AU 106: ideas

[Theseus]

What do we want to do about the Lighthouse?

[Killerdaffy]

Originally posted by Theseus
What do we want to do about the Lighthouse?

We could just agree not to build it (not that we'll have much of a chance, researching by ourselves) but some crazy AI might make it across the ocean anyway, if it's not far enough.

You think we should mod it out?

[Jawa Jocky]

If we take the Galleys out it shouldn't matter (I think). Or make it like another Colossus.

[Killerdaffy]

Originally posted by Jawa Jocky
If we take the Galleys out it shouldn't matter (I think). Or make it like another Colossus.

If we take the Galleys out the AIs wont be able to make contact among each other, either. I don't think that is in our interest. That's actually the same as playing a normal game, only that everything will just start later.

[Theseus]

OK, some issues to resolve:

* Is EVERY civ isolated, or just the player?

* I'm assuming we want inter-continental contact to start with Astronomy (Caravels available and sea tiles become legal final moves). We can either not have Galleys at all, or keep them and just make sure the map is sufficiently spaced. The only problem with the latter is the Lighthouse, in which case whoever builds it can legally travel on all water tiles, and thus there cannot be true isolation.

How about leaving everything as is, and just REALLY isolating the player? 13 tiles? We could either agree not to build the Lighthouse, or allow it, as the distance alone will still be hard enough.

[Killerdaffy]

Originally posted by Theseus
OK, some issues to resolve:

* Is EVERY civ isolated, or just the player?

Just the player makes it harder but probably more interesting. That's what I vote for.

* I'm assuming we want inter-continental contact to start with Astronomy (Caravels available and sea tiles become legal final moves). We can either not have Galleys at all, or keep them and just make sure the map is sufficiently spaced. The only problem with the latter is the Lighthouse, in which case whoever builds it can legally travel on all water tiles, and thus there cannot be true isolation.

Some AI will find us sooner or later, also because they will probably research Astronomy long before us. So we'll have the pleasure of being the "discovered" natives!!!

How about leaving everything as is, and just REALLY isolating the player? 13 tiles? We could either agree not to build the Lighthouse, or allow it, as the distance alone will still be hard enough.

That'll make inter-continental invasions hard for us and impossible for the AI.

[Harovan]

My favorite civ would be either Greece (sci/com) or Persia (sci/ind). The Lighthouse should be disabled (by assigning it to Integrated Defense), same with Galleys. Caravels should be assigned to Navigation. Definitely no ships other than ocean-going.

About the # of civs per landmass I'm undecided. We could make the human alone and all others 2 per landmass (regent or monarch then), or we could isolate all (and make it emperor).

[Catt]

Re: All isolated or only some. I had always assumed that all civs would be isolated, but letting the AI have contact would be more of a challenge. SR's idea of us alone and AI's getting to share with only one or two other AIs is interesting - better AI research but also a much stronger likelihood of a few killer AIs (the ones who decide to eat their neighbors early). And, if all the AIs are absolutely cut off from one another, we will likely have a game similar to Banana Island (but obviously with different islands / terrain / possibilities).

So I guess I'd favor human isolation, with some smattering of Ai isolation / communication (without demanding too much of vulture, it might be nice to see how a smattering of "civ zones" -- i.e., a 4-AI civ island, a 3-AI civ island, a couple of 2-AI civ islands, etc.).

If it's not total isolation, I'd suggest a modification to SR's rules mod suggestions - disable galleys for the human (but not AIs) and move the Caravel to Navigation.

I am largely indifferent to civs (and think the science civs are a nice idea).

Finally, I would also chime in again to vote strongly in favor of a bic download rather than a saved game - allowing everyone to choose their own difficulty level but play the "same" game intrigues me.

Catt

[Chemical Ollie]

While I have read about the AU mod and found it interesting, I would currently like to stick to the vanilla version with the 1.29 patch.

Both hard disks on my old computer are as good as full. Therefore, I do not want to install an additional, modded copy of CIV 3 until I get my new state-of-the-art PC in November.

I haven't seen an unmodded tournament since L337z deity challenge. Is there any going on, or should I start one?

[Catt]

Originally posted by Olaf Hårfagre
While I have read about the AU mod and found it interesting, I would currently like to stick to the vanilla version with the 1.29 patch.

Both hard disks on my old computer are as good as full. Therefore, I do not want to install an additional, modded copy of CIV 3 until I get my new state-of-the-art PC in November.

I haven't seen an unmodded tournament since L337z deity challenge. Is there any going on, or should I start one?

Unless I'm mistaken, the AU games are offered up as both a standard game (no rules changes) and a game employing the AU Mod. It looks like AU 106 will be modded no matter what - if only to eliminate early suicide ships for the human player.

BTW - a mod itself is just a bic file which is loaded as a scenario at the game start-up screen - I think the bic file is usually less than 30K in size - it won't take up much space at all on your HD (assuming you have a little space free ).

Catt

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Catt

BTW - a mod itself is just a bic file which is loaded as a scenario at the game start-up screen - I think the bic file is usually less than 30K in size - it won't take up much space at all on your HD (assuming you have a little space free ).

Catt

OK, I thought I needed multiple copies of the game, one for each mod. The only mod I tried was Marla's Earth, but that's just a map and won't change anything for vanilla games.