Survey on Civilization-like multiplayer/PBM games

From: innocnce@pip.dknet.dk (Innocence)

Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 00:00:00 +0000

I'm interrested in knowing if anyone knows of a Civilization clone
(strategic-evolutionary) game that is Played-By-eMail.

This article has been posted to
  1) comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic
  2) rec.games.pbm
for two reasons:

1) I know many of us Civ gamers are frustated over the limited
mulitplayer facilities that exist in this game. Even in Civ-Net, the
maximum number of players is 8, and it must be played on-line! And Civ
2 is totally without this possebility!

2) On the PBM scene I've played a little Stars! and tested some other
Galaxy-type games shortly, and I like the concept: Planning you move
(the order phase), and letting a cental site (server) carry out and
calculate the results of all players at once, makes the warfare a
little more "clean" in game terms, I think (when you're working at a
strategic level, not tactical).

What I'm looking for is some kind of combination of these two
"worlds". Does such a hybrid exist already? If it does, would you
classify it as GOOD?

We at the Board of Irresponsible People (non-commercial) have been
working on writing such a game, but we haven't figured out how to
"convert" the move-units-by-pressing-buttons way of Civ into a useful
plan-moves-and-mail way of the PBM games.

In short, the best from both worlds!

If done right, the Internet offers plenty possebilities of playing
large scale Civ clone games, without having to deal with large
phonebills and relying on a stable connection, when playing on-line.

I hope I'm not the only one who would like to participate in this kind
of recreation. It could be the coolest of it's kind on the net!

Comments, ideas and experiences are welcome! 0:)

__
Innocence 0:)
Board of Irresponsible People
innocnce@pip.dknet.dk
"Life is what happens to you, while you're busy doing other things."