SGOTM 13 - Maintenance Thread

AlanH

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SGOTM 13 - Napoleon's Revenge



This thread gives you and the Staff somewhere to post about non-spoiler issues relating to the game. It is a way of communicating to the rest of the players outside your team, and with the staff about matters that affect your team or everyone. You can post about bugs, rule clarifications, problems with the roster etc., but please do not divulge information about your team's progress. Please subscribe to this thread so that you are kept up to date with new information as the game proceeds.

The team lists are at the end of this post.

In this game you are playing Napoleon of the French. Following your defeat by the Sixth Coalition you have been forced to abdicate and exiled to the remote island of Elba. It is time for you to take your revenge on the European powers that have defeated you. Are you up for the challenge, or are you going to end up like the real Napoleon, defeated and condemned to finish your life in exile for the second time?

Thanks for this scenario go to DynamicSpirit.

Timetable

The game will start on February 25.

As teams seem to be uncomfortable with less than four months to complete, the completion deadline will be June 25.

Game Settings
This is the start of the game (click for a bigger image):



  • Level: Notionally Emperor, but this is a difficult map for warring.
  • Map: You start surrounded by tiny islands (you are after all in exile). Your European opponents have rather more land available.
  • Options: Vassals are disabled. No random events. No goody huts.
  • Victory Conditions: All enabled (for the AIs).
  • World Wrap: Cyclindrical.
  • Speed: Epic
  • Opponents: 6 European AIs.
  • Special Map Features: To avoid the game turning into a great-lighthouse-rush, one of your opponents has been pre-settled and already owns a lighthouse and the great lighthouse.

Note that although the real-life Napoleon was exiled in 1814 AD, this game is a standard 4000BC start in all aspects other than the heavily modified map. Also, your opponents aren't exactly the countries of the sixth coalition - DS admits he took a bit of artistic license!

Awards
The laurels will go to the teams that can secure the conquest or domination victory with the earliest in-game dates.

Wooden spoons will go to the team who finishes the game (win or lose) with the lowest score.

Notes
  • Versions
    This game will be played in Civilization IV Beyond the Sword, version 3.19, using the standard BUFFY-3.19.003 HoF mod.
    If a later BtS patch is released during this game you will NOT be able to use it to play. You will need to complete this game in BtS version 3.19 before updating your copy of BtS, or create and update a separate copy.

    Mac players can only join in if they are able to run the Windows software on their system.
  • Rules and Procedures
    Please visit the Civ4 SGOTM reference thread to check out the rules and procedures to ensure that you are adequately prepared for this game.

    All saved game files uploaded to the server are parsed through software that extracts and archives data about your save, including reload count for each turn set.
  • Spoiler information will absolutely NOT be tolerated in this thread.

Team Lists

 
I noticed that every SGOTM 13 thread has had a good number of early page views.

While I would like to believe that every team currently has a bunch of active members viewing the forum as we speak, it could also be that some people are just in the habit of reading all new threads. I would like to give a friendly reminder to everyone to only open their own team's SGOTM 13 thread.

With some people reading other teams' SGOTM 12 threads that appear in Bold text (threads with unread messages) due to boredom or other reasons over the last few weeks, it may be hard to break the habit of wanting to read every thread... but now that the SGOTM 13 threads are up, it is the time to break that habit, to avoid breaking the rules. ;)
 
A valid point, but I think you underestimate the genuine interest level in this competition from non-players/lurkers.
 
A valid point, but I think you underestimate the genuine interest level in this competition from non-players/lurkers.

I think all team captains should advice their team members to use the subscribe to thread options or bookmark your teams page directly. This is especially true on mobile devices where touch screens can be hard to control.

If everyone does the above it leaves very little excuse for accidentally clicking on a wrong thread.

Perhaps also remind them to view the maintenance thread(This thread) and the reference thread to make sure they are up to date with possible game issue and the way these games work.
 
WARNING:

Real Life pressures mean that we *may* have to delay the start of this game by a couple of days to 27 February. If we do, I don't expect to change the end deadline.

Watch this space. You may have a couple more days to contemplate that first settler move :)
 
CONFIRMATION

The start files will now be available on Sunday morning - 27 February.
 
Level: Notionally Emperor, but this is a difficult map for warring.
Map: You start surrounded by tiny islands (you are after all in exile). Your European opponents have rather more land available.
Options: Vassals are disabled.
Victory Conditions: All enabled (for the AIs).
World Wrap: Cyclindrical.
Speed: Epic
Opponents: 6 European AIs.
Special Map Features: To avoid the game turning into a great-lighthouse-rush, one of your opponents has been pre-settled and already owns a lighthouse and the great lighthouse.

Hi,
I've followed the discussion in the pre-game thread, and I believe that "No Random Events" and "No huts" are options that have been added to this game. Could you please update the game description to match all the present options for the game?

Also, if there are any other options not listed that are checked, please include those as well (such as "no barbs/raging barbs").

Thx!
 
Hi,
I've followed the discussion in the pre-game thread, and I believe that "No Random Events" and "No huts" are options that have been added to this game. Could you please update the game description to match all the present options for the game?

Also, if there are any other options not listed that are checked, please include those as well (such as "no barbs/raging barbs").

Thx!

If you read thread and debate about what game should include DS removed these options. I would expect no huts or events.

Most other games settings will be apparent when live game arrives. I doubt they will reveal much more before the live save.
 
If you read thread and debate about what game should include DS removed these options. I would expect no huts or events.

Most other games settings will be apparent when live game arrives. I doubt they will reveal much more before the live save.

I believe that DynamicSpirit also mentioned that all options will be the default values, other than Tribal Villages (None) and Events (None) which were changed after much discussion.

So, force your BtS to all default settings by deleting its CivilizationIV.ini file and it will regenerate it with the default settings. Just change Tribal Villages and Events to None and you will see what the options are. The settings not something that will be revealed with the "live save". However, the true nature of the Map, may or may not be revealed with the "live save". So, regarding the Map, Gumbolt, you are absolutely correct. Teams can only guess at its nature, other than what the SGOTM-13 announcement (post #1) has already revealed.

kcd_swede is simply asking that this description be updated to include "No Tribal Villages", "No Events" and any other settings that may have been revealed by DynamicSpirit by the several SGOTM-13 spin-off threads. Some players may not have read them all and if they did, perhaps not "word for word". There is nothing wrong with asking that the SGOTM-13 description be updated with the facts as they are publicly. Indeed, I do believe that for fairness, if for no other reason, AlanH and DynamicSpirit will update the description to reflect all publicly known details about SGOTM-13, including "No Tribal Villages" and "No Events" settings. I do not believe that they will leave such details scattered through several different spin-off threads, but they may decide that posting a confirmation in this thread would suffice; that is up to them. As I understand it, the canonical description of SGOTM-13 is post #1 of this thread.

EDIT: Sorry, I see that "No Tribal Villages" and "No Events" settings are already mentioned in post #1 at least 18 hours before I posted this. Also, the non-default "No Vassals" was mentioned when the game was announced; I should have mentioned this "obvious" exception to the default settings.


Sun Tzu Wu
 
The final preparations for this game have gone very well. We didn't need the contingency days we had allowed, and we even have the new team name for the Unallocated players before their deadline.

So it looks as if we shall be ready to release the saves on the original schedule. I have therefore set the start date to February 25. The saves will be available on the SGOTM Progress Page at midnight server time tonight. That's 06:00 UTC/GMT on Friday morning.

The saves are individually branded for each team. Please make sure you ONLY download your own team's save - and please don't mix it up with your test games!

The new team will be called TNT, and I have changed their thread name to match.
 
There are links in the first post of this Maintenance Thread to the general SGOTM Reference Thread, and to the SGOTM Progress and Results page, where you will find your latest save during or after each turn set plus some progress graphs for all the teams.

For new players, and those who have forgotten what they read, here is a reminder of a few key points:

You must have the BUFFY-3.19.03 mod installed in order to open your team's competition saves.

Teams decide who will play each turn set. That player is the "active player" until the turn set is completed. Teams decide how long each turn set will be, and this may vary during the game, depending on how busy each turn is. Typically they may be ten turns, but might reduce to five turns during intense military manoeuvres.

At the end of each turn set, or at any time during it when you want to share the current game state with your team, the active player must upload your latest save here. You must *never* go back to an earlier save and replay any turn or part of a turn. The *only* exception to that is if you experience a crash.

The players who are not playing the current turn set may open the latest team save, but they must not make any irreversible changes while it is open. No unit moves, no changes to diplomacy conditions, no changes to city activity. You can "Look But Don't Touch". This allows you to open previous saves and make screenshots or check a previous status.

To minimise the impact of a crash you *must* have auto-saves set to happen every turn. Then you should be able to reload the latest autosave and replay the moves and decisions you made during the current turn. You should notify me if you have to do this. To do this, edit the ...\My Games\Beyond the Sword\CivilizationIV.ini file using Notepad, change the interval to '1', and save it:

Code:
; Specify the number of turns between autoSaves.  0 means no autosave.
AutoSaveInterval = 1
 
Only if you END the turn! ;)

Right, but above it says:

The players who are not playing the current turn set may open the latest team save, but they must not make any irreversible changes while it is open. No unit moves, no changes to diplomacy conditions, no changes to city activity. You can "Look But Don't Touch". This allows you to open previous saves and make screenshots or check a previous status.

emphasis added
 
I said "irreversible" You may be confident that you know what is and is not reversible, but unless players are certain, I strongly suggest they don't test this to destruction.

I have always felt that fiddling with the save when you are not playing is a high risk activity. But it seems to be an irrepressible urge!
 
I'm a spectator, so I don't have a horse in this game, but it's always problematic when the rules aren't consistent. If changes to city activity are not actually forbidden, then the rules shouldn't include them in the forbidden actions list.
 
I'm a spectator, so I don't have a horse in this game, but it's always problematic when the rules aren't consistent. If changes to city activity are not actually forbidden, then the rules shouldn't include them in the forbidden actions list.
Please, this isn't that difficult. The rule is consistent and quite simple.

Changing the assignment of citizens or checking build queue times are reversible actions.

Pop rushing something is not because you cannot change it back.

If you do not understand what is or is not reversible, please ask in your team threads as those who have played for some time will be able to help you along.
 
I'm a spectator, so I don't have a horse in this game, but it's always problematic when the rules aren't consistent. If changes to city activity are not actually forbidden, then the rules shouldn't include them in the forbidden actions list.

I'm not stating new rules, I'm giving advice to new players. The rules are unchanged from previous games.
 
Yes, but since the post was a mix of rules and advice, how are new players supposed to tell the difference? "No changes to city activity" is a fairly clear statement.

Anyway, since it's clear that reversible changes to city activity are not forbidden, I'll bow out of this discussion.
 
The safe play is to set the game to pause mode at the end of your turnset. If you really want to play around with city tiles you can always set up a seperate test game.
 
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