Irrespective of whether you want to create your own games or play in those of others, there are some decisions that you must make which will have an influence on your enjoyment of the game. First you must decide why you are going to play the game. If you are playing to climb the Hall of Fame, then you are best served by certain styles of games. If you are playing for other reasons, then you are probably not interested in the same sorts of games as the serious HOF climber. Here, I will discuss the various aspects of game creation and selection and how it applies to having a good game. If you playing to climb the HOF, then also see the additional criteria in Climbing The HOF.
The next thing to consider is which game
type/s you are able and willing to play in.This is extremely important as it not only
determines how fast the game will go, but it may also determine whether you win or lose.
Take into consideration that playing one of the very fast game types may force you to miss
a turn or more (which very often puts you right out of the game). Also, a very slow game
type such as a Quick48 with no play on weekends may last so long that you have to be
available for an entire month just to finish the game!
Furthermore, some game types may be more or
less hazardous for you to play in as the turn over time may be decided by the joining of
others and cause the turn over to occur when you are asleep over and over again (for more
information on why this is a definite negative see Crowding and
Containment as well as When To Go To War). These games
are the Double, Classic and Quick24. In all of these game types, the start of the first
turn is decided by the joining of the player that allows the game to commence. In the case
of a Double, that player joining at noon where you live could be very bad indeed if you go
to school or work or anything that requires you to be away from your computer (or the
internet) at that time of the day and probably puts you to sleep before midnight when the
other turn changes. A classic is much the same, but with only 1 turn over every day making
it somewhat less rigorous to keep up with. A Quick24 can display the properties of either
of these kind of games in that one player or more may artificially induce each turn to
last 24 hours each time and hence the turn may change at a time which is always bad for
you. On the other hand, if you don't have commitments that keep you away from the internet
most of the day, then you may actually find these game types to be preferable as they are
relatively swift and have a fairly predictable turnover. Also, if it is your joining that
determines the turn over of these games, then these burdens need not afflict you at all.
Finally, if you prefer games where the turn
over is greater than one day, the slower Quick game types are for you as it is the only
way that you can play so seldom (and many higher ranked players prefer these game types
anyway). And if you prefer not to play on weekends, then obviously you should create your
game with "No Play On Weekends" ticked in the Advanced options or look for that
comment in the details of the games you are considering joining.
After you have chosen which game type/s you wish to play, it is time to choose which battlefield/s that you would like to play on. Obviously you can only pick one if you are creating a game, but if you are looking for a game or games to join, then you must be able to narrow down the games available to those with suitable maps (which will probable be multiple although you may be feeling particularly picky and looking for a game on a particular map and not wanting to create the game yourself) before going on to the next step. As there are over 100 maps on each server, examining them all can be a very difficult process, so I have prepared a series of tables of all the maps available at this time (the time of writing of course) that shows some statistics on each map. Each table is restricted to a certain type of map (land based, naval based, air based) and is subdivided into various categories (natural, geometric, pod). Examining these tables should give you some idea of which kind of map you wish to play on. These tables are available in Map Type Tables.
The next thing to determine is how many players you want to play against. This is restricted somewhat by the map/s you have chosen and to a much lesser extent by the game types you can play. That is to say, some maps are so small that it might be unwise to try and play with 10 players in the game(48x48 maps, especially if wrapping). Other maps are so large that they are pointless to play on with only 2 players (252x252 maps are incredible huge and if sufficiently separated, two players might take 10-15 turns before their units first come within attack distance of each other). Also, given that the more players you try and fit on the one map, the more crowded it becomes, the inability to play certain game types precludes putting too many players on some maps (as they may be all over you before you ever notice get back to a game time after time). Choosing to play the longer game types also precludes having too few players on a map sheerly due to the length of time the game will take as the players expand across the map before going to war.
After you have determined the number of players you wish to play against, you must then determine how many must join before the game begins. Games wherein the minimum number of players required equals the maximum number take longer to start than those where the minimum number is only 2, but you are guaranteed to have the maximum number of players in the game and everyone starts from a level playing field. On the other hand, games where the minimum number of players is lesser than the maximum do start faster, but players joining after the minimum number of players have been reached may be at a disadvantage against the earlier players (and certainly will be it they join after Turn 0 has finished. As a result, if a game has not reached the maximum number of players by the end of Turn 0 it probably never will). Finally, it is the tendency of the players attempting to climb the HOF and those near the top to join games where the minimum equals the maximum rather than any other. This is simply because they don't want to lose either :)
Now I come to the Advanced Game Options.
Those little things that appear in the comments box of games in which they are selected.
The first of these options is the "Disable Nuclear Weapons" option. For most
maps, this option is fairly irrelevant the money to purchase the Nuclear University is
never approached before battle begins and the game ends. Nuclear Weapons may be the
ultimate weapon, but they are also hideously expensive and usually only appear on very
large, very wreck rich maps, the smallest of which is probably Maelstrom and the largest
and most well known of which is Topologies. This being the case, the disabling or not of
the Nuclear Weapons is usually not a concern. On the maps where they are used tho, they
can be put to devastating effect and kill an opponent in one swift shot in situations
where they might have otherwise survived. Understandably, some people don't like this. For
more information about Nuclear Weapons and their uses see here.
The next option is the disabling of weekend play. This was mentioned above, so I won't say
anything further here.
The last three options are listed are very much
intertwined. The default is for any player to be able to join the game, this is for when
you don't care who is joining your game. The other two options are for players with 80% of
your score on the HOF and greater only and 120% of your score on the HOF or less. If you
want to have some fun, test out some strategies against real players that aren't to deadly
and not die or something like that, then "About My Rank Or Below" is the way to
go. If however, you are looking to test yourself heavily or trying to climb the HOF, then
"About My Rank Or Above" is better.
The last two tasks are for the game creator alone to be concerned about. First he must decide if the game will be passworded and if so who he will give the password to (so that his game can be played!). If you don't know anybody and have not challenged anybody to a duel, then a passworded game is probably a bad idea. If you do know some people to challenge, then your in luck and a passworded game is the way to go as it keeps undesirables out (namely anybody who you didn't invite!). The last task is to name the game! Actually, this may be the first thing you do, but as it is the least important thing you can do in ensuring that you are actually going to achieve whatever goal you set when you created the game, it comes last in my estimation. Make it witty, make it droll, make in descriptive, make it gibberish, just don't make it boring or stupid and you should do fine :)