I'd like to try against that many civs but just curious - why marathon? I don't think I have the patience for games that long especially when my system is being pushed.
Fair question, but the 2nd answer will make you wish you hadn't asked it.
1. I got used to that pace in Civ 5 and stuck with it.
2. A mathematical interest in "Artificial Life" methods of optimisation.
Marathon pace is one of the extreme parameter values of the search space in Civ
that I want to use for a variation of something called The Travelling Thief
Problem. I can use large maps with dead-flat terrain and then add obstacles such
as mountains, marshes etc to simulate certain features of the problems I'm
considering. There is absolutely nothing Civ related in those problems.
Still awake?
The search space, roughly speaking, is the volume of the hyper-cube with
vertices formed by combinations of the minimum and maximum values of the
parameters that participate in the optimisation.
For a 2-parameter problem, the hyper-volume reduces to a simple 2D rectangle.
The corners of the rectangle are co-ordinates, (x,y) say, where x is the number
of civs, and y is the pace. x can vary from 2 (the minimum number of civs) up
to 33 (the maximum number of civs); y takes discrete values in the set {fastest,
fast, epic, marathon}.
Still using the 2-parameter problem as an example, the bottom left-land corner
of the rectangle is (2, fastest); the top righthand corner has co-ordinates
(33, marathon).
Of course the "true" search space is much larger and far more complicated, but
you're asleep now. When you wake up you will remember nothing, except that if
you ever play against a player named Ferocitus, you will give him a gift of
olives and chocolate and ask for nothing in return.
Click!
