1st Apolyton CIV3 TOURNAMENT : 15-30/November/2001

[MarkG]

ok, here are the details


Theme: Ancients Civs
Size: Standard Map
Ocean coverage: 60%
Land form: Pangaea
Climate: Normal
Temperature: Temperate
Age: 4 billion years
Barbarians: Restless
Civilization: Babylonians
Level: Regent
Opponents: 7 (Romans, Egyptians, Greeks, Aztecs, Persians, Chinese, Zulu)

- file attached on next post
- submit your saved game on this thread. you can submit only one game (of course)
- use autosave so that you have the last turn before your win

[MarkG]

dont forget! deadline is November 30!!

[Eli]

Well, a reason to play the game again.

[DaBear]

It has a great start position. One of the best that I've seen on this difficulty setting. First run through during lunch at work and already I've got a slim advantage over all the civs...but they are starting to take an exception to that.

[Ahlyis]

This sounds like a lot of fun, but I want to know what is/isn't allowed.

Obviously, using mod packs should be disallowed, though it may be hard to prove whether someone did or didn't use them. But what about dirty tricks that are in the game already?

Specifically, it appears that the developers left in a 'feature', probably for playtesting purposes, that allows you to get 100,000,000 gold per turn from an AI Civ. No modification to the code is required, it is in the game as shipped.

Obviously, this would allow you to have insane scores and completely dominate the AI, but is it illegal to use since it IS part of the game?

BTW, if you want to know how to do it, read my post on the Cheats thread.

[cybernev02]

wow... having played CIV2/3 b4 in a cheiftain level seemed not so chalanging... but this is def. a chalange... i think i'm gona stick to my current game and see if i can finish that...

btw, what do u guys this about this?

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Ahlyis
Obviously, this would allow you to have insane scores and completely dominate the AI, but is it illegal to use since it IS part of the game?

i think it's kind of obvious that such use of bugs/exploits are illegal

now how to prevent this from happening? i cant say i have an anwer....

[HunterAssasin]

easily, if they submit a save game with millions of money, it's safe to say they cheated

[Skanky Burns]

What about lumberjacking to up your production levels a bit??

[MarkG]

Originally posted by HunterAssasin
easily, if they submit a save game with millions of money, it's safe to say they cheated

perhaps one could spend them on way or the other

eitherway, the saved games will be availiable online for everyone to check....

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
What about lumberjacking to up your production levels a bit??

i dont see any problem with that

it's part of the game

[HunterAssasin]

Whew I'm up to like 20AD so far, I never played regent before, just started to get into warlord, so it's pretty hard for me but I'm hanging in there with a slight tech lead, but my score is one of the worst Anyway I doubt I'll win I'm just in this for the fun

[Ahlyis]

Actually, it's really easy to get rid of the money. Just give it to another Civ 2 turns before you win. Then submit the save game from one turn before you win. Your saved game will show a huge score since score is based on an average over the whole game, but you will only have a normal amount of money on the saved game.

The only way I can think of to possibly spot someone who did this would be to watch the quick replay at the end and look for something obviously wrong, like a whole bunch of cities suddenly coming over to them. But even that could be gotten around by only buying an AI city if it is on your borders and only doing it every 10 turns or so. Since money doesn't directly affect your score or power (as far as I am aware) simply looking at the histograph probably won't be sufficient.

Honestly, I don't plan to use this tactic, but I can't see how to tell if someone does.
-------------
On a different note. Is it considered cheating/unfair play to attack, reload if you don't like the outcome, then wait a turn or attack with different units? If so, how in the world do you plan to police THAT?!?!

I think the idea of a contest is good, but I can't see how you could prevent even minor cheaters, let alone those who hack the save files.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Ahlyis
On a different note. Is it considered cheating/unfair play to attack, reload if you don't like the outcome, then wait a turn or attack with different units? If so, how in the world do you plan to police THAT?!?!

it's quite obvious that we cant. btw, you cant change the outcome of battle by reloading

I think the idea of a contest is good, but I can't see how you could prevent even minor cheaters, let alone those who hack the save files.

in the end, the point is to have fun participating. if someone chooses to act like an idiot....

[Elrad]

File size too large?

With all the potential for cheating aside, I've noticed another problem.

Most save files get larger based on how far into the game you are, and how large the map is...A tiny map finished in 100bc (with almost all cities in the pop 1-3 range) I sized at 600k, most end games I think are 2 megs and up....isnt the upload limit 500k?

How will we upload our save files? or is there something that I am missing? (if so, please save me some dignity and point it out right away!)

-Elrad