does the game progress too fast?

[Cameronthegreat]

is it just me or does civ4 move too fast? it seems like to took longer to change eras in civ3? personally i enjoy frequenting in wars here and there and 10 hours into thegame and im yet to have a war?
also it seems like strategic resources (horses, iron, saltpeter) were also a bigger deal ?

 

[HailoArrows]

is it just me or does civ4 move too fast? it seems like to took longer to change eras in civ3? personally i enjoy frequenting in wars here and there and 10 hours into thegame and im yet to have a war?
also it seems like strategic resources (horses, iron, saltpeter) were also a bigger deal ?

Is it on marathon setting? Also, if you haven't had a war, you have a few options: start one, set yourself against more aggressive AI, play a custom game and check the "aggressive AI" setting.

 

[Earthling]

Tech speed is generally faster in regular civIV/BtS, particularly with regards to unit costs, compared to early civ games. Balanced, and necessary at higher levels, but it is fast. Marathan just breaks things.

 

[DampRain]

Lower the game speed setting. Actually start the wars (the Ai won't attack you if you are ridiculously strong or you've pissed them off majorly). Strategic resources do matter, however they aren't absolutely crucial. Rather you have to adapt to the lack of them.

 

[lymond]

I've always consider strategic resources absolutely crucial, especially iron.

 

[Cameronthegreat]

its always on marathon, and it seems like in no time im in a new era?

 

[lymond]

I rarely play Marathon, usually Epic, but I find it rather slow myself. I do like the fact that you can use your units longer at Marathon speed.

There are some pretty good mods that have custom speeds that go beyond Marathon to lengthen the game. I forget exactly which ones, but I think one or several of the following:

Quot Capita
Legends of the Revolution
Rise of Mankind (in fact I think this is definitely one)
History in the Making

 

[bakshi]

Alot of mods have like snail and more. which take forever.

 

[Shurdus]

Btw, welcome to civfanatics Cameronthegreat!

 

[Monsterzuma]

Decreasing game speed, decreasing map size and increasing the number of civs on your map will increase the amount of "action" you get through the course of a game (interpret as you will ).

Straying too far from the regular settings will generally make your game easier, though.

 

[Tecibbar]

I do find the game tech too fast. Mankind are suppose to reach the stars in the 21st centry, not during the dark ages.

I play as immortal, and very seldom does a spaceship lauch after 1900, Even though I bribe AI to war each other all the time.

 

[drlake]

Tech progression is too fast for my tastes, but I'm a medievalist at heart. That's why I almost always played Ancient/Medieval/Fantasy mods in Civ 3. I wouldn't mind a slower tech progression with smaller increases in unit strength at all, but at the moment I'm sticking with standard BTS to learn the game better.

 

[Yesod]

Yes.

It moves too fast. The amount of turns was decreased from Civ III (I think).

The solution is to play epic or marathon. They probably thought most people thought the game took too long. If you somehow find it easier after you switch, up the difficulty a notch (you'll probably see the reverse if you go above emperor).

 

[Yxklyx]

I find the game moves very fast but only when there are no wars.

 

[ytswy]

Yeah, definitely too fast (for my personal taste obviously).

Marathon is ok, but the problem is that it slows everything down, even if not quite in proportion. So while you have more turns to move your units, the rest of the time you are just pressing the end turn button more...

What I want is a game that plays with normalish build speeds, but marathon tech speed. So you can fight real protracted wars in each era without constantly worrying about units going obsolete. I want a LONG game that I can immerse myself in, I really don't care about the ultimate victory - I generally turn most victory conditions off since I don't want a fun game ruined by it ending

I did try modding Civ when it first came out - just adding more turns and increasing the tech multiplier. But all that happens then is that you (and the AI) build up your cities really fast, and no matter how high you put the tech modifier you'll catch up with it with your turbo-charged economy and get down to techs in sub 5 turns.

You can actually have a really fun game by doing this approach, and when the tech speed gets too fast, saving and changing the tech modifier and then reloading. You run into some problems of course; pop limits and the like in the early game. But it's the closest to the sort of Civ game I really want that I've managed. The AI handles it surprisingly well... the war mongers will build some BRUTAL stacks.

I hope that Civ 5 provides a more balanced approach to longer games, although I'm not that hopeful... most people seem happy with the game speed as it is unfortunately...

 

[drlake]

I'm not a modder, but couldn't you increase the base cost of each tech? You double that, and it should slow down the tech progression across the board.

 

[ytswy]

I'm not a modder, but couldn't you increase the base cost of each tech? You double that, and it should slow down the tech progression across the board.

That was the conclusion I reached Increase each tech by an amount proportionate to its position in the tech tree... I'm no modder either, beyond a few tweaks for personal use, so my reaction to that was that it looked like a lot of work and would need a lot of balancing, and that no doubt someone would come along and do it and save me the trouble

As far as I know, no one did Which I guess is a cautionary tale on the subject of laziness.

Actually I think there might be era modifiers. I'm not sure about that, but it would make the whole process a lot easier if so.

(Edit: I may have misread your post - the problem is the acceleration you get when you have normal build speeds with marathon style research cost - you get an economy in, say, the Medeival period, which far outstrips anything the game was ever designed for, and hence later technologies are proportionately quicker. So you need to greatly increase the cost of later techs in relation to the early ones.)

 

[drlake]

Hmm, OK. I'm not understanding why the basic economy would be better as a result of tech rates being slower.

 

[ytswy]

Simply because you have enough time to build every building as it becomes available, build enough workers to never have to work an unimproved plot, expand your culture, or plot and execute wars, to seize enough resources to expand your pop limits, etc etc.

It is the cumulative factor that just leaves you with a Civ that is, in every area apart from tech, more advanced than is intended. This whacks out the balance for the increase in cost of techs as the game progresses.

It's been a while since I tried all this to be honest - back when Civ IV first came out. But I remember increasing the tech modifier in an otherwise Normal setup to a ridiculous amount (200 turns to get Fishing or something). And still, by the time I got to the middle of the game (a LONG time..), I was getting techs every 3 turns.