Hondas Gaming Blog, Revisited (Off Topic)

[hondarobot]

I picked up the Civilization 4: Beyond The Sword expansion today. It's massive, definately the most complex expansion release I've ever seen. It not only changes the game in hundreds of interesting ways, it also includes several built in scenarios, and almost all of them sound good. I'm still going over the manual, but I plan on launching into things tomarrow.

Anyone who is interested in this sort of thing, or gaming in general, check back daily as I'll be mini-blogging on things here. To all my numerous detractors of late, fuck off. Don't read my threads, I certainly don't read yours.

:P

[sam2982]

8/14/2007 Madden 2008

[werwt22]

I'm waiting for Super Smash brothers brawl

[AlySinclair]

I never have gotten into civilizatio...should I?

What do you enjoy about it, Honda?

[hondarobot]

It depends on what kind of games you like, Aly. Personally, I would say that the Fallout franchise is my all time favorite RPG, and the Civilization series is my favorite turn based strategy title. Civ 2 was a great game, and was where I first encountered Sid Meier (who's generally considered an industry gaming god now). The guy definately knows what he's doing.

Civ 3 was decent, but flawed. I had a massive campaign going on at one point, and some primitive barbarian swordsmen took out one of my advanced tank units. The tank should have just run those guys over! I become enraged at the lack of game balance and quit playing. I even threw the cd out the window, but I was a much less patient person back then.

Civ 4 came out, and it was pretty much flawless. It's a "God Mode" game where you control all aspects of a unique civilization and start out in 4000 BC. But that's just the basic game, countless variations can be played out using the game engine. Earth based games, imaginary random worlds, tons of different scenarios, all kinds of options. Here's the Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_IV

This new expansion, from what I've been reading in the manual today, adds significantly to the whole experience. I generally end up getting lost in these games for months at a time. It can be played online, but I never do that. I'm not a competitive person against other people, I like gaming against the machine.

I would suggest anyone into these sorts of games to check out Civ 4: Beyond The Sword, it seems pretty solid. Alternately, you could just check out my HA mini blog for awhile and see if it's something you'd like. I generally go into far more detail then is needed when I post these things, so I think everyone who's interested will get a pretty good idea about the game.

This is gonna be fun. I doubt I'll have another moment to match the loss of the US 21st submarine division during my blog on Hearts Of Iron 2 (that sucked so bad), but ya never know.

Stay tuned.

[BBaggins06]

It depends on what kind of games you like, Aly. Personally, I would say that the Fallout franchise is my all time favorite RPG, and the Civilization series is my favorite turn based strategy title. Civ 2 was a great game, and was where I first encountered Sid Meier (who's generally considered an industry gaming god now). The guy definately knows what he's doing.

I remember playing Civ I way back when I was still in college in the early 90s. After I left, I was able to acquire a copy that was loaded on about 4 3.5" floppy disks. :) I loved II and still play a game once or twice a year. I hated III though. This made me unwilling to give IV a try. It'll have to wait until I work my way through a bunch of Wii games first. :)

[hondarobot]

The first scenario I tried out sucked. Typical example of bad game scripting. I did the "Afterworld" scenario, because it seemed like the one I wanted to get out of the way first, and I'm glad I did.

Ted McCracken, who designed this one, wastes nearly ten minutes of a persons time basically telling the same story as Doom in still shots and text, and doesn't improve on it. Zombies, distant planet, elite marines, uh, yeah, I get it. I'm glad I checked that one out first. Lame.

Tomorrow, I start playing the full game. I'll probably game as Sitting Bull of the Native Americans, random huge world map, 11 rival civs . Not sure yet, but that's what I'm leaning towards.

[hondarobot]

I woke up at 6am and started a new game. Standard game, huge random world map, 11 opposing civs, and I'm playing as Sitting Bull/Native Americans.

Things are going well, there's tons of new angles I haven't figured out yet, though. I have a large lead game point wise, I control the south east of what appears to be the main continent, and have a technological superiority to the people I've had contact with so far.

I just hit 375AD, so it's still early in the game. My cities are doing well, and my military is up to speed. I'm losing gold at the moment, but that can be corrected. The funny thing is my natural resources so far are huge on wine, spice, fur, and a bit of gold. I'm one pimped out, bad ass indian.

No immediate threats, borders are secure, not too many new game features have come into play just yet, but I'm probably missing things still at this point. I'm not 100% up to speed on the expanded espionage and corporations options yet, just for starters. It's pretty much a whole new game.

There's also odd things that have been popping up. A message came up awhile back that the Dutch had started domesticating and selling wild prairie dogs. I've never seen that before and have no idea what game effect that has.

Interesting.

:D

[hondarobot]

It's official: The best turn based strategy game just got a hundred times better. Heh. Just one example- gaming as the Native Americans, I'm now building basic archery units that come out of the gate with 2-5 first strikes, suffer 40% less collateral damage, have 70% city defense bonuses, and 25% hill defense. That's without any combat experience at all, just by building certain city improvements. Tweaking various civics, if needed, would make them twice as powerful.

In ten more turns, I'll have researched tech to the point where I can upgrade those fuckers to Longbowmen, and then watch out because they will kick everyones ass until gunpowder gets discovered (which isn't happening anytime soon). And that's just the wimpy ass archers!

This game is going to take some time to fully explore. It's amazing.

[Harrys Boy]

Don't really know what was wrong with Space Invaders?

[hondarobot]

Which is exactly why you're not posting a gaming blog thread. Although honestly there was nothing wrong with Space Invaders. It wasn't as good as Galaga, and didn't come close to Missile Command, but it was alright.

[Quinn]

It's official: The best turn based strategy game just got a hundred times better. Heh. Just one example- gaming as the Native Americans, I'm now building basic archery units that come out of the gate with 2-5 first strikes, suffer 40% less collateral damage, have 70% city defense bonuses, and 25% hill defense. That's without any combat experience at all, just by building certain city improvements. Tweaking various civics, if needed, would make them twice as powerful.

In ten more turns, I'll have researched tech to the point where I can upgrade those fuckers to Longbowmen, and then watch out because they will kick everyones ass until gunpowder gets discovered (which isn't happening anytime soon). And that's just the wimpy ass archers!

This game is going to take some time to fully explore. It's amazing.

BTS really is incredible. Wait until you get to work with corporations. They've thought of so much in this game version as a whole tha it's hard to imagine what improvements they could actually make to it for the next version.

Oh, and why did you pick Sitting Bull? Boring... LOL.... Three words: Frederick, Catherine, and Peter.

-Quinn

[hondarobot]

The Native Americans have some interesting options going on. I'm just diving into this expansion, it's a new ballgame for me. I do agree, the Russians are interesting, but I'd definitely take Bismark over Freddy when it comes to Germany.

I just ate, gotta get back to ruling the world now.

Heh.

[hondarobot]

Yeah, you're right Quinn, I don't see taking the Native Americans into the end game. Not the way I'm playing right now. I'm doing a Castle play, which works for now, but I'm gonna get my ass kicked in the industrial age.

I have no idea what's going on with the new Espionage stuff, everyone has more points in that then I do right now. The other Civs are up to something sneaky.

I need to re-think, re-arm and re-start. I can kick this games ass, but I don't think I will in this scenario. I need more information.

Strategy games don't get better then this. It's the best. It can kick your ass.

:)

[Quinn]

Strategy games don't get better then this. It's the best. It can kick your ass.
:)

Couldn't agree more.

-Quinn

[hondarobot]

Standard Ethanol as a corporation wonder seems to be a major advantage. I don't have to waste time controlling desert territory waiting for (hopefully) oil to show up. I can convert corn, sugar or rice, which are good resources early game also.

I'm still not 100% understanding the full potential of the Espionage front. It's a complex and interesting twist that I need to look into more.

Good grief, it's 5am. I'm done for tonight.

[hondarobot]

No update tonight. New post on Wednesday, for anyone interested. It kinda sucks that a strategy guide hasn't been released yet (as far as I know). There's tons of things I haven't figured out yet.

The story continues.

:wink:

[hondarobot]

I have a very interesting campaign going on as the Dutch, gaming on a huge world map, multiple small islands. The capital city of Amsterdam is kicking serious ass, I can create any unit I need in one turn. World wonders generally take around 10 turns on average. Very cool.

I'm wanting to upgrade my navy, but that will make my Colossus Of Rhodes obsolete. So far, very good game.

Update later. Now I'm going out to get laid.

[hondarobot]

The Rise of the Dutch Super Tank

I found an interesting new variation on the expanded promotions rules. The process for discovering this all started when the Japanese deceided it would be a fun idea for them to declare war on my civilization and invade an outlying crab fishing city of mine. It was not fun for long. At that point in the game I had already advanced my navy to include several modern era units, so the hapless wooden galleys of my new advisery were horribly beat up and sunk before landing nearly any troops. The few medivel level jokers who did breach the city leaned very quickly the horrors of my machine gun technology. Heh.

Anyhow, this led to a lengthy campaign that lasted for quite some time, but I did end up focusing on military tech more and found out this handy trick: A Great General (a new type of Great Person unit that usually only gets spawned at random, and is pretty rare) can be used to, among other things, grant a stack of units experience points. 20 points which can be spread evenly amongst the stack. Naturally, the first thing I thought was "why not just give one single unit all 20 points and go beserk with it?"

When this option became available to me, I was lucky enough to have two Great Generals at the same time. I'm sure anyone reading this can see where this is heading. Unfortunately, the double whammy promotion doesn't work, but you can partially get around it. Promote one unit with all 20 from one general, then stack that unit with another single unit, and promote that stack. 30 xp points right out of the gate. My military, due to improvements and civics options, already start with 11 xp, which puts the Super Unit at a staggering 41 xp before it ever even fires a weapon. My tank will have multiple, collateral damage attacks at a huge combat level, a movement bonus, all kinds of stuff. It will be Killdozer.

Soon as I get home from work, Tokyo is in for one hell of a surprise.

Also, the new Privateer unit is probably my favorite so far. I had a whole fleet of pirates creating mayhem on the high seas during the 17th century. Very cool. Looking forward to battle mechs and suitcase nukes coming up.

[hondarobot]

Serious game flaw (I think). I don't control the United Nations or the Apostolic Palace anymore, so possibly some bizarre edict got passed and I didn't notice it, but I can't declare war on the Mayans. The diplomacy screen keeps telling me we have a peace treaty for 10 turns.

I never agreed to that, I've been doing everything I can to cancel it, I canceled our open borders treaty, insulted them, I have huge military forces massed on their borders, and I can't attack them. I let turns go by, the diplomacy screen keeps telling me we have a 10 turn peace treaty going on, and it can't be broken. It also never counts down, it's always 10 turns.

I've gone back to earlier save points, and can attack them at those times, but it's irritating because at those points I don't have my Super Tank yet. At least the Japanese have calmed down, I suppose.

This may be something that needs to be fixed with a game patch, because it makes no sense to me. Still, good game. Odd glitch.

[dan_drade]

I just got Pong... What a rush!!!

[hondarobot]

I'm laughing my ass off. . . You just got Pong. Bahahaha. That was the funniest thing ever.

Why would you even bother to post that? Find some other thread.

:smh

[dan_drade]

LOL, I thought that was funny too, thats why I posted it. But you know what would be even funnier? If instead of playing Civilization 4: Beyond The Sword expansion, you were actually in it and had to fight.

[hondarobot]

Yeah, that sure would be interesting. What's not interesting to me is crazy people fucking up my gaming blog threads. Contribute to the topic somehow or fuck off (read the first thread post).

If you're trying to be menacing, you're not doing a very good job.

[dan_drade]

Awww, come on bro. I'm just bustin your balls a little bit. I am sitting here bored out of my gourd trying to plan out my work day tomorrow and I saw your thread, so I thought I would post a little smart ass comment. So don't get your knickers all in a bunch. And besides, I'm sure a lot of other people saw it and now they are laughing their asses off too.

[hondarobot]

Given the thread view count, I doubt many people are reading this thread at all, which is fine by me. I post this stuff because I find it interesting.

My inability to attack the Mayan civilization does have me a bit irritated at the moment. My Super Tank would kick their collective asses.

Dammit!

:P

[hondarobot]

Now these bastards are in trouble. I went back to the save point where I had just spawned the second Great General, and started things over from there. I took things through the logical steps, organized fleets, and now have the following at my disposal:

4 semi-modern Navy aircraft carrier groups (1 carrier/full compliment of fighters, 2 battleships, 4 destroyers each)

1 heavy assault Navy attack force (1 carrier/full compliment of fighters, 3 battleships, 4 destroyers, 10 transports filled with tanks and marines)

1 Secret Weapon Navy group (1 carrier/full compliment of fighters, 1 battleship, 2 destroyers, 1 fast transport/SUPER TANK, Super Marine, Great Artist, machine gunner)

Several Destroyers and Battleships positioned at key defense positions

At least 2 machine gunners, 1 marine, 1 tank, 1 fighter, and assorted other units per city as defense forces

James Watt (Great Engineer) is sitting at wait in Amsterdam for when I need him

The list of world and national wonders I have is way to lengthy to go into.

Hehehe. This is gonna be awesome. I'm still at war with the Japanese, but they just got a total ass kicking in their latest retarded invasion attempt (then I sunk all their ships as they tried to escape). I do not have the annoying "Peace Treaty" going with the Mayans this time. The world is my oyster.

Oh, and the Great Artist I'm sending on my Secret Weapon group (Great Artists are good to occupy a captured capital because they can "culture bomb" a city and keep dissent down) is . . . (wait for it). . . Miles Davis! How cool is that? I'll raze my enemies cities, kill their soldiers, but after the dust settles, I'll sooth their nerves with a bit of cool bebop jazz.

Fun.

:D

[hondarobot]

That was awesome. The capital of the Mayan civilization, as well as five other Mayan cities that were connected to my borders, have fallen in one evening to the stomping wooden combat clogs of the mighty Dutch army. They should never have researched Broadway. That robbed them of their masculinity and, really, was just rather irritating. I could hear show tunes in Amsterdam.

A couple of good marine units were lost, some storming the cities, three in one swoop while aboard a transport when a sneaky Mayan destroyer managed to blind side me. Super Tank only went into battle once, and to be honest I wasn't overly impressed with it's performance. I might have to re-think that tactic in the future.

All in all, still a great campaign. I have over 70 turns left before the final score is tallied, my only active enemies remain the Japanese and the few scattered outposts of the Mayans. I have regained control of the Apostolic Palace (and the United Nations is now under the control of my buddy Gilgamesh). Everything is going well. I can also research the Manhattan Project in a couple of turns, but that's always opening a can of worms.

Victory could be had by: Building the spaceship to Alpha Centauri (not too hard), boosting culture for a Cultural Victory (very possible), or just nuking opposing cities and going ape shit with tanks, bombers, and cruise missles (admittedly, the most fun option).

We shall see. I'm just finishing off getting my last few nuclear reactors and recycling centers online. It's all about balance.

Good game so far.

[hondarobot]

I just got Medieval II Total war. Don't bother with the strategy side of the game, just play the battles. Not played online yet. Anybody else into this game?

The Total War series is a highly acclaimed series of games. I haven't checked them out yet myself, but I do intend to.

[hondarobot]

Damn. Sim City Societies hits the shelves today, and EB Games wasn't open yet. I bought the strat guide yesterday, but do not have the game yet. Trying EB again and Target on lunch break.

I must have Sim City Societies.

8)

[Quinn]

Still playing CIV IV (when I get free time) myself. It's all about Peter the Great of Russia collecting vassals like intravenous drug users collect diseases.

-Quinn

[hondarobot]

Heh. I've got several saved Civ 4 BTS games that I'll get back to eventually. I am very interested in the new Sim City incarnation, though. Definately looking forward to it.

[hondarobot]

Alright, I'm off to work soon, and then I'd like to enjoy some Sim City Societies later this evening. I do not want to deal with a bunch of distractions this time.

(interesting questions/statements are nice to read, as always)

[hondarobot]

Good. Behave yourself today.

(Anyone who want's to post some stupid shit in this thread, go ahead, I simply have a goofball addiction).

:P

[hondarobot]

I'm not sure what to think about Sim City Societies just yet. It's interesting, but it may have been dumbed down too much. One of my favorite aspects of the older releases was that the primary concern was building large utility and transportation networks, and then the sims just worked within their zoning parameters. You'd have to make changes constantly, and various events would occur, but it was not a game with a great deal of micro-managing.

I generally am pretty keen on micro-managing, but that's why the Sim City games were a fun departure from that. This latest one has pretty much thrown infrastructure planning right out the window. There's no power lines to run, no sewer lines to place, I'm not sure how the subway systems are implemented yet. It seems that stuff is just worked out automatically. That's cool in some ways, but it definitely changes the game. I can remember times would a Sim City I was building began to have serious problems in some far flung neighborhood, only to eventually realize that one single tile of a subway line had somehow been run North-South, when the rest of the line was East-West.

Problems like that were stupid, but it was part of the game. I kinda miss that.

So, now a new streamlined version of the game is the current subject of this thread. There are a lot of new avenues, and I think it will be fun to explore them. It's not really possible for the game to be much of a challenge, it's definitely the furthest example of an open "sand box" I've ever seen.

I've completed the in-game tutorial so far. I guess we'll see what happens once the training wheels are taken off. Time to build a city.

The CNN Democratic Debate is also on right now, so that's interesting as well.

[hondarobot]

One of the more amusing, if not bizarre, aspects of the new Sim City is that certain buildings can spawn ghosts. The only function of a ghost I've seen is to scare adult sims, and provide entertainment for sim children. In theory, a city filled with ghost and children would be a fairly happy place on one hand, but horribly unproductive on the other. All the adults would be too scared to work.

I'll have to test this theory out tonight.

:)

[hondarobot]

Sim City Societies is nearly a complete failure, and that's unfortunate because in many ways it accomplished everything many players wanted the game designers to do.

The good thing is it demonstrates what was so interesting about the earlier releases. It was frustrating not being able to construct a city exactly how you wanted it to be, but now that this title allows that, the game isn't fun anymore. The key element here is the mood and general livelihood of the sims, where before things were more focused on somewhat realistic urban planning.

Personally, I don't really care if the sims are pickpocketing or performing as street musicians, or whatever. I'd rather make sure my electrical grid was functioning and optimized. That use to be a pain in the ass, and now that it's gone, I realize how much I actually enjoyed that.

This moves things much more towards The Sims, and away dramatically from the Sim City line. It was a bad decision, but I'm not upset that I bought it. It's an important lesson in game design theory. Sometimes having everything a person wants isn't such a good idea.

I suppose there are still some fun things to do with it, but it is neither interesting or realistic as far as a computer simulation is suppose to be.