Marathon

[glider1]

Ronjon sounds like you are a classic sandbox civ player which I am also trying to become. For too long have I been dominated by the win-win mentality and have forgotten to just enjoy playing the game.

I think I can see your problem with marathon. More units are needed in the early part of the game while things are being built, otherwise there is nothing to do. There are many ways to mod marathon mode to make it better. For the moment, I suggest you try the "Really Advanced Setup Mod" http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=486324 which allows you to add units to yourself and the AI at the start, in order to keep some kind of balance.

 

[Kyuu]

Huge map + Marathon. This is the only setting, that I use. But yea, it takes a tremendous amount of time to play through.

 

[Aristos]

Ronjon sounds like you are a classic sandbox civ player which I am also trying to become. For too long have I been dominated by the win-win mentality and have forgotten to just enjoy playing the game.

I think I can see your problem with marathon. More units are needed in the early part of the game while things are being built, otherwise there is nothing to do. There are many ways to mod marathon mode to make it better. For the moment, I suggest you try the "Really Advanced Setup Mod" http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=486324 which allows you to add units to yourself and the AI at the start, in order to keep some kind of balance.

hey friend, I posted a [BETA] bug report about our old "CS settlers frozen when MIN_CITY_RANGE>4" buddy... trying to get their attention. We'll see if it works.

 

[Roblord]

I only play on marathon. The early lengthy build times rarely bother me as I'm usually using that time moving my first few units and exploring the map. Civs like The Huns really shine on marathon.

 

[glider1]

Another tip for marathon players is to play on huge Communitas or perfect world maps where the terrain is environmentally realistic which makes exploration more interesting in the very early phases of marathon.

 

[killmeplease]

i played marathon once but didnt finish the game
its tooo slow

 

[Pembroke]

I tried to like marathon, but I couldn't get past the build times at the very beginning. I am enjoying epic though. Maybe I'll give marathon another shot some day ...

Same problem. My solution was to create a small mod that multiplies research costs of techs by 5 but leaves everything else the same, including the standard build times.

This way you can actually use the early units to their full potential, or even try to conquer the whole world with spears and archers in Alexander-style...

 

[PhroX]

I loved Marathon back on Civ 4, but in 5 it's kinda boring, particularly early on, thanks to the really slow build times. Epic on the other hand feels about right for me, although I wouldn't mind tech being a bit slower.

 

[Depravo]

Playing standard takes me days to complete if I am engaged in warfare. I can't imagine how long a huge marathon game would take!

Do you marathon players have jobs? A social life? A family? I'm not trying to hate...I guess I'm just jealous!

I only play marathon, bought Civ 5 in the week of release, and have completed and won exactly one game since then (King). I have got to the industrial age three times, once as Germany, once as Persia and once as Rome.

 

[Civmike]

Yeah, I think is like a game where tech is at marathon pace but everything else is epic. No interest in clicking end turn 40 times to get a monument. In all normal speeds it bugs me the way building absolutely necessary infrastructure takes up do very much of the game. Not sure just slowing tech down would fix it, but I prefer decisions based upon whether I can afford to support army/buildings on an ongoing basis to decisions if which I should build first.

 

[bluefeli]

I want to play civ 5 in different leaders and different settings a game by a game. So Marathon is not an option to me. Even if i'm a marathoner.

 

[marioflag]

I also play only Marathon, because it's the most immersive and you can really feel to control a civilization from its dawn to the space era. The only drawback i find when playing at Marathon is that combat experience is not balanced at this speed; to be honest i really don't understand why devs have balanced everything according to game speed except this feature.

 

[glider1]

Combat experience doesn't need to change does it? After all the combat strength of units is the same and so they should die at the same rate as other game speeds and benefit from experience the same as other game speeds.

Correct me if I'm wrong please.

 

[killmeplease]

Combat experience doesn't need to change does it? After all the combat strength of units is the same and so they should die at the same rate as other game speeds and benefit from experience the same as other game speeds.

Correct me if I'm wrong please.

why to have different speeds then?

 

[CaptainPatch]

why to have different speeds then?

It effectively gives you more game to play. The "benchmark" speed of the game at Normal would = 1-to-1, but at Marathon it would be 3-to-1. What is taking longer to finish is passage of time, Production, Research, etc. But you can have three times as much movement and combat that occurs because of those extra turns. Essentially, you're getting more game turns across the same span of time.

You might view that passage of time if you're a Normal player as being done in Slow-motion. But the reverse is true that if your preference is Marathon then a Normal game goes by like it's in Fast Forward. It all boils down to personal preference.

 

[EricB]

I play pretty exclusively on marathon speed. Units becoming obsolete before I can use them is just unacceptable.

I also play a lot with the Communitas mods. They are still in the beta stages for BNW, and I tweak them to my liking too.

 

[glider1]

why to have different speeds then?

Yes marathon isn't like a slow motion movie. Most importantly, you need more turns to move units if you are playing on a huge map it's that simple. You have to match speed to map size if you want balance.

I don't think you can successfully leave the game speed on standard and just mod the game to increase research times to slow it down that way. Problem is that the economic system collapses. You will be building units and buildings too quickly, incurring maintenance costs without the necessary technology to convert production directly into gold or research beakers. This will create huge deficit budgets and the AI in particular will be totally destroyed it will not know what to do. Once the appropriate techs come along, then too many cities will stop production to create gold and research only, which will destroy the whole economy and research rates in ways that will probably throw out the balance of the game and favour humans.

I'm currently trying an experiment that starts humans with 2 x warriors and AI's even more, to give us something to do in the first 100 turns. It can work out well if you set it up properly. For example with your two warriors you could DOW an AI but since the AI hasn't got any workers, you cannot pinch them! By the time you can, the AI has built it's army up better.

You can also increase the barb rate to give us more to do with those 2 x warriors.

I've said it before, but without modding the game to allow the AI to replace it's units more quickly than humans, the combat AI just falls apart on marathon and is too easy for experienced standard speed players.

 

[killmeplease]

Yes marathon isn't like a slow motion movie. Most importantly, you need more turns to move units if you are playing on a huge map it's that simple. You have to match speed to map size if you want balance.

if you want all to be scaled proportionally except movement rate why not just to speed up units in some way. i think units could have a rebase mission pretty like planes do. say if theres a clear route between 2 cities (no enemies on the way) you can rebase land units at max distance of say 5-turn passage (thats 30 road tiles with machinery, or virtually unlimited railroad tiles). and also shipping between ports like that of the great admiral in the fall patch. but not more rebasing than 1-2 units per city per turn.

 

[CaptainPatch]

Over the course of a multi-turn journey, it may be that initially there were no obstructions or threats along the path. But the way BNW spawns barbarians, it's a distinct possibility that one might appear right on or next to the path being used. Or some other unit may wander onto the path, causing detours or delays. The ONLY way to avoid that kind of travel interruptus is to actually move the units, one turn at a time.

 

[JollyRoger]

I mainly play marathon and huge maps. Everything else seems too fast or small.