I hate to be an asshole, but is it really impossible to at least make a comment when you're going to delay the turn roll? I thought we had decided not to just pause for people who didn't make plans/communicate ahead of time. What is he going to lose here, a turn of scouting? More likely than not, his worker is in the process of chopping/farming/pasturing/mining anyway...
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[SPOILERS] This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land. But Mostly Mine.
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Either no one else cares that much about turns rolling without pauses (and I need to lighten up some) or I'm carrying the flag for the silent minority/majority/apathetic middle and should keep it up. I think I'll just stay quiet on pausing/not pausing for now, until this becomes an issue again later. Onward!
T19 Fully healed, I set out with my scout to continue exploration. Oh, hello there, little lovely.  I've never popped a hut in pitboss, so I was expecting a splash screen. After a few puzzled moments, someone kindly pointed me in the direction of the event log.  The Wheel, most welcome.  Also, you can see that I have my first confirmation that I am not alone with the barb animals. That appears to be either Mardoc/Brick or "Barry Lyndon" or perhaps even WilliamLP, though it looks more like the first two. Best guess is Mardoc/Brick. If it is them or "Barry", I should have a pretty easy time getting a religion to spread once I've scouted a route over there.   Here is what the scouting revealed. I'll most likely move SE/W next turn so I can start spending EPs a little better than uselessly on the lurker civ. Originally I worded that sentence as "the useless lurker civ" but I wouldn't want to offend my audience, if there is one.  I've also moved my new warrior out of the capital toward my presumed T31 city#2 location to get a jump on spawn busting. I'll sit my warrior on the forest hill and hopefully rack up some free xp. This was a little puzzling to me today. With my CRE trait and landlocked capital, I've been tied for #1 in Land Area the entire game, until this turn. Someone is now ten tiles ahead, and that sounds perfectly like a second city (on T19!  ) but that really doesn't make any sense. So, not that I'm tracking this, I'll give that to CRE/SPI with Hindu "Barry" on his capital popping to third ring early. Apparently he has third ring tiles over the water. Also notable, it seems that basically everyone is doing a sensible economic opening rather than trying to rush a close neighbor. My single warrior, mining, the wheel, etc have me tied for the soldier lead. I'll take it.Lastly, I did a couple sandbox runs over the weekend with the goal of seeing whether settling east for my second city for ALL OF THE FOOD would be better than my pretty well-planned gems city. My conclusion: inconclusive.  T50: 4 cities, 8 pop, 5 workers, 2 warriors , 2 work boats. This is a fast opening that I almost certainly could not survive. But, now that I have the wheel, I'll need to redo the whole thing and see what changes. Probably I'll just have my gems city hooked several turns sooner. I'm pretty certain that is the best second city because it speeds my tech rate up significantly. The gems is almost as good as a second capital for commerce (cap = 8, gems = 6). I haven't tracked exactly how many beakers I gain going with the gems city over the food city, though, so I am not 100% decided. Still, there's plenty of time to play around with all of this. Questions anyone?
(April 7th, 2014, 12:19)Boldly Going Nowhere Wrote: Questions anyone?Tricky magic plans for bulbs or just planning on letting the Academy and junk roll in?
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
April 7th, 2014, 13:31
(This post was last modified: April 7th, 2014, 13:37 by Boldly Going Nowhere.)
 (April 7th, 2014, 12:37)Commodore Wrote:(April 7th, 2014, 12:19)Boldly Going Nowhere Wrote: Questions anyone?Tricky magic plans for bulbs or just planning on letting the Academy and junk roll in? I haven't decided yet. It is still very early, but I do anticipate getting Writing in the not so distant future, and an early Academy is usually helpful, unless I crash my economy expanding. The number of commas and clauses in that sentence should give a good indication of my thinking here: I'm waffling. Great Scientist bulb priority: So, my early options are Math and Alphabet at 430b each. By the time I can bulb Math, I would probably have mostly completed hand-reaching it already. This has been the case in the handful of sims I have run longer than ~T50. I don't see it being worthwhile to give up early expansion (via saved chops) for a crazy early library to make that Math bulb full price, and I'm pretty certain Math will be my target after Pottery/AH. There are a number of forests available to chop at cities 4+ by the time I get Math done. I've mostly chopped my capital and first three cities by then. I'm chasing the wonder of workers and settlers, so I'm not trying to intentionally leave a fat grove of future hammers waiting for OR that may or may not be timely or for forges that are unlikely to arrive early either. I'm probably just looking at bulk, raw/inefficient hammers for a little while. I'm not wild about burning an early GP on a tech that won't give me full value for the bulb. I loaded in all techs in my sandbox through the Renaissance era to see what the maximum value is for a GS on this map with these settings and I would get +1506 into Scientific Method. I then added techs up through Industrial and that number did not change. I'm assuming this number does not change based on the tech, only based on other things like civ population. If I can get 1506b with only 2 pop and I only need 430b for either tech, then that number is going to go up somewhat as I grow and I'm leaving a lot of free beakers on the table by using the bulb so early. I know as PHI that I can afford to be a little less strict on how I spend my GP because I can build more than in a typical game, but I'd prefer to make this more decisive later in the game when I can push the advantage with Pacifism and get several more GP than if I did not have PHI, perhaps enough for an additional golden age or two? Who knows. The argument against this is that I'll need OB sooner rather than later, so I'll just have to see what my tech rate looks like around that time. I'm almost certain to go for Currency before Alphabet, so unless my economy is perched on the edge of a cliff and the bulb for the 20% arrow discount is decisive, it may not be worth it. I suppose there is always RESEARCH (PB7!! ) to get to Currency, if I completely tank the economy, but overall, I think I just get more value out of an Academy over the course of the game. Unless my tech rate is crashed via over expansion. More waffles, please! If religion misses me completely, I may bulb away fast and furious to beat everyone to Philosophy despite all the above logic to the contrary. A shrine on this map is going to be super sweet, and Taoism is probably my best bet.
Alphabet is also OB tech in RBmod.
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out. (April 7th, 2014, 13:31)Boldly Going Nowhere Wrote:(April 7th, 2014, 12:37)Commodore Wrote:(April 7th, 2014, 12:19)Boldly Going Nowhere Wrote: Questions anyone?Tricky magic plans for bulbs or just planning on letting the Academy and junk roll in? I realy dont think early bulbs are worthy, and for sure you'll get a religion from someone, beter keep them for a strong bulb towards super freemarket.And yeah getiing gems asap way beteer then anithing else.Still i dont like your dotmap for dsome cities, can you gues which?
T20
 I made contact with Mardoc/Brick (Mardick? Bridock? Someone help me out), proud owners of the Buddhist faith and the fifth ranked (size 2) city in the world, Friend Computer. Nice name.  I'll continue scouting along this coastline, probably moving SW/W next turn to shelter in the forest, just in case, then maybe S/SE the following turn, again covered by a forest. John Muir will hold down the GFH for my T30-1 city next turn. I'm still sorting through the micro to see which works out better now that I have the wheel, but I can still revolt while the settler is on the way, so that's nice.Darrell popped a tech from a hut, and there were lots of score increases this turn, maybe for popped borders at the capitals. There are also at least three size 3 cites. I'm guessing these are fishing/work boat first starts but I'm not doing any analysis to know for sure. I'm posting this picture again, my run to T50 settling the east before gems, to get to mackoti's question about which parts of my dotmap he doesn't like. I'll guess that it is more than one city he doesn't like, based on his wording of the question, so that means that he doesn't like either of my T30 (cow/wheat/fish/rice) or T47 (pig/fish/clam/gems) locations. I'm guessing that he does like my T41 location since he suggested it to me over a site on the PH very early on. I'll address these locations individually. The western city, T47 above, is, in my mind, a good NE city, but ONLY if I am able to keep the seafood. I am almost 100% certain that the PH 2N of the pig is a one tile island, so I could have two cities exerting second ring creative culture on the fish. If I settle this far enough ahead of my hypothetical opponent across the channel, I should be able to keep the fish long enough to get a city on the PH island, which I would almost certainly want to do anyway to control the water. The land is tight here, and navies are important, as we have seen in recent games here. With this many players, controlling my coastal waters and preventing my "backline" cities from being boated is going to be critical. My cities won't be backline and safe if I don't have good visibility over the water, so I'm going to prioritize that aspect of play. The PH island will help with that, and if there is any other seafood in range, would provide a very strong Moai city for me to churn out the boats. This would also help me to delay having to research Alphabet for OB. The clams resource I could do the same thing, apply second ring culture from two cities. I need more exploration to the southwest, though, to know for sure whether that is the best plan there. Finally, I'm hoping for a little bit of luck in who my western neighbor is. I'm hoping it is not another creative civ. If it is not, perhaps they will be less eager to vigorously contest me on culture, knowing it is a strength for me. So, early settling, establishing culture, and building a few boats as deterrents will, hopefully, let me control that second ring seafood. I could settle on the FP for the clam to get it first ring, but that just seems like a waste and unnecessary. We'll see. Mack, I'm interested to see where you would want to settle this location, given my current map knowledge. Now, T30 city in the east is another matter, and I have my own misgivings about its current placement. I think it would probably be better placed 1N, allowing for a subsequent city to be placed 2S of the fish to pick up the wheat and cows, and also to exert cultural pressure on the fish from two cities in the same way as I explained above. A city SE of the current location with fish and wheat first ring leaves very bad options for settling NE of the capital. I could settle either on the rice or on the bronze, neither of which I'm eager to do. I only have two tiles that I can settle north of the capital that will allow me to work the bronze tile, and that is a great output tile that I definitely want to be working, so I'll need to settle either 1W or 2W of the bronze. Both would be able to borrow sheep from the capital while it is capped/working cottages, but I don't know for sure yet whether I'll get seafood in that area. I'll know on T25, though, when my capital pops third ring borders, so this will sort itself out. I could also plant on the river PH 3W of bronze and share the west coast pig, but if I'm planning to settle the PH island, I'd be better sharing the capital's sheep with this proposed northern/backfill city. The reason I put the eastern city where it is located in the sandbox is because I wanted to get the strong wheat tile in play as soon as possible. And this city, unlike the western city, is unlikely to get support from the "island" to the north. In the game, that is almost certainly the tip of a landmass to my north, so I can't count on getting cultural support from that side by settling that island. And I really don't want to have to settle on the rice or bronze. But the dry rice tile is definitely weaker than the wet wheat tile. This still needs some work, but I think I'm going to end up moving the city 1N of its current position and settling another city 2S of fish. Unless that is actually an island, and then a PH plant there grabbing dry rice (meh) and bronze becomes very attractive. Lots to be determined yet, but I appreciate the question. Keep them coming! Mack, did I guess right?
April 9th, 2014, 13:04
(This post was last modified: April 9th, 2014, 13:07 by Boldly Going Nowhere.)
T21
We are withered and weathered, hardened by the flames and fires of our existence, bearing burdens of toil and turmoil. We carry with us scrapes and scars, regrets and disappointments, flotsam and jetsam all of a turbulent, thunderous existence, and yet we yearn for the tenderness of the first warmth of the sun after a long, bitter winter. We are not, as yet, so hardened and battered that we have become immune to the timeless, nor have we, quite yet, annulled wholly our ties to the land and to the greater wonders of existence. Within us all lies a yearning for the eternal and the ephemeral, the unfathomable depths and the unknowable distances, without a concern for the quantifiable or the measurable. Yet we yearn (in silence) all the same. And, as if responding to our silent, outward cry which screams our inward unspoken, unrealized, and unfulfilled struggle, when the sun rises in the East through the rising mist of a placid, steaming lake, the earth roars its approval and the fauna return, once again as in ritual, to life and the gaping distance of our yearning is covered in a glorious, golden, dazzling display of renewal and continuity. And it will gladly do the same on the morrow, whether we will it, or wither we hie. And will we notice? ![[Image: Muir%20-%20mountain%20is%20calling.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59892754/PB18/Muir%20-%20mountain%20is%20calling.jpg) ![[Image: John%20Muir.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59892754/PB18/John%20Muir.jpg) John Muir, better known for his love of the Sierras, sits perched atop Elephant Back Mountain amid stands of Lodgepole Pines, Douglas Firs, and the occasional Aspen. Overlooking Lake Yellowstone, this looks to be a memorable place, and one to spend a happy afternoon in the sun contemplating the serenity of the wild.  To this day, you can return to the place on the top of the mountain where Muir and a privileged multitude since have gone to seek solitude and the nurturing song of nature. If you go, go in pursuit of of that, with one eye fixed firmly to the horizon. Save your other eye for the bears. 
T22
 Whosit popped a tech from a hut, John Muir left Elephant Back Mountain to stretch his legs on an adjacent hill, and the scout continued its southward trek down what is looking like either a peninsula or a narrow isthmus. The two seafood in my scout's vision are fish. And Mardoc (I'm just going to say him from now on, Brick isn't nearly as active in their thread) has put full EP on me now.
T23
 Just for fun, I did a little flying camera snooping, not really discovering much of interest. It appears that my scout is indeed on a peninsula. The land looks like it ends 2S/1W of the scout's current position, but I don't think it is worth my time to scout it. If I go all the way to the end of the peninsula here it will take me three turns to get back to the scout's current position. I think I'll get more use out of the scout by bringing it back around the bay and then making a clockwise loop back to the west to uncover another swath of fogged territory. Deep scouting is going to wait until I get a boat or two into the water and maybe have an axe to spare. So, probably it will be quite a while. I don't mind missing contacts during the ancient era, but I'll for sure want to start piling up contacts later on to get the tech discounts. With so many financial civs in the game, I'm sure there will be plenty of tech drafting opportunities for me down the road. Also, I drew in what is being spawn busted right now. I could leave Muir where he is for maximum vision on approaching scouting (rushing??  ) units and beat an animal to the previously named Elephant Back Mountain (signpost T25 Muir). I'm not crazy about having my only warrior so far away from the capital, but I could always revolt and whip a warrior if I absolutely had to. Or put a single hammer into a warrior, but meh. I think I'll be fine.  For what it's worth... Whosit Score changed to 51 from 50 (pop) BGN Score changed to 50 from 45 (land) <--CRE Ataturk Score changed to 46 from 40 (tech) Oxyphenbutazone Score changed to 50 from 45 (land) <--CRE spacetyrantxenu Score changed to 43 from 39 (land) <--CRE Plako Score changed to 50 from 45 (land) <--CRE Cyneheard Score changed to 52 from 51 (pop) pindicator Score changed to 46 from 45 (pop) "Barry Lyndon" Score changed to 61 from 57 (land) <--CRE Q Score changed to 49 from 44 (land) <--CRE Novice Score changed to 44 from 39 (land) <--CRE Farmer Augrufftus Score changed to 46 from 45 (pop) Also, Mardoc has not revolted to slavery. Not surprising, I just happened to notice that detail while clicking through stuff. |
I'm not sure how I would even get a GS without having a library first though. Priesthood-->Code of Laws/Caste? Not super fast.