Test game results feedback on early V40 releases, up to first few techs in the Renaissance era.
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Test Game set-up: Emperor difficulty, Long game speed, Complex Traits on, Tech Diffusion on, WFL off, Size Matters on. Map options: C2C_World, Standard size, Temperate climate, Medium Sea Level, Earthlike landform, Old World start, 150% Hills, 50% Peaks and +4 Rivers. Played against 6 AI opponents from an improved starting location (see below).
Set-up Cheat Alert: Used WorldBuilder to improve my starting location, due to poor starting locations and results in my previous 4 V39.x games. I generated the map with default 7 AI opponents, then deleted one AI's starting units from its very good starting location, deleted my original units from their original poor starting location, and re-added my original units at the AI's good starting location. I also added some key resources at my new starting location and nearby future city sites (horses, deer, copper and tin).
Code Base (Note: No mod-mods added to code base)
- Started on SVN 11056 from GIT-to-SVN Merge on October 15 (updating my previous download of the official V40 release (at V40.7) from "moddb.com" on October 13)
- Updated to SVN 11057 November 6 (turn 1030) due to repeated start-up crashes from probable corruption in my C2C run-time execution folder. Full C2C download to empty clean folder resolved problems.
- Updated to SVN 11072 November 29 at start of Renaissance era (turn 1209) and re-calculated to see latest calculated values and to possibly carry on testing through the end of Renaissance.
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Era Progress:
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(1) Completed Prehistoric Era (finished Sedentary Lifestyle) at turn 439 in 10477 BC. I think this is in the expected range, and much better than the turn counts from my previous V39 gameplay (turn 487 from one game ago, turn 468 from two ago, and turn 636 from three ago). I was slightly behind the 2 trailing AIs and further behind behind the rest. In this era, I averaged only 6% beaker benefit from Technical Diffusion (which I think means I am not far behind the AIs in technology). The first AI to reach this milestone was about 3000 years ahead of me.
(2) Completed Ancient Era (finished Classical Lifestyle) at turn 855 in 432 BC. I think this is in the expected range, and much better than the turn counts from my previous V39 gameplay (turn 1005 one game ago, turn 906 two ago, and abandoned before reaching three games ago). I was in second place on score, ahead of 4 AIs, and had wiped out 1 AI capturing 4 of their cities. In this era, I averaged 22% beaker benefit from Technical Diffusion (which I think means getting TD benefit from 1 or 2 AIs and providing TD benefit to 3 or 4).
(3) Completed Classical Era (finished Medieval Lifestyle) at turn 1069 in 756 AD. I think this is in the expected range. In comparison, I had abandoned all 3 previous games before this point due to poor results. I was still in second place on score, ahead of 4 AIs, and had captured 5 more cities from one AI (but do not have full control of their territories). In this era, I averaged 24% beaker benefit from Technical Diffusion (which I think means getting TD benefit from 1 or 2 AIs and providing TD benefit to 3 or 4).
(4) Completed Medieval Era (finished Renaissance Lifestyle) at turn 1208 in 756 AD. I think this is in the expected range. In comparison, I had abandoned all 3 previous games before this point. I was still in second place on score, ahead of 4 AIs, and had captured 5 more cities from one AI. In this era, I averaged 18% beaker benefit from Technical Diffusion (which I think means getting TD benefit from 1 AI and providing TD benefit to the other 5).
(5) Started Renaissance Era (first few techs only). Am undecided whether to continue (not sure if my code base for the earlier eras is too out-of-date to generate meaningful results.
General Notes on Era progress and "beaker sources"
(1) Finally realized from spreadsheet totals that I did not get any Free Techs up to the start of Classical Era. Normally I expect to get about 1 per era (meaning finishing the Prehistoric era 3 to 4 turns earlier, the Ancient era 6 to 8 turns earlier, and the Classical era (and all later eras) 9 to 12 turns earlier. I have to pay more attention to this (and Science Builds) in future games.
(2) I also analyzed the impact of different "beaker sources". This analysis is quite technical (along with being unproven and vague). I suggest only reading if interested in this topic (see full text in zipped attachment directory below). Here's a teaser on my gameplay results to date:
(a) Gold (based on the slider Gold allocation to beakers) is the most important factor, providing 53% of of my technology progress. This is probably due to new gold-generating buildings, beaker-boosting Civics and Traits, etc.). It increased noticeably by era, from 38% of all beakers in the Prehistoric Era to 44% in Ancient Era, 52% in Classical Era and 55% in Medieval era.
(b) Technical Diffusion is second, providing 23% of of my technology progress (with TD on but WFL off). It generally increases across the earlier eras, and decreases as the player catches up in technology, from 7% of all beakers in the Prehistoric Era to 25% in Ancient Era, 27% in Classical Era, and then decreases to 22% in Medieval Era (due I think to getting less behind the leading AIs in technology, and possibly ahead of the several of the 4 trailing AIs in technology).
(c) Infrastructure (beaker-generating buildings, beaker-boosting Civics and Traits, etc.) is a close third, providing 22% of of my technology progress. It decreased noticeably by era (at least so far in my gameplay), from 55% of all beakers in the Prehistoric Era to 30% in the Ancient Era, 21% in the Classical Era, and 20% in the Medieval Era.
(d) "Free/Bonus" beakers (Free Techs plus beaker bonuses minus penalties) is a distant fourth, providing 1.7% of my technology progress. This should be much higher (say 2% to 5%) and is due to me spending too much time recording instead of strategizing in the early eras. It did climb to 3.1% in the Medieval era.
(d) "Science Builds" (from building Science pseudo-buildings for a number of turns) is a distant fifth, providing 0.3% of my technology progress. This should be higher (say 1% to 3%), and is due to me spending too much time recording instead of strategizing. It did climb to 1.2% in the first few Renaissance techs.
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Directory of files in the zipped forum attachment:
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- Open the attached ZIP file to extract the text, spreadsheet and game save files
- Text file "Game19010A C2C Forum Posting Text.txt" contains the text posted above
- Text file "Test1910C C2C Detailed Set-up.txt" contains my detailed game set-up and BUG option settings
- Text file "Game19010A C2C Measurement Results Summary.txt" contains the text posted above, plus my full analysis on "Beaker Sources".
- LibreOffice spreadsheet "Test1910 Tech Tree Learning Log.ods" contains all my Tech-level data recording and calculations to date. It is a monstrous spreadsheet, and still evolving.
- Multiple C2C save files (at game startup, era transitions, and game end). Each save file name specifies the current era number, turn number, calendar date, event description, and SVN level (for example, "Game1910A_Save01X_Turn#0429_010789_BC_V40@SVN11056_InPrehistoricEraStartedSedentaryLifestyle"
- LibreOffice spreadsheets named "Test1910C SVN.Step*.*.ods" can be used to convert the latest C2C "Techinfos.xml" values into spreadsheet format, for merging into a new empty "Learning Log".
tracker even before you've researched tracking. They're stronger than even hunters, and allow you to clean up your area no problem.
