Yeah, we were having a good time, weren’t we? I think our well-roleplayed, many turn stare-down across our borders was both tense and fun. Wish I could have seen at least one of my SC’s in a serious battle. Ah well. Perhaps my new PC won’t have these problems. And again, sorry for disrupting the game. I know it’s a bad thing when a fairly major player drops, but I don’t seem to have a choice.
Vanheim responded to my diplomatic offerings by taking three of my provinces at once in stealth raids. This might turn out to be a low-diplomacy game…
Hetzer
2663
Hey whats wrong with you guys? Only two people made their turn in the last what? 4 days? hmmm perhaps we should all get ai and let the game ditch it out in a few minutes…
jeff01
2664
Bandar
What do you think the role of player morale plays? Do you think breaking a player’s morale is important, so that they will give up, is important?
I’m currenty involved in a war with Micaltn (Nick) in which Nick said early on that the game is broken due to the fact some of my blessed calvary won a battle. But clearly his morale wasn’t broken as he has responded with a veangance. He didn’t give up, but has played very well and is in a position of power.
Conversely, I see many staled, or delayed, turns by many players in this game. It always seems that the game turn runs till the full 48 hours limit. Do people give up? Are they broken and no longer play their turns?
That didn’t work against Nick. But it seems to work against some people.
Thoughts?
Quaro
2665
Anyone interesting in replacing me as Oceania in the Shirley game? I need to drop one of my two games for time. In the future, I think the ideal hosting setup is a fixed schedule – something like, every Mon Wed Sat at midnight. Quickhost OFF after the beginning 10 or 15 turns. It’d be easier to handle with a completely rigid schedule.
Looking for: God to Worship and lead us to victory.
Who we are: And underwater nation we like to call Oceania. When it comes to frolicking, Oceania is #1.
Our Situation: The initial blueprints for our empire may not have been the best designed, but our lucky location could not be beat as the only water nation. Without any competition we’ve completely owned that market and it’s been all about expansion ever since.
You will be amazed at our industrous site searching and gem income. Our above water holdings are nothing to laugh at either.
We’ve been lazy in negotiations, but that’s good news for you! The future is an open book. Declare war on whoever you like without breaking any preexisting treaties!
Any takers?
Rollory
2666
These are known as “jerks” and “lusers” and you should make note of who they are so as not to play with them again.
I’d be interested. Could you PM me the logon details and any other info you think would be useful?
It is unfortunate, but not really surprising, that people disappear from big multiplayer games that go on for months (we are now 3 months into Bandar).
As for the 48 hour turns, that doesn’t bother me at this point in the game. I already had to get a sub for my position in Lictor because I got overloaded with work. So even if I have my turn done early, I’m likely to hang on to it and not submit until close to the deadine, just so I do not end up having to play a turn every day.
Clark
2669
Yeah, my observation is that there aren’t too many staes in bandar, just a gorup of people who wait until close to hosting to submit their turn.
I think morale is key. If someone thinks they are beat, they are. I thought I was going to crack you like a flimsy nut when I unleased flying devil squads to start raiding your backline. Little did I know you had powerful air magic up your sleeve (as pan!) and a plan to leave my devils leaderless and vulnerable to any light infantry that wandered by.
BTW, I didn’t say the game was broken because I lost a battle to you, I said the game was broken (and still believe it is) because you rolled a nonsacred force that had to cost 50% more than your own with pretty much zero losses. That’s without mage support, special tactics, etc. Just bless, unleash the sacred, and watch the bloodshed. I’m pretty ticked off at dom3 overall because of the way it’s suddenly a game about sacred troops and the other aspects have been marginalized so much. If I do join/start any other dom3 games it’s going to be as an ocean race so I can avoid all those early sacred fights.
Why would I give up, you can’t hurt me! I’m attacking you across an ocean so the absolute worst you can do is destroy my expeditionary forces :)
I don’t think Bandar is having staling problems, there’s just a lot of people (I’m one of them) who often get busy and don’t get around to taking their turn until they feel the deadline looming.
My feeling about stale turns/dropped players is that MP Dom3 suffers from an attention span problem. Unless you’re an old-school pbem player or someone that carries those genes, it’s going to be hard to find the patience to play through an entire game. In the early stages of the game it seems like fun, then the novelty wears off and you start to lose interest. Espeically if you’re not doing so well. It’s something that seems endemic to these sorts of games, unfortunately. I think if you don’t know what you’re getting into when you join a Dom3 game, you don’t understand the fact that the other players are expecting you to follow through on your commitment.
That’s just generalizing, though. There are plenty of other, better reasons why people stop playing, and I don’t hold anyone’s dropping from a game against them. Losing interest is even a valid reason – the last thing an MP game needs is a bored player who keeps playing out of some sense of duty or responsibility. That’s no fun for anyone.
balut
2673
I kinda realized this too late, but would Bandar and Androphag mind going off the 48-hour timer for a couple weeks, while I move from Jersey to Vegas? My PC’s going to be packed up while I drive out west, so I won’t have a chance to turn in any turns.
I can go AI in both, but in Androphag especially, an AI Vanheim with my current armies/resoures might seriously screw over the balance of power among my neighbors.
I’ve never heard of someone moving from Jersey to Vegas. Interesting!
Hey, everyone… somebody sub for balut in Bandar! He’s playing Abysia, and he’s my bestest of friends.
Dave (Tien Chi)
Normally I give people pauses when they ask, but a couple weeks is a pretty big pause for Bandar. Can you arrange a sub?
I went AI on Squidz… the game was just too torturous. I effed it up at creation and then more after that. I learned a lot, but I had to call that one. :)
As for the other games… I find the game a bajillion times more interesting after first 10-20 turns or so. So easy to make a mistep at that point. Get involved in the wrong war, get blind sided by someone trying to off all of your characters (Atlantis, I’m looking at you! :P), etc.
I don’t know if I’ll win a game any time soon, but I’m getting better each game.
And yeah, no one talks on Hoplite. I’ve sent out a couple of messages with no response.
I’m role-playing. The description says that my pretender can’t speak.
Nobody ever sends me any messages on Hoplite.
Of course, my only neighbor is the out of control AI that took over Lum’s place as god of Arcoscephale.
The C’tissian empire is finally completely extinguished. Well played to all who participated in the gang beating on me :)
Notes for anyone contemplating playing C’tis on this map: DONT. Ctis has no recruitable national archers or scouts, both of which are a serious weaknesses that can mostly be made up for by recruiting indies. However the fixed independant poptypes of this map meant that at no point in this game, not even the peak of my empires power, ever have a scout. Not a one. Which is why I was so easily blindsided, I was basically punching in the dark and hoping nobody was sneaking up on me.
P.S. Soapy, if yer reading this, take my email out of the turn notification script :)
