[BTS] BOTM 252 Results and Congratulations

[DynamicSpirit]

This was @MarleysGh0st's game but he's away at the moment so I'll present the results...

And first up - gold medal and a cultural victory to BOTM newcomer @Bemep42. This actually Bemep42's 2nd attempt to enter the competition, but the first one floundered on some technical issues. It's very unusual to be able to get the gold medal from a cultural victory, so I suspect there is some serious competition.
Silver went to @Jovan Kukic for a 1269 AD domination, and bronze to @hhhawk for a later 1858 AD domination. I think I should also mention @Fine_Distinction who had the distinction of a remarkably early conquest victory - 840 AD 780 AD.

And commiserations to @LowtherCastle, who as I think the settling map I'm about to post will show, was the only one who really got into the spirit of looking for somewhere imaginative to settle, but who wasn't able to complete his game.


Summary of Medal Winners:

Bemep42: 1580 AD Cultural Victory, 303,637 points.

Jovan Kukic: 1260 AD Domination Victory, 165,583 points.

hhhawk: 1856 AD Domination Victory, 153,441 points.


Fastest Finish Award Winners:

shulec: 1585 AD Religious Victory, 118,153 points.

Conquistador 63: 1760 AD Spaceship Victory, 108,890 points.

Fine_Distinction: 780 AD Conquest Victory, 57,554 points.

kcd_swede: 1700 AD Diplomatic Victory, 36,521 points.


Other Award Winners:

Zeroth5: 1685 AD Conquest Victory, 45,563 points.

greatbeyond: 1964 AD Spaceship Victory, 28,882 points.

zbgayumn: 1750 AD Diplomatic Victory, 27,936 points.

luvencedus: 1910 AD Cultural Victory, 15,733 points.


>> See the full results here.
>> See the updated global rankings here.
>> See the latest Pantheon of Heroes here.
>> You can see and compare graphic replays of all the submissions here.
>> Award symbols are listed here.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Here's where everyone settled. There were definitely some good attempts to look for better places to settle, but none topped that of @LowtherCastle, who is solely responsible for the settlement map being so huge this month. I have to admit that, even though I didn't play this game, I'm very glad that no-one made the mistake of settling in place!

The Small Print:
The numbers by each player's name indicate the turn settled on (starting turn is 0). Players are colour coded by game class (challenger=red, adventurer=blue). Symbols indicate victory condition, if there's no symbol then the player either retired or was defeated. The yellow border indicates the land that was visible at the start of the game.

 

[Xcalibrator]

LC deserves his own custom award! Thank you, MG, for the fun game, and DS for putting up the results.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

I think I should also mention @Fine_Distinction who had the distinction of a remarkably early conquest victory - 840 AD.

Oh, so I managed to beat @Kaitzilla after all? Great to hear, after reading his write-up about remotely capitulating AIs using power ratios I lost almost all hope that my brute-force approach would win. @Kaitzilla definitely wins in terms of most elegant conquest

And now I only need space for my first ephtalon

BTW, @DynamicSpirit, 840 AD was @Kaitzilla, I was 780 AD
And definitely big thank you to @MarleysGh0st and @DynamicSpirit for this great game and generally keeping BOTM alive

 

[Fine_Distinction]

LC deserves his own custom award! Thank you, MG, for the fun game, and DS for putting up the results.

Yeah, maybe we should have one? awarded at map makers discretion?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

BTW, @DynamicSpirit, 840 AD was @Kaitzilla, I was 780 AD

Oh yeah! Sorry - I've fixed that now.

And definitely big thank you to @MarleysGh0st and @DynamicSpirit for this great game and generally keeping BOTM alive

*bows*

Yeah, maybe we should have one? awarded at map makers discretion?

Hmm. A special award for something that the mapmaker regards as a special unique achievement. That's actually quite a good idea. Not sure how easy it would be to actually implement, as any permanent record would probably require new database fields etc. but I could have a think about it.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

Oh yeah! Sorry - I've fixed that now.



*bows*



Hmm. A special award for something that the mapmaker regards as a special unique achievement. That's actually quite a good idea. Not sure how easy it would be to actually implement, as any permanent record would probably require new database fields etc. but I could have a think about it.

Or maybe just Honorable Mention, as mapmakers are already doing? But making it a bit more formal, with capital H and M and adding to list in a write-up post? and an icon could a (dropped) jaw

 

[LowtherCastle]

I didn’t finish my game. I don’t deserve anything for that.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

A couple seasons ago, when I started this game, I promised that I'd post my own thoughts on the game when I returned from my vacation. I did return home at the start of July, but I've been procrastinating on a lot of things, lately. I have played a few of the GOTMs since then, with results that were a bit more mediocre than usual for me, but otherwise, I've been quiet around here, knowing that I owed you this post, first. So...

The idea for this game started back in April, when I was discussing the upcoming game schedule in the GOTM Staff club house. I said this:

Since I'm always overestimating how difficult my games are, and the players always make short work of the AI anyway, it may be time to start the settler on an isolated desert island. Maybe I'll be generous and give them a clam.

I started thinking about how to actually implement this. Obviously, an evil mapmaker can make the start so difficult that it's impossible for anyone to win. A few shades less evil and maybe some of our deity players could eke out a win, but it certainly wouldn't be fun for anyone. So, if I start the players on an island, I'll start everyone on an island! Trying to develop a theme for the game, I thought of the YA book and movie, The Hunger Games (or, as I called it in the game announcement, the "Undernourishment Olympiad"). If anyone is unfamiliar with that, it's a dystopian world where an oppressive regime forces 24 teenagers--one boy and one girl chosen by lottery from each of 12 districts--to fight to the death in a modern reality show version of the Roman Colosseum. Each tribute started the game on a podium surrounding the Cornucopia, a tempting place with all of the weapons and supplies they'd need to survive. But as the heroine of the film is warned, the Cornucopia is a trap, meant to draw them in to be slaughtered by each other immediately.

For this game, each podium would be that desert island. I'd tempt you with a vision of that Cornucopia (fertile land with all the resources you could ask for, on what is normally tundra islands in the center of an inland sea map) and I'd give you a galley, but I wanted all of the players in this game to have to settle in place on that island, needing a border pop before any other land could be reached. Then you could build a second settler to move to the mainland or to the Cornucopia, as you preferred. But when I play-tested that, there was a serious problem that had to be fixed. I invited all of your to guess what that problem was. Only Pokerfaker offered a guess, which was spot on:

I think that is the part that didn't work and has been adjusted.

Yes, testing the game using the Auto AI mod, it turned out that a majority of the AI would never leave their island at all, instead resigning themselves to a rather pathetic one-city challenge. Which AI expanded and which one didn't varied every time, but it always seemed to be a majority. One time, watching the computer playing Roosevelt, I could even see that he built settlers and extra galleys, but just never bothered moving them to the mainland! (Incidentally, with the island start, I had the "no barbs" option enabled, so that wouldn't be an obstacle to such a delayed start.) I knew the start of the game would be slow, but that was obviously no challenge at all.

So, rather at the last minute, I turned all of the islands into desert peninsulas, giving everyone a path to better land on the mainland. While all of you took advantage of that, it seems that the AI expect a decent starting position and aren't programmed to tell when looking for someplace better is the best option. So all settled in place and most expanded extremely slowly, so you still had a huge advantage over them. And, once again, the game turned out to be an easy one. By the way, if I was really trying to be faithful to the Hunger Games theme, I would have restricted this to Conquest victories only, with no vassals, because the Hunger Games can have only one victor! But I prefer keeping all options open for our players.

LowtherCastle, I'm sorry if my hints weren't clear enough that you couldn't reach the Cornucopia with your starting settler. "But first, the contestants must find a way or make a way for the boat to reach them." Surely, you must have seen some acceptable land to settle before turn 28!

Thanks to everyone who played. Thanks to DynamicSpirit for posting the results in my absence. And thanks to everyone for your patience in waiting for this report.

 

[LowtherCastle]

A couple seasons ago, when I started this game, I promised that I'd post my own thoughts on the game when I returned from my vacation. I did return home at the start of July, but I've been procrastinating on a lot of things, lately. I have played a few of the GOTMs since then, with results that were a bit more mediocre than usual for me, but otherwise, I've been quiet around here, knowing that I owed you this post, first. So...

The idea for this game started back in April, when I was discussing the upcoming game schedule in the GOTM Staff club house. I said this:


I started thinking about how to actually implement this. Obviously, an evil mapmaker can make the start so difficult that it's impossible for anyone to win. A few shades less evil and maybe some of our deity players could eke out a win, but it certainly wouldn't be fun for anyone. So, if I start the players on an island, I'll start everyone on an island! Trying to develop a theme for the game, I thought of the YA book and movie, The Hunger Games (or, as I called it in the game announcement, the "Undernourishment Olympiad"). If anyone is unfamiliar with that, it's a dystopian world where an oppressive regime forces 24 teenagers--one boy and one girl chosen by lottery from each of 12 districts--to fight to the death in a modern reality show version of the Roman Colosseum. Each tribute started the game on a podium surrounding the Cornucopia, a tempting place with all of the weapons and supplies they'd need to survive. But as the heroine of the film is warned, the Cornucopia is a trap, meant to draw them in to be slaughtered by each other immediately.

For this game, each podium would be that desert island. I'd tempt you with a vision of that Cornucopia (fertile land with all the resources you could ask for, on what is normally tundra islands in the center of an inland sea map) and I'd give you a galley, but I wanted all of the players in this game to have to settle in place on that island, needing a border pop before any other land could be reached. Then you could build a second settler to move to the mainland or to the Cornucopia, as you preferred. But when I play-tested that, there was a serious problem that had to be fixed. I invited all of your to guess what that problem was. Only Pokerfaker offered a guess, which was spot on:


Yes, testing the game using the Auto AI mod, it turned out that a majority of the AI would never leave their island at all, instead resigning themselves to a rather pathetic one-city challenge. Which AI expanded and which one didn't varied every time, but it always seemed to be a majority. One time, watching the computer playing Roosevelt, I could even see that he built settlers and extra galleys, but just never bothered moving them to the mainland! (Incidentally, with the island start, I had the "no barbs" option enabled, so that wouldn't be an obstacle to such a delayed start.) I knew the start of the game would be slow, but that was obviously no challenge at all.

So, rather at the last minute, I turned all of the islands into desert peninsulas, giving everyone a path to better land on the mainland. While all of you took advantage of that, it seems that the AI expect a decent starting position and aren't programmed to tell when looking for someplace better is the best option. So all settled in place and most expanded extremely slowly, so you still had a huge advantage over them. And, once again, the game turned out to be an easy one. By the way, if I was really trying to be faithful to the Hunger Games theme, I would have restricted this to Conquest victories only, with no vassals, because the Hunger Games can have only one victor! But I prefer keeping all options open for our players.

LowtherCastle, I'm sorry if my hints weren't clear enough that you couldn't reach the Cornucopia with your starting settler. "But first, the contestants must find a way or make a way for the boat to reach them." Surely, you must have seen some acceptable land to settle before turn 28!

Thanks to everyone who played. Thanks to DynamicSpirit for posting the results in my absence. And thanks to everyone for your patience in waiting for this report.

Anyway, it was a brain dead ambition to settle there. That would mean massive maintenance costs for all my off-shore cities elsewhere. This was a good game. I liked it.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

A couple seasons ago, when I started this game, I promised that I'd post my own thoughts on the game when I returned from my vacation.

Thanks to everyone who played. Thanks to DynamicSpirit for posting the results in my absence. And thanks to everyone for your patience in waiting for this report.

@MarleysGh0st Thank you for this behind the scenes look, add favor.

Yay, I played it the way it was intended - killed them all! And don't worry, it was not too easy, finding AI to kill them old-fashioned way was a major PITA (I almost gave up) due to your very creative map, piling on obstacles ...