So, who exactly is wielding the veto to keep the longest, most unbalanced game-lengths, despite everything that gets said on a very regular basis? Clearly, someone is.
I can tell you it's Not me! I've wanted to trim Eon and Eternity for Years now. But upper management keeps shooting me down. And Do Not use a Giant map with these 2.
- dead civs, i.e. civs, which never ever expand, several of those every game
Still an issue eh? Will need to try to address this before the next release if possible.
This is v36 with only the Crime Patch. Your fix for this was After the CPatch.
- siege-heavy AI, AI likes to build lots of rams allowing me to defeat their army easily
Still? I know they need a lot of combat training but I wouldn't blame it all on excess rams lately at least. I could be wrong and it could still be an issue.
Same answer as above.
- too much gold, expansion is so easy with the amount of gold available, that I actually get happiness capped for expansion
Yeah... those who try to address this are usually rebuked.
Same old tired argument from Deity players. They can not have everything their way. Simple as that. There Has to be a decent Gold flow for the AI to thrive. Reduce it like what was done before and we are Back to square 1.
- massive tech-advantage. With or without tech diffusion, I usually end up being ahead in tech very early, with tech diffusion as early as late prehistoric, without, it takes until late ancient.
That's what happens when you can out-conquer and out-expand your opponents. I'd like to eventually develop a mechanism that gives smaller nations a huge research benefit and larger ones a research penalty so that as you begin to dominate, it gives the smaller civ an advantage that may actually allow it to exceed rather than just help it to catch up in an insufficient manner.
Tech Diffusion already does most of this. Only the player benefits from it as well. I hope it never gets done this way.
I have also always believed that if you can make every bit of ground the player wishes to conquer a much tougher effort to achieve then we can stretch out the games longer. This has not been met with pleased responses.
Here is your defender for Eon and Eternity.
Now to address dulkan directly:
Over the past half year, I played four C2C games (V36, with the crime patch as soon as it was available, immortal or deity difficulty, perfect mongoose, huge or giant maps, eon or eternity speed)
Every single game was decided in the late ancient/early classical, which caused me to call it quits.
1st things 1st and has already been stated Stop playing on Eon or Eternity, especially in conjunction with Huge/Giant Maps. These game speeds exaggerates Everything in the Mod, Everything, Especially Gold and early game steam roll.
The issues I run into:
1.- dead civs, i.e. civs, which never ever expand, several of those every game
2.- siege-heavy AI, AI likes to build lots of rams allowing me to defeat their army easily
3.- too much gold, expansion is so easy with the amount of gold available, that I actually get happiness capped for expansion
4.- massive tech-advantage. With or without tech diffusion, I usually end up being ahead in tech very early, with tech diffusion as early as late prehistoric, without, it takes until late ancient.
1. Dead Civs: Most Dead Civs (won't expand for a long time) are Leader Trait Caused. Combined with some of the Leader trait Options.
2. That has been addressed but you will need to get on the SVN to get the current versions that are beyond that old V36 problem.
3. See the above response to game speeds.
4. This is directly related to Game Set up Options which you did not list. Also another Option that hurts the AI is using the Master Victory selection. Only use 2 or 3 Victory Conditions. Perhaps limit your self by Not using Conquest as well since you are a Deity Player.
In my latest game I sit at 22 cities in mid ancient, second place civ is mongolia at 18 and my military rating is at 8.5. Tech-wise I'm about 15 techs ahead and they are listed as 2nd in tech by the rankings every 50 turns.
I could easily steamroll my entire continent, once I adopt monarchy and that would be that.
Of course you have 22 cities in mid ancient! All directly related to the Game speed and map size. You are ahead in tech for the very same reason.
they are listed as 2nd in tech by the rankings every 50 turns.'
Are you using the options that adjusts Difficulty every 50 turns?
How can I avoid, that the game gets decided so early, besides simply starting in a later era? [/quote]
Later era start may not be your answer either.
Now after all those messy replies, Stop using these Options for Game set up:
No game speed slower than Snail ( and even Snail is too many game turns on Huge map)
No Giant Maps (especially if combined with Snail or slower game speeds)
Revolutions (check the No Revolutions Option Box)
Mastery Victory (Uncheck)
Flex Difficulty (Uncheck)
Leader traits: If you use them, make sure you Pick a Leader with Cruel and/or Megalomania for Your Leader! Don't pick a leader that has all benefits (Like Spiritual for ex.) and no real down sides. Leader Traits can be turned off.
Since you only played 4 games the question arises what Game Options are you using?
Did you use the same set on all 4 games?
Did you use the Play Now set up? ( I hope Not as that has some of the Worst Game set up Options for an experienced Civ IV BtS player, makes the game easier)
Is your Leader/Civ one that has all the perks and not much downside? Like do you play Julius Caesar all the time? Or Hammurabi? But have never used Yagan the Aborigine or The Maori?
Do you use on your Map set up Start in Old World instead of using everywhere? Old World start is not a good selection for a big map.
How many AI did you set up for your 4 games?
So much detail that you have not given, that it is actually very hard to give you a clear cut way to slow your self down. And that is core. If you play Deity you Can Not take all the Good Options and Perks of Game Set up and expect the AI to compete. A later start will not change that either. Overall faster game speeds (try Epic and Large map with default # of AI) are part of your answer.
JosEPh
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