Why waste the time?

I’ve discovered that it takes a very long time to take a turn with 29 computer players, so inspired by kmj, I’ve got the idea to write the story of my game while the computer calculates the progress of the computer players.

The settings

A Deity game with 30 nations in a Gigantic Doughnut World, with normal rules, which means that pollution is on and Bloodlust is off.
Map setting as follows: Maximum wet, Maximum warm, Two clicks from Maximum Ocean, Island/Land in The middle, Two clicks from maximum Diverse terrain, and goods at The absolute minimum.

This will create a world with several continents, with several nations on them. There will be smaller continents and islands as well, with less or just one nation on them. The ability to reach one continent from another will in many cases first become a reality when the ability to sail far from shore becomes available because of the size of The Ocean.
In this world The average nation will be able to build approximate 5-7 cities before running out if terrain due to The fact that they will at this time be running into other nations, or The Ocean will prohibit them from expanding further until The technology makes this possible.

The map settings further more assure several things. All of which aims at a more balanced and difficult game.

First of all The maximum wetness and almost maximum diversity combined with The layout of The continent and oceans, have The effect that every nation has a fair chance of having rivers and hills/mountains in The immediate vicinity of their starting location. This makes the growth/production/gold outcome more even.

The rarity of goods in this world serves several purposes.
One being slowing down the science rate. If there were to be many goods The discoveries of technology would progress too fast, as The individual nation would have an awesome gold outcome due to The mere presence of all these goods and The extensive trading following, combined with 30 nations trading technology back and forth. The most powerful nation would reach the Diamond age, before any nation have had the time to build a single musketeer!
A second purpose is to encourage international trade. Domestic trade being almost non-existing as a result of the rest of the game setup, means that the only way to establish monopolies is to persuade other nations to sell you the goods you need. This will result in better relations and possibly the establishment of several alliances, because the only way you can be able to persuade other nations to sell you goods is to improve your relations with them.
The fact that you will need to keep good relations with many nations in order to boost trade, and thereby science, serve as a counterweight to The fact that you want to be a powerful nation. The only way to become a powerful nation with this setup is to conquer your neighbors, because you quickly run out of building terrain. The conquest of your neighbors leads to deterioration of your relations with the nations, which have a friendly attitude towards your neighbors. All nations will have to think twice before declaring war on another nation, as it is crucial to find a balance between increasing you power, not being caught with your trousers down lacking behind in weapons technology, and keeping up with the race for the alien hybrid.

These settings have a interesting effect on the power of the wonders. Some becomes very weak, and some becomes awesome powerful, if they are used properly. Proper use of wonders in the civ genre, makes the difference between victory and defeat. I’ll just leave this issue untouched for you civ lovers out there to brainstorm about.

Interest for the story of my game?

If there is any interest in the progress of my game which I haven’t begun yet, I would be happy to post the story which I have time to write down between turns. In the time it takes for the computer to calculate the progress for the 29 other civs, I have time to write my progress down on paper. The time between turns is even worse than in multiplayer games on the Internet.

So if there is a interest in this please make me aware of this, and I will begin the game while I write down my progress and the methods I use to accomplish my goals.

Enslave them all!!
Thomas Diemar
[This message has been edited by Diemar (edited September 28, 1999).]

1 thing though could you post the names of each with there attitude? (peaceful, slaver etc.)

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I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, --Ozzy

I would be very interested in the story of the game you have laid out. It looks like it could be a very interesting story with so many Civs involved. From past response to other people writing down their stories, I think lots of people would like it. Mark and Dan even have a section of this website dedicated to stories. So go for it, and I am really looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I also would be very interested in just how long you remain undefeated.

The birth of great nation.

I have chosen the Spanish civilization as I think that they historically meet my style of playing.
As the immediate starting location lacked production and access to the ocean, I had to explore a bit before finding a spot, which I could feel content with.
The Capitol Madrid were founded on grassland near the ocean and some hills, the terrain of the Capitol had furthermore a river going though the most of it’s grassland, which gave it superb growth rate. The Capitol only had 3 hills, but combined with the growth rate and the citys general terrain, the capitol would prove to provide adequate production for wonder building as it grew in size.
As began exploring the map, the First ruin I searched revealed a lost band of normands, who joined my great nation to be. As this event already occurred in 3600Bc, I now almost have gotten the same start as the other players. Playing on Diety level means that I start with a handicap. The Ai starts with two settlers and more technology.
Founding the second city Barcelona in almost the same terrain as the Capitol, I searched yet another ruin, which contained the lost technology of Alchemy.
Made contact with the Greeks exploring north, who searched a ruin right under my nose, and preventing me from exploring further north as the terrain narrowed down to only one tile in this direction. A very similar situation occurred with the Germans as contact was made with them to the east. The ruin that gave Alchemy would be the last I searched.

Tribal disagreements.

Both the Greeks and the Germans, were very unpleasant people indeed, as the Greek were aggressive and the Germans militant. This combined with the fact that I was loosing patience as these nations where blocking my prosperous exploration, quickly lead to the detonations of our relationships, and culminated in the spontaneous attack on the Greeks as I lost patience with them.
As I grew more victorious in the war with the Greeks, slaves began to flow to my citys from the frontline, as I carefully made sure that my armies had slavers with them.
These slaves, flowing to my citys, resulted in fruitless attempts from Greek abolitionists to free their people, who then themselves ended up as mine workers in my citys.
The unit support had now grown to staggering heights. If I where to be able be wage war on two fronts, I would need to build the Sphinx. As I began research on stone working other nations began the race to complete it, and by the time I had researched stone working almost all nations where competing to complete it.

More to come...

Race for the Sphinx

During the research for stone working I had made preparations for the wonder race. Realizing that The wonder had to be built in The capitol, as it where by far The larger of The two citys, consisting of 50% slaves. I had turned my attention towards improving The production-infrastructure of The Capitol, and I had furthermore jumpstarted on The construction of The Sphinx by starting The construction of another wonder in The Capitol, thus being able to transfer this production to The sphinx when The technology became available. The Capitol began The construction of The sphinx The second The stone working technology were discovered.
This left The other city Barcelona to be used as base of expanding, thus primarily building settlers, as I only had two citys when I entered The wonder race for The sphinx.
The conquest of the Greeks and the Germans would have to wait, all I could do was to try and contain their aggression, as I where forced to lower the readiness of my armies to stand a chance in the wonder race.
Military strategic I was in an overall good position. My exploration by now revealed an excellent terrain for defensive war. The map where narrowing down to just one Tile in several locations and just not in the locations mentioned earlier. By fortifying units on the one tile that separated The Germans and me I prevented the Germans from entering my land with anything, even slavers and abolitionists. Thereby establishing a strong border with The Germans.
BUT The war with the Greeks worsened as I was unable to occupy the one tile which the map narrowed into in Greek territory, and I was beginning to loose even more ground because of my now weaker units due to lack of support.
In 1600Bc news where brought to my attention that The Zulu nation almost had finished The Sphinx, this called for drastic measures if my nation where to beat The Zulu’s in The wonder race for The Sphinx. I vectored every unit I could spare, even The newly built settler from Barcelona, to The capitol to be disbanded, and thereby adding production to The construction of The sphinx. Luckily there were rivers connecting The citys, and furthermore these rivers were also running close to The borders with The Greeks and Germans. These rivers enabled 10 units to reach The capitol shortly after 1600Bc, where they reduced The building-time in such a degree, that The Sphinx were completed 50 years later, just beating The Zulu’s to it!

Renewed strength.

Because there were no nations at this time, who showed any interest in the philosopher stone or The Forbidden City, which I knew combined yielded awesome power, the time for escalation of the war with the Greeks had come.
Directing new units towards the fighting with the Greeks and raising the unit readiness turned the war around once again, making me very successful again. Pushing the Greeks back and taking slaves, which this time were directed to Barcelona, as further slaves wouldn’t benefit the production of the Capitol. The Greeks where pushed back to the old border just at doorsteps of Athens, the one city the Greeks had just before the strategic important tile in which the map narrowed into. Here they offered a temporary peace treaty. This offer was accepted because other nations had by now begun The wonder race for the philosopher stone.
I would keep The Greek abolitionists away by expelling them in this hopefully short peacetime.
About The same time of The peace treaty with The Greeks, The Germans declared The long expected war, by attacking one of my exploring units. But they wouldn’t be able to penetrate my strong defense at The strategic tile that made up The border between us.

Towards great diplomatic power

The philosopher stone were built without any problems, and in The meantime I was researching hard towards engineering for The sake of The Forbidden City.
The diplomatic intelligence The philosopher stone provided revealed that each foreign nation had, as expected, a lead of at least five technology advances. This would change with The completion of The Forbidden City.
As The research progressed towards engineering, I lost patience with The continually attempts by Greek abolitionists to free their fellow countrymen, and war were declared once again on The Greek, by attacking and enslaving The Greek abolitionists, effectively opening up for The flow of slaves again. The flow of slaves had been stopped completely despite of The war with The Germans, as The Germans knew it would be near impossible to destroy The units massed and fortified at The tile that made up our border. Both The public works in general and The slaves captured from this point, would be distributed between all The smaller newfounded citys, as Barcelona now wouldn’t have any notable benefit from further slaves. Barcelona had by now a completely developed production infrastructure, just like The Capitol Madrid, and these two large citys had now an awesome production rate due to slave labor.
As The construction of The forbidden city began, I made sure that The next scientific discovery would be shortly after The completion of The wonder, and not before.

More to come...

Find The file named userprofile.txt, in your ctp directory.

Change The numplayer value to 30, The very first line!
DO NOT THOUCH THE NUMBER OF PLAYERS BUTTON IN THE GAME. The game crashes if you do, just leave it at 29, as you are the nation number 1.

Also change The maxplayer value to 40, so that any rebellions will create yet another nation, and not just barbarians as always.

Now that I have won The wonder race for The philosopher stone, I can comply to The request.

This is The nations and their personality in my game.

NATION PERSONALITY

American: Peaceful
Australian: Agreeable
Brazilian: Agreeable
Canadian: Agreeable
Chinese: Militant
Cuban: Aggressive
Dutch: Peaceful
Egyptian: Militant
English: Militant
Ethiopian: Slaver
German: Militant
Greek: Aggressive
Hebrew: Religious
Indian: Peaceful
Irish: Religious
Mayan: Aggressive
Mexican: Aggressive
Mongol: Aggressive
Native American: Slaver
Nicaraguan: Religious
Nigerian Religious
Polynesian: Agreeable
Portuguese: Slaver
Russian: Militant
Scottish: Agreeable
Thai: Aggressive
Turkish: Slaver
Viking: Slaver
Welsh: Agreeable
Zulu: Slaver

Enslave them all!!
Thomas Diemar

p.s. thanx for the list

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I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, --Ozzy

Behold The power of diplomacy.

The completion of The Forbidden City improved The diplomatic relations with all other nations, except The Greek and The Germans as I were at war with these two nations.
These improved relations enabled me to exchange maps with almost every nation in The world, effectively leaving me with a map showing all of The know world to date. This opened up for trade with all foreign nations, thus enabling me to import goods and establish monopolies from foreign goods, ofcause I would have to device a plan to build allot of caravans very fast.
Finally The exchange of maps, created some goodwill from all The nations that I had exchanged maps with, which made it possible to persuade these nations to give me one advance each!
Now I was as advanced as any other nation could be, and I began research on The agriculture revolution. And it wouldn’t take long to make a scientific breakthrough, as I transferred all of The accumulated research from The technology I had been researching up to The point were I received it through diplomacy.
As The my government emerged form anarchy and enacted Theocracy I completed The Hagia Sophia by disbanding some units in The city that were building it, and thereby just beating The others nations to yet another wonder.
The war with The Germans and Greeks were still restricted to sporadic fighting due to lack of productivity, but this contributed to my increasing slave-population.

1000AD

Reaching The year 1000AD, my nation made a scientific breakthrough by discovering The agriculture revolution, because I also had acquired The technology of Banking, and thereby effectively lead The world into The Renaissance Age.
In 1000AD My nation were ranked 3rd in The world just beaten by The Russians, and again just beating The nations ranked 4th ,5th and 6t . The Zulu’s were 1st leading with a 25% higher ranking than The Russians.
My nation owned half of all The wonders in The world that could be built up to this time, and were also owner of The two largest citys in world, Madrid at a size of 15 and Barcelona at a size of 13.
All in all I must say that things were going extremely well.

War preparations.

The construction of a Mill in every city and The construction of roads linking every city together became top priority. I needed to gear up for some real conquest on this continent, because with The newly acquired maps, I’ve discovered that there were two more nations on The continent besides The Greeks and The Germans, namely The Americans and The English. Although I had good relations with these two new nations, it was my intention First and foremost to conquer The entire continent, as I knew this was The only path to greatness. I began plotting The best time to backstab these friendly nations, who were occupying parts of The continent, which I felt was rightfully mine.
The two largest citys were quickly upgraded with every thinkable improvement due to their formidable production rate, and were immediately ordered to begin constructions on various wonders, such as The East India Company, The Gutenberg bible and The printing press.
My trade was fluorescing by The time The last of my citys were upgraded with a Mill. In one city I had a monopoly of oil, established solely from imports.
The invasion armies aimed at The Greeks were of a considerable size. There were 4 separate size 9 armies made up of a deadly mix of Pikemen backed by Archers. These armies were assembled well behind The frontline, in order to take The Greeks by surprise in an all-out onslaught.
As I turned my attention towards The assembly of an army for The German campaign, I ordered The armies for The Greek campaign, in motion towards The Greek capitol, which unfortunately were The only Greek city that could attack.
I took a glimpse at The ranking just before I ordered The attack of The Greek Capitol in The year 1200AD, and discovered that my nation now were ranked 1st just passing The Zulu’s on The power-graph.

More to come...

Ehh, Exactly what is cool?

I just love positive response but please don’t leave me wondering about what is great and what is not so great in The progress of my game.

By The way, if anyone want a more in depth explanation of some The aspects of this game, then please just ask.

For an example: Has anyone got a clue as to how you ‘direct The flow of slaves’?

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I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, --Ozzy

And "Yes, I was going to ask before I read your last post"
Thanks!!

The slaves will normally be assigned to the nearest city to where the slave was capyured, but only if the city still has enough military to control them.

I use CD's mod, which allows 1 military to control 2 slaves, but I thing the normal is 3 slaves per military.

So, if your nearest city has 3 slaves and 2 military in garrison and you don't want a slave to arrive, move one of the military out prior to attack. Make the attack, and the slave goes to the next nearest available city. If the military was on a road/river, then it can be move back after the attack has been made to stiffle slave revolts.

my question: if you disband outside a city does the production go to the civ. or get lost?

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i've seen the man use the needle, (seen the needle use the man) --megadeth

ATa

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if something is easy, something is wrong

when I do bad things it is called mad, but when god does bad things it is called nature
-- the devil

Good luck with your game, I can't wait to see how it goes...

I think that the 'game-workings' are good, it is what other players can relate to - they dream about 'stacks of nine', not divisions...

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i've seen the man use the needle, (seen the needle use the man) --megadeth

>If I where to be able be wage war on two fronts
was

>Realizing that The wonder had to be built in The capitol, as it where by far The larger of The two citys
was...

>The Capitol began The construction of The sphinx The second The stone working technology were discovered.
was

>as I where forced to lower the readiness of my armies to stand a chance in the wonder race.
was

>The map where narrowing down to just one Tile in several locations and just not in the locations mentioned earlier.
was

>The philosopher stone were built without any problems
was

>except The Greek and The Germans as I were at war with these two nations.
was

>The war with The Germans and Greeks were still restricted to sporadic fighting
was

>In 1000AD My nation were ranked 3rd
...

>and discovered that my nation now were ranked 1st just passing The Zulu’s on The power-graph.
was

Those are all the mistakes I could find at first glance. Indeed, there were quite a few which were right... :-)
Still, there were quite a few mistakes, which can get annoying in time...

:-)

Well, when I was playing wing commander, I dreamt about repetitive missions through asteroids, shooting hundreds of Kilrathi, etc... but I actually tried writing a story about it and it just is NOT interesting.
If you write this story and hide the game workings, you can get everyone to relate. If you show them, only hardcore ctp fans will relate...
Your choice!

Daniel

"were".

Daniel

Diemar: Please continue.

Grammer checkers: Get a life and an enema, there's something stuck up there.

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"BEEFCAKE, BEEFCAKE!!!