LT48: Rules, ending, winning and other game settings

Planning and discussing Freeciv Longturn gaming
Post Reply
User avatar
Corbeau
Elite
Posts: 1291
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:13 pm

LT48: Rules, ending, winning and other game settings

Post by Corbeau »

These are the rules and stuff for LT48 (48th LongTurn game) that is scheduled to start around September 25th.

If this is the first time you hear about it: Longturn is a social event. Learn more about it here: What is Longturn?

For full info about the new "Simulation" ruleset, check here.

Signup for LT48 is here.

Naturally, we will try to spread all necessary information on all channels, but the main information board for LT48 will be on the Longturn forum.


LT48 will be different from previous LT games in one technical aspect: it will not end automatically upon victory of a player or an alliance. Instead, there is a number of endgame conditions. Once those conditions are met, game formally ends and score is calculated. After that, players who wish to do so may continue playing in a "sandbox/informal" game, to test out the new ruleset or, simply, to have fun. Game will be physically terminated at a later point that is to be decided between remaining players and admins.

ENDGAME CONDITIONS

The game will end formally and score will be calculated when endgame conditions are met. Conditions are related to the Demographics reports and will need to be detected by the players themselves. Once any player publicly declares that a certain condition is met, the game ends on that particular turn and score is calculated. This needs to be declared publicly in the in-game chat. A player noticing that a condition is met and muttering it to himself will not be enough. It needs to be publicly declared.

Modifications to the ruleset have been introduced in order to make endgame conditions detectable.
1. Marco Polo wonder (giving embassy with all players) will be available with Banking. The cost of the wonder is 100 shields.
2. After discovering Electricity, a player will automatically have embassy with everybody, without the need to build Marco Polo.

This will enable players to monitor technologies of all other player and also see which player is No. 1 in some demographic categories.

The official game will end when any of the conditions below are met. N will be the number of active (non-idle) players on Turn 10 of the game.

* A spaceship is built and arrives at its destination.

* One player discovers Future Tech sqrt(N).

* Sqrt(N) players discover Future Tech 1.

* One or more players control 1/sqrt(N) of overall land area on the map.
For this, at the start of the game an overall landmass will be determined from the server settings. It may happen that the number is not completely accurate, but the error should be negligible and the number determined will be used.

If a player conquers enough land before others have built Marco Polo, he has no one to blame but himself. The game continues until at least a few other players can confirm this, either by building Marco Polo or establishing embassies manually, using Diplomats.

- (Just as a failsafe), current year is reached, whichever that is.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

There aren't any. When the game formally ends, in-game score determines who rocked, who rolled and who was rickrolled. Score is individual. There is no alliance victory. You are fighting for your place on the ranking table.

It is quite possible (although not extremely likely) that the player who triggered endgame conditions will not have the best score and thus will not be the "winner".

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Naturally, a single player is not allowed to have more accounts in order to control more nations. All transgressors will be amputated from the game. Anaesthetic will not be used. Screaming will be enjoyed.

Delegation is allowed up to a limit. Common sense will be used and all players must publicly announce delegations that may last more than a few days. Weekend is fine, don't spam with every detail. One week should be made public.

A player may control more nations through delegation for a very short time. You can have more short-term delegations (as long as they are not from the same nation, obviously), but only one long-term (more than a week). Again, common sense will be used. If there is a good reason why you should take more than one long-term delegation, ask and it will be discussed. "My friend has lost interest and I'd like to keep his nation alive" may be a good reason for the nation to be delegated, but not necessarily for it to be delegated to you.

In all other cases, common sense will be used. When in doubt, apply more common sense.

IDLER MANAGEMENT AND OTHER TECHNICALITIES

First turn will last 3 times the normal length of the turn (3 * 23 hours), to allow all players who signed in to receive the information that the game has stared, to join in, have a look around, make sure everything is functioning.

Nations belonging to players declared idle will be available for replacement. Player will be considered idle if:
- he didn't join during the first 3 * 23 hour turn
OR
- hasn't logged in for X days after playing for at X turns
OR
- hasn't logged in for 7 days (so maximum X is 7)
--
* Freeciv LongTurn, a community of one-turn-per-day players and developers
* LongTurn Blog - information nexus with stuff and stuff and stuff
* Longturn Discord server; real-time chatting, discussing, quarrelling, trolling, gaslighting...
Ignatus
Elite
Posts: 644
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2017 12:05 pm
Location: St.Petersburg, Russia
Contact:

Re: LT48: Rules, ending, winning and other game settings

Post by Ignatus »

Corbeau wrote:One or more players control 1/sqrt(N) of overall land area on the map.
Thus, with N=16, expand slightly better than average, conquer 3 newbies, and the winner is you? Even if the second one has an army ready to squish your emire's bloated body and weakened defenses? I think, this condition should be at least 0,5*(1+sqrt(n)).
User avatar
Corbeau
Elite
Posts: 1291
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:13 pm

Re: LT48: Rules, ending, winning and other game settings

Post by Corbeau »

0,5*(1+sqrt(n)) for n=16 is 2.5. Did you mean 1/(0,5*(1+sqrt(n))) (which would be 40%)?

But yes, for small(er) number of players this gets slightly out of hand. However, for smaller number of players, it is to be expected that there will be less newbies. Also, this puts some responsibility on non-newbies to prevent this conquest. Interaction is crucial. If you watch idly as your neighbour is being conquered, well, you deserve to lose.

For the record, on LT42 with 25 players, the game lasted ~90 turns, also with a bug that enabled quicker conquest. Here this bug is removed so we'll see.

The problem I see is that right now there are 9 registered people and only 4 have confirmed so... we'll see :D
--
* Freeciv LongTurn, a community of one-turn-per-day players and developers
* LongTurn Blog - information nexus with stuff and stuff and stuff
* Longturn Discord server; real-time chatting, discussing, quarrelling, trolling, gaslighting...
User avatar
Corbeau
Elite
Posts: 1291
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:13 pm

Re: LT48: Rules, ending, winning and other game settings

Post by Corbeau »

Also, I forgot to note: unless there is a serious game miscarriage like it happened in LT42, I will use the ranks from this game for LongTurn League scoring. The details are somewhere on this forum, I'll dig them up later, I'm on mobile now.
--
* Freeciv LongTurn, a community of one-turn-per-day players and developers
* LongTurn Blog - information nexus with stuff and stuff and stuff
* Longturn Discord server; real-time chatting, discussing, quarrelling, trolling, gaslighting...
Ignatus
Elite
Posts: 644
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2017 12:05 pm
Location: St.Petersburg, Russia
Contact:

Re: LT48: Rules, ending, winning and other game settings

Post by Ignatus »

Corbeau wrote:0,5*(1+sqrt(n)) for n=16 is 2.5. Did you mean 1/(0,5*(1+sqrt(n))) (which would be 40%)?
Of course, I meant 0.5(1+sqrt(1/n)). But you probably know better.
User avatar
Corbeau
Elite
Posts: 1291
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:13 pm

Re: LT48: Rules, ending, winning and other game settings

Post by Corbeau »

So... for N=16, you get 0.5(1+sqrt(1/n)) = 5/8 or 62.5%. Is this what you were going for?
--
* Freeciv LongTurn, a community of one-turn-per-day players and developers
* LongTurn Blog - information nexus with stuff and stuff and stuff
* Longturn Discord server; real-time chatting, discussing, quarrelling, trolling, gaslighting...
Ignatus
Elite
Posts: 644
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2017 12:05 pm
Location: St.Petersburg, Russia
Contact:

Re: LT48: Rules, ending, winning and other game settings

Post by Ignatus »

Yes. Since I can remember, in commercial games domination victory is somewhere around 60%. With that territory, you can extreminate everybody else almost for sure. Before this, they still might unite and throw you back. But you may see reasons for an earlier game stopper, I did not dig much into it.
User avatar
Corbeau
Elite
Posts: 1291
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:13 pm

Re: LT48: Rules, ending, winning and other game settings

Post by Corbeau »

Well, I can't say I have rock-solid arguments. It seemed like a fair number to set and what I wanted to avoid was a massive global war that would require a player to spend hours every day just to move all his units and conquer half the world to establish his domination. I fear it would be tiresome.

But this is just my subjective estimate. This is in no way set in stone and I am thankful for this discussion. I would like others to chip in their opinions, too. With 10 days till the game starts, there is time to change this. And I think that THIS particular thing can be changed even after the game starts if there is interest and solid arguments.

(And another reminder for the people who registered for the game to confirm their participation. Thank you.)
--
* Freeciv LongTurn, a community of one-turn-per-day players and developers
* LongTurn Blog - information nexus with stuff and stuff and stuff
* Longturn Discord server; real-time chatting, discussing, quarrelling, trolling, gaslighting...
User avatar
Corbeau
Elite
Posts: 1291
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:13 pm

Re: LT48: Rules, ending, winning and other game settings

Post by Corbeau »

There are two idler spots in LT48. It is now T2 with 11 hours till TC. If you want to join, now is a very good time!

And if you want to "just try the new ruleset" with no obligation to play on, this is a perfect opportunity: mind the nation for a short time to keep it out of obsoletion until someone more interested drops by.

You can quit anytime anyway ;)
--
* Freeciv LongTurn, a community of one-turn-per-day players and developers
* LongTurn Blog - information nexus with stuff and stuff and stuff
* Longturn Discord server; real-time chatting, discussing, quarrelling, trolling, gaslighting...
Post Reply