(November 17th, 2014, 11:56)Old Harry Wrote: Mackoti is the king of meta - did he just extort all his neighbours assuming that one of them will hold out and he can happily attack them?
He's also the king of figuring out how to do diplo in a no-diplo environment...
Well, Gawdzak and Seven probably have the juice to turn him down, but it wouldn't surprise me if he successflly hit up me, haram, retep and wetbandit. I have to give him credit, though, for his sagacity. He picked a number that isn't so high that risking a war is worth not paying...2000 gold total is not enough to break my economy, just a minor bump, really. And if you multiply that by 4, he gets a significant jump to his GNP for little risk.
First thing I saw when I logged in was that Seven gave me his World Map. Nothing in exchange, just a gift. Which is cool, because now I know his set up in GJ’s territory, and I also know why he has those two maces sitting there – they’re there to keep any settlers from slipping past and moving into ex-GJ territory there. It looks like Seven (or Haram) razed a couple of cities to the east and I suspect he wants to settle that territory, so they will likely blitz any settlers seeking a path in. I did have a funny thought, though. I could mess with him by moving a settler onto the hill with his maceman. They’re 2 tiles apart, so the other one can’t attack it. And you can’t attack a unit in your square. It wouldn’t help, because he’d just attack it when it moved off or the city was built, but it would be amusing nonetheless. What happens if you declare war on someone and both of you have units in the same tile?
In world news, wetbandit got a Great Spy, and immediately started a Golden Age and changed all of his civics. He’s now running Rep/FS/CS/FM/Pacifism. Gawdzak signed a DP with Seven, so he has DPs with the two most powerful civs in the game. Interestingly, no one else signed a DP with mackoti, so I wonder if he even tried to extort anyone else? Or maybe he just didn’t throw the DP into the deal with anyone else.
Haram’s 1 turn from Theology, mackoti is 2 turns from Replaceable Parts, and retep is researching Nationalism at 0% right now. I should be able to see Seven’s research in 3 turns.
In domestic news, not much going on. I discovered I have a workboat that was sleeping in mackoti’s territory. I didn’t notice it was there until this turn, but since I didn’t move it there it predates my assumption of ruling duties. Since we just got Optics and have a Whale in my borders, I thought about trying to move it over, but the privateer is in the way and it’ll only take our capital 1 turn to build a new workboat, so I gifted it to mackoti and I’ll just build a new one. Even if the privateer let it by (or I waited for him to leave), it would be like 12 turns before it got there, and I can have one from the capital on the whales in 3 turns.
I moved my second settler onto the grassland hill near Yak and I’ll build that city next turn. Then another settler will finish building in 5 turns that will occupy the northern coast near Yak & Zebra, and with that all the land I can reasonably control right now will be filled in.
We’re still probably 6 turns from Rifling. Since mackoti took our lunch money, it’s going to be another turn of building wealth before we can switch to 100%.
(November 17th, 2014, 21:17)GermanJojo Wrote: Your own units get kicked off the tile, unfortunately.
I assume a random valid move off the tile?
BTW, sorry about haram, I tried to help you out as best I could in a no-diplo game. I had hoped the Ivory and your UU would help turn the tide a bit since he was rampaging through your territory with Keshiks.
Just logged into CivStats before heading to bed and saw mackoti has attacked retep. Not too surprising, but makes me wish I had a common border with retep so I could join the party.
At least retep knew it was coming and whipped massively the last couple of turns. Don't know if it'll matter since he's farther behind technologically (he just recently got guilds), but at least he's putting up a fight.
(November 17th, 2014, 21:17)GermanJojo Wrote: Your own units get kicked off the tile, unfortunately.
I assume a random valid move off the tile?
Not quite sure what you're asking, but the mechanics of it are that your unit is pushed back one (or more, if they've got a spam of units) tile(s) to a valid square (the mechanics on exactly where it goes are very complicated, but IIUC it's towards your first city), and after that you have full moves from that location - the same way it works if neutral borders pop on you, or you declare whilst in someone's borders.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
(November 17th, 2014, 23:52)Grimace Wrote: I assume a random valid move off the tile?
Not quite sure what you're asking, but the mechanics of it are that your unit is pushed back one (or more, if they've got a spam of units) tile(s) to a valid square (the mechanics on exactly where it goes are very complicated, but IIUC it's towards your first city), and after that you have full moves from that location - the same way it works if neutral borders pop on you, or you declare whilst in someone's borders.
The rules are indeed complicated and arcane. For the simplest situation (which I think is what you're talking about here) your unit(s) would be teleported (for free - no movement cost) to an adjacent tile, in the direction of your nearest* city.
"In the direction of" means the adjacent tile that is closest to that city according to the game's "plot distance" algorithm:
To calculate a distance, go diagonally until you can finish the rest in a straight vertical or horizontal line. The length of the traversed diagonal is 1.5 * min(dx, dy). The length of the horizontal or vertical line is max(dx, dy) - min(dx, dy). The sum of the two parts is max(dx, dy) + 0.5 * min(dx, dy).
Since X.5 gets rounded down to X, two or more tiles might be "tied" for "closest to your nearest city." In this case, your unit winds up on the southernmost of those tiles; if they're on the same row, it winds up on the westernmost.
And yes, that's the SIMPLEST case! If adjacent tiles in the right direction are unavailable for any reason, you have to take other terms and multipliers into account, and the results can get kind of crazy.
*- Nearest city excluding cities on islands or other continents. Also, the "nearest city" means the closest to the tile from which your unit was teleporting according to the same plot distance algorithm, except that ties are broken in favor of earlier-planted cities instead of southerly or westerly ones.
I thought about it for a few minutes…if I put this forward, as AP resident mackoti will know that I did so and may (actually, probably will) retaliate, maybe even by using his privateer simply to mess with my seafood. So, though tempting, I chose “None”.
Nothing in the world news log, which is a little surprising. I expected to see mackoti capturing more of retep’s cities.
Domestically, the big news was the building of a new city, Ape:
Right now it kinda sucks, and it’ll never be awesome, but eventually I’ll be able to work more tiles. Right now I’m farming the two riverside grasslands so it can grow a bit. Then the idea is to cottage the other tiles and work them once it has a few pop points under its belt. Or do you think this is a situation where workshops would be better?
EDIT: I realized the already farmed riverside grassland is not needed by Wildebeest and switched Ape to working that one. 8 turns to grow to size 2.
Went to 90% science because I can get Rifling in 4 turns still. If I go 100%, I won’t have enough money for 4 turns of research, even if I will have more overflow. I figure the benefit of Rifling 1 turn sooner is better than the ~120 extra beakers of overflow plus whatever small fraction might be lost due to rounding.
I offered retep open borders; we’ll see what he says. I also figured out how Mackoti has gotten his production so ridiculously high – Caste System, State Property, and a buttload of workshops. I’d say he made about 50% of his grasslands and plains into workshops. He’s getting 2f5h from each of them (since he is, like me, Productive and gets +1h from a 4h tile). If I can get to Communism, that sounds like a damn fine idea to me, too!
And because I figured it’s about time, graphs:
GNP:
Mackoti's GNP has come down considerably, probably due to the loss of many of his cottages to workshops.
Prod:
On the other hand, his production is through the frigging roof. He's got this game in the bag unless either 1) he screws up, or 2) everyone dogpiles him.
Crops:
We're slowly improving!
Power:
Seven, retep and I are all pretty close in power. Of course mine will take a jump when I hit rifling, cause the cavalry is coming.
Right off the bat got a DP request from wetbandit which I agreed to. Realistically, we’re on opposite sides so we won’t be able to do a great deal to help one another, but we both do share a border with Seven, so it may give him pause about attacking one of us. Mackoti doesn’t have a border with WB, though, so if he turns his attention on me I’ll be on my own.
In world news, retep got a GG, but lost 3 cities to mackoti. Gawdzak’s golden age ended, and Seven & wetbandit signed a DP, so that also makes it less likely Seven is after one of us. Gut feeling? Haram is his next target. Works out well for me, because I would be able to dogpile. To reinforce that belief, haram switched to Theocracy and Slavery.
Retep must have denied my OB request as we didn’t have one when the turn started. No first person reporting of the war for me!
Not much else happening domestically. War is way more fun to report on! Rifling in 3 turns. Haram has optics in 1. I didn’t even build anything this turn. Seven is reconnoitering my territory, with a horse archer through the land and a galley through the water. Fine by me. Only thing of interest we did was start improving the land around our two new cities, Zebra and Ape. Zebra hits size 2 next turn and will be able to work the 2f6h copper along with the pastured pigs, which will drastically help its production. Ape will get Confucianism next turn if it doesn’t spread automatically.
If I can get to Communism, that sounds like a damn fine idea to me, too! 
