How do you play?

[xeno_cws]

Hi everyone, I have to say I really enjoy what you have done with this game!

I just recently reinstalled this game and when I came here I saw this new modmod. I've played ordis before and really enjoyed it as well but this mod seems to be more my style (plus all the new and different civs are a joy).

So I was wondering how do you guys play RifE?

Myself I have Rife plus mana flares and events installed and I would like to get the extra leaders from "New traits and leaders" mod but I don't like the other additions so doe's anyone know if this can be done and how?


Also how do you guys set up your map?

I usually go with erebus continent, Huge, low water. Then I have myself and 19 other opponents (gets a little slow after a while between turns) with all the victory conditions turned off but conquest and see if I can conquer the world.

Another quick question I have been playing on marathon speed and I've been noticing the AI factions (save for one or two) have been rather lack luster when it comes to building up their cities and expanding. Is there any options I should (un)tick to help them? I usually play on monarch and while Im no expert at this game it seems rather odd I can pump out unit after unit and the ai struggles to get one out every 7 or so turns.


Also since I'm new to this mod is there any tips or info I should know? There doesn't seem to be any page explaining all the new features and changes from FfH2.

Thanks, Xeno.

 

[EugeneStyles]

I've always found the custom game screen to be annoying - especially the part where you pick your leader instead of picking a Civ and then looking through the leaders - also it doesn't show descriptions of the traits, which is fine for like, Financial and Spiritual, but emergent leader traits I need to see... also Arcane had changed since the last time I used it, so playing custom I wouldn't have known that. So I always use "Play Now". Since I started playing RifE a couple weeks ago, I'm using Erebus Continent, most defaults except - World Wrap E-W, Ancient City Ruins on, and umm... I forget what it's called, Advanced Climate (ensure exists), or something like that - I don't know what it does, but it sounds appealing. It might be nice to change some of the other options, but I just hate the UI for Custom Games.

As for mod setup - currently I'm playing RifE by itself. Before the last month or two, I hadn't played Civ IV in almost 2 years, got back into FfH (it changed a lot since the last time I played it!), played a couple short games of Orbis (couldn't really get into it), and FF (not bad, but it seems like RifE is more in active development).

 

[Evalis]

I don't use any mods, I'm rather wary of their effect on balance, most new races/leaders have extra strength somewhere they shouldn't because their designer really loves them - call it feature creep.

My setup is pretty much always as follows:
No Tech Trading (another micro I don't like dealing with)
Slower XP (it's otherwise way too easy to get level 20 units)
Flavour Start
No Animals
Barbarian Horde (To make up for lack of animals)
Civilizations disabled: Jotnar(because they are broken), Clan(way too strong with barbarian horde)
New Random Seed on Reload
No Liberation
Victory Conditions:
Conquest, Domination, Religious, Cultural, Gone to Hell
My maps are usually standard eribus continents with reduced appearance of tundra, with the normal ammount of adversaries. I find I never complete a game that's too big.

I used to turn off cultural victories, but after discovering you can pinpoint which city/cities are going to reach such a victory it's pretty easy to target them.. plus it takes like 200 turns to win that way, and you probably could have trashed the continent by then. Building victories are way way too easy. It's also next to impossible to stop them since you don't know which cities they are in. Also I favor the bannor.. their great general mechanic is rockin!

 

[xeno_cws]

Eugene- I have to agree with you about choosing leaders in custom games, especially if you want to pick specific leaders for a game. Also I found turning on ruins on Huge creates tons of ancients ruins everywhere.

Evalis- Looks to be a pretty interesting concept there with no animals but more barbs. Just wondering does reduced tundra remove most of it or say only half? I rather like the snow but I find there to be a bit too much of the world covered in it, also I'm curious I've never played with random seed on reload, it sounds pretty annoying is there a reason you choose it?

I too love the bannor especially if I play the holier then thou crusade style.


I've never played "Play Now" mode, so I'm wondering what is the standard number of civs for this game/mod? I've tuned it down to 18 including me and seems to be running quite well (much better then 22 I did last game I tried).

 

[Evalis]

New random seed basically makes it so that you can't just reload anytime something bad happens to you and change something in the previous turn to fix it. It could also be used to generate different great people and other things to.. If I'm reloading the game I don't necessarily want the exact same things happening again. Reduced tundra might half it.. I don't know.. I just find that there is way too much of it around, and it often screws over the computer worse than the player (since they don't know how to terraform). Actually.. playing as the illians is pretty much an instant win, because of the two rituals you have to put tundra/ice all over the place. Honestly I try to kill them before they can use it, since it requires two types of mana and a heck of a lot of micro to get rid of.. but that's not always possible. It might be a good idea to add them to the blocked civilizations though, since they will cripple the other computers.

If you haven't played the bannor in RiFE yet I really recommend you give them another try, they have a rather unique mechanic. Declare war, and often.. err.. and 'normal' civs is just how many it starts you with when you pick custom game. I think it's 2 for tiny and 2 more for each map size. If you really want a crazy game try tiny with all 30 civs. You'll each get one city and your goal will be war from the start ^^

 

[xeno_cws]

Thanks for the info Evalis that 30 civs with a city is a pretty neat idea I'll have to give it a try sometime.

 

[Randomness]

Hmm... Dual Erebus script map with high sealevels and extra mountains with all thrity civs... I wonder if it's possible.

 

[EugeneStyles]

Another variable of "how do you play"... I'm stuck at the moment between Monarch and Emperor. Monarch lets me play the game the way I want to, but it's too easy. Emperor is enough to give a bit of challenge, but coming upon a city guarded by 50+ units is just ridiculous - if I'm not prepared for that kind of stack, I may just quit at that point. That many units per city should choke your economy into negatives, but somehow the AI is able to support that many troops and still tech at least a little bit on Emp level. And it's just not fun to play against stacks that size, IMHO. The way I play, a large stack is 10-15 units with at least one big hero leading it with about 20 promotions on him, a few siege weapons or mages depending on civ, a priest or two for healing, and a couple of axemen/champions/whatever is a good baseline unit at the time). Maybe the game is meant to be played with stacks of 50 or more roaming about, but I hate that...

 

[Evalis]

I had the same issue with Master of Magic.. if you played on normal you would have to battle literally hundreds of units to beat your way to the enemy capital, and most of the time.. they were all spearmen >.> Mind you it was still easy, just annoying. I checked out an editor one time and apparently on normal they get 4x the food and twice the production. Double the food the next setting and triple production, double the food again the next setting and 4x the production. Oddly though if you play where they don't get bonuses, they suck donkey balls and just get steamrolled.

In other words, the game isn't meant to be played with 50+unit stacks, the computer is just cheating.. horribly. On the other hand.. you get lots and lots of xp =D. It also depends on whether or not you reload if something bad happens. I've found the game to be relatively challenging on monarch or even noble (with 30 civs) if I never reload. You also might want to try playing with barbarians, animals and lairs off.. the computer is really really bad at expanding past them.

 

[xeno_cws]

Are there any programs to help with end turn times? I find they seem to get real bad after turn 200. Or is there any options to turn off to speed it up?

 

[Valkrionn]

Not currently, but the next version is both more stable and faster.

 

[Hellheart]

I'm considering removing animals myself, because they seem to be the biggest cause of early-game Civ deaths for me and perhaps the computers. I half-suspect that large strings of enemy Civ deaths come from some idiot computer releasing a super-monster from one of the unique features, but today marked the second time that a single high-strength animal put an end to my civ. This time it was the 9-strength Griffon, who got decently hurt killing my first warrior, but then turned into a Flight on the next turn after killing my second, going up to 13 strength and that's pretty much game over. That said, some neutral element had already ended 4 enemy Civs by the time that Griffon got to me, so that game was going to be an awfully short one anyway.

I play with No Liberation because the AI can't play the Frozen worth a damn, plus the Frozen are a dubious choice in most games anyway unless you know very early if a warmongering Illians or Doviello is in the game.

I don't see a reason to up the number of barbarians in response, though. Animals are very rarely a threat (although half the time they'll end up being a fatal one), but you can be damn well sure that more Barbarians will be.

Edit: Actually, I'm going to try Timid Animals first, but I suspect I'll still have issues as the Griffon in question would now prevent early rushes.

 

[xeno_cws]

With timid animals on, most civs survive the early years. If they get off'd from barbs in the beginning then I just WB them back in with a settler and three warriors.

Good to hear Valk, that the two biggest problems are being looked into.

 

[Niveras]

New random seed basically makes it so that you can't just reload anytime something bad happens to you and change something in the previous turn to fix it.

You have that backwards. If it's not enabled, the results of, say, any single given combat will always be the same no matter how frequently you reload the save. When checked, a new seed for random results is generated every load, meaning things that are up to random chance can have different results.

Like you say, it can affect what GP you get from a pop. It just also changes combat results rather than limiting them to a single possibility.

 

[Valkrionn]

You have that backwards. If it's not enabled, the results of, say, any single given combat will always be the same no matter how frequently you reload the save. When checked, a new seed for random results is generated every load, meaning things that are up to random chance can have different results.

Like you say, it can affect what GP you get from a pop. It just also changes combat results rather than limiting them to a single possibility.

Not completely true: The first time you reload a game, it will be different, even with it disabled. After that one reload though, no amount of reloads will change anything.

 

[Niveras]

Well, my explanation is still more accurate than saying you "can't just reload [with New Random Seed checked] anytime something bad happens to you and change something in the previous turn to fix it."

I suspect Evalis just made a typing error with "can" and "can't."

 

[Valkrionn]

Agreed, just wanted to clarify it.

 

[Evalis]

Just ignore me..