.

[kalin]

I have just started to read some of the threads and saw the map issue. Fwiw, my lurker opinion is to let the map be as is. The spirit of the game as I understand it was to play a potentially imbalanced map and see what different players can make of whatever hand they are dealt...

Kalin