Old World Monthly Challenge

[Jimmy Thunder]

I'd prefer a smaller map for performance reasons.

Does "lock save" protect from people reloading an earlier save to correct/change course?

Will "reset random seed" mean that everyone's random events will play out wildly differently? It would be better to keep that aspect as consistent as possible across all players.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Random Seed Reset? To encourage save scumming?
No Undo is just annoying, nothing else.

 

[Solver]

"Lock save" is a must for any challenge, it just disables the easiest ways of cheating such as using the in-game editor to give yourself free stuff. I would not recommend "reset seed on reload" - that allows an uncompetitive, and supremely boring, tactic of reloading saves to get better events, random trait rolls, etc.

Undo is a tougher call, it doesn't let you gain that big an advantage (if reset seed is off) but it can still be abused if someone really goes for it.

Medium map should be quite okay with performance on the current build, unless the machine is below minimum spec. Besides, with no AI development, the game should not last as long.

 

[Solver]

Oh, and at this stage I'd recommend a "default leaders only" rule, so players may not pick any of the additional Greek dynasties. They're more powerful than the default leaders so if going for fastest victory, that'd be an unfair advantage.

 

[PiR]

Coming from Civ, Undo was weird for me at first.
However, I got used to it to the point that I think it would be hard to play OW without it. Specially for combat, where I am not able to predict easily how to best use 10 units, as the order matters much more than in civ.

 

[Forster]

I don't think the random seed should reset each reload. As others have said, it would make the game very different for each player and could allow save scumming.
I think all players should have the same leader rather than being able to pick their own, that would put everyone on the same footing.

 

[Jimmy Thunder]

I've come up with a solution for the "no undo" debate (although it does require a small addition by the devs).

Have a counter for the number of times you've used Undo and Undo Turn. This is displayed when you mouseover the undo button and is visible in the stats when you end the game.

Then people can continue to use undo but there can be bragging rights for those not (or barely) using it. GOTM could also offer an additional "No Regrets" award for the fastest undo-adjusted win. +1 year for each undo and +3 years for each undo turn.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

People who want to cheat, can cheat. To make that impossible, or even less easy, would require a lot of changes, it's just not worth it.
Which is why I say Undo should stay. People need to follow the simple guideline of not abusing it for scouting to critical hit testing.

 

[Ozbenno]

My bad, I somehow thought the option selected was to not reset the random seed (note to self: read things closely ). Definitely will be off.

 

[Emergent]

Unless we do something like HOF mod from Civ4, I wonder how the rules might get enforced.

As for the undo, I find having that available relieves so much stress. If I miscalculated something or misclicked or anything, I can go back. It's too unpleasantly stressful personally to have to worry about that kind of stuff.

If I'm trying to be very serious about it, I'd almost need to plot out all my order usage on a piece of paper to make sure I have enough left, which is so far from gaming and so close to "chore" that it might lose my interest fairly quickly.

 

[Dale]

I'm adding an undo counter. At least then you can control the option from outside the game. IE: "Only accepting submissions with less than 10 undos" or something like that. Everyone makes a mistake. Being able to undo that mistake (rather than exploring and undoing) I think is needed for player comfort.

 

[Emergent]

You know, that'll also be helpful in general - even for the casual game, it might be interesting to know how often you use the undo button and what your tendencies are there (especially if you want to improve them).

 

[Fimbulvetr]

I bet my normal Undo count is in the hundreds.