AU402 - Gargantua - Page 2

Dominae · June 27, 2003, 12:25

Quote:

Originally posted by alexman
but then is using Artillery an exploit too?

Exploit!

Seriously now, perhaps someone should give a little tutorial on how the "naval transport" trick works (I've never used it myself). Could make many games are lot more enjoyable.

Dominae

jim_steer · June 27, 2003, 12:29

Quote:

Originally posted by Dominae
Seriously now, perhaps someone should give a little tutorial on how the "naval transport" trick works

Good call, I think I am going to need it on this map.

Catt · June 27, 2003, 13:11

Quote:

Originally posted by Jawa Jocky
I've got . . . a case of beer and free weekend. Let's get started

Only a case? It's bloody hot here in the SF Bay Area, and I think I'll be needing more than a case

I'm going to start later today. Hope my 1.6 Gz 256 Mb laptop doesn't collapse under the strain.

I'll leave it to alexman to explain ship-chaining. Whether or not you consider it an exploit, it is a royal pain in the butt and, for me, will probably fall into the same category as checking trade opportunities every turn among 20+ civs -- an optimal play but outweighed by the micromanagement requirements if the goal is fun (all in my opinion, of course).

Catt

Panzer32 · June 27, 2003, 14:00

I think I'll wait until I get a new computer (soon

) before I try this

burly · June 27, 2003, 14:21

This ship-chaining sounds like a nifty little trick!

I'm playing on an AMD AthlonXP 2100 w/ 1GB of RAM and I'm already near 300AD with turn times around 5 seconds, which is about what it was at the start. I really don't expect much of a slowdown throughout the game, although I've never played with more than 16 CIV's. Maybe that will affect it?

I agree that inter-continental unit-movement is absurdly slow, especially given that units can zoom across a single continent in one turn. I was hoping that CIV3 would have better air-transport capabilities than CIV2, especially late in the modern age. Alas!

vmxa1 · June 27, 2003, 16:16

I have run into a serious problem. PTW keeps crashing and now it does not want to load.
I had a similar issue with AU208, but managed to play through it. I sent in a report, but I am not expecting to get any he;p soon.
I am not anxious to drop it on my back up PC (1.7GH Pent on win98SE).

Rhothaerill · June 27, 2003, 16:39

Quote:

Originally posted by vmxa1
I have run into a serious problem. PTW keeps crashing and now it does not want to load.
I had a similar issue with AU208, but managed to play through it. I sent in a report, but I am not expecting to get any he;p soon.
I am not anxious to drop it on my back up PC (1.7GH Pent on win98SE).

Ouch! That's rough. Well I hope you get your computer back up. I haven't had time to get far enough in the game yet for the turn back-ups to be a problem.

1.7GHz Pentium as a back-up computer? Sounds like a programmer.

My wife's sister and her husband used to work for Intel and have I believe 7 computers in their computer room solely devoted to gaming and emails!! My wife and I get by with one computer that isn't even as good as your back-up.

vmxa1 · June 27, 2003, 20:16

It is not my PC that is crashing, it is PTW. I finally rebooted and seem to be ok for now, but who knows how long that will last.
Whoops took another dump. I wonder if Norton anti virus is involved.
I am determined to try to hang in, but it is gettign to be a real burden.
BTW I do not even work. I got layed off two years ago and decide to take a few years off. I was a system programmer though.

MrWhereItsAt · June 29, 2003, 08:39

Wow. I will start it, and vote here later based on how the slowdown is. I don't expect to get far with this monster though. Trust my luck to attempt a start of AU when small maps are out.

Theseus · June 29, 2003, 14:33

Here I go... Vikings, Monarch. We'll see how old Betsy (my comp) holds up.

Theseus · June 29, 2003, 18:34

It occurs to me... aren't we being historically biased? Weren't the Chinese and the Arabs terrific sea-going nations at various times?

Just a thought. Too late now.

Beta · June 29, 2003, 19:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Catt

I'll leave it to alexman to explain ship-chaining. Whether or not you consider it an exploit, it is a royal pain in the butt and, for me, will probably fall into the same category as checking trade opportunities every turn among 20+ civs -- an optimal play but outweighed by the micromanagement requirements if the goal is fun (all in my opinion, of course).

Agreed! 110%!

OK - the new computer will now get to stretch its legs a bit.....

Konquest02 · June 29, 2003, 21:33

Cool Beta!

Welcome to AU!

nbarclay · June 30, 2003, 03:47

Interpolating from available evidence, I think the forbidden palace probably becomes available at 30 cities (half the OCN). Whether that's different for commercial civs, which have a higher effective OCN, I don't know.

FrustratedPoet · June 30, 2003, 05:57

I'm playing as Carthage on Regent - yes I am a big girl's blouse.

I should (fingers crossed) be building the Great Lighthouse in a couple of turns. I've got several galleys on standby to get out and explore. I plan to do a brief 1AD DAR and continue from there up until I get bored or win.

alva · June 30, 2003, 06:46

Quote:

I plan to do a brief 1AD DAR and continue from there up until I get bored or win.

Win???

FrustratedPoet · June 30, 2003, 06:55

Stranger things have happend, although only two spring to mind, alva: the spontaneous combustion of the Mayor of Warsaw in 1546 and that incident in 12th century Burgandy when it rained herring.

vmxa1 · July 1, 2003, 00:51

Quote:

Originally posted by nbarclay
Interpolating from available evidence, I think the forbidden palace probably becomes available at 30 cities (half the OCN). Whether that's different for commercial civs, which have a higher effective OCN, I don't know.

So the OCN here is 60. I rhink I am close to 30 cities now as a commercial so I wil find out soon. Thanks.

vulture · July 1, 2003, 09:06

I'm getting started this evening. Haven't decided between Carthage and Spain as my civ yet, but will probably go Carthage (or may just let the computer choose for me).

Arrian · July 1, 2003, 09:27

MADNESS!

-Arrian (whose 800mhz system wouldn't stand a chance)

nbarclay · July 1, 2003, 10:06

Quote:

Originally posted by Arrian

-Arrian (whose 800mhz system wouldn't stand a chance)

It's bad enough on my dual Athlon 2000+ system with 1.5 gigs of RAM. I timed a turn somewhere around the middle of the industrial era a while back and it took five minutes to cycle, not counting time waiting for user input. (Of course Civ 3 itself doesn't have the foggiest idea what to do with the second CPU, but the extra CPU lets me do other things while I wait without the kind of competition for computing power that would occur with just one.

)

This isn't really your kind of game anyhow. The only way I can picture going for Ultimate Power on this map is to go into the editor and trade starting positions with another Civ. (There are one or two at least that do have very definite UP potential.) This is more the sort of game for people looking for a challenge (and who don't mind waiting a long time for turns to cycle as the game progresses).

Arrian · July 1, 2003, 10:33

Heh, I've read your DARs, though, Nathan, and you've got the closest thing to UP that's possible on this map, I think. Economic & Military UP, anyway. And you're working on the territory.

I actually like the overall idea (islands all over the place, resources distrubuted such that you need to get those islands, etc) quite a bit, but no way do I have the patience for this map without a MONSTER system. One of the things that makes this attractive to me is the tweaking of the tech cost so that the research pace doesn't resemble an Olympic 100m dash. I'm ok with not playing every game for UP (just most

).

I tried Marla's map once, and was up over 1/2 hour-long turns in the industrial age. Bah!

-Arrian

vmxa1 · July 1, 2003, 12:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Arrian

I tried Marla's map once, and was up over 1/2 hour-long turns in the industrial age. Bah!

-Arrian

Then you would not enjoy this map. I bet it is at least twice as painful as the Marla map.
I was just wondering where you were, glad to see you are still posting.

Rhothaerill · July 1, 2003, 13:21

My in-between turn times are definitely getting slower too.

My P3 850 might be too slow to run this, but I'll continue to stick it out. At least I have a good book to read during turns.

Welcome back Arrian.

Arrian · July 1, 2003, 13:39

vxma1 & Rhothaerill,

I wasn't really gone, but between Apolyton's server being horribly slow or down, softball games after work, and one of my closest friend's wedding, I haven't spent as much time on the computer.

I have pretty much just been checking in on the PTW Demogames. I haven't actually played Civ in over a week. For me, that's an

-Arrian

p.s. Rhothaerill - that's what I tried to do w/Marla's map. I think I read most of Tolkein's "Unfinished Tales" (edited by JRR's son) during the medieval age.

But eventually, when I got up to 45mins/turn, I gave up. My computer is actually a 400mhz machine - it's my girlfriend's that is 800mhz, and it didn't help much anyway. She still refers to that game as "the monstrosity"

Arrian · July 1, 2003, 14:03

edit: speak of the ****ing devil! Double post. Freakin' server.

-Arrian

Rhothaerill · July 1, 2003, 14:19

Quote:

Originally posted by Arrian
p.s. Rhothaerill - that's what I tried to do w/Marla's map. I think I read most of Tolkein's "Unfinished Tales" (edited by JRR's son) during the medieval age.

But eventually, when I got up to 45mins/turn, I gave up. My computer is actually a 400mhz machine - it's my girlfriend's that is 800mhz, and it didn't help much anyway. She still refers to that game as "the monstrosity"

I think that computer performance issues will be a big factor in whether or not I finish this game. It might be a few days before I even have a chance to write my 10ad-1,000ad DAR.

I've never read Unfinished Tales. I'm currently reading David Eddings' latest book. It's pretty good.

nbarclay · July 1, 2003, 14:50

Quote:

Originally posted by Arrian
Heh, I've read your DARs, though, Nathan, and you've got the closest thing to UP that's possible on this map, I think. Economic & Military UP, anyway. And you're working on the territory.

What I have needs a new term to describe it: LUP, for Local Ultimate Power. Elsewhere in the world, there's another civ that's about as big and nasty as I am - just a little less technologically advanced (well, maybe more than a little now that I got ToE), but about even with me in GNP and stronger militarily even at the height of my military power. But none of my more immediate neighbors are/were within shouting distance, so I had a choice of targets when I was ready to, shall we say, enlarge my borders.

Jawa Jocky · July 1, 2003, 15:03

I'm around 250ad and my between turns are taking over 30 seconds now. This seems relatively slow compared to other systems. I have a 2Ghz-P4 with 512ram. I thought about jumping to 1G RAM, but I'd hate to burn $90.00 just to find there is a bottleneck somewhere else.

I would love to get info on what programs and services can be turned of to improve performance (XP OS). I've tried disabling NAV, but I didn't notice any difference.

alva · July 1, 2003, 15:08

Unless you have alot of programs running in the background, you are not going to see a big difference.

Try closing things as e-mail programs, virus -scanners etc..

and do your brouwsing while the turn takes place, or even some vacuming or dishes

.

I'm at 560 AD now, and I think I'm pushing three minutes now (until first build pop-up).
2000XP
756 MB-Ram