Infuriated by wonder cascades

[morchuflex]

Hello.

I feel angry. Once again, careful planning was ruined by random bad luck. I started my prebuild in time, devoted big efforts to improve the land around the wonder building city, researched and discovered the appropriate tech at least 20 turns before anyone else, and despite all this, some stupid AI civ just built the GL before me, when they reverted from a failed attempt at building TOA. This is simply unfair.
There's something real bad about great wonders in Civ3. Obviously, the intent of the developpers was to create REAL competition around wonder building. This wasn't the case in Civ1, where the AI randomly got Wonders for free, neither in Civ2, where smart use of caravans allowed to ridicule the AI every time (did you ever fail to get essential Wonders, even on Deity?).
Unfortunately, this still isn't the case in Civ3, because the necessity to build wonders from scratch without help from other cities - a move in the right direction - is badly negated by the possibility of prebuilds, and... pure luck (SGLs, wonder cascades).
So, I wish the very possibility of prebuilds was removed AND, at the same time, you suffered a penalty when reverting from one wonder to another (50% of the shields would be decent).
What do you think?

 

[Tomoyo]

Yeah... It also doesn't make any sense if you were building a university and ended up with a trip around the world.

However, the human can manipulate the prebuilds, so it's a huge advantage for the human. I would like to see the wonder cascade penalty in cIV, though.

 

[morchuflex]

Tomoyo, I don't get the joke...
I agree prebuilds are an advantage for humans. But I don't want advantages. I want a more reliable game. I don't mind being punished for my mistakes (I still have much to learn) provided I'm rewarded when I play carefully.

 

[trojan99]

i used to enjoy building palaces for 50 turns and turning it into a wonder in 5 more when the appropriate tech was discovered. since upgrading my level i cant even make it to an end of a game so i dont feel ashamed when i say you shouldnt be able to switch production on wonders to diff wonders. using the shields for a aqueduct or something non-culture threatening would be ok i guess.

unless your great library looks like a pyramid in your city screen, lol.

 

[Tomoyo]

Tomoyo, I don't get the joke...

It wasn't really a joke, but I was referring to the real life implications of a cascade from Newton's University to Magellan's Voyage.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

IF you know a tech 20 turns before the uber-crucial wonder of your choice is sceduled to complete, you're making something totally wrong. If you have a Tech, it gets cheaper for the other Civs to research. If you know a Tech, it can get demanded; you can mock about that on Monarch, but not on Sid...
The way to (almost) reliably get TGLib is having exactly (300 - 1 sp) plus one turn pof roduction in the box when learning Literature; then, enter the Big Picture, and switch to the Library.
300sp = your usual Palace prebuild.
One turn production = ~15sp.

Up to Emperor, this works in 99% of all cases. DG/Deity, if possible, delay the prebuild and turn off research until ToA is built; at least check which AI cities are building it, and if those Civs can get Literature fast enough.
On Sid, either the ToA is long built, or some AI in a Golden Age builds the Great Library from scratch in 8 turns. Bad luck, but pretty rare.
Of course, you really need to dedicate your most productive city for it very early; have a look at the Bugs3 SG in my sig for an example.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Hehe, we have so many abuses that the AI cannot use. There is one abuse we all use that the AI uses by accident and you're complaining about it

 

[morchuflex]

If you have a Tech, it gets cheaper for the other Civs to research. If you know a Tech, it can get demanded.

I hadn't thought about that. But it's hard to fine-tune my research so that it gets complete exactly when I need it.
Thanks for the advice anyway. I'm playing pangea maps on Emperor (used to prefer archipelago) and getting my ass kicked badly, so any advice can be helpful.
BTW, where the hell does your sig show?