If you haven't noticed, it's been a slow week. Not much to report with respect to RON strategy...
posted by Tim at 10:31 PM

Mars Rover Discoveries Point to Planet's Origins

"Scientists were poring over data and microscopic images returned to Earth by the rover Opportunity, which spent the weekend examining a multilayered rock nicknamed El Capitan embedded in the side of the small crater where Opportunity landed on Jan. 24.

posted by Tim at 9:52 PM

Wifey doesn't believe it, but I've been a diehard Sex and the City fan since the show began 5 or so years ago. Last night's finale was both funny and sad. The two most poignant moments were entirely incomprehnesible for Wifey because she doesn't know the characters:

• Miranda bathing her mentally sick mother-in-law
• Samantha losing her infamous libido (to chemotherapy) and gaining it back when her steadfast young hunk boyfriend tells her he loves her.

I only have two weeks to mourn. The Sopranos returns March 7.
posted by Tim at 7:48 AM

Simpson's paradox from Wikipedia.
posted by Tim at 8:58 PM

The Dev Diary article at 1UP.com has some interesting comments around their selection of the tribes for use in T&P.

Looking continentally, we found a preponderance of European and Asian nations; our own North American continent was sadly underrepresented. Since governments were going to be a major part of the expansion, and since the Iroquois nations are attributed with a strong constitutional form of government, they were an obvious choice. Likewise, the Lakota are probably the Native American tribe most strongly recognized in the imaginations of Americans today, due in part to the movie "Dances With Wolves."

WHAT?! Call me ignorant, but I'd never heard of the "Lakota" before T&P. Yea, I've seen Dances With Wolves, but I, along with everyone else (except the designers at BHG), never paid attention to the tribe's name.

So if you asked people to name Indian Tribes (an example of unprompted brand recognition), they'd probably say: Cherokee (Cherokee People!), Navajo, Sioux, or Apache. But never Lakota.

Pause.

Okay, on my way to get a soda, I queried several colleagues. Just to prove the point. "Name 5 Indian tribes." Cherokee and Sioux always came first. Along with a smattering of Apaches, Navajos and Iroquois, plus the occasional wacky tribe that was from an area where someone grew up. But no one mentioned the Lakota. So it's not just me, BHG:

NO ONE KNOWS THE LAKOTA EXCEPT YOU AND KEVIN COSTNER!

So here's my advice: Change the Lakota name to Sioux. Your product will resonate better with customers. Better resonation = better sales. Well, ... maybe. Besides, the Lakota were really part of the Sioux Nation, so you can console yourselves with that.

UPDATE: Okay, when considering this, perhaps the Sioux name isn't the best idea. So why not use the Cherokee? They're actually more populous than the Sioux.

UPDATE II: Don't get me wrong. WE are the ones who are ignorant in Indian history. However, you can take one of two positions. You can pander to the popular wisdom, or you can educate the masses. My position is that pandering gets you more sales. More sales = more players, and (to be selfish) more players = more readers. ;-)

If we were to use the prevailing logic, you'd might rightly complain about the French. They were originally the "Gauls." Or better yet, you'd pick an equivalent Gallic tribe, like the "Averni." No one's heard of the Averni, either.

UPDATE III: ROFL.

Chances are, you have probably never heard of the Native American tribe, the Haudenosaunee, nor of their favorite game, called -- in their language, Ga-lahs. You might know the game better by its French term -- lacrosse -- and the people better by the great confederacy of which they were an honored member, the Iroquois. Actually, the name "Iroquois" is also a French title; a derivation of the Algonquin insult of "Irinakhoiw," to which the French "ois" was added. You can hardly blame the French for having trouble pronouncing "Haudenosaunee" though, can you? On the other hand, this derisive term could explain why the Iroquois were stubbornly hostile to the French for decades.

I can be pretty dense sometimes. So explain to me again why we're using the Iroquois name and NOT the Sioux name?
posted by Tim at 2:04 PM

I have not figured out why yet, but the computer keeps ROLLING me when it plays India. (This is on the toughest AI setting, and I am purposely NOT rushing, so as to give it a chance to build up.) So, I am going to take a deeper look at India. I think it mostly has to do with the non-ramping cost of buildings. We'll see.

UPDATE AFTER LOSING 5 IN A ROW: Maybe I just suck. I get my head handed to me whenever I try to play Indians. Maybe I have bad karma.
posted by Tim at 1:36 PM

A report entitled Scientific Integrity in Policymaking: An Investigation into the Bush Administration’s Misuse of Science has been released by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

FINDINGS OF THE INVESTIGATION
1. There is a well-established pattern of suppression and distortion of scientific findings by high-ranking Bush administration political appointees across numerous federal agencies. These actions have consequences for human health, public safety, and community well-being. Incidents involve air pollutants, heat-trapping emissions, reproductive health, drug resistant bacteria, endangered species, forest health, and military intelligence.

2. There is strong documentation of a wideranging effort to manipulate the government's scientific advisory system to prevent the appearance of advice that might run counter to the administration's political agenda. These actions include: appointing underqualified individuals to important advisory roles including childhood lead poisoning prevention and reproductive health; applying political litmus tests that have no bearing on a nominee's expertise or advisory role; appointing a non-scientist to a senior position in the president's scientific advisory staff; and dismissing highly qualified scientific advisors.

3. There is evidence that the administration often imposes restrictions on what government scientists can say or write about "sensitive" topics. In this context, "sensitive" applies to issues that might provoke opposition from the administration's political and ideological supporters.

4. There is significant evidence that the scope and scale of the manipulation, suppression, and misrepresentation of science by the Bush administration is unprecedented.

It's an astonishing document. If you are concerned for the integrity of scientific research, then I suggest you take a gander. Better yet, print it out and visit the "reading room."
posted by Tim at 2:40 PM

I have a simple idea to solve all of this.

Why don't we just call homosexual people "heterosexual." We can call one of the partners "male" and one of them "female." Then there won't be any impediment to them both calling themselves "married."

Okay, so I'm joking. Sort of.

At its heart, this is really a semantic argument. Most people aren't offended by "civil unions" for homosexuals, wherein the couple obtains legal benefits equivalent to those that married couples receive. Some states have this, but most don't; however, we could get there pretty quickly. There's no real justification for not extending legal marriage benefits to civil unions. So it's only partially an issue of legal oppression. I'd argue it's really a form of linguistic oppression. Homosexuals are rightly disgruntled at not being able to say, "This is my spouse," or, "We're married." Why should they have to use inferior terms to describe their relationship, regardless of legal status?

But let's look at the other side of the equation. For most people (and yes, despite the hoopla, I firmly believe this is what most people believe, based on polls AND actual votes), marriage has a sanctity that is special -- and well-defined. They prefer that the word keep it's traditional definition: union between a man and a woman. They're not really concerned about "legal" rights as much as they don't want to besmirch the word and change the definition. Otherwise they'll have to start saying, "This is my traditional spouse," and, "Yes, we're really married."

So, if we assume that homosexuals obtain the right to be called "married," what will the heterosexuals want to be called instead?

And while we're on the subject, we might as well start now with this: females rallying to be called "husbands" because the term "wife" is linguistically oppressive.
posted by Tim at 7:36 AM

I felt pretty dumb after EC asked if Lakota could make use of captured farms. They can't build them, but can they farm ones they capture. My response was that it hadn't occurred to me at all. "I'm so ashamed." Here's why.

When you capture an enemy city their farms disappear!

Well no wonder I never tried farming before. The granary is a different story. When you capture an enemy city, the granary remains; you can research the food tech but it does NOT increase the +5. It probably helps with fishing, but I didn't test it.

This farm disappearing bit can have a pretty big military impact. Now you can raid by taking cities. Even if it is suicide and you cannot hold it, he loses all his farms which could put a pretty big damper on an economy, even if he fends you off. Can't really tell from SP whether those farms COMPLETELY disappear or just don't show up for the Lakota player. More research is needed.
posted by Tim at 10:02 PM

Here.
posted by Tim at 12:36 PM

Latest results

1 - AU_bird *80* (5097) Mongols.
2 - Stiff *75* (5112) Mongols.
3 - Readyman *75* (5101) Mongols.
4 - Dyers Eve *73* (5613) Mongols.
5 - aaccee *73* (5266) Mongols.
6 - Beechworth *68* (4700) Mongols.
7 - Out4Blood *66* (4976) British.
8 - Tren *63* (4542) French.
9 - AU_Floater *62* (4300) Japanese.
10 - AU_niDe *61* (4786) Germans.

HOLY HORDE, BATMAN! 80!!
posted by Tim at 11:57 AM

I previously laid out my ranking of the new nations. I had placed Persians ahead of Americans, merely because I had been unable, in a few tries, to beat the Toughest AI without rushing. (By rushing, you can beat MULTIPLE teamed Toughest AIs with just about any civ.)

However, I think I have "cracked the code" on the Americans, and I now move them ahead of the Persians on my favorite civ list. They gather knowledge incredibly fast and can maintain a very large barracks army. You may want to get the Colossus instead of the Hanging Gardens for that reason.

With the advent of governments and the Republic (+50 to commerce) almost any civ can be an economic powerhouse. You can have a +200 econ by the 5:00 mark. Keeping it capped will be the hard part.
posted by Tim at 7:12 AM

I've found a weakness in the Lakota: Water maps.

While I'd originally postulated they might be good for fishing. They are not ... sorta. Because Lakota do not get farms. They currently do not get a granary. So there is no way to upgrade the fishing fleet. Normally, getting a granary and the first upgrade (for +50% food) is critical to keeping food capped in a fishing boom. However, Lakota can't get that. Also, there seems to be no way to upgrade the +5 food per villager, either. (Note: I have plans to research this in more detail, but just haven't done it.)

However, in practice, fishing is best in the early ages where it provides quick food and wealth. In normal games, I'll eventually transition to farms as the fishing fleet becomes vulnerable. It just requires too much micro (for me) to adequately defend fishing. So I rarely get to enjoy the full benefits of +30 fishing. Not being able to upgrade the Lakota fishing fleet hurts, but not so much that I don't want to play them.

Secondly, on water maps with new continents, Lakota have the same restrictions other civs do. COM2 required to settle new continents and your first settle must be near the shore. On maps like West Indies or Warring States, their bonus becomes all but useless. It's no wonder they call it the Power of the Plains.

They are still my favorite so far because of their unique style of play.

UPDATE: Another "weakness" they have is that they cannot immediately build in the "neutral" territory surrounding a city that has been recently taken, but not assimilated. So this throws out the capture-the-capital-and-tower-it-up-before-reinforcements-arrive strategy. Evidently there are four different types of territory control: friendly, enemy, neutral, and contested. Contested being the uncolored territory surrounding a city being assimilated. Makes sense.

But DARN!
posted by Tim at 7:03 AM

So I've been sparring mostly with the computer. Unfortunately, not very many real players have the beta (except the MOFOs) and so getting an actual game going will probably take some time. So here are my rankings after playing each civ a few times versus toughest and tougher (when I couldn't take them toughtest one) AI

1. Lakota. Against the computer, Lakota roxor dood. Toughest AI can't handle any serious border grabbing, with which the Lakota just rule. That and their free-wheeling raider style makes them tough to deal with. Easy to beat toughest. However, a human opponent might be more difficult: 1) He'll be better at raiding. 2) He'll know you're going to forward build a and take you out with some HI.

2. Persians. I don't like the ellies, but the extra food, cheaper civic and automatic caravans make them easy to keep going. I love the auro-caravans. If there is one I thing I always seem to forget, it is making caravans. Persians will be difficult to hurt by raiding, if played correctly. Can beat toughest, but it's hard.

3. Americans. They are definitely rush-capable civ, since you earn resources while you are building up. However, they are also great knowledge boomers with the free scholars and the instant wonder (Hanging Gardens). So they are a great versatile civ, similar to Japanese, but stronger on the booming side and slower on the rush. Have not beat toguhest yet.

4. Indians, & Iroquois don't get me as excited. I have not played them as much, but when I did I was not overwhelmed. It will take some time to make use of the Iroquois bonuses, and the government bonus has not been implemented in beta yet. Computer seems to cruise when playing Indians, so maybe I just suck.

5. Dutch. The Dutch probably require a completely different build path from what I have been using, but the bonuses sound better than they are actually worth. At least to me. So far... Free merchants are worthless until you scout some rares. Cheaper commerce is nice but not killer. Armed merchants is kind of goofy. Just makes you "slightly" more difficult to raid. In a boom fest, that doesn't help. And in a real battle it doesn't help, either. The "interest on deposits" bonus is only for people who don't know to spend their money. The dock bonus means I have to research MIL1 before docking on a water map, else I don't get my ships. I've gotten owned by toughest every time I've tried them.
posted by Tim at 10:27 PM

I have focused primarily on the multiplayer strategy aspects of the new expansion. That's because I only play multiplayer. (Note: I do use the quick battle feature to test and refine strats.) However, a HUGE MAJORITY of the people who play computer games NEVER play on-line. They only play the single player campaigns. RON took some flak for only having one single-player campaign. However, in the expansion, they have FIVE. Huge difference. So single-player fans should rejoice. Lots of cool stuff for them. And a few things for the multiplayer fans to give them an incentive to upgrade.

And who won't? I mean, if you are still playing RON now, then you must be pretty hard-core.

And if you are reading THIS, then you are REALLY HARD-CORE. (You could even say "elite.") Suggests I am preaching to the choir. Going out and buying T&P should be au-to-ma-tic for you.
posted by Tim at 4:57 PM

Onimusha 3 - Game Intro. For PS2. Looks sweet.
posted by Tim at 10:51 AM

Here's my assessment of what they have done to the existing civs:

Aztecs: early game boost, mid/late game nerf
British: boost
Chinese: tiny nerf
Japanese: small boost
Mayans: nerf on all bonuses
Romans: small boost
Russians: decent boost
Spanish: tiny nerf

Given the tiny nerf on Spain, I think they have more work to do. In the hands of an expert, Spain was the equal of Maya, and would dominate any other civ. They haven't done much to reduce it (yet).
posted by Tim at 8:12 AM

Hanging Gardens: AWESOME! It boosts knowledge
Forbidden City: An extra (buff) city. Basically, an expensive city, but it pays for itself rather quickly (3 min); other than that ... big deal?
Red Fort: A buff fort. Another "big deal?"
posted by Tim at 9:51 PM

Yea, after playing around with it some, I definitely preferred the "old" stats. The special units provided seem particularly unimpressive, basically a beefed up general/spy or general/supply wagon combo. Nice thing, though, is it's free and does not require a castle. If killed, it gets replaced after a suitable time delay.

Once you research a government, you are stuck with it, no changing it until you reach the next "level." Then you choose between the next level military or economic one. However, you RETAIN your previous government powers. This means choices are permanent, and you can tailor your civ throughout the game to fit your preferences:

Level - Choices
II - Despotism and Republic
IV - Monarchy and Democracy
VI - Socialism and Capitalism

You research these in order, in Classical: D or S, in Gunpoweder: M or D, in Industrial: S or C; so, during the course of the game, you really have 8 potential approaches:

D-M-S     R-M-S

D-M-C     R-M-C

D-D-S     R-D-S

D-D-C     R-D-C

There is problem with this in its current form which leads me to immediately see an optimal path (at least for me). The problem is that some of the benefits are temporary, and some of them are long-lasting. Some are good and some are pretty much worthless. I suppose it all comes down to your strategy; however , for example, I'd much rather have a permanent reduction in military unit costs than a "temporary" reduction in non-library research costs. It's temporary because I will eventually run out of things to research.
posted by Tim at 9:24 PM

Never mind the Lakota, check out the Americans. MS has recently updated the info.

[Americans] also have the additional power of receiving +3 Food, Timber, Metal, and Wealth for every non-Scout Barracks unit.

Holy Cow! That means every barracks unit brings in more resources than a normal villager! You can boom AND attack! That could be EVIL.

UPDATE: Nevermind. It ain't +3. We're not allowed to discuss detailed stats, so I shouldn't say what it really is (since it hasn't been released).

But while we're on the subject of Americans, I can safely say the Wonder the Americans will use their bonus on is NOT the Collossus. It's the Hanging Gardens. This wonder is the first (and only) thing you can build that actually increases knowledge gathered. With this bonus, plus the extra scholar per uni, Americans might even be faster boomers than the Greeks. But the Americans ALSO have the barracks troop bonus resource thingy going on.
posted by Tim at 6:50 PM

WOW.

Governments look like they could completely revolutionize RON. Never mind RON, how about ALL future RTS games?

Government gives your nation military and non-military bonuses. To establish a government, you must first build a Senate and have the appropriate technology researched. Each government type also allows you to create a Patriot, a unique leader who can enhance your nation’s military or economic power. You can build a Senate after your nation advances to the Classical Age. It must be constructed within the City Limits.

Despotism: Government controlled by one tyrannical ruler with absolute powers.

Cheaper Military research.

Increased line-of-sight for Scouts and Ships.

Lowered Attrition Damage.

Cheaper Infantry and Cavalry.

Monarchy: Government controlled by a single hereditary ruler.

Cheaper Military research.

Increased National Borders.

Cheaper Cavalry.

Increased Food and Metal production.

Democracy: Government whose rulers are elected by all citizens and represent the will of the people.

Increased Commerce Limit.

Increased Taxation rate.

Produces Infantry faster.

Cheaper Ships.

Capitalism: Government wherein production and distribution of goods are determined by a free and competitive market.

Increased Commerce Limit.

Increased Taxation rate.

Ships and Aircraft produced faster.

All Wonders cheaper.

Socialism: Government wherein production and distribution of goods are determined by equity rather than market principles.

Increased National Borders.

All ground units cheaper.

All buildings produced cheaper (except Wonders).

Enemy city assimilation faster.

Republic: Government controlled by elected representatives who may (or may not) represent the will of the people.

Increased Commerce Limit.

Increased Taxation rate.

Cheaper Merchants and Caravans.

Increased City Limits.

Cheaper cost for all Wonders.

Imagine being able to take that crappy rushing civ and making it into an economic powehouse with Capitalism? Or tricking your opponents with an economic civ and then hitting them hard with an early attack because you went with Despotism. BHG just added a WHOLE NEW DIMENSION to the game with governments. This is pretty neat. Looks like being the CIV2 lead has finally paid some dividends (just kidding Brian).

One more thing I have to play around with now. I'll report back once I have a better idea how these work.

UPDATE: Never mind that, Scot_free points out that MS has updated their site with more (or less) detail.

Choose:

Despotism: Government controlled by one tyrannical ruler with absolute powers.

Military research and Barracks units 25% cheaper.

Receive the Despot Patriot (a General who also provides supply, Line-of-Sight, and plunder bonuses).

or

Republic: Government controlled by elected representatives who may (or may not) represent the will of the people.

Commerce Limit increased by 50.

Receive The Senator Patriot (a General who also provides healing, bribing, and building defense bonuses).

Plus...

Monarchy: Government controlled by a single hereditary ruler.

Stable units are 25% cheaper and faster to build.

Receive The King Patriot (a General who also provides supply, siege, and mounted combat benefits).

or

Democracy: Government whose rulers are elected by all citizens and represent the will of the people.

Non-Library technologies 20% cheaper.

Receive The President Patriot (a General who also provides production, building, and healing benefits).

Plus...

Socialism: Government wherein production and distribution of goods are determined by equity rather than market principles.

Factory, Airbase, and Dock units 20% cheaper and faster to build.

Receive The Comrade Patriot (a General who also provides supply, combat, and assimilation benefits).

or

Capitalism: Government wherein production and distribution of goods are determined by a free and competitive market.

Receive +100 Oil income and 500 Oil.

Receive The CEO Patriot (a General who also provides defense, range, and healing benefits).

Is it just me, or were the "old" benefits more interesting? I think I'd rather have a Socialism where Russia could get even MORE border pushing. C'mon, don't tone them down, boost them up! If the impact of government is lukewarm, then it won't have much of an impact on the game. Make them be REAL choices with REAL tradeoffs. Maybe like make Despotism = -25 Commerce cap, +10% research cost, and -25% military unit costs and upgrade costs. Where Democracy = +100 Commerce Cap, +100% military unit cost or something like that. Then have the first government be relatively cheap (so you choose one) and every change (they do allow changes, right?) ramp up very quickly and expensively.

A strategy game should have STRATEGIC CHOICES that must be made.
posted by Tim at 12:52 PM

Of all the new nations and features in the game, the Lakota tribe intrigues me the most. They have the unique ability to build buildings outside their borders, but not in enemy territory. This could be Huge. One of the unique (and limiting) factors in RON is the concept of borders, whereby you cannot build anything outside them. The introduction of the Lakota blows that concept out of the water. You can build all military buildings (e.g., docks, stables, towers), cities, and resource locations (e.g., mines and lumber camps) anywhere not controlled by the enemy. This enables a player to play the game simialr to AOK. Cities, resource spots, and military buildings can go almost anywhere. And this will likely reward very aggressive players the most -- Forward Building is back! The drawback is that military buildings placed forward, without the support of a city, will eventually get ungulfed by enemy border pressure and could be vulnerable to attrition, or even bribery. The question is, are the Lakota strong enough as a nation (tribe) to take advantage of their new found freedom. We shall see.

First of all, there are some limitations. You can only build buildings outside your territory that do not have city limit restrictions. For example, the university must be built within city limits, so you can't just go off and build a bunch of universities in the corner.

A second limitation is the economy. The Lakota don't make farms -- their citizen and stable units provide intrinsic food income. To compensate, they start off with fewer units. In fact, they currently start with only 2 villagers! Ouch!! So any early movement off to build will cause you to lose a big percentage of your income. Tied to that is the fact that each villager can only make +5 food. At first, your villagers will only be chopping wood, so you will exceed the wood cap well before you reach the food cap. It takes 20 villagers to make 100 food. So your extra villagers end up being idle, or off scouting. Scouting with villagers takes some extra micro, so you'll need to focus extra effort to make sure you maximize that scouting role and don't have too many idle villagers.

By themselves, the Lokota don't seem all that dangerous, since even if they rush over to cramp you with their #2 city, the villagers are slow enough that an opponent can place a good #2 before you get yours started. So don't expect to be building right on top of their capital. However, pair a Lokota with a Mayan, Russian or a Bantu and you can expect to see some pretty dominating territory tactics. Territory expansion is limited by having to build WITHIN the existing border. But if you could build outside the border, your city border influence doesn't overlap. One theoretical strategy is to have the Lokata buidl far forward and have the Russian/Mayan/Bantu ally build in the Lakota territory, effectively getting the same bonus. The Lakota could then raze (if needed) and build elsewhere, setting up another great spot for the ally's #3 city. Imagine those as Russian cities! Ouch!

UPDATE: yhano points out that they might be good candidates for fishing. I agree, they'd probably be perfect for a fishing boom, since all their early vills are going on wood. Meanwhile HalfLotus thinks that the forward building cities will create long trade routes vulnerable to raiding.

UPDATE II: El_Capitan posted his vision of a hypothetical Lakota rush.

The Lakota will be tough to stop if they ever succeed in a Kamikaze rush. Imagine... once they sack your Capital, they can have any Citizens brought with them to build a Tower and another Barracks because once you take the City, the area becomes neutral until taken back or assimilated. However, a good strategy would be to go to the middle of the map with a few Citizens and build the 1st Barracks there. After the Barracks is made, the Citizens continue to the outside border of the enemy's Capital. By then, you should have 5 HI. Raze the Barracks when your units are out and start your attack. Once your Barracks is razed, you build another one right outside the enemy Capital's border to make your 3 LI. Once you take the Capital, you get your bonus resources. Continue streaming in LI and FA from your new Barracks. Your Citizens should be at the taken Capital by now to make a few Towers and repair the Capital. Game over.

Indeed. I've been thinking about how the tower and barracks building in neutral territory makes them a cinch to take and hold someone's capital. Sounds nasty.

UPDATE III: I imagine Lakota would be pretty strong on Nomad, since they'd be collecting food while building that first city. Also, if they got the normal 3 villagers, they wouldn't start off behind other civs like they do with small town.

Regarding the funky economy: Normally, to reach +100, you would need to have 2 cities + 8 choppers and 8 farmers. Lakota can do it with 2 cities + 8 choppers + 8 vills standing around. Or instead of standing around, they could be scouting for ruins, building stuff, and later mining metal. Basically, Lakota just saved the wood for EIGHT FARMS! To compensate, you start slower -- only 2 vills instead of 5. We'll have to see whether the granary allows them to upgrade that +5 in proportion to other resource production boosters.
posted by Tim at 7:59 AM

Graham was kind enough to include us in the list of beta recipients for the upcoming RON expansion: Throne & Patriots. The cool thing is it's a media preview, so as Graham said:

This beta is not covered by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) so you can talk about it in forums, on your websites, and take screenshots. Remember though, that this is beta software, so nothing is set in stone. We'd ask that you don't give out specific stats, such as unit attack strength or nation powers, as they have likely already changed.

So there you have it. I'll leave all the PR stuff to the big media outlets and instead focus on balancing and strategy issues.

More later as I get to play it.
posted by Tim at 7:36 AM

No, it's not the Love Detector, although that's pretty cool, too.

Scroll down the page to see the announcement for truth verification eyeglasses.

Soon V Entertainment will be introducing a new product that will be a personal truth verification software. Finally a lie detector for everyone!For the man who has everything...but the truth.

Is your mechanic being truthful about the repairs needed?
Is your stockbroker just trying to meet a quota?
Is that politician on TV really telling the truth?

This software will help you be sure. This product is currently scheduled to be released during the first half of 2004.
And even more amazing, V Entertainment is planning to introduce our new truth verification eyeglasses which are currently under development. These will soon to be featured on CBS 60 Minutes!
These glasses will be able to show you if the person you are speaking to is being truthful, using the same ground breaking voice technology as all V applications. These are scheduled for release in Fall 2004. Stay tuned as new V technology products continue to be released!

posted by Tim at 7:13 PM

Rohag clued us into this page at RON Empire. It shows Unit Counters for most of the units.
posted by Tim at 6:29 PM

Latest results

1 - Stiff *75* (5112) Mongols.
2 - Readyman *75* (5101) Mongols.
3 - Dyers Eve *73* (5613) Mongols.
4 - AU_bird *72* (5735) Mongols.
5 - aaccee *69* (5209) Mongols.
6 - Beechworth *68* (4700) Mongols.
7 - Out4Blood *66* (4976) British.
8 - Tren *63* (4542) French.
9 - AU_Floater *62* (4300) Japanese.
10 - AU_niDe *61* (4786) Germans.

Yuck. Looks like Mongols will win. Well at least I have the highest (tied with ReadyMan) non-Mongol score. So why are Mongols now considered to be weaker? I still think they are a very effective civ.
posted by Tim at 7:27 AM

biodegradeablefi(sh) aka AU_Humble posted another excellent spy tip.

OK. How many times in multiplayer have you converted units and lost your spies as they are seen after the conversion, or clicked on a bunch of units but miss the last one and click the ground cancelling all previous orders.

Get them all together (control group or ; then home is your choice) I prefer a control group as i may have a spy elsewhere watching some territory and I want it to stay there. I use 7 as my spy control group (007 - spies) I never forget this. Anyhow you have the spies you wish to multiple bribe with. Hit shift then the multiple targets keeping shift pressed down if you hit the ground they will still follow their previous orders before hitting the waypoint, after the bribe que is set then click back to your army. Each individual spy will complete their bribe and leave immediately to the next way point saving many of them from dying. If you do not use shift and a waypoint you will need to reselect your spies as each bribe is made as you lose control of them when the bribe is completed.

posted by Tim at 7:17 AM

Anrjo gets royally screwed in the Rated Room.

Well just when you think you've seen everything you get hit with something new.

Deathmatch, Atlantic Sea Power, enemy picks Egyptians.

Well, while I'm sure most of you can figure out what happens next ...

Yup. They definitely need MORE flexibility in how matches are decided.

I should be able to do loose matching but EXCLUDE deathmatch type games. BHG could EASILY implement the same filters that ALREADY EXIST in Gamespy to do criteria matching. These filters could be used to exclude the chance of me getting into games with certain settings (e.g., Deathmatch West Indies). C'mon guys :-)

posted by Tim at 3:42 PM

This one sounds pretty cool: you must choose a RANDOM OFFENSIVE NATION! They are giving away big cash prizes, too. Go sign up! It's 1v1 arena-sized secret random land map.

UPDATE: BTW, Graham@BHG says that the "offensive" nations are:

JAPANESE
AZTECS
FRENCH
ROMANS
TURKS
BANTU
GERMANS
MONGOLS

Personally, I am amused that Germans show up as an Offensive Nation instead of an Economic one. They are almost as good as the British, and I've never gotten them as Offensive, although I don't play Offensive that much.
posted by Tim at 3:08 PM

Over at MFO, El_Capitan posts a run down of UUs by nation through the ages. A small sample:

Heavy Infantry- The best Heavy Infantry until Gunpowder Age is the Roman Heavy Infantry. They take out other Heavy Infantry as well as Cavalry. The Spanish have the best Heavy Infantry vs.Cavalry, especially starting in Gunpowder Age when they have ranged attacks. The Japanese have the best Heavy Infantry for taking out buildings and the German Heavy Infantry is about the same as the Japanese, but they don't get the Japanese bonus for taking down buildings faster. In Enlightenment Age, the Japanese have the best, and in Modern and Enlightenment, it goes back to the Maya.

...

Go read the whole thing.
posted by Tim at 3:03 PM

ROFL.

One of the commenters at Calpundit posted a link to a clip from the Daily Show giving a funny send up of the President's interview with Tim Russert on Meet the Press.
posted by Tim at 8:31 AM

I've never seen ANYONE practice this technique in a game, but it sounds pretty devious.

If you have a General with say... 2 spies against an enemy army of 6 without any Scouts, then the best way to bribe units without them being harmed is to bring your General with your Spies. Before you start bribing, have your General use the 'Ambush' ability. Once you've successfully bribed your units, they will be temporarily invisible within the General's radius. As long as they're not attacking anything, the enemy units will not see them, along with your Spies (if you're not Russian).

posted by Tim at 8:49 AM

Over at RON Universe, Cowboy has posted some tips for playing infinite resource games.

I've been trying out different modes to play the game and I've gotta liking now to infinite res games. I thought I'd compile a list of tips for this style of gameplay, feel free to add more:

Personally, I've shied away from infinite resource games; I figure what's the point? But, that's a reactionary view. Infinite resources is just yet another game setting. It still requires some strategy and technique. Since, I am not an expert on infinite resource games, I'll use Cowboy's advice (and the other advice in the thread) as a good starting point. Maybe I'll play that setting some day.

Maybe.
posted by Tim at 10:51 AM

Kerry won all but two of the contests yesterday and now has huge lead in the delegate count as reported by CNN. However, Edwards has started to come on strong as a contender. While Edwards has publicly rejected thoughts of a VP role (of course, he has to for his campaign's sake), he is well-positioned for the role. He'd be a huge asset for Kerry in the southern states and the younger crowd. Clark is still hanging around after barely edging out Edwards in OK. However with the comments his son made and his poor showing elsewhere, I can't see him hanging in there and doing well. Meanwhile, Dean has almost comletely self-destructed.
posted by Tim at 12:34 PM

Pinstar asks how to properly raid. Well, most everyone knows that I'm no mad-micro-skillz-expert-raider, but I do follow a couple of guidelines:

The ideal number of horse archers to build before sending the group into do raiding.

2-3 is a good minimum. Reason is that you want to send ONE to MULTIPLE places simultaneously. Also, it's a good idea to support that with 1-2 HC to kill off any defenders. When I raid poorly, I make 2 HA and 1 HC. When I do better I make 3:2 plus light cav for my own defense.

Why just ONE? More than one HA at a time heavily reduces their effectiveness because of focus fire reductions.

Why MULTIPLE locations? Any decent player (except me most likely) is going to have some raid defenses, whether they are light cav (best) or archers (okay) or a tower. Chances are, if you hit at multiple locations simultaneously, they will see and micro one spot, but not see the other. So you can sometimes wipe out an entire villager production area before he realizes you attacked in more than one spot.

The best way to target villies...despite their raid stance my HA more often than not start attacking the buildings (lumber camps etc) rather than the villies. How do I tell them NOT to attack ANY buildings and JUST the villagers?

SHIFT+R. Don't give them any attack commands because you are likely to click on a building or something. also, remember that they will fire at the first enemy they see which could possibly be a farm or a lumber mill. Ensure the villagers are in range. Double check you aren't using RAZE stance, which prioritizes buildings.

should I do a move? attack-move? waypoints? patrol? whats the best way to loop my HA through an enemy city and back so I don't have to micromange them?

I use way points. Hold SHIFT plus click. The HA will run through the area firing at villagers. A single HA will normally kill villagers in 2 shots. So you'll get quite a few just running by.

When I am on my game, I try to send ONE to his farms and I loop that around his towns, then send the OTHERS to separate chopping/mining locations. He's sure to see and respond the one is his view and chase that one. But maybe he doesn't see them ALL. If you get chased by a light cav, run in the opposite direction of the other raiders so that he'll have farther to go to get back on defense. In fact, occasionally, you'll see light cav defenders get forgotten off to the side of the map.

When I am not on my game, I'll set the rally point for my stable at his woodcamp and send one HA there. He likely dies pretty quick. Problem with this technique is that later in the (bad) game, I'll queue up a bunch of heavy cav, then wonder where they all went to.

Another tip is to use your own light cav or heavy cav (counters light) to kill off his light cav. Micro your HA around your HC. Send wounded units back for healing. Use HC to hit areas covered by towers or archers. Early raiding battles tend to be using LC, HC, and HA to attain dominance over the raiding game. Winner of the raiding game usually goes on to win. (But not always.)
posted by Tim at 11:42 AM

This site gives us a few hits. It's a Japanese language translation of some of the main strategies posted here (principally written up by El_Capitan). So if you only read Japanese, visit them. (But then I guess you wouldn't be reading this then...)

UPDATE: Iron Wax (the site owner) says his main page is: http://kotetsu.hn.org/ron/.
posted by Tim at 2:13 PM

Latest results

1 - Stiff *75* (5112) Mongols.
2 - Dyers Eve *73* (5613) Mongols.
3 - Birdparadise *72* (5735) Mongols.
4 - Out4Blood *66* (4976) British.
5 - Beechworth *66* (4766) Mongols.
6 - Readyman *66* (4745) Greeks.
7 - AU_Floater *62* (4300) Japanese.
8 - aaccee *61* (5115) Mongols.
9 - AU_niDe *61* (4786) Germans.
10 - AU MeMeNTo *60* (5050) Germans.

posted by Tim at 1:49 PM

The most disturbing thing about this article: Yahoo! News - TiVo Users Couldn't Get Enough of Janet Jackson is not the fact that Janet bared her breast, or that FCC Chairman Powell is going after them, or that TiVo's top two commercials, based on user behavior, are both from Bud Light. It's that TiVo has that level of detail about its users!

I don't want TiVo in my house knowing what I'm recording and watching, or rewatching, as the case may be. That's scary. I'll bet they even have little cameras on those things so they can measure who's actually WATCHING the TV.
posted by Tim at 8:56 AM

In this MFO thread, people are wondering where are all the experts? It's noted that many of the top rated players don't actually play rated games anymore, but play non-rated games so they'll keep a juicy rating. This is evident by the date of last game which is used by BHG (and O4B) when dsiplaying ratings.

TO BHG: When you implement the decay feature, be sure to calculate decay based on the date of last RATED game.

UPDATE: In the comments, Graham@BHG says,

The "Date of last Game" field on the ratings site is going to be changed to reflect the date of the last rated game played once decay is implemented.

1) Cool. 2) I hope that's really Graham. :-)

posted by Tim at 8:25 AM

wassa asks an interesting question about building.

In the early stages when Im building up I tend to use existing citizens to do my building, for instance, when its time to build a granery I'll select a citizen from a farm and shift queue the order to build the granery then return to the farm. Same goes for lumber mills, I'll grab a citizen from a woodcutters camp to build the mill then return to gathering wood. I was wondering if thats how the experts did it or whether you guys create a citizen as a "builder?"

I create guys to build, but that doesn't mean I never use an existing worker. It's very important to keep your economy fully maxed and to stay there. One villager as builder only costs about 45 food, but he will pay for himself over the course of build a couple of buildings. A Granary is 45 sec; that's 15 food right there.

What some players do is to make an extra villager for local ruin scouting, scouting in the corners, etc. and then bring him back around classical time so that they can use that villager for building. If the villager finds just ONE ruin, he's paid for himself and then you don't need to remove econ villagers for building.

If I ever do use villagers, I try to use miners first. The urgency for metal is much lower, whereas food and wood are more critical.
posted by Tim at 8:04 AM

Wait a second, this is #8. It hasn't been 8 years! They must have been giving us TWO seasons of Survivor per year. Those scoundrels...

Anyway, this one is the big one. The All-Stars. It looks to be a good one, too. They ALL know how to play this game by now, so who's gonna be able to stay in it? My money's on Richard to go a long way, although he's playing a weird game so far. As Ethan put it, you're foolish to not take a former winner to the Final Two with you.

There's a good send up of the first episode here.

BTW, it's interesting that they didn't bother to learn how to make fire. It's NOT EASY, as this guy tells you. Although there are plenty of sites that descirbe how to do it. Like this one.
posted by Tim at 7:01 PM