[SPOILER] Suryavarman II of Maya - Whosit & Ravus Sol

[Whosit]

I haven't studied the map in detail but to me it seems odd to settle a second/third ring city when presumably you have many delicious first-ring locations to choose from.

Well, there are some decent locations closer, but from what I've seen, the lake site is the strongest location around. This picture kinda doesn't show it so well, since it's hard to tell what the base terrain for a lot of the stuff is, but many of the food resources nearer the capital are actually on not-so-good terrain, like plains and sometimes tundra. Some are OK. A major factor for settling so far, though, is to stake a distant claim, let my Creative trait do the work, and prevent England from getting too close to me.

I'll try to get some better pictures soon.



Also: Yay! People are back!

[m4gill4]

may I inquire what is the difficulty setting of this game? I don't want to go fishing around for it and spoil myself.

[Whosit]

According to the in-game info, it's on Prince Difficulty. Map size, uncertain. Game says Duel, but that's clearly impossible.

[m4gill4]

According to the in-game info, it's on Prince Difficulty. Map size, uncertain. Game says Duel, but that's clearly impossible.

Thanks! I was considering the implications of maintenance costs on your ideas for 2nd and 3rd cities.

[Whosit]

Thanks! I was considering the implications of maintenance costs on your ideas for 2nd and 3rd cities.

Yeah. It's not going to be exactly cheap, I think. The map looks rather big, but my fear is that it will actually calculate distance as though it is Duel. At the moment, score says I have 21/2094 land. I've never memorized tile count stuff.

I did, though, double check some score-keeping stuff, since things from the last few turns didn't make sense to me. I think I understand it now, with one exception. Everyone got a nice score boost on turn 20. That's due to the land count being factored in. I got 8. I assume those are the starting 8 tiles, and that the city tile is not counted. What puzzled me, though, was on the next turn, I got 12 more land points. I thought that was only calculated every 20 turns. And that's just from my 2nd ring, not including 3rd ring. I don't really understand that.

Seems 4/6 players landed a tech on turn 20, as well. I'm trying to sort through the numbers again. We'll see if I'm any more successful this time.

[Mist]

A tile starts counting for points 20 turns after you got it.

[T-hawk]

The map looks rather big, but my fear is that it will actually calculate distance as though it is Duel.

If I'm right, distance maintenance is based on the actual map dimensions, since it's calculated as a percentage of maximum possible distance, so will not rise on this "Duel" map. Number-of-cities maintenance is based on the stated map size and will rise.

[Whosit]

A tile starts counting for points 20 turns after you got it.

Hmm... then it seems like the 2nd ring tiles came a turn early? Or perhaps an artifact of the way I'm recording data, but I don't think so....

If I'm right, distance maintenance is based on the actual map dimensions, since it's calculated as a percentage of maximum possible distance, so will not rise on this "Duel" map. Number-of-cities maintenance is based on the stated map size and will rise.

Ah, I see. Just checked, and it does appear my # of Cities costs is being counted as though on Duel size: 0.37. This will increase to about 0.75 with a second city. Distance cost... I really can't guess. Don't even know if there's world wrap yet or not. Maybe someone more in the know than me can make an educated guess once the distance cost is known.

This is... interesting, I guess. Though not exactly what I wanted, either, since it means that fast expansion is going to be more expensive than anticipated (at least on a per-city basis). So even my plan of settling many cities close to the capital will end up costing me a lot. Bluhhhhhhh.

[m4gill4]

So even my plan of settling many cities close to the capital will end up costing me a lot. Bluhhhhhhh.

But I think your 2x worker opening (if i read that right) will help to mitigate that by getting economic infrastructure up faster to support growth.

[Whosit]

But I think your 2x worker opening (if i read that right) will help to mitigate that by getting economic infrastructure up faster to support growth.

Yeah. Oh! Speaking of that, I forgot to mention that I screwed up the last couple of turns. By all rights, I should have had a Worker ready to travel with the Settler/Warrior pair so that the new city would have a guy ready to help out. But the plan I was using was made before I had decided where to go, and I hadn't changed it (why did I build that mine on the hill? It will never be used in like forever!), so now if I want to send a Worker out, it'll be a turn behind the escort, and that just seems way too risky to me. A Wolf or Panther will just end that Worker. So Lake City is going to have to build it's own Worker right away, which is bad play, bad planning!

In other news, I should probably make a beeline for math after AH so that my forest chops go to the best use.