WP-PF-Diplo [Bargle]: Resigning Date:Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:22:48 +0000 To reply, log in at http://www.websofpower.com/?Page=Login or use your newspaper form. Direct email replies do not go to the sender. (This is intended to protect the privacy of other players.) ====================================================================== Guys, I will be resigning Bargle within the next few turns, after I get the house in order. This should make for a more balanced war (Heeters and Mendeleev vs Goth and Ivan, I presume). The main reason is dissatisfaction with the WoP game system - it's just a personal thing, but in another universe I had 3 productive and strategic territories gobbled up by the Gods of Randomness for no apparent reason within 2 turns, wrecking my plans and making it very difficult to think strategically. To run salt into the wounds, my nation has been the only one afflicted by region evaporation - 3 times! Lot's of lost production and connections, and no way to predict it or defend against it. I guess it's a form of 'Tall Poppy' cutter, but for me, it's a -100 score on the fun factor, so I'm outta here. Best of luck for the rest of the universe of war and peace! WP-PF-Diplo [HeeterBob II]: Re: Bargle and random disaster Date:Mon, 24 Jan 2011 05:00:47 +0000 To reply, log in at http://www.websofpower.com/?Page=Login or use your newspaper form. Direct email replies do not go to the sender. (This is intended to protect the privacy of other players.) ====================================================================== Hi Bargle - I'm sorry to hear you are so frustrated with the region disasters you experienced in the other universe, that you want to resign from this one as well! I certainly never expected that to be the effect of that aspect of the game system, and am willing to consider making modifications if you can help me find a better way for the game to work. The random region disasters seemed like a good idea at the time (9 or 10 years ago?), but perhaps with all our accumulated experience it can be improved upon. The way the disasters system is intended to work, is to enforce a set upper limit (measured as average regions per connected player). There is a smaller chance of a random disaster before that limit is reached, but it rarely makes a difference in the gameplay. However, once that limit is reached, the regions belonging to the larger players become vulnerable to randomly generated crises. The largest players have the most regions at risk and are disproportionately affected. In a crisis, all units are spared, all above-average production is shifted to other regions, and the capability of reconnecting your regions is preserved. Sometimes these crises are tactically or strategically frustrating, but at other times (or when viewed with a different perspective) they also represent tremendous opportunities. I originally adopted this system because it seemed like a simple, elegant, Webs-of-Power "style" way to meet these three needs: (1) It prevents the average "large" nation from constantly growing. Without this system, it would be possible for the mega-powers to keep on accumulating regions in a universe (e.g. by digesting smaller nations, who would then restart). Mathematically this causes the Universe to expand without limit, which eventually causes all sorts of computational issues (and makes the region network maps get progressively messier). (2) In terms of gameplay, there is a tendency for the large to get larger (they have more power and more opportunities to grow), and in the absence of some frictions restraining the largest players, this inevitably leads to a few enormous nations dominating the game, which is no fun for the others (and eventually not even fun for the enormous ones). (3) Real nations are administratively more challenging than smaller ones, and they actually do face real, unexpected disasters, in both times of peace and times of war, and their leaders are forced to face those setbacks, repeatedly, regardless of what their prior strategic ambitions had been. Hurricane Katrina really did level New Orleans. Pompeii really was destroyed by Vesuvius. Indonesia and Thailand really did have tremendous disruption from the great tsunami a few years ago. Haiti was basically leveled by a hurricane a year ago... China, Japan, and San Francisco all know a thing or two about earthquakes destroying entire cities. Chicago and London were both leveled by urban fires. Now, no one likes these disasters, especially when they are randomly rather than "fairly" distributed, and especially when we have all gotten used to more "deterministic" strategy games (from Chess to Civilization, eh?). But having the disasters allows certainty about the computational side of the game, gives new/smaller players a better chance to compete against the big dogs, allows a Universe to run basically forever if the players wish to keep it going, and properly challenges the leaders of huge nations to creatively resolve some of the unique challenges that come with greatness. It also gives you a chance to reshape your empire more to your liking, so not all is bad. I hope that this helps to explain some of the rationale for what must otherwise seem a horribly capricious pillaging of the nation you've worked so hard to build! Now, with all that said, it seems to me that the size limit in the TV universe was probably set too low. I'm willing to kick it up (substantially) so that a few more nations can grow into the 20-30 region size range that seems to be the most enjoyable to play. This won't stop you from having disasters, but it will reduce their bite until more nations are large enough to feel the sting. Let me know what you think... but most of all, please don't resign from this world just because that one drives you nuts! The size limit in the Player Forum was deliberately set to be huge, so region crises are very very rare here. And I really was hoping we could continue our nice little war!! -- Bob (also known as The Moderator) WP-PF-Diplo [Bargle]: Region chaos Date:Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:31:33 +0000 To reply, log in at http://www.websofpower.com/?Page=Login or use your newspaper form. Direct email replies do not go to the sender. (This is intended to protect the privacy of other players.) ====================================================================== Thanks Bob, for the explanation. I'll stay involved then. I actually wasn't even aware of the regions in crisis mechanic, and so it took me by surprise. I might have done things a little differently had I known (e.g. expanded less on the territory capture front and concentrated more on reinforcing internal production), but I will cope, hereafter. I do agree that the limit should be lifted. It does raise a question though. How can the victory conditions possibly be met in the TV universe, with this equilibrium carrying capacity imposed? 70 percent, which is what Karameikos was formerly aiming at, is simply impossible. If victory is not a goal, that is fair enough, but it wasn't what was implied (at least on my reading). cheers, Barry