SQ1: Google Earth

[Andronicus]

Oh, and the unit setup instructions in Post #10 still apply, so if you haven't done that yet, please do so.

thats what happens for not reading all the instructions - cant blame Bill Gates for that one

works a treat now

 

[Sima Qian]

Tried loading save, but at end of first turn got this message then civ crashed

edit : could this be a microsoft conspiracy since I use windows ?

thats what happens for not reading all the instructions - cant blame Bill Gates for that one

works a treat now

Whew, you had me scared there for a moment.

I got the same message but then I went back and checked I'd followed all the instructions for the units. Make sure everything has been renamed, then ti should work.

Actually I'm havign a problem too, the advisor windows have no background which makes the text very difficult to read and for some reason I can't change what I'm researching, and using the sliders is a very difficult task

Hmm, I don't know if this is a problem specific to the Mac port of the game, but I suspect it might have something to do with your monitor settings for color. Perhaps you could check and see if changing between 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit color will have any effect.

I also had a problem where I could not change what I was researching during one instance where the Civ III installer had crashed at the end, but a clean reinstall fixed it for me.

I kind of broke with tradition and used the GIMP for almost all of the graphics work, except for the conversion of some of the FLCs. I heard that most people here at CFC use Paint Shop Pro, which I'm not quite in the mood to go out and buy. But if I were to take a wild guess at how that problem you have might be happening, it could be based on different ways the color palettes are saved in the pcx files between GIMP and PSP.

If not, I'll probably post something over in tech support or creation & customization and beg for help from more knowledgeable modders...

 

[Sima Qian]

tupac, another thing you might want to check is to make sure you replaced the civilopedia.txt and pediaicons.txt files with the updated version I posted yesterday. Those could affect the tech tree display since the UU's are supposed to show up in there too.

 

[tupaclives]

Tried changing bit rate, refresh rate, resolution, triple checked all files... When I say I cant change what I'm researching I mean that when a new tech is discovered I can't decide what to research, so I can only take what the advisor offers. Other than that everything else is fine, ok so its a little irritating not being able to see a background but I can move the sliders, it just takes time, I can even change what nations military im looking at, it just takes some effort, but if I can't choose wat tech to research then thats a bit of a problem...

 

[Marsden]

I must be in the front row. NO, section ZZ. Oh well, I'll still be watching, but I'm not brave enough to get into this. Modding is way over my head, but this looks cool, and I'm looking forward to seening what Tone does. He practically owns the HoF.

 

[Sima Qian]

Tried changing bit rate, refresh rate, resolution, triple checked all files... When I say I cant change what I'm researching I mean that when a new tech is discovered I can't decide what to research, so I can only take what the advisor offers. Other than that everything else is fine, ok so its a little irritating not being able to see a background but I can move the sliders, it just takes time, I can even change what nations military im looking at, it just takes some effort, but if I can't choose wat tech to research then thats a bit of a problem...

That's a bit odd, I would try a clean reinstall of the game and patches as a last resort. Are you getting this problem when you load the save file, or does it also happen when you start a new game using the "Load Scenario" option?

When you say that you can only take what the advisor offers for research, do you mean that you can still choose techs from the drop-down menu that appears, or does even that not work either?

 

[tupaclives]

Yes! I can use the drop down menu! Thank you Sima, in over the year I've been playing I actually never even knew about the drop down menu! Guess you learn something new every day!

I havent tried a clean install but I'll let you know later today how that goes.
Also the problem occurs when I start a new game via 'load scenario' and the problem remains when loading a save, including the save you provided.

However now that the drop down menu works I can paly the game normally, it will just be slightly irritating dealign with advisors.

 

[Sima Qian]

Yes! I can use the drop down menu! Thank you Sima, in over the year I've been playing I actually never even knew about the drop down menu! Guess you learn something new every day!

I havent tried a clean install but I'll let you know later today how that goes.
Also the problem occurs when I start a new game via 'load scenario' and the problem remains when loading a save, including the save you provided.

However now that the drop down menu works I can paly the game normally, it will just be slightly irritating dealign with advisors.

Heh, well it's good to know that your game will still be "playable," although somewhat inconvenient. It doesn't look like there's anyone else interested in joining, so I guess I can open up the discussion for what kind of map and difficulty now.

I'd favor standard, continents 70% water, normal/temperate climate, etc. - won't seem too unbalanced that way. Either emperor or deity difficulty will work for me. As far as barbs are concerned I don't really care.

 

[Andronicus]

If continents it will make a big difference whether we are on same continent as the "softies".
I would vote for diety but likely regret it if we are on same continent.
What about pangea, emporer? There are enough limitations to make this quite a challenge.
We're expansionist so I guess barbs are good

 

[Tone]

I'm easy going. Continents-pangea-no preference.

 

[tupaclives]

If we go Continents I'd prefer 70% wet, temperate, 4 billion, if pangea id rather 70% wet, warm, 5 billion.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Lurker here - wow. COTM 22 has a similar theme, except it's the Macfanatics vs. the world. I won't post more on it, cause it's still going on.

I would join - never played in an SG - but I don't have vanilla anymore.

 

[Sima Qian]

Okay, since we have some different ideas about what kind of map, I decided to let the RNG help us decide. I've generated some starts, and for each setting I've taken the first one that has a food bonus of some kind (yeah I'm kind of cheap in that respect, haven't played deity in some time).

Common settings:

• Difficulty: Deity
• Map size: Standard
• Water: 70%
• Barbarians: Raging
• Rules: Default, except Respawn AI has been disabled

Now for the starting positions:

Start #1:

• Continents
• Normal
• Temperate
• 4 billion years

My comments:
Good: River, lots of choppables, and a BG. Deer can become a 3-food tile after it gets chopped and irrigated.
Bad: Flood plains have disease and are typically a signal that there is desert nearby

Start #2:

• Continents
• Wet
• Temperate
• 4 billion years

My comments:
Good: River, cow, and 2 BG's. Some choppables but not as many as Start #1
Bad: Looks like a jungle SW of the cow

Start #3:

• Pangaea
• Wet
• Warm
• 5 billion years

My comments:
Good: Two wheats (!!!), two BG's, two choppable tiles
Bad: I still prefer rivers to lakes and cows to wheats, and lots of jungle in this start

So far my vote is for Start #2.

 

[Andronicus]

No 2 gets my vote

 

[Tone]

I'll vote for #2 as well. Cow, bgs, hills, river. That'll do for me.

 

[tupaclives]

Two's always been my lucky number

 

[Sima Qian]

I kind of broke with tradition here, usually I see people playing 20, sometimes 30 turns to determine whether or not a start was worthwhile.

Well, this time it took me 40 Hope that's ok with you. Most of the first turns are pretty boring anyway.

If anyone cares, I'm including two saves with this report, one after 30 turns, and one after 40. I would have felt bad leaving whoever is up next with the mess I had at 30 turns, although I'm sure you would've been ready for the challenge. Feel free to replay what I had at 30 turns just to see how it might have turned out.

So, without further ado, here we go:

4000 BC:
- Move worker 1 south to cow (pretty obvious that will be the first tile to be worked). Oh surprise, he sees more jungle in that direction.
- If worker goes south, then natural thing for the scout to do is move 2 north. Looks like it's a coastline we have nearby, unless it's a humongous lake.
- Found Googleplex on the spot with the settler, will build warrior.
- Bah! Scout moved in the wrong direction, there's a goody hut 2 east of the city.
- Research set to alphabet at minimum, expected in 40 turns.

3950 BC:
- Worker begins irrigating.
- Scout climbs a hill and sees some fish and more BG's.

3900 BC:
- Scout discovers another BG. That makes two BG's in range with the fish.

3850 BC:
- Scout discovers yet another BG (!!!). Looks like a very nice starting position, not just for the capital, but for the entire core set of cities.

3800 BC:
- Scout continues moving to the southwest.

3750 BC:
- Irrigation complete.
- Scout sees lots of jungle.
- Googleplex: warrior -> scout

3700 BC:
- Googleplex grows to size 2. Scout due in 2 turns instead of 5.

3650 BC:
- Worker begins to mine BG.
- Scout finds a goody hut out on a hill in the southwest.

3600 BC:
- Googleplex: scout -> settler
- Second scout moves two tiles to the east into the goody hut and finds... NOTHING (I thought we were expansionist!)
- Okay, not that bad, at least there's horses nearby.
- First scout enters goody hut, and gets a tech (ceremonial burial)

3550 BC:
- First scout wanders further and finds our first luxury resource - silks in the jungle.
- Second scout goes southeast and sees 3 cows

3500 BC:
- Well, drat. We've run into our evil nemesis already, the first civ we ever meet. Stupid scout standing right there on the furs gets the punishment he deserves.

- In other news, Googleplex experiences cultural expansion.

3450 BC:
- More silks found in the jungle in the southwest.
- Still no sign of the Microsoft military.

3400 BC:
- Not much new. See some fish though.

3350 BC:
- More furs found. Too far away for us to build a city there though.
- We are chasing the Microsoft scout as he tries to wander back to their capital. Seems like there's more jungle in that direction.

3300 BC:
- Nothing to see here, moving along.

3250 BC:
- Googleplex: settler -> warrior
- A black border is seen, looks like the evil Microsoft capital.

3200 BC:
- Our first scout is still lost out west, in the middle of hills, mountains, and jungle.
- Second scout sneaks through Microsoft territory.

3150 BC:
- There is more land on the other side of Redmond!

3100 BC:
- Is there anyone else on the other side of Microsoft?
IBT: Yes! A scout wearing a light blue tunic wanders by and we wave at him.

3050 BC:
- This trade is made:

We were still 23 turns from researching alphabet, and I was afraid that AOL would make contact with Microsoft soon, which would likely make this trade impossible.
- Research changed to writing, at minimum.
- Menlo Park founded, with two cows and horse in its radius.
- Googleplex: warrior -> settler

3000 BC:
- AOL border found, with gems in a mountain just outside it.

2950 BC:
- Our first scout climbs a mountain and sees another goody hut.

2900 BC:
- Injured AOL warriors spotted. Seems like they're having a rough time with barbs.

2850 BC:
- The goody hut give us... *drumroll* ... bronze working!
- AOL has a worker for sale. We buy for 30 gold.

2800 BC:
- Menlo Park: warrior -> warrior
- Barb camp found in the far southeast. Fortunately there's better targets than our scout for the barbs.
IBT: Steve Case builds Mirabilis ICQ and fortifies warrior, who successfully defends against barbs.

2750 BC:
- Our scout in the west is spotted by a barbarian. Uhoh!

2710 BC:
- The AOL capital, Welcome Screen, is sighted. It is defended by a Monthly Subscriber (looks just like a bowman).
- Barbarian warrior is following out scout!
- Googleplex: settler -> spearman

2670 BC:
- Two Microsoft archers seen south of Menlo Park. A warrior is sent to fortify on a mountain, in hopes they will suicide attack it.

2630 BC:
- Some chasing going on, two Microsoft Mindless Minions (impi) joining the fun.

2590 BC:
- Mountain View founded, northwest of Googleplex. It has immediate access to fish and 3 BG's as well as 3 choppable forests.
- Menlo Park: warrior -> warrior (need as many units ASAP to handle the AI)
IBT: Two Microsoft archers die attacking our warrior on a mountain, but a third archer kills him. Mindless minion moves onto road connecting Googleplex and Menlo Park.

2510 BC:
- I'm trying to lure the barb warrior with my scout toward the AI units, in hopes that it will attack them instead of my scout. Let's see if this works...

2470 BC:
- Minion moves onto horses tile. Drat.
- Another archer shows up SE of Menlo Park.
IBT: Minion pillages the horses tile!

2430 BC:
- Googleplex: spearman -> spearman
- Menlo Park: warrior -> spearman
- Well, I'm not going to wait for the archer to attack me. Kill it with a warrior from Menlo Park, which gets redlined
IBT: Minion kills our redlined warrior. Oh well, at least Microsoft gets a golden age in despotism with only two cities

2390 BC:
- Mountain View: warrior -> worker
- Our scout escapes out of the jungle and heads back to the capital. Where has that barbarian gone?

2350 BC:
- Scout pops a hut really far away near AOL territory. Out comes... a conscript warrior. Whatever, the warrior is sent northward toward Redmond, in hopes of distracting Bill Gates.
- Barb has followed us, right up to a tile next to a mindless minion.

IBT: Mindless minion kills barb. Poor barb, aww...

2310 BC:
- Minion + warrior spotted southeast of Menlo Park. This is in addition to the minion + archer still fortified to the southwest of Menlo Park.

2270 BC:
- Microsoft units continue to advance.
- A new barbarian warrior sighted southwest of Googleplex.

2230 BC:
- Barb approaches Googleplex. Some workers in the way evacuated.
IBT: Spearman guarding Menlo Park wins twice against Microsoft attackers, killing a warrior and an archer. But a minion pillages the road that connects Menlo Park to Googleplex.

2190 BC:
- Mountain View: worker -> warrior

Current situation:
- Microsoft still stuck at two cities. Their start position kind of sucked, wheat + desert.
- Only Microsoft units left in our territory are two minions - doubt they'll take much offensive action, though the pillaging is annoying.
- Bill Gates is actually willing to offer us writing for a peace treaty, but rules are rules. Kill kill kill!
- AOL is getting big. They have six cities now, we will have to watch out and hope they don't become a runaway AI.
- Writing due in 20 turns, we have 112 gold and 8gpt at 10% science and 10% luxury.
- I suspect I may have built a few too many spearmen, typically I prefer to build offensive units to wipe out the enemy before they show up, but no warrior code and no horses makes that difficult. AOL also feels like charging a ton of cash for tech.

Roster:

tupaclives (up)
Andronicus (on deck)
Tone
Sima Qian (just played)

 

[Sima Qian]

Oh, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I have the "ring city placement" locations marked with the red dots in this map.

I'd prefer not to settle on the middle dot though, since that's a lot of overlapping tiles.

Just as another heads-up, I never got the chance to build even a single granary yet. So if the attacks start dying down, shift gears into rapid expansion mode ASAP!

 

[Tone]

Wow! This is going to be like an AW game then.

My intial thought on city placement is that the red dot south of our capital can afford to be a bit closer to Menlo Park as Googleplex and Menlo already have plenty of tiles already. This would enable new city 1 to access several non-jungle tiles and I think that we're going to need a few more good cities before we try to clear jungle. How about something like this:

Next thing: how are we going to deal with those MMs? We cannot expand if we cannot develop those tiles so we must get rid of them. I must admit that I'm tempted to buy an offensive unit tech from AOL. Alternatives could be (i) getting a rax and pumping out vet warriors or (ii) getting sufficient spears so that we can connect our horses. Both of these mean that we can try to make contact with a possible fourth civ (there normally is four on each continent in vanilla, right?) which will bring the tech price down. The latter option will involve an early GA, which I'd rather avoid if possible, so my first choice is to buy WC with getting stacks of warriors as my second choice. Of course, someone else may have a much better plan.

This looks like it's going to be a great game...

 

[tupaclives]

Ok got it, just got back from a hardcore party n not really feeling up to playing now. Power spewed and was goneskies half the night so I'll pick this up in the morning when I've fully regained my faculties. Wish me luck!