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I would humbly request that changes such as the SVC one mentioned not be communicated just in an active game thread. I generally have little or no reason to read active game threads from games I am not involved in. I don't consider that an appropriate place to announce any changes that will affect more than that one game.
I just want to feel confident that anything important will be announced in such a manner than everyone will be able to read it without having to dig down to page 33 of an ancient thread that they had no reason to read the first time around. The Monitor-only thread works wonderfully for this sort of thing.
Lord Diamond
Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.
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Or learn from the order checker that my SVC is now premature....
I think most of us are saying the same thing. We need to be able to count on consistent rules, whatever they are. Give us public notice and some lead time on changes.
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(03-30-2015, 07:25 PM)VballMichael Wrote: Or learn from the order checker that my SVC is now premature....
I think most of us are saying the same thing. We need to be able to count on consistent rules, whatever they are. Give us public notice and some lead time on changes.
Are you saying that actually happened (your order checker told you you couldn't declare SVC on T17-T19)? If so, I'd like to know the game # and then I am mistaken about something. Or are you saying you wouldn't want that to potentially happen sometime down the road? Again, the players in the one current game with a SVC know about it and knew it before the game started. Any new signup with SVC would list it, if not already updated in the Rules. I'm not sure how players not in a SVC game are impacted by that.
I don't want to go over old ground on how we have done / do development. This is not Microsoft. I take what I can get from the developers, when I can get it. I don't know when something requested will be programmed, as said, it has been a long road with just wrapping up 2nd Cycle that I did not anticipate. When they have something ready, I'm not inclined to say "wait two weeks". What in the partial list I posted above about things implemented mid-game are something that would require two weeks notice? (None of this directed at VBM, just trying to inform the community.) Yes, if a new order is added or deleted, that will get advance notice to the player base. But mainly we are streamlining processing and fixing things broken or that can be improved.
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3 games I am in are SVC. 160, 161, 169. 161 is going on turn 16 where someone could have thought they were close. 160 I believe the rule was created during sign up
As for two weeks which of those changes could not have been two weeks. We also had in influx of semi undocumented changes happen when converted to the new platform. Like
-UN, AN, GN, DW no longer get gold by issuing orders for there own craft and UN gets further nerfing
-flying artifacts now work differently. This got documented after it effected someone.
-combat system in flux. Getting worked on
As it is now changes happen instantly sometimes posted other not. Normally always a warning they could be coming but no detail. I thought two weeks because some games run one time in a set week this would make sure everyone had two turns to prepare for a change that was going to out there kingdom in a different situation.
Personal I do not need two weeks that was just my thinking. Perhaps making updates happen on a set day like Sunday seems to be UM day of preference. But most important document in its own admins only thread what changes happened so we can all see and react. Rather than guess what is and s not active.
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03-30-2015, 10:25 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-30-2015, 10:34 PM by VballMichael.)
(03-30-2015, 09:31 PM)Ry Vor Wrote: (03-30-2015, 07:25 PM)VballMichael Wrote: Or learn from the order checker that my SVC is now premature....
I think most of us are saying the same thing. We need to be able to count on consistent rules, whatever they are. Give us public notice and some lead time on changes.
Are you saying that actually happened (your order checker told you you couldn't declare SVC on T17-T19)? If so, I'd like to know the game # and then I am mistaken about something. Or are you saying you wouldn't want that to potentially happen sometime down the road? Again, the players in the one current game with a SVC know about it and knew it before the game started. Any new signup with SVC would list it, if not already updated in the Rules. I'm not sure how players not in a SVC game are impacted by that.
Yes, I am saying it actually happened. As I was submitting my orders for turn 16 and wrote out order 995, the order checker politely informed me that my SVC was premature. Then I checked the numerous threads and found the one reference to a turn 20 implementation for that other game and that thread was created only a turn ahead of my declaration and I had not seen it since I was not in that other game. Since it is out in the public now anyway, Game 160. Because of that 4-turn delay, and trying to sit on 3 controlled regions for 4 turns, well, not going to happen  . Major invasions, but all after turn 16 when I had planned to declare. The 993 order says the 995 order can be invoked "starting with turn 16".
And Ry Vor, I did not take offense at your comment and agree that most of the changes you mentioned were awesome and timely and players would not need much notice. But yes, changing SVC timing requires 2 weeks. I would not have taken the 3rd region the prior turn to make myself a target .
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^^^ That's a tough beat for sure.
-This Khal Drogo, it's said he has a hundred thousand men in his horde
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Ouch. 
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Whenever I make a change to the main program, I also change the order checker software to be up-to-date with the latest changes to detect the relevant errors for your turn.
So if the order checker displays an error that the SVC victory couldn't be done before turn 20, it may have confused some players if they weren't aware of the change. I should have posted the new ruling on the forum so people wouldn't ignore the error since the rule applied to all games. Sorry if that messed up your strategy in a particular game but if you ignore the errors displayed by the order checker program then you do so at your own risk.
Keep in mind that the order checker isn't perfect because it doesn't have access to the entire database (only a very limited one) but if an error is displayed that you don't understand, please don't ignore it but send a note to Support for more info. Doing so could have saved your position in a game before the turn was run...
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(03-30-2015, 11:07 PM)unclemike Wrote: Whenever I make a change to the main program, I also change the order checker software to be up-to-date with the latest changes to detect the relevant errors for your turn.
So if the order checker displays an error that the SVC victory couldn't be done before turn 20, it may have confused some players if they weren't aware of the change. I should have posted the new ruling on the forum so people wouldn't ignore the error since the rule applied to all games. Sorry if that messed up your strategy in a particular game but if you ignore the errors displayed by the order checker program then you do so at your own risk.
Keep in mind that the order checker isn't perfect because it doesn't have access to the entire database (only a very limited one) but if an error is displayed that you don't understand, please don't ignore it but send a note to Support for more info. Doing so could have saved your position in a game before the turn was run...
Yep, your order checker worked perfectly and I did not ignore it. It did keep me from wasting a 995 order. I wrote support and got the clarification that the SVC was now held until turn 20. Not sure how the checker could have saved my prior turn of taking 3 regions, but it did warn me not to declare.
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I didn't want to go into specifics since this game is still active but you gained your 3rd region on turn 15 with about a dozen #171 and #330 orders in the turn.
When you found out that you couldn't win on turn 16 and were concerned that others would gang up on you, you could have simply popped those pc's neutral with a rebel. Emissaries have automatic success when rebelling their own kingdom pc's and if you would have done this on turn 16, you would have lost your 3rd region and misplaced their attention elsewhere.
Yes, I know this tactic is a bit counter-intuitive but it could have saved your position in the game if you were so concerned of gaining their unwanted attention.
Strategy and tactics can make a huge difference in the game. Looking forward to The Choosing and future releases of the game...
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