Getting maximum end game score

[azzkicar]

I don't know if it has been discussed before, but I seem to have trouble getting high scores, even though I dominated in technology and military in all my games (and won them all).

One game I got about 55k points, but after that, even though the difficulty or game speed hasn't changed, I only get about 25k or so at the end. I actually did better in the later games, with more wonders and more bustling cities.

What are the major factors in determining end game score (I am not talking abou the score you see while the game's playing).

 

[Gaizokubanou]

How did you pull off 55,000?! lol I maxed out at 17,500, which still net me the highest leader ranking.

One thing I noticed when I nuked my opponent right before I won was that my score increased when my rivals got nuked to oblivion, so perhaps it has to do with how much you did better compared to existing rival civilizations.

 

[Toshiro126]

Isn't there a bonus the earlier you win the game? My last wins were cultural victories on Prince, and the earlier I won the higher my score seemed to be. Anyone find this in their games?

 

[azzkicar]

If I can replicate the 55k score, I would lol. But I couldn't for some reason.

My games are Prince difficulty, and time does seem to be an issue. I won that 55k game almost a whole century ahead of the other games. Is that it? Are there other reasons?

 

[Toshiro126]

I'm sure there are others. But I'm not sure what they are. the time bonus jumped out at me the other night when I was looking at my high score list.

I would think things like the amount of territory under your control would play some part in the score???

 

[NDCSPURS]

If you move the cursor over your name on the bottom right of the screen


Then the break down of your score appears on the bottom left


This is 2005 I think


and this is the very begining of the same game.

 

[Grogs]

My games are Prince difficulty, and time does seem to be an issue. I won that 55k game almost a whole century ahead of the other games. Is that it? Are there other reasons?

You've hit the nail on the head. Given the same in-game score, the faster you finish, the higher your score. Also, of the 4 scoring components, population will account for a disproportionate (usually >66%) piece of your final score. In short: finish fast with a big population.

 

[patmcq]

If you want a high score then read Moonsinger's deity intro in the articles section. The basic formula is to play on a panagea as Rome and conquer everybody with praetorians as fast as possible. There's a little more to it so just read the article. You will definetely get a very high score using this method, it's so effective it feels like cheating.

 

[HoldDaMayo]

I don't find exploit strategies to be very fun... sort of like playing Super Mario bros with Game Genie... and don't tell me you guys have never heard of game genie, man putting in those codes sucked!

 

[Veteranewbie]

I've never been able to finish any Mario game, so some code will be nice

 

[Tauro]

If you want a high score then read Moonsinger's deity intro in the articles section. The basic formula is to play on a panagea as Rome and conquer everybody with praetorians as fast as possible. There's a little more to it so just read the article. You will definetely get a very high score using this method, it's so effective it feels like cheating.

Indeed

It feels just another game

You can easily score above 80.000 on small pangea, standard settings.
You only need currency or code of laws.

Or -if you are really bastard- you can play in perpetual anarchy, so you have to research only IW.
This works fine till monarch.
Above is better a smaller map

 

[ohioastronomy]

You don't even have to play at deity with fancy tricks.
Rome is immensely powerful. My highest score as Rome is
125,000, and that was at Prince (world conquest 1100 AD).
I did use a Terra map (to force conquest rather than domination),
but had no other special settings. I neither went to the New World nor milked the end, just war after war. Pangaia is similar.

As far as I can tell, the earlier you end the game the higher your score will be.

 

[carterba]

There are four components: population, land, tech, wonders. The contribution to game score is the percent of each that you control times a multiplier: 4000 for population, 2000 for land, 2000 for tech, and 1000 for wonders.

In the final score calculation, each component is divided by an exponential function of the maximum possible. The maximum possible is shown in NDCSPURS's picture: max possible population is 854, max possible land is 1038, etc.

At 2050, the exponent is 1, so when time runs out final score = game score. If you're at turn t and there are T total turns in the game, the exponent is t/T. You would divide your population by the maximum population raised to the t/T power and multiply by 4000 to get the contribution of population to the game score. So in NCDSPURS's picture, population is 331/854, so the contribution of population to the final score is 4000*331/(854^(t/T)). So as t gets closer to T, the divisor gets larger, and the score gets smaller.

(I left out a few details, but that's the gist of it.)

So that's why early finishes score higher. Your score decays exponentially with the turn number.