2010 Aug. GOTM: In Fourteen Hundred & 92, Columbus Sailed the ... SKIES SO BLUE!!??!!

[jpciv]

OK, here's the story.

Your planet, the COLUMBIANS, has discovered a new planet with intelligent, but uncivilized lifeforms. Unfortunately, your astronomers have also discovered that in 1492 AD, a ginormous comet is going to crash into the planet, eliminating all life larger than a cockroach.

Your planet can't save everyone, but it CAN send an emissary to warn them, someone who can encourage them to build a spaceship in time to escape the comet and start a new life on Alpha Centauri.

You have been chosen. You are CRISTOFORO, the famed astronavigator, and now you must go and rescue them. Good luck!

YOUR MISSION (should you choose to accept it, LOL) is to build up one civilization so that they can LAUNCH A FULLY LOADED (40,000) SPACESHIP IN 1490, for arrival in 1505. In addition:
- You must build (or capture) ALL 21 WONDERS (you'll need them at Alpha Centauri)
- You must have at least ONE FUTURE TECH (you can stop at one, see spoilers)
- You must have the full maximum 100 PEACE POINTS (this can be a tough one, see spoilers)
- You must build (or discover from goody huts) MORE THAN 64 CITIES in your own territory (not counting those you might capture from the other Civs). I had as many as 86 while testing (see spoilers)

This is a peaceful, city-building game (think Sim City here), so don’t waste your time hunting down the other Civs for battle. Use the limited time you have to build up the cities and get ready for launch.

You have a HUGE, and very fertile landmass in which to develop. It lies to the North and West of your Capital City.

The other 6 Civs each have their own islands, far to the East, and they will probably use these to develop technology rather than spending all of their time fighting petty battles amongst themselves. Probably... Maybe... Possibly... Hopefully...

I set it up so that I can guarantee that the other Civs will NOT invade your land "en masse" until well after they develop transports, bombers, and nukes (if even then). They MIGHT send one or two units, just to say "hi" but that's about it. (see spoilers)

Even if they do come visiting, you have 5 MechInf units in a fort on a mountaintop guarding your island. No one is ever likely to pass that barrier before 1490, when you have to launch the SS. (Do NOT use these MechInf's for any other purpose - their only reason for being in the game is to guard your "Back Gate" - they serve as a one-way gate, you can go through but the other Civs cannot.)

Along with Irrigation, Mining, and Roads, you have brought with you the secrets of Railroads, Bridges, and Democracy. You also brought along 2 Cavalry, 2 Phalanxes, and 2 Settlers to help you get started (BTW, everybody else has the same). All 7 Capital Cities are built on RR's for that little bit of extra food.

GOOD LUCK!!

This is a Pass / Fail game. You either succeed in launching on time with FT, Cities, Peace, and Wonders or you don't. So your Civ Score doesn't mean anything here. Good luck, and enjoy! This is the game I've always wanted to try, but the built-in custom map builder would never give me. Thanks to Dack and TerraForm for making it possible!

Post up your 1500AD Autosave File (probably CIVIL9.SVE/MAP) and let me know what you thought of the game.



ALLOWABLE CHEATS FOR THIS SCENARIO:

Save Game Cheat ALLOWED for:

- Before entering goody huts - especially to get free cities from advanced tribes. Remember, you're an advanced alien yourself, helping out the locals! (see spoilers)

- Before ending your turn - especially to "avoid" Civil Disorder (because it's easier than checking 80+ cities to see who's on the verge) and "recover from" Natural Disasters (because there should have been a setting to turn this off, ala Sim City)

- I don't use it for keeping Wonders away from the other Civs, it's easier to let them build it and steal it later, LOL

TerraForm Cheat ALLOWED for:

- Looking at the map to see where the goody huts are (you arrived by SS, remember?)

- Removing invading Barbarians or Civs without having to fight them (there should have been a setting to turn this off, ala Sim City)

- Building an isthmus to connect the 6 Civ Islands just before launching your Spaceship (see spoilers)

Settler Cheat is NOT ALLOWED:

- You won't need it anyway (and this is from a very, very dedicated "settler cheater" of many, many years!) As it turns out, with 80+ cities, this game is actually easier to manage if you leave the settlers alone (faster too).

- You can however, "wake up" a settler to remove it from harm's way if it's being attacked, or to stop it from finishing something so you can use it to found a city.

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[jpciv]

Here is the background for this GOTM

Spoiler :

CIVS:
- Romans, Babylonians, (!)Columbians(!), Aztecs, Americans, Greeks, Indians
- My goal for the AI Civs is to expand, that’s why I used the French/German color. Neither of those two are very good at expanding. During play testing, the AI's consistently built 6-10 cities each. That's it. I was hoping for more...

Landmasses:
- There are 7 landmasses, the mainland and six islands. They're all connected by a very, very, very long isthmus, so the software thinks it's all one big continent (for Bach and Hoover)
- Each AI got 128 squares of land (128 x 6 civs = 768 squares) with 4 goody huts, 8 Deer, and approximately equal plains/rivers/etc
- In TerraForm, click the Mountain to center the island so you can see it all in one screen
- The islands are walled off by a ring of mountains, so there's absolutely no way for them to sail up to your shores and unload on your territory - the ONLY way for them to get there is to walk up to the Back Gate
- You get about 24 x 40 = 3,360 squares (about 4.5 times the total for all the other civs combined).
- The AI's could get 10-12 decent cities, but they'll probably only build about 6-8 each.
- I had 80+ cities on the mainland, and the 6 AI's total built only about 40+ cities. I took all but one of them to get to the absolute maximum of 127 total cities. Getting the "Sire, our bureaucrats suck, we have too much work to do as it is" message was a classic!
- I originally had a much larger AI territory for the first test run, but they wouldn't use it all, and it just made more space for Barbarians to appear from. So I reduced their space to approximately what they WOULD use.
- I made all of the Special Resource squares into Swamp for the human and Forest for the AI Civs. Oil in Swamps is the best early source of Shields, and is almost as good as Coal when RR'd. The AI Civs will get the most benefit from Deer, so I made them all Deer to help the AI Civs. (They need all the help they can get in this type of game, LOL!)

Goody Huts and the Save Game Cheat:
- In an early run, 24 of 30 (80%) of the goody huts became cities (by 3200 BC). In the final run, I got a cavalry from the first goody hut, held out a bit more, and got cities from all 29 of the remaining huts (97%) by 3460 BC.
- Use the attached save game file if you want to make a fast start with the Capital plus 29 Advanced Tribes! (CIVIL0.29.Tribes.SVE/MAP)
- I never could get the first hut to give me a city - it must be too close to the Capital, I guess. So I settled for a cavalry. See the Huts2Cities.JPG for the path I took thru the huts.

I used the Save Game Cheat for this (duh!), but it's also good for:
- Barbarians in huts, this game's about building, not conquest
- Getting an advance from a hut, that you were almost ready to get anyway
- Getting money you don't need
- Getting an advance you don't need, because it then takes longer to get the next advance you do need
- when a city goes into Civil Disorder due to unhappiness (you could have prevented it, but it's too much micromanagement to bother, just let it go, and fix it afterwards, since the s/w should warn you first, rather than afterwards)
- Natural disasters
- moving a settler onto a hill or forest when they have 2/3 of a move left

Settler Cheat:
I tested it both ways, and the Settler Cheat really is not necessary to win and takes a lot of time and effort to manage 80+ settlers, so don't bother.

Building Cities in a Democracy:
- I started the Revolution right away in 3980 BC, and was able to switch to Democracy by 3920. It makes a huge difference in food and trade, at the cost of more potential discontent.
- I avoid the discontent by having each new city first build a temple, then 2 settlers for local use, then a granary, then another settler for expansion, a marketplace, expansion settler, bank, factory, mass transit, and recycling center, pretty much in that order. That's all a city really needs, as long as you stay under size 10. Don't build an aqueduct until well after 1000AD - and then only for the end-game population boost - you don't need aqueducts when you have 80+ cities!
- Bach is crucial, early discoveries must be focused on getting to Religion ASAP! Use the capital to build a temple, then Bach. Stock up while you're waiting for Religion by building Darwin. As quickly as you can, follow up Bach with Hoover, Cure, and Apollo, all from the Capital. It's been set up like it has for this express purpose.
- Don't worry about libraries, universities, or any of the knowledge wonders, you'll get all the discoveries you need just by keeping Luxuries and Taxes as close to 0% and Science as close to 100% (as you reasonably can).

Space Race:
Even if some of the other Civs build SS's, don't worry about it. I'm still working on deciphering the exact formula, but it doesn't look (so far) like there's ANY combination that can successfully be launched before 1490. (If anybody knows the exact formula for arrival date, let me know. I'll post it separately if I ever get it figured out)

Wonders:
You only NEED 4 Wonders: Bach, Hoover, Cure, and Apollo. Let the other Civs build anything else if they want - you can always steal them later.

Population:
In one test run, it showed me with a NEGATIVE population (-910,000!) in 1500 AD. I had 185 million in 1000 AD but wasn't watching it when it went negative, so I'm not sure exactly when it flipped negative. I'm guessing I maxed out and overflowed the register at somewhere near 300 million citizens. In another run, I got up to 276 million, and kept a close eye on it, but no negativity this time.

Future Tech:
No need to have more than one, points don't count for this scenario, Make sure you don't pass 64, as you will start getting pollution! Just hit the + key to change the Tax Rate to 0% Science and your discoveries will stop (as long as you also have no Scientists in any of the cities)

Peace:
There's only one way I know to absolutely guarantee no sneak attacks. That is to capture every city but one. And this one city must be a Republic or Democracy on a Grassland with NO SHIELDS (Americans work nicely, that's why they're so close to home!). Use diplomats to surround it, standing on top of every available shield. They will be unable to build or support any units, and therefore cannot sneak attack you.

Milestones during the test runs:
- Was done with exploring the goody huts by about 3000 BC
- Apollo built, spaceship complete and ready to go by around 1,000 BC (yes, that's BC, not AD)
- Full Railroad and Irrigation (an ALL 3,360 squares!) by about 1,200 AD
- had 80+ cities, almost all with one settler to the bitter end, just put them to work on their own time, no rush.
- Aztecs, Indians, Romans, and Babylonians all had fast science, one or the other had Armor by about 300-100 BC, Bombers by 300-500 AD, Nukes by 700 AD
- All 4 started building spaceships by about 900 AD, launched around 1,200 AD, but none of them arrived
- Greeks and Americans were pretty lame, for the most part. Greeks built zillions of units and did a lot of useless parading around the island, and the Americans pretty much were just fat and lazy.

TerraForm is good for:
- building the scenario in the first place (duh!)
- moving diplomats quickly from the mainland to the islands to incite revolts (why are there only Transport units, and no Airline/Airborne units in the game???)
- deleting the palaces, so the capitals could get incited too (I used to do this by editing the save file with a Hex Editor, switching sides, selling the palace, and then switching back - TerraForm is MUCH easier!)
- building an isthmus to connect the 6 civs in the center for easy mobility
- building an isthmus from the mainland to the islands (why can we change Forest to Plains and v.v. but we cannot change Ocean to Land in the game???)

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[Whelkman]

I started the Revolution right away in 3980 BC, and was able to switch to Democracy by 3920. It makes a huge difference in food and trade, at the cost of more potential discontent.

Valen discovered that revolutions have a hard 4-turn rule. Additionally, I discovered that it is possible to complete a revolution in zero turns by calling it at the correct time then saving and reloading, upon which you'll be presented with the government choice dialog. Therefore, you'd be better off waiting until 3920.

I'm not sure exactly when it flipped negative.

Gowron crunched the algorithms, including overflow, a few years back. Pop size isn't included, but I don't think any of us knew it could flip negative until your data point.

 

[jpciv]

Valen discovered that revolutions have a hard 4-turn rule. Additionally, I discovered that it is possible to complete a revolution in zero turns by calling it at the correct time then saving and reloading, upon which you'll be presented with the government choice dialog. Therefore, you'd be better off waiting until 3920.

Never realized there was a hard cycle to it, I just assumed it was always a 4-turn wait without the Pryamids - thanks for the info!

[URL="http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=235082"]Gowron crunched the algorithms, including overflow, a few years back. Pop size isn't included, but I don't think any of us knew it could flip negative until your data point.

If anybody wants the SVE/MAP files to debug, here they are...


BTW, you're not supposed to read the spoilers until AFTER you've played the scenario, hahaha!!

 

[Blake00]

Nice work @jpciv ! So many out there probably have no idea that there was a Civ1 scenario making community, I sure as hell didn't until I first joined this forum a few years back lol! However it of course makes sense when there's excellent map & game editors out there like JCivED (although this predates that so presumably you used one of the old editors). I'm definitely gonna have to cover your work in my big scenario preservation project I'm working on!
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-scenario-mod-preservation-project-log.672488/

I understand why you guys used CivDOS instead of CivWin (bad graphics & sound lol) however these days we have Honza's awesome DOS graphics CivWin mod and my Soundtrack Overhaul CivWin mod so I thought it would be fun to convert your excellent scenario to CivWin using the CivCracker map & game editor (which can convert save files from DOS to Win). CivWin also supports custom save file names which makes scenario sharing and collection organisation much easier! I've added it (along with your original DOS save files and a info text file crediting you) in a 7zip file to the CFC Civ1 downloads area along with Moddb & Internet Archive to ensure your work is never lost. I had to modify your title to make sure it fit in places so I'm sorry about that! Should you wish to make any updates or changes to the files just let me know.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/columbus-in-space-scenario-civdos-civwin.29320/

As you'll see I got the admins to create a new Civ1 scenario downloads area to put them in! I also saw people posting here a while back this old GOTM sub forum should probably be renamed to a scenario creation forum since there hadn't been monthly activities in a long time so I got them to partially rename this forum too.

Anyway here's some screenshots showing your work with both graphics sets. Map is revealed just for the pictures to show how cool your work is but kept the window small (instead of an HD one) to avoid big spoilers.

Converted scenario with DOS graphics mod:


Converted scenario with original graphics: