(SPOILERS) Donovan Zoi Fights in Honor of Japan's Bad Name

[Charriu]

This glitch only occurs if there is or was land near this point.

How near?

Would be best if you look at PB43s map. There NW of Elkads position is the Null point. I constantly had 4 tiles glitched out there and Elkad also mentioned it in his thread. No he didn't, my mistake.

[Cornflakes]

So would you still chop the grass deer?

If we go with the 2-whip plan, I don’t think I have to.  The 2nd ring Plains hill replace the chop outside our borders to get us over that 5h deficit on T64.

In order to use the deer chop plan, we would have to get workers to chop all 3 included sites by T64, which we is not possible.

Oh I see. Yes that makes sense. That southern city will be able to steal the grass deer initially and between the clams and sharing a couple mines will play a decent support role as we push out to settlers for the islands.

What is your tech plan? Is the beaker investment into Archery worth the hammer savings on garrisons? Could we delay Writing to get Archery now? I don't see us wanting libraries until at least the silver/gems islands are settled.

My thought is 1W of gems as first island settlement. With ocean east that seems a safe option for to ship worker+settler pair. Newly founded city can take clams while worker improves cows. Then worker can chop+mine the gems and we can drop off a garrison when picking up the worker.

[Ramkhamhaeng]

Would be best if you look at PB43s map. There NW of Elkads position is the Null point. I constantly had 4 tiles glitched out there and Elkad also mentioned it in his thread. No he didn't, my mistake.

Thanks. In this file I was able to reproduce and fix the bug by adding Land nearby the origin spot. Unfortunately this fix won't work on the PB88 map.

[Ramkhamhaeng]

Incidentally, this shot also shows the glitchy graphics I mentioned.  Can I get a game admin to look at this?  It started off as 4 weird tiles, but is now about 30 tiles.  I just want to make sure this does not get progressively worse as the game file gets larger.  Thanks!

Lord of the Civ and I were only able to reproduce the small flickering error.
If the big graphic glitch do not appear again, I see two "solutions":

a) Ignoring the flickering on this 3x3 patch.
b) Changing 13 water tiles into (barren) land. In my tests, the problematic texture will be covered by this.

So, how shall we proceed, Donovan?

[Donovan Zoi]

Lord of the Civ and I were only able to reproduce the small flickering error.
If the big graphic glitch do not appear again, I see two "solutions":

a) Ignoring the flickering on this 3x3 patch.
b) Changing 13 water tiles into (barren) land. In my tests, the problematic texture will be covered by this.

So, how shall we proceed, Donovan?

Hi Ramk, sorry for the radio silence -- rough two days at work.  

The graphics were fine last turn save for that small patch of sea tiles. 

Let's keep 'em.  I've been telling myself that those nearby waters hold the source of an ancient Japanese power, so it would be bad luck to lose em now. 


Thanks to you, Charriu and Lord of the Civ for your help!

[Ramkhamhaeng]

Ok

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 62





Workboat whip. Check.
Worker stalled. Check.
Settler queued. Check.

I sent the Dyes Worker up to pasture the sheep, which will complete on the same turn that Ieyasu hits size 6.


Kojiro



It looks like the overflow is going to break even on the whip.  I am glad that I whipped the Lighthouse earlier because we will get +1 happiness back in 2 turns, just before we grow back to Size 4 (he says presumptuously).

Seriously though, these next few turns are going to be gut-wrenching as we monitor the fate of the GLH.  I'm pretty invested in having it now, as it just fits in so well with what we have.


Ieyasu



It feels odd deadheading to increased population in the capital, but we'll have Settlers down to 6 turns here at size 6.  The tiles are so good and we are also finding ourselves increasing isolated (more on that in a moment).

At some point, I am willing to consider a whip strategy for Settlers to claim the islands quickly.   We will take an initial hit to our economy, but would be paid back quickly as those cities grow.


Culture Watch



OK , so regarding our isolation.  The 3 islands to our immediate north have been verified safe.  Next turn I will find out if travel is available beyond that northern island.   And we still haven't met anyone.

I have been making L-shaped turns around islands to verify corner ocean tiles.  I'll be able to do the same for the 4 southern islands soon.

It's amazing that we have this much area under our claim (13 possible city spots in view) in a game that was advertised as being a bitter fight to get more than 5 plants.  I'd have to imagine that our experience is different from about 90% of the other players directly competing for land.  So enjoy!

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 63
Life after GLH

Well, we didn't get it.  Or I didn't, I should say, since I was not reporting during the planning phases.  I'll be spending some time reflecting on not starting this build in the capital, but we still have to push forward.  I think we spend the next few turns getting out the next wave of Settlers.

Here's the contingency plan I have set in place.


Kojiro



I ended up building the new city as planned since doing so allowed me to finish the Kojiro chop.  The chop/whip hammers have been put into a Settler so we will have 63h there next turn.  Since we will be giving the 5f deer to the new city for awhile, I am not against still using a 2-whip next turn to get a Settler out to one of the mineral sites.  Kojiro will grow back to Size 4 quickly and then we can just have it build a new Settler while it parks at that pop for awhile.

If this sounds good, I am thinking of putting the overflow into an Axeman and having him come up to disconnect the Copper and then have  a Worker re-establish the mine without the road.  We are isolated enough that we can park WBs at each entry point we have, so we should be safe to garrison with Warriors.  


Ieyasu



I think that it's time to consider whipping some Settlers out of the capital as well, especially since Ieyasu has some happiness to give.  I switched from the un-pastured Sheep back to the mine to get the Galley in 2, so it will be ready to land the Settler on the northern Silver island when it arrives.  

Let me know your thoughts on this, as I know you were lobbying for the Gems site first.  The northern site can start growth at 5 food and won't have to chop before mining the Silver.  It is also fully verified to be reasonably protected while the Gems site has one uncertain corner tile that hasn't been verified as ocean yet.


Archery vs. Pottery

As you may have noticed, we did finish Writing last turn.  This may have seemed premature, but the main reason I did it is because this tech allows for Open Borders in Base BTS.  This would have been huge with the GLH, but even so, we've got to be on the verge of meeting someone soon and this will allow us to establish good relations and continue exploration immediately.  We may even have better luck with OB since our rivals would no longer have to be concerned with us padding our GLH coffers.

Anyway, I did set the tech queue to Archery, but think we can move to Pottery if you are okay with the Copper disconnect and Warrior garrisons for now.  Pottery gives us our prereq to Metal Casting, and also Granaries to bring in that coastal commerce that much faster in emerging cities.  In new cities with limited production, we will have the option to whip a Warrior with 1h into it to get halfway to a Granary whip at a relatively small size (or let a city just grow to Size 4 and save a whip).


Two New Happiness Resources

We discovered Furs to the west of Kojiro and our new city of Kiyomasa.  I have two boats scanning the west for new life, hopefully confirming our safety in this area.  If all looks good next turn, I think the Warrior gambit will work for us so most hammers can be put into Workboats and city improvements.





And in the far north, our travels continue after all.  Here we find Gold, to complete the Forge happiness trifecta should we get to this site in time.  I still owe Cornflakes a conversation on upcoming techs but Metal Casting is certainly in high consideration.  Partially for the Colossus, which could fall to the Oracle civ, but mainly for the Forge happiness and access to Triremes.

[Papa Bear]

How "difficult" are open borders negotiations usually for the player who builds the GLH here at RB Forum?

How is it usually handled by other players who have not researched currency yet (in order to be able to ask for an immediate GPT reimbursement, for example)? Simply do not offer OB until then? Or give them now and ask for one-off compensation later? Sorry, I have not had time to do extensive reading in threads other than the PB88-related ones.

[Donovan Zoi]

How "difficult" are open borders negotiations usually for the player who builds the GLH here at RB Forum?

How is it usually handled by other players who have not researched currency yet (in order to be able to ask for an immediate GPT reimbursement, for example)? Simply do not offer OB until then? Or give them now and ask for one-off compensation later? Sorry, I have not had time to do extensive reading in threads other than the PB88-related ones.

Hey Papa Bear,

Good question.  That is something I have never truly investigated, but would guess it depends on the level of the player we'd be courting had we landed it.  I'd think that more savvy players would think twice before possibly contributing to a GLH snowball effect, but we don't have that issue now.   It's also something I said to make myself feel better about losing the GLH

I think a neighbor without Currency would still accept a general OB deal without gpt because they still get to enhance one trade route.  But if your question was specific to the GLH in this scenario, then yeah I would have been okay offering 3-5gpt for OB to enhance our extra trade spots (once one of us had Currency).