Nations: bans, draft and picks¶

A nation is one of the 43 civilizations in Civilization V that a player plays in a game. While gathering, players ban nations. When the game starts with a draft, each player gets three nations to choose from. In the game thread, the nation a player will play is picked. You can also pick a nation on the game page on the site.

The role of nations¶

The bot makes sure every player has a nation and nobody plays a banned one. A player's nation is settled in three steps:

• Bans rule nations out. While the gathering lasts, players ban nations with the “Bans” button under the gathering card. No one in this game gets or picks a banned nation.
• The start decides how nations are handed out. If the game starts with the “Start with Draft” button, each player gets three nations to choose from. If it starts with the “Skip Draft & Start” button, the bot instead sends a “Nation Assignment” message to the game thread.
• A pick assigns the nation to the player. In the game thread or on the game page on the site, one nation is picked for each player. A nation the site read from a save as played counts too. While at least one player has no nation picked and no save has shown one, the /game finish command doesn't finish the game.

flowchart TD
    Z["Gathering: players ban nations"] -->|"a participant or moderator presses “Start with Draft”"| D["Three nations to choose from for each player"]
    Z -->|"a participant or moderator presses “Skip Draft & Start”"| A["“Nation Assignment” message"]
    D -->|"a participant or moderator marks one of the three"| N["The player's nation"]
    A -->|"a participant or moderator assigns a nation that isn't banned"| N

The diagram doesn't show slot swaps: a swap resets the picked nations, and they are picked again for the players.

What it includes¶

The list of 43 nations is the same for all game types. Cards show nations as icons, and menus and buttons show a name and an icon. The bot writes nation names in the bans menu in the language of your Discord client, and in the game thread in the server's language. See Bot language.

How it connects¶

• Gathering: bans are set while the game is in the state “Gathering”. See Bans.
• Game start: the start button decides whether there is a draft. See Starting a game.
• Game thread: nations are picked and changed in the game thread. See Picking nations and swapping slots.
• Game page: on the site, a player of the game picks a nation for any seat of the game. See Game page.
• Finishing a game: the /game finish command and the “Finish the game” button on the site work only when every player has a nation. See Finishing a game.
• Player stats: from the nations of finished games, the bot fills in the “Favorite Nation” and “Best Nation” fields on the “Style” tab. See Player stats.
• Nation stats: the /nations stats command shows how many times nations were banned and picked. By default it counts finished games that started in the last 30 days and where at least three players set bans. See Nation stats and game times.

Rules¶

Bans are optional: up to two in FFA, up to three in Duel¶

Each player can ban up to two nations in FFA and up to three in Duel. You can also ban none: a game starts without bans too. Pressing a nation in the bans menu again removes the ban. After the start, bans can't be changed. See Bans.

Only one player can ban a given nation¶

If another player has already banned the nation, the bot doesn't set the ban and replies “Nation already banned by @Vega.” Only the player who set a ban can remove it.

Everyone sees each player's bans¶

Under each player who has already banned, the gathering card shows a “Bans:” line with icons of the nations they banned. On the game card in the thread, the same line is hidden under a spoiler: press it to see the bans.

The draft gives each player three different nations¶

When the game starts with the “Start with Draft” button, the bot gives each player three random nations to choose from. The sets of different players don't overlap, and there are no banned nations in them. You see these three nations on the game card as a row of icons under the player. See Starting a game.

With a draft, a player plays one of their three nations¶

In a game with a draft, the game card has the “Choose who plays which nation” menu under it. Each item in it looks like “Orion - Japan”: a player's name and one of their three nations. One nation is marked for each player. Its icon appears on the game card next to the player's sequence number. See Picking nations and swapping slots.

Without a draft, a player is assigned any nation that isn't banned¶

After the start with the “Skip Draft & Start” button, nobody is given nations to choose from. Instead, the bot sends a “Nation Assignment” message to the game thread with buttons for all the nations that aren't banned. A message holds at most 20 buttons, so the rest of the nations are in the following messages, without a title. A nation button opens a private menu of the game's players, and the player you choose there gets that nation. The buttons of already assigned nations are green. See Picking nations and swapping slots.

Only one player in a game has a given nation¶

In a draft, the players' sets don't overlap, so a game never has the same nation twice. Without a draft in Discord, when a nation is assigned to another player, the bot takes it from whoever had it before, and that player stays without a nation until another one is assigned. The site works differently: it doesn't hand out a nation that another seat already holds (by a pick or a save), and in the list that nation is marked “Vega's”.

A game participant or a moderator picks a nation for any player¶

The “Choose who plays which nation” menu and the buttons in the “Nation Assignment” message are available to every participant of the game and to moderators. Through them you pick a nation for any player of the game, not only for yourself. The bot replies to everyone else with “You are not allowed to perform this action.” See Players, moderators and admins.

A slot swap resets the picked nations¶

In FFA, players can swap slots by mutual request in the “Swap requests between players” menu. Then they swap sequence numbers and, in a game with a draft, the nations to choose from. The nations already picked for them are reset, and both players' nations are picked again. See Picking nations and swapping slots.

You can also pick a nation on the game page on the site¶

This applies on the server the site works with. Only a player of the game, meaning someone who has a seat in it, can pick a nation for any seat. A moderator without a seat can only view the game on the site. The nation is taken from that seat's set: in a game with a draft, the three nations given to that player, and in a game without a draft, all the nations that aren't banned. The result is the same as in Discord: the game card in the thread updates. See Game page.

A game can't be finished until every player has a nation¶

Before finishing, the bot checks that every player has a nation: a picked one, or one that a save showed as played. On the site, finishing requires the same: while someone has no nation, the site says “A player still has no nation. Choose it above, then finish the game.” If someone has none picked, the game stays in the state “In progress”. After the game is finished, the nation menus and buttons disappear, and nations can no longer be changed. See Finishing a game.

What can go wrong¶

• The bot says the nation is banned. When you press a nation in the bans menu, the bot replies “Nation already banned by @Vega.” Another player has already banned that nation. Pick a different one: banned nations show on the gathering card in the “Bans:” lines.
• The bot won't let you ban one more nation. The bot replies “You can't ban more than 2 nations”, and in Duel, “You can't ban more than 3 nations”. The ban limit is used up. To replace a ban, first remove it: press your banned nation in the bans menu again.
• The bans menu disappeared. The menu closes after 3 minutes without presses. The bans you set are kept. Press “Bans” under the gathering card again.
• The nation you need isn't among the buttons in the “Nation Assignment” message. First check the bot's following messages under it: the buttons come 20 to a message. If the nation isn't there either, it was banned during the gathering, so nobody plays it in this game. You can see the bans under a spoiler on the game card. Pick a different nation.
• The nation you need isn't in the “Choose who plays which nation” menu. In a game with a draft, only the player's own three nations to choose from are available. In FFA you can swap slots with another player and get their three nations.
• The bot replies in English with “Multiple selection for Orion”. In the “Choose who plays which nation” menu, two nations are marked for one player, so the bot saved nothing. Mark only one nation for that player.
• The picked nations disappeared. The players swapped slots, and a swap resets both players' picked nations. Pick their nations again.
• The bot won't let you finish the game. In reply to /game finish, the bot says “All players must pick their nations before finishing!” Someone has no nation picked: there is no nation icon next to their sequence number on the game card. Pick it in the game thread or on the game page on the site, or attach a save that shows the played nation, and run the command again.

Related¶

• Game
• Bans
• Starting a game
• Picking nations and swapping slots
• Finishing a game
• Game page
• Game saves on the site
• Players, moderators and admins
• Player stats
• Nation stats and game times
• Bot language

This page was translated with AI and checked against the bot's terms.