HOF Questions and Answers Thread

[Methos]

Could the "Status" tab for QM/EQM redirect you to the login page if you're not cookied? I thought for a second all of my progress was gone, and the page is pretty useless if you're not logged in.

I guess it does make much sense if it does know who's status to show.

The status has been changes so that it only shows if you're logged in.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Looks like you broke the status pane for EQM while you were doing that, it isn't showing up if you are logged in

QM status page is fine though.

 

[Methos]

Looks like you broke the status pane for EQM while you were doing that, it isn't showing up if you are logged in

Whoops, my mistake. Fixed.

QM status page is fine though.

That's because I didn't change it (yet).

 

[unclethrill]

I've been getting fed up with windows lately and using ubuntu more and more for work anyway. I know Civ4 itself works decently under WINE (with a few tweaks) but does the HoF mod work with it? Looking for firsthand experiences if any before formatting my XP drive.

I just spent the better part of a week working on moving to Ubuntu myself. I can tell you that on a laptop with an Intel onboard GM945, wine, crossover and cedega along with VirtualBox and VMWare and all fail to work acceptably. I had no problem getting BTS with the HOF to start a game but because I have no hardware 3D acceleration, The game wouldn't play (each movement (not turn) took about 10 minutes). Wine was the only way I could get to that point even.

So to answer your question, yes the HOF mod will work fine if you can get CIV 4 to run at all.

 

[Misotu]

I'm here again for the Global Warming thing .... Needless to say, time is one my favourite VCs.

Sorry to nag, but I really have to second this with knobs on after my experience with my first BtS Time Victory.

It was horrible

Denniz, you seem to be saying that controlling global warming is on the cards for a future Mod. The thing is that if that's the case, it's not worth trying a time victory currently because of the impact on score from global warming.

Sorry about nagging and all that, because I can see from the boards how much effort you guys put in and this is a great site as a result.

But is sorting out global warming in a Mod really very hard to do?

Edited to add: When I say it's not worth trying a Time victory if the MoD is going to take care of the problem, this isn't a light statement. I played the last time game for six weeks on and off. That included two games abandoned at a late stage because I had 2 crashes, which would make them unacceptable (and that's another issue on the crash rules with regard to time games). Time games are already pretty risky on large maps because of the crash issue. If they are going to be obsoleted, score-wise, by a future mod then this is genuinely an issue I think.

 

[BLubmuz]

Sorry to nag, but I really have to second this with knobs on after my experience with my first BtS Time Victory.

It was horrible
(...)

He (Denniz) said that our beloved Staff is almost done with the new mod.

Probably the chance to remove the GW is not so difficult, for what i know about modding.
But they won't release a new mod only for that, there're other issues they wanna fix or improve.

This said, a time victory is still possible in maps with lot of water, since the GW take in account the map tiles, not the land tiles.

But, as you probably know, the best map (IMO) for this VC is the Rainforest.
I started a game with Peter, but i think i'll abandon it 'cause the GW and some stupid mistakes in the mid-game.

I quote boogaboo (IIRC):

A standard map has 4368 tiles (NOT land area, but map size!).
Divide by 20 :
4368/20 = 218.4

So you can have up to 218 unhealth from buildings without GW
That's more than 70 cities with forge+lab+airport

a suggestion comes in mind for a future gauntlet (of course after the new mod is out):
what about a time victory on rainforest map with any civ?
Just no bigger than standard, or it'll take eons to complete.
Difficulty between noble and monarch.
I got the record in both, let's see what happens.

 

[Misotu]

No of course, wouldn't expect a new Mod just to correct this

But I really hope that the next Mod will address this issue ...

Thanks for your reply - I've asked a few more questions on the global warming thread as I'm not sure I've quite understood the whole picture on how GW works.

 

[Almond]

Is it possible to win a space race victory in BtS (as opposed to a space colony victory)? If so how?

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Is it possible to win a space race victory in BtS (as opposed to a space colony victory)? If so how?

No. The Space Colony Victory in BtS is the replacement for the Space Race Victory in Vanilla and Warlords.

If you want to win a Space Race Victory you must use either Vanilla or Warlords. Conversely, if you want to win a Space Colony Victory, you must play BtS.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[Dynamic]

Is it possible to win a space race victory in BtS (as opposed to a space colony victory)? If so how?

Why don't you like Space Colony? Or you just have never played it...

 

[kcd_swede]

a suggestion comes in mind for a future gauntlet (of course after the new mod is out):
what about a time victory on rainforest map with any civ?
Just no bigger than standard, or it'll take eons to complete.
Difficulty between noble and monarch.
I got the record in both, let's see what happens.

And to seperate the run-of-the-mill masochists from the true sadomasochists... put it on Marthon speed.

 

[BLubmuz]

And to seperate the run-of-the-mill masochists from the true sadomasochists... put it on Marthon speed.

ahem...

Well, i was thinking to Epic or Marathon.

The goal is: settle all your cities and fight your wars in the first half of the game.
By then, have researched all techs.
Use the 2nd half of the game for Future techs and to develop your cities.
Not much MM needed, just watch the specialists from time to time.

 

[Almond]

I have a question about QM scoring. If I have two scores for, say, the Great Plains map and I submit another HOF entry with a score better than the two scores already registered, does the new score replace the lower score already in there?

 

[Ozbenno]

I have a question about QM scoring. If I have two scores for, say, the Great Plains map and I submit another HOF entry with a score better than the two scores already registered, does the new score replace the lower score already in there?

Yes, your highest two scoring games in any category count towards QM and EQM scoring, not your first two.

 

[kcd_swede]

ahem...

Well, i was thinking to Epic or Marathon.

The goal is: settle all your cities and fight your wars in the first half of the game.
By then, have researched all techs.
Use the 2nd half of the game for Future techs and to develop your cities.
Not much MM needed, just watch the specialists from time to time.

I just got through one Time victory on Marathon and it went much like you describe. But I was expecting just having to hit enter a lot.

I learned the hard way that preventing victory of another type was a real hassle. OK, razing opponent's culture cities, preventing their ascent to space, and gifting where needed to prevent going over the Dom limit I expected. (Only one opponent completed fusion at the very end, btw, but I sabotaged SS parts just for the experience).

I did not anticipate that with 700 turns left I'd have 12 cities acheiving "Legendary" in less than 300 turns, though. It was all I could do to turn down the culture. Had to gift one legendary city... took it back and culture-producing buildings were magically gone. Had to spread Cereal Mills to get rid of Sushi which I had previously spread across the whole empire (didn't see that one coming), had to switch out of Free Speech to nationhood and draft core cities down to size with no specialists (curse you Sistine Chapel!) and with Cereal Mills that meant every 2-3 turns draft another mech inf (which was deleted immediately) in multiple cities. Had to switch to paganism/Islam (only religion not spread to the legendary danger cities). (Edit to add: And for every civics change, once I figured out I needed to do it, I had to nervously wait for UN vote so I could unlock the world civic I stupidly enforced on everyone including myself... dum dum and dummer). Had to check every turn that no new religion spread or specialist was put up. In the end... I managed to win 2 whole turns (out of 1500!) before 3rd city would go legendary! But in the last 200 turns, score had stagnated due to these extreme measures.

And boy was it tedious... I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Learned a lot though (that I hope never to have to use again). I admire the skill and stamina of people who excel at Time VC, but question their sanity.

However, I would recommend this type of game to anyone suffering from Civ-Addiction. If this don't cure you, nothing will.

 

[cabert]

If you're going for time, you don't build sistin.
As easy as that
And you don't switch to free speech.

 

[BLubmuz]

If you're going for time, you don't build sistin.
As easy as that
And you don't switch to free speech.

Correct.
Nor build Sushi, but Cereals.
If you capture a city with Sistine and other wonders, try to do it as late as possible.
If there's only the Sistine, raze it!!!

Also, build the Eiffel only few turns to the end.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

For example, how does one compare the best Deity/Conquest/Duel/Quick game to other Deity/Conquest/Duel/Quick games? The following URL should work, but it offers only comparisons to the top 10 Marathon games as opposed to the top 10 Quick games:

http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?entryID=3625

This link was generated from the main HOF table with Quick speed selected, so the expectation is the Quick speed selection will be inherited, but it is not.

Can this be fixed?

Thanks,

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[Ozbenno]

Ahhh, I see the problem. We'll see what we can do.

 

[Denniz]

Can this be fixed?

That is a leftover from before we realized we had to put speeds into their own tables. Hehe, a 2+ year old bug. I fixed it to limit the list to the same speed.

I started to change the list to include other games from other speeds but I am not sure that having games from other speeds is that useful. It started getting complicated, including a DB change, so I held off.

Ideally, what should the list include?
(Note: Please let's not try to shoehorn in here the fancy ad-hoc query we've been talking about elsewhere. Thanks.)