RBGC SG5: Training Day SHADOW THREAD

This is the Shadow Thread for the Realms Beyond Galactic Civilizations Succesion Game #5: Training Day


* We're going to have some blurred results because of players finding out things in their versions of the game when they explore in different directions and do different things. This will lead to foreknowledge of some game data that would not be accessible in a normal game. This is unavoidable here, but I ask that players give thought to this and make whatever effort they deem appropriate to base their decisions on what is known in the Official Game. Don't bend over backward, just... pay attention. We are aiming here more at learning than winning, but you don't want to get used to having bonus information.

* The OFFICIAL GAME thread is for the Official Game. Make Sense? What shall be posted there is the reports and results of the player who is Up on each turn, along with my critique and any questions and answers players have in regard to those results.

* This thread will handle everything else, including the turn reports of all players not Up on that turn, all critiques of these reports, and even my own reports from my shadow turns.

* Players who are UP should avoid reading any further in the shadow thread once others start posting shadow reports from the same turn. IE, it's OK to refer back to the shadow thread as a reference, but I ask that you not do so when you're Up, especially in regard to finding out what others have done on the turn you're about to play, so that your official turn results will be as "pure" as you can manage under these conditions.


Everybody is shadowing the game but not part of the Roster, or who in on the Roster but NOT currently "Up", should post their turn reports here. This will include me, when I am not Up.

The next post will contain succession game directions, lifted from the directions Sirian posted for RBGC SG2.

How to Play Your Turn

Each player plays one year, twelve month-long turns. Your turn starts and ends in January of each game year. After you move all of your active ships in December, your last month in office, the game moves to January. You should issue new build orders through the production cycle, as that is still part of your turn, but as soon as production ends and the calendar shows January of the next year, save your turn with all ships unmoved.

How to take Screen Shots

Since we are playing in Windows, you can use the PrntScrn key at any time while playing to dump the screen to the clipboard. You may then Alt-Tab or use the Windows key to reach your desktop. Open a graphics program of your choice and paste the image from the clipboard into a file and save it. It is a good idea to use jpegs, which save on file space and which download faster. Using moderate jpeg compression will further save space without compromising a lot of image quality. After you are done playing your turn, you should crop your screenshots, saving only the most relevant portions of the image, to reduce the image size to get rid of unnecessary portions and keep only the parts that are relevant to supporting your report.


Naming Convention for Files

1) Savegames

Official Turns: no need to do anything special. Just "rbgc5-21xxad.sav. For OFFICIAL TURNS ONLY. .

Shadow Turns: Name them "rbgc5-name-21xxad.sav"
Examples:

rbgc5-Brackard-2179ad.sav
rbgc5-G-Force-2180ad.sav
rbgc5-Rojo96-2181.sav
rbgc5-observerxyz-2184ad.sav

That's the naming convention for the save games. When uploading to civfanatics, please zip the save files and follow these conventions for the zipfiles and your screenshots

2) Uploaded files

For Official Turns: gamename-date+alphanumeric char.extension
Examples:

rbgc5-2179ad.zip (that would be the savegame from the first turn, zipped)
rbgc5-2178a.jpg (first screenshot for the year 2178)
rbgc5-2178b.jpg (second screenshot from 2178)


For Shadow Turns: gamename-shadow-yourname-date.extension

rbgc5-shadow-Brackard-2179ad.zip (savegame from Brackard's 1st turn)
rbgc5-shadow-G-Force-2178a.jpg (1st screenshot from G-Force's 1st shadow turn)
rbgc5-shadow-observerxyz-2181ad.zip (savegame from an observer's shadow turn)


CivFanatics has had problems in the past with file extension with caps. Use lowercase to avoid this problem (not sure if it still exists).


How to Zip and Unzip the Saved Game

Using Winzip is recommended. Since the savegame file is now a single files--this should be a piece of cake.

How to Upload Files to CivFanatics

At the bottom of each forum page are some banner ads, between which are sandwiched notifications and a row of links. You need to use the far right hand link, Upload File. This opens a new window where you can upload up to three files per window to the file server: just browse, select and go. That simple. You will get a confirmation message after the files are uploaded.


How to Use Uploaded Files

In your forum posts, you can link to images (anywhere on the net, frankly, but here on the CFC file server for our purposes) and to files using vB code. There are helpful shortcuts above the message window where you write your post. Click on IMG and then type in the URL of the image you want to show. Click on http:// and type in your link text, then the URL for your zip file containing your zipped saved game, to pass the baton to the next player.

I keep a utility text file on my desktop containing one line:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/

That's the URL of the current CFC File Server active folder. When it fills up, they'll close that one and open uploads7, etc. All I have to do to keep it current is keep the upload folder number current. Then any time I post a turn for an SG, I open my temp text file, copy the URL, and paste it into every IMG or http:// command I decide to use. With the folder address ready to paste, all I have to do then is type the correct filename. The IMG button will produce the commands to display your image file (screenshots, etc) and the http button will create a hyperlink for you.

This may sound like a lot to learn, but it's not really. You do it once or twice and you'll have it mastered, since the parts you have to take responsibility for are short and consistent. Once you know how, it becomes a piece of cake.

CFC will link anywhere, but since they offer a file server for use in combination with the forum (and it is primarily used to support modmakers and succession game players) you might as well use it. The ability to use images largely unregulated, and to upload saved game files, sets CFC apart as a unique site on the net. However, for all this hospitality, it is still in our interests to conserve space, so please crop your screenshots and choose wisely on which details you decide to illustrate.

You can also type in the IMG and zip file links by hand the commands are (use brackets instead of braces)

{img}http://civfanatics.net/uploads6/filename.jpg{/img}
{url}http://civfanatics.net/uploads6/filename.zip{/url}

G-Force checking in

Year 1 will be shadowed over the weekend. Whoohoo! Let the games begin!

Ok, so I open up the game. What do we have here?



Initial system sol is a double system with a 15/16. Nice. That’s a good start. In view (thanks to improved sensors) we have another system with 3 colonizable planets. A 15/15/14. I will end up waiting on the 14 until a bit later when I’m ready to start social spending.

Also on the map. Hmmm….light blue influence to the west. The Altrians are close. I don’t ever use the numeric culture scouting, (I really think that’s cheap), but I do know when the light blue shows up on your screen, the enemy is close. So what does this mean? It means that I have to worry about the enemy almost immediately. Early, early game will concentrate on the landgrab. Here’s my proposed plan of attack:



The red box is for all intensive purposes, behind enemy lines. I will be concentrating on planets in the yellow box and hoping that the Altarians move westward. My immediate priority, the triple system in view. I can NOT afford to let the Altarians take that. Otherwise, I’m screwed. It lays almost exactly halfway between the Altarians and my space. My guess of the Altarian homeworld is one of the red dots, but I believe the 3 systems 2 sectors west contain their home base. Teching is a bit out of the question at the moment, but I’ll need to concentrate on diplomacy, military almost immediately. The Altarians have a knack for coming at the weak. I refuse to be weak. So, with that being said:

I set overall spending to 100%. I can live with the slight deficite. Military is set to 100% and I begin producing colony ships. Taxes are moved to 53% with morale still at 100%.

Year 1 –
January
Colony ship forwarded to the triple 15/15/14 system.
Survey ship heads south to explore.

February
Taxes to 52%
Morale at 100%
Colony ship moves
Survey ship south: Hyadea: worthless

March
Taxes at 52%
Morale 100%
Colony ship moves
Survey ship west – exploring

April
Colony ship built at Sol
Load it up with 100M, head it NW to follow survey ship and the colony ship.
At worst, populate additional planet at Cherryh, at best, find another colonizable planet NW.
Taxes 51%
Morale 100%
Arcturus I surveyed – size 9, surveyor to head south
Colony ship colonizes Cherryh IV, set production to colony ship

May
Colony ship suveys Unikalhai – class 14 & 16 – have a chance to make it! Go, go go
Surveyor continues south

June
Damn forgot to check taxes last turn. Dropped them to 43%
100% morale.
Colony ship moves towards Unikalhai
Surveyor moves south

July
Taxes 43%
100% morale
Colony ship built at Sol, load 100M, move NE, colony ship will pop out of Cherryh here shortly for any additional planets south. Unikalhai will be mine. No colony ships in sight. Surveyor to the south.

August
Maestro & Lacroix surveyed. Maestro has a 16/14. Lacroix worthless. Ship coming out of Cherryh IV will go to Maestro. Unikalhai colonized. Production set to colony ships.

September
Taxes droped to 42%, morale 100%.
Colony ship pops at Cherryh. Load up 50M, head them towards Maestro.
Survey ship to the SE to the next series of planets

October
Scout Alcionus. Nothing there. However, Torian influence pops up. I see green. I’ve had no events yet, but it looks like I’ll have to take every good event in order to get along with my neighbors in the short term.

November
Don’t touch taxes/morale. One planet left to the south. The other colony ship continues NE. Survey ship comes across Caranoid colony ship. They are headed towards Maestro. Damn. It’s going to be close. Damn close. I turn the grid on to measure. I’m 10 spaces away in a direct line. The Caranoids are 12 away. I have yet to move this turn. I have them beat.

IBT: Caranoids try to make contact, but we have no translators.

December
IBTaxes/morale good. Unikalhai spits out a colony ship. I put 20M on and off we go. Headed? TBD. Rhea surveyed to NE. Nothing. Colony ship continues NE.

January:
Another colony ship pops out of.Sol. I will use these two ships to colonize the double worlds at Sol and Cherryh.

End of year map:
Blue dots represent current colonies
Green dots represent dead worlds
Yellow dot is the colony ship on its way to Maestro (circled in blue)
Yellow circles represent current ship positions: surveyor to the south, colony ship to the N and NE.
Red dot shows caranoid homeworld
Purple dot is the caranoid colony ship





Brackard Year 1

Bam Bam, I hope this is about what you're looking for? I thought the turn went as well as could be expected, but we'll see.

Quick note-since you are not uploading files (which is ok if you want to use your own bandwidth), it will be easy to find your files. The save should have been named rbgc5-brackard-2179ad.zip. Minor detail, but keeping with the game years helps me keep track. Thanks. My comments on your turn will be posted when the others' turns are posted.

Jan 2178
Set research on communication theory and have social build to soil enhancement.
Set tax rate at 52% keeping approval rating at 100%
Set spend rate at 100% and set income distribution slider as:
Military 100%, Social 0%, Research 0% to allow for focus on colony ships.
Net income is at -4 and colony ship should complete in 3 turns.
Set governor to social projects. Initial is soil enhancement.
Earth PQ 20
Sol IV PQ 16

Looking around the map I notice Altarian influence coming from the west in sector 6-10.
I assume Altarian home world to be the system in sector 5-9 or 5-10.
Due to sensors, we can make out system Cherryh in sector 7-11 with 5 planets. 2 at PQ 15 and 1 at PQ 14.

I now try to determine where I send my colony ship and hero. I notice 3 systems in sector 6-10 (2 sectors from me and in Altarian influence), and sparse concentraion of systems to northeast and east with more to south. The 3 systems in 6-10 looks inviting.
Cons: Altarian influence and Altarians closer allowing quicker access.
Pros: Extended range, possibility of taking system away from Altarian forcing them to head west.

I decide to head west to sector 6-10 and check out system in in sector 7-10 along the way. I send hero southwest towards sector 6-12.

Feb 2178
With colony ship, note system (Unukalhai) in sector 7-10 to have 2 planets: PQ 16 & 14. Do I settle now or do I push on to 6-10. I elect to push on as I am curious as to what is in 6-10 and can always double back to Unukalhai. Hero notes that second system (Arcturus) in Sector 7-11 has 1 planet PQ 9.

Mar 2178
Ships move. Hero sensors pick up system (Hyadea) in sector 8-11 to have nothing.

Apr 2178
Colony ship is built. I load up 100 colonists and send the to Cherryh in sector 7-11.
Ships move.

May 2178
Hero inspects anomoly and gets 25% research to tech in queue.

Jun 2178
Ships move.

Jul 2178
Colony ship is built. Send 100 colonist to check out system northeast in sector 9-9.
Note Torion influence in sector 5-12. Home in 4-13?
Altarian inluence expands into 5-10, 6-9 making me believ home world is in sector 5-9.
Colony ship heading to 6-10 notes first system (Midgard PQ 8).

Aug 2178
Altarian influence expands into 5-9 & 6-8. Colony ship spots second system (Devra) in 6-10 and notes a PQ 13 and 1. Not looking good, but decide to press on for third. Settle
Cherryh and set military build to colony ship and set governor. Hero checks out free gas and gets 2% to morale.

Sept 2178
Ships move.

Oct 2178
See 2 Altarian colony ships in 6-10. Note 3rd system (Phecda) is PQ 1. This mission was a bust and was a wasted effort. Head colony ship back to 7-10 to settle Unukalhai. Note system in 7-12 (Alcinous) having 1 planet PQ 13.

Nov 2178
Ships move.

Dec 2178
Hero sees Carinoids colony ship in 6-12 and also notes a Torion system (Hoth) located in thast sector. Appears Carinoids home is in 7-13 and Torion in 4-13. Have hero inspect gas for 1% to soldier bonus ?? (clicked too fast). Will pick up one other before deciding to head east.

Jan 2178
Earth builds colony ship and will direct 100 colonists to sector 10-11. Colony ship near sector 9-9 notes system in that sector (Rhea) to have nothing and is directed to system in 9-8.

Take snapshot of tactical map showing movement and location of ships.
Note that approval rating at 85% and Net income at -11. Spent my time taking notes on everything and forgot to check things. Need to pay more attention.



C represents colony ships
H is Hero.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/rbgc5-shadow-Rojo-2179ad.zip

BamBam, can I offer some comments when I feel I can contribute something or is it something you'd rather reserve for yourself as the game moderator?

The first year always goes by so quickly:

I started by changing taxes and spending, 100% military

In may I colonized Cherryh, I too noticed the Altarian and met them in september and in that month I also colonized Unukalhai. (Will consider renaming that system )

In october a colony ship is ready at Cherryh and it is send south, the 3rd colony ship from earth is only heading down.

End status is as following:



G-Force

Jaxom--I would generally like to keep the focus on the players' play and my comments. However, I do not have perfect knowledge of the game, and so general comments from you (or other knowledgable RB folks) are welcome. Just be selective when you make your comments, and there should not be a problem. For this first round, please hold comments until all have reported in, or when I have posted my comments.

Thanks.

Blacksmoke checking in

Jan 2178

military 100%
sent colony ship to sector 7-11un

March hero discover anomolie for 2% morale

Apr sent colony ship to 7-10

Jun colonize planet in sector 7-10

Jul - new colony ship

Aug colonize plant with 30% starship bonus

Sept economic resource in sector 10-9

Oct sent colony ship to 10-9

Dec colony sent

Bam Bam

Sorry I did not post my game file. I am having trouble change it to a zip file. I will work on it tonight

Think I'll have to keep an eye on this sg, seeing as how I brought galciv a while ago.

All are welcome, Thrawn. You might even find a home over at Stardock--one of the top empires (players that band together--their scores count toward empire standings) has a Star Wars theme.

blacksmoke--you can upload the .sav file, if you are having too much trouble with zipping the file. Are you using WinZip?

Comments on Brackard's turn.

Starting position evaluation: Good. You hit on the important points. Interesting to note that you can see the Alterian influence here. I could not see that on my initial month--must be another of those Stardock save/reload features Good practice in saving the PQ14 in the Cherryh system for later--one note, however, since PQ14s do not cost maintenance, there is no particular reason to hold back if that's the only planet around. I would not send more than 50M to a PQ14.

Your view on where to concentrate is ok. Usually when I spot influence, I try to scout and/or send my colony ships that way to swipe a yellow star out from under the AI's nose. That's a technique many of us have used in most 4X games--expand towards the enemy, so that you can lay claim to border worlds. Your tactic to grab the southern portions is not wrong--just can be a problem if the AIs grab close by systems if you do not aggressively expand their way.

One other problem I see with your opener--and this has been debated in many forums--not settling the PQ15 on Sol. I will do that 99 times out of 100, because it gives you a jump on more colonly ships, and that PQ15/15/14 that you can see is not in any great danger. That other system will also do better with a larger number of colonists, so that the impact of its own colonly ship production is not as bad. Building colonly ships out of a 2-plante system takes population from both planets--so that with two planets producing colonly ships out of Sol, you will get more colonly ships with higher numbers of colonists--this will give a boost to the empire's growth curve. One thing to your credit--spotting influence (which I did not on the first turn) may lead you to immediately settle that star in sight, so like I said--this is not a choice, but could have been better.

You did misread the influence a bit, since it is not possible for any of the planets in the painted system to be the Alterian home planet--if it were, you would see colored influence in the sectors closer to you. Influence from a starting planet extends to adjacent sectors. The only logical choice of the Alterian homeworld is the single planet sectors to the north or northwest.

You missed a chance to spot the PQ16 system to the Northwest with a single space move of your surveyor to the northwest. That could have cost you that system.

Good moves on the colonly ship timing, and keeping morale at 100% for the double speed growth (6% vs. 3%). That's good micromanagement. I have become so anti-micromanagement lately that I often neglect that in the opening turns.

I see a problem with the numbers you are loading on your colony ships. 100M is too low with all these yellow stars in reach. All you are doing is allowing Earth to grow to a point where you have to keep lowering taxes to keep 100% morale. Better to load up the colony ships with 150-200M and keep Earth around 1B pop.

This choice limits your ability to put good numbers on colony ships from Cherryh and Unukhalai for further expansion. Earth will always have a higher pop in the early game--better to spread that out immediately and boost the growth curves of settled planets. This is especially important when Earth is PQ18 or PQ17, since it will start to become your morale-limited planet.

Your choice of scouting to the south in this case would have worked out better than my opener (sometimes it's better to be lucky than good ). There were no good systems to the West, so the averages did not work.

Contact with a minor first is a good thing.

Overall, you had a solid turn. Most of the things I have pointed out are marginal (5% or so) type improvements, other than the number of colonists coming out of Earth. That one is significant. Lack of initial colonists on a common map chokes your empires initial growth.

Good report, lots of detail for me (the team and the lurkers) to understand your decisions.

Let's see how you do for the team at the helm of the official game next year.

Initial read of the game looks good. Your production setup is spot on. Your read of the influence situation is also spot on.

Now for the bad--I smell a bit of the pungent week in not settling either the PQ16 in Sol, Cherryh, or Unukhalai with your initial colonly ship . The best move is to settle the Sol planet, so that you can be pumping out colonly ships with 150M colonists ~50% faster from Sol. The next best moves would have been to settle either of the systems. As you played it, your colony ship production is being choked for a gambit to steal a system from the Alterians. You have the right idea to settle in the direction of the Alterians, but better to get the ships pumping, settle systems in range and scout with the long-reach sensors of the surveyor. The surveyor can spot Unukhalai (NW PQ16) with ONE move NW.

You also fall into the same problem as Brackard with your choice to only send 100M colonists out of Earth. More suppression of your empire's growth. Choosing to take the research anomaly for such a cheap tech (comm theory, 50rp) means you got 12 rp out of that choice. Methinks you were partaking of the pungent weed.

Good call on the Alterian homeworld location.

Your use of the surveyor is suspect. You missed the opportunity to scout a bunch of systems to the south by picking up anomalies. Practices vary, but I usually use the surveyor (especially with sensor picks) to scout systems until I am nearly done my initial landgrab. The good sensor reach with the max sensor picks makes the surveyor a very powerful scouting tool.

IF you take a look at Brackard's game (and my turns when posted), you will see how your choices limited your growth curve. Brackard has settled two systems (two planets) for a total of three planets with 5 colony ships in transit. In contrast, you have settled only one world, and only have four colony ships in transit (one of which was the initial ship). Brackard and I were able to put out 50% more colony ships during the year. Your scouting also led to early contact with the Alterians and Torians. That's not a big problem, but better to hold off on contact with the majors, if possible. I prefer to make contact with my freighters (if I can) on larger maps. Early contact on maso means that relations are going to sour that much quicker if trade routes are not in place.

Last note--you made a succession game by moving the colony ship produced out of Earth in January 2179. The autopilot moved the ship and took that choice out of the next player's hands. No harm for a shadow turn, but make sure you watch this for your official turn. Not a big deal, just minor SG etiquette.

Overall, your turn was average. You gambled a lot on the western push, and shot snakeyes. Forturnately, you were going to keep Urukhalai. Taking that research anomaly was Sending more colonists out of Earth would have sped your growth curve empire wide. As it stands now, you have a population of 117M on Cherryh, with colony ship due next turn. You will not be able to load many on a colony ship without stunting that planet's growth.

Take heart--you did make some good choices, and after all, you are here to learn. I played many a game where I only loaded 100M on colony ships, and wasted research anomalies on 50rp techs. Your report was clear, and I was able to quickly pick up your logic for decisions. A couple of more screenshots could help in a regular SG, where not everyone is playing the same turn.

I am unable to provide a whole lot of comments, because your report lacks a whole lot of detail, and I do not have a save game to investigate the current situation.

Same comments as above--I would have used the initial colony ship to settle the PQ 16 in the Sol system.

Looks like your settling pattern is not bad--you have settled the two yellows close by, and have 4? colony ships travelling about.

Meeting the Alterians is not ideal, but not a showstopper.

Guessing by looking at your population curve, I suspect you have been pulling 100M from Earth for each colony ship. Same comments as the last two players apply.

Without more information from you (and the savegame), I cannot offer you more feedback. I STRONGLY encourage you to add more detail to your reports, and the savegames are a MUST HAVE. You will only get out of this what you put in--I cannot stress this enough. This game is labor intensive for me, but that labor is well rewarded when I see the same effort put into each players' turns and reports.

Well,

What I said to G-Force goes double here. The only feedback I can offer is for you to put some effort into your reporting. You did state that you were having trouble with the savegame, so I'll give you a pass on that one.

Look, I do not wish to be harsh to any of you participating here. So this is the last time I will rant about reporting and savegames. With 4 of you participating, I have at least 4x the effort that any one of you is putting in to the game. My time is not well served (and neither is yours) if I do not have something worth commenting on. Your learning is directly proportional to the quality of the report. [end rant]

Ok, let us not speak of that again

Even if you do not post lots of screenshots, detailed explanation of your moves, your thinking, and rationale (along with the savegame) will give me plenty to go on. Thanks in advance. I know you will give me more to go on next round.

Bam-Bam

Not sure I got your reference to the pungent weed, but I am assuming that wherever it was stated, it meant my decision stunk?

I also take it then that the surveyor's responsibilty is to not dawdle during the land grab phase by picking up space stuff, but to focus on scouting. At what point can we consider picking stuff up and do you use auto survey?

In terms of colonizing, should we be colonizing systems as soon as we see them, or dependant on circumstances, can we bypass to push ahead? If we can bypass, what would be good circumstances to do so?

Realized my mistake with the colony ship for Jan 2179, so no need to worry here for the remainder of the game.

Rojo--the reference to the pungent weed is an old Civ3 succession game reference. It refers to a certain herb, that when smoked, produces a noticable odor. The decision making of people when smoking that weed is "less than ideal". Another way to say it is "What were you smoking?" The use of weedy or or the stronger designators means the decision was faulty. The term is often used too heavily (I have been guilty of that). Don't take it personally. I think it was originally used by Sirian in describing a move by Charis (another RB Civ legend). Charis was prioritizing the irrigation of desert over improvement of more useful terrain (Civ 3).

For your other questions: I keep the surveyor on manual for much of the game, or I use auto survey and check up on it. I like to save the research anomalies for high-value techs--preferably when I am not researching, or have just started.

I rarely bypass a yellow star, unless the colonly ship has few colonists and one with a larger number can get there safely. As I said in my turns, I probably should have passed on the 2nd PQ15 in the Cherryh system to send that ship south. Probably still would have missed that system Brackard saw, but I would have left us in a better position to grab another system to the south.

I will bypass PQ14s to press on, unless I know I am coming to a limit in my range.

Again--I use the term frequently, and I may seem somewhat tough in my criticisms. That's the way I am--I am a STRONG proponent of lots of constructive criticism. That's how I learn. Remember, I am critiquing your play (as reported to me) NOT YOU. I think highly of anyone willing to participate in a training succession game.