Civ1 DOS Succession Game!

Alright, let's start this!!
Current player list:
*Siegmund
*Bob_Smurf
*addiv
*stormerne
*stwils
*pdescobar
*cliff
*gonzo_for_civ
*Irish Caesar

This will be a random map game, we'll play as Green, but a custom tribe and custom cities.(In the style of the Apolyton Civ2 SXN games) Victory conditions: World Domination

I'm busy atm, Siegmund plz start us off.

How A Succession(SXN) Game Works:
For those who aren't familar, a succession game is a single player game where one person plays 15 turns, then posts a save and a log of important things. The next player on the list plays 15 turns, then posts the save and a log. The third player plays 10 turns, posts...you get the idea. For more info, try
this thread.

Do you have room for one more player?
Have people decided what level this is to be played on?

Please, I want in. (I was the one who started the SG thread!)

My experience with SG games is that you can use more players as toward the end a lot of folks drop out.

May I play?

stwils

Added both of you. stwils, I would have added you earlier, but I didn't know what version you have.

Did we have a decision as to what level?

Smurf, do you want me to generate the map when I start? (And I didn't play Civ2 or spend much time at Apolyton.. so youll have to fill me on what the spirit of that entails.) In particular, if you choose a custom civ name you get a random colour in Civ1... have to actually pick the Babs or Zulus if you want to be sure of green.

I have the DOS version with 4 floppies.

I also have WinCiv and CivNet.

Thanks for taking me in!

stwils

What sort of pace do these things have? That is, how many 15-turn sessions are expected to take place in a given day? It sounds like a neat idea and despite the fact that I haven't played civ1 with anything but the goal of taking screenshots in many years I am intrigued...

Siegmund---
*I don't think we decided on level of play. I'm fine with whatever you all want.

*Yes, just do a random map, or customize how you want it. I'd start, but I really don't have time.

*Over at Apolyton, whoever starts, usually the Scouse Gits, customizes the tribe at the start, and of course names the first city(s). Everyone else follows the "theme" when naming.

*I had thought that you got the color and city list of whatever tribe the cursor was on when you hit Escape. Try that and see if it works.

pdescobar---
Usually you get 1-2 sessions per week. After the first few ppl play, it usually gets cut to 10 turns to give everyone more sessions, but that's in civ2, so we'll figure this out as we go.
Do you have the DOS version? If so, I'll add you, if not, go here instead.

Cool, I can handle that kind of pace Yeah, I have Civ DOS, versions 1 and 5 although I think only 5 works on this comp

Let's have a quick vote on level. I'd be happiest with King or Emperor but I'll play lower if that's the general vote. (I normally play Civ2 on Emperor too.) What about the rest of you guys?

I used to play King back in the day so that'd be my first choice, followed by Prince, Emperor, Warlord, Chieftain.

OK ... I'll get us started off. Watch this space for details. With luck I'll play my set tonight and have the file up in the morning.

It's official... our first Civ1 succession game has begun!!

Flipped my 3-sided coin 4 times to see what world we would get: Large landmass, temperate, normal precip, 3 billion years. The two posters and I all seem to prefer King level, so I went with that.

Wasted much of the evening trying to think of a good tribe and theme. I went with King Mongkut of the Siamese (the king in "The King and I"), and realized I don't know the name of a single city in that country except Bangkok - but hey, that's the next player's problem (and tiles are so big that the next city over is a couple thousand miles away anyway.)

The starting position:

We were generously given Alphabet, Bronze Working, and Mapmaking for free. (Wow - it almost never gives you mapmaking for free! Are we on a really crappy island or something?)

The first 9 squares were

Plains Plains Plains
BGrass Plains Plains
Grass Plains Game

so my plan was to move onto the bonus grass and decide in 3980 about founding our capital.

----

(0) 4000BC: moved West, was delighted to see two more bonus grasslands appear.

(1) 3980BC: Founded Bangkok. Moved the slider to 100% science -- all one arrow's worth of it. Started militia.

My research plan was Masonry->mathematics for early catapults, and ceremonial burial->mysticism for civil disorder control.

Rats! the only choices I was offered for my first tech were Code of Laws, Currency, Iron Working, Pottery, and The Wheel. I ruled out the last 3 since these are usually available as trades and I prefer catapults to legions or chariots for ancient warfare. I went with Code of Laws. Currency gives us marketplaces, but CoL is needed on the way to trade, libraries, and the republic.

(6) 3880BC: Militia finished. Started settler. Started exploring with militiaman.

(7-11): There is just 1 square of land north, and 3 squares west, of us before we hit ocean. Land extends off the map in all directions, but I speculate that to the NW will be just a short peninsula, and turn the militiaman south.

(12) 3760BC: Bangkok has grown to size 2 and is working two bonus grasslands. Settler due in 9 turns. I am tempted to shift it to work the fish to the NNW for the extra science, but leave it rather than delay the settler.

The militiaman has discovered coal, 4S2W from Bangkok.

(14) 3720BC: Popped a hut at 4S4W (far enough away to let me build a phalanx if I get barbarians)... 50 gold pieces.

(15) 3700BC: Code of Laws discovered. Started Masonry. Tech rate is now 24 turns, until we get some more arrows.

---- Thoughts for next player:

Lots of bonus grassland in the explored portion of the territory. Two good city sites will be to the NW on that peninsula (at the edge of the fog), and to the SW within reach of the coal.

When the settler emerges I think it would be worth taking the time to build road on 1 or 2 BG squares to get science moving again. Getting the science rate down to 6-8 turns right away is important if we want to be able to fight offensive and not defensive wars.

The only screenshot I could get was a tiny little postage stamp - for some reason I didn't get a full size screen capture from PrtSc. Sorry, all! The known universe is a region 6x10 tiles, almost all forest and grassland except for the plains where we started.

Assuming the list of players in the first message is our roster: Smurf is up, gonzo is next.

The 3700BC civil1.map and civil1.sve are attached. I have also saved at 3980BC, if anyone should want to revisit the starting position later.

I have downloaded the save into my "mps" file and into my civ dos folder.

But when I open the game and try to load the save (from my c drive) it is not there.

I've had no problem downloading and playing civ3 saves in SG's. What am I doing wrong here?

stwils

I'd like to play a few turns in this game! Will you add me to the list or am I too late?

Stwils, I think the files must be in the root directory or the program won't find them. I tried saving the files on a floppy and I had no problems loading the game.

What do you say about making some general plans for the game before playing? Should we try early conquest or late high tech conquest/space ship? This decision will affect play from the very beginning.

stwils, just make sure the files are in the same folder with all the other civ1 files. I downloaded the archive, renamed them to civil8.* cause I had an empty spot in the list there, and loaded the game just fine in order to get an official first-session screenshot placed below and make sure I could participate okay.

Regarding city names, you can use Plexus' list as a guide or open up your Atlas to the Thailand page

Here's the screen. Oops, our little militia is down SW of the coal I think, but I guess I caught him mid-blink

Cliff, I just read the civ tech supplement that came with my DOS 4 floppies. It talks about formatting a floppy in DOS to save games on. I have no idea how to do that.

I saved the siam game to my civ file. When I opened the file (in C drive) it was in a vise (compressed.) I opened it with Win Zip. But now I can't find it in the file and not when I open the game.

I'm not DOS savvy. Help.

stwils

stwils, The file Siegmund posted is a zip file containing a "civil1.sve" and "civil1.map" Open that zip file in WinZip and you should see those 2 filenames listed. Now click the "Extract" button and navigate to the directory where you have civ1.

Here's an example screenshot from my setup. I have civ1 installed in the folder "D:\Program Files\Games\DOSand3.1\CIV" so that's where I select in the winzip screen when extracting the files. Then, when I start civ1 and it asks for the drive the save files are on, I make sure it says "D:" and hit return and there's a "King Mongkut of the Siamese, 3700 BC" second in the list. In your case, the directory should be your civ1 directory and the drive should be the drive that directory is part of.

If you are actually playing the game from the floppies, I'm not sure what you'd do. In that case, you may have to extract the files to the root of the C: drive or just extract them to any floppy disk you have with enough free space. Formatting a blank disk from within windows should work fine.

OK. I now have the game in my save game list. When I opened with Win Zip I had failed to drag and drop the unzipped files in a spot in the file.

I think I only have room for 8 saved games. Do most of you save to a floppy? If so, what do I have to do to the floppy for it to be formatted. (My blank floppies are all IBM formatted.)

stwils

My floppy drive is sad and lonely from neglect You can always create an archive folder where you can store off save game file pairs by copying them to that folder and renaming them descriptively. Then, if you ever wanted to use them again, just copy back and rename to one of the standard "civil?.*" names.

A floppy which says it is "IBM formatted" should be already fine to use. To format it explicitly, put it in the drive, go to "My Computer", right-click the floppy drive icon and choose "Format."