Difficulty and Mementos

[King Flevance]

I am curious about the community feedback on this one. It is obvious that mementos are used by the vast majority of players and I understand why. I personally have yet to play a game with mementos and don't really have any desire to. I play pretty exclusively on sovereign but I use "custom" difficulty settings to pump up the IPs to diety.

I know when mementos were first announced there were a few others saying that they also had no interest in using the memento mechanic. It isn't really something that comes up often in discussions and I have become curious over time. A year in, many of us have formed our rituals or typical playstyles with the game now.

I know many play on diety but I wonder how many are like me and the diety players being abundant isn't very relatable. I like the pacing and atmosphere sovereign gives me at the moment. I am curious to see how many people see mementos as a distraction vs. an advantage. I only allowed a single choice currently but thought about allowing 2 just in case you have a couple different. But I bet most of us have a setting we use most often.

 

[Siptah]

Sovereign usually, and with mementos. But which ones I use, and how much they impact the game differs a lot. I‘m so used to settlers having +1 movement by now though that it always feels like a penalty to not use this memento.

 

[Smegger213]

Started out at pussy Scribe mode lol. Moved up to Governor with Momentos. But don't really know which are the best momentos to use.
I will be slowly raising the difficulty after each win.

 

[UWHabs]

I think I played one or two games with the +1 movement on commanders, because they feel too slow sometimes otherwise. I do occasionally give some balance through basically modding/editing the XML (like in my last game, basically I gave Fort Towns a +50% boost to buying fortifications), although given that's xml technically the AI would make use of it too.

Otherwise I vary between Immortal and Deity, depending on whether I want an easier pace or a bigger challenge. If I feel like I'm playing a more role play game (ie. say I want to try a crazy wonder spam game with Egypt), I'd usually drop down the level.

 

[tedhebert]

I play immortal with mementos, but I don’t stick with the same mementos after antiquity, for which I always use saddle and imago.

 

[MrRadar]

I also started out as a memento sceptic, but then I realized I was missing out on fun by not using them. So now I play Deity with them and even reselecting them at every age transition.

 

[King Flevance]

The poll really isn't about who plays better or worse. It is about a broad perspective of the community regarding mementos as a new mechanic and difficulty preferences. Recently, I saw someone say that long ages (which I play) drop you down a difficulty. But it is about gameplay flavor, not competitive. My sweet spot right now is Sovereign, Epic, Huge, Long Ages, Low Natural Disasters, Crisis on, Continents and Islands - No mementos. But that poll would be unrealistic, so I simplified.

The poll is more along the lines of "How do you generally play for fun?" From my perspective, it seems deity and immortal + mementos is the most common way to play in the community. I made this poll to see how accurate that perspective is. With the amount of deity players, this community can feel a little intimidating when it shouldn't if you are not in the deity crowd. This poll allows everyone to see the spread of play styles, not skill level.

Certainly deity takes skill, but my skill level and my playstyle does not support playing deity unless I want to lose a lot or trail for most of the game - even with mementos. As well, mementos do not mean you are somehow cheating or it somehow invalidates your skill level. I don't prefer them because I like leaning solely on the civ and leader combos. They are little more than a distraction from my civ/leader combo; even more so if I were to choose the same ones almost every game. Plus, I already feel like we have a ton of unique things to track per age as it is. I just like the simplicity of just civ/leader.

This poll is meant to show us the diversity of playstyles in the community as public knowledge. There is a lot of deity talk, which is fine, but it can make it feel like I am the only person not playing on deity. Ideally, we would see all difficulty levels get some votes as then everyone in the community has someone they will relate to on gameplay nuances. As of me typing this @Smegger213 is the only governor vote but I am glad Smegger is representing the governor players. Hopefully, any other governor players may see this and now they know Smegger's playstyle is similar to their own. Sovereign is more popular than I initially expected so far but the poll is also young. I was a Viceroy player primarily until a couple months ago.

I have been curious about the relationship of deity mementos in the past but I am more curious about the relationship between the community and mementos currently and if it is related in any way to difficulty levels. Which so far, that latter part seems irrelevant. Mementos seem to be popular.

 

[WillK96]

I use mementos about half the time, usually if I want to try an alternative play style (building lots of UIs, super gold heavy build, etc...).

 

[Noble Zarkon]

There is a lot of deity talk, which is fine, but it can make it feel like I am the only person not playing on deity. Ideally, we would see all difficulty levels get some votes as then everyone in the community has someone they will relate to on gameplay nuances.

Well said, thank you.

 

[Berrern]

I usually play on Deity (and recently, higher difficulties) and if I play on a Large or Huge map, I like to use the Imago Mundi Memento only.
Apart from that, I try to avoid using Mementos unless I have a very specific goal - such as in my first game on the 1.2.5 patch where I wanted to get to grips with the new/updated City States, and so I used the Shisa Necklace to befriend as many as possible.

It's a bit of a shame, because I really like the concept of the Mementos and how you can alter your playing style and strategies around them - but I feel they make the game easier, while I'm looking for a harder challenge.

 

[Krikkit1]

I usually play on Deity (and recently, higher difficulties) and if I play on a Large or Huge map, I like to use the Imago Mundi Memento only.
Apart from that, I try to avoid using Mementos unless I have a very specific goal - such as in my first game on the 1.2.5 patch where I wanted to get to grips with the new/updated City States, and so I used the Shisa Necklace to befriend as many as possible.

It's a bit of a shame, because I really like the concept of the Mementos and how you can alter your playing style and strategies around them - but I feel they make the game easier, while I'm looking for a harder challenge.

They REALLY need an unlimited difficulty system. perhaps in the Custom you can include Deity+1 to Deity+99 for each option…and each adds a fixed amount to Deity bonuses. (so CS Deity +99 gives AIs a +206 total CS bonus…if you want the Hard diplo game, Culture would be +2060% for AI in Future Civics by Turn 20, etc.)

That way noone could claim the AI is too easy..it might be stupid, but at the right level it’s impossible to beat.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I'm still working my way through all of the leaders. Yes, I pre-ordered the game. No, I haven't played it non-stop since launch. I have also played some Civ6 and Civ3. I want to play each leader without mementos, to understand what their strengths/weaknesses are. I expect to start using mementos after a few more games, having collected a bunch of them.

I don't have any objections to the concept. It's a reward for playing frequently, that spans multiple playthroughs. Having a great game as Ben Franklin can benefit when I play Napoleon. I will get into it eventually.

I do miss the "Hall of Fame", though. I'd like to compare my Lafayette game with my Tecumseh game, easily. I'd like to see if I did better (more legacy points) if I chose America for Modern or Prussia. Aside from making notes with my phone (or pencil and paper), that's not easy to do currently.

 

[WillK96]

Agreed, Hall of fame and classic score are dearly missed.

 

[MutilationWave]

And post-game data. Give me all the charts, graphs, and maps.

 

[King Flevance]

I expect to start using mementos after a few more games, having collected a bunch of them.

I don't have any objections to the concept. It's a reward for playing frequently, that spans multiple playthroughs. Having a great game as Ben Franklin can benefit when I play Napoleon. I will get into it eventually.

I do miss the "Hall of Fame", though. I'd like to compare my Lafayette game with my Tecumseh game, easily. I'd like to see if I did better (more legacy points) if I chose America for Modern or Prussia. Aside from making notes with my phone (or pencil and paper), that's not easy to do currently.

I 100% agree with all of this. I am sure that down the road I will have a phase where I tinker with mementos also. But it will probably quite a long time from now and it could be short or long lived. But I miss Hall of Fame so bad too. It's weird they excluded it on the game they claim they were trying to get more players to finish games.

 

[Barbarian King]

I always play with mementos, usually selecting them with an eye to leaning into the traits of my leader (or sometimes civ). It's fun to double-down on the theme.

I started playing at Viceroy and have beaten the game at every level above that, just to try it out, but Sovereign is where the game is most fun for me. A bit of a challenge, but still laid back enough that I can have a chill game and take detours as the mood strikes.

And post-game data. Give me all the charts, graphs, and maps.

Playing Old World recently reminded me how much I miss the glut of data at the end of the older Civ games. Definitely would like it back.

 

[Nic@Melbourne]

Momentos give such fun flavor it’s hard to give up even when you want more of a challenge.

 

[UWHabs]

I 100% agree with all of this. I am sure that down the road I will have a phase where I tinker with mementos also. But it will probably quite a long time from now and it could be short or long lived. But I miss Hall of Fame so bad too. It's weird they excluded it on the game they claim they were trying to get more players to finish games.

I think I'll probably wait until they give an option where the AI is also given mementos before I really dive into them.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I think I'll probably wait until they give an option where the AI is also given mementos before I really dive into them.

I think it's totally pointless to give mementos to AI. Why write complex logic to assess dozens of various mementos, if AI could be given flat bonuses?

 

[Siptah]

I think I'll probably wait until they give an option where the AI is also given mementos before I really dive into them.

There‘s a mod for that but I didn‘t notice much impact.