PolyCast Episode 97: "Little Better Than Useless"

[DanQ]

But not much. The ninety-seventh episode of PolyCast, "Little Better Than Useless", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick and Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew with returning guest co-hosts Jaycee "TheDS" Adams and David "White Elk" Undisclosed, and first-time guest co-host Nick "[KRT]Penny" Barber.

The summary of topics is as follows:

- 01m43s | Senate
In Civilization IV, ideal early starters by leader trait, a tip to starving your populace, what to do when starting in the tundra and is there any conceivable reason to ever run a Citizen specialist in your cities.
- 31m03s | Miscellaneous
An extended tangent to the early starters topic on the Spiritual trait in CivIV, and a Top 10 of the "1000 Clues You're Anticipating [Civilization V] Too Much" running thread.

- Intro/Outro | Assorted
A Real-Time Strategy award... for CivV.

PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy; sibling show ModCast focuses on Civ modding and RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution.

As always, enjoy.

 

[TheDS]

Wow, this is quite possibly the best episode yet! Not only did Dan do his usual wonderful job of keeping me from sounding like a complete idiot, he also somehow managed to make me look almost as smart as Phil! And twice as funny!

You need to work on your bleeping skills, Dan. All the damn cuss-words are clearly audible.

My favorite part of the episode is when Phil and Dan start screaming at each other, trying to decide which one should be the first to give Maki a noogie when she comes back, and then White Elk and Penny just snuck off and took care of her and Lisa BOTH while I was left there stupidly trying to break up the fight. I'm left wondering if maybe they engineered the whole scene to take the prize themselves?

Seriously though, it was a great Ep, and I really think I came off like I actually know something about this game for a change. I think actually playing a few times the past couple months may've had something to do with it. And hey, I got to pimp my strategy article about border-popping! Yay! (It's in my sig; really!) Ep100 might top this one, but if it does, it'll be barely, and only because we didn't have to hear the fabled fourth episode of "We're all Nuts, my Liege" or whatever it was called.

I'll get this Ep added to my list in the next few days. I may have FINALLY gotten someone to take care of my massive game sale needs, so stuff should be getting listed again starting tomorrow... er... today, and I'll need to supervise him a little more closely than I did the previous slacker. Man, you've got no idea how hard it is to find someone in this economy who wants work. Where's an illegal Cuban refugee willing to work when you need one and why aren't they responding to Craigslist ads?

Laterz, and g'night.

Oh, those wondering about the TMI in TMIT joke that barely gets a mention... Phil seems to be an expert at divulging information we're not at all interested in, mostly about stuff that can't make the cut due to the family-friendly nature of the show. Two words: bathroom pizza. Hopefully that's not TMI from me.

 

[vicawoo]

Everyone completely dismissed financial as a strong early starting trait, which the important idea that you can substitute mines and riverside cottages to convert production to commerce. With financial you increase the exchange rate from 1:1 to 3:2, initially, along with the extra commerce from seafood, marble, special commerce tiles, and riverside sheep/horse.
This effectively gives strong discounts to the settler costutput ratio -> more commerce means you can expand more aggressively.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Everyone completely dismissed financial as a strong early starting trait, which the important idea that you can substitute mines and riverside cottages to convert production to commerce. With financial you increase the exchange rate from 1:1 to 3:2, initially, along with the extra commerce from seafood, marble, special commerce tiles, and riverside sheep/horse.
This effectively gives strong discounts to the settler costutput ratio -> more commerce means you can expand more aggressively.

Maybe I went overboard in calling it overrated - I did not mean to imply that it is anything but a solid trait start-to-finish (and in particular early) nevertheless.

However in SOME circles it's just given an instant pass as best trait while arguments to the contrary are hand-waved off. Fortunately, this effect is less prevalent than in the past at least as people have begun to understand the benefits of other traits and recognize when FIN is better...and when it is not.

 

[DanQ]

Wow, this is quite possibly the best episode yet! Not only did Dan do his usual wonderful job of keeping me from sounding like a complete idiot, he also somehow managed to make me look almost as smart as Phil! And twice as funny!

You need to work on your bleeping skills, Dan. All the damn cuss-words are clearly audible.

I'll get right on that.

My favorite part of the episode is when Phil and Dan start screaming at each other, trying to decide which one should be the first to give Maki a noogie when she comes back, and then White Elk and Penny just snuck off and took care of her and Lisa BOTH while I was left there stupidly trying to break up the fight. I'm left wondering if maybe they engineered the whole scene to take the prize themselves?

Oh, those wondering about the TMI in TMIT joke that barely gets a mention... Phil seems to be an expert at divulging information we're not at all interested in, mostly about stuff that can't make the cut due to the family-friendly nature of the show. Two words: bathroom pizza. Hopefully that's not TMI from me.

Oh my... if anyone is really interested in learning more, do send Phil a PM to that effect. (He may or may not respond.)

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Not all services come cheap, and that may or may not be related to anything above this post.

PS: You have not lived until you've had a bathroom pizza run. I'm just saying.

 

[AlphaShard]

I loved that someone pointed out the benefits of Creative in that you don't have to worry over whipping out a monument. It's one thing if your city is already over pop 2 but most times it's not and your city still has to grow before you can whip. You won't always have the benefit of a food resource to large and quick growth. Though I will admit that Creative is mostly an early game advantage and loses it about mid game or so. Once you get CS or a religon it's not quite as critical but for that early game it is really nice to hace.

I enjoyed the list thought it was quite entertaining.

Also as for video I can help you with that, we can make Sim versions of you guys and splice the audio with a video of Sims. See I told you that game has it's uses.

 

[DanQ]

I enjoyed the list thought it was quite entertaining.

Also as for video I can help you with that, we can make Sim versions of you guys and splice the audio with a video of Sims. See I told you that game has it's uses.

Perhaps, but I don't see that as being a good use...

 

[jakeantonetz]

Love the show keep it up... better yet put it twice as often

 

[DanQ]

Love the show keep it up...

Thank you for the support and encouragement.

better yet put it twice as often

Heh... why do I have this sudden image of "quantity over quality" in my mind if we were to do that?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Thank you for the support and encouragement.


Heh... why do I have this sudden image of "quantity over quality" in my mind if we were to do that?

We just need to increase our marketing budget so that the perception of quality remains the same regardless of whether or not that is the case.

 

[DanQ]

We just need to increase our marketing budget so that the perception of quality remains the same regardless of whether or not that is the case.

That is probably easier said than done, no? We would need to establish a perception of quality first.

 

[TheDS]

Also as for video I can help you with that, we can make Sim versions of you guys and splice the audio with a video of Sims. See I told you that game has it's uses.

That would be pretty darn cool, except I don't know if it's possible to capture the level of awesome required to properly represent Dan, Michelle, Phil, and Lisa in something like a Sims character. It could take eons to get even one of them done properly, to say nothing of what it would take for Sid if he was on again.

That is probably easier said than done, no? We would need to establish a perception of quality first.

I guess that means I'll have to take one for the team and do a few more episodes? Maki'll just have to learn how to keep her hands to herself a little more often.

 

[DanQ]

That would be pretty darn cool, except I don't know if it's possible to capture the level of awesome required to properly represent Dan, Michelle, Phil, and Lisa in something like a Sims character. It could take eons to get even one of them done properly

I guess that means I'll have to take one for the team and do a few more episodes? Maki'll just have to learn how to keep her hands to herself a little more often.