Initial Civ IV AU Courses

[Dominae]

Yeah, the AI is not half bad at the Space Race this time around.

[Arrian]

Not bad at all. Three techs up on me, I can't prebuild and I can't trade/buy those techs. I really don't think I can catch them. And the AI seems to be punching out more late GP's than I am. I've had two GP-fueled golden ages, but maybe I blew 'em too early.

-Arrian

[Dominae]

A Great Library by any other name is still...

[Arrian]

The internet, you mean. Here's the problem: only ONE AI civ has the techs I need and is going to beat me. I'm ahead of all the other AIs (there is one civ that has 1 tech I don't, but I don't think it's a space-race tech... communism?).

-Arrian

[Dominae]

Well, then, you're cooked.

[ZargonX]

I've lost all three of my games in the Space Race I think a lot of it stems from my (mis)use of Great People. I had the tech lead, but my Great Prophets proved almost useless in the modern era, while the AI was clearly using Great Scientists and Great Engineers to hoof it past me. Isabella discovered rocketry and had the Apollo program built in the span of 2 turns, while I was chugging along 15 turns behind her...

[Krill]

Heh Arrian, I hope that your new life is not hurting you too much. get your GF onto the new game, nad away it goes...

Oh, and try beating the AI to a space ship victory at OCC. The game only takes about 6 hours or so, but the AI eats me alive every time...even on Noble...

[Aeson]

Originally posted by Arrian
I assume you can use a map that's already been generated - like the map I'm currently playing on? It's a solid start location, but not at all without its challenges. It's quite the balanced map, I feel. I think it would work quite well for an AU game. Standard across the board, including world size, Nathan

If I access the worldbuilder, can I load up that map, start a game in each difficulty and save it... and *presto* I'm done, or is there more to it?

Actually, the easiest way would just be to use WBQuickSave.Civ4WorldBuilderSave (in My Documents\My Games\Saves\WorldBuilder), which is the 4000BC "scenario" of the last game you've started. (WBAutoSave is the scenario of the last turn in that you've played.) Rename it so it doesn't get confused/overwritten by world builder saves on the player's machine. Then let the player start up their game by opening that world builder save in Single Player->Play a Scenario. They could choose difficulty and game speed.

They can also choose which civ to play by default, which in some cases might be fun. To disable that open up the world builder save in a text editor and for each civ you don't want to be playable change the following value to 0:

BeginPlayer
	Team=0
	LeaderType=LEADER_NAPOLEON
	LeaderName=Aeson
	CivDesc=French Empire
	CivShortDesc=France
	CivAdjective=French
	FlagDecal=Art/Interface/TeamColor/FlagDECAL_FleurDeLis.dds
	WhiteFlag=0
	CivType=CIVILIZATION_FRANCE
	Color=PLAYERCOLOR_DARK_BLUE
	ArtStyle=ARTSTYLE_EUROPEAN
	[b]PlayableCiv=1[/b]
	MinorNationStatus=0
	StartingGold=0
	StartingX=11, StartingY=7
	StateReligion=
	StartingEra=ERA_ANCIENT
	CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_GOVERNMENT, Civic=CIVIC_DESPOTISM
	CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_LEGAL, Civic=CIVIC_BARBARISM
	CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_LABOR, Civic=CIVIC_TRIBALISM
	CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_ECONOMY, Civic=CIVIC_DECENTRALIZATION
	CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_RELIGION, Civic=CIVIC_PAGANISM
	Handicap=HANDICAP_NOBLE
EndPlayer

[Arrian]

Ok, cool. I just finished that game and I'm happy I saw your post before starting a new one!

Incidently, I squeeked out a win. JUST. I managed to get the Space Elevator built (helped by a great engineer) and nailed the last piece before the AI. I think they were 1 away, so it was a matter of a few turns.

-Arrian

edit: I should clarify one thing. I was behind 2 spacerace techs, not 3. The 3rd was communism, which wasn't important. I caught up partly by running science in about 1/2 my cities, and partly due to my production advantage.

[Arrian]

Hrm. It won't let me upload or attach the worldbuilder file. It claims it's an invalid file type. I think because it's labeled a .worldbuildersav instead of just a .sav file.

Should I change it to .sav to get 'poly to accept it?

-Arrian

[Krill]

yeah, just change the file name to .sav, and poly will accept it...

[vovan]

Originally posted by Arrian
Hrm. It won't let me upload or attach the worldbuilder file. It claims it's an invalid file type. I think because it's labeled a .worldbuildersav instead of just a .sav file.

Should I change it to .sav to get 'poly to accept it?

Why not just zip it up. A smaller download, and people won't have to mess with the extension again to load the scenario.

Vovan

[Krill]

oh and for those testers that don't have the game yet , will the game still run with this WBsav?

[Arrian]

That I don't know, Krill, but I kinda doubt it.

Vovan - good idea. I'll do that tonight.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Aeson,

Actually, the easiest way would just be to use WBQuickSave.Civ4WorldBuilderSave (in My Documents\My Games\Saves\WorldBuilder), which is the 4000BC "scenario" of the last game you've started. (WBAutoSave is the scenario of the last turn in that you've played.) Rename it so it doesn't get confused/overwritten by world builder saves on the player's machine. Then let the player start up their game by opening that world builder save in Single Player->Play a Scenario.

I noticed something last night. I was playing my 4th game and I made a mistake - I call this "bad driving" (when you click on a button you didn't mean to click). So I tried to back up one turn by using the WBAutoSave - loading it as a scenario. Everything worked (except that the "mistake move" had already been made somehow) but the date counter started at 2000AD. I didn't notice it for quite a while, but I think I'm now in like 2200 AD or somesuch (really in the renaissance). Bug?

-Arrian