The Emperor Series #04 is now Let's Play Immortal #01: Ragnar

[Gwaja]

Interesting stuff. I don't think that it's the right map for first tries on immortal. It's easy to expect several AIs in the range of 20 cities around Astronomy when sea levels are low.

After having played a dozen turn or so before heading to bed, I would say that it is gonna be highly unlikely that anyone will have 20 cities up.

This is archipelago map with archipelago land types, not snaky continents. If this was snaky continents with low sea level, then there will probably be a lot of land... but because this is pure archipelago, the cluster of land is not so big at all. The landmasses are a bit closer to each other, which means that more land is reachable before Optics.

Archipelago map with archipelago land type at medium sea level makes the land extremely tiny, and makes the island clusters even more separated. That means high chance of isolation, not to mention inability to expand as much until Optics.

Give this map a try... it is sort of an experimentation anyway. It is also probably going to be the last archipelago map for this series of games, but Ragnar just seemed like the right leader to play this map with.

 

[Gwaja]

Iam trying, not much experience with this kind of map lol but it's fun

Hey.. you were looking for some games that were not so same ol' same all the time... well you got one here! ^_^

 

[Mylene]

Yep, i'll aim for some naval berzerker action..that must be fun on this map.

 

[Gwaja]

I can't wait to see that! ^_^

Me wants your save file or two or three.. or more. I am feeling greedy! ^_^

 

[vanillasine]

@vanillasine,

I didn't think "Choose Religion" settings made things that much of an inconvenience and challenge. It is usually pretty obvious though.

First 2 religions: Definitely Polytheism and Meditation
3rd one: Definitely Monotheism
4th one: Most of the time Code of Laws, rarely Theology
5th one: Most of the time Theology
6th one: Almost all the time Philosophy
7th one: Definitely Divine Right

I could understand your concern though. I will take it out for the next game.

idk, its the 4/5/6 that can change. And in an isolated map for example, not knowing any techs, choosing to bulb or not bulb philosophy could be a tough choice.

 

[Mylene]

Spoiler :

Can't see any Iron on the whole map -.-

 

[Mylene]

hmm, there isn't much action here :-/

Spoiler :

AIs liked each other from the start, no happy ressources till Calendar, average city spamming after TGL. I can't seem to keep focus on what iam doing, besides teching to Berserkers for the heck of it

 

[Noogai]

I was going to quit, but then something cool made me on good mood..
(spoiler can be opened if you know your neighbourhood)

Spoiler :

Then another cool thing happened, which is that my mine found copper! So I will be doing a huge berserk+trebucket rush against Hannibal.

Also I have GL, but I don't have ToA.

 

[lymond]

@Mylene

Spoiler :

It's not that far actually Mylene...keep looking

I'm actually trying to do my first Let's Play with this game, but having a few hiccups...with the recording aspect, not the game.

 

[CaF]

@lymond: I'd like to record some games but my videos are soooo huge. 10 Minutes = 1 Gig. That can't be right. I'm still working on that problem




So I'm around 1850 AD now. Not won yet, hehe. In fact Im 12 turns from Internet with one dude 1 turns from Plastics. If I lose it I can forfeit. If I dare to open the tech trade screen I get a heart attack.

Map basically turned out as predicted. Not the map you wanna try for your first Immortal game.

Spoiler Beginning at around 1360 AD, post lib.

Spoiler :

First thing to note is that Justi has too much land. 2nd thing is that Joao has too much land. Did I already mention that everyone has too much land? Around Lib in 1100 AD everyone had 15 cities+. Except for Monti, who got boxed in by like Joao 12th city or so.
I had 5 on the main island, 3 junkers on that ridiculous southern island and 2 on the small island towards Mao.

I libbed Astro for the heck of it being the most expensive tech, made my way to QUIRISSARS and since my policy is: always steamroll the biggest or the Sistine Chapel, I did so. Whipped my stuff AZ style, then around 18 units I attacked. Justi had 21 cities. 19 after the first strike. I gave up some of my own tech lead to get Hannibal on Mao, since he is the guy who takes war bribes for as low as 1 gold.
Even though Justi was the tech leader by far far he somehow managed to tech constitution -> demo -> steam power -> railroad (he was dead at this point) instead of replaceable parts -> rifling. Congrats on my luck. Congrats on the fact that he didn't have any horses after like 5 turns into the war. Never had so much luck.

So, while he was teching steam power I steamrolled his cities one by one, basically making a city revolt at 0% discount every 3 turns. He reached railroad by the time he was dead. I capped him when he had 4 cities left. I was so scared of rifles that I felt like I had to do that.

OK, now it's 300 years later. I'm so far behind in everything that the Internet has to save me. All my cities got like 8 whip anger stacked and no infrastructure at all, whoops! I see no point in even trying a late game war. I can roll Hannibal, so what? He is not the threat for the game. It's Joao for Space and Willem for Culture.

 

[lymond]

Check TMIT's video on making vids with Camstudio. It's probably the codec you are using. I'm getting 40+ minute videos at about 1Gig

 

[vranasm]

@lymond: I'd like to record some games but my videos are soooo huge. 10 Minutes = 1 Gig. That can't be right. I'm still working on that problem

that seems like you don't have compression codec
there are 2 ways to do it. Record plainly in something like FRAPS and then compress it later (better for slower PCS's, but with huge amount of disk ;-)).
Or use Cam studio with divx or ffdshow codec which compresses the video directly while recording (better for stronger PC's)

 

[vranasm]

Check TMIT's video on making vids with Camstudio. It's probably the codec you are using. I'm getting 40+ minute videos at about 1Gig

I hope you will place here the link!!

btw I found great way how to reduce the file size with recompressing the audio to 16bit 22kHz Mono instead of Stereo 16bit 44kHz, actually I can reduce the size from 1GB to 700MB +-...
I use for it Virtualdub

 

[lymond]

I hope you will place here the link!!

btw I found great way how to reduce the file size with recompressing the audio to 16bit 22kHz Mono instead of Stereo 16bit 44kHz, actually I can reduce the size from 1GB to 700MB +-...
I use for it Virtualdub

Well, I've been having some issues with the recording the Rag game. I wasn't paying attention and recorded the first session to long. It won't upload. I've tried splitting the video in Windows Live Movie Maker but it makes the video look terrible after converting it. So I have to bag the recording of this game, but at least is was a learning experience.

The whole process gives me an increased appreciation of what TMIT, AZ and you do when creating Let's Plays. I find the actual act of playing the game while recording to be distracting. It's very different from....say...creating a presentation like I've done for work, since you prepare for that beforehand. I guess the more I do it thought is will become more natural.

edit: By the way V, I'm one of your subscribers. Try to find me hint: I do have an avatar
I have no videos as I just deleted a bunch of test ones, but one of my Rag videos is currently processing. If it actually works this time, I might have you critique it so I can work on the issues.

 

[vranasm]

and you can add to it that I for example don't have english as primary language... but I realized that when I talk about civ with wife/friends that I am using the english civspeak we use here ;-) I am deformed

edit:

I hope you're this one evanaclark and not the other one from US with avatar...since i hope you don't have pink channel! ha!

btw if i am right... evana is girl's name or something?

 

[lymond]

and you can add to it that I for example don't have english as primary language... but I realized that when I talk about civ with wife/friends that I am using the english civspeak we use here ;-) I am deformed

Anyway, I tried uploading about a 40 minute video and it rejected it as too long. Not sure how yall do it.

 

[vranasm]

The "a" is a my middle initial. Evan is the Welsh form of John. Ugh...yeah...pink one would not be me

Anyway, I tried uploading about a 40 minute video and it rejected it as too long. Not sure you yall do it.

well that is mystery to me... youtube somehow decides if you are eligible on itself.

in the upload screen you should have something like this "Gratulujeme! V účtu můžete nyní nahrávat obsah delší než 15 minut. Chcete-li vybrat video, klikněte níže na tlačítko Nahrát. " with light blue background.

(basically it states that i can upload longer videos then 15 minutes).
From what I remember first long upload failed too, but I got this message and from that point I could upload longer videos

 

[lymond]

ha...i guess i'll just keep uploading until I get a message in Czech

I guess i'll try 15 min vids next time, but the way I play I won't get a work out in 15 minutes

 

[Gwaja]

Nice to meet you Evana! ^_^

 

[i_imperator]

I played till 1120BC

Spoiler :

I decided to SIP as i saw no reason to move and teched mining-masnory-sailing, thats right i was going for the great lighthouse.

I met hannibal on t8, Justin around t20, and mao on t44. Not a great mix but at least Justinian founded Christianity ( i forgot that choose religions was on, its confusing but a nice change.)

My builds were- WB-WB-Worker-Warrior-TradingPost-(whip worker)-TGL-Settler. I think i built the first worker too soon, he had alot of dead turns while i was teching BW.

After sailing i went, BW-Wheel-Pottery-Writing- and im now planning on getting monarchy. I got the TGL by the way. I plan on switching into Hr rule for cottage spam cobmined with Great lighthouse!.

I have settled my first city and i am wondering about my other city locations, are they good enough? Also should i pump out fogbusters and let the cap grow to size 5 or should i start on another settler. Hannibal is to my east and justianian is to my west. Advice and feedback will be appericiated. Here is a save.