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Oct
31
Civ4 Score
Category: civ4 | 
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A score of 3447 in Settler mode is enough for me to no longer have the leadership skills of Dan Quayle, but of Ethelred the Unready. “The Unready” - doesn’t sound like much of a promotion, eh?
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Oct
31
Workers working harder in Civ4
Category: civ4 | Leave a Comment
In Civilization 4, one of the most significant changes outside of the civics and religions, is the expanded role given to workers. Previously, it was very easy to know what to do with your workers. If a mountain or hill was involved, put a road and mine; otherwise irrigate and road. Jungles and forrests had no purpose except to make your cities sick or deprive you of an irrigation spot. However, if you eliminated them, you would miss out on certain key game resources which only appeared in jungles and forests. So you had to just deal with the sickness and hope that a resource would appear nearby to validate your city’s sufferings.
In civ4, however, your workers have become MUCH more intersting units’ It’s not so simple anymore to decide what the best course of action is. For any plot of land you have the option of a cottage, mine or farm. For other land. depending on t characteristics, you have the options of windmill, watermill, lumber mill, farm. Whereas before your only real choice was to build an irrigation for growth and road for commerce, the civ designers have made the game a little more challenging and realistic. Now you have to make a choice - do I want commerce OR irrigation.
You see, roads no longer provide commerce. The purpose of a road is now to connect your cities, thus providing a trade route, as well as allowing your units to easily move around your empire. In order to get commerce you much build a cottage. But cottages provide wealth and no food so you have to figure out whether growth or money is more important. However, in their infinite wisdom, the programmers on the civ4 team have balanced things out by no longer making it desireable to grow your cities without bound. They had similar incentives in civ3, but whereas in civ3 your citizens became discontent, in civ4 they get unhealthy. They therefore, don’t necessarily lose productivity for a turn and demand an entertainer.
Things get even more interesting when you consider another improvement the programmers added to make life more balanced in civ4. You see, before the only cities I could use to build wonders were those cities by hills and they were the only ones generating enough shields (hammers in civ4). In civ4 you can use watermills and lumber mills to increase the productivity of a city. So when you have a city where building units/buildings is very important, you have the choice between growing the city, getting more commerce, or building more objects. It makes for a very interesting landscape. As you can see in some of my screenshots.
Finally, railroads continue to be a great improvement to make in your empire. However, the emphasis has changed a little. Instead of blanketing every square with railroads, you’ll want to concentrate on the land spaces which would most benefit as they increase the effects of certain terrain improvements, but do nothing for others. I’ve noticed that they are of my benefit for lumbermills and cottages. And, as with before, you’ll want to use railroads to get your units around without wasting movement points - very useful during a war. I think there are also some trade route benefits, but I haven’t really explored that.
AnutliejL yuud imp .ruv emeu L in civ4 ia Lha.L the computer players have much better AI when it comes to working their land. In civ3 it seemed as though the computer was programmed to put a mine on every square accompanied by a road. Therefore, depending on how much my workers were needed elsewhere, I often found myself busy replacing all of these mines with irrigation so that the cities would grow beyond size 3 cities.
I have -50 more turns left in my current game of civ4. I have REALLY enjoyed it a lot and I think the team has done a superb job designing it. Now that I have a better idea of the roles of the civics, religions, and workers as well as a better understanding of the revised tech tree, I think I will be able to make much more informed decisions in my future games.
I think I will play a few more games at settler difficulty to ensure that I have a good feel for the new dynamics in the game. (It took me about 5-6 games in civ3 to really start taking advantage of roads and other advanced concepts) I have a hope of completing the space race - something I’ve never been able to achieve since civ2. I’m not sure if this is because it seems a lot easier in civ4 via trade routes and other money producing techniques to spend a lot on science or some other balancing they’ve done in the game or just because I’m in settler mode. I know that by this time in a civ3 game I have wall street and I am not making as much money as I’m currently making in civ4, so maybe they have changed the economics of the game. Right now I have markets/banks (which don’t seem to have the same relationship they did in civ3 and below) in maybe half of my cities and I’m making -300 gold/turn. Usually, with democracy, railroads, forbidden palace, wall street, and stock markets in civ3 I am making around 50 gold.
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Oct
31
Relient K Concert
Category: Me, Music | Leave a Comment
Just got back from a Relient K concert in Philly. My wife and I were lamenting not having ever been to a Relient K concert despite the fact that they are on our top tier of bands when I decided to check the website. I found out they were playing in Philly and wouldn’t be anywhere else near us for the foreseable future. So, after a few phone calls determined that tickets were still available, we got into the car and drove the two hours to the concert. It was Rufio, Relient K, and MxPx; we stayed for the first two. I like MxPx, but not quite as much as I like Relient K; Rufio went first so we had to see them. It was weird being the oldest people there besides parents who took their tweens to see the concert, but we had a great time.
They are great live - almost better than their CDs, a rarity. RK played a pretty good mix of new and old songs and we knew all of them so we were able to sing along. They kicked off their set with the Theme from Family Matters playing in the background as they walked on stage. Later in the set they played the Theme to Full House as a tribute to the actress who played DJ on the show. I was waiting to see if some other TGIF show would get played, but only those two made their “cameos”. Not sure what else to say except that I was mad they said no cameras and yet there were people all around me flashing theirs. I took one shot with my cell phone. I think it’s crap, but I’ll review it tomorrow and post it if it came out ok.
Did everyone remember to set their clocks back last night? good….
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Oct
30
Happy Birthday!
Category: family | Leave a Comment
Happy Birthday Dina! Hope you have a fun birthday today!
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Oct
29
My Monty Hall PHP Script
Category: Entertainment, Geek Love, Internet, programming | Leave a Comment
Well, actually, it’s not mine. It was a script in Linux Format Magazine a few issues ago. As hobbyists have done since the beginning, I copied the code down to see it actually work.
First the background on Monty Hall. Here it is from Wikipedia.com:
The Monty Hall problem is a puzzle in game theory involving probability that is loosely based on the American game show Let’s Make a Deal. The name comes from the show’s host, Monty Hall. In this puzzle a player is shown three closed doors; behind one is a car, and behind each of the other two is a goat. The player is allowed to open one door, and will win whatever is behind the door. However, after the player selects a door but before opening it, the game host (who knows what’s behind the doors) must open another door, revealing a goat. The host then must offer the player an option to switch to the other closed door. Does switching improve the player’s chance of winning the car? The answer is yes — switching results in the chances of winning the car improving from 1/3 to 2/3.
Here is a famous statement of the problem, from a letter from Craig F. Whitaker to Marilyn vos Savant’s column in Parade Magazine in 1990 (as quoted by Bohl, Liberatore, and Nydick):
Suppose you’re on a game show, and you’re given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what’s behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, “Do you want to pick door No. 2?” Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?
This is a restatement of the problem as given by Steve Selvin in a letter to the American Statistician (February, 1975). As stated, the problem is an extrapolation from the game show; Monty Hall did open a wrong door to build excitement, but did not allow players to change their choice. As Monty Hall wrote to Selvin:
And if you ever get on my show, the rules hold fast for you—no trading boxes after the selection.
—(letsmakeadeal.com)Selvin’s subsequent letter to the American Statistician (August, 1975) appears to be the first use of the term “Monty Hall problem”.
An essentially identical problem appeared as the “three prisoners problem” in Martin Gardner’s Mathematical Games column in 1959. Gardner’s version makes the selection procedure explicit, avoiding the unstated assumptions in the Parade Magazine version.
The first appearance of the problem was probably the one presented in Joseph Bertrand’s Calcul des probabilités (1889) where it was known as Bertrand’s Box Paradox.
An unambiguous statement of the problem, with explicit constraints on the host as described by Mueser and Granberg:
* Behind each of three doors is either a goat or a car (two goats, one car), with the car behind each door with equal probability.
* The player picks one of the three doors. The contents are not revealed.
* The game host knows what is behind each door.
* The game host must open one of the remaining doors and must make the offer to switch.
* The game host will always open a door with a goat.
o That is, if the player picks a door with a goat, the game host picks the other door with a goat.
o And if the player picks the door with a car, the game host randomly picks either of the two doors with a goat.
* The host offers the player the chance to either claim what is behind the originally-chosen door, or to switch, claiming what is behind the one remaining door.Do the player’s odds of getting the car increase by switching?
[edit]The solution
The answer to the problem is yes; the chance of winning the car is doubled when the player switches to another door rather than sticking with the original choice.
There are three possible scenarios, each with equal probability (1/3):
* The player picks goat number 1. The game host picks the other goat. Switching will win the car.
* The player picks goat number 2. The game host picks the other goat. Switching will win the car.
* The player picks the car. The game host picks either of the two goats. Switching will lose.In the first two scenarios, the player wins by switching. The third scenario is the only one where the player wins by staying. Since two out of three scenarios win by switching, the odds of winning by switching are 2/3.
The problem would be different if there were no initial choice, or if the game host picked a door to open at random, or if the game host were permitted to make the offer to switch more often (or only) depending on knowledge of the player’s original choice. Some statements of the problem, notably the one in Parade Magazine, do not explicitly exclude these possibilities. For example, if the game host only offers the opportunity to switch if the contestant originally chooses the car, the odds of winning by switching are 0%. In the problem as stated above, it is because the host must make the offer to switch and must reveal a goat that the player has a 2/3 chance of winning by switching.
Another way of getting the solution is that assuming you will switch, the only way of losing would be by originally picking the winning door (i.e. you inititially bet that you’ll find the prize; if you did pick the winning door, switching will make you lose). By switching, you essentially invert your chances from 1/3 to 2/3 (i.e. by switching you actually bet on not having chosen the winning door in the first pick).
Don’t believe it? Try my Monty Hall Simulation. The more rounds you play the closer the results follow the math. Basically, it’s like how you have a 50/50 chance of getting a heads when flipping a coin. In real life you could flip 10 heads in a row. But if you did 100, it’d be closer to 50/50.
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Oct
29
I am extremely happy to announce that I have been approached by the author of The Cognoscenti for use of one of my pictures of Congress on his political blog as part of the header. I have just replied to give him permission to use the picture so I don’t know how long it will be until it is up. With the role that blogs have been playing recently in press and with their popularity soaring, this could be a boon for my photography.
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Oct
28
Civ First Look
Category: civ4 | 2 Comments
Welcome to my first look/impressions of Civ4. As you can see, I began the game with a settle and a warrior. The first things you will notice are that they have changed the icons so that a unit is represented by three units instead of one. Although, considering how many units are used in a war, defend a city, etc, it’s obvious that a unit still represents many more units than three. However, it’s pretty neat to watch battles now. Also, there are cows and horses on the map! You can make pastures for these and they will provide you with health/food/etc. If you irrigate or anything else, you lose the animals.
Here you see that the city menu has radically changed. A lot more information is at your fingertips and it’s more pleasant to look at. Your percentage of population from your civ is shown here and that plays a larger role in whether you lose a city to culture than in previous civs.
Here my national boundaries have begun to expand. You can also see that for the worker options, they went for a look that matches games like Age of Empires with large graphical buttons representing their actions. At least in settler mode, they highlight actions you might like to use.
More of how the game looks early on.
Above you can now see a farm, which has replaced the irrigation of land tiles. Now I am making roads up to where I would like my next city.
Here you can see my horse pastures. Additionally, you can see how it looks when a city is protected by a unit of warriors. You can also see a cottage behind the horses. A cottage is what provices commerce in Civ4, unlike in Civ3 where it was just accomplished by roads.
Now you can see my second city after a false start where I made the newbie error of sending settlers out on their own without protection. They were killed by barbarians and I lost the production time.
I zoomed all the way out to show you my four cities.
The galleys look MUCH cooler than they did in earlier civs - actually seaworthy.
See how my cities have grown after a few dozen terms.
By using great artists I was able to win this city from the Egyptians via culture! Mwahaha!
I have Knights!
A closer look at the beautiful city graphics.
Ah yes! I loved this part. My culture increased so much at one point that it caused a discontinuity in everyone else’s culture! That’s how much I’ve focused on it.
Thanks! I’ll be posting more as I play some more.
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Oct
28
“Scooter” Libby goes down!
Category: News, Politics | Leave a Comment
“Scooter” Libby, VP Cheney’s advisor, looks like a really shady guy. So it was no surprise to me when I heard on NPR news that he has been indicted and he has resigned. He wasn’t indicted with outing the CIA agent, but with perjury and obstruction of justice. Paltry crimes you say? These were the crimes that ended getting Bill Clinton impeached! Carl Rove didn’t get indicted, but isn’t scot free either! They’re still investigating him even though the Grand Jury has been retired. I’m currently listening to the Special Prosecutor on WYPR’s (our local NPR affiliate) streaming audio and I’ll update you if I learn anything else.
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Oct
28
News Tidbits
Category: News, Politics, civ4 | Leave a Comment
First a quick aside:
That Civ4 post got pushed back a little as I couldn’t resist playing and then I had to get to bed since I have an early day today. Expect it later today if nothing irregular happens. To Tara’s comment yesterday - your comments made me check my tech tree poster - Mine is in English. It seems like you got a European version even though their debut is in November.
The US Justice department has approved the mergers of Verizon-MCI and SBC-AT&T. My feelings? Get ready for potentially higher prices for everything. This is not only the reduction of local phone service competition, but also long distance and Dial-Up/DSL service. Technically, MCI and AT&T have been focusing on long distance/business customers, but I’m not 100% sure, things have been getting more and more complicated in the telecom industry.
Harriet Miers couldn’t take the heat, so she got out of the kitchen. She has dropped out of the “race” for Supreme Court even though all the pundits said she’d probably stick it through. I guess if it were only democrats calling for her withdrawal it’d be different, but not even republicans wanted her. I think, with only one spot left, the republicans want to make sure they get someone who will guarantee a reversal of roe v wade or something. Although I believe that a woman should try and have an unwanted child and put it up for adoption, I also think that forcing women to go back to underground abortions is not the way to go. Just try and communicate with people rationally and explain your reasons. Let them deal with the choice.
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Oct
27
Civ4 Disc Error? plus one little thing…
Category: civ4 | 2 Comments
Wondering if anyone else has experienced the following with civ4 special edition. According to the manual and discs, it says that disc 2 should be the disc to play from. However, on my computer it only loads off of disc 1.
Second, I read the terms of usage (the license) when I was a little bored today on time off from work. Did you know that to use a drive emulator like Alcohol 120% or others is against the license? I didn’t know that!
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Oct
27
Computer’s back! Yay!
Category: Computers | Leave a Comment
Thanks to those with the kind words for me over my graphics card problem. I got a BFG brand nVidia 256 MB card at Best Buy for $159. It was equivalent to the one I just lost so civ4 should play at least as well as before. AND it has a lifetime warranty! As soon as I get a chance, I’ll post that walkthrough.
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