A brief greetings

[Kalkin]

Hello all,

I'm as new to this game as a person can be but quite looking forward to giving it a try as everything reads like it'll be my type of game. Here's hoping!

Out in the real world I hail from the North East of the UK, a slightly backward place where still have giants snatching virgins from villages but since we have internet we can enjoy games like this.

Looking forward to playing with and against some interesting folk!

[JohnnyUtah]

Welcome! Jump in and join a game. The harder you lose the faster you learn

[Kalkin]

That's the plan

[Ziggy]

Welcome Kalkin! I assume you've played the tutorial at least once. I personally recommend running through it a second time as you'll find that the game mechanics become much easier to follow.

I see that you've listed a duel. Those are fine to run through, but the orders, map, and actual rules are from an earlier version of the game than is currently being played. I didn't find it very useful when I started out a few months ago (August), but if nobody with more experience joins it with you (you do have to join yourself) in a few days I'll enter myself. Hopefully someone with more experience will drop in instead.

JohnnyUtah has the best advice that joining in a normal 12 player game is the best way to go. I've found that experienced players are good about giving new players time to build up their kingdom and are also good about giving solid advice after they eventually decimate you as well.

[Kalkin]

Welcome Kalkin!  I assume you've played the tutorial at least once.  I personally recommend running through it a second time as you'll find that the game mechanics become much easier to follow. 

I see that you've listed a duel.  Those are fine to run through, but the orders, map, and actual rules are from an earlier version of the game than is currently being played.  I didn't find it very useful when I started out a few months ago (August), but if nobody with more experience joins it with you (you do have to join yourself) in a few days I'll enter myself.  Hopefully someone with more experience will drop in instead.

JohnnyUtah has the best advice that joining in a normal 12 player game is the best way to go.  I've found that experienced players are good about giving new players time to build up their kingdom and are also good about giving solid advice after they eventually decimate you as well.

Muchly obliged, I do see most of the games in the queue are in Maelstrom rather than Choosing but at this point it's just about getting used to the game. I might jump into one of the 12-player games and see how that goes, whether I do it now or later I expect the results will be pretty similar! I went through the tutorial twice but I'm under no illusions about the main game being a much bigger challenge!

[Clueless]

Hey Kalkin, I just joined your Duel game as the Lizard Men (he's playing the Demon Princes).

I would like to continue playing against you in this game, however, I just discovered that there's an issue with these older 3rd Cycle games.

When the server was updated to the latest platform release (4th Cycle Maelstrom+), the user interface of the order entry website was not modified to support the older 3rd Cycle version (due to time constraints of not getting everything done in time).

So, when we enter our orders, the validation check system won't deduct the gold costs properly for our emissary actions, agents, etc. under 3rd Cycle rules.

Brek, you may want to cancel 3rd Cycle Duel games in the Game Queue, or the newer players will think that they are entering correct orders, when they may not have enough food/gold to actually do them. I just ran into this situation today with my orders...

So, Kalkin, we can continue playing this Duel game, but we'll have to do all the math ourselves. Which is the good ole fashion way of doing things back when playing the original Alamaze in the 80's.

Let me know if you want to continue or not but don't rely on the math calculations from the Verify button.

---

Oh, I forgot to mention.

Another and more important reason for not continuing the Duel game between us is that we won't be able to use the amazingly wonderful Player Aids!

You can access those from this forum's top banner link, named Player Aids. Those are tremendously useful and are very helpful learning the game.

For example, I just captured your Demon Prince at my city at area CI last turn probably because you weren't able to verify their success at usurping my city. Using the Player Aids would have prevented that mistake.

The Player Aids are only for the newer 4th Cycle games. Not this older 3rd Cycle version...

---

Brek, to prevent any more 3rd Cycle games from being auto-created, just add the disabled keyword in the HTML file.

The Game Queue should have a HTML file that just needs you to add the word 'disabled' (without the quotes) in the appropriate area. No coding is necessary to disable a HTML tag. Just add it with Notepad :>

Much like how under the Game Variant section, both the 1st Cycle and 2nd Cycle buttons are grayed out and disabled, you may want to do the same for the Duel button under Game Type.

That would prevent players from selecting that button.


   

[Kalkin]

This would explain one or two things failing which seemed otherwise OK... well, if the newer worlds are the ones more often in play it probably makes more sense for me to started playing in them. I'm more than happy to jump into a duel in one of those and learn the ropes that way.

[Strongwill]

I thought the third cycle choosing map had been disabled too awhile back, is anyone playing on that map?

[Ruingurth]

Kalkin,

I started a new 72hour game with partial diplomacy. That means you can communicate with other players on the forum. It is a good starting point for a new player. Couple of quick tips:

The game will run every three days unless everyone hits ready early, It will then run when the last player huts the ready button.

While you do your turn "save it" every so often and hit the verify button to check your turn. If you hake a mistake it should appear on the bottom under ERROR MESSAGES

When you are done with your turn you can end it two ways.

1 hit "SAVE ORDERS" this will save your turn but, will not enter it until the 72hrs are up.

2 Hit "SAVE ORDERS" then VERIFY ORDERS one last time, then hit the "READY" Button. This will send your orders immediately and once all the players hit ready the turn will run.

I have made the mistake multiple times of hitting the READY button without saving my orders. This results in the turn running without any orders.

Reach out on the form with any questions, this is a good community of players we will help in whatever way we can.

Ruingruth
The Sleeping Dragon
R
Champion of ALAMAZE 2023 and 2024