OCC games for fun and, well...FUN!

[Arrian]

SanPellegrino,

If you build the UN, you have a) control over whether or not there is a vote (popup message asks you every 5 or 10 turns); and b) an automatic spot on the ballot.

-Arrian

[SanPellegrino]

Thx,

I think I know what happened now...

...and it's embarassing to confess my stupidity

IIRC I built the UN a few turns AFTER Cultural Victory, just to see if I could win the vote. Ok, that's just not possible (but I am pretty sure you can build the spaceship)

[DanaLea]

What about the AI's?

What, in your opnion, is a good number of AI's to play aginst? In the differnt levels and / or map sizes?

I have only played CIV3 once to a win. And I have never played any civ above the lowest level. Each and every time I tried I was dead by the second age. Very dissapointing. But then again, I never had the benift of these forums.

I have seen refercences to OCC but couldn't find any details. THANK YOU for this thread. I was planning on asking if I hadn't seen it.

-dana

[Dominae]

DanaLea, are you asking about what are the best AI settings for normal Civ3 or OCC Civ3? In the normal game its entirely a matter of personal preference, I should think.

For OCC, the fewer civs around the slower the tech advancement, which is good for you. However, with too few civs it's more difficult to pit them against each other in war. Remember: the more enemies the AI civs have, the better it is for you. If one civ comes out ahead, then you've got your work cut out for you. Another thing to keep in mind is that you want to have contacted at least two civs by the time you build the Great Library.

So, my (very arbitrary) rule of thumb is to have one less civ than the suggested amount for each map size.

Hope this helps.


Dominae

[DanaLea]

civ traits

why has no one talked about expansionist civs as good starting ones? I prefer them since I get a scout (great for making contact and clearing away the black) but mostly for better goodie huts. I think the advances you get would be well worth it - get an early lead, or at least have more to sell. There has to be a (major?) downside for OCC for it not to have come up before. Please share. Seems to me that the russians would be a good civ to play.

I tried my first OCC last night. Played on the regent diff level and got my a$$ kicked. got lucky with furs very nearby, within sphere soon after start and two iron sources plus spices within coloney range. lost all of them when AI's built cities next to them. Lost the furs when his sphere pushed mine back. Although I chose pangeaga with 60% water, I ended up on a smallish continant with 3 other civs - not a great start. keep playing until an AI got the great lib.

played again, moving one down in the diff level (warloard) and ended up with a better start location and no extreamly close civs. the land mass was larger and the civs farther away. was about to get lit and start the great lib when the game crashed and I didn't go back right away to an auto save. oh yeah, I'm the persians.

I am not a great player, I have major diffuculties on anything other then chiftian and even then I often get board about half way thought the game. I dislike some of the game mechanices. or rather there are some thing I wish I could do. For example, I want to be able to right click a worker (he's automated) and have a choice "finish current improvment then report for orders" I can only let him continune or inturrupt. annoying. I want to be able to select many units at once (like using the mouse to click and drag a box and everything inside become active for group orders). That way I can select all the workers (or some) and tell them all to start clearing jungle, or clear pollution. There are all too often entirely too many units to mircomanage. I get bogged down in the details and forget about things I wanted to do that turn. (sigh) One reason I like the OCC, with one city I think the units and city will be easier to manage. But I may be way off base.

oh well, sorry to go off, but thanks for listening. (if you did, that is)

-dana

[DaveMcW]

After testing several OCC starts into the middle ages, I would add another starting location characteristic:

g. Start in the center of the world map.

This gives you the same advantage as an expansionist in terms of getting early contacts. Also you are almost guaranteed to be on the largest continent.

[nbarclay]

My only OCC experience comes with the dice loaded ridiculously in my favor. I used the editor to come up with my version of the ultimate OCC city. Within the city radius are two coast tiles with fish (for the wonders that require coast), two grassland tiles and one plains tile with cattle, and the rest hills. Three of the hills have gold, five (if I remember right) have iron, and the rest have coal. And oh yeah, every tile in the city radius has river along it.

The next ring outside that has all the strategic and luxury resources that don't appear on mountains, with redundancy for resources that can disappear. Outside that is coast and some mountains with gems, saltpeter, uranium, and maybe another thing or two, and around that is coast and a narrow neck of mountain connecting to a pangea mainland where the AIs live. (It's a tiny map, by the way). So there's no way for AIs to settle up against the player's city and steal away access to resources.

With the dice so ridiculously loaded, I was able to win my first ever OCC game, playing on Emperor, with a 20,000 culture point city. If anyone's interested, I could post the scenario; you can pick your civ and opponents.

Nathan

[DanaLea]

Originally posted by nbarclay
If anyone's interested, I could post the scenario; you can pick your civ and opponents.

yeah, I want it...

-dana

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by nbarclay
My only OCC experience comes with the dice loaded ridiculously in my favor.

...

With the dice so ridiculously loaded, I was able to win my first ever OCC game, playing on Emperor, with a 20,000 culture point city. If anyone's interested, I could post the scenario; you can pick your civ and opponents.

Nathan

Sounds like a map I would try on deity and space race. Perhaps a little too good though.

[DanaLea]

Originally posted by nbarclay
My only OCC experience comes with the dice loaded ridiculously in my favor.

here's an idea, while you are at it.. edit the GL so that electricity doesn't make it expire....



-dana

[Dominae]

Post your OCC starts on this thread!

If anyone has good OCC starts to share, please feel free to post them on this thread. I personally would love not to have to restart a few dozens times just to get my game going. I prefer un-edited maps (although nbarclay's start is hilarious...gotta try it out).

DaveMcW, I think starting in the middle of the map only applies if you're playing on a Pangea world. I've played games where my "island in the middle" was quite disconnected to the big landmasses to the right and left. Do you know something about that world generator that I don't?

DanaLea, first, the Great Library expires with Education, not Electricity. If you made the Great Library expire with Electricity (or, gah!, never expire), you'd have one easy OCC game! Second, the main trait of Expansionist civs, namely getting free early techs, is largely irrelevant if you're planning to rush to the GL and fill your pockets with Gold until Education. Sure, you might discover just those techs that you need (Bronze Working, Alphabet, Writing, Literature), but you often get those that you don't want (The Wheel, Warrior Code). Given this, I prefer picking a trait that will give some concrete benefits every game.


Dominae

[DanaLea]

Re: Post your OCC starts on this thread!

Originally posted by Dominae
DanaLea, first, the Great Library expires with Education, not Electricity. If you made the Great Library expire with Electricity (or, gah!, never expire), you'd have one easy OCC game!

I knew that... really. it was a typo. at least I got the "E" right.. lol

just becase I could, I used the editor and generated a small map and edited it. created a pensula similar to what the eariler post was talking about - with several good bonuses and lux's, rivers, and 2 coast squares. Also every resource is on the pensula. Just gotta be able to keep it.

Second, the main trait of Expansionist civs, namely getting free early techs, is largely irrelevant if you're planning to rush to the GL and fill your pockets with Gold until Education.

ok, that makes sense. With the map I made, I edited the GL so it expires with scientific method (!) and created a new civ. The Texans! I gave them all 6 traits and four starting advances. Created a civ specific unit, the Texas Ranger. Used the Legionary icon, is a 3.4.2 and costs 30 to build with iron working and iron. upgrades to marines. oh yeah!

ok, so I'm cheating. I do that sometimes. I'm famous for changing the rules when I don't like them. I do it with pool, cards, and now civilization!!

-Dana

[DanaLea]

didn't seem to fit with my reply above, so I'm keeping it seperate.

Played some more on the game I was playing eariler (the own that froze). Got the great lib, was great for a while, didn't last long. I am surrounded on all sides by other cities. they have pushed my borders in - it's hard to keep my land. Even though I give them stuff, usualy accept their offered trades, I can't keep up with techs. I try to research the ones they arn't, then trade them, but they only want to give me a map and like 30 gold for electricty or medicine. Also of the five civs, two of them are less then polite. I can't get my gold very high - have to spend it every time I turn around to get a tech. and I can't build railroads 'cuz no one will give me the resources I need.

This is way hard. I'll keep you posted. any suggestions?

-Dana

p.s. danalea is my login, dana is my name. just fyi

[Dominae]

Dana, don't worry about "cheating"...at least you're having fun!

You seem to be having problems with your economy. The trick is to sell your techs to the AI for some generous gold per turn (gpt) deals. Obviously you have to be a tech or two they don't have to do this. Eventually you want to be in a situation where you're got the Science slider to 100% and are still generating money. By keeping the AIs poor you're preventing them from trading techs (and getting rich yourself in the process!). Like I said in my original post, you want to sell techs as soon as you get them, to everyone. "Tech-hoarding" doesn't work in OCC (in my experience).


Dominae

[vmxa1]

No need it does not make GL expire, Education does. He could have made resources never expire.