CTP Challenge Ladder -- February 2011

[ricketyclik]

Re: Count me in

Originally posted by HornedFrog
This is all new to me being a newcomer, and I have a couple of questions and/or suggestions...

2. I have never played a solo game against an AI. Do I have to wait until its completed to join the Ladder?

Don't listen to him, he's deity level.

[quinns]

Challenge #160 thehappies def. Cuaich updated. Congrats Happy Man! When did it end and how many turns?

Grandpa -- I don't think too many people use Vista here... at least I don't. How is your health? And what is "OP" for us "good folks"??

Frog -- I take it from Rickety that you are sandbaggin' I believe that is true seeing as how I'm currently playing you and you are very good.

Keygen -- Sorry, I forgot to mention your help with the ladder. Thanks! I'll take it from here if no one objects.

Maquila -- Hope you join our humble group!

Thehappies explains the system very well. Please heed his notes if you have questions about how the CTP PBEM Ladder works.

So how about my suggestion of starting from 1-Jan-2006 to determine new rankings? Yes, no, maybe so?

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by quinns
Challenge #160 thehappies def. Cuaich updated. Congrats Happy Man! When did it end and how many turns?

Grandpa -- I don't think too many people use Vista here... at least I don't. How is your health? And what is "OP" for us "good folks"??

My surgeries, all 4 have gotten me almost pain fre, thanks to God! I ended up with a metal plate, a bone graft and 11 screws in my left wrist, nothing left, everything was removed surgically due to being torn out in accident. Now the attorneys can settle on what I get, a mere pennance i assuree you.

the OP refers to Opening Post

Frog -- I take it from Rickety that you are sandbaggin' I believe that is true seeing as how I'm currently playing you and you are very good.

Keygen -- Sorry, I forgot to mention your help with the ladder. Thanks! I'll take it from here if no one objects.

Maquila -- Hope you join our humble group!

Thehappies explains the system very well. Please heed his notes if you have questions about how the CTP PBEM Ladder works.

So how about my suggestion of starting from 1-Jan-2006 to determine new rankings? Yes, no, maybe so?

If I could figure out how to get CTPand Vista to match up, I would be a whooping boy for someone and since you folks know me, aint no sandbags here in old Trolldom

Best of fortunes one and all

[quinns]

OP? Oh... duh
That's great to hear Gramps! I remember that you were in so much pain, I really felt bad for you. The surgeries worked!

I looked on the internet and found the following regarding Vista and CtP. Apparently there has been some success running CtP via a virtual machine running Windows 98 or XP. See below quote from CivFanatics forum:

Posted by Slinky360 July 2007 -- "Maybe everybody already knows this, but i will post for those who dont. I had trouble getting ctp to run on my vista system (kept crashing to desktop). After looking around on the net for options, i came across Virtual PC 2007. This is available free for download at microsoft and it lets you run other operating systems inside a window. You will need the original os cd. I installed win98. The program gives the guest os part of your hard drive to use. Once more, the guest os (win98 in my case) had no trouble using my sound card, graphics card, etc... In the past i have had lots of trouble setting up a dual boot os, only to find win98 could not use my hardware. Now ive installed ctp on the guest os (win98) and it runs no probs.

[ricketyclik]

Originally posted by quinns

I looked on the internet and found the following regarding Vista and CtP. Apparently there has been some success running CtP via a virtual machine running Windows 98 or XP. See below quote from CivFanatics forum:

Posted by Slinky360 July 2007 -- "Maybe everybody already knows this, but i will post for those who dont. I had trouble getting ctp to run on my vista system (kept crashing to desktop). After looking around on the net for options, i came across Virtual PC 2007. This is available free for download at microsoft and it lets you run other operating systems inside a window. You will need the original os cd. I installed win98. The program gives the guest os part of your hard drive to use. Once more, the guest os (win98 in my case) had no trouble using my sound card, graphics card, etc... In the past i have had lots of trouble setting up a dual boot os, only to find win98 could not use my hardware. Now ive installed ctp on the guest os (win98) and it runs no probs.

... Or, you could run the ctp executable in windows compatibility mode, set to windows xp. Works for me

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by ricketyclik


... Or, you could run the ctp executable in windows compatibility mode, set to windows xp. Works for me

hmm..I guess I could have a game or two if somone wants a go

[Maquiladora]

Where can I download the quick-start mod? Is it used on the ladder even? I would like to give it a go if it's still used.

[quinns]

Ladder overhauled based on completions since 1-Jan-2006. I made minor changes to rules 2, 3, 5, and 6 because of the new way players are added to the ladder, and the way challenges are made.

Maqiladora -- I think either Thehappies or Keygen has a copy of the quick start.

[Maquiladora]

Thehappies or Keygen, could you attach the quickstart here please?

5. You may challenge any player up to three slots above your current position. If the person challenged dodges the challenge continually with no good reason, then the one challenged may lose one or more positions on the ladder.

So does this mean I can only challenge the bottom 3? Or up to the bottom 3 deity players?

EDIT: Nevermind you changed rule 5

So who wants a game?

[thehappies]

Here is the copy of the PBEM quickstart mod:

[thehappies]

I think that basing the ladder off games since 2006 is fine. I'll try sending an email to people that I've had good games with in the past and see if we can beef up activity on here. If all of us do that, we should be able to get at least a few people on board. And I'll take Maquiladora on if he dares! If you want to try out the PBEM mod, open it up and start a game and send me turn 0. Any conditions and any AI set up are fine. Or I can start the game if you want. My email is thehappies at yahoo.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by thehappies

And I'll take Maquiladora on if he dares! If you want to try out the PBEM mod, open it up and start a game and send me turn 0. Any conditions and any AI set up are fine. Or I can start the game if you want. My email is thehappies at yahoo.

Go ahead and set it up.

Any settings are fine by me, but quick-start mod preferred.

Do we use the duel-duel format as mentioned in the rules?

My email is maqpoly at gmail dotcom. Let me know all the settings, better get some practice in now.

[thehappies]

I've never actually done the duel-duel thing, and I'm not sure I get what they are suggesting. But the quickstart mod negates much of the advantage/disadvantage of starting location. You start with 'super settlers' that can move (I think) 10 spaces and more units automatically appear when they found a city. Extra trade goods also appear directly under the city when you found your first city. Read the 'readme' file that goes with the mod because I think it outlines all the special conditions of those first settlers. You can gain a huge advantage for example if you can settle your capital city where there are two elephants (or two beavers, poppies, etc) because a third will automatically appear under the city when you settle it **as long as the city is also settled on the same terrain type that can support that trade good (i.e. you can't have a beaver appear on grassland). This will mean that you'll have 3 trade goods in your city radius--which is a huge boost to your science and gold. It took me a while to figure that one out! Anyway, I'll start the game, send you turn zero, and if you don't like your starting position we can always restart.

[thehappies]

Turn 0 sent (from me--the happy chinese) to Maquiladora of the Mexicans! Two AI civs--I think they were vikings and . . . maybe Americans. We used the PBEM mod. As far as I'm concerned, nukes and wonders are on the table unless you'd rather not.

I also sent a little spam off to some of the old boys from the previous challenge ladder. We'll see if any of them respond. What about Vissario and Idestroy? I don't have their emails. But it looks like the were active recently.

A couple last updates, I beat ricketyclick in a game that ended a while back on turn 102 (posted on the previous ladder). So that should put rickety on the active list (and give me another in the win column). Also, dancemasseuse recently beat birdman, so that should put him on the active ladder too (and knock Birdman off of the #1 spot!).

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by thehappies
I've never actually done the duel-duel thing, and I'm not sure I get what they are suggesting. But the quickstart mod negates much of the advantage/disadvantage of starting location.

Just one game then. Perhaps better this way anyway, since if I lose, I won't lose two games right away.

I'm not overly keen on wonders, but I figure others might want to use them, so I better just adapt now.

BTW the save you sent was just a CtP save named "CTP" with no file type, so I just added .csg to the end and it loaded fine by double-clicking, also played/auto-saved fine.