FWIW this would be backed up by the fact that I feel like I've seen Pirates whip noticeably more than everybody else. Maybe Yossarian could confirm that, not sure.
Chat with Menagerie/HAK Wrote:scooter: FYI - we're still discussing this. sorry for the slowness, but the turns are moving slowly too so I'm guessing it should be OK
speaking about the rb demogame and the border deal. we're trying to come up with a couple alternatives because we can sense there's a bit of a disconnect between what both sides like
also trying to dotmap actual city sites for each of us rather than big lines HitAnyKey: Yeah, no problem. I don't think either of us are ready to start settling more cities along that border right this minute anyway.
and yeah, I was going to attempt to try to do a little dotmapping myself...but just haven't had time. Plus, I suck at trying to do that.
And Mortius seems to have gone AWOL. So right now it's just me and this newguy talking back and forth in our forum. scooter: yeah, I've been a little busy last couple days as I"m about to go away for the weekend
ah, too bad, hope he comes back soon. HitAnyKey: as am I. I fly out Friday to come back late Monday night. scooter: hah, i'm leaving tomorrow afternoon and coming back monday as well, probably not a big deal that we'll have a slowdown in responses between us HitAnyKey: nope. I'll still be acitive enough on the forum, and able to play our turns. but with regard to actual "planning stuff", I won't really have time for any of that scooter: yeah, definitely makes sense
how's things with pirates? ever get that thing settled or you guys still at war?
we're still trying to meet them, but our warrior is just wandering in the middle of the continent currently HitAnyKey: we're still at war. it's an odd situation....plus, me an THH are trying to finally discuss some sort of message. There's been almost no communication between our two teams.
but the issue is with where they settled a city.
and that most likely will not come to a fully peaceful conclusion. scooter: did they pink dot you guys?
ah, that stinks
kind of weird. from what we can tell, every other team is settling clockwise, as the map is kind of built to suggest each team does that
pirates seem to be the odd exceptoin HitAnyKey: I'm still trying to fully understand this whole "pink dot" thing everyone talks about....but they settled a city too close to us (though in reality it's probably almost halfway), and essentially stealing a certain set of resources that we feel belong to us.
and yeah, they went the opposite direction of everyone else it looks like.
<snip some clarification on the origins of the "pink dot" term>
HitAnyKey: and this does appear to be a smaller map than I originally thought it was going to be. So the distance between capitals...and hence the distance between 2nd cities and capitals seem to be pretty close.
Notable things:
1) "I don't think either of us are ready to start settling more cities along that border right this minute anyways" - HAK said this which was notable. He doens't mind if we stall this out a bit longer which is nice.
2) Mortius has gone AWOL so HAK is swamped right now. This isn't a high priority for him. This is further confirmed when he goes on to admit he hasn't even talked to Pirates and he's working on that now.
3) Yes, I noticed he was chatty and took this as an opportune time to squeeze out some details about their war with Pirates . The war is real, and it's a squabble over a city that's roughly halfway between them. Glad they got mad at them and not us.
4) In short, I don't think we need to fear any sort of action from Menagerie. Good news. I like our chances of connecting horses before this needs to be decided, at which point we can just do whatever we want. We're in a strong position here negotating-wise, great news all around. We also don't need to rush a response back to them as HAK probably won't even look at it this weekend regardless of turns. Also good news.
5) Yes, I keep pushing the "nearly everyone is settling clockwise" thing though I'm not actually sure it's true. It's logical though, and they seem to agree with it. It's a nice little thing to improve our bargaining position... and the map genuinely is set up to encourage people to settle clockwise it seems.
(October 17th, 2012, 22:45)Old Harry Wrote: I think you're right - sounds sincere to me.
Although isn't lord parkin on their team? That just makes me paranoid...
I don't think he is super active right now in general-here or at CivFanatics.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Yeah he isn't around much. Also, sorry for how blinding the yellow font is there - just noticed that. I'm used to using that a lot on the old forums, but it doesn't work so great here.
I wish we knew more about the "pink dot" Pirates took--was it "their" copper or was it the gold city? If it was the latter, I'd much more comfortable with the second dotmap (the one that gives us copper). On the other hand, if it's the former and they can't get copper, that means we could just push ahead with taking the copper city and they couldn't do much to stop us (assuming we get some defense in our cities, which isn't a given at this point.
(P.S: I actually have a decent computer again, and was able to look at the save for the first time in ages--maybe I can be more useful now )
To Pirates Wrote:Greetings from Gillette. Just wanted to drop you a quick note to say we've met you in-game! I'll write something more official up later, but since you come right after us in the turn order I figured you should get something from us pretty quickly.
If you ever want to chat - add realmsbeyondscooter@gmail.com - that's your best bet. What's up with your war with Menagerie by the way? Is everything alright? We met them quite awhil ago but they've been vague about the war with you.
They come after us in the turn order, so I wanted them to have the message from us immediately so our warrior didn't seem aggressive.
Awesome, very glad we finally met them, thanks for sending the message Scooter. I think we'll do well working with them since things have stalled out with Menagerie. Do we want to warn them about Menagerie's huge power spikes we've been seeing on the graphs?
Pirates Wrote:Ahoy Gillette! We are happy to see your warrior within sight of Tortuga in its final days before the Menagerie Trois (M3 for short, although we have some more "creative" names for them) likely destroy it.
M3 moved their starting settler towards us at game start. We settled the city of Tortuga halfway between Barbados (our capital) and Animal Farm (M3's capital). M3 declared war on us, sending Warriors to annoy us. After a period of seeing nothing but Warriors, M3 suddenly sent a large stack of Axes against us, catching us off guard and overwhelming our defences at Tortuga. Our army has been defeated; Tortuga will fall next turn. Despite making initial overtures, M3 is presently not responding to talks of peace, although they may seek some sort of capitulation from us after the fall of Tortuga. We have sufficient strength in our core to deter further invasion, but let's be honest here - our chances of staying competitive long-term are now basically nil, so in the end we hope to drag them down with us to Davy Jones' Locker.
Our supposition is that your location is south-southwest of us (we're directly to your warrior's north), therefore making you M3's southern neighbor. We imagine that our intent to avenge ourselves against M3 is likely welcome news. It may be helpful for you to know that they are apparently going all-out after us. They have sent 5 promoted Axes against us and many additional warriors, so you may have some additional opportunities to your north right now.
How are things in the south? We understand TEAM and Trolls are not happy with each other, and that your team may also be engaged there. We have sadly heard little else at this time.
We look forward to a future of cooperation and friendship with the Shaven Empire.
Smooth sailing!
-Pirates
Yep, that war is real. This game is insane. Good to know that all those axes are accounted for and well out of view.
. The war is real, and it's a squabble over a city that's roughly halfway between them. Glad they got mad at them and not us. 
