Frequently Asked Questions - (FAQ)

[denyd]

What is an idea, a very challenging starting positon (solo on an island, bad terrain, nearby agressive neighbors, etc)/ for the mid-month games for those who need/want a bigger challenge. Cracker could give extra benefits to the open / conquest players (like map making & a galley, extra settlers/worker or defensive units) to map the game playable for those who need/want the help. And the rest of us who can barely get the GOTM done, can sit back and see how they climb to the top of K2!!

Moonsinger, I didn't expect to hear from you today, I thought you'd be out buying power ball tickets

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by denyd
Moonsinger, I didn't expect to hear from you today, I thought you'd be out buying power ball tickets

Thanks for reminding me; I have forgotten all about that. I need to donate another dollar to the cause. Since no one win last time, the jackpot is up to 250 millions now.

 

[Takeo]

i have a question about saving my game and then loading it back up again sameday. the situation is- i played for several hours during the middle of today, then took a break from it and left the computer running. fully expected to get back to it this evening, but a severe thunderstorm came thru the area. i saved the game and turned off the computer, during the storm. after the storm passed, i loaded up the save and continued. is this a problem? does it raise a flag to the ones that check submitted savegames?
i also have days where i will play in the morning, at midday and in the evening, saving and turning off the computer inbetween each session of that day. should i stay away from doing this?

 

[jeffelammar]

Takeo-
All of the things you list are standard parts of playing the game. The only problem to worry about is if you are playing 1 or 2 turns, then saving and restarting.

As we are on the honor system, just play by the rules, and don't worry about tripping some flag.

 

[Takeo]

jeffelammar-
there are times when i play around 6-8 turns, when the turns are getting kind of long. i try to play for at least 2 hours when i play.

 

[DaviddesJ]

I just realized that you can make quite a lot of money as follows: Sell your World Map to all of the AIs for 1 gold each. Then move a unit (maybe a galley) one space, to discover some new territory, and sell your WM to all of the AIs again for 1g each. Then move again and sell again. Repeat until you get totally bored. It doesn't sound like much, but if there are 15 AIs, and you do this 10 times/turn, that's 150gpt, if you have the patience!

Should this be illegal? Or legal but just silly?

 

[Bam-Bam]

DaviddesJ,

Selling maps for chump change is a known (albeit VERY tedious) to net yourself 6-10gpt. Many people do this; it is a matter of preference.

 

[ControlFreak]

Originally posted by DaviddesJ
I just realized that you can make quite a lot of money as follows: Sell your World Map to all of the AIs for 1 gold each. Then move a unit (maybe a galley) one space, to discover some new territory, and sell your WM to all of the AIs again for 1g each. Then move again and sell again. Repeat until you get totally bored. It doesn't sound like much, but if there are 15 AIs, and you do this 10 times/turn, that's 150gpt, if you have the patience!

Should this be illegal? Or legal but just silly?

I realized that after GOTM20 (when I was trying to get all the gold possible). It goes like this. Beginning of turn see who you can trade your WM to. If a civ only offers their WM then they have something new in their map. If a civ offers gold then you have all of their map. Sell map to all civs who offer you gold. Then sell to one of them that offers their map. Sometimes you want to trade with the poorest civ, sometime the richest. It depends on if the civs are all exploring and if they are not trading maps. If there are many new maps then you should sell to the richest first because each time you buy a new map you can sell it to the first civ again. If everyone's map is the same then you want to trade for it with the poorest civ so that you can sell it to the others. In some cases you can make money by buying a civs WM and then selling it to the others. I call this Robinhooding the map because you give 1g to the poor AI and then collect 1g from each of the other AI.

OK. That was just the first step. Now you need to change you map. Things that change your map include fog busting, settling a new town, razing a town, capturing a town, losing a town, terrain improvements completing, etc. Do ONE of the things and then resell your map for 1g to all AI that have gold. If you're a good driver you can uncover black with each of your three galley moves, each of your two scout/horse moves. Remember to sell maps between each map move. Don't forget to sell before and after you settle. It's very time consuming. I never finished GOTM20 on time. I think this is one of the reasons why.

 

[samildanach]

Chump change? If you are only netting 20 gpt from your civ at that stage in the game then getting an extra 7gpt for WMs contributes significantly to your income.

 

[Moonsinger]

I do it in about every 4 or 5 turns. Just buy a WM from one Civ for about 8 gold then immediately sell it to the rest of the world for anywhere between 5 to 12 gold. If there are at least 10 other civs in the game, I could make an extra 50 gold or more just like that.

 

[Yndy]

Actually, the AI's are bankrupt most of the time in my game.
Since I check every turn for new techs I sell the maps and accept whatever they offer. I end up with 3-4 g per turn in GOTM 21.

Every once in a while I sell a tech and get some more map that I sell for about 25g that turn.

 

[Svar]

Originally posted by DaviddesJ
I just realized that you can make quite a lot of money as follows: Sell your World Map to all of the AIs for 1 gold each. Then move a unit (maybe a galley) one space, to discover some new territory, and sell your WM to all of the AIs again for 1g each. Then move again and sell again. Repeat until you get totally bored. It doesn't sound like much, but if there are 15 AIs, and you do this 10 times/turn, that's 150gpt, if you have the patience!

Should this be illegal? Or legal but just silly?

At one point during the present game I was selling first the TM then the WM to each of the 15 AI who had money and netting between 22 and 24 gtp, it never occured to me to reveal more map and do it all over again. When I sell the WM I ask for their WM in addition to the gold offered and as long as my WM is the most current they always give me the deal. Moonsinger is right about waiting a few turns between attempts as you get much more than 1 gold per attempt.

 

[samildanach]

If one of the things the GOTMs are supposed to do is challenge players, then the challenge of dealing with "dysfunctional" (i.e., difficult) game starts is (or should be) part of that. If we can't have "difficult" starts because it's too hard on the beginning players, I hope we can find ways to make the Predator games, at least, more difficult. Even if this might require in some cases more significant changes between Open and Predator (e.g., map changes).

I think your dreams are about to be answered Daviddesj. How does a predator game at demi-GOD or Sid level grab ya? Although I am thinking that demi-God is probably a stepping stone between Emperor and Diety with only one new harder level at Sid.

 

[Dianthus]

I'm pretty certain (most people would say "certain" or "99.999% certain", me, I just say "pretty certain" ) that the amount of gold the AI offers is directly related to the number of tiles revealed in your map that are not revealed in their map. This means the number of turns elapsed between trades doesn't matter, except that they might "learn" your new tiles themselves or by trading with other AIs.

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by samildanach

Although I am thinking that demi-God is probably a stepping stone between Emperor and Diety with only one new harder level at Sid.

So am I! It would be pretty strange if demi-god (half god) would be more difficult than deity (god)...

 

[samildanach]

So am I! It would be pretty strange if demi-god (half god) would be more difficult than deity (god)...

Yep it would be. But the Gamespot article isnt clear on it. I think it makes sense to have another level in between diety and emperor as there is a quite a gulf between the two levels.

 

[Darkness]

Agreed. The jump between emperor and deity is pretty big....

 

[ControlFreak]

Originally posted by Dianthus
I'm pretty certain (most people would say "certain" or "99.999% certain", me, I just say "pretty certain" ) that the amount of gold the AI offers is directly related to the number of tiles revealed in your map that are not revealed in their map. This means the number of turns elapsed between trades doesn't matter, except that they might "learn" your new tiles themselves or by trading with other AIs.

Normally there is a few tiles per gold piece. If you move your galley all three moves and sell your WM, you still only get 1g for it. But if you move-sell-move-sell-move-sell you get 3g total. That's the "exploit".

 

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by Bam-Bam
Selling maps for chump change is a known (albeit VERY tedious) to net yourself 6-10gpt. Many people do this; it is a matter of preference.

I think you're missing the point. It's not just 6-10gpt. You can get more or less that much by selling your maps less frequently, and getting a few gold from each civ for them. The point is that you can get much larger amounts, like 100gpt, because even when you uncover just one space, every civ will still give you the minimum of 1 gold for that new map. So instead of moving all of your units, and then getting 1 gold from each civ, you can move a single unit one space, get 1 gold from each civ, move again, get 1 gold from each civ again, over and over and over. You're getting a much larger amount because of the practice of the AI to "round up", and give you 1g even if the formula would say that your map is only worth 0.1g to them.

 

[samildanach]

I think you're missing the point. It's not just 6-10gpt.

Well actually doing the move-sellWM-move etc stunt may net you alot of gold at first but it does tend to resolve itself into the sort of numbers Bam-Bam is talking about. Of course this depends on the map- a huge map, lots of barbs and if you happen to have bagged the Great Lighthouse then the sort of numbers you are talking about Daviddesj are possible to maintain.
The question that I think that most players would like to have answered is not how to bankrupt the AIs or use them as cash cows (this is far to easy at all levels) but how to control the way in which AI rivals spend their gold. In the previous GoTMs where I have done everything within my power to help them ie. gifting techs, not helping myself to their money and workers they have been next to useless at helping my tech rate- I went for diplos incidentally.
The galley/scout stunt is well known in all it tediuos variations as Bam-Bam points out (although I dont doubt you could come up with a new wrinkle on it) is it worth the time?