f13.net

So, this is kind of pyscho, but I just basically played Civ 4 for about 48 hours straight.  School finished a few days ago, and for some reason I picked up Civ 4 which I never really got that into when it came out.  I mean to say, I liked the game a lot, but WoW and school kept me from delving too deep.  Not too mention, my graphics card really sucked and after I upgraded I never went back to test the waters (they're warm now).


from the half dozen or so times I played before now, I remembered that I could beat the game on Monarch without too much trouble.  This was due to my consummate Civ 3 skill showing up in the clutch.  I decided it would be a good idea to try the game on Prince, and subsequently got  broke off like so much chump change.  I kept trying, I couldn't stop.  By the second time I was going toe to toe with the enemy AI, and by the third try my score was surpassing all enemy AI by a minimum margin of 200.  That is, until I got to the Medieval era.  Somewhere around 600-1300 AD, some asshole started a pretextual war with me.  This is despite the fact that as I wised up to this cyclical ass raping, that I started whoring myself out to everyone.  I would just go up to people and say, "hey guyz, take my stuff k?" They would, but there would always be one little fucker who would take my shit and then nail me with this huge fucking force.


I couldn't believe how much they were hitting me with, so I looked it up, and apparently once you try the game on Prince difficulty, the AI starts getting bonus tech and production.  No wonder.  Anyway, 48 hours later, with an 8 hour sleep in between, I stand before you all victorious.  Sure, my eyes are bloodshoot, and I feel like a total asshole posting on a messageboard at 9:20 AM when I haven't slept all night about how I beat a video game (barely); but I feel "good" in a very unwholesome way.  Is it hollow?  You bet.  But I know you all want details.

OK some of you may be thinking, hey, if your score is so much higher than everyone elses, how come you're getting raped?  Well, in order to compete with everyone you have to expand to 5-6 cities pretty quick.  That doesnt leave much cash due to quickly rising maintenance costs for a far flung empire.  So all your production capacity goes towards health and happiness of the citizens, to try and keep things afloat until you can build some banks, markets, and courthouses.  But even with totally decked out infrastructure, I don't think it's really possible to be running 100% research on any kind of challenging difficulty. 80% research from a big empire is better than 100% from a small one. You also have to build units to keep the pressure on the opposing civs.  The problem for me has been, that I wasn't effective enough, insofar has getting enough troops out.  It's hard to judge opponent military forces without open borders, and even if you could judge, there's really no way to fend off two attackers on a high level difficulty at once, assuming they are of relative strength to you.

My original strategy had been to get an early religion, and spread the religion and my culture as a kind of soft power.  However, in my experience, at best I was able to convert 1 other adjacent civ.  I say adjacent because it's not that difficult to get 3 civs running your religion, but if you're playing inland sea, or terra, or a game with large continents, there's going to be another civ next to you with an opposing religion.  You just can't pump out missionaries fast enough to convert everyone. 

I always without fail got attacked by some warmonger because he was pissed I had fallen udner the sway of a heathen religion.  So, what worked for me is to have no state religion, then, nobody could really think of a pretextual reason to attack me.  What can happen though, is that as the other civs fight, and you're trading with them, they'll all get pissed at you for trading with their enemies.  If you have a shaky relationship with someone, this will send them over the edge if you do it multiple timed, but this takes awhile and gives you some breathing room to prepare for a fight. I got into a war with the Japanese, but by that time, I had pretty good relations with two other civs, and was able to pay them tech to attack the Japanese.  With this strategy, I was able to hold out against this huge onslaught of Japanese guys (I lost a city for a few turns but that's it) long enough to eventually stage my own attack, taking one of theirs--and holding it.

The game that I finally beat twenty minutes ago went from 4000 BC to 2036 AD, I won by diplomatic victory after I fired 16 nukes at China, effectively ruining their shit forever.  At the same time, I was giving all kinds of shit to the Romans, and they finally voted for me, just in time as the Chinese hordes were attacking everywhere.  I would have won the war after ruining their entire infrastructure, but who wants to grind out a domination victory?  Reducing the Chinese to rubble lowered their voting block enough so that Rome and the Indians (me) constituted a majority.  Japan and America didn't make it.  I think it's an allegory.

Did you poop in a sock?

Laptop on the khazi probably. After all, he said the waters were warm now.

Think you could do it again without them?

That needs to go on the box. Truer words were never spoken.

I have been toying with the idea of revisiting Civ IV. Now that the WA legilslature has taken it upon themselves to outlaw online gambling, I will have more free time. And less money.

You are the type of guy that would take margaritas to an AA meeting aren't you?

How are they enforcing it, or are you just following the law on you own?

Yes.

Seriously though, if there's an overpowered Civ (or at least one with a good early advantage), it's Gandhi's.

It doesn't take effect until June 7th. There have been vague mentions of working with ISPs and the like, but no concrete information. It is not practical to enforce it, really. However, a class C felony (as this has been designated) carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. I am not too terribly interested in being the poor bastard who makes headlines as the first to be prosecuted. For perspective- under average past sentences, I could get caught driving drunk 4 or 5 times, then drive into  Caravan full of churchgoers and kill them all in a bloody fireball and get less than 10 years.

Luckily this has been getting some press recently (I heard about it a couple of months ago, since I follow poker and legislation affecting it pretty closely). A local talking head on the big news radio station (KIRO) talked about it for 3 days last week, and a local paper published an editorial (http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/257929) about it. Hopefully there will be some sort of campaign to reverse this. IN the mean time, I taking out the last $1500 in my account and taking it to Vegas this weekend  :-D

Dude man Civilization is like crack to me.  I try to stay away from the game just so I don't waste 8 hours of my day.

I am no longer a pup, wet behind the ears, but a seasoned, cagy veteran of Civilization 4.  I destroy Prince difficulty with ease.  Saladin is my harbinger, and death is my name.

The issue is that as you get better time invesetment increases.  I lost my last 2 wives due to Civ3 and its expansion.











I am a better person for this.

Is that just state legislature? i have about $1200 or so spread around various poker rooms that I would rather not lose if this is going to affect me in Ohio in any way.

That'll suck if I lose online poker. It's been a nice way to pay for Christmas and our yearly vacation. Been averaging about 3k/year in poker income for the last 2.5 years. If I lose that I'll have to find a new way to leach off of society.

Yeah, just Washington State for now. Lucky me!

Sarcasm at it's subtle moment in life, or am I stupid, OR is that even possible?  I'd pay you a dollar for every hour you can play straight....  Apparently that'd be about 48 dollars -_-;;.


EDIT:  Just kidding it's possible, I do know one person that can do this.

Is your avatar getting a blowjob?

Way's or Ryosuke's? I assume you mean the latter and then no. That is a knee protruding, not a helmet.

Actually no Mega Man is receiving head.

I took a nap in between, but that doesn't make me any less of a man.

Much like Tom Hanks from Big, I don't get it.

Sorry quoted wrong ><

Has anyone tried the multiplayer by e-mail? How does it work?