[finished] Beliwyr Grogs (Dominions 5)

Started by Yskonyn, October 13, 2019, 03:45:31 PM

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Yskonyn

Once again I will try to get a multiplayer game of Dominions going here. This time Dom 5. O0
Simple setup to get us going quickly:

Game info
Name - Beliwyr Grogs
Type - llamaserver PBEM (Play By EMail)
Schedule - 48 hrs turn timer at the start (variable due to work) and more time as we progress and orders get more complicated and planning needs more time.
Players: 4
Diplomacy - 5 Turns Non-Agression Pacts, no rules otherwise; be a snake, get you head chopped off like one. ;-)


Game Settings
Age - Early (Lots of magic and wood, less steel)
Independent Strength - Default
Research - Default
Magic Sites - Default for the age
Money - Default
Resources - Default
Supplies - Default
Random Events - Default
Re-naming - ON
Score Graphs - OFF (You'll need to use spies)
Hall Of Fame - Default

Nation Selection - All

Mods - None

Map - Biddyn

Victory Conditions - Thrones, 5 pts

General Rules -

Note1: The hosting time limits are slightly indicative, but we are pressed to make them whenever possible. In other words; if you can't make the turn limit, be sure to post in this thread to let me know in advance so I can extend the time in the llamaserver, otherwise Llamaserver will push the next turn and you will not have given any orders.
Better yet is sending me an email, which you have gotten in a PM.
I have an irregular working schedule with stops abroad sometimes, so I might put in the odd request for a few more hours/days as well. I hope we can all be flexible about this. If not, then please say so up front, this game might not be suited for you.

Note2:Stay fair, people. If you cannot swallow a defeat, then you will be a newbie forever. In spirit of my previous sentence, please do not go AI after a single major battle lost

Note3: Remember to keep an eye on the turn interval. I will update changes in interval in this thread.
Be sure to report EARLY if you will not be able to send in a turn in time.
WE CANNOT USE THE ROLLBACK FEATURE! Due to possible savegame corruption.
(Thanks to 3V4JKZ2 for the above format  )

Note 4:
I want to put a very good project into the spotlight made by a player called momfreak.
Mod Inspector to read up to date unit and magic data from the game files. Very handy!

This webpage enables you to select some mods that you will be using for the game and then display accurate information about all the spells and items in the game.
You can also view the stock vanilla game data with this webpage.
Super handy as reference.

Note 5: When the game is setup you will all need to send your pretender to Llamaserver.
You can send your pretender file as an attachment to: (Put in the name of the game in the title, leave the body empty)

pretenders@llamaserver.net

You can find your pretender file in your \Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Dominions 5\savegames\newlords folder.
it has a file format <era>_<nation>_0.2h

It will overwrite and old pretenders for the same era/nation.

After all the pretenders have been sent in the game can be kicked off and you will receive your turns in the mail.
Just send your turn back to turns@llamaserver.net (probably just reply to sender)

Only send in the .2h file. The .trn file is only sent by Llama to YOU.

For a FAQ on Llamaserver go here: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=35160


Banned Exploits - I depend on your sportsmanship, dishing out as well as on the receiving end.


Admin - Yskonyn

Player List

1. Yskonyn - Caelum
2. Ajidica - Ermor
3. W8aminute - Vanheim
4. Solops - Agartha

"Pilots do not get paid for what they do daily, but they get paid for what they are capable of doing.
However, if pilots would need to do daily what they are capable of doing, nobody would dare to fly anymore."

Ajidica

I'm in! Since I'm probably one of the more experienced players in this game I'm super-flexible as to which nation I play. I haven't played Fomoria in a while so I'd be good with them, Rus, or Ermor.

solops

#2
I'm interested. I bought but only played Dom4 a couple of times. I played some Dom3, but that was years ago, so I am almost clueless for Dom5 (I.e. I think I qualify as a near-noobie). Setting up a starting leader will probably destroy me before I get started  :)  I have never played any PBEM. I am going to be on the road and might need to switch PCs from time to time. Is that possible?
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

Yskonyn

Adjidica Welcome, you have first dibs! :)

solops glad you want to join. Very much possible to switch pc's as your turns will be mailed out by the llamaserver system to an email address you specify. You will then have to manually copy the turn into your savegame, play it and send it back to llama.

The system works like a WeGo system; llama will collect all the player's files and once it has it will process the turn and send out new files automatically.
This also means that regardless of us setting the 'stale timer' (to let the system process a turn even if people haven't submitted), the system will go ahead and process once all turn files are submitted, regardless of time left on the clock.

This also means that each player will have to keep an eye on the timestamp that is given in your last received turn from llamaserver, as the clock will be ticking from that time onwards and therefore it will change from turn to turn (something I had to adjust to when I first played!). No specific time for turn resolution, so your deadline might be in the middle of the night the first turn, and during the day on your subsequent turn. Keep an eye one that.

The technical side of HOW we're going to get the system going will follow later. For now think about which nation you would like to play and start thinking about making a Pretender God.
"Pilots do not get paid for what they do daily, but they get paid for what they are capable of doing.
However, if pilots would need to do daily what they are capable of doing, nobody would dare to fly anymore."

W8taminute

Definitely count me in as well.   :)

I usually like playing Vanheim but I might pick another nation for this game.  I'm flexible. 
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

solops

#5
I'm thinking Helheim or Agartha, but I really have no clue as I have never booted Dom5 yet :the type of map can make a difference, if I remember Dom 3 correctly. Sigh......I guess I'd better play some to see what the heck I am getting into.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

Yskonyn

So, if we stick with 4 people do we want to add AI or do I need to recruit from other places?
"Pilots do not get paid for what they do daily, but they get paid for what they are capable of doing.
However, if pilots would need to do daily what they are capable of doing, nobody would dare to fly anymore."

W8taminute

Quote from: Yskonyn on October 15, 2019, 10:54:55 AM
So, if we stick with 4 people do we want to add AI or do I need to recruit from other places?

I vote for 4 humans and 0 AI but if the others do want AI nations involved (other than the default neutral provinces) then I'm up for that too.
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

solops

Wow. I played a few hours this morning and it was UGLY.

Re. Players: I was hoping for five or more, but four will do. AI players... they could fill out a roster, but it would be very embarrassing to lose to one. I guess I really do not care.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

W8taminute

Hmmm....actually upon further thought maybe an AI nation or two would not be a bad idea considering that many of us are complete noobs at the game. 

There is an argument that including AI nations in a multiplayer human game makes for easy pickings for those who are skilled enough to outwit the AI but on the other hand I'm sure that Ajidica and Yskonyn will be gentle with us.   ;D

It might not be a bad idea to have the experienced players of the game to not ally with anyone but allow the new players with little or no experience to agree to ally with each other?  Just throwing that out there...
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

solops

#10
In my testbed I used a random map and found that my human pretender was trapped by terrain - mountains, rivers, forest. There was only one adjacent area I could move to. And that area was ocean-bound. He was by himself, no slow troops.  Bummer. Can you build roads in Dom5? Can't find it in the manual.

Answer: No roads buildable. I cannot build my way out of the trap.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

Ajidica

Quote from: solops on October 15, 2019, 01:40:13 PM
In my testbed I used a random map and found that my human pretender was trapped by terrain - mountains, rivers, forest. There was only one adjacent area I could move to. And that area was ocean-bound. He was by himself, no slow troops.  Bummer. Can you build roads in Dom5? Can't find it in the manual.

Answer: No roads buildable. I cannot build my way out of the trap.
The Random Map generator, while much better than in previous versions, can generate some really terrible starting spots. However, I'm not sure what you mean by 'trapped by terrain'. Assuming you took either neutral temperature scales or +/-1 scales, rivers should be crossable in winter and mountains should be crossable in summer. I'm not aware of any other terrain type that would flat-out prevent movement.

Also, I recommend taking an awake expander, such as the Thrice-Horned Boar with Nature7 for a Regeneration bless, when learning the ropes of the game.

Further, @W8taminute, I still have nightmares about your blessed stealthy berserking Vanhere! Many brave (and expendable) skeletons fell beneath their axes before I was able to beat them off!

solops

#12
Re. Expansion- yeah. I tried a dormant pretender and my progress was ridiculously slow. I cannot understand how people manage decent expansion with Agartha without an awake pretender. There is bound to be a secret to expansion with a dormant leader.......I am leaning toward Agartha for the challenge, even if there is a solops-sized bonfire at the end of the road. Though my memories of Dom3 are hazy, Dom5 seems quite a bit different
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

Ajidica

Quote from: solops on October 15, 2019, 09:11:00 PM
Re. Expansion- yeah. I tried a dormant pretender and my progress was ridiculously slow. I cannot understand how people manage decent expansion with Agartha without an awake pretender. There is bound to be a secret to expansion with a dormant leader.......I am leaning toward Agartha for the challenge, even if there is a solops-sized bonfire at the end of the road. Though my memories of Dom3 are hazy, Dom5 seems quite a bit different
I did some quick testing with Agartha and though I got moderately lucky with my nearby indies, I did pretty well with a Dormant Earth Pillar with E4 (meaning 6 earth bless points for Agartha) that I put into Reinvigoration x3. I maxed scales and too Heat3 because Agartha is cold blooded and I wanted to avoid cold as much as possible. For expansion I used 5 or so Olms with a blob of infantry. The Olms Mind Burn the enemy so their defense is 0, allowing your Agarthan infantry (who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn door) to actually kill the enemy.
Not saying that is a good pretender, mind. Merely an option.

Yskonyn

Roads and Province Tax has been removed in Dom 5 in relation to Dom3/4. Those are two big strategic changes.

As for expansion and movement; as Adjica said getting boxed in on the map is rare, but it does happen. That said, I'll try to generate a map with as little water as I can. But once we start everyone should assess their starting location. If there are severe problems with a location we can agree to reroll the map and start over.

As for AI nations; its true that if you have a little bit of experience with the game an AI nation as a neighbour as opposed to a human opponent could be an advantage, but only mid to late game. From my experience the AI is pretty decent at expanding. Its just not capable of using a Pretender very well with a nation's strenghts and weaknesses, but that usually comes into play later on.

Still to balance it out we could have 1 AI for every human player?
"Pilots do not get paid for what they do daily, but they get paid for what they are capable of doing.
However, if pilots would need to do daily what they are capable of doing, nobody would dare to fly anymore."