Frequently Asked Questions - (FAQ)

[Sirp]

cracker,

I'm afraid I don't understand. Are you suggesting that wait times this long are normal, and even short? I have *never* had a wait time nearly this long before in a Civilization game. I thought the game had hung.

As I understand it, there are a couple of new units, the squid, volcano, and fog, with a handful of new civilopedia entries, along with a couple of rule changes such as removal of mobilization. This seems to me like a rather modest handful of additions to the game. I must admit I can't understand how such a small set of changes could justify a change in wait time that exceeds an order of magnitude.

I am a prospective newcomer to the GotM, and have played in another civilization tournament, which sometimes uses rule modifications, but which hasn't presented me with problems like this. I must admit I have had some reservations about playing due to concerns with milking and exploits, but decided to put those aside and try the game anyhow. However, as a working professional with limited time on my hands, to be expected to waste literally hours of my time waiting painfully for the game to proceed, I am reconsidering whether I should participate.

Indeed I'm not even sure if I will have time to participate considering the wait times mean the game will likely take at least twice as long as it would otherwise.

So, are you sure there is nothing that can be done about this? Are future GotMs going to be like this, or is this problem going to be solved in future GotMs? Can you provide a technical justification as to why this happens? Don't you think it would be better to use rules that don't involve new units if it means the game can progress at a reasonable pace?

-Sirp.

 

[cracker]

Sorry Sirp,

I did not mean to inconvenience you specifically. This was one of the very fist items that was posted in the pregame discussion on the very first day that the game was announced.

10 seconds lag time times 540 turns would be a total of 90 minutes over the whole duration of the game if you played the entire game in one setting and that lag time remained constant but it does not and it does not increase.

This is not typical and it is not deliberate. Some players with older machines have reported worse lag times. We know the issue cannot be fatal because we began receiving completed victorious games withing 72 hours of when the game was released to the public. We already have in excess of 60 QSC game submissions and although these games report the lag, there have been no reported human fatalities related to the technical difficulty.

There is a lot going on in the game for you to discover and make decisions about.

We are fairly certain that we know what causes the lag and there is nothing really that can be done to address the issue at this point in time.

Don't let the former issues of score milking and exploits become a mantra that may conspire to deny you access to the other benefits of playing the game and associating with the players who regularly participate in the GOTM games.

I encourage you to take a look at the Russian and Rome spoiler discussion threads to get a better perspective of the game play process and to be patient with this game by just using the little bit of extra time to give some thought to writing a few comments about your activities in the game as your go along. This will help you to save that time later because when you get to the appropriate point in time where you can legitimately participate in the spoiler discussions, then you will already have your post drafted and ready to go.

Again this is not typical and you will have to help us determine if the lag truly has an negative effect on your strategic game play when we have the opportunity to compare your score to other games that you complete as well as to the games of your fellow players.

Good luck in the game,

cracker

 

[Sirp]

cracker,

Thank you for your response. I will endeavour to play the game. I did understate the ibt time, it's closer to 20 seconds than 10, but I will try to endure it.

I understand that lots of time is needed for taking notes and so forth, but I don't think that the game being inaccessible for a period leads to convenient taking of notes. When I take notes, I alt-tab back and forth from my editor to Civ3 to check on exactly what I'm taking notes with etc. Also I generally take notes as I do things, not at the end of the turn, so once I'm ready to end the turn, I want to go straight to the next turn.

Anyhow, I will try to live with it as is. Thank you for taking time to address my concerns.

Cheers,

-Sirp.

 

[OziO80]

it takes minutes between each turn for GOTM 17.
I have PTW and the new files (fog, squid etc) installed too. Any suggestions?
.. It makes the game unplayable

 

[Creepster]

The speed problems disappear as you get further into the game. Use the time lag to plan your next turns move.

 

[Gen. Maximus]

I think the lag due to large map. Can we have more standard size map please, Cracker? Especially on Emperor or Deity maps were the game will probably stretch into the modern ages and the AI will have so many cities and units that the games slows down to a crawl... and I will not be able to finish my monthly GOTM

 

[nihil8r]

uhhhhh ... where's the .saves for this month's game?!~~~?

 

[Yndy]

Originally posted by nihil8r
uhhhhh ... where's the .saves for this month's game?!~~~?

You need to read the readme file.

 

[nihil8r]

finally found it, thanks yndy

 

[hotrod0823]

I realize that cracker et all are hard at work on future GOTM (as GOTM18 has released today) but I have a question.

Will there be future GOTM for PTW where we can face off against other PTW civs?? If 18 has other PTW civs in it my appologies as I haven't downloaded it yet and plan to tonight.

I realize that for the time being that GOTM will continue to be supported for standard civ3 1.29 and the mac versions but it will be interesting to face off against the Vikings or Ottomons in a future GOTM.

Looking forward to 18!

Thanks

Hotrod

 

[Plechazunga]

I have a few dry and potentially stupid technical questions I'm going to ask y'all for help with.
• Where do I load GOTM start files? as a saved game? as a saved scenario? currently, my PC gives me "not a valid scenario" message.
• Do I need to link up the 1.29 patch in a specific way that may be causing me problems?
•_I'm loading all of these cross-platform (burning files with my Mac that has Internet access, then loading them to my PC, which doesn't, where I play). Is this an issue?
Thanks in advance ... I want to play GOTM 18. Now. I'm itching.
All the best ...

 

[Bamspeedy]

The start file you would put in your 'Saves' folder.

To know whether or not 1.29 is correctly installed, just look in the lower left hand corner when you are at the start menu. It should say 1.29f in the lower left hand corner if it is correctly installed.

 

[Phillip_martin]

Originally posted by Plechazunga
•_I'm loading all of these cross-platform (burning files with my Mac that has Internet access, then loading them to my PC, which doesn't, where I play). Is this an issue?

I'm assuming that the files you are talking about are the SAV game and the 2.21f patch. Unless I am corrected I do not see a problem with these files as long as the SAV file ids the PTW221 one and not the MAC one.

 

[jaheira]

I am new to GOTM, despite having read your stories for the past years.. never dare playing with you guys.. you are damn too good.. or also have plenty of time to waste milking your games.. hate that.

But now is my question:
Before the start SAV game was easy to find.
Today I have searched for GOTM17 and 18 but only got the graphical file changes.. but no trace of a sav file .. even when I download the last link on GOTM18 ..I find nothing but gotm18_start_ptwv1_14.. which has no SAV file.. ???
can you help me?

 

[jaheira]

sorry missed the posting above.. as you see..

 

[BretP]

After I installed the GOTM 18, the added software has alter the graphics of all my other new games. I am getting maps where EVERY desert and plains square has a bonus shield. How do I undo these changes?

 

[cracker]

Originally posted by BretP
After I installed the GOTM 18, the added software has alter the graphics of all my other new games. I am getting maps where EVERY desert and plains square has a bonus shield. How do I undo these changes?

BretP,

This is not true. Nothing in the GOTM pack will have any effect on the shields you obtain from deserts or plains. The GOTM game packs have no effect on the setup of you standard games or on how your software functions or crashes in other games.

I am going to first suggest that you read the article on Improving Your Opening Play Sequences that is list in the CIvfanatics War Academy so you will have a basic understanging of what those squares could be producing.

Then look closely at your map to see that every desery and plains tile always should produce at least one shield.

There is a standard preference setting that lets you display the food and shields produced from any map square, and this preference creates little blips that are not really extras, they just show you the food nad shield that every tile already produces. You can toggle this preference off and on in any game by accessing the preference control screen for that game using "ctrl-P" or "Shift-P" as the hotkey.

Again this has nothing to do with the GOTM setup files or graphics.

 

[BretP]

Sorry for the trouble, it was the preferences thing. I did not realize the game had that setting and it freaked me out.

 

[RufRydyr]

The first thing I do after downloading the GOTM is go into Preferences and put them back the way I like them. If you load a .sav game from the results area to see how someone else did the preferences also change to how they how it set.

 

[GenMarshall]

I have a question regarding, naming our submition saves (Both for QSC and GOTM). I have sent in my QSC 18, But I am not sure if I had done the naming part right (IE naming them CG_QSC18.save ). Please let me know the proper formant on naming our save files .

Thanks,
CivGeneral

Edit: Some parts of the Question were kindly anwsered by Thefrenchzulu. Though I am looking for the Proper Format on what the File name should be. (<Playername>_<Gamename><Gamenumber>.save is what I thought it goes by )