Apolyton University AUSG101

Rhothaerill · September 12, 2003, 00:11

Welcome to the first Apolyton University Modified Succession Game or AUSG101 for short.

The theme of this course is of course a modified succession game. Players will be divided up into one of three teams. Each of the teams has one specific goal. One team will shoot for a domination/conquest victory, eschewing all other victory conditions. One team will shoot for a spaceship launch, again eschewing all other victory conditions. And the third team, the opportunists will make it up as they go along shooting for either a domination victory or a spaceship victory as the game goes on (which should provide for some interesting polls

).

The purpose of this modified succession game is twofold…learning and teaching, just like any other AU course. Each player will play a block of a set number of turns and write out a during action report (DAR), post a screenshot of their game, and also post the actual savegame in the appropriate thread for their team which will be posted soon after this thread is posted. I ask that the savegame be posted simply for ease of posting the new savegame for the next turn block in case yours is chosen. Players playing the games can review how each of their teammates set about accomplishing their goal, and how members of the other teams set about accomplishing a different goal with the same game. Anyone who is lurking on the threads to watch the action can also pick up tips and advice to improve their game. Anyone who wishes to join the game should feel free to do so, even though it is after the game has started. For anyone that does not wish to be part of a team, you can still play this as a standard AU game, but I urge you not to post DAR’s beyond the turn blocks we have asked for to avoid giving any information away before the teams can reach that point.

After a set amount of time, a poll will be posted for each team from which the starting savegame for the next turn block will be chosen. The new turn block for each team will be posted, and then each player on the teams will play the chosen turn block for their team in the next set amount of time.

This scenario settings are standard continent map with 70% water, 5 billion years old, restless barbarians, and all original civ3 victory conditions on (even though each team will be shooting for only one, the AI can still win by any of them…including diplomatic). Difficulty level is monarch to provide a challenge to all while still not being too much of a challenge to those who aren’t comfortable with the higher difficulty levels. The civilization that was chosen is the Arabs. They are not overtly suited for either a military or spaceship victory, but have elements that lend themselves to both types of victories. The scenario has also been set up using the AU mod. If you have not used the AU mod before please go here: AU mod thread for the thread which contains the changes made to the game with the AU mod.

The first turn block will be 40 turns. Meaning from 4000bc to 2150bc. Please make sure not to post savegames or screenshots beyond that time to avoid giving away more information than necessary. Everyone will have until 12pm EST Tuesday September 16th to post their DAR’s screenshots, and savegames in the appropriate thread for their team. From there I or Nuclear Master will post polls for each team to choose their next turn block. The poll will last from 12pm EST on Tuesday until 12pm EST on Thursday the 18th. Then the new turn block will be posted for each team. Rinse…repeat…learn…and most of all have fun!

The next post will contain a screenshot of the starting location. The third post will contain the breakdown of teams at the start of the game. Again, anyone is welcome to join the teams, though I have to ask that you divide up evenly.

Links to DAR5:
Domination Team DAR 5
Spaceship Team DAR 5
Opportunist Team DAR 5

Links to DAR4:
Domination Team DAR 4
Spaceship Team DAR 4
Opportunist Team DAR 4

Links to DAR3:
Domination Team DAR 3
Spaceship Team DAR 3
Opportunist Team DAR 3

Links to DAR2:
Domination Team DAR 2
Spaceship Team DAR 2
Opportunist Team DAR 2

Links to DAR1:
Domination team DAR 1
Spaceship team DAR 1
Opportunist team DAR 1

Rhothaerill · September 12, 2003, 00:12

The start…not quite as depressing as AU209, but it should be challenging enough for the two playstyles we’re highlighting in this game.

Rhothaerill · September 12, 2003, 00:13

The teams:

Domination...................Spaceship Launch...Opportunity Knocks

The Arsenal...................alexman................. Dominae
Konquest02..................ZargonX............... ..Arrian
Theseus........................vmxa1.............. ......Nor Me
Master Zen...................Tarquinius...............BRC
Taian............................ Mountain Sage......Godking
Beta..............................Defcon5......... ........Platfuss
Charlie_Six....................Makahlua........... .....korn469

I apologize to those who have been placed on a team without your choosing, but I tried to divide up those who hadn’t chosen yet into teams based on preferences taken from general play styles.

Also, feel free to rename your teams if you so desire.

EDIT: read the teams from top to bottom not left to right. I wrote it in MS Word and it didn't transfer well.

Rhothaerill · September 12, 2003, 00:27

BTW, we still have a few rules and things to work out such as whether or not to incorporate the idea that no one person can have the same savegame chosen twice in a row. But I'm not sure that is a good idea because I don't want to limit that person's creativity either.

Another thing is whether or not to make a new thread for each turn block. This game would have three threads for each turn block every week, but if we don't make a new thread for each turn block it would get somewhat confusing after a while. So I'm currently leaning toward a new thread for each.

Thoughts?

Tassadar500 · September 12, 2003, 01:04

Rothaerill I am quite happy I chose you as my deputee. But as for the being picked twice rule I think the best solution is making it like this. A players game cannot be picked 3 times in a row. That should not limit a persons creativity and also lets everyone get a chance.

Master Zen · September 12, 2003, 01:08

agreed with NM, 3 times in a row is too much.

and a big

to Rhothaerill for having organized and set this up

vmxa1 · September 12, 2003, 01:14

Yes that sounds good, I was going to say I was not real fond of saying they could not have 2 in a row.
Anyway we could be worried about something that may not happen.
Space Ship, is that in civIII? Let me see if can find out what the parts are.

vmxa1 · September 12, 2003, 01:15

BTW, should we hold off on posting this fisrt run or just jam it up there? Did you give us any guidelines on that? IOW if I want to post mine in the morning is that a problem?

Master Zen · September 12, 2003, 01:19

One little comment for the organizers:

I don't think it's necessary to post separate polls for the voting. Since each team only has 6 guys in it, each person can simply post in each DAR thread on their favorite game once everyone submits and that's that.

Rhothaerill · September 12, 2003, 01:19

Nope go ahead and post your DAR in the appropriate team thread whenever you want to before Tuesday. I'm sure many people will have their DAR done quickly since it's a quick one, but I still want to give several days because RL issues do intrude.

And the no 3 in a row rule sounds good to me.

Much better than "no 2". But if someone is in danger of that, I would still encourage them to play the next turn block and post their results even if theirs won't be chosen by rule.

Rhothaerill · September 12, 2003, 01:22

Quote:

Originally posted by Master Zen
One little comment for the organizers:

I don't think it's necessary to post separate polls for the voting. Since each team only has 6 guys in it, each person can simply post in each DAR thread on their favorite game once everyone submits and that's that.

That would be fine with me. I was a little worried about "taking over" the forum with what would essentially be 6 threads a week. If we do it this way it will keep it down to three threads a week.

BTW, anyone who has any further suggestions, comments, etc. please post them. This whole thing was put together in about four days by the seat of my pants so there is plenty of room for improvement and new ideas.

And thanks again to all the ideas everyone has already posted in the last four days. My original thought was a one-team modified SG. The way it is now has is already much better than it would have been thanks to ideas of others.

Dominae · September 12, 2003, 02:32

I just started this and...20 turns is plenty.

I highly recommend we stop at ~20 turns instead of 40.

Dominae

Dominae · September 12, 2003, 02:35

30 turns should be good, actually.

Sorry for the mixed signals, it's just that I'm not sure how much we want to put in the first block.

Dominae

Master Zen · September 12, 2003, 02:36

Do you think 20 turns is enough to see whether one particular turn is necessarily superior to another? (I mean for this first block)

Dominae · September 12, 2003, 02:37

Let's agree to 30, shall we?

Master Zen · September 12, 2003, 02:50

30 sounds perfect

Mountain Sage · September 12, 2003, 04:57

OK, I'll start my 30 turns.
Good luck to everybody.
MS (the spaceship stowaway)

Arrian · September 12, 2003, 08:37

Sweet, the start location looks pretty damn good, actually.

So, we're doing 30 turns?

What is the victory goal for the "opportunist" team, or is there none specified for us?

-Arrian

ZargonX · September 12, 2003, 09:52

The Space Ship team, eh? So I've been typecase as a Lego, have I

Konquest02 · September 12, 2003, 10:42

Time to kick some butt!

TheArsenal · September 12, 2003, 10:43

I want to be clear about this, because I see posts for both 30 and 40 turns. (I note the DAR instructions still say 40). Which is it going to be? I

played 40 turns last night and do not have a save for 30. If it is 30, replaying that number of turns is not that time consuming, but there is no way to duplicate original game decisions as prior map knowledge would undoubtedly influence me on some level.

Tassadar500 · September 12, 2003, 10:43

The Opportunist team justs shoots for the goal they think is easiest at the time. And 30 turns sounds great

Tassadar500 · September 12, 2003, 10:44

Put it this way if you have done 40 turns now use it. But in the future make it thirty unless there me or Rothaerill change the turn limit.

Dominae · September 12, 2003, 11:01

Not sure how to deal with The Arsenal's situation. We cannot have one player submit a 40-turn game, and everyone else submit a 30-turn one!

I leave this up to Rhoth and Nuclear to clear up.

(The easisest solution is just to put it back to 40, since you cannot take back turns but you can always play more.)

Dominae

Tassadar500 · September 12, 2003, 11:08

TheArsenal what about the autosave? Do you have that on?

TheArsenal · September 12, 2003, 12:05

My autosave is on. I may be wrong (and my game is on my home computer, I am at work), but I am under the impression that once you shut down the current game, the autosaves only go back four or five turns or so. If it does by chance save 10 turns back, then I have no problem. But I will not know for 10 hours from now.

I was probably the second person to download the 4000 bc savegame last night, and went by the instructions given. I did not anticipate the rules being fluid.

Rhothaerill · September 12, 2003, 12:19

They weren't supposed to be that fluid.

I don't think 40 turns was really that bad of a starting time block. The Arsenal wasn't the only one to post a 40 turn DAR so we should probably just stick with that to avoid complications. For the future though, we can discuss DAR length beforehand. Like I said above I started this by the seat of my pants so I'm still not sure what the best turn lengths are.

EDIT: I was planning on going down to 30 and then 20 relatively quickly as we get farther into the game.