10 years ago I was getting some tingling in my fingers when playing Moo.  So I wrote an app to automate some of the boring stuff.  I finished it on 6/4/2010 and I've been using the alpha version ever since.

How it works is this:  There's no installation, just put it in the same folder as Orion.exe and create a shortcut to it wherever you need to.  You run the app before or after you start moo.  It does nothing but listen for ctrl-shift-M and ctrl-shift-R.  When you press one of those combinations it saves your game to save1.gam and analyses the file attempting to set your planet's sliders in a somewhat intelligent way so you don't have to.  Then it saves the file to save1.gam and loads it into moo.  (It saves backups to save100.gam, save101.gam, save102.gam just in case).  THE APP IS NOW DORMANT ONCE AGAIN, DOING NOTHING BUT LISTENING FOR CTRL-SHIFT-M AND CTRL-SHIFT-R.

The goal of the app is to max out planets.  It sets the eco slider to the right when terraforming is available if the planet is at 65% or 70% (hostile) of it's max pop.  It tries to find the perfect mix of factory building and pop creation to max out those sliders at the same time, and it usually comes pretty close.  When planetary shields are available, and if the planet is maxed out on pop and factories it sets the shields slider to the right.

The app is a "send-keys" app written in Delphi 7.  If you've ever heard of AutoHotKey then you know the genre.  When you trigger the app with one of the hot key combinations it's very important that you don't move the mouse or use the keyboard.  Pretty weird, huh?  About an hour into my first game it quit bugging me - I saw it as a chance to quench my thirst.

Ctrl-Shift-M is the regular mode.

Ctrl-Shift-R (R for red) respects and doesn't tamper with any sliders that you've locked.  Let's say you've got a rich planet cranking out ships and you want MooSliders to max out the 2 planets you've just taken.  Lock the rich planet's sliders and hit ctrl-shift-r.

My apologies to Silicoid fans.  I never got around to adding support for them.  If you try to use the app with the Silicoids it won't go well.

Early in the game the app doesn't help ya.  There's nothing for it to do.  Once I've got 3, 4, maybe 5 planets I start to use the app.

So will MooSliders make you a better Master Of Orion player?  I certainly hope not.  The goal was never to write a program to play the game for me.  The app would be fun to write, but the game would be forever ruined.  I think I'm ever so slightly better with the app than without it.  And that's why it never made it past alpha.  Is Master Of Orion better with much of the drudgery removed?  You betcha.

A good way to try it might be with a saved game that you quit because you were winning and it was a done deal.  Start MooSliders.  Start Moo.  Load your game.  Save your game to the first slot (save1.gam), and hit Ctrl-Shift-M.   Try it again when you conquer planets/discover terraforming/robotic_controls/shielding.

Attached Files

  MooSliders.zip (Size: 213.6 KB / Downloads: 1)

I noticed there are 3 sets of combat wall graphics in the LBX files, a normal wall, a darker wall and a wall with green stuff (moss?) on it.
I never really paid attention to this so I wonder, does the game use all three or only the default, and if yes, what determines the type of wall displayed?

Do we want to recreate the original conditions (if one existed) for CoM II or define our own rule, if the latter, what exactly?

Game Rules and Settings:

Server: pb.zulan.net:2052

Game tracker: https://civ.zulan.net/pbspy/game/99/

Game Host unified tech thread (for all Zanth/Ramkhamhaeng hosted games):
http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showt...p?tid=9510

Host: Zanth/Ramkhamhaeng
Admins for pauses, timer changes, etc: Ramkhamhaeng, superdeath, Charriu
Map maker: GeneralKilCavalry
Starting date: June 6, 2020
Mod: CtH 1.3
Mod Changelog: Here
Turn Timer: 24 hours (turn timer adjusted so each turn is 24 hours in real life)

Fix for unblocking of other players and faster login: http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showt...#pid703171


Rules:

Quote:In-game options
- Map size: Standard
- Difficulty: Monarch
- Speed: Normal
- Era: Ancient
- No tech trading
- Barbarians on
- Events off
- No tribal villages
- No vassal states
- True AI Diplo
- No spies

(September 4th, 2019, 16:29)Krill Wrote:

(September 4th, 2019, 10:23)Old Harry Wrote:

(September 3rd, 2019, 23:20)Charriu Wrote:

(September 3rd, 2019, 17:33)Old Harry Wrote: If I accept the declare war deal then surely my choice is to play my turn now (if it isn't a double move) or logout again and wait for my adversary to play before logging in to play (perhaps with a pm too let them know what happened).

Is there a scenario I've missed?

But you should only tell the player that the DoW came via diplo. You should not tell them who bought you in.

I think the scenario I missed was when player A offers player B a war vs C for war vs C trade. Then the declaration comes when B accepts.

At this point I think:
- B should PM A to say they accepted
- B should PM C to say they've declared war and what the turn split is
- A should PM C to say they've declared war and what the turn split is

B probably shouldn't say they got bought into the war, that'll be fairly obvious anyway.

My original post was about B being bought into an existing war (or very rarely being asked to attack someone A isn't at war with). That seems pretty straightforward:
- B should PM C to say they've declared war and what the turn split is

I don't have a strong opinion on if B should PM A to say they've accepted, it's only an issue if A gets a peace offer from C and their acceptance depends on what B is doing. But you can find that out by pressing F4 anyway.

Quote:Which brings me to what is probably going to be the easiest rule of thumb: The offer to declare war must be treated by the player sending it as an actual declaration of war, and can only be sent at a time it would be legal to declare war.

Does this cover all of the war declaration stuff? Nothing else in the AI Diplo option affects turn splits.

Quote:1) Superdeath + Chumchu - CATHERINE of CHINA
2) Charriu - MAO ZEDONG of CELTICA
3) pindicator - CHARLEGMANE of CARTHAGE
4) Mjmd + El Grillo - VICTORIA of INDIA
5) AutomatedTeller - BOUDICA of MAYA
6) Jowy - HANNIBAL of KHMER
7) Mr.Cairo - TOKUGAWA of ZULU
8) Giraflorens + Vanrober - CYRUS of JAPAN

(February 25th, 2018, 22:20)BRickAstley Wrote: As an impartial observer, I would say everyone should put their password in the first post of their thread no matter what (no one has ever used that to cheat here, and if they did it's obvious and we'll reload. And then either:

1) explicitly state in their first post they don't mind a global lurker coming in and making basic common sense moves, if they are still left to play with under an hour to go

OR

2) if you don't want to do the above, but occasionally need a lurker to cover, post here ahead of time and give specific instructions in your thread. If you forget tough noogies, you lose your moves this turn.

I would advise against pauses if at all possible this early on, the game needs to keep moving. And this can all be revisited later when player count thins and empire size balloons

Do astronauts dream of chocolate buffalo?

Signups:
1. El Grillo
2. WarriorKnight
3. superdeath
4. Bobchillingworth
5. sunrise089
6. Commodore
7. DaveV
8. JR4
9. Lewwyn
10. Azoth

Red team:
1. JR4
2. Commodore
3. superdeath
4. WarriorKnight
5. Lewwyn

Blue team:
6. DaveV
7. sunrise089
8. Bobchillingworth
9. El Grillo
10. Azoth

Silvia is a Spanish-Catalan young singer.  She sings popular Spanish music, and some English versions.  Close to flamenco, Cuban son, latin rythms and some american singers (Cohen).
Her style has the power of the sweetness.  This video is a popular Mexican song.

Vanrober and Gira welcome you to this history about the "Close to Home" CivIV Pitboss.  We are from Spain, so apologies for the English language mistakes. We wish you enjoy our history, and we hope to last enough to hear the huge Silvia's repertory.

You can download the mod here: Close to Home 1.3

Note that all the changes here are additions to what you already find in BtS unless otherwise stated as NEW

Changelog version 1.3

Tile Yields and Improvements

• Lumbermills: Available at Machinery, +1 commerce, +1 commerce with Electricity, Lumber mills now +1 commerce on the corner of rivers
  
• Forest preserves: +1 commerce, now +1 commerce on the corner of rivers like above
  

• Drafting: Rifles now cost 2 pop to draft. A city must now end a draft at size 6 instead of size 5 (So size 8 to draft a rifle, size 7 to draft a musket).
  
• AP Resolutions: Declare War (on a non-member), Force Peace (between two members), Religious victory, and Assign City are no longer eligible resolution actions.
  
• Fail-gold: You never get fail-gold if you also completed the wonder somewhere else (so no National Wonder fail-gold, or doubling up on a wonder to guarantee yourself a paycheck. The game still informs you that you received "0 gold" from your hammers).
  
• Toroidal Maintenance: Now return city maintenance as if the map were Cylindrical.
  
• Inflation: Inflation still occurs with increasing turn numbers, but in addition if (All techs you discovered / All available techs) * Maximum turn numbers is higher then the current turn, inflation takes the calculated turn from techs as a base for the calculation.
  
• War Weariness: War weariness declines faster after the war ended
  
• Religion spread: Spreading religions via missionaries to your own cities never fails
  
• Global warming: Removed
  
• Espionage: Active missions removed
  
• Espionage: 'No espionage' option fixed, see bugfix section for more details
  

• Agriculture: Cost 40 instead of 60
  
• Mysticism: Cost 60 instead of 50
  
• Fishing: Cost 50 instead of 40
  
• Metal Casting: Cost 300 instead of  450
  
• Alphabet: Cost 250 instead of 300
  
• Mysticism: Now adds +1 commerce to Palace
  
• Astronomy: Add Paper as another prerequisite
  
• Refrigeration: lose +1 sea movement
  

• Castle: Obsoletes at Corporation instead of Economics
  
• Customs House: Cost 120 instead of 180, also applies to all UBs based on Customs House (Feitoria)
  

• Red Cross: Cost 200 instead of 600
  
• West Point: Cost 550 instead of 800, +5 XP instead of 4, Requires a level 5 unit instead of 6
  

• Resource modifiers: All wonders that had +100% production with a specific resource now only have +50% production with that resource.
  
• Great Lighthouse: +1 trade route in coastal cities instead of +2
  
• Statue of Zeus: Obsolete at Gunpowder
  

• Flanking: Flanking strength (used to calculate damage from flanking strikes) of all units reduced by 50%.
  
• Circumnavigation: +1 trade route in all coastal cities instead of +1 movement and can be achieved by everybody
  
• Coastal blockade: only blocks trade routes, blockaded cities can still work blocked tiles.
  

• Scout: +200% vs animals instead of +100%, no tech required, that way everybody starts with a scout, movement 1 (+1 gained with Hunting)
  
• Swordsman: +20% city attack instead of +10%, also applies to UUs Jaguar Warrior and Gallic Swordsman
  
• War elephant: Strength 7 instead of 8
  
• Airship: Cannot see submarines
  
• ICBM: Cost 1500 instead of 500
  
• Tactical Nuke: Cost 750 instead of 250
  
• Nukes: Nukes never create fallout on tiles containing strategic resources.
  

• Work Boat: no longer require any tech (still require Fishing to work water tiles).
  
• Privateer: Required techs are Gunpowder and Astronomy instead of Chemistry and Astronomy
  
• Submarine and Attack Submarine: Flanking vs Transports
  

• Tech: Discovering the corresponding tech for a corporation earns you an executive of that corporation. To settle the HQ you still need a great person.
  
• Sid's Sushi Co.: Food bonus per resource 0.25 instead of 0.5 and culture bonus per resource 1 instead of 2, maintenance costs halfed
  
• Mining Inc.: Hammer bonus per resource 0.75 instead of 1, maintenance costs 3/4 of original
  

• Serfdom: +1 hammer on Farms and Watermills, +1 commerce on Windmills
  
• Emancipation: lose unhappiness bonus, gain +10% Hammer in all cities
  
• State Property: Lose +10% Hammer in all cities
  
• Environmentalism: Available at Biology instead of Medicine, remove Corporation costs
  
• Vassalage: Medium cost instead of High
  

• Financial: +1 commerce on land tiles that have 3+ commerce, +1 commerce on water tiles that have 2+ commerce, +100% production of bank
  
• Expansive: Remove Worker bonus, add +100% production of Aqueduct
  
• Creative: Reduce Library bonus from 100% to 50%, Remove production bonus for Colosseum
  
• Charismatic: +100% production of Monument, +100% production of Colosseum
  
• Imperialistic: +100% production of Stable
  
• Aggressive: +1 happiness on Barracks and +100% production of Jails
  
• Philosophical: +150% GPP instead of +100%
  
• Protective: +75% trade route yield (like Harbors do)
  

• UBs no longer obsolete at any time. Affected civs are Celts, Egypt, Ethiopia, Native America, Spain
  
• America UB: NEW Immigration Station - Harbor replacement, +3 Great People Points, +1 happy from Hit Musical, Singles and Movies
  
• America UU: NEW Minuteman - Musket replacement, Starts with Guerrilla 1 and Woodsman 1.
  
• Arabia UU: Camel Archer starts with March
  
• Babylon UB: only +1 health, Makes city act as a source of fresh water
  
• Byzantium UB: add +2 artist slots
  
• Byzantium UU: Strength 11 instead of 12, first strike immune like normal knight
  
• Celts UB: +1 culture
  
• France UB: +1 free specialist instead of +1 artist
  
• Germany UB: Assembly Plant available at Steam Power instead of Assembly line, +2 hammer
  
• Germany UU: NEW Riesengarde - replace Grenadier, available at Chemistry, starts with Pinch
  
• Inca UB: +1 culture instead of +2, Cost 70 instead of 60
  
• India UU: movement 2 instead of 3, start with Mobility promotion, Cost 70 instead of 60
  
• Japan UB: NEW Tatara, Forge replacement - +2 XP to Melee, +10% hammer bonus with coals
  
• Khmer UU: Stays at 8 strength instead of base units now 7 strength, requires Ivory or Iron
  
• Maya UU: Starts with Woodsman 1
  
• Native America Tech: Hunting/Agriculture instead of Fishing/Agriculture
  
• Native America UB: Available at Archery instead of Mysticism, additional +1 XP for gunpowder units, never obsoletes
  
• Rome UU: Strength 7 instead of 8, only +10% city attack compared to base unit, cost 40 just like base unit
  
• Russia UB: Replace University instead of Laboratory, only +1 free scientist
  
• Spain UB: Never obsoletes, +2 XP for naval units
  
• Zulu UU: Remove Mobility promotion
  

• LieuYe (ORG/PRO)
  
• San Martin (CHM/CRE) and
  
• Nebuchadrezzar (IND/PRO)
  

Race: Klackons
Difficulty: Impossible
Galaxy Size: Medium
Opponents: Five
Color: Red
Map Generation: Random - I just took the first map rolled
Events: On
Game Version: 1.4M - but do we also want to play with SDragon's battle scanner bugfix?
Variant:  We are very, very friendly bugs - perhaps too friendly for our own good!
1) You must make every effort to complete a tech exchange as early as possible in each of your turn sets, including choosing one from the first list of options you get, no matter the price! (After the first exchange of your set you can handle tech exchanges however you normally would; this requires only one total trade per turn set, no matter how many other AIs you've met.)
2) Any time an AI requests a trade agreement or a Non-Aggression Pact during the interturn, you must agree! (You needn't accept Peace, War, or Alliance requests however: We're only over-friendly to those who aren't fighting us and aren't trying to turn us into somebody's enemy!)

Also, of course, never "play ahead" (nor replay already-played turns) of the canonical turns while the game is ongoing - that is, don't do anything with the save (like using the Audience button or hitting "Next Turn") that will give you more information or a chance at good or bad RNG unless it's your turn to play - and then play your turns out with the consequences of whatever you do without reloading.  Likewise, remember to avoid the known exploits - although some of them (like infinitely recharging specials) are fortunately fixed and no longer concerns in 1.40M.

Our Start:
   
   

Looks promising at first glance (I admit some definitions of "promising" may be different from mine!) but I haven't started playing yet, as I'd prefer to let someone else take first crack at it, and I want to make sure of e.g. who's playing and whether we want to use SDragon's patch update.  (I'd like to try it out, but am happy either way.)

Roster In No Particular Order, Subject to Confirmation:
- RefSteel
- Arnuz
- Bionic Commando
- shallow_thought
-Cyneheard
- Open if others want to play!

Turn sets:  The early game tends to go quickly, so the first player plays 20 turns, the next two play 15 turns each, taking us to 2350, and everyone takes 10 turns per set thereafter.

Succession Game Etiquette:  Within 24 hours after the player before you posts the save, please either post a "Got it" message (indicating you've downloaded the save and intend to play your set within the next day or two) or ask to be skipped for a round or to swap places with another player.  Within 48 hours after posting a "Got it" please finish your turns and post a save (or request a skip or swap or extension if something comes up unexpectedly).

Attached Files

  OSG-36-2300.GAM (Size: 57.65 KB / Downloads: 3)

I've tested a bunch of different map generators that I found here by sevenspirits and on civfanatics, but ended up considering the fractal map linked here. It sort of fulfills the donut requirement, but might it be too... naval? A few player did request donuts, and this seems to satisfy their requirements. If a couple lurkers could confirm this map is decent, I can start balancing/repositioning starts to make sure the map is fair for players.

One day I'll put the effort in coming up with an interesting thread title....

edit:

Pick order:
1. Superdeath
2. Charriu
3. pindicator
4. Mjmd
5. AutomatedTeller
6. Jowy
7. Mr. Cairo
8. Giraflorens

Please advise all other players to maintain safe distance from me in game so that I may farmer gambit safely.