PB30 Setup Thread

[Old Harry]

Who'd like to feel completely justified in their belief the map maker has it in for them?

Whose reputation is undeservedly good or bad?

How much do lurkers know about how good you really are?

And who'd like to play a game where you'll definitely get talked about in the lurker thread (at least at the start)?

The only way to answer these questions is...

Play a handicap game

The idea is:
1. A mapmaker rolls an interesting-looking semi-unbalanced map (he should aim to avoid having all the bad starts or all the good starts grouped together so people will have a range of neighbours)
2. Lurkers rank the players
3. Lurkers rank the starts (lushness of capital, surrounding area, number of resources, geopolitical position)
4. The top ranked player gets the worst start, etc
5. Snake pick (with lurkers choosing pick order)

OR

5. Lurkers give each player a choice of three combos

OR

4. The starts are given to the most ironically appropriate player (ie Jowy gets no early strat resources, Mackoti gets put on an island shaped like a pyramid, Krill gets no happiness whatsoever, Fintourist and I get landlocked and surrounded by civs who start with extra great artists)

OR

1. Mirrorland script with players assigned randomly
2. Lurkers rank the players
3. Lurkers buff and nerf the starts appropriately for each player, swapping players around to get the balance of neighbours right
4. Snake pick

Anyone got any other suggestions? BTS would actually work pretty well with this setup and would allow folks who can't get mods to work or don't want to learn them to join in.

Edit - Player Roster:
- Old Harry (with occasional chirping from Fintourist)
- Molach
- Ipecac
- Gavagai
- Dantski and V8mark
- TheWannabe
- Greywolf
- Alhazard
- ReallyEvilMuffin
- 2metraninja
- You...?

Edit Edit - Game Settings and Rules:

Map Settings:
Cylinder, Monarch, Standard Size

Rules:
- c. Events Off
- d. Huts Off
- e. Speed Normal
- f. Difficulty Monarch
- g. Barbs On
- h. See starts before picking Yes
- i. Version BTS
- j. Scout start Yes
- k. Banned: Nukes, War Elephants (except Khmer), Blockades, Diplo Victory, Great Lighthouse
- l. Not Banned: Corporations, SoZ
- m. Espionage on but no spies (if you get a Great Spy you use him for a Golden Age, Scotland Yard, or settle)

- n. AI diplo (Don't use city trades to signify stuff, no gold countdowns)
- o. No double-moving (don't be a jerk, aggressor gets to decide if they are first or second in turn order as long as it's not a double move, anyone who camps the end of the turn timer so their aggressor can't get the second half to be dogpiled)
- p. No unit trading
- q. No city gifts
- r. No tech trading

[Molach]

What a great and fun concept.

If I were lurking or playing, I'd like the "lurker gives each player 3 choices (or 2, even).

Also like either of the last 2 suggestions for generating the map, i.e. ruled by the lurkers

Were you thinking PBEM or Pitboss, or would either work, just depending on number of victims players?


And if a player fails to report for 3 turns, any lurker can log into his civ and look around/take screenshots, so all can be impressed/amused at how they play out their bad/good starts.

[Old Harry]

Thanks!

I'd rather play a pitboss, but if we only get a few interested a PBEM would be fine too (although I believe Sevenspirits thought sequential pitboss was the best way to play...)

Also I approve of lurkers being allowed to embed with the players to report .

[Krill]

Base BtS? Now there is a game I haven't seen in a long time.

[Commodore]

Base BtS? Now there is a game I haven't seen in a long time.

Looks like you successfully revitalized it!

[Old Harry]

Ipecac pointed out that even if the lurkers can rig the snake pick so no civs or leaders need banning we probably still want to ban Nukes, War Elephants (except Khmer), Corps, SoZ, Espionage (spies or missions?), Blockades, Diplo victory, events and perhaps huts and start with scouts.

Banning India, Inca and FIN (except Wang Kon) would also be fine by me.

I'm fine with playing RtR with no bans if we don't have anyone hankering for some BTS action though.

[GermanJoey]

bump! I'd like to stick to just one game only right now, but this seems like a blast to lurk!

[Gavagai]

I would love to participate, though I don't think we'll be able to find enough players right now given the number of ongoing games. But the concept is great, something to which we may defeinitely come back later...

[Dantski]

Wet corn, gold, iron, copper, gems and silver or my start is unbalanced!

Yes you can make all my other tiles peaks if you really want to.

[ipecac]

I would love to participate, though I don't think we'll be able to find enough players right now given the number of ongoing games. But the concept is great, something to which we may defeinitely come back later...

I count 4 people who've expressed interest (OH, Molach, me and you), which is enough for a PBEM if we can hammer out an agreement on the rules.