So what exactly do I need to do to keep the AI from scouting my city? Normal LOS apply? In this particular case wraith settlers are seeping across the sea, so I need to keep them away from squares neighboring my cities?

Hello folks,

1993 was a great year for PC gaming: Doom, XCOM/UFO and Master of Orion. Now, 25 years later, in a post-DOS world... how does one play these?

Doom has numerous "source ports" due to the source code release by Id. For X-Com there's the popular OpenXcom project, an engine re-interpretation which provides modern compatibility and GPL goodness, along with extended mod support.

As for the other MicroProse classic, the original Master of Orion, we have v1.3 and some unofficial v1.4 hacked DOS EXEs with no source code in sight. Well, time to change that!

Enter 1oom, a Free Software game engine recreation of the original Master of Orion. This project aims to preserve and improve the experience of playing Master of Orion in modern systems, while providing some mod support via PBX patching.

As of the moment, the engine is fully functional and allows the game to be played from the beginning to the end. Keep in mind 1oom requires a copy of the original Master of Orion 1.3 to be played. You may purchase an officially licensed DRM-free copy from GOG.com.

Find the last release here. Source code and binaries for win32 and msdos are available.
A homepage exists.
As does a git.
The .idb files used to create this are available in the homepage.

The project is finished.

I'll rename the thread to something more interesting probably once I know my civ or if I have a good idea for a naming pattern for cites.  


Anyways I have gone from planning to dedlurk rho21 (because he does have such nice tables) to actually playing.  It is a first outing for me other than the one ongoing duel I have with EmperorK. I've kind of been remiss in updating that thread.  Good news is that makes me a bit of an unknown quantity.  Bad news is that doesn't actually change how well (or poorly) I play.  I would appreciate a dedlurker, if anyone is so inclined.

So far I have submitted my list of civs. 

Germany
Russia
Japan
Rome
Arabia
China

I will admit not the most interesting list.  All are fairly strong, though I am probably putting Japan too high up. Thoughts were as follows on each:

Germany - Hansas, extra districts, free card slot is never bad, and the U-boat might even get some play on continents if the game goes that late.
Russia - Larva and Cossacks. Do you really need to say more? I also wonder if I could make use of Grand Embassy with someone on a different continent latter in the game. It would be risky though.
Japan - continents might mean divine wind could be of use.  Cheaper encampments could help steel away a GG from Archduke or other warmongers if they are on my continent. Samurai got a buff in the last patch too, but they still cannot be pre-built and upgraded so not the best option. Meiji restoration makes your cities better and there is nothing wrong with that.
Rome - Free monument is great, roads are nice, legion is solid, bath is useful just when you need it.
Arabia - Last Prophet is questionably useful.  Depends on other people's civ picks, and even then there might only be lackluster beliefs left.  Still the Mameluke takes one of the strongest units in the game gives it cheaper maintenance, and no resource requirements.
China - Extra boosts are nice, and grabbing some key early wonders can be important. Almost switched them out for the Kongo though.

Just creating the thread. Will post some map shots over the weekend.

Quickly opening up a thread. I'll post some thoughts on civ choices tomorrow.

All lurkers wanted, ded or alive. Make yourselves comfortable.

People always seem to associate Warlord with Life, but when you think about it, it maybe makes more sense in a Sorcery build.

Sorcery basically makes your units invulnerable to magic, and capable of rapid travel and such, but what it doesn't do is provide any way to really enhance the damage that your units can do. Warlord does this. Life can buff heroes and normal units already, so the effect of Warlord isn't as dramatic, but for Sorcery, where there is basically no other way to enhance unit performance, it's a more potent effect.

Life and Sorcery both tend to depend a lot on heroes and normal units, and both benefit from Warlord. Really I'd say that Sorcery is more dependent on heroes than Life and if you don't have Heroism then getting heroes started is often difficult. Warlord helps to address that issue.

Unlike the usual sub request, this game hasn't even started! Civ has not yet been picked, so you have a clean slate to work with! Planning to play a continents map and need a 6th player to round out the roster. Base civ 6, no expansion, no DLC. See first post of organizing thread for more details on settings: http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showt...p?tid=9258

There are some nice play windows available (all times given in UTC) ... 1300-1600, 2300-0100, 0600-1000 would fit very well. Other times may work with some overlap between players.

I've seen the AI do this many times, so I tried and it's a pretty killer strategy. It works for the AI a lot better than human players, but it can still work for people.

This is a non 11 book Death strategy that involves going after some specific Fantastic Units early with Ghouls and Black Sleep. Basically, early in the game you want to try and get some next tier fantastic units that you can use the quickly attack enemy wizard capitals. The two best units to go for are Fire Giants and Basilisks. These two units only have 7 Resistance, which means that Black Sleep has a 50% chance to work on them. If you can Black Sleep one of these, then get them with Ghouls and they will become an undead minion in your army.  If you can get one of these then you should be able to quickly tear through enemy wizards. A single Basilisk can easily take full stacks of early units, so if you can get one early enough it will be easy to take out an enemy wizard or two with a single unit. 

You do have to pay increased upkeep on undead fantastic units, so don't go for too many, just a few powerful ones.

The best approach for this is to take Conjurer + Archmage with 9 Death books. This will let you summon an army of Ghouls and be able to cast multiple Black Sleeps early on. Try to take a few nodes early, to support the mana. Phantom Warrior nodes are the best targets. High Elves or Halflings are the best races for it.

I bought Civ 6 when it came out (before, actually), but it turned out my computer couldn't run it. That sent me into a distinct sulk at the game that only wore off when I upgraded the computer at Christmas... long after the Single Player events here on RB had dried up.

For the past few months, I've been mulling over ideas for more games, and I think I've found one: I call it THE MOST (caps obligatory).

(I'm assuming this tournament would be played in the base game with no DLC (except Aztecs); that's all I've got. I'm open to the possibility of buying the Vikings DLC, as it features two City States that are relevant to the concept.)

Concept

The basic idea is to try and get (say it with me) THE MOST of certain things - luxury resources, tile improvements, and policy slots. I've selected these three for two reasons. First, they have a hard cap: there are only so many unique luxuries and improvements in the game, and only so many policy slots available.

Secondly, that hard cap isn't where it looks like at first glance.

Resources

Score 1 point for each Luxury Resource available to you (ie, shown as tradable on the Trade screen). (Base Game max: 30)

There are 24 Luxury resource tiles in the base game, plus 3 added in the expansion (plus Gold, but that's scenario-exclusive). In addition to that, there are two (Cinnamon and Cloves) which are obtained by being Suzerain of Zanzibar, and another four (Cosmetics, Jeans, Perfume, Toys) which are granted by Great Merchants.

The big issue with maximizing the number of luxuries in your civ is that while the map can be cooked to ensure Zanzibar exists, so far as I know the Great Merchant order-of-appearance is random, and will be different for different games. With the 4 GM luxuries spread across three eras, one player could get 3 easily, while another has to pump out five non-Luxury GMs in order to get any.

Tile Improvements

Score 1 point for each unique Tile Improvement found anywhere in your empire. Identical improvements on different resources do not qualify. (Base Game max: 16, +2 with Vikings)

There are 14 basic Tile Improvements in Civ 6 (15 if you include Roads), coming in everywhere from the very beginning of the game (Farm) to Rocketry (Missile Silo) and Plastics (Offshore Oil Rig). There are also a whole host of improvements obtained in unique ways: the base game has 1 for City State suzerains, plus a staggering 8 specific to certain Civs (7 if you discount the Roman Fort as just being an earlier Fort). There are four more Civ improvements in the DLC (and 2 CS ones), plus another four in the Expansion (and two from Governors). With all 3 CS present, plus 7 opposing civ Improvements, you end up with 25 (counting Roads) possibilities in the base game.

EDIT: Per Japper, you can't actually capture the enemy UIs... which is fairly daft, but sure. So this is cut down to just the base improvements, plus any you can pick up from City States.

Two ways to fix this: firstly, insist on the Vikings DLC. Secondly, make it 'score 1 for each unique TI in a single city'; that puts you far more at the mercy of the terrain, but luckily every player will be playing the same map.

Policy Slots

Score 2 points for each Policy Slot available to you. (Base Game max: 13x2 = 26)

Obviously this pushes you towards the more advanced governments, but there are also 4 extra slots (one of each type) available from Wonders, plus one from Adam Smith (in the base game). Doubling the score for this brings it up on par with the other two above.

Scoring

As described, there are three figures to be scored together, and they need to be recorded at multiple check-points. I don't know what the best setpoints are; Adventure 5 used T100, 150, and 200, but depending on map size (see below) something more spaced out might be better (T100, 200, 300?). I'm torn over whether to include extra points for speed of finishing, but in any rate we shouldn't have a 'score at victory' checkpoint: that's an invitation to pointless milking. Perhaps winning before the last checkpoint nets you [your end-of-game score] + 5, and winning before the second one gets you [your end-of-game score] x 2 + 15 (ie, 5 for the 2nd checkpoint, 10 for the 3rd).


Map Design

The scoring requirements for THE MOST dictate a lot of the map design. It needs to be large enough that most, if not all, of the resources spawn (I'm actually not sure if they always do?), and to let the game continue to actually be... y'know, interesting up to the checkpoints.

Assuming we're allowing the highest possible score in all the categories, the map would need to include Zanzibar (for its luxuries) and La Venta (for Colossal Heads) (plus Granada and Armagh if we use the Vikings DLC). That shouldn't be too hard to reroll with just two, but pulling all four may take a while; so be it, though.

Opponent-wise, the Tile Improvements victory condition suggests seven:
-France (Chateaus)
-China (Great Wall)
-Scythia (Kurgan)
-Spain (Mission)
-Egypt (Sphinx)
-India (Stepwell)
-Sumeria (Ziggurat)

I don't have a terribly good feel for how well that shakes out, but... y'know, Scythia. 

EDIT: Again per Japper, the opponent TI thing doesn't work. So that opens up a lot of options.

Outstanding Issues

The scoring conditions for THE MOST do predispose it to being a military game; you'll want to capture cities both for luxuries and for improvements, and the Great Merchant chasing (assuming you care about the... six whole points you can get from them) means you'll have lots of money to do it. I'm, uh... not sure if that's a bad thing or not? 

EDIT: Without the improvements to capture, trade is an option for luxuries (do traded luxuries still show up on your trade screen? If not... where do they?); that's good, because it means there are two viable paths through the game.

One issue with the scoring is that the 'extra' points are fairly insignificant compared to the base-game points. If your choice is between capturing a city to obtain Tobacco and Jade (2 points), or powering through to grab all three Industrial Great Merchants before they drop off (3 points, for Adam Smith (x2) and John Spilsbury)... well, I know which one I'd go for. ^_^ On the other hand, it's not exactly easy to gather up 24 luxuries, and the Tile Improvements require a lot of research to pull off, so maybe the Merchant, Wonder, and City State-garnered points are a sort of bonus.

I don't know who would be the best civ to play this as. Previous Adventures and Epics (discounting the Potluck) have used Arabia, Scythia, Kongo, Spain, France, India, Rome, and Germany; ruling out both them and the nations we need as enemies, base civs remaining are America, Brazil, England, Greece, Japan, Norway, and Russia. Thematically, Pericles' Greece works quite well - he's already got a +1 policy slot from Plato's Republic, plus the extra envoys from the Acropolis...es, plus Pericles is designed around getting 'THE MOST city states'. The fact that he focusses on culture, rather than military or economy, could be an issue... but on the other hand, aiming to conquer (bits of) the world with a civ that isn't designed for it might make things more interesting for those of you thoroughly spoiled by multiplayer and 'enemies that can actually fight'!

I don't have a good feel for what would be appropriate regarding map settings and difficulty level. I don't know whether this would make a better Epic (no-spoilers) or Adventure (reported while playing) game; like I say, I was sulking at Civ the entire time those were being played, so I didn't really look too closely.

So... thoughts? I know I've put a lot of words here, but that's no guarantee any of them are worth the pixels they're written on... 

hS

Hmmm.... now I just want to make cities with names that are Ash quotes from Evil Dead and Army of Darkness :lol: