Do you reload when fighting?

[scooter]

Only time I ever did was one time I was doing a test on combat odds, but otherwise no.

 

[ownedbyakorat]

Unless you're merely experimenting, if you're going to cheat, there's no point in playing any game.

 

[jimbob27]

On my first few games I did, but I don't really do it now. I kept finding myself in situations where the entire game would rest on a single combat result. Either due to me not defending my cities well enough, or not sending enough troops to complete an attack. Something had to be done, because it was no fun being left with that situation. Cheat and reload? Or put up with the fact your civ's future has totally been changed by a single combat? Neither makes for a fun game.

I've ajusted my tactics now, and become the biggest warmonger ever; so no single combat result is ever that critical to me. With my new tactics, if I loose a unit it doesn't matter, because theres always about 5 more to replace it. I may loose cities temporarily, but once I get my war-machine rolling, the ai doesn't really know how to stop it. I'll get those cities back, and take some enemy territory too as retribution! I remember in my first game I reloaded because I was attacked when I didn't want to be. I really can't believe I did that. Now, every time I play.... I pray to the gods for surprise attacks. Unplanned wars are my favorite challenge of all!

I do reload games regularly however, in what I consider a legitimate manner. I'm working my way up through the difficulties, and sometimes I realise I'm playing a game I can't possibly win. Instead of giving up, I'll reload to a much earlier point, and restart from there, to see if I can beat it on my second try. This isn't cheating imo, because I'm using it as a technique to learn from my mistakes. I'll try and work out where I went wrong the first time, and ajust from there.

 

[Holbek]

I reloaded a lot in the beginning - but learned a lot from it.
It happens very seldom now that I reload..

Sometimes I go back 10-15-20 turns and replay them - to see if I can avoid some sort of disaster. Then it usually happens I play those 10-15-20 turns 4 or 5 times.. I've learned A LOT from that.

 

[GABB]

You can actually have both Civ and a girlfriend, simultaneously?

This is like "Noble Difficulty"...

I´m playing on "Deity":

1.- I work 8 hours per day.
2.- I´m married.
3.- I have a new born boy (4 months old)
4.- I play Civ IV on Prince Level.

Try it....

NOTE: I don´t hace time to reload...

 

[greatkingbeef]

I gave up shouting a long time ago otherwise I wouldn't have a voice left with the amount of battles I lose

As for re-loading, i've never done it myself. There is something about it that just feels wrong and it wouldn't feel like a real win knowing i'd re-loaded to change something that went against me.

 

[pholkhero]

Same here, but then my girlfriend tells me to shut up.

Shout more, and send more units AT HER!!

 

[Canuck Bill]

This is like "Noble Difficulty"...

I´m playing on "Deity":

1.- I work 8 hours per day.
2.- I´m married.
3.- I have a new born boy (4 months old)
4.- I play Civ IV on Prince Level.

Try it....

NOTE: I don´t hace time to reload...

Jeez that is like Emperor. 4am feedings are nothing - you're already awake. Try getting the kids to hockey practice at 6am when shutting down the tower at 5.

You're right though, who in the H*!! has time to reload.

 

[pholkhero]

This is like "Noble Difficulty"...

I´m playing on "Deity":

1.- I work 8 hours per day.
2.- I´m married.
3.- I have a new born boy (4 months old)
4.- I play Civ IV on Prince Level.

Try it....

NOTE: I don´t hace time to reload...

seems like you're in my boat somewhat, but add a 3 year old to that kid list...my lack of real civ time at home is why i spend much time here at work on CFC. I'm usually able to play after everyone is asleep and, a good trick is to offer to hang out w/the baby, even if its asleep so "the wife can rest more" w/o having to worry...BINGO! you've got Civ time!! A baby swing is your friend!

 

[Holycannoli]

I reload. It bugs me to no end when I have a 75%+ chance of winning vs an outdated unit and STILL lose. I do everything it takes to get that high percentage, often taking multiple turns to bombard or waiting for units to fully heal before attacking.

It's mostly an issue with outdated units killing my modern units. When my cossack is defeated when attacking a maceman after I've spent a few turns bombarding the city I just get upset It's just a situation that should not occur.

 

[Canuck Bill]

I reload. It bugs me to no end when I have a 75%+ chance of winning vs an outdated unit and STILL lose. I do everything it takes to get that high percentage, often taking multiple turns to bombard or waiting for units to fully heal before attacking.

It's mostly an issue with outdated units killing my modern units. When my cossack is defeated when attacking a maceman after I've spent a few turns bombarding the city I just get upset It's just a situation that should not occur.

What happens when one of your units "beats the odds"? Do you reload then? I'm willing to bet you don't. Re-loading is cheating and that is why it is not allowed in the GOTM. There is no need to justify it, the odds will balance out in the end.

BUT...............people pay their 50 bucks and can play how they want.

 

[kamigawan]

Actually, even if you reload after losing a battle, the seed generator (the list used to "generate" random numbers) will be the same, meaning you will still get the same outcome, unless you specifically pick the custom game option to reseed after reload. Although it is possible to attack, lose the battle, reload and instead run away (assuming you have any movement left), knowing that you would have lost (of course this doesn't work if you are the one being attacked).

 

[Pantastic]

The standard 'reload the turn and keep reloading until you win/change the order until you win' (depending on how you've got the random seed save set) is pretty pointless, you won't ever improve your game by doing it. I've done it on occasion when I get irritated for some reason, but if you do it to win now then you'll be doing it to win for the rest of your games. What I did to cure me of that habit was instead of reloading I'd just fire up worldbuilder, make a super-unit, and have it destroy however many enemies I would have reloaded to destroy. It produces the same effect, but feels really illigetimate to me, so helped me break the habit.

Reloading that actually improves your game is saving before a major decision, and going back to try a 'what-if'. Decisions like 'which civ do I attack first', 'should I start by attacking or wait and defend, then attack', 'should I split the army and go for these 2 cities, or keep it together and go for one', etc. can teach you a lot if you try both ways. Ideally you should go back and try the other way even if you win, since it will give you an idea of how the choices actually balanced with each other. The idea is not that you keep doing the same thing until you get lucky and win, it's that you can see what your alternative was and whether it would have worked.

 

[thelastmccabe]

I put never, but reload at the start of games if a city gets destroyed by barbarians or something along those lines. So I guess it's not really never. I also reloaded when someone else built the kremlin on the same turn as I hurried it (the tie went to them), because I was losing and figured I'd need it to have a shot at any kind of comeback.

 

[The-Hawk]

I never reload... mostly because I enjoy the sense of accomplishment from winning on higher and higher levels, and winning after a reload seems meaningless to me.

On the other hand, I don't have a problem with people who do reload... after all, everyone's definition of fun is different.

Well, I don't mind as long as they don't post comments like "I kick butt on deity on a regular basis".

 

[Elrohir]

I used to reload whenver I lost a good city or a good unit. I stopped when I realized how stupid that was, and how I would never become a good player that way.

 

[T34]

I find that the results don't seem to change that mcuh when I reload. Sometimes though I'm down to slaughter them and get wiped out myself which pisses me off. Even more so if my unit has alot of promotions.

 

[Holycannoli]

What happens when one of your units "beats the odds"? Do you reload then? I'm willing to bet you don't. Re-loading is cheating and that is why it is not allowed in the GOTM. There is no need to justify it, the odds will balance out in the end.

BUT...............people pay their 50 bucks and can play how they want.

Actually I never try to beat the odds. I won't attack unless the odds are clearly in my favor. If they aren't, I do what needs to be done to get them in my favor (catapults, cannon and artillery) If I'm defending and the enemy has the clear advantage, (expressed in the % which I never see when defending btw), then I lose plain and simple. Even if the enemy doesn't have the clear advantage and I lose, I won't reload. I almost never have this problem when defending though. If I win the defense, it's because my units were advanced enough to handle the task, and if I lose it's because they either weren't advanced enough (longbows vs enemy cavalry or something) or were just overwhelmed. I don't reload when defending.

It's when I should have the obvious, clear advantage when attacking using more advanced units than they have that I reload. If I'm using cavalry vs macemen, or riflemen vs knights.

Here's the thing: I never ever liked the "spearman defeats tank" scenario that Civ always had. I always wanted a system where it was absolutely 100% impossible for a totally outdated unit to defeat a modern one. I wanted a system where if you wanted a chance to win, you'd better upgrade your units because they won't stand a chance later on!

So that's how I play my games now. If I have tanks and I'm using them to assault cities defended by longbows, I win! The AI just didn't do play well enough to stand a chance. Usually I do win, but there's those freak times when somehow that outdated unit beats the odds.

Basically, I use the "reload cheat" to play the game as I always wanted it to be. Old, totally outdated units simply cannot defeat more modern ones in my games, and too bad for the civilization that didn't upgrade. I don't use it when defending, and I don't use it when the units are pretty close in tech age (like a knight vs longbow or horse archer vs axeman)

That's one great thing about Civ: You can customize it the way you want without even having to customize! Oh, I always click the "random seed generator" when playing.

Reloading that actually improves your game is saving before a major decision, and going back to try a 'what-if'. Decisions like 'which civ do I attack first', 'should I start by attacking or wait and defend, then attack', 'should I split the army and go for these 2 cities, or keep it together and go for one', etc. can teach you a lot if you try both ways.

I do that a lot too. I do it when I'm changing civs and aren't too sure the exact bonuses and penalties I'd get from the switch. That's about it though. For war, I either do it or I don't.

 

[The Tyrant]

Never to cheat. That would take the fun out of it for me. I don't mind losing battles or entire games. If there wasn't a chance I could lose, there would be no challenge and therefore no fun for me. I've lost battles where the odds were 99.8% in my favor and didn't reload. I would have accepted it if I had won against such odds, so I have to accept it if I lose with those odds.

There are three times I reload:
1) Learning save -- sometimes I reach a critical point where I wonder "What would happen if I do this instead of that?" I'll choose one option as the one I'm going to follow, save the game and come back to it after I've won or lost the game.
2) Crash to desktop.
3) The obvious one -- as soon as I wake up.

 

[cabert]

i do reload to autosave when my lack of sleep made me miss something (like the AI stopped the open borders, stopped the trades, ..., and i don't build units), or when i realize my game is lost. If i think my game is lost, i tell myself i lost, and go back some turns (8/10) to see if i could have done better. It's like a new game, with the same start...
I played the GoTM2 save at least 5 times (didn't send the victories, nor the defeats), 3 times from the start, and two times going back some turns to better prepare my wars.
I finally won with my personnal best score (thanks Hendrickzoon) without reloading except CTD. Clearly, it was very enlightening to see how different things can be.