Kudos or Flames to GOTM17

[Hurricane]

The lag was indeed longer than expected in the beginning, but I ended up seeing it as an almost positive thing. I'm not used to playing on archipelago maps, so that gave me time to rethink my strategy. And in the AD:s the lag almost disappeared.

I voted "some good, some bad" for other reasons, but I think I'll save those for the spoiler discussions!

 

[TopCat]

This is my first GOTM.

I'm really enjoying playing on a type of map that I know has been set up to be challenging - but is completely unknown to me.

The lag however is a pain - it's down to about 2 mins in the early ADs. I tried reading a book in the gaps but I found I kept losing the rhythm/plot of the book - so I started reading Harry Potter - and I'm 2/3 of the way through!
As long as all GOTMs don't have this lag (I accept some people like huge complex games) I'll continue to play.

Thankyou to everyone involved in setting it up

 

[kmark]

The game setup and design is excellent, but the Regent level is no challenging at all :-(

I would like to see more Emperor/Deity GOTMs! :->

 

[haegint]

I started to play only last night for some 14 turns or so. I also notice the long turn time. I still have a Pentium II 333 Mhz with 128 RAM and a very good graphics card. Normally that system is quite sufficient still. I did not time the turn times, but I guess it's about 2 to 3 min for these initial turns which I think is a manageable pain, I mean, I do have an old system, right?

In terms of play, I need still to fully explore my island. So far I had one issue that I will report once the spoiler thread opens.

The efforts of the GOTM team in setting up these games and instructions, post-game analysis, etc. deserve the utmost respect and gratitude of us. You may like the setting of the games or not, but these folks do tremendous work to enhance our gaming pleasure. So in general, the GOTM concept and games I find absolutely fabulous and I sincerely hope that cracker and co. will continue to find the time to make all this happen.

But it's simply too early for me to form an opinion yet on GOTM 17 in particular, so I did not vote at this time.

 

[cgannon64]

I have to agree with alot of people that say that the lag gave you time to think. It really gave me time to plan my expansion after I got Map Making. Also, the lag ironically made me change my style slightly - I was less willing to lose units and ships, because it takes so long to build them!

 

[Shillen]

Ouch 10 minute lags? Well I guess that's why there's not more people saying they love it. I was getting about 1 minute in between turns in the beginning and it got shorter from there. I even had all moves animated/shown and everything. I have P4 1.7 gHz with 512 RAM.

 

[Yndy]

Kmark,
This was my attitude too only a couple of months ago. But you are not comparing with the AI. In GOTM you compare with fellow players. So regardless of the level you can play your best to top performance of the others.
And rest confident that higher level GOTM’s will be available.

 

[kmark]

True.

I have a different way of thinking when i play computer games, for some reason i always set the level to the hardest possible from the beginning

This is the 3rd GOTM im playing since discovered this wonderful site, and i had the most enjoyable Civ3 game with GOTM16. As i progress it seems that this one will be fun as well, and the lag isnt bad at all around 800ad.

 

[Shillen]

Also, if you look at the thread on what level people are playing, the majority are playing regent level. It's good that they have a lower level GOTM from time to time. First, it attracts more people to try it that feel more comfortable playing a regent game than an emperor or deity game. Then maybe if they do well they'll give the next harder game a try even though they wouldn't have before. I tried GOTM 16 shortly after I started playing civ 3 and I got beaten in about 10AD or so. It wasn't that much fun for me and was really discouraging. And like Yndy said you're competing with other players, not the AI. It's not like a less skilled player will beat a more skilled player just because it's a regent game and the AI is easier.

Also there is a slightly different skillset required for a lower level game than a higher level. For instance, say you're used to playing deity games all the time, you never play other games. If you tried to play a warlord game with the same tactics you'd do very poorly. If you want to do well in a warlord game you have to do all research, wonder building, etc yourself. In a deity game you get almost everything from the AI. I think this is one of the best things about regent difficulty. The AI and the player are on even ground. Therefore you can play it any way you want. You can make the AI do everything for you, you can do it all yourself, or somewhere in between.

 

[Shillen]

You can also alter the way you play it to make it more difficult. Play it as an OCC or something like that if you want to challenge yourself. Or go for one of the harder victory types that you couldn't do reliably on emperor/deity level.

 

[Yndy]

Originally posted by Shillen
say you're used to playing deity games all the time, you never play other games. If you tried to play a warlord game with the same tactics you'd do very poorly.

Like I mentioned earlier, I had complaints about low difficulty GOTMs a few months ago. But I did start the Aztec Monarch GOTM. I ended loosing and I had the second lowest score of that GOTM.

First I never complained about the level from then on.
Second I learned that you need different tactics to score high on different levels.

Still that is kind of an extreme example. I’m sure no good player would do very poor on a Regent level GOTM.

 

[haegint]

Originally posted by Shillen
Also there is a slightly different skillset required for a lower level game than a higher level. For instance, say you're used to playing deity games all the time, you never play other games. If you tried to play a warlord game with the same tactics you'd do very poorly. If you want to do well in a warlord game you have to do all research, wonder building, etc yourself.

I think you are making an excellent point there, Shillen. I only have "skill" at lower levels. In fact, only had have one good Regent game, all other where Chief or WL. Especially the trading aspect is a lot less important at lower levels, I presume. Hopefully I can learn over time.

 

[alamo]

Great job by the GOTM staff!


I just finished the QSC portion last night. I was lagging ~20sec, but it was useful to have more time to think. I actually got by w/o a disorder, and made only a few mistakes on worker task, citizen tile, Sci settings, etc. I did have an unusual encounter, which was a nice change of pace.

I did notice something scewy with the sci turns-to-go indicator. If I took sci down to the minimum for 5 turns-to-go I would wind up loosing progress in 2-3 turns. I had to set it 1 notch above the minimum to reach the goal - happened even when no pop/mood changes.

Originally posted by BillChin
...Early turns were about 10 minutes, and are now about six minutes between the time I end my turn and the game comes back. ... I have a 433 Mhz Celeron with 128 mb ram....

You really should go find a used P4 chip to put into that socket. A celeron is a P4 w/only 32k cache - even the Duron had 128k, and cost less! There have been many incarnations of Celeron and P4, so you will need some help from a propeller-head. It should be well worth the trouble, though.

 

[ControlFreak]

Just a note to commend all the forum posters. A whole 24 hours in this thread and NO SPOILERS/RED MARKS FROM CRACKER!

I guess I should have included a poll item "Love It Except For The Between Turn Lag." Sorry I don't know how to go back and change that.

 

[jeffelammar]

I think that all of the GOTM folks are incredible. It has gone from the relatively simple process of starting a game and then saving off the file, to a much more complex job of modding. (OK, I assume that they did it many times to find an interesting position, but still that is much simpler)

I have played the QSC, and feel that I have already screwed myself. I don't think I'll lose the game, (Regent is too easy to recover) but I already know that I won't be able to pull a civ score that I will be proud of. (At least I doubt it)

Oh well. not enough attention paid on my part does nothing to diminish the wonderful effort put into the scenario.

 

[thd]

Both pros & cons with this gotm, but I can't discuss them before the first spoiler.

About the save-file: I think putting the location of the save itself in the bottom of the readme was a good move - we have seen many cases of people not reading instructions before jumping into the gotm, and this has proven itself once again....

Loading times: The first turns certainly took quite some time, but not minutes like others said (didn't time it....). I have an XP2000+ and 512 MB of RAM. But for those playing on a sub 7-800 cpu - spoil yourself with a new one, you've earned it by now ;- You don't need the newest 3,06 Ghz P4, but something in between will give a HUGE speedup!

Originally posted by Phantom Lord
Well, I've already submitted my final save and to be honest, the result was pretty much a desaster even by my own low standards.

Don't you have anything else to do? Really, rushing through is not recommended and perhaps it's one of the reasons for your result.

 

[gskyes]

I voted that I love it, although I am still quite early in this game. I haven't had the extra long lag times that some people are complaining about, but my computer is only 6 months old. I did notice a longer wait between turns than normal, though.

 

[kojimanard]

Foklens, I guess I"m the first to say "welcome aboard", although I didnt understand some of your points. Come again. I think you will enjoy it.

 

[hbdragon88]

The lag really is killing me too. Takes me a hell of a lot longer to get me through turns - my turns per load were severly drop from what it might be.

(Please delete if it is a spoiler) With thirteen rivals on a standard map, I can see how it's a huge lag. GOTM15 only had eight rivals and GOTM16 had about eleven, I think...this sets a new bar for me in rivals...

 

[KindLE]

I like the special features of this mod. B-u-t i-t i-s t-o-o S-----L-----O-----W

Apparantley this is how PTW is. I wouldn't know as I haven't bought it. I really feel bad for the people waiting in excess of one minute per turn. That would drive me insane. At first I re-checked the download site to see what size the world was. It felt like a huge world, but slower. Oh well, people have said that it speeds up. I'm not sure why that would be but I'll stick with it for now.