Hall of Fame Rules/FAQ

EMan said:

You can save even more time if you utilize Moonsinger's Map Finder utility program to generate maps according to your parameters. This program is permissible for generating maps to be used in HOF submissions. (It's 11 years old but still a Great Utility Program!)

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=75992

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Thanks for the info. I wanted to request another thing:
Could somebody please explain to me the rules regarding reloading the game and please tell me if this would disqualify my game from submission:
I usually play civ3 during any time I can steal from in between school, Coaching and other such crap and my playing sessions range from 20-25 minutes to an hour and a half. So, what I wanted to ask was that does this violate the reloading rule which says something about reload frequency of 30 minutes. Also I saw your conquest victory in the HOF at just 3800 BC. That was BLAZING FAST man !!! Did u generate the map for that game too with this Mapfinder Utility ?
Thanks. Really Appreciate the Help.

30 minutes is kind of a minimum expectation. Longer sessions are totally permitted...

superslug said:

30 minutes is kind of a minimum expectation. Longer sessions are totally permitted...

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Thanks Now I'll play only when I'm sure that I'll be able at least play 30 minutes .

You can always just leave the game running until you can get back to it.

CKS said:

You can always just leave the game running until you can get back to it.

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Yup that's what I've been doing for a while now.

Atishay Jain said:

...Also I saw your conquest victory in the HOF at just 3800 BC. That was BLAZING FAST man !!! Did u generate the map for that game too with this Mapfinder Utility ?...

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Yes! All my fast Conquest Victories were from maps generated by MapFinder.........I looked at literally dozens of starting positions!

Without Moonsinger's utility program, the odds are very long that you'll get a Super-Great start position.

Can i use save/load in my game for HoF? For examle, if my unit loses in battle and i want to replay it?

Korvin_Melarsky said:

Can i use save/load in my game for HoF? For examle, if my unit loses in battle and i want to replay it?

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No. This is completely unacceptable.

It's covered under the disallowed sections of the rules:
http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ3/rules.php?show=settings

superslug said:

No. This is completely unacceptable.

It's covered under the disallowed sections of the rules:
http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ3/rules.php?show=settings

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thx, but i can see only "Preserve Random Seed" in that rules. So if i lose, i can download save and move another units and then try to attack again untill my unit will win (searching for a combination of moves which will be the most efficient). It will be legal?

The HOF website was down earlier this week but is loading okay for me now. I don't know why it's not working for you, but you really shouldn't attempt HOF games until you have read the rules.

But to answer your question, no, reloading your saves to try again or to try new moves is completely against the rules. It is illegal.

superslug said:

The HOF website was down earlier this week but is loading okay for me now. I don't know why it's not working for you, but you really shouldn't attempt HOF games until you have read the rules.

But to answer your question, no, reloading your saves to try again or to try new moves is completely against the rules. It is illegal.

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1. ok, i understand. if i have 1 save/load now - can i continue my game for HoF? or i have to abandon it now and start a new one?

2. i've read the topic. the rules are really stupid. i can use MapFinder to have the best start but can not use save\load. its out of logic. it has to be "no random start+no random battle results" or "random battle resultes+ random start".

Saving and reloading doesn't take any kind of skill or strategy to pull off, it's just cheating, so it's banned. MapFinder, on the other hand, is allowed because it really just saves players time from manually generating maps over and over.

If you have an existing game/save you're working on and want to know if the settings are HOF legal, login to the Hall of Fame and check through the 4000bc checker.

i realized there were some issues with the HoF site when i tried to submit my Demigod game. it did not work twice but when I left out the 1000bc save, it seemed to work alright. could you please acknowledge that it went through? i will see then whether it got accepted.

re reloading, i think it should be quite clear why that one is strictly disallowed. of course everyone is allowed to differ and say so. however, Korvin, registering for a site, starting off without really understanding the rules, and then calling those rules stupid looks like bad style to me.

t_x

The Maya/Domination submission? Yeah, it's in and good. Three more good submissions in from all players and I'll update.

thanks for that information!
t_x

Right then, I have a question about loading the game, more specifically loading when the game crashes from the autosave.

Every once in a while the game crashes when I change specialist roles. I've had this problem a few times before, but haven't really cared since I usually prefer the tiny maps and can always start a new game without feeling I had invested too much time, but this time I'm doing a histographic game on a standard map which makes it a long and slow game for me.

My last opponent is down to one city since god knows how long and there is really not much to do anymore other than keeping everyone happy and managing the specialists. I'm playing Civ Conquests bought and run through Steam, but I don't think that should make any difference, or does it?

So before I endeavor to push through the last 210 turns of the game, I'd like to ask whether it's okay to load from the autosave, since if it's not allowed (although I assume other people's games crash too) I wouldn't want to grind through all of the micromanaging just to find out it could not be accepted.

Any tips with regards to the crashing are welcomed, I might have a old set of smiley badge popheads that isn't compatible, but gosh I wouldn't want to start all over. Hours and hours of game time lost. And honestly, histographic games are so demanding. Gotta have patience, gotta have patience, gotta have patience

Well, speaking as a Milker, I can relate to the problem of Game Crashes. There is a bug in the program.

For me, most of the crashes occur after I abandon a city and then hit the F1 key, but it could happen at any time.........I don't think the cause of the crashes has been determined. (If so, somebody please enlighten us!)

My procedure (whether it helps or not I don't know) is:
1. I save the game
2. Abandon the city
3. Open a city with a harbor
4. Move the laborers around
5. Click on the City Tile
6. Move the laborers to where I want them
7. Save the game
8. Cross your fingers
9. Hit the F1 key.

If it's going to crash, it will probably do so now!

BOTTOM LINE: Yes, it's okay to reload the latest game save after a Crash. (Otherwise Huge Histographic games would never be finished!! )

P.s. Whenever the game crashes, I endeavor to do a screen save (viz. Prnt Scrn, Paste into Paint, save file), so that I can prove that the game did crash, without my help, if 'slug or another moderator wants to know and see the evidence! (This also proves that I didn't deliberately crash the game because, for example, I didn't like the result of a battle......That would be cheating!)

Thank you for the reply and the info. I will finish the game however slowly it moves along, and if the mods object I will accept their ruling and do another attempt. Now I actually managed to get the correct set of popHeads installed. I don’t know what I was thinking, I just pulled up an old file from a veeery old flash drive It was really stupid of me, but as I haven’t played Civ 3 for something like 10 years, I really didn't remember there being new specialists in Conquests. That being fixed I hope that the specialist-change-crash won't happen again.

I did unfortunately not get a screenshot, I didn't even think of it. The game just shut down and I got that "Civ stopped working.... Windows is looking for a solution" I think, or maybe the game was visible in the background until no solution was found or. I don't know, it happened really fast and I got this feeling of panic combined with total defeat as the game started so beautifully with me in the south east, all but one of my opponents locked in the north east, me being free to expand west and just pick them off one by one and push them to make war against each other.

Well, if it's any consolation, I've never been asked to produce a Screenshot in 14 years......Let's face it, the HOF is an Honor-based system.

If you say the game crashed, the Moderators will believe you.

Happy Milking!

To my knowledge, we've never asked for a screenshot.

Crashes do occasionally happen. One or two over the course of a milking phase don't really raise a red flag for us. A half dozen crashes in the first two hours of the game, and alarm bells go off in my head.