Any interest in a FFH/EITB Pitboss/PBEM?

[Lord Parkin]

Woops! Yeah I meant simultaneous.

Sure I'll pay a pbem - what do you say about waiting fir version one of the update to be out so we can test it?

Sounds good. What sort of time frame do you expect for the update to be finished - a week, a month, more?

[Lord Parkin]

It also occurs to me that even if simultaneous pitboss isn't workable for player vs player combat, it's possible to do a team game with players vs strong AI. So kind of like a Succession Game but with everyone active at once. (AI always moves first, so no issue with fairness.)

[Lord Parkin]

Another thought - is it possible to house rule around the magic system in simultaneous pitboss? For instance, allowing all players to cast spells before any combat takes place? Alternating the order of who gets to cast spells first each turn?

[Lord Parkin]

It also occurs to me that even if simultaneous pitboss isn't workable for player vs player combat, it's possible to do a team game with players vs strong AI. So kind of like a Succession Game but with everyone active at once. (AI always moves first, so no issue with fairness.)

To elaborate a bit on how I think this could work:



Three teams of 5-7 players. Humans play Team GOOD. Emperor/Immortal difficulty.

Team GOOD:
Bannor
Elohim
Kuriotates
Luchuirp
Malakim
(Mercurians)

Team NEUTRAL:
Amurites
Grigori
Hippus
Khazad
Lanun
Ljosalfar
Sidar

Team EVIL:
Balseraphs
Calabim
Clan of Embers
Doviello
Illians
Sheaim
Svartalfar
(Infernal)

Reduction of team research bonuses and/or flat multiplication of tech costs will probably be required.

Possible additional flavour (requiring some AI edits):
- Team GOOD is not permitted to switch to Ashen Veil, Octopus Overlords or Council of Esus.
- Team NEUTRAL is not permitted to switch to Ashen Veil or Order.
- Team EVIL is not permitted to switch to Order, Runes of Kilmorph or Empyrean.

Might be necessary to consider Compact Enforced - unless no-one cares about Hyborem being on a weak 4th team. Hell terrain is kind of neat after all, and it would be nice to introduce a 6th human player with the Mercurians.

Thoughts?

[Bobchillingworth]

Not signing up to play- but I might have an idea for a good vs. evil (humans vs. AI) map, if you guys decide to try that


You might want to try recruiting players on Civfanatics, if you can't get enough here- one or two people there recently mentioned wanting to join a new game. Bringing in new people would be awesome for the community as well.

[Lord Parkin]

Not signing up to play- but I might have an idea for a good vs. evil (humans vs. AI) map, if you guys decide to try that

Neat, if you could make a map that'd be great! You'd prefer to leave the Neutral civs out then? I'm fine either way.

Also, any suggestions on settings to make it work better would be welcome. I think getting the research rate right will be the key to a good game - with 5-7 players per team, it could easily get too fast. How did team research work out in EITB Pitboss 1?

My other thoughts (open for comments):

- Huge map probably necessary with 12-19 players at the start (though I'll leave that up to Bob)
- Normal speed (it's a Pitboss after all)
- No Technology Trading
- Perhaps Always War for flavour
- No Vassal States
- Blessing of Amathaon (if relevant for Bob)
- Living World (events are fun!)
- Last Days (I've never experienced above AC30, so let's have fun!)
- All Unique Features (love this setting)
- Human Basium (if he's in the game)
- Compact Enforced? (Not sure on this one, Hyborem on his own team will never win but I wouldn't like to leave the Infernals and Mercurians out of the game.)

You might want to try recruiting players on Civfanatics, if you can't get enough here- one or two people there recently mentioned wanting to join a new game. Bringing in new people would be awesome for the community as well.

Sure, if I can't find enough folks interested here I'll bring it to Civfanatics once I've figured out the settings. Heck, could post it there anyway since it might gain some interested lurkers.

Though if we're playing Team GOOD we only need 5 players at the start (4 since I'll be in it).

[Sian]

Would say that the listed races is argubly incomplete from the standpoint that some races (Ljosalfar springs to mind) have leaders of different alignments to choose between ... Malakim, Bannor and Calabim can all also pick Decius, which can pick freely between all alignments

[Molach]

I'd take one of team good for a spin -

Regarding summons in PB (humans) - if people were forced to disband 1-turn summons after using them - spectres and fireballs. Not good solution, but more equal..?

[Ichabod]

I have interest in playing, if we keep things casual and friendly. With a system that people can cover for the others when someone can't play, for example (I may be away for a while in the summer).

Maybe preplace Hyborem with the other evil civs? Perhaps a bit further away to not screw them with hell terrain early. Than we can turn compact enforced on (so as to not have a chance of messing with the PB settings).

[Qgqqqqq]

I'm not sure that I'm interested in playing against the AI - I get the feeling it would get tedious very quickly - so I'll step aside for now. I intend to release the first version of the update within a week and a half, which is probably less time then if would take to get organised so it shouldn't be an issue.