Quick Questions on Creating a Pitboss Game

[Sullla]

I'm expecting to create the map for this game on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, and I want to make sure I do it correctly the first time. My expertise as a mapmaker has been in crafting Single Player games, so I'd like to know what, if anything, has to be done different for a Pitboss environment. Now I'm assuming that on the game setup screen, I set the five slots to Humans (of different teams) instead of AIs, but is there anything else to consider? And can someone tell me: will Pitboss accept a Worldbuilder save file? That would make things enormously easier, to say the least.

I know some of you have more experience in this area than I do, so thanks for giving me your advice.

 

[Indiansmoke]

You can load a world builder save in pitboss...no problem...

 

[oyzar]

Make sure to make the AI's noble or clear the units out as otherwise the teams other than team 1 will start with extra units. But yeah, you can just make a sp worldbuilder file then load it in pitboss, leaders/settings/difficulty can be set from there. Biggest problem with loading a worldbuilder save though is that it causes barbs to lose all their techs. Since you can't access worldbuilder from mp i don't know of any way to fix this...

 

[Lord Parkin]

I don't suppose Sirian is around? He's made a map before for a large multiplayer game that I played in, so he'd probably have some good tips.

 

[DaveShack]

The SP launch and then going into world builder is just for map creation. Launch it into pitboss as a scenario with humans and the chosen teams, and I'm pretty sure the AI bonuses no longer apply.

 

[Indiansmoke]

I don't think you can edit multiplayer games in world builder....it would be a disaster if you could!

 

[oyzar]

The AI bonuses don't apply, however i don't think there is a way around the barbs losing their techs...

 

[Conroe]

however i don't think there is a way around the barbs losing their techs...

The barbs should have whatever techs the world builder save has defined for them. I believe they work like any other civ that you can define in WB.

 

[oyzar]

The barbs should have whatever techs the world builder save has defined for them. I believe they work like any other civ that you can define in WB.

You really have no idea how loading worlbuilder saves do work you? Point is barbarians is not a team(and only team info is saved in the worlbuilder save) hence they don't get any techs when the game is loaded...

 

[Sullla]

Does this even matter? I thought the barbs didn't start the game with any techs (?) Or if they do, it's extremely minimal techs. Right?

 

[oyzar]

They start with archery so they spawn archers... Kinda relevant.. Might also start with hunting(which allow them to spawn spears with bw), at monarch. Same techs as the AI's get for free basically. Since we can't do anything about it, it doesn't really matter, but thought i should mention it.

 

[Sullla]

According to the Civ4HandicapInfo XML, the AIs start with Archery (and no other bonus techs) on Monarch. I guess that applies to the barbs as well (?) That's the only starting tech, however.

Good find. I don't think it makes a tremendous difference overall.

 

[peter grimes]

When a turnplayer connects to the host, he/she must change their user name to their team's chosen leader name, correct?

For instance, I'm playing 2 different pitboss games. in one game my name is Placebo. In the other game, my name is Postmaster. If I don't retype my name after playing the Placebo game, I will be registered as Placebo in the Postmaster game, and civstats will record that I've changed my name.

This could result in some confusion.... unless there's a way to lock the player's name?

 

[HUSch]

Civstats will allways change the name, civstat is not so important. Important is only, that you (team) get a mail, when it's your (team) turn.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Yes, it doesn't matter so much about people remembering to change their names, since there won't be any confusion. (You can see which team everyone represents by mousing over their names on the in-game scoreboard - or even just looking at the colour of their names.) Of course, if people want to be nifty, they could always name themselves in the style of "Username [Team X]" - for example, "Lord Parkin [Team Saturn]". However, again, I don't think that this is important at all.

 

[cav scout]

can we log on with the newest 3.17 unofficial patch without upsetting the game?

 

[Lord Parkin]

can we log on with the newest 3.17 unofficial patch without upsetting the game?

Hmm, that's a good question actually. I don't know whether we're playing using the normal 3.17 patch or the unofficial patch, but either way I would suspect that all of us need to be playing the same patch version.

 

[peter grimes]

we're playing 3.17 official. I tried to find the source for my impression, but failed

What's the difference between the unofficial and the official?

 

[Lord Parkin]

What's the difference between the unofficial and the official?

From the thread for the unofficial patch:

• AI plane/ship retreating logic when city is in danger extended to Forts
• Vassal's spies no longer caught in master's territory
• AI logic on banning nukes tweaked to account for AI leader personality and the global situation
• Non-native collateral damage tweaked (thanks guys)
• Civilopedia will now display "replaced by" lines for buildings that get replaced by UBs
• AI guided missiles will lean towards destroying resource-producing tiles as opposed to improvements like Towns
• Damaged AI attack planes may choose to continue attacking if no defending interceptors are around
• Start location tweaks per SevenSpirits
• Workers not as lazy, per Bhruic's patch
• Glance screen reactivated
• AI will no longer settle Great People in cities that are in danger of being captured
• AI will try to retreat air assets from endangered cities
• AI will no longer refuse to retreat damaged planes
• AI will change civics during Golden Ages
• Revised collateral damage formula for non-native collateral units, if modded in
• Fixed bug in the map generator with water starts
• AI may now try to use Warlords to create super-medic units
• Fixed bug that prevented random events that target a unit from triggering
• Access to the Barrage line removed from armored units. If units with access to Barrage and no inherent collateral damage are modded in, they will work.
• Fixed AI defender bug for newly captured cities.
• Made the AI more likely to use missiles on cruisers/subs to strike against enemy improvements.
• Made AI ships prioritize retreating if docked in a city which is in the danger of imminent capture by enemy.
• Civilopedia and mouseover help for units that cause collateral damage will now show the collateral damage limit (50% for Catapults, etc.)
• Somewhat experimental AI change: Aggressive AI now considerably less likely to want peace if it poses more of an immediate threat to enemy cities than it currently faces itself.
• Fixed unavailability of foreign civ demographics if playing with espionage disabled.
• Barrage promotions made working again on Tanks and other units with no base collateral ability

Most of those changes seem to only apply to AI, which is irrelevant for us. In fact, removing the ones that apply to AI, the ones that apply to map generation, and other fixes that are irrelevant for us, we're left with:

• Non-native collateral damage tweaked (thanks guys)
• Civilopedia will now display "replaced by" lines for buildings that get replaced by UBs
• Rivers running through deserts will result in floodplains
• Glance screen reactivated
• Revised collateral damage formula for non-native collateral units, if modded in
• Fixed bug that prevented random events that target a unit from triggering
• Access to the Barrage line removed from armored units. If units with access to Barrage and no inherent collateral damage are modded in, they will work.
• Civilopedia and mouseover help for units that cause collateral damage will now show the collateral damage limit (50% for Catapults, etc.)
• Barrage promotions made working again on Tanks and other units with no base collateral ability

The only major change I can see from that is that the barrage promotion for Tanks has been removed (which is available in the normal version of 3.17, but doesn't work anyway). Aside from that, I don't see anything important that has been changed. So I think that working with normal 3.17 should be just fine (and it'll suit those of us who don't have or want the unofficial patch yet - like myself).

 

[DaveShack]

I'd say official level only. If we don't go that way, then everyone involved in GOTM, HOF, or other MP games would need dual installs.