What is REXing?

[Mike]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

I see this term used a lot but I can't figure out what it is. I
already tried getting an answer by typing it in google, but all I get
is more articles on using it, not actually what it is. An
explanation would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

"Mike" <Mike@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:u8rej0dli30ai6goegatl28j961475o07i@4ax.com...
> I see this term used a lot but I can't figure out what it is. I
> already tried getting an answer by typing it in google, but all I get
> is more articles on using it, not actually what it is. An
> explanation would be appreciated. Thank you.

Rapid EXpansion?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

In article <jJNZc.5836$w%6.2789@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net>, "topcover" <topcover@home.net> wrote:
>
>"Mike" <Mike@nowhere.com> wrote in message
>news:u8rej0dli30ai6goegatl28j961475o07i@4ax.com...
>> I see this term used a lot but I can't figure out what it is. I
>> already tried getting an answer by typing it in google, but all I get
>> is more articles on using it, not actually what it is. An
>> explanation would be appreciated. Thank you.
>
>Rapid EXpansion?

That's it.

At the start of the epic game the number of cities doubles (very) roughly
every 20 turns until there is no more unclaimed territory. This is the REX
period. You need to play to get as many cities as you can during this period.


Mike G

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

Mike <Mike@nowhere.com> wrote in message news:<u8rej0dli30ai6goegatl28j961475o07i@4ax.com>...
> I see this term used a lot but I can't figure out what it is. I
> already tried getting an answer by typing it in google, but all I get
> is more articles on using it, not actually what it is. An
> explanation would be appreciated. Thank you.

Rapid EXpansion. A peroid of peaceful rapid geographic growth at the
expense of everything else on the theory that evenually you will be
better off for having a more mixed approach.

REX generally works out very well in the full epic versions of 4X
games such as the Civ series (Civ I, II, III, SMAC, Call to Power,
etc.) 4X = Expand / Grow, Discover, Build, Conquer. The major
exceptions are:
1. If your neighbor is warlike, built a lot of units and attacked you
while you were REXing. (He'll thank you for building oh so many cities
for him.)
2. Certain early victory possible sceneraios (List is from Civ III):

Mespotania: If you REX too long you can lose the wonder race and the
game may end to early for you to build and use that large unit force
your empire allows to take them over.

Rise of Rome: All four major players start at war with one oppoent. A
true REX would need to wait until after successful wipeout of that
oppoent, by then your probable devoting one city to Artemis and
perhaps a second to another wonder.

Fall of Rome: Any new city you build might make it that much easier
for you to be eliminated early due to the lose 8 cities, lose the game
rule.

Most nations in Middle Ages: Most of them already have neighbors on
all sides and so any expansion would be via war. Some of them do have
a lot of open land and can very profitably REX, #1 Turks (open on all
sides) #2 Russia (open to the east) #3 Abus (open north, east, and
interior)

Napoleon: No expansion possible without military force / conning the
AI into giving away their empire in exchange for MPP.

War War II in the Pacific: No settler type units.

 

[Mike]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 00:38:03 GMT,
mtg@cornellc.cit.stumbling.block.cornell.edu (Mike Garcia) wrote:

>At the start of the epic game the number of cities doubles (very) roughly
>every 20 turns until there is no more unclaimed territory. This is the REX
>period. You need to play to get as many cities as you can during this period.

Ok thanks for the explanation. I prefer building a temple in each city
before I start pumping out settlers though so I guess I am not REXing
in my games.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 17:55:55 -0400, Mike <Mike@nowhere.com> wrote:

>Ok thanks for the explanation. I prefer building a temple in each city
>before I start pumping out settlers though so I guess I am not REXing
>in my games.

Building a temple will get you lots of culture later on down the
line. With REXing you don't need temples because you are popping out
settlers before the population grows. Just before the neighbors get
too close for comfort then you can start building them to prevent
settling between your cities. Many people use city overlap to make
that less likely.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

In article <guphj0t8hkao9ilugc18p017di8nmuljc1@4ax.com>, Mike <Mike@nowhere.com> wrote:
>On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 00:38:03 GMT,
>mtg@cornellc.cit.stumbling.block.cornell.edu (Mike Garcia) wrote:
>
>>At the start of the epic game the number of cities doubles (very) roughly
>>every 20 turns until there is no more unclaimed territory. This is the REX
>>period. You need to play to get as many cities as you can during this period.
>
>Ok thanks for the explanation. I prefer building a temple in each city
>before I start pumping out settlers though so I guess I am not REXing
>in my games.

Maybe, but then REX is a concept.

There is no point starting a settler if the city won't be at population 3 when
the 30 shields have been accumulated. For most cities you build something
before you start the Settler, and you build something between Settlers,
usually either a Speraman or a Warrior.


Mike G

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On Sun, 05 Sep 2004 05:31:58 GMT,
mtg@cornellc.cit.stumbling.block.cornell.edu (Mike Garcia) wrote:

>In article <guphj0t8hkao9ilugc18p017di8nmuljc1@4ax.com>, Mike <Mike@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 00:38:03 GMT,
>>mtg@cornellc.cit.stumbling.block.cornell.edu (Mike Garcia) wrote:
>>
>>>At the start of the epic game the number of cities doubles (very) roughly
>>>every 20 turns until there is no more unclaimed territory. This is the REX
>>>period. You need to play to get as many cities as you can during this period.
>>
>>Ok thanks for the explanation. I prefer building a temple in each city
>>before I start pumping out settlers though so I guess I am not REXing
>>in my games.
>
>Maybe, but then REX is a concept.
>
>There is no point starting a settler if the city won't be at population 3 when
>the 30 shields have been accumulated. For most cities you build something
>before you start the Settler, and you build something between Settlers,
>usually either a Speraman or a Warrior.

Religious civs can build temples fairly easily, and it is viable
then to make them in cities which aren't ready to make a settler. You
still need to make units, of course, but cities which already have the
temples can do that.

The earlier the temple is built, the more culture you'll get. You
still want to make plenty of cities, however, because the key to
generating high culture is, ultimately, having more cities than your
competition -- because eventually, all will have culture generating
buildings.

--
*-__Jeffery Jones__________| *Starfire* |____________________-*
** Muskego WI Access Channel 14/25 <http://www.execpc.com/~jeffsj/mach7/>
*Starfire Design Studio* <http://www.starfiredesign.com/>

 

[daran]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On Sun, 05 Sep 2004 05:31:58 GMT Mike Garcia
<mtg@cornellc.cit.stumbling.block.cornell.edu> wrote in message
<che8el$445$1@news01.cit.cornell.edu>...

> Maybe, but then REX is a concept.

I'd say that REX is a game-phase characterised by 1. Availability of
settlable land, and 2. AI civs are smaller than a programmed threshold at
which they stop seeking to expand so rapidly.

Even if the player isn't rapidly expanding during REX, the AI civs surely are.

> Mike G

--
Daran

This space intentionally left blank.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

Daran <daranSPAMg@lineone.net> wrote in message news:<dhuq02-ojk.ln1@wheresmeshirt.clara.net>...
> On Sun, 05 Sep 2004 05:31:58 GMT Mike Garcia
> <mtg@cornellc.cit.stumbling.block.cornell.edu> wrote in message
> <che8el$445$1@news01.cit.cornell.edu>...
>
> > Maybe, but then REX is a concept.
>
> I'd say that REX is a game-phase characterised by 1. Availability of
> settlable land, and 2. AI civs are smaller than a programmed threshold at
> which they stop seeking to expand so rapidly.
>
> Even if the player isn't rapidly expanding during REX, the AI civs surely are.
>

As far as the AI is concerned #1 is is there any tile more than 1 tile
away from any existing cities cultural boundary where a city is
allowed to be planted wwhere there's no enemy unit present. Also if
the title is on the cultural border of a city that has 10K+ culure,
the AI is also allowed to form a city right on the cultural boundary.
AI will assign high priority to resources, including ones they don't
have the tech for.

As far as the AI is concerned #2 is do I have > OCN cities. If so,
never found a new city unless it will bring in a luxary or resource
tile. (Resources they don't have the tech for will count.) Also when
this is the case, raize instantly any city captured in battle unless
it has a nearby luxary or resource tile. (Again, those resources they
don't have the tech for count)

There's an additional note about AI's decision to capture or raize
cities that might be Conquests only. AI will consider overall culural
ratio between the players, and if opposing culture is too high, it
will raize the city regardless of OCN. This is why in the Fall of Rome
conquest the barb AI tribes raize many more Roman cities than those
belonging to other barb AI tribes and the Roman AI tends to keep newly
captured cities.

 

[Firecrack]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

>
> As far as the AI is concerned #1 is is there any tile more than 1 tile
> away from any existing cities cultural boundary where a city is
> allowed to be planted where there's no enemy unit present. Also if
> the title is on the cultural border of a city that has 10K+ culure,
> the AI is also allowed to form a city right on the cultural boundary.
> AI will assign high priority to resources, including ones they don't
> have the tech for.
>
> As far as the AI is concerned #2 is do I have > OCN cities. If so,
> never found a new city unless it will bring in a luxary or resource
> tile. (Resources they don't have the tech for will count.) Also when
> this is the case, raize instantly any city captured in battle unless
> it has a nearby luxary or resource tile. (Again, those resources they
> don't have the tech for count)
>

Very interesting.

Should the human player continue his expansion beyond OCN (thus
increasing corruption in its core cities) or should he rather try to
stay around OCN ?

Thank you
Firecrack

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

In article <666c21f4.0409131135.20ca7f58@posting.google.com>, david_guerin_1@hotmail.com (Firecrack) wrote:
>>
>> As far as the AI is concerned #1 is is there any tile more than 1 tile
>> away from any existing cities cultural boundary where a city is
>> allowed to be planted where there's no enemy unit present. Also if
>> the title is on the cultural border of a city that has 10K+ culure,
>> the AI is also allowed to form a city right on the cultural boundary.
>> AI will assign high priority to resources, including ones they don't
>> have the tech for.
>>
>> As far as the AI is concerned #2 is do I have > OCN cities. If so,
>> never found a new city unless it will bring in a luxary or resource
>> tile. (Resources they don't have the tech for will count.) Also when
>> this is the case, raize instantly any city captured in battle unless
>> it has a nearby luxary or resource tile. (Again, those resources they
>> don't have the tech for count)

This not quite correct. I think the key is the relative levels of culture.
I think the AI will raze a captured city if (a) the AIs total culture is less
than the original civ's total culture and (b) there is no associated resource.

I've seen AI civs expand well beyond ONC.

>Very interesting.
>
>Should the human player continue his expansion beyond OCN (thus
>increasing corruption in its core cities) or should he rather try to
>stay around OCN ?

In my opinion the human should continue to expand until there is no longer any
place to build another city. The effective ONC (the term comes from the
editor) can be raised a number of ways. Building the Forbidden Palace and
building Courthouses are the ways to do it in the early game. WLtKD also
reduces corruption. In the industrial age you can build Police Stations after
you learn Communism. If you switch to Communism and you have Espionage you
can build the Secret Police HQ (in C3C).

Going beyond ONC does not increase corruption in your core cities, unless you
are under Communism. It just means that your most distant cities will be
totally corrupt. If you are going to win a Domination victory you must go
beyond ONC.


Mike G

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

mtg@cornellc.cit.stumbling.block.cornell.edu (Mike Garcia) wrote in message news:<ci4u61$7hn$1@news01.cit.cornell.edu>...
> In article <666c21f4.0409131135.20ca7f58@posting.google.com>, david_guerin_1@hotmail.com (Firecrack) wrote:
> >>
> >> As far as the AI is concerned #1 is is there any tile more than 1 tile
> >> away from any existing cities cultural boundary where a city is
> >> allowed to be planted where there's no enemy unit present. Also if
> >> the title is on the cultural border of a city that has 10K+ culure,
> >> the AI is also allowed to form a city right on the cultural boundary.
> >> AI will assign high priority to resources, including ones they don't
> >> have the tech for.
> >>
> >> As far as the AI is concerned #2 is do I have > OCN cities. If so,
> >> never found a new city unless it will bring in a luxary or resource
> >> tile. (Resources they don't have the tech for will count.) Also when
> >> this is the case, raize instantly any city captured in battle unless
> >> it has a nearby luxary or resource tile. (Again, those resources they
> >> don't have the tech for count)
>
> This not quite correct. I think the key is the relative levels of culture.
> I think the AI will raze a captured city if (a) the AIs total culture is less
> than the original civ's total culture and (b) there is no associated resource.
>
> I've seen AI civs expand well beyond ONC.
>

Well, the AI in conquests does seem to expand a lot further than in
vanilla. So they've greatly increased the ocn limit in conquests.
(Maybe to something like OCN * 4 : enough so that the last city
founded is effectively at OCN with a Court House + Police Station.)

> >Very interesting.
> >
> >Should the human player continue his expansion beyond OCN (thus
> >increasing corruption in its core cities) or should he rather try to
> >stay around OCN ?
>
> In my opinion the human should continue to expand until there is no longer any
> place to build another city. The effective ONC (the term comes from the
> editor) can be raised a number of ways. Building the Forbidden Palace and
> building Courthouses are the ways to do it in the early game. WLtKD also
> reduces corruption. In the industrial age you can build Police Stations after
> you learn Communism. If you switch to Communism and you have Espionage you
> can build the Secret Police HQ (in C3C).
>
> Going beyond ONC does not increase corruption in your core cities, unless you
> are under Communism. It just means that your most distant cities will be
> totally corrupt. If you are going to win a Domination victory you must go
> beyond ONC.
>
>
> Mike G

Note that totally corrupt isn't quite as bad in Conquests than
Vanilla.
In vanilla you could have a city with CN so high that it would always
have 95% corruption & waste even with Court House + Police Station +
WLTPD.

In Conquests latest patch, max corruption is 90%, With Court House max
corruption is 80%, and combined with a Police Station, max corruption
is 70%.

That's enough for some production if the city is large enough and has
enough raw shields, still usually confiended to cheap improvements
that you'll willing to wait for.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

> Very interesting.
>
> Should the human player continue his expansion beyond OCN (thus
> increasing corruption in its core cities) or should he rather try to
> stay around OCN ?
>
> Thank you
> Firecrack

Well, the main thing is the larger the territory you can peacefully
REX into, the looser your city spacing should be. (And convesely, the
more your boxed in, the tighter your city spacing should be.)

And also, if you've adopoted extensive Borg city spacing (2 tile
spacing), roughly half of them in a checkerboard pattern shouldn't
have expensive improvements (ideally baracks only) so once you have a
large amount you can start abanding them to let the surrounding cities
that have aquaducts work their tiles and reduce the corruption in the
empire by knocking down OCN based ones. Usually after a certain number
of cities [around .75 * OCN], Borgers make transition into tight.

With extensive tight city spacing (3 tile spacing), a few of the least
productive ones should only get cheaper improvements (baracks, temple,
libary only) so that after neighboring ones get a Hospital, they can
be abandoded to let the ones with Hospitals grow. After a certain
number of cities [around OCN], players usually transition into loose.

With extensive loose city spacing (4 tile spacing), no city ever needs
to be abandoned. After a lot of cities (1.5 * OCN), these players
often transition into OCP. (Full 21 tiles.) Be advised that Temples
are high priority in these city spacing schemes that the tighter ones.

As to should I ever stop expanding completely peacefully while there's
space to do so : No. Unlike the AI, you never know if that hole in
tundra you left REXing is the only Oil around. You can go very loose
(5 tile spacing) leaving the holes if it's very unproductive (Tundra -
Mountain mix) and rush Temples surrounding this area plus have
military units keeping the AI out until your culture expands to take
in these tiles.