[TECH] PB28 Tech Thread

[Grimace]

Game Information

Host: pitboss.watto.no:2056
Civstats: http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=2870
Civstats registration password: sirian

The timer for the first turn is set to 48 hours, which will be reduced to 24 hours for the following turns.

Enjoy.

-Xenu

I've had this thought for a little while, and with the flurry of new pitboss game threads, I thought I would throw some more chum in the water.

What about a "casuals" game? A game for people, like me, who don't have the attention span to do detailed micro plans. People who either can't or don't want to spend the time to set up a sandbox and sim everything. People who enjoy playing by gut, and thus usually get hammered in games against the players who do the detail planning.

This isn't necessarily for newbies, though they would be welcome, but just for people who want to enjoy a pitboss game without all the extra work. Obviously there's no way to ban such behavior, so it relies heavily on the honor system, but I think it would be a fun and interesting game to try. Also, though I don't want to exclude anyone specifically, if you're considered a "top tier" player, this is not geared towards you. I'm aiming for the mid-range players who just enjoy playing for the fun of it.

For the most part, standard settings for RtR game:
- RtR mod 2.0.7.6 (I happen to like RtR quite a bit)
- Events OFF
- Huts OFF
- Vassals OFF
- Espionage ON (annoying missions are not available in RtR mod)
- Barbs ON
- No Tech Trading
- Monarch difficulty
- Normal Speed
- All victory conditions enabled
- Snake pick
- See starts before picking

However, I would like to try it with more than AI Diplo. Since this is less about who is more skilled and more about having a fun game, I think allowing more communication will enhance the experience. I wouldn't mind going the full unlimited diplo route, but at the very least I think doing expanded diplomacy similar to what is discussed in Whosit's thread/PB9 would add to the enjoyment. If you want to sign up and play, make sure you offer your vote on which diplo route to take.

EDIT: Consensus seems to be expanded diplo using only the diplo screen rather than full diplo.
Diplomacy will be conducted only through the diplomatic screen with your neighbors, and can include any of the normal offers/demands plus those listed below. All of these include an optional "in X turns". That way the player has time to implement the request, particularly for war requests. I don't anticipate enforcing those perfectly -- 1 or 2 turns in either direction should be fine. But it is expected that if you accept an offer you will abide by it. If you don't want to, don't accept. This should behave as much like SP diplomacy as we can make it.
1) Declare war on A.
2) Close borders with A.
3) Make peace with A.
4) Change religion to R.
5) Change Civic(s) to L(, M, N).
6) Unit gift of U(, V, W).

The reason for #6 is to allow "I will give you 3 Swordsmen for 100 gold" type of exchanges. Also, #5 probably wouldn't be used, but who knows? Maybe you want to help out your neighbor by reminding him to switch civics.

EDIT:
Players:
1. Grimace/Caledorn: Genghis Khan of Zulu
2. Yuri: Catherine of Maya
3. Borsche: Zara of Germany
4. Fenn: Mao of China
5. Wetbandit: Charlemagne of Inca
6. Whosit: Boudica of Aztecs
7. Dreylin: Mehmed II of Russia
8. Jowy: Ragnar of Sumeria
9. Adrian/Mardoc: Julius of the HRE

[Whosit]

Oh! This is just what I'm interested in! In no small part because you'd like to expand diplomacy and linked to my thread. :D I can't promise I won't do any micro planning, but at least now I won't feel compelled to spend 6 hours a day doing it like I did in PB23. (Besides, me playing at my best probably only puts me in mid-tier if you're generous.) Anyway, consider this a sign-up. I'm happy to do another RtR game, those settings look great, but we'll just have to figure out how we want to handle diplomacy if everyone is on board with that.

[Grimace]

Oh! This is just what I'm interested in! In no small part because you'd like to expand diplomacy and linked to my thread. :D I can't promise I won't do any micro planning, but at least now I won't feel compelled to spend 6 hours a day doing it like I did in PB23. (Besides, me playing at my best probably only puts me in mid-tier if you're generous.) Anyway, consider this a sign-up. I'm happy to do another RtR game, those settings look great, but we'll just have to figure out how we want to handle diplomacy if everyone is on board with that.

To be honest, I don't expect NO micro, especially for the first 20 turns or so...even I usually do that to some extent. But the really good players do extensive planning and simming, and I just lack the discipline to do the same, so I'm hoping to find other players in a similar situation. And AI Diplo works great for a hard-core game, but I think more communication makes for a more fun and interesting game which reduces the impact technical skill has on the outcome.

[Commodore]

Might want to consider some merging. Don't think anyone in the 9p would necessarily be juggernaut-bowling everyone else over.

50% of the above comment might have just been motivated to enable the posting of the gif.

[Krill]

For the expanded diplomacy, what were the thoughts again? basically creating so many set requests and responses that could be emailed to another player once per turn?

Obviously not a sign up.

[Grimace]

Might want to consider some merging. Don't think anyone in the 9p would necessarily be juggernaut-bowling everyone else over.

I considered signing up for that, but I'd really like to play a game with more diplo and make clear the demographic I'm targeting, and it seemed like it was going in the direction of a standard pitboss. I agree with your assessment of the current signees, but that doesn't mean mackoti might not sign up later today.

[Caledorn]

I'd like to join, but as a teammate of Grimace if he'll have me. I don't feel confident enough to sign up for a full civ with my current situation, but don't want to fall completely behind in my civ skills either.

[Whosit]

For the expanded diplomacy, what were the thoughts again? basically creating so many set requests and responses that could be emailed to another player once per turn?

Obviously not a sign up.

Something like that, but I think we were hoping to use the in-game diplo window. Well, I was. Part of my intent was to minimize investment in outside... stuff. Words. Basically, I didn't want to have to check yet another email account daily.

[Grimace]

I'd like to join, but as a teammate of Grimace if he'll have me. I don't feel confident enough to sign up for a full civ with my current situation, but don't want to fall completely behind in my civ skills either.

But of course!

[Grimace]

For the expanded diplomacy, what were the thoughts again? basically creating so many set requests and responses that could be emailed to another player once per turn?

Obviously not a sign up.

Something like that, but I think we were hoping to use the in-game diplo window. Well, I was. Part of my intent was to minimize investment in outside... stuff. Words. Basically, I didn't want to have to check yet another email account daily.

I wouldn't mind full outside diplo -- sounds like fun to me -- but I interpreted Whosit's idea to mean just using the in-game diplo window to have more meaningful exchanges than what is available from the game options.