Game Settings Discussion Thread

[2metraninja]

Lets hope the clause where the Admin can deny switch turn order scares off the wannabies or as last line of defense protects us from it.

 

[Caledorn]

I'm sure Sommer will add this somewhere. But the mod that the turnplayers need can be found at this url (direct download):

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6355677/WebMod1_0.rar

So everyone who is planning on being a turnplayer should download this one. If you need help making a shortcut for the mod so you don't have to load it every time you start Civ4BTS just yell out and Sommer or I can provide the information you need.

I'm so excited right now .. the game has finally started!

 

[Caledorn]

Erm. I just realized .. There has been no mention anywhere, that I can find at least, about what the turn timer will actually be...

 

[2metraninja]

I saw something, which may be a problem, or may not (hopefully not). The things is that the order in which the teams are set-up in the game (Team1, Team2, etc) is usually used for a tie-breaker when all the players have equal points (starting of the game, no-score mod used) and right now the current score in civstats do not represent the order, which Plako said the teams are random placed

I had numbered starting positions and gave r_rolo1 this list:
0. Team WePlayCiv
1. Team Civforum.de
2. Team Apolyton
3. Team Spanish Apolyton
4. Team Civfanatics
5. Team CivPlayers
6. Team Realms Beyond
7. Team UniversCivilization
8. Team Civfr

r_rolo generated the order using random.org and got this for me
0 - Team Realms Beyond
1 - Team WePlayCiv
2 - Team Spanish Apolyton
3 - Team Apolyton
4 - Team Civforum.de
5 - Team Civfr
6 - Team CivPlayers
7 - Team Civfanatics
8 - Team UniversCivilization


Please note that civ starts numbering from 0 so that was used above.

As I see it, we should have been number 7 and we are number 4 or something according to civstats.

 

[Aivoturso]

I also find it bit suspicious that in CivStats the leaders are reported as restricted leaders of given civs.

 

[2metraninja]

I also find it bit suspicious that in CivStats the leaders are reported as restricted leaders of given civs.

This might be done by Caledorn to show the real nations instead of just "Unknown leader" or something like this. civstats cant handle some leaders and maybe unrestricted??

 

[Caledorn]

The Civstats-thing is my fault - both of them I believe. I first added the teams as the leaders, which makes the show the wrong nation. Then I thought better of it, as the leadernames would change regardless, and set it to show the nations instead. Civstats does not (as far as I can tell - it's pretty darn well hidden if it does) support unrestricted leaders. I think the ordering thing is because of this too. In the Pitboss server, we are indeed number 8 (remember that plako's list starts at 0 and not 1).

 

[DaveShack]

I'm sure Sommer will add this somewhere. But the mod that the turnplayers need can be found at this url (direct download):

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6355677/WebMod1_0.rar

So everyone who is planning on being a turnplayer should download this one. If you need help making a shortcut for the mod so you don't have to load it every time you start Civ4BTS just yell out and Sommer or I can provide the information you need.

I'm so excited right now .. the game has finally started!

I asked in the main forum too, is this the same as the test game, or different?

 

[Bowsling]

I hate to be the guy that dredges up all these painful memories - but I found this post about Civ3 by Sullla (a member of Team RB), given all of the heated debate.

Employing resource denial late in the game to prevent the AI from building tanks or mechs is strategy.

 

[YossarianLives]

Moderator Action: There was a team that contacted me today about a issue with the pathfinder algorithym that allows to discover a lot of spoiler info ( like where are cities in the fog, where are hills and water and some more stuff ) and asked to give a ruling about that.

As this usage of the pathfinder is untraceable and given the nature of this game ( a competition ), I think that simply disallowing it without explaining the situation would be a bad idea and would be better to ask for a commitment by the part of all the teams to not use this, given that the admin and the current mod are unable to prevent that exploitative usage :/

So I would ask that all the teams would say of their justice. I can provide screenshots and/or alreayd posted explanations on the issue if needed. And as a personal preference , i would prefer to disallow it .p

Not sure where this comment goes regarding r_rolo's rule request, so I guess the Setting Discussion is as good a place as any.

As I understand it, if you select a unit and right-click into the fog, the game will allow the move if you are clicking on a tile that the unit could move onto, but reacts differently if you're clicking on a tile that is impassable (such as a water or mountain tile). I forget exactly what happens, I think it just won't allow you to move there, and no path is highlighted. I'm not sure what happens if you click on a tile where an enemy city is located, whether it treats it like an impassable tile, or if something different happens (is it possible you can DOW someone by clicking their city in the fog, before you've even met them???). When you're playing on a map without toroidal wrap, you can also see where the world ends using this technique.

Like r_rolo1 mentions, a rule against this would be pretty impossible to enforce. However, I think we should agree not to use this technique, if there are other teams out there who feel it gives an unfair advantage. We weren't planning on using this anyway (as far as I know), so it won't hurt us at all. I doubt any of the teams would knowingly violate a rule just because they can get away with it, so this should be good enough.

Edit: Here is a discussion of the exploit, specifically posts #12 and #13. They talk about using it with boats, so maybe I am wrong with my explanation of how it works with land units...

 

[2metraninja]

I knew about there is such technique, but never used it myself. Other way of telling the rough shape and presence at all of land is using the flying camera. I even raised the question about the flying camera over RB forums but the opinions were not one directional.

 

[YossarianLives]

Could the turn timer be reduced a bit?

I see we have a real life turn timer of 55 hrs..
(I guess two days was intended..)

And as some teams don't end their turns, we could very well end up with each turn taking these 55 hrs..

My personal opinion is that our team should officially support this request. 55 hours for each turn is way more time than necessary, but the timer has run all the way down on the past couple turns. IMO, this unnecessarily holds up the game.

Funny that this comes up on the exact turn that we might need a little extra time to decide our own moves, but now that we have a leadership trio, I am confident that someone can step in and dictate our next moves if discussion starts taking too long.

 

[talonschild]

Aye, I think the request is valid, sensible, and should have been brought up sooner. Let's give it our support.

 

[grant2004]

I agree, we should back that request, teams should generally have their plans together by now and should be able to stick to a slightly tighter schedule. It seems like the same few teams haven't been ending their turns which is starting to bother me. As much fun as it is to discuss warrior moves, I don't think it's anything worth stalling the game over.

 

[cav scout]

All I can say is once we have contact with other teams and diplo starts we are going to wish there was more time on the clock.

 

[talonschild]

At least shave 7 hours off. I'd prefer to drop to 36 hours, if possible.

 

[2metraninja]

36 hours without anyone at war is more than enough. Ever 24 hours will do. But it is still summer, people are on vacations or go out, etc.

 

[DaveShack]

If a team is consistently taking it to the end of the turn timer this early, that's potential trouble for the game's pace. Part of me wants to inquire if this will be a chronic problem, part thinks we should leave it be to avoid the negative repercussions of seeming too pushy.

 

[cav scout]

If a team is consistently taking it to the end of the turn timer this early, that's potential trouble for the game's pace. Part of me wants to inquire if this will be a chronic problem, part thinks we should leave it be to avoid the negative repercussions of seeming too pushy.

Maybe it's a team that is worried a rival warrior might appear out of the fog? So they wait until all the other teams have played so they can change up their micro etc if need be...

I can't fault another team for using the full clock if they choose to do so. This is game play within the established parameters so being upset at any "slowpokes" is a little unfair to the "offending" team.

I would recommend patience. But if people are desperate to speed up these early turns then at least make sure that anything we put out publicly is always framed as "friendly suggestions." Anything that could be remotely construed as pushy will just harm our reputation.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Just leave it alone and be patient. It is way too early to start publicly whining about the turn timer... It just comes off as annoying. Let's drop it, at least publicly.

If any of you are feeling ants in your pants about the pace of the game and looking for more CIV action the solution is to Join More Games, not complain that the one game you are participating in is going too slow. If you are looking to join a game PM me, I have openings in some games I host, and I know of other games that need substitute players to take over.

I am currently in several games, and I have plenty of Civ to play without shortening any timers