Comment Thread - For the Glory of Rome

[Velociryx]

Here ya go....more coming soon!

-=Vel=-

[LordLynch64]

Very funny. I like the witty banter betweent empeor and aid very funny.

[Arrian]

I admit to chuckling in my cube. It would probably be considered odd by my co-workers, but they're used to it. Keep it up, I'm curious to know how the invasion of England goes.

-Arrian

p.s. The "where is the ambassador?" bit was hilarious - being a serious Star Wars lover myself.

[Velociryx]

Thanks guys! Just put the next bit up....was having such a good time with the game (Oh! I should mention the particulars, it's large/12/regent)....wanted a game that I could easily control, so I stayed away from Monarch/Emperor, but this one has been a blast...and I keep hearing "Nigel" in my head as I'm playing!

-=Vel=-
PS: And I couldn't resist the Star Wars stuff!

[SerapisIV]

Wow, I take a few weeks off from Apolyton and come back to great comedy in the story pages. Good stuff, too much epic stories going on, tongue-in-cheek is perfect, particularly for a computer game, as evidenced by HawaiiFive-Os story winning the first contest. People take games too seriously and forget that it's all about fun.

Any chance of screenshots or at least world map screens?

Keep up the comedy. Great stuff.

[Velociryx]

I'll see what I can do on the screenies! When I get home this evening, I'll pull up my saved games and see if I can latch onto a couple of shots....one, to give you a view of the bulk of the "Roman Sub-Continent," and another, perhaps a close-up of "The Neck" and the English towns nearest it (Norwich being the closest, and thus, the "gravest threat to Roman security" lol).

Don't have many shots of the battles with the English during "round two" so I'll skip that, and (I'm about to fight round three, mostly with Shaka), and as those battles occur, I'll try and remember to grab some screens!



And, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

-=Vel=-

[Grundel]

Bravo. Very entertaining story

I look forward to reading some more.

[adaMada]

Oops -- just realized I posted my praise in the wrong place. Well, all I basically said, was Great Job ! Keep up the awsome work!

-- adaMada

[SerapisIV]

Thanks for the screens. Damn, you have a perfect map for a palace and FP setup. One in Rome proper and one in the former England. Do you usually have that large an army with so few workers in 790 AD or did the English conquest change the build emphasis?

[Velociryx]

Isn't it great!? I about fell outta my chair when I realized how perfect the setup was gonna be! The real question is just how far can I expand with a commercial civ and maintain profitability? Not sure I have the answer to that, but I played out some more of the game and it sure got interesting! Will be posting some more of the story prolly on Monday (depending on work).

As to the worker question: Generally I average 1 worker per city, and I find that they can keep up with the work that needs to be done, but in this case, once I saw how easy it would be (fortify one tile and staff it) to prevent an AI land invasion, I couldn't resist playing Rome in classic Roman-Conquest fashion! So...I skimped on the workers, building just enough to get by and the plan was to (hopefully) augment their number with slaves as I expanded.

I think though, that as I begin to get closer to being able to build rails, I will prolly double the number of "paid" workers so I can speed build a rail line from my core troop producing cities (essentially, all the cities on the roman sub-continent that lie west of Rome, and most of the cities in the northern (tundra) area of the sub-continent.

Once I do that, warfare will be lots easier....as it stands now, in the absence of boats that can brave the high seas, it takes mounted troops about ten turns to get from the roman sub-continent to the front, so I've gotta plan well ahead of my current needs. Rails though, will fix that right up!

-=Vel=-

[Dravin]

I must say that I've enjoyed reading your story, nicely done!

[Spearthrower]

"A smallish, but strategically important suburb of London, Liverpool is the Iron Community of the English."

Now that REALLY makes me laugh... only because of the rage it would cause a Liverpudlian

Keep up the good work!

[Gamer at heart]

Good reading again from you as expected, Vel! I especially liked the little humorous chats between the emperor and Nigel. I think my co-workers are starting to suspect I have some mental condition that forces me to laugh every now and then for no apparent reason....

By the way, do you always place your cities that close together (4 tiles appart by your standards) ? I do not avoid overlapping at any cost, generally going for good spots instead of "standard grid" placement, but you seem to be systematic on that 4 tiles. It sure looks like it worked well for you this time!

keep the good stuff coming!

GaH

[Velociryx]

Glad you're enjoying it man!

As to the spacing....yes and no. I tend to like an orderly, grid-like placement as it facilitates defense and road/making, though I am quick to veer from that to make use of juicy bonus tiles! The overlap part of the equation has never bothered me. With bases four apart, the overlap is minimal, and essentially it means that my cities will top out at around 22 or so in population.....I'd not want them any bigger than that anyway (as I understand it, most folks tend to regard the "optimal size" for civ3 cities at 20, which BEGS for placement of cities closer than 5-tiles apart).

Specifically in this game though, it was done entirely on purpose....there's just something that strikes me as so classicly Romanesque in it's nature....a nice orderly, planned grid-like city structure....just sorta "seemed" like Rome....

-=Vel=-
(who, like a total dumba$$, forgot to bring his game notes to work, and so, cannot update the story....)

[Ozymandous]

Great story Vel.

I have been playing huge maps simply because more Civ's seem to be available to mix it up but the late game time between turns (3-5 minutes with a P3 933 MHZ CPU) is a little dull.

By the way, when you described that tiny spit of land as a chicken neck you were totally correct! I don't think I have ever seen such a defensible spot in many years of playing.

Congrats on the story and the game. I have yet to play Rome but since I seem to gravitate to the Civ's with the early UU's I know I will get to them eventually. Of course I like tanks as well so will have to try the Germans for their panzer as well eventually.

Keep up the stories.

[ChrisShaffer]

I'm just stunned at how little terrain modification you've done. By 700+ AD, I'd normally have at least 5 squares around each city maxed on mines/irrigation/roads....you have entire cities in your core empire (Antium for example) with nothing but a few roads. Wow.

[star mouse]

Your leaders may yet live to see the image of battle cows. All that's needed is to make Cows a strategic resource and Horses the bonus resource, basically swap them over, and we're all set!

[Jaybe]

Star Mouse,
Regarding your "Raging Hordes" signature, have you gone into the Editor - Civs tab and changed your combat advantage against the barbs to '0' at the level you are playing yet?

[ike0481]

Congratulations on your winning the story contest this week. I thought your story was the best overall (even though I was rooting for myself ) Good job. Hope to read more stories from you soon.

[star mouse]

Originally posted by Jaybe
Regarding your "Raging Hordes" signature, have you gone into the Editor - Civs tab and changed your combat advantage against the barbs to '0' at the level you are playing yet?

not yet ... I have a preference for playing standard, unmodified games. But if I want a real Barbarian challenge, I'll do that and play with the Barbs on "Random".

[Richelieu]

Sympathy bump for Vel...

Get well soon!

[rickontherun_21]

Oops didn't see this thread.