Capitals Games

I hate adding things to the to do list at a time when I don't have free time to take things off the to do list but I read an interesting idea from nikeboix69 and felt that I should share.

The original idea was to force players to keep 10 troops on their cap but there are complications with that. So Glanru and I talked about the idea and elaborated on it.

The problem is that new players will weaken their cap too much or move all their troops off on the first turn because they don't know what a capital is or why you have to keep it strong.

The idea is to limit their ability to do this. Limiting what they can do with the troops on their capital on the first turn will eliminate 90% of the problem without creating new problems.

If a player attempts to make an attack on the first turn from a capital with 10 or fewer troops they will get an error message and the attack will not go through. The message would say:

Error: Attacks not allowed from a weak capital on the first turn.

If they are able to conquer a territory without getting the first message and they try to move too many their troops in they will get this error message:

Error: You cannot move in that many troops on the first turn; capitals must be well defended.

They will have to keep 10 troops on their capital. If they try to send in too many they will get the message and after it disappears the drop down list will refresh and only let them select the right amount of troops.

If they try to fortify too many troops off their capital on their final move they will get this message:

Error: You cannot fortify with that many troops on the first turn; capitals must be well defended.

In 2p games this would be disabled because there are many instances where you can clear out the area around your capital on the first turn and be well protected by neutrals.

On maps that have capitals in dead ends (Caribbean, house) you will still be able to move all your troops off your capital but not on the first turn.

Are there any problems with this idea that we didn't think of? Are there better ways to word the error messages? Is there a better solution to the problem?

I have seen thaithai take a whole region on his first turn...How about players under so many points not allowed to do that, or for that matter premium players can do what ever they want also.

i figger its simpler than that. i call it education via death.i meen really ...ya only gonna make that mistake once and either change your strategy or suffer from natural selection and keep dying.save your time for more important matters such as creating castle risk ...what ever happened to that anyways?

Lots of new players make that mistake multiple times - you really have to tell them, cause they dont know how it comes that they die and someone has all their territories.

I however see a problem with FOG games - there it can be a very good (but dangerous) strategy to just move off all troops from the capital if others cant see it...

i think it should only come up when the player has played less then 20 caps games or so? cuz once in awhile there is instance where we do move the troops from the cap but not leavening it unguarded. 

How about a message when the first time you wish to attack from or fortify from the cap that states: Are you sure you want to attack or fortify from your capital? If you lose your capital you will lose the game.

I like it! Or it stops, pauses the game and it goes to a link that explain what a dumb move it is...

It could also say...

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Hay! This is a very dumb move! LEARN HOW TO PLAY! "FOR THE LOVE OF DOMINATING12.COM", KEEP YOUR CAPITAL STRONG! Are you sure you want to make that move?

lol Thorpe!

about fog and instances where you it's smart to leave less troops on your capital. You could still do that. These error messages are for the first turn only. It just means you would have to wait for the second turn to do a move like that.

Glanru and I also talked about have a check box in the options tab to disable learning mode which would turn off these errors messages.

I disagree with killrick about education via death. It takes too long for them to figure out what's going on. Many of them quit the site out of frustration before figuring it out. Not to mention that they ruin a bunch of games. I'd rather they get properly educated on their first turn. I'm tired of getting requests to return points in games that players felt were unfair because a player was able to kill a new player who left his capital undefended. you say it's a waste of time and there are more important things to do but this is relatively simple to program and would save time and frustration. Programming Castle risk would be complicated and time consuming.

The idea is good, but it should not be errors but warnings I think. There are a lot of players that know what hey are doing, even in the first turn. A player should be able to do his move despite the warning and warnings also have to be able to be turned off (maybe with a minimum amount of points required for this).

I understand why you want to add this, but restricting a player in his moves is not a good idea.

i like the train of thought that crystal,thorpe and cireon are into.it just makes the most sence and for the love of d12 i like dumb moves sometimes.it confuses the outher players and BLAM!!! there all dead
all just for fun ya know

Or a lot of times you "BLAM>>> are DEAD killrick...hehehe...
@Cireon that is why I like my warning...I do not like, not being able to play the way I want.

I am not sure what it's better: warning or "error", but what I don't like it's that there would be diferences in the options in the first movements between noobies and most experient players. I think this would be unfair.

sounds like most of you would prefer an are you sure you want to do this button instead of a block. I'll rethink the wording of the message.

thx!