(05-09-2019, 03:45 PM)Brekk Wrote: OK a question from a newbie. Why are games set to silent? Is this a strategy thing, concerns about collusion? The reason I ask is half the fun of a game would be talk on the boards this is of course from my perspective, I like hearing some of the great in character writings and smack talk. In my case as a new player this also allows me to communicate and ask questions of other players in or off the forum so I learn faster, without "cheating". Not asking for a change to the game just trying to understand the reasons.
You'll get a lot of perspectives on this, Brekk. It's a very good question. If we get a lot more players with your inclination, we're happy to do full diplomacy games. But the reality is our current player base does not prefer that style for a few reasons:
1. Some players are very diligent about communicating with everyone every turn and then putting the pieces together as to what is happening everywhere, giving them a strategic advantage just by gathering information from others. Not saying it shouldn't be a reward for hard work, its just a lot of players consider it kind of outside the game and possibly more based on relationships.
2. Most players wouldn't mind some diplomacy, regarding trades mainly or cease fires, but don't want to be super active in diplomacy to stay competitive.
3. Full diplomacy games were to the point that before turn 1 ran, multi kingdom alliances were formed and players known not to join early alliances were frequent targets by a pack. These alliances of a certain set of players tended to carry over from game to game.
4. There was an ever-present insistence on "Game Long NAP (non-aggression pact). A few players in particular would try to secure NAPS with all but one neighbor, and then with the other borders secured, attack the one remaining threat in a blitz.
5. Some players do not enjoy the diplomacy aspect and the restrictions on their freedom to act resulting from agreements, especially the game long naps which then prohibited stopping a kingdom from winning due to the agreement.
5. Diplomacy games go more slowly, and require more work. Often players wait until the deadline just in case a diplomacy request comes in.
The best we have now are Alliance games, or something like the Master/Apprentice. Alliance games are four teams of three kingdoms. They have about the right amount of diplomacy for most players, allow the sharing of clever ideas and boasting of great moves: just among the three players on a team. The critics here would be the suspicion that two teams had kind of understood to if not work together, to not attack one another, and if both attack the same other team, the suspicion rises. Second, that despite pretty much saying in the game thread it is important not to drop, a player dropping screws up the team, even though we can turn the abandoned position over to another player on the team, usually it is after a critical missed turn which inspired the drop.
I've thought about almost a 1st Cycle of Alamaze solution, allowing just a fixed set of allowable messages, just filling in the variables like the amount of gold or the abbreviation of a character name. Further restriction I've considered is you must have a noble at a PC of the kingdom to be approached, or one side or the other has a group at the PC or the two groups are in the field. It would also be cool in this case to allow through the game system messages to be exchanged under those conditions between turns, i.e., not necessarily in conjunction with the turn commands submitted. The diplomacy would also count as an order against Influence, so would not be a constant, reflexive, "How are you" thing, but rather used for critical junctures.
Anyway, all players are encouraged to post questions on the forum, generally under Newbie Questions but perhaps elsewhere. Just phrase the question without identifying the game, the personas other than your own is assumed, and not the kingdom unless that is germane to the question.
Buddy/Ignore List
Hopefully I am not annoying the veterans of the games with my ideas, I know there is always a lot of reasons why stuff does/doesnt happen I just like knowing the why.