GOTM-02: Pre-Game discussion

[Orca]

If Harkonnen comes out with a patch compatible with v1.52

The Patch 1.52 solved many of the memory issues (maybe even with Harkonnen's help) so Harkonnen's patch is kind of obsolet now.

 

[Seraphinus]

So Blue Marble is out of question and also nice clock mods? Should be nice if there is a way to use only those mods which do not change any game mechanism or do not give any illegal information and still be able to submit the GOTM.

 

[LeSphinx]

What ?
We can not use BlueMarble terrain Mod with C-IV GOTM02 ?

 

[Seraphinus]

If "No cheating" is checked, custom assets aren't used by default.

 

[jesusin]

Never played Epic before, I hope I will be able to finish in due time. Never played a lake map before, I suppose it’s a single continent. With low waters and Epic speed, I will try a conquest victory.

Desert S, Ice N, seems like we are in the N hemisphere. No shields, I don’t like this starting zone. But sea coast + lakes is perfect for a lighthouse.

Even if I cottage all around London won’t be a great science city, there will be better spots for that. Six specialist can be supported (more if merchant superspecialist are added to the city), so London will be my GP city. I will try to build the GLib here. Probably my specialists will be merchants, taking care of the maintenance of the empire at 100% tech.
I hope that the 2nd city will be my main production center.

Slavery will be used intensively. Mounted units too. No need for founding a religion in a single-continent game.

Bureaucracy doesn’t seem like a good idea with London. I will build a Palace in other city or maybe I should use Vassalage, I guess I can afford it being financial.

 

[Methos]

As I never played CIV4 Epic Game, what is the legendary culture needed for your 3 cities in order to win by culture ?

thanks in advance

75,000

So Blue Marble is out of question and also nice clock mods?

I don’t know about the Blue Marble terrain but the clock mods and the autolog mod worked fine in my GOTM1 game.

If "No cheating" is checked, custom assets aren't used by default.

I didn't know that. So the mods wouldn't work. How sure are you about that statement? I think I'll start up a game with that checked and see.

 

[Methos]

If "No cheating" is checked, custom assets aren't used by default.

I didn't know that. So the mods wouldn't work. How sure are you about that statement? I think I'll start up a game with that checked and see.

Just tried it, and you are correct. When 'No Cheating' is checked neither my autolog nor my clock mod worked. It even states under the description of 'No Cheating' that the game assets couldn't be modified (or something similar to that).

The question is whether the GOTM Staff will check it. They've already stated autolog could be used. Plus they have already set up their own type of security.

 

[Ravellion]

Any hope of an early release for those who have a spare day between christmas and New Year? Most of the 'working people', like me, have a tough time finding time to play, which is one of the main reasons I haven't participated in GOTM much. Would be nice if I could finally send in a game and see how I do compared to the rest

 

[cas]

hola.
can anyone tell me where to find a list of differences between normal and epic ?

I'm not looking for a specific hammer comparison on every unit, but maybe a general % increase in hammers for the builds / beakers for the science discoveries. Someone already mentioned 75K for each legendary city instead of 50K in the culture win. Give me a rough idea of the movement increases of units, etc...

I've only played one Civ4 game and that was GOTM1 (normal). Strategy might change a bit with epic and also the changes in 1.52 patch.

This is probably listed somewhere and I'm just not finding it.

Thanks!
cas

 

[Kuranes]

It's too bad that we can't load UI-only mods with "no cheating" enabled, but you can understand why the game can't tell a cheating mod from a harmless one. But we trust GOTM submitters to be honest in so many other ways; maybe we should trust them to not use cheating mods too, and unlock the games? Then again I can imagine folks may modify their rulesets by accident. Maybe a whitelist of approved mods that we trust players to follow would do it? Hmm.

 

[DaveMcW]

I suppose we could make a "GOTM mod" with all the popular mods included. And a control panel to turn off the stuff we don't want to use.

But I really dislike requiring mods to be installed, as it breaks forward compatibility. Is there some way you can include a whitelist inside the save file?

 

[dr_strangelove]

uh, prince, lakemap, epic - all things i've never tried before i will try my best

and a gotm-mod would be great

 

[Denniz]

Just tried it, and you are correct. When 'No Cheating' is checked neither my autolog nor my clock mod worked. It even states under the description of 'No Cheating' that the game assets couldn't be modified (or something similar to that).

The question is whether the GOTM Staff will check it. They've already stated autolog could be used. Plus they have already set up their own type of security.

From Mods forum Autolog thread:

The mod doesn't intentionally change the score, but it changed cvutil.py which includes the "getScoreComponent" function. That function changed in 1.09, but the version of that function in the mod is the 1.00 version.

I think they will have to re-evaluate the mods. I wouldn't assume we are going to be able to use them.

 

[MeteorPunch]

Why would they need to check "no cheating," why not just lock the game save with a password? Doesn't it do the same thing, but you can still use mods? (I could be wrong about this)

 

[ainwood]

Why would they need to check "no cheating," why not just lock the game save with a password? Doesn't it do the same thing, but you can still use mods? (I could be wrong about this)

"No cheating" and the admin password effectively do the same thing - prevent use of custom assets, and make sure that your base (normal) assets match those in the original game.

The reason the clock and autologger could be used in the first GOTM was presumably a bug that allowed custom assets to be used. This is no longer the case, as new (HOF staff member ) Deniz mentioned.

DaveMcW mentioned that we need an approved GOTM (and possibly HOF) mod - the HOF have a mod approval thread, but I haven't checked it lately to see how they're implementing it. We will probably try to do something similar at some point - it may be that we end-up generating multiple start saves for the various mods.

My concern with this approach is that not all GOTM players are computer-savvy. There is the risk in supplying multiple saves that people download the 'wrong' one, and we end up with a tech support problem on our hands. Maybe AlanH can whip-up a custom mod download screen - most players download the normal starting save - others go to a specific (different) download page to get the save as-per the mod they want to run? (I wouldn't want to suppy starting saves for more than (say) two mods though).

Still up for discussion - maybe in another thread though.

 

[MeteorPunch]

The reason the clock and autologger could be used in the first GOTM was presumably a bug that allowed custom assets to be used. This is no longer the case, as new (HOF staff member ) Deniz mentioned.

So that's why some mods worked, and some didn't in GOTM1...cool.

Still up for discussion - maybe in another thread though.

Definitely a great idea.

Can the mod be set to have access to these folders:

CustomAssets/art
CustomAssets/res
CustomAssets/sound

in addition to approved python mods?

 

[DaviddesJ]

It's too bad that we can't load UI-only mods with "no cheating" enabled, but you can understand why the game can't tell a cheating mod from a harmless one. But we trust GOTM submitters to be honest in so many other ways; maybe we should trust them to not use cheating mods too, and unlock the games? Then again I can imagine folks may modify their rulesets by accident. Maybe a whitelist of approved mods that we trust players to follow would do it? Hmm.

It's very easy for players to forget which mods they have installed. Counting on hundreds of people to actively check a list of approved mods isn't very realistic. You need a system that passively enforces itself.

 

[Shillen]

I'd like to know what mods people want to use and why they feel that it's necessary for them to use them for GOTM. Personally, I have no problem playing the game vanilla. I'd like to hear compelling arguments for why people can or will not play gotm without using mods. I thought the no cheating checkbox was a great idea so people who liked mods could keep all their mods installed for personal use, but still play the GOTM without using them.

 

[Methos]

The only mod I would like to use for GOTM is Eotinb's Autolog mod. It uses the event manager that is already built into the game in such a way that the player can manually enter player comments. Before I realized a QSC submission wasn't being done in GOTM1 I used it to keep track of my QSC moves. It makes things a lot easier when you don't even have to Alt-Tab out of the game.

It also keeps track of when growth was, techs being learned/started, and build ques.

 

[Ribannah]

It makes things a lot easier when you don't even have to Alt-Tab out of the game.

Especially if alt-tab causes the game to crash ...
At the moment I have to use pen & paper to make notes.