[SPOILERS] Pindicator helps clean up SMEGmod

[pindicator]

Oh wow, all this indecision can't be good

But this thread sure is good! Seriously, good reports.

Glad the reporting style is working

Slow work day so I've been planning. I think I can get to 10 cities by turn 90, which would be the iron city, both island spots in the west ocean, and probably the wheat/horse in the south. Though that may be the time to settle the gems instead.

[pindicator]

Turn 072

And now with Mathematics out of the way...






And like I said, I had a change of heart with my next city. I think this is like Plan C or Plan D by now:




Side note: Settlers can board work boats!?
Side side note: And workers can't?!!?

Anyway, the goal is to push west hard here. We definitely want to settle that island city with the settler coming out of St Jean -- well, in order to get that city up and running we need a work boat to hook up food - and why waste time building a new work boat when when have a perfectly good one hanging out by Roncesvalles with nothing to do?

Then on top of that the city location is pretty nice -- once we chop jungle and expand borders and hook everything up. You know, 20 turns or so down the line...

[pindicator]

Turn 073

One step closer to our first wonder:




Working the bare plains tile is unfortunately necessary. I also queued up Moai just in the chance that someone in the fog finishes the wonder ahead of me this turn; although perhaps keeping a library as the recipient was a better plan. Still, most likely we whip the wonder to completion next turn.

I wonder if CH's barb behavior bug is that they now spawn within 2 tiles of scouting units. That would be unfortunate as I've been relying on that to prevent barb spawns in the west and south. Still, I have yet to see one spawn where it shouldn't so I'm going to continue like they are going as BtS behaves.

[pindicator]

Is Stonehenge overpowered right now? Currently I'm about to spend 200 hammers on The Great Lighthouse (not counting the 60 hammers it cost to build the pier and lighthouse also needed to start building it), and the benefit that I'm going to see is +1 commerce in every city under size 5, and +2 commerce in every city 5 over higher. I won't see +3 commerce for overseas routes until I can plant a third island city or get open borders.

On the other hand, Stonehenge is available for 150 hammers, and gives every city +2 commerce instantly. Paganism grants +2 commerce for every monument. So in effect, we have turned Stonehenge into a cheaper, more powerful version of the Great Lighthouse. Because it still also gives all your new cities culture. In addition, there's less of a knee-jerk reaction to revolt out of Paganism in SMEG because Organized Religion is no longer the flat +25% bonus to all buildings (although I do need to talk about the religious system overhaul because I think Krill has done a lot of interesting things with that and I've been slow to realize it's potential in this game).

Yes, eventually those trade routes from Great Lighthouse is going to surpass the +2 commerce from monuments you get from Stonehenge. But this is a game about snowballing early advantages, and Stonehenge for less cost gets you more benefit than the Great Lighthouse. I don't know if the solution is to change/eliminate the bonus to monuments that Paganism gives or whether it means re-working the wonders. I think I'd prefer to change the Paganism civic to keep the wonders more in line with the BtS intention. But right now Stonehenge seems like a better Great Lighthouse than the Great Lighthouse is.

[pindicator]

Turn 074

I crunched some numbers down at Lorca, and it turns out that I want to whip AND chop that galley this turn. Net result when we whip that granary down the line is that we'll end up with 1 less food, but 15 more hammers. It comes at the expense of additional whip anger because we're whipping twice for 2 pop instead of once for 1 pop, but considering the city I doubt we'll want to whip it a lot in the future.

In either case, the galley finishes at end of turn, and so does the next peregrino out of St Jean:




Speaking of Lorca, guess how many cities I have that can make galleys? Every city is coastal right now except for the capital. But only 2 of them -- Lorca and Pamplona -- are adjacent to bodies of water that meet the 20 tile threshold. Which is going to make it awesome when I send a fleet of ships through to attack GermanJoey with ... you know, like 50 turns from now.

Up north, we unloaded the settler which will found city #7 next turn:




I have two workers I'm sending to help get this city up and running. If I didn't need to have it as a canal, I would have put the city 1N and saved an additional forest for chopping as well as giving me the iron to work almost right away. Instead I'm going to have 1 worker move to chop the forest for a stele, and the second worker come around to start chopping the pigs. And now, in hindsight, I realize I should have had the worker move northwest another tile and put a turn into a fort on that grassland tile because I'm going to want a fort there as well.

Oh yeah, and we also whipped the Great Lighthouse.

Happiness is becoming an issue for cities soon; I think I want to push southward next and claim the wine and fur tiles down there. I also want to start building chariots out of the capital to capture that barb city to my northwest (it has gems 2nd ring). You can also see I'm pushing for Code of Laws and hopefully land a religion. Religion is kind of an afterthought in SMEGmod. It gives you the + happy, and it lets you build a shrine. But that seems to be about it really. All those religious buildings can be built if you have a religion or not.

Edit: Oh, there's another reason I'm teching Code of Laws now. In 15 turns my next Great Merchant gets born, and guess what he's going to bulb?

[pindicator]

Day 7

I woke before dawn. I had gone to sleep to the sound of thunder and lightning and woke up to darkness. The power had gone out sometime in the night, but I was wide awake and had no desire to stay in bed. I am getting good at repacking my bag; it took twenty minutes from waking until I was on the road: bag packed, teeth brushed, spirits high.

The sun rose as I walked away from town. The sounds of the birds and animals began as it was just a sliver on the horizon. Tiny snails began were everywhere and I did my best not to trod on them. They are like the peregrino, everything on their back and moving slowly, oh so slowly. I must be slower than most because it only took a few hours for the Fins to catch up with me. I stayed with the mother, Carol, while Sara would speed on ahead and then wait for us to catch up. We went like this for about an hour, until we reached the town of Estella. I joined them for breakfast: café con leche and a large slice of tortilla.

There is a beautiful market in Estella, and I wanted to explore the town while the Fins decided to press on. They hope to reach Los Arcos, which is still a long walk to go. But I stopped and wandered the market stalls: meats, cheese, fruits - I took as much as I dared carry. Someone was selling Spongebob Squarepants balloons, but I did not buy one of them. I left Estella spirits high, eating cherries and spitting out the pits along the path. I like to think years from now there will be a line of cherry trees out of town because of me!

This was another short day. An uneventful day. We passed by Bodegas Irache, which had a fountain of wine for peregrinos to drink from, but when I tried it the wine had been sitting too long and had become sour. I stopped a little time to tour a nearby monastery and ate a bit of lunch in the shade nearby.

I am starting to get into the rhythm of these days, the rising early, the walking at one's own pace, the hours of quiet and seeing everything there is to be seen. Today I stopped at a spot that many people before had recommended, Villamayor de Monjardín. It was again barely past noon, and the town was small. After I took time to shower, to nap, to eat, there was still plenty of time left over. Even time to climb to the castle that overlooked the little town, San Esteban de Deyo




And yet, at night I find myself bored, twiddling my thumbs. Perhaps I will have to travel farther tomorrow.

People are being turned away, the albergue is full. The hospitalero who owns the place is Dutch, but he has been here over a year. He says it is like this every day; people climb the hill and he has to turn them away. Already there are mattresses for the floors of every room.






I realize now that it might be a good idea to get a defender for our newest city! I've started the capital on an archer; I think it will have to make several to keep up with demand. There will be many more cities over the next 10-15 turns. But we are still around 60% breakeven, and the island cities should pay for themselves with the overseas routes. So I am hopeful we can keep spamming cities for a while now.

Turns out I was right not to push south; GermanJoey has reached again to block off land here.




With no worker in sight and a barbarian on top of the only food source in its BFC, I don't think this city will be making a profit for a while. Joey is annoying right now; he is trying to stake more land than he can defend. It will work if i do not punish him for it. I am really considering going for HBR after Code of Laws finishes and punishing him. But I also think I can expand better than he can, so if he wants to cripple his growth with far-flung cities that he cannot hope to improve, I'm not sure I'm too upset about that.

Still, I worry that I need to push southward to claim the furs and wines sooner rather than later.

Cities #8 & #9 will be coming shortly:




I think 10 has to go south to get the fur, but you can see why I'm pushing west. There is some beautiful land on the far shore of the western sea, and I want to make sure I'm in a good position to both claim it and have the local production and strength to hold it.

I think I do want to tech HBR next. Even if I don't attack GermanJoey it will make him think, and I can use the units to kill that barbarian city at worst.

[pindicator]

Turn 076

Met Brick!




He's at 6 cities, as is GermanJoey and Thoth. GermanJoey has spiked his mfg; I imagine that must be him building another wonder.

I whipped away a lot of population on the next turn, but it was to finish 3 granaries, so I think it was the right move!

[pindicator]

I feel like I'm drifting a little aimlessly here, trying to chase too many rabbits. What are all the things I'm trying to accomplish here?

• Claim as much territory as possible
  
• Increase happiness so existing cities can continue growing
  
• Increase GNP and research rate
  
• Have superior military force in border regions

The second and third items are pretty closely related. Perhaps it is better to say I want to continue to grow existing cities, but at the same time I don't want to do this at the cost of stagnating research.


At the same time, there are lots of things that I can do:

• Expand south to claim fur, wine, silver, wheat locations and to block off lands from CH and GermanJojo
  
• Expand east to claim gems, grab two locations with strong food, and block off lands from GermanJojo and Brick.
  
• Expand southeast, across the seas, to claim two high food locations and sugar and potentially claim lands from Brick and a GermanJojo
  
• Expand northwest, capturing the barbarian city, settling good city, and claiming silk, gems, gold, and at least one high food location. This may stop GermanJojo from doing the same but this is more difficult land for him to claim.
  
• Expand west, across the ocean to claim gems, several very strong city locations, and blocking off Cheater Hater from moving north into those lands. Potentially will also border Krill; we can't underestimate him in getting to this area.
  
• Push for military and attack a GermanJoey with a house archer push in the next 20t.

Notice I'm taking wonders off the table for now. Some wonders would even make a lot of sense, like Colossus or Hanging Gardens. But I don't think I can chase all of those at the same time.

[pindicator]

My foot hurts today. My left foot, on the top of the arch, on outside of the foot. It feels like a bruise, like the torment of banging my foot against the ground for 7 days in a row was too much for it to bear and now it cries out in pain. I find that if I walk ever-so-slowly it does not hurt. So slowly that everybody passes me by today. So slowly that my goal of reaching Torres del Rio seems too far. So slowly that on this overcast day even though the rain does not come, I feel chilled and am not working up a sweat as I walk.

I stop for breakfast in Los Arcos, and to rest. There are bicyclists all around me; some of them were at Villamayor but here they are all at the same cafe I am taking my coffee. 'Tiene hielo?' I ask the the man behind the counter. I speak with some of the bicyclists -- they will cover 100 kilometers today, if the weather holds, and plan to be in Burgos by the following day. After they leave a conversation with a Catalunian couple who speak no English and are very patient with my Spanish. I tell them I want to walk to Viana today. 'Si Dios Quiere' they reply.

Slowly I continued on. Everybody passes me by. Yet despite such a lethargic pace, amazingly I get to Sansol just after 12, and walk the dirt road to Torres del Rio shortly before 1. The foot begins to feel a little better, and I push on. Finally, I arrive, near 5 o'clock and so very weary:




And everybody is there! At the albergue municipal it seems as if everybody I have met so far has stopped that night in Viana. They are just about to start cooking when I arrive, and as I find one of the last beds I run into Sara, who invites me to join them in their fairwell dinner. She is about to start cooking and says they have everything they want. Her mother though says perhaps I could pick up another bottle of wine. So many more names and faces than I have taken the time to recount: the Austrians I crossed the Pyranees with, the Canadians, Ontario and New Brunswick. Swiss and Austrian and Fin and French, and especially German. I think sometimes I would have been better served to learn German.

When finally it is time for bed I still hurt all over, but the spirits are higher than ever. The wine and pasta and salad are all gone, the table picked up, the dishes washed. A few people want to wander the town and get a drink before the algergue doors close, but I just want to write and sleep.


*****


So my bumbling about the mod continues. Overseas routes only net you +50% trade, not +100% like in BtS. That means that this new city does very little to boost trade routes. For cities that are size 5 and higher, it makes no noticeable difference. That's because population also grants +10% per population point. So it only helps cities that are under size 5 or over size 10. That's a small enough sample size that I will not be settling on the plains hill island next. I think I will reach a little more and pick up a needed happiness resource.

Building more workers; I am shamefully low on workers. 8 cities and 6 workers. I should have workers roading to my new city and workers already at Viana. So I'm going to push up to 10, but I also need to keep pumping out more settlers. I'm still breakeven at 60%!

Brick traded maps with me and I found that he is blocked out of the east except by galley. So I just need to keep GermanJoey from claiming that land and it is all mine. There is also better land to the east of the jungle I had previously seen. And it continues on to plako, but plako will run into Joey before he runs into me. So I think one settler goes that direction soonish to try and claim that land. But I know exactly where I need to settle for, and it's where my next 2 cities will be.

I also want to harass GermanJoey...




Oh, did you think that chariot would just forget about you Joey?

[pindicator]

Turn 080

So do we build a galley now?




Or do we let him over-extend and just plan on taking the whole area later? Brick's economy seems pretty trashy right now.