The damned galley!

MyOlde · February 21, 2003, 12:51

In PTW does the galley always always ALWAYS sink when you take it out to sea? Do I not recall that in Civ3 you could reload and reload and eventually get a safe journey some of the time?

I've had PTW for a while but always found the galley a pain and never bothered (nor had to bother) leaving my continent until about ironclad time.

Now I've moved up to a large map, continents, and the centuries are going by and I've no one to talk with except the backward Zulus to the south of me (I brought them under control early on). I've tried loading and reloading to get a galley out there to find a neighbour but it keeps sinking. Finally had to switch my tech route to pick up astronomy so I could get a caravel going.

Does anyone know that the galley will, for a fact, always sink?

And while we're on it: how do you manage to discover neighbours early on (who are on other continents)? Or do you simply play pangaea?

CerberusIV · February 21, 2003, 13:40

Galleys don't always sink on sea tiles in PTW. If you are playing with preserve random seed on then reloading and doing the same turn again will just produce the same result. You can reload and try again on the next turn and eventually will get through.

I play continents on standard maps with 8 civs and usually can get enough contacts to stay in the game. If not then a dash for the Great Library is the only hope.

TacticalGrace · February 21, 2003, 14:01

If you load the galley up with units then it will sink because it is heavier.

The more expensive the units the heavier they are and so more likely to sink the galley.

Cyclotron · February 21, 2003, 14:47

Cerberus is right on. The random seed, assuming you didn't disable it, will "roll" the same result even if you reload the game. Thus, it will appear that the result is 100% certain.

joncnunn · February 21, 2003, 15:42

Via an experment a few months ago, I determined that trading with an AI does affect the RNG.

I sent a sucide Galley (empty) that ended turn in a sea tile where it could see one civ. If I made contact with that civ, traded maps, but refused to buy the contact; my galley sank at the end of turn. But if I instead bought the contact to the other AI, my galley stayed afloat!

joncnunn · February 21, 2003, 15:43

That's murphy law.

But note that it's recursive: Filling up the boat with expensive units to sink the galley on purpose won't work.

Quote:

Originally posted by TacticalGrace
If you load the galley up with units then it will sink because it is heavier.

The more expensive the units the heavier they are and so more likely to sink the galley.

Chemical Ollie · February 21, 2003, 21:48

The only galley that sinks is the one that is yours.

Datajack Franit · February 22, 2003, 04:22

exact

statusperfect · February 22, 2003, 15:55

Quote:

Originally posted by Olaf Hårfagre
The only galley that sinks is the one that is yours.

True. AI galleys never sink.

ACooper · February 22, 2003, 16:34

AI galleys don't sink because the never end their turn in an ocean square.

Whether or not you make contact with another civ has nothing to do with your galley sinking.

Jaybe · February 22, 2003, 21:04

Quote:

Originally posted by ACooper
AI galleys don't sink because the never end their turn in an ocean square. ...

... until they have the tech where it is no longer at risk, of course (astronomy (for sea) and navigation or magnetism (for ocean)).

Abdul-Aziz · February 22, 2003, 22:14

Well, as for distances where I have to step on sea only once, they doesn't always sink. However on farther ones, they most likely does... Not sure what is the percent of sinking probability is...

The Mad Monk · February 22, 2003, 22:58

50% of the galleys that end up in sea or ocean will sink.

Of course, what they don't tell you is that the AI gets the 50% that floats, and the human gets the 50% that sinks.

badams52 · February 22, 2003, 23:25

Quote:

Originally posted by TacticalGrace
If you load the galley up with units then it will sink because it is heavier.

The more expensive the units the heavier they are and so more likely to sink the galley.

pedrojedi · February 23, 2003, 07:33

The Galley sinking is OK for me. It happens, the damn thing is not that good anyway. The problem is when the CARAVEL sink. Then it is really, really, REALLY painful, specially when you`re going for that nice island with oil, racing with the AI, and 1 tile away from the sea it does the "crack, fluuuushh" routine.

Very annoying.

Master Zen · February 23, 2003, 12:42

This worked for me about 90% of the time in Civ3...

1) save the game. Move your galley to a sea/ocean square

2) let the turn pass and it will sink

3) re-load the save

4) now DON'T move it into the sea and let the turn pass

5) next turn and move it into the sea and 90% it won't sink.

This is just an empirical observation, could've been coincidence but worked a lot for me.

TacticalGrace · February 24, 2003, 06:00

Quote:

Originally posted by pedrojedi
The Galley sinking is OK for me. It happens, the damn thing is not that good anyway. The problem is when the CARAVEL sink. Then it is really, really, REALLY painful, specially when you`re going for that nice island with oil, racing with the AI, and 1 tile away from the sea it does the "crack, fluuuushh" routine.

surely if you have the tech to be able to see oil then you should never have ships being lost at sea?

minke19104 · February 24, 2003, 14:53

He prolly opened up the Editor to see which islands have oil :P

pedrojedi · February 24, 2003, 21:11

Quote:

surely if you have the tech to be able to see oil then you should never have ships being lost at sea?

heh, I thought about it while reading. Something like "huh?" came to my mind. I really made no sense at all. But I just took a bad, BAD example. Substitute "oil" for "important, very important resource/city pedrojedi couldn't tell at the time, and can't now either. Because he forgot, the poor boy. He's getting old."

But that happend. The d*mn caravel sunk.

GhengisFarb™ · February 24, 2003, 21:13

You just suck at Galley building.