Wishing for snatch?

[Velusion]

Frostmourne27 said:

Ok, you play large games. Isn't that a bit like complaining about the fact that Ulm sucks in the late game. If you reqularily play on maps wiht 500+ provinces, balance changes enourmously. I don't think that's the most common form of game here though.

As for complaints, I just searched the forums, and I found, uhhh, two threads on it, and assorted mentions in the MP and AAR category. Of course, there are a huge number of incidental hits. The two threads, I should note, were on a clam-related bug and the worth of empowering to forge clams. Not a huge complaint about balance. I'll try and start a poll, if I can figure the code out, to find out how unbalancing people think they are.

I usually play about 14-16/provinces per player. The game considers that "medium" though in the MP world it's considered large. The average map I play on is probably around 250-310 provinces with about 20 players.

Most of the complaints are in MP threads or scattered in other threads (like this thread for example).

As far as the amount of large MP player games, true there are fewer of them but there are usually about 3-4 going on at a time (at least) and they usually involve 2-3x more players than a smaller game. The Perp game alone had 62 players - and there will be another mega game starting. I think you underestimate the amount of MP players/games that are affected by clam whoreding.

[Rytek]

I giggle a little every time i see the title of this thread.

[Humakty]

The more I read about the various 'combos' one can put up to win a MP game, the least I wanna play MP, apart from blitz on a small map.
Do all big MP games end up in a 'gem producing item'rush ?
I haven't played a lot of late games(I love testing everything), but it does not seem that easy to have access to all paths, or am I missing something important ?

[Baalz]

No, you have to realize Humakt that the only thing people complain about are the extremes. The game is so complex that clever guys who spend a lot of time on it are invariably gonna find very potent combos, you can play in some newbie games until such stuff isn't so intimidating. Also, keep in mind that all the really scary stuff only comes about very late game as the game is usually about to be over and it keeps the game from dragging on forever. Plenty of games end before gem producing items can gain critical mass.

It is indeed not too hard to get access to every path by the time the map is divided into 4-5 large empires who have site searched fairly well and have hundreds of gems coming in per turn, can empower, summon most everything, forge most boosters, etc. Obviously you're not usually going to be strong in every path, but you can do a lot with a single guy able to cast spells in a path.

[Humakty]

I'll concentrate on one game so to see one day an empire like the ones you describe.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

If you're not enthusiastic about these hypotheticals, consider staying in smaller games. 15 provinces per player, max, 8 players or less.

Smaller games do have some advantages over large in fun factor. While I'm trying out a large game (for curiosity's sake), I'll probably return to playing in smaller games once thats done.

I haven't seen huge, 100 pearl factories in the games I've played in so far, though I expect that may (I'm not certain, now) change with the Big Arse (20 player) game I'm starting up, and will almost certainly be something to keep in mind with one of the 72 player megagames.

[Autochthon]

Rytek said:
I giggle a little every time i see the title of this thread.

Me too.

Be careful what you wish for...just when you thing you're going to score some beaver, you end up with a badger in your shorts instead.