BOTM 250: Boudica, Monarch - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted
- Thread starter MarleysGh0st
- Start date
First game for a while and I clearly have lost whatever (dullish) edge I once had. Struggled financially for ages..... 'Mids & Representation was the only thing keeping my research going.
Conquered Rome, then eventually the Russians on my way to space.....except I stupidly tripped Domination with about half the spaceship built in 1812. Not a competitive space date I am sure..... but I was still annoyed to have won by domination
Conquered Rome, then eventually the Russians on my way to space.....except I stupidly tripped Domination with about half the spaceship built in 1812. Not a competitive space date I am sure..... but I was still annoyed to have won by domination
Frederiksberg
Deity
I did the same on exactly the same date
. Spaceship was half way to Alpha Centauri.If I had known there would be no other game for the next one and a half month, I might have spent more time on this one.
Dhoomstriker
Girlie Builder
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2006
- Messages
- 13,474
I set my empire on the path of Surveillance Capitalism, with the rough plan of using Espionage to get a Cultural Victory. Along that vein, I built several Espionage-Point-Earning Buildings by expanding "corporate offices" (aka by building Buildings) in my Cities:
Microsoft offices (Castles)
Amazon offices (Jails)
Google offices (Intelligence Agencies)
Facebook offices (Security Bureaus)
I also promoted these corporations' services heavily in the domestic market, so that I could directly spy on my own citizens, such as deploying Ring Cameras that have the property of mostly collecting espionage intelligence on the very family that installs one.
Normally, I do not get time to build Walls, but with the Duns being our Unique Building, it seemed to make sense to get the Duns, and then to invest a bit further in the Building that they unlock, Castles.
However, there came a conflict of interests when Microsoft began feeding excessive data to its AI, which includes espionage data that is intended for me, customer data that many customers may not realise they have to opt-out-of it being collected (look inside of Microsoft Outlook's Settings for multiple opt-out settings related to using your data for AI services), and copyrighted data that is not being given proper attribution nor potential corresponding compensation (think of artists' work that is being repurposed to copy their artistic styles). A large problem was introduced when the team responsible for ensuring that the company addresses such issues was eliminated.
Our government's response was to put a mandated moratorium on such AI "advancements" (where the "advancements" include an inappropriate use of our espionage data) by obsoleting the Microsoft offices (taking Economics in trade from Elizabeth and thereby obsoleting Castles). Our government also made the switch to OpenOffice, although there were holdouts who instead went for LibreOffice. OpenOffice requires a 32-bit version of Java, such as by installing jre-8u201-windows-i586.exe from:
www.openoffice.org
Elizabeth also said that her European brothers and sisters had begun obsoleting my surveillance-capitalist technologies, as well, such as by placing a ban on the usage of Google Analytics and replacing it with a product with equivalent capabilities but minus the surveillance capitalism, by the name of Matomo, which is available for a reasonable subscription when hosted by them in a cloud without surveillance capitalism, or which is available for free if it gets self-hosted. Matomo also has its own competing Tag Manager product.
She went on to offer further tips, such as using a home-grown search engine by the name of https://www.mojeek.com, or of using other search engines from her European brothers and sisters, such as https://metager.org and https://swisscows.com. When she wants to do real Research, she turns to https://www.base-search.net. She also said that "true friends don't sick Facebook on people that they care about" and instead said that we could reach her on Mastodon.
Elizabeth went on to say that she had installed the F-Droid App Store from which she had obtained Threema Libre, which allows her to replace my surveillance-capitalist Push service with Threema Push.
threema.ch
threema.ch
f-droid.org
Elizabeth did admit that to make use of Threema Libre, she had had to pay a small, one-time fee, but that this fee avoided her paying with her data, and she claimed that the cost of paying with her data was astronomically higher than by paying several dollars/pounds/Euros.
shop.threema.ch
She said that her relative had also ditched WhatsApp in favour of using Threema for iOS, where the Apple Push service was deemed to be safe enough to use, and thus the app could be directly purchased by her relative from the iOS App Store. Her relative had purchased an iTunes gift card using cash, so that her relative could avoid using her credit card on the iOS App Store.
apps.apple.com
Another must-have app that Elizabeth prided herself on having installed from the F-Droid App Store is called Tracker Control (originally called Mission Control), which automatically blocks a lot of surveillance-capitalist connections. What's more, is that it provides the same power that many people who had rooted their Android phones were after: the power to alter the "hosts" file on an Android device. Rooting one's device is no longer required to obtain this power and users can use someone else's block list or can put together their own blocklist to act as the "hosts" file. Not only is it usable on a mobile phone, but also on other Android devices, such as on an Android TV device.
f-droid.org
Further, she said that she had begun using the-web-browser-to-kill-all-web-browsers, Ungoogled Chromium. When Microsoft created the current version of Edge, they based it on the open-source product called Chromium, but they quickly discovered that Chromium had 50 Google services baked into it. Google has even been known to distribute closed-source software as a part of what is supposed to be purely open-source Chromium.
Therefore, Microsoft removed those 50 Google services, and that version of Chromium is roughly what Ungoogled Chromium is, today.
Turn off your Internet connection after downloading it but before installing it, which is suitable advice whenever installing or uninstalling a program these days, to reduce the tracking that occurs by your Operating System when installing or uninstalling programs, or, more generally, in case an installer or uninstaller "phones home" with a one-time data transmission as a part of the installation/uninstallation process.
Yet, Microsoft then added roughly their own 50 replacement services, and that web browser is what we know as the current version of Edge. "I'm on to you," said Elizabeth, "and I refuse to use your surveillance-capitalist web browsers. Even Firefox, while a great browser if one uses Arkenfox's user.js to customise it to remove its surveillance-capitalist services, is right now hosted on Google servers. So, all of the surveillance data that Firefox collects which previously benignly went to Mozilla's servers, is now being directly sent to servers which Google controls, and thus the surveillance data is no longer benign in its collection. I want to be able to browse-in-peace from out-of-the-box, and thus I have chosen to use Ungoogled Chromium. But, a locked-down version of Firefox using Arkenfox's user.js is a good backup web browser to have on hand."
github.com
There weren't really a lot of leaders in this section of the world (aka on our map), with only 2 leaders to have discussions with (thanks to the 3 Minor Nations being unwilling to come to the negotiating table), and it turned out that Elizabeth had also been aggressively spending Espionage Points on my government, to counter our efforts in that regard.
We were unable to gift a City to a Minor Nation. With the 2 competing Civilizations being quite large, we also could not gift arbitrary Cities to them in locations of our choosing. In addition, the 2 competing Civilizations each had War Elephants, as well as strong, additional supporting Military Units that were on-par technologically with our own. Thus, while we did go to war with Catherine, it was taking far too long and it became too much of an investment to get her down to 3 Cities. Getting her down to 3 Cities was a desired goal, as at that point, she would have been eligible to accept a gift City anywhere in the world, which would have helped considerably for an Espionage-Cultural Victory. Therefore, it started looking less practical to go for an Espionage-Cultural Victory.
Thus, I switched my plans into going for a Diplomatic Victory.
Earlier, I had set up a City to the north-west of Augustus' area to be able to Chop The Statue of Liberty, as it was an area that was relatively unpopulated except by Barb Cities. I even built a lot of Forest Preserves there, earning myself 3 free Big-Fat-Cross Forests. Ironically, the Forest Preserves were Pre-Chopped, although it's questionable whether such a tactic of Pre-Chopping a Preserve would work in the real world. With this setup in place, I instead decided to build a Wooden United Nations.
Sure, a Great Engineer would have been nice to have obtained to have been able to build The United Nations with it, but I had been trying, quite unsuccessfully, to generate Great Spies, and instead had earned Great People that were neither Great Spies nor Great Engineers.
I crafted a seemingly cunning plan, of allowing Augustus to capture the City with The United Nations inside of it, with the thinking that all of the female leaders would vote for me, the Population Leader, since they would not vote for Augustus, the to-be-owner of The United Nations' City and thus my Voting Opponent.
Yet, to my dismay, Augustus did not come up as a Voting Candiate! It was Elizabeth (the second-largest in population) versus me (the largest in population), with neither of us owning The United Nations. Fortunately, Cathy sided with me, which was enough for a relatively late Diplomatic Victory.
A shout-out to LowtherCastle for having documented his research in SGOTM 16 (while he was with the Kakus' Team) which confirmed that a Diplomatic Victory's threshold is 62% of the map's population. While I had not anticipated the possibility of calculating the total of Cathy's votes plus my votes ahead of time, this information allowed me to get a population value that was close to the threshold without going over it, thereby indirectly ensuring that I only needed a single AI to vote me to victory.
Did anyone else notice that Duns and the related Guerilla Promotions appear to be buggy, or at least not working as advertised?
The Sevopedia says "Free Guerilla I Promotion for Units Built in this City."
The Dun appears to give a free Guerilla Promotion on:
Scouts, Archers, Crossbowmen, Longbowmen, Musketmen, and Grenadiers
The Dun does not appear to give a free Guerilla Promotion on:
Warriors, Axemen, Spearmen, Macemen, Pikemen, and Riflemen
Arguably, Riflemen not getting Guerilla I makes sense, since learning the Rifling tech obsoletes Walls and therefore obsoletes Duns, and indeed, building a Grenadier after having learned the Rifling tech will not give a free Guerilla I Promotion on the Grenadier, which is logically consistent with the game's rules.
Yet, a Unique Building is supposed to offer special abilities that may break otherwise-established rules. Think of the Zulus' Ikhanda (a Barracks replacement) that gives a reduction in Maintenance, which is an ability that one would normally only expect from Courthouses (and from related Wonders like the Forbidden Palace, which has a Courthouse as a pre-requisite Building). Or, the Khmer Empire's Baray (an Aqueduct replacement), which gives +1 Food on a Building, which is an ability that is typically reserved for citizens and settled Great People.
It can be argued that Melee Units are not supposed to receive a Guerilla I Promotion, since the Sevopedia says that Guerilla I is only Available To Recon Units, Archery Units, and Gunpowder Units. But, look at how Melee Units are supposed to be able to receive the Guerilla II and Guerilla III Promotions, and it seems that it would have been perfectly reasonable for a Dun to grant Melee Units OTHER than the Gallic Warrior the ability to start with a Guerilla I Promotion.
I can see a case being made that Siege Units, like Catapults and Trebuchets, should not receive a Guerilla I Promotion, because Siege Units cannot receive either of Guerilla II or Guerilla III, and because the defensive aspects of the Guerilla I and Guerilla II Promotions would have had no effect on Siege Units due to Siege Units not being able to defend, thereby making the Defensive Bonuses unusable. Yet, I would have still felt that it would have been a nice, niche concept to get Guerilla I for free on my Siege Units while also being allowed to choose the successive two Promotions, so that we might be able to have Hills-Stampeding Siege Units via a Promotion on Guerilla II, and then be able to spend yet another Promotion on Guerilla III, so as to get the +50% Withdrawal Chance and +25% Hills Attack on our Siege Units.
One such simple change, to match the documentation of giving Guerilla I on ALL of the Unit Types (and correspondingly unlocking Guerilla II and Guerilla III on nearly all of the Unit Types--still no Guerilla III for Recon Units and probably neither of them for Air Units), could have changed the Dun from being one of the "most derided" Unique Buildings to one of the funnest ones to play with.
As an idea for Mapmakers, in a game which starts off being a bit tough (maybe the AIs start with some good defending Units, such as 1 Longbowman each, or something like that), perhaps give us a free Catapult that starts with the Guerilla III Promotion. The Catapult by no means becomes invincible, but it does get better Retreat odds, and could be a fun concept, without being as overpowered as being given an early Humbaba.
Okay, if we accept that the Dun does not work as advertised and that it will not give a Guerilla I Promotion directly to Melee Units, and that the only reason that the Gallic Warrior receives a Guerilla I Promotion is because it is an ability from the Unique Unit, we still have the Sevopedia telling us that:
Guerilla II is Available To Melee Units
Guerilla III is Available To Melee Units
Yet, if we upgrade a Gallic Warrior to a Maceman, which means that the Maceman WILL already have the Guerilla I Promotion, that Maceman is UNABLE to promote to either of Guerilla II (if it only had Guerilla I but not Guerilla II) or Guerilla III (if it already had Guerilla II)! I believe that it is quite easy to argue that this situation represents a bug.
Meanwhile, the lack of the Guerilla I Promotion being assigned to Melee Units could be seen as a poor-design issue, or at a minimum, a documentation issue, and if we were still actively developing BUFFY, I would certainly make a case for Duns to unlock the Guerilla I Promotion for Melee Units.
Duns are therefore quite limited in use when Drafting Units. Drafted Warriors, Axemen, Macemen, and Riflemen will not receive the free Guerilla I Promotion. Don't laugh too hard, but I did accidentally Draft a Warrior in place of a Maceman, this game, thanks to Augustus' expanded Cultural Borders, nearby Peaks, and a nearby Lake blocking all of that City's Road connections. Only a Musketman will receive the free Guerilla I Promotion, and then only if we have remembered to Draft the Unit in a City which had built a Dun (I admit that I forgot to look for the existence of a Dun in a given City when deciding where to Draft Musketmen).
The Minor Nations fought each other, as well. For example, Louis had an Archer camp out on a Hills square by Augustus' City, and Augustus did the same in return. Louis' camp was more effective, though, as I witnessed Augustus suicide a few Units over time to take out that Hills-Defending Archer. Meanwhile, Augustus' Archer hid on the back side of a range of Peaks, staying safely out of range of Louis' Units, but also not really accomplishing much of anything, haha.
Also, note that the game calls them Minor Nations, not Minor Civs, and it seems to be appropriate to distinguish these players from "Civs," due to many of the minor rules that we are finding out about them.
In particular, we can perform the following steps to set up a Minor Nation:
1. Create a World Builder saved game
a) Start a Custom Game to set things up how we want, while ensuring that the Lock Modified Assets option has not been selected
b) Press Ctrl + w to enter the World Builder
c) Click on the top-right Save icon (the icon looks like a world with an orange-coloured arrow coming out of its centre)
2. In your Operating System's File Explorer, look for the saved file under the Saves\WorldBuilder directory
3. Edit the file using a text editor
4. We will see lines that look like the following for each of the players:
MinorNationStatus=0
5. We can change the value from 0 (false) to 1 (true) and that player will be a Minor Nation
Who knows; if enough people play around with the World Builder, we might start to encourage other people to join the ranks of the staff in the future, when needed.
For example, in some testing after the game, I found that a Minor Nation COULD come up as a voting candidate if a Minor Nation was in control of The United Nations' City and was in the top-two players in terms of population.
What was even more interesting is that while that Minor Nation could vote for itself, and while I could also vote for it, and even though our combined votes were sufficient for a Civ to have won the game, the Minor Nation did not win the game. Thus, it seems reasonable to conclude that a Minor Nation is prevented from winning the game even if it meets the conditions of a Victory Condition.
Of course, a Minor Nation being unable to win would not prevent the Minor Nation from making us lose, and thus I would imagine (without having checked) that losing all of one's Cities, even with only Minor Nations remaining in the game, would count as eliminating us from the game, since there probably isn't any special code which is written that says "if only Minor Nations plus a human player exist in the game, the human player is not allowed to lose."
Thank you to MarleysGh0st for having hosted this entertaining and creative game and to the rest of the staff for all of your continued hard work and dedication! Thank you, too, to the players, for your continued participation, keeping this series alive for whenever some of us can squeeze in the time to participate.
Microsoft offices (Castles)
Amazon offices (Jails)
Google offices (Intelligence Agencies)
Facebook offices (Security Bureaus)
I also promoted these corporations' services heavily in the domestic market, so that I could directly spy on my own citizens, such as deploying Ring Cameras that have the property of mostly collecting espionage intelligence on the very family that installs one.
Spoiler :
Normally, I do not get time to build Walls, but with the Duns being our Unique Building, it seemed to make sense to get the Duns, and then to invest a bit further in the Building that they unlock, Castles.
However, there came a conflict of interests when Microsoft began feeding excessive data to its AI, which includes espionage data that is intended for me, customer data that many customers may not realise they have to opt-out-of it being collected (look inside of Microsoft Outlook's Settings for multiple opt-out settings related to using your data for AI services), and copyrighted data that is not being given proper attribution nor potential corresponding compensation (think of artists' work that is being repurposed to copy their artistic styles). A large problem was introduced when the team responsible for ensuring that the company addresses such issues was eliminated.
Spoiler :
Our government's response was to put a mandated moratorium on such AI "advancements" (where the "advancements" include an inappropriate use of our espionage data) by obsoleting the Microsoft offices (taking Economics in trade from Elizabeth and thereby obsoleting Castles). Our government also made the switch to OpenOffice, although there were holdouts who instead went for LibreOffice. OpenOffice requires a 32-bit version of Java, such as by installing jre-8u201-windows-i586.exe from:
jdk-8u201 : Oracle : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
JDK 8u201 download archives (These files were uploaded from https://java.com)
archive.org
Download Apache OpenOffice
Join the OpenOffice revolution, the free office productivity suite with over 390 million trusted downloads.
Elizabeth also said that her European brothers and sisters had begun obsoleting my surveillance-capitalist technologies, as well, such as by placing a ban on the usage of Google Analytics and replacing it with a product with equivalent capabilities but minus the surveillance capitalism, by the name of Matomo, which is available for a reasonable subscription when hosted by them in a cloud without surveillance capitalism, or which is available for free if it gets self-hosted. Matomo also has its own competing Tag Manager product.
Spoiler :
She went on to offer further tips, such as using a home-grown search engine by the name of https://www.mojeek.com, or of using other search engines from her European brothers and sisters, such as https://metager.org and https://swisscows.com. When she wants to do real Research, she turns to https://www.base-search.net. She also said that "true friends don't sick Facebook on people that they care about" and instead said that we could reach her on Mastodon.
Elizabeth went on to say that she had installed the F-Droid App Store from which she had obtained Threema Libre, which allows her to replace my surveillance-capitalist Push service with Threema Push.
Threema Libre: Full Independence from Google Services
Threema Libre: Full Independence from Google Services
threema.ch
How do I install Threema Libre?
Threema Libre is available exclusively via F-Droid. It requires a Threema Shop license, and the F-Droid app needs to be installed on your Android d...
threema.ch
F-Droid | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
The app store that respects freedom and privacy
f-droid.org
Elizabeth did admit that to make use of Threema Libre, she had had to pay a small, one-time fee, but that this fee avoided her paying with her data, and she claimed that the cost of paying with her data was astronomically higher than by paying several dollars/pounds/Euros.
Buy Threema for Android – Threema Shop
Purchase Threema for Android here without using the Google Play store.
She said that her relative had also ditched WhatsApp in favour of using Threema for iOS, where the Apple Push service was deemed to be safe enough to use, and thus the app could be directly purchased by her relative from the iOS App Store. Her relative had purchased an iTunes gift card using cash, so that her relative could avoid using her credit card on the iOS App Store.
Threema. The Secure Messenger
Threema is the world’s best-selling secure messenger and keeps your data out of the hands of hackers, corporations, and governments. The service can be used completely anonymously. Threema is open source and offers every feature one would expect from a state-of-the-art instant messenger. The...
apps.apple.com
Another must-have app that Elizabeth prided herself on having installed from the F-Droid App Store is called Tracker Control (originally called Mission Control), which automatically blocks a lot of surveillance-capitalist connections. What's more, is that it provides the same power that many people who had rooted their Android phones were after: the power to alter the "hosts" file on an Android device. Rooting one's device is no longer required to obtain this power and users can use someone else's block list or can put together their own blocklist to act as the "hosts" file. Not only is it usable on a mobile phone, but also on other Android devices, such as on an Android TV device.
TrackerControl | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
TrackerControl allows to monitor and control hidden data collection in apps.
f-droid.org
Further, she said that she had begun using the-web-browser-to-kill-all-web-browsers, Ungoogled Chromium. When Microsoft created the current version of Edge, they based it on the open-source product called Chromium, but they quickly discovered that Chromium had 50 Google services baked into it. Google has even been known to distribute closed-source software as a part of what is supposed to be purely open-source Chromium.
Spoiler :
Therefore, Microsoft removed those 50 Google services, and that version of Chromium is roughly what Ungoogled Chromium is, today.
Turn off your Internet connection after downloading it but before installing it, which is suitable advice whenever installing or uninstalling a program these days, to reduce the tracking that occurs by your Operating System when installing or uninstalling programs, or, more generally, in case an installer or uninstaller "phones home" with a one-time data transmission as a part of the installation/uninstallation process.
Yet, Microsoft then added roughly their own 50 replacement services, and that web browser is what we know as the current version of Edge. "I'm on to you," said Elizabeth, "and I refuse to use your surveillance-capitalist web browsers. Even Firefox, while a great browser if one uses Arkenfox's user.js to customise it to remove its surveillance-capitalist services, is right now hosted on Google servers. So, all of the surveillance data that Firefox collects which previously benignly went to Mozilla's servers, is now being directly sent to servers which Google controls, and thus the surveillance data is no longer benign in its collection. I want to be able to browse-in-peace from out-of-the-box, and thus I have chosen to use Ungoogled Chromium. But, a locked-down version of Firefox using Arkenfox's user.js is a good backup web browser to have on hand."
GitHub - arkenfox/user.js: Firefox privacy, security and anti-tracking: a comprehensive user.js template for configuration and hardening
Firefox privacy, security and anti-tracking: a comprehensive user.js template for configuration and hardening - arkenfox/user.js
github.com
There weren't really a lot of leaders in this section of the world (aka on our map), with only 2 leaders to have discussions with (thanks to the 3 Minor Nations being unwilling to come to the negotiating table), and it turned out that Elizabeth had also been aggressively spending Espionage Points on my government, to counter our efforts in that regard.
We were unable to gift a City to a Minor Nation. With the 2 competing Civilizations being quite large, we also could not gift arbitrary Cities to them in locations of our choosing. In addition, the 2 competing Civilizations each had War Elephants, as well as strong, additional supporting Military Units that were on-par technologically with our own. Thus, while we did go to war with Catherine, it was taking far too long and it became too much of an investment to get her down to 3 Cities. Getting her down to 3 Cities was a desired goal, as at that point, she would have been eligible to accept a gift City anywhere in the world, which would have helped considerably for an Espionage-Cultural Victory. Therefore, it started looking less practical to go for an Espionage-Cultural Victory.
Thus, I switched my plans into going for a Diplomatic Victory.
Earlier, I had set up a City to the north-west of Augustus' area to be able to Chop The Statue of Liberty, as it was an area that was relatively unpopulated except by Barb Cities. I even built a lot of Forest Preserves there, earning myself 3 free Big-Fat-Cross Forests. Ironically, the Forest Preserves were Pre-Chopped, although it's questionable whether such a tactic of Pre-Chopping a Preserve would work in the real world. With this setup in place, I instead decided to build a Wooden United Nations.
Sure, a Great Engineer would have been nice to have obtained to have been able to build The United Nations with it, but I had been trying, quite unsuccessfully, to generate Great Spies, and instead had earned Great People that were neither Great Spies nor Great Engineers.
I crafted a seemingly cunning plan, of allowing Augustus to capture the City with The United Nations inside of it, with the thinking that all of the female leaders would vote for me, the Population Leader, since they would not vote for Augustus, the to-be-owner of The United Nations' City and thus my Voting Opponent.
Yet, to my dismay, Augustus did not come up as a Voting Candiate! It was Elizabeth (the second-largest in population) versus me (the largest in population), with neither of us owning The United Nations. Fortunately, Cathy sided with me, which was enough for a relatively late Diplomatic Victory.
A shout-out to LowtherCastle for having documented his research in SGOTM 16 (while he was with the Kakus' Team) which confirmed that a Diplomatic Victory's threshold is 62% of the map's population. While I had not anticipated the possibility of calculating the total of Cathy's votes plus my votes ahead of time, this information allowed me to get a population value that was close to the threshold without going over it, thereby indirectly ensuring that I only needed a single AI to vote me to victory.
Did anyone else notice that Duns and the related Guerilla Promotions appear to be buggy, or at least not working as advertised?
The Sevopedia says "Free Guerilla I Promotion for Units Built in this City."
The Dun appears to give a free Guerilla Promotion on:
Scouts, Archers, Crossbowmen, Longbowmen, Musketmen, and Grenadiers
The Dun does not appear to give a free Guerilla Promotion on:
Warriors, Axemen, Spearmen, Macemen, Pikemen, and Riflemen
Arguably, Riflemen not getting Guerilla I makes sense, since learning the Rifling tech obsoletes Walls and therefore obsoletes Duns, and indeed, building a Grenadier after having learned the Rifling tech will not give a free Guerilla I Promotion on the Grenadier, which is logically consistent with the game's rules.
Yet, a Unique Building is supposed to offer special abilities that may break otherwise-established rules. Think of the Zulus' Ikhanda (a Barracks replacement) that gives a reduction in Maintenance, which is an ability that one would normally only expect from Courthouses (and from related Wonders like the Forbidden Palace, which has a Courthouse as a pre-requisite Building). Or, the Khmer Empire's Baray (an Aqueduct replacement), which gives +1 Food on a Building, which is an ability that is typically reserved for citizens and settled Great People.
It can be argued that Melee Units are not supposed to receive a Guerilla I Promotion, since the Sevopedia says that Guerilla I is only Available To Recon Units, Archery Units, and Gunpowder Units. But, look at how Melee Units are supposed to be able to receive the Guerilla II and Guerilla III Promotions, and it seems that it would have been perfectly reasonable for a Dun to grant Melee Units OTHER than the Gallic Warrior the ability to start with a Guerilla I Promotion.
I can see a case being made that Siege Units, like Catapults and Trebuchets, should not receive a Guerilla I Promotion, because Siege Units cannot receive either of Guerilla II or Guerilla III, and because the defensive aspects of the Guerilla I and Guerilla II Promotions would have had no effect on Siege Units due to Siege Units not being able to defend, thereby making the Defensive Bonuses unusable. Yet, I would have still felt that it would have been a nice, niche concept to get Guerilla I for free on my Siege Units while also being allowed to choose the successive two Promotions, so that we might be able to have Hills-Stampeding Siege Units via a Promotion on Guerilla II, and then be able to spend yet another Promotion on Guerilla III, so as to get the +50% Withdrawal Chance and +25% Hills Attack on our Siege Units.
One such simple change, to match the documentation of giving Guerilla I on ALL of the Unit Types (and correspondingly unlocking Guerilla II and Guerilla III on nearly all of the Unit Types--still no Guerilla III for Recon Units and probably neither of them for Air Units), could have changed the Dun from being one of the "most derided" Unique Buildings to one of the funnest ones to play with.
As an idea for Mapmakers, in a game which starts off being a bit tough (maybe the AIs start with some good defending Units, such as 1 Longbowman each, or something like that), perhaps give us a free Catapult that starts with the Guerilla III Promotion. The Catapult by no means becomes invincible, but it does get better Retreat odds, and could be a fun concept, without being as overpowered as being given an early Humbaba.
Okay, if we accept that the Dun does not work as advertised and that it will not give a Guerilla I Promotion directly to Melee Units, and that the only reason that the Gallic Warrior receives a Guerilla I Promotion is because it is an ability from the Unique Unit, we still have the Sevopedia telling us that:
Guerilla II is Available To Melee Units
Guerilla III is Available To Melee Units
Yet, if we upgrade a Gallic Warrior to a Maceman, which means that the Maceman WILL already have the Guerilla I Promotion, that Maceman is UNABLE to promote to either of Guerilla II (if it only had Guerilla I but not Guerilla II) or Guerilla III (if it already had Guerilla II)! I believe that it is quite easy to argue that this situation represents a bug.
Meanwhile, the lack of the Guerilla I Promotion being assigned to Melee Units could be seen as a poor-design issue, or at a minimum, a documentation issue, and if we were still actively developing BUFFY, I would certainly make a case for Duns to unlock the Guerilla I Promotion for Melee Units.
Duns are therefore quite limited in use when Drafting Units. Drafted Warriors, Axemen, Macemen, and Riflemen will not receive the free Guerilla I Promotion. Don't laugh too hard, but I did accidentally Draft a Warrior in place of a Maceman, this game, thanks to Augustus' expanded Cultural Borders, nearby Peaks, and a nearby Lake blocking all of that City's Road connections. Only a Musketman will receive the free Guerilla I Promotion, and then only if we have remembered to Draft the Unit in a City which had built a Dun (I admit that I forgot to look for the existence of a Dun in a given City when deciding where to Draft Musketmen).
The Minor Nations fought each other, as well. For example, Louis had an Archer camp out on a Hills square by Augustus' City, and Augustus did the same in return. Louis' camp was more effective, though, as I witnessed Augustus suicide a few Units over time to take out that Hills-Defending Archer. Meanwhile, Augustus' Archer hid on the back side of a range of Peaks, staying safely out of range of Louis' Units, but also not really accomplishing much of anything, haha.
Also, note that the game calls them Minor Nations, not Minor Civs, and it seems to be appropriate to distinguish these players from "Civs," due to many of the minor rules that we are finding out about them.
In particular, we can perform the following steps to set up a Minor Nation:
1. Create a World Builder saved game
a) Start a Custom Game to set things up how we want, while ensuring that the Lock Modified Assets option has not been selected
b) Press Ctrl + w to enter the World Builder
c) Click on the top-right Save icon (the icon looks like a world with an orange-coloured arrow coming out of its centre)
2. In your Operating System's File Explorer, look for the saved file under the Saves\WorldBuilder directory
3. Edit the file using a text editor
4. We will see lines that look like the following for each of the players:
MinorNationStatus=0
5. We can change the value from 0 (false) to 1 (true) and that player will be a Minor Nation
Who knows; if enough people play around with the World Builder, we might start to encourage other people to join the ranks of the staff in the future, when needed.
For example, in some testing after the game, I found that a Minor Nation COULD come up as a voting candidate if a Minor Nation was in control of The United Nations' City and was in the top-two players in terms of population.
What was even more interesting is that while that Minor Nation could vote for itself, and while I could also vote for it, and even though our combined votes were sufficient for a Civ to have won the game, the Minor Nation did not win the game. Thus, it seems reasonable to conclude that a Minor Nation is prevented from winning the game even if it meets the conditions of a Victory Condition.
Of course, a Minor Nation being unable to win would not prevent the Minor Nation from making us lose, and thus I would imagine (without having checked) that losing all of one's Cities, even with only Minor Nations remaining in the game, would count as eliminating us from the game, since there probably isn't any special code which is written that says "if only Minor Nations plus a human player exist in the game, the human player is not allowed to lose."
Thank you to MarleysGh0st for having hosted this entertaining and creative game and to the rest of the staff for all of your continued hard work and dedication! Thank you, too, to the players, for your continued participation, keeping this series alive for whenever some of us can squeeze in the time to participate.
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Fine_Distinction
King
Yeah, the absolute lack of synergy between Gallic Warrior and the Dun is frustrating. And great info on how to set up minor nations. Would it also work in a hot-seat multiplier? I would love how to edit such maps for my kids, asked in the multiplayer forum, but no response.
LowtherCastle
Deity
- Joined
- May 18, 2005
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- 23,747
@Dhoomstriker: My view on UBs and UUs that seem to have redundant characteristics is that they become relevant if the scenario involves mixing leader traits. Problem is, that setting is rarely used. (Blaming the Mapmaker, as always… 
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Dhoomstriker
Girlie Builder
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2006
- Messages
- 13,474
Try the following:
MULTIPLAYER -> HOT SEAT -> NEW SCENARIO or
SINGLE PLAYER -> PLAY A SCENARIO
World-Builder saved games will appear at the bottom of the list.
My suggestion when you are creating a new scenario in the World Builder is to make multiple copies of the saved .CivBeyondSwordWBSave file, such as making a copy just before editing the file in a text editor program.
Also, create a sub-directory within the Saves\WorldBuilder directory, such as:
Saves\WorldBuilder\CreativityInProgress
Put a copy of the original scenario in there, and if you're making a lot of changes, put another copy of the file in there.
The files that are directly in the Saves\WorldBuilder directory will appear as selectable options. The files that are in subdirectories will not be selectable, but will simply act as backup copies of your work, in case you make a mistake while editing a file.
Do note that it appears that when you create a World Builder game from Single-Player Mode, your chosen Difficulty Level will be used for Player 1, while all of the other Players will be set to Noble Difficulty Level. When you load the NEW SCENARIO in HOT SEAT Mode, you can change the Difficulty Levels. You can also change the Difficulty Levels within the .CivBeyondSwordWBSave file, if you figure out how to type them correctly.
If you're going to add a MinorNation, I would recommend that within the .CivBeyondSwordWBSave file, you also change that Player's
PlayableCiv=1 value to PlayableCiv=0, since it appears that such a Player may be unable to win the game, which could be a frustrating situation for your child. This value prevents the Leader from being selected by a Human Player.
There are plenty of options to play with. For example, in the World Builder, you can add or remove Resources, you can create or delete Units for a given Player, you can add or remove Technologies for a given Player, etc.
In terms of editing the .CivBeyondSwordWBSave file, there are also options that you can choose which you might not be able to change in the World Builder, such as:
Randomize Resources=true (although you will probably not like the results if you would prefer to place the Resources yourself)
For the majority of the options found within the .CivBeyondSwordWBSave file, they are actually settable within the World Builder, and it is generally easier to set those options within the World Builder, but there are some exceptions. For example, you can use the Edit City button on a Player's settled City to edit their Gold value, up to a maximum of 5000 starting Gold. But, if you want to edit a Player's Gold value WITHOUT settling a City for that Player, then you can do so via the .CivBeyondSwordWBSave file, by setting:
StartingGold=6000
which lets you do so without the Player having any Cities settled and lets you exceed the World Builder's 5000 Gold cap.
That said, the 5000 Gold cap is a pretty smart one--games like Sim City that would let you give yourself nearly infinite Gold could quickly lose their fun after giving yourself too high of a value. So, be conservative in terms of starting Gold.
There are some nuances to get used to in the World Builder, such as remembering to pick a Player before selecting a Unit to place on the map or before granting a Technology. The Player button also lets you Add Techs by Era for the currently selected Player, such as by scrolling up in the list to "Add all Ancient Techs."
"Enter landmark mode" lets you place a Barbarian-Coloured Sign, like we see in the screenshot for BOTM 252.
Diplomacy Mode is a bit advanced, and my suggestion is that if you're going to change the Attitude sliders, click on the very middle of one first (directly on the slideable icon that looks like a capital letter I in some font faces), then use the left and right arrow keys, so as to make adjustments by a value of 1 at-a-time. Otherwise, clicking on a different position for the sliders will change values by a large number, such as by -28, and the result will become a bit ridiculous. It is, however, the very location where a Mapmaker might set up conditions such as Minor Nations being locked into Peace with each other, as was suggested by Frederiksberg. You can even set one Player to be a Vassal of another Player, there.
Reveal Tile Mode could allow you to show a distant square to the currently selected Player, such as if you wanted to show an island with a Gems Resource and a Wheat Resource on it.
I think that the Mapmakers for XOTM and for Hall of Fame games are incredibly receptive to feedback and love to hear suggestions! It can quickly become exhausting to keep coming up with creative ideas on a regular basis, especially as players demand more unique things! If you have an idea, share it, and you might have someone take you up on your offer!
There is a game setting called Unrestricted Leaders. It lets you pair a given Leader with any Civ. Feel free to suggest some combinations!
What is tough luck, though, is that both of a Unique Building and a Unique Unit are tied to a given Civ. Thus, we cannot split up a Dun from a Gallic Warrior.
What we could, do, however, is assign a different Leader to have a Dun and a Gallic Warrior, perhaps a Leader with better economic traits.
We could also assign Boudica to a different Civ, to pair that Civ's Unique Building and Unique Unit with Boudica's Charismatic and Aggressive Traits. For example, Boudica of Rome could have Praetorians with free Combat I and with the ability to promote even faster than normal.
I think that suggestions of pairings of a Civ's Unique Building plus Unique Unit with a Leader's Traits would be welcomed by the Mapmakers. Just expect that one of your suggestions might be assigned to us, while some of the remaining suggestions might be assigned to the AI competitors!
Ya, the Dun was more useless than I thought.
Gallic Warrior already gets the Guerilla I for free.
Made a few Guerilla II crossbows to terrorize Rome and cancelled the rest of the Duns that had hammers in them.
Mapmaking is hard.
No one liked my 4000BC barbarian stealth destroyers.
Proper city and fort placement would have bypassed them if I recall properly.
Or was it having enough sacrifices in the stack for a loaded galley to get across? hmm.
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