I'm going to be lazy and just post a screen capture from Excel.
[attach]2719[/attach]
If timmy827 had played to victory, he would have won a very close contest over kjn by 2 points! However, I'm afraid we really can't set a precedent for awarding points that weren't actually earned, so kjn has to be designated as the official winner. But congratulations to both players are certainly in order.
And some comments from the sponsor:
The genesis of this idea came from a reaction to the glut of "extra goodies" adventures lately. Holiday Wishlist, Hannibal's Muse, Knowledge is Power, and Mansa's Muse all gave some pretty massive free bonuses at the start of the game. Those games were certainly fun, but the variants shouldn't trend towards cheatyface stuff forever. I wanted a game with a more classic Realms Beyond variant experience, taking standard game rules to an unusual direction and with a little bit of extra difficulty. This one came to me in thinking over previous games, particularly Tree Huggers. Could we emphasize another type of terrain like that one did forests? Sure can.
I also wanted to diverge a bit from Pangaea-type maps for some variety. But delaying contact until Astronomy is not so interesting. A map script that came to mind with separate continents but early coastal contact was Custom Continents, and so it was. I rolled several as usual until picking one, and used text editing on a worldbuilder save to convert every tile to hill. I generously added food resources to compensate for the rough terrain (to both the player's area and AIs), mostly pigs and sheep so as not to make food corporations dominant in the later game. And I threw in some interesting tweaks for variety - the lighthouseable lakes tiles, the hill flood plains and oases, the forests to the northwest (ice doesn't usually have forests.)
As for picking a civilization, the Baray UB came first. It seemed perfect, although it wasn't mentioned much in the reports, so maybe it wasn't so great in practice. I felt Sury's traits didn't fit particularly well: Expansive granaries aren't so hot when food is scarce and hammers already plentiful, and neither are Creative libraries without food to run scientists. Ind and Org seemed like the best combo, giving a leg up on key wonders like the Hanging Gardens, and allowing expansion in a world of low-commerce cities.
The scoring system didn't have any particular inspiration, just came together from a variety of stuff in deliberately keeping away from fastest-finish. The competitive nature was a way to easily make it self-balancing, rather than awarding fixed points for fixed goals. Windmills naturally pointed to Machinery and Rep Parts, and growing population would be a serious focus point. The first wonder goal was a nudge towards the Hanging Gardens and Great Library, key wonders on a low-food map, or maybe even Temple of Artemis, with the Great Wall as a red herring that bit Lee hard.
The 550 hammer wonder goal was specifically designed for Sankore for economy on the rough map, with a nudge towards Sistine if you wanted to go for culture.
The beaker goal of course was a subtle Back to the Future reference, to go with the title. I didn't want to make a full-blown BTTF theme but it struck me as a fun little nod, trying to accelerate your civ to "88 miles per hour" for just an instant.
Congratulations again to kjn, timmy, and all who played!
[attach]2719[/attach]
If timmy827 had played to victory, he would have won a very close contest over kjn by 2 points! However, I'm afraid we really can't set a precedent for awarding points that weren't actually earned, so kjn has to be designated as the official winner. But congratulations to both players are certainly in order.
And some comments from the sponsor:
The genesis of this idea came from a reaction to the glut of "extra goodies" adventures lately. Holiday Wishlist, Hannibal's Muse, Knowledge is Power, and Mansa's Muse all gave some pretty massive free bonuses at the start of the game. Those games were certainly fun, but the variants shouldn't trend towards cheatyface stuff forever. I wanted a game with a more classic Realms Beyond variant experience, taking standard game rules to an unusual direction and with a little bit of extra difficulty. This one came to me in thinking over previous games, particularly Tree Huggers. Could we emphasize another type of terrain like that one did forests? Sure can.
I also wanted to diverge a bit from Pangaea-type maps for some variety. But delaying contact until Astronomy is not so interesting. A map script that came to mind with separate continents but early coastal contact was Custom Continents, and so it was. I rolled several as usual until picking one, and used text editing on a worldbuilder save to convert every tile to hill. I generously added food resources to compensate for the rough terrain (to both the player's area and AIs), mostly pigs and sheep so as not to make food corporations dominant in the later game. And I threw in some interesting tweaks for variety - the lighthouseable lakes tiles, the hill flood plains and oases, the forests to the northwest (ice doesn't usually have forests.)
As for picking a civilization, the Baray UB came first. It seemed perfect, although it wasn't mentioned much in the reports, so maybe it wasn't so great in practice. I felt Sury's traits didn't fit particularly well: Expansive granaries aren't so hot when food is scarce and hammers already plentiful, and neither are Creative libraries without food to run scientists. Ind and Org seemed like the best combo, giving a leg up on key wonders like the Hanging Gardens, and allowing expansion in a world of low-commerce cities.
The scoring system didn't have any particular inspiration, just came together from a variety of stuff in deliberately keeping away from fastest-finish. The competitive nature was a way to easily make it self-balancing, rather than awarding fixed points for fixed goals. Windmills naturally pointed to Machinery and Rep Parts, and growing population would be a serious focus point. The first wonder goal was a nudge towards the Hanging Gardens and Great Library, key wonders on a low-food map, or maybe even Temple of Artemis, with the Great Wall as a red herring that bit Lee hard.
The 550 hammer wonder goal was specifically designed for Sankore for economy on the rough map, with a nudge towards Sistine if you wanted to go for culture.The beaker goal of course was a subtle Back to the Future reference, to go with the title. I didn't want to make a full-blown BTTF theme but it struck me as a fun little nod, trying to accelerate your civ to "88 miles per hour" for just an instant.
Congratulations again to kjn, timmy, and all who played!
