Q2 Game Control: GOTM174 and COTM147

[Più Freddo]

Welcome to the second quarter of the new format of the friendly Civilization III Game of the Month competition!

This quarter, the two games have palindromatic names that are easy to mix up. We also have the first game design by our new friend, Captain Jack.

Hepthathlon of the Year

We will keep tally of a Heptathlon of the year competition: Who can win in seven different ways in the smallest total number of turns? It would be an appropriate pre-game discussion topic which victory condition each player intends to pursue.

Changes to Thread Structure

We have established a new thread structure. The spoiler threads will be published at once, and all game discussion will take place there. This thread is only of discussion about the game as such, not about its content: technical problems, planning and other meta issues. I will publish a note in each thread as the game proceeds allowing ever more spoiler information to be published and discussed.

Scope of the Games

Civilization|Arabia|Austria
Difficulty|Monarch|Emperor
Map size|Normal|Large
Map topology|Unknown|Continents, Large landmass (40%)
Rivals|Unknown|Nine
Barbarians|Unknown|Raging

Schedule

Release| GOTM174 COTM147 |1 April 2019
First Spoiler|OCN or Metropolis|16 April 2019
Second Spoiler|Middle Ages|1 May 2019
Final Spoiler|Industrial Times or Game Submitted|1 June 2019
Submission End| PLEASE NOTE THE DATE! |30 June 2019

Spoiler Status

Progressing spoiler rules will be published here and in the first message of the spoiler threads at the appropriate time. We are currently soliciting

Industrial Times or Game Submitted

Spoilers are allowed covering the game up until reaching Industrial Time or having submitted the game. The results of getting and trading bonus technologies at this stage are a permissible topic as well.

No spoiler information from after fulfilling the spoiler requirement is allowed!

 

[Più Freddo]

Pre-Game Discussion

No spoiler information from after opening the game save file is allowed!

 

[Più Freddo]

OCN or Size 12

Spoilers are allowed covering the game up until reaching the optimal city number, i.e. being allowed to build the Forbidden Palace, or reaching the size 12, in one of your cities, whichever comes earlier.

No spoiler information from after fulfilling the spoiler requirement is allowed!

 

[Più Freddo]

Middle Ages

Spoilers are allowed covering the game up until reaching the Middle Ages. The results of getting and trading bonus technologies at this stage are a permissible topic as well.

No spoiler information from after fulfilling the spoiler requirement is allowed!

 

[Più Freddo]

Industrial Times or Game Submitted

Spoilers are allowed covering the game up until reaching Industrial Time or having submitted the game. The results of getting and trading bonus technologies at this stage are a permissible topic as well.

No spoiler information from after fulfilling the spoiler requirement is allowed!

 

[Lanzelot]

We will keep tally of a Heptathlon of the year competition: Who can win in seven different ways in the smallest total number of turns?

This just caught my eye: do we really want to include the histographic victory here, which always requires 540 turns? That would be a tedious and kind of pointless exercise (nobody can do it any faster than the others... )

 

[CKS]

I thought we decided that the 7th victory type was not the histographic victory but the cow.

 

[Lanzelot]

Ok, but how do you deliberately play for the Cow? (Other than milking -- at least for a while?)
Previously, the Cow "just happened" when going for a long running space or UN game.

What I mean to say is: this VC is kind of self-contradictory: usually, the one who plays the most turns, gets the Cow. But you want to achieve this with the least possible number of turns...

PS: and this VC does not only depend on your skill and the start position, but also on what the rest of the field is doing. E.g. compare:

• If you are playing for space, your skill and the start position will determine, how many turns it takes you for launching, independently of how many other players participate in this particular GOTM, what they do and how well they do.
• But when playing for the Cow, it could be that in the very same game you can get the Cow in 200 turns, if everybody else is playing for quick conquest victories, but you need 300 turns, if many of the others are playing long drawn space race games!

 

[CKS]

I'm not sure that we've decided how to rank the cows, yet, but I think the plan was to not necessarily deliberately play for the cow. At the end of the last thread about this we ended with me writing:

So for victory condition number 7, we'd pick each person's highest base score and rank them somehow? That would give us only six required victory types - giving more wiggle room for people to design a game or not win as desired, which I approve of.

and Piu Freddo writing:

Sounds like a good idea.

So, you could play for the highest base score separately, but you wouldn't have to. The cow victory condition wouldn't require actually winning the cow award. We haven't agreed upon a way to rank the games, though.

I had proposed:

In regards to scoring the heptathlon (not counting the histographic victory), I'd like to count up the turns remaining in each game. More turns wins. This way, people who couldn't complete a game could still be in the running - they'd just score a zero for that victory condition.

plus some stuff that I don't like any more for the histographic game. I'd now like to propose that we rank this game by taking each player's highest base score (which should be a number between 0 and roughly 10000) and multiply it by 0.03 (giving a number between 0 and 300). Then add up the turns remaining in each person's best games for each victory type and this number to get a total score.

Example:
Suppose my games are:
20k in turn 400, 100k in turn 375, conquest in turn 280, domination in turn 400, lost this game, diplomatic in turn 500, spaceship in turn 390, didn't play this game. My 100k game had the highest base score with 7000 points.
My heptathlon score would be (140 + 175 + 260 + 140 + 40+ 150 + 210) = 1115
Your games are:
Conquest in turn 200, 20k in turn 380, domination in turn 190, spaceship in turn 300, 100k in turn 320, didn't play three games. Your 100k game had the highest base score with 7100 points.
Your heptathlon score would be (240 + 160 + 250 +240 + 220 + 0 + 213) =1323, which would beat my score of 1115.