Deity gets boring!

[addiv]

It's getting boring playing Deity level. It's far too easy. I have also tried things to make it more difficult for me, like starting later.
One time I even build my first city in 1750 AD and I still won!
What would really be great is a patch or so, which adds more diffulty levels (so 2 or 3 levels higher then deity).
Does anybody know such a patch or does anyone know other ways to make Deity level more challenging?

 

[Zelig]

You can play on difficulty levels and barbarian levels higher than what is normally supported.

Just open up your game.txt file, scroll down to where the difficulty or barbarian levels are and add more lines after either Diety or Raging Hordes.

Different barbarian levels work fine on MGE, however higher difficulty levels make Civ2 MGE crash if you try to load saved games with them, but you can use Cedric's patches to use either Civ2 classic, CIC or FW to play games with higher difficulty.

In my sig I have a link to a succession game with increased difficulty and barbarian level.
(which I am unable to play at the moment)

 

[ElephantU]

You can search the threads for D+1, D+2, and Barbarian Wraith (B+1).

 

[addiv]

@Zelig: Thanx for the tip! This really makes it a lot more difficult and challenging!

@ElephantU: How? Minimum length for search is 4 characters

 

[funxus]

You could try "Deity+1"

 

[Jayne]

addiv - sounds like we could use your expertise in our demogame. It's deity/raging hordes, but with extra limitations. Click the link in my sig!

 

[johnnymiller]

Deity is too easy!!??

I hate you guys. I've played King level once, had the upper hand but ran out of time. My science was only just getting me to Battleships/Armour.

How do you do it..?

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Originally posted by johnnymiller
Deity is too easy!!??

I hate you guys. I've played King level once, had the upper hand but ran out of time. My science was only just getting me to Battleships/Armour.

How do you do it..?

Some of the best resources I can think of:

Getting your civ off to a good start is not absolutely necessary for success, but it sure helps. I found Smash's Deity Game Start thread to be an excellent resource for the thinking that goes into getting a good start. This is where I really learned how to use rushbuying to your advantage to accelerate your growth.

For an excellent example and explanation of how to set up and bring a power democracy through "modernization", read Andu's timeline and Game Notes from his Roman Game.

Also search for Power Democracy and most anything by Starlifter in the Civ2 forums.

One of the best ways to understand how to win a deity is to understand two extreme ways of playing, One City Challenge (OCC) and Infinite City Strategy...or "Sleaze" if your prefer(ICS). OCC teaches you how to focus on science and perfecting a powerful city. It also demonstrates how to "play nice" and that the AI can be your friend. ICS demonstrates the power of rapid expansion at the expense of "good" cities. It not only helps you get ahead early on with production and research, it helps you deal with unhappiness by never letting your cities get big enough to be unhappy.. Play a game following each strategy and see how they work (which is usually remarkably well ). Then you can start to work parts of each technique into your normal game play as conditions warrant.

Also you can Read the Game of the Month forum, particularly the spoiler threads, to read logs of how different people handled different situations. Play a game and see how you do compared to everyone else.

 

[johnnymiller]

Thanks Tim I'll give your advice a shot.

It was an Emporer level game I'd got the upper hand on BTW, not King. Think I've got that level pretty much in the bag now.

I've started a Deity game and am doing reasonably well. My production and science still seem a bit slow though and keeping everyone happy is mighty tricky with an unhappy citizen at size 2!

I think I'm at the right site though if I want to improve.

Thanks again.

 

[atawa]

If you want to get better just start playing with humans, AI is too boring, even on a higher dificulty level.

It might cheat a little more but does the same predictable things as ever.

 

[johnnymiller]

I'd love to play against humans but I've only got Civ 2 - Test of Time.
What version would I need to join a PBEM or Game of The Month?

 

[funxus]

GOTM, I think you can use any version (at least MGE and 2.42), and to play multiplayer I think you'll need MGE. I have never tried TOT, so I don't really know it.

 

[Jayne]

There is a patch on the CivII downloads page to convert ToT to MGE. You'll need that for Gotm.

You can play multiplayer on ToT, but you can only play other people who also have ToT. It seems there are more people with MGE than ToT.

Myself, I have Classic CivII for Gotm and demogames, Classic CivII patched to MGE for multiplayer and ToT to play a normal game or hotseat game with my other half.

 

[Amenhotep IV]

Originally posted by addiv
It's getting boring playing Deity level. It's far too easy. I have also tried things to make it more difficult for me, like starting later.
One time I even build my first city in 1750 AD and I still won!
What would really be great is a patch or so, which adds more diffulty levels (so 2 or 3 levels higher then deity).
Does anybody know such a patch or does anyone know other ways to make Deity level more challenging?

1750... I haven't tried that yet. Good idea.
Yes, the Deity level is far too easy, that's true. When I play on Deity I always try to choose the hardest civs like Russians, Carthaginins, Mongols, etc. and start to play on a small island... I tested Japan and even the malayan Islands. A good idea is also not to build HG, MC... but when you started on 1750 you already did so
Ah, yes what I really like is to play the Malayans (my preset civs, starting on Malayan islands) and build 5-7 cities on islands and stop expanding at all !!! while the AI is growing... You are handicaped in many ways:
1) no more than 6-8 shields in your cities... until you discover Miniaturisation.
2) just 5-7 cities.
Your only advantage is that you are far away from your rivals. You make a huge profit on caravans. What I also tried is not to research Insustrialisation at all (stealing later tech's from AI). Then the SS race could be challenging in a specific way... but you can still win while they build a very small SS which flies >15 years.
Once, following this strategy I won even when the had already lounched their SS and I was just starting my SS up.
What I also tried is the same strategy (5-7 cities) but playing Babilonians with Carthage, Russia, Mongols etc.
Good luck Civ2 is a great game, even if the AI is sometimes stupid

P.S. I actually tried the OCC and I think this strategy on small random maps is surprisingly easier if you get a good location... but it's up to which to choose.

 

[RedWolf]

I've never tried this but intend to some day:

Play a game and build a large powerful civilization of many cities. (ie: Play as you normally would and do your best).

At some point in the game use the cheat to "CHANGE TEAMS". Hand your civ over to the A.I. and take control of one of the close neighboring civilizations (so to increase the chances that you'll come in conflict with your old team).

Then see if you can still win.

 

[Archer 007]

That's a good idea, RedWolf.