[spoiler!] Ruffing Bull of Spain

[Ruff_Hi]

email from me to the other pbem players:

Gents,

I've raised a comment in our Next Empire tracking thread about the current position of the game. ParadigmShifter has also commented.

Ruff:
We seem to have a problem. I just received 'The_Next_Empire_AD-0520_to_Ruffing_Bull.CivBeyondSwordSave' but I was expecting 500AD. Can people please check the round they played last time and this time?

ParadigmShifter:
Hmm, I seemed to miss out on 500AD as well. Has someone else played 500AD instead of us?

The play order is:

Calanthian --> Paradigm --> FireFox (France) --> Ruff --> Calanthian --> etc

I've asked some very experienced Civ4 pbem players about this situation and the various responses are all suggesting nefarious (bad) activities.

Can I please get some comments about the current situation from the other players? I would like to know what is going on. I have my ideas about what happened. I have less ideas about why.

Based on my current understanding and thinking regarding this situation (ie with no new knowledge or input from the other players), I will be playing the turn I have when I get home tonight (11pm NYC time, just over 17 hrs from now). My play action tonight will involve the following:

• Opening the 520AD save
  
• Alt-Q (retire)
  
• Forward the save
  

This is an action that I really don't want to take as I am totally enjoying this game and I am willing to play on regardless of the explanation for the above. If I do play on (from the 500AD save), there will have to be some modifications to the current situation (ie all players know the admin password or the admin password is changed to a random string that no-one knows).

Not looking forward to playing the 520AD save.

Regards

Ruff

[mackoti]

Better stick with RB man.

[dazedroyalty]

This is truly amazing. Not only is is terrible (cheating!) but it's ludicrous to have sent on the save! There's no way that they could think no one would notice which leads me to believe there's simply no interest in playing and it is a rage quit as mentioned above--but it's even worse because it's a rage quit with added malice.

[xenin]

I would guess it's more likely to be a mistake - the guy cheats, intends to send on AD500 now he knows he can kill Ruff's stack but forgets the most recent save in his folder shouldn't exist. If you want to rage quit you might as well just alt+q rather than completely trashing your name in the community. Pretty unbelievable stuff either way though.

[Ruff_Hi]

As the war got ever tighter, and I had read the recent post of Ruff in the 18 game about the admin password,

I got a very weak moment and couldn’t resist to test if I had a chance to win against the stack Ruff was sending towards me.

Honestly I really deserved to get caught immediately.

I am very ashamed of this breach of your trust. And I am very sad indeed that I did this to a great game and against such great competitors.

Of course I am willing to give up my place in the game, and the admin password. More so as it will probably have a very adverse effect on my place in a community I have been so delighted to participate in.

But as I did the deed, I have to face the consequences, and that is for you to decide.

Once more my sincere apologies.

I'm happy to declare ruff_hi the winner of this game. I've been going through the motions in this game anyway, I took over from Deztro and didn't have much enthusiasm from the start, I'm afraid.

Good to see you being honest about this anyway.

Cheers,

ParadigmShifter

Gents,

I, for one, really want to keep playing this game. I had theorized that Calanthian's actions was based on that consideration (ie a test to defend that coastal city) and that you forwarded the wrong version of the save.

Re the 500AD turn, what I would like to happen is for Calanthian to forward his turn to another, trusted player outside of our group (anyone got any suggestions?) along with the existing admin password. Then this person can change the admin password (taking a note of what it is!) to something else, save the turn and send it back. Then we can play on in the knowledge that no one knows the admin password, no one can play the game forward but we have a backup in case things go wrong (ie a player disappears).

I can understand Paradigm's response (re checking out of the game) and I don't really know what to do about that. I can also appreciate that this cannot be much fun for Cear. Again, I don't really know what to do about that. Any suggestions?

If we do decide to end this pbem game, I would like the chance to finish it as a single player game - basically, you play a final round and everyone else retires (their place is taken by an AI). I've been keeping notes and jotting down thoughts during this game so that I have a report ready to publish at the end of it - I would like a conclusion for such a report.

Regards,

Ruff

Well if you can get a replacement for me do that... my password is still %%%%%. Or I can retire and send my turn on to France as usual, with or without offering peace to ruff_hi beforehand at your preference.

As I said I really think it is a great game. And I can’t say enough, I am very very sorry.

I would very much like to continue. But you reaction Kieren, is very understandable.

Ruff, based upon your reaction, and once again, the choice is entirely yours,

I am willing to play on in any solution we can come up with.

I'm willing to be the guardian of the admin password if you like.

[fluffyflyingpig]

Huh. How unfortunate.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Jeez, just run a couple of combat sims or something.

[Ruff_Hi]

Game is rolling again. Isk will play the 500AD save, pass the current admin password to Para who will change it and then quit the game (replaced by AI).

So we are down to me, Isk with Cear as a vassal and Para replaced by an AI.

[Krill]

Where's the challenge in that?

[Ruff_Hi]

Where's the challenge in that?

You looking for a challenge? You can take Para's position if you want it.