April Showers (Vanilla-GG) - EA Newbie Game - (elitesix / Lank wins!) Thread - Dominions 3: The Awakening

General Game Information
Name of the Game - April Showers. Link to Status Page
Network or PBEM - PBEM (llamaserver). Link to llamaserver FAQ
Hosting Schedule - 48 hours for 1st turn, then 28 hours until players need more time.
Number of Players - 8-14
Skill level - New or Inexperienced Players
Expected Commitment Level - Low
Age - Early

Game Settings
All Settings Default Except
Hall Of Fame - 15
Re-Naming - On

Nation Selection - First Come First Served. No Water Nations

Map - Realm of Roaring Rhinos (169+16). You can download a test version of this map here. But you will also need to download the image file for the specific version of this map you will be using in the game, which you can download here. (If you do not want to test the map, then you only need to download the second one)

The Map has random fixed starts for 11 land nations. The capitals are not marked in any way, and they are not named after their nation either.

Mods - Vanilla minus Gem Generating items (Vanilla-GG). So the game will be Vanilla, apart from this small mod which removes these three Gem Generating items from the game. Clam of Pearl, Fever Fetish, and Blood Stone.
Download link for Vanilla-GG mod

Victory Conditions - Hold 50% or 50%+1 (if odd number of players) for 3 consecutive turns. (or victory by concession)
Diplomacy - Machiavellian, with binding trades.
General Rules - MP rules for all games on this forum

Banned Exploits
1. Copying the script orders from Bogus and his friends to others commanders (ie. The 'Fire Commanders' orders).
2. Overloading other players labs by sending them lots of items they did not request. Be they worthless or valuable.
3. Intentionally exploiting the fort lock-down bug with freespawn commanders or items. (contact the admin if someone is using this!)
4. No using keyboard shortcut commands to issue orders that are not available via the orders menu. This includes Blood Hunting underwater. Patrolling with immobile units. Breaking siege with immobile units. Patrolling to break siege (unless it's to workaround the fort locking bug. Please contact the admin!). Site Searching while besieging or whilst being besieged. And any other such exploitative keyboard shortcut that I am either unaware of, or can not currently recall. There are to be no exceptions to this rule without my permission, and I am only ever likely to give my permission in situations where using a keyboard shortcut is needed to counter an exploit.
5. Exploiting obvious mod bugs. If you find something which is obviously wrong or looks wrong then you have a duty to report it, and not exploit the bug until the admin makes a decision on it.
6. No move-blocking by probing enemy armies with lone commanders. If you want to probe an enemy army then hide a Scout in that province and use the "Attack Current Province" command, as that runs no risk of blocking enemy movement. Any player that uses move-blocking is in immediate violation of the next rule.
7. Being a general douche bag is not allowed in this game. This is probably the most important rule of the game, and if you break it then you can expect to be kicked out.
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General Game Bumph
This game is aimed at new or inexperienced players (ie. newbie friendly), and I hope it to be ideal for those new players who are looking to get their first taste of Multiplayer games. "Inexperienced" is not a term that has a strict definition, but it usually means someone who has played less than 10 MP games. and who has yet to make it to the latter stages of the game in any meaningful position (ie. they were not in contention to win). If you are regularly making it the the late game in a good position, then you are likely not that inexperienced anymore. And if you have already won a proper multiplayer game (ie. a game with 8 or more players), then you very likely know the game well enough to be stepping up to intermediate level games.

To play in this game simply post your interest on the thread, and select a nation at the same time. You don't have to pick a nation when you sign-up, but please be aware nations are selected on a "first come first serve" basis. So the earlier you select, the less chance of missing out on your favourite.

This will be a low commitment game where I want players to concentrate on having fun in what might be their first MP game of Dominions. Players are not required to fight to the end, but I won't complain if they do I also won't mind if players stale (within reason), or wish to stop playing and turn AI. Although that is ONLY if they ask me for permission BEFORE turning AI. As that is basic good manners, and a minimum requirement for all players on this forum. So I will still get annoyed at any players who stealth-AI (ie. turn AI without asking for permission first). Honestly, turning AI without permission could easily ruin the game for all the other players. So please try to have some consideration for the people you are playing with (or quickly find yourself unwelcome to play games on this forum if you don't)

If you do have to suddenly stop playing for any reason, and can't thread post or contact me for whatever reason, then please just go AWOL. As you are not doing anyone any favours by turning AI first. And I know it might sound dumb to say that to "just disappear" is the best thing to do, and I know it is not the standard etiquette for other MP games that exist in the gaming world. Indeed it is very bad etiquette in other MP games. BUT Dominions is not like other MP games. In fact it's not like like any other MP games at all, hence "normal" doesn't always apply.
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Admin - Bradicus13

Player List - (?) denotes a player who has yet to post to confirm their participation

1. Abysia - GoodKnight_IL
2. Agartha - Yushal - Defeated turn 31
3. Caelum - Bojog
4. C'tis - DegenerateArt
5. Ermor - Josho
6. Fomoria - makson96
7. Hinnom - CollectiveS (was Happyfungi until turn 29 until he lost his internet. Calahan played turn 30)
8. Helheim - Ogaburan (was crazyike until turn 30 when he got booted from the game and the forum)
9. Lanka - elitesix
10. Pangaea - undercovergeek - Defeated turn 27
11. Ulm - Kevdogg

Edited by: Calahan.

Great!
I would like to take Fomoria.

I will design and send my Pretender shortly.
Best regards,

makson96 wrote: I will design and send my Pretender shortly,

No rush. In fact please don't rush.

As your Pretender design (and the testing that goes with it) often has a significant bearing on how well you will do in the game, and as such it is not something that should ever be rushed. Plus I don't predict this game starting until very late in the week, or even next weekend, so little to be gained by uploading your Pretender just an hour or two into the allotted design time. (and I intentionally won't be creating the game yet on the llamaserver in order to discourage insanely early uploading. So as to try and persuade players to spend a bit more time testing and designing)

I will post when I have created the game on the llamaserver (and hence when Pretenders can be uploaded). And that definitely won't be today. (likely tomorrow or Wednesday)

Edited by: Calahan.

youre a good man Calahan - thankyou

just perusing my nation choice now - im definitely in, just picking - be back in a few hours

ok u know what you convinced me to join anyways no one is willing to play a dual...
put me in as Abysia?

Edit:
since this is vanilla do i turn off my cbm mod? and that is it right?
lol this will be my first non cbm game

Edited by: GoodKnight_IL

Hi Calahan, thank you first of all for setting this up.

I just finished a game as EA Ermor, made a few sloppy mistakes. So please sign me up for Ermor once again. Might try something a little different this time. Hopefully my purple banners will cover the world.

ok - Pangea me

Edited by: undercovergeek

GoodKnight_IL wrote: since this is vanilla do i turn off my cbm mod? and that is it right?

Yes. Please deactivate all mods when testing and designing your Pretenders (or only have the Vanilla-GG mod activated.)

Edited by: Calahan.

Also do i need to install the GG mod? and run it?

Lanka please

I am going to play, I'll wait to declare a nation.

Is it cool if I'm in this game as well as the other new game? I'd like to play as Yomi (surprise) if so.

Agartha

@ All

OP updated. Welcome everyone.

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GoodKnight_IL wrote: Also do i need to install the GG mod? and run it?

Yes you will need to download the Vanilla-GG mod in order to play the game (it needs to be unzipped into your mods directory). You don't strictly need the mod for design testing, just as long as you take into account what the mod does, and so don't mistakenly plan on using any of the three main gem generating items in the game (as they have been removed by that mod)

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Morsigil wrote: Is it cool if I'm in this game as well as the other new game? I'd like to play as Yomi (surprise) if so.

Yes that is fine, although I would strongly advise against playing in more than 3-4 games at once. Since if you survive, and have to play the latter stages of 3-4 games at once, then Dominions will eat your free-time alive. (and the infamous Dom-burnout is likely inevitable at that point).

Another good tip if you are playing 3 games at once is to stagger them out so that you only ever have one game in the latter stages at any on time. Since it's often not too bad playing 3 games if one is early stages, one is in mid-game, and the other late game. As then you can try to plan to finish the late game one before the mid-game one reaches late game (and then start a new game once the late game one is finished, by which time the early game one is now the mid-game one. etc etc)

@Calahan.

In the description you mention, that the game is without Water Nations. Does it mean, that there will be no water provinces at all in the game?

Also important information for the design. Will the Indie power (5), Magic sites (45) and Random events (frequent) get the default value?

makson96 wrote: In the description you mention, that the game is without Water Nations. Does it mean, that there will be no water provinces at all in the game?

The map will definitely have some water provinces (as there are very few maps without any, and none I'd consider using). If I had to guess I'd say somewhere around 10-15 water provinces.

makson96 wrote: Also important information for the design. Will the Indie power (5), Magic sites (45) and Random events (frequent) get the default value?

The game will be using default settings for everything apart from those stated in the OP. So yes, the settings you have mentioned will be the ones used (since they are the default settings, and the default setting for Early Age in respect to the magic sites frequency)

I think I'll sign up aswell, Ceulum if possible.

Edited by: Bojog

I'm in, Helheim please.

I will take Hinnom unless someone else wants it, in that case I'll take tien chi.

I'm actually going to bow before things get started. I think I was being a little too optimistic about being able to play two games.

@ All

The game is now up on the llamaserver. So you can send your Pretenders in when you are ready. (and happyfungi needs to do less llamaserver lurking as he sent his Pretender in before I could even finish writing the bumph for the status page!).

To create a Pretender you need to open the game, click on "Game Tools" and then on "Create a Pretender God", and then select the nation you are playing from the list. Early Age nations are towards the top of the list. You are then presented with the usual pretender design screen. Please make sure there are no mods activated (or ONLY the Vanilla-GG mod activated), when you design your Pretender. And please do not set a password for your Pretender.

The Pretender you create will be stored in a file that is located in "install directory/Dominions 3/savedgames/newlords"***. The file will be called "(age)_(name of nation)_X.2h. With (age) being the "age", so either early, middle or late. (name of nation) is obviously the name the nation. X will be a number like 0, 1 ,2 etc, and this is how the game handles storage when you have more than one Pretender saved for the same nation. If you have no other Pretenders for your nation saved already, then it will be "0.2h".

To send in your Pretender you must send an email to pretenders (at) llamaserver (dot) net with the name of the game (AprilShowers) as the subject of the email.

*** - please note your Pretender files might not be located here depending on what operating system you are using, and where you installed the game. If you have any problems finding them please post on the thread for help.

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@ All

Please note that I have not closed recruitment yet (I will do that tomorrow morning GMT), and the final decision on which map will be used has not been made yet either. The map I have currently selected is just a placeholder, and is the map I usually use for 8 Land nations. But I haven't organsied an 8 player game for a while, and since then Elmokki has made some nice new maps that are around 120 provinces in size. So I might look into balancing one of those for this game if I get time. (and if we stay at 8 players).

I am looking for the game to start either by the weekend, or at the start of it (ie. Friday night/Saturday morning)

Edited by: Calahan.

@Calahan.
Please don't miss that Bojog wants to play as Ceulum.

Edited by: makson96

makson96 wrote: @Calahan.
Please don't miss that Bojog wants to play as Ceulum.

Ah, good spot. As I had indeed missed that (not sure how, but I did. Sorry Bojog Mistake corrected)

Edited by: Calahan.

I'd like to join as Ulm if you are still accepting players.

I can join as Ctis.