TMIT's Guide to Speed Civving

[JonathanStrange]

This is what I as looking; I want to evaluate and make reasonable decisions without too deep an analysis and without just rushing through and hoping. I tend toward the "I must optimize!" at times. Thanks. It's interesting reading and I've bookmarked it in my Civ Favorites.

 

[popejubal]

This is what I as looking; I want to evaluate and make reasonable decisions without too deep an analysis and without just rushing through and hoping.

The ability to make reasonably good decisions with a quick overview of insufficient information is actually a skill and it's a valuable skill, in fact.

I never understood this and I thought that pretty much everyone in upper management was an idiot who just made snap judgements because they couldn't fit more than a limited amount of new information in their tiny brains. Now I understand that even a mediocre decision made quickly is usually better than an optimal decision made too late to take advantage of a situation.

In other words, I might win a higher percentage of my games, but I take hours and hours to get through each one. My pointy haired boss will win a slightly lower percentage of his games, but he'll win a lot more games overall because he just makes a decision and moves on instead of agonizing over each decision and accumulating enough information to make that decision "optimal".

There's a really good interview with a neuroscientist who studied by Terri Gross on NPR's Fresh Air.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101334645

It's pretty cool.

 

[noto2]

You never use avoid growth? This button is needed sometimes for optimal play...

When would that be ? Most of the time you would whip, draft, or simly hire a specialist.

 

[oyzar]

When would that be ? Most of the time you would whip, draft, or simly hire a specialist.

You aren't always in slavery or nationhood. Hiring a specialist might not be best depending on the title configuration. Also when you've just built a granary stopping growth for a turn(so you go to say 22/22 food instead of growing) can allow you to get extra food. For example if you would have had 8 food in the granary if you grew naturally(chopped a granary or something) and the best tile you could grow onto was a 2 food tile(say you are working a grassland farm with the first pop), then if you stop growth you'll come out of growth with 14/24(one turn later, though prolly one cottage turn less or one hammer less depending on what tile the 2 food tile was), while if you don't stop growth you'll end up with 11/24 on the same turn. 1 cottage turn isn't worth 3 food, heck even if you were growing onto a farm you'll still save 2 food in this example.

Obviously the stronger the first tile is and the closer you can get to exact growth number and the lower your granary is to start with the better this becomes.

 

[zizzeus]

I agree, I shouldn't have said that I NEVER use it, just that I try to avoid it since the potential penalties of the button (for me, not being very attentive) outweigh the benefits. But yes there are benefits as mentioned by Oyzar.

Basically, my expected value of using that button is negative, and I'm not a gambler.

 

[Tecibbar]

why you build twice as much barracks as granary?

for me, a turn could take half an hour. In early game, I even make sure that each city produces 4/8/12 hammers to benefit most from forge. I guess that's just my way.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

why you build twice as much barracks as granary?

This can easily happen in games with a lot of conquest, because captured cities often retain the granary, but never retain the barracks.

 

[mystyfly]

This can easily happen in games with a lot of conquest, because captured cities often retain the granary, but never retain the barracks.

.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

.

Well, it's true. Rax is automatically destroyed but granaries often survive...so war-crazies can have it happen.

 

[mystyfly]

That's news to me. I was sure I've seen rax survive... I know stuff like walls and castle get destroyed which makes sense, but rax is news to me indeed...

Nice guide btw

 

[PieceOfMind]

I'm sure I've seen drydocks survive. I would have throught barracks can too.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'm sure I've seen drydocks survive. I would have throught barracks can too.

Hmm, isn't there an easy way to check this? I know buildings have a variable chance to survive depending on type...I was under the understanding that drydocks COULD survive, but never barracks. Is it an XML define or is it harder to check than that?

I've never seen a barracks survive, and IIRC I've seen it stated on the forum that it's automatically destroyed on capture, similar to national wonders and non-wonder culture generating buildings.

 

[DanF5771]

It's in the xml (CIV4BuildingInfos.xml).

Barracks: iConquestProb = 0
Drydock: iConquestProb = 66

Yeah, it's a nice guide TMIT.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

It's in the xml (CIV4BuildingInfos.xml).

Barracks: iConquestProb = 0
Drydock: iConquestProb = 66

Yeah, it's a nice guide TMIT.

Thanks, I need to update it soon though...I've learned some new tricks since my last stint, including your spawnbusting technique and its effect on early exploration, and how to get the governor to do whipping for you. But before I do that, I need to get used to how the governor does it myself. I haven't noticed any dropoff since relegating whips to the governor (in fact, my tech pace went up ), so I must have really been doing something wrong. Now I need to see what it does and how it can be used to approximate good play while playing fast.

 

[oyzar]

The next step is TMITAI. Program the AI to use the govenour and do like you do and it'll be a drastic improvement(should be able to beat normal immortal AI's most of the time). Of course once you start giving it bonuses it'll become a LOT harder... Obviously the current's AI's openings and building/unit selection is off(as well as how to use units) but if this was improved...

 

[popejubal]

and how to get the governor to do whipping for you.

Who's a what, then?

How do you do this?

This plus auto-airlift new units to waypoint city would cut about 20% off my micromanagement alone

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Who's a what, then?

How do you do this?

This plus auto-airlift new units to waypoint city would cut about 20% off my micromanagement alone

I hate airlift micro so much that I almost never use airlift . I just use transports and send waves...mostly because the AI naval presence always leaves something to be desired and I already have the transports.

To get the governor to whip, put the OTHER governor on, the one that's usually off by default. Annoyingly it picks what to build for you but you can over-ride it and I just queue everything most of the time anyway so it's not an issue.

So far I've had notably better positions since doing that, mostly because while I queue things up based on new techs or expansion or # worker decisions, it's a pain to look for whips all the time. Even if it's not as good as a human could potentially do it the governor whipping is a LOT better than missing them outright.

 

[KaytieKat]

Hi

Now we just need the guide for "How to get 10000 posts in under two years" hehe

Kaytie

 

[dalamb]

Or the harder goal of "how to get to 10k posts in under 2 years while maintaining a good reputation among the rest of the civfanatics".

 

[r_rolo1]

That is easy: Rumble a lot about borked diplo, spawnbusting, capitulation rules and nuclear plants