GOTM 32 Spoiler

[Chofritz]

Originally posted by ElephantU
MapEditor comes with Civ2; HutFinder is a downloadable, I do not think anyone has done a Mac version. You can use MapEditor to figure out where the huts are, just by drawing Plains around the starting location, noting the locations of the huts, and black-clicking to see if it is land.

Thanks for your information. I didn't realize that it was the civ 2 map editor you were talking about The reason I asked about HutFinder was that it is a very time consuming job to find the huts "manually", but now I understand that it's just to draw a map with the same x and y values in the map editor, thanks. You learn something new every day,

Originally posted by ElephantU
Don't tell La fayette, though; he thinks this is blasphemy...

I wont I use this technique since it's allowed in the GOTM.

 

[la fayette]

I don't think the Hutfinder or any other other 'helper program' is blasphemy.
I don't criticize those who use them, as long as they don't do it against the rules.
But I don't wish to play civ with a computer #2 behind my back, or any other kind of help.
I don't blackclick either.

This is a personal choice, motivated as follows:
Civ2 is a game and I play for fun (though I am happy when I win a contest or beat a record).
Black clicking is no fun.
Using 'helper programs' is no fun either.
The only one I would enjoy using is Xin Yu's 'Civ Manager ' because its focus is to help play faster ( incremental rushbuying for example requires many clicks that I would love to avoid).
Unfortunately I haven't been able to make it work properly yet.

 

[Chofritz]

Originally posted by la fayette
The only one I would enjoy using is Xin Yu's 'Civ Manager ' because its focus is to help play faster ( incremental rushbuying for example requires many clicks that I would love to avoid).
Unfortunately I haven't been able to make it work properly yet.

I agree with you on this one. The idea of the program is really good, incremental rush buying is a real pain. BUT civ manager had (when I tried it) TOO MANY bugs. Sometimes it didn't remove the right amount of gold when I bought stuff. Sometimes it didn't have the right information loaded and that resulted in really strange things happening. It wasn't very user-friendly and the time spent on making the program run properly was probably equal to the time spent on doing the IRB's manually.

 

[ElephantU]

I'm sorry, La fayette: I was "pulling your leg"...

I like to know as much as (legally) possible about the start of a game that I am playing competitively. I do play differently on my own, whether for relaxation or in testing game algorithms or developing scenarios. Early on in learning Civ I used to try to keep my play style as "realistic" as possible, but when I started playing competitively that held me back. I still dont use re-homing of caravans, which is allowed in GOTM.

Regarding helper programs, I work in a Windows environment where I often have three or four other programs open on the desktop, things like Calculator, Calendar, Email, NotePad, Account List, etc. It is a far cry from jumping between computers (I did that at one time too: I had a VT100 terminal and an IBM PC on opposite sides of my desk), and I think it speeds up the kind of more analytical game I like to play now. If there is a source for knowledge that would help me make time-sensitive decisions, like Oedo lists, delivery payoff calculations, or likely locations of nearby huts, I like it to be on my desktop, not on another machine. I too did not find CivManager reliable, although I have not tried the most recent version. So these "helpers" make the game more "fun" for me, not less. And I try to keep a detailed log in an extra window, both for measuring my own play as well has helping others learn from the things I did. Reading detailed logs (and following along in a parallel game) was the single greatest contribution to improving my games back when I was learning. Who knows: one or more of those logs might have been yours, La fayette...

 

[ElephantU]

Perhaps I should make clear about use of MapEditor: NEVER load any SAV of the GOTM game, whether 4000BC or AUTO or whatever. Start with a blank map and reset the size of the map to the game dimensions. Find the starting location on the map (one of the location numbers needs to be halved, I cannot remember which one off the top of my head) and draw the visible terrain around the start. Then hit S to change the Resource Seed until you get the Huts and Specials correct (#1 is a special Seed that sets the map to Randomize when played; use #64 instead). The Seed patterns change in groups of 16, so #1/64-15 have one type of pattern (horizontal bands of all-Whales or all-Fish), #16-31 has another pattern (bands of mixed Whales and Fish), and so on, repeating after #63. The location of specials repeats every 16 seeds, but their type will change, so if you find one that has the locations right try adding 16 or 32 to it. As you move units outward to explore, continue to add the newly discovered tiles to your starting map, paying special attention to when a grass tile covers over a Whale or Fish special. These are called "hidden specials" and can be revealed by mining the Grass into a Forest, producing either Silk or Pheasant. I like to mark them by putting a Tundra tile on my map instead of Grass, which will show either Furs (Whale underneath, will Mine to Silk) or MuskOx (Fish underneath, Mines to Pheasant). I also surround my starting location with Tundra or Plains so I can see the proximity of Huts, then try black-clicking (left-clicking once in the black areas to see what the ContinentNumber is) to see if the underlying terrain is land. One situation that nullifies black-clicking is if the starting ContinentNumber is #1, which is the same as you get when clicking on Ocean tiles. This usually means that your starting continent is a very large land mass that occupies most of the map.

So for example, here is what my ~3500BC map looked like (WARNING: Map Spoiler):
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/EUGOTM32mp.jpg

Notice the Tundra marking hidden specials and areas I was looking for Huts (some of it is known "land", some of it I have not checked via black-clicking yet), as well as the extended Whales and Fish patterns off-shore. When a map is used in a game, any Whales or Fish that are more than 2 spaces from land disappear (you could not build a city that would use them anyway).

 

[la fayette]

This shows very clearly that I play all GOTMs with an arm tied behind my back
This also shows very clearly that you almost don't need to send valiant warriors away from home to get rid of those vast unknown black areas.
Well, scouting is part of the fun for me, so I'll go on playing with an arm tied
Good luck to you though, with your numerous windows

(if it's allowed, it's OK for me, even if I don't use it,... just like playing for high scores: I never do that because for me milking is a bore, that 's why I only look for the green star of early conquest or early landing, ... this is a game after all ).

 

[Chofritz]

Originally posted by ElephantU
One situation that nullifies black-clicking is if the starting ContinentNumber is #1, which is the same as you get when clicking on Ocean tiles. This usually means that your starting continent is a very large land mass that occupies most of the map.

I think I read somewhere that continent #1 is land connected to the poles.

 

[grigor]

Since I didn't finish on time last month I decided definitely on conquest, starting with an ICS sprawl to build up a home island civilization. I was about where Old'nSlow was at 1 AD. At about 600 AD, the Sioux are gone, but the Zulus have the Wall, so I will need Crusaders before taking them out. I wish I had gone for Magellan's early, but I got stuck with happiness problems and had to use the Oracle, with nice results.

 

[grigor]

And I did accomplish my goal of world domination before 1000AD.

Vet crusaders are pretty good against the AI.

 

[la fayette]

Well done, grigor.
I guess the green star is for you

 

[grigor]

We'll see about the green star - I thought I was kind of slow. My plan was brutally simple: build civ early, then crush. I did a very nice efficient early ICS, having the patience to eschew roads until about 500BC. I was able to build LH, HG, and MPE by 1AD. Then, as usual, I lost the thread until about 500AD. Not enough offshore trade, too many roads, too much irrigation, stopped expanding - the usual stuff. The Sioux fell early, but I was out of position for the Romans and Zulus, and then the Zulus got GW (!!) so I had to push for Mono and Crooks. Smash would have been done by 600AD, and Chofritz by about 200AD if he had decided on conquest.

But I played very carefully on a Total War basis (thanks Dave V) from about 800AD and was lucky that the barbs took out one of the Zulu cities so I could bribe the last one before 1000 BC.

And I still have never achieved a pre-1000AD landing.

Perhaps next month.

 

[ElephantU]

This terrain was lousy for Early Landing. The SSC needs to be established in the first couple hundred years, and needs lots of grass (in addition to big trade specials) to grow fast.

 

[Kyallam]

I just recently discovered this page and this was my first try at a GOTM.
Normally I play blood lust games at deity level. So I figured emperor would be easy enough to try a landing for the first time and skip on the offensive units. I ended up with a Zulu landing 1 year before mine in 1990. Got a lousy 90% approval rating.

I guess I still have to learn how to build a good economy.....

 

[Old n Slow]

Practice makes better --

Welcome to Cfc

 

[ElephantU]

Read up on Trade, Diplomacy, and building a maximum Super Science City. If you are going to try for a landing make the decision early to be peaceful with the AI civs or wipe all out but one pet city. In most cases the former will get you an earlier landing date, but the latter assures no competition...

 

[Chofritz]

I think I've learnt a lesson...

I sat down and decided to write a reply to this thread. After 30 minutes of writing explorer decided to shut down and give me an angry error message. After a 1 minute long scream i finally calmed myself. I sat down and started writing a new reply to tell everyone what happened to my first post. It said something like this:

"I guess I'll have to learn a lesson. Never write your posts straight into the internet explorer, write it in a text editor and save often. I have just lost 30 minutes of writing."

The second before I press the post button the d**n program shuts down again I guess I had not really learnt the lesson.

 

[SideshowBob]

Oh, that's so typical, it usually happens to me when I write e-mails or then when I write text messages on my phone I delete the whole message when I'm supposed to delete the last character... Quite annoying. Hopefully you get the sporot to write the 30 min reply back

 

[addiv]

Well, this is going to be a long (but fun) game . It's the first time that I'm playing a GOTM game, and I'm playing with MGE.

I founded Berlin in 3900 BC I think, on a pretty good spot. The first two huts I popped were horsemen, so I was able to explore my home continent quite fast. Also settled it quickly (as I always do), but unfortunately there wasn't very much good land on the home continent. But there are quite a few special terrain types that give a lot of trade, so I'm able to build a pretty good SSC.
In 1 AD I had begun settling the continent east of the home continent and met the (not so nice) Zulus. They attacked me, but I was able to hold them off and continue settling the second continent. IIRC I had to WotWs in 1 AD: Hanging Gardens and Pyramids. Wasn't able to get Great Library, but that's not really a disaster, because I'm ahead of the AI in science anyway.
I built Mike's Chapel in 560 AD and at the same time revolted to Republic.
I continued exploring, and had incredible luck when I was sailing with my trireme with an Elephant on board past the Sioux continent. Three Forks was undefended! So I landed and took the city (I already was at war with them). That gave me a foothold on their continent, and when I got Monotheism I was able to conquer 2 more of their cities. But then I realized they were the key Civ, so I made peace and gave them all my knowledge, which immediately led to 4 turns for each new discovery (instead of 6) .
Unfortunately my reputation was dishonorable (I sneak attacked the Sioux 2 times, they were to good a target to wait for them to declare war on me), so the Sioux sneak attacked me a few times and in the end Three Forkes was destroyed. I still have my 2 other cities on their continent though, and I'm now in a permanent state of war with them and I'm not planning to make peace with the bastards in the near future.
On the domestic terrain everything is going very well. I switched to Democracy in 1290 IIRC, and at the same time build J.S.Bach's, so unhappiness was not a problem at all. I'm able to put my science at 100% and I hardly have to emply elvises anywhere.
The switch to democracy gave a real boost to my science and income. This allowed me to buy all the Wonders I was building, and get more ahead of the AI in science at the same time, so I can build all the Wonders first. I now have Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Oracle, Leonardo's, Mike's, Bach's, Adam Smith's, Isaac Newton's, Statue of Liberty, Sun Tzu's, Copernicus and Magellan's.
I have also settled a few more continents/islands and I have contact with the Zulu's, Sioux and Romans.
It's now 1500 AD and I'm researching Railroad. I think I will be able to get all the Wonders from now on. Every few centuries I'm calculating if my GOTM score is still rising and it is, so no need to conquer everyone yet.
I think I'll wait till I have Howitzers with conquering everyone. Maybe I'll already conquer them when I have Armors, if they still only have Musketeers by then. I expect to have Howitzers between 1800-1850 AD. When I have conquered them, I'll get my spaceship ready and when my Gotm score stops rising I'll send it out.
My empire is pretty large by now, so the turns take quite long already. I'll think I'll have to play 1 or 2 full days to finish this game, but it's certainly worth it!

 

[ElephantU]

Sometimes you can get a copy of the text by hilighting it and right clicking. I often do that if I spend more than a few minutes on a reply. More involved posts (like Grand Tech Plan...) are composed in NotePad and saved before uploading.

Couple things to check: right click on the IE icon, go to Properties, then Delete Files under Temp Internet Files, and Clear History. This resets the database that IE keeps locally of web pages and images. Then go to C:/WINDOWS/TEMP and delete everything dated before the current day. Then reboot. Works wonders.

 

[la fayette]

Originally posted by Chofritz
I think I've learnt a lesson...

Still, if you don't mind, please write it again
I am one of those who would love reading 30 minutes of Chofritz about this game.