Hi. It's been at least 10 years since I last seriously played Civ. I started playing again a couple of weeks ago and decided to drop down to Emperor (used to play Immortal exclusively when I last played as Deity never interested me with the settings I like) with a view to playing a few games to get my brain back in gear before going back to Immortal. Who knows, maybe this time I'll go up to Diety.
Anyway, I started a new game yesterday and it quickly became apparent it was a very nice starting area so I thought I'd post the starting save here in case anyone wanted to give it a go. I would say it's such a nice map that anyone who usually plays at Monarch or below would find it an easy introduction to Emperor, or anyone else who fancies a game of civ with the proper settings The icing on the cake is I randomly rolled Pacal. Without wanting to give anything away I'll just say both his traits are nice here.
Game settings:
Speed: marathon (This is an unpopular opinion but anything quicker than this just detracts from the experience and strategy for me. Researching techs in 3 or 4 turns as standard holds no fun for me. I've always believed tech strategy is more meaningful when you're faced with having to commit 25, 35, or however many turns to your next tech)
Map: fractal
Tech trading on but no tech brokering. (IMO tech brokering just allows the player to exploit the tech game and from a conceptual point of view no brokering has always made more sense to me)
Size: large (IMO you get more natural feeling maps on large than you do on standard, the different biomes have enough space to actually be distinct. Also I would argue that especially once you get to Immortal level the AI bonuses combined with the increased number of cities on large maps counteracts the supposed drop in difficulty level that comes from playing marathon speed)
NHNE
Leader: Pacal of the Mayans - financial & expansive.
New random seed on reload.
Mods (no idea if this matters): BUG, BUFFY, and Detailed Terrain.
Feel free to go ahead and give it a shot, and if there's interest I'll do a write up of my game with spoilers (currently at 1AD).
Turn 0 screenshot:
Anyway, I started a new game yesterday and it quickly became apparent it was a very nice starting area so I thought I'd post the starting save here in case anyone wanted to give it a go. I would say it's such a nice map that anyone who usually plays at Monarch or below would find it an easy introduction to Emperor, or anyone else who fancies a game of civ with the proper settings The icing on the cake is I randomly rolled Pacal. Without wanting to give anything away I'll just say both his traits are nice here.
Game settings:
Speed: marathon (This is an unpopular opinion but anything quicker than this just detracts from the experience and strategy for me. Researching techs in 3 or 4 turns as standard holds no fun for me. I've always believed tech strategy is more meaningful when you're faced with having to commit 25, 35, or however many turns to your next tech)
Map: fractal
Tech trading on but no tech brokering. (IMO tech brokering just allows the player to exploit the tech game and from a conceptual point of view no brokering has always made more sense to me)
Size: large (IMO you get more natural feeling maps on large than you do on standard, the different biomes have enough space to actually be distinct. Also I would argue that especially once you get to Immortal level the AI bonuses combined with the increased number of cities on large maps counteracts the supposed drop in difficulty level that comes from playing marathon speed)
NHNE
Leader: Pacal of the Mayans - financial & expansive.
New random seed on reload.
Mods (no idea if this matters): BUG, BUFFY, and Detailed Terrain.
Feel free to go ahead and give it a shot, and if there's interest I'll do a write up of my game with spoilers (currently at 1AD).
Turn 0 screenshot: