[PB82 Tech Thread] 3-city elimination

[RefSteel]

I'm happy to play with 4 as well. And if we kick off early and run an extended timer over Thanksgiving that is fine with me. And if we need to take a pause when Scooter is out of town that's fine.

Any map makers following this thread? The effort should be low. I’ll lay out a final draft of the settings for a final round of comments from Scooter, Commodore, and Yuris. If we wait until Thursday for a potential 5th/6th, that would allow mapmaker to roll a map over the weekend and into the start of Thanksgiving week if needed. Then after snakepick we should be able to launch around the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Map settings:
Script: Pangaea, temperate climate, "solid" shoreline, cylindrical wrap. Large/Medium Sea Level/Cold Climate is about what I was thinking for 4 players (warm the climate for more useable land area if we pick up a 5th player). High sea level tends to give snaky continents even with "solid" shoreline, and Standard size Pangaea still feels tight with only about 15 tiles between players even with low sea level.

I'm fine with a mostly random map, mainly looking for the map maker to confirm that nobody gets isolated on a snaky leg with only 1 neighbor, and confirm that each player has access to a full set of strategic resources. A roomy map will give time and space to work with what we get, adjust our politics and strategy accordingly. I would like to see a starting screenshot and snake pick though and not go full random.

I'm happy to roll-and-check a map to specifications like these (or anything with similarly light editing). If I do and the game doesn't start super soon, I may reserve the right to make aesthetic edits too (less aimed at balance than at what feels natural to me and to maybe encourage playing the map rather than the mapscript).

[Cornflakes]

I'm happy to roll-and-check a map to specifications like these (or anything with similarly light editing). If I do and the game doesn't start super soon, I may reserve the right to make aesthetic edits too (less aimed at balance than at what feels natural to me and to maybe encourage playing the map rather than the mapscript).

Excellent, thanks! And if you need to move starts around to better fit the landmass that is good as well (I noticed sometimes it squishes all the players towards one side of the map)

[scooter]

I'm pretty open on degree of map balance. No super strong feelings.

I would like to see a starting screenshot and snake pick though and not go full random.

Also prefer having some degree of control over what I pick. Also, snake picks are fun. Any thoughts to trying out a "ban phase" of some sort first? A snake ban would be interesting, or alternately some sort of system where everyone privately ranks their top-5 bans for each, and then a "consensus bans" listed is collated to knock out the top 4-6 vote getters. I think some civs/leaders may shoot up in priority in these settings, so having a chance to weed them out might be worthwhile.

[Cornflakes]

I feel like a full snake ban is a little much for an already unique setup, especially with China and Vikings already banned. But I'd be fine with a consensus ban to weed out a couple top options. Everyone privately picks top 5 bans (Any combination of leaders/civs). Top 2 civs and top 3 leaders get banned ... bans to be voted before snake pick order is randomized. Fine with no bans or even just a top-2 if Yuris/Commodore have a preference.

And speaking of order, my best window is morning US eastern time. In PB50 we had Cornflakes > Yuris > Scooter. Yuris/Scooter are currently in a sequential and Commodore/Yuris are in a sequential but I didn't check the setup to see which order. Any input based on how smoothly those turns pass?

[Cornflakes]

I updated first post to reflect the settings. And I attached the PB82 mod. I used CtH_5.0.0 and added a single file .\Assets\XML\GameInfo\CIV4ReligionInfo.xml with a single line changed for Confucianism <TechPrereq>TECH_MINING</TechPrereq> so that 4 religions are now in ancient era, and all 4 players will get a starting religion.

EDIT: Seems the attachment failed due to zip file size over the limit
EDIT2: Dropbox link to RB82 mod: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dfs7rq0jk2lrpm...1.zip?dl=1

[Cornflakes]

Dropbox link to RB82 mod: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dfs7rq0jk2lrpm...1.zip?dl=1

[scooter]

I feel like a full snake ban is a little much for an already unique setup, especially with China and Vikings already banned. But I'd be fine with a consensus ban to weed out a couple top options. Everyone privately picks top 5 bans (Any combination of leaders/civs). Top 2 civs and top 3 leaders get banned ... bans to be voted before snake pick order is randomized. Fine with no bans or even just a top-2 if Yuris/Commodore have a preference.

This sounds good to me. It's a light preference though if others prefer more/fewer bans.

And speaking of order, my best window is morning US eastern time. In PB50 we had Cornflakes > Yuris > Scooter. Yuris/Scooter are currently in a sequential and Commodore/Yuris are in a sequential but I didn't check the setup to see which order. Any input based on how smoothly those turns pass?

I suspect either variant of Cornflakes -> Yuris -> Scooter/Commodore would work fine. My safest window is evenings US eastern time, but I've been playing PB77 in mornings/afternoons very consistently without trouble. It's possible that availability could change at some point I guess. Commodore, do you have strong preferences about playing before/after me? I feel like you're in a similar spot to me where your window is pretty wide and flexible. In general I don't think turn pace will be an issue at all with this group. If a 5th player shows up it may matter more.

[Commodore]

I feel like a full snake ban is a little much for an already unique setup, especially with China and Vikings already banned. But I'd be fine with a consensus ban to weed out a couple top options. Everyone privately picks top 5 bans (Any combination of leaders/civs). Top 2 civs and top 3 leaders get banned ... bans to be voted before snake pick order is randomized. Fine with no bans or even just a top-2 if Yuris/Commodore have a preference.

This sounds good to me. It's a light preference though if others prefer more/fewer bans.

And speaking of order, my best window is morning US eastern time. In PB50 we had Cornflakes > Yuris > Scooter. Yuris/Scooter are currently in a sequential and Commodore/Yuris are in a sequential but I didn't check the setup to see which order. Any input based on how smoothly those turns pass?

I suspect either variant of Cornflakes -> Yuris -> Scooter/Commodore would work fine. My safest window is evenings US eastern time, but I've been playing PB77 in mornings/afternoons very consistently without trouble. It's possible that availability could change at some point I guess. Commodore, do you have strong preferences about playing before/after me? I feel like you're in a similar spot to me where your window is pretty wide and flexible. In general I don't think turn pace will be an issue at all with this group. If a 5th player shows up it may matter more.

I don't have a strong preference there, I'm pretty flexible. 

Happy with the Cornflakes Ban Method, or lighter bans (just I'd add Mongolia as the no-duh third civ to ban given settings).

[yuris125]

No preference whatsoever from me, happy with anything

And yeah, my window is flexible as well, I'm in the UK but get up late / stay up late, might as well be on EST time

[Cornflakes]

After thinking about it more I’d rather go with fewer bans, add Mongolia to China and Vikings, and just allow any of the leaders.

Turn order Cornflakes > Yuri’s > Scooter > Commodore.

it’s 5 o’clock somewhere it’s Thursday somewhere … I don’t see any reason not to launch this now, with us 4. RefSteel can get started making the map. Final settings:

*Sequential turns*
Classical era, by game setting (custom mod so everyone gets a religion)
Mostly-natural *minimal water* map, not heavily balanced, lighter on resources (much closer to “BtS” than “RB” lushness).
Barbs start with all ancient techs, same as players.
3-city elimination (game setting)
Emperor difficulty

Byzantines, Mongols, China and Vikings banned.
Spies allowed, great spies can scout
Barbs, events, and huts on (no techs from huts)
No Tech Trading
No Barb Cities

Anything I missed that needs to be confirmed before we get a snakepick order randomized? I hadn’t mentioned difficulty yet but I set it at Emperor, and no tech trading obviously.