Conquest loss is the only satisfying way to lose

[Minor Annoyance]

It's possible that I'm the only one who can find a loss at all satisfying but whatevs
If I lose I want to feel like I was beaten, not that someone else just won. An example being Monopoly, which requires you to get everyone else's money. You can't win without interacting with the other players.
In CivBE the only victory requiring you to interact with others is conquest. All the others you can lose to a player you've never even met. In Civ5 the only victory like that was space victory. It was a good choice if you couldn't compete directly with the other civs. You could sneak by a win while they were fighting over something else. Diplomacy you all got votes from the same pool and everyone's culture pushed against each other.
CivBE has none like that but conquest. I've lost without even noticing anyone was close to winning.

 

[ShagVT]

Ditto ... just cruising along, maybe planning a major military campaign or tricking out my own victory and POOF - game over. If I recall, it doesn't even tell you who beat you.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

It used to not tell you, now it does tell you who and how.
I didn't need to be told in my last game though. ARC had been going through one colony after another. I was always invited to join.I don't did once for SF because they were right on my border so it was a chance to gain some land. Didn't help because I was next. She said I was a fool to trust her. I had enjoyed building my colony but I wasn't up to overcoming their apollo level bonuses. I did have artists through random chance and it did make it all the way through prosperity pretty early but it didn't help.
I wonder what ARC had. Is there anyway to tell what another sponsor started with?

 

[Barathor]

You're not the only one!

I love a good beatdown -- especially when I'm greedy and start neglecting my army for too long, then I deserve it.

That's the problem with the affinity victories right now (I suppose Contact can remain as is, so there's at least one passive, turtle option), they're too passive. They're very creative and interesting flavor-wise; when I first read about them and got the game I was pretty excited over them. But... actually playing and pursuing them towards victory is a bit: "Zzzz..." And to counter others' affinity victories, you basically have to get aggressive and stomp them. There's no other peaceful options to hinder their progress so you can complete your own first. No interaction.

Luckily, there's still lots of time and at least two expansions to enhance things further.

 

[a space oddity]

I, for one, am glad that the AI can and does win, but you are right the it is easy to ignore while you're palying. Still, you should check the progress of the AI, and when the get to level 13 in any affinity, you should be alert. And also the game tells you explicitly when they make progress in any of the victory quests, so to me it is just part of the game that you need tostop them or be quicker if you want to be the one who wins... ;-)

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Yes, I have gotten the notifications of an AI getting closer to victory, and in my most recent (winning) game I had to abruptly dash across the ocean to take out a mind flower, but that makes it so if you're not ahead in affinity you have to go for a military victory. If someone gets to 13 first then you have to right then drop everything and take them out militarily.
So seven out of eight players have no reason to pursue anything but a military victory because they will have to take down the highest affinity player anyway so why not keep going afterwards if you've already taken down the biggest threat?
In civ5 you could use your resources from the congress or cultural influence to disrupt someones progress to another victory, but in BE it's only military that matters.

 

[keldaur]

What exactly is the difference on going full military and not pursuing affinity 13. Affinity is too important for your military to ignore specially against somebody who unlocked t4 units, which are much much better than t3 (the gap is massive compared to the other gap jumps). So even if you want a military win you need academy spam to substain yourself on late game.

 

[mellojoe]

And to counter others' affinity victories, you basically have to get aggressive and stomp them. There's no other peaceful options to hinder their progress so you can complete your own first. No interaction.

I really wish there was some way to use diplomacy or something to interact with other AI's regarding their victory. Turtle strategy is best strategy. Put either warp gate in the center of your civ, guard it with military, and hope you are the first.

And if someone else starts a victory condition, there is NOTHING you can do to stop it save for military. A game with friends becomes "dick-move" everywhere when as soon as you see someone build a gate, you send in your big destroyer to shut it down. And there is nothing in-between.

Why can't covert spies shut it down (Contact the movie, anyone?) or slow its development? Or why can't peace treaties prevent people from "conquering" old Earth? Or use the satellites to talk to old Earth to "warn" them of the pending "invasion" and make Supremacy harder to achieve? Or convince old Earth that leaving there is a bad thing making Purity harder? Or use your own Mind Stems to convince the aliens not to listen to those other guys making Harmony harder?

Each of the 3 main victory conditions are 100% passive. Plus there is a 4th victory condition with is also 100% passive. And then there is one, only one, victory condition that is 100% aggressive. Sadly, nothing in between. Hopefully we can see some changes in the real near future.

 

[Bandobras Took]

It's possible that I'm the only one who can find a loss at all satisfying but whatevs
If I lose I want to feel like I was beaten, not that someone else just won. An example being Monopoly, which requires you to get everyone else's money. You can't win without interacting with the other players.

I'm the opposite. I get far more satisfaction in a game where it feels like everybody is winning and the winner is the person who's best at winning.