PB57 Organizing Thread

[NobleHelium]

I have made some progress on the map. Things are slow given the required parameters and some things not quite working out as expected.

[Cornflakes]

Many thanks to Scooter for digging back into his PB53 files to see how he got Advanced Start to work with a custom map! After some further testing, it seems that the key for loading a WorldBuilder file with Advanced Start is deleting the player information from the CivBeyondSwordWBSave with a text editor. Make each player match this format:

Code:

BeginPlayer
    Team=0
    StartingX=14, StartingY=10
    Handicap=HANDICAP_NOBLE
EndPlayer

The Advanced Start centers around the StartingX and StartingY coordinates and is equivalent to 4th ring culture borders, 61 tiles total (NOTE: this center tile can be water). I also confirmed that the Advanced Start area does distort to account for proximity of adjacent players if the areas overlap ... however that distortion is a dead giveaway that another player is in that direction, and settling on the limit in that direction and popping borders is still allowed.

[NobleHelium]

OK. So after repeated attempts it has become apparent that the parameters make the balancing concepts I had in mind for the map literally impossible, between the competing demands of advanced start and the limited land tiles. However given that you have waited this long I doubt you want me to not provide a map, so I have generated a map (still toroidal) and modified it such that it should be relatively balanced in terms of land quality and resources in each player's area (defined as more accessible to that player to settle than anyone else). Players are also relatively reasonably placed around the map. And of course it meets the land tile requirement. I still need to check some things and I will also try to do each advanced start personally to see if there are any glaring issues, but it should be ready soon. I should warn you that you should not expect similar BFCs as you might expect in a normal game; given the advanced start, I am not making an effort to specifically balance the very core of each player's starting area.

I am assuming that you are going to go with the 500 point advanced start budget used in PB53. I recommend a map size setting of Small, and I assumed that you would play on Monarch as usual but it should be fine to play on a different difficulty should you so choose.

[pindicator]

Thanks Noble. I'm still in no rush for this game, so please take all the time you need.

[Cornflakes]

Thanks for your effort Noble, much appreciated!

I am assuming that you are going to go with the 500 point advanced start budget used in PB53.  I recommend a map size setting of Small, and I assumed that you would play on Monarch as usual but it should be fine to play on a different difficulty should you so choose.

Yes Monarch difficulty, and 500 point budget as used in PB53 is what I envisioned (set to 556 in the game setup to get 500 in-game after the Monarch difficulty factor). Your recommended Small size setting is fine.

I'll updated the OP with the settings that were decided. The simultaneous > Sequential conversion timeframe has not yet been discussed. Given the advanced start, development curve is accelerated and the "move scout, hit enter" turns are almost eliminated. In PB53 we had the following early wars:
- T10: Me vs. scooter only to get a scout through
- Approx. T15 scooter vs. AT to raze a city
- Approx. T35 both me and Mr. Cairo to capture/raze TBS cities

I would also like to propose the following for the conversion to sequential:
- at first DoW, or T30 (whichever is earlier). On T29 play turns according to sequential play order, last player pauses instead of ending turn and PM's Ramk.
- prior to T29, make good faith effort to declare war according to player ID (try to take first half if lower ID, 2nd half if higher ID).
- if war is declared prior to T29, give first-in-turn-order option to convert to sequential immediately or continue with simultaneous (either inconsequential scouting war, or double-move issue with turn ID out of order where first would rather delay conversion until a better time for the double-move to occur).

[Hitru]

Thanks for putting in the effort. I agree with others that it's better to have good and balanced map than to have it week earlier.

[NobleHelium]

Things have been posted for lurker review.

[Old Harry]

Thanks Noble!

[Old Harry]

We used to have a rule about not using gold for count downs which I haven't seen in a set up thread for a while. I'm happy to see the back of it, but thought I should check if everyone else is on the same page...

[The Black Sword]

I would also like to propose the following for the conversion to sequential:
- at first DoW, or T30 (whichever is earlier). On T29 play turns according to sequential play order, last player pauses instead of ending turn and PM's Ramk.
- prior to T29, make good faith effort to declare war according to player ID (try to take first half if lower ID, 2nd half if higher ID).
- if war is declared prior to T29, give first-in-turn-order option to convert to sequential immediately or continue with simultaneous (either inconsequential scouting war, or double-move issue with turn ID out of order where first would rather delay conversion until a better time for the double-move to occur).

rule about not using gold for count downs

I'm happy with both of these. And thanks for the map Noble!