Worst starting location ever! LOL

Apolex · July 11, 2002, 00:55

I'm playing a 16-civ game on a huge world, pangea, emp, no mods. I went through much of the game trying to figure out where the 16th civ was. None of the other civs seemed to know either. Finally, someone found the poor Babs way out on Gilligans Island all by themselves! They were hopelessly stuck in the ancient era while the rest of the world was fighting with infantry lol.

Has anyone else seen the computer put a civ in such a terrible starting location before? It's pretty funny! It's also ironic, because as backwards and behind as the Babs are, they will probably be the last surviving civ due to their isolation and threat level! I'll most likely overrun all the others first before I get around to visiting their little islands lol. (I'm the Romans in the top left of the big continent.)

-Apolex
(edit: fixed typos)

alva · July 11, 2002, 01:04

Could be something for Aeson

He loves this kind of start (on the other hand,
i don't see ice, so i might be to easy

)

Jon Shafer · July 11, 2002, 02:12

I had a starting location worse than that, 1 small island, all tundra before, just a few days ago. I thought to myself "maybe I should make a screenshot of this." Then I just laughed and started a new game.

Nubclear · July 11, 2002, 03:04

Quote:

Originally posted by Trip
I had a starting location worse than that, 1 small island, all tundra before, just a few days ago. I thought to myself "maybe I should make a screenshot of this." Then I just laughed and started a new game.

Trip! You shoulve brought a screenshot!

I've had bad starting locations before, although none as bad as that. However in Alpha Centauri, they seem to be rampant. If I choose a random map, i always start on a small island isolated from everyone.

Jon Shafer · July 11, 2002, 03:17

Let's just say it was about 20 tiles total. About 5 hills, most everything else was forest. Everything was tundra. No river. And to top it off, I was an 'expansionist' civ (since I play 100% random games). I almost felt the urge to play it for a while just for kicks.

OPD · July 11, 2002, 07:21

lol they can't even irrigate anything.

You'd think that they'd put a couple more cities down to get some more sea tiles but thats th AI for you.

Nym · July 11, 2002, 08:40

It's not so bad: they have two islands with grasslands!

Hurricane · July 11, 2002, 08:41

Also, they should´ve placed the capital on the hill to get an extra Whale. Too bad they always found the capital at the starting spot.

At least they have discovered mapmaking!

Solver · July 11, 2002, 10:35

Poor guys... wonder if they can make it to the Middle Ages by the time you are in a space race?

Jawa Jocky · July 11, 2002, 10:37

They should've squeezed more cities on that island.

Arrian · July 11, 2002, 11:01

OUCH! That's absolutely terrible. They don't even have any stuff to trade, do they? I doubt even Aeson could have won with that start (well, since he consistently amazes me, I suppose that's a rash thing to say).

-Arrian

Solver · July 11, 2002, 11:16

Arrian - where can I read about those famous Aeson's, erm, heroic works? I've somehow missed the stuff.

I imagine such a start in MP, noone would trade with the poor guy, and his Spearmen would eventually be facing Cavalry.

alexman · July 11, 2002, 11:57

Notice what a terrible job the AI has done with city placement... They could have had 2-3 more cities on those islands, taking advantage of three extra whales.

Solver: The civ-god at work here

Solver · July 11, 2002, 12:06

Civ-god, lol. Thanks for the link, alex.

Vel is thus far the best Civ 3 player, IMHO. What if I someday also become good

?

Palleon · July 11, 2002, 12:12

Meh, I should have taken a screenshot of a game I started yesterday that I just started over. I had an island just marginally larger than those 2 combined, near the center of the map, but every square was a jungle. Every single one. At least there were dyes

Solver · July 11, 2002, 12:18

Oh my... my very first game of Civ 3, that I don't count as an "official" one, cause I didn't play it for more than 50 turns, I started out in a Jungle and, well, everything like 10 tiles radius from the starting spot was Jungle.

Also, no civs close by...

Marquis de Sodaq · July 11, 2002, 12:48

The human player could have squeezed 5 cities onto that little country - and had some hope of escaping to the main continent.

Solver, that sounds like my first start - all jungle, a few mountains, and a skinny isthmus leading to ... the Japanese jungle and mountains. Restart.

Palleon · July 11, 2002, 12:51

I think there's only one solution. Give the Babylonians every tech you have, so they can build ICBM's, then they can take out their 6000 years of rage on your enemies.

Solver · July 11, 2002, 12:52

Luckily there were at least no mounts in my start. And I never do a restart.

muxec · July 11, 2002, 14:21

I often saw it before. But if you dislike it you can download good maps from internet.

Apolex · July 11, 2002, 15:58

Quote:

Originally posted by Palleon
I think there's only one solution. Give the Babylonians every tech you have, so they can build ICBM's, then they can take out their 6000 years of rage on your enemies.

LOL good idea! A progress report on the poor Babs: The world has been thinned to 9 civs, and they're still around. I also thought about wiping out the Japanese and Chinese (on the island to the left) and giving all their cities to the Babalonians as a gift. I feel sorry for him

-Apolex

Inverse Icarus · July 11, 2002, 16:55

sersiously, thats not that bad of a start if a human had played it out.

sure it's a bad one, but it's far from the worst

Apolex · July 11, 2002, 17:06

Quote:

Originally posted by UberKruX
sersiously, thats not that bad of a start if a human had played it out.

sure it's a bad one, but it's far from the worst

Yeah after reading about Aeson's start and conquest, I'm pretty confident that a human can salvage just about any situation against the AI. His was a much poorer starting position (even thought he had much more starting land, it sucked). I'm calling him the Andromeda strain after doing what he did with that fluorescent green civ lol.

-Apolex

HazieDaVampire · July 11, 2002, 17:54

i've seen'em spawn on an island with 3 squares. (1 for city, 2 for mines or irigation!).

sorry, i have no picture!
I think the edittors random map feature is different to the one in game, the edittors feature brings up some mad things, like entire mountain ranges full of gold, and stupid starting locations!

HazieDaVampire · July 11, 2002, 17:56

Quote:

Originally posted by alva848
Could be something for Aeson

He loves this kind of start (on the other hand,
i don't see ice, so i might be to easy

)

you mean theirs sombody who likes these starts? Really?
Theirs sombody who actualy likes to play 50techs behind an AI? With nothing to trade and no chance of trading anyway?

Palleon · July 11, 2002, 18:03

Hey, I bet some of these guys can pull it off. I know that I struggle 7 techs behind sometimes on Regent, I don't know how people can win higher then that, I guess I need to improve

But what I don't get is that when I play on the Earth Maps, I get way ahead on tech, and the AI doesn't trade. I make a random map, and when I discovered gunpowder, the AI was throwing riflemen at me. On Regent. So yeah, I think I need some work.

KenderBane · July 11, 2002, 18:49

On the subjects of worst starts ...

My worst start was on a Pangaea, huge (16 civ), no mods, normal clime and humidity world.

I started out near the equator ... right in the middle of a HUGE jungle. There wasn't a non-jungle space in any direction for at least 7 tiles. I had the Persians (aggressive bastards) to my Northeast about 8-10 tiles and the Zulu about 15 tiles due south.

There were NO luxury items in that entire space (gems, dyes, or silks); and no early-game strategic resources either.

To top it off, I was playing the Egyptians. My UU was useless because I couldn't get to any horses and even if I could, I'd have to run them only on the roads I built (becuase the can't run in Jungle tiles).

Solver · July 12, 2002, 05:22

I do *always* play the game. I might see myself into a crappy position, and see that I'm getting techs behind, I'll play it out. No restarts.

My best comeback was not, though, the worst start I had, but it was terrible. A pretty small continent, me in the north of it as America. A pretty nice Jungle all around, not 10 tiles around (the worst I've had), but some 5 tiles around the starting location. At least it was pretty rich with Dyes. To the north of my starting point, where there were only 4 tiles of Jungle in the direction, behind it was a chokepoint with mountains on it. Luckily for me, one of mountains had Gems. With two luxuries I wasn't at least bothered with happiness problems.

So, in the southern part of the continent, bastards Japaenese were - and hell it was good land! Some shielded grassland, a Cattle, a few hills, excellent land. Argh. I had to fight them with my Archers to get control of the hill hosting the continent's only source of Iron, till I finally conquered them with my Swordsmen.

I remember the game... I was seriously falling behind in techs, only got my next contact (after I wiped Japan) somewhere in the Middle Ages, almost everyone hated me, I had no resources to trade, only luxuries, and my only hope was that I won't be attacked anytime soon cause they would be in fear of my military. You wish. I didn't have enough cities to catch up, and had to fight for my survival.

And the game was finished into a space win for me, with me only becoming the powerhouse somewhere in the second half of the Industrial Age.

Konquest02 · July 15, 2002, 20:54

My worst start was in one of my first games. I was trapped in a 3 square peninsula covvered with tundra and the Germans were 5 squares south of me. The strait between me and them was only one square large and they finally eliminated me before I could even build 2 warriors. My first one was defeated and I was eliminated in about 3600 BC... Sad thing...

--Kon--

Nym · July 21, 2002, 16:15

I think I have quite found THE worst starting location.