FFH PBEM3?

[Amelia]

Erm, i'll pass. As most of you know, i'm currently in a terrible state because of illness, and thus it's hard for me to do anything concrete done (playing turns is easy though). Thanks for the offer but I'll take a break from this one.

[WarriorKnight]

Patch n:
Bobchillingworth - prefers new civs, no settlers challenge
Selrahc - same as Bob
Reverend Doctor - probably on Selrahc's team
WarriorKnight - can upgrade, prefers less restricted

So with Revered now a lurker of Selrahc, that leaves 3 people for the N game. I'm not sure that's enough tbh, especially if it's not going to be with the latest patch. I'll stay unpatched for now just in case someone else joins who has N, but I think we'll probably have to scrap this game.

Patch o:
Sciz
Mr. Yellow - prefers leaders not used
Thoth - prefers unrestricted
Mardoc - prefers unrestricted

Not sure:
Dantski

Probably only Bob, Selrahc, and Sciz are stuck in their current patch versions.

So that's 4, 5 with Dantski, 6 with me. Maybe 7 if Bob or Selrahc wants to dual install. That's enough for one game, maybe 2 if we get some more people. We might as well start discussing settings.

Firstly, we need a mapmaker. Any volunteer's out there?

Next, some game settings:

1. Leader/Civ Choice
a) No restrictions with normal leaders
b) Some restrictions for normal leaders (no calabim/only unpicked civs, etc.)
c) Unrestricted leaders of some type

2. No settlers & Barb world
a) yes
b) no

3. What era start?
a) ancient (standard)
b) classical



I'm assuming the following:

NTT

Quick Speed

Lairs/Huts on

Orthus on

Normal Barbs



Some other stuff I'm not sure of:

Diffficulty? Probably Emperor/Immortal

Acheron, what do we do with him? I would prefer if he was disabled

Living World/ Hell Terrain/ Wildlands etc. Anybody want these options?

And unique features, or at least the big 3 and the Guardian. Keep them away from the player's starts presumably.



And I've probably forgotten something, so if there's anything else then please bring it up.

[Thoth]

I'd be in favour of

No restrictions on civ, but not unrestricted leaders.

No to barb world/no settlers

Yes to raging barbs

Huts on
Blessings of Amatheon: on
Doubled events: yes
Acheron: off
Ortheus: off
ancient start.
All or none on Unique features.

Difficulty: don't really care.

[Dantski]

Dantski, I'm pretty sure if you load the mod then hit the 'about' button, it'll tell you version number. I'm not at my civ computer to check, though

Unfortunately this only tells me my BtS version, however I played the patch o save for the FfH adventure so I should have that one.

1. Leader/Civ Choice
a) No restrictions with normal leaders
b) Some restrictions for normal leaders (no calabim/only unpicked civs, etc.)
c) Unrestricted leaders of some type

2. No settlers & Barb world
a) yes
b) no

3. What era start?
a) ancient (standard)
b) classical



I'm assuming the following:

NTT

Quick Speed

Lairs/Huts on

Orthus on

Normal Barbs



Some other stuff I'm not sure of:

Diffficulty? Probably Emperor/Immortal

Acheron, what do we do with him? I would prefer if he was disabled

Living World/ Hell Terrain/ Wildlands etc. Anybody want these options?

And unique features, or at least the big 3 and the Guardian. Keep them away from the player's starts presumably.



And I've probably forgotten something, so if there's anything else then please bring it up.

1. Pick restrictions - Either no Calabim or none is my preference.

2. No settlers/barb world - never played OCC in FfH so would be at a definite disadvantage, I'm ok with barb world however

3. Starting Era - No preference

4. No trading

5. Quick speed

6. Lairs huts on

7. Barb world + raging barbs are 2 different options? What's the difference if so?

8. Orthus allowed / Duin allowed / Acheron diabled

9. Living World on (hey it makes 1 turn per day a little more exciting!)

10. Compact enforced, I'd prefer it to be on, but I'm not dead set against it.

11. Unique features - All on map and placement at mapmakers discretion.

12. World size - Standard/Small, map script design should be totally upto the mapmaker.

13. Total civs - 6 maximum, unless people feel we can still get a good turnover with more.

14. Difficulty - Emperor, this is dependent on the barb options I guess?

15. Everyone starts with a thread updating slave so I don't have to do it!

[Sciz]

don't care about any of the settings, i'm fine with anything except i don't really want no settlers

[Mr. Yellow]

1. Just leaders not picked yet.

2. No to no settlers, neutral on barb world.

3. Standard era

4. No tech trade

5. Quick speed

6. Both on

7. Neutral on Raging barbs

8. Disable Acheron, Orthus on

9. Neutral on Living World

10. Standard AC

11. Unique features on, if either of the big 3 is in, put them inbetween 2 or more players.

[WarriorKnight]

My choice:

Can't choose leaders already picked (typical I choose the option I forgot about )

Quick speed and NTT

Acheron disabled

Neutral on Living world, other options off

Default settings for everything else.

[Selrahc]

I'll try and get my patch issues sorted then if everyone is going patch O. Hopefully a dual install won't be a problem.

Let me champion my particular weird leader/civ idea for a second, before I vote on the options.

Unrestricted leaders does work in FFH. And it might do something to energize a few of the more lacklustre civs. I talked it around with Bob a bit, and we can't come up with any really broken combinations, with the possible exception of aggressive Sheaim. Certainly some combinations, like charismatic Sidar, are a dramatic up powering. But all it really does is add a little more spark into the selection procedures.

Incidentally, in FFH there are civ traits and there are leader traits. The civ traits are:
Horselords (Hippus)
Dextrous (Ljosalfar)
Sinister (Svartalfar)
Agnostic (Grigori, but Auric has it as a regular trait. Illians with a different leader can take religions. But that would be heresy against the Winter King.)
Fallow (Infernal)
Guardsman (Elohim)
Sprawling (Kuriotate)
Sundered (Sheaim)

I only really bring this up because there are two important exceptions. Barbarian(Peace with Barbarian civs) and Tolerant(Conquered cities retain nationality and can build troops from its original civ). Those traits are attached to leaders, and will follow them through different civilizations. If you want a Barbarian Sheaim, Jonas Endain can do the job. If you want a tolerant Grigori then Einon Logos will let that happen. It's the biggest oddity that unrestricted leaders creates, it I think that adds to the fun. Not least because Barbarian has hefty negatives, and Tolerant is attached to some fairly poor leaders.


Anyway, the reason I'd like to do unrestricted leaders is because I think we're all aware that there are some standard stronger picks and weaker picks, civilization wise. I think we've all got a rough idea of what that order is. By opening up the field to unrestricted leaders we can hopefully throw a bit more of a spark into the selections, keep the opponents guessing, and maybe even throw out some crazy oddball combo that nobody has ever even thought of before and surprise us all. By doing that I'd hope we can kick this PBEM off with a bang.

Alright, I've said my piece. If you all want to go for the normal (boring, yawntastic ) restricted selection then I won't kick up a fuss. But I would strongly prefer to give unrestricted leaders a whirl.

[Toshi]

I'd be interested in joining. If not this one then the next. I could also lurk. Im newish to ffh (played half a dozen single player games) and no pro civ 4 player but I know a fun game when i play one.

[T-hawk]

I'll try and get my patch issues sorted then if everyone is going patch O. Hopefully a dual install won't be a problem.

Since FFH is a mod and lives entirely within the Beyond the Sword\Mods folder, this should be easy. In the Mods folder, copy your existing folder to something like "FFH2 patch N", and install O. To swap back, just rename the directories the other way. I have no direct experience, but based on my understanding of Civ 4's mod file structure, this should work.