GOTM-05 Pre-Game Discussion

[Adonias]

How hard is milking with the creative trait? I guess you get to the domination limit too fast as you always produce culture in your cities whilst you want to keep your land surface down somewhat.

This problem might be overcome by stacking cities as close as possible, but alltogether I don't think this game lends itself for a milking game.

Anyone got any ideas about this?

 

[pnp_dredd]

I'm wondering the same thing.

I think that a fast conquest may score the highest.

There just isn't enough time to get your population up if you go for domination.

I guess if you do the CS slingshot, and have an army of workers, and expand E to the grasslands early, then you can irrigate everything and get some decent pop growth. But you will still run into cash problems once you have ~40% of the land. Small cities grow faster than big cities, but they also cost more.

There are definately still some interesting issues in this game, even at Warlord. Careful balancing of cottaging/farming will maximise the score. It may turn out that the most important techs after CS are the financial ones (currency, banking, economics).

 

[eMork]

Hello ainwood,

will you inform the players if you used a normal great plains map or a very customized one? If yes and it is customized will you provide information how? Different map specs favour different strategies, e.g. in a normal great plains map at warlord level I would build 2 scouts first but in a customized map without huts warriors would be much more useful.

Regards, emork.

 

[CliftonBazaar]

The joy of GOTM is the lack of fore-knowledge so you have no idea what will happen.
I hope Ainwood doesn't give us this information

 

[Thrallia]

I highly doubt, and very much hope Ainwood doesn't tell, I don't want to know specifics about a map before I play it, only the generalities about how a map type usually goes.

for instance, I didn't know that great plains did not world wrap.

maybe you, emork, like knowing everything before hand, but I would like to be ignorant about what a specific map looks like. In fact, telling us that info might just DQ everyone who reads it, as that would be spoiler type material.

 

[Samson]

Hello ainwood,

will you inform the players if you used a normal great plains map or a very customized one? If yes and it is customized will you provide information how? Different map specs favour different strategies, e.g. in a normal great plains map at warlord level I would build 2 scouts first but in a customized map without huts warriors would be much more useful.

Regards, emork.

I think it is very important to let us know if you have removed the huts. The desision between scout or worker first is so big, to not know if there are huts adds so much more randomness to the game.

 

[ainwood]

I suggest that exploration is important anyway.

To answer the question (somewhat) - I have made only minor modifications to the game.

I don't like goody huts - I think they can be unbalancing. That may or may not mean I've removed them however.....

 

[Memphus]

I don't like goody huts - I think they can be unbalancing. That may or may not mean I've removed them however.....

Direct transaltion (at least I'm hoping) is that some huts will be removed but not all.

Of the ones remaining they will be set to what you can/can't pop from them

I.E. no popping settlers or workers, since this would really unbalance the game

Could you imagine Hendrickzoon, DynamicSpirit, DaveMcW, to name a few, popinn two settlers in the opening game? This would lead to a monumental game differnce

I for one would like to see every hut preprogrammed to have the same value

i.e. if I pop it in 3680B.C 3400B.C. I still get 48gp
(although this could be tough to do since people would have different techs reasearched... )(not to mention the time this would take )

 

[Ribannah]

I would hate to pop a Settler, it feels like it kills the game.

 

[DaviddesJ]

I for one would like to see every hut preprogrammed to have the same value

This can't be done in Civ4 without installing a mod (at least).

 

[pholkhero]

I think it is very important to let us know if you have removed the huts. The desision between scout or worker first is so big, to not know if there are huts adds so much more randomness to the game.

Yes, and while you do that, please let us know just which opponents we will face, where they will be, how many cities they'll set-up and which units to use to conquer them...

i mean, really, don't you think pestering ainwood for all this info pretty much defeats the purpose of a GOTM ~ no one else knows about modifications to the game (except the GOTM staff) so everyone starts at the same (dis)advantage

warlord is a level where you don't need to know what's happening ~ it's amazing the room for error at that level

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I would hate to pop a Settler, it feels like it kills the game.

You can always pretend it's a scout and treat it as such.

OK, you might be scarred for life by the memories of the screams as those settlers, and all their wives and babies got eaten alive by that panther (who somehow managed to keep a paw holding onto his black 'I'm a barbarian' skull-and-crossbones banner throughout his meal). But hopefully it won't feel like it's killed the game.

 

[AU_Armageddon]

Didn't seem any interest out there in fastest real-time game. Dun matter as I got interrupted by friends and forgot time keeps ticking. Finished, submitted, and playing this was definately a mistake. So boring it felt like homework. Not fun. I knew it would and have no idea why I played. Playing this, bored and plagued the thought of Noble again next month, and then empty Prince was too much to bare. GotM was my only SP gaming. Start Civ5 on chieftain and work up maybe instead. Submitted and then went and uninstalled Civ. Might have another go when the x-pac comes out if it proves to be decent. Bar this, have enjoyed these. Thanks muchly.

Moderator Action: For the avoidance of doubt... once more! Please do NOT post in the pre-game or saves announcement thread once you have opened the save

 

[Thrallia]

its sad to see that the people who are not able to compete at higher levels are more willing to give them a go and stretch themselves out than the people who like higher levels are willing to play lower for the benefit of the others.

what fun would it be if gotm5 had been on diety and only 40 people had won? what fun would it be to just ramp up the difficulty over and over again until only the best 30 or 40 players were even playing the gotm?

Varying the difficulty around so much, covering the entire spectrum, is the only way to allow so many people to be interested in the gotm and play them. Yes, warlord is a lower level than anyone anticipated...but I think it is childish and immature to refuse to play down some difficulty levels (and then complain about it!) when others were willing to play up(and for the most part only commented that they expected to lose).

 

[A_Turkish_Guy]

I think that a fast conquest may score the highest.

There just isn't enough time to get your population up if you go for domination.

.

i think milking is not that hard.you dont need to get the whole land. inner cities are not important for domination limit.And
and there are some ways to keep your domination limit constant.
the score you get from population will be much more greater than a fast conquest.

 

[eMork]

maybe you, emork, like knowing everything before hand...

Not at all, Trallia. I just asked for meta game information not game information. Therefore my question wasn't "Ainwood, what are the specs for the map?" but instead "Ainwood, will information about the map specs be provided?".

Regards, emork.

 

[hrc333]

its sad to see that the people who are not able to compete at higher levels are more willing to give them a go and stretch themselves out than the people who like higher levels are willing to play lower for the benefit of the others.

I could not agree more. I am one of the ones who as been over my head since the first GOTMiv. I have kept with it and have played them all & submitted even when it was not pretty. As someone stated the point of GOTM is to compete against each other and not just the ai. I am very curious to see how some of the better players win quickly on warlord.

 

[Mîtiu Ioan]

I will try a cultural victory this game. Not the best "recommended" one on this type of game & leader, but I failed to obtain such one in the last 2 games and I became a little frustrated about this ...

What do you belive - it' possible to build most of wonders on warlord level ? Is recomended to found a religion asap ( buddism or hiduism ) in that aproach ?

Regards all

 

[The-Hawk]

its sad to see that the people who are not able to compete at higher levels are more willing to give them a go and stretch themselves out than the people who like higher levels are willing to play lower for the benefit of the others.

what fun would it be if gotm5 had been on diety and only 40 people had won? what fun would it be to just ramp up the difficulty over and over again until only the best 30 or 40 players were even playing the gotm?

Varying the difficulty around so much, covering the entire spectrum, is the only way to allow so many people to be interested in the gotm and play them. Yes, warlord is a lower level than anyone anticipated...but I think it is childish and immature to refuse to play down some difficulty levels (and then complain about it!) when others were willing to play up(and for the most part only commented that they expected to lose).

I don't completely agree... although I do mostly agree

My one point of disagreement... at the end of the day, if someone doesn't believe they will enjoy the game, they shouldn't feel any obligation to play.

People are all over the map versus what they want to get from GOTM. So, by definition, it is absolutely impossible for ainwood and company to please everyone every month. No matter how they set up the game, some portion of the game community will not be happy.

IMHO, it would be unfair if the GOTM staff solely catered to one portion of the population, e.g. people who can win on diety, people who can't win on Noble, people who only like culture wins, people who only play warmonger leaders, whatever. Given that no matter what they do, some portion of the population will not be happy, then I suggest they should "spread it around".. i.e. mix up the game conditions so that everyone gets their turn.

And, I think this is exactly what the GOTM staff is doing!

One last comment... I suspect many good players will play this GOTM... for two reasons. First, they still see the challenge in competing against other players under fixed conditions. Second, they love to play Civ. I would not be overly concerned about a few negative posts. If someone is going to uninstall Civ because one GOTM is too easy, well then I think she/he has fundamental enjoyment issues with the game anyhow.

 

[ungy]

While I would have preferred a higher difficulty I completely understand the GOTM staff desire to be more inclusive. I have learned something from each of the GOTMs I have played thanks to the writeups of the more experienced players. I will play but not commit too much effort to designing a strategy for warlord as I usually play emperor. I think just try get as early a conquest as possible