Any Inca filter on the regular HoF is a back-door ban of Inca.
As you all are no doubt aware, the main HoF table has no filter. OK, fine, you can filter by expansion, but that is because the rules change
Options such as 'No Barbs' or 'Raging Barbs' are an exploit. You try winning a RL DV HoF game without 'No Barbs' turned on.
Maps that are contiguous are an exploit for domination, conquest & religious. You try winning a RL DV HoF game with a map that is not contiguous.
I want a filter/ban to exclude all games that were won with 'No Barbs' turned on.
I want a filter/ban to exclude all games that were won with 'Huts' turned on.
I want a filter/ban to exclude all games that were won with contiguous maps.
....
where does it end?
Actually, I think I know.
Ban/filter all games that use exploits I do not like.
Allow all games that use exploits I do like.
Elite HoF players already have the EQM system, which explicitly excludes Inca and is a much better gauge than the HoF anyway.
Is seeing your name up in flashing lights really that important? Nobody look at me
Calling an Inca filter a "backdoor" ban is not a fair characterization. The default setting of the Inca filter will be OFF, which will display the HoF tables exactly as they are today. Players will continue to be able to submit Inca games. The Inca filter will simply allow players of non-Inca Civs to see how they compare to other non-Inca. This not practical with the most popular Civ (Inca) cluttering up the HoF tables.
There are many reasons why the Inca Civ is so popular, almost all of them making the Civ more powerful than other Civs and having virtually no draw backs (
vranasm provided in the HoF Fame Questions and Answers thread, a view of the Inca Civ pros in the Strategy and Tips forum which is similar to this list):
1. The Inca Civ has one leader with argubly one of the best pairs of Traits: Financial and Industrious
2. Its unique unit, the Quechua is available t0, gets free Combat I, is based on the Warrior - cheapest unit that can be built and has an awesome +100% modifier versus Archers on both offense an defense. Thus the Quechua is virtually unstoppable on Monarch level and above where the usual AI City defenders are Archers. Also, the free Combat I promotion allows Cover as the first promotion which inflicts even more damage when attacking Archers.
3. Its unique building, the Terrace, based on Granary, gets 2 Culture per turn. That's an awesome bonus for a building that often considered essential for virtually all cities.
4. In the very early part of the Ancient Era when the Quechua is often in full production, the AI have neither the time to prepare defenses against Quechua nor does the AI "understand" fully how dangerous Quechua are. In many areas, the AI views Quechua units as mere Warrior units. In the more tactical areas of the AI, it will not allow its Archers to attack a Quechua, unless then Qurchua is significantly weakened.
5. Experienced HoF users are now using a map script legal for HoF play that occasionally generates maps that have as little as 40% of the land plots that this scripts normally produces. Even the largest land masses generated area smaller than what most other map scripts generate. On Small or smaller map sizes with maximum # of AIs, it is so crowded that some AIs do not even have room to settle a second city. That nullifies the Diety AI's advantage of having a second Settler. Thus a Quechua rush has very little distance to travel and very few cities (1-3) to capture to emilinate an AI Civ.
There is a simple way to avoid too many additional filters beyond the Inca filter. A proposed new filter needs to provide a new way to view the Main HoF Web Page and child pages that matches an existing HoF rule:
1. Inca filter matches the Inca ban in HoF EQM games.
2. Ancient Era filter matches the partial ban on non-Ancient Era games in the HoF EQM.
The Duel Map filter is the remaining filter that can be added that is based on a HoF rule (EQM again), but in this case the Main HoF Table Web Page would have only the Duel Map column removed and this could be viewed as not sufficiently different. Players can have been ignoring the Duel Map column for years due to the HoF EQM ban; such a filter is not really needed.
Therefore, if the HoF Staff decided to implement the Inca filter. They have an extremely solid argument against future filter requests. If the filter is not supported by a current HoF rule, its not going to be implemented. The only filter request that this argument doesn't dirdctly defend aganst is the Ancient Era filter whose player demand is yet to be determined, but probably far less than the demand for the Inca filter.
The EQM system is great for the purpose it serves, but it was never indended for viewing the all the best games at once; only the Main HoF Main Page can manage this and it is really a spectacular example of the finest web interface for its purpose that I have ever seen. I really mean it; its a true work of art. Another limitation of the EQM system is it doesn't show one's current status until one has nearly at least one game in every EQM slot (room for two games) which is not at all comparable to a HoF slot. One would need to complete several dozen EQM games before one can compare one's EQM performance to others. For HoF, one needs to complete only one game to compare it to other players games (in the same table).
Sun Tzu Wu
