Please Read: Welcome to the C-IV GOTM

[Aeson]

I'm almost positive the AI's know where iron/copper are before they learn the techs, even in civ4. Far too often a civ that is heading down the religion tree towards organized religion will settle in the middle of a desert early in the game. I'll be like why would they want to settle there? Sure enough after I learn iron working I find that they settled next to iron, even though they didn't have the tech at the time.

I think the city site "advice circles" are showing the exact same analysis that the AI is using to determing where to found cities. So if this is true, the player would also be privileged to (some of?) the information at least.

 

[Metzen]

I think the city site "advice circles" are showing the exact same analysis that the AI is using to determing where to found cities. So if this is true, the player would also be privileged to (some of?) the information at least.

I've had "advice circles" move after exploring a bit of the map with my settler. In one case, the two circles were on either side of a hill. After moving my settler on top of the hill (and exposing more of the map), the hill became one of the advised locations for start. I'm assuming that the advice was based on the visible map and not on the hidden map based on this behavior.

 

[Ribannah]

According to the report, the AI makes different suggestions based on whether or not there are other civs on your continent. If this really is true it is proof that it does act on pre-knowledge of the map despite Firaxis' claims to the contrary.

This can easily be caused by changed draws from the random number generator.

 

[grahamiam]

Since this is early in the Civ4 gotm process, is there any interest in reviving the medal series games? maybe just make them quick games, (ie, on small or tiny random maps)? I've found that CIV can be much faster (in RL terms) than Civ3 etc, especially on the smaller maps.

edit: also, since the knowledge base on this new game is pretty new, maybe we can learn more about it if everyone goes for the same goal? (I am refering to the old medal games setup)

 

[AlanH]

It's not even necessary to have a separate competition.

There's nothing preventing us from constraining a gotm to a single victory condition. The submission system already caters for it. If a condition is defined for the game then only entries that meet that objective are considered winners.

Given that we don't know how well the in-game scoring system will allow us to compare entries across multiple VCs yet, this could well be a way to provide better ranking of the results.

 

[RoddyVR]

that would be great.
i'm a "builder" so i always go for the same victory.... build up cities, get ahead in tech, use tech advantage to win a quick war....build up tech more.... use tech advantage to.....
and then it always becomes a race within my own civilization to either kill all the enemy civs or launch the space ship.
being forced into trying for a couple different victory conditions could definetly be fun (like for example, the way i play i would NEVER win a diplomatic victory, all the AIs usualy hate me).

 

[Ambiorix]

Yes, but...
Back in Cracker's time the prefered victory-condition was always contrary to the civ's traits. If I play the Romans I want to take advantage of their traits, not turn them into art-loving industrialists or something like that.

 

[AlanH]

Cracker has left the building ... as far as I know

 

[PeeDub]

I wouldn't be too sure. Dealing with hundreds of thousands of lines of code, not all of which you even wrote yourself, it would be easy to forget where any legitimate "peeking" is done and accidently use that code in a function that it shouldn't be used in.

For a hypothetical example, a start position analysis function for map generation would see all resources so it could place starting positions on whatever criteria. If you re-use the code from there, or call any of the related helper functions directly in the AI city site analysis functions, without remembering or catching that this code doesn't limit itself by tech level, you've now given the AI "pre-sight" in an unintended way.

They could have tried to slip instances of AI "pre-sight" past everyone... but they are releasing the SDK in January. I find it hard to fathom that any game developer would do something they know for sure will be brought to light as evidence they weren't telling the truth. There's really nothing to gain from it, and everything to lose. That and the fact that there's just so much code that mistakes will be made, makes me think these instances, if they hold up, would be accidental rather than intentional.

And when you're dealing with code, it isn't always so obvious what is visible and what isn't visible. Just because that's your view on the world as a user doesn't mean that's your view on the world as a developer. Perhaps someone forgot to check if something was visible or not at some point, which *does* make it an accident and not intentional.

 

[Più Freddo]

And when you're dealing with code, it isn't always so obvious what is visible and what isn't visible.

IMHO, that would be a design flaw. If they can hide the right things from the user, they can hide them from the AI. They don't have to code the AI and the map in one big mess. A little bit of structure sometimes helps.

 

[PeeDub]

Depends. But a flaw is still unintentional.

 

[The Condor]

Hi, sorry to change the subject but I'm new to the GOTM experience and would like to know how you: 1. Download saves so you can play them. 2. Submit them to this site after finishing them. 3. How to delete from your game when you are done with it (I can live with the High score). Thanks for your time and a quick response would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ainwood]

Well, the game hasn't started yet, so there are no save files to download.

When they become available, there will be a forum thread posted here which has a link to the download page - alternatively, it will be accessible from the GOTM website (gotm.civfanatics.net).

To submit the GOTM, there will be an upload page - http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/civ-gotm.php

As for deleting from the HOF? Not really sure. I think deleting the replay file does it - but we'd prefer that people keep these until we've posted the results.

 

[The Condor]

I meant for the future or for Succession (sp) games. Thanks though anyway. I wanted to partake (once more sp) in one and could not find a place that listed how to do those three things so I decided to post here where many of the things you do involve those three questions.

 

[AlanH]

Succession games run to their own individual procedures. They don't have the structure we need to handle hundreds of game submissions per month, so they don't use a dedicated server like ours with automated scoring and results processing.

There are some guidelines in the Civ3 Succession Games forum that don't seem to have been transferred across to Civ4 (yet). The general principles should be the same for both games, and here are some tips on handling saves and screenshots that may help.

 

[The Condor]

Cool, thanks. That solved my questions. You can return to your original discussion without fear of more questions from me.

 

[Spadark]

i want join it .but if i cant finish the game at the end of the month,next month i shall play a new gotm or go on my unfinish game?(i mean to post here)

 

[FriendlyFire]

Hopefully the patch will come out After I get my new videocard.
(Bad graphical glitches)

 

[Spoony]

I'm a big fan of GOTM in civ 3, I only found this site late so I have only been playing in the last three or so games. I've noticed that the site does a great ranking system generated for the Hall Of Fame games. I was thinking that this kinda thing might be useful in the GOTM games and could be started for civ 4.

This may already be happening and I've missed it, but at the moment it seems you get ranked for the one game (and maybe a medal if your good enough) but it goes no were else than that one game.

Also is the civ 4 scoring system more in line with the jason soring we used to use. One problem with civ 3 GOTM is I never saw many people close to the top three that went for any other victory condition than domination or conquest.

The GOTM games are great fun to play and the related forums really help you see how other people play the exact same situation. It's the best way I've seen to improve your skills at civ.

 

[Dianthus]

This may already be happening and I've missed it, ...

Could be! Have you seen the Global Rankings page?