Variant Pitboss Signup

[scooter]

I am more worried about Rocketry and guided missiles, off the top of my head it seems like a very cost-efficient way to break pre-industrial defenses.

Artillery enables AT as a strength 14 unit and arty, with no other tech needs, and Rocketry enables SAM inf as a strength 18 unit. Add in free strikes as promotions get rolling and they just will not die.

I would love to see this go up against a player that has been using State Property, Mercantilism, or UniSuffrage/Emancipation from T0 (plus a few other goodies those techs allow) rather than worrying too much about which is actually best in advance. I think I would take at least one of those techs over Rocketry. Of course, if you're right, one of you are welcome to play in such a game and prove your point.

[Krill]

Thanks but I don't need to prove anything

I don't want to see everyone put in the effort to set up a new game and see it blown up after 20 turns though. OTOH the games might only last 50 turns at best.

[Cornflakes]

Superdeath and I will sign up as team for this.

That said, the argument for vanilla and choosing amongst unequal starts is to give the players other levers with which to balance things. Also, if this game were to be over in 2-3 months because someone did outright break the game and hilariously lap the field, I don't think that would necessarily be a disaster. I would hope signups understand that is a possibility. I am more concerned with things that are inherently unfun than OP.

ban as little as possible, and let me pick my idea for hilariously lapping the field vs. yours ... sounds fun! If someone blows away the field in a couple dozen turns then so be it!

[Thoth]

I would be interested if I wasn't already signed up for a game.  Will lurk with interest.

[scooter]

So my read on interest levels so far are...


Cornflakes/SD: In
Scooter: Interested, but a little later would be best
Miguelito: Interested, but a little later would be best. Is unsure about Vanilla BtS though.
Chumchu: Interested in ded-lurking or teaming

Then there's Q/Tarkeel more interested in watching, but they cracked the door open to potentially participating to some degree.


My proposal is we get this one going once PB66 completes or mid-July, whichever comes first. That leaves us plenty of time to get to 5 firm players/teams and gives us time to find a mapmaker.


Speaking of! If you're reading this and interested in watching and can make maps, it would be fantastic if you were able to volunteer sooner than later and have a 5 player map ready to go once we're ready. Maps are always in demand, so on the off chance this game never gets off the ground, well there's one in the pocket for a future game. General map instructions:


* Mostly balanced surrounding land - open to both soft Mirroring or just regularly balanced.

* Intentionally unbalanced capitals. I don't mean completely insane - not like triple wet corn + grassland gold versus 1 plains cow. But there should be a clear difference between the 1st, 3rd, and 5th best choices, if that makes sense. I'm hoping picks 1-3 have a legitimately difficult time choosing between tech, leader, Inca/India, and the start. Or at least there's a heck of a consolation prize for those that don't get first dibs on tech.

* An average amount of land. Looking for neither cramped nor insanely roomy.

* Toroidal is probably a bad idea as it buffs Communism a lot.


The last thing is between now and then we probably need to cobble together a lightweight mod that removes the Emancipation unhappiness. If it's easy to slide BUG in alongside that, then that's cool too.

[Tarkeel]

Big and small might be a good map script for this:


With more balanced neighbors, of course.

[Mr. Cairo]

I'll join this, conditionally, as I don't technically know if I'll be in a position to play in July. But in all likelihood it'll be fine. The days of archaeologists roughing it in tents far from civilization are, thankfully, over.

I don't think any techs need to be banned from being picked, although that may change after one game if someone wins in 50 turns. But if that happens, we can just play again with a few modifications.

[scooter]

Big and small might be a good map script for this:

Big and Small is great, but it's important to make sure all players actually spawn on the Big continent. The issue with Big and Small is that the luxuries only spawn on the main continent. This was an issue in PB5 where I spawned in the islands a good 30 tiles away from the nearest luxury. As long as that issue gets avoided, it is good script.

I'll join this, conditionally, as I don't technically know if I'll be in a position to play in July. But in all likelihood it'll be fine. The days of archaeologists roughing it in tents far from civilization are, thankfully, over.

I don't think any techs need to be banned from being picked, although that may change after one game if someone wins in 50 turns. But if that happens, we can just play again with a few modifications.

I'll reserve a spot for you then, and we can see if you're still in when the time comes.

[Cornflakes]

July sounds like a good timeframe.

[scooter]

As we discussed previously about aiming for a July-ish launch, I figure we’re at a good point to bump this game into official signup mode as I expect it’ll take some time to get it launched because we need full signups first, then wait for a mapmaker to produce starting screenshots, then a longer snake pick and map finalization all before we can start. It’ll take a few weeks. So here’s the general settings.

• Ideally 5 players, 60 turns simultaneous, then convert to sequential. Open to playing with 4 or 6 players.
  
• Map: Preferably Cylindrical, some overall land balance, but how balanced is mapmaker discretion. I’m quite open to Big and Small as Tarkeel suggested or one of the hard/soft mirroring scripts. Lean towards roomy but not enormous. 5 distinct 7x7 starting areas will be revealed prior to picking. These starting areas should be intentionally unbalanced. There should be clear quality differences between the 1st, 3rd, and 5th best starts. Strategic resources should be balanced reasonably.
  
• Game will have a mod but essentially be Vanilla BtS. The mod will consist of BUG/BUFFY, the pitboss bugfixes, and removed Emancipation anger with no other balance changes. This is primarily in the interest of allowing there to be more OP options because this entire game format is not especially balanced. Will also include the 3 “forbidden” leaders that we’ve added just to have full options.
  
• Picking method - 4 round snake pick. Turn order will be generated by first establishing play order, then RNG determining who plays first. The first round order will be inverse the turn order, and a standard snake will continue from there (54321123455432112345). The following 4 things will be eligible to be picked: Free Technology, Leader, Civ, and Starting Screenshot.
  

Sign Ups
1) Scooter
2) Superdeath + Cornflakes (please confirm)
3) Mr. Cairo (please confirm)
4) <OPEN>
5) <OPEN>

I think Miguelito also expressed some interest, so there’s a spot for him if he wants it. Couple other folks indicated some degree of interest.


Finally, here’s some settings I don’t have as strong feelings about.
* Barbarians? I lean slightly towards off, but fine with them on.
* Events? I lean slightly towards off as this is Vanilla rather than the mod-curated events.
* Difficulty? I lean towards Monarch as a very good “standard”-ish setting.
* I think we should ban active espionage missions and nukes, but I’m open to being convinced otherwise.
* I’m super open to Classical start for this if there's interest, otherwise can default to ancient.


Looking for a couple more players and a mapmaker.