OOC Thread and Chatroom

[Privateerkev]

Vivid detail is like hearing someone talk about your grandparents having sex.

wait a minute...

Exactly what part of TC taking control of the AI is like your grandparents having sex?!? o_O

[Privateerkev]

Bah, SS keeps CTD'ing for some reason.

I'll try to find a cleaning disk tomorrow in case it is the lens.

Regular TV show DVD's work fine. M2TW starts up. But SS, and another DVD game won't start.

I don't know if it's related to all the other crap people seem to be downloading lately by accident.

Anyone know of a good free anti-virus software that will both detect AND let me remove the offending invaders for free?

I have Ad-aware and Spybot but those do not seem up to the task. I run ZoneAlarm as well but it obviously isn't helping.

Bah...

Just wanted everyone to know. I will keep everyone updated.

Good thing I was planning on having Mak sit things out for awhile...

[Northnovas]

When is it crashing? There are some CTD issues with SS. It usually occurs in the AI turn trying to create an event that can't happen. If you check the log you will see what the AI was doing last and the event that was trying to occur. This is the only CTD bug I am aware of with SS.

[TheFlax]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but, could I join as an RGB as soon as it is possible? I've been talking to a few people about my idea for a character and I'm pretty much ready to play him.

[TinCow]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but, could I join as an RGB as soon as it is possible? I've been talking to a few people about my idea for a character and I'm pretty much ready to play him.

I'll spawn an avatar for you. What city would you like to start in?

[Ituralde]

4.3 – Army Replenishment: If a Private or Royal Army falls below the minimum strength level, all military recruitment must be allocated to restoring the Army to minimum strength before money can be spent on other recruitment, unless the owner agrees otherwise. In the event of a conflict, a Royal Army takes priority over a Private Army. This rule does not apply to armies involved in a Civil War.

So unless Ignoramus tells the Megas otherwise FLYdude can not recruit any military units until the army with Pavlos is up to strength? And from the way this has been handled in the Test Game this seems to be an OOC issue, where the Megas just can't do anyhting. Just like he can't move your avatar if you forbid it in the SoT.

Or is this a case of "all military recruitment should be allocated to restoring the Army" and it's up to the Senate to see that he does so?

That's the main point I'm talking about. And from what TinCow wrote earlier it seemed to me that some rules are not meant to be breakable.

In fact I don't even know whether all recruitung done by Overknight during his term went straight to the Royal Armies. My intention is not to point fingers at people or to get a nice army for myself. I just want these things to be clear now during the beginning of the game. I'd also like to know these things should I ever decide to try for the position of Megas.

Cheers!

Ituralde

[TinCow]

Ituralde is correct, the Royal Armies (and future Private Armies) should be topped up before any other recruitment occurs. On an IC level, this should be roleplayed as the Armies drawing in recruits for themselves, since their 'owners' are powerful men. The Megas can play it IC as supporting this if he wants, but if he opposes the Army's owner we can simply pretend that the recruitment is done by the Army owner directly. These are meant to be 'independent' military forces which assemble around powerful people. If the Megas really wants to send military recruits elsewhere before topping up a PA/RA, he should negotiate IC with the army's owner.

It is crucial that the PA/RA reinforcement rule be followed OOC, simply because the balance of power requires that the PA/RAs be maintained at a servicable level. If they are not, they lose their effectiveness and one of the main building blocks of power evaporates. That said, there is a lot going on in-game for the Megas player to keep track of. If your PA/RA needs to be topped up, it would be a good idea to inform that player about it OOC.

[Andres]

Forgive me my noobness, but

a) when is an army considered Private and when is it considered Royal?
b) are we allowed to recruit troops ourselves by putting them in the recruitment queue of our settlements in the SoT and are troops recruited as such in our own settlements considered to be part of our Private Army?
c) In the previous term, while Savvas was on his way to his Lord, I found out that a company of mercenary horse archers were with him, probably recruited by OverKnight. Are those now my private army or are they part of the Royal Army?
d) The troops under my command in Arta : are they my Private Army or my Royal Army.
e) Can I take the save and recruit mercenaries for my avatar?

Please forgive me if these are stupid questions that have been adressed before, but I couldn't find the answers to those questions in the FAQ thread

edit: another one: The rules say: "A player's next avatar may only inherit a single province and a single retinue." I take it that a Will in which I give Arta to my yet to be spawned next avatar is valid?
edit2: From the description of Comes : "Cannot lead more than a half stack army unless it is a Private Army, a Royal Army, or within the borders of a province they personally control." addendum to question a) : are there other armies then Royal/Private? If so, what are they?

[TheFlax]

I'll spawn an avatar for you. What city would you like to start in?

Smyrna, please.

[phonicsmonkey]

Anyone know of a good free anti-virus software that will both detect AND let me remove the offending invaders for free?

sorry to butt in here as a non-LotR player, but I've been running avast! for a couple of years now and I haven't had to use anything else since I installed it (I have uninstalled norton, spybot and ad-aware, just don't need them anymore)

it's freeware and you can get it here

[AussieGiant]

sorry to butt in here as a non-LotR player, but I've been running avast! for a couple of years now and I haven't had to use anything else since I installed it (I have uninstalled norton, spybot and ad-aware, just don't need them anymore)

it's freeware and you can get it here

All help is welcome phonicsmonkey. Butt in all you want.

[Rowan]

Weird, I can't access the forums from my home computer (it keeps timing out) but from work everything is ok. I suspect my ISP.

Now can somebody please enlighten me about these speed bump stacks as I cannot look at the save?
IC I don't want Bart to run away, OOC I'm a bit hesitant if the speed bump turns out to be rather terminal road block

[OverKnight]

There are four full stack rebel armies consisting of entry level troops near Zagreb, Belgrade, Bucharest and, most importantly for you, Antioch.

The rebel army near Antioch holds the bridge to the north of the city. If you followed KotR, it's the infamous Iron Bridge (Pons Ferrus), site of many battles. Good times.

Barring any developments, I think TC will move that army south to besiege Antioch. In a way this is very similar to the first Crusade, when the Crusaders took the city, but were then trapped within it by a relief army.

Hopefully the Order will find the Holy Lance.

[AussieGiant]

Weird, I can't access the forums from my home computer (it keeps timing out) but from work everything is ok. I suspect my ISP.

Now can somebody please enlighten me about these speed bump stacks as I cannot look at the save?
IC I don't want Bart to run away, OOC I'm a bit hesitant if the speed bump turns out to be rather terminal road block

As an ex-KotR player I would suggest discretion is the better part of valour. It's tempting to get stuck into the challenge but you all need to accept the consequences of those actions.

Rise to the challenge, free your province and the rewards and effect to you and your house are immediate.

Fail in the challenge, fight a battle but have to retreat, then accept the negative traits and the consequences in the game (i.e. Tax issues, etc etc), stay alive reform and attack again...OR, die and see that effect on you (obviously), your house and the Empire as a whole.

Assess your skills, look at the full stack (they are full stacks but of low quality troops), and make the right choice for you.

There's nothing like a few avatar deaths to raise the stakes a little and to make sure the rest of us realise that this game is meant to be a challenge. If it isn't, we will all lose interest quickly.

I would like to strongly suggest to you all, that if your avatar dies, please accept this and resist the temptation to replay. The game is designed for you to rejoin quickly and deaths create a realistic atmosphere for us to play in. If we "fudge" this we will lose a key aspect of the game.

Essentially TC's asking a question...one of many he will ask in the game in the form of these "Events".

Are you good enough? Win then adavnce, fail then start again or face the setback with a stiff upper lip and move on.

Apologies if I sound like a bit of a prat...or condescending. It's not my intention.

[OverKnight]

Ah, Ituralde, a forward retreat, no one saw that coming.

It's a bit risky, because we're dealing with TC's Diabolical Intelligence rather than the Artificial variety. Still, I salute you.

Edit: Also speaking as an ex-Megas, you're probably giving FLYdude a migraine.

[Privateerkev]

When is it crashing? There are some CTD issues with SS. It usually occurs in the AI turn trying to create an event that can't happen. If you check the log you will see what the AI was doing last and the event that was trying to occur. This is the only CTD bug I am aware of with SS.

It crashes right on start up. The "Kingdom of Heaven" backdrop comes up and the cursor turns to a spinning hourglass. But then it goes back to windows and informs me M2TW crashed. Vanilla M2TW starts up fine.

Because of the Senate session, I had not loaded up SS for days. And I have been only playing a CD game in the meantime, "Delta Force:BlackHawk Down." But last night I wanted something more relaxing so I put in "SimCity Societies", which is a DVD game, and it wouldn't start. Frustrated, I decided to test SS, while also looking at the new save, so I DL'd the save and tried SS. No luck. But I can play vanilla M2TW and episodes of "Rescue Me" just fine. My gf said it might be a dirty lens and I was too tired last night to get a cleaning disk so I'll do it today.

I planned on having Mak sit in Antioch until pneumonia went away so this isn't catastrophic. But it is annoying that I can't look at the save in the meantime.

sorry to butt in here as a non-LotR player, but I've been running avast! for a couple of years now and I haven't had to use anything else since I installed it (I have uninstalled norton, spybot and ad-aware, just don't need them anymore)

it's freeware and you can get it here

Thanks PM!

I'm at work now and will be AFK tonight but I will definitely try this.