The Sticky Mouse Senate - Succession Game

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by La Fayette


A) Never more than 1 skull/turn from pollution AFAIK.

I mean in one city, of course. If you have 10 cities with 12-15 yellow triangles each, you may get 10 skulls at once.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk

Why are triangles called chimneys??

I think some of us might call them that, because in Civ I, the warning on the city screen was a smoking chimney (as opposed to a yellow triangle).

[Straybow]

Prospecting Specials

Originally posted by Bloody Monk
I mined the grass at Red Haven to reveal a silk, but I don't have your "vision" yet. Are you suggesting that the yellow outlined squares are potential specials?? …What do you mean by (1-3-3-1 and 2-4-2), describing specials pattern?

Here [see previous post] is an example of a 2-4-2 pattern from the 640 save (with some units removed for clarity). Looks like China Road would have been better placed NE of the wheat to eliminate overlap and catch the special.

Yes, I'm saying that the yellow boxes around Lucky Git and Senate Chapel are guaranteed specials. It is a row of 2, a row of 4, another row of 2. Not that all specials are in 1-3-3-1 and 2-4-2 patterns. Some seeds give maps with oddball clumps of two to four specials mixed in with the 1-3-3-1s and 2-4-2s. I think Mad Mad game had some.

Spicealitum and Sarzana are on the upper side of a 2-4-2 pattern, Spicealitum becoming a 3 special location and Sarzana a double. The bottom of the pattern will give a special to Consul's Retreat.

Here from the latest save our friend STYOM has been busy turning grass into forest, but did not use the prospective special sites. The Spice, Whale, Fish and Coal outline the 2-4-2 pattern, and the yellow boxes are guaranteed hidden specials.

[Straybow]

Bad cop, no donut

Originally posted by La Fayette
Look at Sticky Mouse: [a plain] would provide one more food (perhaps one more in size for the city) and 3 trade arrows, which means 24 BEAKERS (with help of Lib, Uni, SETI, Cope and Isaac).

[Ahem] Class, please pay attention. This will be on the final.

First, Sticky Mouse already has hills available for mining, there is no need for forestation. Correct? Second, mining the hills takes 10 turns, and foresting a grasslands takes 10 turns, but the mine produces one more shield. Forestation is less productive. Foresting a plains takes 15 turns, so that is less productive than either.

Second, as I said before, "Sticky Mouse and The Institute are located on a 1-3-3-1 pattern and no new specials will be found." No motive is left for forestation. Correct? So let's examine the area to understand clearly.

A 2-4-2 pattern must be symmetrical, so the missing ends would be up to the left side. Both tiles are already not grassland, so this is either an oddball or a 1-3-3-1. Since the map generator routinely removes deep-sea specials (indicated by question marks) this is the most likely case. If it were an irregular formation it wouldn't matter, because the pattern has no possible hidden sites.

Lastly the SSC wonders mitigate the need for hefty shield count, other than the desire to have 25 for quick freight production, etc. As that argument only applies to one city (or at most two cities if Cope and Newton are separated) it is a moot point.

[Straybow]

Catch the vision, dude

Now let's look at the work near Red Haven. Four specials (magenta boxes) are shown, but is it a 1-3-3-1 or a 2-4-2? The hidden special W of Red Haven would fit either pattern. To be a 2-4-2 the fourth would have to be down to the right because the 2s are centered. That means we've got a 1-3-3-1 here. The two other yellow boxes are guaranteed, the one below Erewhon being outside any city radius. The dotted yellow box is a far-from-shore site that the map generator removed.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

@Monk

In fact the 1:3:3:1 and 2:4:2 patterns are the same pattern, except adjusted by 1/4 turn (90 degrees of rotation).

If you're going to look for the pattern, that knowledge might help. Open the map editor and look at the pattern on the ocean (zoomed out a bit) - it should be obvious then.

[Bloody Monk]

@ Straybow

Thank you very much. I have read many explanations over the years of how to find hidden specials, but yours is by far the most understandable, to me. I am sure that your use of graphics is the difference. Perhaps their are others like me who need a more visual approach. I think this material would make a good thread in the strat forum if you are interested.

[Straybow]

Yes, STYOM, it is the same pattern rotated 90°, but there isn't any good reference to differentiate. If you want to start at the "top" of the pattern the 2-4-2 and 1-3-3-1 labels would be switched. Whatever works for you to visualize the pattern is what matters.

Still doesn't explain why you forested two non-special sites at Sarzana. Join the Gits in excessive Friday night imbibing?

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Straybow
Still doesn't explain why you forested two non-special sites at Sarzana. Join the Gits in excessive Friday night imbibing?

I don't check for the hidden special pattern. Same reason why I don't incrementally buy caravans... it just doesn't seem 'fair' to me, I guess.

And rumor has it that I'm too lazy to be bothered anyway

[El Civ]

Is it my turn? If so you'd better pass me as my home PC keeps re-booting itself (I'm at work now). I don't know what the problem is but I can't even play Civ on my PC and get more than 3-4 turns in before it re-boots and with turns going so long now I'd end up insane trying to play this late game. Sorry guys

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Sorry to hear that, El Civ...

La Fayette is next in that case.

Play list:

SG[1] -vac
SG (2) -vac
El Civ
Julius Brenzaida -vac
La Fayette
Messer Niccolo -vac
Bloody Monk
STYOM

[La Fayette]

El Civ
Sorry for you. Hope you manage to fix this.

(I don't feel sorry for the others, sunbathing, peeping at pretty girls or drinking alcoholic beverages; those people should plainly be ashamed of staying so long away from such a sticky sticky mouse).
I play a few turns (is it 6 now?) before tomorrow night.

[Bloody Monk]

@ El Civ

I seem to remember that you tried the unofficial MPG. It may be that you still have some corrupted files from that "experience". When you got the real MPG did you uninstall all Civ parts and pieces and clean the registry?? Just a thought.

[Bloody Monk]

Skulls and Global Warming

Thanks to everyone for lifting the scales of ignorance from my eyes. When STYOM said so matter of factly that it was no big deal to have skulls around, I decided to test it out. There is no substitute for experience and I must bow to the greater wisdom.

In short, I "played" from the last save and let the skulls pile up. When I say "played" I mean that I held everything as is and clicked thru, doing only what was necessary to keep the peace. After 7 "years" the skulls amounted to 26; and still, there was no Global Warming. In a 'real' game the skulls could have been taken care of easily.

I never tested it out before. Kinda shocking to see how badly I was misled by my assumptions. One last question/request:

--Can someone post a save they may have where there is Global Warming?? Or, alternatively, how does the color of the "sun" indicator change as Global Warming sets in?? In my test it is almost totally white. Will the AI tell you that GW is about to commence??

Thanks

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Re: Skulls and Global Warming

Originally posted by Bloody Monk

In short, I "played" from the last save and let the skulls pile up. When I say "played" I mean that I held everything as is and clicked thru, doing only what was necessary to keep the peace. After 7 "years" the skulls amounted to 26; and still, there was no Global Warming. In a 'real' game the skulls could have been taken care of easily.

Yes.... that's taking it a bit far - the only time I can imagine that many skulls piling up unchecked would be a nuclear war situation.

Can someone post a save they may have where there is Global Warming?? Or, alternatively, how does the color of the "sun" indicator change as Global Warming sets in?? In my test it is almost totally white. Will the AI tell you that GW is about to commence??

Thanks

I don't have any saves like that, unfortunately (or fortunately for me). The sun will start yellow and progress until it is bright white. Then, IIRC, there is a message warning you that GW is imminent. A turn or two later, the message window advises that waters rise, glaciers melt, etc... a lot of land squares change for the worse, but the seas don't actually rise (turning land squares to sea doesn't happen).

Then the process starts again, gradually, if you still leave the pollution around. Of course, you should never let things go this far.

If you have ToT, the (long completed) Invasion Earth game has some brutal episodes of global warming, largely due to nukes.