Best diety game config options?

[planetfall]

Immortal has gotten boring, so ready to try diety again. The last couple of times I simply did not survive long.
I play with domination and science victory options and high seas. Looking for advice on startup options:

Map type
Choice is between continents OR continents and islands. Which is an easier learning curve?

Map size and number of AI civs?
Defaults are
small with 5 AI
standard with 7 AI
large with 9 AI.

I'm thinking I need space to get game going so leaning toward standard w/ 4 AI or large with 6 AI. What would you recommend?

What about resources? Normal I play with standard, but on diety do I need abundant to get iron and horses in early game?

FInally
-- barbs: enable or disable? Why?
-- goodie huts: enable or disable? Don't seem to make much difference in this version of civ?

 

[planetfall]

Hmmm, don't know if makes much difference. The jump from immortal to diety seems larger than any other difficulty jumps. I'm fighting on first real diety game. I "lucked out" with a continent to myself, but so far behind it's hard to accomplish anything. It's like the game changed from very exciting to very stressful and annoying. Not sure at this point if it's worth playing at diety. Not feeling the fun yet.

 

[Pengwin7]

Deity is not 'fun'.
It's simply 'challenging'.

There are maps that will place other AI close to you - I like playing peaceful/culture... so I don't like that.
Continents - if you end up on an island... you'll get one wonder, 1-2 city states... 3-5 huts to yourself... and likely no chance to get a golden age.

I've found the 'Seven Seas' map actually has a LOT of land. (Don't let the name fool you).
***pause***
Not sure why you didn't list that... only seeing two options... Continents or Continents & Islands. why?
***unpause - disregard rest of post if there is specific reason why you limit to just two options***



I usually get a really good amount of space between me and the closest AI.
Typically probably 20-30 tiles capital-to-capital... sometimes closer... but usually it's quite a lot of room.

That gives you a good chance to be 'safe' - if you want to start that way.
Or... to scout and meet somebody. I go Scout/Scout - send one East, one West - and usually find quite a few CS and other AI in ancient age.
Sometimes I'm able to 'circumnavigate the world' (5 Era Score) with those two scouts - I'd say it's 10%-20% of the time - not often, but sometimes.
Nice to be able to pull this off without a boat.
And... if you magically have the 'Era Score' without the wrap-around... then I'll just 'hold up' the scouts from hitting that point... and save it for first turn in classical age.


Try out that map, Seven Seas, you may like it. I found it to be the most... enjoyable... map for when I shifted up to playing on Deity.
Barbs are tougher on Deity too... I usually find that they overwhelm me unless I have a nearby CityState around to help out.

Try out 3-4 Seven Seas map loads... see if you like it.
[I play Gathering Storm with standard settings, standard map size (8). I find that it's really hard to 'discuss' general gameplay with somebody when you toggle special options on/off... so I don't do that.]

 

[planetfall]

I'll try seven seas. I think I tried it once and didn't care for it, but can't remember. I normally have high seas and love having gameplay with naval/air/army active units.

What is really strange, and I don't know if it is a deity thing, is that air bombardment is about 1/3 to 1/2 strength.

Other annoyances:

-- governor disabled for many turns and no idea who did it
-- don't know how to see how many atomic and hydro weapons are available for use.

 

[planetfall]

7 seas is misnamed land mass. It's not seas but a huge wiggly land mass. There is no need to use navy at all. Not a map I'll play. I expected huge seas not huge land mass. Can't even sail above or below the lands.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Hmmm, don't know if makes much difference. The jump from immortal to diety seems larger than any other difficulty jumps. I'm fighting on first real diety game. I "lucked out" with a continent to myself, but so far behind it's hard to accomplish anything. It's like the game changed from very exciting to very stressful and annoying. Not sure at this point if it's worth playing at diety. Not feeling the fun yet.

If you have a huge area to yourself and still behind in the late game, you are not developing your infrastructure enough.
You probably need more cities (10 or more is not unrealistic), and you need to develop their infrastructure hard and fast.
That means getting districts up, placing them sensibly, and leveraging the means that you can leverage to get the districts up fast.
Whether that is through chopping, internal trade routes, mass purchasing +2 builders or faith buying districts, as well as focusing on food/production in all new cities.