SGOTM2 Maintenance Thread

Here is the start position.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/SGOTM2-start-position.jpg

The purpose of this thread is to provide a single point of contact between the staff and teams. The staff will post announcements here and the teams can post questions and comments here too.

This month sees the introduction of a new system for scoring and game handover. This will now be done through the GOTM server.

To upload a save file.
SGOTM Submissions. (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/sgotm.php)

To download a save file and study the current scores.
SGOTM Save files and scoring data (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/sgotm_submission_list.php)

Please don't use this thread for discussions. :)


P.S. As MB said, the SGOTM rules still need to be finalised. In the meantime, you can see them Here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=1733966&postcount=61)

[I've already posted this in the other thread, but I figure it wwill get spotted quicker here.]

I have a question about the variant. Is the "diplo dogpile" legal or illegal?

IMHO we should make it illegal across the board, because that takes all the challenge out of going for the variant in the first place.

[edit- To keep this thread free from clutter all discussion should go into the SGOTM2-Germany thread. I'll explain what I mean better in that thread, this one should just get the answer.]

I have a question about the variant. Is the "diplo dogpile" legal or illegal?


What's the "diplo dogpile"?? :confused:

Genghis... I hear what you say. Lets discuss it in the discussion thread ;)

The discussion thread is closed. :hmm:

Re-opened. Finger trouble!

The next stage in the game maintenance process is now live. You can now click a checkbox on the submission listing page (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/sgotm_submission_list.php) to present the Firaxis scores for the teams as a graph instead of as a list. There's not much to see yet as the scores for four of the teams who have started are identical, but it will update and rescale automatically as soon as each file is uploaded, and we should start to see more divergence.

Suggestions, here or via PM, for additional presentation options are welcome, as ever.

Enjoy!

Just to stress what Alan wrote in the last post:

- Alan has put together an automated INPUT (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/sgotm.php) page that every team can use to upload and store the save files as the game goes on.
- Of course, there is also the OUTPUT (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/sgotm_submission_list.php) page, whence you can download the saves and check the game progress agains all other teams.

These pages are meant to provide a single reference for storage and retrieval of game saves, and an immediate update on the game status (by checking the checkbox above the data table).
Thanks to Alan's powers :worship: , the games are automatically renamed and stored in the proper way, so we don't have to worry about naming, zipping, attaching etc. etc.

However, the thing will only work and show updated results if we remember to upload our saves there ;)
I know it breaks our habit of posting SG files in the game thread, but we believe that this will help us run the SGOTM more efficiently and ultimately have more fun out of it.
Besides, it is not forbidden to post the saves 'the old way' -just remember to upload them on the SGOTM server too :)

Besides, it is not forbidden to post the saves 'the old way' -just remember to upload them on the SGOTM server too :)Is it necessary to upload them twice, or may we use the links to the saves from the submissions page?

I tried linking to a file on the gotm.civfanatics.net page, and...

EDIT: removed test link

...it works. So, yes -good idea.

The process in words of one syllable-ish :p

1. Download your team's start file from >>HERE<< (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/sgotm_submission_list.php) **

2. Play your turns using PtW or Civ3 1.29 as specified for your team.
Do NOT run the Conquests software.

3. Save your file using any file name you like.

4. Upload your file >>HERE<< (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/sgotm.php).
Type your forum name in the form. ***

5. Copy the url you get back.**

6. Paste the url into your turn log post. **

7. Next player downloads the file using the link in your turn log OR the new link under your team name in the score table >>HERE<< ([url=http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/sgotm_submission_list.php) **

8. Repeat steps 2 to 7 until step 6 was for the last turn in the game.


** Right click is your friend.

*** The software cannot currently tell the difference between a conquest defeat and any other save during the game.
So if your final save is for a conquest defeat, check the box to say so at for that save ONLY.

Please let me know if this is not as clear as mud.

Please let me know if this is not as clear as mud.I'd say those destructions are pretty well "G.I.-Proof". :thumbsup:

Questions:

1. What is the link to the SGOTM rules? It has been so long since I played a GOTM I should check to see if anything changed.

2. What is the link to the scoring system? Again it has been ages since looked at Jason, or are we using another scoring system?

Hopefully these are on topic.

PF

I'll provide the links tonight when I get home from work. Yes you are on topic.
Most of the rules are common sense I hope.

Questions:

1. What is the link to the SGOTM rules? It has been so long since I played a GOTM I should check to see if anything changed.Hello

SGOTM is currently played to GOTM rules. The main GOTM rules are laid out on the introduction page (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/gen/1st_visit.shtml) That page includes a link to the permitted and banned exploit list.

2. What is the link to the scoring system? Again it has been ages since looked at Jason, or are we using another scoring system?The base Firaxis scores are being displayed in the SGOTM progress listings. A Jason calculation is done once the game is over which replaces the Firaxis victory bonus with another bonus that varies according to the victory condition. This aims to make different victory condition scores comparable. There's also a scaling factor to normalise scores for different maps so that scores for different games can be compared.

There's a Jason online calculator >>HERE<< (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/calculator/index.php) There's a link on that page to an explanation of the system. Aeson is the expert. When you understand it, please come back and explain it to me ;)

HTH

PS: There's a GOTM Reference thread stickied in the main GOTM forum, created by Civ_Steve. The first post contains lots of useful reference links.

If anyone has problems differentiating the colours on the score graph please let me know. I personally don't have any colour colour vision problems, so I can't be sure I've chosen a reasonable palette. But I know some of you do, so please contact me here or via PM and advise which ones are causing trouble and I can try to improve it for you.

[PS Requests to change the Kuningas colour to pale blue will receive sympathy, but no action :p ]

I just want to compliment AlanH and the rest of the staff on the job they do regarding GOTM and SGOTM. That submissions page is top notch.

Keep up the good work fellas!

Mad-bax,

can you please correct my nick, I had to upload the SAVE under the wrong nick Leibnitz (correct is without the t)?

Mad-bax,

can you please correct my nick, I had to upload the SAVE under the wrong nick Leibnitz (correct is without the t)?
I have extracted your 't' ;)

Thx Alan :)

As an experiment I have opened a spoiler for SGOTM2.
If it is abused I will close it and there will be no more.

Please adhere to the rules of the spoiler.
Thanks.

The link is >>HERE<< (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=88873)

Please nominate one person from your team to write up a summary of your game once you have met the terms of the spoiler.

I will be away from the boards for approximately 3 weeks from tomorrow. Please direct any queries to Karasu, either through this thread, or by PM.

Be good when I'm gone ;)

Dumb question of the day .. but what is a succession game?

thx for patience

Rather than try to answer this and mess it up

CHECK OUT THIS THREAD (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=14235)

The only thing different in this forum is that we are replaying (kind of) past GOTM's.

Welcome to our little asylum :D

Would it be possible on the scoring data page to also put the team names in the middle of the chart so that it is not necessary to scroll to the top to see which team goes with which column?

Hey guys, it seems that Team DGiT has ran into a bit of a quagmire, and are down to 3 active members, and 1 of those 3 hasn't posted their I Got It in 48 hours. Is that any stand-bys who are willing to pitch in, even if it means they may need to leave if the original player wanted his spot back? If the original will have to be bumped, then so be it, but we really need some support over there. And a strong player to make up for my weaknesses in playing please.:) Remember, I am in a Training Game so I'm not very good. *innoncent smile*

Sorry to hear that, alerum68. Have you tried PM-ing those missing in action?

The problem now is that most candidates will probably have been browsing the other team threads, so I'm not sure where you're going to find an unspoilt player :hmm:

Yeah, we had one of the members who was MIA for a while pop back this morning, but we're still missing one. I think we'll be fine with 4 members though. Didn't think about the others already going ahead and reading the other threads...

Please remove NeoXultragoth from team tao. Despite him signing up for SGOTM2, being assigned to the team, and reading the PMs sent to him, he decided not to report. We should not tolerate such behaviour, IMHO. :mad:

@alerum68, @tao:
Are either of you still looking for an extra player for SGOTM? I'm newish to this Civ3 deal - have a couple of Monarch wins, and am struggling mightily through my first Emperor game (vanilla Civ3). Would be very interested in joining an SGOTM to improve my playing.

I haven't read any of the team or spoiler threads, so I'm a virgin on this particular scenario... Also not yet familiar with the GOTM mods. So while I'd be happy to pitch in on an existing team, you might want to give me a day or 2 before assigning me to play turns.

Cheers,
nikof

Nikof, since I think SC is gone for longer then we thought, go ahead over to the thread.

@ alerum68 & nikof:
Let me know if and when nikof joins DGiT, and who s/he replaces, and I'll update your team list.

Hi again - I hadn't realized this was a PTW game. I only have vanilla C3. I guess that means I won't be able to join this round. Sorry! And good luck anyhoo.

nikof

Try Tao. They are vanilla, as Tao is on a Mac.

When do we need to have the game complete by?

I can't find a ruling on the end date. I know we discussed having a 2 month guillotine at which point the prizes would be awarded, but I don't know if this is cast in the tablets of stone that mad-bax took off to Florida with him to throw at Mickey Mouse and that very annoying "Small World" boat ride.

P'raps Karasu took a photocopy of them before he left?

... I don't know if this is cast in the tablets of stone that mad-bax took off to Florida with him to throw at Mickey Mouse and that very annoying "Small World" boat ride.You know, that's funny... I live about an hour from Orlando... two days ago I swear I saw a small article in the Orlando Sentinel that a dozen Orange County deputies had to subdue a British tourist at the "It's a Small World" ride. Apparently he was threatening to "Return with a Stack of Doom" to "wipe the silly smirk off the AI faces"... as he was carried away in a straight jacket someone overheard him mumbling something in latin... something like Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum...

...but the silly reporter probably got that part wrong.

Actually, instead of carrying off the crazy tourists, they put them in funny costumes, superglue their feet to the floor and make them sing that @#$%^ song. Mad-Bax is Beefeater on the right :D

In fact, I did try to copy Mad's stone tablets, but the scribe had run out of toner and messed it up completely...

As Alan says, we consider a 2-months deadline as a general guideline for SGOTMs, but as far as I can tell it will be adjusted to the specific game: SGOTM 1 was a short one, whereas this one will take some more time.

From what I remember, we were considering the first half of July to close SGOTM2 and launch SGOTM3, but this is going to be reviewed when Mad comes back and gets rid of his Beefeater clothes (or not... :hmm: )

A couple of teams also lost some players and got a bit slowed down -this will be considered too.

...A couple of teams also lost some players and got a bit slowed down....Oh... just a little bit. :rolleyes: How does that maxim go? Something about leading a charge, but checking over your shoulder to make sure they're following?

Fortunately or unfortunately I think the "It's a small World" ride is closed for renovation in FL & CA. I think there was debate about updating the song.

Wasn't it just voted the most annoying (or one that you can't get out of your head) song the other other month?

Hopeful MB will visit EPCOT and partake of a liter or two of Beck's Dark in Germany, one of my favorites.

I wouldn't mind a little report on Mission to Mars if his tummy can take it.

Just a question about SGOTM 3 (I know, I know :coffee: ), but are the plans to start 3 before 2 is complete. (this info would help my planning for joining SG's )

Thanks

Well... that depends on when SGOTM2 is completed :)

As far as I can tell, we are going avoid overlaps as far as possible, but it will all be confirmed when the boss comes back from the fairy world...

Well... that depends on when SGOTM2 is completed :)


That could take a while then, with one team finished and a couple close to finish and some teams hardly moving at all :)

Most teams have completed 150 turns and we are only one month in. I think a few stragglers may go on beyond another month, but most are likely to finish within the two month target.

I don't want to pre-empt mad-bax as it's his decision, but there's absolutely no technical reason why we can't overlap the end of this game with the start of the next. The submissions pages are set up to handle that. And if we did announce another game to start a month from now it would concentrate minds wonderfully. :D

And if we did announce another game to start a month from now it would concentrate minds wonderfully. :D...or ensure that nobody in these events plays a personal epic game again! :crazyeye: Let's see, my team's straggling, I'm not done with COTM1 yet, I'm up in an SG somewhere... and GOTM32 is a couple of days away... :suicide:

Maybe I oughta change my sig to "Live to Civ, Civ to Live, no need for food, I ate yesterday"

Since there is COTM and GOTM Classic now, there are GOTM games starting on the 1st and 15th, so I don't see a need to say that SGOTMs will start on a particular day of the month. Perhaps set a Maximum time limit (3 months should be more than enough) and a Minimum time limit (e.g. 1 or 2 week(s) after date 2/3's of Teams have finished, with announcement coming out on that date). This might give enough flexibility to keep the games flowing, give teams some time to finish up, and allow teams to form up for the next game.

When I try to upload a save file, I get the error messagetrying to index G_LEAD in class civfile

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /home/virtual/site7/fst/var/www/html/BabyBeast/BabyBeast.php on line 100

:confused:

When I try to upload a save file, I get the error messageSorry Tao. I updated the SGOTM code to bring it in line with the latest version, and one of the new files failed to upload. It should work now.

We (Team Handy) have a problem, Houston :(

I'm getting a consistent crash on the inter-turn after turn 6 (during Japanese movement phase). I've reloaded & replayed; restarted, reloaded & replayed; and reloaded, made an insignificant unit move and replayed. The game crashes at the same point every time.

Anyone got any suggestions?


Ted

We (Team Handy) have a problem, Houston :(

I'm getting a consistent crash on the inter-turn after turn 6 (during Japanese movement phase). I've reloaded & replayed; restarted, reloaded & replayed; and reloaded, made an insignificant unit move and replayed. The game crashes at the same point every time.

Anyone got any suggestions?


Ted

Have you tried an earlier save? You should have an auto save from the beginning of turn 5. You might try that one out.

Have you tried an earlier save? You should have an auto save from the beginning of turn 5. You might try that one out.Yep... had a similar problem at the end of turn 4 but a unit move seemed to clear the problem.


Ted

Yep... had a similar problem at the end of turn 4 but a unit move seemed to clear the problem.


Ted

Was turn 4 the first occurrance of the error? If we don't get any better suggestion from a more tech experienced person, you might want to try a turn 3 save, something prior to the first error. Does the same error occur if another teammate plays from the current save or do you have a second machine you could try it on? (Is the error embedded in the SAV or is it a possible conflict with a setting or something on your machine.)

I'd also recommend posting in the Tech Support area and seeing if you can get some help there.

It's definitely the save as I get the same behaviour on my laptop :(

I think that the GotM staff have a utility for checking rogue saves so hopefully someone will pop in and offer to to have a look and I've PM'd Karasu for some help :)

Oops, forgot to say thanks for your attempts to help :blush: :)


Ted

If you want to email it to me at alanh(at)gotm(dot)civfanatics(dot)net I'll run it through our checker to see if it throws anything up. As I don't have PtW I couldn't load it up to peek/have a laugh, even if I wanted to ;)

EDIT: Just realised that email is prolly not working as it's on teh gotm server. I'll PM my private email to you.

Cheers Alan,

I've e-mailed the offender :)


Ted

Is there going to be a second spoiler thread?

Is there going to be a second spoiler thread?From the looks of some of the score lines that end in a little "x", not for all of us... :D

Seriously, I was just about to ask the same thing.

Yes, the X marks the end of the line. I did think of planting little tombstones on those points :D

A second and final spoiler for this game may be found >>HERE<< (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=91781)

Is there an official end date for SGOTM 2 yet?

Bugs,

I haven't employed the guillotine on this game since it was my belief that all games would finish before the next one started. Also, since it is technically possible to overlap the games without the risk of human error (namely ME!) then there is less reason to do it.

The only time I can envisage using the guillotine again is if a team decides to try to milk a win in order to claim the green laurel.

Just for reference, the plan is to release a new SGOTM every 2 months (so the title is a misnomer :p) and for 90% of games to finish in 10 weeks. The start date of the games is chosen so as not to clash with GOTM or COTM