RBP2 Lurker Discussion Thread - No Players!

[T-hawk]

Would a moderator warn you for personal attacks on this forum? If the answer is yes, then we need a moderator here to "officially" warn S&S about there behaviour, and we all need to stay within those guidelines.

Well, Sullla himself is the moderator. Griselda and KoP would have the authority, but I doubt they've been reading or would have the inclination to step in. I do have moderator access to the Pitboss forums, but that's intended just to take care of spoiler posts where Sullla can't reach.

IMO, let Sullla vent; the targets won't see it for many months, after which tempers will have cooled.

As for Jowy / Mr. Svinlesha, I was amazed that Jowy took it in stride rather than firing back, but greatly relieved - I didn't want to have to get involved there as moderator either.

[Olodune]

While I prefer to stay away from analyzing who stepped over what line (and whether there are any lines to begin with), I will say this:

A problem with large FFA games is that they can be extremely inequitable. I think that the CoW generally is acting in their own best interests -- whether those are to eliminate a leading team or cement alliances for later in the game. But it is not a bit of fun to be on the receiving end ....

Of course it doesn't help that India doesn't have their own alliance, but it is not exactly like they have any options.

This sort of FFA behaviour (5v1 stomps) can be avoided by different game designs, some of which are:

• Have preset alliances
  
• Only allow a fixed number of teams to be at war with any given player
  
• Disallow player communication and Open Border agreements
  

Edit: And of course the tournament games are a great way to play competitively against other players -- we just don't get any feedback on how we are doing until reporting day. A little "Splendid Isolation", anyone?

[Rowain]

If there where any restrictions implemented in this game you could easily make the rule: India wins.

After all without this dogpile those in it won't stand a chance to achieve anthing in game vs India.

[Krill]

• Have preset alliances
  
• Only allow a fixed number of teams to be at war with any given player
  
• Disallow player communication and Open Border agreements
  

Numbers 2 and 3 don't work (or are completely unenforceable without massive bureaucracy and lots of game admins). Point 1 doesn't stop different preset alliances from ganging up on third parties, unless it is a 1v1.

[Morgan]

From my limited lurking, it seems we have a bunch of teams playing SP stylee in a MP Pitboss. Hence i'm not surprised at the 5v1 dogpile.

Bit of diplo would have done wonders and kept S&S safer, not sure if i'd want to be in an allience with S&S - I get the impression that any other team that joined with them would be junior partners no matter what the contribution.

On the subject of lurkers posting, certainly i'll be setting expectations from any lurkers in my RB3 thread, the hero worship S&S have recieved will not be encouraged (well maybe a little)

When the romans land it will be entertaining to see the reaction from S&S.

Certainly the CoW have struck at the right time, perhaps not as effectively as could have been. Will be interested to see how it pans out.

[Olodune]

If there where any restrictions implemented in this game you could easily make the rule: India wins.

After all without this dogpile those in it won't stand a chance to achieve anthing in game vs India.

I actually disagree: Rome and Inca were in potential winning positions. Even the Ottomans could make a run. All would peacefully have more land than India. India has followed an early growth curve (and done so very well), but claiming a boatload of land and allowing tech to catch up later is very viable.

But actually I'm dodging your point entirely: like I said earlier I think that the CoW is acting in their best interests, the "problem" is that any set of players could choose to create a CoW-like alliance. This means that the critical part of the early game is whether or not you are in the CoW-clone. Having such an arbitrary structure determine the outcome of the game is, perhaps, not what all players are looking for. (Admittedly I could be off the mark here.)

[sunrise089]

Eh, I'm keeping this post to see what you guys are talking about. But still, if two teams are running away with the game, which would you rather create an alliance to dogpile on: the one with no military UU or the one with a powerful military UU? Just saying.

Is this referencing Jowy choosing to flight alongside the Ottomans versus India, or is this giving away Rome's involvement?

[T-hawk]

I'm sure it references Rome, but S&S don't know that, and aren't going to bother thinking about a Nomadic post enough to figure anything out. Speaker's already seen the post so too late for moderation to do any good.

[shadyforce]

I have to say that I don't think Sullla's comments require moderation even if there was a mod about who could do so. He's entitled to vent and his comments speak much more loudly about himself than any of his targets anyway.

(That's not to say that I didn't get very close to posting pretty much what Kylearan said myself! )

But I agree that we should just let him vent and keep our comments and 'moderation' to ourselves.

Oh and for the record, to me at least it is blindingly obvious that had this dogpile not happened, Spullla would have won the game easily enough. Whosit and Kathlete were certainly in fair positions but they were never going to catch the economic superiority and tech lead that Spullla had. The fact that Sullla can't realise this is his biggest problem. And it should be blindingly obvious to Sullla as well since he has spent much of the game belittling the civ abilities of his neighbours and posting boastful demographic screenshots.

So when the rest of the players then realise the very same and correctly gang up on him, to suddenly become offended and crying about how unjust and undererved it is has a certain irony.

[novice]

Kind of funny that Whosit doesn't realize/believe that Spulla are doing 1t builds in multiple cities several turns in a row.

Also, if he is so unsubtle as to let Plako know that he's planning to attack India, I have no doubt that Plako will go straight to India with that information. Now don't anybody dare intervene.

Especially you, Dr. Nomadic.