I don't see any problem with using privateers and Isles "released to the wild" with someone you have a NAP with. The AI does those kind of things while you have a peace treaty, anyway . Just be clever and not so obvious with it.
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
HidingKneel Wrote:But Sareln isn't your main rival.
I'd be very cautious about agreeing to an NAP here. Especially since Iskender proposed it, which makes me think he's offering to give up an option he doesn't want to pursue anyway.
Even if you don't want a war, you do want to be able to harass Iskender with HN isles. If you're going to give up that option, make sure that what you get in return is worth it.
Bigger Wrote:I don't see any problem with using privateers and Isles "released to the wild" with someone you have a NAP with. The AI does those kind of things while you have a peace treaty, anyway . Just be clever and not so obvious with it.
I dunno. It was treated as a NAP violation in FFH PBEM3...but then it was also a war that WarriorKnight wanted.
I think on balance, I'll be much more comfortable just continuing to spend on military and having options. We're comfortably #1 in hammers, we can afford to waste a few on military just in case.
All that said, I'm greatly relieved by Iskender's response so far. He definitely wants that bonus cluster, and vaguely wants to settle elsewhere too. That's an economic response, not a military one If he insists on 1S of the ice mountain instead of 1N, and asks the southern city to move some, I think I will oblige.
Iskender Wrote:(I also hope it won't affect your play, which so far has been amazing - I've just gotten to see your graphs).
So, um...who thinks Iskender is letting all his true feelings show here? Not me! That's a nice compliment, but surely he intends to win. And also, he doesn't appear to be showing any signs of changing his methods.
I'm feeling a bit left out in the cold on espionage; if he's gotten 40+ EP on us while we've gotten 4 on him, perhaps we need to step it up a tad. I would really like to have graphs on the other humans, and at the moment we've only got info on Sareln. We have a few options. Note that all the ones going via specialists require us to either build them where we have no current specialists, and sacrifice the technician's +1 hammer/+1 beaker, or build them somewhere with a food surplus and work the specialist instead of a tile. Or also to build a 40 hammer Pressure Dome and find some bonus happy, for the free specialist. Pressure Dome would at least not consume any health or planethappy for the effectively free citizen.
Network Nodes. 26 hammers, +2 beakers/turn, lets us hire a Librarian (+2 beakers/turn, +4 EP, GPP toward datajack.)
Empath Guilds: 50 hammers, +1 happy with Fungal Gin, +1 happy with Brilliance, +1 Planet, lets us hire an Empath (+1 beaker, +1 EP, +3 Planet, GPP toward Transcend)
Holograph theatre, if we research Holographics (313 beakers): 40 hammers, +1 happy, +1 happy with Alien artifact, +1 EP, allows Librarian
Research Nanominiaturization: allows the EP slider, to turn GNP directly into EP. Costs 1253 beakers, plus however many EP we want. Also allows the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm
I still think 26 hammers for a Network Node is too expensive unless the EP are vital; 2 beakers in a game where we're not yet running 100% research is only equivalent to the 1 hammer it takes to Stockpile Energy to match. Although I have to admit that librarians are more efficient than running the EP slider.
On balance, I think I'm leaning toward Empath Guilds. We'll shortly have quite a bit of health available, as we claim the Jungle DNA and the white Algae and whatever else we find. Perhaps it's still worth researching Retroviral Engineering for Rare Ocean DNA, on top. Which means each Empath Guild would let us grow the city it's in at least two more sizes. It's true that this is the least efficient method of gaining EP, but I don't really think EP are urgent; we can afford to get just one per base, if we're getting enough other benefits.
This is also the method that doesn't require any extra tech. We're picking up Psionics now, and then we'll resume naval techs, ideally. I'd like to continue delaying the middle of the tech tree as long as we can get away with it.
Or, maybe an Empath Guild/Hologram theater combo, for +4 happy/+4 Planet/+2 EP? 90 hammers for increasing our cap by 4 might actually be worth doing. At least in selected locations. And I'm sure we can use the Transcendii - and boosting the flowering counter would be a nice side effect.
Although, one does have to remember that 90 hammers for 4 population is still not super efficient compared to 79 foodhammers (-20%) for the new base with 6 population and a trade route and a free technician (soon to be 7 pop, once we grab our second Crystals). Maintenance costs make that a bit murkier, but on balance I still think it's only worth going for the buildings in the capital. And perhaps intermittently elsewhere when we need to slow our expansion rate a bit to let population growth catch up to maintenance.
Yeah, all things considered, I think we'll mostly have to let the EP situation remain poor. I'll start slipping Empath Guilds into build queues occasionally, and at some point we'll need to backtrack for Holographics and build some theaters, but it's still better to focus on REX. At least for now, while we still have immense tracts of ocean free, and maintenance is still not horrible. Obviously the situation will change once we run out of room for the colony pods to go .
Bigger Wrote:what does Hunter-Seeker do here? That sounds useful .
It is useful. It's not quite the 'immune to all Probe teams' effect, but it actually can get pretty close if you leverage it right:
Basically, it gives all your Bunkers and units built at the same base as the algorithm the ability to spot Probe teams. If you can spot them, you can kill them with any unit.
I think it's not particularly important to us, though, because Probe Teams can't walk on water. That means we can only be spied on if the spy rides a boat, which we should be able to see.
ok, you're right thats not too important to us. I don't see us conquering large tracks of land any time soon. I take it naval spy teams not possible? (i.e. foil probe team, probably the most useful AC unit behind supply crawler).
sorry for being such a planetfall idiot. Not much use as a ded-lurker, but I seemed to have lost my BTS CD so I can't play it . I actually played vanilla civ 4 this past weekend after spending an hour looking for the BTS CD .
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
So, turn 104...I'm likely to be too busy to report the next few in any detail, so it's time for an extravaganza! :D
We paid Sian his 50 credits this turn, presumably next turn we'll have our Acolyte. It's not worth quite as much as it was when we didn't have a natural spread, but it's still better than Build Energy's 2:1 energy ratio. Probably won't be buying any more unless they become cheaper, though.
We have eyes on Iskender's territory, now, with a Probe Team. Going to wander around until we've got a better idea what we're up against here.
We've done some more conversion of 20 hammer foils into 40 hammer Isles:
and, just browsing around the foreign relations, I discovered that Iskender isn't the only one who can take advantage of stupid AI's. That, combined with our incoming round of Biology Labs and the research of Psionics, ought to knock our Planet rating firmly into the 2's. Which means starting our built Isles with a promotion
So, how's our empire doing? It's bursting at the seams, ready for another round of growth. We've got only one size 1 city at the moment, and our formers are definitely getting ahead of our growth rate. To change that, we've got one colony pod in place to found next turn, another en route, and one sea colony in production. It's still not a lot of resources to go toward REX, but I felt a solid round of Bio Labs was necessary to keep cities from potentially Blooming on us. Once that completes, we'll be back to splitting our hammers between REX and military.
Here in the north, Dreadnought is continuing to be awesome; the rest of the cities, being new, are still working on that. They're getting pretty good, though, as they rush up toward their caps. They're starting to pick up some hammer tiles, in addition to the food, and therefore will finish their Bio Labs soon, moving on to contributing to the empire as a whole.
The city site to the west of Dreadnought has an incoming colony pod; should be 2-3 more turns before it arrives and can found.
In the south, the cities are generally better developed, and straining at their happy caps. Certainly all the Acolytes we build will be headed this way for a while, to let them all pop up another size. We're getting some useful production from this area, in addition to a good chunk of energy. With this large production, the remedial Bio labs will be done soon, and we can swap our focus back to the REX.
The central island city site is prepared to be founded next turn; we've already got some Kelp and windmills for it to work, and both land formers are in the area, waiting to finish providing its energy tiles. Then they'll fly over to the new islands.
Finally, at the end of the turn, we got a very nice bonus:
I'm slightly tempted to cease Acolyte production and let the RNG do it for us, but first, I don't trust the RNG. Second, I think increased population across our empire will pay for itself pretty rapidly. And, finally - I really don't want to deal with any non-Voice religions. Don't want to fuss with the civics to make them happy, or to deal with unhappy citizens. Which means getting Voice spread fast enough that other religions don't spread to us.
Bigger, if you have BTS 3.19, which I assume you do if you can play multiplayer games here, where pretty much everyone uses it, you should be able to play without the CD.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
. Just be clever and not so obvious with it.
That's a nice compliment, but surely he intends to win. And also, he doesn't appear to be showing any signs of changing his methods.
. I actually played vanilla civ 4 this past weekend after spending an hour looking for the BTS CD 
ratio. Probably won't be buying any more unless they become cheaper, though.
).