RB1 - Cuban Isolationists
- Thread starter Sirian
- Start date
Sirian
Designer, Mohawk Games
Speaker said:Sirian, can you file that under workman's comp and have Take2 cover it?
Contractors only get paid what is specifically written in to the contract.
I do get to write off the expenses of a new computer, though. That helps a little bit.
- Sirian
Sirian said:I do get to write off the expenses of a new computer, though. That helps a little bit.
![[offtopic]](/images/smilies/offtopic.gif "Offtopic [offtopic]")
Must be nice. My computer disintegrated in February, so I spent $1200 building a spiffy new one. A few months later I moved to a new town, and when I was changing my insurance, the company who covers me asked me if I'd like to join their new program. $40 a year covers your computer from viruses to full hardware failure. Just a few months too late... 
I wonder if it covers
?
Luv_Muffin
Millionaire Playboy
I've always wondered about folks in your position.Sirian said:Contractors only get paid what is specifically written in to the contract.
I do get to write off the expenses of a new computer, though. That helps a little bit.
- Sirian
While it may be true that the only gold and platinum you may be interested in has some electronic connection, CPU's and motherboards etc. But do you and Sullla get to meet Jay Leno or Dave, go clubbing with Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan and assorted lady Russian tennis stars? Do you get compensated like Rock stars, and have wild LAN parties with Rock-n-Roll superstars and supermodels? After a few more years, am I going to see you on Hollywood squares (across from Richard Simmons and Vanilla Ice)?
Man, being a "gamerz-guru" must have some awesome perks
... and back on topic, I want to see the tanks rolling soon.
Go cuba! Woot.
Kylearan
compound eye
Hi,
Point taken. I agree that the comparison to the LCS was exaggerated.
It's just that the player easily gets the impression that it is a "combat odds calculator" he's looking at, and it's kind of disappointing to realize how large the discrepancy between strength ratio and combat odds can be in some cases. It's okay for me now that I've understood how combat works, but not everyone is willing to read a long article containing a lot of formulas about it.
-Kylearan
Sirian said:
Point taken. I agree that the comparison to the LCS was exaggerated.
It's just that the player easily gets the impression that it is a "combat odds calculator" he's looking at, and it's kind of disappointing to realize how large the discrepancy between strength ratio and combat odds can be in some cases. It's okay for me now that I've understood how combat works, but not everyone is willing to read a long article containing a lot of formulas about it.
-Kylearan
Sirian
Designer, Mohawk Games
Luv_Muffin said:
I do know some guys named Jay and Dave. I've eaten at Ledo's. Is that close enough?
Now the LAN parties...
I've done some LAN parties! 
You kind of need games shorter than Civ for a good LAN, though. Like, even I have a hard time expecting to spend entire weekend on the road to play ONE game.
- Sirian
Sirian
Designer, Mohawk Games
THE ADVENTURES OF THOMAS THE TANK!
Any of you guys out there ever play "Army Men" when you were kids?
C'mon, you know you did.
(The secret appeal of Civilization!)
- Sirian
Any of you guys out there ever play "Army Men" when you were kids?
C'mon, you know you did.
(The secret appeal of Civilization!)
- Sirian
First, sorry if you you've already tried everything but I figured it was worth a shot. I was having the crash to desktop problem as well, and every once in a while a complete meltdown would occur. On someone else's advice I switched to the Omega version of the Catalyst drivers. They were also an older revision as well. The 4.12 version to be precise. It was kind of a last ditch effort but I'll be damned if it didn't work. I have yet to have any type of crash at all since switching to those drivers. I have no idea why an older 3rd party revision of the Catalyst drivers would make a difference but it did for me. Anyway, just thought I'd relate my cure in case it could help you out in any way. That is, if you have an Ati video card...heh.
-teck
Oops, sorry...it wasn't an older revision of the drivers. It was the newest Omega drivers. I downloaded both and tried the newest version first and that worked. So, whatever is changed in the Omega drivers from the official driver set makes a huge difference on my machine. YMMV, but figured anything that may help.
-teck
-teck
wow - strange to be back after a long long time.
Anyway - a quick question (I don't have civ4 - maybe get it after xmas looks like it address many of the reasons I stopped playing civ3 way back) but can you trade city for city as part of other trades e.g peace treaty ? If this was possible then in this game something like Rome etc could have been traded for a worthless city (knowing full well that Rome could easilly be recaptured??)
I suspect not (in fact I'd be amazed if the answer was yes) but would be interested to know if this would work under any circumstance.
Anyway - a quick question (I don't have civ4 - maybe get it after xmas looks like it address many of the reasons I stopped playing civ3 way back) but can you trade city for city as part of other trades e.g peace treaty ? If this was possible then in this game something like Rome etc could have been traded for a worthless city (knowing full well that Rome could easilly be recaptured??)
I suspect not (in fact I'd be amazed if the answer was yes) but would be interested to know if this would work under any circumstance.
zagaz
Chieftain
As far as I have been able to tell, when negotiating for peace or cease fire you can only offer something or ask for something, there does not seem to be an option for two way, and only gold, g per turn and citites show up. (at work so can't verify, hope I am at least partially corect)
DementedAvenger
Prince
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2004
- Messages
- 435
zagaz said:
Tech shows up too, but you are correct that the deals can only be one way. I suspect this is because it's tough to quanitify the worth of a civilization's survival.
Ozymandous
Prince
GreatMPL said:
But they should be the same, otehrwise, why even put that feature into the game? How much harder would it be to calculate including the current unit respective hit point differences and showing the real percentages involved? Then at a glance the player would really know if they want to attack or not if they might only have a 20% chance of winning or a 55% chance of winning, etc.
If people know the "real odd's", including health, promotions, terrain, etc, they'd be much less likely, IMHO, to complain when something doesn't work like they 'expect' it to. Part of a successful game, allplication, is managing expectations.
Ozymandous
Prince
Wyatan said:Well, it seems the combat system needs a bit of fine-tuning, after all : no more tank vs spearman sillyness... provided the tank is fully healed !
Good thing is, the fix might be very simple : just base damage calculations on the fully-healed strength of the opponents.
Might even play around with the notion of making a distinction between "to-hit" and "damage" modifiers (for promotions, special abilities, etc..).
Seems to be working like in Civ3, just tested it out : Colosseum required 540 gold to rush on turn 1 (119 turns to build), 354 on turn 2 with just one hammer added (118 turns to build).
But enough thread-hijacking, back to the story...
Umm, no. The whole reason to base the calculations on the real strength of the unit (including hit points, although it's hidden now) vs. it's "best strength" when fully healed is to balance game play and have players choose to either keep attacking or stop.
IRL, people and units don't fight at 100% effectiveness when they are wounded, fatigued, etc, so it would be unrealistic (and not fun) to act as if this didn't occur IG. The 'fix' is simple, to base it off current unit health as well as current strength, terrain and promotions, and show all of that as a percentage on the screen. It can't take much more computing power than it does now to throw a single additional variable into the mix, which is already being used circumspectly although not necessarily displayed.
Ozymandous
Prince
tecknogyk said:
Because ATI writes crappy software to support their hardware? Having to roll back and/or take a crapshoot on if the 'new' drivers, released for the ATI card I had, would crash my system was the reason I dumped ATI after about 3 months and swapped to strictly nVidia cards. I've had zero problems with drivers and/or program compatibility ever since and it's been 3 years.
I don't get ATI... They have great hardware but horrible software. Perhaps they need to permanently partner with some folks who can program reliable, stable, software for their stuff, and then it wouldn't be an issue.
Knowing absolute strengths (with all adjustments) and hps, it's very straightforward to calculate a winning percentage. Well, at least for those of us who love math, it is.
I suspect the reason Firaxis didn't do it is because they expect modding. When (not if, when) somebody rewrites the combat resolver to do things differently (e.g., a distrubution around damage instead of fixed, to smooth over jump points), the displayed odds would then be wrong (but the strengths would still be write). Yes, whoever rewrites the combat resolver could rewrite the odds displayer, too, but that's not always going to happen.
If those odds displayed are the result of Python code or something where it would be easy to add to it, I have all the code necessary to calculate win odds (with the current combat method) [Except x-y first strikes]. Might be a good mod to make (but now we're straying dangerously off-topic for this forum).
But, would that really help? Wouldn't people see 99% success and be upset when they lose? Because that would happen. A lot. I mean, 1% is VERY high (in a certain respect) and displaying 0% (rounding) would be even worse. It might help in issues like this one, where relative strengths don't show absolute odds, but I think it would open another can of worms. <Shrug> I dunno. I'll still look for a true combat odds mod when one comes along.
Arathorn
I suspect the reason Firaxis didn't do it is because they expect modding. When (not if, when) somebody rewrites the combat resolver to do things differently (e.g., a distrubution around damage instead of fixed, to smooth over jump points), the displayed odds would then be wrong (but the strengths would still be write). Yes, whoever rewrites the combat resolver could rewrite the odds displayer, too, but that's not always going to happen.
If those odds displayed are the result of Python code or something where it would be easy to add to it, I have all the code necessary to calculate win odds (with the current combat method) [Except x-y first strikes]. Might be a good mod to make (but now we're straying dangerously off-topic for this forum).
But, would that really help? Wouldn't people see 99% success and be upset when they lose? Because that would happen. A lot. I mean, 1% is VERY high (in a certain respect) and displaying 0% (rounding) would be even worse. It might help in issues like this one, where relative strengths don't show absolute odds, but I think it would open another can of worms. <Shrug> I dunno. I'll still look for a true combat odds mod when one comes along.
Arathorn
ChrTh
Happy Yule!
I think it's time to quote Han Solo
In my opinion, hopefully the person would have enough experience with the game to quickly glance at the matchup and determine whether its risky or not. I don't care if my odds of success (or even failure) are 55% or 65%. It's when the odds are 80% (in either direction) that it becomes an issue, and I should be able to tell at quick glance whether I have an 80% or more chance of failure/success. And I think showing the strength plus the modifier icons is enough for me to make a "blink" judgement.
Plus it's fun not to know the odds too closely. Look at the original issue: Arathorn (of all people) forgot about the +25% Infantry get against gunpowder units. If I'm told the odds every time, I don't need to learn info like that: the computer will calculate it for me. But that +25% strength could be the difference between victory and defeat in a close battle, and I prefer a game that rewards intelligent decision-making based on my own knowledge rather than relying on the game to make sure I'm fully informed. Same with Hills, terrain, etc. The game's just not as much of a challenge otherwise.
Han Solo said:
In my opinion, hopefully the person would have enough experience with the game to quickly glance at the matchup and determine whether its risky or not. I don't care if my odds of success (or even failure) are 55% or 65%. It's when the odds are 80% (in either direction) that it becomes an issue, and I should be able to tell at quick glance whether I have an 80% or more chance of failure/success. And I think showing the strength plus the modifier icons is enough for me to make a "blink" judgement.
Plus it's fun not to know the odds too closely. Look at the original issue: Arathorn (of all people) forgot about the +25% Infantry get against gunpowder units. If I'm told the odds every time, I don't need to learn info like that: the computer will calculate it for me. But that +25% strength could be the difference between victory and defeat in a close battle, and I prefer a game that rewards intelligent decision-making based on my own knowledge rather than relying on the game to make sure I'm fully informed. Same with Hills, terrain, etc. The game's just not as much of a challenge otherwise.
The girlfriend and I were playing a LAN game the other day. She was Spain, on the eastern side of the continent, and I was Germany, on the western side. Between us were the Mali. She'd founded Hinduism, but then lost the holy city to barbarians. While she was trying to retake the city, Mansa swoops in and captures it out from under her nose. So she attacks to try and take it back. The attack fails and it turns into a protracted war.
I decide to apply some pressure to the Mali, storm my way across their civilization, recapture the Hindi holy city, and gift it back to Spain. After I had conquered three Mali cities (including the Buddhist holy city, but not the Hindu holy city) and the GF had smashed her entire army against the walls of the holy city, she sues for peace with Mansa and, in the exchange, asks for her city back. Mansa accepts.
The situation was this: She was technologically and militarily inferior to the Mali. She only had three cities where the Mali had about a half dozen left. I was in no way allied (or even trading) with the Spanish, but I was chewing up Mansa's forces every turn.
Did the AI surrender her city because of the war on their western front? Or did they do it because it was originally her city? I'm not sure what "reasoning" the AI used behind gifting the city back to Spain...
Re: 100,000 views: This is the first website I check every morning. "Cuban Isolationists" is my morning news. I started reading this thread because Cuba has always been a facination of mine. Anyway...
Onward!
I decide to apply some pressure to the Mali, storm my way across their civilization, recapture the Hindi holy city, and gift it back to Spain. After I had conquered three Mali cities (including the Buddhist holy city, but not the Hindu holy city) and the GF had smashed her entire army against the walls of the holy city, she sues for peace with Mansa and, in the exchange, asks for her city back. Mansa accepts.
The situation was this: She was technologically and militarily inferior to the Mali. She only had three cities where the Mali had about a half dozen left. I was in no way allied (or even trading) with the Spanish, but I was chewing up Mansa's forces every turn.
Did the AI surrender her city because of the war on their western front? Or did they do it because it was originally her city? I'm not sure what "reasoning" the AI used behind gifting the city back to Spain...
Re: 100,000 views: This is the first website I check every morning. "Cuban Isolationists" is my morning news.
I started reading this thread because Cuba has always been a facination of mine. Anyway...Onward!
Ditto - I have this page in my favorites list and it is the first thing I read when I get to work every morning!MinionJoe said:Re: 100,000 views: This is the first website I check every morning. "Cuban Isolationists" is my morning news.
Onward!
(ohhh... same page opend 24/7 at work and at home)Similar threads
