I believe it was airborne who was looking for players, and I spoke to him about how to modify the phpDiplomacy code to play it

! I just remember I haven't worked on that for a week! I better get back in the game if I'm going to publish it for spring movements in the Pouch.
But, here's the varient
Diplomacy 1350AD
Rules
Game start 1350 AD
Switzerland (Swi) and Ireland (Ire) can be moved into and both have a SC.
Victory is now at 19 SCs.
Movement with armies is allowed between Ireland and Clyde.
Standard Diplomacy Rules apply.
The Nations have changed (Some or a lot… of things are inaccurate for the purpose of the game.)
1. England-Scotland
Home SCs and starting positions A Lon F Lvp F Edi
2. Kalmar Union
Home SCs and starting positions A Den A Nor F Swe
3. Poland Commonwealth
Home SCs and starting positions A War A Mos F Sev
4. Spain
Home SCs and starting positions A Por A Nap F Spa(sc)
5. Holy Roman Empire
Home SCs and starting positions A Mun A Vie F Kie F Ven
6. Byzantine
Home SCs and starting positions A Con A Bul F Gre
7. France
Home SCs and starting positions A Par F Bre A Mar

I have done a Geography is Destiny on my varient and
Nation Tempo Fear Total
E-S 6th 3rd 9
HRE 1st 7th 8
Spa 7th 4th 11
ByE 3rd 1st 4!
Fra 4th 6th 10
PoC 2nd 2nd 4!
KaU 5th 5th 10

http://www.diplom.org/Zine/F1999R/Windsor/dipmap.html

So... Nap stands for Naples, right? I'll be sure to hang on to this variant! Thanks.

Airborne, whenever I read your description I think you should modify the Polish Commonwealth to become a more historically accurate country. The first example that came to mind would be Poland-Lithuania which would be a shift northwards and make Livonia a centre. But since the Byzantines and Poles probably need to fight more judging by the results you should make it Kiev and make Ukraine a cente (over Moscow or Warsaw) so they are more southwardly inclined.
I suppose that would unbalance the game by not giving them a warm water port ot harass the byzantines, but I'm sure there are ways around it. Alternatively you could make the power Kiev and make Ukraine a center and drop either Moscow or Warsaw.

Interesting point, I'd be interested to see how it plays out. Did you make the changes in the end? I was wondering when I saw the thread again on the dev forum...

I like Poland the way it is. My friend Brian (majorshake) suggested adding +2 more SCs Kiev and Finland. Still Poland is a nation I feel needs no changes. The Poles can control the Black Sea which is vital in a Byz-Pol clash. The Ukraine is the Pole version of Gascony and if the Poles and Greeks can work together. Moscow and Warsaw are good launching points for exspaning West and North.

figlesquidge:

Just a quick question. You said earlier that you showed airborne how to alter the php code for the variant. Do you mind e-mailing me and telling me how?

http://forum.phpdiplomacy.net/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=142&p=675#p675

Have a look in the dev forum

Ah, airborne gave you the link.
I hope to (over time) turn that thread into a "how To" thread for making a varient, so post any questions in there

I know I'm tripple posting, but hey - its been a long delay.
Just to say the dev forum's back up again now, so if you had trouble getting on it earlier it should be alright now.

Go Byzantines! Woooo

So, this variant is going to be playable on this site?

Not on this one, but on a variation of the source code.
In the longer term I hope to add support for variants like this. However, this will be a very long time. Kestas is the developer, with others like myself contributing code here and there. However, for everyone this is a hobby which unfortunately means papers take priority. Still, in the end yes

Interesting, does this mean that with those modifications and changing some other files, you could use an entirely different map to create a diplomacy variant?

You could do that quite simply even now, but depending on how many changes you want to make it could be a lot of work.
If you want to set one up, post on the dev forum and I'll talk you through it.
Note: You'd need a server that is suitable for installing phpDiplomacy on!