How often do you reload?

[Llewen]

Just curious. Choose the option that most accurately characterizes your behaviour please.

 

[Ymir9]

I voted NEVER, but the truth is I do reload if I mis-click and accidentally send a precious unit to their death for instance, or accidentally declare war or accept a horsehockey deal, etc.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

If the game is a SP, than there are no other players to cheat. Hence reloading is not cheating.

 

[Llewen]

Oh no one's talking about cheating here. We're talking about single player where the only one that really cares about the results are you.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Exactly. That is what I said as well.
There is no cheating in SP, so I reload each and every bad event.
Although once I plaid FF as the scions and got 5 of those 10 turns unhappy events in a row. Starting on turn 1.
50 turns of

I kept it, and still won. Good times...

 

[Llewen]

What got me thinking about this poll was watching Sid Meier's presentation at GDC 2010. Interesting stuff. Still have a bit to watch.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

What did he say?

 

[Llewen]

*link* (the link is at the top of the Civ Fanatics home page)

It's long but it's interesting, and I feel lucky to be able to view it. People tend to pay big bugs to see speakers like Sid Meiers.

I guess what specifically got me thinking about this poll was what he said about protecting players from themselves. One of things he mentioned that it is a good thing to find creative ways to manage reload behaviour and not make it too easy. And what he says is true, I have less fun when I reload a lot, but my lack of discipline is pretty epic...

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Personally I have far less fun if I don't reload.
And I find any reference to protecting me from my self highly offensive.

 

[Llewen]

Don't shoot the messenger, I was just passing on what Sid Meier said...

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Don't worry. I am aiming strait for old sid...
Topol M activated.

 

[Cromagnum P.I.]

I'm trying to reduce my reload behaviour. I voted for whenever I lose an important unit since that was where most of my reloads would occur. I'm trying to discipline myself to no longer quick-save/quick-load battles until i win and just accept losses so I can learn how to actually form a battle strategy. I'm trying to set up a rule for myself where I can make full saves of a game every 50 turns or so and if I make a huge blunder I can go back and try a different strategy.

 

[Jaded_Feriluce]

I'll reload at the beginning until I get a good start... other than that I try to avoid it unless I make a ridiculas error.

 

[Llewen]

Well I finally figured out why it is I don't like reloading, and why it always spoils the game for me when I do. I love stories, and I have a very active imagination, and reloading spoils the story for me. Good stories always have bad things that happen in them, and in my mind there is always a narrative running every time I play a game, even if I am not consciously aware of it. When I remove the bad things that happen I remove a lot of what makes the story in my game interesting.

 

[ichbinsehselber]

It is interesting that so many players reload. I have to admit I also do. And not only when I "have" to reload because the game would be lost and I would have to do practically the same again.
Another reason that I reload is that I like to play with high difficulty level. But then I can't take all results and win

Which difficulty level do you play without reload?

 

[CitizenSnips]

Well I finally figured out why it is I don't like reloading, and why it always spoils the game for me when I do. I love stories, and I have a very active imagination, and reloading spoils the story for me. Good stories always have bad things that happen in them, and in my mind there is always a narrative running every time I play a game, even if I am not consciously aware of it. When I remove the bad things that happen I remove a lot of what makes the story in my game interesting.

I do much the same thing, but I will still reload if I something happens I think will cause the story to suffer. A good example would be a game where I sent the Baron into the southern wildlands to create an army of barbarian werewolves. Unfortunately the turn after he stepped of the ship he got eaten by a superpowered bear. Which is a funny anecdote, but not quite the "story" I was looking for, so I reloaded.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Hell. Varies game by game, all 4 of these options apply to me sometimes. I'd say "whenever I lose an important unit" is the most common, but I'm not sure.

Generally, reloading whenever anything bad happens is for games when I'm trying to test out how a certain mechanic works or fiddling around with a little mod, while not reloading no matter what is for when I download a game off here from someone asking for help, or participating in an SG, that kind of thing.

 

[Llewen]

Which difficulty level do you play without reload?

I think prince. I don't play insane difficulty levels this way.

I do much the same thing, but I will still reload if I something happens I think will cause the story to suffer. A good example would be a game where I sent the Baron into the southern wildlands to create an army of barbarian werewolves. Unfortunately the turn after he stepped of the ship he got eaten by a superpowered bear. Which is a funny anecdote, but not quite the "story" I was looking for, so I reloaded.

I got a good laugh out of this one, but one thing that playing without reloading does is teach you to be much more careful. I would never send a hero into enemy territory alone. I rarely leave even Acheron at full strength on a tile by himself. I generally avoid battles with important pieces that don't have at least a 99% chance of victory.

But I'll tell you about how the story has played out in my current game to give you an example of how I play.

My kingdom was spread out along the south coast of the upper part of a large continent. I was hemmed in on three sides by a very friendly Hippus civilization but I was worried because she had one simply gargantuan stack of cavalry. I was playing Bannor and I knew that war was inevitable, and eventually relations grew strained between us and someone at war with the Hippus asked for help and I declared war.

Now I had two large armies with leaders, one to the west and one to the east. On my west flank Acheron the Red Dragon held a town, and it was close to this that the huge army of Hippus cavalry was camped, together with a large army of warriors that belonged the Khad, who I was currently at war with. I had the technological advantage, and both of my armies had a hill giant from the Pact of the Nilhorn.

I moved the western army next to the Hippus army of cavalry and moved against the farthest east Hippus city with my eastern army, which was the stronger. My plan was to perform a pincer movement and destroy the Hippus. I assumed my eastern army would do better than my western so that the eastern army would capture the bulk of the Hippus territory while the western army pinned down and hopefully destroyed the large army of Hippus cavalry.

It was a good plan, but it didn't quite work out as I planned it. I moved my western army next to the huge army of Hippus cavalry, and I was annihilated, and lost every single unit in that army, every single one. The Hippus and the Khad suffered heavy losses, but nonetheless I was shocked, and in other games I would have reloaded, but I didn't this time. Meanwhile my eastern army did as well as I expected, and I took every Hippus city except for the last one next to the Hippus army at which point I sued for peace with both the Hippus and the Khad.

My final objective was to capture Acheron the Red Dragon, and eventually I made a beastmaster unit with which to do that, but he needed to gain some promotions before he would have the subdue beast promotion. I had planned to include lots of cannon fodder in the army I went to capture Acheron with, and I combined all my forces into one massive army, and declared war on the Hippus and the Khad again and the remains of that huge army was just what I needed to gain experience for my Beastmaster. There was no way this army was going to be destroyed. I eventually destroyed the Hippus altogether and went on to capture Acheron.

But it was fun, and I felt a real sense of accomplishment because I did it without reloading, and in spite of a pretty devastating set back. While the story as I tell it here might be boring, in the game it wasn't. At times it was a real nail biter, and if it hadn't been, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as interesting, or as fun.

 

[Malkaviel]

If the game is a SP, than there are no other players to cheat. Hence reloading is not cheating.

Yes, of course it IS cheating. Playing the game as you describe isn't even playing a game at all, really. It's pointlessly wasting time building stuff with no consequence of loss or failure. Have fun with your silliness.

 

[Folket]

I have not reloaded so far. My wife reloaded once when she did not get anything produced after using Durals worldspell during stasis. But I think that is a reasonable time to reload.