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=14517For 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 / Magnumaniac3) 38850 points - Wyndstar
Well there are different setups and ways to win from DL to ToA, also because of map size, but if you don´t care about score at all then it´s just a matter of a few minutes.
And then you want to go for better score - it takes quite a bit longer. Nevertheless, it´s a great fun to milk them out to the very last (and lie awake in bed all night long wondering how it still could be pushed a bit....)
So if you wanna try it out some day you may find this thread helpful; I also found it the most funny and interesting of all my reads here, it´ll give you foremostly all the info you need, as well as we have KP around who is *the* true master of the fast+highscoring ZYW's, who initially did let "the cat out of the bag"
finally broke 40k on tiny´s.... I hope I can adapt this to the Gigantic maps as well, but first I´ll try this in ToA.
Congrats on the amazing score Maiden! You are just behind Motti now, and maybe you will surpass his score in the near future.
Thanks for the compliments, but I was not the originator of the ZYWs. the first person to actually do it was Kryo, way way back. Later, it was Wyndstar who brougt the strategy to light during a round of the Metaverse League. From there, me, Magnumaniac, Neilo, DethAdder, MottiKhan, and others worked both competitively and cooperatively to enhance and refine the strategy over time. The one major thing I can take credit for is discovering the scoring potential of the gigantic-ZYWs, rather accidentally in fact. I realized that Precursor libraries werent showing up in tiny maps, so I started trying different sizes. The scaling effect for technology scoring vs map size was indeed a juicy discovery.
Sentient species taste better...
I salute you both, Admirals! May your exploits be even more astonishing than they are now.
The one major thing I can take credit for is discovering the scoring potential of the gigantic-ZYWs, rather accidentally in fact.
Actually that was a pretty funny thing, really sad I missed these times. Way back this thread was really competetive, and not only for ZYWs, but what you discovered seemed to hand the MV players a new + efficient way to storm the rankings up. Well, let´s not underestimate that, the Giga ZYW have the highest score potential *plus* they can be played faster & safer than the tiny's. In some way these are really efficient in terms of time * score. And (judging from your MV characters) it is my opinion you are #1 on these games. You break 120k now thoroughly, constantly - I struggle at 90k, that´s a big difference.
Well, don´t know how to express what I really wanna say, maybe I try the other way 'round:
just as an example, that above 45k score took me half of the day to play-out. That´s fine with me if I intend to break some score - but to shoot my character into Top25 such an approach is virtually useless. It would take me months.... I am better off to stay with the mediocre 90k giga's, which can be played many multiple times each day. To my eyes, that´s the main significance of ZYW's.
My latest effort!
This game is a Swindle, but I wanted to see what I could get before the end of the Y0. So it will eventually be a million point+ game.
Well done, KP!
It's good to see you give it a run the hard way. That 200k barrier might be starting to give way.
Storming onwards....
I seriously don't understand how you manage to win these gigantic maps within 1 year. It's amazing, truely.
Leon,
you´ll find the post within this thread helpfull, esp. those at the beginning. Once you know the basic framework - these games are very easy and one could go further to tweak them with own ideas.
And if it holds true that there is a secret bonus to Research on the higher difficulty levels - then these games are actually the most easy at the suicidal-level.
btw, a "classical" ZYW ends on 8th April - however, most of them could be ended sooner [which will cause the cheater-flag, and the game won´t count]
BTW, finally broke 120k by tweaking an old test-game a bit further:
lawl, kk i see. it's all about the research. getting weapons before everyone else. i've been dumping all my states on economy and Hit points, I exploit research from other races. thank you, i'll give it a try next game.
....still storming:
hmmm..... only a lil' bit tweakin' is missin'
Nice! Congrats Maiden!
"Cry havoc - and let slip the dogs of war" !!!
Dedicated to all brave t'kzintar warriors.
Awesome....totally blew past the previous record!! Looking forward to reading your report!
That's incredible Maiden. St Mina will be pleased.
That's from the ARC. Actually I didn't choose an alignement, although I planned to get the "diplomatic bonus when dealing with other good civs" - but there never was any opportunity.
I am
Very Nice Work
I would like to know if thread is up to date if so I would like third place , please.
If not, what will we do, should someone make a new club and called it Zero Win Club 2010. Let us vote on it. I think KP would be good for this so he would get my vote. What do you think?
This screen shot was taken on March 1st. In this game, I discorvied 2,250 bc in Cash Anomalies. This is my very best game so far.
Oops, seems like my pics do vanish. Let's see what I can do about it..... I vote for for KP as well, good choice.
Well, if Random's score isn't counted I'm still 3rd place, I think Jack is four. GmOOnii, that is a really a great setup, but looking at your approval rate tells me you still could improve that game. You don't really need happy people, do you?
Oh I see, that is the moral of the planet but I set on yellow 57% over all so I get the votes in my way. Anything less than 57% you lose the vote on your party or on when you want to attack Lord Kona.
Well still, it is a good score for me, even I don't take third. Maybe 5th , oh someone has that too. So what place am I then?
Idea: the Top Ten for ZYW Gigantic and ZYW Tiny
Congrats on the score GmOOnii! That is one awesome planet.
Pndrev isnt around anymore, so I will make a new ZYW Club thread.
And all little people fron the locker city yells "All Hail KP duty, All Hail KP duty "
Kp are you going to start with 2010 scores only and keep this linked as the Hall of Fame scores? Kinda like dedicated this thread to the people that started it all, our forefathers, like you. It is just idea. The only reason I like you to use 2010 scores is to show activy for the the active ones. That means we would have post 2010 scores in the new post and that means no old scores because those old scores belong here in the Hall of Fame. What do you all think?
I think I'll keep the format with the all-time highest scores, but I can also add a section for personal bests, which I will keep updated. Just post your best score, and I'll put it in the OP of the post.
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