Civperstitions

[Posidonius]

Perhaps an appropriate moment of year to consider superstitions? I used to never build cities on river squares unless at last resort. I used to never forest a horseplain. Reading the FAQs here dispelled a lot of hare-brained ideas i had developed over the years, thank you CF, but it got me to noticing other things i always do, things not mentioned in FAQ nor manual, things which turn out to have no rational reason...

When i start the game, i always listen to the opening tune, no clicking until it finishes. When very impatient, i might skip some of the music, but on no occasion, never, click until after the screen saying: "Windows Version By WILLIAM DENMAN" passes by.

When i restart the game, i always wait until the system clock ticks forward to a new minute.

When negotiating with an enemy king, at the end of the negotiations i always wait until he or she blinks at least twice before clicking on "We welcome peace..."

Never, ever, do i spend gold to finish building a Wonder. Never. I don't know why, i just don't.

I never name a new city using the same first 3 letters as an existing city (domestic nor foreign.)

When the game offers me an addition to my Palace, i always wait until the music finishes before choosing the upgrade, and i always put off the statues along the road until the very last.

A Settler may not found a city until it has built at least one road, not even the starting Settler.

I never make peace with anyone living on the landmass i started on. Maybe that one's not really a superstition, just a bare minimum of gallantry. No sense lying to them; they're doomed. There are others which don't leap to mind right now, equally bereft of an anchor in codebase reality, best explained as hopeful propitiations to some Ghost in the Machine, a spirit lurking between byte orders who doles out chimaeric "luck".

Wondering if anyone else has gameplay idiosyncracies which, seen in the light of day, are only superstition?

 

[mandrakoukos]

You're kidding, right?

 

[Mize]

I can actually relate to some of those, if even so slightly.

When I was a kid, I always would wait until the third 'Earth' screen before the game lets you choose difficulty, civ, etc. But that was not really superstition, rather due to technical limitations, it took until the third screen for my x386 to generate the world.

But, even to this day, I very often research iron working right away if I'm playing with the Romans, even if it makes no sense game-wise. Just for some historical accuracy, I suppose... Add random 'historically accurate' wonders like the Oracle at Delphi or the Pyramids as Egypt here.

 

[Posidonius]

You're kidding, right?

Not at all. Most of them have some basis in rationality, once upon a time at least. For example, waiting until the system clock ticks forward between a quit/restart. At the turn of the century i got Dobb's Journal and Byte magazine in my mailbox and read Ars Technica often. Somewhere in that reading i remember an anecdote about an early PC game...

The game (like Civ 1) could be "gamed" by frequent save/restarts. To counter this, the programmer inserted code which compared the OS's creation-time of the save-file being opened with the current system time. If the times were within 15 minutes of each other, then the game jacked up the difficulty level. Problem solved, right?

Wrong, not solved. The programmer failed to take into account how his game was being played. He was deluged with complaints from players who were happily wasting hours of their employer's time every day. The trouble is when your boss pops into your office for a word, you've got to exit your tomfoolery and pretend to be hard at work, by exposing the spreadsheet which was open in a window under the game. I know that i'm not the only one here who is skilled at typing Alt-down-Q-Enter in 1/4 of a heartbeat.

Trouble was, that even if the boss only hung over the shoulder for a minute, these players still had to wait 15 minutes to resume playing the game, meaning that (cue the shock and dismay) players were nearly tempted to do actual work for 14 whole minutes. Obviously, that is intolerable . So, bending to demands of the masses, and being uncomfortable with pitchforks and tar-based undies, this programmer amended that block of code in future versions, so that the wait time for a clean restart was one minute, not 15.

And that's why i do it with Civ. You know, "just in case". By this time, really don't think that Civ has a "feature" coded in to discourage the Restart Cheat, but i still do it anyway. Thus, a Civperstition.

 

[Posidonius]

But, even to this day, I very often research iron working right away if I'm playing with the Romans, even if it makes no sense game-wise. Just for some historical accuracy, I suppose... Add random 'historically accurate' wonders like the Oracle at Delphi or the Pyramids as Egypt here.

Oh yeh, all the time. Not a superstition, but always put Pyramids in the capital, unless playing as the Babylonians, when the capital has to get Hanging Gardens. A city named "Ostia" has to be on the coast when playing as Rome, and when playing as the Americans will name cities after Civil War battle sites.

One thing that is pure superstition is that i will never name my new cities: Thera, Troy, or Sodom.

 

[SkimJab]

I never build roads over rivers, even after I get bridge building. I think its less of a superstition as much as I just forget that can happen.
I also always play as the Zulus. Call me racist but I always had bad luck when dealing with the Zulu leader, so I just started playing as the Zulus to take him out of the game. he would always start wars with me and build cities as the exact wrong places.

 

[Theov]

Perhaps an appropriate moment of year to consider superstitions? I used to never build cities on river squares unless at last resort. I used to never forest a horseplain. Reading the FAQs here dispelled a lot of hare-brained ideas i had developed over the years, thank you CF, but it got me to noticing other things i always do, things not mentioned in FAQ nor manual, things which turn out to have no rational reason...

When i start the game, i always listen to the opening tune, no clicking until it finishes. When very impatient, i might skip some of the music, but on no occasion, never, click until after the screen saying: "Windows Version By WILLIAM DENMAN" passes by.

When i restart the game, i always wait until the system clock ticks forward to a new minute.

When negotiating with an enemy king, at the end of the negotiations i always wait until he or she blinks at least twice before clicking on "We welcome peace..."

Never, ever, do i spend gold to finish building a Wonder. Never. I don't know why, i just don't.

I never name a new city using the same first 3 letters as an existing city (domestic nor foreign.)

When the game offers me an addition to my Palace, i always wait until the music finishes before choosing the upgrade, and i always put off the statues along the road until the very last.

A Settler may not found a city until it has built at least one road, not even the starting Settler.

I never make peace with anyone living on the landmass i started on. Maybe that one's not really a superstition, just a bare minimum of gallantry. No sense lying to them; they're doomed. There are others which don't leap to mind right now, equally bereft of an anchor in codebase reality, best explained as hopeful propitiations to some Ghost in the Machine, a spirit lurking between byte orders who doles out chimaeric "luck".

Wondering if anyone else has gameplay idiosyncracies which, seen in the light of day, are only superstition?

this is not superstition, this is a psychic disorder.

I never build roads over rivers, even after I get bridge building. I think its less of a superstition as much as I just forget that can happen.
I also always play as the Zulus. Call me racist but I always had bad luck when dealing with the Zulu leader, so I just started playing as the Zulus to take him out of the game. he would always start wars with me and build cities as the exact wrong places.

there's nothing racist about picking a leader that as an AI is notoriously aggressive. You can also play as Babylon and block the color - the AI will not be Zulu IIRC.