ROTQM03: Return of the Quantum Monkies

[Rex Tyrannus]

Okay, I want to give Fox a chance to respond to the settings. So Z, plan on starting us off tomorrow some time (or tonight if Fox responds earlier). Right now, I'll say this:

Vanilla to accomodate negyvenketto. (Though if we all play vanilla on your behalf, you have to stick with it or none of us will really care to play with you again. Each of us will quite glad to play vanilla on account of a great teammate, but not on a guy who dropped out.)

Random leader (at Zophos' mercy).

Random map (at Zophos' mercy), no bigger than standard.

Emperor or Monarch.

Random enemies (at Zophos' mercy).

Epic speed.

All victories enabled.

 

[pholkhero]

also, w/Warlords ~ patch or patch-free?

 

[negyvenketto]

Thank you Rex. In fact, I feel my internet access will be hectic in december, so I rather don't want to risk my respect
Leave me out and you can go for warlords. I'll just lurking. Good luck, sorry for confusing.

 

[Zophos]

Based on previous posts, here are the settings I see as the current consensus:

Game: Civ IV Warlords, patch 2.008 (released today!)
Difficulty: Emperor
Map: Fractal, all defaults.
Size: Standard
Leader: Random
Opponents: Random (standard number = 6)
Speed: Epic
Victory: ANY - Conquest is traditional and most satisfying.
Options: Always War
Variant Rules:

1. At the GM's mercy, a 'temporal event' will occur, in which the whole world is thrust into a different time period. When it happens:
   • The GM (Zophos) will post a GM's 'got it' message. Next player must NOT pick up and play after this post.
   • The GM will randomly determine a number from 1-7, and all civs will have their tech trees reset to the beginning of the numbered era (1=Ancient, 7=Future). Cities, units, and improvements will be unaffected (but see below).
   • The GM may occasionally decide to make additional edits to the game in keeping with the theme. Nothing is off-limits here, so be prepared!
   • The GM will post the edited save and may or may not give any information about the changes. Next player in the rotation posts 'got it' and plays normally from the new save.

I would suggest the following changes to the above:

• Use Monarch difficulty, especially if we're playing under the patch (with Blake's AI improvements). It'll be easy/fun for me to make it HARDER on you guys if necessary, but it'd be a bit lame for me to help out if you're getting creamed.
• Disable Time victory. Not only will this variant do crazy things to the normal schedule/pace, but it'd be cool if I can actually change the date every time an 'event' happens. Might be too confusing, though.
• Give me feedback on maps - would you rather have Pangaea/Natural, Custom Continents, etc?
• More feedback - Do you guys want to START with an 'event', or have the first one occur after you've gotten running in the Ancient era?

Please comment. I'm also still waiting for Fox to chime in. Expect me to generate a start late today or tomorrow (GMT-6).

EDIT: Corrected map size.

 

[ruff_hi]

Feedback ...

1) can you change the date via WB? I don't think that is possible.
2) I suggest ancient start under the assumption that our time machine works perfectly until we actually turn it on.
3) isolated islands with always war is a bit dull, prefer single landmass map (pangaea, lakes, inland sea, highlands, etc).

 

[pholkhero]

too bad for you Negy ~ i'd've vouched for you! why no warlords yet??

re: settings:
well, first, i think it's a "1-6" not 7 for eras~ what numbering system are you using Zolphson?

i agree on MOnarch w/the Patch

victory: no preference, but you should be able to change the name
map: no preference

fox is probably sleeping now ~ he's usually back on around our evening time

edit after Ruff's comments: i *thought* rex found a way to change the date...

start era: have no preference; any would fit the bill as we can assume our Time Machine brought us back to this era by accident, since we were going back in time to find out what caused the rise of Monkey and not Man

re: map ~ well, if we play w/islands, you should WB everyone some transport boats to take care of that. With the era-swaps, lack of naval tech shouldn't be a huge problem ~ maybe continents would work

 

[Zophos]

well, first, i think it's a "1-6" not 7 for eras~ what numbering system are you using Zolphson?

It would be...if Rex could count.

1. Ancient
2. Classical
3. Medieval
4. Renaissance
5. Industrial
6. Modern
7. Future

Any questions?

 

[negyvenketto]

too bad for you Negy ~ i'd've vouched for you! why no warlords yet??

I'm currently in Switzerland and I don't want to buy french/german/italian version of warlords. I'll get an english version eventually, but still don't know when.

 

[Lobsterboy]

This sounds goofy enough, that I just might have to lurk. I'd join the fray, but alas! I am still Warlords-less.

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

Thank you Rex. In fact, I feel my internet access will be hectic in december, so I rather don't want to risk my respect
Leave me out and you can go for warlords. I'll just lurking. Good luck, sorry for confusing.

Didn't want to scare you, Negyvenketto (are you related to Obi-Wan Venketto?). Out of the pocket, with warning, is fine. I just don't like when people constantly have to skip every turn, but don't tell the group until the third day after their "got it". Standard OOP is no problem.

Lobsterboy also doesn't have Warlords. We could have two people more if we play vanilla. What say Fox, Ruff, Pholk, and Zophos?

 

[Zophos]

Didn't want to scare you, Negyvenketto (are you related to Obi-Wan Venketto?). Out of the pocket, with warning, is fine. I just don't like when people constantly have to skip every turn, but don't tell the group until the third day after their "got it". Standard OOP is no problem.

Lobsterboy also doesn't have Warlords. We could have two people more if we play vanilla. What say Fox, Ruff, Pholk, and Zophos?

As I said before, I'm agnostic about settings. I'm eager to see a game under the patch, with all the AI improvements, but (a) I'm not playing, and (b) it's always nice to get more people involved, especially people we've not played with before. And I can (and will) play with the new patch in my own SP games.

So, if Lobsterboy and Negy are in, sure, go for vanilla. I'll assume Emperor (if vanilla) or Monarch (if WL 2.08).

Now, did we decide on Map Type? If not, you get whatever I pick. I misposted the size as Large in my list up above - I'll go edit it to Standard.

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

Regarding year, you can change it, but only as a World-Builder save. Then, you'd have to start the game as scenario. I've found you lose some things this way. It's not advised.

One thing I wanted to stress to Zophos is that the era and period rolls do need to be random. You're a prankster, but you're also a monky. Intelligent design ain't in the monky equation.

 

[pholkhero]

wait, isn't it 'monkeys'?

 

[pholkhero]

i also had a variant restriction: no upgrading of units. This will prevent us, after our first jump to the modern era, from upgrading all our warriors to infantry..esp if we don't need to worry about teching

 

[Zophos]

Regarding year, you can change it, but only as a World-Builder save. Then, you'd have to start the game as scenario. I've found you lose some things this way. It's not advised.

One thing I wanted to stress to Zophos is that the era and period rolls do need to be random. You're a prankster, but you're also a monky. Intelligent design ain't in the monky equation.

Duly noted. Forget me fiddling with the year. We're leaving Time Victory enabled, then? Epic gives you 660 turns, which would be, say, approximately 10-11 'events' if you go all the way to the end.

And as stated, no...uh...monkey business with the dice rolls. For the record, I don't intend to throw in 'extras' every time, either - I have an idea or two, but this isn't some sick, see-how-I-can-abuse-the-players exercise, after all.

Oh..and one more suggestion: Turn on "Require Complete Kills"

 

[Zophos]

i also had a variant restriction: no upgrading of units. This will prevent us, after our first jump to the modern era, from upgrading all our warriors to infantry..esp if we don't need to worry about teching

Dangerous, because the AI is going to upgrade everything in sight. And it's cheap for them...

 

[pholkhero]

hmmm...that is true...

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

unless you need an extra playa ill be lurking
but then again im am the most hated Sger of the year

 

[pholkhero]

"hated and unreliable are 2 different things" is all i'll say

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

"hated and unreliable are 2 different things" is all i'll say

No they mean the same thing