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Year Zero Club

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Year Zero Club

...when simply winning is not enough!

from GalCiv2 Forums

First off, I couldn't have done this without the inspiration of the Metaverse League and Wyndstar in particular. Kudos to the master!

Now to the matter at hand.

I finally did it. A year zero win! Granted, it was only against 1 AI and on challenging (my current level) but I'm certain that 'tough' wouldn't have been much harder. On the other hand, it was my first attempt at an 'all-labs' and 'lease instead of buy' approach, so I consider myself proud that I could do it at all.

Here is the link to the character, as a proof: http://metaverse.galciv2.com/index.aspx?g=player&id=14517

For all of you, who like me thought that year zero wins are nigh impossible: Try it! Read the posts about it! It is difficult, requires constant micromanagement, but I found it incredibly rewarding to see that victory screen after 25 - 30 turns. Not the way I'd like to play constantly, but as a change of pace, it's a incredible challenge.

And of course, once you've accomplished your first 'Year Zero', post here and rejoice!


As an edit, I now include the current top score.


Attention new players!
Do not be frightened by these scores! Playing a ZYW is actually really easy, and getting a score close to 30000 points takes just a few tries. These games are usually finished in less than 20 minutes, so have at it. Try the tiny ZYWs first, I find them easier and you might get the unique chance to beat players like neilo or Wyndstar.


Current ZYW record holders:

'expert' ZYW - Gigantic


1) 198450 points - MottiKhan

2) 119000 points - Kzinti Patriarch

3) 109500 points - neilo


'classic' ZYW - Tiny

1) 56700points - MottiKhan

2) 40600 points - Kzinti Patriarch / Magnumaniac

3) 38850 points - Wyndstar

 

1,558,689 views 924 replies
Reply #426 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Go into the xml file for that civ and edit the
Reply #427 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Why Thalis as your system? Larger PQ home planet or something?
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #428 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Now that you say that...I remember reading earlier in this thread about ARCs and then seeing a post on it. In the ARC thread did it list all the MV compatible changes you could do?
Reply #429 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Why Thalis as your system? Larger PQ home planet or something?
End of quote

Yeah, I thought it might be better for generating bonus tiles, but having Korx and Korx II gives you more possible locations.

Now that you say that...I remember reading earlier in this thread about ARCs and then seeing a post on it. In the ARC thread did it list all the MV compatible changes you could do?
End of quote

The important changes you can make are homestar & super ability, and you can also do alignment, and errr....maybe a couple other things that I cant remember at the moment. I'll look around for the ARC thread. :)

Kzinti empire2.JPG Sentient species taste better...





Reply #430 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I double-checked the thread I'm thinking of (I had actually posted in it lol). Alignment you can change w/o xml work. Just make the custom race, then switch to play a core race and choose that custom as an opponent, then edit it. You'll get options in the way of aggressiveness, starting alignment etc...
Reply #431 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You need ARC to change alignment on any of the stock races. I think most of us doing ZYWs and using ARC, use the Altarians, because they get really nice bonuses! That's the only circumstance in which you would need ARC to change alignment.

Kzinti empire2.JPG Sentient species taste better...
Reply #432 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, I got a 93,450 on an immense. It's definitely an improvement.
Reply #434 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, I got a 93,450 on an immense. It's definitely an improvement.
End of quote

Great game Loupdinour! :D

Finally i got a YZW and it's my greatist game yet,WWW Link
End of quote

You had one before too Seth, but nice job. :)

Kzinti empire2.JPG Sentient species taste better...
Reply #435 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just joined the ZYW club with 25550 points! :HOT:





Tell me one thing though: How in hell do you do a ZYW on the really large maps and on Suicidal?! My money would run out way too early, and then there's the distance problem. :SURPRISED:
Reply #436 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Start looking on page 16 of this thread and read up to now. I started Gigantic (actually Immense in TA) ZYWs as of that point of this thread. I had plenty of Qs and comments.

First thing I'll point you at though is to switch to a custom race for TA. You do want Super Annihilator, but the Korath tree isn't very ZYW friendly.

*edit*
OK, looks like you did switch to a custom for the second ZYW. Still, the past 2 pages should flesh out enough details of what I've done in TA to get what I've seen. I still can't break my personal record of 93,450 on immense. 1 friggin minor though would change that.
Reply #437 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just joined the ZYW club with 25550 points! Tell me one thing though: How in hell do you do a ZYW on the really large maps and on Suicidal?! My money would run out way too early, and then there's the distance problem.
End of quote

Congrats e-stab! :D For larger maps, you need to tweak the setup of your civ. A +speed bonus is important, and you virtually ignore everything except tech score. Minors and tech-trading are a lot less important, as you often dont meet them at all. As Loupdinour said review the previous pages of this thread, but if you have any specific questions feel free to ask. :)

Kzinti empire2.JPG Sentient species taste better...

Reply #438 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Tell me one thing though: How in hell do you do a ZYW on the really large maps and on Suicidal?
End of quote


Hey e-stab, good to see you around  :D 

You will need to ctrl-N a bit to get a suitable starting location, but otherwise it plays very similar to the small maps. Difficulty level really makes no difference, as the game is over before they get going.

Reply #439 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks for the warm welcome. I just found out about the ARC stuff, this should make ZYW wins even smoother and easier on the larger map types.
Reply #440 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks for the warm welcome. I just found out about the ARC stuff, this should make ZYW wins even smoother and easier on the larger map types.
End of quote


To note on ARCs in TA. You cannot change the tech tree for stock races. Just something to note. I forget if that got posted here or where it was...

Oh ya...I forgot the warm welcome part. Sorry if I came across cold at all. I'm a helpful canine..really :)

Glad to see another joining in the ZYW fun.
Reply #441 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Did another ZYW, this time with ARCed Altarians: Super Breeders, Korx home system, +20 research, +1 speed, +1 sensors, Technologists. The result: 31500 in a large galaxy - could be better I guess.
Reply #442 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What's ARC? I've checked a ton of pages and can't find it.

Also, I tried my first ZYW earlier, I had one enemy planet left at the end of the year. Tiny , rare all, obscene (and for having rare all, there were a fricking lot of planets. More than I'd have thought). Not bad for a first try. I'm gonna do one again right now.
Reply #444 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nice I did my first ZYW. 20,650 was my score. Not too shabby. I wish I had customized my alignment to be evil. I'm all neutral and stuff. Which is odd since it doesn't show an alignment medal in my forum medals.
Reply #445 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Did another ZYW, this time with ARCed Altarians: Super Breeders, Korx home system, +20 research, +1 speed, +1 sensors, Technologists. The result: 31500 in a large galaxy - could be better I guess.
End of quote


Try it with spore ships. ;)
Reply #446 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just did my 2nd ZYW. Got 22,050, fair improvement from my first. I can't currently conceive of doing this on a gigantic galaxy, unless the opponent was very close with not that many colonizable planets around them.

Also, my alignment thingy is showing up again so no prob there. Both my ZYW's I finished before May.
Reply #447 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Got my 3rd ZYW. Scored 30,450 in a tiny galaxy. This is also my first win on suicidal difficulty, so a double huzzah to me for that :D
Reply #448 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is also my first win on suicidal difficulty, so a double huzzah to me for that
End of quote

Congratulations! As others have noted though, the difficulty setting doesn't make much difference in ZYWs because the AI barely has the time to use the advantages. So there isn't much reason not to choose Suicidal. ;)

Try it with spore ships.
End of quote

I thought about the same thing.

One question though, what do you really need in order to be able to build Spore ships? Do you need
(1) just the Korath tech tree
(2) just the Korath super ability
(3) both

I wouldn't mind picking the super ability, but the Korath tech tree isn't that appealing - most notably there's a bad research building to start with for ZYWers. My Altarian setup (see #441) was fine (except for the +1 sensors pick maybe), but then I had to deal with transports* instead of "fire & forget" spore ships... :p

* I wonder if sending out a large part of your population on transports affects the score.
Reply #449 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks e-stab :D

For spore ships you just need the super ability.
Reply #450 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
the difficulty setting doesn't make much difference in ZYWs
End of quote


On the contrary. The difficulty has an enormous impact on scoring: A 'normal' ZYW brought me about 15000 points. The same win in 'suicidal' almost double that.

You are right that the AI doesn't change much, since it can't cope with the strategy involved, but to get the most out of it, you need to play on suicidal.