Edited: See signup post below or here: https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/show...#pid830432
Original post below.
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I’ve been thinking a little bit lately about how I’m sort of not crazy about the range of PB games that get launched lately. They almost exclusively fall into one of two buckets:
1. Semi-mirrored ancient starts with a balance mod
2. Pure random ancient starts with a balance mod
It’s sort of a shame that more elaborate setups have gone by the wayside - either later era or variants. So I’m going to toss one out there and sort of gauge interest. This isn’t necessarily a signup thread (yet) as I don’t really have the bandwidth yet to play one of these solo, although I would happily team with someone. But I’m curious if there’s interest in a Variant Pitboss - either now or in a few months when another game or two ends. It can still be somewhat competitive, but with some sort of special ruleset borrowed from a previous RB Adventure/Epic/SG. The goal here would be a serious attempt to play out and showcase the variant first and winning second, but by all means try to win.
As it happens, I have a wild one in mind.
https://www.realmsbeyond.net/civ/c4tourney/adv19.html
Mao’s Muse
This was an extremely cool Adventure from ages ago with a very seemingly simple premise.
My thoughts on how to make this work - a 5 player game on a relatively balanced but unmirrored map. I think 5 is the right number (but you could persuade me of 6) due to the tech strength falling off hard around that number. I sort of suspect Classical start might be best, but that’s more debatable. No tech could be picked more than once just to showcase some variety.
There would be a 4-round snake pick in which you could pick leader, civ, tech, or starting screenshot. The capitals would not be mirrored or even super evenly balanced - we ideally would want one or two OP and one or two that are a little meh but playable. I would also strongly recommend Vanilla BtS for a few reasons. One, a lot of the balancing we’ve done in the two community mods assumes a fairly normal game, which this would not be. Second, having some uber leaders/civs helps offset things for those who don’t get first pick of the starting tech. For example, if you go 5th in the snake pick and everyone before you picked a tech, you can still fall back on Pacal of Inca or something as a super nice consolation prize to pair with your less-broken starting tech, as opposed to our mods which have hammered down some of the most OP stuff. I think with CtH or RtR you’d see everyone picking tech/start first, but with Vanilla it might be more debatable. Basically the goal of this setup is to pile on the broken things and make people try to figure out what is most broken and then demonstrate it. (BUG could be used if there’s desire for it.)
Now, before you tell me how unbalanced it would be and/or how you think X tech would be broken, I know. I would like to see people try to exploit something they think is broken, and I would sort of like to try it myself too. I’m curious if Pacal of the 5th best tech can beat the 5th best leader + <the tech you’re screaming about in your head while reading this>. There’s a couple techs in particular I suspect would blow the field away, but I also wonder if a well-chosen military tech could just walk in and destroy them both. I also bet the MP nature will change some of the priorities compared to the original running of the game.
Is there a general interest in playing or watching something like this at some point? I'm open to alternative ideas too. This is just one that has stuck in my head.
Original post below.
-------
I’ve been thinking a little bit lately about how I’m sort of not crazy about the range of PB games that get launched lately. They almost exclusively fall into one of two buckets:
1. Semi-mirrored ancient starts with a balance mod
2. Pure random ancient starts with a balance mod
It’s sort of a shame that more elaborate setups have gone by the wayside - either later era or variants. So I’m going to toss one out there and sort of gauge interest. This isn’t necessarily a signup thread (yet) as I don’t really have the bandwidth yet to play one of these solo, although I would happily team with someone. But I’m curious if there’s interest in a Variant Pitboss - either now or in a few months when another game or two ends. It can still be somewhat competitive, but with some sort of special ruleset borrowed from a previous RB Adventure/Epic/SG. The goal here would be a serious attempt to play out and showcase the variant first and winning second, but by all means try to win.
As it happens, I have a wild one in mind.
https://www.realmsbeyond.net/civ/c4tourney/adv19.html
Mao’s Muse
This was an extremely cool Adventure from ages ago with a very seemingly simple premise.
Quote:Scenario Rules: You may select one extra starting tech. You may choose any technology; however, you will not receive any "first to" bonus as the tech is NOT discovered. (For example, Liberalism will not grant an additional free technology.)
My thoughts on how to make this work - a 5 player game on a relatively balanced but unmirrored map. I think 5 is the right number (but you could persuade me of 6) due to the tech strength falling off hard around that number. I sort of suspect Classical start might be best, but that’s more debatable. No tech could be picked more than once just to showcase some variety.
There would be a 4-round snake pick in which you could pick leader, civ, tech, or starting screenshot. The capitals would not be mirrored or even super evenly balanced - we ideally would want one or two OP and one or two that are a little meh but playable. I would also strongly recommend Vanilla BtS for a few reasons. One, a lot of the balancing we’ve done in the two community mods assumes a fairly normal game, which this would not be. Second, having some uber leaders/civs helps offset things for those who don’t get first pick of the starting tech. For example, if you go 5th in the snake pick and everyone before you picked a tech, you can still fall back on Pacal of Inca or something as a super nice consolation prize to pair with your less-broken starting tech, as opposed to our mods which have hammered down some of the most OP stuff. I think with CtH or RtR you’d see everyone picking tech/start first, but with Vanilla it might be more debatable. Basically the goal of this setup is to pile on the broken things and make people try to figure out what is most broken and then demonstrate it. (BUG could be used if there’s desire for it.)
Now, before you tell me how unbalanced it would be and/or how you think X tech would be broken, I know. I would like to see people try to exploit something they think is broken, and I would sort of like to try it myself too. I’m curious if Pacal of the 5th best tech can beat the 5th best leader + <the tech you’re screaming about in your head while reading this>. There’s a couple techs in particular I suspect would blow the field away, but I also wonder if a well-chosen military tech could just walk in and destroy them both. I also bet the MP nature will change some of the priorities compared to the original running of the game.
Is there a general interest in playing or watching something like this at some point? I'm open to alternative ideas too. This is just one that has stuck in my head.
