Milking the score

[Rimpy]

Just for fun, I'd thought that I'd turn off all victory conditions so that you have to win by histograph score in 2050. I've never made it completely through the tech tree because I always win well before that.

So my question is... what's the best way to boost your score? Judging from the histograph, your score depends on only four things...

(1) Happy citizens
(2) Content/specialist citizens
(3) Territory
(4) Future tech

So Wonders aren't worth anything (at least not directly)? Treasury isn't worth anything? Military units aren't worth anything? City improvements aren't worth anything (again, at least not directly)?

Assuming that you've taken over the world, should you just irrigate everything in sight in order to maximize your population? Should you sell any improvements that don't affect happiness or science (barracks, SAMs, etc) in order to minimize your maintenance costs and maximize your luxury rate? And sell all military units for the same reason? And then there's question of whether or not one should sell all science improvements since future techs are worth so little.

A game like that is probably going to be snooze fest, but I've won by every other method and I thought that I'd give it a try.

Rimpy

[Ethelred]

Judging from the histograph, your score depends on only four things...

(1) Happy citizens
(2) Content/specialist citizens
(3) Territory
(4) Future tech

You left out LEVEL. Play on Deity that'll boost your score. I believe Aeson is trying for a max score with all victory options on. Its snooze fest allright. He is playing on a huge world.

Yes irrigation will aid in the number of citizens. Getting the Sistine Chappel and Bach's Cathedral will aid happiness. It doesn't matter how you get them. The earlier you you max out your per turn score the higher the average will be and that what constitutes the final score.

[Aeson]

Score Formula

As Ethelred said, difficulty is a big factor in score. All else being equal, a Deity game will score 6 times that of a Chieftain game. The difficulty modifiers are very simple:

Chieftain: 1
Warlord: 2
Regent: 3
Monarch: 4
Emperor: 5
Deity: 6

Milking a game on Deity is hardly a snooze fest though. About 90% of the game is quite interesting, the last 'unopposed' turns take only a fraction of the overall time. I spent over a month (about equal time each day) on my game, and it only took 3 days to play the last half of the game.

So my question is... what's the best way to boost your score? Judging from the histograph, your score depends on only four things...

(1) Happy citizens
(2) Content/specialist citizens
(3) Territory
(4) Future tech

Citizens:

Each population point is worth 2 if happy, 1 if content or a specialist. Then that is multiplied by the difficulty.

Territory:

Each tile is worth 1 point. Sea tiles count for score, but don't count towards the domination limit. This makes them quite valuable in a milked game. Again, multiplied by the difficulty.

Future Tech:

Might add a few points to your score. Definitely not worth sacrificing either Citizens or Territory for. The most I've ever added to my score with future techs is 17.6 points (26 future techs, first one about 1940).

Date Bonus:

Doesn't apply to a milking game of course. (2050 - Date) * Difficulty.

Map:

This is the most important factor. The more tiles you can claim before domination, the higher your score will be. The amount of food from each tile determines how much it is worth towards score. Sea tiles are dependant on how many coastal tiles you have to claim to get to them, as well as how many of them are culturally claimed without being within the 21 tile radius of a city (can't support a citizen otherwise).

7 Food: 5.5 * Difficulty
6 Food: 5 * Difficulty
5 Food: 4.5 * Difficulty
4 Food: 4 * Difficulty
3 Food: 3.5 * Difficulty
2 Food: 3 * Difficulty
1 Food: 2 * Difficulty
0 Food: 1 * Difficulty

These are 'max' numbers that count towards your turn score. The best map for score is going to be a Huge/Warm/Wet/5 Billion year map. Theoretically Archipelago would allow for the highest max turn score, but it also makes the conquest phase much more difficult. I prefer Pangaea because it allows for a longer peaceful expansion phase.

This is the formula I use to determine 'max' score on any given map:

TotalTiles = MapHeight * MapWeight / 2
ScoringTiles = TotalTiles * LandPercent * Domination
TotalFood = ScoringTiles * AverageFood
NumberOfCitizens = TotalFood / 2
AverageCitizenValue = (1 + (AverageFood / 2)) / (AverageFood / 2)
PopulationScore = NumberOfCitizens * AverageCitizenValue * Difficulty
TerritoryScore = ScoringTiles * Difficulty
MaxTurnScore = PopulationScore + TerritoryScore
MaxFinalScore = MaxTurnScore * PercentOfMaxTurnScore

Domination: a 1 if turned off, .66 if turned on.

AverageFood: per claimed tile. usually in the 3.25 to 3.5 range if cities are positioned right.

AverageCitizenValue: gives a number that determines the ratio of happy to content/specialist citizens.

PercentOfMaxTurnScore: this is highly dependant on how quickly you can ramp up to the max turn score. It may be as high as .65 if done right, .6 is the number I use in my guesses. I was able to hit .62 in my HOF game I just submitted.

[Aeson]

"Maximizing Score" thread by SirPleb - A good source for figuring out milking. The post on the sea/coast tiles on the 3rd page is very helpful.

[Ethelred]

So what was the score?

Edit: Never mind. I found the thread.

Congratulations. Thats one heck of a score.

[Aeson]

63545

Edit: I hate posting the same moment someone edits the post I was replying too!

Thanks!

[notyoueither]

BTW Aeson. That's a knight on a background of sand dunes within the chit for some artillery unit in some game, all covered over in orange. Am I correct?

The weird sanskrit I can't figure.

[Aeson]

I'm working on a 'better' avatar, that's just the first thing I came up with in Paint Shop when I hit the 500 post count. I didn't mean for the Knight to be there originally, just was checking how the transparancy would work and pasted over it. Liked the way it looked. The text is just random and upside down.. it has no meaning except it's meaninglessness (is that a real word?)! You can pretend it's sanskrit if you want though.

[Skanky Burns]

So NYE is becoming an avatologist?
If Aeson can invent new words, so can I.

Nice score btw. My high-score starts with a 6 too. Unfortunately its missing a few digits compared to yours.