I may just start drinking Pepsi.
posted by Tim at 9:53 PM

The best:
Election Year political ad: "Reagan: Bear"
Funniest Fedex Ad: "Drama"
posted by Tim at 6:47 PM

My favorite commerical of all time!!!!

But first, there's a little story here. Back in 1990, I was just graduating from US Army Ranger School. My dad flew down from Seattle to attend my graduation. He also fixed up my car -- which had been sitting in the Ranger School lot for 3 months -- so we could both drive it back to Seattle. Having just gone through nearly 3 months of HELL, I was barely able to drive for more than 2 hours at a stretch. So he basically drove the entire way. We stopped in 2 places. Yukon, OK and Malibu, CA (Yes, we took the long way). Anyway, we didn't arrive home until the Monday following graduation. So we missed the Super Bowl! Drat.

Fortunately, my mother was kind enough to tape it. Well, we didn't miss much because the Super Bowl SUCKED. It was a boring game and a blow out as I recall. However, tucked away amongst the ads, was this wonderful gem. Directed by Ridley Scott (of Blade Runner, Alien, and Gladiator fame), it was an ad for the new Nissan 300ZX. I was floored. I watched it probably 20 times. Forget the game, this was priceless stuff. This ad was only aired once: during the Super Bowl. Plans for subsequent airings of a 30 second versions were scrapped when various highway safey organziations protested the ad and claimed it promoted unsafe driving. As if.

Anyway, time passed. The tape got erased. I cried. But ... I never forgot!

Enter The Internet. Where everything is ON DEMAND. Get it now. AdCritic.com came around and opened up the possibility of watching your favorite commercials. Cool. Hey, do they have that cool Z commercial? No? Darn.

Ever since then, on Yahoo! and Google, I've been searching:

nissan commercial
300zx commercial
ridley scott nissan ad
1990 super bowl ads
ads nissan
So I'm having this dream
ridley scott commercials
super bowl ridley scott nissan

You name it. I searched it. I've even other people mention the ad and ask for digital versions. But to no avail. This cinematic dynamo was not to be found.

Then I had an epiphany: "So I'm having this dream"

Then I found it! It was a crappy version, sure, but it gave me hope that better versions were out there. Sure enough, I found them. "Wifey!! Come here! Watch this!" So here it is:

My favorite commerical of all time!!!!

P.S. You may wonder what all the fuss was about. When you get older you remember the good years and reminisce about the things that made you happy. Looking back, maybe they weren't as great as you remember them, and maybe they are kind of goofy. But they are your memories, and they still make you happy. This is one of mine.

So I'm having this dream ...
posted by Tim at 10:06 PM

HalfLotus suggest a conroversial option once you reach classical -- selling food instead of metal.

It's common to sell metal during Classical/Medieval ages, boosting wealth to fuel a boom (generally to GP). Metal isn’t needed in abundance early unless you plan an early attack, so this works quite well. Trouble is both players will do this, pushing the metal sell price very low. The solution? Sell your food.

That's a potential option, but I'd still prefer to sell metal, even at the reduced rate. Food is too valuable when booming, metal less so. when booming, I don't need metal until Classical and SCI3 (for the granary/lumber mill upgrade).

So, I sell metal to buy scholars to get faster SCI3. Food is needed to get workers on metal, get CIV2 and get that third city up.
posted by Tim at 10:58 AM

Latest results

1 - Birdparadise *70* (5250) Mongols.
2 - Dyers Eve *66* (5613) British.
3 - Out4Blood *66* (4976) British.
4 - Readyman *66* (4745) Greeks.
5 - AU_Floater *62* (4330) Japanese.
6 - AU_niDe *61* (4786) Germans.
7 - AU MeMeNTo *60* (5050) Germans.
8 - MKII1210 *59* (3910) Japanese.
9 - AU_Humble *58* (4495) Greeks.
10 - AU_DreadKnight *54* (4640) Germans.

I told you it would go past 70 units!

UPDATE: BLECH! I give up. I had salt AND sugar and STILL only managed to get 57 units. I suck. Maybe I need to watch MY OWN DAMN REPLAYS!
posted by Tim at 6:15 PM

A new MFO SMACKDOWN! has been announced.

Choose your nation, but neither Maya nor Spanish
Map style: Old World
Map size: Small
Start with: Nomad
Resources: Random
Start age: Ancient Age
End age: Medieval Age
Elimination: Conquest
Victory: Time limit 30 mins

posted by Tim at 6:13 PM

This one allows you to create a map of the US highlighting certain states. It's intended to be "states you've visited" such as this map below. I have visited all the states in red.

Or it can also be used to show "Here is where I live!" (the green state)

create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide (via the Volokh Conspiracy)

UPDATE: On that note, I've also been to these countries...

UPDATE II: I deleted the images because the website serving them is JUST TOO DARN SLOW!
posted by Tim at 3:38 PM

Phrederick asks the MFO forum to help him transition from AOK to RON.

I used to be a pretty active AOK player, getting as high as 1750 or so rated. I just picked up RON, and the differences are pretty big. I've played 6-10 games, and I've got a few questions about strategy.

1. How many villagers are standard per age in a game that starts ancient and goes through to the end? My villie highs tend to be 60-70, which seems low coming from AOK, but I don't really seem to be running low on resources.

2. How do upgrade costs work? Is it different whether or not the previous upgrades were researched? What about numbers of units?

Read the whole thread to see how the MOFOs answer.
posted by Tim at 3:02 PM

inspicus posted this:

While the nuclear explosion in RON has been realistically picturized with a mammoth fireball, it is very bright and seems to dazzle the eyes everytime.

Is this something harmful in the long run when we keep seeing it game after game?

I ran with it ...

Yes it does!

You should lower the brightness on your monitor when you hear the warning "nuclear launch detected." This is why they provide this warning so you have time to do it. If you don't have a monitor that allows you to quickly adjust settings, then you may need to pause the game each time. Or buy a new monitor.

There's more detail in the manual. Or maybe the official strategy guide. I think.

Feel free to pile on ...
posted by Tim at 7:42 AM

Yakov Smirnoff is an alleged smurf who whips up on poor players and who does it with Russians. You don't wanna lose to this guy ... like Mesh did.
posted by Tim at 7:37 AM

Kerry wins again.

Candidate	Vote %	NH Del	Total Delegates

Kerry	39%	13	94

Dean	26%	9	113

Clark	12%	0	30

Edwards	12%	0	36

Lieberman	9%	0	25

Kucinich	2%	0	2

Sharpton	0%	0	4

Note: Dean is ahead in total delegates because some of the delegates are pledged prior to that state's primary/caucus. However, he's not doing too well against Kerry.
posted by Tim at 11:03 PM

His name is Eric D. Snider. The key to a good movie reviewer is that he likes what you like. Simple really. Go through a reviewer's archives and see if his past reviews align with your thoughts on past movies. Then try him out for awhile.
posted by Tim at 12:25 PM

There's an argument going on at MFO over the validity of the BHA Competition. The negative comments got me pissed off enough that I felt compelled to retort:

All you n00bs forget that MFO was originally founded on the FAST CASTLE competition. The goal of this contest was to build a castle in the fastest time possible. Regardless that the economy was worthless, or the techniques unusable in real games (e.g., herding deer with the scout), the contest is what really started MFO and putit on the map. So you MOFOs have an OBLIGATION to support this kind of thing. If for no other reason than to show proper respect to MFO.

BTW, the winner, Cptn_Kidd, went on to work for ES in the QA department, partly due to his success at this contest.

posted by Tim at 9:02 AM

Un-Funny man Al Franken body slams a man protesting at a Dean rally. Headline reads: AL FRANKEN KNOCKS DOWN DEAN HECKLER.

January 27, 2004 -- EXETER, N.H. - Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean.

[snip]

Franken said he's not backing Dean but merely wanted to protect the right of people to speak freely.

WTF? What about the demonstrator's right to speak freely? (From the cool site.)
posted by Tim at 8:22 AM

They've been updated. Updated O4B rankings. I'm using the top 200 from the BHG list. Active means a player has played rated in the last 30 days and established means they played at least 25 rated games.
posted by Tim at 5:47 PM

Initial results

1 - Dyers Eve *66* (5613) - British.
2 - Out4Blood *66* (4976) - British.
3 - Birdparadise *66* (4845) - Mongols.
4 - Readyman *65* - Japanese.
5 - MKII1210 *59* - Japanese.
6 - AU_Humble *58* (4495) - Greeks.
7 - AU_niDe *57* - Japanese.
8 - AU_DreadKnight *54* - Germans.
9 - Tren *51* - Mongols.
10 -

Mine isn't listed because I didn't submit films. Maybe they didn't really happen ...

UPDATE: Okay, so I finally got back to 60. GRRR.

UPDATE II: Make that 62. Also looks like Bird got the Mongols working. I'll have to watch that one.

UPDATE III: Ready actually has a new one with 65! Yikes!

UPDATE IV: Finally busted my original marks, musta been the rares... 66 :-) I'm totally convinced 70 is easily doable. I had at least 4-5 unit in resources at the end, and I made a ton of mistakes. I did have great rares, but with enough reps, you can get perfect rares. Perfect rares with a good run = 70+ units.
posted by Tim at 9:55 AM

So far I've gotten 63 units using the British, which is the most of the so far posted films. This is a far cry from what is possible though given the lazy way I played all my runs (e.g., I had 64 but forgot to hit GP even though I had well more than enough food and knowledge). I estimate a winning score will have over 70 units. But that's just me.

For those detractors who say this isn't worth it because it's not realistic are dreaming. This is completely possible in any normal team game. My strategy for this competition has not been any different than normal team play, except I make less scholars and stop booming when I reach my target econ. Other than that, it's business as usual. If I got hit with a GP army like this at the 15:00 mark, I'd probably crap my pants. I might be in Enlightenment Age, but I'd still probably crap my pants.

For players who want to attack in a certain age with a certain set of units, there's no reason to waste resources on extra scholars or research other than that which is critical to reach your targets. After that, you start attacking and more than likely will completely overwhelm an unready opponent. Or even an opponent who thought he was ready, but had configured his econ for a longer term game, and therefore wasn't expecting 70+ units.

UPDATE: Then again, I'm having trouble replicating my results. Maybe I got lucky and had some nice rares. I hope I saved that film ...
posted by Tim at 10:06 PM

In case you missed it, the boys at AU have officially commenced the competition. The Goal: To produce as many military units as possible in 15 minutes. And they got a sponsor now!

1st Prize: Copy of Rise of Nations signed by Brian Reynolds, a RoN T-shirt and bragging rights.
2nd Prize: Copy of Rise of Nations signed by Brian Reynolds.
3rd Prize: RoN T-shirt.

One unexpected drawback that I find troubling: NO TERRA COTTA ARMY. Well, why the heck not? Is Terra Cotta that unstoppable that an all out blitz for military dominance can't even beat it? Wouldn't this be a Great Opportunity to really test the value of the TCA?

Let's hope AU returns to their senses and allows use of the TCA. I mean really. It takes a LOT of resources to make it, and the earliest it can be done is Classical (probably finished at about 6:00+ or so with Egyptians), and what's the most units that could come out of it during the 15 minute period? Like 18? Strategy Development should be unrestricted. This was the the goal right?

It is our hope this competition will give rise to new and innovative military strategies as the race for the most formidable force develops.

UPDATE: ROFL. I just read the "anti-sniping" rule:

From Sunday 29th of February a week is then given to all current participants to challenge the winning entry. If at the end of that week there is a new winner a new challenge period begins each Sunday for a week until we have an undisputed winner.

This is a common auction technique to reduce the value a "last minute" bid would have. Fortunately, one week is way too long for snipers. The point is this: normally a wise strategy for this type of contest is to NOT post your result until the absolute last minute so that other players cannot copy you and leapfrog ahead. So what this means is that people have ALL WEEK to try out your posted technique and make it even more efficient. So don't bother keeping your "secrets" in the dark - they will all come out in the end. Post your results as you obtain them.
posted by Tim at 2:06 PM

HenWen asks about placement of forts.

When placing a Fortress there are two different uses that both can be effective under different circumstances -- putting it behind a major city to add extra defense if it might be needed in the future, and building it on your borders to further extend borders, control chokepoints, control rare resources.

I generally have been building forts on borders even when booming with a light military, just because I want to put my enemy in a defensive mindset. But I often find myself in situations where I WISH that I had build that fort behind a city to add defensive power. The problem is that when you build your first fort, it is difficult to have good intelligence about the composition and location of your opponent's army because you do not have any spies.

How do the expert players here decide where to place their first fort? If you are not sure what strategy your opponent is planning, and you are an average civ in terms of fort bonuses (i.e., not Roman, or Mayan).

Great question. I used to worry about this a lot. At first I did the border thing, but I often found my pretty castles were major targets. Then I switched to all defensive. Now, I do some of both, but the answer is pretty simple (for me). It depends. If you plan on being the aggressor, and have committed to building lots of military units, then go ahead and push. If you are booming or prefer to be less aggressive, then protect the city and build it behind.
posted by Tim at 1:54 PM

Building on EC's work, Menzo has posted his version of a Bantu Delayed Power Rush.

This strat makes use of the Bantu's cheap cities to produce resources. It varies from the standard thus - Sci1/Civ1, build 3 citizens and 1 farm. Take 2 citizens and build cities towards the enemy. Research Mil1 at some point and place a barracks at your third city, sending 1 citizen back to the capital to chop wood.

This variant isn't quite as good economically and will be slower to hit but there are a few advantages. The extra cities and territory, having your barracks/stables closer to the battle, not having to research Mil2 for HC, etc.

Good to see new people posting their strategy thoughts, whether they work or not. Real Strategy Development is all about thoughtful experimentation. And publishing. It helps if the better players do it, but we'll take what we can get at this point.
posted by Tim at 1:48 PM

Sicilian_Don posted his version of a Roman Classical Rush.

Sci1, fill up starting wood pit, scout for ruins (try to get wood ruins, you'll need it later)
Mil1, build 1 citizen
After you're done researching Mil1 have the citizen build a barracks. Now you have 1 HI. Start construction of a second barracks (you should have enough wood by now). Whille building that, start an HI at your first barracks. You now have 3 HI. Next build 1 HI at each barracks. After they're done, head for the enemy capital and attack. If you want, you can try to upgrade to Classical en route so you can upgrade your troops to Legions when they get to the capitol.

I think he's looking for some criticism. In fact he said: "If any of the experts here can test this out and improve it (or show me that it sucks), I would greatly appreciate it."
posted by Tim at 1:45 PM