I am at a loss to understand the GOTM scoring system :(

[MrLeN]

I do not understand the scoring system. I really have no idea. I have read it numerous times and I am still shaking my head.

I have asked before, but I was told "Just play your best". This is not good enough.

Half the reason I haven't played yet is because I don't know what I'm heading towards. I have no goal. How can I be expected to play my best if I don't know what I'm playing for?

I will play game of the month when I understand what influences my score. Can someone please explain it to me in simple terms. I have already missed 2 games and I am about to miss the 3rd.

I understand that the finishing year is calculated somehow with the end score. How this is done, I don't know.

GOTMscore = score*(1+7*pnp)/100, where pnp(PartNotPlayed) = (MaxTurns-LastTurn)/MaxTurns.

This makes little sence to me. I feel stupid coz everyone else seems to get it (or they stupidly feel they can win 'without' getting it) one ot the other.

Can someone explain please?

MrLeN

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[stormerne]

I can explain. It all based on turns.

As you know, games all have known numbers of turns as a possible maximum. For example, I think a deity game is a maximum of 420 turns, 4000 BCE to 2020 CE. When you finish (by whatever method, spaceship, conquest etc), it should be possible to work out from the finishing date exactly how many turns it took you to finish from when you started the game. So if you use all the turns and finish in 2020, you'll take 420 turns. If you finish earlier you use less.

The important thing that's worked out from the take is the percentage of turns you used to finish. So for ANY game at any level, that figure's going to be 100% if you finish in 2020 CE.

If the Civ fairy waved her magic wand and you were able to finish on the very first turn in 4000 BCE, you finish in 0% of the available turns.

If you finish in the 18th century I think that at most levels you'll be finishing about 50% through the available turns.

OK. So far so good.

The GOTM scoring system rewards early finishes. You take the score that the game says you've got and multiply it by a bonus factor to get the GOTM score.

What is this bonus factor? It varies linearly between x8 for instant finishers at 4000BCE, to x1 for late finishers at 2020 CE. Remember this is turns based so it varies according to the level (and also whether TF has given us a pre-started game like GOTM 2). Anyway the bonus factors are like this:

Finish 0% through the available turns, multiply your score by 8
Finish 10% through the available turns, multiply your score by about 7.3
Finish 20% through the available turns, multiply your score by 6.6
Finish 30% through the available turns, multiply your score by 5.9
Finish 40% through the available turns, multiply your score by 5.2
Finish 50% through the available turns, multiply your score by 4.5
Finish 60% through the available turns, multiply your score by 3.8
Finish 70% through the available turns, multiply your score by 3.1
Finish 80% through the available turns, multiply your score by 2.4
Finish 90% through the available turns, multiply your score by 1.7
Finish 100% through the available turns, multiply your score by 1 (i.e. no bonus)

Obviously all the gaps are filled too.

Example: We play a deity game and you finish in year 1920 CE with 2000 points. A deity game has 420 turns and you finished on turn 320 which is 76% of the way through the turns available. Check the table above and you'll see that you fall in between the 70% (x3.1) and the 80% (2.4). In fact your bonus for finishing then is a multiplier of about 2.666 so your GOTM score is 5332.

Any questions?

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[stormerne]

P.S. A rough guide to the turns per game can be found at the bottom of:
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ2scrolls.shtml

I say "rough" as Matrix found that the available turns for the last GOTM game may not have been exactly as stated in that table. But it gives you a rough guide to aim at.

 

[Knigget]

it should be possible to work out from the finishing date exactly how many turns it took you to finish

click cheat
click yes
click set game year

After you finish of course

 

[Kev]

As far as what you should head toward when considering an early win with a lower score or a later end with a higher score, the answer (I think) is a wishy-washy "somewhere in between".

I've tried using an example:

A game with 450 turns (just for an example):
#1: Let's say you build units all over the place and you are able to win by conquest after only 150 turns and you have a score of 1540. Plug the numbers into the equation:
1540*(1+7*300/450)/100. This comes out to roughly 87.267 as a score.
#2: Let's say that you win in 2019 (one turn left) with a score of 10,000:
10,000*(1+7*1/450)/100. This comes out to roughly 101.56 as a score.
#3 Let's say that you finish in 1900 with a score of 6,000. With the formula your score would be about 172.00.

I think the best idea would be get control of the world and then boost your score in ways that have major effects (spaceship if applicable, growing with we love the _____ days, placing a few new cities with settlers and engineers, boost luxuries to highest percentage, etc.) to get a high a score as possible before you end. If you then start taking time to terraform and the like, then I would think that you will start to see diminishing returns where the small increase in your score is offset by the loss in your bonus for finishing sooner.

I hope that I have all of my information correct (you SHOULD do all of the stuff in the parenthesis first, right? My math is rusty and I never saw how GOTM #1 was done), and I hope that I helped rather than hindered.


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[This message has been edited by Kev (edited April 04, 2001).]

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Not to confuse things further , but how are the turns for an early spaceship launch factored in.

Once a spaceship is launched, turns go at 1 year per, so do you also need to know the launch date as well as the finish date? or do you just take the nearest "expected" year and the extra turns are a bonus?

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[Matrix]

Originally posted by TimTheEnchanter:
Not to confuse things further <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/crazyeyes.gif" border=0>, but how are the turns for an early spaceship launch factored in.

Once a spaceship is launched, turns go at 1 year per, so do you also need to know the launch date as well as the finish date? or do you just take the nearest "expected" year and the extra turns are a bonus?

I was waiting for that question to come, but didn't answer in advance, because I was still thinking about it. But I'll use the years that's closest to it. I admit, mainly because it is hard to deal with it otherwise .

Seriously though, I can't figure out for everyone who has launched a spaceship, when it took off and at what <u>turn</u> it landed. If you launch soon, before the normal increment of the date is already 1, so have a slight advantage. So you also won't have to worry much about the propulsion.

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[Knigget]

Seriously though, I can't figure out for everyone who has launched a spaceship, when it took off and at what turn it landed.

Yes you can. Like I said on the cheat menu there is an option to "set game year". There you can see what number the current turn is.

But I think if you can launch a spaceship that fast you deserve a little better score so I think using the closest year is better.

 

[MrLeN]

Thankyou for everyones input.

I now have a clearer understanding of how the system works.

Everyone pointed out different aspects as to what I need to be trying to accomplish to get the best score possible.

Special thanx to Stormerne for providing the table. If all else fails, I can just check that out (although 90% of the sums are missing)<-- does that make sence?.

Thanx also to Kev for the examples so that I could get an indication of what different scenarious outputs would be, as this was my point and my main concern.

Knigget, that is a pretty neat trick I will most likely do that from now on .

The problem is that I don't understand mathamatical formulas. Anything beyond multiplication, division, adding and subtraction is beyond me So that's why I got confused)

I can still say however, that I still don't quite feel comfortable with the formula.

Stormerne...

A deity game has 420 turns and you finished on turn 320 which is 76% of the way through the turns available

How did you work this out? I got my calculator and multiplied 320 x 76% and got 563.2 (what did I do wrong)?

How did you get that really long table from that formula? How does

GOTMscore = score*(1+7*pnp)/100, where pnp(PartNotPlayed) = (MaxTurns-LastTurn)/MaxTurns.

=

Finish 0% through the available turns, multiply your score by 8
Finish 10% through the available turns, multiply your score by about 7.3
Finish 20% through the available turns, multiply your score by 6.6
Finish 30% through the available turns, multiply your score by 5.9
Finish 40% through the available turns, multiply your score by 5.2
Finish 50% through the available turns, multiply your score by 4.5
Finish 60% through the available turns, multiply your score by 3.8
Finish 70% through the available turns, multiply your score by 3.1
Finish 80% through the available turns, multiply your score by 2.4
Finish 90% through the available turns, multiply your score by 1.7
Finish 100% through the available turns, multiply your score by 1 (i.e. no bonus)

I will have a stab at it, but I can't garantee I will be right

Here goes...

I finish a Deity game in year 1828,

I have a score of 1300

Year 1840 is the 240th turn,

(I have to stop here because I don't know how to work out what percentage of 420, 240is

But just say I did know how to do that, I can guess it's around 55 to 60% in my head, but I don't know how to find the exact figure on a calculator... I would multiply that figure (that I don't know how to get) by 1300... is this correct?

"not MrLeN it's er... Harold"...

/Harold

 

[MrLeN]

WoW!

old_dirty22 just told me how I can to the percentage. All I have to do is divide 240 by 420 and it is 0.571 so I guess that is 57% so now I can work it out...

I finish a Deity game in year 1828,

I have a score of 1300

Year 1840 is the 240th turn so it is 57%

So I multiply 1300 x 57 and my score is...

74,100

or do I multily it by 5.7? which would make it 7,410 ?

Or am I just completely messed up?

Harold

 

[stormerne]

Not completely messed up. The first bit's right. You forgot to convert the 57 to the bonus factor using the table I supplied.

To work through your example.

You finish a deity game in 1828 with 1300 points.
I take your word for it that 1840 is turn 240.
If so then 1828 has the years moving in 2s and so you actually finish on turn 234.
You do the calculator division 234/420 and you get 0.557 or 55.7%.
Now look at the table I gave you 55.7% is about halfway between 50% and 60% and so your bonus multiplier is about halfway between 4.5 and 3.8. In fact your bonus is about 4.1.
Take take your original score of 1300 and multiply by that 4.1 bonus and you get 5330.


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[stormerne]

Originally posted by Kev:
I think the best idea would be get control of the world and then boost your score in ways that have major effects (spaceship if applicable, growing with we love the _____ days, placing a few new cities with settlers and engineers, boost luxuries to highest percentage, etc.) to get a high a score as possible before you end. If you then start taking time to terraform and the like, then I would think that you will start to see diminishing returns where the small increase in your score is offset by the loss in your bonus for finishing sooner.

That's about right Kev. And that was the point of putting so high a multiplier as 7 in the GOTM scoring. Do all the sensible things and then stop before it gets boring!

It was interesting to track my own GOTM #3 game. Though I could have done with playing a few more turns (I ran out of time before month end), I was monitoring just how much my Civ score was growing and how much my GOTM bonus was declining. With a target Civ score of 5000 and 150 cities, I had to have half of them celebrating in order to make it worth while continuing since that would grow my score by 75 points a turn whereas my GOTM bonus was decreasing by 70 a turn!

Most people may not be able to do the maths, so your simple synopsis is very useful.

 

[MrLeN]

Ok, thanx Stormerne, I am getting there. I'm sure it will click soon

But...

If so then 1828 has the years moving in 2s and so you actually finish on turn 234

Wouldn't it be 1830? If it moved in 2's. I don't get that bit now. Sorry

MrLeN

 

[stormerne]

Originally posted by MrLeN:
But... Wouldn't it be 1830? If it moved in 2's. I don't get that bit now. Sorry

Well you said 1828 is your finish date and you've found out that 1840 is turn 240. We know that before 1850 the game turns move in 2 year leaps, so if that's all true then:
Year 1840 = turn 240
Year 1838 = turn 239
Year 1836 = turn 238
Year 1834 = turn 237
Year 1832 = turn 236
Year 1830 = turn 235
Year 1828 = turn 234

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by stormerne:
and so your bonus multiplier is about halfway between 4.5 and 3.8. In fact your bonus is about 4.1.
Take take your original score of 1300 and multiply by that 4.1 bonus and you get 5330.

Now I have a question, Stormerne. It looks as though the formula given calls for dividing the final adjusted score by 100. Would that not give the above example a GOTM score of 53.30? If that is the case, it begs the question of why include that? It just means that you'll be moving decimal points in everyone's score two to the left and not really changing any rankings.

Of course, the more likely scenario is that I'm reading something wrong.


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Diplomacy - the art of
saying "Good Doggie"
until you can find a rock

 

[stormerne]

No. You're absolutely right. The actual scenario is that I forgot about Matrix's division by 100!

You'll have to ask him why that was important. As long as all scores either have the 100 divisor or all don't it doesn't matter. We did talk about normalising the winner to 100 when working out the rolling rating but that's another subject.

So yes 53.3.

 

[Matrix]

The division by 100 is made because of a wish of someone. And it appealed to me too, to have smaller numbers. Indeed, there's actually no point in doing it, but I just like it.

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