Novice 6 player EA game. Your pretender needs you. Thread - Dominions 3: The Awakening

Hi guys, I'm a novice Dom3 player looking to start an MP game. Skill level is anywhere from novice to newb. Game conditions are all standard except I usually play with indie strength at 7. Pretty flexible though. So if you feel like a game, sign up here. I'm excited. Note this is my first time hosting a game so I'm open to suggestions and advice.

Name of the Game - Six Kingdoms
Network or PBEM - LlamaServer
Hosting Schedule - 28 hours to start with.
Number of Players - 6 player
Skill level - Newbie to Novice
Expected Commitment Level - I'm pretty keen for a high level of commitment
Map - Land of Ethereal Squirrels with 6 fixed starts
Mods - CBM 1.94
Victory Conditions - Hold 4 capitals for 3 turns
Diplomacy - Sure why not.

Admin - Me
Vice Admin - Snegir6
Player List
1. Me (Multipass) - Yomi
2. Radiator - Tir Na N'Og
3. Henotheist - C'tis
4. Boredoffester - Marveni
5. Snegir6 - Vanheim
6. azureWyvern - Agartha
7.

Edited by: Multipass

Oh yay, looks like this'll be my second multiplayer game! Tir Na N'Og please. Also, I think that the hosting schedule is usually set to 28 hours because of the "creeping deadline" effect. In addition, CBM 1.95 is out, don't we want to use that instead?

Great to have you! Changed the schedule to 28 hours. Not sure about 1.95 because I haven't played using it yet, but sure if people want to use it instead of 1.94 we can do that.

I'd like to play with C'tis! This will be my 1st MP game, so I'm itching to try this amazing game vs human inteligence. Can I join your game Multipass?

Hi, I'd like to play as Marveni. This is my third MP game, got wiped out early in the first one and staying alive without really making any gains in the second both CBM games.

Hi. I'd like to join with Vanheim.
It's my 4th game. Also I can be a vice-admin if nobody minds.

Ok, great. Added everyone to the list and snegir6 as vice-admin. Just one more person needed!

Does the fixed starts mean that we need a particular variant of the map? If so, download link please

Edited by: boredoffester

I'm interested in joining this game. It will be my third, but the other two were a couple of years ago now, so I'm probably rusty. I'm not 100% sure which nation I want to play as, though...I'll experiment with pretender designs a bit and decide by tonight, if that's okay.

EDIT: I think I'm going to give Agartha a shot. I was originally leaning towards Sauromatia, but I couldn't come up with a Pretender design I was happy with.

Edited by: azureWyvern

Ok guys, so I've created the game, all ready to join. Right here:
Llamaserver.net

A few crucial points. Turns out there are over half a dozen 'Ethereal squirrels' maps. I ended up choosing one which actually has 7 starts not 6. So we can wait for anouther player if we all agree but I'm happy to go with what we have. 103 land for 6 players works out at 17 provinces per person which is not too many. Also the map has a water start, so there is also the possibility of a water race. As for whether everyone needs a copy of the map, I sure hope not, because theres no way to download it from the server. Never used llamaserver before. But I imagine that the game file everyone will be sent once the game starts will contain this information. Server FAQ is here: Forum.shrapnelgames.com

Went with CBM 1.94 not 1.95 for the simple reason that Llama server doesnt have 1.95 on the mod list (though I could have uploaded it I suppose).

As per game description I set indie strength to 7. Everything else is standard.

Usual rules apply regarding scout blocking, unwanted treasury gifting, and communion matrix shape changing.

Last thing to discuss is diplomacy. Will we play a no diplomacy game? or will trade and non agression agreements be allowed? And if so are they binding? I probably lean towards non-binding diplomacy, but I'd like to hear what other people think.

So with all that said. Upload pretenders people and lets get cracking

I'm partial to binding trades and non-binding everything else, but I can go either way (a no-diplomacy game would bum me out, though).

I'm also not averse to waiting a day for a seventh, if that's what people want to do. It probably bears mentioning that the only EA underwater race that would be functional on this map is Atlantis, though, since the seas are small and non-contiguous.

What's communion matrix shape changing, by the way? That's a new one for me. Not that any combination of those words is likely to come into play for Agartha.

Er, apparently you can use a communion matrix on a shapechanger (such as a dragon pretender) so that when it shapeshifts into a dragon so do all it's slaves. Clearly something of an exploit

Sounds good about diplomacy. Binding trade, non-aggression and alliances at ones own risk.

I've uploaded my pretender, the mighty Asoka. I figure once everyone else does as well we can start. If I seventh comes before this happens, we'll add them too.

Glad you're playing Agartha. They used to be my favorite EA race. I've never played before with Yomi so this should be interesting.

Edited by: Multipass

Pretty sure we all need to download and install the map - is it the one on the Llamaserver list called Land of Ethereal Squirrels - 7 fixed starts (clue in the name I guess LOL)

Where did you d/l it from?

Edited by: boredoffester

Yeah, from the llama server map selection from hosting. Full name was ' Land of Ethereal Squirrels (7 Land, 1 Water)[FIX] '. Couldn't find a link for the exact map and cant dl it off the server. I'll find a similar version on the shrapnel forums to download. Seemed like a pretty good map for MP, not to late to change though if someone wants to play streamlands or something like that.

I downloaded the map from the creator's site here:

koti.kapsi.fi/elmokki/dom3/maplist/

I can't imagine it would be a different version.

Map at the bottom of the thread.
//forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44084&page=3

Edited by: Multipass

Cool, will download as soon as the cat gets off the keyboard. Pretender will be in sometime in the next 2/3 hours - just got back from work and I'm starving

OK, the map Multipass posted is slightly different to the one azureWyvern linked to - Multipass's has some fixes apparently, installing that one now.

Pretender uploaded

Edited by: boredoffester

There are slots in the game?

CruelT, one slot left

I'd like to join with Atlantis.

boredoffester wrote: Cool, will download as soon as the cat gets off the keyboard. Pretender will be in sometime in the next 2/3 hours - just got back from work and I'm starving

OK, the map Multipass posted is slightly different to the one azureWyvern linked to - Multipass's has some fixes apparently, installing that one now.

Pretender uploaded

How can you tell they're different? The one on the forum is submitted by SsSam, and the description of the one on Elmokki's website says it was fixed by SsSam. Also I checked the copy I've been playing the connections mentioned as being fixed do properly exist. So they're probably identical, but on the off-chance they aren't, I'd expect that Llamaserver is more likely to be using one from a mapper's website than one from a the last post in a dead forum thread.

Had another look, the RAR on Elmokki's website has two map files in it. Looks to me as if the fixed connections map is the same one as SsSam attached to the Shrapnel thread. All good clean fun!

Let's get thePretenders in and try it

Ok, I changed the map to the one off Elmokki's website and uploaded it to llamaserver. Seems like everyone has the pretenders up, so I suppose I'll start the game.

Edit:
Ok, games up. Good luck everyone.

Edited by: Multipass

Oh wow this is a really bad start for me. Hit by an unrest event immediately, and none of the immediately adjacent provinces are what I would consider trivial to take. I'm almost tempted to spend the turn patrolling rather than take a province, but testing suggests that remaining at one province makes the odds of the same event hitting my capital again super high. I have some really delicate choices to make over the next two turns.

I think we have default victory settings, not 1 victory point per capital. Is it possible to edit the map on the run?