Fox-02 -- Praying to the RNG God

[GreyFox]

I am bored, and down to 2 SGs. So I figured I can start a new one ...


Acknowledgement

This idea was inspired by Chaos SG by Munterpipe and an earlier Civ3 SG LotR8b.


Background

We are a mindless tribe of minions with absolutely no goal in life ... except to worship the RNG (Random Number Generator) God. RNG, in fact, dictates everythng in a Civ4 game, from combat outcome to whether you have resources near your capital. So, this SG is an ultimate tribute to Him.


The Game

After the first round of turnsets, we will start praying to the RNG God on what to do next. RNG God will then tell us, by means of a dice roll, what is our next objective. We will do our best to fullfill the objective to aplease the RNG God.


The Variant

We will, under no circumstances, discuss among ourselves what victory conditions to aim for, and how to achieve victory. We may (and should) discuss how to achieve the current objective as decreed by the RNG God.


Other Finer Details

The following are some of the ideas to be discussed by players.

Game Settings

I am thinking of randomizing most of the game setting, from player's civ, leaders to map type. However, I will restrict map size to large or standard.

To make sure this is doable, I am thinking of trying this out with Noble difficulty, but with raging barbarian turned on.

The RNG God's List of Objectives

The basic idea is to roll 2 dices, and dependng on the roll, one objective will be decreed. This is the list of objectives I come out with, not finalized, can be tweaked once players are confirmed.

Dice Roll    Objective
----------   ---------
 1, 1        Start a Golden Age
 1, 2        Build a Wonder (World/Project/National)
 1, 3        Generate a Great Person (can be via tech research)
 1, 4        Amass N+1 times our current gold (N = number of cities)
 1, 5        Learn a tech that enables a wonder or a religion
 1, 6        Learn a tech in the next age or future tech
 2, 2        Capture cities from 3 different Civs (including barbarian)
 2, 3        Capture or found 3 more cities
 2, 4        Capture or found a holy city with shrine
 2, 5        Capture or found a new city with a World Wonder
 2, 6        Ensure at least 3 Civs are at war (need not be us)
 3, 3        Eliminate a Civilization
 3, 4        Connect a new reources
 3, 5        Get a unit with 25 exp
 3, 6        Capture a city with new resources
 4, 4        Build a World Wonder
 4, 5        Kill 10 enemies
 4, 6        Learn a Tech that allows new unit
 5, 5        Capture a size 10 city
 5, 6        Learn a Tech no one knows
 6, 6        Get something for free (peace treaty is ok) from other Civ

Note that the probability of these objectives are different (those with same numbers is half the probability of those with different numbers).

Fulfiling/Failing an Objective

Once we fullfil an objective, the dice is rolled again to get a new objective

I am thinking of limiting each objective to 30 turns. If we fail to achieve the objective, we are punished. The punishment may be (1) gift a city. (2) whip all cities, or (3) disband the strongest unit in each city,


Players

Looking for 4-5 more players to join me in this crazy game. No qualifications, excep must have fun.

Roster (closed, sorry!)
-- GreyFox
-- Danski
-- rex_tyranus
-- mucco
-- n0xie
-- omni_paul

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EDIT: The objective and punishment lists have changed. The variant is also slightly updated. Please refer to this post (#32 in pg 2) for the up-to-date SG description.

-

 

[chriseay]

Not a signup, but this is very interesting. I'll be lurking.

 

[oldbustedjorn]

Too bad I don't have the time right now for more than one SG (and I have to get revenge in VQ04 if I do play one).

I am already subscribed to the thread though because it looks very interesting!

 

[Dantski]

Sounds interesting, sign me up!

I'd prefer standard map size, any larger would be a bit too much of a strain on mah machine. Difficulty doesn't matter to me, this is meant to be a fun game not a massively challenging one (except to appease the RNG God).

Roll a dice to decide Raging Barbs or not! Same with everything else! That includes our punishment.

Possible punishments

1. Gift city to opponent we have worst relations with.
2. Whip one/al cities
3. Disband unit with highest combat strength on flat land.
4. Change Civics to the most basic (example: Free Market -> Decentralization)
5. Declare War on most powerful Civ
6. Cancel open borders with Civs
7. Cancel all deals with one Civ
8. Run 0% science for 5 turns.
9. Gift rival Civ next great person.


Theres so many possibilities! Not sure if we could do rewards for completing a task? Maybe free railroad or upgrade all the Cottages in one city to towns via World Builder?

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

I'm in, if you'll have me. Sounds like a riot. Questions:

If we don't have a 30 turn cap, what happens if our first objective is "capture a size 10 city"? It take 3000 years and all the spirit out of the variant.

Are we expected to win, or just appease the RNG? I think a variant win means never failing a goal. Who cares if Mansa launches a spaceship. Did he do it with the RNG's permission?

 

[mucco]

Count me in!
Large maps cause me problems, though. I think the first dice roll should be what victory we must try to achieve, let the RNG decide that too.

 

[Munterpipe]

Sounds fun greyfox! I'll lurk this for sure

 

[n0xie]

I would like to join too, if you'll have me. It sounds like a lot of fun

 

[omni_paul]

I'd love to play this one if there's still room. I'm an experienced CIVer, win regularly on Noble/Prince, but am a SG Noob.

 

[GreyFox]

@Danski: welcome! Great ideas there about punishment! I am not sure about rewards though. Because all the objectives are meant to be a kind of reward when achieved.

@rex_tyranus: you are in! I am actually trying to see if we can win without a long-term planing. But yes, I would think we would have won if we fulfilled every objective set down by the RNG. If Mansa launched, that means the RNG hates him and wants him off this world!

@mucco: You are in too! Ah, nice idea there abt the victory objective ... but as I said, I one reason for starting this SG is to see if we can win without long term plan.

@n0xie: you are in!

@omni_paul: No problem abt being noob, you just need to be funny You are in too!


@oldbustedjorn, chriseay, Munterpipe: You are welcome to lurk, and do throw in one or two funny comments every now and then!

---

Some pre-start discussion:

- anyone has any thing to tweak on the ojective list? I have given quite some thoughts for the first few, but the last 4 are quite hastily put down just to fill up the list.

- anyone has any objection to the punishments put forth by Danski? I would trim it down to 6, perhaps:

1. Gift city to opponent we have worst relations with.
2. Whip all cities
3. Disband 3 units with highest combat strength.
4. Change all Civics to the most basic ones (example: Free Market -> Decentralization) 
5. Declare War on most powerful Civ
6. Cancel open borders with all Civs

I removed the run 0% science, as I think it might actually benefit us (get more gold) ... Gifting a great person is a tad too harsh I think.

What do you guys think?

- okay, game setting:

Map Size: Standard (since someone has problem with large)
Map Type: Random
Civ: Random
Leader: Random
Raging Barbarian: Roll a dice, if even its off, odd its on.
Victory Condions: all enabled.

--

 

[Maquis]

Sounds like fun, I'll be lurking on this one also.

I have a couple of suggestions on some of the rolls...

I wonder about: 3, 3 Eliminate a Civilization

This may be a little too hard to pull off, if you have to eliminate them within 30 turns... how about something like "capture an AI capital"

Also: 2, 4 Capture or found a holy city with shrine

Might be a little tough, unless you forget the "with shrine" part. You'd need a Great Prophet standing by...

Acutally I would like to see something like "spread a new religion to 3 cities"

Ok, enough lurker comments. You guys have fun!

 

[Kikinit]

oh damn.. I was looking for another SG and wasn't fast enough on this one. I'll be lurking anyway as it sounds interesting.

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

If it's okay to make a variant suggestion...

We're praying to the RNG here, right? How happy will he/she/it/they be when we allow Budhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Confucianism, Taoism, or Islam to spread in our random lands?

Any thoughts about running theocracy + no state religion? Too harsh?

 

[n0xie]

I'm with Maquis on this one. Might be a bit hard to 'eliminate an AI' in 30 turns
Let us build holy shrines in praise to the mighty RNG God.

btw do we do science at random as well? THAT would be interesting

 

[omni_paul]

I'm with Maquis on this one. Might be a bit hard to 'eliminate an AI' in 30 turns
Let us build holy shrines in praise to the mighty RNG God.

btw do we do science at random as well? THAT would be interesting

Joy! I shall begin praying to the RNGod immediately. The RNGod giveth, and the RNGod taketh away!

As for the science... perhaps we could always take the will of the Advisors (Prophets of the RNG, through whom he lets his will be known).

 

[ruff_hi]

Bah - I am sure that I could program a random number into python and each round it would tell you something that you had to do. I'll look into it. In that way, you could use this random number that is generated to set your science slider.

Looking at the python code - I am 90% sure that I can. If you want me to, then pls create a suitable algorithm and I will put it in alerum's mod and post it here. I'll prob just have to change 1 file. Examples of science slider algorithm ...

• A straight random %age (11 outcomes of 0%, 10%, ..., 90%, 100%) will give you an average science rate of 55% - You might want something higher than that
• down either 20% or 40% (50/50 change) 35% of the time, remains unchanged 20% and goes up 10% (fixed) 45% of the time
• name your own

I'm thinking that I will just post a message to the screen and run log and the user will have to change it. You could do this with lots of things - mini challengers every 5 turns, etc, etc.

Anyway, let me know and I will code something up for you. Note: everyone would have to run the mod for it to work.

 

[omni_paul]

Dice Roll    Objective
----------   ---------
 1, 1        Start a Golden Age
 1, 2        Build a Wonder (World/Project/National)
 1, 3        Generate a Great Person (can be via tech research)
 1, 4        Amass N+1 times our current gold (N = number of cities)
 1, 5        Learn a tech that enables a wonder or a religion
 1, 6        Learn a tech in the next age or future tech
 2, 2        Capture cities from 3 different Civs (including barbarian)
 2, 3        Capture or found 3 more cities
 2, 4        Capture or found a holy city with shrine
 2, 5        Capture or found a new city with a World Wonder
 2, 6        Ensure at least 3 Civs are at war (need not be us)
 3, 3        Eliminate a Civilization
 3, 4        Connect a new reources
 3, 5        Get a unit with 25 exp
 3, 6        Capture a city with new resources
 4, 4        Build a World Wonder
 4, 5        Kill 10 enemies
 4, 6        Learn a Tech that allows new unit
 5, 5        Capture a size 10 city
 5, 6        Learn a Tech no one knows
 6, 6        Get something for free (peace treaty is ok) from other Civ

Are we going to consider having different objectives for different ages? For instance, getting a unit with 25 exp in the age of the animals might be a little difficult! Perhaps tonight I might put together a list of possible early game objectives for everyone's perusal. What say you all?

 

[GreyFox]

@rex_tyranus: Oh, I forgot to mention: The RNG is the One True God. It manifest itself as different appearances, and the god of each of 7 religions are actually a manifestations of the RNG, and thus we are free to acquire as many religions as we wished.

@Kikinit: actually I was certain you are awake when I posted this ... But you are welcome to lurk!

@n0xie,ruff_hi: randomizing the science? I am still hoping to win this game!

@danski: I think its not necessary to come up with different set of lists for different ages. We can tweak the objectives you tink might be impossible for certain ages to be more age agnostic, for instance:

As suggested by Maquis:

2, 4        Capture or found a holy city with shrine -> Spread any religion to 3 cities
5, 5        Capture a size 10 city -> Capture a enemy capitol

and

3, 5        Get a unit with 25 exp -> Tripples the experience of a unit

Some of the objectives mght be hard, but those real hard ones are usually the lower probability ones, and if we really get it, it is just our damn horsehockey luck

Okay, I'll give this one or 2 more days for discussions before starting.

-

 

[n0xie]

I was thinking more along the lines of 'what' we should invent, not randomize the science slider (isn't there a whole thread about binairy system being the most optimal setting for the slider )

So we randomize after each tech what our next tech is going to be. But then again, that might be overdoing it

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

I disagree about randomizing tech. RNGod bids us do His will through His suggestions. It is a credit to His greatness that He trusts us to know His will and follow where He leads.

ie: If we're 6 turns from assembly line or 8 turns to biology and RNGod demands us to conquer, RNGod trusts in our intelligence to make the right decision and build tanks.