Getting Past Dan Quayle

[Eqqman]

Yeah, he misspelled potato with an E at the end while at an elementary school spelling bee...

Sort of true but the media spun it out of proportion. He was giving the kids words to spell that were written on flash cards, whomever wrote the cards is the one who first misspelled the word. Mr. Quayle had even asked before the bee began if the cards had been checked for errors and was told that they were. These days, the -e ending is no longer used but it was not that uncommon to see when I was a child, likewise with him. In his shoes I might have raised an eyebrow for a few seconds, but having been assured beforehand that the cards had been correctly spelled I wouldn't have stopped the proceedings either. Also keep in mind that he said words to the kid along the lines of 'you're not quite correct' and the kid added the 'e' on his own, so even the kid knew about the variant spelling. Any of the other people there could have whispered in his ear about the error but didn't. Why bother, when it's easier to let the VP look bad? An interesting side note is that this kid who got his 15 minutes of fame telling the country how dumb the VP was later went on to be an unwed father who dropped out of high school.

We love tearing down public figures and when the slightest opening presents itself we don't care about the facts. Just like Al Gore's 'invented the Internet' comment that earned him a cIV lampoon... although he expressed it badly, there is a kernel of truth to it. While he didn't 'invent' anything himself he did serve on the government comittee that provided funding for the proto-internet developed by the US military starting in the 70s and so made a very key indrect contribution. Although personally I think even this is giving himself too much credit unless he cast a deciding swing vote.

 

[ggganz]

Shout "P-O-T-A-T-O" over and over again to the computer.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

BTW, sorry if this looks stupid but who is Dan Quayle? Can anybody tell me? Sure, I can look up for him on the net but I'm feeling lazy right now

The fact that you have to look him up is exactly the reason people don't want to have the score.

Looks like the potato(e?) incident has been covered. Go ahead and google his name. You will get quite a laff. There are dozens more instances like that. We can laugh now since he's not the Vice President of the United States anymore.

It's not that he was stupid or anything. He was really just not very practiced in public speaking. He just had problems following his lines often enough to where he looked pretty stupid on a regular basis. By the time the potato thing happened the press WAS following him waiting for the next line he would flub. The potato one just ended up getting brought up on the election campaign in 1992, which is why it is remembered more than the others.

People made alot of other ones up joking about him so some of them he may not actually have said. Here is a website that I like that tries to keep things straight. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/quayle.htm

It got so bad that, when George Bush the elder (number 41) vomited on the Prime Minister of Japan, people I knew were more scared about Dan Quayle possibly having the opportunity to be the acting president than they were over the President's health issue itself.

"Dan Quayle is the ultimate shield to the president. Not even an insane person would attempt to assasinate Bush, knowing who would take his place." - My dad, 1991

edit - Back to topic... Win earlier and play at a higher level are the only two things I have for advice on how to score higher than Dan Quayle.

 

[joelwest]

Population and early victory count for so much that you can practically disregard all the other conditions. You really need to beat the 1950 'You have 100 turns left!' cutoff, too. Most of my Dan Quayle games are ones where I've finished the tech tree and built nearly every Wonder while my Caesar games leave most of the modern techs unfinished and I hardly built a single Wonder.

my own experience is that overwhelming population is the way to getting this ranking.

the only time I achieved the highest score on Civ 4 (Augustus Caesar) was when I was playing the Song of the Moon mod on a Terran map. I believe I was using Warlord or Noble difficulty level.

the AI could not figure out how to grow their populations or how to effectively work the tiles in their cities.

I had trouble early when two ganged up on me at the same time. I ended up destroying them both eventually, and the only significant civ left was on another continent I controlled part of.

however I did not win early. it was a time victory. but I had 80% of the Moon's population and a score over 100,000 (not a misprint).

I believe it is the score that determines your rank, not how you achieved it. if you score 100,000 points your first turn it would only then be up to you to find a way to win any kind of victory for you to be listed in the hall of fame as Caesar.

I wonder if you would be listed as Caesar with a 100,000 points if you somehow lost the game? is it possible to lose if you control 80% of the world's population?

I am interested in population percentages of other players who won at the Caesar level, and scores of those who achieved a time victory at this level.

playing other mods or vanilla Civ I could never achieve such overwhelming population since SotM mod allows you to literally create food out of thin air.

BTW, most of my population came from cities I created rather than cities I conquered.

 

[The Lardossen]

I got over 100,000 points too.

Emperor domination victory with Romans, Caesar.

I think domination and conquest yield the most points, but maybe that's also because of the large amount of pop.

Having 80% pop and not enough square miles to win is really seldom.

 

[automator]

I finally had my first decent "you governed in the style of ..."

Hit the center of the stack with a score of 8800. I got some Simon-something name.

 

[joelwest]

I got over 100,000 points too.

Emperor domination victory with Romans, Caesar.

I think domination and conquest yield the most points, but maybe that's also because of the large amount of pop.

Having 80% pop and not enough square miles to win is really seldom.

I believe I had turned off the domination victory at the start of the game not realizing I would achieve it so readily, hence the time victory.

has anyone got to Augustus Caesar without a huge pop percentage?

 

[Johncena]

I played scenario planet difficulty settler and got Abraham Lincoln

 

[Michael Alan]

I have Dan Quayle syndrome too...even though I have many time or score wins (but playing only up as high as Warlord difficulty).

I have had only one decent ranking which was a Winston Churchill win and that also was the only time I did not win by score or time. It was at Chieftain level of difficulty. I won that by domination victory on a single large landmass. That's the population growth factor you all have talked about on this thread. I avoided war totally but had many weapons for defense. I was ready when Napoleon declared war for absolutly no reason other than me refusing to pay him tribute. It took a hit on my score until I reclaimed my city he took and then went after him until he begged for peace which I granted. And then he sang me a sappy song about how I was all he wanted to be like (funny). If I recall right, many of my Dan Quayle wins had a lot of islands and water on the maps and it was hard to grow in land mass in a manner I was capable of. I just began playing civ recently... am a newbie. For my Winston Churchill win I can't say I learned any new strategy or had been practicing a lot. And it was not a recent win because I have had many Dan Quayle wins since that one. I often choose my leader and map at random. It must have been the map and the leader I started with. But I find it interesting that despite the fact that I didn't change my game strategy or style much, I ended up at an incredibly higher ranking for one game. That tells me there is something wierd about the leadership ability ranking or scoring or something. Or maybe its just tells something about how the game and I interact and I need my own game patch lol.

Mostly I find the leadership ability rank to be frustrating to have to look at. Getting Dan Quayle says: Your win means nothing, you stink, and then they offer no analysis, no suggestions for next game. They could tone it down. For example, in video game Command & Conquer Generals, if you win quickly or have a certain number of wins in a row etc then a little military medal on a certain screen of several medals goes from a dull color to a shiny glow. It's pretty low key. After every game you get a two sentence tactical analysis which are brief suggestions on how to do better next time and they never give you a negative label after you win. I mean calling you "Dan Quayle" is suppose to be a put down here and I imagine Dan Quayle himself is not too fond of it either. Bad move Firaxis.

 

[xanadux]

Well, If you are a die-hard republican, being on par with Quayle is a pretty damned good achievement. What more in life is there than achieving all that you don't deserve?

I guess you should feel the same if you are a die-hard Democrat, since there is no noticeable difference between the 2 major corrupt parties.

 

[Pe Ell]

Playing as Rome is a very good way to get high score. Preatorians are almost godlike and it doesn't hurt that Augustus get cheap forges as well. Play pangea, get 3-4 cities and hook up iron. Then stomp everything!
I think it might also be easier to get high score on huge/marathon settings. I seem to get 60k+ in every game unless I die, at which point I start a new game before I lose so I never get to see the score anyway.

 

[DMOC]

If you really want to get an Augustus caesar score, just pick Huayna Capac, reload until you have marble/stone in your capital (for early production), just spam quechas and kill your opponent. By this, I mean the map settings should be duel sized with only one other civ, preferably not Mansa since he starts with skirmishers, and on deity difficulty. I did this with Mao Zedong and got a score of over 80,000. It's quite cheap actually, but the point is that early finish dates account for much of your score.

 

[Michael Alan]

but the point is that early finish dates account for much of your score.

The scoring method is not apparent . Perhaps that's the problem.

I'm starting to like Dan Quayle more and more.

 

[Squarg]

I got a Caesar when I played a 18 civ standard terra map on noble and won in 1350 BC because of copper in the BFC and impis are AWSOME!!!

I got a SS

 

[eraxian]

Long time civ player...new to these forums, so many acronyms, what is BFC? And an earlier poster mentioned making sure all your cities have 'MP' in them? What is MP? maybe i'm just tired and can't think straight, but i can't think of what these are referring to.

 

[CivCorpse]

Population and early victory count for so much that you can practically disregard all the other conditions. You really need to beat the 1950 'You have 100 turns left!' cutoff, too. Most of my Dan Quayle games are ones where I've finished the tech tree and built nearly every Wonder while my Caesar games leave most of the modern techs unfinished and I hardly built a single Wonder.

My last few games were finished in the 1960's and 1970's with the entire tech tree completed. I also built lots of wonders and captured more. I almost always get an Auggy Seizure rating. Victory type also figures into things, Conquest followed by Domination, space,diplo,time in that order. My Dan Quayles have been from the following victory conditions "You have been Defeated"

 

[CivCorpse]

is it possible to lose if you control 80% of the world's population?

.

Yes, if you do not control 100% of the spaceship that reachs Alpha Centauri first. You can also lose in an AP election if enough of your population does not follow the faith.

 

[Jastrow]

Long time civ player...new to these forums, so many acronyms, what is BFC? And an earlier poster mentioned making sure all your cities have 'MP' in them? What is MP? maybe i'm just tired and can't think straight, but i can't think of what these are referring to.

BFC is Bold (of Big) Fat Cross... It refers to the shape of the workable tiles around a city (after the first cultural expansion).

MP can be a few different things depending on context, but the most likely in the above case would have been Millitary Police, refering to the troops you keep in place to give happiness to your civilization.

 

[semirami]

If you are playing on Settler or Warlord difficulty, it is hard to get a score above Dan Quayle. Winning on Noble, I've found, nets you at least Henry VIII. Difficulty level and how quickly you win have much to do with your score.

Thats not true. I play sometimes on Settler, when I want to try a new strategy and yes I finish always as Augustus Ceaser. The most times I have 30k normalized score and above. Actually the difficulty level also counts for your normalized score. If you play well you will finish as Augustus and if you play bad you will be Quayle. The difficulty level doesnt matter.

 

[eewallace]

has anyone got to Augustus Caesar without a huge pop percentage?

Yes. It is not too hard to get an Augustus Caesar rating for a cultural or diplomatic (AP) victory based on date rather than population. (Noble level). Both of these victories can be achieved before 1800, so the early date gives your score a big boost.