Patrizierforum

Food or thought?

Baltic Trader: I don't plan for the next day, I buy what's fresh and available for a reasonable price. We no not have supermarkets that get fresh shipments from around the world every day. And, especially in the winter, we really have to scrounge. If you have to eat muskox several days in a row, you for sure don't won' t to spoil you supper by nowing what's for dinner the next day. Unfortunatley, thanks to my job, I am not my own cook for a great deal of time. An when I go in vacation, I never know where I go, unless it's Wednesday when one restaurant has a super seafood buffet. Gulf shrimps ,large and crisp; smoked black cod and Alaskan king crab.

If you want a "cool off period" between games, then end the game on December 1st. Early January is for some of us the best time to start since as of mid/end January we are busy.

@ Baltic Trader:

I wonder how long it took you to translate your posting. Why don't you post the originals here; I am sure they will be translated and placed in the appropriate thread within a few days.

BtW, Babbelfish is only marginal in its ability to translate anything above grade 1 English. This is Spot, see Spot run, Spot is my dog...... Dieses ist Punkt, sehen(infinitiv of to see instead of 2nd/3rd person) Punkt zu laufen, Punkt ist mein Hund...... Dies ist Punkt, sieh Punkt laufen, Punkt ist mein Hund would be the "normal" choice, possibly not 100% gramatically correct but translated in a way Germans speak - at least the ones I am/have been, in contact with.

I don't know where to air my comments / preferences, so I'll do it here.

For starters, I hope the game spans an entire year again otherwise weekend players, like myself are at a huge disadvantage. Also, there are times during the year where I am to busy to think of playing. That's one of the reasons why I started late.

Of the listed objectives the start with 22 cities appeals the most to me, especially if the supply does not allow for a complete buildup. I don't think that I can finish a complete buildup but we will see.
My second choice would be 100% supply through own production of key goods. I assume that would be items such as wine, furs, cloth and pottery since, without basic supplies, the Hanse does not fare well.

Regarding the condition etc:
Prohibition of piracy is ridiculous. It's an integral part of the game design. Firstly, there are pirates run by the AI and secondly we got all the tools, and instructions, on how to pirate. I agree that some tricks are not explained in the manual, but that does not mean that, as a result, all piracy should be banned.
Penalizing a player for sieges is absolutely ludicrous. Who on earth dreamed up that concept, did someone put something in his/her coffee? The same goes for auto-buying penalties. Why do I have to do a click orgy instead of hoarding goods for the winter through auto-buying by thee administrator?
Team play? If it’s by regional teams, like team NewWorld and others as in the current statistics, it’s lopsided for teams that have one crack, or more, amongst them. Who’s going to assign the teams?
Continuing to play on a game that someone else started, is going to be very difficult, especially for greenhorns like me.
Early finish bonus? So cracks get not only top marks for beating everybody in population, # of businesses etc, but they get an additional bonus since they are done faster? Let’s see, in the extremely unlikely event that I should reach a population equal to Swartenhengst’s I will not only loose points because it’s simply impossible to get the required CV of umpteen billions, but he gets additional points for finishing early? Well, I don’t have the time to spend 10 real-time hours, or more, per game months to optimize all facets of my game, after all, it’s a game not studies of economics.

An enjoyable game for me is one that has:

• A low setting of piracy since fending off 5 –6 pirates every month is just distracting from the game. What’s the purpose of such a setting – to give bragging rights to those who control them the fastest?
  
• No town with a complete supply chain. Ships are meant to haul raw materials to one port and then finished goods back.
  
• Production of raw materials and finished goods in the historic places. That means no whalers in the Baltic Sea.
  
• Freedom to make money in any way as one pleases.

Zitat

Original von Baltic Trader
@Patrician Jr: I am not really wild about a crippled game, which is what an insufficient supply system is. Being allowed to build up perhaps four new cities would be interesting, especially if the efficient goods can be manipulated.

Why is a game crippled that does, i.e., not have enough ore to allow 1M citizens but "merely" 600,000? And, as you said, you can manipulate what will be produced in the new towns, a factor that the programmers probably did not intend to leak out.

Zitat

Piracy is for many a crutch. It is harder, much more so, to build a working economic system when you don't have the option of raiding cities for cash to rescue a floundering game.

I recall reading coments from you in the Ascaron board on how to pirate. Why the change of flag, is it because of your new avtar? IMHO piracy is a game setting rather than a crutch. When I played PR2 I did not get LoM, did not take towns for Governors but I did take the odd supply arriving from Europe and plundered the odd port just for the fun of it. In the end I was Master of The Seas too. Why are you so adament in bepriving us of our fun?

Zitat

As far as realistic and integral parts of the game goes, I think the S/L to avoid indictment, which is a random factor but also a designed and integral element of the game, is a joke. Pirate, save before capture, capture, save, fast forward to see if you are caught, if so, reload and wait another tic before capture, etc. You can't tell me that is a part of the game.
I would recommend prohibiting the S/L, it puts everyone on a fair and even game. Easy enough to check, too. If a player nabs 10 or 20 ships, he surely would be caught once, and the indictment, trial (with the DESIGNED bribery part of the game) would be a matter of record; ditto a city raid, (ditto discoveries without exploration, too). Multiple captures, never caught, obviously cheating. Sure, allow it as designed, as an essential and integral element. Just don't adjust the game to avoid your penalty and the chance to pay bribes, play it (and pay for it too) as it was really intended to be played.

Of the over 30 ships that I took off the hands of the white fleet in the beginning, I got only 2 indictments. From flattening the towers I NEVER got an indictment. I got two for pilfering where I was prohibited to trade - so what. Never lost a cent since my administrator did all the trading for me. So what's unrealistic about that? Have a look in my chronicle, you'll see the indictments. And, unless you are clairvoyant, you will not be able to proof that someone used S/L. Since we are at S/L, don't you use that excessively yourself to explore and obtain contracts? Not this boy! I doubt that the desginers had in mind that you use S/L to send ships umpteen times into the Med or to America to discover trading stations. So where does that practice fit into playing the game as it was designed?

Zitat

Arbitrage is just free money, another crutch which a good player hardly needs.

And that from the originator of arbitrage Where would you stand in this contest withouy arbitrage? And don't tell me that you are not using it. More likely you use it at an advanced level like Ugh! et al. And how do you intend to check if soemone did use level 1 arbitrage in one port. Just 2,000 coins a day or so in profit still adds up and, especially in the first years when you buy a lot of building materials, it will not become aparent. In the end you might have a heated discussion between a juror who thinks that arbitrage was done and a player getting extremely ticked off because he didn't do it. Instead, he bought a lot of stock for the winter plus all the building materials he could lay his hands on. I too have seen saves where players (cracks) buy building materials up to sky-high prices. For example, bricks bought at 200 are hardly for resale.

Zitat

Team play, interesting thought, hard to implement, hard to balance. I too have limited time to play, one reason I am lagging in submissions. You and I would be awful on such a team.

Now here's something we can agree on. The only way would be if you added up the points of the individual players, who all play their own games just like now. But, as stated in my post, that would be lopsided. For example, when you submit your first save our team will take a nosedive since you are just in 1300 and have, overall, less points then the rest of us, no matter how good you were in the first year.

Zitat

I believe the higher piracy settings were designed to allow the white doves to get more ships, and put them on more of a par with pirating players.

I'm willing to bet that the desingers did not waste a second on such a consideration. Just as in any game there are settings that a player can change to his/her liking. If it was for me, I would play without any pirates. At that setting I might be less tmepted to avail myself of white ships since I don't need a good fleet to start out with in order to fight those pirate convoys.

Zitat

Our contests had quicker endpoints like that in general, and encouraged a lot of participation. Not a lot of novices will get very far in these contests here.

I looked at when some of the players joined, there seem to be a lot of novices in this game, including myself. How far will I get? That will depend mainly on my avaialble time. But I hope to reach 1310. And, if last year's contest is any indication, only a few will get that far. So, where will I stand at the end? Probably too high up for my skill level simply because I may have had mre time than better players.
Do I enjoy this contest? Yes, to a certain extent but I will not play in another with similar goals or such a convoluted point system.
I had to hide over 40M just to carry it into the next year. There should never be a penalty for making money too fast nor to more or less mandating arbitrage just to be able to get as close as possible to the rediciolous CV values.

So here's the reverse of your 2-cent bit
As you can see, I am bored in my hotel room that comes with free internet access
I shall be back home soon where I will become less vocal and should have soem time to play.

Baltic Trader:

I don't think any of us care who stands where. The teamstandings are more or less a fun statistic. I am sure you will finish more than just 1300 until December 31st, even though you are, according to rookie, a notorious re-starter.

So, why did I learn how to make endless rows

This seems to be somewhat along the lines of a campaign and I can imagine that it could be completed considerably faster than this year's contest.