Civ4 GOTM 1 Results & Congratulations

[AlanH]

@godotnut: You were 73 out of 623 - in the top 12% of all published entries. Your score at 25,355 was 19.4% of the top score, and 166% of the average winning score of 15,304. The average winning score falls between ranks 185 and 186. This was one game.

We don't have a play-0ff. Or rather, perhaps I should say every game's a play-off, as it provides an opportunity for all players to try to improve their rankings.

Why have an exclusive contest for top players? I'm guessing they wouldn't want to play an extra game. So we would either deprive everyone else of a game for one month, while an elite group played their own game, or have two different games one month, one for the elite players and one for the rest.

We run higher difficulty level contests periodically, and these provide a natural stage on which the top players can strut their stuff. Once we get into the swing of it we'll also provide a 'premier league' experience with the 'Predator' class, where you can optionally play a game on the same map as everyone else, but with extra difficulty factors built in. There are no score or award bonuses for taking that option, just a greater challenge, and bragging rights.

Speaking for myself, I think we should rather concentrate our efforts on continuing to provide a range of games where all players can compete with, and learn from the masters, and where all players get a chance to extend their skills.

 

[Quantum7]

Hrmph. Where's that samson guy? I must find a way to eliminate him from that results list!

Nah, serious, gratz for getting the fastest space ship samson . I'm happy enough with 2nd place (score and finish time), as I found out how much I had done wrong while playing the first HOF gauntlet directly afterwards lol.

 

[12Voltman]

First, thanks to the GOTM for a wonderful game and the speedy turnaround of results. Your efforts are appreciated!

Second, to all those who managed a win but still scored lower than the highest scoring loss ...I'm with ya...better luck next time!

Finally, I need to start studying how some of our elite players manage to win so early. To this day I've still never won domination. Great job to all winners - see you in GOTM2!

 

[jafink]

This was my first gotm, so i'm satisfied with my 297th place entry. Top 50%!!!

I'm not sure about this, but in a thread in the Hall of Fame Forum Called "High Scores Seem Possibly Much Easier", or something, on page 5, it says something about how, on noble (no difficulty modifiers to your score) the highest ingame score possible is 10,000. That is with every tech, wonder, max population, and max land. If this thread is correct, how on earth did DaveMcW score 9679 ingame!?
I'd also really appreciate it if someone showed me a link to a writeup by any of the top players.

Thanks alot to all the staff.

 

[Quantum7]

Just go to the closing spoiler thread for GOTM1. You'll find alot of top write-ups there.

 

[Merum]

A big thankee from me to all the GOTM staff... you all take a good game and make it even gooder!

Also, thanks to the people who lost and still submitted their games. That, to me, is the mark of a good competitor. I'll be joining the ranks of the "submitters of losses" this month, if where I currently stand in the game is any indication.

Quick question... it looks like time victories are being reported with a date of 2040AD... that doesn't seem right. Shouldn't it be 2050?

 

[AlanH]

The game was created in version 1.00. When version 1.09 was released it turned out to have 440 turns for a Normal speed game, but the game file still had 430 turns as the limit. So time ran out at turn 430, which is 2040 AD in version 1.09.

 

[bradleyfeanor]

A "world population" factor...The theory being that the player who achieves world domination (of whatever sort) is doing well if the world is doing well.

That's an idea I haven't heard before. I find the underlying theory expecially appealing. If the concept isn't used as part of the scoring system, perhaps it could be part of a new award.

With all the talk of what can be done with the SDK, would it be possible to have a "utopia" award--an award that went to the player whose entire world (all civs) had the highest population, were the most technologically advanced, most peaceful throughout the game, etc.? Victory date would need to somehow be a factor too, of course.

I think I didn't word that well; it sounds like nothing more than a modified space victory. What I have in mind is the ultimate "builder" award. Where the player isn't only responsible for advancing their own civ, but every other civ as well, and doing it in the most peaceful way possible.

Does that sound like an appealing award, or would it even be possible?

 

[fbouthil]

First, I would like to congratulate the staff who, I am sure, worked really hard on making this first GOTM for civ4 and gave results very fast considering the number of submissions.

I would like also to congratulate the top 3 winners who completely left everyone else far behind! While I don't play GOTM very often, I don't remember a GOTM with a 4th score under 70% of the winner!

I got a score of 50% of the winner, which is about what I was expecting. I usually get around 70% of the winner, but it has been more than a year since I played Civ. What a surprise it was when I saw it was enough to get the 12th place, just over Roland, which I have always considered unbeatable!

What is worst is that I know some of the mistakes that I did, but I don't know what I did that was so good that most players missed it!

I can only guess that the good players are not yet at the top of their game and they will shortly put me back to my rightful place, far away below them!

Until then, party!

 

[LulThyme]

The linear correlation with finishing turn seems to be a good reason why spaceship is a low-scoring victory - because it is a later victory condition. If you are well-set for a domination, then you pretty much have your choice of victory condition (by controlling which civs you beat up, when, and by how much). Diplo and Space generally come later because they require you to have reached a certain tech whereas domination and conquest do not.

(There is not actually very much of a science penalty for invading the world as the space race approaches because most of the cities you will take will be well-enough developed that they quickly provide more in tax and looting-value than they consume in maintenance.)

If you compare peaceful victories to domination and conquest of the same date, they get lower score.
Never mind that getting a cultural as fast as a conquest is already way harder.

 

[Jove]

Well, my efforts this time are close to something to sneeze at. But... on the other end of the spectrum is the staff. This round has to have been a lot of work! Thanks to all staff members!

 

[solenoozerec]

Regarding Bradleyfeanor utopia game:

The question is how you are going to compare results. If you calculate the entire population of the world, aggressive domination is likely to score better than a peaceful game, since human civ is likely to grow faster than AI.

I think what needs to be calculated is AI population (human civ does not count).
IMHO what can make this kind of play fun is the fact that CIVIV provides us with an opportunity to restore the peace even when you are not involved in the war between AI civs.

Another question is how to delay likely victory conditions, such as Diplomatic, Space and Culture. You’ll have a better chance of getting the highest AI pop if you play to the end. Thus you will need to build UN yourself and never hold elections. You need to manage AI trades so that they will not be able to build a spaceship. I have no idea how to prevent a cultural victory (I do not know how it works).

 

[Olmo]

Also from me a great thanks to the GOTM staff.
This was my first GOTM and I really enjoyed the thought of being able to compare my game outcome with that of others.

 

[godotnut]

DaviddesJ, ALanH:

Yeah, I guess that makes sense, regarding the playoff or superbowl idea. I wasn't thinking enough about how much work running these GOTMs must be. It doesn't make sense to only let some people have the fun, given the natural limitation of resources in putting these on.

For what it's worth though, I don't think a playoff system is any more "elite," since everyone who wants to play starts from the same position as everyone else. But practically speaking, I see what you mean totally.

Thanks once again for hosting this! I really appreciate it. Thanks also for the link to the global rankings page. I hadn't noticed that. And congrats to all. Too bad there's no way to award a "had the most fun" prize. Some things can't be quantified... .

 

[AlanH]

I wasn't concerned about the work. The issue is only how many games a player would have to play in one month if s/he were involved in your play-off.

 

[Sybot]

Woo! 67th for me! Almost in the top 10% of players. Then again, I guess most people were slow since we are all still trying to work out good strategies for Civ IV.

 

[Harok]

Thanks to the GOTM staff for their time, allowing all of us users to have fun.

I had a great time and learned a lot from seeing how other people played their game. I also see that if I want to be a high scorer I better not go cultural anymore. This would have been good info for GOTM2 which I finished this weekend going for the same victory condition.

One thing that would be really nice would be a way to only show a certain victory condition or a page for each. I know I can search through them to compare my win to the other cultural wins but with 6,239,762 entries it is a little tough.

Congrats to the medal winners and thanks again to the people who run this competition.

 

[Nichelle]

Congrats to all 600+ on the first GOTM!

BIG CONGRATS TO THE CIV STAFF FOR THEIR GREAT WORK!!!!

I did have a quick question though....I saw a few others had asked this as well but I didn't see an answer. Are there going to be no awards for Time Victory? I'm not just asking because of the results this month, but for future games as well. Sometimes a Time Vic is the only option ( at least for people like me) but had I known there would be no award or anything for that victory condition I would have choosen to just go a different way and gotten a quicker victory and higher score and spent less time going to the end.

Anyway, thanks again to all the staff. It is amazing that you all were able to do this soooooo quick to the game coming out!!!

 

[AlanH]

We're discussing the Time victory option. For Civ3 that was where you'd go to get a Cow award, of course. But we clearly can't extrapolate from there to this situation.

 

[DaveMcW]

Theoretically playing to 2050 gives you the best chance to win the cow.

It's not as easy to stay under the domination limit in Civ4, with no option to sell cultural buildings or abandon cities. But I expect some creative milkers will find ways to get the cow in 2050.