Bibor
Doomsday Machine
I was always fascinated by players who are consistently beating deity. Reading after-action reports on these forums, watching videos encouraged me to play on a higher-level difficulty. I didn't get very far, my cap is Immortal and I mainly feel comfortable at Emperor, as somehow I always thought that deity play is "not the way I want to play this game". But then I remembered that I played SMAC on Deity on a regular basis.
Very recently, it occurred to me that, whenever I watch those deity level videos on youtube, I started seeing both aspects of gameplay: the micromanagement, but also the decision-making based on a wider picture. Last night, I finally managed to put my thoughts into a coherent structure, and I’m writing this post today, some 14 odd years after launch of this wonderful game.
What I realized is that I could take what I’m seeing in my mind and explain it a way that is perhaps descriptive enough and different from gameplay, so that it can help future players tacking the hardest difficulties.
Open your mind and close your eyes. Imagine the world map of Civilization IV, with all its tiles, seas, hills and rivers, forests and jungle. Or, if you want, start a new game and open the worldbuilder and look at it.
Now imagine that the terrain, with all its resources, is not actually terrain, but energy. First, look at the flat, barren terrain, be it coast or plains and mark it in your mind as if being colored yellow.
Now take all the forests in the world and mark them dark green.
Then, look at the huge swathes of jungle and mark them red.
Finally, mark all the good food resources (fish, riverside crops etc) as bright green.
Now imagine that you’re preparing for a jump, a physical jump with your body, and that this colorful map you just imagined is actually a display of potential energy levels of your bodily muscles.
These colors represent the amount of latent, potential energy that you can utilize and transform into kinetic energy for one, forceful, jump:
Yellow represents solid, but slow-to-transform energy. It would take too much time to transform this energy to be useful for a jump. It’s best used for prolonged physical efforts.
Dark green and especially bright green represent strong, quick to convert energy that’s ideal for your planned jump.
Red represents an energy so difficult to convert, that utilizing it will actually make the jump worse than it could be.
***
So, what deity players do is the following: due challenges AI players represent, they are forced to look at their game as a series of forceful jumps. They either land on their feet, take some time to recuperate and successfully complete another jump, or they stumble and have to regain their balance, if possible.
Looking at it this way, the choice of city placements, decisions they make on production and timings become immediately more apparent.
A potential city location with a strong food resource and plentiful forests become an object of immediate attention, regardless of other factors like city overlap, fresh water or long-term growth.
Whipping cities to the bone and sacrificing everything for a single push suddenly looks like the right thing to do.
Successful preparations and planning for utilizing opportunity windows becomes the primary object of the player’s desire.
All the terrain, game mechanics, AI decision-making weights, all these important factors converge into a single line of thought - how forceful, swift and effective can the next jump be.
Very recently, it occurred to me that, whenever I watch those deity level videos on youtube, I started seeing both aspects of gameplay: the micromanagement, but also the decision-making based on a wider picture. Last night, I finally managed to put my thoughts into a coherent structure, and I’m writing this post today, some 14 odd years after launch of this wonderful game.
What I realized is that I could take what I’m seeing in my mind and explain it a way that is perhaps descriptive enough and different from gameplay, so that it can help future players tacking the hardest difficulties.
Open your mind and close your eyes. Imagine the world map of Civilization IV, with all its tiles, seas, hills and rivers, forests and jungle. Or, if you want, start a new game and open the worldbuilder and look at it.
Now imagine that the terrain, with all its resources, is not actually terrain, but energy. First, look at the flat, barren terrain, be it coast or plains and mark it in your mind as if being colored yellow.
Now take all the forests in the world and mark them dark green.
Then, look at the huge swathes of jungle and mark them red.
Finally, mark all the good food resources (fish, riverside crops etc) as bright green.
Now imagine that you’re preparing for a jump, a physical jump with your body, and that this colorful map you just imagined is actually a display of potential energy levels of your bodily muscles.
These colors represent the amount of latent, potential energy that you can utilize and transform into kinetic energy for one, forceful, jump:
Yellow represents solid, but slow-to-transform energy. It would take too much time to transform this energy to be useful for a jump. It’s best used for prolonged physical efforts.
Dark green and especially bright green represent strong, quick to convert energy that’s ideal for your planned jump.
Red represents an energy so difficult to convert, that utilizing it will actually make the jump worse than it could be.
***
So, what deity players do is the following: due challenges AI players represent, they are forced to look at their game as a series of forceful jumps. They either land on their feet, take some time to recuperate and successfully complete another jump, or they stumble and have to regain their balance, if possible.
Looking at it this way, the choice of city placements, decisions they make on production and timings become immediately more apparent.
A potential city location with a strong food resource and plentiful forests become an object of immediate attention, regardless of other factors like city overlap, fresh water or long-term growth.
Whipping cities to the bone and sacrificing everything for a single push suddenly looks like the right thing to do.
Successful preparations and planning for utilizing opportunity windows becomes the primary object of the player’s desire.
All the terrain, game mechanics, AI decision-making weights, all these important factors converge into a single line of thought - how forceful, swift and effective can the next jump be.
