Any Interest in another Big Game this summer(May).

[Xietor]

I wanted to gauge the interest in a second All Age Mega game. It would not start for a while. Likely not until May. In fact, I have not even asked anyone to host it.

I would like to administer it because I want to use the criteria listed below. Velusion did a great job hosting the first Mega Game, and I like everything he did, including his rules.

But I would like to see Worthy Heroes in this game, and I would like to try a novel method of race selection. Worthy Heroes is just fun. And it gives a reward to those who take luck scales by increasing their chance of a significant thug. Vanilla game has too many heroes that have old age etc., or I yawn when they show up. The arrival of a Hero to fight for your nation should be a cause for jubilation. Jubilation > yawn.

There would be a few other changes from the 1st game. If you recall, the 1st game was forced to a grinding halt when the unit cap was reached. So the 2nd Mega Game would include all races from the Early, Middle, and Late Ages except LA Ermor and LA Ryleh.

Additionally, the EA and MA Pangaea will not be allowed to take turmoil. Yes, I know that sucks Hadrian, but you do not have to play Pangaea. There are 60 other races to choose from and many Pangaea players like taking order anyway. So let one of them play the race. This modification is there to prevent the unit limit from ending the game early.

Modding is a huge part of Dominions, and the second mega game will be modded as follows:

Worthy Heroes-this is one of the most used mods in mp, and most are familiar with it. It adds incentive to take luck.

A mod will increase the cost of gem producing items by one path. For example a clam will require 3w 2n instead of 3w 1n. This will increase its cost slightly.

A mod will prevent the following globals from being cast: Arcane Nexus;Burden of Time; Utterdark; and Astral Corruption.

I am disinclined to include modded nations because many newer players may sign up, and it may be too much to ask for them to investigate the nuances of modded nations.

Nation Selection:

I am open to suggestions, but I think a player will list, in order of preference, his top 5 picks. In cases of more than 1 person picking the same race, then it will be awarded randomly among the new or casual players that selected the race.

So if a hardcore player, say Dr. P, has MA Pythium as his 1st preference, and a casual player, or one with much less experience than Dr. P, also picks MA Pythium, it will be awarded to the casual player.

The theory being the hardcore players, if push comes to shove, can make a go of it with almost any race, whereas a newer player may need a stronger race to be competitive.

I will make those decisions, with help from my friends who want to help me. If there is great opposition to this method of race selection, we can use one the majority of players favor.

I also will allow a player to list 5 nations he does not want to play. And that request will be honored, even if he does not get one of his listed favorites.

Additionally, please no pre-made alliances before the game begins. There will be a reasonable winning condition(to be voted on), that will allow 1 player to win.

[AlgaeNymph]

Will the game be PBEM?

[Xietor]

Not sure who will host it at this point.

And I really think we need 50-60 players to make it worthy of the 1st mega game.

[Zeldor]

I will be surely interested, I should have enough time by then. The bad thing is I will need sub for most of August

MA Pythium sounds tempting Though I would prefer CB mod.

[Lingchih]

I would play, but not if it is PBEM. I don't play PBEM (for obscure reasons noted in several other posts).

[DonCorazon]

Interested.

I would think a no diplomacy twist like the RAND game would be cool but probably unworkable with so many players.

[WraithLord]

I'm interested but only if it starts on June, since on May I'm on vacation.

[Xietor]

Hadrian: Why did you ban LA Pan from taking turmoil, they don't get maendads.

Because I only play the MA, and made a mistake

[Salamander8]

I'm definitely in.

[Meglobob]

If its May/June'ish I should hopefully have time to play at least 1 game and I may as well play a megagame if it gets going!

The last one was awesome, even if I did not last 30 turns!

I believe many new/intermediate players lasted a long time in the game, either by allying with a large power or just got ignored. So if you have not got much MP experience do not be put off.

The most important thing to get right is the victory conditions, 60 players with 15 provinces per player is 900 provinces. So in the end game the few remaining empires will have 100 - 200 province empires, its not fun to run a empire that size for more than a dozen turns or so. Just takes too much real life time. Need a way too bring the game to a satisfactory conclusion.