Weekly Friday Nite NA EU2 Gaming Group

[WhiteHojo]

Re: Solutions

Originally posted by Taelyn

Suggestions:

Venice
Papal States
Denmark
Savoy
Brandenberg
Bavaria
Teutonic Order
Lorraine
Navarra
Britanny
Bourbannais

Starting in 1492. The game would move fast, and should be fairly well balanced. And it'd be down right wierd. I really think we have enough players to make a backup game work. There's no reason we can't do -something- with 6-8 players.

true - well a minor game wouldn't be too bad I suppose - that way a player not showing up won't screw the whole game like it does with majors (I assume)...

Won't Brandenberg turn into Prussia later and become a bad ass major w/excellent leaders?

Give me Venice or the TO in that one (never played the TO)

 

[Taelyn]

Minors

The advantages of a minors game as a substitute if we can't play the regular game:

We can run it faster since we have less land
It doesn't matter if someone doesn't show
Its different from the regular game (which I hope continues)
It'd be something to do if we can't do anything else.

As for Brandenberg, yes, it might get strong, but that's why I put in Bavaria (or another German minor), Denmark, and the TO to restrain it. I imagine alliances would shift to balance things as needed. Plus, with 3 German states and Denmark, I expect Germany will get a little crowded.

 

[unmerged(334)]

I was a little disappointed by our Friday night. People are great but the actual play time lately is very short. (my fault too) Second long term game of Minors works for me. I could also play 2-3 hour early Sat morning.

One think I would like to say. We need to learn restarting the game faster if we loose a player. Friday some people took forever to get to the lobby download page after game crushed. I understand that talking about other stuff is also taking some time off the restart. That is where we lose a lot of time.

I propose that we stop and save a game at once when we lose a player.Go to the lobby and wait for few min, restart as fast as possible. If one player has a problem with stable PC connection (3-4 crushes) we move to our alternative game without him. He should understand that it is not that we don't like him, but that we wish to play and not lose the people.

On the alternative game: Do we all have the one province scenario? Can we down load it? That is the scenario where all provinces in Europe are separate nations. So we would all start with one province and equal chance to win. I am also willing to play regular 1419 scenario with minors. Brandenburg should be not used. It is too strong in the future.

TO
Venice
Papal state
Denmark
Scotland
Bavaria
Savoy
Saxony
Palatine

 

[Taelyn]

Game

Sounds good, I like PP's idea. If someone drops, Daedalus should save it, tell everyone, then we meet back in the lobby immediately. That should cut out discussion. Also, if the game stays on the connecting screen for a minute or more, stop it and return to the clans room.

I guess it's best if everyone just picks the minor they want, and if everyone agrees, we go with it. I haven't seen the one province scenario, do you know where I could find it? 1419 is good too though.

 

[JEscobar]

Re: Solutions

Originally posted by Taelyn
We should set up something longer term for the alternative days. Something different: we could play minors, and create a totally different and unreal history.

Suggestions:

Venice
Papal States
Denmark
Savoy
Brandenberg
Bavaria
Teutonic Order
Lorraine
Navarra
Britanny
Bourbannais

Starting in 1492. The game would move fast, and should be fairly well balanced. And it'd be down right wierd. I really think we have enough players to make a backup game work. There's no reason we can't do -something- with 6-8 players.

I agree, though I think we should play with minors that are closer together to have more human interaction. Otherwise it turns into an AI bash. German minors would be good.

Also, we should switch countries every session to keep things mobile and avoid the "Venice player is not here and he is war vs Austria and OE, we cant start without him!" situation. This way, nobody feels too sad if any specific country gets destroyed.

This would work better with the 1419 or the one province scenario actually. If one player's country gets annexed, he just moves to the next one.

 

[unmerged(20138)]

Id love to play. I can play any time except sat and sun till about 7 ( I watch way too much football I know..) , but friday night is preferable, during the week any day till about 11-11:30 EST is good and I can start 5ish...

let me know via ICQ.

 

[WhiteHojo]

Originally posted by skkrrt
Id love to play. I can play any time except sat and sun till about 7 ( I watch way too much football I know..) , but friday night is preferable, during the week any day till about 11-11:30 EST is good and I can start 5ish...

let me know via ICQ.

Good to have you aboard and we hope you turn into a regular - do you have any Q's about our little group? if so, post em here...

I assume you are willing to be a permanent sub or do you wish to try your hand at a permanent nation role such as Russia or Sweden?

as for the ICQ - hopefully one of our other members have it and know how to use it cuz I don't -

it'd be best if you keep in touch here on this board -

our games, as you know, are Friday starting at 8 pm CST - we usuually meet in the "CLANS" lobby in V-Net.

look forward to playing the game with ya

 

[Taelyn]

Etc

Is Edge out for good then? That'd really be too bad. Ah well, its not for everyone.

As for the minors game, I agree with Escobar, the countries should be near each other, maybe we'll focus on Italy-Germany and neighboring minors (Savoy, Helvetia, Dutch provinces). At any rate, people should be allowed to pick whatever minor they want (within reason), and the game will be played as a backup regardless of who shows up. It'll be funny to watch the German minors gang up and destroy Austria, as I'm sure will happen.

 

[daedalus]

Switching countries randomly every session is something we ha talked about before, and I think esco has the same idea.
The main feature of it is that it simulates the different styles of the monarchs for each country. The main benefit of its is that we dont have to wait to wait too much for substitutes. What we do is to establish a core group of nations: Spain, France, England, Austria, OE and Russia. At the beggining of every session we sort those countries first, ensuring they are never left to AI. After that we file the rest of the countries: Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Branderburg, etc. So in theory we will need only 6 players to start a session, and core players will file the core countries.
I think it will also add a lot of fun, since you will experience different aspects of the games with the different countries.
The randomness will ensure that no player ruins a country in one session, since you could always have the same country the next session.
It would also add a little bit more of fun, because it will allow you to concentrate a lot more in the present of the country instead of the far future.
Finally, at the end of the session we can use the AAR thread to not only narrate the history but to present what were the objectives of our reign and what we see on the future.

 

[daedalus]

One more thing, I will suggest to try a later scenation, like 1617 or something. Conlonization can be a hassle at the beggining of the game, since that while nations like spain, france and england are having all the fun colonizing, they also require to run at the lowest speed,and the rest of the countries have to sit around.

 

[unmerged(1104)]

Good point Daedalus - 1617 is a fun scenerio and still alot of room left for colonial expansion. 8 player may, but that is likely a boon considering our core is 7/8 players.

Random choice is important as you stated, we will have to figure out how to handle that issue.

So we are considering scratching the present game and restarting? I have no problem with this, just want to understand.

 

[Taelyn]

Hrmmm

I hope that the old game continues as before. If Square One is still willing to play Sweden and sub now, or we can get skkrrp or Stonewall to sub, we should be set to go, even if Edge bails on us. With P.P.'s streamline suggestion it should run smoother. Is everyone in agreement that we're keeping the old game?

As for the replacement/backup game, I don't care for colonial powers. I suppose in any scenario there will always be -some- non-colonial power though. I'd prefer no randomization, but instead some choice so I don't end up with Portugal, Spain, or England.

We can do:

1617, majors, regular game
1419, majors (most hate this)
1419, minors
1492, minors
1492/1419, alternative area (Asia, India, Middle East, Africas)
1492 majors (same as the other game)

At some point we'll need a final decision.

 

[Hyzhenhok]

Whatever is decided, I'm up for it. Still working on internet.

 

[daedalus]

Re: Hrmmm

Originally posted by Taelyn
I hope that the old game continues as before. If Square One is still willing to play Sweden and sub now, or we can get skkrrp or Stonewall to sub, we should be set to go, even if Edge bails on us. With P.P.'s streamline suggestion it should run smoother. Is everyone in agreement that we're keeping the old game?

As for the replacement/backup game, I don't care for colonial powers. I suppose in any scenario there will always be -some- non-colonial power though. I'd prefer no randomization, but instead some choice so I don't end up with Portugal, Spain, or England.

We can do:

1617, majors, regular game
1419, majors (most hate this)
1419, minors
1492, minors
1492/1419, alternative area (Asia, India, Middle East, Africas)
1492 majors (same as the other game)

At some point we'll need a final decision.

I am talking about the alternative game, or a new game. You wont have to play a colonial nation every session, only once in a while. An even then, if you dont want to worry about the colonies, you dont have too. You will be the king who proposes inward expansion . The point is to enjoy each session and not to slowly build up for future, which in my opinion, makes some sessions dull, and give us to much dependence on each single player.
Againg, 1617 or 1700 are ok with me, since colonization is reduced then, and we can concetrate in interactiv with each opther instead of exploring...

 

[unmerged(16832)]

A new game i see

 

[WhiteHojo]

I like this new idea of a core group w/rotating/random nation assignment among a core necessary group of nations...

So we could try this as the alternate game? the one we can use when we are unable to proceed with the main/old game?

sounds like it could be a fun thing - the 'play for now w/only the barest eye on the future' aspect may be a nice twist - hopefully this won't expand into a hedonistic me-me-me/now-now-now damn the future at all costs type of play however.

 

[daedalus]

We will need to have set of rules by which the players that are to behave. The idea is to keep the core countries in the hands of core players, who have already show their responsiblity. The host can always use is BAN powers, or stop the game, save and quit when such behaviour is detected. Last resource will be editing (extreme).

 

[unmerged(16832)]

Good luck with the game.

I'll be watching.

 

[unmerged(334)]

I see one problem with rotating nations. We will not be able to use diplomacy on the forum. After finishing playing as a France I will not tell Austria to get out of Italy if there is a chance I will play as Austria next round. If I have to pick between 1617 and 1700 I would choose 1617.

It looks like most of the time we don't have all 9 regular players. Most of the time we have too look for the sub or use AI. So I have proposition.

Lets start one game where we will rotate and use subs when normal player is out. (with the core kingdoms always human). This will be our main game do to the fact that most of the time we are missing someone.

We also should start a regular game were we don't switch and use diplomacy on the forum. We would play this game only when we would have all regular players (that happened I think only 2 times till now.) We would have to find people who will not quit in the middle of this game. It would be very long term game. If someone is not sure that he will stay that long he can start playing but when he lives the country stays AI till we find the replacement. When we have the nation as AI because player left we would continue to play while looking for long term replacement. Or we can choose to levee it AI. Most important fact that I wish to stress is having players that will not quit and are willing to play for a year or more. I don't like to stop the game in the middle and start over because of few people that did not expect such a long term.

This way some individuals that wish to play more talk less would be happy with first game, and others which look forward to diplo aspect and long term planning would like the other.

 

[Taelyn]

Hrmm...

I hope that we'll continue playing the original game, using subs as necessary to fill out the ranks we need. We're all agreed on this part, right? I'm not sure its a good idea to start the long term game all over. Its taken us over a month just to get this far.

If you guys want to use a rotating/random powers game, I'm willing to play a minor and take up a major's position when needed. That should make everyone happy since I'm not too comfortable playing any majors beside Russia and Austria.

It looks like everyone is agreed on the 1617 scenario, so that's great.

Majors are Spain, France, England, Austria, OE and Russia, so 6 players will play majors. Should we use a rotating system or random? I think random might be better, that way people don't know what they'll play next, so they can't sabotage their own country in favor of the next one. We can use dice to decide which person is playing which nation. We'll pick the nations once we have all the people that have shown up.

An interesting suggestion. After completing playing a country, the player create a list of 4-6 reasonable goals for the next player and post them. This next player has to try to achieve these goals, and success will be judged by how many goals are met.

I suggest that we start promptly at 9:10 with whoever is there, with the understanding that we'll check back at 10 to see if anyone else has shown up. And furthermore, as PP suggested, if anyone drop we immediately go back to get them rather then discussing it since we almost always decide to restart.

Finally, we should start a new thread once the alternative game starts to discuss it there and keep this one for our original game.