First Civ that's too easy to be playable :(

[Gort]

Ahem! Some good players do actually do do this and frequently too. I've yet to play a 4x game of any genre that regularly provides a challenge for the player through to the absolute end every time they play. It often becomes clear that I've won or lost long before the game finishes and then, yes, I'm largely hitting 'end turn' until the victory condition triggers.

This is a good argument for better victory conditions. The goal of a victory condition should be to identify when a player's victory has become inevitable and to cut the game short at that point - nobody likes playing when there's no way they can win, better to get the "You lose" screen out of the way so you can start a new game you've got a chance in.

Whether that means stuff like Civ 4's "own 65% of the land and 60% of total population" victory, or new things like "Have twice as much food/production/science/energy/culture as the second-placed player" victories would obviously require a lot of testing, but I think the theory is sound. Call it an "economic" victory.

 

[BlueTemplar]

"Economic victory" is already taken by "amassing enough money to basically buy everyone".

 

[m15a]

This is a good argument for better victory conditions. The goal of a victory condition should be to identify when a player's victory has become inevitable and to cut the game short at that point - nobody likes playing when there's no way they can win, better to get the "You lose" screen out of the way so you can start a new game you've got a chance in.

Whether that means stuff like Civ 4's "own 65% of the land and 60% of total population" victory, or new things like "Have twice as much food/production/science/energy/culture as the second-placed player" victories would obviously require a lot of testing, but I think the theory is sound. Call it an "economic" victory.

That's not a bad design goal, but there are tradeoffs. First, some people want to feel like victory comes with the accomplishment of some concrete narrative signal that they've won. For example, 65% of land ownership seems like much more of an arbitrary game rule than destroy every other civ.

Second, a shift in what represents a victory results in a shift in what signifies that victory is inevitable. I mean, if the victory is at twice science/culture/etc., won't it feel like you've definitely won at 1.9x the second player?

Plus, different types of players are going to feel like they've won at different times. Someone who has played a lot can predict way earlier than an inexperienced player. And more experienced players can recover from being behind from a bigger margin, too.

 

[Quineloe]

Have you experienced a run away AI? I'm on my third game on Apollo playing a Purity/Domination game but in this game Elode had finished the Mind flower on approximately t200 and by the time I fought to her capital the mind flower was 1 turn away from transcendence. If I had laid back I would have lost. Certainly this game is an outlier but it seemed like she was a monster at developing harmony affinity levels.

Also might is a fun branch to go down; 2 free affinties and adaptive science is pretty good.

Funny, the same thing happened to me on my first game on Gemini. It appears to be a fluke, or some sort of broken code in elodie's script that somehow makes her sometimes go for a victory.