PBEM4 - Email and Technical Issues

[Cyneheard]

I'd play if it's an AW CTON. I don't have the time for two different games' diplomacy, but running a civ wouldn't be as much of a commitment.

So, that brings up the question:
What are the plans for tech trading and always war?
AW
No Tech Trading
No Brokering
Full Trading
Other, more intricate set-ups.

EDIT: Ruff's limited-trades mod would be fun, as well. With a 5-6 player game, I'd play if it's "can trade each tech once".

[Krill]

Didn't Ruff say it was possible to code a mod that allowed you to trade a tech a limited number of times?

Would such a mod be interesting to the players? FWIW, I'd be interested in playing such a game.

[Whosit]

Point: It's kind of crazy that we have two PBEM threads going, yes?

Second: I think I forgot to say, but if I play, due to real and civ-related responsibilities, I would probably only play this once a day. Might not be as much an issue later in the game, but might slow down the early game, so if you all think that it would be a drag, I'll sit this out.

I can live with no tech trading, I suppose. It would cut down on the diplomacy, at least (kinda hoping I can be "Switzerland" this time around ). Always War . . . the vets could handle it, I'm sure, but would it be too much for the Greenies (which I guess I am a part of, ha ha)? Since this is supposed to be a split game, I'd vote AW down since both MP and AW might be too much of a leap at first.

[Twinkletoes89]

If we are splitting the game into greens and vets - then there can be different settings.

My thought was that there would be an identical map and maybe identical civs in each game.

This means that vets can make their game more challenging, without making it too crazy for the greens!

[seifer_md]

There's no reason why there can't be different settings for the two games, but obviously the more changes between the games the less mirroring we would see, and in retrospect this may be less informative when comparing the games for us 'less experienced' players. Having said that, these games require a great investment of time and effort so I could hardly expect the vets to give up their fun and enjoyment just to benefit us few.

Using identical/matching civs sounds fine to me. I guess at some point players would need to be paired up to pick their respective civs?

[Kyan]

Ok, let's try get some progress.

Things to Decide on

1. Groups. Who will be in 'green' group and who will be in 'vets'?

GREENS

Kyan, Malakai, seifer-md, Strike700, Jowy, Twinkletoes

VETS

Ruff_Hi, Krill, Darrell, Ilios, Cyneheard, Whosit

These are my personal suggestions and are obviously open to debate. I appreciate the compliment Krill but i think when you eventually read our PB3 thread, you'll see Whosit is much more skilled in many areas than I. ( don't tell him though)

2. Civ/Leaders

Plenty of options here. My personal preference would be to choose your own civ/leader snake pick style. However, this would be interesting with the vets and greens having a mirror image.

Therefore my vote would be that the greens do the snake pick, this would leave the vets with whatever combination was picked by the greens which might suck slightly- but how is that different to totally random anyway?

This would need to be done BEFORE greens and vets are 'paired up'. worth mentioning here also is that you will need to avoid talking about the game with your mirror, also can't read the other threads from that game. Yeah it's obvious but needs to be stated.

3. Type of game

I think that a fair few people want Always War. I've seen Krill, Darrell and Cyneheard all express an interest in this. I think it might be tricky for the greens though.

How about the greens game is normal, the vets game is always war. This adds a bit of spice to differentiate the games and would be very interesting to see how that setting affects the game as a whole.

4. Tech Trades

the most argued point i would guess. Purely to be different i would support us using the rule/mod that you can only trade each tech a limited number of times. I'm also fine with any other choice, full trading, no brokering and no trading are all options.

===

Let's try and get this moving forward.

[Cyneheard]

Hm. Always War vs. any type of tech trading would be very different games, but NTT and AW won't play all that differently; more workers will be stolen and no deals at all in the AW version, but overall, they'd both be every man for him/herself. I'd be willing to give Ruff's mod a spin; only being able to trade with 1 person really should keep the diplo under control.

I like the idea of the vets taking the greens' picks; I assume once that's chosen, we randomly choose which vet gets paired with which green. However, if the games are AW versus "some tech trading" then the leader calculus changes greatly. With six players, either restricted leaders drafted a la PBEM 3 or unrestricted leaders snake-style could work.

[darrelljs]

I'd certainly play in this game if it was AW.

Darrell

[Whosit]

I appreciate the compliment Krill but i think when you eventually read our PB3 thread, you'll see Whosit is much more skilled in many areas than I. ( don't tell him though)

You could hardly tell from my PB2 thread.

I think that if the Veteran game is Always War, the Greeny game should be No Tech Trading to at least make things similarish. In fact, NTT might be a good way to teach players to rely on their own developmental abilities, rather than simply being outstanding diplomats (which is still an important skill). I'm sure that I can say, without giving anything away, that diplomacy is still a factor in No-Tech Trading games.

Greenies picking leaders is fine with me. Vets get paired up randomly afterwards. No one has complained about my availability, so I guess I'm in.

Though, now I almost want to be considered "green" so I can actually do the picking. :neenernee I really like the idea of "mirrored" leaders, but now I'm less likely to be able to do something stucrazy like Charlemagne of Japan.

[Twinkletoes89]

Just in case you guys haven't noticed - Ky really wants to kill me and play in this PBEM!

Unfortunately I would rather sit this out and be involved in map design and admin-ing the green game.

I just don't really have the time for another game!