Just how big is "Epic"?

[CaptainPatch]

Has anyone counted just how many systems an Epic map contains? I haven't, but I'm guessing no more than 50. Not very "epic" in my estimation. As Douglas Adams pointed out in Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." What Firaxis is showing us when it presents to us an Epic map is just peanuts.

 

[Sprenk]

It's a small game. It's more tactical than strategic. It's meant to be a fun diversion to wile away an hour or two, and it's priced accordingly. I'm enjoying it so far, but it will never replace CIV.

 

[NASAROG]

I haven't played on epic, but my guess is.. it's not epic. Having said that, I am enjoying the game for what it is. It ight be time to bump up the difficulty because the Ai is not very good.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Some may not know this but epic is the only map size where a faction does not automatically lose their empire if they lose their homeworld. On the other map sizes, if you take the AI homeworld, you automatically gain all their other worlds too. I don't really like that rule, feels like cheating a bit, so I always play on epic.

 

[NASAROG]

Some may not know this but epic is the only map size where a faction does not automatically lose their empire if they lose their homeworld. On the other map sizes, if you take the AI homeworld, you automatically gain all their other worlds too. I don't really like that rule, feels like cheating a bit, so I always play on epic.

I did no know that. Next playthrough I'll need to try it.

 

[Tarbos]

Yeah, epic is not epic, and impossible is everything but.
Just bad naming.

 

[Diemex]

WOW. Awesome tip in this thread. I had no idea that EPIC changed the fact that conquering a homeworld no longer means auto capitulation.

That just might fix my only gripe with this game.... the fact that no matter what win restriction you chose (ie: domination) the AI still wins by any of the options.

I found that capitulating states just meant the AI would win a population or wonder victory before I even have a halfway decent fleet together. Without capitulation it should at least slow that down and give me more time. I cant wait to try this out.

 

[CaptainPatch]

Finally got around to doing an Epic system count: 47, five of which were Dark Matter. The number probably varies, game to game, but more than likely is consistently <50.

To me, an "empire" would encompass at least a dozen systems. That means that once there were 4 empires up and running, the galaxy would have run out elbow for empires to expand into. That seems to me to be a really teenie, tiny, miniscule "galaxy".

 

[thecrazyscot]

I believe there was a preview video where Sid talked about the number of planets in epic... let me see if I can find that.

EDIT: found it (44:30) - he estimated about 48 planets in epic, so you were pretty much dead on.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Starships was always targeted for the iPad so I think it is unrealistic to expect the game to have a truly epic scale map like we see in full fledged PC games where there are hundreds, even thousands of planets.

 

[Primacide]

As a player using the tablet version (I bought the PC version too but have seen nothing but ctd...), I can vouch for the size limitations. On epic, my iPad 2 is really struggling. The iPad air handles it much better, but even it will stutter a bit when all the planets are revealed. The music and sound fx also begin to crap out as the tablet has to work harder. It's like you can feel the hamsters in there, about to have a heart attack trying to render the game.

Anyway, I think that they pushed the specs pretty far for tablets, and that's why you've got kind of a small universe. Hopefully they will open up the PC side for modding to let those players really push the game farther. I think the core dynamic is quite fun, and has good potential to expand.

(I don't want to hear any crap about buying the game twice. My wife has already exhausted this subject.)