SGOTM 03 - Geezers

[Harbourboy]

Good stuff. I'm installing it now.

Also need to let you know that I am going to be away on holiday from 23 February through to 4 March so I will miss the first week of this, but I'll be raring to go when I get back, so make sure you get us off to a good start!

 

[Jenarie]

Checking in. Thanks so much for the invite! I wanted to post sooner but wasn't sure if it was allowed. I'm very excited although nervous and paranoid about messing anything up. I should settle once we get started.

So you know what you are stuck with...

I think I'm a pretty solid Noble level player. When I'm allowed to go cultural I think I can win at higher levels although if forced to go warmonger I struggle (but can do it) even on Noble. I pretty much have the mechanics of war down - the problem comes in that I never start soon enough. I always need one more unit or one more building or one more etc. And I HATE to declare war. I want everyone to like me! To try to overcome this I've been practicing with nothing but warmonger games lately and I'm getting better plus even if it falls during my turns I'll have the team discussions to back me up if I get stuck so I'm thinking it should be ok.

Since the thread is open not mentioning anything that has to do with the new variant but it will definitely be interesting.

I know I said it before but I really do feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. I'm not a hyper type person at all and I'm practically bouncing in my chair.

 

[Harbourboy]

OK, I have installed that HOF mod, although I will have to get out of my head that HOF does not stand for Heart of Fury (I have been playing too much Icewind Dale 2).

Anyway, I see that there are 3 extra tabs of complicated looking options that come with this mod. In order to ensure that I don't break any rules, are there any options there that I need to have set or unset when playing in this game?

 

[Thrallia]

none that are required to play the game, the only thing required is to have it installed...everything required is automatic and invisible to you

As for the tabs and options...if you notice, they are grouped into boxes in each tab...if you want to take advantage of the better advisors, click the checkbox next to the name of each advisor group...you'll figure out with use what each option within the boxes does.

I generally play with all the groups activated except the stuff in the HOF3 tab...none of it really applies to us except the turncounter, which I turn on since I apparently cannot count to 10 on my own

 

[Htadus]

OK, I have installed that HOF mod, although I will have to get out of my head that HOF does not stand for Heart of Fury (I have been playing too much Icewind Dale 2).

Anyway, I see that there are 3 extra tabs of complicated looking options that come with this mod. In order to ensure that I don't break any rules, are there any options there that I need to have set or unset when playing in this game?

Actually those 3 tabs has enablers that make Civ4 life very easy. Setting up warnings and alerts that you chose. Since each players profile is unique to the machine they are playing, you do not have to worry about setting your prefferance since those settings do not travel with the save.

Just play around with it and you will end up likeing it.

One thing to keep in mind, there is a checker box to set the first turn to "1" for those who like to call it turn 1. As a team we did not check that. Leaving it at default would be best to avoid confusion.

Welcome to the team Harbourboy and Jenarie.

BTW I too feel like the kid on the Disney Ad.

Are the saves out yet.

 

[Jenarie]

I love the advisers but even though I've played several games with them I still have to look VERY closely at the resource trade one since it isn't set up the way I'd intuitively look at it. I'd recommend using it but, until you are used to it, if you think it says something stop and look again to make sure before you act on it. I had a similar problem reading the tech trade screen at first but got used to that one faster. You also, as Thrallia said, have the option of completely ignoring all the new stuff and using what you are used to.

Edit: Cross-posted with Htadus.
Thanks for the welcome and I'm really glad I'm not the only one!

 

[markh]

Welcome Jenarie and harbourboy ! I was very excited, too when I started to play SGOTMs.

IIRC the saves will be available tomorrow. I hope the team threads will be opened sometime today, so we can start our discussions.

 

[Thrallia]

yeah, I don't think we'll be in any hurry to play the first turns of the game. I've actually got a couple questions I'll run by Gyathaar after our threads are open concerning our relations with Gandhi...I'm hoping I'm right cause it could give us a headstart over our opponents.

Also, since this is a remake of SGOTM9 for Civ3, perhaps we should check out how Smurkz won that game? It appears they got the gold laurels in that instance.

 

[Harbourboy]

I note that although I am the SG newbie of the group, I seem to have the oldest join date. So maybe I should be welcoming all of you.....

Anyway, I'm sure this will be loads of fun.

Seeing as the team thread is not up yet, and I will be away when it starts, you might want to fill me in now on what some of your team traditions and conventions are. For example, how do you make decisions, how do you decide play order, how you deal with absences, whether you stick to default city names etc etc.

 

[Thrallia]

on second thought, perhaps we should ignore the previous iteration of this SGOTM...no one got Gandhi into space then.

@Harbourboy: I'm not entirely sure how mark chooses the turn order, last time I went first by virtue of volunteering(that seems to be a popular method of picking victims on this team ). On the other hand, we seem to generally play 20 turns the first time around, then 10 turns per set thereafter.

We generally make our own decisions during our own turnsets, but hopefully we've discussed it and come to a group conclusion beforehand(sometimes Civ4 throws a knuckleball though)

Absences, spoken as someone who had quite a few in SGOTM2...let us know before you leave or will be unavailable and we'll 'skip' you in the roster. If it is only a day or two and sudden notice, then we'll just push you back a turn or two via a 'swap'

As for city names, it rather depends. We stuck with normal names in SGOTM2, and I believe in SGOTM1(mark and Sam could tell for sure), but in SGOTM3, we changed a few city names to match what we were calling them beforehand...as an aside, if we ever play as the Zulus, I vote we custom name every single city except the capital...there's no way anyone could remember any of those stinking city names.

 

[da_Vinci]

Some HOF mod thoughts for the newcomers:

Back in Nov of 2006 when HOF was first required, I launched three threads with my questions, so that might be a source of answers if the new folks still have questions. They are so old that best way to find them is to click on my name/avatar and pick "view all threads started by da_Vinci".

On the glance screen in foreign advisor, be sure you understand which way the table reads. At first I thought it was how the row person felt about the column person, but turns out is is what the column person feels about the row person. I have adjusted to it now, but it did not match my intuitive expectation.

@Jenarie: love the new avatar!

dV

 

[DynamicSpirit]

As for city names, it rather depends. We stuck with normal names in SGOTM2, and I believe in SGOTM1(mark and Sam could tell for sure), but in SGOTM3, we changed a few city names to match what we were calling them beforehand...as an aside, if we ever play as the Zulus, I vote we custom name every single city except the capital...there's no way anyone could remember any of those stinking city names.

I like custom city names, especially when the name gives a reminder to the location/purpose of the city. Has to be done consistently though, and ideally immediately on founding a city, as I learned from the Novgorod's of the SGOTM03. (Explanation for Jenarie/Habourboy: Following group discussion I renamed Novgorod to Coppertownski because that's what we'd mostly been calling it. But the game promptly auto-named the next city as Novgorod. To avoid confusion with the city that had already spent a little time as Novgorod, I immediately renamed the new one 'New Novgorod'. Unfortunately the game once again noticed that 'Novgorod' wasn't being used, so it auto-named the next city we founded as 'Novgorod'. Since noone ever renamed that, we ended up with New Novgorod being older than Novgorod for the rest of the game )

 

[Thrallia]

I wondered why we had New Novgorod and Novgorod despite renaming Novgorod Ctown...that also explains why we never got to Yekaterinburg despite founding 6 core cities while others only founded 5

 

[Jenarie]

I really like the idea of custom names as a reminder of function.

I don't normally use them as I'm not very creative but I think it would be a nice easy way to keep them straight both while playing and while discussing.

 

[Big Pig]

Some HOF mod thoughts for the newcomers:

Back in Nov of 2006 when HOF was first required, I launched three threads with my questions, so that might be a source of answers if the new folks still have questions. They are so old that best way to find them is to click on my name/avatar and pick "view all threads started by da_Vinci".

Also recommended as a good cure for insomnia

 

[da_Vinci]

Also recommended as a good cure for insomnia

Does that mean you have read them? I'm honored!

And they are not habit forming!

OMG! The war is spreading to new turf!

dV

 

[Harbourboy]

So the person playing the actual turns has final say on what takes place then? I suppose that makes sense.

How many turns will we play each?

 

[markh]

Usually the first player plays about 30 to 40 turns if the techpath is agreed on and not much is happening during these turns anyway. Then the following players play 20 and once everybody played a set we go with 10 turns per set.

Regarding making the decisions we usually stop during the set, save the game and post the save in the thread to enable others to have a look at it if really important decisions are to be made and have not been discussed beforehand. This will not affect the time you have to play your set. Especially if you are not quite sure what to do it is better to stop playing and ask than just play the set through. Normally we discuss before the sets what should be done and what should be achieved, but sometimes situations change like an AI is declaring war on us, etc. Then it could be suitable to ask for advice. But, yes in the end it will be the decision of the active player. There will be no reloading afterwards. We have to go with any result we are confronted with.

 

[Harbourboy]

Sounds good to me.

 

[Sam_Yeager]

A warm welcome to our new members Harbourboy & Jenarie.

There will be no reloading afterwards. We have to go with any result we are confronted with.

I've boldened the really important part of mark's post. And yes, that means misclicks as well. It just means you have to be that little bit more careful about what you're doing when you're playing.

Still enough of the serious stuff. Looking forward to an enjoyable SGOTM.