Immortal University: Resurrection

[NihilZero]

I've really missed the Immortal University.

And, since it looks like nobody else is going to do it, I'm taking it upon myself to restart the venerable U. I think we can definitely use another series of forum games at the moment. IU has been on hiatus for a while, but it's time for it to make a return.

I'll set the ball rolling with a map within the next 24 hours. After that I'll provide maps regularly. If and when somebody else wants to host one, they are more than welcome to do so. I'm not going to go overboard with organisation and schedules – such things go against the spontaneous spirit of the IU, which has traditionally operated simply, fluidly and unencumbered by unnecessary bureaucracy.

I won't say much about the map, except to tell you that we have a random leader and random AIs, the map will be completely untampered with or edited, and will not feature huts or events. This time round I have at least looked at the map, however, and it seems very playable indeed. I do have some standards, you know (well, sometimes).

I will endeavour, in the fullness of time, to turn this thread into a pseudo-proper bullpen thread, although for extensive periods of its life IU managed fine without one. Watch this space.

Games played thus far in the current cycle:

IU109 Mao

 

[NihilZero]

Old Immortal University Games:

First Immortal University Bullpen Thread
This was compiled retrospectively by Ignorant Teacher and provides links for games 1-39 (including the unnumbered extra Pacal game).

Between IU 39 and IU 56, there was no bullpen. I've rounded up these renegade episodes and assembled them here for your archive-diving pleasure.

Episodes 40-52 were all hosted by TMIT:
IU40 - Ragnar
IU41 - Sitting Bull
IU42 - Kublai Khan
IU43 - Victoria
IU44 - Willem Van Orange
IU45 - Darius
IU46 - Wang Kon
IU47 - Willem Van Orange
IU48 - Saladin
IU49 - Catherine
IU50 - Wang Kon
IU51 - Brennus
IU52 - Sitting Bull

Episodes 53-55 were hosted by some dubious character called NihilZero:
IU53 - Genghis Khan
IU54 - Frederick
IU55 - Ramesses


Second Immortal University Bullpen
Habitus started this one and listed all the games he had hosted (starting at IU56). Dubioza subsequently updated this list up to number 99 and that's the post I have linked.

On further inspection, Dubioza's next post in the above thread contains links for IUs 100 - 107. Nice!

That just leaves the elusive number 108, hosted by Pomthom. Here it is:
IU108 - Napoleon


Leaders played in Immortal University games
Just out of curiosity, I counted how many times (and in which episodes) each leader was played between numbers 1-108. Here are the numbers:

Alex: 10, 94
Asoka: 21, 61
Augustus: 79
Bismarck: 19, 95
Boudica: 14, 100
Brennus: 31, 51, 83
Catherine: 49, 88
Charlie: 6, 77
Churchill: 15, 103
Cyrus: 5, 82
Darius: 45, 105
DeGaulle: 73
Elizabeth: 86
Fred: 38, 54, 63
Gandhi: 36, 80
Genghis: 9, 53, 99
Gilgamesh: 107
Hammurabi: 29, 90
Hannibal: 7, 62
Hatshepsut: 16, 104
Huayna: 71
Isabella: 28, 70
Joao: 12, 81
Julius: 24, 101
Justinian: 35, 92
Kublai Khan: 42, 69
Lincoln: 32, 106
Louis: 3, 93
Mansa: 39, 58
Mao: 22, 78
Mehmed: 37, 59
Monty: 1, 76
Napoleon: 27, 108
Pacal: 8, no number, 56
Pericles: 60
Peter: 17, 102
Qin: 91
Ragnar: 33, 40, 74
Ramesses: 55, 84
Roosevelt: 34, 72
Saladin: 23, 48, 75
Shaka: 18, 65
Sitting Bull: 41, 52, 68
Stalin: 20, 67
Suleiman: 4, 97
Suryavarman: 3, 25, 57
Tokugawa: 26, 98
Victoria: 43, 64
Wang: 46, 50, 96
Washington: 11, 85
Williem: 30, 44, 47, 66
Zara: 13, 87

Most played leader has been Willem, four times. Least played were Augustus, DeGaulle, Elizabeth, Gilgamesh, HC, Pericles and Qin, all of whom were played only once.


I'll probably tidy this post up at some point...

 

[blunderwonder]

Sweet... I want to post in here so that i feel involved ...

Also because i want to ask that while all that random stuff is random, itd be nice if there was a pangea/inland sea/fractal at least 1 of each of those in every 10 games, since they are somewhat the standard for civ, or at leat in my mind. I dont mind archipelago and continents, but it gets kind of old starting in semi isolation or having to do the space race or overseas invasion every game when what you really want to do is cannon smash Itd be nice to see some of the weirder maps too like the arbor one, and the one with all the mountains, or that funny wheel.

/e i hope i didnt just mess up and post when i wasnt supposed to, i thought you meant that "post" was reserved, not the whole thread or whatever... i can erase this or copy paste whatever you need though, just lmk.

 

[NihilZero]

No man, anybody can post. I have two posts for all the usual stuff.

As for map types, you'll see Fractals, Pangaeas (Pangaeae?), the odd Continents and possibly Hemispheres, but not so much of the 1400 tile type maps since they are a drag to finish.

Quirky and weird maps may appear from time to time, although I'm not hugely keen on some of those since the start normaliser algorithm doesn't work on many of those maps quite like it should (jungle and mountains in the BFC? No thanks.)

The presence of fractal maps will almost inevitably mean some isolated and semi isolated starts! But you can always skip those. If you look at old IUs, some of the maps were pretty horrific, and that's kinda the way it should be...

 

[Gumbolt]

I did consider taking over but I could never roll a map I liked.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

itd be nice if there was a pangea/inland sea/fractal at least 1 of each of those in every 10 games, since they are somewhat the standard for civ, or at leat in my mind.

Inland Sea standard???

 

[i_imperator]

cool! ill be lurking around anyways, might pick up a few tips from ye immortal folk

 

[blunderwonder]

Inland Sea standard???

Its tons of good land, like an inside out pangea with more room, but since its not isolated its better for some deity players, nobody likes to meet civs with spaceship parts when theyre just getting astronomy etc. They seem to come up on the forums as often or even more often than pangeas though, at least lately Oo

 

[NihilZero]

As the perceptive among you have no doubt noticed, Mao is up!

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=527676

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Its tons of good land, like an inside out pangea with more room, but since its not isolated its better for some deity players, nobody likes to meet civs with spaceship parts when theyre just getting astronomy etc. They seem to come up on the forums as often or even more often than pangeas though, at least lately Oo

Yeah I know what it is just surprised anyone would consider it a Standard map!

 

[NihilZero]

Second post updated with some material of historical interest for Immortal University fans. I told you I was going to put stuff there!

 

[shpeka]

Yes, moar different maptypes!

No quirky stuff like Tectonics of course. On the other hand Inland sea generates a pretty standard map, a bit predictable for my taste, actually.

 

[NihilZero]

Personally, I'm not a fan of inland sea. It's okay from time to time for a change of pace.

General rambling thoughts on map types most suitable for IU:

Fractal is a personal favourite of mine for its unpredictability, and was always an IU stalwart (not so much in the last couple of years, though). The biggest drawback is the sheer unfairness of Fractals. You can get some maps that are nigh unplayable. Still, I loves me some fractal.

Pangaea - I used to dislike pangaea because I considered it too predictable. But you trade some reduced fun in the exploration and discovery phase for the knowledge that you will almost always get a playable map. No distant lovefests on another continent. Nowadays I think pangaea is a lot of fun.

I consider these two to be the main map types.

Others that are usable:

Continents is in its way just as predictable as pangaea, with some caveats. The problem is that you are always faced with exactly the same decision - do I try for a victory type that requires intercontinental war, or do I not? Well, almost always - sometimes your home continent will have enough land for domination, but that's rare. That doesn't mean continents is bad, though.

Archipelago - I hate the tiny islands version. Snaky continents can be great, though. Downside of starting an archipelago map is, once again, that you know beforehand what you're getting - "this is an archipelago, I must build the GLH". And as we know, AIs can struggle a little on these maps, but AIs struggle on a lot of maps.

Global Highlands - these rarely see action except when people want to throw the celts a bone , but they can be pretty cool. All those chokepoints and rugged terrain makes for a fairly fresh experience without being predictable as far as landmass distribution goes. Usually needs high sea level to take off some of the excess land, though, as this script generates big maps.

There are probably other usable scripts I've forgotten.

Map types I dislike: Big and Small, Medium and Small, Lakes, Highlands and anything too huge in general. They are just a chore to play out.

I haven't thought much or experimented much with different climate types other than temperate, so I don't have much to say about that.

Any comments regarding map types are very welcome.

No quirky stuff like Tectonics of course.

Tectonics can be okay, but I wouldn't post a tectonics map without checking it first. Sometimes tectonics does some really strange things.

 

[shpeka]

I would probably prefer fractal (checked for isolation). Pangeas are too predictable on one hand and too hectic if starting location is in the middle of the pack.

 

[Mec AntiKythera]

I don't know Global Highlands, never knew it existed. Which of the options for mountains do you find contribute to an interesting map?

Snaky landmasses are usually fun to play, most of the advantages of Pangaea without the above named disadvantages. That said, I mostly play fractal.

 

[NihilZero]

Next map is going to be a fractal. Any guesses as to who the leader might be?

Pangeas are too predictable on one hand and too hectic if starting location is in the middle of the pack.

Hectic can be fun, though! The lively diplomatic situation and typically chaotic warlike nature of pangaeas compensates for their geographical "sameyness", imo. I can't play them all the time like some people seem to, however.

I don't know Global Highlands, never knew it existed. Which of the options for mountains do you find contribute to an interesting map?

The defaults are pretty good, I can't remember what they are exactly. Others might be worth experimenting with, I'm not sure. It's the impassable mountain areas that characterise global highlands and make it unique, slightly altering the strategic flow of things since the maps are more blockable than most.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I'm not an Immortal level player but am a Map Maker in the Nobles Club. I think Fractal would be a good choice as the main staple for IU - but the map maker really does need to check it first!

 

[NihilZero]

^ For the first half of its life, IU was about 90% fractal, and those maps were never checked before they were posted!

Of course, we live in gentler times now where such an approach would be considered barbaric, but it does show that maps can be posted totally raw without causing any major catastrophes.

My own inclination these days is to play the map for a few turns just to ensure that nothing too hideous is afoot. But part of the appeal of IU for me was always its completely unscripted nature...

 

[elmurcis]

Maybe for "total random map" can use shuffle? Can get pangea, continents, fractal or archip, so there is no "early knowledge what to expect".

 

[NihilZero]

Here's a sneak preview of the next map. I'm posting this because this start and this leader provoke some questions. It might be interesting to ruminate on the opening before I post the actual save.

Spoiler :

I'm not sure what to do here. Monty is a tricky guy at the best of times. No hunting resource here to smooth the opening, and the scout isn't in a very useful spot either. The big question is - should the settler go walkies and see if those floodplains are worth settling? SIP has good food, and an obvious AH start. But what then?

Maybe for "total random map" can use shuffle? Can get pangea, continents, fractal or archip, so there is no "early knowledge what to expect".

Yep, I've thought about that. The only drawback is that you might get a ghastly tiny islands archipelago, and nobody wants to see that.