AU 201 - The Quest for Ultimate Power

[nbarclay]

"You have looked out across the fertile lands that surround you, and you have a dream. You have a dream of building a civilization where people will live in the same homes for generation after generation. You have a dream of discovering new and better ways of doing things, and of building great wonders that will inspire awe in all who see them. You have a dream of conquering any who might oppose you, and of stretching out to be master of all you survey. You have a dream of having the entire world marvel at your people’s art and music and storytelling. In short, you have a dream of Ultimate Power."

The challenge of this game is not merely to dominate militarily, but to dominate in as many ways as you can by as much as you can. Build as many wonders as you can. Gain the biggest scientific and cultural leads you can. Make your people happy, productive, and prosperous. And, yes, conquer anyone who dares to stand in your way, and do so as decisively as you can.

I don't have much experience with scenarios yet, so I hope I did this okay. Here are a few notes about the set-up:

1) I started from a large 80% water map and added land where I needed it to get the set-up I wanted. (It's warm, wet, 5 billion, but I made sure there's sufficient oil.) I'm hoping these parameters work out reasonably well for people with older machines.

2) If I did things right, the rules are modified so that nothing short of transports and destroyers can end a turn in ocean safely, although it is certainly possible to send a captain out on a highly dangerous assignment to brave the treacherous deeps. (Storms here are a whole lot worse than on a wimpy planet like Earth. ) Note also that trans-oceanic trade in strategic and luxury resources begins only with the discovery of Combustion.

3) As discussed on the AU thread, there are six opponents on our home continent, three on a nearby continent, and three that cannot be reached without crossing ocean. As a result, I've rigged things so all 8 luxuries are available to everyone without the need for trans-oceanic trade (although there aren't necessarily enough to go around until some civs are eliminated).

4) If you move from the starting position before settling your first town, you may regret it when the industrial era rolls around. There are certain things that in an ideal world, no Ultimate Power game should be without, if you get my drift.

5) Barbarians are sedentary, but you may still run into a few if you or one of the AIs pops the wrong hut.

6) Although playing as Egypt is recommended, I left open the option of playing as any civ I didn't assign an AI slot to.

7) The starting position is good enough that you ought to be able to play on a hard level (e.g. Emperor for most of us here) and still do extremely well. By the way, I didn't do any tweaking at all to the food situation in our starting area, but I did do a little with strategic resources and access to an extra luxury.

Here's the AU mod version of the game:

[nbarclay]

And here's the standard rules (aside from the more treacherous ocean) version.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by nbarclay
4) If you move from the starting position before settling your first town, you may regret it when the industrial era rolls around. There are certain things that in an ideal world, no Ultimate Power game should be without, if you get my drift.

Let's not beat around the bush here; your first city location has the potential to build the Iron Works, right? Hm, I guess I'd better not Palace-jump too far then...

In any other game I would not have liked to know that the Iron Works were possible beforehand, but in UP it fits perfectly!

I'll try the game as soon as I get the chance. nbarclay, thanks for creating and posting this scenario.


Dominae

[badman]

Originally posted by DaveMcW
Take it to the spoiler thread guys.

oh sorry
but what do you discuss in here then?

[DaveMcW]

Take it to the spoiler thread guys.

[nbarclay]

Lately, AU games have tended to have three threads. The way I see it, the threads should be used as follows:

The game thread's primary purpose is to make the game available for download. It can also be used to discuss or ask questions about the game description, so long as nothing learned from playing the game is brought into the discussion. (And I deliberately provided enough clues that players don't have to have played the game to infer that the capital has Iron Works potential, although I have no intention of saying it outright. My main reason for the strong hints is that my manipulations represent a deliberate departure from a normal game set-up where iron works possibilities are distributed randomly across the map. Not warning players that there was something special about the starting position seemed like it would be unfair under the circumstances.)

The Hints and Tips thread is for general ideas that can apply in any similar game. If they are based on actual experiences in this game, they should still be worded generally so as not to give anything away (and if that can't be done, they don't belong on Hints and Tips).

The Spoilers thread is for anything that would provide additional information about the particular game beyond what the game's creator provided, e.g. which civs are where, additional information about the map layout, and so on. Most importantly, it's a great place to tell stories about what you did in the game.

Nathan

[nbarclay]

By the way, feel free to restart if you get barbarians out of that first hut and they do any kind of serious damage. Coming back from that kind of trouble just doesn't quite fit the Ultimate Power theme. (Guess what just happened to me?)

Nathan

[Theseus]

The three threads structure seems to work great.

Thanks for getting this going Nathan!

I made huge progress on 107 last night (cough-5am-cough), and am anxious to have a little more *fun* with this one.

[vmxa1]

Look at it this Theseus, it was only 4AM after you set the clock back.

[Theseus]

You kidding?

That was my first reaction yesterday: "Hey honey, I get an extra hour to play!"

[nbarclay]

I miscalculated, folks. I didn't think to turn on the grid on the editor and doublecheck my "eyeball" distance calculations, and the third continent is closer than I had intended. So much for my intent that it be highly dangerous to invade or even make contact until the mid-industrial era. Sorry about that.

If you want to play the game in the spirit in which it was intended, don't try to reach the far continent without parking your pre-combustion ships in the ocean for a turn so they have a chance to sink. Otherwise, do as you please.

Nathan

[nbarclay]

The thought occurs to me that the most important part of this game to take notes on and compare is almost definitely the opening. It's what we do in our initial REXing and in deciding when and how to start expanding militarily that sets everything else up, and that makes the difference between just an easy win and true Ultimate Power.

By the way, this is one class where it's fine to leave early if you get too bored. Although personally, I'm interested in seeing how early I can get a cultural victory (assuming I don't accidentally trigger domination first).

Nathan

[Arrian]

Damn, I wanted to finish my Japanese game before this came out. Oh well.

I will download & start it tonight.

-Arrian

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by nbarclay
By the way, feel free to restart if you get barbarians out of that first hut and they do any kind of serious damage. Coming back from that kind of trouble just doesn't quite fit the Ultimate Power theme. (Guess what just happened to me?)

Nathan

I met the dudes in that hut. They were evil! However, I decided to reclaim what I lost in REX by early military expansion. Joan gave me the perfect opportunity by attacking. Let's just say, she's no longer a virgin. I changed that...

Ultimate Power WILL be mine, despite early setbacks.

[jshelr]

wrong thread, moved, sorry.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by jshelr
An Island of Civiliztion Amid Barbarian Hordes.

Egypt focused it efforts on wonder building to please the gods in this game and the gods were well pleased, at least for awhile. ...

This sort of thing really belongs on the spoilers thread. I would point out, though, that part of the concept of Ultimate Power is to lead the world in knowledge. With a good core, there's no need to wait on the AIs even on Emperor. And if your Great Library contains no knowledge that your own civ didn't put there, that just helps prove your nation's magnificence.

Nathan

[jshelr]

whoops, never post before your first coffee. Sorry.

[alexman]

Here is the game with the latest AU mod version (1.06) in case anyone hasn't started yet (like me).

[alexman]

Konquest02 found a bug in the AU mod version for this game (only). Privateers have lost their hidden-nationality ability, and all naval units that sink in the ocean but didn't used to (Frigates, Ironclads, Galleons, et cetera) have lost some of their attack animations.

This bug is not in the AU mod 1.06 version of the game, posted immediately above.

[DeepO]

Am I the only one having problems with this file? I tried downloading all 3 of the posted zips, but none of them wants to unzip on my pc (error: invalid archive). Other files seem to work well... is this a 'poly problem, or am I overlooking something here?
The zips are 38K in size...

Damn, the first AU I want to try, and I can't even start

DeepO

[alexman]

Apolyton seems to be having problems again.

[DeepO]

*Sigh*

In that case I'll keep trying...

DeepO

[DeepO]

Can someone rezip the files, and post these please? I'm especially interested in the standard rules one, but the others aren't working either. Somewhere, the zip achives got corrupted...

DeepO

[alexman]

Try this one...

[DeepO]

Thanks alexman! That did it... finally I can try them

DeepO