How much do you write down?

[Anomander Rake]

Sounds interesting...

if you look at this post click me by futurehermit, part of his latest walkthrough.

The first screenshot shows you the extent of Greek Culture, and other shots show some of his screennotes for future city locations. Further down (16th & 20th psictures) you'll see the how Indian, English and Greek cultures overlap.

 

[DMOC]

I was just thinking, I know I can't be the only one that takes extensive notes in a game. My wife doesn't get it, she often asks me why in playing a game for fun am I doing homework? I keep several pages of graph paper with charts on:

1. All of my cities, what they are for, how many of which units are protecting them.
2. How many resources I control or trade
3. All other civs, how many times they've begged for a free tech (2 points if they were withholding one when they begged), demanded I stop trading, demanded I go to war, etc. and use that for my own diplomatic idea of how I feel about them.
4. All of my invasion forces and aircraft carrier groups, though not my ships defending the coast, that would be too cumbersome.

So how many others take notes, and on what?

It looks like we're similar in that we take plenty of notes. However, I don't write down much except for when I write up a detailed report of a game. I put signs (ALT + S) on the screen and use the B.U.G. mod function (ALT + M) to pop up every 40 turns to remind me to beg pleased/friendly AI's.

 

[L-Plate Ruler]

Am I the only one who feels stupid for thinking, "Strategy Layer? What's THAT?"

No, I have just learned about it myself, thanks for asking the question.

@Anomander, thanks for explanation. I'd always thought those tags were from a mod.

On topic; with the Strategy Screen, the notes I had been taking on paper (production type and number of farms to 'break even') can be done in game now. Fantastic!

 

[CornPlanter]

I consider writing down notes on my plans (short term and long term). I always forget them

 

[Ai Shizuka]

In private games, nothing. Just a couple alt-s notes here and there.

In forum games with reports I write down all the main events (new cities, wars, GP), the tech path and a few notes about my general strategy to explain what I'm doing. Often, when I'm done with the round and start writing the report, I find a lot of profanities mixed with the notes .

I write in english even the notes to myself, so I consider it an useful exercise.

 

[bobbyboy29]

I usually just use alt-s to remind me of city specialization, but a couple of times a game i go through my empire and write down the worker actions needed for each city (If the game hasnt already been won that is) it's tedious, but usually worth it. I also want to play a game where I use alt-s on landmarks of historical importance (large battles, first fights, first contact etc.) with dates to get a kind of visual history of the world, unfortunately, usually i'm too busy trying to win to do that, but i'd love to see a note i made at the start of the game and see how much the area has transformed since then.

 

[Bleys]

Putting signs on cities for Commerce, Production, Science, etc, is a good way to stay on focus. Learned that playing SGs, its invaluable in that format.

Alt-S seems enough for me as well. I have also learned to read the extra city-list data that BUG provides, it allows me to instantly see which cities need what buildings with a few simple clicks.

I have found I cannot play without BUG though. I recently tried a Warlords Expansion game, but just couldnt play much past 1 AD because without BUG, I was taking forever to check for whips, pop growth, trades with AIs, etc etc. BUG does a great job helping you organize the vast amount of data in this game.

 

[Tephros]

I have a notebook for civ that has hidden modifiers and a table of variables for each leader - like when they tend to trade non-military technology, under what conditions they won't declare war, etc. Some pages end up as scrap paper for planning. Yes I do play civ with a calculator nearby, lol.

 

[DMOC]

I do something similar to that. I keep the internet up while playing CIV and I view the thread on here entitled "AI Attitude Values" or something like that which displays base peacweight and other information.

 

[CivCorpse]

I have the thread for quest rewards bookmarked.

 

[Skallagrimson]

So far I've been just relying on alt-s to label cities with their specialization or what national wonders are going where, but I really think I should start writing hand notes for:

1) Which religions have been discovered (and where, if known)
2) Which wonders are built (and where and by whom, if known)
3) Which turn a given city should be coming out of whip anger
4) What my GP goals are and which city is generating the most GPPs (which helps in deciding what wonders to build where if, for example, I need to build a GM to allow Sid's Sushi)

In addition I need to look at the civic screen on a more routine basis, as reminders of what civics I'm in and how best to leverage them (or if I need to change civics). I do fairly well with domestic and diplo checks, but always seem to forget civics.

 

[Fetch]

1. Religion advisor
2. top 5 cities/wonders
3. BUG mod
4. BUG mod

 

[futurehermit]

I will only take notes if I am writing up a walkthrough or something similar. In game I will use the strategy layer to draw invasion routes and for dotmapping. In general though I will mainly use alt-s to indicate future city locations and any other minor notes to self I need to put down. However, after all the 100s of games I've played, most of that stuff comes 2nd nature to me now, so notes are less needed.

 

[Gliese 581]

If I play an online game that I plan to post a report on I take extensive notes and lots of pictures. Offline I'll sometimes dotmap and mark city spots but that's about it. I should really put in reminders to beg for gold, right now I do it very randomly.

 

[HornetCiv]

I'm using a pen and paper right now, but that's solely because I'm a Civ III veteran who needs to unlearn the old habits. Even then I only really write down my mistakes and the game mechanics behind it, I normally have an idea of my espionage, military,commercial and production powerhouses (although I'm occasionally guilty of falling into the builder's trap).

I guess writing everything down could help get the optimal performance, but I feel not doing so is a fair tradeoff for the advantages I have over the AI.

 

[Cashew]

Outside of the game I've done some tables on which actions would be the best to get "x" number of workers and settlers out the fastest. In game I've never needed to take notes.

 

[mills]

Last week I was in an international congress and I had a presentation. Still, just before the day I was drawing the current map on a piece of paper of Hotel's.

Preparing for an oncoming war, I noted these info;
x How many turns will I have to wait before my desired techs
x How many modern armor, mobile artillery, mobile sam, gunship, mech infantry should I stack
x Approx. how many turns should I have to spend while building this army
x How many turns have I got and when will I be ready for the war.

this is not just a game for fun. people who do not play can not know.

I was just thinking, I know I can't be the only one that takes extensive notes in a game. My wife doesn't get it, she often asks me why in playing a game for fun am I doing homework? I keep several pages of graph paper with charts on:

1. All of my cities, what they are for, how many of which units are protecting them.
2. How many resources I control or trade
3. All other civs, how many times they've begged for a free tech (2 points if they were withholding one when they begged), demanded I stop trading, demanded I go to war, etc. and use that for my own diplomatic idea of how I feel about them.
4. All of my invasion forces and aircraft carrier groups, though not my ships defending the coast, that would be too cumbersome.

So how many others take notes, and on what?

 

[champ82]

Sometimes I note when I sent counter espinoage spy missions and to whom. If I have annoying neighbors who like to do spy missions on me I like to have it so they always have that penalty.

Other times I keep track of a civ's big 3 culture cities if it seems they are progressing too fast for a CV and try to figure out how much time I have in case I need to raze 1 or 2 (usually at least one of the 3 will be coastal.)

I have written things down for quests.

I have considered writing down how many destroyers, battleships / missle cruisers, carriers, fighters / jet fighters, tanks, artilery, gunships, SAMs, infantry I want for large, late, across the ocean invasions but I haven't. OK I have but not usually.

Oh yeah and I alt + S notes for city locations early on. Sometimes if I have a lingering question at the end of a session I'll add an alt + S note by my capital ex.-"Switch to state property?"

 

[scothed]

I used to take notes about the game but that was when I would play for an hour or so every now and again. Nowadays I only play Civ when I have a big chunk of time between research reports so I tend to be able to have a good 8-10 hour game in one sitting. So I don't really have to remind myself of anything because it's all there.

 

[noto2]

Unfortunately I have to split my games up into several days of playing, as often I can only play for an hour or two at a time, which means I do take notes, it's the only way to be able to get back into a game