Best threads of the past year

Arrian · August 15, 2003, 14:08

Generally speaking, if it was written by ToeTruck, it's worth reading.

to MS for taking on a whole bunch of work that none of us were willing to do.

-Arrian

GodKing · August 16, 2003, 15:46

Wow. Get a power outage, come back in a couple of days, and look at all the work....

Two things I didn't see much of while glancing through.

1) Demo games - might be worth mentioning what they are. No big deal as it is not really a strategy thing as it is just a method of playing.

2) Multiple team - mostly PBEM games. There is a lot of differences that must be taken into account when you are playing against another human. Don't knwo of much that has been writen about this though.

Mountain Sage · August 18, 2003, 04:21

Hi everybody,

some quick comments:

vmxa1: rtf file?
why not? if I cannot do it myself, we'll find somebody who can do it.

Konquest02: nitpicking
the number of chapters and their contents will change a bit, don't worry. We will vote about it later on.
IFE: if it was a bug and it has been corrected, this thread will be dropped. Awaiting 'official' confirmation.

GarP2 and Arrian: ToeTruck thread about OCC will definitively be included. I'm just awaiting for more comments on/in it...

GodKing: PBEM and Demo games
Why not putting in a chapter each? THanks, you just volunteered
...
But nobody answered my question: who is going to volunteer for editing the threads?

GodKing · August 18, 2003, 17:07

I will do some. But it will not happen over night for me. Just ask me to do a topic and I will do some research, consolidation, writing, then post it for review. We can then go from there.

vmxa1 · August 18, 2003, 18:58

MS RTF is a file type that is used for Word or WordPad. It stands for Rich Text file. It allows for colors and highlights and such. This provides a format that can do a few useful things, but not require a non standard product. You can read it with notepad if it is not too large. Everybody does not have Word, I am guessing. No matter to me, as I have MIcrosoft Office.

vmxa1 · August 18, 2003, 19:08

Originally posted by Mountain Sage
But nobody answered my question: who is going to volunteer for editing the threads?

What type of editing are you looking for? Just putting a thread all into a single file with some removal of some items?
Or are you talking about true editing as in proof reading and spell checking and such?

IOW are you wanting to get the threads pulled into seperate files for some one to clean up later or the whole 9 yards?

Yahweh Sabaoth · August 19, 2003, 09:56

I would like to keep a guide a .doc file, but that's just my personal style. Hopefully the document will be printable easily, but then, not everyone has access to a velobinding machine like me and hence not everyone can make a nice book out of this when it's finished.

I would like to help edit this; I haven't been able to get on 'Poly for a few days. Power outage I guess?

Mountain Sage · August 21, 2003, 04:50

Originally posted by vmxa1

What type of editing are you looking for? Just putting a thread all into a single file with some removal of some items?
Or are you talking about true editing as in proof reading and spell checking and such?

IOW are you wanting to get the threads pulled into seperate files for some one to clean up later or the whole 9 yards?

vmxa1:
If people are willing to put a thread (or combine 2-3 threads) into a single logical file, then I can do the proof reading and spell checking.

Then, you post them as new threads with the mention 'Civ3 guidebook'. People will have a last chance of making comments. Then I will do the proof reading and spell checking and 'bind' them on my computer.
Once all chapters are done.. the manual is ready.

YS:
you could help me in editing some threads first, then, if you still have the courage, I mostly welcome your offer of proof reading and spell checking.

Therefore, for anybody wanting to help in this (I cannot do everything), your job would be most to 'cut & paste' those threads and/or combine some to have one logical thread.

MrWhereItsAt · August 21, 2003, 05:25

I have been putting together the undocumented features (eg research costs, what the Demographics mean etc) for a while now, and have a large unedited wordfile of them. The only thing is that so much of it is from 1.17f or 1.21f of the game that it is really hard to know what still holds.

Has anyone got a way to resolve this, IMO the largest problem to deal with in compiling a guide full of USEful info?

GodKing · August 21, 2003, 08:49

Fraid not MWIA. That is a problem with almost all of this. Unfortunately, C3C will also do so many changes I am afraid that whatever we do now will be of only partial worth.

Here is something that kring passed on. I figured it would be a good starter and is not expected to have changed or to be changed.

Mike B of Firaxis posted this information about unit promotion. It only applies to unit promotion and not Great Leader probability:

Odds of promotion are based on whether the civ has the Militaristic trait or not and whether the victory was against barbarians or not. Basically, chances of promotion are halved for victories over Barbarians and doubled for Militaristic civs.

non-militaristic civ vs. non-barbarians:
conscript to regular: 1 in 2
regular to veteran: 1 in 4
veteran to elite: 1 in 8

non-militaristic civ vs. barbarians:
conscript to regular: 1 in 4
regular to veteran: 1 in 8
veteran to elite: 1 in 16

militaristic civ vs. non-barbarians:
conscript to regular: 1 in 1
regular to veteran: 1 in 2
veteran to elite: 1 in 4

militaristic civ vs. barbarians:
conscript to regular: 1 in 2
regular to veteran: 1 in 4
veteran to elite: 1 in 8

If a victorious unit fails to get promoted, it will always be promoted upon surviving any other battle in the same turn . This gives an obvious advantage to defenders as well as an incentive to use the same offensive units for additional battles whenever possible.

Gufnork · August 21, 2003, 10:20

Both .rtf and .doc are typically bad formats to write guides in. .ps or .pdf are the best choices, but .txt also works. The thing is that .rtf and .doc requires windows, which isn't something everyone has. Post Script and pdf works on all systems and so does .txt I think (I know it works in windows and unix, not sure about mac).

Yahweh Sabaoth · August 21, 2003, 10:39

Originally posted by Mountain Sage
Therefore, for anybody wanting to help in this (I cannot do everything), your job would be most to 'cut & paste' those threads and/or combine some to have one logical thread.

Sounds good to me.

Mountain Sage · August 26, 2003, 09:30

Ok,
I started on the Guide (chapter 2 so far).
I REALLY need some people to cut and paste chapter 18 'specific civs'. Can somebody prepare 1 updated document for each civ?
Thanks a lot,
MS

bongo · August 26, 2003, 10:25

This is Really impressive.

Excellent work.

MS: Have you visited the german webring forum? They have a similar structure. You should take a look if you need some inspiration.

If you still are working on this in november I'll volunteer to help. RL should be a bit more quiet by then.

GodKing · August 26, 2003, 17:00

First time I have been able to get onto poly for a week. Still recovering from Lasik. Once done, I should hopefully be able to help out a bit.

bongo · August 27, 2003, 04:14

Lasik like in eye-surgery? You should be able to see the screen without glasses then

(I had my eyes done almost two years ago, expensive but worth it. I have perfect vision now)

Mountain Sage · August 27, 2003, 04:30

bongo,
can you give me the link to the German website?
many thanks

bongo · August 27, 2003, 04:39

Sure

http://civ2-forum.gamigo.de//index.php?s=

Look in the 'civ3-allgemein forum'. They have several topped thread(wichtig), I guess 'civ3 Forum-Bibliothek' gets very close to what you work on now.

Edit:
Judging by your flag you are swiss, guess you'll have less problems than me reading those forums. I have to keep a dictonary at hand all the time

GodKing · August 27, 2003, 10:13

Yep. Lasik as in eye surgery. Unfortunately, there are complications and my vision is... well... healing. Just need to give it time. Doc said that in a week or so.... just cross your fingers.

bongo · August 27, 2003, 10:55

Good luck

I must have been lucky, no complications, my eyes were fine the next day. Had a minor correction(right eye) one year after the first operation. Didn't really need it but as I hunt and shoot some I like to have the best possible vision on my aiming eye.

Mountain Sage · August 30, 2003, 15:35

Originally posted by bongo
Sure

http://civ2-forum.gamigo.de//index.php?s=

Look in the 'civ3-allgemein forum'. They have several topped thread(wichtig), I guess 'civ3 Forum-Bibliothek' gets very close to what you work on now.

Edit:
Judging by your flag you are swiss, guess you'll have less problems than me reading those forums. I have to keep a dictonary at hand all the time

Thanks a lot, I will check it asap.
Yes, I don't have problems reading 'Swiss'

Mountain Sage · September 2, 2003, 04:10

bongo,

I had a look at the German website. Some quick comments:
Their 'Library' is ordered alphabetically. That's clever because you have quick access to the relevant topics, once you know the 'magic' headword (example: palace and FP are under 'Palace').
My 'Best threads of the past year', however, was done differently. I thought it would be more helpful to put all threads about a specific topic together. For instance, all threads about specific civs are together, and not the Americans under 'A' and the French under 'F'.
Just a different approach.
As for the 'Civ3 guidebook', I'm not sure I want it done alphabetically.

In the German website, there seem to be just very few strategy or civ-related threads. Most begin with 'what about...' or 'can you help with...'
So, 'poly has a distinctive competitive advantage

(but do the Germans know it?).

Somebody even quoted bamspeedy there, but took his quote from one of his civfanatics threads instead

Could somebody tell the Germans that 'poly also exists, please, and that they should quote from us?

Anyway, thanks for the tip, I'll visit it regularly, without posting however.

fanes7 · September 2, 2003, 06:41

Odds of promotion are based on whether the civ has the Militaristic trait or not and whether the victory was against barbarians or not. Basically, chances of promotion are halved for victories over Barbarians and doubled for Militaristic civs.

that's a great work! So I like military-civ more and more, It's easy upgrade!

dexters · September 10, 2003, 04:02

Wow. I know completion is a ways off, but I can provide some hosting bandwidth when the file is completed as a mirror. I've got 2 gigs right now, barely being used.

Unless of course, my host decides to pull my bandwidth