SGOTM 23 - Lurker thread

[LowtherCastle]

An example of the fairness of this scenario. The multiple starting explorers meant that teams saw the starting resources and had settling choices. The most powerful of the choices were balanced and included future copper in the city limits and horses nearby. That meant that the three most obvious tech paths were also balanced.

The weakest choice, Mng-BW, gave instant axes for slow but powerful warring, so a team opting for this wasn't at a severe disadvantage, conceivably at a huge advantage since the AIs were so weak and we started with The Wheel.

The next choice, AH, gave powerful REX with the cows and a second city access to chariots for later-starting but faster warring.

The third choice, Alpha beeline, sacrificed early REX and warring for more advanced research.

BSP managed to create a relative balance to all three tech paths, which is quite uncommon. Usually the "right" tech path gives a significant advantage, but knowing the right tech path from the beginning can be quesswork.

This is easy for me to analyze in hindsight. How BSP managed to create that though eludes me.

 

[BSPollux]

Gumbolt is right, I tried to make it a race between teams. Being defeated by the AI doesnt seem like a lot of fun, at least not for many people. Plus I try to change the difficulty level between scenarios so that the teams never realy know whats coming. While I understand that total predictability is intresting for those that love to make long plans, I *think* that more people like a little surprise here and there. And done forget that it's very difficult to test these maps, as noone alone can simulate the effort that you guys put into it while playing!

Fippy, I liked the Girls map as well! But it was very complicated, same as the twin-nations map, and some people asked for a more traditional game, so I offered one. Again, switching styles.

Thanks everyone for all the praise! Nice to see you enjoyed playing my maps! The next one will be done by someone else. I might or might not join a team as a lurker/player, not sure. I will be very busy the next two years, and away from home about 1/3rd of the time. If you are still fanatical about Civ4 afterwards, maybe I can design a game for you again in the future.

 

[Fippy]

Best of luck with your busy years, Bsp

After reading some other opinions, well you guys convinced me.
I did not look at this scenario from your point of views, and they make a lot of sense.

I am sure this series will be around in 2 years still
It offers team spirit many of us are not getting in normal games of Civ4, one of the shining lights of this forum.

It's also run very professionally, with serious gaming getting rarer overall it's always refreshing to see some good things are not changing.