[MULT] Pitboss Worldbuilding Challenge

10 players is plenty. Maybe 2 AIs would be all right, but then again...more space is nice, too. As a culture player pre-BNW, I got used to 3-4 cities, but Tourism makes bigger empires viable for culture. Plus this game isn't about winning. So I might want to spread out.
 
Two AIs will be great to destroy without eliminating actual people. We can start tomorrow if everyone's up, I guess.
And although there might be times of pushing through (school)work, I want everyone to say that they'll remain dedicated until they are eliminated. People dropping out at 1 AD would be interesting to the world, but we'd be losing a real person(I'm not saying don' go domination, in this case I'm referring to someone leaving for 'cute girls' or another hobby). Although finals are approaching, try to play one turn a day. Every two days if you must. This'll allow the game to not be bogged down, and allow other players to be able to make their turns.
If you don't play, no one does. It's a group task. Focus on school but do not neglect this. Slow and steady.
In the topic of domination, if a war breaks out, try not to eliminate every city of your enemy's until you think it's necessary. Leave one pillaged weak city as a "ghetto" or an immigrant town, so that the other player isn't forced out of the game. One day, perhaps, the old enemy may rise up from the ghetto and strike back on the streets of his/her original capital.
 
I have every intention of committing to this project. For your information, I would be able to take my turn(s) either later tomorrow morning (10-11 AM CST) or early tomorrow evening (5-6 PM CST)
 
I haven't checked this for years, but I remember in Civilization IV there was a feature where in order for a player to be "defeated," all their cities and units had to be destroyed. Is that in Civ V too? Because it might be interesting. Otherwise, yeah, leave one city at least. So the player can do something.
 
Yeah, there's an option called "Complete Kills", which requires every unit and city to be destroyed before a player is out of the game. I rather like the idea of having that enabled, actually; what do others think?
 
I could support having complete kills enabled. Might be interesting playing around with a few troops, trying to strike at a weak city in another war. Still, I would try to avoid completely killing another civ if it's a player. MP combat is going to be interesting, and something I'll need to adapt to.

As for dedication, I am planning on being dedicated to this project, but also pointing out that life comes up, and there are times where it may be impossible to play for a day or two, or even a week if one of us travels someplace without internet. This game is going to be long, and as terrible I would feel abandoning you guys for a week because I am in Montana or something (probably not going to happen, but it did happen last summer), none of us can or should change big plans like that for the sake of this game. Basically, life will get in the way with this many people, and we should be prepared for this likelihood at times.

I'm looking forward to starting this game! Can you explain the way worldbuilding works again? I'm excited about the concept, but I'm not really sure what would be involved in it.
 
I could support having complete kills enabled. Might be interesting playing around with a few troops, trying to strike at a weak city in another war. Still, I would try to avoid completely killing another civ if it's a player. MP combat is going to be interesting, and something I'll need to adapt to.

As for dedication, I am planning on being dedicated to this project, but also pointing out that life comes up, and there are times where it may be impossible to play for a day or two, or even a week if one of us travels someplace without internet. This game is going to be long, and as terrible I would feel abandoning you guys for a week because I am in Montana or something (probably not going to happen, but it did happen last summer), none of us can or should change big plans like that for the sake of this game. Basically, life will get in the way with this many people, and we should be prepared for this likelihood at times.

I'm looking forward to starting this game! Can you explain the way worldbuilding works again? I'm excited about the concept, but I'm not really sure what would be involved in it.

Fantastic points, we can arrange breaks in the game to worldbuild when some of us are away, so no one misses anything and our worlds still develop it this time.
I know some artists, I may get some to do some sketches of early peoples and civs once the game is started.

As for worldbuilding, I'd be happy to explain, just in a sec. Gotta collect some anhydrous salt measurements, I'll explain in a few hours.
 
dont worry sillsworth. the girl just sees me as a friend. i really like her a lot,she is so beautiful and smart and funny. but i promise she wont be a problem. although we get along,i butt heads with her parents,so dating her isnt out of the question,just that it will be annoying to deal with people who thinks your a hippie(dont ask why).
 
If people are wondering about my relative quietness, it's because everything I'd want to say is usually already expressed by someone else and I see no point in posting just to say, "I'm agree with xxx". However, I will post when there actually is something I feel needs to be addressed. Also see my title for obvious reasons.

Also, I am usually on computer between 10am and 10pm GMT, sometimes even outside that limit.
 
Redwings, worldbuilding (in this case) is the process of constructing a fictional world based on what happens, each turn or few turns, in Civ V. Most everything you or people around you do must be explained in your rough notes.
For example, if your capital grows one turn, and a citizen begins to work a spice tile before "Calendar" is discovered, you must explain what's going on there. Are those citizens farmers, discovering small logs of cinnamon as they slash & burn their way through the forest to make room to grow maize (this would work better if you had workers actually destroying that forest tile, it would make more logical sense)? Are the citizens not farmers, but alchemists, studying the spices day in and out for their unique set of properties (this would work better if you started working this tile after you discovered a scholarly-technology such as "Writing" or "Chemistry"). Perhaps the people in that forest tile are shaman, reacting wildly to the foreign taste of cinnamon and coriander (that would work better if you founded the "Oral Tradition" pantheon (giving you culture from plantations), but it had not yet been implemented there).

Everything needs to be explained, and Civ is full of resources. If you research a tech, you must explain how that came to be. Did finding the wheel have any connection with the artisan pottery skills developed in your city hundreds of years ago (allowing citizens to create a potters wheel)?
If a religion is developed, you must explain why it was developed then (a great prophet was expended, which you must explain) and what the base of the religion is. For example:
A religion with "Oral Tradition" might start out as plantation slaves retelling their exodus stories in the fields of cotton and silk. A great prophet is born, a woman claiming to be "the White Tower", the figurehead that sent the slaves to your city in the first place. She cries out and preaches to the citizens of your city that everyone must be treated equal, as that was her intention when she helped found the city. She tried to make the city peace-loving and multicultural, but once Machu Pichu was erected, the merchant class became increasingly corrupt and stole away the rights of the non-whites from the city (relating back to hundreds of years ago, when you made the decision to focus on the economy and tile improvement rather than faith).
The White Tower would go on to further emphasize peace (explaining why you picked up "Peace-loving" as a follower belief). Then, depending on which founder belief was chosen, that aspect would be explained in society and how the religion made it so.
If your religion is later enhanced, you must explain why it was enhanced at that time, and if it was a cohesive enhancement or a sect of your religion splitting off. No religion stays the same forever. If you pick up a reformation belief later in game from the Piety tree, that must be explained in full as well. Underground Sect, for example, would cause a sect of your religion to be founded on paranoia and spying through arcane practices. If you got To the Glory of God, however, perhaps your religion rewarded great people by making them saints, creating a bubble of wanna-be-saints to rise in your civilization.

In your notes, you'd go into more detail than I am here. You'd name people, and compare your religion to how it was based off of/is the opposite of others. Say you have six followers on Islam in a border town before you spread your religion there: what is the effect now? Check the religious beliefs in the religious menu to see what the skyline of your town looks like now. If Islam has a "Cathedrals" follower belief, cathedrals were built in this town long ago. Do they remain? Is there religious freedom in your civilization? If you use an inquisitor in this city, that's essentially an Inquisition, or something like it.

Record everything. If you meet a city-state that has jewelry and citrus (you can tell when you look at the city-state contact screen, or you go to diplomacy), you must explain why they have those resources and how they relate to the city-state theme (religious, military). Perhaps the jewelry, which you decide to be flowing golden bands hanging from the nose, is part of the biyearly religious fast, the golden bands are supposed to have the essence of God in them, and therefore feed the subjects with all they need. The citrus may be used to break the fast, an activity just coming up.
You'd write all this, and, if it applies to other civilizations or city-states, post in on our subforum. This way, next time people encounter that same city-state, they can talk about how the religious affairs have evolved, and how certain wars have effected their fasting.

If a wonder is constructed, explain. If a social policy is bought, explain a LOT. If you get the "Republic" policy of the liberty tree, your civilization is now a Republic. That does not mean it is forced to stay one forever, though. If you then jumped over into the Tradition tree and picked up "Monarchy", you'd have to talk about the usurping of the senate by the famous general and self-declared monarch BlbaI can't think of a name blab gab.
Especially once you reach an ideology, explain all social decisions. Universal suffrage? Cultural revolution? Lightning War? All of these came out of something, some internal or external decision on your civilization's part. Was "Order" forced on them after the powerful Siam empire decided to undergo a cultural revolution? Does their religion preach "Autocracy" (this would make more sense if some war-related belief was chosen in the past).

It's quite easy to do this, just think of the causes and effects of everything you do. Keep checking all the menus and lists you can find, the "Demographics" section, everything. You can ask around in the forum too.
"Civs of the southern continent: Anyone adopting 'Liberty'? Why?" or,
"After the Russo-Japanese war, Russians have grown fond of spices and truffles, discovered when the Russians held Satsuma for a decade. The traders of Moscow hope any foreign transports would be willing to trade, exotic foods for a hefty fee. Anyone up for it?

Keep writing and evolving your world. Talk about every Great Person, Golden Age, Policy, Tech, Luxury Resource, and everything else you can find or create. Make your citizens change, see your nation evolve.
If you have anymore questions, ask. I'll start posting more tutorials soon. I know this was kinda confusing.
 
Here's something interesting to consider when describing religion.

For the past few centuries, the dominant scholarly view has been that there is sort of an "evolution" of religions. That is to say, the earliest religions were pantheistic, followed by animism, then polytheism, then monotheism, perhaps with some others in between. So most people talking about the development of religion, including Civilization (especially in IV), have followed this assumption.

But recent scholarship has shown there is significant support for the theory of original monotheism. That means that instead of "evolving," religions "devolved" over time (by this I'm not trying to imply superiority or inferiority, it's just the terminology most people can understand). The first humans were monotheistic, and as time passed some of them became polytheistic; some of those became animistic, and so on. If you want a pretty dense read on the subject, try In the Beginning God by Win Corduan.

You don't have to accept it, but at least consider it. Instead of explaining why your people believe in anything at all, give hints that they used to believe in one god. Maybe the earliest hints of faith are like that, and with time the people start to believe in one god with many aspects--which is the case with the most "primitive" cultures, i.e. most hunter-gatherers in recent times.
 
I was thinking about this last night, and would like to suggest we DON'T add in any AIs - though they'd give us someone to kill, they tend to be massive Wonderspammers in multiplayer (I haven't the slightest clue why) and due to assorted bugs can't DoW human players/offer trade deals/etc. 10 players on a Huge map should make for a pretty good game anyway, though.
 
Cool, thanks for describing this in more detail. I want to improve my creative writing, so this sounds like a fun exercise. I suppose with updates every turn, there's going to be a lot of detail I can go in, far more than I do in my current write ups that just go through the highlights of thousand year stretches.
 
Thanks for the great guide up there, sillsworth. I'll do my best in this!

Edit: Btw, sillsworth, did you ever find out your IP address? I think that, in order for you not to have to reinvite us every time we play a turn(that is, if your computer is the host), you'll probably have to PM each of us your IP address so we can join using it.
 
I'd say it should be based on your policies. Try to write about a system that, as much as possible, reflects all your social policies.
 
quick question: do i have to become a republic in order to become one? like can i have an elective monarchy like the Holy Roman Empire if i adopt both republic and monarchy? just curious.

Though I'm not participating, I think the social policies that are picked would lead to interesting stuff, & an elective monarchy could be had with Monarchy & Republic. It'd also add to the worldbuilding, because who doesn't want hear about a Merchant Republic or an Elective Theocracy, or...a Maritime Representational Dictatorship?!
 
who doesn't want hear about a Merchant Republic or an Elective Theocracy, or...a Maritime Representational Dictatorship?!
I'd love to hear about all of those. Especially a representational dictatorship...whenever the old dictator dies, the people elect a new one, who is to serve for life with authoritarian power. That would be so cool. From a literary perspective, I mean. Maybe not for real life.
 
I was thinking about this last night, and would like to suggest we DON'T add in any AIs - though they'd give us someone to kill, they tend to be massive Wonderspammers in multiplayer (I haven't the slightest clue why) and due to assorted bugs can't DoW human players/offer trade deals/etc. 10 players on a Huge map should make for a pretty good game anyway, though.

wuuuut...?

So AIs are useless in multiplayer? Or is it just that they refuse to communicate? We might want to add an AI to give the world a bit more depth, it's a Huge map, so ten people might seem to have too much space.
What do you guys think? Should I add an AI or two (perhaps on a lower difficulty?)? Even if some communication may be restricted?
CPM, may you explain more of the AI restrictions?
 
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