PBEM14 Organizing Thread

[plako]

If you need a map maker/checker I'm available.

[novice]

The maps a big one. I pretty much hate the maps for the 3 most recent PBEMs (no offense to eir creators) and would most enjoy something like the maps for PBEMs 6 or 7.

From playing pbem13 and lurking pbem7, those maps seem pretty similar, but I guess you shouldn't really expand on the differences (without spoiler tags).

[Jowy]

School's ending in a couple of weeks and I didn't get where I wanted next, so I have to wait till next year. Perfect time for some Civ :P Sandover's conditions sound good to me, exactly the game I'd want to play.

[Twinkletoes89]

Sandover's conditions look good 7 i'd be interested in playing if possible

[scooter]

Let me go through Sandover's requirements first before saying more, as he gave a good structure of what I had in mind:

- BtS without mods.
- No tech trading.
- Spies either banned or handicapped.
- No mirrors, extremely equalised starting positions or such crap. Bottom line I want a natural looking map that's worth exploring.
- No highland map.

All of these are things I had in mind. We've done a lot of novelty maps and such, but I'm in the mood for something fairly natural looking this time. It doesn't have to be a straight up map generation obviously and some thought will have to go into balancing, but I was hoping there'd be less of an emphasis on those things and a greater emphasis on just something normal that would be fun. By the way, I'm good with Plako doing the map design, so I'm going to pencil him in as map maker. The first three things on the list were exactly what I wanted as well.

- I'd want a very specific time frame where I'm supposed to play the game, and will ignore the save outside of this time frame.
- I'd reserve the right to immediately drop out if the game is held up repeatedly or extensively.

I'd like this to be a reliable game. PBEM7 was hands down the most reliable PBEM game I've seen, and I think it's no coincidence that it ended up being a very fun game. We rarely missed a turn, and if we did we often made up for it by occasionally getting in a second on weekends. If you don't think you will be reliable, then now would be the time to back out.

- No scooter chickening out when he sees my signup. I know he's prone to run off to some corner and hide.

Errrr... No comment.

I also see that Serdoa and Krill had the time to jump in ahead of me as I wrote this, so maybe I'm too late anyway.

As an aside, diplomacy in a game that includes Sandover, Serdoa, and Krill would go down as one of the more interesting things that's ever occurred here.

--------------------------


The players who have expressed interest so far, in the order that they spoke up:

scooter
Lewwyn
Serdoa
Krill
Sandover
-----
Gaspar
Jowy
Twinkletoes

I'd like to limit the game to 5 players, though I could maybe be talked into 6. I feel 5 is the sweet spot for PBEM's in that it's a fun number, but it gives you one less chance of having someone missing the turn in a day - and frequent missed turns kill enthusiasm extremely quickly. So for the moment, I'm going to cap it at five, and give preference in order of signups as it seems the fairest way. Ded-lurking is very much an option, so I don't think anyone needs to get left out. If one player is signing up but will need a sub this summer, it would make sense for either one of the people who missed the cut (or who haven't seen this thread yet but are interested) to sign up as a ded-lurker. For instance, if Jowy doesn't have two people drop out to make it into the game, I believe he lives in the same country as Sandover, so timezone-wise it'd be a natural fit.

I'm going to sum up the settings I have in mind so it's in one spot:

-No Tech Trading: I think the interest in tech trading is pretty much zero
-5 Civs: gonna take some arm twisting for 6
-Map settings: what Sandover said, fairly natural and not necessarily mirrored. Good balance, but not necessarily perfect balance.
-No spies (you could possibly talk me into very limited spy use)

All other settings I'm willing to discuss. Diplo, screenshots, leader/civ selection, etc - all of those things I'm willing to go with whatever the crowd wants, as I don't have strong enough preferences for any of them to be deal-breakers. Serdoa, Krill, and I believe someone else both asked about settings, so if there's any specific questions about other settings, ask away. Maybe the better question is - what do you guys want? I'm fairly flexible, I'm just looking for a fun game.

[Twinkletoes89]

Well if you are looking at 5 players then I will offer myself as a ded-lurker to anyone who feels they need one. I have one of the most flexible playing times so I can be of assistance

[Lewwyn]

Yay for fun. I'm definitely in favor of low tweaked map. Everything else on that list sounds fine to me as well.

[plako]

If you don't want me messing much about the map please consider, if you want to dictate the map script used or let it to be mystery. You should also consider how balanced you want it. Based on your wishes it seems to me that you're alright that there are big differences in amount and quality of land and positioning of the resources. I obvivously would try to make everyone's position playable but how do you feel if there are big differences e.g. in the availability of strategic resources?

[Kyan]

If there's a lot of interest, you could always start more than one game. Note this is probably not a sign up. I cannot play anymore until pbem4 is done. Rego asked me about a potential game also so maybe he would be interested in this?

[scooter]

If you don't want me messing much about the map please consider, if you want to dictate the map script used or let it to be mystery. You should also consider how balanced you want it. Based on your wishes it seems to me that you're alright that there are big differences in amount and quality of land and positioning of the resources. I obvivously would try to make everyone's position playable but how do you feel if there are big differences e.g. in the availability of strategic resources?

Personally, I'm flexible on these things so what I'm saying in this post isn't authoritative quite yet, but my comments about the map were more along the lines of emphasizing natural rather than de-emphasizing balance. For example, the two recent maps that Ruff made for PBEM's were very creative and inventive, but they are not really what I'm looking for in this game. I guess the idea I had in mind is something that when you are exploring, it could feel like a fairly normal map, except no player gets un-luckily screwed by the generator. It's become common to mirror everyone's start, so for a change I'd like to try to avoid that, although the starts are probably still going to be relatively similar due to balance. I shouldn't be able to know where my copper is and immediately figure out where my neighbor's copper is, but we should both have relatively equal chance at getting it, if that makes sense.

I'm not in favor of stamping out creativity/balance, I'm just not interested in every tile being forest or there being railroads down already or something crazy like that, as to me, it gets old quickly. That said, I'd leave the choice of script basically in your hands.