Diplomacy Games

Interview with Kestas, the "Godfather" of online Diplomacy

Today we're going back, way back. 2004 and Kestas' creation of the code based that got WebDip, vDip, PlayDip and many more up and running. Plus a discussion on Bourse progress and the odd tangent or two.

Intro

• The guys discuss Anzac Day in Australia and their family connections to Australia’s military participation (0 mins 10 secs)
• Then it’s time to discuss their drinks and Caxton Street (6 mins 45 secs)

Interview with Kestas

• Kestas talks about playing the game and why he’s not the guy to talk strategy: rather he enjoyed building the adjudicator and forum. He discusses how the community slowly built up in the early days (16 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks about what issues arose during the early days of webDiplomacy (19 mins)
• Amby asks where the first PHP diplomacy instance went live (20 mins 50 secs)
• They discuss the rationale for why the code was made available as open source so others could download and share (22 mins 15 secs)
• Kestas talks about when he does play Diplomacy,  how the game filled an itch when he was at university and why he doesn’t like Turkey (23 mins 15 secs)
• Kestas gives a shout out to Alex who runs Italian Diplomacy (webDiplomacy.it), he goes onto discuss how he’s happy to be contacted by others wanting to create a new Dip server, particularly in a language other than English. He talks about the translation functionality that is used on webDiplomacy.it (25 mins 30 secs)
• He goes onto to discuss what it feels to have his code so widely used. Kaner asks about whether Kestas would change anything if he had the chance again (27 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks about how the adjudicator and code have been used for variants beyond Classic. He asks whether Kestas considered variants in the way the code was developed (31 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks whether Kestas has chatted much with admins from Diplomacy communities online beyond webDip (34 mins)
• Kestas discusses his recent work on the webDip forum (36 mins)
• He describes what he enjoyed most about the recent changes he’s made to webDip and the code (39 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks about how to best mitigate the use of hacks, and developing more cleaner code. Kestas gives a big hat tip for GitHub (41 mins 30 secs)
• Amby raises how some forum based Dip games use more than two units as the current code doesn’t support three or more unit types. He asks Kestas whether the code could be expanded to support more than two units (44 mins 30 secs)
• Then its Kestas’ ideas on how the code and forum could be improved further, including cross-server games (49 mins 30 secs)
• Kestas clarifies how the relationship currently works with PlayDip (53 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks about the old-days of webDip’s forum and how it evolved (54 mins 30 secs)
• Everyone goes off to get a new drink before Kestas asks the guys about where the podcast came from and Kaner & Amby’s involvement in the face to face scene (58 mins 30 secs)
• Kestas is asked about when he recognised the need to introduce moderators to the community and why multi-accounters do what they do (1 hr 1 min)
• Kaner asks about what happens when people offer to help (1 hr 6 mins)
• Amby asks how people can get in touch with Kestas to contribute further to the code (we won't put it here in the notes so bots don't spam Kestas!) They explore Kestas’ cultural heritage (1 hr 7 mins 30 secs)
• Wrapping up Kestas thanks the WebDip donors and mentions a new server upgrade is coming  (1 hr 9 mins 30 secs)

Thoughts on the interview

• The guys discuss what came out of the interview they were surprised to here (1 hr 12 mins 30 secs)
• They go onto discuss multi-accounters, gaming the system and opening the kimono (1 hr 14 mins 15 secs)
• Then they offer for anyone caught multi-accounting, or thinking of multi-accounting, what their motivations were so they can come on for an interview  (1 hr 20 mins)
• Next up is their discussion about having more than two units in Diplomacy variants - which would allow online New World Order, Dissolution and Nuclear Diplomacy. Amby then goes to town on possible unit types (1 hr 23 mins)
• They discuss the benefits of cross-platform tournaments (1 hr 31 mins 30 secs)

Bourse

• After a new round of drinks the guys move onto discuss growlers and chat Bourse (1 hr 32 mins 45 secs)
• Amby explains how he missed submitting his Bourse orders and how the strategy and value approach has totally changed compared to other Bourse games. They then talk shop about the game in progress (1 hr 34 mins 15 secs)

Wrapping up

• Amby experiences the same “tech team” family issues that Kaner recently experienced (1 hr 50 mins 40 secs)
• Amby then talks about his firepit and how he likes burning timber and cooking meat on the flame, before he gets distracted and starts talking about the film “Spies Like Us” and wrap up (1 hr 51 mins 45 secs)

Venue: Fitzenberger, Brisbane.

Drinks of choice:

Kaner - No Shoes Brews' Paradise Cit(rus)y - Saison/Farmhouse Ale from Brisbane, Queensland

Amby - Berg Rue Shiraz from Heathcote, Victoria

Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. Or if you want to help improve the audio equipment (or get us more drunk during episodes) you can donate too at Patreon. Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone!

Too many games

So many variants, so many games and too little time.

Intro

• The guys planned to keep the “Shit Cake” theme going from last episode by going to a cake shop bar called “Cakes and Shit”, but it wasn’t that good. Instead they’re recording from the APO (1 min)
• They discuss their drinks and announce the Diplomacy Games podcast, playDip, vDip and webDip have been featured in an article by Jason4747 in the Diplomacy World quarterly magazine (1 min 30 secs)
• They digress a little and talk about playing Diplomacy by snail mail (7 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner has decided he’s no longer playing games with phase periods of 24 hours and less and explains why (9 mins)

Around the grounds

• The guys slowly and informally segue into Around the grounds with Kaner discussing his Western Known World game. In addition to the problems with 24 hour phases he felt a little screwed on not being able to transform units, which Amby agrees particularly with Denmark’s opening position (10 mins 45 secs)
• They move onto discussing the new variants rapidly popped out by Enriador at vDiplomacy including Canton Diplomacy, 1913 and Renaissance 1453. They talk a little about these new variants and their thoughts on them (14 mins 10 secs)
• Then it’s onto the next variant Enriador is working on - Machiavelli (22 mins 20 secs)
• Amby then starts lamenting about how he’s involved in too many games (23 mins 30 secs)
• He discusses the War of Austrian Succession game he’s currently in that looks like its wrapping up.  This variant has been developed by Safari (25 mins 45 secs)
• Amby then goes onto lament his terrible opening in the 1812 Overture play-by-forum game at PlayDip, which is part of NoPunin10did’s team based Tournament of Time (28 mins 30 secs)
• He goes on to discuss the communication impact of being away camping and trying to keep up with 1812 discussions while away and how Slack is used to manage conversations (33 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner discusses the sunset from where they are, before Amby shows some of the sunset photos he took while away camping, including a special guest appearing (37 mins 40 secs)

Original photo the guys discuss: sunset at Lake Moogerah	After Kaner's comment, Amby shows him this pic from the Moogerah Passion Play

• The guys get back to Around the Grounds and discuss what happened with the cancelled Divided States game “United States of Insanity” (40 mins 15 secs)
• They discuss the retry of the game, although Kaner has been smarter by not overcommitting himself. Kaner then goes onto show he is crap at American geography pretty much east of the Rockies (44 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner discovers the player with Michigan has even less American geographic knowledge than him. Amby discusses a similar problem (51 mins 45 secs)
• Next it’s onto Kaner’s Divided States of ‘Murica game and how he’s going (52 mins 45 secs)
• Then its the guys’ gunboat Divided States game, Kaner complains everyone is ganging up on him and Amby talks about his new strategy that so far is working well (54 mins 30 secs)
• Amby gives an update as games master for the 1066 Tournament and a couple of complications he’s noticed (58 mins 30 secs)

• The guys move onto The Bowery and grab some new drinks - Kaner’s got a Bulimba Gold Top from Brisbane, Amby gives a couple of Australian beer stories and tries his Paxton MV organic shiraz rom the McLaren Vale, South Australia (1 hour 5 mins)
• Amby gives Kaner further US geography lessons before a Sesame Street throw back (1 hour 9 mins)
• Next up its Bourse time! (1 hour 11 mins)
• Kaner gives the analogy that organising Dip players to agree on how the Bourse will be run is like herding cats. Amby shares a video about herding cats before Kaner tells a cat story about Mrs Kaner (1 hr 13 mins)

• Amby thinks Kaner’s cat comments are part of a joke and starts delivering his own back log of jokes (1 hr 17 mins 45 secs)
• Back to Bourse for a bit (1 hr 19 mins 30 secs)

Amby’s new variant ideas

• Kaner drives Amby up the wall before they go around in circles before grabbing another drink (1 hr 28 mins 45 secs)
• They sort themselves out before Amby starts discussing his new variant ideas (1 hr 31 mins 30 secs)
• He starts by introducing how Mike Duncan’s Revolutions podcast series about the 1848 revolutions inspired him to consider an Italian variant based on Risorgimento (Italian unification) and how a well balanced variant could be created using the Renascimento map (1 hr 32 mins)
• Next up is Amby’s thoughts based on the Inward Empire podcast on a 1 vs 1 variant based on a slightly changed Divided States map based on the 1877 Great Strikes with a capital/establishment player vs a labor/working man’s player and how railways could criss cross continent. Kaner likes this variant idea and makes a good suggestion on the rail network (1 hr 35 mins 45 secs)
• Then its a 1 vs 1 “Operation Sealion” variant with Nazi Germany against the UK battling it out over Great Britain and the coastline around the North Sea and English Channel. They briefly discuss the concept of three unit types: armies, navies and airforce, before doing a bit of a prick tease about their upcoming interview (1 hr 41 mins 30 secs)
• Amby mentions all his other variant ideas backing up: Roman Crisis of the Third Century, Napoleon 1 vs 1 (France vs the Sixth Coalition), Ninjas vs Samurai, Ice Age, Global Warming and Two Tribes (1984 1 vs 1 Cold War) and introduces the idea of taking a step back from actually doing all the code. Kaner talks about his five player Solar System variant while making amusing gestures to describe how it’d work (1 hr 45 mins)
• Amby goes further into his plan to be more a creative ideas director and let other variant creators massage it a bit and bring it to life (1 hr 46 mins 15 secs)

Now the scene is set…

• Amby looks at what types of games players are in, and reflects maybe the guys should be spending more time on Classic Diplomacy games and strategy (1 hr 49 mins)
• They then suggest we go out to the Dip community on what works well for each of the seven countries during the opening, mid-game and end-game. Kaner argues with Amby about the Tyrolean/Alpine Chicken, before suggesting they go alphabetically and kick things off with Austria (1 hr 51 mins)
• Kaner gives a brief film review of “Ready Player One”. Kaner gives a shout out about Honest Trailers on Youtube (1 hr 55 mins)
• Amby discusses CaptainMeme’s Youtube video about the longest game of Diplomacy ever on his DiploStrat channel. It starts with a 9 minute video about this Pacifist Diplomacy themed game (1 hr 58 mins)

Patreon shoutouts!

• Both jason4747 and nopunin10did have both generously donated to the show using our Patreon account to help get better audio equipment you can donate too at Patreon and choose to donate for better audio gear or buying drinks! (1 hr 59 mins 30 secs)

The last couple of things

• 
• Kaner brings along a recent copy of Foreign Affairs magazine where the editorial references the game of Diplomacy with a comparison between a player CD’ing and current US foreign policy (2 hrs 3 mins 45 secs)
• Amby discusses a book by Desmond Seward called Metternich: the First European and raves about Chapter 7 which sounds like the way a Diplomacy player approaches the board (2 hrs 7 mins)

Venue: The APO and then the Bowery, Brisbane.

Drinks of choice:

Kaner - Peroni lager from Italy and Little Creature's Roger's amber ale from Western Australia and Bulimba Gold Top ale from Brisbane

Amby - The APO Shiraz from McLaren Vale in South Australia and Paxton MV organic shiraz from the McLaren Vale also

Thanks as always to Rock'n Dr Dan for the intro music!

Drinking, Diplomacy & sh*t cake

The guys keep the drinking going and Diplomacy chats rolling on Bourse, variant testing and a Conspiracy app update. Plus the odd history lesson from Amby and discussion on shit cake.

Intro

• Kaner discusses how CaptainMeme and a few webDip folks recently hosted a live vidcast of an online Dip game (0 mins 30 secs)
• They get around to introducing the Euro restaurant and their drinks. Amby gets a bit carried away with his wine and shares a story about his brother-in-law's bad drinking habits and how Mrs Amby's sister put in place a system to stop him drinking the expensive stuff (5 mins)

Diplomacy Chat

• They start discussing the upcoming Bourse game. Amby gives his thoughts on Sealanes games and why he's shit at them (13 mins)
• Amby shares another story, this time about shit cake (18 mins 45 secs)
• Then its back to Kaner's learnings from the last Bourse and how he's going to correct that for the new Bourse game (20 mins 45 secs)
• Amby discusses YCHTT's suggestion of a proper market driven by supply and demand for the Bourse and why he loves the idea (26 mins)
• The guys pop upstairs to the Laneway Bar to find no-one there. Instead they've walked a block further to the Port Office Hotel (33 mins 30 secs)
• Amby describes how on the way to the Port Office Hotel, he managed to give Kaner a history lesson about the former Queensland colonial naval dockyards (see photo.) Amby explains why he knows a heap of irrelevant shit due to an attempt to write an alternative history novel, and how the never completed novel was the inspiration for the Mate Against Mate variant (34 mins)
• A small impromptu "this week in Australian politics" segment (39 mins)
• The guys give a drinks update (41 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner asks about Amby's involvement in some test games at the Diplomail Lab including another Austrian Succession game. Amby describes how he adopted a different strategy which is working well (42 mins)
• Then its onto the test game of the Mongolian Empire variant - created by Kaner but being advanced by other developers now. They discuss the impact of the bubonic plague on the game where a rapid die-off of units happens at the end of the first game year's build phase. They talk about other historical aspects of the variant and really interesting elements of the game including city states, rivers/bridges, trade winds and silk roads, Himalayan passes and the Great Wall of China (49 mins 30 secs)
• After Kaner gets a tech support call from Mrs Kaner, the guys return to the Conspiracy app. Kaner talks about his first full press game ending up in a 4 way draw as Austria. He talks about side chat rooms and how they operate really easily. That said communicating can take a while with the amount of texting required. They discuss again getting the French app developers on the show (1 hr 2 mins)
• The guys start wrapping things up. They discuss whether people interested in donating to the show with Patreon would prefer better audio or more drunkedness (1 hr 8 mins 45 secs)

Venue: Euro Restaurant and then the Port Office Hotel, Brisbane.

Drinks of choice:
Kaner - Estrella lager from Barcelona, Spain and Little Creature's Roger's amber ale from Western Australia
Amby - Marcelo Pelleriti Sol fa Soul malbec from Mendoza, Argentina and SC Parnell tempranillo from the Adelaide Hills

And thanks as always to Dan Philip for his rockin' intro to the Diplomacy Games podcast.

Don't forget you can now donate to the show (for better audio or drunker episodes) by going to our Patreon page.

Interview with Technostar about "Divided States"

The guys interview Technostar, creator of the "Divided States" variant and discuss their in-game experience with it so far.

Intro

• The guys introduce the Buffalo Bar and how Australia doesn't do American bars or pretending to be America in movies very well (0 mins 10 secs)
• They set the scene about this episode focusing on the interview with Technostar and about Divided States  (5 mins)
• Amby apologises about the last episode's poor audio quality and they discuss plans for anyone dead keen to donate to the show using Patreon to improve the audio quality, before jesting whether some folks would prefer to donate to getting us more drunk! (6 mins)

Interview with Techostar, creator of "Divided States"

• Kaner starts giving a bit of an intro about the interview with Technostar (8 mins) 

• Amby welcomes Technostar and asks him about him getting into Diplomacy and what he likes most about the game (0 mins 25 secs)
• Amby asks about Technostar's gameplay philosophy (3 mins 50 secs)
• Kaner asks about Technostar's strong position in his WWIV sealanes game - World-Amazing (5 mins)
• Techostar explains how being at school helps him play a lot of games, but has the difficulty of his school blocking vDip! (6 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner asks about Technostar's love of larger maps and how that led him toward developing the Divided States variant and map. Technostar and Kaner discuss a WWIV game they're both playing in (8 mins)
• Kaner discusses the geography of the map and why Technostar arranged it that way (11 mins 30 secs)
• They go onto talk about the rapid speed that two games of Divided States filled up (that's 100 playing slots!) - they talk about the United States of Insanity game that they're all in (13 mins 45 secs)
• Amby asks about NMR's, while Technostar introduces how the build phases works for the starting phase if a player NMRs and their position isn't filled (15 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner discusses the coding and asks about the program used to create the map and whether Techno is insane for taking on a project of this magnitude. Techno touches on a "gotcha" about when creating the map files and how indexed mode works to ensure it can be run on php Diplomacy servers (18 mins 10 secs)
• Techo goes onto discussing how he had to cut down on the number of territories and how we redrew the map again to further improve the balance (20 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner asks Techno on his thoughts on the initial opening moves in the current games (22 mins 20 secs)
• Amby laments his bad start before discussing the mysteries of the Four Corner Alliance and Technostar's involvement in this as a player. He discusses the fear of large local players Texas and California and creating a block to prevent their growth (23 mins 15 secs)
• Amby discusses his ongoing stabbing relationship with Dr Recommended. Technostar talks about a similar challenging relationship he seems to have with Mr Finkelmeyer (28 mins)
• Kaner interjects, as an East Coast player (Connecticut), he discusses how he had no idea about the West Coast action going on and the Four Corners Alliance. Techno describes how he was inspired by some of the colors on the Monopoly board to inform his decisions on state colors (29 mins)
• Kaner asks about how Technostar ended up deciding on creating a Divided States variant and the inspirations behind: the 2016 election, alternate history and a Civilization V map he created (31 mins 40 secs)
• Amby asks about why Technostar didn't decide to start initially with a small variant map to see what he thought of variant development. Techno touches on New World Order being a bigger map than Divided States - a variant created by Tom Rheinecker - before they discuss the rule challenges behind that map that would make it impossibble to make web based without a very deep php skillset (33 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner asks Technostar on his advice for budding variant developers, including creating his own test server (36 mins 30 secs)
• Amby enquires if Technostar could turn back time would there be anything he'd change. Techno answers how he could've easily saved 3 months by doing something differently (39 mins)
• Kaner asks Techno his thoughts on Divided States moving to webDip or playDip (40 mins 40 secs)
• Next its on to Techno's views of variant developers using his map to create new variant versions. They go onto discuss a 1 vs 1 Red State vs Blue State civil war map and the challenges of setting orders for 100+ units each turn. Techno also talks about an idea he has on layering state names on top of the map or a compiled list of each territory abbreviation to its correct name (42 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks if Techo had more time and turned his attention to a new variant what he'd do. Techno discusses getting a better php knowledge and porting across New World Order (48 mins)
• Technostar mentions a fun fact about drawing a map location where he was staying during his summer vacation. Techno talks about how Amby's Mate Against Mate variant acted as a bit of an inspiration for Divided States and how he used its non-occupied SCs in the variant (49 mins)
• Kaner asks about the prospect of Fog of War on the map (54 mins)
• Technostar asks Kaner about whether a new Bourse game could happen soon. Kaner runs with the idea and decides to make it happen, possibly on a War War IV sealanes map (59 mins)
• They get back onto Divided States and bounce around a bit on the design considerations of the map (1 hour 8 mins)
• Techno lets loose with his views about American state flags, a few bugs that have been picked up and his hopeful career path (1 hour 14 mins 45 secs)

The guys return from the interview, but with all the editing and Amby's crap maths, we haven't worried about the timestamps for this next section. It goes about 30 mins. If you made it this far, power on!

• The guys discuss what they learnt from the interview. Kaner reflects that they're technologically incompetent compared to the kids these days. Amby loves the parallel between his school banning vDip and his work banning all Dip sites.
• Then its onto reflecting on Technostar giving his thumbs up to the map and code being available for anyone to repurpose and create new variant versions. They then discuss though the potential headache of a 1 vs 1 Divided States game with 100+ orders needed each turn
• The guys go onto talk about their experience to date in their Divided States games - Divided States of 'Murica and United States of Insanity before mentioning their Divided States gunboat game has just started
• Then Kaner and Amby become introspective about whether they are a bad influence
• Bourse 2018 - the great Bourse Challenge - is discussed by Kaner

Venue: Buffalo Bar, Brisbane.

Drinks of choice:

Kaner - Five Seeds Cider from some random location in Australia

Amby - Marty's Block Tempranillo  from the Margaret River, Western Australia

And thanks as always to Dan Philip for his rockin' intro to the Diplomacy Games podcast. And don't forget you can now donate to the show (better audio, or more drunk episodes) by going to our Patreon page.

Summer Diplomacy

The guys discuss the cool Android app "Conspiracy",  recent Diplomacy variants being tested and talk shop.

Intro

• The guys introduce the NEXT Hotel Pool Terrace and Bar, discuss the weather, Kaner's take on the book about the Trump administration in "Fire and Fury" and move onto their drinks (0 mins 10 secs)
• Amby talks about his first ever time as tournament director for the 1066 tournament at vDip. He then goes onto discuss how the tournament is being organized and his thoughts on having access to the Mods area  (5 mins 45 secs)

Around the Grounds and general Dip chat

• Kaner talks about how he's going in his WWIV Sea Lanes game (13 mins)
• They think the background noises might be too loud and decide to go to another bar - that being said when Amby edited the podcast... it sounded perfectly fine! They then address Dr Recommended latest recommendation for them to sing more often (15 mins 30 secs)
• The guys move to Ryan's on the Park as the Irish Murphy's Bar had really bad acoustics. Amby talks semantics about what a "hotel" is in Australia (17 mins 50 secs) 
• The guys talk about their second lot of drinks and chat about their Christmas day (21 mins)
• Amby opens his Around the Grounds on his Pirates game. A player is dangerously close to soloing in this winner take all game. He discusses how the game is going  (24 mins)
• Next up is the Tournament of Time over at PlayDip. Amby goes onto discuss how this tournament is working and the current Ambition and Empire game and its use of the collaboration platform Slack to manage messaging. Amby's team member (Big Joe) is playing for the team as Denmark-Norway (29 mins)
• Kaner then discusses the free Android app "Conspiracy" which is pretty much Diplomacy for your smart phone. The guys give it a big wrap but also talk about how it could be improved particularly around the issues of community and people NMRing and CDing. Here's some screen shots from Kaner's game interface (32 mins)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• The guys talk about whether they should run some donation option for the podcast before some more drinks and belated tasting notes (52 mins)
• Amby discusses his now completed test game of "Punic Wars" at the Diplomail Lab playing as the Greeks. He discusses while he won, it was an incredibly challenging map and reflects on the knife-fighting game play of the Russian players (55 mins)
• Then he goes into discuss his role in the War of Austrian Succession play test also at the Diplomail Lab. Amby is playing as Piedmont-Sardinia and is also enjoying this map and variant. It follows pretty much standard Dip rules but in the first year players are limited in the number of armies they have even though they have more SCs that can support more units. That said if they retain their starting SCs they can build in the second year. Its got some wacky borders too. Amby discusses the "Borders" book Kaner gave him at Christmas (59 mins)
• Next its onto the Western World 901 variant being tested in the Diplomail Lab. Its based on the map by David E Cohen but is focused around Europe, north Africa and the north west bits of the Middle East. None of the guys are in this test game but they talk about the variant anyway before a second hat tip to Dr Recommended's singing suggestion, before a tangent about the new Star Wars movie before degenerating into an argument about Leia (1 hour 8 mins)
• Kaner asks Amby about how his variant development plan are going (1 hour 17 mins)
• Kaner gets very excited at the prospect of "Divided States" being released (1 hour 20 mins)
• After a brain lapse from Kaner he discusses the prospect of an American Civil War/Mexico variant on the Conspiracy app. Amby suggests perhaps it will be the Fall of the American Empire variant (1 hr 28 mins)
• The guys give a shout out to cjuric for his awesome review of the podcast at iTunes. They strongly encourage you to pop over to iTunes and give it 5 stars (1 hr 30 mins)

 

Venue: NEXT Hotel Pool Terrace and Bar, Brisbane followed by Ryan's on the Park

Drinks of choice:

Kaner - Mountain Goat Ale from Richmond, Victoria and the Little Creatures "Roger's" Pale Ale from Western Australia

Amby - Cape Mentelle Marmaduke shiraz  from the Margaret River, Western Australia and the Shottesbrooke grenache, shiraz and mourvedre (GSM) from McLaren Vale in South Australia

And thanks as always to Dan Philip for his rockin' intro to the Diplomacy Games podcast.

A Very Diplomacy Christmas

It's Christmas time! The guys exchange Diplomacy related presents, talk variants in development, the Kaner & Amby Book Club and the Colonial 1885 variant.

Intro

• The guys introduce the Osbourne Hotel in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley and their drinks  (0 mins 05 secs)
• Amby explains the last podcast was late due to work business and then going on holiday. The guys then discuss their planned holidays including Amby's trip late 2018 to North America (2 mins 50 secs)
• Kaner discusses how the mobile interface is now starting to get rolled out to webDip. Amby talks about the different nature of the forums across vDip webDip and playDip (7 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner also talks about zultar's prize giveaway for Christmas at webDip (9 mins 10 secs)
• Amby and Kaner give an update on the new variants in development, starting with the massive 50 player Divided States variant (11 mins)
• Amby then shows Kaner the beta test game of Punic Wars over at the Diplomail Lab he's playing. The guys then discuss their thoughts on the variant (14 mins 30 secs)
• Then its onto the early work being done on the Reconquista variant where the Spanish attempt to reconquer the Muslim territories of the Iberian Peninsula. This is being worked on by CCR and Benjamin Hester. Kaner compares the Variant Bank crappy map to the latest map currently in development. They then discuss the mathematics of balance in variants (19 mins 55 secs)
• Then its onto Napoleonic 1 vs 1 (France against the Sixth Coalition - Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia & Sweden), the Ottomans weren't involved but will be on the map with standing neutral armies. Amby announces he's actually developing this variant after a long break from variant development using the great work done originally by Firehawk. Amby says he hasn't worked out yet whether it should be based on players choosing the units to build, or whether he sets the units and their location (27 min 50 secs)
• Amby then says he's exploring the coding aspects of what is needed to create the variant Sengoku: Ninjas vs Samurai (36 mins 55 secs)

Around the Grounds

• The guys on to discuss how players are approaching things with whether to build clippers or frigates in Pirates. Amby discusses what's been happening so far in this anonymous game called "Pirate's Life". He flags there seems to be some technical glitch with some moves (40 mins)
• Then its back to more alcohol talk about making wine and brewing beer and how expensive alcohol is getting in Australia (44 mins)
• Kaner then talks around a variant concept originating a long while ago from Oli about a Randomly generated map (48 mins)
• Amby reflects on the mess on the Pirates map where many players are moving in relatively small territories, often making it hard to read. He then makes some excuses why he won't be changing it though (50 mins)
• Amby then discusses the now finished 1066 game he played against Oli and Tadar es Darden, won by Tadar. Amby flags how the game could have gone either way but experienced technical problems in trying to convey the message to extend the turn. Kaner makes a suggestion which Amby should've done (52 mins)
• Kaner then discusses his WWIV game that has now started and asks abut the strategy of holding back builds (55 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner then talks about his camping plans (1 hour 5 mins 30 secs)

Variant review: Colonial 1885

• The guys discuss Amby's recent drawn 1885 game. He played this anon WTA game as Italy and did well enough to be part of the draw. He talks about his allies throughout the game and his approach to get to the end game (1 hr 6 mins 30 secs)
• Amby then goes onto discuss the variant itself and his thoughts about it, particularly how Britain can do very well in this variant although he was eliminated in this game (1 hr 12 mins 20 secs)
• Amby gives Kaner a history lesson about German New Guinea (1 hr 15 mins)

Christmas, Kaner & Amby's Book Club and other Dip stuff

• Amby is taking on the role of tournament director for a 9 player 1066 tournament (1 hr 19 mins)
• The guys exchange Diplomacy related Christmas presents including many evil laughs from Kaner (1 hr 22 mins 30 secs)
• Amby brings up the Year in Review - by playing a little game with Kaner on who are the top 10 countries downloading the podcast. Warning: bad accent attempts and a very surprising number 10! (1 hr 30 mins)
• The guys then discuss the books they've read this year that have a Diplomacy connection. Kaner suggests "Borders: A Very Short Introduction" and "The Origins of Political Order". Amby discusses "Theodore Rex",  "Musashi" and "Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations". He goes onto to say he plans to read "Guns, Germs & Steel" next year. Kaner recommends "Collapse" by the same author (Jarred Diamond). They also mention "Sapiens" and "Cro-Magnon" (1 hr 37 mins)
• All this stone age discussion gets the guys thinking about the possibility of a Stone Age variant (1 hr 51 mins)

Venue: Osbourne Hotel, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner - Boston Lager "presumably from Boston" according to Kaner

Amby - Some Young Punks "Naked on Rollerskates" Shiraz Matro from the Clare Valley, South Australia and The Stag "St Hubert's" Shiraz from the Yarra Valley, Victoria

 

Don't forget to give the podcast a great rating on iTunes or Stitcher, it'll help get the message out about Diplomacy.

And thanks as always to Dan Philip for his rockin' intro to the Diplomacy Games podcast.

Diplomacy Chats & Boozy Rants

The guys get into some serious Diplomacy chats and boozy rants covering new variants, Dip news on the web, current games (including a special guest!) & mouth off about a range of Dip topics.

Intro

• The guys introduce Riverland - a bar based around shipping containers - and their excellent view before describing their drinks (0 mins 05 secs)

• We have received feedback that the last podcast was a bit too quiet. Amby apologies and also mentions that things have been busy for Kaner which has caused a bit of a gap between podcasts (2 mins 30 secs)
• The guys discuss the new mobile interface at vDip and discuss plans for it to be rolled out on webDip (5 mins)
• They go onto discuss how vDip players can now also change the look and feel of the site from the old world feel of vDip and the webDip look (8 mins 15 secs)
• Next up they discuss new and revived variants. Amby describes how we was keen to play Imperium, a variant based on the barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire, but it had been taken down due to bugs. And then out of nowhere, Oli fixed it! Kaner describes how the River rule works and how some of the coding changes to Pirates flowed onto Imperium. All players begin with no supply centres and need to grab the available Roman SCs. Amby discusses the challenges of this variant if you were playing gunboat. Amby then rides his historical hobby horse on whether the Eastern Roman Empire should have been included in the variant.  (9 mins 30 secs)
• On top of this a revised version of Sengoku called Sengoku: Nagashino, created by Benjamin Hester. The variant goes from 8 players to 5, and has a new set of rules around the coastal areas regarding convoying (15 mins 30 secs)
• Then they discuss how Flame in the Diplomail Lab is developing a 4 player Punic Wars variant based around the central Mediterranean during the classical period. Some folks have commented that the game play is a little similar to Sail Ho II. Amby goes on another pathetic historical bent around the geography of the map. Amby gives another shout out to the History of Rome podcast (21 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner discusses how Reddit is show casing WebDip which is a great way of getting more folks aware of the game and playing it online (25 mins)
• Amby also mentions how Lifehacker had a story about Diplomacy (although it was more board related) (29 mins)
• Amby also discusses a series of Diplomacy blog posts by Edwin Turnage which are very insightful  (30 mins 30 secs)
• The guys talk a bit more about cider and the podcast intro music (33 mins)

Around the Grounds

• Kaner is just in one game at the moment, a WWIV sea lanes game using rulebook press. Kaner teaches Amby about what rulebook press means. Kaner gives a run down of the players, with a number of newbies around him where he's playing as Japan (35 mins)
• Kaner then goes on to discuss his recently finished Known World 901 Tourney game 6 where ended in a draw as Turan. Kaner is frustrated about the stalemate line being broken at the end of the game and discusses a decision made by mouse as Wagadu that he wasn't happy about. Basically the issue related to throwing a game to better position yourself more broadly in the tournament scores. The guys give their general perspectives on the tournament  (39 mins 30 secs)
• Amby is in 5 games at the moment. He talks about the anonymous Pirates game he's in with the rule change for clipper retreats working well with no glitches (52 mins 30 secs)
• He's also in Known World games 7 and 8 but is on a slippery slope in both. He admits he NMRed in these games and how it impacts badly on your strategy (55 mins)
• Amby then reflects on all 5 games he's in are anonymous, and ponders the advantages and disadvantages of playing anonymously. Kaner discusses how some players can still identify who players are based on the way they play, write and other traits. Kaner accuses Amby of double standards (57 mins 30 secs)
• Next up is Amby's recently finished game Napoleonic communication skills where he played as Spain and scored a draw. Amby gives a blow by blow account of the game from his perspective and how a strong Russia (played by LovelyPinkEgg) was prevented from winning a solo with a cessation of hostilities with Britain (played by slypups) and how Mr. Finkelmuiyer was a great ally in Italy (1 hour 2 mins 30 secs)
• Finally Amby talks about the 1066 game Welcome back Tadar. Tadar Es Darden was the co-creator of 1066 with Amby and dropped off the vDip radar many years ago. Well he's now back and is playing this game with Amby and one other player: vDip's very own admin, Oli. This is in fact only the 2nd game Oli has played on the site (the other being when 1066 was launched in 2011) (1 hour 9 mins)
• Kaner announces that gopher is now a Mod at vDip. The guys discuss having him on for an interview and reflect on the lack of recent interviews (1 hr 14 mins 40 secs)
• The guys share a couple of jokes (1 hr 20 mins)

Online Diplomacy Pet Peeves

• We've already discussed Kaner's pet peeve, so Amby talks about in the Pirates game he's in. A player CD'ed and held no supply centres, but during the build phase a new player bought in, even though it meant guaranteed elimination. They talk about why a player would do this and as a result whether this is a ethical practice. Kaner explains that it may not have the benefit the new player hoped for (1 hr 29 mins 15 secs)
• Amby talks about the original intent of this segment and how the feedback from players don't require an admin's perspective (1 hr 36 mins 30 secs)
• They next discuss the pet peeve of players getting angry with you when you stab, but get onto the stab wagon issue (1 hr 37 mins 40 secs)
• Amby asks Kaner whether a Mod could do some analysis around the behavior of new players and their drop out rates. That way if there's a high drop out rate perhaps they need more education up front about the stabbing nature of the game and what to be prepared for. Kaner suggests perhaps a basic welcome guide. Amby suggests some user centered design, getting feedback from new players about their experience and what they in retrospect would like to have known before playing a game. He goes on to suggest as new players need to provide an email address, perhaps an email auto-responder could send them some info to prepare for games and the community  (1 hr 46 mins 30 secs)
• The guys discuss their own thoughts on the "sense of joy" of stabbing players before wrapping things up (1 hr 53 mins 30 secs)

Venue: Riverland, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner - Hills Creek Cider from the Adelaide Hills, South Australia

Amby - Kurtz Family Vineyard "Seven Sleepers Shiraz" from the Barossa Valley, South Australia

If you have any suggestions on what you'd like to see covered in an upcoming podcast, or something you'd like to see regularly covered, please contact us or leave your thoughts in the comments below. Also, if you know how to help boost up the audio levels please contact the guys through DiplomacyGames.com.

Thanks to Dan Philip for his rockin' intro to the Diplomacy Games podcast.

Wild Ride Diplomacy talk

 

 

The guys go to another fancy pants drinking joint and jump from one Dip topic to another. Get ready for a wild ride talking rule changes to the Pirates variant and other variant development, around the grounds, the Viking variant and surrendering.

Intro

• The guys introduce the Cloakroom bar, while the bartender joins them to serve orders in the JFK Room and educate the guys on glasses. This is the first time Kaner grabbed a glass of red instead of beer or cider. Plus they get a mouth cleanser rosé with ouzo spritzer and chilled towels! (0 mins 30 secs)
• Oli at vDip has delivered on the money fixing a major problem in the Pirates variant Amby created. He then gives a quick overview of the dynamics of the game and Oli's coding change. As discussed in the podcast there are two types of units: frigates that move normally but attack with double strength and clippers that have normal attacking strength but can move two places. The change relates to a retreating clipper that now will retreat only 1 space, not 2 spaces, which all too often resulting in dislodged units retreating easily behind an enemies' lines (4 mins 30 secs)
• With that retreating rule, it means the same can now be implemented in Chaoctopi and Germany 1648. It will also allow Amby's Ninjas vs Samurai 1-on-1 variant (8 mins)
• Western Known World 901 map is currently in development at the Diplomail Lab. Its similar to half the usual KW901 map but with some other changes (10 mins 15 secs)
• After another cheers they move onto talk about Napoleonic variant being live and the Sengoku version 2 progressing along well (11 mins 30 secs)
• Amby talks about his ideas about having a 1066 tournament and asks Kaner's thoughts (13 mins)

Around the grounds

• The guys each talk about their dismal performance in their respective games trying out the new Balkans 1860 variant. You can see their dismal performances at: Kaner's game and Amby's game (17 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner gives a shout out to cjurick (sorry Amby may have written that down wrong - let us know!) after he got in touch saying he regularly listens to the podcast and enjoys it (19 mins 30 secs)
• Amby clarifies he in fact is not playing in round 3 of the Online Diplomacy Championship due to serial NMRing (21 mins 40 secs)
• He then goes onto discuss the Dissolution game he got eliminated in at PlayDip and how despite being removed from the board he, and other eliminated players could still allocate favor votes for the non-playing nuclear players. Amby talks about his sharing the love strategy (22 mins 15 secs)
• Amby mentions how the 1898 variant being put together by Flame at the Diplomail Lab follows a similar approach to the Age of Empires rule over at PlayDip (25 mins 40 secs)
• Kaner then asks about Amby's poor performance in the WWIV Furnance of Affliction game (26 mins 30 secs)
• Amby flags an anon game he's in where a number of players are wanting a draw, it appears to be stalemated but another player is holding out. He asks Kaner about the process for how things like this get resolved. Amby also discusses examples in the past where he's played games where a player has held out as part of a strategy, where a bigger player in a gunboat is holding out hoping the other bigger players pick up the message to kill off the smaller players so they could share in a draw with the big players getting a bigger share of the pot (30 mins 15 secs)

The Viking Diplomacy variant + Online Pet Peeves

• Kaner starts talking about a Viking game he recently won, but discusses how he was driven up the wall by a player who appeared to have given up and was just putting hold orders in (not even self supporting) but would come back in put in retreat and disband orders. This is similar to a Pet Peeve submitted by Traumatizer to the forum thread. Kaner throws in some #BadSportsmanship rants (35 mins 20 secs)
• Amby talks about how Kaner brought the Viking Diplomacy variant to the community 3 or 4 years ago. They discuss the map and how you can convoy armies down rivers using code hacks. It also includes interesting twists with self-supporting neutral armies in a couple of strategic places on the board. Plus the balance between players is excellent and player positioning makes things really challenging. Kaner gives Amby a language and geography lesson (41 mins 40 secs)
• Due to a segue point Amby asks Kaner if anything is happening with the Mongolian Diplomacy variant at the Diplomail Lab. Kaner says Tristan is currently doing work on it which he's more than happy to have happen (49 mins)
• Amby convinces Kaner to sign up to the Pirates game (52 mins 30 secs)
• The good folks at the Cloakroom misunderstood Amby's visual cue for two more red wines, and thought he meant two more folks arrived. So the guys got more cool towels, more Rose and Ouzo spritzer and then their reds (53 mins 40 secs)

Surrender option?

• The guys got an email through the website from Bosch Dewalt about the idea of a Surrender button. Amby initially thought the Concede button achieves this, but the concept of how a Surrender function may work better if you don't want to play anymore and it automatically puts your units into hold (55 mins 20 secs)
• They go onto discuss how the downside of this would be players could protect their NMR rating but this could be a bad thing. Players may want a game where other players are of a high calibre and won't throw a game. Having "surrender" could ruin this, unless it was part of the mix when creating a game on reliability ratings: maybe a half penalty or another method? (59 mins 45 secs)
• The guys agree its got merit, although Amby and Kaner say they probably wouldn't click it for their own different reasons (1 hr 1 mins)

Other stuff

• They segue onto a discussion about Diplomacy based publications with Kaner saying he owns a copy of "The Game of Diplomacy" by Richard Sharp and a board games novelette from Playboy which featured Diplomacy (1 hr 3 mins... they talk about it again 5 mins later too when Kaner says you can find it on the internet in PDF)
• Mrs Kaner segue discussion (1 hr 5 mins)
• Amby is trying to line up an interview with Oli from vDip, so if you're a vDipper get in touch so we can put your question ideas in the mix (1 hr 6 mins 20 secs)

 

Venue: The Cloakroom Bar, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner & Amby - Rosé and Ouzo spritzer, followed by the The Other Wine Company grenache from McLaren Vale, South Australia

If you have any suggestions on what you'd like to see covered in an upcoming podcast, or something you'd like to see regularly covered, please contact us or leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks to Dan Philip for his rockin' intro to the Diplomacy Games podcast.

The new Dip variant Renaissance

A new Diplomacy variant Renaissance dawns! The guys talk about all the new variants coming down the pipeline at vDip, "Balkans 1860", wrap up the recent massive Bourse game and talk Online Dip Pet Peeves about metagaming.

The new Dip variant Renaissance!

• BIg news at vDip with variant development ramping up.  The guys declare a new Renaissance while Kaner reflects on many vDip players probably never on the site when it was pumping variants out every week or two (3 mins)
• Oli is updating the code base at vDip and is in contact with nopunin10did about bringing the 1900 variant across. Kaner then goes on to say that following the Balkans variant release, the Napoleonic variant is next to come to vDip. How fucking awesome! (4 mins)
• Amby gives his take on a slight tweak to the Napoleonic variant at the greatest extent of Napoleon's reach. Amby reflects it would be very unbalanced but would be historically correct. The guys then go on to discuss whether you could do it as a 1 v 1 game with France vs the Sixth Coalition. Kaner then goes on to discuss how much even better the map would be if it included Egypt and northern Africa. Amby then gives Kaner a history lesson on why Napoleon invaded Egypt. Kaner then educates Amby about the Mamluks... don't worry they get back to Diplomacy eventually! (7 mins)
• Then its onto more variants coming down the pipeline! Kaner delves into Flame's Lab at Diplomail about the variant Classic Home Retreats. This is a really clever sounding variant. If dislodged you can only retreat backwards, not forwards.  (12 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner attempts to break news on two variants which Amby quickly puts in him in his place on the Classic Calhamer Prototype/Realpolitik and a tweak to Pirates (15 mins 15 secs)
• After a quick battery change Kaner goes on to quickly touch on the Troy variant... but doesn't know much about it. He mentions quickly a Westeros variant at Diplomail's Lab, but flags Oli in the past has shied away from any variants that could be seen as breaching intellectual property ownership. Kaner then goes on to explain how code snippets developed and tested at the Diplomail Lab can then be ported across to vDip (20 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner also discusses how people can create their own Lab's to develop and test variants before porting them across to other sites like vDip (22 mins)
• The guys then discuss even more variants in development, starting with Michael B's "World at War" variant set in WW2. Check out the draft map at Imgur (24 mins 45 secs)
• They then go on to talk about Technostar's "Divided States" variant, a 50 player game where everyone is an American state after the US has fallen apart. It is a truly mind blowing map. Amby discusses how Canada and Mexico have also collapsed in this variant, but with neutral standing armies to prevent states bordering these countries growing too quickly. The variant comes with unit transform options to allow players to better move around, in addition to sea lanes (27 mins 30 secs)
• The guys move on a little, with Amby discussing his tournament progress, while Kaner advises he's pulling out of the Known World tournament (34 mins 30 secs)
• Amby's brain starts arguing with itself (36 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner then goes on to talk about games he's since signed up for (37 mins)
• Then its back again to yet another variant in development, a 4 player game called the "Corsican Revolution" by Vauban (38 mins)
• And before we know it, a revised Sengoku variant is on the books from Benjamin Hester. Amby thinks this is great, plus it'll make it so much easier for his "Ninjas vs Samurai" variant (40 mins)

Balkans 1860

• This brand new variant by Benjamin Hester (he's also done the original Sengoku and Dark Ages), is a 7 player game set in the Balkan region of Europe. Amby tries remembering his Balkan history after a question from Kaner. Both of the guys have signed up for games of Balkans with Kaner in a gunboat game and Amby in a normal full press game (42 mins 45 secs)
• In approaching a brand new map, the guys talk about their early strategy approaching this variant (45 mins)
• Kaner and Amby disagree with each other on the nature of corner players on this new map (46 mins 30 secs)
• The guys pick on Captainmeme before grabbing another drink (50 mins 45 secs)

Amby's proposed variant: The Crisis of the Third Century

• Amby kicks things off with a flashback to his earlier idea about a Roman Empire based on the Tetrachy (in the 300's), but reflects in retrospect that it probably wouldn't allow for good conflict between players on the far west and far east (51 mins 30 secs)
• Amby gives a shout out to the podcast "The History of Rome" where he got the idea about instead looking at the mid 200's, where for 50 years there was a period of great instability with generals declaring themselves emperor (around Britain, Germany, the Danube and Syria), the Senate anointing emperors, the Praetorian guard controlling emperor appointments at various stages, barbarians attacking from beyond Rhine, beyond the Danube and the Picts and also the Sassanid Persians attacking too (53 mins 30 secs)
• Clearing things up for Kaner, Amby explains how he's trying to get gameplay balance and history right, with the Senate and the Emperor/Praetorian guard having units dispersed the empire. Kaner gives his take (again) on how he'd like to do it (1 hr)
• Amby then goes on to describe the non-playing player for the variant: the Plague of Cyprian, which wipes out a random territory each game turn (1 hr 5 mins 30 secs)

 

The Bourse is over!

• The Bourse game is at last over after almost a year with a joint win between RUFFHAUS8 and bozo. Amby ended up finishing fifth. Check out their end of game statements (scroll to the bottom of the page and onto the next page), particularly Captainmeme's extensive breakdown of the thoughts of a Diplomacy player (1 hr 11 mins)
• With it now finished Kaner discusses the idea of a School of Bourse (1 hr 12 mins 30 secs)

Furnice of Affliction WWIV game

• The guys are in the same WWIV game and discuss how its going for them, including the "invading assholes" all around Kaner (1 hr 17 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner tries provoking Amby on his gameplay. After a while Amby goes on to discuss how he changed his strategy for this game compared to his normal gameplay... not attacking anyone (1 hr 21 mins)
• Amby discusses how he decided to stab Kongo, which really didn't work out (1 hr 28 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner talks about his safe refuge plan (1 hr 32 mins)

Online Dip Pet Peeves: Metagaming

• Last episode we discussed NMRing and posted across vDip, webDip and playDip about players' pet peeves (1 hr 35 mins)
• Amby forgot about getting the admins views on the issue, so we're not getting their take. But its ok as we don't really need their input on this one: Metagaming.  We touched on this in Episode 16. Kaner gives a quick run through for listeners about metagaming (1 hr 35 mins 30 secs)
• The guys talk about ways to try to reduce the risk of metagaming before Kaner talks about his blocked player list (1 hr 41 mins)
• Thanks to Benjamin Hester, GhostEcho and Warsmith for suggesting this topic and for their comments (1 hr 44 mins)

Other stuff

• Amby flags how they received an email - but lost it - suggesting they cover off some of the Diplomacy aps on the internet (1 hr 45 mins)
• Kaner does a shout out about getting different points of view on the podcast for folks interested in being interviewed on the show (1 hr 48 mins 30 secs)
• Amby thanks AWanderingMoose for their first iTunes review and rating. Don't forget if you're enjoying the podcast please hop onto iTunes and give us a rating and a review so we can get the Diplomacy message out (1 hr 50 mins 30 secs)

Venue: Newstead Brewery, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner - Newstead "Out and a Bout" Pale Ale from Queensland
Amby - NBCo cabernet sauvignon from Victoria

If you have any suggestions on what you'd like to see covered in an upcoming podcast, or something you'd like to see regularly covered, please contact us or leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks to Dan Philip for his rockin' intro to the Diplomacy Games podcast.

How to develop a variant, interview with Captainmeme & Rat Wars

The guys discuss how to develop a variant, introduce the new segment: online Diplomacy pet peeves and talk NMR's, interview Captainmeme: a player across vDip, webDip and PlayDip and talk about the Rat Wars variant. Phew! What a bumper episode!

Intro

• The guys go ga-ga over the classiness of the speak-easy bar they're recording in today: Saville Row. Amby is in ecstasy with his glass of wine as they discuss it's a year since our first episode (15 secs)

How do you develop a variant?

• Kaner starts discussing recent questions in the forums from MichaelB and Vauban about how do you create a Diplomacy variant (4 mins 15 secs)
• MichaleB is looking at creating a global World War 2 variant. Kaner discusses at the time of recording he wasn't sure about starting positions and as a result getting the right balance vs historical accuracy (5 mins 30 secs)
• Amby suggests the timeline of WW2 in best achieving historical accuracy and player balance would be around the time of maximum extent of the Axis powers, or just before it. Kaner also suggests depending on the positioning of sea territories around America you could slow down their engagement in the war (6 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner discusses how do you take an awesome map and prepare it for coding. A long time ago KingAtom who created Habelya posted on forum.webdiplomacy.net about what you need to do for map names, and color coding territories to upload them into a php Lab (10 mins)
• After this you need to do some work in a Diplomacy Lab using its tools to identify where each territory is (which connections that location to the color of the territory), assign whether the territories are land, sea or coast, and create connections between territories. Provided you're following standard Dip rules this is a pretty straight forward process. Its only with special rules that you need a developer. Depending on the complexity you can either  (14 mins 30 secs)
• Amby discusses how he really would love to see Versailles brought to vDip. We've discussed how awesome this variant is in other episodes. Having it implemented with its special rules for controlling two countries would be really handy if that code is re-used in other variants (18 mins)
• Kaner discusses good variant development resources at Dip Pouch, Diplomatic Core and the Diplomacy Variant Bank - a couple of good articles about supply centre ratio to territories which you could easily find with a bit of Googling (20 mins)
• He goes onto mention how a Dip Wiki could come back at some stage in the future which could help pull together even greater detail (21 mins)
• Kaner brings up how he stumbled on an old archived game on the Diplomatic Core called War in 2020 by Jason Reiner, where using his Indiana Jones skills he reconstructed the variant and brought it to vDip. Jason says he made the map over 20 years ago, and is now looking at developing a Vietnam War variant  (21 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner likes the region and would like to create a Khmer Empire game also set in the region, but understandably hundreds of years earlier (26 mins)
• The guys start fighting over how successful America's military endeavors have gone since WW2 (27 mins)
• They move back to variant development talk and discuss the time they generally took to create variants (from back when vDip was regularly publishing new variants a few years ago). They talk about the prospect of a Dip variant renaissance (29 mins)

Online Diplomacy pet peeves: NMR's

• We have a suggestion from Super_Dipsy at PlayDip for a new segment about frustrations of online Dip (31 mins)
• Kaner discusses one that gets to him is loss of previously published info. Amby mentions the guidance on what to do isn't always clear and you repeat the same mistakes again and again (31 mins 45 secs)
• They fight over the frustrations of NMR's (and Amby takes it on the chin). Kaner discusses the dilemma he has in whether he should take advantage of a NMR player's centres and whether the game should be cancelled. Amby has no problems with this at all, gobbling up SCs (32 mins 30 secs)
• They talk about ways around trying to avoid this problem, or reduce the risk of it happening (34 mins):
  • Reliability ratings and how you can create games with high benchmarks to try to avoid this happening
  • Inviting players into password protected games where players are generally reliable
  • A pre-agreement where the game condition for playing is if a player NMR's the game will be cancelled
  • Set up the game settings when creating to extend the phase automatically if a player NMR's
• Amby and Kaner suggest they'll go out to vDip, webDip and PlayDip and ask what are player's pet peeves, and based on that highlight a peeve each episode and look at how each of the sites deal with that (43 mins)

Interview with Captainmeme

• Kaner discusses how Captainmeme has a lot of experience with iritations due to being a vDip moderator and has the Comedy Cube at webDip and also hangs out at PlayDip (45 mins)
• Our interview starts with Captainmeme introducing himself and how he finds the time to be so prolific on vDip, webDip and PlayDip (46 mins 30 secs)
• He explains the different styles of play across the three main sites (49 mins 20 secs)
• Captain talks about his role as a moderator (50 mins 30 secs)
• He goes on to discuss what he likes about PlayDip (52 mins 30 secs)
• Captain touches on Mafia and explains the culture of it at webDip and PlayDip (54 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner gives his thoughts and explains why Mafia sounds so attractive to Dip players. As Amby is a bit slow in learning, he keeps asking Cap more questions to better understand Mafia (57 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner asks what attracted Cap to Diplomacy variants and the variant that hooked him (60 mins)
• Then its on to his current two favorite variant: 1 vs 1 and Chaos. He goes on to describe his role coordinating the 1 vs 1 tournament at webDip (1 hr 2 mins 45 secs)
• Captain talks about the upcoming conclusion to the 1 vs 1 webDip Showdown tournament (although this is now completed since the interview) (1 hr 7 mins)
• Amby fucks up on muting his mike, giving listeners an insight into what happens when his dog barks too much during Skype interviews with Dip players (1 hr 11 mins 15 secs)
• Kaner gives his personal perspectives on 1 vs 1 games (1 hr 12 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks Cap about his role bringing Ankara Crescent (zultar's favourite variant) to vDip and explains how you play the game (1 mins 13 secs)
• Amby keeps fucking up with his mike and his dog's antics. Meanwhile in proper Dip talk, Cap takes his hat off to Kaner's gameplay in a game of Ankara Crescent they played together in (1 he 15 mins 30 secs)
• Cap talks about his thoughts on preventing losing SCs in Ankara Crescent (1 hr 17 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner gives his ideas of playing Ankara Crescent... with Bourse (1 hr 19 mins)
• The guys then start discussing the Bourse game, Captain's strategy and where he sees the game going (1 hr 20 mins 20 secs)
• Kaner asks Cap why he let the cat out of the bag on Bourse strategy during the middle of the game, before giving a summary of the game's comings and goings (1 hr 25 mins)
• Amby asks if Cap's strategy has changed now he's no longer on the board (1 hr 36 mins)
• Amby asks Cap about his mid-game suggestion for a future game where the score is a mix between the Bourse and the board (1 hr 39 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner delves into what map would be best for the next Bourse game (1 hr 41 mins 50 secs)

Post interview wrap-up

• Amby discusses his conversation with Captain re: whether Ruffhaus or Bozo will win the Bourse. Amby discusses the Bourse board SC transfer which would bring Bozo up to 1st position. Amby is doing this at the same time of eliminating Axum and Wagadu and is hoping it will get him into the 5th position he has been aiming for a long time [Amby says in the podcast that RUFFHAUS didn't know about this, but in fact did... bozo just didn't tell Amby that he also told RUFF!] (1 hr 43 mins)
• Kaner also says he found Captain's  1 versus 1 tournament and Mafia discussion was really interesting and he learnt a lot. Then they start squabbling about how Mafia works based on their understanding of what Captain said (1 hr 47 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner says he's interested in giving a Mafia game a go (1 hr 50 mins)
• Amby says he's starting to get a number of games finishing, including a Mars game - Ground control to Major Tom. And with the ratings changes needs to join some new rated games (1 hr 51 mins 15 secs)
• Amby asks Kaner about how he created the Mars variant. Amby tries educating Kaner on who Kim Hughes is (1 hr 53 mins 30 secs)
• They discuss the WWIV game they've both joined: Furnace of Affliction (1 hr 55 mins 45 secs)

The Rat Wars variant

• Kaner created the Rat Wars variant and recently won a game! You can see this game called Ratatouille on vDip (1 hr 57 mins 15 secs)
• Kaner accuses Amby of not playing his variants (1 hr 57 mins 45 secs)
• He goes on to discuss the variant's fog of war nature, the two types of rat units you can build (arrow rats and spear rats) and how they differ in movement and when confronted with walls, and how supply centres work based on rat unit type (1 hr 58 mins 15 secs)
• Amby expresses his interest in the way the coding for the rules works and how that code could be used in other variants. Kaner then gives a synopsis about the game he played and won. He touches on some general aspects of the variant (2 hrs 2 mins)
• Amby asks Kaner how he got the idea for Rat Wars (2 hrs 6 mins 30 secs)
• Amby then asks Kaner if there was a working Lab, what changes would he make to the variant now that its been played a while (2 hrs 7 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner finishes up to discuss his winning strategy for the variant: luck.  Amby says its Kaner's equivalent of 1066 to Amby (2 hrs 9 mins 45 secs)

• The guys start wrapping things up. Kaner leaves us with a joke about heaven, old ladies and ducks (2 hrs 11 mins 15 secs)

Venue: Saville Row, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner - Young Henry's Seasonal Brew from Victoria
Amby - The Other Wine Company grenache from McLaren Vale, South Australia

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Thanks to Dan Philip for his rockin' intro to the Diplomacy Games podcast.