ALC Game 20: Vikings/Ragnar

[VoiceOfUnreason]

So in other words, the more AI civs are in the game (one way or another), the lower the land requirement for domination?

There's a more specific description in the SDK, I think related to your closes competitor. I'll try to dig it out tonight if no one else beats me to it.

EDIT: OK, cabert had it right. The relevant code logic is in CVGame::testVictory [cvgame.cpp]. The real conditions are thus: first, you must have a population lead of at least VICTORY_DOMINATION.iPopulationPercentLead (default of 25% is defined in CIV4VictoryInfo.xml); second, you must have the larger of VICTORY_DOMINATION.iMinLandPercent, or VICTORY_DOMINATION.iLandPercent - 2 * (countCivTeamsEverAlive).

In other words, if you nearest rival in population starts spinning off colonies, Domination gets easier.

 

[cabert]

There's a more specific description in the SDK, I think related to your closes competitor. I'll try to dig it out tonight if no one else beats me to it.

EDIT: OK, cabert had it right. The relevant code logic is in CVGame::testVictory [cvgame.cpp]. The real conditions are thus: first, you must have a population lead of at least VICTORY_DOMINATION.iPopulationPercentLead (default of 25% is defined in CIV4VictoryInfo.xml); second, you must have the larger of VICTORY_DOMINATION.iMinLandPercent, or VICTORY_DOMINATION.iLandPercent - 2 * (countCivTeamsEverAlive).

In other words, if you nearest rival in population starts spinning off colonies, Domination gets easier.

sure I have it right.
I failed at G major 20 because of this (goal is time victory, epic speed, large map, warlord level)
Was happily teching future techs, with a margin towards domination of nearly 2% land, when suddenly I got a domination victory .

At least it's a #1 in the HoF

 

[Bhruic]

In other words, if you nearest rival in population starts spinning off colonies, Domination gets easier.

For the record, I believe that's been reported as a bug, and is likely to get "fixed" in the next patch.

Bh

 

[Fetch]

GG sis. See you in the "princes" thread.

 

[TM Moot]

Well played Sis, another ALC masterclass.

However, I think you should reload the start and settle IN PLACE (not on the stone). It would be interseting to see if it made any difference!!

Enjoy your well earned break...

 

[Mesousa]

Good job.

Does anyone think it would have made a considerable difference after all if the opponents had been handpicked with the map type in mind?

 

[Munch]

Good job.

Does anyone think it would have made a considerable difference after all if the opponents had been handpicked with the map type in mind?

A difference, yes; a considerable one, probably not. Willem, Joao, etc... despite whatever traits/unit/building the AI get it's still an AI on a water map, trying to contend with an aggressive and amphibious human-controlled commerce-monster with Astronomy in 625AD

 

[Validator]

And I captured that barbarian city, as many of you recommended.

I'm not sure anybody recommended taking Magyar. Chinook was a better option as it would have given you more land.

If you had taken Chinook and sent some settlers to found cities on the ice on the southern part of the American continent you might have reached the domination threshold without needing to attack Mehmed.

Of course it doesn't look like Mehmed put up much of a fight, so no big deal I guess.

The real key to winning this game, however, and the most noteworthy gambit within it, was gaining Astronomy ultra-early.

I don't know if getting Astronomy early really helped all that much in this game. If it had been suggested earlier you could have planned ahead and been in a position to take full advantage of it. As it was your only real benefit was getting the foreign trade routes sooner. A definite advantage (mainly because of the Great Lighthouse), but not enough to be decisive in any way. You were already #1 in GNP.

IMO the key points to the easy victory were:
1. The AI's poor performance on "specialty" maps. The AI just doesn't adjust its play style to deal with the special challenges of this map type the way a human player does.
2. Good early tech rate due to the hybrid economy and early wonder building. If you hadn't delayed it to pursue the Swordsmen quest you would have completed Optics around 300 AD. Without any tech trading partners that's quite an accomplishment.
3. Solid warmongering. Once you started attacking the AI really never stood a chance.

The only real issue I have with the game was that you were a bit slow in gearing up to go to war. But that's .

Overall I think one of the better played ALC games.

 

[Validator]

The relevant code logic is in CVGame::testVictory [cvgame.cpp]. The real conditions are thus: first, you must have a population lead of at least VICTORY_DOMINATION.iPopulationPercentLead (default of 25% is defined in CIV4VictoryInfo.xml); second, you must have the larger of VICTORY_DOMINATION.iMinLandPercent, or VICTORY_DOMINATION.iLandPercent - 2 * (countCivTeamsEverAlive).

This has some interesting strategic implications, as it looks like it provides a nice little exploit for getting domination wins faster in some cases. Since the domination land threshold goes down by 2% for every new civ that enters the game a player could actually get closer to the domination threshold if he turned a small 2-city island into a colony. As long as the island represents less than 4% of the total world landmass the reduction in the player's land percentage would be less than the reduction in the threshold.

If enough small 2-city islands were available the player could lower the threshold by quite a bit, depending on what the value is for VICTORY_DOMINATION.iMinLandPercent. If a 10% reduction is possible a player could plan for this by looking for 5 suitable small islands to colonize, which would lead to somewhat faster domination victories.

On continents type maps it could even lead to the ability to win without invading the other continent.

Of course if Bhruic is right and this gets changed in the next patch that exploit may not be long lived.

 

[cabert]

This is, without any possible doubt, a bug.
I can't think of any reason why this would make sense.

 

[Sisiutil]

The Shaka pre-game thread is now underway HERE. Go to it, gang!