Is there anything like a "Game of the Month/Week"?

[Buttons840]

One of the Civilization communities has a "Game of the week" where a game is played by everyone in the community and then thoughts are shared afterwords.  Each player seems to end up having a similar experience, and it's fun to hear how others fared in the game.

I doubt a typical game could be finished in a week, so perhaps one every two weeks?  We could obtain a random seed and all play the same game for the week (or more) and then share our thoughts.  I'm wondering though if we all play the same AI War seed does that mean we will all be receiving the same bonus ships from research stations, and will the AI planets be positioned the same?  If not then each game would be quite different and there wouldn't be much point to sharing our stories.  We probably need some dev input on this.  Does starting with the same seed/save file (we could put up a save file for everyone to start from) ensure a similar experience in all games?

If were going to do it, we need some rules and support.  Who chooses the maps we play?  What difficulty?  Etc.  Are we free to chose our starting tech from the map?

[HellishFiend]

This is a fantastic idea. 

[Kjara]

If we do start something like this, I'm in favor of strange variants like the Realms Beyond folks tend to host(though then someone has to come up the variants as well .  http://realmsbeyond.net/civ/civ4-tournamentgamelist.html

They tend to be a bit longer/more spaced out as well(one every month or two).

Imagine, a game where you can only build tier II+ units/buildings on your home planet(with perhaps the exception of adv factories and fabs).  

Or perhaps a bonus ship game.  Beat the game without ever building a fighter, bomber or cruiser.  

A no hop game(can't take a planet not connected to another planet you own).  

The possibilities are endless.



On the randomness side, the easiest way is have everyone start from a posted save, since almost everything has been generated by that point and no one can screw things up by picking the wrong options by accident.

[Buttons840]

On the randomness side, the easiest way is have everyone start from a posted save, since almost everything has been generated by that point and no one can screw things up by picking the wrong options by accident.

LOL.

Are you sure most everything is decided at that point?  Had I programmed the game I'd probably has said "if ADV research destroyed, give player random unit", thus it's not pre-determined.  So I ask again, are you sure?  I'm sure x4000 could tell us, or we could crush a Sandbox AI on a 10 world map and compare results.

+1 for posting a save file.  Lest many tears be shed after a player realizes he's played the wrong map for the last 15 hours.

[HellishFiend]

On the randomness side, the easiest way is have everyone start from a posted save, since almost everything has been generated by that point and no one can screw things up by picking the wrong options by accident.

LOL.

Are you sure most everything is decided at that point?  Had I programmed the game I'd probably has said "if ADV research destroyed, give player random unit", thus it's not pre-determined.  So I ask again, are you sure?  I'm sure x4000 could tell us, or we could crush a Sandbox AI on a 10 world map and compare results.

+1 for posting a save file.  Lest many tears be shed after a player realizes he's played the wrong map for the last 15 hours.

Yes, the ships you get from advanced labs are predetermined at the start of the game, as is most everything else.

[RCIX]

Ooh, can i host these? i'm up at all manner of hours and usually like to fool around with settings!

[Kjara]

I'm sure a bunch of us have ideas, we can always pass around whos hosting the current one .

Edit: Prob should have a non-expansion and an expansion one running at the same time(or we should prob start with a non-expansion game at least to get a good feeling for how many are interested).

[Buttons840]

Perhaps the results could be posted (with a save as proof) along with the players score.  The highest score could pick the next map.

We'd need a way to keep real oddities out of the mix, lest we have someone post a 200 planet map vs sandbox and everyone gets to bored to finish it.

I'd like to see maps range in size from 40 to 80 planets, and AI at 7 and above.  I'm not afraid of losing.  Perhaps some impossible campaigns could be posted vs level 10 ai's with bonuses, and it would be a matter of who can score the most and survive the longest.

[RCIX]

I'm sure a bunch of us have ideas, we can always pass around whos hosting the current one .

Edit: Prob should have a non-expansion and an expansion one running at the same time(or we should prob start with a non-expansion game at least to get a good feeling for how many are interested).

Cool! mind if i do the first one?

[HellishFiend]

I'm sure a bunch of us have ideas, we can always pass around whos hosting the current one .

Edit: Prob should have a non-expansion and an expansion one running at the same time(or we should prob start with a non-expansion game at least to get a good feeling for how many are interested).

Cool! mind if i do the first one?

This might be what finally forces you to finish a game. 

[RCIX]

I'm sure a bunch of us have ideas, we can always pass around whos hosting the current one .

Edit: Prob should have a non-expansion and an expansion one running at the same time(or we should prob start with a non-expansion game at least to get a good feeling for how many are interested).

Cool! mind if i do the first one?

This might be what finally forces you to finish a game. 

Lol, i doubt it. Unless we're talking about me losing...

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Chose the first one arbitrarily, then throw up a poll for a week for the next one.  Choose several different scenarios and let people vote on em.

[Kjara]

I'm a fan of custom scoring at times actually.  The goal one game might be as high of a ktd ratio as possible, another it might be the fastest game possible, etc.

Prob start simple with just worrying about score for the first one though.

Edit: If we just do score, it becomes who can abuse the current score system the most(though this will let us figure out what need to be changed with the score system) .

My suggestions for the first game are either a random ship type, or something that has been recently changed(say force fields), diff 6.7 or 7, and say random easiers or random easy/mid to open it up to the largest group of people.

[RCIX]

http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,3468.0.html

[Lancefighter]

what about maybe a nice 10 or 20 planet map with some interesting combinations?