[BTS] SGOTM 25 - Phoenix Rising

[AlanH]

Welcome to your BtS SGOTM 25 Team Thread. Please use it for all internal team communication, turn logs and discussions. Subscribe to it to receive notifications, and do not visit the other team threads for this game until you have finished.

The Maintenance Thread is now open for this game, where teams and staff may post non-spoiler information of general interest. You will find the Game Details in the first posts of the Maintenance Thread. If any changes occur in the game settings or rules, they will be posted in that thread.

Please wait until your team leader/administrator/scribe has reserved a couple of top posts in this thread for game admin information. Then post here to let your team know you have arrived.

Good luck with the game. Enjoy!

 

[Fippy]

Points system

420 points needed.

• Culture Ministry: 10 points for 15.000 culture (top 3 cities count)
• Diplomatic Ministry: 25 points for being AP leader, 33 points for votes = 58
  
• Civil Ministry: 100 points for leading in all 9 demographics (automatic on conquest)
  
• Military Ministry: 100 points for conquest
  
• Science Ministry: 42 points if learning all Medieval
  
• Economy Ministry: 100 points * cities with corporation / total cities (except barbarians)
• Construction Ministry: 4 points per wonder (national counts)

 

[elitetroops]

Maybe copy/paste from some old PR thread? Pedro is new to SGOTM, right? And add that opening screenshot if possible.

I'll try to make this post into an index for game progress and important events/discussions in the thread. Not sure how well it works with the traditional chaotic PR posting style though...

I'll also keep here a links to our latest game.

Test game:
2000BC

Index:
What we know about AI starting techs
It's on. Flying ace lymond makes our first bomber move.

 

[Gumbolt]

Signing in. Off to bed.

 

[Pedro78]

Hi guys (and gals)

New to GOTM. I did read the rules and all, but is there anything to be especially careful about, i.e. mistakes that could ruin the game?

Also, how does this work? Is it one person that gets the initial save, and then passes it on to the next person? Are the saves out already? Do we discuss every single micro-detail of the game (i.e. worker-plans, warrior movements etc.)? I suppose it's also a good thing to create test games with WB and update them with our current knowledge of the situation -- in order to get a better feel for what's going on.

Any unusual in-game things to be cautious about (avoiding crashes, avoiding misclicks etc.)?

Oh and if you bookmark this thread in Google Chrome, you can't accidentally click on another team's thread, right?

 

[Gumbolt]

Welcome to the team Pedro!

You will need Buffy version 3 to load the save.

Generally we do a plan and play method. We have previously been very into our micro. See how relaxed this game is. Albeit we often decide stuff while we play if people are online. Only one person can play the save at any time. Usually there is a rota of some sort. Normally a handover period too to avoid confusion.

If you have an older pc that is prone to crashing you need to be saving the game as no reloads are allowed. You make a mistake and we live with it. When the game does crash you normally have to inform AlanH. Make sure your auto saves are set to each turn.

Looking at other threads is a big no no. Even accidentally clicking on a thread. Yes I would bookmark the thread.

Save is normally on the SGOTM progress page. Not uploaded yet as far as I know.

If you are not the active player it's advisable to view the game in pause mode. (Pause button on keyboard.)

We are more on European time here. Apart from Lymond. I personally won't be staying up past midnight here. Getting too old for that!

Key rule is to have fun and try to enjoy the game.

 

[Fippy]

Adding to what Gumbo wrote, most important thingy is Pause on live save yup.
Any change there that cannot be reversed would have to be saved & uploaded, and considered final.

Not all teams play micro heavy, but i think we all like that part (and Home Slices plan every move..).
Imo there's no point in playing those games without detailed micro, especially this one with so many extra units and stuff.

Mostly we play on test games, yep.
And we use a rotation for who's currently playing live.

 

[Pedro78]

Okay I'll remember all that. I'm at GMT+1.

So everyone can open the save, but only one is passed on?

I also really enjoy the micro part -- discussing every move is good for learning experience.

Also, we have ~3 months to complete the game, right? Do you usually make plans like "by February 15th we've played the first 100 turns"?

 

[Fippy]

All can look at the save, but only one plays and uploads when done.
I never make plans like "we must be done with x turns at date y", but Gumbo likes reminding us sometimes that we should move on :b

 

[elitetroops]

A good habit to get into is to always pause before saving. And always save before ending turn. Opening any paused save and looking around without unpausing is safe, in case we need to look up something from an earlier turn.

And very important to remember is that when you unpause a save, any moves that have been input since you loaded the save (or paused it) will be executed! If you are the active player and look around a paused save for a while before you resume playing, then I'd recommend reloading before unpausing. It could easily happen that you've accidentally have clicked or pressed keys to issue commands while save was paused.

 

[Pedro78]

I'll remember that. Have to see for myself what pausing a game does actually do, because I've never tried that before.

 

[Gumbolt]

It should stop any moves from happening. You might want to try on a test game to see impact of actions in a pause when when you unpause. E.g. will a unit suddenly move? The key thing is you should be making no non reversible moves if you are not the active player. Ideally testing should be kept to the test game.

The key thing is to keep saving the game and upload the save at the end of your play. So you don't play 5 turns then go away to Venice for a week. I am sure as the game progresses this will be easily picked up. Don't worry too much at this stage as this is old hands trying to teach safe tricks. As above do test to see how pause mode works.

 

[Gumbolt]

Submit games here. http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/civ4sgotm.php

Progress page here. http://gotm.civfanatics.net/submit/civ4sgotm_submission_list.php
Obviously don't click the link to other teams threads. This still shows SGOTM 24. So a good place to test buffy.

I am getting HOF error message when I load buffy games. (Right at start not actually in the game.) I fear I may have to reinstall Civ 4. Not sure which bit I didn't install with Admin rights. Hmmmm. CD use on Windows 10 is annoying!

 

[Pedro78]

Okay. Are you sure that Buffy 003 is required? I remember reading that the game will be played under Buffy 005 (I've got both mods working right now so it doesn't really matter)

 

[Gumbolt]

I have asked the question. I thought they switched back. It's a good question. It does say V5 in game blurb.

 

[Gumbolt]

'I think they'll be using 3, we have discovered some bugs in 5 that will need to be fixed.'

 

[lymond]

Honestly, though I was pushing for 005 to be released for this SGOTM (or the game held off for approval), I was a bit surprised that it is actually stated 005 in the game description. The version noted there should be the official version and the only one used by all players. (really a game file created by one version should not be able to be opened by another with LMAs)

I found no bugs in my testing of 005, and I believe nothing game-breaking has been discovered by anyone else, so I don't know what Noble is referring to in his post. I'm following up on that point. If we can use 005, that would be great.

Gumbo, just install both regardless.

 

[Gumbolt]

I will have to reinstall Civ 4 first. Guessing one of the CDs did not install with admin rights.

Won't happen today. Maybe not tomorrow pending if I am out tomorrow night. See what i can do.

When we do start the game we can immediately grab the x/y coordinates of all our cities.

 

[lymond]

Holy Brexit, Batman! Aren’t you on win 10, Gumbot?

 

[Gumbolt]

yes I am on Windows 10. I had issues installing Civ 4 when I switched a few months ago as I went with CD version. I will retry in due course. It could be I have missed something but I don't think I should be getting any HOF notifications.