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A place to discuss topics/games with other webDiplomacy players.
Page 1277 of 1419
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BlueLight (178 D)
11 Sep 15 UTC
New game: I Should Working, but....
Public messaging only, Anonymous players, Points-per-supply-center, 3 days/phase. 10 D to join.
http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=167271

1 reply
Open
diplomat61 (223 D)
10 Sep 15 UTC
Proposed classic game "Infamy V"
"Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me" - Julius Caesar, Carry on Cleo

Anon, PPSC, 24hr turns. Anyone interested?
3 replies
Open
obiwanobiwan (248 D)
09 Sep 15 UTC
So, HOW ABOUT THOSE METS?! :D Oh, and NFL WEEK 1 PICK 'EM!
Hi. What's new? :3 Um, something something Shakespeare...
And it's NFL Pick 'em Time...yes, time to pick a new commissioner! ;) Or, you know, divisions, wild cards, conference title games, and the Super Bowl winner. And of course the week by week picks--Steelers/Patriots go tomorrow, Sunday notables include Broncos/Ravens, Chargers/Lions, Giants/Cowboys, and my OH GOD WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE BLACK JERSEYS?! 49ers play Monday night! The Week 1 match-ups...pick 'em!
25 replies
Open
MonsieurJavert (214 D)
09 Sep 15 UTC
(+4)
webDip-vDip crossover
Hello webDip!
I hail from your sister site, vDip, where I run under the handle TheatreVarus.
We are severely starved for players at the moment, and were hoping some of you could join up.
We have many available variants, including my current favorite, Viking Diplomacy.
70 replies
Open
gigtigre (100 D)
22 Jul 15 UTC
(+2)
Do girls play diplomacy?
Pretty new on this site...just curious if there are very many/any girls playing?
423 replies
Open
backscratcher (459 D)
10 Sep 15 UTC
A question about Builds/Destroys
If a country has to disband a unit during the build phase and doesn't turn in orders, how does the server decide which unit to disband for the player?
4 replies
Open
JamesYanik (548 D)
09 Sep 15 UTC
Tips for World Diplomacy
I have played 50+ games on the World Diplomacy variant, but I have not soloed. Honestly, it seems like you can see a powerhouse coming so far back, it is impossible to not get faced with a stalemate line!

Please post any hints here, I wanna conquer the world :'(
10 replies
Open
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
06 Sep 15 UTC
(+24)
I proposed to my girlfriend today!
Now she's calling all her long-distance friends, so who wants to play some World of Warships!
57 replies
Open
diplomat61 (223 D)
10 Sep 15 UTC
Anonymous Gunboat "Glowworm"
Proposed: Anon, 24 hour turns, PPSC

Anyone interested?
0 replies
Open
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
10 Sep 15 UTC
(+3)
Extra! Extra! Introduction to DATC!
We have a new video up on how to use the Diplomacy Adjudicator Test Cases (DATC) to help resolve nuanced orders!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obtKRsh-Owg
13 replies
Open
cb6000 (100 D(S))
09 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
EXACTLY when does a game end?
In my set of rules, rule XIII indicates that possession of a SC only occurs after fall retreats have been completed. On this site, it seems that for purposes of determining a solo victory, a victory is declared following the fall diplomacy phase prior to retreats. For clarification: on a fall turn that great power A takes its 18th SC but great power B could then retreat into into one of country A's SCs, is country A awarded a win prior to that fall's retreats? Thank you.
22 replies
Open
MarquisMark (326 D(G))
08 Sep 15 UTC
Fantasy Drafts
So how did y'all's fantasy drafts go? End up something good or make any mistakes? 1st game this Thursday.
4 replies
Open
redhouse1938 (429 D)
09 Sep 15 UTC
WhatsApp on MacBook
Dear All,
Who has a good idea for a WhatsApp on my MacBook that synchronizes with my telephone?
Cheers, red
14 replies
Open
hellalt (113 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
ich bin wieder da
hello bitches!
I m back (again)
Join me in hell if you dare!
gameID=167173
13 replies
Open
cgwhite32 (1465 D)
07 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
Returning after a four year break...
... as an old adversary messaged me offline and I decided to succumb to temptation. I was wondering if any of those former combatants, or indeed anyone else, fancied a classic map, slow turn (probably 48 hour), press intensive game to get me back up to speed.

Post below...
60 replies
Open
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
04 Sep 15 UTC
(+3)
Enigma Diplomacy
I'd like to try a new variant. Global Press only, but with some time before the game starts to talk privately with each player to devise codes to be used during the game. Is there any interest in this?
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
04 Sep 15 UTC
(+2)
Although, in retrospect, "Zimmerman Diplomacy" probably would have been a more appropriate name.
Espi (338 D)
04 Sep 15 UTC
Would it be something where we start the game, see everyone's country and then pause so that we have time to talk with others? Based on all of the possible options, the code for this game would be very interesting to see.
ND (879 D)
04 Sep 15 UTC
Why is Zimmerman Diplomacy not an appropriate name?
ghug (5068 D(B))
04 Sep 15 UTC
What incentive is there to not just exchange RSA (or similar) keys with everyone?
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
04 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
@Espi Probably before countries were assigned?

@ND Please reread what I wrote.

@ghug Yeah, somehow we'd need to make the codes not completely unbreakable. Not sure how to do that, though...
Zimmerman Diplomacy would be more like, a copy of your press will be sent to another country when you send it.
Espi (338 D)
04 Sep 15 UTC
So you pick a code not knowing which country you will be? Hmm that would be very interesting, probably words for the country(ies) you are allies with and the country(ies) you plan to attack, maybe codes for specific opening moves...
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
04 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
Well, as ghug says, everyone would probably just use RSA encryption, which wouldn't be very fun. What about no private discussion before? There are fully public encryption schemes.
Tolstoy (1962 D)
04 Sep 15 UTC
I'm definitely interested! I vaguely recall bringing up this concept a few years ago but found there was little interest in it, with people citing all the various modern encryption schemes that would be impossible for the typical webdipper to actually break. An implementation of this would require some house rules governing the complexity of the encryption and what tools would be legal to use in breaking them, I think.

I also think it should be legal for players to change their encryption codes (with all such changes being sent to the receiving party via a 3rd party 'codemaster' who was not playing in the game), but at some serious penalty (like being unable to move half their units for the turn or something). Otherwise, the game would simply become a gunboat once everyone thought their codes were compromised.
ghug (5068 D(B))
04 Sep 15 UTC
@abge, RSA is fully public. You could have people agree to only use schemes that they think of themselves, but anyone who knows even a tiny bit of number theory can make something practically unbreakable pretty quickly. I guess maybe combining that with no private chatting beforehand could make it interesting.
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
04 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
What if we said you weren't allow to use any computers/calculators? That would limit the types of codes and would be much more realistic.
Tolstoy (1962 D)
04 Sep 15 UTC
No computers, no calculators, nothing but basic arithmetic operations, no numbers with more than two digits, only two or three operations, etc. would all be rules that I think could make this work (and be fun).
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
04 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
Or we could pre-define a dictionary and only those words could be used.
Sorry if I'm stealing the thread here but I've always thought a limited press game where you can only send a limit number say 10 messages (or 5 messages) each turn would be fun. You'd have to be clear concise and make sure you press was timely.
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
07 Sep 15 UTC
Bump
thorfi (1023 D)
07 Sep 15 UTC
Abgemacht: One time pads are a thing. No computer or calculator required, basically unbreakable. Doing this sort of thing "realistically" is kinda not going to work. You'd be better off making comms go through a GM and having "random" code breaking on messages, or something like being able to buy a cryptography unit instead of an army or fleet which can then attack or defend.
steephie22 (182 D(S))
07 Sep 15 UTC
Maybe there's a set message which you have to encode using each of your coding techniques so people can see the net result of your encryption methods once and try to figure out the method based on the original and the result.
steephie22 (182 D(S))
07 Sep 15 UTC
Also, can you still speak English when you feel like it?
thorfi (1023 D)
07 Sep 15 UTC
I would imagine it's a normal global press game apart from the occasional "encoded" message broadcast.

But really, one time pads. It's not impossible to roll a d4 and a d10 (giving you 40 characters - 26 letters, 0-9, and 4 punctuation of your choice) a few thousand times or even more. That should more than suffice for careful shorthand negotiations for the whole game. And if you run out of pad and loop, although it stops being essentially unbreakable, it's still real close to, especially if you make sure you use different length pads for everyone so they don't know if you've looped. Bonus benefit, you don't even need to reveal who the message is for. If they can decrypt it using the OTP you gave them, it's for them. If they can't, it's not.


steephie22 (182 D(S))
07 Sep 15 UTC
I'd be up for this.
thorfi (1023 D)
07 Sep 15 UTC
(Oh, and you encode by writing your message in the 40 characters you have, then add the OTP values as you go, rotating around when you hit 40. Decoding is the reverse. No complicated math, and literally no algorithm to attack.)
Valis2501 (2850 D(G))
07 Sep 15 UTC
No offense but it sounds terrible
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
07 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
Would you like it better if we played 50 at once?
kahudd2000 (157 D)
07 Sep 15 UTC
Did the guy who wants to play a variant where no one moves just call out a variant? .
Jamiet99uk (1307 D)
07 Sep 15 UTC
I think this is very interesting. I'll join if you'll have me.
doktorkeks42 (143 D)
07 Sep 15 UTC
I'd be interested too and I have a few suggestions of my own. Why not limit the encryption to the Vigenère Cipher (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigenère_cipher) with a key length of up to 5 (or any other number up to 10)? It is easy to use and not that easy to break if you don't rely on a computer doing the dirty work (say brute force attack). There are of course finer methods of breaking the cipher but with careful thinking one could ways to avoid them or make them at least less likely to happen (e.g.changing keys). I guess a key length greater than 10 wouldn't allow to break the cipher manually in the time between phases and that's the whole point of using encryption versus private chat, I guess? Being a private encryption algorithm a game master would have to deal initial keys to all parties on game start.
Valis2501 (2850 D(G))
07 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
If its limited to breakable ones in which it's simply a matter of who bothers and has the cryptographic knowledge to crack them, and then it's just global press, or you're allowed to use unbreakable ones and then its just a stupid full press.

I imagine what abge had in mind, emphasis just a combination me guessing and trying to use common sense so I don't actually have any insider knowledge and he's free to tell me off again, was that there are certain keywords like if you say that you're attacking Mexico that means you're attacking Russia, or any time that you say a unit is taking a vacation to another place that's actually supporting the other person there rather than moving them their themselves. Just simple, silly, plain text stuff like that. My not so humble $0.02
steephie22 (182 D(S))
07 Sep 15 UTC
I would limit it to any language you like and simple code.
jbalcorn (429 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
If the idea is to hold the contents of messages completely private but not the metadata - who and how often you are speaking - then just using PGP would do it. Then everyone would see you speaking...but nobody except the parties would know the content. I think, because everyone would have the public keys, you can see who the message is for. Also, you could send the same message to multiple people by encrypting it for each of them.
jbalcorn (429 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
I tmeans codebreaking is NOT part of the game - but metadata is.
thorfi (1023 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
Jbalcorn: I believe absent external metadata (which actually has no guaranteed validity, since it is not crypto-signed), a PGP encrypted block is just an impenetrable random block of data, no target key information. That's pretty much going to be true of any decent crypto system - without the appropriate and correct key, you can't determine *anything* about a message that you find lying around.
NOOO I think this is a good idea, but not if actual codes are used. By "actual codes" I mean codes that act as languages, with systematic decoding. I was thinking more like made up codes, using real sentences with hidden meanings. Something more creative and deceptive than this newfangled shit I'm hearing now.
thorfi (1023 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
I actually like the idea of a "Comms potentially vulnerable" variant, by the way. But doing it "for real" is just not practical. Dip is a high level simulation game, it doesn't really make any sense to then have a "realistic" level of crypto going. Better to simulate that too. But I think that's a conversation that leads to going to vDip and doing some programming...
thorfi (1023 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
Ishmael: *headscratch* Seriously, what does that mean? You're just describing a low bandwidth shitty substitution cipher. That's not creative or deceptive in the least.
thorfi (1023 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
Actually, sorry Ishmael, that was dismissive and poorly said. But my point remains - any actual "code" is either going to be kind of terrible in a number of ways, or so good you might as well just play a normal press game.
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
08 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
I didn't have anything in mind, per se, other than cryptography and diplomacy are both fun some maybe they'd be fun together. If cryptography is not of interest to you, then you certainly won't enjoy this and may safely ignore this thread.

For those interested, though, let's come up with some rules that would make this fun. Personally, I'd like there to be a possibility of breaking codes, although it may be hard to find the sweet spot.
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
08 Sep 15 UTC
@thorfi

I think your idea could be a lot of fun and I believe it was actually a common variant in PBM days. I would like to think a bit longer before giving up on this idea, though.
thorfi (1023 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
Abge: yeah, "hard to find the sweet spot" is the problem here. We have crypto systems that basically *are* invulnerable, and ones that are vulnerable are pretty much trivially crackable with even a small amount of computational help... Which would be impossible to prevent players from using. I know I know we're all super trustworthy people who would never betray an agreement, that's why we play Diplomacy, right? ;-)
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
08 Sep 15 UTC
If we agreed on a variant, I believe people would stick to the rules. Hell, we used to play gunboat games all the time before the site was able to actually limit press.
thorfi (1023 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
I do wish you luck trying though. :-) Can mods peek at private press? Maybe that could be a thing with mod help. At some semi-randomly determined frequency a random player is chosen and their last press message sent is privately copied to another country?
thorfi (1023 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
And yeah, I think you're right about mostly everyone being willing to stick to game rules - I've played non-anonymous no-press here, nobody tried to cheat by PMing.
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
08 Sep 15 UTC
Well, it would need to be less deterministic than that, or people would just follow up every message with nonsense press.
thorfi (1023 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
Heh, oh yes.
steephie22 (182 D(S))
08 Sep 15 UTC
I think my proposed limitation to any language and fairly simple code was misunderstood.

Everyone can and, in my opinion, should be allowed to use Google Translate. You can still get creative though, based on agreements you made pre-game. It sort of levels the playing field, only using languages everyone can translate with translators and simple coding, done without keys.
Sherincall (338 D)
09 Sep 15 UTC
Since no one mentioned it: It is possible to provide full encryption in a public press game without any prior communication. Look up, for example, "Diffie-Hellman". Basically, this lets me agree on a password with a player using only the public chat, and the others are unable to crack it.

At that point, you will only see gibberish when we talk. So, to mask it, I exchange passwords with all 6 other players. Now you see gibberish and only know it wasn't meant for you, not for who it was.

Another option mentioned here is to post a public PGP key, which means that anyone can send you messages privately. But unless everyone does it, people know to whom the message is sent.

All this does is make the press inconvenient for everybody. Public press is stupid without gentleman's rules.


45 replies
Boromacat (100 DX)
07 Sep 15 UTC
Which territory is most seldom occupied?
I think it is down to Syria, Livonia, or Clydesdale.
52 replies
Open
civwarbuff (305 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
Signed up for a game that hasn't begun yet but.....
due to how busy I am going to be I am going to actually ask for a replacement. The game is "How much is it worth" and it has until tomorrow at 1 P.M. before it begins.
13 replies
Open
Bad85 (576 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
Sitter Needed for gameID=165291
Dear Forum, I would like to ask whether someone wants to sit
my country in gameID=165291 and, not playing very often, propose me
the modalities of transferring my account information. Thanks!
4 replies
Open
Macchiavelli (2856 D)
05 Sep 15 UTC
What nationalities do we have on site?
(Now that we've seen asking about gender here causes temper tantrums...)
39 replies
Open
redhouse1938 (429 D)
08 Sep 15 UTC
Academic License Taylor and Francis "Molecular Physics"
Hey all,
Is there anybody here that can access articles from the journal "Molecular Physics" from publisher Taylor and Francis?
2 replies
Open
Landru428 (160 D)
07 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
Where do I post suggestions?
Am I the only person that doesn't understand why they page layout is so narrow? there is significant space in the right and left margins for order information, game state information, and everything you need at a single glance, instead of all the scrolling i have to do. the layout is especially important because the page has to be refreshed constantly.
5 replies
Open
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
24 Aug 15 UTC
(+1)
webDip F2F Redux
It's was great meeting everyone from webDip, but unfortunately, we didn't all get to play against each other. Would anyone fancy a game here? I'd prefer non-anon 36 hour phases, but it is, of course, negotiable.
50 replies
Open
orathaic (1009 D(B))
04 Sep 15 UTC
Is Israel an 'apartheid state'?
i'm sure this will lead to zero controversy... (See inside)
65 replies
Open
DeathLlama8 (514 D)
07 Sep 15 UTC
Away from Home - an SRG
Idea for a new SRG - the winner is either a.) the first player to move a unit to a center more than <x> territories further away from where it originated or b.) whoever solos
2 replies
Open
DelicateSteve (100 D)
07 Sep 15 UTC
Live Games Start Here
Utilize this in the hunt for live games, the biggest struggle since the apple start-up.
1 reply
Open
redhouse1938 (429 D)
25 Aug 15 UTC
Trump
Hmm...
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/donald-trump-megyn-kelly-twitter-tirade-121707.html?hp=rc3_4_b1
My guess is he's actually a very insecure person who's now deliberately turning himself into a caricature so as to be absolutely unelectable.
112 replies
Open
leon1122 (190 D)
26 Aug 15 UTC
(+1)
Suggestion
This website should have statistics for each country of each map (wins, draws, losses, etc.) like vdiplomacy.

I know this is a feature request and I'm supposed to check the todo list, but the forum that the "todo list" link directs to doesn't seem to have been used since last year, and I can't seem to find the actual list anywhere.
10 replies
Open
DeathLlama8 (514 D)
03 Sep 15 UTC
(+1)
Let's Make an Openings Compilation/Magazine
As above, below.
7 replies
Open
Tolstoy (1962 D)
04 Sep 15 UTC
Should Christian Doctors be forced to perform abortions, or face prison time?
It's a perfectly legal medical procedure. If Christian marriage license clerks aren't allowed to refuse to license gay marriages, why not?
70 replies
Open
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