SGOTM 14 - Pre-game Discussion Thread

[neilmeister]

Neil - So if the Wiz dies before we can get to him, then it is game over for us. This is probably something that should be clearly stated in the variant rules.

Rule is simple, he must be dead before you win.

If he dies without you knowing, I will let you know, purely so you don't delay your victory looking for him.

Is there a target date for opening seperate team discussion threads?

Sign up should be finished by the 31st July, game starts on the 10th August. So, somewhere in between those dates I imagine.

 

[Manco Capac]

A last question:
If we open the initial save, then close it without moving a single unit, does the save remain valid like in HoF games?

 

[neilmeister]

Yes, the save can be opened for inspection, at any time, by any player on the team.

But be careful! If you do anything at all, like move a unit, make or attempt a trade, DoW..... your team must then use that save. We can tell if you don't do this.

The best example of this was OSS in SGOTM12, where a player accidentally gifted their second city while checking possible diplo trades. The player had to inform the team and play on from there. (they still won the gold BTW)

 

[Manco Capac]

Yes, the save can be opened for inspection, at any time, by any player on [...] The player had to inform the team and play on from there. (they still won the gold BTW)

Thanks for the input for both questions, Neilmeister.

 

[AlanH]

Someone asked about a tie.

We don't do tie-breakers in SGOTMs. If two or more teams achieve the same date they both get the laurels to match.

Oh, and team threads will probably be opened around August 4th. That should give time for the dust to settle on the team allocations.

 

[Bebekija]

Rule is simple, he must be dead before you win.

If he dies without you knowing, I will let you know, purely so you don't delay your victory looking for him.

Whether he's a Civ or a unit, I would hate to see the AI kill him before we do, because it would remove the one specific feature of the game.
Without him, the game falls back to the usual race to fastest win. Though the map could be surprising as well.

Anyway, I trust you to take every possible action/map tweaking to ensure his "safety", until we can put our hands on him of course...

 

[Gumbolt]

Whether he's a Civ or a unit, I would hate to see the AI kill him before we do, because it would remove the one specific feature of the game.
Without him, the game falls back to the usual race to fastest win. Though the map could be surprising as well.

Anyway, I trust you to take every possible action/map tweaking to ensure his "safety", until we can put our hands on him of course...

The map will be suprising as you have random personalities. Meaning Ragnar could play out like a peaceful Spanish AI. Or Hetty could turn into a shaka variant.

Have got the personality thing right? It's an original leader but another Ai leaders personality?

 

[Bebekija]

The map will be suprising as you have random personalities

I had misread that. I got confused with the unrestricted leaders, when they get assigned to different Civ but keep the same personnality.

Come to think about it, random personalities will sure add some flavor to the diplomatic game. Not knowing the Ai reactions in case of bribe/demands is something already.
And of course, tech trades.

Nice! My excitement towards this game keeps growing.

 

[Habitus]

Yes Random Personalities basically assigns a leader a random personality from all the leaders. Figuring out what personality an AI is quickly will possible play a big part in this SGotM

 

[yatta77]

Hi!
I've been reading the linked rules, but I couldn't find an answer to my issue, so I'm asking here:

I have technical issues with my PC being under the minimum requirements, being very slow (especially in the end-game) and crashing to desktop sometimes while playing the game.

A solution could be save every few turns, exit the game, reload the save and play another few turns. Is this allowed? Is there a minimum number of turns that must be played consecutively?

In case the above solution is not allowed, what if the computer crashes to desktop while playing the SGOTM game? It is instant game-over for all the team?

I'm fine also participating as a lurker/advisor, letting the other players in the team, with a better PC, play the game sessions; but since already one of our members has technical issues (Mac), I think I should play to make this a succession game.

By the way: how many playing members are required at least in the team? And it is fine that we choose to be all 'at the first experience' in a SGOTM? This means that we will do our best of course (we are all decent Civ IV players, monarch to immortal), but with none of us being too focused into the competition result. For this time we are all here mostly to wonder and learn how a SGOTM game works, and to have fun, without too much 'pressure'.

Another quick question: can that member with Mac issues be our 'not playing' captain? Or the captain must forcedly be one of the playing members?

Sorry for all the questions. I guess it is better to ask before rather than having troubles later for ignorance.

Cheers.

 

[Gumbolt]

Yatta you need to go into the civilization.ini file and change the auto save to each turn! You'll find it in the BTS folder.

Look for the line:
; Specify the number of turns between autoSaves. 0 means no autosave.
AutoSaveInterval = 4

Change it from a 4 to a 1! I think that is right.

This way it will reload from start of turn where the game crashed. In any case you would have to inform AlanH if this did happen before you played on.

Personally I would update that PC with a new i7 intel core processor with 8gb of DDR3 ram at 1866hz speed. I would throw in a nice graphics card and a SSD hard drive. Then you could have some real fun on civ 4. I couldn't live till next week knowing my PC could not play civ 4!!

We normally vote on team captains. It is more an admin role really.

 

[shyuhe]

I think the recommended session length is a minimum of 30 minutes. I'm assuming your computer won't spontaneously crash if you just leave it sitting without input? If so, that should get you around the minimum session length issue.

 

[BLubmuz]

I think the recommended session length is a minimum of 30 minutes. I'm assuming your computer won't spontaneously crash if you just leave it sitting without input? If so, that should get you around the minimum session length issue.

That session lenght thing is for HoF games and not mandatory.
You're allowed to play even 1 short turn in SGs.
But if you have a crash, you must have a save every turn (what Gumbolt said) and replay from there as much close as possible as you did before the crash. And inform the Admins via PM (usually AlanH).

 

[AlanH]

The minimum session time is a recommendation, not a requirement. It's simply that the more you quit and reload, the more likely you are to reload the wrong save, or perform a couple of moves after saving or ... But if it's the only way to avoid a lot of crashes, then it's the lesser of two evils. A crash will almost certainly result in some replaying, whereas a carefully executed manual save/reload should not.

 

[yatta77]

Thanks all for replying!

Yatta you need to go into the civilization.ini file and change the auto save to each turn! You'll find it in the BTS folder.

Look for the line:
; Specify the number of turns between autoSaves. 0 means no autosave.
AutoSaveInterval = 4

Change it from a 4 to a 1! I think that is right.

Yeah! This makes sense. I just wanted to make sure you don't have to play at least 'x' consecutive turns or so.
Good point on reducing the interval between autosaves (I would just save each turn, but the auto idea sounds good). Thanks!

This way it will reload from start of turn where the game crashed. In any case you would have to inform AlanH if this did happen before you played on.

Yeah. If I say it now, before the thing happens, I'll surely say it again if/when the thing happens. I just wish to make sure to avoid my team being disqualified for that.

Personally I would update that PC with a new i7 intel core processor with 8gb of DDR3 ram at 1866hz speed. I would throw in a nice graphics card and a SSD hard drive. Then you could have some real fun on civ 4. I couldn't live till next week knowing my PC could not play civ 4!!

Ah ah true.
We have recent computers at business, but I guess it wouldn't look too professional to install an hi-tech video board and Civ IV there.
And I destroyed two decent laptop (motherboards!) in the last 4 years!
So, after buying a used video board and used extra ram, my CivIV PC is now the old Frankenstein one in the place I live, which I have since an eternity. Irony is the ram wasn't even working, and that type is not on commerce anymore so I cannot even buy it new.

We normally vote on team captains. It is more an admin role really.

Yep, this is kind of what we are doing now at 'the team at the moment known as whatever'. Should we wait a bit more before deciding?

I think the recommended session length is a minimum of 30 minutes. I'm assuming your computer won't spontaneously crash if you just leave it sitting without input? If so, that should get you around the minimum session length issue.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!
I _need_ like 45' to play 3 turn in the late game: I'm the kind of player has to check twice everything before hitting 'enter'!
If the minimum minutes is the only requirement for a session, then I'm just fine!

That session lenght thing is for HoF games and not mandatory.
You're allowed to play even 1 short turn in SGs.
But if you have a crash, you must have a save every turn (what Gumbolt said) and replay from there as much close as possible as you did before the crash. And inform the Admins via PM (usually AlanH).

Thanks, this makes it even more simple.

The minimum session time is a recommendation, not a requirement. It's simply that the more you quit and reload, the more likely you are to reload the wrong save, or perform a couple of moves after saving or ... But if it's the only way to avoid a lot of crashes, then it's the lesser of two evils. A crash will almost certainly result in some replaying, whereas a carefully executed manual save/reload should not.

Hi!
I wrote all the above before reading your very welcome official confirm.

So, if I got it right, I'm allowed to slowly play 2-4 turns (about 30'-1h), then save, exit Civ IV, then if I have another 45' to play restart Civ IV, load the last save, continue.

It the VERY UNLIKELY case I have a crash this way, I inform you with the autosave (settled to 1 turn) attached, telling you the moves I did next in that turn.

If the above is true, I shouldn't have problems at all!

Please confirm if this is correct

Thanks all! Really appreciated help!

 

[unclethrill]

Thanks all for replying!
So, if I got it right, I'm allowed to slowly play 2-4 turns (about 30'-1h), then save, exit Civ IV, then if I have another 45' to play restart Civ IV, load the last save, continue.

It the VERY UNLIKELY case I have a crash this way, I inform you with the autosave (settled to 1 turn) attached, telling you the moves I did next in that turn.

If the above is true, I shouldn't have problems at all!

Please confirm if this is correct

Thanks all! Really appreciated help!

You can play 1 turn ; save; restart; play 1 turn ; save; ... and all is fine. There is no timelimit on the session time. If you want to play for 5 minutes it is allowed just not recommended. The most important thing is DON'T replay any turns unless you have a crash and you notify Alan.

 

[AlanH]

I didn't say you need to play slowly. Play at your own speed and try to minimise the chances of having to replay any moves.

A PM is the easiest way to let me know of a crash, and I don't need the save at that time. In the very rare event that I do want to see it, I'll ask.

You've got a couple of weeks before you might need a bit of leadership to co-ordinate what you do as a team, and during that time I *might* have to rearrange team membership. I try to avoid it, but it could happen.

 

[yatta77]

I didn't say you need to play slowly. Play at your own speed and try to minimise the chances of having to replay any moves.

A PM is the easiest way to let me know of a crash, and I don't need the save at that time. In the very rare event that I do want to see it, I'll ask.

I'm a slooooow player by nature...
...is kind of normal for me to stare at city screens like 10 minutes thinking!

Thanks for all your patience, help, and support! Appreciated!

You've got a couple of weeks before you might need a bit of leadership to co-ordinate what you do as a team, and during that time I *might* have to rearrange team membership. I try to avoid it, but it could happen.

Ok, I understand. Do what is needed of course.

Just please consider that we get along very well as a team: we shared our contacts, we already started talking plans and strategies, the mac user is trying to fix the issue, we named our captain, and we are starting a test game together as soon as possible to get familiar with SG mechanisms and be ready for the 'official' one (yeah, we are very enthusiast!); so for me (and I'm pretty sure all of us - five (5) components of the team - ) it would be nice to be able to play together now. I hope you can manage to concede us this.

Cheers!

And thanks again for all the time you spent for our team so far!

 

[elohssa]

Personally I would update that PC with a new i7 intel core processor with 8gb of DDR3 ram at 1866hz speed. I would throw in a nice graphics card and a SSD hard drive.

That only works if you are calm. If you are like me, and you smash up your laptop whenever something doesn't go your way than buying an expensive laptop is a no-no. I tend to go through 2 cheap laptops a year because of my issues.

 

[ZPV]

I'm not going to sign up at this point, since I'm very very rusty and not sure I'm able to contribute as often as I'd like. I'm also on a new rig, and want to make sure it doesn't butcher saves into unacceptability. I won't look at any team threads though, just in case.
That said, the starting location and Random Personalities setting got the old gears ticking in my head. And everyone knows Sylar stole the wizard's powers played civ.