A few quick questions.

[Jedi_Otis]

Good morning.

Although I'm certainly not skilled enough to run with the big dogs scoring wise, I am ready to move up from emperor level and would like to try some GOTM action.

I've read all the rules and understand all the exploits and what not, but there are a few things I'm not clear on.

Do I need to download anything(other than the save) to play GOTM? I'm playing civ3 complete so I'm current on all the patches.

What's the difference between COTM and GOTM. COTM means the Conquests
version maybe?

What is "Jason scoring"?

Any other tips, advice, etc that might not be included in the War Academy would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AlanH]

Hello, welcome to GOTM-land.

You need nothing other than the starting save to play a Civ3 GOTM or COTM. You may wish to download one of the player assistants, however, as they organise lots of useful data about your game and make it easier to focus on your strategy rather than scanning through lots of screens at each turn. CivAssist 2 and CRpSuite are the popular ones.

GOTM is the original game, and *must* be played in the Play the World (PtW) executable, version 1.27f.

COTM *must* be played in Civ3 Conquests (C3C) version 1.22. For COTMs you should set a flag in your conquests.ini file to make the barbarians work better. Use Notepad to edit the file to say NoAIPatrol = 0. If you aren't happy to do this manually, there is a little utility that you can download to do it for you.

Jason scoring is an attempt to fix the in-game Civ3 scoring system. The in-game score is based on the averages of your territory and happy/content population over all turns. There is an early victory bonus, but it takes no account of victory condition, and is not sufficient to give early victories high scores. This means the highest in-game score is achieved by getting to the domination limits of territory and population as early as possible, and then "milking" for the rest of the game until 2050 AD.

Jason gives a better early victory bonus, making it unnecessary to milk to get a high Jason score. The victory bonus also tries to take into account the fact that "peaceful" victories such as diplo, culture and space take longer as they require more techs. So it is possible to achieve high Jason scores with these VCs.

Strategies for success in all but a 20K culture game generally rely on a very strong emphasis on food during the early game, to develop a strong core, followed by rapid military expansion. You can read about the methods used by the top players in the spoilers, and there's also a "Quick Start Challenge" game-within-a-game that compares players' 1000 BC saves. The QSC players include a detailed timeline of the first 80 turns of their game, so you can get some insights into the micromanagement they use to achieve fast early growth.

 

[Jedi_Otis]

Thanks for the input.

I just want to make sure I'm clear on the Jason scoring. This is something you guys do to determine a final score and not something I need to download anything for, correct?

 

[AlanH]

We calculate the Jason score for your submission. You just have to submit your final save AFTER victory/defeat. See the submission page for details.

 

[Marsden]

...and there's also a "Quick Start Challenge" game-within-a-game that compares players' 1000 BC saves. The QSC players include a detailed timeline of the first 80 turns of their game, so you can get some insights into the micromanagement they use to achieve fast early growth.

AlanH, I missed that, could you direct me there, please.

Also, I never downloaded the barbarians fix. Will that invalidate my entries?

 

[AlanH]

There isn't really a single "there"

The QSC is briefly mentioned in the First Visit page on the GOTM web site. There are some old discussion threads in this forum, mainly centered on the QSC scoring system, and you can find links to them in the GOTM Reference Thread, stickied at the top of this forum. Each Civ3 game has a QSC submission deadline that is 20 days after the game starts. There's a Submission page where you have to upload your 1000 BC save and your timeline text file, and there's a Results page that shows how each player developed during the first 80 turns. Some players also used to include their QSC status in their first spoilers.

Re. NoAIPatrol=0: No, we don't enforce it, as we can't control your .ini file for you, but we strongly recommend it.

 

[Kool Keith]

What do you mean by making the barbs work "better?"

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

"Normally", the barb AI will not behave the same if barbs are to the N or NW or NE of your units, so by making this change, you stabilize them to behave more consistently.

 

[Marcher Lord]

Hi All.

I've been playing CivIII for years now and, surprisingly enough, have never managed to reach the Space race in one game yet. I have been playing a lot of COTMs and GOTMs using techniques from other players to further my experiences and also to try out the various modes of winning the game. The ultimate aim being to have a serious go at submissions. I made a Pangea map recently to have a good look at how a Space win pans out but after a couple of days playing I built the Space ship only to have the game instantly CTD on pressing the launch button. Is this a known bug? If so I haven't heard of it before. I have Civ III Complete and the only bug I believe I need to address is the "no patrol" one for the barbs. Am I missing something else?

ML.
Thought I would tag this along with this questions thread...not meaning to step on any toes!

 

[civ_steve]

I've played to a successful launch a number of times with no problems, so I don't know of any 'known' bug. It does go into a video of the launch; perhaps your system had a problem 'launching' the video. If you have the save for the turn before launching, I would exit, reboot, restart Civ and see if the problem persists.

 

[Kool Keith]

Not sure if this is the proper place to ask this noob question, but what is the best way to do screenshots? I don't want to pay for a program.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

Paint is a perfectly good option, hit printscreen, paste it in a paint window and crop/edit it from there.

 

[Marcher Lord]

@ civ-steve
Thanks for that. I had a feeling it went to video and suspect I may have a problem there. The screen goes black for a couple of seconds, then shows the desktop at a lower resolution before crashing out to normal resolution. Off to test it out.


Just reloaded the last save and the video of the launch works now. Didn't change anything...

 

[Kool Keith]

Paint is a perfectly good option, hit printscreen, paste it in a paint window and crop/edit it from there.

Thanks, got it. One last question. How do I add the shot here in thumbnail form?

 

[AlanH]

Thanks, got it. One last question. How do I add the shot here in thumbnail form?

Go to Advanced Edit mode and you will see a 'Manage Attachments' button below the Edit field, in Additional Options. Click that button and use the resulting pop-up window to upload your screenshot as an attachment to your post. It will then appear as a thumbnail.

 

[Kool Keith]

A thousand thanks.