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  • AU302: One City

    Welcome to the newest course of the Apolyton University! If you're new to AU, see introductory paragraph below to get yourself oriented.

    What is the theme for this course? An excerpt from the Book of 'Poly:

    And the Deity-of-your-choice spoke in His or Her booming voice: "Thou hast been chosen to be the leader of a great civilization, one that will be confined to one settlement only, a thriving metropolis in My honor...and it will be Good. Beware! Do not defy My decree, or thou shalt be slain, then reincarnated on a so very cold island. Go forth now, and prove thyself." And it was done. And it was Good.

    If you're still not sure what the point is, it is this: you must beat this game with the help of one city only. It is possible! You may not 1) found a city with Settler if you already control a city, 2) capture cities, 3) buy cities, and finally 4) accept cultural conversions (you must always "rebuff the rebels").

    You may pick any victory type you want, but note that the following are in increasing order of difficulty, and therefore your "grade" in this course is directly related which victory type you opt for (mind you, any OCC victory is impressive, IMO):

    Diplomatic
    Cultural
    Spaceship
    Conquest
    Histographic (yeah right!)

    Domination victory is enabled, but you will never achieve it. True to original OCC, you should aim for the Spaceship victory, as it provides for the most interesting game.

    Here are some of the scenario variables (others will be revealed in-game):

    World size: Small
    Water coverage: 70%
    Land form: Continents
    Temperature: Temperate
    Climate: Normal
    Age: 4 billion years

    This scenario may be played either with stock Civ3 or the Play the World expansion. In the former case, these are your opponents:

    English
    Indians
    Iroquois
    Romans
    Zulus

    If you use Play the World, your opponents are instead:

    Celts
    English
    Indians
    Koreans
    Romans

    The file at the end of this post contains three versions for the game: Civ3 1.29, Play the World 1.14 and the AU mod for Play the World 1.17. I believe the 1.14 Play the World version is compatible with 1.21, but I'm not 100% certain.

    Help each other learn! As your game progresses, please post your comments in the strategy/spoilers/comments thread You are also expected to provide a full report with screenshots when you're done. Due to the nature of this game, game logs would probably be a good idea. This way you can compare your games to others' in a very precise way, and therefore see exactly what you did different (better or worse, or just "different") from someone others.

    Good luck, and have fun!

    ---

    New to AU?

    Apolyton University is a school of strategy, where students sharpen their Civ3 skills and share their experiences in a series of thematic games. When playing an Apolyton University game, gaining and sharing knowledge is more important than getting a high score, or even winning the game. Participants are encouraged to share their strategy after the game, and even to try several attempts.

    For single-player games we have developed the AU mod (an earlier thread may be found here), whose main purpose is to challenge the player with a need for deeper strategy. To accomplish that goal, the mod tries to improve the AI and present the player with more strategic decisions, while changing as little as possible.
    Attached Files
    36
    Civ3 1.29
    19.44%
    7
    Play the World 1.14 or 1.21
    50.00%
    18
    AU mod 1.17
    19.44%
    7
    OCC sucks!
    11.11%
    4
    Last edited by Dominae; April 11, 2003, 23:51.
    And her eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming...

  • #2
    Here is a screenshot of the start location (it gets better!):
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Dominae; April 11, 2003, 23:57.
    And her eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming...

    Comment


    • #3
      Some general help and hints with OCC:

      1. Play carefully! Ponder every decision you make, from turn 1 until you've completed the Spaceship. There is not much to do with only one city, so what you do do you might as well do it well!

      2. Be nice! Unless you plan on winning via Conquest (good luck!), diplomacy and generally peaceful relations will be extremel important in this game. The reason the course number of this game is 302 is that it is a more advanced form of AU102, 'Give Peace A Chance'. Although you are allowed to build military units in this one, you're not going to be a warmonger. Put your builder hat on.

      3. Research ravenously (cool word, eh?)! Consider: you need to reach the Modern age at around the same time as the AIs.

      4. Choose wisely! Your civ choice is your first big decision, and is in fact one of the biggest you'll make in this game.
      5. Try again! Play until either win or are obviously beaten, the start right over (with or without reading the spoilers). The games will not take too long (compared to playing on a Huge map), and you'll learn something every time (if you're in to that sort of thing).

      Here's a link to threads on OCC, in case you want to do your homework before jumping in:

      OCC games for fun

      Quest for OCC launch

      Feel free to link to other OCC threads you know about.


      Dominae
      Last edited by Dominae; April 11, 2003, 20:53.
      And her eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming...

      Comment


      • #4
        Hi everybody...

        Well this should definatly be interested. I have no clue how to go about doing OCC so I'm looking forward to the challenge. Dom, thanks for the links. I am gonna need them. I'm not sure that this is gonna be the game that I make my leap to Monarch, call it a hunch.

        BigD
        Holy Cow!!! BigDork's Back!

        BigDork's Poll of the Day over at MZO. What Spam Will It Be Today?

        Comment


        • #5
          This is NOT the kind of game to be leaping to a higher level on, especially with no better a starting position than we seem to have. I suspect that I'll be going down at least a couple levels from my usual Emperor, since I have almost no OCC experience.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by nbarclay
            This is NOT the kind of game to be leaping to a higher level on, especially with no better a starting position than we seem to have.
            The start is not that bad!

            Still, Nathan is correct: if you want to be even mildly successful at this game the first time around, I suggest staying at your current difficulty level, or dropping a notch.


            Dominae
            And her eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming...

            Comment


            • #7
              Dom...

              I can't wait to give it a try. Unfortunatly I'm working all weekend and doubt I'll have time to play. Maybe if I skimp on some sleep. Hrm, sometimes I think badams didn't have a bad idea after all.

              BigD
              Holy Cow!!! BigDork's Back!

              BigDork's Poll of the Day over at MZO. What Spam Will It Be Today?

              Comment


              • #8
                It's not a bad start, but when you only get one city, it's nice to have an unusually good start. Of course there's no telling what redeeming qualities might be lurking just out of sight.

                By the way, should we play this as a random map in terms of resources that are only revealed with certain technologies, or is the starting area rigged to be special in that regard? Normally, if I'd got a OCC start like this, I'd do some looking around for a little bit better starting position since I have no REXing to get behind on if I wait a little. But I don't want to shoot myself in the foot if there are special reasons for settling in the starting area that only become visible later designed into the scenario.

                Comment


                • #9
                  You may pick any victory type you want, but note that the following are in increasing order of difficulty, and therefore your "grade" in this course is directly related which victory type you opt for (mind you, any OCC victory is impressive, IMO):

                  Diplomatic
                  Cultural
                  Spaceship
                  Conquest
                  You forgot Histographic!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by DaveMcW
                    You forgot Histographic!


                    Now that would be something to see! I'll put it right after Conquest...


                    Dominae
                    And her eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming...

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Actually I'm considering not playing the AU mod this game. I think I'll give it a try first with the AU mod but if that doesn't go too well I'll just bop down to PtW. With the SS parts spread out more it may make it more of a challenge to blast off to AC.

                      BigD
                      Holy Cow!!! BigDork's Back!

                      BigDork's Poll of the Day over at MZO. What Spam Will It Be Today?

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Ok, Nathan made me feel bad about the "poorness" of the start. I've gone back and improved it somewhat. The cost is, unfortunately, a slightly less "realistic" start, but I'm surey you all want goodies instead of realism (I know I do when I play OCC).

                        For those 3 people who have downloaded the scenario already, you may either 1) stop and restart with a better initial location, or 2) stick with the harder version and get more recognition when you launch the SS.


                        Dominae
                        And her eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming...

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Here is the old scenario, in case anyone wants to try a real challenge...(heh, just kidding!):
                          Attached Files
                          And her eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming...

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Dom...

                            I think I'll give them both a try, starting with the easy one of course.

                            BigD
                            Holy Cow!!! BigDork's Back!

                            BigDork's Poll of the Day over at MZO. What Spam Will It Be Today?

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              "Realistic" is a somewhat relative concept. If I were starting a OCC game on my own, I'd keep restarting until I got a starting position I like. So "realistic" to me means "about as good as I could expect to find in a reasonable number of restarts." (Which is why the starting position here didn't - and, really, still doesn't just based just on the initial view - particularly impress me.) Others - especially people with more OCC experience than I have - might approach such a game differently in search of more of a challenge. (Edit: Please don't interpret this as criticism, since it's so much a matter of taste. And thanks for setting up the game.)

                              Nathan
                              Last edited by nbarclay; April 12, 2003, 01:03.

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