INVITATION TO NEW THURSDAY GAME ”TEST OF SKILL”
This is only a thread where we present this new game. The real game thread will be constructed later on.
GM AND DATES
GM: Aladar and Daniel A (also host)
Weekday: Thursday
Game time: CEST 18.30-23 (moved to CET when summertime ends = October if we still play at that time, we may have to postpone the game during some time of the summer)
Start date: Thursday May 11th 2006
REQUIRED CHARACTER TRAITS
You must be a nice and reliable person.
“Nice” means you are generally well mannered. This has nothing to do with a devious and treacherous playing style. If you still do not understand what qualities we are looking for, then this is not your game.
“Reliable” means that once you sign on you will dedicate yourself to the game. You will follow the game thread, you will be on time and in the rare cases where it is impossible for you to play due to RL issues you will do your best to find a sub yourself. You are not expected to quit the game merely because you become e.g. bored for a reason such as the game going badly for you or that you lose your interest for EU in a more general sense. If you know you have a weak character and often allow yourself to avoid doing your duty towards your fellow gamers (or indeed humans in general), then this is not your game.
If you like to role play and cannot control this tendency this is not your game. You are required to play for the benefit of your nation in the general standing, not to satisfy any notions of “having a fun game”. If the fight for improving your nation does not make it fun enough, then this is not your game.
SCENARIO
Basic scenario: Watk3.1 Grand MP Scenario (Watk3.1 = World according to Kasperus), edited (heavily). No MODs required, you just need to install the basic MOD and then use the starting save we have constructed..
To get Watk3.1 click on this link:. http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/kw...vel/watk3.1.rar
If I have understood it correctly the fix made to correct an error found in the DbD game is included in this rar-file.
The save game will be available at Tonio’s site shortly.
Dates to play: January 1st 1419 – December 29th 1819
We have constructed 12 potential starting nations, all in Europe (as defined by the game). If we end up fewer nations that should not be a big problem. Although perhaps 8 is a minimum number. If we end up with more players than 12 wanting to participate we might increase the starting number of nations.
The selected starting nations are, in no specific order:
- Portugal
- Denmark
- Eire
- Armangnac (southern France)
- Switzerland
- Naples
- Brabant
- Livonian Order (in the East coast of the Baltic)
- Albania (in case end up with 10 players it will be eliminated)
- Moldavia
- Saxony
- Karaman (in Anatolia, in case we end up with 11 players it will be eliminated)
All provinces in “Europe” look like this
- they have their type of product unchanged
- they have a basic tax value of 8
- they have a basic production value of 8 (a gold province has a value of 4, which equals 8 at 50% production efficiency)
- they have a basic MP value of 5
- they are catholic
- they have the culture of aborigin
All selected starting nations
- have religion catholic
- have only one culture, namely aborigin
- owns 4 provinces
- have cores on these 4 provinces and no more
- have an army of 8000 infantry and 2000 cavalry
- have all DP sliders set at 5
- have 1 diplomat, zero merchants and zero colonists
- have 1000d in treasury
- have a COT in their capital
- have level 1 in all techs and zero ducats invested in all
- have the exact same knowledge of provinces and sea zones (in fact it is Portugal’s, somewhat edited to eliminate bugs)
- have no monarchs
The reason for the last item, no monarchs, will be explained in the next chapter.
Only random events have been kept. Thus no historical events for any nations in the game, nor any religious events or flavor events.
There are no COTs in Europe except those that are owned by starting nations.
All leaders for the human played nations have been removed. Instead random leaders will be generated. Their stats will vary between 2 and 4 with an average of 3. From the first session that starts in the 16th century one may request a conquistador or an explorer instead of the normal random leaders.
The Golden Horde has been given aborigin culture as sole culture for game balance purposes.
The Inca Empire has been given two extra start provinces (total of 6). The AI for Iroquois has been set to expansion = 3, hopefully to encourage colonisation. The Incas have 3 from start.
MONARCHS
Each player has 20 monarchs at disposal. Two with 1 in skill in each of ADM, MIL and DIP. Two with 2, two with 3 and so on until two with 10. Before the game starts each player posts his line of monarchs in the game thread and it will be included in the save. Be careful in what order you put the monarchs. Each monarch shall rule for 20 years, the dates for this will be pre-set by the GMs.
You will just fill in the name (optional) and then replace the question marks with a number between 1 and 10, same value for all stats.
historicalmonarch = {
id = { type = 6 id = 7493 } name = "Monarch 1" category = monarch
rank = 100 startdate = { year = 1419 month = January day = 2 }
deathdate = { year = 1439 month = January day = 1 }
ADM =? DIP =? MIL =? }
historicalmonarch = {
id = { type = 6 id = 7493 } name = "Monarch 2" category = monarch
rank = 100 startdate = { year = 1439 month = January day = 2 }
deathdate = { year = 1459 month = January day = 1 }
ADM =? DIP =? MIL =? }
[Repeated all in all 20 times with the correct years inserted]
Probably you will be requested to send your monarch “file” to a 3rd party who will insert them into the starting save just before start, so that no one gets knowledge of any other player’s selection of monarch line up.
AIM
This game has an explicit aim. The aim of the game is to win. And in this game this is defined as ending up as the most powerful. That is the easy part. Unfortunately we have no simple winning formula as today. But we may get one later on (looks at Tonio J), perhaps not until the game has started and is on its way. Perhaps we will never have it.
A simple way to estimate the degree of power at any given moment will be to simply count the number of provinces. Since all European provinces have almost the same characteristics this gives a strong indication. But of course that is not the whole truth and later on colonial expansion will play a big part as well, as does tech levels etc.
Note that while fighting a war normally is bad in the long run for a nation, it may indeed be in the interest of your nation. To decrease the power and wealth of other nations and increase your own is what the game circles around. But war is just one of the tools you have at your disposal.
TRIAL
This is as far as we know the first game of its type. Thus the GMs reserve their right to modify it as the game goes on. This is under normal circumstances, in any game that you play to win, out of the question, but to ensure playing quality we do reserve this right here. However, we accept the fact that any such change undermines the value of the basic approach: plan to win.
We will give an example of what we might do. Assume that the tendency to play peaceful and tech is too strong, then we might introduce the military tradition concept as that designed by King John. For those who do not know how it works it basically means that the more wars you participate in the higher average of your random leaders the next session – the exact details vary between games.
DEGREE OF RANDOMNESS
As can be seen a lot of effort has been made to remove randomness and make it into a game of skill. Those “random” characteristics that still remain are mainly
1. Random events
2. Random leaders
3. Type of good in the provinces (the modification of the production value that stems from different demand and supply percentages makes the provinces not exactly equal in terms of income from production)
4. The position on the map, e.g..
- how strong are the neighbours?
- are there many 1-province minors as neighbours, easy to conquer but costsome in BB?
- climate
- access to port
- potential land access to easy colonisable areas
- shorter way for explorers/conquistadors to travel by Sea to colonisable areas
While number 3 would require a MOD of our own, which we do not want to construct, we aim at having a standard WatK3.1 installation with only a modded save file, and number 4 is close to impossible to eliminate, number 1 and 2 have been added purely for fun. You see, we are not adverse to having a fun game. J
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
It is our hope that this scenario meets with the approval of at least 8 players, then we will have a game. On the 2nd of May we will close down the opportunity to join the game. We will then proceed to the next phase which is:
AN AUCTION
As all nations are not exactly equal from start we will try to make them that by the use of an auction. Each player makes a bid for each nation. Then for each nation the highest bidder will get that nation.
Bids are made by
1. offering a starting inflation value
2. offering a decrease of the treasury from start (only used for tiebreaking, should two or more players offer the same amount of inflation)
When the bids are made we will first give the nation who have received the highest bid to the one who made that bid. All of his other bids for other nations will then be removed and we proceed to the highest bid for any nation that is left, and so on.
It is expected that this will take a few days to complete.
THE FUNCTION OF THE GMs
Do not obey the GMs just because they are GMs, they are not your Gods and Masters. Obey the rules, they are your God. The GMs are bound by the rules just as any normal participant is.
The GMs duties are
- to administrate the game and ensure the smooth running of the game when started
- in case of interpretation needed of a rule it is the GMs who will decide upon the interpretation (all deliberation upon the interpretation will be done in public and everyone is allowed to join the debate)
- to execute the disciplinary power in the game, i.e. should a case of disciplinary penalty be in question it is the GMs who will decide to apply it and hand out the penalty
It is assumed that the interpretative and disciplinary function of the GMs will mainly take place regarding (hopefully only in theory) cheating and potential breaks of basic rule 2 and 3 (see next paragraph).
RULES
We will try to have few but very clear rules.
Basic Rules
1. Be kind and reliable - as defined above
2. Play to win – as defined above
3. Do whatever you want as long as it is not forbidden
Detailed Rules
1. There's a stab hit rule to prevent eternal wars:
If you have been at war for 3 years or more with another nation
- and that nations sends you a stabhitting peaceoffer
- and you are at stab -3
- and the peace offer is based upon a warscore of -99 for you,
then you must accept the stab hit peace offer.
Note: it is recommended that you pause the game and inform your opponent that you are about to force him to a peace this way, then he can check the current WS.
2. You may take no more than 3 provinces from any human nation in a war (and max from an alliance)
3. You are not allowed to
a) Attacking an enemy fleet with pirates, as well as comparatively very small fleets
b) As a naval nation (a nation with the land/naval slider below 5) to sign a TA's with other human played naval nations (if you after having signed a TA with such a nation and you then move the slider below 5 you must immediately remove the TA)
made to inhibit loading/landing.
c) Releasing one or more vassals during wartime, to hinder an enemy
d) Force-burning of manufactories, i.e. repeated move and halt orders to an army in a province with a manufactory
e) Declaring a 'fake' war on a country, with the aim to increase the stability of the nation you declare war on or Change the religion of a protestant or Counter-Reformed-Catholic nation back to Catholicism before the Edict of Tolerance.
f) Exploiting Simultanity: Using the game engine to break a deal, that would occur simultaneously in the real word. This includes (but is not limited to) the 'sale' of something in game.
g) Converting from Catholiscism to either Counter-reformed-Catholicism or Protestantism and then switching back to Catholiscism before the Edict of Tolerance.
h) Cancelling being the vassal of another player within 10 years, except when an event allows you to do so.
i) Trading maps with the AI.
j) Signing a peace deal with the AI, that bankrupts it in the same day (a rarely used bug)
k) Declaring war on an ally of a player you have truce with is illegal. If you wish to break truce, you must declare war on the nation directly, not force them to take -5 stability to join a defensive war against you.
l) To keep an MA in a nation you are at an offensive war with. All attacking nations must cancel military access through any attacked nations immediately following a declaration of war (as soon as they have diplomats available).
m) and of course not to edit the save unless publicly stated by the GMs
There is presently no prohibition to use lag to your advantage as long as you do not directly earn ducats from it. The host has other benefits. If someone puts forward the possibility to make really bad things using lag this rule may have to change.
PENALTIES
When someone breaks basic rule 1 or 2 or knowingly breaks another rule, then a disciplinary penalty may be issued. The most severe is disqualification. In other cases no penalty will be handed out, we will merely, by the use of edits, decided upon by the GMs, try to restore equity making sure no one (including the AI) innocent is harmed.
REWARDS
Everyone who will be on time for the session will get a reward.
Also everyone writing at least a 20 lines AAR titled
<AAR> <NATION name> <YEARS>
will get a reward. The reason you must use this kind of title is that is shall be easy for the editor to spot your AAR.
The rewards for each are a choice between:
- 1% deflation
- 3 badboy
- A state gift, 10d per European province owned
You must end the AAR with a specification of the reward you want and in case of choosing the state gift you must specify the number of such provinces you own.
DISCUSSIONS
Before the nations are selected we are open to all suggestions. After that only bugs (i.e. things are not as we have said they should be) or things all agree upon will be edited. It is thus important you inspect the map and scenario before making your bids in the auction.
This is only a thread where we present this new game. The real game thread will be constructed later on.
GM AND DATES
GM: Aladar and Daniel A (also host)
Weekday: Thursday
Game time: CEST 18.30-23 (moved to CET when summertime ends = October if we still play at that time, we may have to postpone the game during some time of the summer)
Start date: Thursday May 11th 2006
REQUIRED CHARACTER TRAITS
You must be a nice and reliable person.
“Nice” means you are generally well mannered. This has nothing to do with a devious and treacherous playing style. If you still do not understand what qualities we are looking for, then this is not your game.
“Reliable” means that once you sign on you will dedicate yourself to the game. You will follow the game thread, you will be on time and in the rare cases where it is impossible for you to play due to RL issues you will do your best to find a sub yourself. You are not expected to quit the game merely because you become e.g. bored for a reason such as the game going badly for you or that you lose your interest for EU in a more general sense. If you know you have a weak character and often allow yourself to avoid doing your duty towards your fellow gamers (or indeed humans in general), then this is not your game.
If you like to role play and cannot control this tendency this is not your game. You are required to play for the benefit of your nation in the general standing, not to satisfy any notions of “having a fun game”. If the fight for improving your nation does not make it fun enough, then this is not your game.
SCENARIO
Basic scenario: Watk3.1 Grand MP Scenario (Watk3.1 = World according to Kasperus), edited (heavily). No MODs required, you just need to install the basic MOD and then use the starting save we have constructed..
To get Watk3.1 click on this link:. http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/kw...vel/watk3.1.rar
If I have understood it correctly the fix made to correct an error found in the DbD game is included in this rar-file.
The save game will be available at Tonio’s site shortly.
Dates to play: January 1st 1419 – December 29th 1819
We have constructed 12 potential starting nations, all in Europe (as defined by the game). If we end up fewer nations that should not be a big problem. Although perhaps 8 is a minimum number. If we end up with more players than 12 wanting to participate we might increase the starting number of nations.
The selected starting nations are, in no specific order:
- Portugal
- Denmark
- Eire
- Armangnac (southern France)
- Switzerland
- Naples
- Brabant
- Livonian Order (in the East coast of the Baltic)
- Albania (in case end up with 10 players it will be eliminated)
- Moldavia
- Saxony
- Karaman (in Anatolia, in case we end up with 11 players it will be eliminated)
All provinces in “Europe” look like this
- they have their type of product unchanged
- they have a basic tax value of 8
- they have a basic production value of 8 (a gold province has a value of 4, which equals 8 at 50% production efficiency)
- they have a basic MP value of 5
- they are catholic
- they have the culture of aborigin
All selected starting nations
- have religion catholic
- have only one culture, namely aborigin
- owns 4 provinces
- have cores on these 4 provinces and no more
- have an army of 8000 infantry and 2000 cavalry
- have all DP sliders set at 5
- have 1 diplomat, zero merchants and zero colonists
- have 1000d in treasury
- have a COT in their capital
- have level 1 in all techs and zero ducats invested in all
- have the exact same knowledge of provinces and sea zones (in fact it is Portugal’s, somewhat edited to eliminate bugs)
- have no monarchs
The reason for the last item, no monarchs, will be explained in the next chapter.
Only random events have been kept. Thus no historical events for any nations in the game, nor any religious events or flavor events.
There are no COTs in Europe except those that are owned by starting nations.
All leaders for the human played nations have been removed. Instead random leaders will be generated. Their stats will vary between 2 and 4 with an average of 3. From the first session that starts in the 16th century one may request a conquistador or an explorer instead of the normal random leaders.
The Golden Horde has been given aborigin culture as sole culture for game balance purposes.
The Inca Empire has been given two extra start provinces (total of 6). The AI for Iroquois has been set to expansion = 3, hopefully to encourage colonisation. The Incas have 3 from start.
MONARCHS
Each player has 20 monarchs at disposal. Two with 1 in skill in each of ADM, MIL and DIP. Two with 2, two with 3 and so on until two with 10. Before the game starts each player posts his line of monarchs in the game thread and it will be included in the save. Be careful in what order you put the monarchs. Each monarch shall rule for 20 years, the dates for this will be pre-set by the GMs.
You will just fill in the name (optional) and then replace the question marks with a number between 1 and 10, same value for all stats.
historicalmonarch = {
id = { type = 6 id = 7493 } name = "Monarch 1" category = monarch
rank = 100 startdate = { year = 1419 month = January day = 2 }
deathdate = { year = 1439 month = January day = 1 }
ADM =? DIP =? MIL =? }
historicalmonarch = {
id = { type = 6 id = 7493 } name = "Monarch 2" category = monarch
rank = 100 startdate = { year = 1439 month = January day = 2 }
deathdate = { year = 1459 month = January day = 1 }
ADM =? DIP =? MIL =? }
[Repeated all in all 20 times with the correct years inserted]
Probably you will be requested to send your monarch “file” to a 3rd party who will insert them into the starting save just before start, so that no one gets knowledge of any other player’s selection of monarch line up.
AIM
This game has an explicit aim. The aim of the game is to win. And in this game this is defined as ending up as the most powerful. That is the easy part. Unfortunately we have no simple winning formula as today. But we may get one later on (looks at Tonio J), perhaps not until the game has started and is on its way. Perhaps we will never have it.
A simple way to estimate the degree of power at any given moment will be to simply count the number of provinces. Since all European provinces have almost the same characteristics this gives a strong indication. But of course that is not the whole truth and later on colonial expansion will play a big part as well, as does tech levels etc.
Note that while fighting a war normally is bad in the long run for a nation, it may indeed be in the interest of your nation. To decrease the power and wealth of other nations and increase your own is what the game circles around. But war is just one of the tools you have at your disposal.
TRIAL
This is as far as we know the first game of its type. Thus the GMs reserve their right to modify it as the game goes on. This is under normal circumstances, in any game that you play to win, out of the question, but to ensure playing quality we do reserve this right here. However, we accept the fact that any such change undermines the value of the basic approach: plan to win.
We will give an example of what we might do. Assume that the tendency to play peaceful and tech is too strong, then we might introduce the military tradition concept as that designed by King John. For those who do not know how it works it basically means that the more wars you participate in the higher average of your random leaders the next session – the exact details vary between games.
DEGREE OF RANDOMNESS
As can be seen a lot of effort has been made to remove randomness and make it into a game of skill. Those “random” characteristics that still remain are mainly
1. Random events
2. Random leaders
3. Type of good in the provinces (the modification of the production value that stems from different demand and supply percentages makes the provinces not exactly equal in terms of income from production)
4. The position on the map, e.g..
- how strong are the neighbours?
- are there many 1-province minors as neighbours, easy to conquer but costsome in BB?
- climate
- access to port
- potential land access to easy colonisable areas
- shorter way for explorers/conquistadors to travel by Sea to colonisable areas
While number 3 would require a MOD of our own, which we do not want to construct, we aim at having a standard WatK3.1 installation with only a modded save file, and number 4 is close to impossible to eliminate, number 1 and 2 have been added purely for fun. You see, we are not adverse to having a fun game. J
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
It is our hope that this scenario meets with the approval of at least 8 players, then we will have a game. On the 2nd of May we will close down the opportunity to join the game. We will then proceed to the next phase which is:
AN AUCTION
As all nations are not exactly equal from start we will try to make them that by the use of an auction. Each player makes a bid for each nation. Then for each nation the highest bidder will get that nation.
Bids are made by
1. offering a starting inflation value
2. offering a decrease of the treasury from start (only used for tiebreaking, should two or more players offer the same amount of inflation)
When the bids are made we will first give the nation who have received the highest bid to the one who made that bid. All of his other bids for other nations will then be removed and we proceed to the highest bid for any nation that is left, and so on.
It is expected that this will take a few days to complete.
THE FUNCTION OF THE GMs
Do not obey the GMs just because they are GMs, they are not your Gods and Masters. Obey the rules, they are your God. The GMs are bound by the rules just as any normal participant is.
The GMs duties are
- to administrate the game and ensure the smooth running of the game when started
- in case of interpretation needed of a rule it is the GMs who will decide upon the interpretation (all deliberation upon the interpretation will be done in public and everyone is allowed to join the debate)
- to execute the disciplinary power in the game, i.e. should a case of disciplinary penalty be in question it is the GMs who will decide to apply it and hand out the penalty
It is assumed that the interpretative and disciplinary function of the GMs will mainly take place regarding (hopefully only in theory) cheating and potential breaks of basic rule 2 and 3 (see next paragraph).
RULES
We will try to have few but very clear rules.
Basic Rules
1. Be kind and reliable - as defined above
2. Play to win – as defined above
3. Do whatever you want as long as it is not forbidden
Detailed Rules
1. There's a stab hit rule to prevent eternal wars:
If you have been at war for 3 years or more with another nation
- and that nations sends you a stabhitting peaceoffer
- and you are at stab -3
- and the peace offer is based upon a warscore of -99 for you,
then you must accept the stab hit peace offer.
Note: it is recommended that you pause the game and inform your opponent that you are about to force him to a peace this way, then he can check the current WS.
2. You may take no more than 3 provinces from any human nation in a war (and max from an alliance)
3. You are not allowed to
a) Attacking an enemy fleet with pirates, as well as comparatively very small fleets
b) As a naval nation (a nation with the land/naval slider below 5) to sign a TA's with other human played naval nations (if you after having signed a TA with such a nation and you then move the slider below 5 you must immediately remove the TA)
made to inhibit loading/landing.
c) Releasing one or more vassals during wartime, to hinder an enemy
d) Force-burning of manufactories, i.e. repeated move and halt orders to an army in a province with a manufactory
e) Declaring a 'fake' war on a country, with the aim to increase the stability of the nation you declare war on or Change the religion of a protestant or Counter-Reformed-Catholic nation back to Catholicism before the Edict of Tolerance.
f) Exploiting Simultanity: Using the game engine to break a deal, that would occur simultaneously in the real word. This includes (but is not limited to) the 'sale' of something in game.
g) Converting from Catholiscism to either Counter-reformed-Catholicism or Protestantism and then switching back to Catholiscism before the Edict of Tolerance.
h) Cancelling being the vassal of another player within 10 years, except when an event allows you to do so.
i) Trading maps with the AI.
j) Signing a peace deal with the AI, that bankrupts it in the same day (a rarely used bug)
k) Declaring war on an ally of a player you have truce with is illegal. If you wish to break truce, you must declare war on the nation directly, not force them to take -5 stability to join a defensive war against you.
l) To keep an MA in a nation you are at an offensive war with. All attacking nations must cancel military access through any attacked nations immediately following a declaration of war (as soon as they have diplomats available).
m) and of course not to edit the save unless publicly stated by the GMs
There is presently no prohibition to use lag to your advantage as long as you do not directly earn ducats from it. The host has other benefits. If someone puts forward the possibility to make really bad things using lag this rule may have to change.
PENALTIES
When someone breaks basic rule 1 or 2 or knowingly breaks another rule, then a disciplinary penalty may be issued. The most severe is disqualification. In other cases no penalty will be handed out, we will merely, by the use of edits, decided upon by the GMs, try to restore equity making sure no one (including the AI) innocent is harmed.
REWARDS
Everyone who will be on time for the session will get a reward.
Also everyone writing at least a 20 lines AAR titled
<AAR> <NATION name> <YEARS>
will get a reward. The reason you must use this kind of title is that is shall be easy for the editor to spot your AAR.
The rewards for each are a choice between:
- 1% deflation
- 3 badboy
- A state gift, 10d per European province owned
You must end the AAR with a specification of the reward you want and in case of choosing the state gift you must specify the number of such provinces you own.
DISCUSSIONS
Before the nations are selected we are open to all suggestions. After that only bugs (i.e. things are not as we have said they should be) or things all agree upon will be edited. It is thus important you inspect the map and scenario before making your bids in the auction.
