Do you reload saves when things go bad?

[Mesix]

I love it when people declare that they NEVER reload, like it's some sort of badge of honor or something. Who cares? Mostly, I think these are teenagers. I've only reloaded the game a few times, to correct grievous errors, like declaring war on the wrong AI or accidentally gifting cities, but I don't think that makes me any better than a player who habitually reloads whenever he gets an undesired result from a goody hut. That's just silly.

In MP games, you don't have the luxury of reloading, so it's pretty much tough luck. In that circumstance, at least, you can ask the other player to gift you back the city you accidentally gifted him. I can't imagine someone saying no to that. Maybe on Gamespy...

I agree with you about the "I never reload" folks. It's a game for crying outloud. Who cares if you reload?

I personally don't reload following a bad turn of events. I do find it eye opening to load an autosave sometimes to see if I can learn from my mistakes. I especially do this when I move up in difficulty. I recently moved back up to Prince difficulty (I started over at the lower difficulties after upgrading to BTS). I have only played two games on Prince so far. I did not achieve a victory in either one, but one of the games was moderately successful before I saved and exited (I had my entire continent). I have tried each of the games two or three times from the initial autosave to see how different decisions pan out.

 

[mjs0]

Saw this thread, voted, scrolled to bottom to make a comment only to find Mesix had already said a lot of what I was intending to say just a few minutes earlier.

The game is all about having fun and if reloading doesn't spoil or even increases your fun then don't let anyone stop you!

Personally, I tend not to reload except in the situation Mesix described where I believe there is something to be learned by trying a different strategy or tactic from an earlier save.

Oh and I will sometimes deliberately save before switching civics if the effect of the change (particularly on my money supply) is not immediately clear and reload the earlier save if I don't like the new numbers. I find myself doing this a lot when thinking about switching between bureaucracy and Vassalage. or between Org. Religion and Pacifism.
I do this to save myself the hassle of doing all the calculations manually.

 

[thelibra]

This is the next bad habit I've been working on breaking myself of. I just got through breaking my regen addiction. Now I'm trying to force myself not to load saved games or autosaves to try and get better results or get an unfair advantage over the PC. However, if I've got hours and hours invested in a game, and suddenly because I failed to notice one critical thing, I lose a city or something, then yeah, I'll reload. However, eventually I hope to even avoid doing this.

I think in the beginning, reloading saves all the time is fine for newer players, as there's still a lot you can learn from trying different actions instead of the ones you tried. But eventually, IMHO, to advance as a player, you have to learn how to get by with reloads less and less often, and eventually with none. After all, there's no reloads in multiplayer.

 

[Tirse]

I do, from time to time, but this depends on the game and the general situation. Goody huts - never, combat - sometimes (mostly when RNG plays dumb on my GG unit, not tweaking overall battle results), changing civics - often, "numpad errors" - nearly always, serious strategic blunder on my part - very rarely. Ah, I also reset maps very often, but when I find one that suits my tastes (advanced starts, BTW) I sit through to the end. I don't use the "random seed" option.

Perhaps that's just me being merely a casual gamer, but I must admit that I find the concept of "OMG cheating" in SP games rather silly. To everyone his own.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

I love it when people declare that they NEVER reload, like it's some sort of badge of honor or something. Who cares? Mostly, I think these are teenagers. I've only reloaded the game a few times, to correct grievous errors, like declaring war on the wrong AI or accidentally gifting cities, but I don't think that makes me any better than a player who habitually reloads whenever he gets an undesired result from a goody hut. That's just silly.

In MP games, you don't have the luxury of reloading, so it's pretty much tough luck. In that circumstance, at least, you can ask the other player to gift you back the city you accidentally gifted him. I can't imagine someone saying no to that. Maybe on Gamespy...

it seems that you never intend to compete with others. Or you are one of the guys always quitting an MP game when loosing a scout?

Believe me or not, but if you start to compete in Hof or GotM or MP you start to stop reloading ...

 

[CoZe]

I do reload when the AI gets something I really want, like a wonder or tech. and try to rush things. don't have random seed, and sometimes I reload if AI catches me unprepared and build the army before a war.

 

[Adam7Eight]

I only reload when I accidentally click the wrong button, especially with diplomacy...

 

[Smidlee]

I have reload while getting use to the game and trying different options yet I usually never finish them. After that I don't unless bugs or power outages. It is just a game but not very challenging or rewarding finishing a game that been doctored in one's favor.

 

[bardolph]

I try never to reload, but I have to admit, I sometimes do it. I do lots of reloading when I'm trying to figure out the game mechanics of some new feature (Espionage, for example), or if I do something super bone-headed like leaving an undefended Settler or Great Person within range of wandering Barbarians.

One thing I hate is that if you send a unit somewhere using the GoTo command, and they come within range of an enemy unit or barbarian, they will blissfully walk right into the lion's mouth (so to speak) without giving me any warning. Also, if an automated unit happens to come up early in the turn queue, it may move before I get a chance to cancel its orders. Grr... I will sometimes reload in these situations, especially if it was a Great Person, Missionary, or Settler that got so unlucky. I know, I know, it should teach me to send them with escorts...

 

[Airefuego]

I confess I used to reload all the time in Civ 1 and 2. Mostly because my battleships would occasionally lose to spearmen and so on Ok, plus all the other times anything bad happened too.

Now Civ IV has fixed nearly all the "unrealistic" things that would infuriate me, I don't reload much (ok a litttttle, especially if I am experimenting with new rules in BTS etc) and yes it does improve your play if you learn to bounce back from setbacks.

For example, if someone beats me by one turn to a plump city location, it just means I RUSH THEM! instead of reloading and changing my build order.

And next game I'll chop the settler, like I should have in the first place.

 

[Mortac]

I guess I should have added an "experimental" option. That is, only reloading when trying things out such as civic changes or alternate strategies. I think for this kind of reloading it would still go under "never" if that's the only reloads you do, since they aren't really done to gain unfair advantages.

 

[azzaman333]

I love it when people declare that they NEVER reload, like it's some sort of badge of honor or something. Who cares? Mostly, I think these are teenagers. I've only reloaded the game a few times, to correct grievous errors, like declaring war on the wrong AI or accidentally gifting cities, but I don't think that makes me any better than a player who habitually reloads whenever he gets an undesired result from a goody hut. That's just silly.<snip>

I use the HoF rules as a guideline for a fair and comparable way to play Civ. Anyone who uses reloads invalidates their games for a fair comparison.

 

[mice]

What is random seed on reload, or more to the point, why does it exist. What is added to gameply when you select this option ??

not a rhetorical question, i just dont know what it's meant to achieve.

 

[Powerslave]

it seems that you never intend to compete with others. Or you are one of the guys always quitting an MP game when loosing a scout?

Believe me or not, but if you start to compete in Hof or GotM or MP you start to stop reloading ...

Already submitted a bunch of games to the Hall of Fame and a quarter of my games are MP.

Got any other assumptions you'd like to get out of the way?

Anyways, I think the Hall of Fame will accept reloads if you give them a legitimate reason, such as declaring war on the wrong AI.

 

[jessiecat]

Agree with last post. Guess i haven't mastered the jargon. And just to clarify
the HOF rules, does saving at 4000BC, retiring to if check location OK, then
reloading save, count as a cheat or not? Always done it.

 

[Tarew]

Hmm, well apparently it's almost a crime for saying this now but no, I NEVER reload
Probably because this IS a game and reloading takes all the fun out of it for me. If you can just try over and over again, for me the challenge is gone and I'd rather just restart (yes I am a perfectionist ). Note that this in no way implies that I think any less of people who do reload, I just don't like it personally.
I also don't like restarting several times to get an ideal starting position for that matter because of the same reason (the only exception being the rare occasion when I want to try a 'watery' civ and my capital isn't on a coast).

 

[Mortac]

What is random seed on reload, or more to the point, why does it exist. What is added to gameply when you select this option ??

not a rhetorical question, i just dont know what it's meant to achieve.

It's not meant to achieve anything but different combat results or content in goodie huts when you reload (not sure if anything else is affected by it) for two reasons I can think of: 1) it allows, for example, people to avoid combat results that might otherwise finish a player off, and 2) it gives more of a new experience to a map should you decide to play it more than once.

 

[azzaman333]

Already submitted a bunch of games to the Hall of Fame and a quarter of my games are MP.

Got any other assumptions you'd like to get out of the way?

Anyways, I think the Hall of Fame will accept reloads if you give them a legitimate reason, such as declaring war on the wrong AI.

Nope. Reloading is not allowed under any circumstance according to the CFC HoF rules.

Agree with last post. Guess i haven't mastered the jargon. And just to clarify
the HOF rules, does saving at 4000BC, retiring to if check location OK, then
reloading save, count as a cheat or not? Always done it.

That would be a cheat, since it gives unfair map knowledge.

 

[Indiansmoke]

I don't think reloading is such a big deal. I do it myself sometimes, mostly if I invested a good ammount of hours into the game and something happens by stupidity or mistake that ruins/loses the whole game. I have finished games without a single reload and I have finished games with reloads as well!

The HOF does not allow reload, I am sure people do it never the less. It does allow however to pick oponnents, certain maps/conditions, that obviously are advangeous to the human player.
So the HOF is not just a about better play, it is mostly about finding the right combinations, maps/speeds, oponnents etc that the AI performs worst on.

Also the best scores/finish dates in the HOF are games with same settings/ oponents played over and over again until for example " the AI does not attack my cities that only have one warrior". I cannot see how that is cool, while reloading is not.

An even competition is the GOTM games where everyone plays the same start/game, HOF is not an even competition.

 

[ezwip]

Shaka likes to throw his entire stack at random cities of mine for absolutely no reason at all, every single game. If I have to stop everything I'm doing I will reload. I put him on the same level as Charles Manson. He's going to spazz it's just a matter of time, and there is no rhyme or reason to it. If there are any tips to appease him please let me know for he is a game destroyer.