Proposal: Comunity game

[Merker]

Hello everyone! I come before all of you DW players(ROTS or otherwise) with this idea: a DW save game a group of players take turns to play. We decide on the game beforehand, then someone starts it, after a set amount of time sends the save to the next one in line and so on until all objectives of the game are met, or the empire gets whacked.
Base rules

1. Each player has the save for 3 days, even if they play for just 1 hour, they must pass the save to the next player.

2. Game rules are set before the start of a new game and everyone must obey them; example: no editor, no modifying AI control settings, only controlling fleet activity or empire construction if the game rules state it etc. We have to trust each others' word on this.

3.The player who gets the save must not mess with what the previous player has built. Example: don't retire any special starbases built, even when in crisis, try not to change fleet settings too much, don't go around killing the empire that the previous player struggled to get a free trade agreement with.

4.Each player must give a full report of their gameplay, eventually providing a map if large scale changes have taken place.

5. Games are set to be extremely challenging, giving the AI some huge advantages. Example: start with 2 colonies while all AIs have old empires.

And so on.

Well, what do you think? Anyone interested in such an idea?

[Data]

I like it. The requirement is that all the involved players should be on the same version...and obviously all the involved ones must agree on the initial setup (how many opponents, minor races, victory conditions etc etc).
I think it's doable, we should try it.

[Merker]

Want to make a suggestion of a game setting? We should gather a few suggestions, then have a vote.

Mine(for plain DW 1.0.6 of course):
Mortalen empire, 700 stars, sparse habitable planets, tech level enhanced(or whatever's the next one from beginning), monarchy gov, starting setting
Slow research.
Lots of pirates
Lots of independent colonies that can evolve into empires
Normal space creatures
Restless galaxy aggressiveness 
Spiral galaxy, on the very edge
19 other empires, same tech, random location, each of the other races represented, all old empires.
Rules: Ai controls everything except fleets and military base building.
Goals: Survive for 40 years.

[Bingeling]

It could be fun, or it could be a disaster... Different priorities from different players could be interesting.

But... time scale. I never pay attention to time in this games. But 3 day turns and 40 years duration? To me it sounds like loading a game would take longer time than playing a turn, and we would go on for years to end due to the number of turns...

[Merker]

Well, the 3 day limit was just a proposal. It could very well be 3 hours max of gameplay and the save stays for 3 days so the player has time to play it. Like I said, those are just some example rules. When more people gather we can set up a solid rule book.
I just wanted to see if the idea has any fans. But so far I see it doesn't....

[Bingeling]

For me it would also depend on DW being able to run with two installs on the same computer, as once the patch is out I surely want my ROTS running.

[Wreck]

I like the idea.  It is a succession game!  I'll play if it is vanilla.

I'd suggest that we limit play to particular periods of years in the game, and/or hours of actual play, whichever comes first.  Especially with full control of fleets, a war should take a lot of human time but very little game-time.  Conversely, though, when not in war you can zoom through a huge amount of game-time in very little human time.  (Giving the AI control of diplomacy, maybe this is not really a problem... depends on our race and the others.)

Also, while 3 days is a reasonable amount of time to allow for this (assuming correct amounts are chosen), should have the option to go faster than that.  Some nights I cannot play at all, but if I can I will probably do 3 hours easily enough.  And then why not hand off if we can?