Do you use advanced starts? i.e. starting after ancient era

Minor Annoyance said:

What empire?
I can see why people would have such an aversion to advanced starts considering the misinformation about it.

...

Is this really destroying the purity of the Civilization experience? Is this what people find so abhorrent?
Ridiculous.

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Woah, I don't think anyone is claiming that advanced starts are "abhorrent". It's just a matter of personal preference.

You're right to say that the elements of exploration and expansion aren't removed, so there are misconceptions. But I don't think that's at all why people don't want to play advanced starts. It's the idea of building an empire from the stone age to the space age which forms a lot of people's impressions of what Civ is about.

Minor Annoyance said:

What empire?


Is this really destroying the purity of the Civilization experience? Is this what people find so abhorrent?
Ridiculous.

Click to expand...

I think you`re overreacting a little here.

For me, I like to start from the beginning and to watch it all gradually grow by myself; my own efforts. To watch your baby from `birth` to `death`.

Starting mid-tech ruins that `start from the beginning` feel and like I said, I love starting from the earliest Tech of man. It all feels good by the time you get to the Medieaeval era.

It`s hard to explain if you feel that angry about it.

Socratatus said:

I think you`re overreacting a little here.

For me, I like to start from the beginning and to watch it all gradually grow by myself; my own efforts. To watch your baby from `birth` to `death`.

Starting mid-tech ruins that `start from the beginning` feel and like I said, I love starting from the earliest Tech of man. It all feels good by the time you get to the Medieaeval era.

It`s hard to explain if you feel that angry about it.

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I'm partly being dramatic for comedic purposes, but also people are talking like it's a vastly different game. Like it's turning chess into checkers. I get the impression that people do think that way because that's exactly what I thought before I tried it, and everything that's been said about why they wouldn't play with an advanced start is exactly what I would have said before I tried it.
I'm wondering if anyone who wouldn't play advanced start have played any scenarios, because they rarely start in the ancient era.

Everybody aught to play a Future era (seems to be Information era in G+K) start at least twice. Its a totally different game without the long commitment of an Ancient era start. Future era starts are great stress relievers.

With default conditions the game is over in less than 40 turns by spaceship launch.
With spaceship disabled and legendary start (or strategic balance), its 100 turns of nuclear smackdown!

Minor Annoyance said:

I'm wondering if anyone who wouldn't play advanced start have played any scenarios, because they rarely start in the ancient era.

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Never tried an ancient start, Never tried a scenario. Neither held much interest to me, so you maight be on to something there.

It can really shake things up to play around with the settings a ton. Its almost like a dozen games in one.

Minor Annoyance said:

I'm partly being dramatic for comedic purposes, but also people are talking like it's a vastly different game. Like it's turning chess into checkers. I get the impression that people do think that way because that's exactly what I thought before I tried it, and everything that's been said about why they wouldn't play with an advanced start is exactly what I would have said before I tried it.
I'm wondering if anyone who wouldn't play advanced start have played any scenarios, because they rarely start in the ancient era.

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Yes, I have played multiple scenarios and started in later eras, so I'm not just blowing hot air here. What I mean by an empire that's already there is mainly the pre-known techs and free social policies. In a sense, the basis for the empire, as well as some of their technological and social achievements, is already established, which I was not a part of. Call me picky, but I want the whole story.

Starting in the later eras is fun. The game is different, as you have to work quickly to attain victory if you start late (unless you disable the default number of turns, which you can do). It's also nice not to have to wait forever to build districts. One thing that threw me at first starting in information is the dearth of great people. If you want culture, you'll need archaeological museums. But it's definitely neat to have the late era units and UA with you from the first turn. It's a different experience, since it emphasizes different aspects of the game.

That said, smallfish is right, but why isn't this information part of the game's documentation? Shame. Everything about how the game works should be in the documentation.

I played scenario (specifically Into the Renaissance (Medieval start) and Conquest of the New World Deluxe (Renaissance start for Europeans I assume? or was it Industrial?)) before, and if that's how my new cities are going to be in an advanced start game then I'll pass. Scenarios are made so u can merge in a certain period so I'm ok, but normal games when time passed regularly without restrictions I don't like not playing from scratch, it feels like I miss something.