Ancient ruins?

[Hellrocker]

Anyone that plays with the ancient ruins? What say you?

 

[Camikaze]

I never turn them off. They're quite helpful, after all. Faith and culture ruins need nerfing, though.

 

[nefloyd]

They kind of suck.
Maps are bleh. Usually uncovers a bunch of useless water.
Reveal barb camps is bleh. Like I need that. I'll run into them on my own or when a CS asks for it to be destroyed.
Pop point is okay.
Gold is okay.
I love getting the culture boost if I'm still on the 1st or 2nd policy, after that its like ehhh okay.
I HATE having my warrior turned into a spearman, unless I'm a spearman UU civ, which I rarely am. I LOVE having a scout become a no movement penalty archer.
Faith ruin is quite nice but rare.

I don't always build a scout first so usually the AI at Emp+ where I play and all its bonus units gets to take most of them. I get like one or two, if any. I liked 'em a lot better down at Prince and whatnot. Easier to pick some up on water maps though. Unless Kamehahaha is around, that @#$@#$.

 

[prince_caspian]

The culture ruin actually hurts in the case where you're timing for rationalism together with renaissance. Suddenly you have to take an extra policy somewhere while forced to wait another 20+ turns.

The best ruins for me are tech, 1 pop and faith.

 

[PibbZ]

Always on for me, i love the random element to it. Actually, I love random elements so much, that I also miss the random event system from Civ 4.

Having a fogbusting warrior becoming a gladiator hero, or discovering a herb that yields +health is pure awesome

 

[GhostSalsa]

Don't forget the one that turns your knight into calvary.

The map ones are mind-boggling sometimes. 'A map! Wow, it's... ice. Someone made a map of ice.'

 

[Orgetorix]

On higher difficulties I find that ruins make the game harder. Since the AI start with more warriors and scouts they will get more ruins than you. I Still play with them though because they're fun. You still get that feeling of being lucky when popping a tech or pop increase and it's easy to forget that all your 4 AI neighbours just got twice as much out there in the fog...

 

[Orgetorix]

About popping maps. I think the most mind-boggeling thing about them is when you pop one and they reveal stuff far away but leave one tile of fog two hexes away...

"Oh, that hill over there? No! We never go there, it is forbidden. Many have gone but none have returned to tell the tale..."

 

[Arilian]

I hate maps and Barb camps.
Only exeption was when popping a map on turn 4 provided me 2000gold as isabella (GBR+Eldorado)

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I wish there was a raging ancient ruins checkbox. I like the ancient ruins a lot but there are never very many for me to grab and half of what I find are useless maps and barb locations.

I actually stopped playing with barbs altogether recently and I guess I'm lucky I haven't got a barbarian revealing ancient ruins yet.

 

[bcaiko]

I've never turned off ancient ruins, though I've certainly been unlucky in finding them fairly often. They may end up helping the AI more than me, and that's fine.

Still, it gives a strong incentive to explore and the random element can change your gameplan a little.

 

[Human Crouton]

I refuse to play with them on. I hate the randomness they provide. I feel like they make me a worse player. I think natural wonders, nearby city-states, and the map itself provide all the variety I need.

For example: If I want some early culture or early faith, I should learn to budget that along with everything else. Just being given a free pantheon or social policy makes me feel like I'm not playing a game of skill any more.

 

[notadummy]

I leave them on because they add more flavor in scouting in the early game. While the maps suck, a turn 50 cho ko nu is really handy (only pre g&k, now only CB )

 

[wpfossil]

The culture ruin actually hurts in the case where you're timing for rationalism together with renaissance. Suddenly you have to take an extra policy somewhere while forced to wait another 20+ turns.

Turn on Policy Saving before you start the game. Then you can hold off on choosing until ready.

 

[jjkrause84]

Maps: they only exist in ruins. By the time the game starts mankind forgot how to draw and trade them, a skill lost forever to the sands of time.

 

[Scarpa]

I kinda like the maps. They'll often reveal the edge of another civ or CS, or more ruins, or a barb camp. Helps you decide which way to go early on.

That said, I much prefer culture/faith/pop/gold/tech ruins.

 

[DavidL]

They certainly lower the ammount of skills in the beginning but they are so much fun! And it sometimes give you a shot at a specific wonder if you are lucky and find a good tech as it is so hard to get wonders early on vs the AI.

 

[OmniPotent42]

I usually play Random civ standard size continents on standard time and everything else standard. I can say it feels pretty good to get an extra population on turn 2 from ruins, but everything else is meh. Extra tech is nice, same with culture, but population increase is by far the most useful on immortal difficulty since everyone else will have double size capitals, so the less behind you can get the better.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Maps: they only exist in ruins. By the time the game starts mankind forgot how to draw and trade them, a skill lost forever to the sands of time.

This. Why can't we trade maps? How was that detrimental to the game in any way?

 

[Peacemongerer]

I love most of the boosts, but the maps and barb camps are 90% useless and the free tech can be annoying when the tech it picks is one I was only 2 turns from finishing anyway.