FYI; I will play on Hulk’s Team
Yes please 
as a team member of Qwerty’s team. (invited through a game we’re already in).
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One minor team change. MattS will be taking the third spot on my team, making it Brian, Infin8 and MattS. My third had to drop out due to real world commitments.
First draft at a map. AI take the core 6 stars. This won’t be the final map, as I need to create a game with the settings we want, just a basic layout. I can adjust as needed. Thoughts?
First is just for symmetry check.
Sample map:
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Ok, teams as of right now:
Brian, Infin8eye, MattS
JonBoy, Itsmarty, DiscoJew
LDG, TomKat, Maladoni
Qwerty, Bills6693, Sekoms
Hulk, Neo, lookupAndy
Myk, Rosslessness, Rubberband
We have enough players now, so I’m going to cut it off here. Unless there are objections, I went ahead and assigned the remaining players, matching up some that have played together before.
My vote is for a turn based 6/24 game.
Neogrendal (great player) and I are together in a current team-based game that is approaching the end-game (we actually battled each other in a previous game) … and since our current partner can’t participate, sounds great to have lookupAndy (have we played together before) join us - I’m hoping you are US based to make communications easier.
You can reach me at hulkster@gmail if you want to start planning our galactic conquest! 
I’ll add that the current game (6/12 turn, 15 players, 32 stars, medium distance circle) started on March 2nd … and probably has a couple more weeks to go. So if we did 6/24 turns, you are probably looking at a 3 month game … which runs into summer travel which I know will be difficult for me … so my preference is a 6/12 turn and why I suggested “close” stars.
Awesome looking maps Brian and I appreciate your work on that and also organizing. Having some AI players adds an interesting twist … but I really think Jay needs to be lock down the ability to transfer cash/tech … because otherwise, there will be a mega-rush at turn time to check the AI player’s tech and “grab” some of that - should be disallowed. But having six of them trading tech means that they will NOT be a pushover in the middle - good stuff!
Hi everybody, great to see it’s nice and friendly in the forums!!
Not played much but my 2 cents.
I prefer a fast turn based game. The first game I played wasn’t and I nearly ate my family after 3 weeks.
Additionally I don’t know the geographical mix of the teams, but LDG and TomKat like me are UK based so any team with that players spread around the globe and launches fleets at 2.00 am in the morning our time will have a distinct advantage. I don’t like the idea of a game when the cards are stacked at the start especially playing against more experienced teams.
Apart from that I’m easy. Hopefully getting harder. Fnar fnar.
Well, in theory, all the AIs should work on different research, based on what Jay has changed with them recently.
That said, we were going to have a few house rules. Nothing quite as stringent as that other game (which I consider a throw away now since the house rules were blatantly broken by one team.
I expect everyone here to agree to and self police their team if they are joining this game. I posted the basics in the first post, so everyone had the chance to read them before signing on. Here they are again:
-Teams of 3 players will be organized before the game is set up and will be placed together on the map.
-Teams must strive for top 3 places. Formal Alliance will be turned on, but not forced.
-You may only trade tech with your own team.
-Teams may chat and share information with each other, but you are not allowed to switch teams, merge or join another.
Each team will be given a cluster, on a map like the one above or something similar. I will use a random number generator to place the teams based on numbering the clusters to match an analog clock.
There is to be no tech trading with the AI faction or any other team. No gifting tech to another team because your neighbor looked at you funny.
You can chat with everyone, and even target other teams together, but remember, only one team can win, and they must take all three spots unless they had a member eliminated, then they must take the top two.
Please no AFKs. Whichever route we go, you get plenty of time to sign on within 72 Ticks or 3 Turns. Going AFK results in sharing tech with the AI faction, and any other player that happens to go AFK at the same time. That results in breaking the no tech trades rule. If you know you are going to be without internet for a few days, please mention it in a public chat thread and we can pause the game.
It seems like most people are leaning towards Turn based. I personally like the ability of micromanaging my empire, which is why I was leaning toward a slow Time game. It’s just always annoyed me that I get research done 5 hours before Cycle, but can’t share it because it is in the middle of a turn. Likewise, attacks are already 6 hrs in before you see them no matter what. In a slow game, you could log in at the same frequency at a Turn based, but if you wanted to log in more often, you have the ability to do something each time. As we have heard from less than half our players on the topic, I’ll leave that open a bit longer.
Any other preferences on settings? Hulk suggested lots of starting cash. That gives you a jumpstart, but then immediately after you realize you don’t have as much money to spend each turn. Somewhere in the middle would be good I think. He also suggested expensive Weap and Manu. Thoughts?
Lets do turn based this time around, then next time do a slow game? I too prefer the slow game, but only because it suits my play style.
Thanks Hulk - I’ll send you an email. We have played together, in fact - I was one of the circle team in our first 64 player game (I was playing as BLAM). I recall you thinking I was a 12 year old 
Large initial cash is fine as long as those things mentioned are expensive. It gives players more tactical flexibility.
I prefer real-time, for the reasons above. (timings, micromanagement). But mainly, my one experience with a turn-based game was public and really put me off. With an organised, dedicated group of players it should be fine.
I too hate that the production time can disadvantage players, and also some people have busy lives and can’t check as often. So really a turn-based might be fairer.
Finally, I would like to note now that there may be one or two occasions where I will be without internet for a couple of days, I’ll make sure to tell people in the game!
I was chatting with Andy (and Neo) and since he is based in Australia, this is going to really make communication/coordinating a challenge in a team-based game. Is there a team with a couple of Aussies that would like someone local … and has a US based player we can swap with?
This would really improve game play for all.
Go ahead and work out any trades you want in the next day or two. I will say that I’ve been playing with players in both the UK and Australia, and have had little to no difficulty. There tends to be enough overlapping daytime hours for us to chat using Hangouts or a similar instant messaging app. That way we can have a quick discussion without missing each others messages in game.
Talking with Hulk it sounds like this game is going to be more time consuming than I initially thought. I’m already playing a few other Triton games and so I think it might be better to give this one a miss. Feel free to get someone from a different timezone if that would help things, too.
Sorry guys- hope that doesn’t mess you around too much.
Is it possible for me to swap with sekoms and join qwerty’s team? I’ve played with him before.
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Thats fine with me
Just to echo what I said to Andy … the team-based play is VERY time-consuming … you would think less because there isn’t as much diplomacy involved, but that at least in my experience playing one currently, it’s actually more in all the coordination, battle tactics, etc.
As Brian mentioned, there is overlap on daylight hours, but I’m hoping if we play a 6/12 game, we don’t go the full 12 hours every time.
Regardless, I would strongly encourage players to come into this game prepared to make the commitment so an enjoyable/challenging game for all. It’s kinda like the 64-user games where a dozen players go AFK right away - even if it benefits me, I’m still sad to see that.
So any US based players out there interested in joining Neo and I?
So current team set up:
Brian, Infin8eye, MattS
JonBoy, Itsmarty, DiscoJew
LDG, TomKat, Maladoni
Qwerty, Bills6693, Rubberband
Myk, Rosslessness, Sekoms
Hulk, Neo, …
I do appreciate Andy bowing out before the game starts, just like my original third. Much better than having to quit once the game gets started. I’ll echo what Hulk said, it is a long game, regardless of how we do the settings. I’d much rather pause for a brief break than lose anyone to vacations/holiday etc.
I’ll try someone I know that took a break from the game.
Edit: He is interested, just thinking about it and real life commitments. Hopefully he’ll get back to me after work today. I provided him with a link to this thread.
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Switch me to HULKs team if they’ll have me. Im US based