A PbP Strategy Game for Erfworld

[LTDave]

This game is designed for five or six players. Players post orders on the forum. A player may not post their next set of orders until all the other players have had a turn, or six days have passed since their last post. If a player misses a turn, too bad.

Okay, so in reading this again I see it is pretty vague.

It is meant to convey the following idea: Telva can't have his turn 3 until EVERY OTHER PLAYER has had a turn post since Telva's turn 2, OR six days have passed.

In this way we do have a fairly set order to play - it goes Daemonwelsh, LTDave, Crovius, GeeFresh, Telva, Turbler. And then same again next turn.


The more pressing concern is the fact that that U times don't seem to match.

Can other players please post here the U time that appears besides Telva's post above - his turn 2 the one above the smiley face.

[Telva]

It is meant to convey the following idea: Telva can't have his turn 3 until EVERY OTHER PLAYER has had a turn post since Telva's turn 2, OR six days have passed.

I definitely misunderstood this meaning, but this meaning means we've probably been out of turn order since turn 1

The more pressing concern is the fact that that U times don't seem to match.

Can other players please post here the U time that appears besides Telva's post above - his turn 2 the one above the smiley face.

this is distressing to say the least.
Wanna take screenshots?
Also if need be: http://invisiblecastle.com/

[turbler]

I would like to again point out that I had 1 cavalry and 1 infantry in Hex i4 meaning I dealt one hit, and my remaining unit of cavalry retreated to i5.

[Daemonwelsh]

I would like to again point out that I had 1 cavalry and 1 infantry in Hex i4 meaning I dealt one hit, and my remaining unit of cavalry retreated to i5.

I didn't see any infantry in i4...
it could be my maping skills, but I only saw the 1 cavalry.

map is edited to show current state of play,
http://daemonwelsh.deviantart.com/art/E ... -142356321

and isn't Gee dead now? there are 3 fliers in his airspace after combat, and he has no units to defend with...
I think Telva has control of his capital.

[GeeFresh]

Can other players please post here the U time that appears besides Telva's post above - his turn 2 the one above the smiley face.

I see:

by Telva » Fri Nov 06, 2009 7:46 am 1257493594

[turbler]

gotta go to bed, gonna do my turn afterwards, just a side note, the lvl 3 and 2 cities on your map are actually lvl 4. But otherwise I think it's ok.

[Daemonwelsh]

gotta go to bed, gonna do my turn afterwards, just a side note, the lvl 3 and 2 cities on your map are actually lvl 4. But otherwise I think it's ok.

ill fix it in my next update.

and hurry up! I need to defend ma cities!

[LTDave]

OK, so we have a problem. The U time isn't universal on this forum - which is absurd.

It seems to be modified by timezone. So perhaps we all need to switch to GMT +0 to get the same results.

Or perhaps we can work out something better?

Let's hold off on turn 3 until we can work out a solution - sorry Daemonwelsh, but your cities can still be defended in a couple of days.

The other option is that we appoint someone to be "dice roller", and just trust them. But this can be annoying to that person.
My work internet is blocking the invisiblecastle thing, but I'll have a look when I get home in a few hours.

Sorry guys - this hasn't happened to me before - never had this trouble on other forums.

[Telva]

I count Three options:
GM - this would allow us to uses an actual scouting mechanic and would allow us to have an official dice roller. It'd be less fun for the GM.

GMT for U time - to get the U time we should switch our preference to GMT rather than wherever we're actually at (I'm GMT -6). It would be annoying to keep switching this though.

Invisible Castle - It records and allows us to post links to our die rolls. It keeps track of previous die rolls by name too. So if we use our forum names (or side names) we can use the dice roller and post the roll here, and other suspicious people will check the person's dice log to see how many times they've rolled and when.

Also since we're taking a 3 day hiatus we could be bothered to start a new game with a larger map if we want to.
We could be bothered to edit the rules and upgrade them to Ver. 1.3 so that how to determine post order is clear and all those questions that were recently asked are addressed in the proper sections.

[Daemonwelsh]

I would enjoy a larger map... and maybe we could refine the rules for a-mancy.

For the rolling, I would prefer a GM, or a change to standard time.

I would enjoy a list of a-mancies that were pre-made, which we could pick one from.

[LTDave]

Sorry, but I can't use invisiblecastle - like Crovius I do most of this at work, and that's blocked to me.

How about this for an option - instead of U seconds, just use regular minutes and seconds. Regardless of time zone (I'm GMT + 10), the minutes and seconds of a post should be the same (as long as everyone is on a full hour modifier to GMT, not + 9.30 or something). So for Daemonwelsh's post above this one, the number would be: 5424

That will still work with the spreadsheet, and it'll still be pretty random.

I'd like to keep going with this game for a bit longer - I'm sure we haven't identified all the bugs yet, and I'm planning on knocking out Daemonwelsh in two or three more turns...

Telva, I'm all for putting together a version 1.3 of the rules, but would anybody read them? I'm all for a bigger map, but how much bigger, and do we let in more players? In which case, who is going to police them all?

I say we keep going for now, play for a few more turns, see if we identify any more problems. Let's use the minutes and seconds thing above, and see how we go.

[edit] it occurs to me that I should explain how to get seconds in the time post. Go to user control preferences, board preferences, date format: custom, and enter the following: D M d, Y g:i:s a
You should now get hour:minutes:seconds [end edit]

[Daemonwelsh]

I'd like to keep going with this game for a bit longer - I'm sure we haven't identified all the bugs yet, and I'm planning on knocking out Daemonwelsh in two or three more turns...

*gulp*
now I know what I have to do to survive...
develop new a-mancy!

[LTDave]

D'Oh! There goes strategic surprise!

Daemonwelsh, can you confirm that your post above my last one displays the same minutes and seconds as I state above?

[Telva]

Telva, I'm all for putting together a version 1.3 of the rules, but would anybody read them?

I would

I'm all for a bigger map, but how much bigger, and do we let in more players? In which case, who is going to police them all?

4 times this size and 7 total players giving us ~35 hexes per player rather than the 10 we're working with now. That's without subtracting terrain hexes from the total area.

I prefer to play games with odd numbers of starting players. Theoretically: 7 is a good number because 3 people can hold 2 capitals and then there's one guy with a single capital left. That player generally should have the most fun as the 3 larger players fight over who gets to kill him and take his capital and try to protect him from the other two players long enough. That conflict lets him build and potentially win.

Also: I've noted a few ways to cripple an opponent and stop someone from building cities in your system Dave (from the get go, though harder with a larger map), I'd like to suggest there be a set number of preplaced city hexes (4 or 5 per player) and a set amount of preplaced capital hexes.

We could also add a mountains terrain if we wanted to, which count as 2 hexes for movement (not affecting seige)

[Daemonwelsh]

D'Oh! There goes strategic surprise!

Daemonwelsh, can you confirm that your post above my last one displays the same minutes and seconds as I state above?

Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:54 pm
Nov 5th, '09, 19:04

those are two separate ones...

I don't know which one you wanted.

[LTDave]

Telva, I'm all for putting together a version 1.3 of the rules, but would anybody read them?

I would

Yes Telva, I'm sure you would. I've started drafting a version 1.3

I'm all for a bigger map, but how much bigger, and do we let in more players? In which case, who is going to police them all?

4 times this size and 7 total players giving us ~35 hexes per player rather than the 10 we're working with now. That's without subtracting terrain hexes from the total area.

That's huge!
Isn't that going to become mindbogglingly hard to keep track of stuff? A smaller map means that other players can intervene to help or hinder more easily. A map where it takes 10 turns to move my infantry to your capital is going to be royally frustrating.


Daemonwelsh, I was look for minutes and seconds, to ckeck that they match. For the 9:54pm post. I say its 54 minutes, 24 seconds - 5424 for the random number generator.


Also, GeeFresh isn't out of this game yet (from about a thousand posts ago). Because Telva lost that battle, his surviving units had to retreat to the hex they attacked from.

[Daemonwelsh]

yeah... my computer won't give me seconds.

so I am basically screwed on that account.
and if we have a huge map, we just need to add bonuses, and possibly teleportation from city to city.

[Telva]

It's not so huge. (there are other ways to make the map as well) 35 hexes is a capital and 5 hexes less than a 3 hex radius.

With 6 players:

It can easily put each capital at a minimum distance of 6 used move from one another(more easily done with mountain hexes), not to mention the cities potentially inbetween, which is outside the reach of fliers (starting 2 from your capital and moving 3 towards another capital won't reach)

[LTDave]

Your computer won't give you seconds?
I find that hard to believe.

Have you tried this:
?

it occurs to me that I should explain how to get seconds in the time post. Go to user control preferences, board preferences, date format: custom, and enter the following: D M d, Y g:i:s a
You should now get hour:minutes:seconds

[Crovius]

I agree with the GM thing and would volunteer to do it. I actually enjoy tracking numbers and stuff, it's why I'm so good at my job (I run logistics and statisticl analysis). And with a GM we can use scouting, and I'll even opt to not play a kingdom, instead controlling natural allies. Also, this game shouldn't be JUST about killing everyone. Form alliances and stuff.

So, I vote myself as Dedicated GM for The Erfworld PbP Strategy Game!