Avoid Cheating

[DragonHawk]

even taking colateral damage into account its not good odds

I do not think of the odds of 1 battle (ie cat with 1.9% odds), but i see the overall goal that I try to accomplish (i.e. take that city using 15 units). So, if one unit dies so the rest can accomplish the goal easier, I am ok with that.

The catapult will soften up multiple units and it will always be followed by another attack by my (stronger) unit in my stack. The suicide catapult often give my next attacking units better odds against the defending units.

 

[nbcman]

@ grommit5

That is why they call them disposapults. Let the (cheaper hammer cost) catapults do the collateral damage to multiple units in the stack and then let the axemen/macemen/whatever attack the city at better odds, get the xps and move on to the next city.

 

[grommit5]

i don't consider any unit disposable if i can help it and i do lose a lot of catapults in battle. maybe its just a difference in difficulty level and style of play but i find my catapults usually have better odds than 1.9

 

[eewallace]

By the way, I was serious - does anyone ever reload when their Catapult wins with 1.9% odds?

Well, since I don't actually reload when the odds beat me, I never get into situations where I'm attacking with such ridiculously low odds... (Seriously, I only ever reload for the "slip-of-the finger" kind of mistake. My sin is using the "regenerate map" option until I get a reasonably nice setup.)

 

[KMadCandy]

Well, since I don't actually reload when the odds beat me, I never get into situations where I'm attacking with such ridiculously low odds... (Seriously, I only ever reload for the "slip-of-the finger" kind of mistake. My sin is using the "regenerate map" option until I get a reasonably nice setup.)

you're assuming everybody who uses a catapult at absurdly low odds reloads if it doesn't go our way? i don't (well, any more, i kicked the habit almost a year ago), and i bet most folks don't. we don't expect to win those fights. what we expect is that it will allow the rest of our troops a much more reasonable chance to win. for us it's an acceptable loss to get the city quicker. just different styles. /shrug.

i totally regen maps! i play for fun, so i want a pretty start that i think i can work with. the fact that the AI can't regen if they begin in CrapVille doesn't make me feel guilty at all .

 

[eewallace]

you're assuming everybody who uses a catapult at absurdly low odds reloads if it doesn't go our way? i don't (well, any more, i kicked the habit almost a year ago), and i bet most folks don't. we don't expect to win those fights. what we expect is that it will allow the rest of our troops a much more reasonable chance to win. for us it's an acceptable loss to get the city quicker. just different styles. /shrug.

Yes, well one of the reasons I kinda suck at combat is that I hate to sacrifice units. Yes, believe it or not, I get attached to my catapults and want them to "live"! At this rate, I'm never going to progress past noble, am I???

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

Yes, well one of the reasons I kinda suck at combat is that I hate to sacrifice units. Yes, believe it or not, I get attached to my catapults and want them to "live"! At this rate, I'm never going to progress past noble, am I???

Not if you're going to be doing much warring

What kind of evil dictator are you? Not wanting to kill things for the good of the empire. FOR SHAME!

 

[grommit5]

Yes, well one of the reasons I kinda suck at combat is that I hate to sacrifice units. Yes, believe it or not, I get attached to my catapults and want them to "live"! At this rate, I'm never going to progress past noble, am I???

there is nothing wrong with noble. that's where i play and happy with it. i even occasionally drop back to *gasp* warlord to try new things and see how they work. and yea, i get attached to all my units and don't want to sacrifice any of them if i can help it. i'm doing this for fun and i don't find getting my ass kicked fun. if i have to start keeping writen notes and analyzing spreadsheet to improve that isn't fun either.

 

[KMadCandy]

eewallace you have no idea how much i can relate to that! but it's a sidetrack so i'll spoiler it.

Spoiler sappiness over catapults :

Yes, well one of the reasons I kinda suck at combat is that I hate to sacrifice units. Yes, believe it or not, I get attached to my catapults and want them to "live"!

i name all my units for what promotions they have, so that i don't need to remember what the little icons stand for. i name even the catapults that i'm quite sure are going to die, because i want them to feel that their leader has faith in them. they're an important part of the army after all! i feel guilty enough already, i don't want them to walk into battle knowing that they're disposable. but i did eventually get over the "oh i can't attack, i don't think i'll win that battle" feeling i used to have. i just know that there's no way not all my soldiers will come home with me . well maybe if i'm playing settler doing the tanks vs. longbows thing, that's fun sometimes.

also, i'm very superstitious. it seems like many of the "OMG i totally should have won that battle!!!" high odds losses are when i forgot to change the guy's name when i promoted him, oops! that's clear scientific proof that it improves my odds for them to be named properly.

trust me, you haven't seen "kind of suck at combat" until you've seen me in a war that i didn't declare! i'm okay if i'm in control of when it happens, so that i get my 5 centuries to overprepare. axe-rushing, forget it, there's no time to over-prepare, i simply must have like 8 spare SoDs, otherwise it's just too dangerous. and if somebody declares on me, and i didn't see it coming in my frequent "WHEOOHRN" checks, ooooooooh boy. i am a complete disaster in those situations . you'd beat me in MP if you were set to settler and i was deity if you pulled a sneak attack, i'm telling you.

At this rate, I'm never going to progress past noble, am I???

i'm 100% with grommit5 on this one. there are different levels for a reason, play the level or levels that are fun for you and don't worry about moving up unless and until you want to. keep it fun. me, i'm multi-talented. i've managed to lose games on each and every difficulty level!

 

[grommit5]

thanks KMadCandy. that could possibly be the first time someone has agreed with anything i've posted here. you made my day.

 

[Gene]

Guys, The game cheats too. Check out where your opponents are "Randomly"
placed at the beginning of a game once in a while. It invariably seems that everybody else starts right next to a gold mine with copper, iron, horses and abundant other resources near by while I start in the middle of the no-where
with nothing. World-builder provides a way to fight back & level the playing field.
I use World-Builder at the very start of a single-player game to create a Greener world that has far less useless terrain (mountain peaks become hills, deserts become grasslands, jungles become forests, ice-packs that block early navigation recede, etc). Then I create an island in the middle of the ocean - and about as far away from the continents as possible. That's Montezuma's (or the Incan Civ's) new home. The island has almost no resources of any kind but don't worry, their suffering is going to end in about
6,000 years - because I'm going to nuke 'em off the face of the earth at about that time. Sometimes I don't know which more satisfying, actually winning or blasting Montezuma or the Incans straight to hell!
My overall objective is to have fun and World-builder certainly helps make that happen. Cheers/Gene

 

[AmazonQueen]

Guys, The game cheats too. Check out where your opponents are "Randomly"
placed at the beginning of a game once in a while. It invariably seems that everybody else starts right next to a gold mine with copper, iron, horses and abundant other resources near by while I start in the middle of the no-where
with nothing. World-builder provides a way to fight back & level the playing field.
I use World-Builder at the very start of a single-player game to create a Greener world that has far less useless terrain (mountain peaks become hills, deserts become grasslands, jungles become forests, ice-packs that block early navigation recede, etc). Then I create an island in the middle of the ocean - and about as far away from the continents as possible. That's Montezuma's (or the Incan Civ's) new home. The island has almost no resources of any kind but don't worry, their suffering is going to end in about
6,000 years - because I'm going to nuke 'em off the face of the earth at about that time. Sometimes I don't know which more satisfying, actually winning or blasting Montezuma or the Incans straight to hell!
My overall objective is to have fun and World-builder certainly helps make that happen. Cheers/Gene

This is why I use the Balanced Resources option on random maps. That way I know I'll have horses, copper etc somewhere near my starting position, just not exactly where. Of course the computer still seems to site me in a tundra wasteland or amidst jungle most of the time

 

[jessiecat]

This is why I use the Balanced Resources option on random maps. That way I know I'll have horses, copper etc somewhere near my starting position, just not exactly where. Of course the computer still seems to site me in a tundra wasteland or amidst jungle most of the time

I always play on custom maps, choose my opponents and click "no barbs".
I regenerate until i find a promising location, then that's it. No worldbuilder,
no saves before combat. During a game, I won't cheat at all. If I make a
mistake, that's tough. "...... happens"!

 

[Stolen Rutters]

I have to fight my reloading ways every upgrade. I like to experiment with the game, to reload and try strategy after strategy with the same map until I get halfway good. THEN, I'll cut out the reloads to test my skill without knowing what the map looks like. I choose how to play my game.

 

[gallego]

I liked the "Iron Man" option in SMAC--no save except when you quit the game. Although Civ4 would need to be more stable to use it...