GOTM - 01: A New Beginning. Pre-Game Discussion

[Amao]

It's Thanksgiving week. So, it's unlikely that we see the patched patch this week.

I gladly take back what I said.

 

[Isildurs Heir]

I gladly take back what I said.

No sweat....logic only dictates that you do not release a patch the day before a 4-day weekend. Hopefully patch will work this time, otherwise Firaxis/Take2 staff might be enjoying their turkey with their "work" family...

 

[Shillen]

Well, we'll have to do a couple of quick things to get started - regenerate the save in v109 etc. Presumably we can kick-off the game in 24 hours or so.

With the first spoiler thread in 25 hours?

 

[TLHeart]

If the download keeps sputtering and stopping for you all from the Civ advanced menu, then go to this mirror site and download quickly,
Okay, finished uploading. Get it here:

http://rapidshare.de/files/8071986/v...CHREL.exe.html

Scroll down and click the button that says 'Free'. On the next page, you will need to wait ~30 seconds and then the download link will appear. I tested it and was downloading at ~150k/sec (my max).

Worked great for me.

 

[Mike Lemmer]

So when will the deadline for this first GOTM be?

 

[ainwood]

Probably the end of the year - although these games tend to be faster than Civ3... Maybe we should run epic games.

 

[MeteorPunch]

Probably the end of the year - although these games tend to be faster than Civ3... Maybe we should run epic games.

Good idea if this is the only game running between now through Jan 1. That's plenty of time to finish.

 

[LeSphinx]

The patch 1.09 is out....
ah! We will soon start the GOTM !!!!!!


LeSphinx

 

[Roland Ehnström]

Gimme Gimme Gimme!!!

-- Roland

 

[Ambiorix]

Good idea if this is the only game running between now through Jan 1. That's plenty of time to finish.

For you, but maybe not for me.
How much longer are epic games ?
At least let's start with normal speed, and see how it turns out for most of us.
Maybe have a poll after the first game.

 

[LeSphinx]

I hope we will play standard.
The game at standard seems to last around 15 hours!
I's quite a good timing.
How long Epic takes ?
Or maybe, we will have various game in One month: like for CIV3 : classic GOTM and C3C GOTM !!!!

LeSphinx

 

[karmina]

In my experience epic games hardly take any longer than normal games. This is because all costs are +50%. You will press "end turn" more often, but the amount of decisions, like city placement, build queues, terrain improvements, chopping etc. practically stays the same (btw forests are also worth +50% hammers, and terrain improvements take 50% longer). You'll move your units around more, true, but on the other hand this can make war even shorter because compared to production speed your blitz wars are 50% quicker.

So: Players who do everything the AI proposes, don't think much and finish a standard game in 2 hours might need indeed 50% more time for an standard sized epic game - but everyone who already needs 10+ hours for a normal game won't notice a big increase in consumed real time on epic speed.

I'd go so far as to say the only actual difference between normal and epic speed is 50% faster unit movement on epic.

 

[Shillen]

How much do you guys that have trouble finishing play? I can finish epic games in under 10 hours of playtime. Over a course of a month that's 2.5 hours a week . If you can manage to play twice a week it's only a little over an hour each session. I think that's extremely casual...

 

[Ambiorix]

I bought Civ4 the day it came out (in Belgium : Oct 28th or something like that) and played two standard games since, for a total of about 25 hours.

Maybe finishing a game in time is not a problem and maybe it is. I'm just trying to get a view on what I'm signing up for.
(Karmina's view is also quite interesting, btw).

 

[DaviddesJ]

In my experience epic games hardly take any longer than normal games. This is because all costs are +50%. You will press "end turn" more often, but the amount of decisions, like city placement, build queues, terrain improvements, chopping etc. practically stays the same (btw forests are also worth +50% hammers, and terrain improvements take 50% longer). You'll move your units around more, true, but on the other hand this can make war even shorter because compared to production speed your blitz wars are 50% quicker.

There's a lot of stuff that I do every turn, like opening the foreign advisor to see if any of the other civs have new techs or resources to trade, and that's going to take more time if there are more turns.

 

[pindicator]

I think epic should just be another consideration in the IVOTM arsenal. Epic has been observed to be more beneficial to military victory-types.

One of the big excitements for me in the IVOTM series is the amount of in-game parameters that Firaxis gave us for Civ4. Before playing an OCC or Always-War *OTM was a personal variant. Now it can be what everybody has to play! There are a lot more possibilities here than in Civ3, and I hope that the GOTM staff flexes their creative muscle from time to time to give us some atypical sceneries for us to play.

I cannot wait to play the first one!

 

[jayeffaar]

Probably the end of the year - although these games tend to be faster than Civ3... Maybe we should run epic games.

We're not???

I'm surprised you would even consider running anything other than an epic game. I find the game's pace waaaaaay to quick on normal, and I have a feeling I'm not the only one. Any way to change your mind on this one? It's not too late...

Edit: reading a few more comments, I realize that several folks with limited time would prefer Standard. I can go along with that too.

 

[Omi_1981]

Standard certainly suits me better, with work and home commitments its sometimes hard to find time to play that much...

I think I have only managed to completely finish ~3 games of Civ4 as it is...played a lot of starts though

 

[ainwood]

I think this competition will evolve over the first month or three, including things like the scoring system, QSC, epic vs normal (and maybe even 'quick' - "Quick Games" could have a whole new meaning)

Aeson has patched the save to v109 - we'll start in time for the weekend (for most of you at least). Although seeing as its thanksgiving, will your families thank you? Perhaps we should wait until tuesday as a public service?

 

[phoulishwan]

Perhaps we should wait until tuesday as a public service?

Awww ;( I'm celebrating my Thanksgiving starting Monday...stuck working over the turkey day holiday. Seeing as it's quiet I was hoping this would be out to give me something to do while at work