Do you reload?

[Rambuchan]

I've recently changed position on this in a much firmer way than before. I now never reload a save game (unless the damn thing crashes of course). My reasons for never going back, despite some horrific loses and/or oversights, are simple:

1) I feel like I've cheated (which I have) and this takes away from the sense of satisfaction when victory eventually arrives.

2) I get a sense of being lost in versions of the game if I keep going back and trying new things out. Reloading makes an already long game much longer.

3) It's more of a challenge, therefore more fun, ploughing through the tough twists of fate in a game. Reacting to that unseen SoD they just sent across to take out one of your major cities brings about a much more satisfying sense of urgency to the game than a meticulously designed war which goes completely to plan.

4) Slightly related to 3) - All spontenaity (sp?) is lost when you can simply go back and go over the bits you didn't like.

5) I think I've just got a bit better at the game and can both anticipate rival plans and generally have a greater control over world events.

How about you? Come on be honest - I used to be an abominably shameless reloader but am pleased that my old habits are behind me now.

 

[Turner]

Usually only if I've moved the wrong unit, or something like that.

Now, when I was PBEMing, I never reloaded, no matter what.

 

[Rambuchan]

You'll note there is no fencesitting option. Like smoking, if you smoke 1 a month you are a smoker. You reload one turn of events, you are a reloader.

 

[Darkness]

No, reloading is a definite in competitive games (PBEM, COTM, HoF), which I almost exclusively play...

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Very rarely, on errors in unit movement. I agree with Rambuchan, there must be a middle position.

 

[Rohili]

Very rarely, on errors in unit movement. I agree with Rambuchan, there must be a middle position.

Lol, you mean you disagree with Rambuchan.

As I am still fairly new to the game, I do allow myself to reload, like when something really bad happens which could have been prevented. It only happens once or twice a game though.

The last time I reloaded was when I lost a diplomatic victory. I knew my rep was terrible so I build the UN to prevent others from holding elections. However when I got the pop-up asking me whether or not I wanted to hold votes I accidentally okayed it. Needless to say, I lost. Obviously I couldn't let a silly mistake like this waste my hours of playing, right?

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Well sorry, my English failed me. "fencesitting" is a word I don't know...
However, I think the poll must contain "Yes, on technical errors" (mouse slips popup errors and so on)
Reloading because of a game event (lost city) is a NO-NO

 

[Rambuchan]

I fully sympathise with you Rohili, having done this many times myself of course you have to go back and get your victory. I think the UN is the only area which really attracts guilt free reloads when that terrible misclick happens. Thing that bugs me about that misclick is it ruins your hall of fame lol. But this is an avoidable mistake and hence I am not putting in a middle way option. Simply take it that technical errors (such as a crash) are factored in with the "No" option, as would be an obvious UN misclick which kills the game there and then.

 

[Aardvark]

Back before computer games, when SPI was publishing a board game a month, I read a survey. Seems like most people (or at least a large portion, I cannot remember exactly) who bought their games never played them against anyone. They "played" the games to learn about the situation. I often would examine scenarios and do "what ifs". I sometimes approach single-player Civ the same way. I reload to look at alternatives. I learn things I can then apply to my real games. It seems a shame to waste a perfectly good game in which I have invested days, if I find that I could have used a different strategy. It is not much different than re-rolling for a start position. The ideal is to find a game that is marginal - not too easy and not impossible. It becomes a challenge to play through.

 

[plarq]

Reloading is good for practising different ways of gaming,which is quoted from gozpel's words.(You happened to ignore gozpel?Read Succession Game Sub-Forum)I'm a shameless reloader except for my civ playing and Succession Game(I can't spoil team members' honor).And in some other TBS game(Fire Emblem,Heroes of Might and Magic),I shamelessly reload many times to get best RNG/odds.

 

[wit>trope]

I think reloading is fine but if you reload you should count the game as a loss It would be like if you were playing Chess and the player you were playing against let you take back a move. If he does that then you've lost the game already but you're just playing another pre-set game (kind of like a scenario) for fun.

Reloading to get a better starting position is cheating too If you reload 3 times to get a better starting position and then get a good starting position and win, then in truth you have lost 3 times and won once -- that should be how you state your record and stuff.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

In the very beginning, when i was learning the game and not yet able to win (started right at deity) i used to do so continuously just because my goal was to learn the game, not to win with honor.

After that, I used to do so when i made control mistakes like mis clicking (you know when you click on the edge of the map and the map just starts moving, or when you want to select a unit and accidentaly give the currently selected unit orders to move)

When i started to play gotm, i had to learn to be more carefull with my mouse movement and stopped reloading. (My first gotm submission got rejected because of the reloading, i thought it was perfectly reasonable to reload for said reasons because it is the game UI that is inferior )

 

[BlackJAC]

No, reloading is a definite in competitive games (PBEM, COTM, HoF), which I almost exclusively play...

Don't HoF allow Mapfinder? If that's not exploiting the game, i don't know what is.

 

[garric]

Ok, imagine this: You have a huge stack of like 30 cavalry, you take over a city and fortify all of them there. Next turn, the city flips and you lose all of your army. Do you reload? Be honest, Mr. "I never reload.".

 

[Rambuchan]

Garric: I wouldn't reload that situation. Definitely not. That's kind of the point of not reloading: you live with your mistakes and the tough breaks in the game.

 

[bonscott]

I reload on occasion. Mainly to learn from a mistake. I had one game recently where I was behind but staying afloat. Eventually I got overrun and lost half my empire in 5 turns. Obviously I lost. So I reloaded back 7 turns or so to see if there was something I could have done differently to avoid this and survive. I tried 3 different things and none of them worked, still got crushed!

In game I never reload due to a battle lost or city flip. I know the odds, you can't win every battle. Even if I have heavy losses, too bad. About the only time I would reload is if early someone threatens me and they declare war *and* I get overrun. See above in that I know the game is lost so I may reload and give them what they want and see what happens. Or what can I do better to make them not threaten me. But again, basically when a game is lost I may reload to learn.

The thing is, there is nothing more fun then having a really bad thing happen and yet be able to overcome it. Thus why I refrain from reloading 98% of the time.

 

[Rohili]

Ok, imagine this: You have a huge stack of like 30 cavalry, you take over a city and fortify all of them there. Next turn, the city flips and you lose all of your army. Do you reload? Be honest, Mr. "I never reload.".

I wouldn't reload too, though I've only experienced that once before, losing six marines.

Circumstances I would reload -

My spy planting attempt fails.
The lauching of a nuclear bomb causes other civs to declare war on me.
I start in a crappy position.

I don't reload for matters like losing a city, etc.

 

[k-a-bob]

Ok, imagine this: You have a huge stack of like 30 cavalry, you take over a city and fortify all of them there. Next turn, the city flips and you lose all of your army. Do you reload? Be honest, Mr. "I never reload.".

I reloaded the first time this ever happened to me.

I didn't know cities could flip....

On edit: I also have reloaded after launching a nuke - but I was only showing my son what happens when you launch a nuke...

 

[garric]

I wouldn't reload too, though I've only experienced that once before, losing six marines.

Circumstances I would reload -

My spy planting attempt fails.
The lauching of a nuclear bomb causes other civs to declare war on me.
I start in a crappy position.

I don't reload for matters like losing a city, etc.

You do realize that losing 30 cavs is worse than having a spy attemp fail? That means you pretty much lose the war, and good chance that the AI is going to attack your mainland. Just because of luck you lost all of your offensive units that must have taken you 50 turns to build. I doubt that you won't reload..

 

[Moonsinger]

Don't HoF allow Mapfinder? If that's not exploiting the game, i don't know what is.

I'm curious on why do you think MapFinder is exploiting the game? Sure, it will help you find a good starting position at 4000BC, but the rest is still up to you.

Let's explore what the average players often do:

#1: We start a new game.
#2: The starting position wasn't good. We are right in the middle of a desert with no river and no food bonus on a Sid game. Since we are going to attempt for a HoF record, what type of chances do we have with this map? Absolutely, no chance at all.
#3: Quit and start a new game and hope that the new starting location would be better. We are now loopping back to step #1 all over again.

Does that sound like an exploit to you? How many people here have done that when they want to look for a specific type of map? How about you? Have you ever abandon a game because your starting location was hopeless for the goal that you try to achieve? Sure, we all heard about Aeson's Ice Island game and he went on to win in the end, but his goal was to see what he can do with a very bad starting position. Btw, if you want a really bad starting position, MapFinder would also find you one. It will find whatever type of map to meet your challenge. If you are looking for a more desperate start (much worst than Aeson's little ice island), what do you do? Are you going to just sit there and try the above 1, 2, 3 steps over and over until you find it?