Can't view after-turn combat in MP hot-seat game for 1 of 2 human players

[norman96]

Hi guys. I searched around for an answer to this and didn't have much luck . I'd be your biggest pal if you could help me out.

Here is the situation. Me and my buddy are crazy for playing Civ 4 Complete hot seat. Here is the problem. Either him or me, throughout the game, will not be able to view the combat that happens after our turn (i.e AI initiated combat.) Whether we can or not depends on whether we play as Player 1 or Player 2.

Just so I'm being super clear at what is going on I'll re-describe everything as plain as I can. Okay so you are surrounded by computer controlled troops. You go 'end turn'. Then -- if it worked -- you would then be able to watch the computer attack you, and the computer moves.

If I'm playing as the first possible player (i.e it's my computer name in the game setup screen, the top slot, which in my case is HomeComp, ) then I do NOT get to see the computer combat after my turn. It just immediately goes to my my buddy's turn and I can't get to see what happened. However, for my buddy, say he is playing as the second slot player in the game setup screen, everything works just fine for him: he gets to see the computer moves after his turn and everything.

I have 'show enemy moves' selected in the options screen and a fully updated game.

This is a pretty big deal because it isn't nearly as dramatic to just end your turn then get just find out the after math of the battle the next turn, instead of seeing each combat happen.

I don't get it! Any work arounds or solutions would be really appreciated thank you for reading.

Edit: Geez I just thought of why this is now. I guess it is because the computer moves happen after the second player goes, and the screen is on the second players territory when player 2 ends the turn. But its early game in our current game, so he doesn't even have my territory on the map yet...would there any way for us to both see the computer moves? Like for him to see the computer moves on his turf and then maybe the 'camera' / 'view' switches to my turf so that I can see what happened?

 

[ori]

Moderator Action: moved to MP subforum

I hope someone with experience in HotSeat sees this here - chances are certainly better than in Tech Support...

 

[2metraninja]

I used to play hotseat back in time too, so I know this situation. For me it wasn't that bad, since I have switched off battle animation and have quick combat on, but still I wanted to know where my enemies comes from.

Other weird thing in hotseat is that the Player2 cant see proper his technology map - he sees Player1 techs highlighted - he still can pick which tech to learn, but its confusing.

Anyway - hotseat is great feature for every turn- based strategy - enjoy it .

 

[Dhoomstriker]

I have not tried this work-around out, but here is an idea that might help a bit

I don't get it! Any work arounds or solutions would be really appreciated thank you for reading.

Edit: Geez I just thought of why this is now. I guess it is because the computer moves happen after the second player goes, and the screen is on the second players territory when player 2 ends the turn. But its early game in our current game, so he doesn't even have my territory on the map yet...would there any way for us to both see the computer moves? Like for him to see the computer moves on his turf and then maybe the 'camera' / 'view' switches to my turf so that I can see what happened?

Just a thought:
Say that you are playing with 6 AI opponents.

When you set up the game, if you put yourself in spot #1 and your friend in spot #4, then each of you will have 3 AIs playing in between your turns.

If you do your best to only get into wars with the 3 AIs that "come after" your name but appear before your friend's name in the list, then you should be able to see the moves of the relevant AIs.

Possible issues with this work-around:
1. It will be hard to tell which AI plays after you unless you first see their Scout or other exploring unit "move" in the early game.

2. It could be that your neighbouring AIs are all of the AIs that the other player has "coming after them" in the order of turns, so depending upon how the AIs get placed on the map, this work-around might not always help.

3. The player that starts playing after a couple of the AIs will have 1 less turn to beat those first few AIs to a Religion or a Wonder.

Possible solutions to those issues:
1. a) You might want to enable the "show Friendly actions" setting in order to see these AI moves, just to figure out if the AI comes after you or comes after your buddy (you wouldn't see the movement happen if that AI comes after your buddy). Once you've figured out which AI comes after which one of you, you can disable the "show Friendly actions" setting for the remainder of the game--just write down the AI order on a piece of paper, so that you don't forget.

1. b) You could also just pick all of your opponents in the game creation screen, so that you'd know their relative order, but doing so might not be as fun.

Either way, you still wouldn't see all of the battles if you joined a war against the same AI, but you'd at least get to see some of them.

2. a) Start again if the AI that you want to attack can't be seen by you.

2. b) Perhaps get your friend to join the war and let his/her units fight near the front lines, so that his/her units will see the moves that the AI makes.

2. c) Have "show Friendly moves" enabled and have your friend place a couple of Spies or other units near the battlefront while remaining at peace with said AI.

3. a) If you are going with 1. b) and selecting AI opponents, you can choose to put ones that are not religious-oriented and are not Wonder-oriented after the first player but before the second player.

3. b) Have the "better" player out of you two play second in the order, so that this one extra turn half of the AIs will have will not matter that much. This player is NOT allowed to whine and complain every time that they get beaten to a Wonder or a Religion by one turn, because they chose to pay with this extra handicap.

3. c) Have the player that prefers to Warmonger instead of Wondermonger appear second in the list, so that the risk of missing out on Wonders is reduced (if you won't build many, you won't have the chance to miss out on many).


Note that you also don't have to split up the AIs "evenly"--if one of you prefers to Warmonger more, set it up so that more of the AIs will come after that player in the player list.