(FEEDBACK PT3) When do you finish/quit exploring the world?

This is the third part in my effort to understand people's gameplay habits for Civilization 4.

I want as subjective an answer as possible. This question is not just about when you explore the last tile in the world, but when you know you've explored enough to either automate it or stop completely. (A careless explorer might produce the result as a passionate explorer: both are finished exploring early in the game.

A few other thoughts, to get consistency between everyone's answers:

• The map is not a concenrtated pangaea, but not a spread out archipelago. Somewhere in between.
• Scouting and spying already-explored territory to see how enemy cities develop -- that doesn't count, for the sake of this exercise.
• How much do you care about discovering far off lands?
• You need Galleons/Caravels if you want to explore far off lands. The key is, do you want to?
• How does finding / not finding civilizations affect your exploration?
• Do you care enough to find every last square of land?
• Do you care enough to find every last square of ocean?
• Overestimate. Don't be too optimistic about your quickness.

(Part 2 was here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=176606)

Add any discussion, comments, or queries as needed.

This will probably be the last question dealing with exploration. (I imagine some of you are already wondering why I'm so concerned with exploration.)

(For those curious, I'm going to ask a few questions about peoples' city-settling habits once this poll is through. Probably three more questions.)

I'll do all relevant exploration as soon as caravels are available. Once thre are no unexplored areas that seem large enough to contain significant landmasses, I'll leave them to automation. I've usually found all the land by this stage, but I couldn't care less about stray ocean tiles. Finding new land is highly important, finding any civs on undiscovered land is essential.

As to date - I've no idea. Dates from one game bear little resemblance to thoe from another with reference to tech progress, and do not scale properly acrsss different map sizes and game speeds.

The idea is to assume a standard speed game and an average map size, but to also reflect your personal preference. A little variance is okay between the results, because I want to these results to reflect a variety of playstyles.

Just giving this a little bump. Hoping to get to around 50, just for the sake of sample size. (Maybe 40 would be okay, too.)

it really isn't a factor of timeline. more a factor of whats left. If I traded maps and got the bonus for circling the globe then I will automate. Unless there is a certain civ thats out there I haven met then I will still guide my units. otherwise I automate. Now if that happens before 800 or after 1400 just depends on negotiations and random luck.

I think your varible is off. thats like asking when you fill up your gas tank on your road trip, 2 cds in or 5 cds ? The two things don't corilate right. IMHO

we talking SP here? Or MP? makes a big difference in my exploration...

Definitely talking about SP. Sorry I didn't make that clear.

I think there will always be some variance between games. But I think you'll find some general answers, a good average to work with. That's why I asked people to account for finding/not finding civilizations, and to generally overestimate, and so on.

If PaperVar=1
Set ExploreVar=0

Thanks for the feedback, and keep the votes coming. We're at least halfway there.

I stop exploring when my last free scout gets killed.

In fact I usually do most of my exploring with defended settlers or else attack stacks. When there's no place else to settle for free, I learn about the world basically as I conquer it. You meet enough civs to trade techs by the time you can trade techs, with or without effort.
Goodie huts only help you on low levels where you don't need them. Map trading now comes too late to be a big deal.

Exploring, who needs it.

I usually explore until I have found all the other Civs.

I don't explore much, but this is because i play pangea map. I explore around me then i don't bother.

Thanks for continuing to check in, guys. I think we've got some consistency in the results, too. Still, I'd like to get a bit closer to 50 before throwing out the next question.

I will usually stop exploring after I have sailed around the world. I like all the extra movement I can get

Yeah, I think it's the same for me. I try to get that circumnavigation bonus, but after that, things really trail off.

Keep the votes coming!

I generally do 3 exploration phases.

Right from the start -- goal is to completely uncover everything on the land mass I start with. This ends when I complete the goal, or after Barb Archers start showing up. By then, I've certainly uncovered enough land to know where I'll found my cities and what civs will be first on the kill or befriend lists.

Sometimes, I'll do a second exploration phase after getting a couple of galleys, if there's land that can be reached via that type of transport.

Last exploration phase is with Caravels. This is to uncover any land mass that is large enough for one or more good cities. I don't try to uncover every possible tile though. When this phase is done, I pull the Caravels back, and wait for the Frigate upgrade.

BTW, when the last exploration phase occurs is highly variable. If it's an island start, or I have reason to believe that there's going to be good land elsewhere (inhabitated or not), I'll often do a minor bee-line to Optics to do this, and then bee-line to Astronomy if needed. On the other hand, if it looks like I'm on a single large continent and won't find much elsewhere, I'll delay this part for quite some time -- sometimes going so far as letting an AI do it, then trading maps.

I have an irrational hatred of black places on a map. Regardless of what game I'm playing, Civ, Empire Earth, Dune 2, whatever, I have to uncover every square inch of the blackness.

I rarely explore with caravels or galleons. I begin exploring my space, to determine where I will expand and to make quick contacts. Once I can get galleys, I send one out to explore. Sea exploration is sometimes faster. My neighbors territories eventually become mapped out and if I do not feel like dominating my continent (or neighbors) then I will send out galleons with a settler, garrison, and explorer (often the Explorer unit). I so not have a fetish with black tiles and figure the computer will eventually reveal them to me.