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HPopper

Civilization IV: Shut the Hell Up, Montezuma

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:yep:UPDATE:yep:

It's time to dust off your copy of Civ IV and build some empires, because the game is afoot!

The awesome toblix has generously volunteered to be the host for this first attempt.

Here's the player list:

toblix (China)

HPopper (Mongolia)

Sombre (Germany)

Joflar (Aztec)

Sleepdance (Rome)

SuspectKitten (Spain)

((UNCLAIMED!)) (France)

We still have one spot left, France, and we're only a few turns in. If you want to play, PM toblix to get the details. You'll need Vanilla Civ4 (no expansions) installed and updated to the most recent version.

To join the game & play your turn:

Launch Civ4, select Multiplayer>Direct IP and put in the game password. Then you get to pick your Civ/Leader from the available ones, add a password to protect it, and you're in. Play your turn, then just log off.

The next day, a new turn will start, and you can log in the same way.

Edited by HPopper

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I'd be totally up for that, but would probably be able to play it after next month, since I have a ton of work to do right now.

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Is it turn-based with a central server, or do the players have to stay connected all the time?

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Sounds crazy. Imagine everyone playing Neptune's Pride having to agree to connect at the same time to make our moves. What am I not getting?

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Nah, you don't have to connect at the same time. You can even email the turns to each other if you want to.

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Sweet. Anyway, I just finished installing Civ IV so I'm good to go if this becomes a thing.

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Nah, you don't have to connect at the same time. You can even email the turns to each other if you want to.

what? What the hell is going on?

Ok probably count me in(not sure the player limit here, so I dont mind getting bumped, lol)

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In theory at least!

Huh, maybe I'll take part in this. Everybody should note a multiplayer game of Civ with a bunch of players is going to take ages.

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Ah crap, i was going to buy a copy but its not on that awesome sale price anymore:(

I was a bad person back when i was a student and had a pirate copy.

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Well, there are three options here:

1) Internet Multiplayer via GameSpy - Whoever is playing needs to agree on a time and everyone connects to the lobby. Someone hosts a game, the other players join. We play for a while, save the game, and agree to meet up again at an appointed time. This would be a tough one to get too many people involved in because of the scheduling required. If it was every week at the same time it wouldn't be so bad, but this might work better with several small groups playing different ongoing games. If someone doesn't show, they're taken over by AI for that week.

2) Pitboss - One person hosts a new game and puts a restriction on how long the player has to make their move before they forfeit their turn. Then each player, in turn, connects to the Host and makes a move. This sort of game could be played quickly at times when all players are available or slowly over the course of a long span of time. This might be a way to include a lot of people, but it would take forever and someone would have to leave their computer acting as Host for the entire time. (More details: http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/pitboss.htm)

3) PBEM (Play By E-Mail) - Works like Pitboss except there is no Host, but could take even longer than Pitboss.

What do you guys think? Set up a weekly "Civ night" to connect and play or set up a longer-form game? Pitboss might allow for both - play lots of turns on a certain day and then a few more spread out over the week, but someone would have to be willing to act as a persistent server.

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I could be the pit boss, no problem. It sounds like the most workable way to get this done.

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I like PitBoss. I have no problem with a game taking a long time to finish. It just makes it seem more epic in a number of ways.

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Yeah Pitboss sounds super sweet. Lets play! Sounds like 7 people in so far? Seems like a good number.

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Oh, count me out. My Candidate's Thesis is due next week. None of this for me.

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Oh, count me out. My Candidate's Thesis is due next week. None of this for me.

Yo, if you are up for one sometime over summer count me in, busy with a load of uni work at the moment.

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I would also theoretically be into this kind of thing—lord knows Civ4 has eaten so much of my life already—but for many reasons won't be able to be part of a game until later this summer. If there are enough people to start another game some time down the road, I'll be down for that.

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Okay, so let's get this thing going. The awesome toblix has generously volunteered to be the host for this first attempt, but it's going to take a bit of work before we can conquer the earth.

First and foremost: Everybody who is playing needs to get Vanilla Civ4 (no expansions) installed and updated to the most recent version.

Now, toblix, here's how to get this going:

Run the Pitboss.exe app in your Civ4 directory (should show up if it's updated to the latest version) and it will start asking you for settings.

  • SMTP setup is optional.
  • Network Type should be either Direct IP or Internet. Internet requires connecting to Gamespy and finding the game there, which can get cumbersome, so if you're willing to share your IP, that might be the best way to go. Otherwise, set it up as Internet.
  • Init Type should be New Game. You should probably put a password on it and then tell us the game name and pass so we can join.
  • Pick whatever Game Settings you think best, but keep a few things in mind:
    • Simultaneous Turns should be turned on so it doesn't take forever
    • The Turn Timer should be on and set to something like 24 hours
    • Don't pick a map too big or complicated or set the Speed to Epic or something, otherwise this will never end. The default options might be best for the first time we try this. Use your discretion.
    • We're going to have 7 Human Players. We probably don't need any AI players, so you might want to close the rest of the open slots. And random Civs might be easiest and fairest. Again, use your discretion.

    [*]Start that bitch

Once you get the pitboss application running, you can put in messages of the day, kick players, and save the game in case your computer crashes or whatever.

And the game is afoot!

To play your turn, launch Civ4, select Multiplayer>Direct IP or Internet (depending on how the host sets it up), select the game, and put in the game password the host gives us. Then you get to pick your Civ from the available ones (I think it's first-come, first-serve), add a password to protect it, and you're in. (The host can log in using 127.0.0.1 to play his turn if he's using the same computer that's running the pitboss app.)

Play your turn, then just log off. Wait a day, do it again.

Two other things:

First, if the host goes to http://www.civstats.com/, downloads the app, and runs it alongside the pitboss app, the up-to-date details about our current match will be avaiable on the web. And if you register an e-mail address, CivStats will send you status updates to your e-mail. Not required, but probably useful.

Second, on the CivFanatics forum, somebody posted a little helper program that lets you connect more easily to a host's direct IP:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=172460

Might be useful.

Anyway, here's our player list for this match as I understand it:

HPopper

toblix

Sleepdance

Wurtsi

Sombre

Joflar

Murdoc

Let's do this.

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It seems there's a problem with hosting vanilla pitboss games using the Steam version (which is what I have).

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