Kudos or Flames to GOTM17

[Peanut]

Regarding delay :

On my older 256Mb 700Mhz PIII I was getting around 2-3 minutes delay in the BC times, steadily reducing as time progressed. I found that this delay was quite good for me as (in increasing order of importance) -

1) I could think about what to do next as well as make notes in case I decide to hazard a QSC entry.

2) I could get up and go to attend to some "essential activities" in a smaller room of the house without feeling pressured to get back to continue the game.

3) For the first time EVER my spouse felt that my time in front of the computer was not a completely frivolous waste of time. I actually got through about two weeks of ironing in one session as well as handling tasks 1 and 2. And with two small children that's not a trivial amount !

So Cracker - Well done ! I would be happy to have more games with this sort of delay as a feature. It makes for a much more considered and balanced approach to the game, as well as improving domestic harmony.

Regarding crashes (with plain old CivIII v1.29) :

I suddenly found late in the game that my domestic advisor screen would crash no matter how I navigated to it. So for the last part of the game I could not adjust the science / luxury / cash accumulation mix. It was tricky avoiding going bankrupt and having those nasty debt collectors move in and repossess vital public buildings. Luckily I could gouge the AI civs for loads of cash both for cutting edge and obsolete technology, depending on how advanced they were.

I also got crashes on the city advisor screen for Carthage only. I will try reinstalling the game and see if it persists.

 

[hbdragon88]

Sorry. I just knew that there were crashes involved like that - they were computer-specific, and key-specific. In one game that happened it drove me nuts - I uninstalled the whole game and it still happened, and then I discovered that it was only that game.

 

[Pal {UI}]

Originally posted by hbdragon88
Sorry. I just knew that there were crashes involved like that - they were computer-specific, and key-specific. In one game that happened it drove me nuts - I uninstalled the whole game and it still happened, and then I discovered that it was only that game.

I also had this but it only affected my city Hippo. As Hippo is some way down the city list on the domestic adviser screen I can enter the screen and adjust my tax etc, but cannot scroll down the list to view individual cities. I also cannot go to Hippo's city view.

I believe that this was because I added barbarian workers to Hippo at some time in the past (before Cracker's warning was issued). Reinstalling did not help.

Apart from that glitch I loved this GOTM, esp the fog and the map/resources layout. Would have been better as a deity game though given the protected start position and the long period before contacts are made and wars started.

Now all I need to do is actually finish the thing and submit it before tomorrow!

A final point - one of my cities was called Bamicus speedicus or something similar (presumably after some mythical Civ player?). The city was nowhere near fresh water and could not build a hydro plant, so I built a coal plant. As soon as I finished the coal plant, the option to build a hydro plant appeared! Is this a bug? I got beaten to the Hoover Dam so that does not explain it.

Pal {ui}

 

[planetfall]

A few quick comments:


1. Game play experience
It is fun to have volcanos and an all island map. This really required reevaluating standard play moves and standard tech research paths. Squid frequency of 1 encounter seemed too low. I expected between 2 and 6 encounters.

2. slow bug
Initially was annoying, but once understood it was the game mod and not just the computer it was bearable. If fog is used again might be nice to have fog rolling around the map.

3. Difficulty level
For me it seems like Cracker's mods are like the PTW additions to Civ3, they increase difficulty level by about 1/2 level step. Since I am struggling to learn how to play better, I would like at least half of this year's GOTM to be at regent/monarch level.

4. ladder of growth?
One idea that might encourage players to increase skills would be to have a ladder of growth. Not just number of times played the game, but some recognition for improvement for play skill sets.

5. Variation idea
Besides Barb mobility settings, and world map settings, it might be fun to have one of the GOTM's this year to have fewer civs, 5-8, instead of 11+. My guess is this would change the play style of even good players.

Overall, a great experience. Good game play and good discussion on the forums about the GOTM.

Now if I can just squeeze in time to finish it. I have found I am playing slower as I am beginning to evaluate aspects of the game I never considered before. It will be interesting to see what the Celt new twist will be.

-- PF

 

[JonathanValjean]

Well, I barely finished this one in time for the submission date; It has been one busy month! I appreciate all the hard work that you, the GOTM staff, put into making this such an enjoyable experience. I thoroughly enjoyed this game!

I did have a few incidents with my computer crashing. (I have WinXP, a fairly new system, and PTW had never crashed before.) It was strange--any time that I tried to look at the information regarding my cities on the F1 screen, the game would crash. Ditto for every time I clicked on a key city; I finally gave up on changing its production, and left it on wealth. For a while, I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to finish the game! It was 1862, and I would have been sick to have had to quit. Thankfully, after about 20 crashes, I made it to the finish line!

The lag that many others mentioned wasn't too bad on my system, especially around the ADs, but I pity those with older systems. I thought the fog was a great addition, as well as the bonus workers. (I must admit, I didn't move onto a volcano tile until after I had seen the AI do it; I was afraid my unit would be lost in the magma!)

Thanks again for all the hard work, Cracker (and others), and I really liked the map! It presented a nice, enjoyable challenge.

 

[Oddible]

Loved it! Except for the crashing that made the end game unplayable - couldn't F1 - so couldn't finish the game. The excitement of some new game features - Fog and the massive barbarians to prevent hap hazzard settlement and the well thought out map (broken islands, minimizing the benefits of some Wonders and changing the style of attack and defense), made it well worth it.

Very much looking forward to sitting down with 18 tonight!

Thanks all.

 

[AceDragon]

Civ 3 or PtW for that matter dont make we wait so long between turns. I seriously am going to judge it based on that, that decreases playability/fun. Hopefully this matter can be looked into/addressed but I don't know that much about programming. How can adding a few units cause that much LAG into the game ???