New Anonymous Steel

[HeadHoncho]

With automatic processing, would it be possible to do a game that processed two turns per week? Such as Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday?

[Beatific]

The new game engine is available for this game if Ry Vor wishes. Players will receive HTML versions of their turn 0 kingdom setup files when the game begins.

For Pagan mode, the code does the following:
1) No high priestess may be hired at any time in the game (order 510 or other, in case ESO grants a priestess as a reward someday)
2) Consuls may not issue divination orders (750, 755, 765, 770, 790, 795, 857) but may still issue heal (793) and convert agent to fanatic (780) orders
3) Ancient Ones kingdom is not given anything as compensation to make up for their consuls losing their divination powers
4) Wizard spells that mimic priestess functions are still permitted (e.g., unveil group locations - spell 761)
5) Artifact named Oracle of the Old Gods is removed from play (won't be placed on the map)
6) Ranger kingdom still receives the location of the Sword of Alvinitar on his turn 0 kingdom report
7) Dwarf kingdom still receives the location of the Axe of Farin on his turn 0 kingdom report
8) Game limit is 50 turns

With the relevant changes above, it is not necessary to disqualify the Ancient Ones kingdom in this variant if someone really wants to play them. The consuls will still have their strongest abilities IMO (e.g., issue any king order like enamor/denigrate, cannot be slept, ...etc.).

Also, if Ry Vor decides to use the new software, there will be 1 random city in each region (so no predefined cities are on the map). You'll have to discover the cities as you would for the towns/villages.

There are some new orders/spells in this game in case it impacts your kingdom selection. Here's a recap:

New orders:
118 Evasion
121 Entrenchment
566 Summon Phoenix (Black Dragon only)
650 Druid's Grove (Druid only)
630 Seapower Enhancements (c.f. http://kingdomsofarcania.net/forum/showt...1#pid20621)

New spells:
 97 Cry of the Banshee
112 Ice Torrent
113 Acid Rain
114 Prismatic Rays
115 Disintegrate
866 Summon Woodland Creatures (Druid only)
871 Lich-form

New artifact effects:
Flying artifacts (Pegasi, Red Bats) grants a division-sized group immunity to wall of fire, earthquake, ...etc. just like a naturally flying kingdom

New effects:
- Automated game processing (with alert email notices if you forgot to submit your orders)
- Game starts with a random season
- Dragon combat uses terms like Fire Breath rather than dragon archers
- No double Hostile regional reactions
- Palantirs and Rings of Protection will not be initially located in neutral/human controlled pc's - the code has the functionality to allow artifact placement in pc's but it is currently disabled so have fun hunting

There's probably a bunch of effects that I'm forgetting but the above is the gist of it. Just keep in mind that I'm still in the process of incorporating the official algorithms/values into the game so take that in consideration. So if you're interested in having this game run under the new system then let Ry Vor know. I can activate a new game with the automated system this weekend if needed but Monday Feb 9 or later would be better for me.

Where can one find a compilation of these effects?

[Diamond Cutter]

Where are all the viable kingdoms listed?

[DuPont]

Are there still slots open in this game? I'll take on if there is.

[Bash Grimtooth]

Uncle Mike,

I like a lot of your ideas; however, I do not like having a random city unknown to players until found.

If I have a PC that is far removed from the homeland,  I will not have access to the emmies there, as otherwise I could move them to a city and thus make it to my homeland. If you have a duke in Amberland, but your core is in the Talking Mountains, he will be lost to you for many turns. Granted, if it was your town in Amberland, you would have a group who could discover PCs on its way home, but that takes time.

I also like the idea of keeping the AN on board. Remember when we had high priestesses for some kingdoms on turn 0? They were removed, and the game didn't suffer. If it happens that the AN cannot use that facet of his game, that shouldn't be too hard for him to bear. Because if there is no AN, and then there is no DE, that changes the balance of power on the whole game. There is no one in Arcania, and only the TR in Torvale. This would be a massive power shift due to the vacuum left, and it could unfairly unbalance the game.

[wfrankenhoff]

Just throwing this out there to play devil's advocate:

The game is Rex, therefore the military kingdoms will have an advantage. Normally this would be offset--possibly the power of the political kingdoms. However, with no HPs in play, that severely restricts emissary potential. Throw in the movement advantages of the BL/RD/GI and you could argue the game would be serious imbalanced....

[unclemike]

I've been getting a lot of questions about the Phoenix brigade. I discussed this in the game 300 thread but I'll repost here:

Phoenix brigade (abbreviation PH)
1) Only available for the Black Dragon kingdom
2) Same brigade strength as the RD (so a lot tougher than BL troops)
3) Use Order 566 (not 565) to summon a Phoenix brigade
4) May only summon them inside the Fire of the Void volcano (area NN, not area ON which is a tunnel leading into the volcano for kingdoms to destroy artifacts)
5) May only summon one Phoenix brigade per group per turn
6) Must have at least 3 Black Dragon brigades in the group at the time of summoning
7) Must have at least one marshal in the group at the time of summoning

I mentioned in the game 300 thread that a Phoenix brigade may reappear/regenerate in the group if killed but that was only conjecture and not an official ruling.

[unclemike]

Uncle Mike,

I like a lot of your ideas; however, I do not like having a random city unknown to players until found.

If I have a PC that is far removed from the homeland,  I will not have access to the emmies there, as otherwise I could move them to a city and thus make it to my homeland. If you have a duke in Amberland, but your core is in the Talking Mountains, he will be lost to you for many turns. Granted, if it was your town in Amberland, you would have a group who could discover PCs on its way home, but that takes time.

Bash, Pagan mode is going to be challenging for everyone and really isn't for the inexperienced. If you're worried about not being able to move your emissaries around regions via predefined cities then you may have more problems later on in this type of game.

For example, if I signed up for this game, I would consider how I can eliminate an opposing player. In game 300, as the DE, I have the UN against the ropes only because I'm using a priestess to divine his pc's (the new software eliminates a kingdom when their last pc is conquered - much like Fall of Rome). But how are you going to know where all of your opponent's pc's are without the divines (especially if they have pc's spread out in different regions)?

A wizard kingdom can use his wizards to locate pc's/groups but this is an anonymous game so you can't ask one for help. You'll end up wasting a lot of gold trying to get your wizards past their assured magic limit to do so yourself. That'll work for some kingdoms but not all.

If you asked me, the wizard kingdoms should dominate this game. Other kingdom types may become frustrated in trying to eliminate an opponent who will seem that they just won't die. So you may end up being stuck in a region for quite a while trying to eliminate the current resident.

So this particular game variant (both Pagan and Anonymous) is going to be very challenging for everyone and end up being a drawn-out game. I was in game 143 which lasted 40 turns and that was with divines and normal communication so I know. It's going to be very tough to eliminate opposing kingdoms unless you're a wizard kingdom. If you're a wizard kingdom then you'll end up enslaving the others

[unclemike]

Where are all the viable kingdoms listed?

Even though 1st cycle kingdoms (+ Druid) are available with the new game engine, I prefer if everyone selected from the normal 15 2nd cycle kingdoms if possible. The reason is that I had to manually reconfigure the 1st cycle kingdoms to work in game 300 and that won't work with this one.

Though, I'm actually comfortable with the Druid kingdom being allowed for this game which starts off in Oakendell with the Elves. Ry Vor is playing the Druid in game 300 and no complaints so far with it (we just got our turn 18 results).

So unless Ry Vor says otherwise, let's stick with the standard 15 2nd cycle kingdoms (plus Druid) as available choices for this game. The Druid is a wizard-like kingdom so it should do well in this particular game variant (see prior post).

[Beatific]

Uncle Mike,

I like a lot of your ideas; however, I do not like having a random city unknown to players until found.

If I have a PC that is far removed from the homeland,  I will not have access to the emmies there, as otherwise I could move them to a city and thus make it to my homeland. If you have a duke in Amberland, but your core is in the Talking Mountains, he will be lost to you for many turns. Granted, if it was your town in Amberland, you would have a group who could discover PCs on its way home, but that takes time.

Bash, Pagan mode is going to be challenging for everyone and really isn't for the inexperienced. If you're worried about not being able to move your emissaries around regions via predefined cities then you may have more problems later on in this type of game.

For example, if I signed up for this game, I would consider how I can eliminate an opposing player. In game 300, as the DE, I have the UN against the ropes only because I'm using a priestess to divine his pc's (the new software eliminates a kingdom when their last pc is conquered - much like Fall of Rome). But how are you going to know where all of your opponent's pc's are without the divines (especially if they have pc's spread out in different regions)?

A wizard kingdom can use his wizards to locate pc's/groups but this is an anonymous game so you can't ask one for help. You'll end up wasting a lot of gold trying to get your wizards past their assured magic limit to do so yourself. That'll work for some kingdoms but not all.

If you asked me, the wizard kingdoms should dominate this game. Other kingdom types may become frustrated in trying to eliminate an opponent who will seem that they just won't die. So you may end up being stuck in a region for quite a while trying to eliminate the current resident.

So this particular game variant (both Pagan and Anonymous) is going to be very challenging for everyone and end up being a drawn-out game. I was in game 143 which lasted 40 turns and that was with divines and normal communication so I know. It's going to be very tough to eliminate opposing kingdoms unless you're a wizard kingdom. If you're a wizard kingdom then you'll end up enslaving the others

Wow, lots of radically different speculation about this game type.  On the one hand we have dragons and giants having a huge unbalancing advantage and here we have a wizardly unbalancing advantage.  This should be fun to see how it really turns out.  Personally, I would put my money on those craft wily gnomes.  Their gold generation will be phenomenal in a long game.  The Golden Rule shall Rule!  Of course UN will likely have 17 level 17 agents so the last ten turns will see one or two kingdom courts being wiped out each turn.  I think someone said that each kingdom will have a full realization of the potential of its power and, if unbalancing does not show its face in those extreme circumstances, then that is an interesting event as well.  I suppose we will have to see.  Maybe we should start a dead pool........