Marathon Mode in Civilization V?

[Auncien]

Hello Civ fanatics. I have lurked these forums for years now. I have read so many of your well-crafted insights, theories and strategies. With the announcement of this V’th iteration of our favorite game I decided it was time to step out of the shadows and join the site that I’ve visited off and on for so long. So HAI GAIZ!

Now… to the business at hand. Some time ago I read a thread on these boards regarding the excellence of marathon mode in Civilization IV. In the hope that this topic hasn’t already been covered over the past few days since the announcement, I would like to wholeheartedly throw my support behind the inclusion of a marathon mode in Civilization V.

I enjoyed Civilization IV before marathon mode, playing on ‘epic’ but always feeling that the pace of the game still moved too quickly for that legendary feel of simulated history. Once marathon mode appeared on the scene the game became my obsession off until the present day. If any of you are like me, you enjoy not only the cognitive challenges of the game, but also the ‘orgy of history’ and indulgence in the simulated reality of the game world and the goings-on therein.

When I play a game of Civilization, I play it as if I live in that world. The fates of cities and individual tiles mean something to me and an extended play experience enhances this experience (not to mention giving me time to move units around the board to prepare for offensive operations, etc.). When my worker finally builds that lumber mill in the forest outside of my capital I rejoice. When I spend fifty turns moving a naval expeditionary force to some offshore location in preparation for an assault on a foe three times my size, I feel exhilaration. Without a marathon mode these experiences simply aren’t possible. The psychological impact of a shorter game just pales in comparison.

So developers I implore you… provide us with a marathon mode out of the box!

Thanks!

 

[Joecoolyo]

No, marathon mode was terrible, in light of the fact that it wasn't long enough! I want moar Firaxis! Provide me with a mode that's twice as long as Marathon right out of the box!

 

[grant2004]

I'd love to see some kind of rebalanced mode where techs take longer and the total number of turns is extended. The point of marathon mode IMHO is to create a game where your units are not rapidly obsoleted and you can send them out to do interesting things before a replacement becomes available. Marathon mode was good for this, but it suffered because in addition to techs taking longer, so did everything else. I often ended up playing Marathon with tech trading off, because eliminating tech trades made reaching the end of the tech tree take a lot longer.

 

[apenpaap]

Yeah, I love Marathon. You really get to know the world the game is in.

 

[wabatt]

Download rise of mankind (Civ 4) and play snail mode (3000 turns, i think). Adds lots of techs new units religions civs range combat... list goes on and on. I tired to finish a game on snail... 4 times. If that doesn't do it for you, ya must be freaking insane

 

[Mr Irrelevant]

i love marathon mode, although, i think there could be some improvements, as mentioned above.

Epic = good

Marathon = awesome

Here's to 6 day Civ games!!

 

[Bahmo]

I actually tried my hand at modding with a little thing I called "Time Warp" mode. What was it? Essentially, I was doing what everyone else was talking about, extending individual eras, only more-so. My mod involved greatly increasing the number of turns and time to reasearch techs, but I decreased the length of time for cities to produce things. In a sense I was successful at my task of totally eliminating the obnoxious "raced" feel in the core game, where having a moment of glory in one era would cost you for future ones. Unlike that regrettable situation before, I had a game where I truly was able to churn out three hundred Spartans and vast Roman legions in the earlier eras without grinding my technology and economic growth to a halt.

There were also problems, though. In practice, technology growth was positively runaway even while time slowed, with countries reaching the Industrial Era around, say, 1200. I blame this on one thing I overlooked: Increased production means more cities producing more buildings faster. You might take longer to discover Writing and Education, but once you did you could erect everything related to knowledge in a rapid amount of time. Also troublesome was truly monstorous cultural growth, and here I have no idea what caused it, but cities would go Legendary almost every turn, and no amount of finagling could fix it.

If someone else can perfect what I attempted to do, though, I'd love it. I also want not to be screwed over by jerk leaders who try to stamp me out when I'm minding my own business. If I try to go through to a peaceful technological victory, for example, and Genghis Khan attacks me, he should logically be able to succeed at squashing my dream for victory--but only if he wins. If I win the war, the game should allow me to bounce back even better, and punish he who was dumb enough to trifle with me.

 

[Wolfwood]

I also modded the Civ4 marathon mode so that the techs took a long time to research, but unit production, city growth etc. took somewhat less. This way, you could actually play the different eras instead of rushing through them in slow-motion.

But, yes, Civ5 needs a _real_ epic or marathon mode and humongous maps (don't want the age of exploration end too soon).

 

[lostcause]

If the rumors are right, and they are moving to a one-unit-per-tile rule, I think they are aiming for longer, more fulfilling gameplay, and larger maps. Why would they increase the tactical capacities of the game, where each move can matter more, without giving us the time to do the game justice, or the map space to engage it to the full?

 

[cephalo]

Its nice to see a whole war start and end within the same tech level, rather than start with legions and end with muskets.

 

[Luckystrike77]

Its nice to see a whole war start and end within the same tech level, rather than start with legions and end with muskets.

I totally agree.

I also hope the game is made for a longer amount of turns this time arround, and that means more things to do, and more techs for every age, not just adding more turns to a puny 400 turns game. Also remember the importance of having lots of interesting things to do and descide every turn, not just more turns but longer turns as well!

 

[jvttlus]

It would be cool if instead of selecting from a list of choices, you just entered a number at the game start screen which was incorporated into the formulas, so you could in theory make a game infinity long by entering a huge number.

 

[Mr_Wonka]

No, marathon mode was terrible, in light of the fact that it wasn't long enough! I want moar Firaxis! Provide me with a mode that's twice as long as Marathon right out of the box!

you need a girlfriend.

 

[Seventh Child]

I didn't really like Epic and Marathon. When I first heard of them, I immediately tried them. But given that EVERYTHING took longer, not just teching, it meant that it was essentially the same game as Quick/Normal only slower. I generally only play on Quick or Normal now.

In Civ V I would like to see each era be more meaningful, rather than my army being obsolete by the time it reaches the enemy capital. But I know this is the kind of thing that can be addressed via mods, and the vanilla game is still enjoyable enough in any case, so I'm not that fussed.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

I don't mind if they include Marathon, but if they do, I'm unlikely to play it. It's like watching paint dry. I prefer Epic.