SP6 - Deity Training

[Ronald]

I was following your game closely and I want to contratulate everybody for the win of this deity game.
Sirp, you are a great teacher I learned some very valuable insights fro my future deity attempts.

Ronald

 

[Sirp]

@Borealis: No problem, I hope you're ok!

@Ronald: Thanks Glad you enjoyed following along the game!

-Sirp.

 

[hotrod0823]

A great game by all ! Was there really any doubt ??

So how many people are like me and still need that elusive single player deity win. Like Borealis I hope I comes in June !

A few comments about GOTM - (I am sure the horse is dead but I gotta give it a kick)

Yes there are "questionable" tactics allowed, ROP abuse, palace jump just to name to 2 that I dispise the most but that doesn't mean that you can't play a great game without resorting to those tactics and still "compare" your game to similar players.

I will not do anything in GOTM that I wouldn't do in any SG game I play. Your right it is not the same strict rules as RBCiv but it doesn't mean you can't play to that same standard and still enjoy the game. It is another diversion and I think the changes that have been made are for the better.

Hotrod

 

[Bam-Bam]

Great Win, folks. Not at all surprising.

@Renata--yeah, the evil Epic 26--I agree with Sirp on that one--was a very tough game and I got REAL lucky. I was so confident after that win, but civ brought me back quickly, as it is want to do.

GOTM 20, is the first one I have been interested in playing--though I am looking at doing it a bit differently than the crowd--obviously following the RB rules on exploits and avoiding the discussions. I do not find that discussing a compared (or competed for that matter) game in progress does anything for how well I have done in a game. I am a great stealers of others good ideas--that is how we learn--but I prefer to test how well I have learned by flying solo. I bet that will not put me high up on the competitive board (not that I would be anyway ), but more of the way I would like to do things. And of course there would be the report--which is a great part of the fun--telling the story of the game.

Sorry if I am beating a dead horse on the issue, and again, to the SP6 team--GREAT WIN.

 

[rabies]

I've just visited this board for the first time. My..what a cool concept! Sirp, is there any chance you would be holding a deity training game again in the near future? I need somebody to analyze my moves badly! I can win Emperor ok...but Deity just rocks my world. I learned a ton off this thread from you guys! Thanks a lot and good job on the win!

PS> I also recently started playing the GOTMs..submitting 18 and 19. I find them fun. I was blown away by just how far ahead some players were....but with all this talk of exploits, ...well..lets just say you shined a light into a dark place for me. However, the mass upgrade one bothers me..as I do tend to build a dozen or so warriors I upgrade to sword...or upgrade horses to knights. How is an 'honorable' player supposed to avoid this? Never upgrade them? I never really thought of it as cheap...but then..maybe I am not exploiting it to an extreme.

oh..and I am also in the middle of playin RB27 (china - always war)...I just discovered that site a week ago..and while I don't post there...I've had a TON of fun with this game! I'm on the verge of winning I think...going from defensive battles to offensive battles with Riders!

ok...sorry for crashing this thread...

 

[Sirp]

@rabies: At the moment I'm running an Emperor training game, and that's all I have planned; after that I imagine I will have had my full of running training games. I'm glad that you're learning off the thread though.

The main 'cheap' thing about upgrades is that it allows you to convert gold to shields in a far more economical way than is normally allowed. Normally a knight costs 70 shields to build, and getting an army of 10 of them is difficult: more expensive than a middle age wonder. However with upgrading you can get them for 30 shields + 80 gold each. A bargain price. Even cheaper if you upgrade from chariots.

Unfortunately it's a problem fundamental to the game, and there's not alot you can do about it, aside from trying not to go around exploiting it at every chance. I am considering making a mod which scuttles the warrior -> sword and horse -> knight upgrade paths, thus removing most cheap upgrades.

Happy to hear you're having fun with Epic 27, Always War really is a whole different type of game.

@Bam-Bam: Well, in the last Deity GotM, only about a dozen players managed to win the game at all. So, if you manage a win, you'll probably be in the top dozen players or so. If you play predator class and win, well, it looks like few players are going to play Predator, and so if you win you'll probably be one of only a handful who do so.

@hotrod: Sure you can play in the GotM, and still comply to your personal standard of avoiding exploitive tactics. However, one of the primary motivations for participating in such a tournament is to feel part of a community. When the culture of a community is to respect those who get the highest scores at any cost, even using the most dubious tactics, it is not entirely acceptable to just 'not use' such tactics. It makes it far, far more difficult to become a happy and respected member of that gaming community.

When the focus of a gaming community becomes to strive to obey the laws of the game to the letter, while pillaging their spirit, something is wrong. I think the GotM has done that in the past, although I think it's getting a little better now. How much better remains to be seen.

-Sirp.

 

[rabies]

Thanks for the reply Sirp. I guess I'll just have to use events like GOTM20 or an RB game to get better educated on Deity strategies.

I am hooked on this always war variant. I've always found the combat part of the game more interesting/fun than building..so it really fuels my fire - so to speak. It would be cool if an upcoming GOTM specified this varient for the 'predator' class.

Regarding the community of the GOTM...I have not been around long, but I agree with your feelings on the culture set to respect the high scorers. However, I must say that the most impressive game I saw in GOTM18 was Zwingli (sp?) winning via a 2CC conquest. His score was abysmal compared to the leaders, but I sure enjoyed reading his report...and I do believe he got quite a lot of respect for winning in such a fashion.

....and just know that I have read several of your RB reports..and have learned quite a bit from them....so there is at least one person in the GOTM community who respects you.

 

[Sirp]

Just joining any succession game here would probably be a good way to improve your skills, rabies. You could start off with an Emperor level one, and even though you're comfortable with Emperor already, playing with others is a good opportunity to test your skills and attract critiques. If you really show mastery of Emperor, at least beating Deity shouldn't be too hard.

Always War is lots of fun, but the GOTM doesn't seem to look too favorably upon 'variants'. Maybe this is being changed with the Predator class; we'll see. The Realms Beyond Epics are definitely the place to go if you're looking for variants though.

I didn't mean to say that the GOTM culture is irredeemably bad; I've seen Zwingli's report, and it is impressive. I'm hoping to see more like that in the future.

-Sirp.