Boring conquest...

[Kiech]

Anyone else find the 'Age of Discovery' conquest boring? I am playing as France, colonized Canada and Florida, made friends with the Indians...and took over the Dutch - who are now banashed to Montana.

Maybe its just the extreeme closeness of all the european cities, I really hate it.

And whats the deal with not being able to upgrade troops? And how is it possible that the Indian techs cost way more than the European ones? Heh.

 

[DBear]

Until Sid ever decides to make Colonization 2, this will probably be the next best thing.
In my game as the English, I took Edinburgh from the French (and since WHEN is Edinburgh French, by the way), chased the Iroquois to the Rockies, confined the Dutch colonies to Labrador, got into a LONG war with Portugal whereby I grabbed several Carib and South American colonies, and ended the game fighting the Aztecs for Texas.

Another thing--why would you WANT native techs?

 

[Halcyon]

Everyone knows that Scotland is part of France, silly. That's why they speak French. It's been part of France since the Zulu invaded Portugal in 1265.

 

[Kiech]

Originally posted by DBear

Another thing--why would you WANT native techs?

Enslavement, wonders, fun! Plus I like to get everything.

Heh, well, at least mesoamerica was suprisingly exciting.

 

[Gumby78]

Originally posted by Kiech
And how is it possible that the Indian techs cost way more than the European ones? Heh.

They cost more because your are a European Civ. If you are an Indian Civ they cost less.

Originally posted by Kiech
Enslavement, wonders, fun! Plus I like to get everything.

Heh, well, at least mesoamerica was suprisingly exciting.

Also they Enslavement Tech would not give you the any units only Indian Civ have units coming from that tech. The Euro land unit for enslavement is the Missionary.

 

[Xen]

A Note About France

During this period in time, due to both being catholic nation (and Britain being protestant), and the fact that Britain and scotland had been at odds ever since Britians foundation as a province of the Roman empire (albeit they werent scots yet, they were picts), and ferice French animosity of england due to the hundred years war, Scotland and france and exceedinglly cose relations (they had during the hiundred years war as well, where scottish troops mad eup a large part of french forces)

 

[Hygro]

I really liked this scenario.

 

[lord42]

Try playing as the natives and invading europe. It gets alot more interesting then!!!!

 

[Longasc]

I must agree with Xen.

The point of the Age of Discovery Scenario is Naval Combat and Discovery and Conquest.

But in reality, it is about carrying treasures home, sometimes you can appease the AI and win without any sweat shed... nice idea, not so well executed.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

I determined the biggest problem is that it just starts getting interesting and... it's over. So i doubled the turns and tripled the victory conditions and had a go playing the inca. I had 110,000 VP at turn 206.

The biggest problem i ran into is that the new world civs don't have a unit that can see missionaries. I recommend that anyone trying this change explorers to 'detect invisible'.

 

[bigchief]

I really liked this one. It is a nice diversion. You have to forget most of what you know about playing the epic game, and kind of role play this. I did find it a bit too easy. The first game I played as Portugal, and I had my 35K victory points before anyone else had 5K. So, the next time I played it as a pirate. I built privateers non stop, and wreaked havoc across the seas. I have since played it again as a pirate. Here is a screen shot from the last game. I was playing as the Spanish, and had taken Portugal's main 3 cities, leaving the Azores as his capital.

 

[unscratchedfoot]

Hmmm bigchief, you seem to have a lot of time on your hands. I recommend you up the skill level or try modding the scenario to make it a challenge.

 

[Kiech]

Heh, maybe I will try this again...later. The piracy sounds fun, and I like playing as the low-techs.

 

[LouLong]

Try it in PBEM or MP with tules such as no attack within mainland Europe. Then it can be great !
But the AI is really zero for playing what was otherwise a very interesting idea.

Scotland was indeed allied with France, not because of a special liking but because if your ennemy is my enemy then we are friends worked well (England being in the middle). Walter Scott (the novelist) even wrote a "Quentin Durward" , Scottish archer serving in the French army when Burgundy was about to fall in the French hands.

 

[pirke]

I just finished it with the Netherlands, as I am Dutch myself

25 turns before the end I still needed 15000 VP, but had a very very good network and got at least 1 treasure every turn, almost 2 I think. On top of that I had about 5 treasures that still needed to be shipped to Amsterdam. But then French declared war on me, so I couldn't get all my treasures back, I made the wise choice to diband Amsterdam and a few other cities and thus made New Amsterdam my new capital, and it wasn't even the slightest problem to get the 15k VP, took me 7 turns or so

I think this conquest is a pretty good multiplayer conquest, but the Dutch don't have an easy start with only 3 cities...

 

[ummmm........]

Originally posted by unscratchedfoot
Hmmm bigchief, you seem to have a lot of time on your hands. I recommend you up the skill level or try modding the scenario to make it a challenge.

I know this is a little off topic, but I've noticed that this seems to be your primary response in pretty much every thread. If that's the way you feel, that's great, but it's not the only way to play. A lot of people play this game for fun, not a for a challenge. Take me for example. If I want a challenge, I'll go to work. If I want to entertain myself while inexplicably sitting through ESPN's 10th hour of draft coverage, I'll play some Civ. I just don't find all of the micromanagement required at the higher levels entertaining.

I guess my point is just to pay more attention to what people are asking. If they want advice on how to make the game harder, please offer it. But if they are asking how to make the game more fun, realize that for a lot of people, challenge and fun are not always the same thing.

Please don't take this too critically. I think it's great that you seem always up for a challenge, just try to realize not everyone plays the game for the same reasons.

And to be a little on topic, I agree that piracy is the way to go to add fun to playing AoD as a European civ. My basic problem is that it tends to shorten games, as I always wind up capturing a lot of enemy treasures close to my own capital.

 

[tomart109]

AoD has been one of my top favorite Conquests, but i admit it can be tricky to choose the difficulty level that is best for the player. I've read so many opinions on this conquest that say it was too easy... . . . sigh... I would love to have everyone play it at their ideal level, and have as much fun with it as i have. It has so much going for it, a whole fresh game built from civ3 with exploration, discovery, conquest, colonization, commercial competition, piracy, and one of my suggestions* - way lower corruption!

Perhaps the ai isn't at its best here, and playing PBEM or MP with several humans would let it shine...?

* (coincidence, i'm sure)

 

[ummmm........]

@tomart109: I do enjoy this conquest. The fact that it's "too easy" doesn't really matter much to me, since it still takes a while to get your mines and plantations up and running, and you can still get a lot of enjoyment out of it before you clean up.

You mention changing the difficulty as a way to make it more fun for the player. Do you play on a higer or lower difficulty than you play the epic game? My experience has been the higher the difficulty, the more AI treasure there is to plunder. Do you restrict yourself when it comes to privateers, or does your experience differ from mine?

My favorite aspects of this conquest are its general novelty, convincing the native inhabitants of the new world to wipe out your enemy's colonies, and trying to win with colonies only in Africa. (and, of course, Piracy!)

 

[Eyeoftiger]

Originally posted by Halcyon
Everyone knows that Scotland is part of France, silly. That's why they speak French. It's been part of France since the Zulu invaded Portugal in 1265.

LOL...my boring day at work just got a little laugh to it! LOL

 

[tomart109]

Originally posted by ummmm........
Do you play on a higer or lower difficulty than you play the epic game? My experience has been the higher the difficulty, the more AI treasure there is to plunder.

Many of the conquests are quite playable at a higher difficulty than the epic game (example - WWII Pacific; I've won at Sid level, and I'm far from the best player.)
And it makes sense that the AI has more treasureat the higher levels; and that's actually a bonus for the human. Again, another factor in choosing the right difficulty level.

I confess I haven't played AoD since the beta, so i forget what difficulty level i was using then.