1561

I noticed in some of the Dom2 games that I would sometimes receive the turn notification email up to half a day after the turn actually got generated. Upon inquiry, everyone else in the game had gotten theirs on schedule.

I have gotten in the habit of checking the games directly once a day or so, regardless of if I’ve not gotten a new turn notification, just to be safe.

1562

I hear you SelfishGene.

You know, I have 5 or 6 heroes in HOF in Bomelunder game. Every time the new turn hosts and I see “random event” and than unexpected battle in the message list, my heart misses a beat. :)

1563

I can confirm it, you didn’t. At least based upon “turn submission” screen. I happened to log 1 hour before hosting and noticed that your nation turn was still missing

1564

OK…Shirley should be back up and working. My desk is still apart so I had to move the comp to another area and make sure it was online and working for our game. The owner was in there when I was moving things around and so I had to make up some story…luckily, he’s computer illiterate so he was clueless.

1565

I wonder if something is clearing turns out, or if they’re not “sticking” when sent sometimes.

1566

Maybe.

I noticed another strange thing with turns - when I select “quit without saving”, sometimes (always?) the turn actually uploads to the host. I got screwed because of this in one of my games last week, when I was the last player to submit turn.

1567

I just don’t mess with that aspect of the interface. I always do my turns offline.

1568

Yes, it’s a safe choice.

1569

Well, well, well. It’s watery chaos time in Marverni-town. Like the fishies, do you, Ermor? YOU’LL BE SLEEPING WITH THEM, YA HEAR?

Good thing I spent all my early gold on building a couple extra forts. Gonna need em.

1570

What’s that? You’ll have to speak up! I can’t hear a thing over the deafening din of a Great Yellow Bull in retreat!

1571

Heh?! Can someone translate that Marverni-speak into a civilized language?

-Korigol

1572

It’s no use! Those Marverni are crazy! tok tok

1573

Nah only oceania is attacking maverni…

1574

Squidz:

From Pa, first bureaucrat and prophet of heinrich:

To my mostly trusted neighbor Thunder.

Dear Thunder,

i see a massing of your troops on two of my border provinces. We two are the largest nations in this game, i hope that your not planing to attacking me and so cancelling our peace contract…

In such a war we would surly both lose and the rest would rejoice…

So what is it : Peace? Or Make my Day?

Sincerly

Pa

Honor is Duty

1575

Hetzer, while you’re writing open letters: Could you make it a poll, please?
I vote for slug it out, and do post screenshots of it.

Shirley:
Hey, SelfishGene, sorry about the bad luck with the Horror bug. You’re a worthy opponent, even though luck, diplomacy and program code are against you. You’ve still got a horde of Cavalry troops which I’m having a lot of respect for. But if you don’t enjoy playing that game anymore, then I would not oppose you going AI. You probably should play those game that you have fun with…

1576

Translation:

Before you go AI, will you please send me all your gems, gold, and magic items?

1577

I love this exchange, both sides are very creative. Great Yellow Bull is brilliant! >:)

1578

BTW, Jason, I would modify your descriptions of the relative difficulties of the Dawn scenario to base it on how many neighbors each nation has, instead of apparent scope for expansion.

Marverni starts with 5 neighbors and potential enemies (Van, Hel, Ulm, Ermor, Oceania). Ulm starts with 4 (Hel, Caelum, Ermor, Marv). Caelum, which is listed as having the most difficult position, has exactly two neighbors. Caelum only has to come to terms with or defeat militarily two neighbors; Marverni and Ulm have to negotiate with or fight off many more, and are exposed to many more possibilities for hostile coalitions. See my current situation, Ulm’s recent war, and likely near-future developments involving both nations.

Ermor would be up there too except that Ermor has all that farmland to pay for defense, while Marv and Ulm have nothing but forests. Pretty much everyone else has only 2 or 3 neighbors, which makes things lots easier.

I also think it’s a bit “off” that Van and Hel, with their glamour troops with free mirror images, ALSO start in two of the strongest strategic positions with a minimum of neighbors.

Oceania has an extremely strong position, since its only real competitor - Agartha - starts on the opposite side of the map, with the eastern sea to exploit, and has no reason to go looking for a fight. But nobody else can invade Oceania effectively without massing a preponderance of force. Which means Oceania can be pretty aggressive without worrying about defense the way the rest of us do.

None of this should be taken as complaining, I’m having fun here, and I still like my chances.

1579

Ctis and Kailasa have a similar two-neighbor luxury. Kailasa has the added bonus of a corner position which is my absolute favorite place on the map to hide.

1580

Thinking about it, here are a few changes I would suggest:

  1. Extend the mountains north of Eponi Plains a bit farther east, so that Helheim has no direct route to Marverni.

  2. Have the central range jut westward south of Ulm to discourage direct contact between Ermor and Ulm.

  3. Rejigger the Van/Marv coastline to give Van more of the coastal provinces, with mountain ranges lining the coast preventing much movement inland (like with Last Retreat), so that Marv has a couple 1-province-wide connections to the coast and to Van territory (like the pass northwest of Eponi Plains).

This would give the central nations a more reasonable number of neighbors, and ways to defend.

Alternatively, open the map up some and give everyone 4 or so neighbors.

Edit: also, possibly open up a passage between Caelum and Helheim, to lesson the constrained nature of Caelum’s situation and leave Hel with 3 neighbors. Let the air mages all deal with each other.