Please Read: Welcome to the C-IV GOTM

[Velvet-Glove]

This is my first ever GoTM and I'm really enjoying it so far... I hope to finish in another one or two sessions. Thanks to all who organised this!

My question is this: when all the games and scores are in will all of these be displayed on the GoTM site or just the highest scoring/fastest winners? As a noob I would be interested to see how my result compares to other people.

Regarding leader name, mentioned above, I didn't have any trouble with the default name of my PC, I found the GoTM automatically set me up as Julius Caesar. I presume this is normal?

 

[AlanH]

The full gory details will be published in the same way as we do the Civ3 ones currently.

We'll also start a Global Rankings listing and a Pantheon. Go look at the GOTM web site and browse the menu items in the left column to see how we do it currently. If you would like anything more or different, shout!

 

[Velvet-Glove]

Thanks! I must have missed the more detailed tables when I looked before. It all looks good and I hope that these competitions and discussions will help to raise the standard of everyone's game. I'm really happy to have found this forum, you guys are great!

 

[LauriL]

OMG. My game crashed. Although I might be banned from submitting this GOTM, I just want to play by the rules. At least the rest of the game. Now my game crashed. So what save file should I load? My own save (CTRL+S -method) or autosave (it may be long time since autosave happened)?

 

[AlanH]

1. You should set autosaves to happen every turn - it's a setting in your .ini file, I believe.

2. The autosave default is every 4 turns, so you should be able to find one not more than 4 turns old unless you've deliberately reduced the frequency.

3. Replay from the most recent of your manual save and the last autosave, trying as far as humanly possible to make the same moves and decisions as you did before.

4. If your most recent save is older than about three or four turns then you probably aren't going to be able to replay those turns faithfully. However, as you are playing for yourself in this game, I guess it's up to you how you proceed.

 

[WaxonWaxov]

I can't even get started.

When I try to start from the download save game file, It get a windows critical error sound and a message that says "required to shut down in an unusual way."

Yes, I have patch 1.09

 

[vyapti]

Civ4 GOTM

Please note that some people believe that reloading (in particular) isn't serious cheating. We, however, consider it to be and have zero tolerance on it. Please also be aware that if you do it, we can detect it, and we will act on it.

Question:

I've been playing my games in 1-2 hour blocks, sometimes even less. Will these frequent loads show up as cheating if I participate?

 

[AlanH]

I can't even get started.

When I try to start from the download save game file, It get a windows critical error sound and a message that says "required to shut down in an unusual way."

Yes, I have patch 1.09

This sounds similar to the error reported by Dusty4prez here. I'm investigating. Are you running any mods?

 

[Renata]

Question:

I've been playing my games in 1-2 hour blocks, sometimes even less. Will these frequent loads show up as cheating if I participate?

1-2 hours sounds fine.

 

[DaviddesJ]

Use alt-D to change the player name.

 

[Mmmm Butter]

Use alt-D to change the player name.

Thanks!

 

[mzprox]

I can't wait to discuss the whole story of this GOTM Why can't we open a thread to those who already finished the game? (If someone is going to cheat he can do that many ways...)

 

[Eliezar]

There isn't a rule on session times, only guidance.

If you only play one or two turns per session then it's kinda difficult to distinguish your playing style from that of a serial reloader.

30-60 minutes means you play a reasonable number of turns per session, and we aren't bugging you about the number of sessions you have taken to complete the game.

It would be interesting to see how the reload stats come out. I know that I had multiple restarts including a few for mistakes...(How about moving that praetorian to the forest next to your city instead of on your city!)...but never restarted due to missing out on a wonder by 1 turn (happened twice!) or because I lost 2 attacking praetorians to 2 defending archers in a barbarian city (great luck!).

The issue I am having (and this has caused me to only play on smaller maps) is that my computer will just freeze between turns. Usually turning down/off most of the settings solves this, but it was not for me. Actually I had issues with the game locking up right away until I turned down some of the effects. Its a shame that the saved game doesn't get applied to the settings I had my civ IV to run at. As I didn't realize to change many of them until after a lot of agony had past. 8) Including me rebooting and restarting twice to try to fix the problem before I realized it was the voice on tech discoveries that was causing me to freeze (playing with speakers off, heh).

 

[johnsm7]

I am new to the GOTM, although very excited to give it a try. I unfortunately cannot invest large blocks of time to play so I usually ply for an hour or so at a time. The was I am doing it is to load the original save and then when I get to the end of a turn I save over the original file. I then repeat this process each time I play. Is this an acceptable way of playing? Is there a better way?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[ainwood]

I am new to the GOTM, although very excited to give it a try. I unfortunately cannot invest large blocks of time to play so I usually ply for an hour or so at a time. The was I am doing it is to load the original save and then when I get to the end of a turn I save over the original file. I then repeat this process each time I play. Is this an acceptable way of playing? Is there a better way?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Welcome!

Yes - that's fine.

 

[ainwood]

It would be interesting to see how the reload stats come out. I know that I had multiple restarts including a few for mistakes...(How about moving that praetorian to the forest next to your city instead of on your city!)...but never restarted due to missing out on a wonder by 1 turn (happened twice!) or because I lost 2 attacking praetorians to 2 defending archers in a barbarian city (great luck!).

Sorry - but reloading due to a mistake (moving to the wrong tile) is a no-no - you need to learn to be more careful. Reloading due to failing in attacking a city is definitely prohibited - barbarian or not.

 

[liquid fire]

1. You should set autosaves to happen every turn - it's a setting in your .ini file, I believe.

My apologies--I am new to GOTM and am also finding that I am less and less knowledgable about computers. What and where is the .ini file that one should change in order to have the autosave happen each turn?

Also, wanted to say thanks for all of the work that has gone into this. I'm really excited about my first game, especially now that work has slowed down (hopefully through the holidays). Again, thanks for all the effort.

 

[Meatbuster]

Go to your civ 4 directory (C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Civilization 4 by default I think) there should be a shortcut to the ini file (usually in the My Games\Civilization 4 folder in Your Documents).

 

[liquid fire]

Thanks Robo Mike -- found it and was able to make the change (as well as fixing the annoying defaults for user name/profile name). In case anyone else had trouble finding it, the file is called at least on my computer CivilizationIV Configuration Settings, and is under 5KB. The relevant setting for autosave is "; Specify the number of turns between autoSaves. 0 means no autosave. AutoSaveInterval = 4" Change that 4 to a 1.

 

[airline]

It is said that the save after the turn of victory should be submitted, but what save should I submit when i am defeated? I read the gotm website and still want to submit, even though i did really bad. I didn't save on the turn I was defeated (i was still hoping to hold on for few more turns), but i have savegame about five turns before that (and there is nothing i could do to change the outcome of the game).