1000 Bad Habits in Civ 3

[CommandoBob]

96) Sign MAs with everyone against tribe X, and then send out a cavalry to "watch the action" near tribe X's lands.

96a) And then be suprised when everyone else stays at home.

97] Playing for a culture victory while forgetting you deselected "culture victory" in the options. *raises hand* guilty....

98. Not properly defending resource towns on a small island on archipelego map, (should have at least two units)

97) Flipping off the AI across the continent who demands 20 gold so you can get war happiness and forgetting about them as you happily rex... until 2 longbows show up near a border city

100) Finally getting enough slaves so that you can drain a marsh or clear a jungle in one turn, but then forgetting about the need to make a road once the terrain in cleared. That mistake adds an whole extra turn to the move-chop/clear cycle, since all the slaves have to spend the next turn moving onto a road or rail.

 

[eldar]

But this thread is 1000 bad habits... so it continues!

101) Leaving a game open on your PC overnight... because it saves time starting Civ and re-loading the game in the morning. (Actually that could go in the '1001 Reasons You Know You're Addicted' thread too....)

102) Leaving a game open on your PC when you go out and you just know your 18-month-old daughter is going to press the space bar. You get back to find... who knows what? She's not managed to declare war on anyone... yet.

 

[Spoonwood]

96) Sign MAs with everyone against tribe X, and then send out a cavalry to "watch the action" near tribe X's lands.

this is bad?

Is voyeurism now being condemned by the Civ HRC's?

When I did this, my cavalary got shot down. In retrospect, it would have worked out better to take an explorer.

 

[anaxagoras]

103) ALWAYS building the Hoover Dam. (True, that's partly just Wonder addiction, but it still seems to be widely accepted.)
104) Calling the Hoover Dam "Hoover's" on the forums. (OK, I admit, this one is mostly just a pet peeve of mine.)

 

[Spoonwood]

103) ALWAYS building the Hoover Dam. (True, that's partly just Wonder addiction, but it still seems to be widely accepted.)

I don't see how building Theory of Evolution and then Hoover's Dam qualifies as part of *cough* *cough* "wonder addiction". As I understand it, two free techs *does* fit into warmongering strategy quite nicley, as does a boost in production from free hydro plants.

 

[anaxagoras]

I don't see how building Theory of Evolution and then Hoover's Dam qualifies as part of *cough* *cough* "wonder addiction". As I understand it, two free techs *does* fit into warmongering strategy quite nicley, as does a boost in production from free hydro plants.

"Wonder addiction" isn't about warmongering versus not warmongering. It is about being discomfitted if you find you can't build a certain wonder. For a lot of people, they are so focused on the Hoover Dam, they're not quite sure what to do if they don't get it, even though coal plants work just fine. The other side of the coin is that many people focus their efforts on getting the Dam even when they are just a few turns from winning. In that situation, one can often win faster without it.

It is often a good strategy to build the Hoover Dam. It is the knee-jerk habit of always building it that draws the comment.

 

[Optional]

We still missed out on a couple of classics:

105. Building a courthouse in your capital.
106. Building wealth in the early game.
107. Feeling shortchanged because you can't build Medieval Infantry while you're playing as Persia.
108. Rolling starts until you get cattle.

 

[anaxagoras]

102) Leaving a game open on your PC when you go out and you just know your 18-month-old daughter is going to press the space bar. You get back to find... who knows what? She's not managed to declare war on anyone... yet.

How about:

109: Making your ten-year-old son always return the disk, because you'll probably play most nights after he goes to bed, and you don't want to turn on the other computer just to retrieve the disk. (Again, this could easily go in the addicted thread....)

 

[Spoonwood]

"Wonder addiction" isn't about warmongering versus not warmongering.

This only *would* hold if it actually worked out as *usually* better to build an improvement than a wonder. If you don't plan to warmonger, in most cases you won't build many units... 1 or 2 per town, maybe a few more... but still not a lot. You won't build barracks either, or only build one barracks. So, other than the ReX phase where you need settlers from your settler factory, you basically have the option of training workers, building imporvements, or building wonders. In almost all cases, it comes out better to build a wonder than an improvement. I'll take The Oracle over *a* marketplace almost any day. So, saying that one shouldn't build wonders *does* imply a warmongering style. Ision's article and discussions around here indicate something other than "discomfiture" for missing out on building a wonder.

105. Building a courthouse in your capital.

Hmmm... the AI can't effect propaganda there as easily?

 

[anaxagoras]

So, saying that one shouldn't build wonders *does* imply a warmongering style.

I never said one shouldn't build wonders, and even the articles on wonder addictions don't say that. They simply say you shouldn't come to DEPEND on any. The Hoover Dam represents a special case of that, because it is widely accepted that it is a good wonder to build, and strategies aimed at achieving it have been discussed at great length. Many of us are conditioned to just build it, without even considering the alternative. We're discussing bad habits, and that's one.

Hmmm... the AI can't effect propaganda there as easily?

Your capital is immune to propaganda, isn't it? In any case, it is at a significant advantage.

 

[timerover51]

110. Keep restarting the game because you do not have either horses or iron nearby. (Personally, I think that this is more a matter of survival.)

111. Keep restarting the game because that river is not close enough.

112. Buying a Windows box when you have always had Macs so that you can edit the game. Then thinking about getting a Windows laptop as well so that you can edit the game away from home.

 

[Spoonwood]

110. Keep restarting the game because you do not have either horses or iron nearby. (Personally, I think that this is more a matter of survival.)

It only poses a problem for surviving if you go to war early. In many games, you can rather easily launch without horses or iron within your cultural borders.

 

[darski]

It only poses a problem for surviving if you go to war early. In many games, you can rather easily launch without horses or iron within your cultural borders.

I picked up this habit when I was always playing as Persia. I'd research IW first and give up the game if I could not get to iron in a reasonable time. What is Persia without those immortals I don't worry so much about horses but I probably should.

 

[Snarkhunter]

112. Buying a Windows box when you have always had Macs so that you can edit the game. Then thinking about getting a Windows laptop as well so that you can edit the game away from home.

Why not get something like Parallel Fusion & a copy of Windows instead?

kk

 

[Spoonwood]

What is Persia without those immortals

For that matter what are The Ottomans before Military Tradition? A scientific and industrious tribe... sounds pretty powerful to me.

 

[timerover51]

Why not get something like Parallel Fusion & a copy of Windows instead?

kk

I do not have the newer Intel Macs, so I cannot run Windows on then. That will definitely be on the list for my next computer purchase.

 

[ZzarkLinux]

103) ALWAYS building the Hoover Dam. (*snip*that's partly just Wonder addiction)

I myself see wonder addiction as "don't think, just build it".
To me:
"Strategy first -> wonder fits strategy" is not addiction.
"Build a wonder -> then think about strategy after building" is addiction
And the ToE -> Hoovers slingshot fits almost all my industrial strategies

106. Building wealth in the early game

I don't think this is a true fallacy for OCC games. If you build too much then support costs kill ya.
But since we're talking about bad habits in general, then yes wealth is bad.

Just my 2

 

[LowEndUserII]

Possibly debatable if this is a "Bad Habit" but always moving your founding settler 2 tiles toward that river on the ocean tile you may see at start.

Doing that gives you 0nly 180 degrees of the Capitial Cities "influence" instead of the 360 degrees you would get by moving the first settler 2 or more tiles up river.

 

[timerover51]

Possibly debatable if this is a "Bad Habit" but always moving your founding settler 2 tiles toward that river on the ocean tile you may see at start.

Doing that gives you 0nly 180 degrees of the Capitial Cities "influence" instead of the 360 degrees you would get by moving the first settler 2 or more tiles up river.

Hmm, that is more a combination of style of play and civilization that you are playing than a bad habit. Since I play Seafaring civilizations, getting the capital on the ocean is a high priority for me. Getting that curragh out quickly and exploring is important. For a non-seafaring civ, then it becomes more iffy. Am I on a Pangaea map, a continent map, or an archipelago map? Pangaea, maybe head for the ocean with the second city, continent and archipelago, probably head for the ocean.

 

[Spoonwood]

113) Founding a city two squares away from a luxury.