Is there any interest in getting another game going for the fresher faces, now that PB61 is done? I obviously won't be playing, but I can whip up another map if there's interest.

Signups:
1. JackRB
2. Bing
3. Joshy
4. Ginger


IslandShark: Superdeath

Current Diplo discord link: https://discord.gg/9qQzxQ9hCW Updated 10-5

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...edit#gid=0 Voting Spreadsheet

Throwing around the idea for having another diplo pitboss. NO tech trading this time around as that probably was the more un-balancing part of the last diploPB. Start time perhaps mid January?


-no barbs-

-no tech trading-

Im open to almost anything else.


7-10 players?

1. Mjmd
2. Superdeath
3. Tarkeel
4. Ginger + GKC
5. Charriu
6. Bing
7.
8.
9.
10.

Diablo II: Resurrected | 12.2 - PC Patch Notes - 2.3 / Build 67314 is live!

For those of you who does not keep up with the latest patch and updates, there are a few note worthy improvements in this patch worth checking out. I have not done a deep dive into the entire update but here a couple of nice QoL improvement and possibly a Game Changer for some people and build

* Fixed an issue where if you attempted to deposit more gold into your stash than the stash could fit, no gold would be deposited at all

You don't need to be a math wizard anymore to figure out how much you can deposit into your stash. LoL

* Pets, Summons, and Mercenaries will now warp to a player’s location if they are far away from the player’s character

About time

* Players can now enable “Force Move,” an option available in the control settings which can allow the player to command their character to move to a specific location without targeting monsters

This might save a few accidental deaths

* Players can now enable the “Active Skill Bindings” bar. This additional bar shown above the standard HUD represents the skills (up to 16) players have mapped for their character.

Very convenient quick glance at what your current hokey setup.
Did I have LA mapped to F2, or Berserk on F3?
Is my bar set up for solo, or support?

* Players can now enable “Quick Cast,” an option available in game settings which can allow the player to use abilities with hotkeys without having to select the skill in the UI

This can a a game changer for some people (like myself with butter fingers) and some builds. 

Example: I always have Teleport mapped to F8 and active on my glass canon sorceress build. Teleport is a very useful skill for positioning the merc and yourself to safety and targeting attacks. She very rarely use the left click to walk (see Force Move). So it was always a decision if it would be worth switch skills (say Hydra to deal with Fire Immunes) not not having teleport ready in case I needed to bail. Sometimes, I just get lazy. With Quick Cast, just press the key to instantly use other skills while Teleport will still be the active skill on the right click.

That goes the same for the left click. Now it makes more sense to throw in a Glacial Spike in between Frozen Orbs

Being able to quickly cycle thru skills and still have your favourite skills on the ready is going to change some builds and play style. What's your take?

It's been over a year now since the last game. Codenames anyone?

Starting a thread. I'll edit in a real post at some point.

Password: ottomans

Spoiler thread. More to come. Maybe.

password:

Well well well, said the penny as it fell down.
Welcome everyone to my first pitboss, I hope I put on a good show for all you lurkers, as I display the full handicap that singleplayer habits encourage. (4 city Lib anyone?  ). At any rate it'll be the job of my dedlurkers to fight my passive instincts and force me to settle more cities. I was so excited at to see the thread open for this pitboss, that I immediately went to go click on the threads to see what people had written   . So... shortly after I clicked and opened the first player's thread to appear, I realized my mistake   . Sorry Bing, I read what what picks you were angling for, and to be fair I had no intention of going for either. It's probably nothing, but if one of the lurkers sees fit, you might want to alert him to that. My first scandalous disgrace aside, lets get to some theorycrafting and picks.

Civs and Traits can be boiled down to two main classes, economic and expansion. This will be my first game with not only pitboss but also Close to Home, so fun times ahead.
Let's start with traits:
Eco:
FIN -My name is Financial, Trait of Traits, look upon my GNP ye mighty, and despair...  Oh how the mighty have fallen  . Riverside Cottages are now 10 gold less valuable, with regular cottages now giving 20 gold less than before. Still powerful long term, but the initial hit is admittedly rough. 
PHI -the second best economic trait in BtS got buffed in CtH, this is a very strong pickup, the sheer amount of GNP that can be produced from GPP is truly nuts with PHI. I mean imagine starting with triple Parthenon, what more can you ask? 
ORG -dirty deeds done dirt cheap. Whether its whipping infrastructure, or paying for the bloated carcass that constitutes a late game empire, Organized always gives value, with very little effort (cough PHI), and very little bias in the usual decisions (cough FIN). 
SPI -I can never rate this trait satisfactorily, either its useless because my golden ages came at the right time, or wonderful because I'm min-maxing Pyramids, Religion, and Paci/Caste. In CtH there's the very powerful Serfdom civic, which is pretty much beholden to playing with Spi. 
Ind -Honestly given how powerful wonders can be, this is a considerably decent pickup if you make use of it, but probably only as a combo pick of some kind. Heavily incentivized to Oracle gambit for 2 pop forges. Think of this trait in terms of giving you a wonder, and you'll start to see the light it shines. (For what mere mortal trait can compete with the lux aeterna of the Pyramids?)
CHA -This seriously depends on the map, 2 extra early happy with the promise of triple promo mounted down the line is amazing if there's not just a gems or ivory right around the corner. Dedlurkers, if you know Tarkeel's habits, clue me in on this one please
PRO -No longer the hot trash it was in BtS, can do some fun things like GLH and Carthage (which Amicalola showed in PB60), gets a power spike at banking, and gets a power spike if there are multiple other PROtectionists imposing barriers to the free market. Oh and it has a defensive bonus too. Yay guys, if I'm losing, I'll lose slower  


Expansion:
IMP: what does withdrawal feel like? Well play a game with imperialistic leader that lasts more than 60 turns and you'll know the answer. 
EXP: Aquaduct boost, hell ya baby! oh and something about granaries too
CRE: a very flexible and powerful early game trait that like CHA, depends on the whims of the map maker. Will probably pick if I start without Mysticism
AGG: Neat, I guess, probably better as a deterrent than anything else, hook up your copper early and you dont have to take that forward settling crap from anyone. A good pick with Rome, because Charriu you beautiful bastard, Praets are still 8str. (Hey any word on whether Levees could go to Engineering? ...no this has nothing to do with the Dutch, why do you ask? :P)

So why would I go through the trouble of spending 20 min typing out the reinvented wheel? Because if my (ded)lurkers spot anything here they vehemently disagree with, or view as a vestigial habit of singleplayer meta, please let me know!
For my next post I'll look at what civs and potential combos I'm interested in trying out, I wanted to split them for brevity.

I've kind of just been doing whatever vaguely shanty song I like. A lot of which aren't historic at all. So this time I'm going to stick to some more traditional shanties.



Your going to be seeing a lot of this guy. He does traditional shanties with little historical bits. His shanty of the week series has a tad bit more info, but they are longer and a bit more rambly.

For instance his shanty of the week is 6+ minutes vs this version just over 2 min. So here is a longer descriptor of the main fact your missing out on.

Quote:Stamp and go shanty
Also called a "runaway" or "walk away" shanty. Although technically a hauling action, the work accompanied by this type of shanty was continuous in nature. Thus the songs had longer choruses, similar to heaving shanties. The work entailed many hands taking hold of a line with their backs to the "fall" (where the line reaches the deck from aloft) and marching away with it along the deck.
On vessels of war, the drum and fife or boatswain's whistle furnish the necessary movement regulator. There, where the strength of one or two hundred men can be applied to one and the same effort, the labor is not intermittent, but continuous. The men form on either side of the rope to be hauled, and walk away with it like firemen marching with their engine. When the headmost pair bring up at the stern or bow, they part, and the two streams flow back to the starting-point, outside the following files. Thus in this perpetual "follow-my-leader" way the work is done, with more precision and steadiness than in the merchant-service.

As this maneuver could only be used on ships with large crews, such as vessels of war—in which few shanties were sung—shanties to accompany it were few in number and were not often noted in context. The most commonly cited example is "Drunken Sailor", which is thought to be one of the few shanties allowed in the Royal Navy.

Naming scheme - Chinese literary references and idioms brutalised by google translate
Picks - China for the meme (and for being a pretty decent civ?), then I guess PRO-CRE to have an easy reliable time.s

Into the Pitboss fire once more

First Pitboss went, overall, OK. Will need to reread PB61 overall I think, but my memory is that, aside from the obvious mistakes liked losin a war before it effectively begun (and no scouting! why) was that the early game in expansion and development was, alright (even if I benefitted quite significantly from the early BING/rekenner war). I'm tempted to try and pick in a similar way that leans into this again. It's kinda boring, but I need to get the boring things down before I can do more interesting stuff. Also would like to make a more concerted effort to update a little bit more than I did last time.

And once again, am gonna need to think about a naming convention early, considering how much I struggled with it first time round! Probably music related but we'll see

(also, ded lurkers welcome!)