BOTM 25 Final Spoiler

Had 4 spears pop up one tile off the corn at ~T85 one turn after whipping another settler for the double fish spot. Didn't have galleons in position to do anything about it from the other cities. I quit in disgust.

Random events just slay me. I was doing real well also. Not a huge fan of huts. I thought I recalled they were off for GOTM?
 
I think I agree with those who want to get rid of events in GOTM - they are just adding random noise to the game. What's the point?

Totally agree. Hope too see more BOTMs with events turned off (I skipped the other xOTMs due to lack of time and interest which are event-less).
 
Totally agree. Hope too see more BOTMs with events turned off (I skipped the other xOTMs due to lack of time and interest which are event-less).
We had a significant discussion on this topic a while back. The emerging consensus at the time was to have events off more often (compared to just to odd game once in a blue moon), with a bias towards having them on for low-level games and off for high-level ones.
 
Niklas, out of curiosity, what exactly are the arguments for having random events on? And are there people adamently insisting on having them on?

This game and general discussion pretty clearly indicates that most people here outright hate them or think they are at best pointless.

I can sympathise with wanting to include the games features as much as possible (so to speak, to make the XOTM resemble a "normal" game of Civ4 as much as possible)
But in my opinion, random events are not in any way integral to the Civ4 gameplay experience. In most games, the effects are close to negligible.

I really dont see how the problem of being randomly "excluded" from a given XOTM is not enough to ban random events from all these games.
 
We had a significant discussion on this topic a while back. The emerging consensus at the time was to have events off more often (compared to just to odd game once in a blue moon), with a bias towards having them on for low-level games and off for high-level ones.

Yes, I know this discussion and the consensus isn't that bad from my point of view. And of course there are people who like random events.
But for those who play this game competitive the AI is probably not the opponent before Deity and if the "bad" event hits you early in the game it could be the cause to loose the race for the fastest "what ever victory".
On the other side there is a lot of other randomness in the game like the combat RNG, popping gold mines early or how the AI behaves towards each other and so on... so probably the discussion leads to nowhere or the existing consensus :)
 
This spoiler continuing on from my first spoiler, here.

*** Session 6: 500 AD -> 1010 AD ***

In 535 AD on the last turn of the golden age I convert back to Slavery and see the Pyramids can be whipped for 5 population. I take the opportunity :)

A short time later I revolt to universal suffrage, and with some saved cash all my new cities get granaries, trading posts, libraries and courthouses. Next tech target is Education, and the same cash buying can extend to universities.

Another GM is born in Nidaros, again settled in Uppsala.

Around about 900 AD I learn Optics and buy a caravel to send west - soon meeting Isabella. In 960 AD I'm the first to circumnavigate.

In 1010 AD I learn Education (deviated through Optics) and the buying of universities is about to begin.

*** Session 7: 1010 AD -> 1380 AD ***

While keeping a close eye on the AI, I'm teching towards Nationalism and then to Rifling. Nationalism for the Taj Mahal, Rifling so that I can then start massing Berserkers and then upgrade them to Rifles. Liberalism is thrown in there as well, the hope is to take Rifling with it, otherwise I'll settle for Astro.

In 1380 the Taj Mahal is complete, and Liberalism is learned, taking Rifling for free. Time to shut down research. My first target will be Victoria, since she's on my continent after all.

*** Session 8: 1380 AD -> 1500 AD ***

By the end of the golden age I have 6 galleons full of CR2 amphibious Riflemen. I take 2 of Victoria's cities immediately, but soon realise that I really should brought Frigates along to knock down the defenses. Time to turn tech back on and work on Chemistry.

By 1500 AD Victoria is dead.

Next target is Isabella, who has quite a few cities. This time I'll bring Frigates.

*** Session 9: 1500 AD -> 1680 AD ***

Since I was fortunate enough to create a Great Engineer, my tech path is now towards Railroad to found Mininc Inc. By some good luck I also get another GM, ready to found Sid's Sushi a little later on.

Annoyingly I don't have coal. But my friend Kublai Khan does, which makes him a target. I think I'll capitulate him, and he can be my guard dog for the game.

Mining Inc is founded in 1650 AD in Uppsala, where I've been settling all those GMs.

1665 I attack Kublai. He is pretty powerful, but I'm hoping that with his main cities removed he will soon capitulate. After a couple of turns I take peace and prepare to finish him off in 10 turns time. I achieved my goal of capturing his coal after all.

*** Session 10: 1680 Ad -> 1744 AD ***

I realise that I'm in danger of missing the free GS from Physics to Darius. Or the gree GSpy from Communism... I decide if I can get either I'll go for Communism, since the Kremlin would be awesome considering all the cash rushing I've been doing.

I get the GSpy in 1704 AD. Isabella gets Physics the turn after. Next tech is Assembly Line, to really put the fear of God into Kublai.

I see that Kublai has a pretty large stack in his city closest to me, which I assume to be his SOD. In 1712, 11 turns after signing peace with him I declare again and land my army of Rifles and MGs next to this city, waiting for the counterattack... fingers crossed...

Ouch... I lose half my stack, but the Mongol loses more, so I think it turned out ok. After capturing three more of his cities I take peace again. Next time I'll be attacking with Infantry.

In 1744 the Kremlin is built - time to spend all the money I've been saving :) Oh, and switch to Emancipation, 50% cultural slider is a pain!

Session 11: 1744 AD -> 1884 AD ***

In 1752 another golden age. My plans for Kublai are being put on hold - I think he is safe unless he has aluminium :p. New goals are Medicine to found Sid's Sushi and to put more effort into spreading around my corporations.

Sid's Sushi is founded in 1768. After a few trades it's pulling in a respectable 20 :food: per turn.

Learning Industrialism shows we have Aluminium, so Kublai can live a while longer.

It's all pretty peaceful through here, just teching through and building factories and all sorts. I throw in a revolution to Representation as well, since with all the free food from Sid's I have lots of specialists. By the end of this session I'm halfway through Fibre Optics on my way to Fusion.

*** Session 12: 1884 AD -> 1925 AD ***

The entire world is Cautious with me, except for Willem who is friendly. We have a defensive Pact and I've been gifting him military techs, so hopefully noone will get any ideas.

With the free GE from Fusion and a saved prophet and artist, golden age number 4 begins in 1890.

I micromanage the SS parts build to death, such is my style :) Techs are completed in 1904 AD, and the spaceship is launched in 1910. Some MM at the end to boost my population and score.

Final result: user Wins a Space Race Victory in 1925 AD. Final score of 43274.

As far as space races go, that date is kind of slow. But I enjoyed the challenge of racing to space on an archipelago map which is typically pretty hammer poor.
Things I could have done better:
* Settling my capital somewhere other than on top of copper might help.
* I was still kind of lax when going to war. It went well vs Victoria, but vs Kublai I either should have been much more aggressive in getting my army together or stopped sooner than I did.
* I get into this habit of only changing civics during a golden age because I fear the turns wasted in revolution. The truth is, Universal Suffrage was great for a time, but I should have switched to Representation much sooner after the cash rushing was done. it was particularly noticeable how it affected my GNP just from looking at the graph.
* I know I could have saved at least one turn if I'd remember to build a factory in one of my final SS part producing cities...
* I didn't have a dedicated GP Farm for this game since I was fairly happy with the :gp: from all the wonders in my capital. But building Oxford before an Academy? That's just silly.
* State Property vs Corporations? Reading srad, Frederiksberg, Niklas and others' comments on the topic I still can't decide which to choose...

As for random events - personally I like them. But the Barbarian uprising event is pretty unbalanced I would think. Considering some of the other more extreme events are turned off with the HOF mod, surely this one could also be disabled with the next Buffy revision?
 
Niklas, out of curiosity, what exactly are the arguments for having random events on? And are there people adamently insisting on having them on?
Seeing how I was one of the more vocal against random events, I'm hardly the best person to ask :lol:. Here's the thread, have a look. :)
 
I'm one of those in favor of random events, but I like the compromise Niklas has stated. All the games have RANDOM events, even with random events turned off. AI Attitudes, RNG God influences attacks, and resource popping, forest growth, etc, all of that is random. Barbarians are random.

So unless you want to have NO barbs, NO resource pops, and same resource seed always with same results across plays and games, and the same AI relationship development, there are always random events.

And heck, honestly, to me, its just more fun with randomness
 
omg, I just had my worst civ ragequit ever.

Random event destroyed my copper the very turn I was due to whip the colossus. AI got it next turn. Just to rub it in, I got another random event the turn the AI got colossus: hurricaine took out my library that took forever to build. Yuck.

I was even pounding my mouse in consternation, you really should have seen it :lol:
 
I finished this so long ago that I can hardly remember what happened. I seem to remember losing a cultural defeat to Willem van Orange when I was still a few pieces away from finishing my spaceship.
 
Diplomatic Victory, 1952 AD.

Got into wars in the Middle Ages due to my lack of resources (no coal, no uranium, no oil) and ended up vassalizing Victoria, Tokugawa and Kublai Khan. I never really had enough military power to have defeated any of them outright, but they all capitulated after losing a couple of cities.

Was friendly with Isabel throughout the game, took her religion early on and we both stayed there.

Was a bit worried late in the game, William made a defensive pact with Darius and I still had no oil - both of them had more advanced units.

I took the chance on a diplomatic victory vote as soon as I could and was amazed to win it!

Jack
 
I also like most of the random events -- largely on the grounds that the biggest partially random event (AI wars) isn't one we can switch off. I'd rather we admitted that there's some luck involved than worry about the minutiae. And the games I've played (except this one) I've consistently placed in the 20s-30s, so it's not like the events have actually been causing much variance in my performance -- my laziness (dislike of war because of all the piece-pushing and then having to maintain build orders for more cities) still dominates. The quests also add some interesting side goals sometimes (even though the rewards are pretty inconsequential)
 
I like the random events and quests. They give some good bonuses now and again that can help any type of victory. Culture boosts to buildings or cities, diplomacy bonuses or penalties to get people to like you or to help aggravate them into a war with you, a bit of a bonus to units here, some gold bonus on a building or tile there... I find it fun to watch a civilisation being hit by hurricanes four times in a row or being in a slave revolt just to soften them up right before my invasion.

I wonder how many people have had the problems with defensive pacts. Most of the AIs in my game teched to one of the techs that allowed them. I've been lucky enough that one of the civs was happy to make a defensive pact with me because my research never did go that way.
 
1070AD take Toledo with moderate causalities... Isabella capitulates after that. Finish with conquest win for 157,000 points.

Wow, that is a great time. Congrats!

I feel like I keep getting a little better each time, but my conquest didn't come until 1535. It was my first over 200,000 point XOTM though, and using the challenger save. Now if I could just learn to play a little faster...

The other mistake I made was not playing challenger for the higher score multiplier
Does playing challenger really give some kind of higher score multiplier? I thought there was no extra scoring bonus. e.g. "For the purposes of global ranking and comparison to all other GOTM scores, the Challenger class game scores in the GOTM results do not receive any compensating scoring bonus for the added elements of challenge." Am I missing some hidden multiplier?
 
Does playing challenger really give some kind of higher score multiplier? I thought there was no extra scoring bonus. e.g. "For the purposes of global ranking and comparison to all other GOTM scores, the Challenger class game scores in the GOTM results do not receive any compensating scoring bonus for the added elements of challenge." Am I missing some hidden multiplier?
There is a built-in multiplier in the difficulty level. At Noble the multiplier is 1.0, and then +0.2 for every level above that. The scoreboard uses the ingame score for both Contender and Challenger, so Challenger saves do indeed get a score bonus when they are played at a higher difficulty.

Whether this is a good thing or not is not clear. As you can tell from the quote you make, it does not really conform with the original intention of the Challenger save. We (the staff) are currently discussing how to handle this for future games.
 
Thanks Balthalion :) . Think getting galleons quick was key to fast conquest . With AI's army spread on little island and an unexpected attack from sea on their key cities they crumble really quickly :king:
 
Whether this is a good thing or not is not clear. As you can tell from the quote you make, it does not really conform with the original intention of the Challenger save. We (the staff) are currently discussing how to handle this for future games.
FWIW I like the idea of there being no point bonus for playing challenger, but I truly enjoy the option of playing challenger games at higher difficulty levels. Perhaps if it really is just a flat multiplier then it wouldn't be that difficult to modify the final score to reflect the appropriate level? Maybe a little pre-wash program to adjust only the final score in submitted challenger saves? Easy for me to say, I know... Have I thanked the staff lately for all the great stuff you do?

:thanx: :bowdown: :hatsoff:
 
Settled in place after checking the SE for goodies. Figured a clam wasn't worth losing the plains hill. Teched BW quickly, and upon learning I had copper right next to my capital plans were set into motion for the killing of Vicky. Built ~10 axes and churned through her 3 cities easily. From this point my game just drifted along with me dominating thanks to my extra land and superior management. Eventually I had rifles and noticed that Willem was researching too fast, so I stole his core cities. Isabella kept pestering me to join her religion, so I stole her core cities with tanks. Then Darius built a couple of spaceship parts, so he got nuked and lost his core as well. At this point I had ~35 cities, 10 future techs and a ridiculously powerful army, so I just built my spaceship and let everyone except poor Vicky live on my world.

Hopefully I replayed my turns after the late game crash well enough that my game is accepted.

Entry class: Contender
Game status: Spaceship Victory for Viking
Game date: Jan,1972AD
Turns played: 594
Base score: 8220
Final score: 36378
Time played: 16:37:56
 
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