experienced captain

[z0wb13]

last one, for today.

from ori:
Event137
Experienced Captain
Prereq: City with Drydock AND GALLEY or TRIREME or CARAVEL or GALLEON or PRIVATEER or FRIGATE or SHIP_OF_THE_LINE or IRONCLAD or TRANSPORT DESTROYER or STEALTH_DESTROYER or BATTLESHIP or MISSILE_CRUISER or SUBMARINE or ATTACK_SUBMARINE or CARRIER unit with 7 or more XP
Obsolete: None
Active/Weight: 95/200
Result:
1.City gains +2 gold for its drydock
2.you pay 250 gold AND city gains Military Academy [myself]

that seems like a little gambit that nobody has discussed. if there is a 95% chance that is can happen in your game, then all you need to do is go beat up a few barbarian's galleys or sneak around with some privateers to get a 7xp naval unit and park it in your highest coastal city. then you would need steel for drydock, maybe astronomy, to net a *cheap military academy. pair it with the moai statues.

has anyone tried this?

 

[UWHabs]

Hmm, maybe just worth it to keep one boat with some experience points back. I mean, especially later on, getting a boat with 7XP isn't too tough. 4 from the drydock, then 2 of Vassalage/Theocracy/Pentagon/Settled GG. Doesn't hurt to have one less ship in your navy than before.

 

[Loki Strikes]

Very interesting, I need to go code diving and log at some event things after seeing this... and nice 666 post count there UWHub

 

[z0wb13]

... and nice 666 post count there UWHub

*throws goat*

 

[MadmanAtW]

I believe the 95/200 means that it is active in 95% of all games, but that's still no guarantee that you'll ever get it even if you do meet the prereqs. Each turn there is a (fixed?) chance that you'll get an event at all, and then it adds up the Weight of all events that you qualify for and randomly chooses one.

Still, if you've got the boat lying around, you might as well make sure this is at least in the running.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Isn't 95/200 just under 50%?

 

[MadmanAtW]

95/200 is under 50%, yes. However, in the events list they are actually separate, independent numbers: Active/Weight. The first is the percentage of games in which the event is available at all; the second is a measure of the likelihood of that being the event you get when it has been determined that you will get an event. I'm not sure why they chose to represent it that way- it certainly is confusing.

(Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my understanding.)

 

[PieceOfMind]

95/200 is under 50%, yes. However, in the events list they are actually separate, independent numbers: Active/Weight. The first is the percentage of games in which the event is available at all; the second is a measure of the likelihood of that being the event you get when it has been determined that you will get an event. I'm not sure why they chose to represent it that way- it certainly is confusing.

(Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my understanding.)

I agree with you, for what it's worth. I think the reason they chose to represent it this way is that it's probably the simplest way for them to code the random events to happen. We are actually pulling values from the XML here so there was no obvious reason to make the values mean much to the player.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I see ----> this actually makes sense, unlike a lot of what goes on behind the scenes. A MA in a coastal city that is churning navy seems pretty appealing (if, for some reason, one chooses to play with garbage events ).

 

[Soirana]

Since i like that garbage events, could someone explain that exactly second number means.

I mean what is difference between 100 and 2000 in here.

 

[carl corey]

(-)1900.

 

[drhirsch]

The second value is meaningful only in context to the 2nd value of all other events which are enabled for this particular game.

If the game engine determines a event is going to happen, a event with a higher second number is more likely to happen. If the value is 2000, it will happen probably at the first event-situation you get after meeting the reqs.

Hope I have made myself unclear ^^

 

[carl corey]

Actually, that is pretty clear.

 

[PieceOfMind]

I'm guessing here, but based on the fact it is called iWeight, then it means that an event with 2000 weight is 10 times more likely to occure than an event with 200 weight, assuming a random event is going to occur. This is why some events seem to happen all the time and nearly every game, while others you may not have ever seen yet (I haven't seen the Man Named Jed event yet, probably because I don't use scouts, or when I do they always die).

But whether this guess is right or not, IIRC it's explained in a small amount of detail in ori's events list. It may be two or three posts down though.

 

[ShannonCT]

I'm guessing here, but based on the fact it is called iWeight, then it means that an event with 2000 weight is 10 times more likely to occure than an event with 200 weight, assuming a random event is going to occur. This is why some events seem to happen all the time and nearly every game, while others you may not have ever seen yet (I haven't seen the Man Named Jed event yet, probably because I don't use scouts, or when I do they always die).

Yes, when the RNG determines that a random event should occur, all of the eligible random events in that particular game have their iWeights summed, and the probability of each occuring is iWeight/sum(iWeights). An important consideration here is that an event has to be eligible to occur. "A Man Named Jed" has a very high iWeight but it can only occur if you have a scout standing on oil on the turn a random event hits. How many land tiles have oil? 1 out of 250 maybe? Other events with low iWeights may occur disproportionately often because their prereqs are very basic.

 

[Soirana]

yeah, reread ORI posts. Explains very good why i like to keep city ruins on any given chance...

not only extra source of beakers, but prevents from some nonsense occuring. May be i should burn more...

 

[z0wb13]

i think that the events probably work a little bit like

with you have wonders and specialists. after however many turns, a great something appears. but depending on what kinds of specialists you run you can expect unequal probabilities; sort of like adding the great library adds a lot of great scientist weight.

so events are like great people that you can expect to see more and more of as you progress to later eras. i think that's what i'm saying.

anyway, if the event has 5000 weight, that's one of the highest weights of any event. and it will happen in 95% of your games. so that's not a *random event anymore. it's, statistically, a 250 military academy.

 

[PieceOfMind]

double post

 

[PieceOfMind]

Someone should compile a list of all events that produce good benefits like these, where the iWeights are high enough to warrant going out of your way to fulfill the prerequisities. As mentioned, things like city ruins and keeping it in your borders... if you can abuse that event several times it may be quite a good strategy, especially if doing so means you are also less likely to get the crappy events like floods etc.

I remember one of my old favourite events is called something like "Federal Reserve". It reduces inflation if you pay a lumpsum amount. It required Free Market and Corporation for memory so whenever I had those pre-reqs I tried to make sure I always had the 500 (or whatever it was) available in case it appeared. I think it was active in 75% of games?

 

[z0wb13]

... it can only occur if you have a scout standing on oil on the turn a random event hits. How many land tiles have oil? 1 out of 250 maybe? Other events with low iWeights may occur disproportionately often because their prereqs are very basic.

but also you know that he can't stand on any ocean tile, oil is only under- i think- jungle, desert, tundra and ice. so if you have left over scouts they could fog-bust and survey for oil up in your civ's arctic wastelands. anyway, you aren't going to have to stand on every single 250 tiles as long as you target your surveys to places you know that oil could be.

but i don't think anyone will take this gambit seriously unless i can make it happen in at least 3 games. but i did learn a lot about how events worked, in general.