Game settings make all the difference.

[Troy Bruckner]

When we debate what Civ, strategy, unit, and or whatever is best or worse we should always say what settings we play with. There is a huge difference between playing a small map on normal or faster speed than playing on a huge map on Marathon. It's practically a different game. Play the game how you have the most fun, but we should all say how we play when debating things.

 

[Stilgar08]

Won't happen. But you're absolutely right, of course.

 

[Icicle]

Agree, settings can have a huge impact.

How do you all think that playing at a slower pace on higher levels effects things? It seems like prolonging the early game when the AI has such an advantage should make the game a lot harder to get stabilized in.

 

[MrRadar]

How do you all think that playing at a slower pace on higher levels effects things? It seems like prolonging the early game when the AI has such an advantage should make the game a lot harder to get stabilized in.

One of the examples are deals. They are always 30 turns whatever the game speed, but AI valuation of lump sum deal scale to the speed, leading to situations when on slow speeds you can get more money for a lux trade at once than gpt summed up over 30 turns. On standard lump sum deal is always less in total than over 30 turns of gpt. On faster speeds this lump sum shrinks even more. Getting less but now than more but over time and buying something early may be very advantageous, but when on slow speeds you get more AND now - that's akin to cheating. And you buy for that something that will be useful for you even more turns.

Governors take the same 5 turns to establish, so on Marathon they move 4 times faster than on Online. For Magnus and Liang that's quite a difference.

At least that was how it was before, I stopped playing any other speeds than standard quite a while ago. Differences in scaling to game speed of deals and agreements drove me nuts.

 

[Phoenix1595]

Won't happen. But you're absolutely right, of course.

Yes, it is too much of a chore for most to regurgitate every setting they are using when posting here. Generally, if I am posting about a specific game that I am playing, I do provide the setting specifics, because it does help. However, I generally do not if I post on general strategy posts, unless the topic revolves around a specific setting.

It is also a readability issue— too much info on the eyes. However, OP is 100% correct that Civ6 is very settings-dependent.

 

[Troy Bruckner]

Marathon speed does give the Ai a prolonged advantage, but it also gives the player a better chance to reach a golden age.
I switched to marathon almost exclusively because I hated building up a large force and moving it across the map only for it to be obsolete by the time it got to my target. In my opinion if somebody wants to play on the faster speeds they should start in a later age as well.

 

[Sostratus]

Marathon speed does give the Ai a prolonged advantage, but it also gives the player a better chance to reach a golden age.

Does marathon scaling still affect all costs equally like in civ5? When they introduced marathon in civ4, they made the buildings scale ~3x and the units only ~2x. I liked that. Part of marathon is that units can move a lot more in an era. This means a lot of things, but generally speaking, this makes unit tactics much more important, which is a massive advantage to the human, who can especially exploit ranged units to devastating effect.

 

[comatosedragon]

Makes sense to me . . . . . . . .
|
V

 

[Troy Bruckner]

Does marathon scaling still affect all costs equally like in civ5? When they introduced marathon in civ4, they made the buildings scale ~3x and the units only ~2x. I liked that. Part of marathon is that units can move a lot more in an era. This means a lot of things, but generally speaking, this makes unit tactics much more important, which is a massive advantage to the human, who can especially exploit ranged units to devastating effect.

Units and buildings do cost a lot more and tactics can mean the difference between breaking out or being run over by the age old Sid Meier has always been too lazy to create a good Ai so the Ai just generates a bunch of units at the same time it is building Stonehenge and The Hanging Gardens Ai cheat tactics.

 

[Kurnn]

When we debate what Civ, strategy, unit, and or whatever is best or worse we should always say what settings we play with. There is a huge difference between playing a small map on normal or faster speed than playing on a huge map on Marathon. It's practically a different game. Play the game how you have the most fun, but we should all say how we play when debating things.

Amen brother.

Marathon is the only speed setting I play on now. Faster settings makes Civ 6 more of a quick turn based FPS.

Marathon, as you say, is a different game from faster speeds.
I use Large map, with 16 civs. That suits me. Huge map works too.

I am a VERY good player, and since the last few updates and DLC, I NEVER win easy on Immortal. I NEVER gets so far ahead that AI doesnt matter.
In fact, 1/3 games, I get destroyed pretty early in the game.

One MINOR detail, that only Marathon will show, is that if you choose to explore with your first warrior, and the unit is not close to your city......and another Civ, finds you. They will consider, hmm...an unguarded city. And take it from you. OR, build a few troops, then come for you.....if you dont grow......

Stuff like that doesnt happen in normal speed games, because building troops takes no time.

 

[BrotherInJah]

When we debate what Civ, strategy, unit, and or whatever is best or worse we should always say what settings we play with. There is a huge difference between playing a small map on normal or faster speed than playing on a huge map on Marathon. It's practically a different game. Play the game how you have the most fun, but we should all say how we play when debating things.

Pointless..

I mean it's true all you say, you will get different experience playing on different speeds and map size. But the same you can say on the map itself, depend on map seed one civ can be fun but same civ on other map will be meh.

Therefore i would say judge civ as you play them w/o specific settings. Otherwise we need to play on benchmark map, setup to be "fair" giving our opinions.

 

[Kurnn]

Pointless..

I mean it's true all you say, you will get different experience playing on different speeds and map size. But the same you can say on the map itself, depend on map seed one civ can be fun but same civ on other map will be meh.

Therefore i would say judge civ as you play them w/o specific settings. Otherwise we need to play on benchmark map, setup to be "fair" giving our opinions.

Sorry, I dont agree with you that the map seed decides if you will have a good or bad game.
Its about your playstyle. Unless you start in ONLY snow, or ONLY desert, ok....make a new map.

Other then that, there is NO bad seed that makes a player win or loose the game.....Thats YOU.

 

[BrotherInJah]

Sorry, I dont agree with you that the map seed decides if you will have a good or bad game.
Its about your playstyle. Unless you start in ONLY snow, or ONLY desert, ok....make a new map.

Other then that, there is NO bad seed that makes a player win or loose the game.....Thats YOU.

It's not about good/bad game, but map might have big impact on how you see/feel civ you played. This can influence how you will rank them.. same goes for map size and game speed. So in the end you have so many factors to deal with, so either you will put many hours to neglect them or you will play same map/settings/opponents.. hard to do right? That's why i say to OP it should be only your opinion no matter of conditions.. Now you get what i meant?

 

[Kurnn]

It's not about good/bad game, but map might have big impact on how you see/feel civ you played. This can influence how you will rank them.. same goes for map size and game speed. So in the end you have so many factors to deal with, so either you will put many hours to neglect them or you will play same map/settings/opponents.. hard to do right? That's why i say to OP it should be only your opinion no matter of conditions.. Now you get what i meant?

I think I understand you. You want a great start, or it isnt "fun"?
Sorry, but one of the main HUGE features of civ, is what you do, with what you have, where you are.
From turn one, to the end, is a looooooooong time. Even if your start area sucks, what stops you from expanding or TAKING better lands?

I too "feel" like my leader and civ. I play like them! But the map has nothing to do with how I feel about my civ!
That is all about what I do, and what happens!

 

[Troy Bruckner]

Other then that, there is NO bad seed that makes a player win or loose the game.....Thats YOU.

Since the game loves to put me on the equator as Russia half the time I have to disagree

 

[BrotherInJah]

I think I understand you. You want a great start, or it isnt "fun"?
!

No.

I'll give you an example. Everyone here agrees that Korea is top tier civ, but i couldn't play to their strengths as map simply didn't allowed that. Only when I set the map to generate more hills I saw what others were saying. And this can lead to bad impression of a civ.

 

[Troy Bruckner]

No.

I'll give you an example. Everyone here agrees that Korea is top tier civ, but i couldn't play to their strengths as map simply didn't allowed that. Only when I set the map to generate more hills I saw what others were saying. And this can lead to bad impression of a civ.

I strongly disagree with Korea being top tier. In my book they are mid tier at best. They are only good if you need to turtle in order to win. Culture is vastly more important (understatement) early game and so is faith to a slightly lesser amount.

 

[Ziad]

Since the game loves to put me on the equator as Russia half the time I have to disagree

Or Phoenicia in the middle of a massive continent.

 

[lotrmith]

I strongly disagree with Korea being top tier. In my book they are mid tier at best. They are only good if you need to turtle in order to win. Culture is vastly more important (understatement) early game and so is faith to a slightly lesser amount.

Culture won't save you when Hwachas are blowing up your civ.

 

[Troy Bruckner]

Culture won't save you when Hwachas are blowing up your civ.

Learn to play.

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