Intersite Game - Turn Discussion Thread

[NobleHelium]

On t165? Maybe?

[scooter]

T165

[Sullla]

Alright, as said in another thread, "The Dictator" is back. I know that I've definitely rubbed some people on this team the wrong way in this game, and the type of people attracted to Realms Beyond in the first place are never the sort who are going to sit quietly and follow orders from on high. At the same time, I think that this past turn's messiness has demonstrated the importance of having tight organization in place for a large team. I've been doing these games for a long time now, and running succession games in teams for Civ4 and even Civ3 for years before that. Most people on our forums are used to running Pitboss or PBEM games either solo or with one teammate, and the dynamics for a large group are not the same at all. Without clear structure in place, these teams disintegrate and fall apart very quickly - just look at the absolute disaster that was the RB Demogame. Poor leadership, teams collapsing down to one or two people, the game limping along on life support for months now. The ghastly No Improvements succession game that's been in zombie mode for weeks now is another example of how a game falls apart without strong leadership in place. As obnoxious as you guys might find me at times, there is a reason for what I do.

We have tons of enthusiasm on this team, but it needs to be properly channeled. There was a real air over the past week of letting anyone who felt like it log into the Intersite Game and make changes to cities and such as the clock ticked down. That's a major problem with a large team like this, as we run a giant risk of someone getting confused and doing something incorrectly, which is exactly what happened with some of the tile selections. We also had way too many cases of people logging in and doing impromptu diplomacy while chatting with other teams, which again could lead to major misunderstandings. Everything runs much smoother when we have one person who officially moves the units, and one person who is the clear diplo guy, and one person who posts for us at CivFanatics, and so on. Yes, enthusiasm is great, but we can't have people running off and doing whatever they think is best, because with 70 people on the team that leads to complete chaos. Please work through the official team channels.

We're not here to blame anyone, we all know mistakes happen, and so on. Just make sure that the insanity of this turn doesn't occur again. We're damn lucky that the initial reload was granted for our team, which is nothing something we deserved. You do not want to see me if our main military stack gets mismoved again. With that in mind, I'm going to sticky a post at the top of the forum with guidelines on logging into the game, and what to do / not to do when logged in. Here goes.

How to Log Into the Game

First, you will need to download the Spanish Apolyton mod: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6355677/WebMod1_0.rar

Next, you must put the folder in the correct place on your computer. On a Windows setup, this is as follows:

C: / Program Files / Firaxis Games / Civ4 / Beyond the Sword / Mods



This mod apparently doesn't run on Macs, so I guess those folks are just out of luck. Sorry.

When starting up Civ4, you must select the Custom option on the main menu, followed by Load a Mod:



Attempting to log into a Multiplayer game in the normal way will cause a crash, since you aren't using the mod's assets. From the above menu, select the Spanish mod, which is named WebMod1_0:



This will reboot Civ4 with the mod's assets in place. Now you can log into the Pitboss via the standard route, which is Multiplayer followed by Direct IP Connection:



Notice how the mod displays in the corner. If you aren't seeing this, then the game will not load. On the Direct IP screen, enter the login name (Realms Beyond for our team) and this IP number: 178.17.156.11

EDIT: The IP has since been changed to this number: 178.17.156.44



I think it would be nice if we all used the same Realms Beyond tag to log in, so that other teams have no idea which of us are playing the turn and logging into the game. Not terribly important, of course. Whatever you have typed in the top box is what will show up as our name when logging into the game. Leave the password box in the bottom corner blank.



On the Civ select screen, click on Pacal. We're #1 on this listing of civs, right where we belong. You will have to enter our team password, which is as follows: MenOfDenile

Guidelines When Logged In

When you are logged into the Pitboss server, everything that you see is live. This is not a PBEM game where you can start over from the last save if there's a mistake. The only recourse from accidental moves is a full reload, which is a nightmare to avoid whenever possible. Be extremely careful when logged into the game.

What To Do In Game

* Do feel free to look around at cities, what tiles are being worked, where units are located, and so on.

* Do take screenshots and post them on the forums to illustrate what's going on.

* Do look at Demographics, the advisor screens, the bar graphs, and so on.

* Everyone should always feel free to look at the Demogame firsthand. Look, but don't touch...

What Not To Do In Game

* Do not move any units. This gets bolded and underlined for emphasis. Most past mistakes have come from accidentally moving units into the wrong position. A good suggestion when logging in is to click on the garrison unit inside the capital, and keep the interface highlighted on that guy. If you would move the unit by accident, it's a military police archer or whatever that doesn't really matter. Never, ever have the interface on a military unit or stack of units on the front lines.

* Do not change tile assignments or build queues in cities. The team generally agrees on what tiles to work for a reason. No matter how much you think that you see something better, do not act without the formal team approval.

* Do not engage in impromptu diplomacy on your own. It's fine to say "hi" to someone in-game or whatever, but anything important needs to get channeled through the diplo team. You can put the team into a very bad position very quickly otherwise, especially if you haven't been following our past conversations and agreements closely.

* If I've missed anything else, let me know and I can edit it into the stickied post.

Now, as for this turn, we're not doing squat until CivFr finishes their turn. I'm not even logging into the game, and I suggest we all follow suit until they are done. After CivFr is done, we have to replay our turn as close to exact fashion as we did before. It's the only fair way to handle things. I will go back and watch scooter's Livestream and write down everything that he did in exact detail, and we'll try to make identical moves. We have a bit of an advantage, in that we know where all the German units are located before moving our own units. Whether we abuse this or not, I have no idea. We'll have to play it by ear on the actual turn replay, since the combat rounds will surely go differently for us. One thing that we can correct is the accidental mismove of our one movers right at the end of the turn, we'll make sure that doesn't happen again. But everything else we'll see if we can duplicate.

When we play the turn is up to CivFr, we're basically waiting on them. Today, tomorrow, I don't know as yet. But CFC hasn't even started their own half of the turn split yet, so this endless turn will surely drag on a few more days at the very least.

[Mardoc]

Could you add a link to the CivStats page, and the CFC technical thread? Maybe also a link to or a copy of the game ruleset?

Less important, but it'd be nice to add links to the APTMod information website, and KJN's C&D sheet (with another look don't touch warning!)

[kjn]

One addition:

If the game is paused when you log in, immediately check the game admin threads over on CFC for the reason of the pause. If you leave the game unpaused after logging out, you must state so clearly in the server announcements thread.

[Sullla]

Great suggestions, Mardoc. Added to the sticky thread.

[mostly_harmless]

Just to be clear, we have one hour left on the clock to play our turn?
Or is civstats mixed up from the reload?

mh

[kjn]

1.5 hours is the timer for CivFr, Apolyton, Univers, and CivPlayers (the teams not at war). We have circa 20 hours remaining, at least. CFC's timer haven't even started yet.

[Sullla]

Well, rewatching the Livestream from two days ago and jotting down every single unit that moved was not the most fun that I've ever had, but we should be ready to replay the turn now. Waiting on CivFr to finish their turn, whenever that might be, and then I'll try to set up a time. Here's the text dump:

Warendorf
[E of Wittenberge] promote 5XP knight to C2, move NE-E (Warendorf), C2 knight vs CG2 longbow 68% (WIN)
[E of Wittenberge] 8XP knight, move NE-E (Warendorf), C2 knight vs CG longbow 76% (WIN)
Capture Warendorf, 66 gold, no buildings

Willhelmshaven
[E of Wittenberge] 0XP knight, move SE-SE (Willhelmshaven), knight vs CG2 longbow 25% (LOSE, 5.0 health)
[E of Wittenberge] 5XP C2 knight, move SE-SE (Willhelmshaven), C2 knight vs elephant 50% (LOSE, 3.2 health)
[E of Wittenberge] 7.2 health C2 10XP knight, MISMOVED SE-E by scooter [don't do this]
[E of Wittenberge] 0XP knight, move SE-SE (Willhelmshaven), knight vs C1 spear 32% (WIN)
[E of Wittenberge] 7XP C1/shock knight, move SE-SE (Willhelmshaven), C1/shock knight vs CG2 5.0 health longbow 53% (FLAWLESS WIN)
[E of Wittenberge] 8.5 health 7XP C1/shock knight, move SE-SE (Willhelmshaven), C1/shock 8.5 health knight vs 3.2 health elephant 98% (WIN)
Capture Willhelmshaven, 94 gold, granary

Pigs Hill Stack
[E of Wittenberge] promote 3XP catapult to barrage, move SE-SE-NE [pigs hill], B1 catapult vs C2 longbow 2.5% withdraw (LOSE, 5.2 health)
[E of Wittenberge] promote 3XP catapult to barrage, move SE-SE-NE [pigs hill], B1 catapult vs C2 5.2 health longbow 8.6% withdraw (LOSE, 4.3 health)
[E of Wittenberge] 5XP C2 elephant, move SE-SE-NE [pigs hill], C2 elephant vs C3/shock 6.6 health elephant 69% (LOSE, 0.2 health)
[E of Wittenberge] 5XP C2 elephant, move SE-SE-NE [pigs hill], C2 elephant vs C2 4.3 health longbow 82% (WIN)***
*** This may have been a mistake, since we suicided a mace on the next attack. Probably should have done reverse order here. ***
[E of Wittenberge] 0XP mace, move SE-SE-NE [pigs hill], mace vs C3/shock 6.6 health elephant 39% (LOSE, 3.8 health) -> should have used southern mace here
[NW of Wismar] 5XP C2 knight, move N-NE-NE [pigs hill], C2 knight vs 4.8 health longbow 96% (WIN)
[E of Wittenberge], 5XP C2 elephant, move SE-SE-NE [pigs hill], C2 elephant vs C2/shock 3.7 health axe 97% (WIN, Great General born)
[NW of Wismar] 0XP mace, move N-NE-NE [pigs hill], mace vs C3/shock 3.8 health elephant 68% (WIN)
[NW of Wismar] 1XP mace, move N-NE-NE [pigs hill], mace vs quechua 99% (WIN)
[NW of Wismar] 1XP mace, move N-NE-NE [pigs hill], mace vs C3/shock 0.2 health elephant 99% (WIN)
Take control of hill tile

Finishing Up
[E of Wittenberge] move two 0XP maces into Warendorf
[E of Wittenberge] Sentry chariot, move N-NW -> we do not have to do this move again, since we have screenshot of what it revealed
[E of Wittenberge] 0XP knight, move NE-NE-NW-NW, knight vs horse archer 96% (WIN)
[Wien] C2 6.0 health knight, move N-N-N
[E of Wittenberge] M3 chariot, move NE-NE-NW-NE, capture two workers (this unit is safe)
[E of Wittenberge] two knights and one war chariot remaining, move NE-NE-NW-NW in position to attack Wesselburen
[E of Wittenberge] scooter moves rest of maces to tile south of pigs hill in misclick [don't do this]

We were slightly on the fortunate side, but not ridiculously so. The two battles at Warendorf were the nicest thing that happened all turn, although winning 68% and 73% back to back isn't exactly that unlikely. Then we had two poor results, losing at 25% but only getting a single hit on the defending longbow (ouch) and losing the 50/50 battle against the defending elephant (and the elephant still with almost half its life remaining). That was plain unlucky. That was then wiped out by winning at 32% and 53% in the next two battles, but again, we wouldn't have been in that shape if the first two combats had gone better. We also had fairly crummy results clearing the pigs hill stack, with our catapults getting only one hit each on the defending longbow, and immediately thereafter losing at 69%, then losing again later at 39% and dealing little damage in the battle. We did one once at 68%, and once at 82%, the rest of the combats being 95% or higher. We were not particularly lucky in that pigs hill sequence.

In other words, it wasn't like we had some miracle combat results that were wiped out by the reroll. We were about average to slightly above average; maybe the 55th percentile or something like that. Barring a really bad sequence, we should be able to duplicate things after the reload, and avoid scooter's two misclick movements. Looking forward to when CivFr finishes and we can play again.

[kjn]

CivFr has stated they have played their turn. They set the pause in case other teams need it, but I dont think the pause matters now - Apolyton, Univers, and CivPlayers can still log in even after their turns have ended. And CFC has a full 36 hours left. As long as the turn last at least 24 hours more, I think we're clear under 5g as long as we state in the server thread that we've unpaused the game.

So I think you can start a stream tonigh, if you're up to it.