Good TG contest map available

raynor · #1 February 13th, 2001, 06:37 AM

Drake,

You *did* see the new rule they added over on TG's webpage, didn't you? The one that says it is a bug in the game that lets you build ringworlds around suns in system that have planets?

278M. That is just plain scary. And that event log of yours... WOW!

I can't wait for the contest to end. Maybe y'all will zip up your saved games then and post them on the forum so we can admire them. It is so absolutely mind boggling. (I can beat the game on high bonus but clearly I haven't scratched the surface of the game yet.)

I guess you build ringworlds around ALL of your stars?

alasyr · #2 February 13th, 2001, 01:45 PM

I thought that only one ring world can be built per system.If there is 39 system this would result in 39 RWs.Or maybe it's one RW per star.That would make a whole new ball game as there are systems with as mush as 3 stars, plus if you can create new stars in systems already having one or more stars this would be stunning.

raynor · #3 February 13th, 2001, 03:48 PM

quote:
Originally posted by alasyr:
I thought that only one ring world can be built per system.If there is 39 system this would result in 39 RWs.Or maybe it's one RW per star.That would make a whole new ball game as there are systems with as mush as 3 stars, plus if you can create new stars in systems already having one or more stars this would be stunning.

A quick test reveals that you can't build a star in a system that already has a star. You also can't build one if there is a nebula or black hole present in the system. Of course, these are easily destroyed so that you can create a star in those systems.

I'm not aware of any game enforced limit which prevents you from building a SW/RW around every star in every system.

Drake · #4 February 13th, 2001, 04:17 PM

You can definitely build more than one ringworld per system, all you need is a free star. I think there are 3 or 4 systems in that map with 3 stars.

I think I ended up getting around 1.3M in resource generation from each ringworld, so with 48 ringworlds, that comes out to over 60M in resources alone just from the ringworlds!

That's pretty much the only area that I think the score could be significantly improved upon. If you can get them up faster, you can put more facilities on them. I didn't end up hitting the max for domed ringworlds, so I didn't have to worry about converting them to a new atmosphere at least.

I have no problem with making the save games available. There's really no 'secret' to it, just quick expansion, use of the AI surrender dominoe effect (as I like to call it), and doing everything I could to improve my total resource output for the endgame. I stopped research completely at about turn 100, and only built 4 facility types on my non-system enhancement planets once I finished the ringworlds and didn't need storage anymore.

And don't be faking me out with word of contest changes!

I'm half-scared they'll think that kind of score can't be achieved without some kind of cheat, so therefore whatever I did will be called a cheat. Ok, I don't seriously think that, but still...

I definitely have to give credit to this board for helping me get that score. Around turn 60 or so, I was reading the board and saw a post that mentioned something I had assumed I couldn't do. Without seeing that, my score would have been 1/2, 1/3 or less of what it ended up being. I'll have to track down who that was and thank them.

Well, I think I'll stop giving hints on how to hit that score. The people I'm competing against are smart enough as it is without me drawing a step-by-step diagram on how to beat me, heh.

-Drake

[This message has been edited by Drake (edited 13 February 2001).]

Nyx · #5 February 13th, 2001, 05:51 PM

quote:
I can't wait for the contest to end. Maybe y'all will zip up your saved games then and post them on the forum so we can admire them.

We're actually looking into things like this. We have a guy taking some of the videos of our other contests and making .avi files out of the good parts and things like that. But we have a policy about not sharing anyone's technioques without their permission since a number of top players don't want their competition finding out how they do what they do, and we have to respect that.

And thanks for the map. You know I'd actually considered providing an "official" map and having people all use the same one just to make things easy on me, but then I decided I'd rather use the map as a tool to catch careless cheaters so didn't go with it.

------------------
Compete in the Space Empires IV World Championship at www.twingalaxies.com.

Drake · #6 February 13th, 2001, 06:20 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Nyx:
And thanks for the map. You know I'd actually considered providing an "official" map and having people all use the same one just to make things easy on me, but then I decided I'd rather use the map as a tool to catch careless cheaters so didn't go with it.

No problem! Sorry if I ruined a cheater detection method for you. I hadn't really considered it from that perspective.

Nyx · #7 February 13th, 2001, 06:46 PM

No problem at all, so far cheating has been a non-issue (knock on pLastic-covered particle board). All the scores have been legit. And I don't know that everyone will take advantage of your map. Especially your two prime competitors who seem a bit micromanaged too death.

------------------
Compete in the Space Empires IV World Championship at www.twingalaxies.com.