index last updated by cracker – April 3, 2003

The Isolated Island Qsc17-Carthage for Civilization III

This month represents our fourth month in a row with double digit participation growth showing a 31 percent increase in participation in the Quick Start Challenge. This month we had 88 total QSC submissions all of which are included in the results tables. This is our first month of 100% success in being able to use every submission.

This is the third major Quick Start Challenge game where we have a large enough pool of players to facilitate a statitical analysis of the impact of different strategic play decisions across groups of games that share common characteristics.

Much of the discussion of this QSC game will probably focus on three issues that have already been raised at least in part in the Pregame discussion thread and then in the early game spoiler discussion thread. Fundamental to success on this map and in this game, was the need to analyse the starting position and decide if you felt it was necessary to move the initial settler to one of the surrounding tile locations or if you would settle right on the home position marked with and "H" in the image at left. Again the fundamental skills emphasized in the article on “Improving Your Opening Play Sequences” would play an important role in whether players succeeded or failed in this task.

The second and third critical decisions and tasks related to scientific Research and Exploration. Because this was a Regent level game you could be relatively certain that tech progression in the game would be driven internally by the focus of the human research. Exploration on an archipelago style map would require early capture of the Map Making technology to enable galleys and Map trading.

This month We have the benefit of a complete set of composite overlay maps produce through the efforts of GOTM player RufRydyr. These maps combine with save games for every game and outstanding timelines for 83 of the 88 games will allow you to discuss an comapre many of the details of this game just as if you had personally play tested the game 80 to 90 different ways. Truly this is a phenomenal learning resource purchased by the effort and dedication of our GOTM players.

Timeline packages:
A and B (768kb)  ·  C thru F (659kb)  ·  G thru M (434kb)  ·  N thru Z (666kb)

Thirty six of the submissions in this QSC came from first time QSC players including five MAC players who have never been able to participate in prior versions of the GOTM games. Forty Four (50%) of the submissions were played, received and scored in the PTW game formats with only five of those being patched to upgrade to the v1.21 version that was release on the same day the game began.

Results Groupings

The results groupings for this QSC were produced by accumulating some assessment statistics for the individual games that deliberately did not try to say these are good games and these are bad games. Our focus again was on trying to group games together with other games that shared a significant common characteristic. Because of the design of this game, the groupings tend to provide a very strong correlation with overall player performance in many other areas.

The Eight Groupings of Games in this Qsc17 are:

  Group 1 - Focused Researchers and/or Explorers.
  Group 2 - Other players who moved 1 square south.
  Group 3 - Other players who moved onto the Floodplains.
  Group 4 - Other players who moved NE, NW, or W from the start position.
  Group 5 - Players who moved East or made no move but explored more than 1/2.
  Group 6 - Players who moved East or made no move but explored more than 1/4.
  Group 7 - Players who moved East or made no move and stayed on 1 island.
  Group 8 - Players who moved East or made no move and reached 2 islands.

Each Results Grouping has its own detailed results table on a seperate webpage. Plus you may download the entire data table summary for all the valid QSC submissions in an Excel spreadsheet to help with more detailed discussion and analysis which some of the more experienced players should be able to help provide.

The groupings are heavily focused on the choices of the opening move sequences but also include a strong correlation with exploration success as reflected by the number of islands where each player was able to establish a presence through landing military units and/or founding cities prior to the year 1000bc.

You are again invited to view the timelines from this Qsc17 for this true Archipelago style and ask questions or present your own constructive observations and conclusions in the accompanying forum discussion thread.

Congratulations again to all the players, supporters, and other participants in the GOTM games,

Cracker and the GOTM Staff

General Summary of the Qsc17 game conditions

Quick Start Challenge 17 (Qsc17) is an alternative submission game that allows players to document the opening play sequences of their GOTM games through the end of 1000bc and then earn extra recognition by submitting a save file plus and accompanying timeline of the events from the start of the game up to that point. Players are free to continue playing the same game and submit the results for full competition as a completed game in the GOTM.

Gotm17 was a Regent level Civ3 game with the Humans playing Carthage from an isolated island start position where early contact could only be obtained with Egypt without taking substanyial risks through suicide galley exploration. Even with the benefit of the Great Lighthouse, the map was designed to make it virtually impossible to make contact with additional civilizations without discovering Navigation (or Magnetism) or surviving at least three turns of potential random death on the treacherous ocean. Effectively the game design provided isolation from external random events that could influence the QSC.

Special Recognition Awards for Qsc17:

"Pacesetter" awards for the game are granted to - Alexman, Narakael, and Capt. Buttkick all appearing in their first QSC game as well as expereinced players and pacesetters of Bamspeedy, Kemal, Borealis, Bremp and SirPleb. Four of these eight pacesetters all made the decision to move south from the starting psotion

We would also like to recognized the following special award winners selected from the content of the submitted timelines and save game files:

  The “Warmonger’s golden erection award” - Zwingli for 330 points in game that ranked in 20th place in the overall results pool of 88 players
  The “Techmonger’s Ivory Tower award” - Yndy with 4740 technology points in a game that would have scored in 2nd place if a timeline was submitted.
  The “I Cramus Maximus award” - Bamspeedy adding a second victory in this category with a new world record of 7.1 average tiles per town ratio. First time player Renata was close behind with a 7.4 ratio and expereinced power player Bremp came in third.
  The “Not So Happy Camper” award for building the fewest number of buildings or improvements - goes to GreatDeceiver who built zero improvements in his bid to have his name scribed into the stone tablet of anti-builderdom right next to HighlandWarrior from last month's effort.

For more details as to how these special awards are determined you can visit the QSC Scoring and Awards webpage.

Results Summary:

You may click on the Final QSC Score for any game to directly download the save game and remember that the timelines are grouped into four alphabetical packages which can be downloaded from links shown above and in the menu to the right of your screen.

Download the complete score sheet in an Excel Spreadsheet.