Posidonius
Civherder
It's been percolating in the backbrain for a while, what is the lowest possible civscore in a winning Civ1 game? Not to set a milestone for the sake of it, just have a gut feeling, that figuring this out can sideways coax an insight which helps to get a high score. Isn't that the way it happens sometimes?
OK, so we know that lower scores come from conquest wins, so that's square one. No SpaceShips. The greatest penalty to civscore in a conquest win is the difficulty level multiplier, so we want to do it at Chieftain level. The 0.2 multiplier will crush whatever points we are forced to get.
Next manipulation is the date. We know it's +2 points for a conquest win, for each turn before 2000 AD. But is it -2 civscore points for each turn past 2000 AD? If not, then no point playing past 2001 AD. But if so, then Chieftain level runs to 2100 AD, for -200 civscore. In a conquest win, there is no Peace bonus to civscore, your Future Techs are not worth 5 points, and your citz don't count.
Might take a couple hours, but it can be tested, whether or not you get a -2 per year after 2000 AD. Unless someone already knows? Don't want to reinvent the wheel here, unless i have to, a wiki attached to this forum would be much more helpful than the search function.
But there might be a way to decrease your civscore to un-natural levels. Pollution. We know exactly what pollution does to the civscore in a SS-Win game: it's -10 points per blotch. But does pollution count against a conquest win? If so, then whole new vistas of moronity are revealed, the lowest score of a winning game might range into -2000 civscore in a simple game.
Or in theory, with the wrong planet and careful mismanagement, one could reach full pollution and yet win the game, with a civscore as low as -10,000.
Here are the central questions:
In a Conquest win after 2000 AD, is there a -2 penalty per year later?
Does pollution only affect the SS win civscore, or also eat away a Conquest win?
If those are both "yes" then the test bed would be a LWWY planet with plenty of grass and plains to grow a large civ, manipulating the rivals to get 128 cities of your own, placing them to cover as many land squares as possible, without regard to terrain type. Then turn on the pollution bug. Aha, an insight already-- the pollution bug does not exist at Chieftain level. Therefore, would need to find a way to make pollution rampant on Chieftain, or come up with the best possible plan to get to 512 Future Techs at Warlord level.
Or, is there an easier way? Since the pollution bug activates at Future Tech #60 on Emperor level, might the depressive weight of pollution outweigh the 1.0 civscore multiplier on Emperor? Then again, if negative civscores are possible, would the 1.0 multiplier of Emperor level just make such a civscore even more deeply negative?
Here's an odd wonder: the theoretical maximum for civscore points is 32,767. At 32,768 it overflows and becomes negative. But... suppose you come at the overflow from the back door? Would it be possible to earn a civscore of -32,768 the hard way, and end up with the highest score known to civkind?
Admitting, this is just an idea in amorphous state, if anyone has input about the two central questions above, please comment and make it possible, to design a better test scenario.
OK, so we know that lower scores come from conquest wins, so that's square one. No SpaceShips. The greatest penalty to civscore in a conquest win is the difficulty level multiplier, so we want to do it at Chieftain level. The 0.2 multiplier will crush whatever points we are forced to get.
Next manipulation is the date. We know it's +2 points for a conquest win, for each turn before 2000 AD. But is it -2 civscore points for each turn past 2000 AD? If not, then no point playing past 2001 AD. But if so, then Chieftain level runs to 2100 AD, for -200 civscore. In a conquest win, there is no Peace bonus to civscore, your Future Techs are not worth 5 points, and your citz don't count.
Might take a couple hours, but it can be tested, whether or not you get a -2 per year after 2000 AD. Unless someone already knows? Don't want to reinvent the wheel here, unless i have to, a wiki attached to this forum would be much more helpful than the search function.
But there might be a way to decrease your civscore to un-natural levels. Pollution. We know exactly what pollution does to the civscore in a SS-Win game: it's -10 points per blotch. But does pollution count against a conquest win? If so, then whole new vistas of moronity are revealed, the lowest score of a winning game might range into -2000 civscore in a simple game.
Or in theory, with the wrong planet and careful mismanagement, one could reach full pollution and yet win the game, with a civscore as low as -10,000.
Here are the central questions:
In a Conquest win after 2000 AD, is there a -2 penalty per year later?
Does pollution only affect the SS win civscore, or also eat away a Conquest win?
If those are both "yes" then the test bed would be a LWWY planet with plenty of grass and plains to grow a large civ, manipulating the rivals to get 128 cities of your own, placing them to cover as many land squares as possible, without regard to terrain type. Then turn on the pollution bug. Aha, an insight already-- the pollution bug does not exist at Chieftain level. Therefore, would need to find a way to make pollution rampant on Chieftain, or come up with the best possible plan to get to 512 Future Techs at Warlord level.
Or, is there an easier way? Since the pollution bug activates at Future Tech #60 on Emperor level, might the depressive weight of pollution outweigh the 1.0 civscore multiplier on Emperor? Then again, if negative civscores are possible, would the 1.0 multiplier of Emperor level just make such a civscore even more deeply negative?
Here's an odd wonder: the theoretical maximum for civscore points is 32,767. At 32,768 it overflows and becomes negative. But... suppose you come at the overflow from the back door? Would it be possible to earn a civscore of -32,768 the hard way, and end up with the highest score known to civkind?
Admitting, this is just an idea in amorphous state, if anyone has input about the two central questions above, please comment and make it possible, to design a better test scenario.
