SGOTM 15 - The Missionary - Maintenance Thread

[AlanH]

SGOTM 15 - The Missionary

This thread gives you and the Staff somewhere to post about non-spoiler issues relating to the game. It is a way of communicating to the rest of the players outside your team, and with the staff about matters that affect your team or everyone. You can post about bugs, rule clarifications, problems with the roster etc., but please do not divulge information about your team's progress. Please subscribe to this thread so that you are kept up to date with new information as the game proceeds.

The team lists are at the end of this post.

Thanks for this scenario once more go to neilmeister, who brought you The Wizard of Oz.

Gandhi has finally completed his training, after years of diligent study, he has mastered the ways of a Hindu priest. The temple that he grew up living next to, has accepted him to join them, but the voyage home is a long and treacherous one. He is of course caught at sea by vikings. They sack and burn the ship, leaving everyone for dead. After days or perhaps weeks at sea, praying to Shiva , Gandhi is washed up in a strange, hostile land.

Dazed, in darkness he stumbles inland, following a river, falling asleep on a river beach. You are playing Gandhi of the Indians.

For your deliverance, you vow to spread Hinduism to this new world, and spread the name of Shiva.

Victory: The laurels will go to the team that can secure the fastest victory. Thats right, everything is in.
Level: Emperor.
Map: Custom.
Speed: Normal.
Options: Well, LOTS. Lets see, there's: No City Razing, City Flip After Conquest, Aggressive AI, No Tech Brokering, No Vassal States, No Goody Huts, No Events, Unrestricted Leaders.
Victory Conditions: All enabled
Opponents: 8
Special Condition: You must found Hinduism, immediately convert to it as your first and only state religion, and then remain Hindu for the entire game.

Starting screenshot
This is the start of the game (click for a bigger image):



Timetable
The game will start on January 21 2012.

The completion deadline will be May 21 2012.
Players are advised that delaying victory until the last possible moment on this date is NOT recommended.

Awards
The laurels will go to the teams that can remain Hindu for the entire game, and secure a victory with the earliest in-game dates, before the real life deadline of May 21.

Wooden spoons will go to the team who finishes the game (win or lose) with the lowest score.

Notes

• Versions
  This game will be played in Civilization IV Beyond the Sword, version 3.19, using the standard BUFFY-3.19.003 HoF mod.
  If a later BtS patch is released during this game you will NOT be able to use it to play. You will need to complete this game in BtS version 3.19 before updating your copy of BtS, or create and update a separate copy.
  
  Mac players can only join in if they are able to run the Windows software on their system.
  
• Rules and Procedures
  Please visit the Civ4 SGOTM reference thread to check out the rules and procedures to ensure that you are adequately prepared for this game.
  
  In this game the following two methods for gaining prior map knowledge are banned:
  
  - Players are NOT permitted to use the 'Flying Camera' to look for details under the fog.
  
  - Players are NOT permitted to map invisible terrain using the Go To facility.
  
  In the interests of promoting participation by all team members, it is recommended that teams try to ensure that each turn set does not exceed 25 turns after the first 100 turns, and that those first 100 turns should be shared by more than one person (99:1 doesn't really count as "shared"!).
  
  All saved game files uploaded to the server are parsed through software that extracts and archives data about your save, including reload count for each turn set.
  
• Spoiler information will absolutely NOT be tolerated in this thread.

Team Lists
A name in brackets means that member has declared an interest in lurking exclusively for that team. The number of members is shown in brackets at the end of each team list.

 

[neilmeister]

To all the fog gazers: the screenshot above is a very early one, which we reverted to due to the potentially spoilerish info contained in the mini-map, that some players saw. As such, the tiles around (but not in) the starting area may have been modified since the screenshot was taken.

So, you might want to wait for the actual save before gazing into the fog.

 

[BLubmuz]

To all the fog gazers: the screenshot above is a very early one, which we reverted to due to the potentially spoilerish info contained in the mini-map, that some players saw. As such, the tiles around (but not in) the starting area may have been modified since the screenshot was taken.

So, you might want to wait for the actual save before gazing into the fog.

It's the best thing to do, for now we're just warming up the engines.

Out of curiosity, that "hole in the fog" we can see in the mini map in the screenie will be there also in the starting save?

 

[neilmeister]

No, the hole in the fog was fixed only a few hours after the first screenshot was taken.

So the real save will have no such hole.

 

[AlanH]

I have been asked what happens if you Pause the game and, while it is paused, you use the mouse in a way that would result in unit moves or other irreversible actions. It turns out that nothing happens on-screen if you do this, but your actions are actually "queued up" by the game software. If you now Resume the game, those actions are executed. So you can "pretend" to move units when Paused, then Resume, and the units will move.

Note that phantom moves while Paused don't give you any extra information. Nothing is gained by pretending to move paused units.

I have tested this scenario and its impact on the BUFFY system.

If you Save the game after doing this, and while the game is still Paused, no queued user actions are recorded in that save. So the submission system will accurately reflect what you have seen on screen. No unit moves are recorded for example, and no new tiles revealed.

If you Resume and this results in queued actions being executed, those actions *will* be recorded. So you must quit while still Paused if you do not want queued actions to take place.

I have also confirmed that the "queued" actions are NOT saved if you Save a Paused game. Those actions will not then be executed when the save is loaded by you or the next player and Resumed.

Please note that the above in no way alters my personal opinion that inactive players really shouldn't be opening saves and exploring them in detail. I believe you should trust your active players to report the current game status for discussion.

Note also that you run at least two additional risks when using Pause:

1. Beware of a false sense of security. While Paused you will not see any moves that you might trigger inadvertently. Resuming will then result in inadvertent moves that you didn't realise that you queued up.

2. Be careful if you Load a Paused game. If you forget to Resume, and attempt to move units, those moves WILL be queued up. You might try to move units; wonder why they are not obeying; get frustrated and move some more stuff; then realise the game is Paused and Resume it. All your actions will then be executed.

 

[LowtherCastle]

In other words, just to play it safe, if you fiddle around with a paused game, always exit the save and then re-open and Resume before playing on.

.

 

[AlanH]

In other words, just to play it safe, if you fiddle around with a paused game, always exit the save and then re-open and Resume before playing on.

Fixed that for you ...

 

[da_Vinci]

I stand corrected ...

Spoiler :

Because I can't sit after the spanking!

dV

 

[leif erikson]

Is this really necessary?

Some players use it to ensure nothing moves when they check the save when they are not up to make comments as nothing moves if your mouse slips. For some players it is a reasonable thing to do, not nefarious. Why do we seem to need to go there?

 

[Ronnie1]

Is this really necessary?

Some players use it to ensure nothing moves when they check the save when they are not up to make comments as nothing moves if your mouse slips. For some players it is a reasonable thing to do, not nefarious. Why do we seem to need to go there?

Flog him...you have my permission!

 

[Deckhand]

@AlanH, good job on the expanded team rosters

 

[AlanH]

What did I do?

The only change from SGOTM 14 to SGOTM 15 is that there are fewer teams, fewer players, and I put brackets round lurker names instead of '(L)' after them. If anything, they are contracted, not expanded.

 

[AlanH]

In case anyone hasn't noticed, your live starting saves are now available. The usual rules apply - don't download anyone else's save; only the UP player in your team is allowed to make irreversible changes; and you have to live with all irreversible changes - No Going Back!

Good luck everyone

 

[Deckhand]

Maybe it's just my perception.

What did I do?
If the names don't all fit on one row (because of window size), then they are displayed on two rows. It's my recollection (but I may be wrong) that some team member's names used to be truncated. (Maybe fixed previously).
The only change from SGOTM 14 to SGOTM 15 is that there are fewer teams, fewer players, and I put brackets round lurker names instead of '(L)' after them. If anything, they are contracted, not expanded. I noticed this too. (and forgot about the old L)

But whatever you are doing, keep up the good work.

 

[neilmeister]

A number of teams have PM'd me about a little confusion regarding the start save, and indeed I made a typo in the game description.

The description should say: 8 opponents, not 8 AI. Sorry.

 

[AlanH]

I've adjusted the game descriptions in the sign-up and maintenance threads. Any team who has made a copy in their own thread will have to fix it themselves, or live with it.

 

[leif erikson]

For those of you that use Imageshack, might want to check your accounts.

Read this and thought you might need to know so your images will not be deleted:

Apparently ImageShack has changed their policy, and as of March 1st, you can only have 500 images without paying. This could mean that a lot of images (in stories & tales, for instance) get deleted, unless people have backups of them. Should we inform people of this and direct them to attach images here or upload to imgur? Forum Rules still recommend ImageShack.

So I checked imageshack's FAQ and they are imposing the 500 image limit for free accounts.

 

[Ororo]

I missclicked into Fifth Element's thread about 3 minutes ago. I immediately closed the window and let neilmeister know about this. I saw no spoiler information since I realised right after clicking what a stupid mistake I made...

 

[AlanH]

Thanks for letting us know, and for contacting neilmeister. For future reference, players don't need to post here for team- or player-specific issues.

 

[BLubmuz]

I'd like to ask about some recent issues with the CFC forums.
I'm not complaining, i'm just asking and maybe informing. CFC is a great site and community, based on volunteers, so this doesn't want to be a criticism.

- Yesterday the forums were completely down due to a DB crash or something. Fixed. We're here.
- it's about a month that i often see a "server too busy" message when trying to log or when posting
- those messages happened to me about 4 out of 5 times on average in the past week or maybe in the past 2 weeks, in any case they were increasing in frequency.

I'd like to know if the Staff knows those problems and if there's a chance they will be solved. Maybe they were solved along with the DB issues, i dunno.

I'm posting here first, because i don't know where to post those questions and second, because this can have caused some problems to the Teams participating in SG15, so this can probably be considered if some team have problems to finish by the deadline.
This seems to be a long game, so it's just for the record, no need to take a decision now.

Another new issue i'm noting is that the teams threads are usually in bold unless they were not posted for some day (or unless you have visited them). Not since this morning.
This can be a problem causing some misclick, in any case it's not the usual forums behaviour.