Experiment 626's Japanese Pre-Game Thread

[Experiment 626]

Well, the voting closes in approximately 30 minutes.

Save #1 has received 1 Vote.
Save #2 has received 0 Votes. Why is that, btw?
Save #3 has received 4 Votes.
Save #4 has received 3 Votes.

And to all of you wise guys (and/or gals) out there, I won't be able to start playing the game tomorrow (Aug 1) because I have to work ALL DAY LONG! And when I get home at hopefully 11 PM or so, I have to do Laundry. I'll probably be able to do the first 10 turns (TurnSet #1) on Thu.

Keep your fingers, toes and eyes crossed!

 

[Marsden]

Here's a further proposal , just to throw monkey wrenches at you, Why don't you play all 4 for 10 turns and then let's vote again

It'll be a good learning experience

 

[CommandoBob]

Here's a further proposal , just to throw monkey wrenches at you, Why don't you play all 4 for 10 turns and then let's vote again

It'll be a good learning experience

Translated: we're bored.

But still very willing to help out and offer advice .

 

[Experiment 626]

Originally posted by The Tick . . . I mean, Marsden:

Here's a further proposal , just to throw monkey wrenches at you, Why don't you play all 4 for 10 turns and then let's vote again

It'll be a good learning experience

You know, my first thought was to have you committed , but now that I think about it, that's not such a bad idea, after all. I'll give it further thought when I get up tomorrow.

Does anybody else think that this is a good idea?

 

[CommandoBob]

Does anybody else think that this is a good idea?

Actually, it is.

It does take more time, but if you spend the first turns focused on exploring you will reveal more of the map and get a much better idea of what your core would be like.

Rivers and hills and luxuries will be found, neighbors possibly met, shoreline explored, which are good things. Mountains, swamps and jungles will be discoverd, which is not as good.

But in 10 turns, you will know if you have a viable core or not.

I think it is worh the effort if you're not committed to one particular start.

 

[Marsden]

Plus this is a "training" game.


Also, as Crazy Marsden would say, if they are really good starts you could use one for a 20k and one for a diplomatic and maybe a domination. But that's just crazy!


I am a Mighty Engine of Civilization!

 

[gmaharriet]

I agree that testing all 4 starts would be a good idea, but I'd probably make it about 15 turns, since it will take at least 5 turns just to get a warrior built for exploration and another couple turns to get him moved beyond the area already illuminated by the capital city.

After a bit of exploration, I'd begin the chosen save from the start. I think for a training game this should be ok.

 

[CommandoBob]

I agree that testing all 4 starts would be a good idea, but I'd probably make it about 15 turns, since it will take at least 5 turns just to get a warrior built for exploration and another couple turns to get him moved beyond the area already illuminated by the capital city.

After a bit of exploration, I'd begin the chosen save from the start. I think for a training game this should be ok.

Just bump it up to 20, a nice round number.

 

[Experiment 626]

Originally posted by gmaharriet:

After a bit of exploration, I'd begin the chosen save from the start. I think for a training game this should be ok.

But wouldn't that disqualify the game from the HoF?

 

[Marsden]

But wouldn't that disqualify the game from the HoF?

You can't go back and reload, but if you save the game and then go from that point then you can continue. Just keep in mind the 30 minute rule, that each session should be at least 30 minutes. A little long for the first 10 turns, so 20 might be better. Good point, Bob.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Yeah. I often run several saves on a HOF game, especially on lower levels.

I may have a couple of promising ones open, see which I like to run more on.

 

[CommandoBob]

Just keep in mind the 30 minute rule, that each session should be at least 30 minutes.

I thought that each session had to be 1 hour.

Well, I remember reading that for the GOTMs each session had to be at least an hour and assumed it was the same for the HOF.

 

[gmaharriet]

But wouldn't that disqualify the game from the HoF?

I've never played a game for the HoF, so I apologize. Marsden and AT know more about that, so I'd say just play each of them for 20 turns as carefully as possible...then choose which save to continue.

It would take some time to do that with all 4 games, but not so long as playing out a single game to 200 turns and deciding you can't win.

 

[Marsden]

Our Most Benevolent and Majestic Administrator superslug relaxed the rule to 30 mins so as not to be too restrictive of some people's schedules.



@ gma: No apologies are necessary.

 

[Experiment 626]

Originally posted by Marsden:

Just keep in mind the 30 minute rule, that each session should be at least 30 minutes. A little long for the first 10 turns, so 20 might be better.

Well, NOW I'm really confused! I was about to post 'What the heck is the 30 minute rule?!!', but I decided to do the research myself. I looked at every tab on the HoF rules but still couldn't find any reference to a 30-minute rule.

Why does it make any difference how many minutes a TurnSet takes?

(And how exactly could you enforce such a rule?)


On to other things, I was sick as a dog on Thu, so I couldn't get started. I thought, 'Hey! My workday is over at 11:30AM on Fri. I have the rest of the day to myself. I'll just start then, no problem!' Well, yes problem! I didn't get to leave work on Fri until 8:30 PM! I was exhausted. I realize (probably wrongfully) that the first 10 (or 20) moves aren't that challenging mentally. I just want to be in complete (more or less ) control of my mental processes before I begin.

 

[CommandoBob]

Why does it make any difference how many minutes a TurnSet takes?

(And how exactly could you enforce such a rule?)

30 Minutes

I don't think it refers to a turnset.

It just means you must have at least 30 minutes of game time between game saves.

I understood the minumim time was to prevent cheating/reloading.

Like when you start to play and the AI gets creative and really exploits a flaw in your military set up that you overlooked but you had unmoved fortified units that could fix it, you could just reload the game, move units and then continue.

Having to play at least 30 minutes makes that less likely. And it prevents any game from being labeled 'reloaded', which is an HOF no-no.

(Although you could just hit 'Escape' and quit the game without saving and then reload. Then you're only cheating yourself out of a learning experience. And accepting the fact that you're a loser because you cannot handle your own mistakes.)

Enforcement

On enforcing it, well, I'm not sure how that is done. As you know, each save includes the elapsed game time. I think that every save includes the elapsed game time of all previous games. (So that the tenth save of a game has the game time at save nine, eight and so on). And that someone wrote some software to get and examine those times.

 

[Marsden]

On this page Rules
comes this "quote"

Reloading

Reloading a save to try and change game events is not allowed. You may reload if the game crashes, you have started a new playsession. Games with reload rates deemed to be less than 30 minutes per session will not be accepted. Reloading to avoid triggering Domination is no longer permitted, as this is easily avoidable via the Victory Status screen or through use of a MapStat utility.

That's the rule. Don't mess with me, boy.

 

[Marsden]

[bump]

Working lots of overtime? Hows the old Colon treating you? These tumbleweeds are nice, but maybe we can start and find something to kill?


I want a :murder: smily, do you think they'd let me have one?

 

[Experiment 626]

Not working lots of OT, because OT is extremely frowned upon by the home office.

My car needs over $1000 worth of repairs to make it safe to drive again, and I don't have it. I've been walking almost 2 miles to the nearest City Bus Stop every day that I work. I also keep getting called in on my 'supposed' time off.

As I type this at 5:40 PM, my eyesight keeps fading in and out of focus.

I thank you all for your patience.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

yikes - sorry to hear that. Hope things get better for you - car gets fixed, etc. At least you are getting a lot of exercise!!