[SPOILERS] scooter's PB53

[Miguelito]

Re: war/ peace, c recent mod versions had the NAP limited to just 5 turns. Of course I don't know which exactly you're playing, but you should check that before committing

[Charriu]

Scooter can you talk a little about the AI diplo rule (that is the rule, right? I can’t find a game ruleset and am guessing the community has heavily normed on certain settings which no longer even get discussed) and what options it entails as well as how it could play out on a Wheel map?

Yes, this is the rule. There is a catch. The AI Diplo I've come to know has been upgraded in this mod. RtR may have it too for all I know. Specifically, someone has added the ability to use some of the other options AI have in diplomacy, such as offering to "Stop Trading With" or "Declare War On." I think that's nice, as it eliminates the games of trying to interpret cryptic trade offers. It may prove to be a downside as other players use it to try to force people out of trading with Protective players.

That someone was me. It's a new game option called "True AI Diplo", you should be able to see in the F8 screen if it's on. Only then will you be able to the things like "Declare War" etc. And this option is included in both CtH and RtR

Re: war/ peace,  c recent mod versions had the NAP limited to just 5 turns. Of course I doubt know which exactly you're playing,  but you should check that before committing

No this is not in CtH. Only in RtR.

[scooter]

Turns 7-8






Hold on. Cornflakes already has a scout by me, and he's hovering around the borders, implying he's going to declare when the 10T is up to pass through. In theory, this is ok. However, he's also going to send a warrior my direction instead of scouting some other direction? This looks like he noticed my triple worker start and is trying to take advantage. I can easily have a pair of warriors out before it shows up, though. Sure looks like he's thinking about a choke of some sort? I'm torn on whether to press forward or loop back. He really ought to play nice, or else he might find himself visited by a pair of protective archers before too long.


(Note the marble which is almost-mirrored like the pigs, as well as the presence of Sugar which I have to my east. Stone is definitely the midpoint.)






I'm guessing he built a pair of warriors since he's up to 8 pop and sent them in opposite directions? Who knows. I'm definitely on alert, though.


PRO: 3, 3 (24)
FIN: 2, 2 (10)

[scooter]

Turn 9-10


We've been de-escalated as expected.





He retreated his one warrior and stacked it with a second warrior. I placed myself here and figured I would let him signal intent. I logged back in after he played to see what he did, and he did declare for his scout, but he split these warriors to have one cover the floodplains and the other hold in place. It is noteworthy to me that his culture is way closer to "the middle" than I expected. Maybe Stone is meant to be a divider, but it isn't actually the middle? Either that, or he settled his second city quite far towards me. Either way, this does mean he can beat me to the stone if he really wants it.






He then moved his scout in the least threatening way possible. I expect next turn he'll move SW-S and offer me peace. At that point I'll retreat my warrior since it won't be able to do anything else due to his culture blocking my path. Also, it's noteworthy that he's already in Slavery as of last turn. He immediately double-whipped one of his size 4 cities. Normally I'd guess this was a settler, but I'm not so sure because he went from hitting size 4 to whipping almost immediately, and he would have had to invest 40h somehow after hitting size 4 first to open that up. Perhaps it was a worker instead. I don't think he had enough time to chop and then double-whip, but I could be wrong on that.






This shot was obviously before Cornflakes played, but it's where I'm at now. The Elephant camp is completed, and the Deer camp begins next turn. Shanghai will complete the Warrior once it hits size 4, and then it'll start the settler. My southern worker will have one spare turn, and then it'll begin a chop as soon as Bronze Working comes in which I think will go into another worker from Beijing, but I'm not 100% sure on that yet.






Food/MFG are more average now, but I'm good with that given that I only started growing a couple turns ago, and it seems most people elected to go warrior first. GNP is tops by a fair bit at break-even. Thanks, Wang Kon. I'm now dead last in soldiers which confirms that virtually everyone else built warriors first while growing. I'm also last in population for the same reason.





Cairo pushed his capital up to size 6. I'm pretty sure he settled his second city back on T7, so his plan with IMP might just work. 6 population is enough to crank out 2-3 more IMP-boosted settlers in very short order if you're in Slavery, which surely he is by now. That said, still feels like outright purchasing settlers at the discounted 66g rate would have been better.


EDIT:

PRO: 3, 3 (33)
FIN: 2, 2 (16)

[superdeath]

Only getting 56 fps?

[scooter]

Only getting 56 fps?

I capped it at 60 intentionally because it ran unlimited which meant it was running at like 500 for no reason and kicking fans on and stuff, and I saw no point in running Civ4 like that. Weirdly, it fluctuates a lot anyway apparently, but it's also an ancient game in tech terms.

[superdeath]

Ah, that makes sense. Would hate to see how many fps im getting on this machine..

Man it is a weird feeling not being in a pitboss that is currently playing.. Even weirder to know WHY a map was created in a certain way. I kinda like it. Gives me more time to do things and then not do them.

[scooter]

Turns 11-14

A nice 4 turn Sunday. Cornflakes signed peace, and I have copper in a convenient spot. But first!





Currently trying to bait this lion into attacking me on the forest to get better odds, and it's not going great! Side note: why do people like to play with barbarians on but huts off, when the former is way worse for balance and luck, and the latter rewards investing in scouting? Multiplayer Civ4's many mysteries. Barbarians suck, and you should feel bad for continuing to vote for them to be on when the Civ4 combat system for the first 50ish turns is almost as bad as the Civ5 and Civ6 combat systems are the whole game.






Blatant trolling aside, here's where I'm at. I revolted to Slavery, and popped copper 1NW of Beijing, 1 tile off of where I guessed. Ignore the settler build in Beijing, just dumping a chop. Do not ignore the settler build in Shanghai - that one is very real and will be going to the Rice location very soon at this current turn pace.






GNP is a bit deflated due to teching a no-prereq tech. That jumps into the 40s on Animal Husbandry. My demos continue to be a notch above-average but not quite tops. I'm fairly happy with that and feel like I'm in a good spot. I have no doubt my start could have been optimized a bit (I'm side-eyeing my choice of a first chop and revolt time right now), but it's good enough.

[pindicator]

Forgot the PRO/FIN counter

[scooter]

Forgot the PRO/FIN counter  

That's like the 4th time I've forgotten, but the first 3 times I managed to ninja-edit it in . To make up for it, here's the more comprehensive version which basically just highlights that not much has changed for awhile.