AU 100A: Introduction to Apolyton University Game A

nbarclay · November 24, 2005, 07:53

I'll be posting a master thread with a more complete introduction to AU 100 later, but I want to go ahead and get this game started. For the time being, suffice it to say that the goal of this course is to get acquanted with Civilization 4 and, seconarily, for newcomers to get some experience with writing DARs (During Action Reports) and get better acquainted with Apolyton University in general.

As per the votes, the settings for this game are George Washington of America on the a standard-size continents map. The other settings are temperate climate and medium sea level, which I believe are the defaults.

In order to facilitate playing on any difficulty level, I've set up a World Builder scenario file rather than a regular save file. The instructions for installing the file and starting the game are as follows. (I'd appreciate it if the first person or two who tries this would let me know whether or not there are any problems.)

Instructions:

1. Unzip the file and put it in the WorldBuilder directory in the Saves folder.

2. Start Civ IV and select Single Player, then Scenario.

3. Select AU 100-A and click OK on the bottom right corner.

4. Leave American Empire selected and click OK. (Otherwise, you’ll probably be playing not only the wrong civ but also the wrong starting location and so forth.)

5. If you like, you can change your leader name and other information. Then click OK.

6. Select your difficulty level. (Please leave Game Speed at Normal so we’ll all be playing under the same conditions.) Then click OK.

At this point, you should be ready to start playing.

For anyone who has trouble finding the saves folder, the full path to the file on my computer is:
C:\Documents and Settings\Compaq_Owner\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Saves\WorldBuilder\AU 100-A.zip

Note that Compaq_Owner is the username, and is likely to be different on other systems.

And here's the file:

nbarclay · November 24, 2005, 08:04

I'm tentatively thinking the During Action Reports (DARs) should be broken up into the following periods, but I haven't played enough to be sure I'm remembering the eras correctly (or even remembering correctly exactly how many there are). I'll wait a little while to start DAR threads in case anyone has corrections or alternative suggestions.

DAR 1: 4000 BC - 1500 BC
DAR 2: 1500 BC Until Start of Classical Era
DAR 3: The Classical Era
DAR 4: The Medieval Era
DAR 5: The Renaissance Era
DAR 6: The Industrial Era
DAR 7: The Modern Era

Edit: After playing to the start of the medieval era, I decided that having from 1500 BC to the medieval era (in my case 450 AD) in a single DAR was too much, so I'm modifying the DAR structure to have a (likely relatively short in most cases) DAR covering from 1500 BC to the start of the classical era.

Skatterbone · November 24, 2005, 11:00

Downloaded, extracted and opened in Civ4 without a hitch. Thanks nbarclay.

Caligula 37 AD · November 24, 2005, 12:29

Is the 100A tested with patch v1.09?
I'm getting a "Load Error. Can not load version 100, expected version 101" trying to load it.

Just installed the patch. Created another game from scratch, that seems to run OK, in the first 4-5 turns anyway.

Aeson · November 24, 2005, 13:19

The game loads for me in v109.

Is it meant to be able to choose the game speeds?

nbarclay · November 24, 2005, 13:34

Originally posted by Aeson

Is it meant to be able to choose the game speeds?

It's not really meant, and I specifically asked in the set-up instructions that people play at Normal speed. But I don't know enough about World Builder files to know a way of making it impossible to play at a different speed.

nbarclay · November 24, 2005, 13:41

Originally posted by Caligula 37 AD
Is the 100A tested with patch v1.09?

I created it with 1.09. The only possible caveat is that I tried out the buggy 1.08 patch before upgrading to 1.09, and it's not completely inconceivable that that could have introduced a problem.

Aeson · November 24, 2005, 14:22

Originally posted by nbarclay

It's not really meant, and I specifically asked in the set-up instructions that people play at Normal speed. But I don't know enough about World Builder files to know a way of making it impossible to play at a different speed.

I think this will do it:

Code:

Version=11
BeginGame
	Speed=GAMESPEED_NORMAL
	ForceControl=FORCECONTROL_SPEED

You can disable civs from being playable by changing each:

Code:

BeginPlayer
...                     
	PlayableCiv=0

Though there may be a Player and ForceControl combo to do the same thing?

Caligula 37 AD · November 24, 2005, 17:04

Quoting myself:
I'm getting a "Load Error. Can not load version 100, expected version 101" trying to load it.

The problem is fixed!
It was my bad as I had the game open while running an update file from c:/
Obviously the InstallShield(R) does not close the game as the update from ingame does.
I blame it on my "Settler" status. I guess I should

...

- C

Rhothaerill · November 24, 2005, 17:13

Well now, I haven't played an AU game in quite a while (when C3C SP games started getting boring). Time to start a new game then...I wonder if I'll do well or not.

I'll try this one later this weekend since I'm in the middle of Thanksgiving holidays right now.

DrSpike · November 26, 2005, 04:36

I've downloaded - I'll try to make a start this weekend, though it depends on how much MP I play.

Fireb · November 26, 2005, 05:38

These games are fun, but I presume that this being a center for academic learning

, there is a greater purpose to them?

By which I mean there will be an analysis stage. What will this involve? Who will do it? When will it start?

Velociryx · November 26, 2005, 06:52

Just downloaded it! Will have a look-see this morning!

-=Vel=-

Velociryx · November 26, 2005, 07:03

I just posted this over in the patch forum, but I'll post it here too, as it appears that I'll be some delayed in starting the AU courses.....

I got the same strange message already posted about "not being able to find a valid source for Civ 4, patch cannot be installed" then, after several minutes, it DID install (or seemed to). Rebooted, and on game start, I get up to "Init XML (cached)" and then the application stops running.

That's as far as I can get, so for the time being, I'm backing off of the patch.

-=Vel=-

DrSpike · November 26, 2005, 07:08

I got a similar error, but ignored it and it worked.

Velociryx · November 26, 2005, 07:36

took me a bit, but I finally got it running....downloading the game now...

-=Vel=-

joncnunn · November 26, 2005, 18:25

I've downloaded and made a couple of moves in 4000 BC [after having downloaded and installed the 1.09 patch.]

nbarclay · November 26, 2005, 19:29

Originally posted by Fireb
These games are fun, but I presume that this being a center for academic learning

, there is a greater purpose to them?

By which I mean there will be an analysis stage. What will this involve? Who will do it? When will it start?

There are three main ways that these games are oriented toward learning. First, just comparing different strategies playing the same civ on the same map is a useful learning experience. Second, players often comment on their own strategies, and sometimes on other players' strategies, in the DAR threads. And third, there's a post-game wrap-up thread (which I haven't started yet) specifically for players to post about and discuss things they learned from the game.

DeepO · November 27, 2005, 06:27

A suggestion: add to DAR 3 the 1AD reporting point. Or 50 AD as that is normally an autosave.

The reason that the Classical era is not well defined: You can get to Medieval without having all the ancient techs, but you can also wait until after 1000 AD. So, some games will only have meaningful DARs 1,4,5,6,7.

If 1 AD becomes a reporting point, it will be easier to compare: If you enter the medieval era in the BCs, just keep on posting in DAR 3 (Classical Era) until 1 AD. Others, which spend from 500 BC to 1000 AD in the Classical era stop in the middle of the DAR, and report in 1 AD as well (and continue posting in DAR 3 until they reach Medieval techs).

Tech isn't eveverything, the size of your empire and the ability to wage war are also important. Comparison after a certain set number of turns is also needed.

DeepO

Dubhghlas · November 27, 2005, 07:32

I agree, DeepO. As my DAR will show, I went right past one of the eras in practically no time at all, making it hard to fit the DAR in the current system.

It actually ought to be based upon number of game turns you have completed, but the easy referent of 1 AD makes sense.

Cort Haus · November 29, 2005, 10:42

Another DAR landmark to consider (though not for this game) is exploration and contact. In the Civ 3 AU we often had one landmark at contact with all civs on the home continent, and another with contact with the oversears Civs. This reduces the 'spoiler' effect of, say, an extreme Optics beeline revealing most of the map in a DAR.

DeepO · November 29, 2005, 13:11

Exploration is a bit of an issue, yes. I only got the lay of the continent after paper as borders were still closed. Of course, you can't really miss the form of the continent once you're reading other poster's DAR #1.

It didn't matter too much, though. I didn't care for the map or I would have gone for it in-game

There is one more problem with the current structure: I finally saw where the cows, bronze and iron were in DAR #3. But the screenshots of DAR #1 will show these resources in about half the games. Now I played to Alphabet before starting (or reading) DAR #1, but still...

DeepO

Arrian · November 30, 2005, 07:50

Sweet. I downloaded it yesterday, and have played through 1800 AD. I'll post some DARs tonight.

Technically, my DAR3 and DAR4 are the same - since I entered the Classical & Medieval Era on the same turn (Oracle CS slingshot). My notes went through a really bad stretch there anyway (I really have to work at taking notes while playing. They start off great but tend to trail off over time). They improve in the renaissance/industrial eras though.

-Arrian

DrSpike · November 30, 2005, 12:18

Originally posted by Arrian
Sweet. I downloaded it yesterday, and have played through 1800 AD.

Nice session.

Arrian · November 30, 2005, 12:23

Yeah, I had the day off, so I played from about 2pm until about 10pm, with a break for dinner/dog walking.

This was the result of getting a book from the library (Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix) and deciding, rather stupidly, that I really must finish it in one sitting. This resulted in being up until 3am, which resulted in me blowing a vacation day. This lead to a solid civ session and a minor lecture from the wife.

-Arrian

DrSpike · November 30, 2005, 12:26

I would have lectured you too - you should have played Civ till 3am, then taken the day of the recover whilst playing Civ.

Or wasn't that what she meant?

Arrian · November 30, 2005, 12:40

No, she was upset that I said something like "I promise I'll just finish this chapter" around 10pm. The word "promise" was the problem. Don't promise stuff to people when you ought to know you're full of ****.

-Arrian

DrSpike · November 30, 2005, 12:54

I promise this is the last turn.................

wardhali · December 28, 2005, 14:15

i routinely stay up till 2:30 (AM) playing civ

BTW can anyone tell me how to post screenies?

i can get a chopped version up, but only at the end of a post.

i cant find how to

A post w/o chopping to 800*600
B post in the middle of thread/more than one in post

thanks

vmxa1 · December 28, 2005, 16:18

You just use the post reply as opposed to the quick reply. You will then see an option below the window for attachments. Here you select that buton an use the explorer like function to located the screen shot on your system.

Basically the same as you would for email. Then submit the reply.
Screens have to be of certain types and not over 500K.

This is handled by converting to jpeg at 800.