Want to play an MP campaign?

Hey guys. I agree: STW is still the best of all the TW games. Simple, yet elegant in its concept. True to the Japanese ideal.

I am trying to gauge the interest in an online MP campaign using the same units/buildings and starting positions/provinces of the STW SP campaign.

I held something similar to this a couple times before. However, the campaign died due to the time it took for players to meet, set up a time to play the battles and to fight it and return the logfiles to me so I could update the website. I have figured out a way to play one and avoid this time-consuming wait for battles to be fought. However, it does eliminate some of the fun of playing a real MP campaign: Battles will be fought, AI vs AI, in custom battle mode. I can set up the battles, let the AI fight them, Take the stats from the logfile and then update the website the next night instead of having to wait one turn per week (If even that fast).

If you can still have fun not fighting the battles, but on a more strategic level, then this could work. Puzz (MizuYuuki), TosaInu, and a lot of the old Fearful Ways/Uglys played in one which I held and were having great fun (I think). Didn't you Puzz and Tosa? I believe we worked out most of the kinks and had a nice campaign going. Shame, everyone had a hard time setting up and fighting the battles.

Since the STW server is down, this method of fighting realtime battles would allow a campaign to still be played. You would not even have to have the game installed on your PC or even own the game for that matter. No worries about having the correct patch, when your enemy would be online, or even sending the logfiles/replays to the host. It would all be taken care of on my PC. Also, it would be a chance for the SP-only types and the MP-only types to finally compare themselves to each other.

If you are interested, let me know. If we can get one player for each faction, I will then see if I can find the rules and maps from the first couple campaigns. If not, I can redo it. I have an old EzBoard forum still around to use or we can use the ugli.com site or even use a combination of this forum for discussions

Yeah! Do we pick our faction or is it random?

Once we have a player for each faction. I will draw names and put you guys in order. From there the first pick will choose his faction and the last pick will have to take the faction that is left. OR If you guys want to talk amongst yourselves and choose which factions you want to play, that will be fine too.

Up to those involved: I am flexible as long as everyone agrees to who take what faction, before we start.

Hi

in case you hadn't seen it, I've been trying to complete an online MP Campaign system that will take out most of the hard work from running such a thing.
Trouble is getting the time to work on it!

Check out my sig for more details.

Hey Tonka that is great! I was gonna do it the old fashioned way, and use a spreadsheet to make the moves, then update each players private webpage with their moves. If you get it finished, let me know. Can it be converted to the STW campaign map easily?

Wish I had your talent! :)

If you allow ducks to join,
consider this one already enlisted :bow:

I'll play, i'm not too bothered about which faction.

Count me in Elmo.

So thus far we have:

UglyandHasty
Chimpyang
PaolinoPaperino
Sasaki Kojiro
TonkaToys
Tomcat
PFJ's
Little Grizzly

Just added the PFJ's and Little Grizzly. Will see if we can get some others involved. Need just a few more and I will work on setting up the rules and the campaign site.

You might try the .com or some of the shogun clans forum.

I will do that, but I wanted to give you guys a first shot at it, since you are dedicated STW players. :)

Quote:

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Hey Tonka that is great! I was gonna do it the old fashioned way, and use a spreadsheet to make the moves, then update each players private webpage with their moves. If you get it finished, let me know. Can it be converted to the STW campaign map easily?

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Cheers! There is no problem adapting it to any map or period. I'll let you know if it progresses. PS: don't have STW yet, I'll pop down the shops and see if I can find a copy, otherwise eBay here I come.
~:cheers:

OK, I'm game. Been playing STW for a while and it is definitely still the best. Not played MP on-line before but as I see all battles will be fought by the AI don't think that matters.

Tomcat

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TonkaToys

Cheers! There is no problem adapting it to any map or period. I'll let you know if it progresses. PS: don't have STW yet, I'll pop down the shops and see if I can find a copy, otherwise eBay here I come.
~:cheers:

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You don't need to own a copy. Still worth buying of course ~:)

WElcome Tomcat and Tonka you are now on the list as well.

actually can i just play a general who is moved to diff stacks and so on, i don't think i'll have enouh time to think out everything.

You could form a team to play your faction and have them make moves when you don't have the time. But if you are really gonna be stretched for time, you probably should let someone else make the moves with you just helping him out as you can.

three of us in the PFJ have STW & would be up for some MP shame :)

unf we haven't managed to figure out how to get it going

If u wanna just play online,
give a look at this tread m8:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...d=1#post598995

interesting thread - i'll keep my eyes out for when theres a server hosting again

we've all 5quid WE editions from Amazon

Elmo are there any places left ?

nice, now we will find patch of fur everwhere on the campaign map !

~:cheers:

Sure thing Grizz. :) Let me add your name up top.

hehe maybe time to brush up on the old STW campiagn skills...

actually this has got me in the mood for one, i never managed the more difficult clans (imagawa, takeda and oda on expert)

looking forward to this already will be nice to play with/against real people also will make the diplomacy a lot more in depth, how about each player has a seperate forum for each other player ? (if this isnt to much work)

ohh and im guessing no special abilities right... ?

and stw or mi ?

edit: 10 people aren't there 7 clans ? or is this a different campign map ?

yes i talk to much.....

We will need someone to play as the ronin warlords. Also, it would probably be a good idea for each faction to have at least two players playing it. They can dicuss strategies and if one has to quit/leave for awhile the second person can take over. Helps continuity. Besides its the discussions of strategy that make it so much fun and if you don't have a teammate, you will not have anybody to bounce ideas off of. :)

ahh right that makes sense...

edit: the ronins need they're land split up a bit and a few buildings added my memory of campaign start isn't great but they don't have any buildings do they...

Elmark - any update on the status of the campaign and the likely timescales you are looking at please - just for planning purposes? Thanks.

Tomcat

Elmark,

Yes. That multiplayer campaign was really good, and you did an outstanding job running it. We didn't finish it because MTW was released, and interest shifted to that game. However, I think we did get a good rule set out of it which actually was the objective at the time. The behind the sceens diplomacy between human players was really intriguing.

I have an idea which would allow you to keep the online battles in this multiplayer campaign. CBR and I will release a mod package for MTW online play which will include several mods of which one will be barocca's STWmod for MTW. STWmod already plays very much like original STW, and a few tweaks will be made to bring its gameplay even closer to it. So, you could use this to play the battles online using MTW. Additional map conversions for the provinces probably have to be done. I could work on that.

I dont know how this campaign is gonna work but... If there is interest in having different unitsizes to pick from that can be added easily. That way losses from earlier battles can be handled and a player can use more than 16 units in a battle by simply picking some larger units so overall number of men stays the same.

This is a mod that people have to download anyway so there is no need to limit ourselves as we can add things like that to make it more interesting. But that is up to what people wants. It can be added into a special MP campaign era just for battles like that.


CBR

Let me finish the maps and the website. I figure I will have everything up and ready around the first couple weeks of November. Then we can begin.

I haven't played the STW mod for MTW. Where is the download so I can check it out to see if it will work.

BTW: Puzz, do you have a copy of the rules I sent to you back then by email? I am still trying to find my copy which I burned onto cd. I may have packed it up already since my wife and I are selling our house and having another one built. doh! hehe

Either way, if I can't find the old rules, I will rewrite them, since I remember most of them still.

I will post the rules here as soon as I find or finish rewriting them.

Hm...
Baroca's mod means having VI as prerequisites. Isn't it? ~:handball:

Yes it does require VI.

The thread can be found here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...3&page=1&pp=30 and direct link to download is: http://www.3ddownloads.com/strategy-...ETA5_20nov.zip


CBR

Elmark,

CBR and I have a new unit stat for STWmod stat that makes some small adjustments, and the corpses are now working. The adjustments are no-dachi runspeed set to 12, nag cav defense increase by +1 and teppo given the same firing stats as muskets had in original STW as close as can be determined, but with less melee capability.

I'll look for the rules, but my email going back that far seems to have been lost when I switched to a new computer.

I always wanted Barocca's Mod to get a good chance online, now for some reason I get error messages when trying to launch VI ~:confused:
I can only put this down to either graphics card drivers or direct X as this is the only alteration I have made since installing Rome Total Waste. I must say this has left me feeling like uninstalling the entire series :hanged:

......Orda

From AggonyBetou:
"Im interested in the campaign, cant post on org though anyone will sign me up? "

http://p066.ezboard.com/f7bear7frm1....icID=300.topic

Thnx Paolino, I have posted in that thread explaining things. ~:)

I have almost completed the campaign map graphic and will begin putting the site together this weekend. Still a lot of work to be done, but progress is being made. ~:cheers:

i am really interested in this. i don't quite understand how it will work. would you guys mind posting updates here, once the campaign gets underway?

Last time Elmark set up a website with the game's map of Japan. He could change the color of the provinces depending on which clan controlled them. Each clan had private pages where they could view the buildings and armies they had in each of their provinces. If you had a watchtower, Elmark provided you info about the adjoning provinces. I don't think we had ninja, shinobi or geshia strategic units.

Each player would email their move to Elmark. He would inform players of any battles that had to be fought and what units were available, and the players would go online and fight them. You could use another player as a general for fighing your battles if you wanted. The battle results would be sent to Elmark and he would update the info at the website. There was a mathematical cost calculation for bringing partial units back up to full strength. Inbetween turns, the players were negotiating alliances, non-aggression pacts, military access rights, subtrefuge, co-ordinated attacks, etc via email or in the online foyer. This negotiation aspect was very important to whether you were going to survive over the long term, and it was something you had to get started on at the beginning because you wouldn't have much negotiating leverage if your position in the game became weak later on. I think we were getting a move in about every 4 days.

It was really all Elmark making this work. It takes a lot of his time to run something like this.

The reason it is taking so long, besides the fact I am working quite a bit more than usual right now, is that I am putting more effort into the front-end of the website interface to make it easier (time-wise) for me to update after each turn. I have chosen to use the faction symbols on the main campaign map to represent who owns what province. This will be a time-saver since I do not have to color in each province when it changes hands.

I also am taking the unit icons and making them into small graphic files so I can pictorially show the units you have in each province. The unit icons will have numbers instead of colored shields and Swords to represent the wep and armor upgrades. I am making an icon of each possible type of unit: Ex. An Ashigaru unit can be:

Honor: 0, Wep: 0, Arm: 0
Honor: 1, Wep: 0, Arm: 0
Honor: 2, Wep: 0, Arm: 0
Honor: 3, Wep: 0, Arm: 0
Honor: 1, Wep: 1, Arm: 0
Honor: 1, Wep: 1, Arm: 1
etc . . . So you can multiply all of these by the total number of different units and see why it is taking awhile, but it will simplify things for me in the long run and make the game more pleasureable (visually) for you guys.

I am also trying to grab some screenshots of the menu's which pop-up for battles, and other things which will occur in game. All to keep the atmosphere which will make you believe you are actually playing the SP game.

I am also, this time, trying to work out a usable way to have ninja units, Geisha and the other non-combat units. This will probably depend on a dice roll made by myself to determine success or failure. The higher level the Ninja, the better percentage chance he will have to kill, unless the unit he is trying to kill is of a higher honor level than himself.

Very complicated, but I think with the time I will save updating the site, I can institute these units if everyone agrees.

Please try to find a group of players (4 would be good) who will play as one faction. This way if one player has to leave for a bit, the others can continue on with the campaign.

As for the way that escaped units work: I determined a cost factor per man in a unit: Ex: (Not actual figures but represent the thought behind the computations)

Ashigaru: 120 koku for a 60-man unit = 2 koku per man
If a unit of Ashigaru escapes a battle with 30 men left, I will first try to combine him with other like units who escaped to make a whole unit. If this is not possible, the left-over ashi units will be converted to koku: 30 x 2 = 60 koku. This koku will be added to the reserves of the faction and usable at the beginning of the next turn. (I will get into more detail as I get closer to completion.)

Hope this helps explain things a bit. You will have to see it to fully understand it.
:dizzy2:

There is a problem with the STWmod for MTW, so I don't know if it will be useable for playing out battles. CBR noticed that guns were beating units in melee that they shouldn't beat. We have investigated this in online tests, and cannot determine why guns are getting a large melee combat bonus. We've already eliminated a lot of the possible causes, and are at a loss for an explanation as of the moment.

The one thing with the MTW mod is that there are no province maps comparable to the provinces found in STW, or have the provinces all been mapped now to be similar to the province maps in STW?

I havent played SP campaign and dont know if there are any differences but the campaign map sure looks like old STW.

I think we finally found out why some units were acting weird. All units were made to be fearful of gun units. That actually means a 6 combat point difference and I guess Barocca thought it was morale only.

Tests I just made shows gun units to die quickly as they should.

Was just about to quit the mod because of that frustrating problem but thanks to Krypta for noticing and asking about it.


CBR

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CBR

I think we finally found out why some units were acting weird. All units were made to be fearful of gun units. That actually means a 6 combat point difference and I guess Barocca thought it was morale only.

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Great find CBR! Fear of gives a +2 att and +4 def against any unit that is afraid of you. The STWmod may work out well after all.


Elmark,

I think all the WE/MI province maps were converted. It may just be a matter of renaming them so we have a mappack for use with the multiplayer campaign. I'll look into that.

Thanks Yuuki :)

These STW campaign maps have already been converted to MTW by others:
Aki, Harima, Totomi, Bingo, Dewa, Higo, Kosuke, Yamato and Satsuma. I've converted Chikugo. We also have the multiplayer map of Nagashima and Krypta just converted 4th Kawanakajima.

I think we now have an STWmod stat which closely simulates original STW. CBR, Krypta and I have done online testing checking STWmod against original STW, and it looks good. Since MTW supports host selectable eras the stat could have an original STW era and an STW era as it appears in MI. The STW/MI era could support a slightly more dynamic gameplay.

Just Finished Awaji so can add that one too, moving along at about 1 map conversion a night. If anybody else is interested in helping out(only me and yuuki working on the maps atm and there is quite a few left), please PM me. ~:)

What I will do then is let the player's decide, for each battle, if they want to fight their human opponent, or let the AI fight the AI. If one player wants it to be AI vs AI, then it will be AI vs AI in STW, but if BOTH players want to fight each other, then it will be MTW Shogun Mod on one of your maps you are now creating. :) Thanks for the help guys. This way there are more options for the players, which is something CA/Activision should be doing. :charge:

PS: I actually had a slow night at work and was able to get a lot of the map I am making finished. Hopefully I will have the map up for all to see in the next couple of days. You would not believe how much trouble it was to try and make a map out of actual campaign screenshots. :furious3:

I have a question regarding retextured maps because I retextured Totomi originally and my concerns are.......

STW maps are much smaller

MTW deployment zones when applied to STW maps are much reduced. Ok maybe for a 2v2 but I doubt if some armies would be able to deploy properly before the start in a 4v4. Already found this on Totomi.

Part of the map becomes a no go area, this was also apparent on Totomi, with critical areas of the map lost to the redzone

......Orda

I do not think that there will be many 4v4 matches at least not until the middle-to-late stages of the game. We could get around that by breaking down the 4v4 into 2 2v2 games and then have the winning teams play a third game. If it is an AI vs AI game though, the old Totomi will work fine and we won't need to use any of the problem 4v4 maps.

Orda is right that the usable area is less on retextured STW maps. STW and MTW maps are the same 20x20 tiles, but the red zone at the map edge was 2 tiles wide in STW and is 3 tiles wide in MTW. The usable area in STW was 16x16=256, and in MTW it's 14x14=196 which is a 78% smaller area. This would probably be too small for a 4v4. Also, the play at the edge of the map will be different since you can't get as close to the edge.

MTW does have medium 26x26 and large 31x31 tile maps which are more suitable to 4v4 battles.

So far these STW campaign maps are done: Aki, Awaji, Bingo, Bizen, Bungo, Buzen, Chikugo, Harima, Kozuke, Yamashiro, Yamato.

I've posted the Samurai Wars_05b stat for STWmod, and there is a readme included.

For some reason my connection times out, from this PC, when I try to connect. I will try it from work.

The first STWmappack for STWmod is posted. There are 25 maps in it: Aki, Bungo, Buzen, Dewa, Etchu, Harima, Higo, Hitachi, Inaba, Kazusa, Kozuke, Mutsu, Nagato, Osumi, Sanuki, Suruga, Tajima, Tosa, Totomi, Yamashiro and Yamato, and these non-campaign maps: 4th Kawa, Dryriverbed, Nagashima and Horselands.

I've changed the link to STWmod to a better download location.

Hey, at what times would you go play?

Any place free (or make another campaign)?

I'm not that strong (yet), i hope that is okey with you?

~:eek: Bye!

useless post. . .

The campaign will consist of a team of players Drisos, so more than just 8 players can play. I have yet to formally see how many players are interested, but I have a list of players who will be asked first if they still want to play.

Have fun, and don't worry about how good your battle skills are, you will improve quickly with practice. :)

Thanx, i hope i can join!

~:cheers:

another . . .

Any news on this?

I have not received many who are interested in playing it AI vs AI, so I was waiting until the MTW STW mod maps were all converted and then use those as part of the campaign. I am still unsure of how many are REALLY interested in playing such a campaign.

This is the formal sign-up: Please send me an email at

el-marko@insightbb.com

Please include STW CAMPAIGN in the subject title of the email. Thanks

Once I receive emails from at least 8 players, we can begin. The clans I have asked have never replied to my invitations, so I am assuming we will be hard-pressed to find 8 players to play. Most players are turned off by the AI vs AI battles and want to fight the battles themselves, which will prolong the campaign by months.

why was Puzz3D talking about maps if it will be AI vs. AI??!!

elmarkofear, will you play one clan too? Why 8 clans(rebels too ~:confused: )

Did you get my email? I have a feeling it didn't send it.

Sasaki: I got Poali and his friends email, but none from you. Could you resend? el-marko@insightbb.com

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ElmarkOFear

Sasaki: I got Poali and his friends email, but none from you. Could you resend? el-marko@insightbb.com

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Resent, should work this time.

About half the campaign maps are done not counting castle maps. Krypta and I took a break from doing these for the last few weeks. We'll try to finish the rest of them. Castle maps are a problem until we solve a compatibility issue between the Japanese model pack and regular MTW/VI.

The Samurai Wars stat itself has gotten some fine tuning and plays better than ever, but we have dropped the kensai from multiplayer since it's so difficult to balance a single man unit.

I'd do it if I could take Usuegi. I'm hardly ever any other clan lol.

Puzz in ur sig, whats that mod to? I gota fix my pc then I'm installlnig stw and mtw and rtw again lol but I really feel like stw right now, what does that mod do.

I normally have someone play the Ronin & Rebel clans. Just in case someone attacks them or wants to hire them out. If you guys want, I could play them, as they are played in the SP campaign. So I would not attack, unless attacked, and then the rebels would continue the attack on the player until they are destroyed. Plus, anyone who is adjacent to one of the rebel groups, could hire them to make forays into their enemy's land as a distraction, so they could attack elsewhere.

So we really only need 7. The 8th person would only be playing as a non-winnable ronin or rebel faction.

As for using the other maps. I think it is best, until all the MTW maps are made, to fight the battles AI vs AI. I am not sure how to handle castle battles yet, since the AI is infamously horrible at fighting them. I may just use the province map for any battles, but allow the one being attacked to, instead of fight, place all or some of his men in the castle to hold it until he can bring reinforcements. :) Using a steady loss of units per turn, this would limit the number of turns a player could hold out given a certain castle size.

Minikiller, if you join( i'm on da list!) i won't mind you taking uesugi( i almost always take him too, but that's a good opportunity try out another clan)

no kensai = no problem i think if there would be any kensai, they would be there only in the latest part of the game and wouldn't play a big role.

i maybe would find it even better to play it all AI. vs. AI.( i'm not that good (yet), of course that will improve soon!

you could also play the rebels full attacking, hahaha ~D (they would problably win :evilgrin:) better to play as you said! ~;)
but, if you just play and build your army and don't attack, and your army would be huge after some time, at least if no one attacks you(that could happen, because attacking you would be a life of war with you, and you can't really destroy the rebels :dizzy2: )

castle's are neccesary(i won't storm them much, but maybe once and that would be a problem)

we could start when 7 players available the 8th isn't neccesary and it would only slow up starting the campaign!

do we have more players already? i've got a friend that will maybe join! ~:cool:

in the MP campaign- how will you get to the campaign? ( a link on the site or just with EA-play?) -with battles we'll have to set times to play them(if battles won't be AI vs AI)aren't we? -should we set a topic in sword dojo for chatting about the campaign, or is there possibillity for that in the game interface?

elmarkofear, i really like you(and puzz3d + others) doing this, it must be a lot of work and Togakure Ojonin(another member as you problably knew) said it is very rare that someone organises a MP campaign, i'm lucky to join in yours! :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

Thnks Drisos. Puzz, CBR, Tomi and everyone all started with STW and think it was the best of all the TW series. Since we don't care too much for RTW's gameplay, we have quite a bit of spare time on our hands, so this is how we fill in the gaps. hehe

Mini if nobody objects, you can play as the Uesegi clan. Let me know if you are interested. I am setting up an ezboard forum to discuss any questions you guys may have. I will post the link here when I complete it. I am also continuing to write and tinker with the rules, move/build form and such to make it as easy as possible for me to update and give you guys all the info you need to make your next moves.

Here is who has sent me emails:

1. ***** ***** - Is this you Drisos? You didn't include your forum name in the email. hehe
2. Paperino Paolino
3. Oskar - friend of Paolino
4. Sasaki Kojiro
5. Mini-Killer - ? (Let me know)

Anybody else interested, then please send an email to el-marko@insightbb.com

I would be very pleased to play the hojo in the campaign(if they aren't reserved yet). and: will we start in sengoku jidai or one of the three other starting positions, or will you make your own campaign?

haven't seen my friend yet, will try to contact him and make him join!

i don't have an ez-board account, tried once but failed. . HELP! :embarassed:


EVERYONE WHO SEES THIS : JOIN THIS MP CAMPAIGN! :whip:

Minikiller,

The STWmod is a full graphic conversion that adds a STW era to MTW/VI v2.01. It has a full SP campaign, but no original maps. The Samurai Wars is a stat designed to bring the gameplay as close as possible to original STW. The STWmaps are original STW map conversions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drisos

Ii tought sasaki was a moderator, he will certainely be a tough enemy! ~:eek:

... :whip:

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Lol ... Drisos, just be glad you don't have to face Sasaki on the battlefield. He can be MOST annoying ... imo, he's easily the best 1v1 of the STW new gen players. Don't know how good he is as a strategist ... quite a different ballgame, that.

Wish some of the old superheros would come back to face him--I'll bet he could take most if not all of of them in a best of 7. Hmm, don't know why I'm advertising for him ... he's beaten me so much and so bad that I actually get REALLY pissed!!! Gah--Mimesaka Akechi--GAH!!!!

aw man, Id be well up for playing this, unfortunately Im on 56k... Ive never even played Shogun online despite owning it as soon as it was released :(

edit: IN FACT, I bet that means I SUCK against real people!

Wilbo, it looks like we will be playing most of the battles AI vs AI, so if you are interested PM me with your email or send me an email and I will put you on the list. You don't even have to have the game installed to be able to play since all the movement, building etc. will be done thru email and the battles will be set up by me as AI vs AI.

We still need a few more players before we can start. So now would be a good time to enter.

toga, then it is indeed to our luck that battles are AI. vs. AI. ~D

else we would be slaughtered! :help: :help:

if he beats you(please tell me something about yourself, what skill?)he will problably beat me too(me = still not that good, but won my first fight at expert!)

wilbo, please join us (i'm not that good too! ~D )

looking foreward to tha campaign!

To answer and earlier question: The period will be segoku and each faction will start out with the units and provinces the SP game has. We just need a few more players and we can begin.

If everyone likes, they can choose their factions. If we have a conflict, we will have time to work out a satisfactory solution for all.

Its ok guys, EOF said it was ok so I am indeed joining in on the campaign :D

I don't mind which faction I play as: You cant choose the family (clan) you're born into ;)