A New Way To Play - My "Keep Focused" Strategy

[Phatkarp]

I have a bad habit. I tend to lose focus. I tend to space off. I tend to hit "next turn" a bunch of times in a row, then find myself wondering what the hell I'm doing with this game.

I recently began sneaking in a little Civ over my lunch hour. I was amazed to find that I was a much better player in these short sessions. I was focused, dedicated, and much more effective.

That was a nice realization, but the fact is that Civ is the most fun when played in large chunks.

So I tried a new approach to playing Civ that would allow me to enjoy long play sessions, but provide the focus and concentration that I get when playing in smaller doses. I now play three games in parallel. I pick a map type, choose random leaders, and start three games. I play the first 50 turns in one game, then save and switch to the other. As time goes by I reduce the sessions to 25-turn chunks.

I've found this to be a VERY enjoyable way to play the game. I get to more easily compare different strategies. I also find that the game stays more interesting. Sometimes one game is particularly interesting, while the other two are particularly boring. I find, though, that the games sort of take turns becoming interesting.

Most importantly, I play WAY better this way. I am forced to look afresh at my game each session, which allows me to critically evaluate what I'm doing and where I'm going.

So, if you are like me and suffer from "next turn" syndrome give this a shot.

 

[Frank327]

Yeah I suffer from this next turn syndrome too. At some point in the game it goes great, and then I just click next turn too many times anxious to see where my good past moves got me, and I realise I wandered off too much, and the enemies are catching up to me. I like your idea.

 

[UWHabs]

I think playing the same game 3 times would get too confusing. I'd keep thinking, "Oh, didn't I build York along the coast there? Oh, that was in the last game..."

Now, if you mean just playing 3 different games at once, that's not that bad of an idea. Then depending on your mood in each session you play, you can decide which game. "I feel like conquering today - let's play that Justinian game where I'm going to invade Ghandi as opposed to hitting enter for 25 turns as I build up for my other cultural victory."

 

[Divaythsarmour]

Staying focused:

Sometimes I like to set short term goals for myself.

Once, one of my scouts had discovered stone on the opposite end of a continent. I decided that I wanted to hook up that stone, not by having sailing but by an over land route (just for the fun of it). So I sent a settler and warrior over to settle near the stone. Then I started working on stringing cities together and building a road over in that direction.

There were a lot of considerations, i.e. protecting workers, defending cities etc. And then one goal can lead to another. I decided that when the cultural boundaries all touched each other, I wanted the great wall to make a nice huge walled in border.

It's also possible to set a series of short term goals that can lead to a victory.

 

[Munch]

Sounds like a good idea, I might well try that. I often find that I lose the plot when trying to micromanage cities and find that I've let one grow too much by mistake, or forgotten to whip at the most opportune moment. This could help... I also suggest labelling your saves e.g. "Munch BC-0825 stay afloat and backfill.Civ..." so that you can easily pick up the plot upon reloading.

My other problem though is losing interest in games if they become repetitive or just uninspiring. Perhaps by running parallel games I might find at least one that can hold my attention.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Another approach is to write a report as you go along. You might not publish is, but the interval is about the right length, and it gives you a mechanism to straighten out your thoughts, and a way to compare your current circumstance to what you thought they would be.

More useful still is the ability to look back and see what was important that you missed - this won't help so much with focus, but it can help you to pay attention more effectively.

 

[mice]

Yet another way is to play succession games. In these you usually get 10 or 15 turns in which to play. Then you hand the save on to the next guy in the roster. It makes you focus because you don't want to look like and idiot to the other guys in the roster.

Then there is the discussion about what's going on. You can have an exchange of many posts just about what specialist to run in a given city.

I recommend SGs, and the guys in that forum are very welcoming.

 

[carl corey]

SGs or the cookbooks are indeed good ways to improve your play. There are a lot of decisions to take in the game, and playing "just for fun" sometimes causes you to skip them. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that. Lately I've been trying the Machinery beeline with either Qin or Sitting Bull, and while you really need to focus until you get Machinery it's a pretty straightforward game afterwards, so I won't bother checking everything.

What I do to keep focus between sessions of the same game is to put signs for lots of different things: if a city has/will have national wonders, special buildings (Academy, Military Academy, Scotland Yard), if it has shrines, if it has settled Military Instructors. Sometimes when I conquer a lot of land I'll put signs near each captured city to remind me what its aim is: production, military, research, gold, GP farm. Or you can have cities dedicated to spreading a religion for whatever bonuses. I can go into even more details, like planning the cities' tiles: through which tiles I'll spread irrigation, which tiles get farms, which watermills and which workshops in a production city, do I need a windmill to break even in food in a city, etc. I had a game with Justinian in which I took land from two AIs when I got Cataphracts and I marked down more than 50% of the tiles with what improvement I wanted on them. That way when I loaded the save the next time I simply took the workers and improved the tiles following the signs, there was no need to "catch up". And last but not least, I put down a few general strategy signs telling me to change civics, go to war with X, reminding me I have a national/world wonder to build, etc. Of course the "sign-spam" works better when you're not playing in SGs or the cookbooks, you want to let your teammates make at least some decisions, right?

 

[Munch]

What I do to keep focus between sessions of the same game is to put signs for lots of different things

Yeah, this is an extremely useful feature. In addition to the things you mentioned, in my last game I found it useful to use the 'draw line' feature to plan my intercontinental invasion strategy, indicating which tiles to land on, and which to pass through on the way to the best besieging tiles, and where to go from there. Also putting up signs for whether you want to raze or capture enemy cities is very useful, as once you capture a place it can be hard to remember whether you'd once thought settling slightly differently would have been better.

I also find putting up signs on and around your own cities about their food surplus to be useful. If a city has a food deficit I find it useful to label all the tiles you want to chain-irrigate for example which, as you say, reduces 'catch up' time later.

 

[carl corey]

Yeap, war signs and lines are also useful, forgot about that. Although many times those get modified when the war starts.

I reread your previous post about whipping: the BUG mod now provides alerts for when you can whip in a city, for how much population (I think) and with what hammer excess. I can't play without the BUG mod anymore, it helps cut down on a lot of micromanagement, whipping included.

 

[oyzar]

The solution is very simple: Pitboss. I can't even finish a SP game for the life of me. But by playing several(have been as much as double digit at once) pitboss games at once i can play as much civ as i want while at the same retain max focus in all of them!

 

[carl corey]

I actually have no problem with long games. I play correspondence chess, which means games that can take months to finish. What I don't like is to rethink the game each time because I forgot what I wanted to do. Using signs is like saving your analysis for a chess game: yes, you will still review it and refine it, but at least you won't start from scratch each time.

 

[PieceOfMind]

A problem I see with playing three games simultaneously is that autosaves will keep getting wiped. I rely on these on occasion for sorting out bugs.

Besides, I think if you really want to stay focused it makes sense to stick to one game (that's focused right?).

 

[carl corey]

Yeap. But sometimes I'll start a game just to test a strategy, while I have others going on that have reached a state where I need to simply mop up, or have a clear enough advantage, but I still want to finish them. Or I'm playing online games (like the cookbooks) in which you have to wait to play the next round. There are a lot of reasons to play multiple games at once.

 

[DMOC]

To expand on reports - you can also post your games up here! I find that helps my focus TREMENDOUSLY.

 

[Phatkarp]

Besides, I think if you really want to stay focused it makes sense to stick to one game (that's focused right?).

Hehe, that's true. Odd that I "focus" by playing three separate games.

And just to clarify, I play three separate games, not the same game three different ways.

Good suggestions on this board. Signage is a very nice feature, one that I should use more. I've tried logging/journaling my games, and while that helps, I find that I don't stick with it very well in long game sessions. Same with short term goals idea. I've done that before, and had success. But I just *** can't *** MAINTAIN CONCENTRATION!

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Talking about signs and such made me think of a couple of questions.

Is there a toggle sign button by any chance? I'd use a lot more of them if I could hide them.

And how do you draw lines? What exactly do you mean by this? Is that how people dotmap?

Thanks!

 

[Charonicus]

I understand you completely. That seems like a great idea. I too lose focus and yet my brain is always hyperactive so it's weird. I tend to play civ first thing, with a glass of Red Bull (which kickstarts me nicely) and then force myself to end after a couple of hours or so and go have a shower. I usually find that in the shower I'm better able to think about what I should be doing and formulate a better plan of action to put into practice the following day. I pick up all sorts of things that I don't notice after a while playing because I'm too focused on one single aspect.
I like this idea though, of fractal playing. I could probably focus better that way too. Nice idea.

For those saying one game is focused... I see your point too, but I guess not everyone's mind works the same. I rarely focus on one thing at once. I can watch TV, have a chat, roll up a dnd char and check my emails all at the same time.
Or listen to music, chat on mirc, chat on msn, browse these forums, check myspace, be on the phone to my mum all at once. >_<
When I do focus on one thing I tend to mess it up by overthinking. That's why I always sucked at exams. I can't sit in a quiet room, confined to a desk, concentrating on one task. ¬¬

 

[TheMeInTeam]

What I concentrate on are "big picture goals" and the optimal way to use each city/unit. Everything else is a function of those. Focus is very important in games IMO. It's easy when you're bloodthirsty and you just want to war all the time, but even if you don't: play with a goal in mind and never forget it...

 

[PieceOfMind]

Talking about signs and such made me think of a couple of questions.

Is there a toggle sign button by any chance? I'd use a lot more of them if I could hide them.

And how do you draw lines? What exactly do you mean by this? Is that how people dotmap?

Thanks!

Before you can draw lines, you have to zoom out to the globe view. Once there, one of the buttons is called the "strategy layer" I believe. In there you can select to add signs, add lines, delete lines, delete all lines, etc.

As far as I know there is no hide signs option. I occasionally do a sign clean up where I go across the map getting rid of signs that are no longer relevant.

As for the use of signs, I use them for so many things I couldn't possibly mention them all here.

Labelling the specialisation of cities is definitely useful as your empire grows and you tend to assign captured cities either a military role or commerce role.
I will often put a sign on a forest I have prechopped, since this is not info you can get by hovering over the tile - only when a worker is on the tile.

I will often plan out which forests to chop and which to keep, and label the ones I will keep, or if I will be keeping more than I chop (maybe on an archipelago map) I will label the ones to chop instead, to save on signs.

Sometimes I use them for intel where I can't keep constant line of sight. Sail past some cities with your caravel and make a basic label of the units you saw defending the city. This is not necessary if you have enough esp points to see the units.