Pitboss 20 signup/setup thread (Tides of War game organization)

[wetbandit]

I am dedlurking so I don't even have a vote, but am curious if No Talking includes countdowns or other such use of specific gold amounts in proposed trades as a signal. It's been brought up in other games recently, probably a Good Thing if everyone is on the same page with this.

[GermanJoey]

Settings discussion. Keep in mind the following:

* Pitboss, normal speed.
* Interaction rules: no city trading/gifting of any sort, and no talking.
* Anyone who does annoying things with the turn timer will be taken outside and shot, then made to wear a dunce cap, then brought back inside and shot again.
* The goal of the game is not just to strive for sole victory but also simply to improve your civilization, explore how the game works, and survive. Not every nation will be America, but they are still worth something! ()
* We will try to maintain a brisk turn pace.
* We will play a fantastic map made by a mapmaker!
* No smurfs, please! Does this really need to be said? Well it's said.
* We will do our best to have fun and help our fellow players have fun.

We also decided to see starts and then do a snake pick.

Let's vote on these:

Barbarians? YES/NO
Scattered Improvements? YES/NO
Tech Cost Scaling? YES/NO

(We could also vote on map settings but I think we can just leave that to our mapmaker. Something like Standard/Monarch + medium distance maintenance would be pretty typical and just fine. Or maybe Prince, and/or maybe Large, for example.)

Also if you want some other setting different from standard you can bring that up of course.

1.) NO, if scattered improvements is on, but YES if not
2.) YES, this sounds pretty fun
3.) YES, ive played a few single player games with it now and like it

[Lord Parkin]

@Lord Parkin -

Scattered improvements is a map option in Torusland which puts some improvements on the map. These end up being kind of like goody huts in that you might want to build warriors to go pillage them, but of course they have less variance. Sometimes they are also worth keeping around (e.g. a cottage can spawn on a forest, or a windmill or mine on flatland, so it's something special). So to some extent you also want to pillage ones near your opponent and guard ones near you. I like this map option to reward exploration and give early units something productive to do. The reason I voted for barbs if this option is declined is that barbs also give early units something to do.

Hmm, sounds interesting. Are there limitations to the randomness - can a town spawn on a forest, or a farm on an oasis, or a fishing boats on a land tile, or a winery on non-wine?

I'm a bit resistant to the idea of turning off barbs, because to me they make sure everyone is "kept honest" with their expansion. Also it renders a wonder near-useless.

[SevenSpirits]

I am dedlurking so I don't even have a vote, but am curious if No Talking includes countdowns or other such use of specific gold amounts in proposed trades as a signal. It's been brought up in other games recently, probably a Good Thing if everyone is on the same page with this.

If someone has a clear suggestion on how to codify this that doesn't leave gray area I'm interested to hear it.

[slowcheetah]

I'd like to play if it turns out to be a pitboss and there is still room.

Settings wise

Barbs- Yes
Scattered Improvements- Yes
Scaling tech costs- Yes

I don't really have a problem with the coded countdowns.

[Krill]

FWIW, I am not playing, and this decision would not affect anything to do with the map, but I am interested in seeing the effect of the different tech scaling on both starting tech valuations and on late game tech pace.

Also I haven't done anything on building a map yet, other than looking at various map settings for the base script so more player doesn't change anything for me.

[Lord Parkin]

Barbarians - YES
Scattered Improvements - I'm not familiar with this, can someone explain what it is? YES
Tech Cost Scaling - YES

I assume Unrestricted Leaders + No Tech Trading + No Vassals + No Events.

Fine to have Medium Distance Maintenance on (if that'd make a difference).

Updated my previous post.

Slowcheetah - the more the merrier!

[Gawdzak]

Barbarians? YES
Scattered Improvements? Don't have a preference here.
Tech Cost Scaling? YES

Are huts on for this game?

@Lord Parkin

I have seen hamlets and villages on forests,not sure about towns and I have seen pastures and wineries on a non-resource tile but it doesn't give you the resource or extra tile yields.

[Krill]

Also, if map is toroidal, do you want the medium cost scaling that makes maintenance work like it's a cylindrical map?

[SevenSpirits]

Welcome slowcheetah!

About the improvements map option:

* They can go on any non-mountain land tile.
* They have significantly lower probability of appearing on tiles with resources.
* Each placed improvement has 2/3 chance to be drawn from the "common" list and 1/3 to be drawn from the "rare" list.
-- Common: COTTAGE, HAMLET, MINE, WORKSHOP, WINDMILL
-- Rare: VILLAGE, PLANTATION, WINERY, PASTURE, CAMP, LUMBERMILL, WATERMILL, FARM, FORT
(So each common is 3.6 times as likely to appear as each rare.)

@Krill, I was going to leave that up to you, but I think it's a good idea.