RBP2 (Realms Beyond Pitboss) Planning Thread

[sunrise089]

Please see the second post for the current poll.

Welcome all!

In fine RB tradition we're going to play another pitboss game.

Pitboss is a type of Civ IV multiplayer that allows players to connect to a game hosted online at their own pace. Unlike PBEM turns happen simultaneously, so players can take as much or as little time as they would like to play. The game will be played with a 24 hour turn timer, and we anticipate the entire game will take between 6 months and a year to complete.

Once we're finished with the setup process the individual civilization threads will appear in the Pitboss 2 subforum, so prepare to follow all the action there when the game goes live.

Our ten civs:

athlete4life10 + kalin - Willem (Cre/Fin) of the Ottomans (Janissary/Hamman)
Broker33 + Plako - Gandhi (Phi/Spi) of Korea (Hwacha/Seowon)
Jowy + Yazilliclick - Pacal (Exp/Fin) of Greece (Phalanx/Odeon)
DMOC + Nakor - Darius (Fin/Org) of the Holy Roman Empire (Landsknecht/Rathaus)
Iamjohn + Kodii + Zevis - Mehmed (Exp/Org) of Inca (Quechua/Terrace)
Speaker + Sullla - Elizabeth (Fin/Phi) of India (Fast Worker/Mausoleum)
Mortius - Ragnar (Agg/Fin) of Zulu (Impi/Ikhanda)
Dantski - Julius Caesar (Imp/Org) of Mali (Skirmisher/Mint)
LiPing - Shaka (Agg/Exp) of Rome (Praetorian/Forum)
Regoarrarr + darrelljs + sunrise089 - Peter (Exp/Phi) of Byzantium (Cataphract/Hippodrome)

Some stats for the lurkers:

(Numbers in parenthesis detail pick order or number picked difference from Pitboss 1)

Overall pick order:

*Willem (+/-0)
*Gandhi (Not picked)
*Pacal (Not picked)
*Darius (Not picked)
*Inca (-1)
*Elizabeth (Not picked)
*Ragnar (Not picked)
*Mali (+9)
*Rome (+1)
*Peter/Byzantium (Not picked)/(+4)
*Shaka (Not picked)
*Julius Caesar (Not picked)
*Zulu (-5)
*India (-11)
*Mehmed (Not picked)
*Holy Roman Empire (+3)
*Greece (Not picked)
*Korea (Not picked)
*Ottomans (Not picked)

Traits:
*Financial - 5 (+3)
*Expansive - 4 (+1)
*Philosophical - 3 (+3)
*Organized - 3 (+2)
*Aggressive - 2 (+/-0)
*Creative - 1 (-6!)
*Imperialistic - 1 (-2)
*Spiritual - 1 (-1)
*Charismatic - 0 (-1)
*Industrious - 0 (-1)
*Protective - 0 (+/-1)

Unique units by era:
*Ancient - 5 (-1)
*Classical - 2 (+/-0)
*Medieval - 2 (+/-0)
*Renaissance - 1 (+/-0)
*Industrial - 0 (+/-0)
*Modern - 0 (+/-0)

Unique units by type:
*Melee - 5 (+/-0)
*Mounted - 1 (-3)
*Gunpowder - 1 (+1)
*Siege - 1 (+1)
*Archery - 1 (+/-0)
*Non-combatant - 1 (+/-0)

Unique building bonus:
*Economic - 4 (-1)
*Health/happiness - 4 (+1)
*Culture - 1 (+/-0)
*Great people - 1 (+/-0)
*Military - 0 (-0)

Starting techs:
*Mysticism - 5 (+/-1)
*Mining - 4 (+/-1)
*Agriculture - 3 (-1)
*Hunting - 3 (+/-1)
*The Wheel - 3 (+/-1)
*Fishing - 2 (-1)

[sunrise089]

Closed Polls:

1) Signups -
*LiPing
*Danski
*Broker33
*athlete4life10
*Kodii
*Mortius
*Iamjohn
*regoarrarr
*sunrise089
*darrelljs
*Jowy
*DMOC
*Speaker
*Sullla - If a substitute map maker is found
*plako
*Nakor
*Yazilliclick

2) Teams -
*LiPing
*Danski
*Broker33 + plako
*athlete4life10
*Mortius
*Speaker + Sullla
*Jowy + Yazilliclick
*Regoarrarr + darrelljs + sunrise089
*Iamjohn + Kodii
*DMOC + Nakor

Poll 3: Game Timer
*12 hours
*18 hours
*24 hours
*36 hours

Poll 4: Restricted or Unrestricted leaders
*Restricted
*Unrestricted

Poll 5: Duplicate civs and leaders
*No duplicates
*Duplicate civs only
*Duplicate leaders only
*All duplicates allowed

Poll 6: Game Speed
*Quick
*Normal
*Epic
*Marathon

Poll 7: Tech trading
*No restriction
*No tech brokering
*No tech trading

Poll 8: Civ/leader selection
*Snake Pick

Poll 9: Difficulty
*Monarch

Poll 10: Huts
*Normal
*No huts

Poll 11: Random events
*Normal
*No random events

Poll 12: Contact with other teams AND posting in the public player thread
*Always allowed
*No contact until in-game contact.

Poll 13: Screenshot/map trades
*Always allowed
*Only after paper tech is discovered

Poll 14: Barbarians
*Normal
*Raging Barbs
*No Barbs

Poll 15: Double moves
The RBP1 revised double-move rule

(a) - All settler moves that result in ending a turn in neutral territory must occur 9 hours (in-game) after the last movement of that settler, if applicable.
(b) - REMOVED
© - During a war all units in enemy or neutral territory, and all units in friendly territory that are capable of attacking or defending versus enemy units at any point during the turn must wait at least 9 hours following any previous move before they may move again.
(d) - When in doubt, act in good faith.

*Agree
*Disagree and I will now offer up the following rule instead

Poll 16: Last-minute changing of builds and techs
The RBP1 last-minute changes rule

(a) - Act in good faith to not power-game the espionage system.
(b) - Last-minute changing of builds and techs is discouraged. Changes of techs or builds during the last three hours of a turn will be considered acting in bad faith if they take place with any frequency. Habitual changing of builds or techs with less than nine hours of a turn remaining will also be considered acting in bad faith.

*Agree
*Disagree and I will now offer up the following rule instead

Poll 17: Gifting units
*No restrictions
*No gifting on HE-level units until the receiving civ has their own HE-level unit or has built the HE

Poll 18: Gifting cities
*No restrictions
*No temporary gifting of cities and act in good faith

Last-Minute Poll 19: Espionage
*No restrictions
*Passive espionage only (spies allowed but no spy missions)
*No spies
*Espionage disabled

EDIT: My own note: Vote on Pauses, Enforced Turn Splits, AI takeover vs Atlantis Events, Map Settings (land per civ, land connections/galley/astro), and the Anonymous feature.

[regoarrarr]

I guess one thought I had was whether or not we want another game very similar to the one that we already have running.

I have no interest in playing by myself, have mild interest in a 2-person team game, but would be much more interested in a game with teams of 3 to 4.

Though it does seem like 5 is the minimum number of civs needed to make a "fair" game.

Though I would definitely be interested in a 2 team CTON game, but maybe that's a different thread....

[athlete4life10]

I'd prefer to play by myself...

@Sunrise: Thanks for taking the responsibility of organising the game. It will probably be better under your guidance then mine!

[sunrise089]

I guess one thought I had was whether or not we want another game very similar to the one that we already have running.

I have no interest in playing by myself, have mild interest in a 2-person team game, but would be much more interested in a game with teams of 3 to 4.

Though it does seem like 5 is the minimum number of civs needed to make a "fair" game.

Though I would definitely be interested in a 2 team CTON game, but maybe that's a different thread....

My thought is that a game with a large number of teams won't play similar to the current one if No Tech Trading is chosen. The whole diplo bloc concept goes out the window when you don't have to ensure yourself trading partners.

A 3-4 player per team game works, but I don't think we have the players for that. We could field 2 RB teams and try to get 3 teams from CFC, Poly, or the MP ladder, but I worry if the team sizes are modest we'll be back to empty teams due to dropouts from the non-RB bunch.

[LiPing]

Sorry, does the ~5 civ game with 2 player teams mean 2 people, playing one civilization together, or 2 people, playing one civilization each, in a preset team?

=1) Each player has their own civilization. (but assuming multiple people can still play as a team)
=1) 2 people playing one civilization each in a preset team of 2. (with the above)
2) Regoarrarr 2 Team CTON. (my impression of it is a bigger version of the above)
Low to No Interest) 2 (or more) people playing one civilization together.

The reason is that I am relatively new here and kinda... greatly lack faith in myself to be able to jump in and run a civilization democratically with someone else at this point, I'm actually quite intimidated by the idea. I'd be much more comfortable to ease in/begin with some self induced catastrophic failure first .

[darrelljs]

I'd be interested in playing if it is two person teams...I apologize but I can't play one person without slowing the game down.

Darrell

[Jowy]

Hey RB, nice to meet you all.

Now that that's taken care of, I'd like to sign up for the game. Although I'm new at RB, I've been lurking RB games and forums for years and have played with other people before in multiplayer and succession games. I'm really anxious to play in a pitboss game, but it's totally reasonable if you don't let newcomers to join in. It's worth a shot for me to try though, so if you need more players, I would love to join

As for teams, I think more players in a team the better. Atleast in my experience, some people are bound to drop out at some point, so it's better if a team has 3 players left rather than 0 after a drop out.

[sunrise089]

@Jowy - You're in. We're Realms Beyond - new players are welcomed with open arms.

[athlete4life10]

any chance we'll allow some people to play by themselves and those who want a partnership can have them? same as the first game?