New BTS division for Quattromasters and Elite Quattromasters

[Noble Zarkon]

We have finally made the long awaited changes to QM and EQM to reflect that virtually everyone plays BTS (it has been out 10 years!!).

The changes are as follows:-

1) A new BTS division for QM & EQM has been created, this excludes Space Race (so no need to play Vanilla or Warlords anymore if you don't want to) but includes Espionage victories. We feel to demonstrate a mastery of BTS it is not unreasonable to require a minimum of 1 Espionage victory. If you need help with this victory type please see this thread.

2) For BTS 'Rock of Ages' now only requires Ancient starts although you can try to improve your score by starting in other eras.

2) The QM and EQM pages now default to BTS (the other options can still be chosen from the drop down).

3) As part of these changes you should see a "My Profile" page in the menu which gives you access to a list of all your accepted games and also demonstrates some new layout features we are experimenting with.

The existing All Expansions / Vanilla + Warlords QM and EQM are retained with no changes - we will continue to monitor and report on them as part of the monthly updates.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Congratulations to our initial Quattromasters (BTS):-

• @WastinTime
• @Ozbenno
• @Major Tom
• @Noble Zarkon
• @Lazybones
• @ChrisFromLux
• @smitsk00

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Congratulations to our initial Elite Quattromasters (BTS):

Deity
@WastinTime
@Seraiel

Immortal
@Lazybones

Monarch
@Noble Zarkon

Noble
@Ozbenno

Chieftain
@smitsk00
@ChrisFromLux
@Lazybones

 

[Noble Zarkon]

There are a large number of players needing Espionage victories to complete their BTS QM or EQM but there are a few with other things missing so please do check out your status pages especially @elitetroops, @Kaitzilla, @Tonny, @Major Tom, @Seraiel and @Pollina who are all very close to achieving a new status.

This seems like a nice compromise. Especially since I've already got my two espionage victories.

Unfortunately you are missing a Time victory!!

 

[Pangaea]

Good changes

Not that I'm anywhere close, but yeah (just checked the status pages) Can't imagine many people still play non-BTS, I don't even know if it's possible to run on my end, as I'm on Linux and it requires some extra work to get it running. Which means I've actually never played any vanilla or Warlord games, since I 'discovered' the game too late for that to be relevant.

Thanks for all the work you guys do with the HoF.

 

[Ozbenno]

Nice, especially the fact I don't have to do anything more to qualify

 

[Noble Zarkon]

In order to help people who may need a Gauntlet towards their BTS EQM we are running a special Open Immortal Gauntlet for the next 3 months, the settings are totally open (although still no Duel Maps or Inca) and your two highest scores will count towards the gauntlet. We hope this will save people waiting months for just the right Gauntlet to come along, this Gauntlet will automatically count towards your EQM score at all levels below Immortal as well.

** New Gauntlet Starting **

G-Major 172 - Score, Immortal, Any Era, Any Map Size, Any Speed - High Score Wins!

 

[Chaosquo]

Nice change, just as I was getting back into Civ
One question though: From what I can see, the only way to get good scores with non Ancient starts is to find a category with no (good) Ancient submissions? Since your finish date is compared to Ancient finishes?

 

[elitetroops]

Unfortunately you are missing a Time victory!!

And 11 civs, a few maps and everything but ancient for Rock of Ages.

Oh wait..

2) For BTS 'Rock of Ages' now only requires Ancient starts although you can try to improve your score by starting in other eras.

All categories for Rock of Ages still show up on my status page but I don't need to complete them? That's a nice change. Never felt very motivated to do any of them when they don't count towards other categories.

Haven't played the game in a couple of years, we'll see if I ever get back into it to complete QM/EQM. I can tell that if these changes had been implemented two years ago I probably would have worked harder to achieve the status. The thought of playing vanilla/warlords and all the later era starts was putting me off.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

And 11 civs, a few maps

Oops sorry, missed that!

The thought of playing vanilla/warlords and all the later era starts was putting me off.

A lot of similar feedback about that and ....

All categories for Rock of Ages still show up on my status page but I don't need to complete them? That's a nice change. Never felt very motivated to do any of them when they don't count towards other categories.

From what I can see, the only way to get good scores with non Ancient starts is to find a category with no (good) Ancient submissions? Since your finish date is compared to Ancient finishes?

I did think about taking it out but thought it was unfair to those who had already completed some games. It may be that there's not much to be gained from them but it's there as an option. There are lots of Espionage slots open you might want to target but they won't count for Machiavelli or anything else except Rock of Ages , I did look at changing this but it was very complicated to do without impacting the other divisions.

 

[elitetroops]

The only thing I'm still missing is an option to filter out Inca dates from the tables. When planning what slots to go for for EQM I'd like to know what dates I actually have to beat for a #1. I believe best all time date, including Inca games, should still be the default view, but a toggle to only show best non-Inca dates would be nice.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

a toggle to only show best non-Inca dates would be nice.

You can do this via an ad hoc query

 

[elitetroops]

You can do this via an ad hoc query

Well, not really. It doesn't give me any kind of overview if I'm interested in finding any possible weak dates. Would have to provide very specific filters to get any useful information from the ad-hoc query. I feel I'm better off looking at the normal tables, selecting #1 entry and then adding in the second fastest if #1 happens to be Inca.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

It doesn't give me any kind of overview if I'm interested in finding any possible weak dates.

I've actually got a view for choosing Gauntlets that be helpful, it shows you the dates for the same size / speed / condition and you can immediately see where there's a weak score - if it looks useful I could make it available for everyone.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

It would be fairly easy to add an "exclude Inca" filter to that form.

 

[elitetroops]

Not quite what I'm looking for either. Typically I wouldn't have very specific settings in mind, maybe not even decided on victory condition. More like checking through what's available and from the main table it's easy to see outliers in comparison to the dates around them. It doesn't really work in any list form, requires the grid where all dates are next to the other dates using the closest settings.

But it's not a big problem, and as said I'm not currently even playing the game actively, so don't go spending a lot of time to make changes just for me.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

don't go spending a lot of time to make changes just for me.

No worries, I was always taught if one person asks for something there's usually another 100 who would like it but haven't asked

Interestingly I do use that table to look for outliers that might make good Gauntlets e.g. where the Monarch date is after all the others.

 

[elitetroops]

Yeah, I'm sure it works for things like that if you already know some specific settings. It becomes a lot harder if you for example left it at at any speed and any size, not to mention any victory condition. In the main table any date that is very close to or even greater than the date to the left or the date below would be a potential target.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I've actually got a view for choosing Gauntlets that be helpful, it shows you the dates for the same size / speed / condition and you can immediately see where there's a weak score

I've moved this into a publicly available place now.

 

[Pangaea]

No worries, I was always taught if one person asks for something there's usually another 100 who would like it but haven't asked

On this note...

Firstly, I'd also be interested in a view of the main table without the Inca scores. Wouldn't it be possible to have an extra toggle in the filters? Knew I had seen that somewhere, and found it in the ad hoc query. Would it be a lot of work to put something like that in the main table as well? Would be nice to have it as an option, since Incas are well-known to be rather OP due to their... everything

Secondly, would it be possible to get easier access to ad hoc query from the main table? Takes a while to keep checking options for this and that just to see if the #1 is a outlier (for example due to Inca). I may be interested in playing certain games even I don't get #1, but still want to be competitive. If let's say there is an Inca #1 conquest game in 1000BC, but the rest is in 100AD, 175AD, 250AD etc -- this is more normal -- and I may want to play with an aim of getting in around that timeline. And likewise for a pile of other searches. Don't know if this would be hard to implement or would look terrible, but it would be cool if it was possible to have such an automatic ad hoc search from the main table, for example as a link on the date. If I click on the map size or the victory type, there is a search, but that isn't what I would be looking for (it then lists all map sizes or all speeds).

Been away from the game for a year or two as well, but this was always something that bothered me a little, so figured I could mention it.