Ideas for two new PBW games

[Dragonlord]

Hello all,

Now that several of the PBW games that I was in have terminated, I have some extra time on my hands. It has also given me some ideas about how I'd like to see things done differently in my next PBW games. None of the currently Open Games on PBW appeal to me, so I figured the only way is for me to create the games myself.

My intention with this thread is to see if I can find enough players who would like to join one or both of these games, and perhaps get a discussion going on the various pro's and con's of how to configure a multi-player game for maximum fun.

Now, the two games that I have in mind will differ greatly in galaxy layout, but other than that they will have roughly the same settings. So let me first list the config they'd have in common:

* 7 to 9 players
* NO AI players at all. AI races are too easy to defeat and abuse, e.g. you can always get colonisation tech from them when you meet up, this could give one player an unfair advantage.
* Medium mid-life galaxy
* 3 or 5 starting planets, good value. (to get to the interactions with neighbors stage faster)
* Low-tech start, making initial research decisions more important.
* Intelligence turned off, unless the 1.41 CI bug gets fixed before we get started.
* Game type: v 1.41 plus TDM Modpack 1.72
* Score display: allied only, unless many people want "all scores visible" , perhaps to balance for having no Intel.
* 2500 units, 400 ships max.
* Victory conditions: 400 % of second place, or 1.0 years of peace, after 6.0 years.

So far, pretty similar to the setup I made for the Spiralus game.
Now as I mentioned the galaxy maps for the two games will be pretty different from each other. These are pre-generated maps made through the random-map generator. My race will be Ancient so you can't accuse me of having the advantage of having seen the map before we start :-)

GAME 1
Working title: "War and Diplomacy"
3000 racial points
Standard medium mid-life galaxy, systems spread out fairly easily, everything decently connected to everything.
What would happen:
Everybody would colonise about 6 to 8 systems before running into 3 or 4 neighbors and declaring borders. Diplomacy will be crucial for eventually getting on top of the heap. You'll constantly worry about who you can trust and where the next betrayal might come from. It might be a good idea to form an alliance with 2 other races and try to, as a block, wipe out the rest of the galaxy before you duke it out with your 2 former allies for total galaxy domination. (if you alliance is succesful and you don't wish to fight allies you can also all agree to go for the 1.0 years of peace route).
This would be even more fun if two alliance "blocks" were formed, who start fighting each other. Kind of like teams, but alliances can be "hidden" e.g. all arranged via email while you only have a T&R alliance in-game.
For those of you who were in the Letharg game, it will be similar to that.

GAME 2:
Working title: "Isolation Breakout"

2000 racial points
Warp points anywhere in system
Warp points NOT all connected, but map is generated so that all systems are reachable (in theory) without stellar manipulation.

What this means: the galaxy is divided into 4 or 5 "chunks" and each chunk is connected to one or two other chunks via only one wormhole. Each chunk has room for 2-3 players. Player starting positions are distributed evenly throughout galaxy. You would colonise roughly 8 systems before running into one, maximum two, neighbor(s).
Controlling choke points will be more important even than usual. You'll have to negotiate with your neighbor for access rights to his territory if you want to pass through to establish contact with other players. Or you can try to wipe him out and take control of the entire chunk...but even if that works, you might find that the players in the next chunk have formed an alliance and haven't weakened themselves yet by war. You can also decide to quietly develop your corner of the galaxy while researching stellar manipulation as fast as you can. Why? Because all the "chunks" are very close to each other measured in lightyears, so you could open up a wormhole to the next chunk, and perhaps ally with the players there against the neighbor(s) with whom you share a chunk.


Your comments will be more than welcome !
Dragonlord

[Quikngruvn]

I love 'em both! Now I just gotta pick which one to get into.... (I don't think I've have time for both with the one's I'm already in! Oh well, time management....)

Quikngruvn

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"That which does not kill you will make you stronger." -- Nietzsche

[Rollo]

Yes, both ideas are very good. I would probably end up joining both...
If I had to choose one it really depends whether or not we give the "ancient game" discussed in the Spiralus game thread a chance or not. If we are trying ancient, I would choose "War & Diplomacy". If not, "Isolation Breakout".
I hope we start both games (as well as ancient), so that's three new games for me. Making a total of six. But I think that is the max I can handle .

Rollo

[Dragonlord]

Thanks Rollo and Quikn.

Come on people, doesn't anybody else have anything to say about these ideas?!

[Shoujo]

I think 5 good value planets are a bit too much. That's 5 colony ships a turn (with emergency build) for most people, without having to worry about running out of resources.

Score display between allies I think would be better. Score display all can be way too powerful intel. You can take a look at a guy's unit/ship production and see who might be preparing for war and stuff.

It'll be more interesting trying to buy information from one of your enemy's allies to learn stuff about your enemy's empire. Think of all the interesting things that could happen when you discover that your ally was leaking information to the enemy

What level treaty do you have to have for your score to be displayed when the game is set to display score allied? I'm hoping that scores won't be displayed when you just have a non-aggression treaty. This way not everyone is going to have a trade and research alliance (seems to be the most common treaty in games).

Oh yes I'll join both games - and more if you can think of any ideas

[Dragonlord]

Yes I agree that 5 planets would be to much. 3 it will be. As for score display "allied" , I'm pretty sure that even with a NA pact your score will be displayed.
I guess that clinches it for me, I won't configure the game for Score display "all". The only reason I considered "all" was because I hate the insecurity of not knowing what my neighbours are up to :-)

Yes you can try to buy info from other neighbours, but you'd have no way of knowing if the info you get is reliable...Oh well I use a Trader race anyway, so I'd be trying to establish treaties with everyone anyway.
Maybe I can become an information broker