So I've been playing the December Gauntlet for a few days now, made a few submissions, got a few decent-but-not-spectacular results (1620, 1530), and have generally decided to wait for the next test.

Just a thought, though -- I find myself really turned off by the "Random" nature of this Hall of Fame challenge. Sitting for an hour in front of the map generator isn't something I particularly enjoy, and I daresay it doesn't do much to display a player's skill, either. For example, this has been my usual order of events before I even get a game underway:

1) Start map, deem it unworthy, quit
2) Start another map, deem it unworthy, quit
3) Start another map, play 10 turns, deem it unworthy, quit
4) Start another map, deem it unworthy, quit
5) Start another map, play it until I get a worker, see a problem, quit
6) etc.

I mean, with a Hall of Fame contest like this, you really *have* to be picky about your starting position.

To contrast this, over in the Strategy forums people sometimes post their maps and say "I have no idea how to win this". Then a bunch of guys download it, play the game, compare stratgies, and so forth. I like it a lot more because everyone starts from the exact same position.

Will there be any gauntlets in this style? It'd be nice if you made a single map with a single starting position and then made a half dozen versions with different Civs in that position, and let people dissect the map down to its component parts. I'd certainly throw myself into that.

I argee that the regeneration of random maps is very booring. Having for example a pre-set map would be nice but that would make it a GOTM not a HOF gauntlet.

But I like the idee of gauntlets where there is a set of rules and regulations on every submission instead of a HOF where any kind of game will do.

I argee that the regeneration of random maps is very booring. Having for example a preset map would be nice but that would make it a GOTM not a HOF gauntlet.

But I like the idee of gauntlets where there is a set of rules and regulations on every submission instead of a HOF where any kind of game will do.

Yes, I certainly see the parallels between the Game of the Month boards and what I'm asking for, but the key difference is more a question of rules than anything else.

For instance, playing a GoTM map over and over to max out your score is considered cheating, as you have knowledge of the map and hidden resources before-hand. What I'm looking for is a map where multiple run-throughs of a single map are encouraged in the interest of exploiting it to the hilt. Hell, start everyone out with "Satellites" so the map's revealed (and so the AI gets the bonus too). Discovery is not exactly the point of this exercise.. its a game of strategy.

Of course, a healthy dose of Random isn't entirely undesireable... I'm thinking Raging Barbarians would provide an interesting degree of variation... and would probably be necessary, quite frankly. Otherwise, you'd have a Hunting-Start civ just sending their Scout from pre-mapped goody hut to goody hut, raking in the bonuses. The AI is probably not programed for this contingency.. though it would be interesting to see how it behaved.

What I'm looking for is a map where multiple run-throughs of a single map are encouraged in the interest of exploiting it to the hilt.
I don't tolerate reloading in the Hall of Fame as it is, I'm certainly not going to sanction it in a formal competition.;)

I don't tolerate reloading in the Hall of Fame as it is, I'm certainly not going to sanction it in a formal competition.;)

He has a point though. I spent a number of hours (!) generating new maps, simply because I know the starting position / map has to be really good for the attempt to make a great score.

In other words, a HOF game in which the map & starting position are pre-determined, but reloading (other than from the initial position!) isn't allowed, might be interesting.

Declaring a default map variation might be intersting for the gauntlet. Its conceivable that there could even be more tuned map generation scripts written to make a particular kind of map and a particular kind of start for this sort of thing.

In other words, a HOF game in which the map & starting position are pre-determined, but reloading (other than from the initial position!) isn't allowed, might be interesting.
And how exactly does this differ from GOTM? :confused:

Declaring a default map variation might be intersting for the gauntlet.
Now that is a possibility as some point in the future. If I feel like there's too many pang maps being used for Gauntlets, then I might need to force mixing it up a little bit. That's not currently feasible, but maybe after Beta...

And how exactly does this differ from GOTM? :confused:

That you can try again (from the start) if you think you can do better in a new attempt. ;) ('can only reload the start position')

Not that I'd personally be doing that though. I dislike repetition.

I don't tolerate reloading in the Hall of Fame as it is, I'm certainly not going to sanction it in a formal competition.;)

What about reloading because your game crashes every couple of hours? :eek:

What about reloading because your game crashes every couple of hours? :eek:
That's something you can't do much about at the moment. Just set your autosaves to happen every turn and try to honestly make the same moves you made initially. Hopefully as new patches come out the game will become more stable. Are you having crashing problems with the 1.52 patch?