How can I make the game last longer?

[oPunchDrunko]

I Haven't played Civ 5 in almost a year, and in about 4 full games, I never made it to the modern era. The clostest I got was the industrial age.The difficulty I play on is Prince and all of my wins were from domination.

So can somebody give me tips or something that will help the game last longer?

 

[Villager720]

Just sounds like you're stomping the computers because theyre too easy for you. Bump the difficulty up so they put up more of a challenge.

Also changing the pace will make the game last longer in real time, though you may still only make industrial before you win.

 

[Spatzimaus]

So can somebody give me tips or something that will help the game last longer?

Option 1: Play on a higher difficulty.
This is the most common answer, but has a fundamental problem: the AI doesn't get any smarter on the higher difficulties, it just "cheats" more. The disparity in production, research, happiness, etc. between you and the AI will get even larger. In the long term, the problem with this is that it often forces you to adopt a playstyle that isn't really what you might think of as Civ-ish, simply to overcome the massive disparity in resources.

Option 2: Play a scenario game.
Most scenarios are built around an inherent imbalance. You're often starting off at a substantial disadvantage in starting resources, but the AI isn't given the massive extra bonuses you'd see in the first option. This sort of solution has limited replayability, though.

Option 3: Download some mods.
Quite a few of the more popular balance mods out there rebalance the game to make things harder for the human player while, at the same time, removing some of the AI's advantages. This is not a contradiction; part of the reason the AI needs those bonuses is that the game's underlying architecture isn't really suited for the probabilistic way the AI makes its decisions. So, change that underlying balance, and the AI becomes much more capable while at the same time not needing the substantial bonuses that the default game provides.
There are quite a few options for this one, with the most popular (by far) being Thalassicus' "Vanilla Enhanced Mod / Unofficial Patch". Several other mods, such as my own, follow similar lines for their balance, so depending on exactly how much other content you want to add you have many options. As a result, playing any one of these mods might allow you to have the same challenge on King that you'd see on Emperor in the vanilla game, while at the same time having the AI using Prince-level bonuses instead of the default Chieftain values. This tends to make the game much more entertaining.

Option 4: Go play Skyrim or Minecraft or something until the next big patch.
Nearly all of the major balance changes in Civ5 over the past year were first found in the more popular mods. So if you wait a month or two, chances are whatever balance tweaks you see in the big balance mods will find their way into the official patches.

 

[Thyrwyn]

Try a different map, or a different speed, or a different map size. If you are playing primarily pangea or fractal, try continents or small continents or even an archipelago map. Playing on a larger map can also extend the game as there is more ground to conquer. . .

Add a few AI.

Moving up to King should not make the game unciv-like. You will have to pay more attention to early choices and military, as the AI advantages mean that the AI will be less civil and less likely to start out as Friendly.

I suspect that if you go from Prince on standard maps to King on Large (especially if you add a few AI), you will find the experience quite different.

 

[Optional]

Maybe turning off Domination as a possible win condition? Any other win condition should last a bit longer.

 

[grandad1982]

If you choose to play on a slower speed be aware that you are just as unlikely to reach the modern age, maybe more unlikely as you get even more of an advantage in the domination victory.

As others have said maybe go up a level or two. Alternatively just set yourself the goal of reaching the modern era and try not to stomp the AI before hand. Its hard I know!

Go for a cultural win. This is by far the slowest so gives you more time to play with.

 

[The_Quasar]

I'd say you're making it too easy for yourself on Prince... go up to at least to King or possibly even Emperor, where you will find things far more interesting...

 

[joncnunn]

Well, taking the OP literally, that would be play Epic if your currently playing Normal speed and play Marathon if our currently playing Epic. If nothing else, it will take a whole lot more turns to reach Industrial era.

 

[TPQ]

Huge pangaea map. Low Sea Level. Standard/Epic speed. 22 Civs. 28 City States. Emperor Difficulty. Raging Barbarians.

 

[krc]

Well, taking the OP literally, ...

There are various literal interpretations of this question. One possible answer is: Make sure that "quick combat" is turned off. Restrain yourself from conquering your neighbors until you get bombers. Then fly lots of bombing missions. Your game will take much longer.

 

[apocalypse105]

Take a larger map Preferable continents so it takes a lot of times to conquer the world

 

[Morpheas]

I would say play Civilization NiGHTS, as the entire happiness system is overhauled, and the AI will favor early expansion over building 6 warriors. First few times playing it the AI had 4-5 cities by 100 turns in, and I had two.

The AI will get a ton of gold in this mod as well, which will help compensate for their lack of intelligence.

Ontop of this, the creator of NiGHTS redesigned the tech tree to help the AI and make it so you really have to choose techs, and it spreads the military units out more, so the AI will unlock advanced units on almost every path they take.

Overall; NiGHTS is vastly more difficult than the CiVUP+VEM, which I retreat too when I'm sick of Askia destroying me T.T

 

[headcase]

Try the NiGHTS mod.

Honestly though, I'm not expecting huge changes until the source is released (hopefully early-mid 2012) and the modders have had some time to fix^H^H^H improve the game.

 

[Derpy Hooves]

Honestly, I don't know why you'd want to play to modern, unless your going for some really weird culture based tactic your should be well ahead of your opponents in science at that point, and the modern era units all have increased movement and range in comparison to their earlier counterparts, allowing you to exploit and display the AI's tactical incompetence even more then you normally have to do while warring, oh and did I mention that going to the modern generally ends up with you having a huge empire that you'll constantly have to micromanage because they did'nt add a working AI for that either?