3rd Apolyton CtP2 SP Tournament: 1 August - 1 September 2002

[ETB]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
Actual the game was created on Locutus' computer with the old MG_BetterAI.slc, so a version of this script is still saved somewere in the savegame. So you have to reloadslic, to see the effects of the modified version, because you didn't start the game.
-Martin

Of course I still needed to reloadslic because I didn’t start the game! It sure is hard to keep up with this stuff!

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
That's much better then before. For the next update the earliest possible date is the first September or second September, when this tournerment is officially or inofficially closed.

I understand and I certainly can wait! Thanks again Martin!

[Shadow]

Suggestion to Locutus and Tournament Players

Howdy all,

Just a thought to all of you out there participating in the current tournament.
Now if you're all like me, then you probably can't wait to hook into the next game and pit your skills against the other competitors as well as the AI!

But to make things more enjoyable, would it be worthwhile everyone putting in a vote for what they'd like to see in the next game?
e.g. More land that current game, less goods, certain units left out or changed somehow, mostly desert terrain, etc...

Or should we just leave it up to Loc to figure out something new?

Personally I'm in the mood for a gigantic map (I can't run those mega-ultra-large maps, my system won't handle it unfortunately), about half way on the land/water setting, max goods, Impossible setting, and it'd be nice to see the AI massing up some more formidable naval fleets but I guess that's in the coding more or less... anyway, just some thoughts.

What does everyone think?

Shadow

[mnbryan37]

Attached (I hope) is my completed game. I did much better than I thought I was going to do, as two of the last 3 AI's (Phonecia and Arabia) I had to battle must have just completed some major battles between themselves as they seemed much weaker than when I had seen them earlier in the game. To complete the game, move my stack of 9 units into Malang for the final battle.

I played for a military victory, finished in 1290AD with a score of 17,040, and had 22 cities.

I competed in the first and third tournies, but not the 2nd one as I have not reached that level of skill yet. I would be in favor of any type of game for future events, other than one at the Impossible level. I just started my first game at the "very hard" level, and am pinned down by about 60 troops from my first AI contacted. Looks like enough of a challenge for me.

Bill

[mnbryan37]

Game didn't attach, will try again

[Jesper Portus]

Re: Suggestion to Locutus and Tournament Players

Originally posted by Shadow
But to make things more enjoyable, would it be worthwhile everyone putting in a vote for what they'd like to see in the next game?

Or should we just leave it up to Loc to figure out something new?

Shadow

I prefer more land, because the AI is much more effective an big continents.
Otherwise I liked the choice of Locutus. So I try very different games and mods.

To my current game:
There is one arbabian city left. In the mountains an population is one. I bought five cities of the arabians with my spies. No problems, easy and fast.

I have now 400 years to built the world in my may. Gaia! An I trie to reach really big cities.

So long
Jesper

[Maquiladora]

Ok heres my entry this month, finally found enough time to polish this game off. Enjoyed the island hopping.

I think in some way the islands couldve made the AI more resistant to being easily conquered.

When i hopped on the Polynesian (purple) island they had about 4 full stacks with all "modern" units, i took over 2 of their cities but they never attacked me to get their cities back

One of the stacks just sat outside one of the cities bombarding in every turn, and i couldnt attack/bombard back because i only had 3 units inside. And everytime i just landed next to a city and took it. They had those stacks but they only had maybe 4/5 units defending inside the city, including 3 settlers in one city i saw.

Eventually they couldnt pay the upkeep for all those units with only 2 remaining cities and that made it even easier.

Ok heres the save, diplomatic victory - 8320 points - 975 Ano Domini

[centrifuge]

Originally posted by mnbryan37

I played for a military victory, finished in 1290AD with a score of 17,040, and had 22 cities.

I competed in the first and third tournies, but not the 2nd one as I have not reached that level of skill yet. I would be in favor of any type of game for future events, other than one at the Impossible level.
Bill

Well, it's just my humble opinion, but if you can win by conquest in 1290 AD, I'd say that you do have that level of skill

As far as which type of game I'd like to see for the next one, I am completely open... Locutus has been doing a great job with it so far

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by centrifuge
As far as which type of game I'd like to see for the next one, I am completely open... Locutus has been doing a great job with it so far

I think Cradle is a natural progression for the next tournament game, although it depends whats happening with the MP tournament. If it happens soon then ill have to miss the SP one.

[Shadow]

I think you all would be surprised at just how good you really are. It seems to me that if most people have a city or two taken then they automatically scrap the game or reload. Just let the game take its course sometimes, things can get better.

I'm currently playing my own game with the same mods as the third tournament, but on impossible level, and I've been reduced to one city for the last 100 turns or so with a settler just on the move. But I'm slowly gaining ground... slowly...

Anyway, just try harder levels if you haven't already, I think you'll surprise yourselves. And the best games are always a struggle to survive.

Cheers,
Shadow

[mapfi]

Well, there you go - took me more than enough time the last few days and I'm glad I finally got to the point.

For those who are interested:
I was convinced I'd have an advantage if I'd settle the first Island as close as possible, meaning just two tiles in between cities. With settling at the starting point and going from there I ended up with something like 12 or so cities. It worked really well in my opinion as I got the lead in the tech race pretty fast. My goal was to finish everyone of as soon as possible. Bryan has however given an amazing performance, couldn't beat that. So I end up in 1550 AD, military victory with 21795 points (just unload the 3 marines into the last Polynesian city Ua Pou (what a name!))

This brings me to the question, can I capture a city which is on a one tile island before I get marines and if so how? The only thing I could imagine is bombard it to zero defendants and then it might be possible to unload other units directly into it too. But I honestly don't know.

The other problem I got with the game is weird. I installed SAP and GM from scratch because I had messed around for slicing, installed the betterai and reloaded slic the first turn. Something didn't work with the text string files as every message I got was just plain gibberish. Didn't keep me from playing though. Maybe it got something to do with me having the german version of the game? Any thoughts?

Mauro

[Maquiladora]

The quickest way in the tech tree to take a city like that, is to attack with ship of the line until all defenders are dead. Then unload any a combat ground unit into the empty city.

[mapfi]

So in that case I could have finished stupid Greece as second civ. Well, if I hadn't passed 900AD already when Bryan put his result up and if I had known that the AI never had more than 10 cities I would have put more emphasisis on military to finish just as quickly as possible instead of caring for my cities to grow continously. Hey but that's the true fun of the tournament game - not knowing what you're up to and seeing other's doing better or worse...

[TheArsenal]

Re: Suggestion to Locutus and Tournament Players

Originally posted by Shadow

But to make things more enjoyable, would it be worthwhile everyone putting in a vote for what they'd like to see in the next game?
e.g. More land that current game, less goods, certain units left out or changed somehow, mostly desert terrain, etc...

Or should we just leave it up to Loc to figure out something new?

Shadow

There's no question I have preferences to map size, difficulty, amount of water, etc. That said, these tournaments give me incentive to try mods and conditions I may not normally. So, I will leave it up to the powers that be.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by mapfi
So in that case I could have finished stupid Greece as second civ. Well, if I hadn't passed 900AD already when Bryan put his result up and if I had known that the AI never had more than 10 cities I would have put more emphasisis on military to finish just as quickly as possible instead of caring for my cities to grow continously. Hey but that's the true fun of the tournament game - not knowing what you're up to and seeing other's doing better or worse...

In some way its for more interesting to finish second, then you can disect the save game of the person who won quicker than you in the corresponding victory group, and see what they did differently. I dont think anyone else got a diplo victory yet, although i wouldve gone for military had i had enough time.

I must say though, 12 cities on that first island, im not sure if thats too many, to keep each city productive and growing. I only built 7, i couldve got a couple more if id have scouted the island more, but the 7 i did build just had more space and expanded well.

More cities would produce quicker population growth early, but stifle it eventually. The larger the land mass the greater the desire there should be to colonise every square inch of it quickly. Benefit from the growth and science later.

[centrifuge]

Originally posted by Maquiladora

I dont think anyone else got a diplo victory yet,

ummm , I guess that you must have overlooked this one