...recommend? I started a game as Portugal on Noble with all the default settings, and by the middle ages things quickly started to look bleak. So tell me all the settings that you recommend for someone who is playing Civ4 for the first time in a while.

BTW I've won games on Noble level in Warlords, but I've never won anything in BtS.

Also, I might try to chronicle my game on this very site.

The start of the RB Pitboss was a great success. It gives life into the RB Civilization forum. Many more people started to participate in the other RB events (epics and adventures), and maybe it’s the right time to channel the increased interest and start a second Pitboss game? I know I am not the person, who should announce such an event but I just want to start a discussion.


But before I go further first some of my thoughts on the existing RB Pitboss.
I really like the map Sulla has created. The lake script gives the ideal balance of land and water, creates natural chock points, is interesting strategically and don’t exclude any civilization, like in the case of Vikings and rocky Pangea. Personally I would prefer a smaller map, but I understand it’s so big to prevent early rushes, which is good too. IMO an early rush involves little thinking and more playing along the schemes: beeline to certain tech, chop, whip a bunch of units and send them to the nearest neighbor, not very deep strategically.

[SIZE="4"]EDIT: Spoilerish info deleted[/SIZE]

The map is the strongest point of the RB Pitboss, but the game is not without some flaws.

1. For me, the major flaw is the creation of UTA / NUTA and the division of the players into two antagonist teams. Instead of a free for all game you have a team multiplayer game. I know it’s the consequence of “no tech brokering” option. You need to stick with some guys if you don’t want to fall off the tech trading loop. I started to think, what would make the game better. First I think about “no tech trading” option, but it’s not a solution neither. Everybody would beeline to military techs (i.e. BW, IW, Writing, Mathematics, Construction) and the player who goes there first and maintains some tech advantage wins. Not really interesting. Then I thought about some other limitation, which on the one hand allows tech trading, and on the other prevents establishing big trading blocks. I think such an option come into my mind:

“no tech brokering” checked, and:
You can give only one tech to one player, and you can receive only one tech from one player. It’s up to you if you exchange techs, give it for money, give it for troops, or give it for free.

At the start the idea seems a little harsh, but the longer I thought about it, the more I was convinced the idea is right. In a 11 players game you can exchange 10 techs (one tech with 10 different players), maybe it’s not the world record but it is quite a lot. There is no pressure to form big teams now, because there is no point to form tech alliances, and at last the game has a chance to become a true FFA.

2. IMO, the second flaw is an unrealistic diplomacy.
Historical, the contact between states leaders was very difficult. There was not such thing as a real time contact on demand, and due to this many wars broke out, many wrong decisions was made just because of misunderstanding or lack of information. The reaction to new situations and coordination between several allies was very hard and tricky. In Civilization you can do it in real time via chat, what is not historically accurate.
You put some rules here, to make it more realistic, but I would throw some more in:

1. No contact until in-game contact.
2. No messages longer than 180 letters before Writing. It’s the ancient form of SMS To reflect the fact the massages were remembered and then repeated by messengers before Writing was invented. It’s hard to remember several pages of text
3. No screenshots or maps trading before Paper.
4. No chat before Radio.


3. The difficulty level. I think Noble is too low. It has too many player bonuses, and the only viable opening strategy is REXing without looking at the upkeep. The second consequence of Noble difficulty is the very fast tech progress. Add to this the size of the map, and the result will be an army becoming obsolete in transit to an enemy, especially in later eras, when a tech discovering time is around 2-4 turns.
Prince is the next level, but it’s the big step from the Noble difficulty. At least you have to put some attention to your upkeep level, balance expansion and economy, and at last the Organized trait become a viable option. You can consider higher difficulty levels, Monarch or even Emperor, but I think Prince can be enough.

4. Unrestricted leaders. The game designers banned some leaders/civs combinations for a reason. That’s way you have no Aggressive Rome, no Expansive Incans, and no Organized HRE. There is at least 15-16 viable civs to choose, and there is no need to mix the civs with different leaders. Some people would argue, this way the player who choose their civ first is in the best position. It’s true but you can offset this by some kind of auction. Let’s say you give every player some gold (50 ?) to start with. You can secretly bet none, part or the entire sum in a PM to the map designer. The person who bets the most can choose their civ first, the person who bet the second most choose next and so on. If two or more players bet the same sum, the map designer draw the order. The rest unused gold is transferred to your civilization.

Example: you have 50 gold, and decided to bet 20, and PMed the map creator about your decision. After all players bets, the map creator post a list with the players and the sums they bet. The player, who bets the most is on the top. With your bet of 20 gold you are in the 5th place. This mean you can choose your civ as 5th player, and the rest 30 gold is transferred to your civilization.


And the final question: are here some people who want to participate in such a game? I know it’s not the best moment to start another multiplayer, with so many other events just started, but the first RB Pitboss draw so much interest into RB forum, that maybe some lurkers would want to play the new Pitboss game instead of just … lurking, and maybe some people involved in the Poly Demogame, have more time now and want to use it here This is just the start of a discussion and a check if it’s enough interest to create the second Pitboss.

[SIZE="4"]Proposed game’s rules:[/SIZE]

Game: RB Pitboss 2
Start: Ancient
Difficulty: Prince (maybe higher?)
Map: (to be decided or to the decision of a map designer)
Size: depends on the number of players
Game speed: Normal

- No tech brokering + you can give only one tech to one player, and you can receive only one tech from one player.
- Restricted leaders
- No vassal states
- Normal barbs
- Tribal Villages and Random events – to be decided

- No contact until in-game contact.
- No messages longer than 180 letters before Writing. To reflect the fact the massages were remembered and then repeated by messengers before Writing was invented.
- No screenshots or maps trading before Paper.
- No chat before Radio.

I am not a veteran player, participated in only 3 RB adventures, and I feel a little guilty for starting the thread, but maybe there are more players, who desperately needed a second Pitboss .... like me

Last month a few people got together for an [OLD] run SD tourney. Didn't make it super far but the tourney was run fairly smoothly. They're hosting another one with larger teams and stakes now. Rules are here

Who: 6v6 tournament. You can sign up to 8 people up and swap them over the course of the tourney, or use heroes if necessary. The 8 names you use must be final by the tourney start.

What: sealed deck GvG scrimmage. You will be given a pool of skills at the start of each match and your team has only 15 minutes to build from them. A PvP slot and extra balth faction are recommended for fast building; I can spare some balthazar flames for extra faction.

When: Saturday Oct 3rd, 7 PM EDT / 11 PM GMT. I would guess almost 3 hours if we managed to stay in the entire tourney.

Where: RB Vent

Why: 48 ZKeys for the 1st place team, 24 Zkeys for 2nd. Oh and because sealed is fun.

I'd like to see how many RBers we get. If numbers are small we might combine efforts with AB, if not then I can try a few allies to fill spots.

Sick of people not declaring war? Sick of too much namby pamby diplomacy? Want to play a reliable PBEM?

See http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.p...stcount=86 for details. Tell PoM that ruff sent you .

In the interests of moving forward on implementing the guidelines, we need to install 2 Leaders for the Peer Review Council, who will serve for a 6 month term (this is what the guidelines state, but of course we'll revisit the whole thing in 3 months).

I'm calling for nominations for the Council Leader positions. Self-nominations are welcome; you may also choose to nominate a fellow guildie (but please make sure via PM that they'd be willing to serve before you nominate them!). No one should take this lightly; if you serve as a Council Leader, you're agreeing to deal with, and work to resolve, troublesome situations.

The floor is open!

Science is for wimps!

With both MP games still on hold, and no current official event, I played an OCC this week. It became interesting enough to share here.

Civ: Gandhi of India
Speed: Normal
Map: Hub, standard size, other settings normal
Difficulty: Emperor
AIs: Normal number, random
Extras: One City Challenge

We haven't tried bumping an OCC to Emperor yet, so here goes. And most of the previous OCC snacks have been cottage and commerce oriented, so here's one where both the civ and start call for specialists. (That was the first start I rolled, I swear!)

Win however you can, which will probably be space. You can aim for fastest finish if you want. The usual rule for these games is that you just post your report in this thread when you have finished. There is no closing date, just try not to read this thread (for spoiler reasons) until you are done. I'll post mine around the end of the weekend (though it's just text notes, I didn't take screenshots.)



http://www.dos486.com/civ4/weekendocc6/w...4000bc.zip

For newcomers to Realms Beyond!

Please reply to this thread to introduce yourself to the rest of the guild. Tell us what your major characters are, what times/days you usually play, and if you have any goals for your characters that you'd like help in achieving.

Welcome to the guild!

Hawkmoon
Guild Leader

Please use this thread to request guild invitations, if you need them.

The vote on adopting the set of guidelines (in "Guild Direction" thread) has closed, and the vote totals were 10 Yes, 1 outright No, and 1 "indeterminate". If we add the "indeterminate" to the Nos, the motion still carries, 10-2.

So let's move forward!

I'll start moving folks from Member to Officer (I think just about everyone who's active has been with us for over the requisite 2 weeks) tonight when I get online. I'm still going to keep folks who haven't been active for 3 months or more in the Members list, however.

I'd like to remind everyone that this is a trial, that we'll revisit the issue in 3 months to evaluate how it's working. But for now, we're going to put the whole shebang into practice. But it's not set in stone, and if you see something that isn't working, or have a suggestion as to how to make things work better, don't be shy about speaking up!

Let's all approach this Grand Experiment in a positive light, and make it work. And please remember that the one apparent bone of contention, the Peer Review Council, is supposed to be a last resort, when private means of resolving the situation have failed. I, and I think most if not all of the folks here, would like to never have to invoke it! So play nice.

Hawkmoon