81500 points on settler but can't submit
- Thread starter Shillen
- Start date
It is only my first day on staff, but I think it is safe to say go ahead and submit what you have and let Superslug decide. It is still a Beta so he might accept it.
Until someone builds another utility to archive the autosaves, we are just going to have to remember to save that first save. I have gotten into the habit of alt-tab out and renaming the initial autosave if a have a good one going.
BTW, sound like a good game.
You going to do a writeup?
Until someone builds another utility to archive the autosaves, we are just going to have to remember to save that first save. I have gotten into the habit of alt-tab out and renaming the initial autosave if a have a good one going.
BTW, sound like a good game.
You going to do a writeup?
Can I get out of writing a utility by telling you to look at the following options in the CivilizationIV.ini file? 
I.e. set the first to something high and the second to 1.
Note the first only applies to the 1.52 patch.
I.e. set the first to something high and the second to 1.
Note the first only applies to the 1.52 patch.
Dianthus said:Can I get out of writing a utility by telling you to look at the following options in the CivilizationIV.ini file?
I.e. set the first to something high and the second to 1.
Note the first only applies to the 1.52 patch.
That wasn't a roundabout hint.I have been resisting the urge to set the max to 540.
540 
In 1.52 it's 320, 460, 660, 1200 turns for Quick, Normal, Epic, Marathon respectively.
In 1.52 it's 320, 460, 660, 1200 turns for Quick, Normal, Epic, Marathon respectively.
That's one of the reasons I haven't done it. Too lazy to figure out how many turns each was. Of course, now I don't have to...Dianthus said:540
Isn't 540 the number of turns in Civ3?
Yes.Denniz said:
And players should feel free to submit even if they don't have the 4000bc file. Send in the earliest save you do have, and you'll probably get a warning email about the 4000bc, but we're being lenient during the beta, as one of the many purposes of the beta is so that players have time to get accustomed to the rules before we start the permanent and really enforce things to the letter.
I played on a duel sized map against Gandhi. I used a balanced map with tropical climate, high sea level on epic speed. I played as Caesar to take advantage of reduced upkeep, cheap granaries and the health bonus. I built two workers first to forest chop. I chopped a ton of settlers out of Rome at size 1. Each new city stayed size 1 also producing workers until I had 14 cities and 12 workers. I built the cities really close together and built no culture buildings at all so I could manage what tiles I had and prevent domination. Of course Gandhi was grabbing all the religions in the meantime and spreading them to me so it wasn't as easy to prevent expansion as I was hoping.
I researched worker techs first, including iron working to chop jungles, then on to monarchy and feudalism for hereditary rule and serfdom. Feudalism took me forever to research because I only had farms built and due to maintenance my science slider was down to 10-20% much of the time. Then I realized that civil service was going to take forever unless I sped up my research rate so I started building cottages on all squares that couldn't have farms (I had finished all the farms already). This proved to speed up my research enough. Once I got civil service in around 300AD or so I quickly irrigated all the rest of the land. My cities were on emphasize growth the entire game and I let the governors max it out.
Meanwhile when the cities were done building workers/settlers I had them building all warriors (until I got hunting) then switched to chariots (until I irrigated over my horses) then switched to axes/spears. The point was to have tons of military police to keep my cities happy and growing quickly. Post 500AD my score was growing very slowly and I decided it was time to end it so I went to war with Gandhi (although I knew cultural expansion would trigger domination on its own soon. I didn't quite finish gandhi off (he had 3 wounded archers left in his capital) when domination was triggered in 580AD.
edit: Of course my cities built granaries before starting on military production. Also after civil service I researched towards machinery for windmills, then currency, and then I just started grabbing all the techs I had bypassed that I could get in 1-2 turns to boost my score.
I researched worker techs first, including iron working to chop jungles, then on to monarchy and feudalism for hereditary rule and serfdom. Feudalism took me forever to research because I only had farms built and due to maintenance my science slider was down to 10-20% much of the time. Then I realized that civil service was going to take forever unless I sped up my research rate so I started building cottages on all squares that couldn't have farms (I had finished all the farms already). This proved to speed up my research enough. Once I got civil service in around 300AD or so I quickly irrigated all the rest of the land. My cities were on emphasize growth the entire game and I let the governors max it out.
Meanwhile when the cities were done building workers/settlers I had them building all warriors (until I got hunting) then switched to chariots (until I irrigated over my horses) then switched to axes/spears. The point was to have tons of military police to keep my cities happy and growing quickly. Post 500AD my score was growing very slowly and I decided it was time to end it so I went to war with Gandhi (although I knew cultural expansion would trigger domination on its own soon. I didn't quite finish gandhi off (he had 3 wounded archers left in his capital) when domination was triggered in 580AD.
edit: Of course my cities built granaries before starting on military production. Also after civil service I researched towards machinery for windmills, then currency, and then I just started grabbing all the techs I had bypassed that I could get in 1-2 turns to boost my score.
Sort of a "controlled ICS" strategy. 
For low difficulty levels at least. I wonder what the highest difficulty you could get away with it on. Using an outward in strategy might keep it working in some cases. <sigh> Another thing to try.
For low difficulty levels at least. I wonder what the highest difficulty you could get away with it on. Using an outward in strategy might keep it working in some cases. <sigh> Another thing to try. Yeah the strategy will have to be modified on higher difficulties for sure. By the time I had 14 cities Gandhi only had 2. I doubt you could accomplish this without some warring on higher levels. I thought I'd start on the lowest level to get an idea of how to maximize score and work my way up the difficulties adding in any adjustments necessary.
Some random thoughts after this game:
1) The limitation of having to settle 3 tiles away from another city can cause problems. It would be better to space my cities out early and fill in later to prevent the high number of cities maintenance, but that would require leaving 6 spaces between cities which is possibly too many.
2) It might be better to go cottage heavy early just to tech to civil service faster, then switch to full growth after that.
3) It might be worth it to go all the way to biology for the +1 food on farms and grow your cities really large, if you can tech fast enough. I'll have to try this one out at some point. Right now my hunch is that it won't be helpful to do that, as the early victory bonus can be quite large.
4) The capital's cultural expansion must be accounted for. This means you must have all good food tiles for at least 3 expansion from the capital. Then place cities all around the capital to use those tiles.
5) Rather than trying to prevent expansions, allow for at least 1 expansion in each perimeter city due to religion.
6) Chop every forest on the map before even worrying about improving the land. Lots and lots of settlers and workers are needed.
Some random thoughts after this game:
1) The limitation of having to settle 3 tiles away from another city can cause problems. It would be better to space my cities out early and fill in later to prevent the high number of cities maintenance, but that would require leaving 6 spaces between cities which is possibly too many.
2) It might be better to go cottage heavy early just to tech to civil service faster, then switch to full growth after that.
3) It might be worth it to go all the way to biology for the +1 food on farms and grow your cities really large, if you can tech fast enough. I'll have to try this one out at some point. Right now my hunch is that it won't be helpful to do that, as the early victory bonus can be quite large.
4) The capital's cultural expansion must be accounted for. This means you must have all good food tiles for at least 3 expansion from the capital. Then place cities all around the capital to use those tiles.
5) Rather than trying to prevent expansions, allow for at least 1 expansion in each perimeter city due to religion.
6) Chop every forest on the map before even worrying about improving the land. Lots and lots of settlers and workers are needed.
MetHimPikeHoses
Unarmed Insurgent
Shillen-- That's an interesting scheme... maybe I missed it, by why were you trying to prevent domination?
Because my cities were growing so fast that the points I was gaining from population were greater than the points I was losing from finishing later. For instance if I had finished about 25 turns sooner my score would have only been around 60-65k.
MetHimPikeHoses
Unarmed Insurgent
How are you doing your score calculations?
Could you post a save?
Could you post a save?
You know where it shows each civ's scores in the bottom right of the screen? If you hover over your own civ it will say how many points you would get if you finished this turn. So I keep going until that starts to drop and then I go for victory. I didn't anticipate it well on the chieftain game though. It was up over 113,000 at one point. So I lost 1500 points by the time I got victory. I was going to conquer england to get victory but it was taking too long so I switched to caste system and hired 3 artists in each city which caused them all to expand in one turn and get me domination.
I can post a save when I get home from work.
I can post a save when I get home from work.
Craterus22
King
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2001
- Messages
- 689
Really interesting read... the scores I posted had nothing to do with population pumping (which is evident in the lower nature of thier scores).
very cool idea though...
interesting that they didn't want to have ICS strategies in cIV and then created a scoring system that rewards population so lucratively.
Perhaps they need to pump up the maintenance in a non-linear way if they want to get serious about slowing ICS. Or maybe, have population be rewarded lesser in the early game and have it become more valuable overtime?
note: not slamming the strategy at all - I am just curious about the game design decisions...
very cool idea though...
interesting that they didn't want to have ICS strategies in cIV and then created a scoring system that rewards population so lucratively.
Perhaps they need to pump up the maintenance in a non-linear way if they want to get serious about slowing ICS. Or maybe, have population be rewarded lesser in the early game and have it become more valuable overtime?
note: not slamming the strategy at all - I am just curious about the game design decisions...
MetHimPikeHoses
Unarmed Insurgent
Thanks Shillen, I never noticed that hovering over the score gives you the "finish score..." I thought there was a bonus for winning, so I wonder how that is calculated. Scoring is definitely a hole in my civving skills-- I really have to force myself to micromanage, when I am inclined just to pump out troops and wonders. I tried to milk some games of Civ3, but I just don't have enough time or patience!
I like that the emphasize production buttons on Civ4-- it is a good innovation that makes all the city-management more uh, manageable.
I look forward to checking out that savegame.
Craterus-- I feel the same way about the heavily weighted population scoring. For example, on high difficulty, it is challenging to get a culture victory with few cities because you must fight off the AI onslaught, but in the end the score will not be very rewarding. I would like the scoring to also reflect the peaceable players who do not expand ad naseum and like to build.
I like that the emphasize production buttons on Civ4-- it is a good innovation that makes all the city-management more uh, manageable.
I look forward to checking out that savegame.
Craterus-- I feel the same way about the heavily weighted population scoring. For example, on high difficulty, it is challenging to get a culture victory with few cities because you must fight off the AI onslaught, but in the end the score will not be very rewarding. I would like the scoring to also reflect the peaceable players who do not expand ad naseum and like to build.
MetHimPikeHoses
Unarmed Insurgent
thanks shill... have you tried a similar strategy on higher diffs?
On higher difficulties it would be basically the same except you need to build some military early on and keep your opponent down to 1 or 2 cities the entire game. So you'll probably expand a bit slower and take a little longer to milk it out, but it's mostly the same. I haven't had time to do the warlord one yet. I'm doing each difficulty up to deity hopefully.
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