New FFH2 PBEM?

[sunrise089]

Because in-game Hyborem is not allied with the summoner.

The game mechanics for the angels revolve around turning over a player city to an AI which will be war-hungry in exchange for good alignment units getting resurrected. The Infernals don't work the same way - the takeover city doesn't come from the players, and a permanent alliance isn't created. The Infernals can even DoW the summoner, right?

So my fear is that making the Infernals into a de-facto permanent alliance greatly strengthens that play.

[uberfish]

Yeah Hyborem is not really supposed to be on anyone's side but his own, when players summon him and choose to switch to Infernal in SP the first thing they usually do is take over the cities of their old civ. The tech that summons him also unlocks a couple of nice things specifically for Ashen Veil players. Hyborem is a consequence not a bonus.

With Mercurians you have to build a wonder and give them a city to get an AI ally of questionable competence. To be honest they might be a bit too good if controlled by the same or a second human player locked into PA, though. I would prefer that the AI run one of the civs if Basium gets summoned.

Also, hmm, there are the practicalities of the turn rotation to think about.

[sunrise089]

Ok, I revise my view.

For the Mercurians I prefer an AI takeover.

For the Infernals I'm fine with a human takeover for flavor, but prefer it to be from an unspoiled human. I remain happy if someone wants to reserve that spot now, with the understanding that 1) the Infernals may not get summoned, and 2) the player entering the game holds no allegiance to the summoning civ.

If the person summoning the Infernals wants to switch civs then I guess the same non-spoiled person should take over the old civ...?

[darrelljs]

Compact Enforced gets my vote (sorry Krill). uberfish et. al. have already brought up many issues, and I'm more afraid of the ones we haven't though of.

Darrell

[uberfish]

I would rather the AI control Hyborem than have Compact Enforced, having to deal with hell terrain is a price you're supposed to pay as an Ashen Veil player for getting the (very good) Sacrifice civic and Infernal Grimoire.

[sunrise089]

Does Compact Enforced remove hell terrain? I thought it was just tied to the counter, and that was primarily based on the spread of AV and the amount of global city destruction.

[darrelljs]

Hell terrain is spawned out of Infernal lands. If the Infernals are never summoned then there will be no hell terrain.

Darrell

[SevenSpirits]

Mapmaking is in progress. (Lurkers, go to the mapmaking thread and give feedback!)

I'm using Mist's player order, and randomly started with Serdoa.

Let me know if you agree on Compact Enforced set, otherwise it will remain off.

[Selrahc]

Hell terrain is spawned out of Infernal lands. If the Infernals are never summoned then there will be no hell terrain.

Darrell

There are one or two other ways. Entropy node flare, or one of the effects of the wonder spell.

[uberfish]

gosh I wonder what they're discussing in the map creation thread