Race: Psilons Difficulty: Impossible Galaxy Size: Medium Opponents: Five Color: Blue Map Generation: Random Events: On Game Version:1.4M patch with Display Bug Fixes (see below) Variant: No adjusting tech sliders: On the starting turn, we must go to the Tech screen, hit the = key on the keyboard to equalize spending across all six fields, then lock them all and leave them locked for the rest of the game! As usual, we'll also be avoiding the known exploits, though several of them have been fixed (and thus rendered irrelevant) by kyrub's patch.
(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, obviously never use the [ALT]-WHATEVER cheat codes. This stuff does go without saying around here, but it's sometimes worth reitterating.)
There are no actual "spoilers" below; I'm using the spoiler tags just to cut down on scrolling for anyone who's already read parts of this and wants to get down the page.
Patch install instructions:
Get Master of Orion (v1.3) if you don't have it already, e.g. from GoG or the backup folder you made for whatever patch you've installed already. Make sure you've backed up the game folder so you can revert to it in case you want to in the future. Then download the patched files and overwrite the equivalent files in the MoO folder you're going to be using to play the game. (Depending on your operating system, you may need to make sure that the capitalization of each of the filenames matches the ones you're overwriting so they do get overwritten, including the file extensions - e.g. "STARMAP.EXE" might not overwrite "STARMAP.exe" if your operating system allows both to coexist in the same folder.) That's it; you should be good to play from there! Please let me know if anything goes wrong or if these instructions seem insufficiently clear.
Hilariously Lengthy Scenario Description Because (it's fun for me and) I Have a Reputation to Live Up To:
We do not possess the largest brains even among species we have encountered already: That distinction belongs to the migratory vacuum-adapted paracetaceans who inhabit the outer planetesimal cloud surrounding our home system of Mentar - and even theirs may well be smaller than those of other creatures as yet undiscovered around the galaxy. We do not possess the most-numerous arms, nor the most-dextrous thumbs and fingers: What distinguishes us from the other peoples of the galaxy - what gives us such strengths as our civilization does possess - is the result not of our anatomy, but of the use to which we put it, culturally. The vast majority of our beautiful paracetacean neighbors' neurological activity is bound up with supporting and maintaining their internal equilibrium and bodily functions, and with locating and acquiring the necessities of their existence in the face of the vast emptiness of their home in trans-stellar space. The deep sea icosopods of Curiosity Deep use their twenty assorted limbs primarily for feeding and locomotion and prying Cephalian Jet Clams out of their shells. We, by contrast, use our comparatively small brains to think about the world around us, to consider where we may be wrong and test our assumptions rigorously and relentlessly, and use our mere six limbs for innumerable means of exploration: Two - or more when needed - help us hike the wilderness regions we've preserved to learn from their biodiversity; four help us hold pipettes and beakers and Erlenm eyer flasks; all six, with all their digits, our voices, and sometimes our brows and elbows or tongues, are used to learn more about our immediate environment, to operate electronic devices we have designed especially to reveal the world in more detail than can any organ of our bodies, and to pilot spacecraft with which we can explore the very stars! If our researchers achieve more than other species', it is not because of anything in our genetic heritage, nor in the details of our bodies: It is in the culture that permeates our lives here on Mentar and soon - so we hope and trust, and so we work to achieve - across the galaxy.
There have been advocates over the years, among our people as no doubt among others, for focusing our research efforts on the most-appealing technologies: Those that seem to offer the greatest or swiftest return on our investment, those that seem most necessary for our future and the strength of our civilization, those that spark the least controversy or conflict with politics or religions, those that are expected to have the most-widespread application, and those that for these and other reasons are most likely to result in further public support for scientific work generally. There have been entire continent-spanning, even world-spanning cultures on our world that embraced one or more of these principles in the past. Our archaeologists have uncovered their primitive artifacts, ranging from pottery shards to fossilized pocket computer-phones, and our linguists have deciphered their languages to unspool their history and their debates, and how their cultures died, sometimes merely overwhelmed by other cultures, but sometimes growing dominant enough to set progress back by centuries - and once by a matter of millions of years - with ninety percent population collapse, mostly from starvation and disease due to the loss of critical infrastructure, on a timescale of less than a year.
We will be the first to leave Mentar - the first to live long enough and learn deeply and broadly enough - to reach the stars. Our ancestors did not set out to conquer the vastness of interstellar space, of which many as yet knew nothing, all knowledge on the subject having been lost long before with the collapse of the latest civilization obsessed with short-term profit and divided by a confluence of cultures that each set shared opinions and loyalty above accuracy. Our ancestors did not and could not choose which special field of research would carry them beyond their home more swiftly or surely than any other or lead to the greatest health and happiness among our people over the wide course of time; no specialty would have served them so. They and we were only able to achieve both by enquiring in all directions always, without restriction, without fail, never sacrificing any one for the others, always looking to learn more - and so we shall pursue our own future, favoring no field of research, embracing them all.
So I've rolled a map, and it looks interesting and unpredictable to me. Here's our start:
And here are my thoughts in the form of an introduction, with more pictures and strategic planning:
The 38th Order of Scientific Genius has officially convened: The latest in a long line of Psilon leadership guiding our people down the path of courageous inquiry, and the first to reach the stars! Unfettered by the biases of any inferior culture - because, as you can well imagine, our culture has no biases or fetters that will get in the way of learning - we leave the limits of our world behind, crossing interstellar space in search of a greater future of our people: A future so scientific that for now and the foreseeable future, it will include ... absolutely no science budget of any kind.
That is definitely not a fetter or a bias or anything! We would definitely not already be working toward learning more about planetology in hopes of discovering more about the worlds we hope to claim if not for our strident insistence on never permitting focused research on a single critical "Psilonhatten Project" without equal funding for every other field! Our culture is far above petty considerations of "budget" and "resource availability" and "the physical limits of what we can do at any given time!" There's definitely no need to search for exceptions and ways to improve on our cultural traditions under new conditions as rigorously as we test everything else we know and do!
...
Yeah, okay, so maybe when I'm questioning our traditions, I should do it a little less sarcastically: I can just imagine someone from another culture smugly reading this and thinking, "Ha! Those hypocrites! If only they accepted the unquestioned cultural beliefs with which I was brought up, they would know the error of their ways!" Mark my words though, in three hundred years, we'll be shaking our heads at the folly of our modern day mores as surely as we shake our heads at the fools of three hundred years ago today. I hope so, anyway: To know enough about our history and adapt and change enough to do that, we'll have to make a lot of progress between now and then! And survive. We'll have to survive first, and we can't take anything for granted here.
We know from deciphering galaxy-wide transmissions from something called GNN that we share the galaxy with five other space-faring races: There are two-armed grinning ape people more adept at lying - and therefore at trade and diplomacy - than any other people in the galaxy, already a favorite for tricking the other sentient peoples into voting their leader permanent dictator of everything. There are lithovoric rock people capable of surviving on any planet's surface, no matter how hot or cold or bathed in hard radiation, and therefore swift to spread from start to star until they blanket the entire galaxy. Hives of tirelessly-working insect beings indelibly united in their pursuit of power, are out there producing hordes of ships, intent on supplanting every other species. The five-limbed catfolk of Fierias - five including the long prehensile tails they frequently use as weapons - are the most warlike spacefaring people known to the galaxy, and perfectly suited to the role thanks to the ... cat-like ... reflexes that grant them their extraordinary innate skill at gunnery. Yet the most dangerous of all perhaps is the cybernetic melding of life and machine that has developed on Meklon into its own more-than species: A bioelectromechanical collective in which it's nearly impossible to distinguish the people themselves from the factories in which they're willingly embedded. Each originates at a yellow star at least seven parsecs away, but with eleven such stars spread out across the galaxy, any of them might be spreading toward us from almost any direction except the near galactic rim. Clearly the coreward red star will be a vital stepping stone if we are to claim a part of the galaxy ourselves as they are doing, but whether that will be possible and what we will find there - or beyond - is impossible as yet to say. The only way forward, to find out, is to go there!
These are all the stars within ten parsecs, though not the whole galaxy. Numbers are the distance from Mentar - in green for colony range, yellow for scout range, and red for out of range, with the ships shown indicating where I plan to send them initially.
Though three different stars are in reach for our colony ship, that one is the most important: Both directly coreward and as likely as its rimward twin - and something like ten times as likely as the neutron star nearby - to warm the surface of a planet where we can live! Our colonists are planning to that way, due to arrive within three years, with one of our scout ships to escort them in case of catastrophe: If we should encounter a military force that threats the two million Psilons on their way to build our first colony, the Scout can try to distract it while our Colony Ship flees and - hopefully - escapes into hyperspace. It isn't much, but it's the best we have for now, so it'll have to do! Meanwhile, the other scout pilot plans to head for the neutron star in case of a much smaller catastrophe: If our preferred destination is uninhabitable - at least by anything but Silicoids with current technology - the neutron star would be our next-best option, and though it's very unlikely to support a planet where we can live, we'll want to know right away if it does so the colonists can head there directly: If it doesn't, they'll be making the long trip to the red star nearest the rim, and knowing whether that's necessary will be urgent in that case too!
If we can colonize the coreward star, that should open up at least one more, and probably two, within our standard fuel range - though the prospects aren't too promising since both are blazing-hot blue stars - and bring at least two more into the reach of our long-range scouts. There are plenty of other stars to scout now though, including some we may be able to reach in time to get there before any other space-faring race if we act quickly - depending on where the other homeworlds are around the galaxy - so with both of our existing Scouts needing to go roughly the same way, the plan will be to start assembling some new Scouts right away, at the same time as more factories. Research will have to wait until we can fund it seriously, and probably until we know more about when and what our specific needs will be - which might mean after we've scouted everything in reach, or might mean in response to an obvious, urgent need, or might mean not at all until after 2320!
I'm hoping to have the turns played, pictures uploaded, and report posted within the next 24-32 hours, but hoping this intro provokes discussion, suggestions, thoughts, random musings, encouragement, or skepticism in the meantime!
[EDIT: Attached the starting save to this post, in case others want to play through it for themselves!]
Roster:
- RefSteel (has the save!)
- shallow_thought (play order still TBD)
- haphazard1 (play order still TBD)
- DaveV (play order still TBD)
- One slot's still open in case someone else sees this and wants to jump in!
Turns out caster of magic wiki exists, but in a very sorrow state. There are only a few pages, some just copied from MoM wiki and contain factual errors (like saying that halflings can build barracks). There was a comment that halflings can not build it... I just edited the page to correct it.
While CoM manual is nice wiki could be a more approachable representation of information. For example the page on Giant Spiders could contain not just raw stats, but also give advise on how to counter them in nodes, how to counter them in opponent wizard's army and how to use them effectively.
What pages are of higher priority for creation? Also we need to agree on a process to review the correctness of the page.
I know that life is supposed to be bad at mystic creatures, but this one at least on paper is too bad.
If I understand the description correctly it removes all bonuses from levels (ouch, white wizard likely has levels). Also bonuses from mythril or magic weapons or not.
Since we lose the flat bonuses from HP units with lower figure count should be the intended target.
Let's try Griffins. Two figures, 18 atk, 9 def, 12 Res, 20 health... No to hit bonuses... first strike. This is somewhat better than non-arch angels in raw stats. Without the support bonuses. On a very rare spell.
Let's try war trolls. The result is not quite hydra level.
And white wizard is unlikely to have survival instincts and land linking.
What are the cases where you would rather use destiny than buff experienced units?
Here we go, my first reporting thread. I am excited but very, very nervous. For the benefit of my dedlurker and anyone trying to understand why I might do silly things, here's my background.
This is my very first multiplayer experience in Civ4, and really my first competitive multiplayer in any game really.
Most of my single-player Civ4 experience has been on Epic speed on very large maps (i.e. long, slow games with so much room to expand the early limit is economy, not other players). I expect to be constantly tripped up by the differences.
I've lurked non-posting around RB sporadically since the very early days. I think PB8 was the first game I followed in detail and boy was that a good game to pick. If I have any idea what I'm doing, it's from following along with much better players than I am.
I love to tinker and understand things, so I'm happy to sim or plan something if it's important enough
I also want and need to keep games in their proper place in life, so I don't want to go overboard with elaborate plans for everything, especially when my plans would probably be half-baked to start with due to inexperience.
Given my inexperience and general attitude toward multiplayer, why am I playing in this game at all? I think it ultimately comes down to a desire to push myself out of my comfort zone a bit, and also wanting to contribute to this community in some way. I've really enjoyed reading some of the better reported threads out there over the years, so this is my chance to contribute a little in that same way.
What are my goals for this game (in rough order)?
Play regularly, fair, and firmly until the end. No throwing the game away, no kingmaking, no cheese. If I get run over by Knights, fight until the end and be gracious about the loss.
Learn how to be a tough out. I'm naturally inclined to buildery play, so the challenge will be to build enough units not to get run over as the obvious target, and be in position to take advantage of an attack window if I have one. But building too much military commits you to an attack since it ties you down with maintenance, so I will have to find the right balance.
Learn how to report in a way that's interesting to read and interesting for me to write, so I am comfortable with the pace and time commitment of reporting but hopefully the readers can be entertained.
Gain some experience on the typical settings used here
"Exclusive" for newer/green players, I fear, I have to much experience for this.
I played a few games over at civforum.de.
4 Games completed (and survived in 2).
2 more games are still active. The first game is in turn 11, but I don't expect to survive long in the other game. You can defend win fights with (PRO) longbows against rifles, but...
So, this shouldn't be a "Plemo" scenario.
To the game:
Close to Home
NoHuts
NoEvents
NoVassals
NoTechTrading NoCityTrading 1 city per deal
NoUnitGifting
No Spies
simultaneous Turns Monarch difficult Score on Citycount is visible No barbs War warriness on
Coinflip to decide settler races Random block to decide leader and civ.
Supderdeath has offered himself as dedlurker for me. Thanks you for that.
I watched Sapher's playthroughs on YouTube and decided to make a few threads about stuff I learned.
One important lesson I learned is when customizing your wizard it is important to not focus excessively on your strength, but to also cover your weaknesses.
For example in the Draconian speedrun the idea was to use adamantite bowmen to clear nodes early. Draconian bowmen are strong, but some weaker players would pick red books for flame blade and white books for more buffs. Sapher instead picked two death, two nature and 3 sorcery. Sorcery would eventually give magic immunity. Nature gives earth lore. Death is for drain life. In early game draconian archers are strong enough to clear many lairs, an option for fully buffed army of 9 bowmen who can clear 6x great drake lair is not too important.
Another Sapher's game that illustrates this principle is troll game. The idea is to use trollish regeneration for early conquest. The game was in Dos version so he only picked two life books for endurance. The rest is to cover for weakness, for example against unrecoverable unit destruction with spells like resist magic.
There are many ways to apply it. For example for hero strategy pick tactician that helps when your heroes are in danger rather than warlord that makes your heroes even stronger when they are safe.
There are some cases where fully maxing advantages can be helpful because it breaks some important threshold (elven cavalry first strike min maxing to one shot phantom beasts for extreme lair farming speed), but more often than not what will have more impact on the overall success of the playthrough is how well you deal with what you are weak against, not how fast you farm what you are good at.
![[Image: Don_Quixote_%281955%29_by_Pablo_Picasso.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/Don_Quixote_%281955%29_by_Pablo_Picasso.jpg)