TBS finds Superdeath's title Ominous

[klops]

sooo... any news here about the mechanics?
I also thought that blockades would be in place if all coast tile around the city were within the grey area.
Is Thoth just right about "city tile must be covered"?

[Donovan Zoi]

Hey all, sorry for bringing up this topic and then bailing.  I do appreciate Thoth and Harry's input, and klops for bringing it up again.

I like Harry's suggestion of reaching out to Charriu, and may still do so.  I think I can just edit the above post a bit.

This issue became less important since I have forced Commodore away from many of my cities, and will have Astro in two turns finally.  So the days of being controlled at sea are nearly over, hopefully.  I still think I should bring this up, lest I try the same tactic on someone and get called out for its not working right.

To answer klops' question, it was always my understanding that the city would lose trade if coast was totally blocked.  But in the case of Chengdu, an access tile was still exposed.  And I still don't think I should have lost the option for domestic trades either, as my 4 trade routes have been totally blanked out several times.  I still feel I should have  been allowed coastal trade to those home routes, even without having Astro for ocean trades yet.

Oh well, enough complaining.  I'll PM Charriu and will let you know what I find out. Thanks again, all.


In Other News

Tarkeel joined in the fight against Commodore, and has taken Goatman, Cornish Owlman and Snallygaster.  We have an Iron ~ Iron agreement and it looks like I get to keep Sasquatch once I claim it.  It will still be a couple turns before I can, since I have had the poor habit if burning my siege units too quickly.  I have been way too impatient in my conquest, which has led me to lose many units taking Wendigo and Jersey Devil and my first wave of hits at Sasquatch. 

I will likely need to yield Jackalope and Puckwudgie to Tarkeel, while being able to grab the islands of Nessy and Albatwitch soon.  I have offered the Roman island city in Tarkeel's bay as well, but he hasn't made a play on it yet.  Oh and I have to re-take Champ since Commodore opted to terrorize that city instead of bring units home against Tarkeel's Cavalry.

Lastly on this, I offered an Iron ~ Iron to Tarkeel against SD in 4 turns when Tarkeel's peace treaty runs out, but I did not hear back on that one.  For now, I am just playing defense on the SD front while getting forges up where ever I can.  This will help me to build some needed infrastructure while also allowing easy 2 whips of units like Privateers and Muskets where needed.  I have also queued up most of my farms with 5/6 workshop labor, so when I move to Caste System for the next GP push, I will be able to change gears to production pretty rapidly.  Getting Chem and a GA will enhance those Workshops even more when the time comes.

Some island cities have finally begun producing Courthouses and Markets and I only have 9 more cities that need Buddhism, to complete the 50% buff to buildings under OR.  I am trying to get as many Forge, CH, Markets, Observatories as I can before the long-delayed 3rd Golden Age.  I'll still want Drama to push along a Great Artist in Nanjing (my HE city) and then will need to complete the Great Scientist in Beijing directly after.  My continually moving target is now set for T205-210 for that GA.

Others are far too advanced for me to be competitive in tech, but I think I will be able to make good strides soon.  I am lucky to be in a region that is mostly on par with me navally (or at least aren't spamming like Commodore), so one of my biggest concerns will be Miguelito getting Destoyers (Combustion is available to him now).  He's quite a bit away, but those ships make the world a lot smaller and I am a relatively weak target that may still matter enough to be manhandled a bit.

UPDATE: It looks like Superdeath just played a wraparound turn, which is good news for my domestic agenda. I think that Tarkeel, SD and I are going to be cautious to expand for now, which plays in my favor of rebuilding to a profitable civ.  Also, Lazteuq is in Serfdom and just declared against mjmd, so I don't feel a threat from the West just yet.

[Donovan Zoi]

Hi everyone, I need clarification on the Civics switch game mechanic. 

To end my turn, I had planned to switch to Theocracy, but game shows 2 turns of anarchy to do so.  I have never experienced more than 1 turn when only switching 1 civic. Can someone help me determine if this is a bug or perhaps a game mechanic because I am so far behind in tech?  Those are the only two options I can think of.

Here's a screenshot.  I will PM Ramk and Charriu on this as well.  Thanks!

[Ramkhamhaeng]

Hi, I think this is no bug, but a combination of your number of Cities and
iNumCitiesAnarchyPercent defined in GameInfo/CIV4WorldInfo.xml

This XML depends from the map size and at first I thought the map size is set to a wrong value like WOLRDSIZE_TINY (In this case your objection would be valid in my opinion), but it is WORDSIZE_HUGE. For huge map is the factor, 6, on it's lowest value.


Commented extraction from the code:

Code:

    iAnarchyLength += GC.getDefineINT("BASE_CIVIC_ANARCHY_LENGTH");
// HERE, iAnarchyLength WAS NUMBER OF CHANGED CIVICS, THUS
//  iAnarchyLength = 1 + 1 = 2

    iAnarchyLength += ((getNumCities() * GC.getWorldInfo(GC.getMapINLINE().getWorldSize()).getNumCitiesAnarchyPercent()) / 100);
// 41 CITIES AND 6 FOR getNumCitiesAnarchyPercent leads to
// 2 + 246/100 = 4
  }

  iAnarchyLength = ((iAnarchyLength * std::max(0, (getAnarchyModifier() + 100))) / 100);
// NO CHANGE

[...]

  iAnarchyLength *= GC.getGameSpeedInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getGameSpeedType()).getAnarchyPercent();
  iAnarchyLength /= 100;
// NO CHANGE

  iAnarchyLength *= GC.getEraInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getStartEra()).getAnarchyPercent();
  iAnarchyLength /= 100;
// getAnarchyPercent IS 50, THUS
// = 4 * 50/100 = 2

  return range(iAnarchyLength, 1, getMaxAnarchyTurns());
// HERE, getMaxAnarchyTurns DOES NOT CUT THE VALUE.
// IT IS 100 FOR PLAYERS WITHOUT RELIGION TRAIT

I will PM Charriu to discuss of he wants cut the anarchy length down to 1 in CtH.
In my opinion we could reduce this to the question if we still want a dependency to the number of cities in the code.

[Donovan Zoi]

Welcome to China, Superdeath!  Your people are granted refuge here, so long as you agree to take the wheel of this sinking ship.  The password is cat.

I tagged some tactical things in-game, but also wanted to give you some insight to what I have been doing.  I'd also like to see what future involvement you'd like from me.  I can either:
--back off and let you do your thing.
--hang out and dedlurk
--still maintain a partnership, where I run domestic and you run the ground/sea game and we haggle for what we think is best going forward. (this could also be a test to partner up in a future PB if you are interested and I can prove myself to actually post something).

It's not gonna be pretty though.  I pretty much squandered any chance of winning the game through my war with Commodore, so now all that is left is to do our worst to Lazteuq and Tarkeel.  And hope that Amicalola stays dormant for awhile; this house of cards will collapse quickly once Ethiopia engages us.

Domestic Basics

--When you look at my city screens for the first time, you will be amazed by the amount of whip anger I have amassed.  But our people are still mostly chill because happiness is at such a surplus.  I also have several farms everywhere so whip recovery is quick as well.

--I have been trying to pepper in some buildings to help our bottom line (Markets, Courthouses etc) but I believe that time has passed and we need to strictly focus on war.

--Most of our cities are under Size 4, so I have been surviving by 2 whipping units once they get to size 4 and have at least 6 hammers (Muskets, Privateers) or 16 (Frigates, Knights).

--Just about all cities have Forges and Buddhism, and most land cities have Barracks.  This means that many new units will get two promos.  The units I was intending to whip are:
1. Muskets (wither Garrison 2 or Woodsman 2 -- Tarkeel has several Lumbermills so we can possible send them to his mainland to choke his rail lines).
2, Knights - C1 with Pinch (we are two generations behind in Gunpowder tech, so I have been using Knights to soften up Infantry so that my trash units can clean them up)

--Workers have been queuing up several tile changes depending on what kind of civic we switch to next (Serfdom or Caste System).  This may not matter as much because we will likely lose Beijing and its stored GP point for our 3rd Golden Age.
1. Just about all farms can be updated to Workshop in 1 turn if needed
2. Current workers and queuing mined hills to Windmills for a shot a Serfdom

However, I don't see a way for us to get out of Slavery anytime soon.

And to give you an idea on how far behind we are in tech, Piccadilly just created The Internet while we are about to make a play for Steel. 

I'll post this for now to give you something to read, and then ask questions, but I'll see what else I can come up with.

[Donovan Zoi]

Thoughts on our opponents

Tarkeel

There is a chance you can ask for peace here, as Tarkeel seems to be a reasonable player.  I only declared on him once I was finally able to get you to commit to a 2v1 (I couldn't get the same from him), and its the same reason I didn't even consider to make peace until now because I honor my treaties even though Egypt now has Destroyers.  Take caution when advancing by sea as he will start slowly upgrading his Frigates.

Out of necessity, I had to take out two different stacks of well promoted Cavalry, Infantry and 1 Machine Gun (on  hill, no less) near Sasquatch at great cost but doing so seems to have brought a lull to the bloodshed at this border for the moment.  Tarkeel does not have Slavery but he does have the draft.  He's also got many Factories and a railnet so he will continue a slow steady push as long as we are engaged (especially now that he has been freed from the advance of those pesky Incans  Man, I was really hoping you'd be able to make a solid run at his east but Amica was too hot on your heals.  I was definitely cheering you on though!)

Lazteuq

I kind of knew this was coming, but Persia is boating our islands hard in the west.  We are just about even in the amount of naval power, but I think I am going to be one trun too late to stop a troop landing at Beijing.  If Lazteq is savvy, he will burn the capital, so I am expecting the worst here.

He's got Ironclads coming as well.  My goal was to continue whipping Frigates and just pound away at his stacks to get access to the sheltered Galleons.  They are pretty dispersed for now so there is a chance we can do some damage, but he is also parking his fleet in newly captured cities guarded by Riflemen.

It looks like Beijing will fall though I have been putting Garrison 3 units there from neighboring HE city, Nanjing.

Amicalola

I've pretty much moved all of my joshyland units (Incense City etc) to engage Tarkeel on both sides, leaving this area for the taking.  I think you figured that out on your side as well -- best to use the units where they can actually accomplish something.  We have a few trades with him, but I don't think that Amica will delay war with us in return for the small boost he is getting to Cereal Mills from us.  As I said, once he gets involved it just gets silly, so all the more reason to see if Tarkeel is interested in peace.

Please feel free to join the game once Tarkeel and Lazteuq have played and let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks again for taking over!

[superdeath]

Welcome to China, Superdeath!  Your people are granted refuge here, so long as you agree to take the wheel of this sinking ship.  The password is cat.

I tagged some tactical things in-game, but also wanted to give you some insight to what I have been doing.  I'd also like to see what future involvement you'd like from me.  I can either:
--back off and let you do your thing.
--hang out and dedlurk
--still maintain a partnership, where I run domestic and you run the ground/sea game and we haggle for what we think is best going forward. (this could also be a test to partner up in a future PB if you are interested and I can prove myself to actually post something).

Pick and choose. I dont believe any of it will make any difference, but i have a slight nudge towards grabbing the K.O. of Tarkeel for.... reasons.

[superdeath]

I moved some units around made a small amount of signs to note some random naval units i saw, and ive been thinking about what to do.

I noticed a distinct lack of Chuckles with your army, so i figured id bring some of those up. They i believe can collateral MG's? At the very least they can collateral off of boats still so could take cities/take them back via the sea with enough galleons. I swapped all but 3-4 builds to military. Deleted some workers that werent going to be able to do anything and moved privateers around. Im hoping for some decent odds on whatever sea battle takes place first, but i know for a FACT that Lazteuq has to land his units if he wants to grab Beijing otherwise, it will be a slaughterfest. Also, because i blocked the sea with our navy.

Pictures to come next turn. OR maybe a video? Dunno. Been a long day. Happy to be aboard.

[Donovan Zoi]

I see you are in game now.  I think Lazteuq poses the greatest immediate threat, so I think it may be best to destroy any Persian units that land while maintaining naval parity.  But I am fine with using the two sets of Galleons to give Tarkeel some grief while dedicating new units west.  I think the new level 3 combos I mentioned above will go a long way with protecting the west.

I had a feeling that something went down with Tarkeel during your teleport issue, but could not figure out the catalyst.

Anyway, you are now the field general so I defer to you.  I am glad to hang around, make suggestions and log in from time to time if you want a second look.

EDIT: crosspost- I can login and check real quick since Miguelito has yet to play.  I thought sure he’d level on of our Frigate stacks and already have 12 units at Beijing’s door, so that’s welcome news if we held him off and strengthened that bay with our Privateer stack.

I think I’ll stick around just because it will be fun to talk about the game with someone.

[Donovan Zoi]

I am cool with the video idea or whatever works best for you. Thanks again for joining in and looking forward to prolonging our eventual demise together.

EDIT: looks like the game server is down, but I am not sweating it. Next, turn I'll try to login first and get you whatever intel I can gather, but I'll leave the final decisions to you.