News: GOTM 124, Noble Asoka, starts May 21

[Deckhand]

GOTM 124: Asoka of India.

Asoka, grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, needs to overcome nine other civilizations to achieve true greatness. India has the best unique unit in the game. The start, not so great.
Game settings:
Playing as: Asoka of India
Rivals: 9 AIs
Difficulty: Noble
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: Raging barbarians
Victory Conditions: All enabled

Map settings:
Map: unedited custom continents (3)
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Worldsize_standard
Climate: Climate_temperate
Sea level: Sealevel_medium


Asoka is Spiritual and Organized, and you start with Mysticism and Mining.

The Spiritual trait gives no anarchy and double production speed of Temple

The Organized trait gives -50% civic upkeep and double production speed of Courthouse and Lighthouse

Unique unit: Fast Worker (replaces Worker)
The Fast Worker benefits from: 3 movement points. This compares with the Worker which has: 2 movement points.


Starting screenshot

This is the start of the game (click for a bigger image):




This competition will open at 00:01 am on 21 May 2016, server local time (UTC-6:00). From that date and time, you'll be able to get your chosen starting save >>>here<<<.

Submit the save after your victory (or defeat) here, by 9 Jul 2016.

Here is a link to a list of the differences between Vanilla, Warlords and BtS.

Software Versions

Windows: This game MUST be played in Civ4 Vanilla (NOT Beyond the Sword or Warlords), patched to version 1.74, and with the HOF mod version 1.74.004 installed. You can download the HOF mod here. Players using Windows Vista or Windows 7 are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.

If you have not installed BtS, you will need to update the relevant DLL files in order to match the Locked Assets checks. These are available here.**

Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Civ4 Vanilla (NOT Beyond the Sword or Warlords), patched to version 1.74, and with the Mac HOF mod version 1.74.002 installed. You can download the Mac HOF mod here.

While playing...

Remember - for your entry to be accepted, it MUST be your first attempt to play this game, and you MUST NOT replay any turns. If you make a mistake while playing, you have to live with it, learn from it, and carry on the game without replaying.

We will open 'spoiler' threads during the month for players to discuss what happens in their games. Do not discuss any details of your game outside those threads.

 

[Deckhand]

My last xotm map (botm104 also noble) received the following acolades from some of the best civ4 players,

Trying to decide whether to name the capital dNgheap, grAssland, or Crappola. Thoughts?

This start is clearly april fools, it can't be that bad. Expecting the real game to open up soon.

The start is so horribly pathetic that I feel like walking my settler over teh entire map before settling about 2016 AD next to 3 porkers.

All that despite me adding iron to the BFC.

Spoiler :

botm 104 starting screenshot

And so, to demonstrate that "things can always be worse", I give you gotm124.

The seafood to the east has been revealed because I hate settling so as to be unable to use seafood. I could have moved it closer; however, this is an unmodified map.
The jungle has been revealed to let you know it is there. No seafood to the west IIRC.

Important, you will find some strategic resources at two tiles revealed to the SE. Probably a little far away to put your capital.
If you can get past the Raging Barbarians, you might be able to beat the other civs to that location.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Warrior moves 1 NE GH to see if any further seafood can be spotted. If not, Settler moves to settle at NW + W of the Clam.

Wet Rice, 2 GH squares (+1 more after removing its Jungle), Coastal Clam, and 2 Lakes that become Oases after building a Lighthouse makes for a somewhat-not-sucky capital.

Agriculture -> Fishing -> Sailing -> Bronze Working gives us a Farmed Rice, some GH Mines to build our Work Boat, and an early start on a Lighthouse to start stripping away some of the suckiness.

Then, Masonry -> Bronze Working -> Chop out The Great Lighthouse at our leisure.

A couple of Warriors spawn-busting in the Jungle can keep away the Barbs to the south, while one Warrior can park its butt on the Silk to keep northern Barbs away.


Yay, now we've made use of both Mining (GH Mines) and Mysticism (on the way to Masonry). Oh yeah, and Organized means that our Lighthouse comes cheaply.

 

[Cactus Pete]

"while one Warrior can park its butt on the Silk to keep northern Barbs away." What's the chance he can get past the hut to the silk without encountering raging barbs?

 

[Deckhand]

From the screenshot, it looks to me that there is water in the tiles adjacent to the silk. So, the warrior could just move 1W and spawnbust barbarians (but not galleys) in the NW. I don't see any way to get to silk without moving thru the hut.

 

[Cactus Pete]

From the screenshot, it looks to me that there is water in the tiles adjacent to the silk. So, the warrior could just move 1W and spawnbust barbarians (but not galleys) in the NW. I don't see any way to get to silk without moving thru the hut.

Exactly, and the barbs might swarm out of the hut and kill our warrior.

 

[Jovan Kukic]

There will be more options where to put our cRapital

By the way, download link is missing.

 

[justjohn]

I hope I'm not doing anything wrong here, but using the download link from GOTM 123 and changing to 124 gave me a file to download:

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/download.php?file=civ4gotm124contender.Civ4SavedGame

EDIT: While that gave me a file to download, I was not able to open it. It gave me an error message saying something about "protected against modified assets", but I havn't modified the assets, and I rechecked that the GOTM123 start file loads fine.

 

[Jastrow]

I have the same things as justjohn.... I get the message saying "The file you are trying is protected to make sure the assets in your mode folder have not been changed.)

 

[lymond]

I think Deck needs a new watch tick tick tick

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I've had a poke around and fixed a typo on one of the GOTM server pages that was causing the download link to be hidden.

Unfortunately, that's lead me to confirm that the starting save is indeed giving a locked modified assets problem. Sadly, I can't fix that, so we'll all have to wait a few hours longer. Remember ... patience is a virtue

 

[AlanH]

Apologies for the inconvenience.

I've rebuilt the start save and uploaded a new version. Try downloading again.

Deckhand had a lot of trouble reinstalling Civ on his system, as a result of which I have been making his start saves for a few months. He's managed to get it working in the for the start of SGOTM 23, but it looks as if there's still a gremlin left in his vanilla system. He's probably only just waking up in sunny California right now.

 

[lymond]

"patience"


edit: was that a Win10 thing?

 

[AlanH]

I don't recall what DH's installation issues were, but I'm sure Win10 didn't help!

I think the problem you guys experienced with his save may have been a result of missing out one of the steps to get the right version of CvGameCoreDLL.dll in place. I might have to add some more checking steps for that when the designers upload the start saves.

 

[lymond]

Still doesn't work, Alan

 

[AlanH]

Investigating ...

 

[AlanH]

Hmm. No idea what happened there. Either finger trouble when I uploaded, or some strange caching problem on the server. I'm pretty sure it's working now. Please try again.

 

[Jastrow]

Thanks Alan,

Just opened it and it works! Now to see how long I survive the raging barbs...

 

[lymond]

All systems go!!

edit:

 

[Deckhand]

Many thanks to AlanH for fixing this.

You are lucky he and DS were on the ball. I couldn't have fixed it in a timely manner. You have 7 weeks to finish the game. So a few hours shouldn't matter.

Spoiler :

Yes, a Win10 thing.

Short version of long story, I've told in a few places.

Spoiler :

Buy Win 8 laptop, can't install civ. Upgrade laptop and desktop to win10. Desktop can't read vanilla/warlords. (this is over a year ago, can only play bts on desktop)
Buy Civ4 Compete on steam. Can't get HoF to work. Create xotm games without mod and Alan finishes the process.
Recently finally realize I can copy files from desktop backup (I moved) to laptop. And get BtS/BUFFY working. I can play again!
A few days ago, get Steam vanilla HoF working (see other thread) and create gotm124. But wrong DLL file. (And I've also killed BtS).

try try again (when I get around to it)
one step forward two steps back