Civ III by mail

[Tick]

This was a topic of discussion in IRC a couple weeks ago, and I completely forgot to post about it.

Several of us thought it might be cool to get a big Civ III game going via mail (altho we might do the first 50 turns or so live, since they usually go pretty quick).

Several people seem to have it, and a few of us have the expansions, Play the World and Conquests. If you don't, Conquests comes with PTW and is 15 bucks on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00009THFF/qid=1124151113/sr=8-4/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-1345247-0159009?v=glance&s=videogames&n=507846) , and you get like a dozen new civs plus a bunch of other nifty stuff for the price.

So, anyone interested? If we can get like 4+, we can start discussing starting settings.

[Postal]

I'm interested. I don't have the expansions right now but I could get the conquests one.

[Tai]

I'm in. I would have to pick up Conquests, but that's no biggie.

[Tai]

bump

[Tick]

This seemed to get better response when discussed in IRC. Come on guys, it's like a one hour commitment one weekend, and then like 10 minutes a day. Q, I seem to recall you being interested.

As for Conquests, if people want to get it, that's great, and if not, we can do it with base Civ 3.

Ah well. If no one responds, we can always just do it with 3 players.

[Tai]

My wife might be interested too, I'll ask her tonight. :thumbup:

[Tai]

Update. I've found my Play the World CD, but not my Civ 3 one (although I know I've seen it within the last month :( ) and since I didn't have Conquests, I one-clicked the entire thing (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00029QR7O/ref=ord_1cl_log_ydet/103-0089156-4565422) from amazon for $30

In addition, Sharon (my finacee, wife, live partner, etc) has said she would like to play too.

[Tick]

That would be 4 players, which should be a good starting number (someone wake Q up...in IRC he sounded interested, but he's MIA here).

Postal, have you gotten/are you going to get the expansions? If you guys want to take a few days or so to fiddle with the new options in those, we can start up a game after that.

[Postal]

I haven't grabbed the expansion because it seemed iffy if we were playing or not. I can though it will be a bit before I get it in.

[Tai]

In addition, Sharon (my finacee, wife, live partner, etc) has said she would like to play too.

I should point out that I meant life partner, I'm not into necrophillia so the qualifier as written would be redundant.

[Postal]

Looks like Conquests is in the CompUSA near my work. I'll swing by and buy it some night.

[Malach]

I have Civ III for linux, but I doubt it'd be compatible... I believe it's called FreeCiv or something. However, if that works I'd be in!

[Tai]

My Civ3 Complete package finally arrived, I am ready to get this idea rolling :)

[Postal]

Doh I'm afraid I'm not ready yet. I was going to get the expansion from CompUSA here but by the time I got around to it they were out of stock. I have it ordered from Amazon but it won't be here till next week I think.

[Tai]

well, that gives me time to get it installed anyway - I move so quick on these issues :) I need to familiarize myself with the game again, and the Conquests expansion changes.

[Postal]

I got my copy of Conquests. So do we want to plan on a day to start playing? Everyone all set?

[Tick]

Looks like everyone who's interested is good to go, so yeah, picking a day to run the first 50 turns or so seems like a good idea. What are people doing this weekend?

[Tai]

I believe I should be in town this weekend and therefore able to start :)

[Postal]

I should be around this weekend.

[Tick]

Okay, settings:

world size, continent type?

I generally go with medium for age/temp/humidity, anyone have a preference on those?

Other settings: Victory conditions? I'd say standard. barbarians, I generally go with the one above sedentary (roaming?)

Are we going to have AI players to fill the world up? if so, I'm assuming they'd be random.

Any settings I'm missing?

Also, feel free to post a favored civ. I think I'll go with Mayan, if no one objects.

oh yeah...50 turns seem like a good number to burn through quick? It's nice and round, but I'm not sure beyond that. Any suggestions on that?

[Q]

I would vote for enable Accelerated Production, but other than that I have no strong opinions (it's been a while, so I don't remember a lot of the setting options).

[Tai]

I *think* I would like to play Persians, but I need to look at the new Civ's to see what they offer.

Roaming barbarians I can deal with, I start to get pissed off at them once they get more aggressive - they've got such great potential to ruin a game for me at the higher settings.

I'm not sure about AI players, is there a majority that prefers them included or not? Any strong feelings one way or another?

How about we set a time limit instead of a turn limit for our initial push? This will help me with the old "honey, I'm only going to play for 2 or 3 hours" statement.

Also, I shall look into whether you can start the game in LAN/Internet mode and then switch over to PBM, this would be ideal I think... :)

I believe I don't have any strong preferences on any of the other config options, but let's not play on the really difficult settings....

[Postal]

What ever for the settings. I think if we really get about 5 or so to play we should add none to very few AI players.

I perfer to play the Japanese.

[Postal]

I can't see any way to change from playing Internet to playing PBEM. It may be easier to pick a time every few days to play a few turns by Internet. If not I think we will have to do it totally by PBEM.

[Tick]

Hmm. Well, my schedule is going to be all sorts of wacky for the next 3 months (3 part time jobs + 17 hours of classes a week = not much free time), so I'm not sure how well scheduling things would work....so play by mail might be faster.

Thoughts?

[Tai]

I would prefer PBEM as opposed to a set timetable, I'm not in a hurry.

However, are we still up for getting together Sat to play a couple of hours even if we have to take the email route instead of LAN/internet/direct connect? (what the hell is that mode called anyways?).

Oh, and yep, I would like to be Persians.

[Tick]

That'd work...we could all sit in IRC and chat while taking our turns.

[Harka]

Tai shall be henceforth known as King Xerxes Tai of Babylon!

[Postal]

Ok PBEM is ok with me. It appears that someone has to start the game and fill in everyones name and civ. Then at the end of your turn it saves the game. You then have to email that save game yourself to the next person. Wash repeat.

I tried to get onto IRC last night from home but it was messed up. I'll try to fix it tonight.

[Tai]

vent is good too :)

Xerxes Tai does have a nice ring to it

[Harka]

Just be wary of those pesky Spartans!

[Tai]

My plan is to just hold onto Mesopetania, I shall leave europe to those filthy barbarians who don't even know how to take baths yet.

[Postal]

Ok so who, what, where and when? Saturday night?

So far I see:

Tick - Mayan
Tai - Persians
Tai's wife? - ?
Q - ?
Postal - Japanese

[Lisa]

oooh!!! can i play??? I always liked being Babylonian!

-=-=-

crap... lisa left herself logged in on my work computer here!!!! this is Arm, btw

[Tai]

Those in IRC have heard of my installation issues, but we think we have a solution, so there's still hope :)

It doesn't look like my honey will be joining us, I can't get another copy of civ3 in time :(

Sounds like we need to firm up a time. I can pretty much make it any time this weekend, although sat evening/night would be best for me given some of the things I have on my TODO list this weekend.

[pogozorro]

I'll see if I can find a copy before tomorrow, but I cannot guarantee I will.

[Postal]

I think anyone is free to join in. We don't seem to have a firm time for it yet though.

[Tick]

Tai, do you need another copy of Civ3? I would think that you could play multiple people on the same install, since the save file wouldn't know it hasn't been moved.

[Postal]

When I tested PBEM I made a few fake people on the same computer and it seemed to work fine.

[Tai]

Tai, do you need another copy of Civ3? I would think that you could play multiple people on the same install, since the save file wouldn't know it hasn't been moved.

Brilliant!!! That should have occured to me, but I'm a little fuzzy these days (moon phase and all that).

I bought another CD drive to install off of - I will stick it in the computer asap, but we're curently working on the shed/chicken coop while there is daylight. I'll check in on IRC and vent this evening to see if we're go or not, something like 8 or 9pm eastern sound okay? Or is tomorrow better for people?

[Tai]

I'm installed and ready! Postal and I are in Vent :)

[Tai]

My honey would like to be the following Civs in order of preference:

China
Ottoman
Carthage

I think China hasn't been taken, so it looks like that would be her choice. :)

[Tick]

Tai fell asleep, so we're not getting started tonight.

Q said tomorrow was bad for him, so we probably won't get to start then, either (altho if everyone ends up being in IRC, we might give it a shot.

Monday is awful for me, so Tuesday is the next possible day, preferably after 5 eastern.

Thoughts?

Oh yeah, so far, we've got:
Me - Mayans
Tai - Persians
Q - Ottomans or Americans (not sure if he had picked yet)
Postal - Japanese
Mrs. Tai - Chinese.

Arm or Pogo, any luck on getting your hands on a copy? You're still welcome to join in.

[Tai]

I'm an idiot and do apologize :spank:

[armerius]

just normal civ 3 or do i need Play the World, too?

i have civ 3.

[Tick]

We are using PtW and Conquests, they come together for 15ish bucks on amazon or at your local software type shop under the Conquests title (PtW is included on the disc).

[Tick]

After more than a little effort, me and Pal were able to make a game work. Of course, I had to put my machine in the DMZ to host, but it worked.

Play By Mail, on the other hand, is crazy slow. It took almost 75 minutes to go 10 turns with 3 players.

So, we can either do PBEM and take forever and a day to finish, of we can try to schedule an hour or two a week to play multi, and save the game as we go along.

Thoughts? (other than that it'd be nice if we could run 100 turns online then switch to PBEM...)

[pogozorro]

Due to the happenings this weekend, I didn't have a chance to find it. I'll try this week.

[Tai]

So it wasn't just those last two ports?? There's no way I can put my machine in my DMZ, it's got all my source code on it. :(

[Paladin]

After more than a little effort, me and Pal were able to make a game work. Of course, I had to put my machine in the DMZ to host, but it worked.

Play By Mail, on the other hand, is crazy slow. It took almost 75 minutes to go 10 turns with 3 players.

So, we can either do PBEM and take forever and a day to finish, of we can try to schedule an hour or two a week to play multi, and save the game as we go along.

Thoughts? (other than that it'd be nice if we could run 100 turns online then switch to PBEM...)

Who is this Pal of which you speak? Are you seeing someone behind my back? :mad:

[Tai]

He means Postal, you two look alike to us.

[Tick]

What Tai said. I seem to omit the "ost" part of Postal in my head all the time. No clue why.

[Tai]

My manual lists alot more ports than just the ones we were trying Sunday night. I will try to post them tonight if I remember. It was page 181 of the Complete manual.

[armerius]

ok, i now have Civ III and the 2 expansions.. i'm in.

Babylonian please

[Tai]

We're definately leaning towards playing in LAN mode with simultaneous turns. I've been playing a hot seat game with my wife, and even with only two people, it is taking forever :eek: