is reloading an unwritten rule of fail?

[manaballs]

are u not suppose to reload starts if something goes wrong? is there a civ code of ethics i need to know about? I'm a fan of democracy, if more people tell me its wrong to reload than to not reload i won't do it anymore =P.

Oh, and can someone help me out posting screen shots to threads. I'm not that literate to these things .

thx!

 

[StuntedAzrael]

I rarely reload. Usually I'll reload early game when barbarians enter my borders and I lose critical battle with a > 90% chance to win. Critial battle is one when you lose a settler, worker or a city in a process.

 

[Inso]

If I make a really stupid error early on I sometimes reload but on the whole I prefer to just start a fresh map instead. When I first started playing I would reload many times until I got the perfect rhythm going, but that gets tiresome after a while.

 

[Shafi]

sometimes it's ok to reload from a previous saved position when you made some wrong choices, maybe in terms of techs or diplomacy or even to do with war, at least you will learn from your mistakes. Nothing wrong with it in my opinion unless you are going to lie about it to others ...
I used to reload a lot in the beginning cos i kept making a lot of stupid mistakes / errors of judgement.
Just dont do it too many times, or you kind of get used to it and cant kick the habit.

 

[Shurdus]

I do not reload critical things like losing a battle and such, but misclickings and such I do reload. If I incidentally let my army stand out in the open when I wanted to position them on a forrested hill and such mistakes then I reload. If I made a wrong desicion then I do not reload because that would be cheating. If you need to reload often then you may want to consider dropping down a difficulty level.

 

[Negator_UK]

There is a Civ code of ethics - it believes that people are free to play the game however they want and can reload if they wish

However most people on this forum only rarely reload games, and many (including me) consider the game lost if a reload is necessary - but this doesn't mean reloading is never necessary, far from it. They are especially useful for learning from your mistakes and "what-if" ideas.

Reloads are common for going back on big decision (say starting a war).

Also my pet-hate, the user interface, also had me reloading games when I suddenly note an enemy SoD in my territory 3 turns after it arrived.

 

[troytheface]

A game is lost by mistakes, even the simpilist- even the most "innocent" - move a worker by mistake- reload = cheat

Ask a chess player- it does not take one mistake to lose a game but usually a few

"No compromise"-Rorschach- from the "Watchmen"

the evidence is clear

the majority here think its cool however if your into "democracy". Cheaters and liars tend to stick together.

 

[Shafi]

A game is lost by mistakes, even the simpilist- even the most "innocent" - move a worker by mistake- reload = cheat

Ask a chess player- it does not take one mistake to lose a game but usually a few

"No compromise"-Rorschach- from the "Watchmen"

the evidence is clear

the majority here think its cool however if your into "democracy". Cheaters and liars tend to stick together.

and whom are you cheating Troy? The AI? You own them cos you own the game.
Now liars are different - Thats not cool! If you reloded say you reloaded.

 

[madscientist]

It is a game, and if it's fun then by all means reload.

I generally do not reload much although I will if serious error is make, usually as a result of war.

 

[troytheface]

"You own them cos you own the game"

reloaders will cheat their own children

vile beyond compare.

no compromise

 

[blaupanzer]

Really major errors on my part, e.g., war where I get owned or city placement that has no real support especially sufficient food, may induce a reload at last save or a start over in the BC period. Otherwise it's play on or retire.

 

[Fluxx]

I rarely reload. Usually I'll reload early game when barbarians enter my borders and I lose critical battle with a > 90% chance to win. Critial battle is one when you lose a settler, worker or a city in a process.

This.

Mismoving, making dumb anti barb placements because of speedplay, or if RNG gives me a loss in a 99.9% ratio.

Anything else, I play on or forfeit

 

[troytheface]

"Mismoving, making dumb anti barb placements because of speedplay, or if RNG gives me a loss in a 99.9% ratio"

seeing land unseen- cheat

miscalculating terrain- cheat

and the final and most comical of all-

losing a battle you think you should have won - cheat


reloaders- cheaters beyond compare

 

[Monsterzuma]

Reloading is cheating, yes. Thing is, most of the time you just cheat to yourself, so it's not that bad. The biggest problem it causes is the fact that it makes people overestimate their ablities on a community wide basis. Most people could probably only barely handle a difficulty 2 tiers below their native one if they played the game out on a strictly fair basis.

 

[mariogreymist]

Reloading is an excellent learning tool. When I was learning how to time an early rush, I reloaded many times to figure the optimal moment. When learning the optimal speed for kingdom expansion in an isolated start, I reloaded.

Now that I know how strongly Troytheface feels about it, I will make an effort to do it even more often.

 

[TitaniumAge]

Reloading is nice if you like exploring possibilities that don't fall into your current plan. "What will happen if..."

"... I build a crapload of ICBMs and launch all of them at once?"

 

[pigswill]

Reloading is not ´cheating´.

Reloading can be a very useful learning exercise.

Not reloading and fixing your own mess is also a very useful learning exercise.

Reloading and posting a game without saying you´ve reloaded is (imho) cheating.

 

[noonex]

no reloading = more fun

 

[gskyes]

As with all things Civ, the answer usually is "it depends".

Reloading is certainly cheating in a competition game like the GOTM. I've never done a succesion game, but I would say it's very frowned upon in them as well, unless all the team members agree to.

If you are playing to better your skill its usually ok if the reload helps you learn from your mistakes. Like when to declare war, or how many axes to bring in a rush, or where to settle to beat the AI to a good spot. In a public game, like the student series, reloading I think is ok, but you should probably be honest and tell everyone where and why you reloaded.

Finally, for a single player game where you are just playing to have fun, my personal opinion is "anything goes". I only reload rarely because I feel better about myself when I can overcome challenging situation rather than try to make them not happen. But that's just the way I play, I won't judge anyone here for playing the game their way if they are having fun.

I'll admit just last night I reloaded a game because I sent an axe to take out a barb city with 2 archers. He killed the 1st one and while he was healing up a German horseman came and took the city instead, which I was planning on razing because it didn't fit my neat dot map. I didn't want to declare war on Germany because we were friendly, so I reloaded the game and waited until I had 2 swords ready before burning the barb city.

 

[phizuol]

In the strictest sense, yes, it's a fail. But I don't play "to win" so I don't care. Though I rarely ever reload I very often restart to try to do better. If I'm in a situation where reloading would be fun then I certainly will do it. However, guaranteeing 100% success in a battle (via reloading) is not fun to me - 99.9% is supposed to mean it's still possible to lose!