New Ideas for GOTM

[Doc Holliday]

I'm fairly new to the Civfanatics experience and I have to say I thoroughly enjoy it. I can't seem to play a regular game without the zeel I had when doing the COTM. Now that I'm done I'm checking information on other GOTM and generally snooping around various post and what not. There is something I've noticed, early Conquest and Domination seem to win out every time. From this I have to assume that nearly all the maps are standard or an 80 percent large. I think it would be interesting to hinder players from being capable of completely wiping out their opponents. Having Huge maps may solve this. With the slow tech rate and massive land to cover it would most definitely disallow players from wiping out the AI during (what I consider) the cheese period between Military Tradition and nationalism. Well these are my thoughts what does everyone think?

 

[Dianthus]

I think the tendency towards Conquest/Domination is due to the need to reach the Domination limit as soon as possible to get a high score, no matter what victory condition you're going for. Many players lack time, so on reaching the domination limit just take the Conquest/Domination win when they reach that point rather than continuing on. The medal play series had some success in getting players to try other victory conditions, just take a look at the victory condition graph on the statistics page and notice the number of 20K Cultural wins in GOTM22! I agree that it would be nice if the victory conditions were varied in some way. I.e. by one or more of:

1. Suggesting a victory condition.
2. Giving some incentive (I.e. a score bonus) for a suggested victory condition.
3. Making attacking much harder, I.e by preventing the building of attacking units, or preventing upgrades.

I'm not sure about making the map huge. A number of players have low-spec computers that take quite a while between turns for huge maps.

 

[Lord Jimbob]

You know, we have played GOTMs (e.g. GOTM30) where we started on an isolated island which would seem to deter early domination/conquest victories, but several players are so good at mobilization and war logistics that they still manage to find the AI civs and annihilate them in relatively short order (and any size pangea map will be assimilated in short order by the conquering type- if you slow down the tech pace, they'll just do it w/ knights or horsemen instead of cavalry). On the one hand, I tend to grumble about how the conquerors among us always come out on top, but there are some notable exceptions w/ space or culture victories scoring in the top 3. And placing in the top 3 via a diplomatic or culture victory is that much more prestigious, b/c it shows what a skillful player one is, in spite of the bias of the Jason scoring system!

 

[dojoboy]

I'm not sure about making the map huge. A number of players have low-spec computers that take quite a while between turns for huge maps.

Plus, it ain't going to make a difference w/ the upper echelon players. They'll still achieve extremely early victories.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I'm not sure about making the map huge. A number of players have low-spec computers that take quite a while between turns for huge maps.

Ok this makes sense. I forget sometimes that some do not have the computers capable of handling Huge maps.

Some other suggestions could be to increase the cost of Techs. I often double the cost of techs and find it a much more enjoyable game. Also perhaps increase the musketman defense to 5 and pikeman to 4. A better defensive Musket/pike behind walls or in cities supplemented by archers, catapults, or longbow (a combination which the AI uses fairly frequently) will also slow a Calvary's onslaught.

 

[Darkness]

@Doc Holliday:
Why change? Things work just fine. It is just the way the game is. If you get to the domination limit faster (no matter what victory condition you choose) you'll get a higher score. That's how the scoring system works.

I am very much against game-changing edits like increasing the tech costs or changing unit defense value. It alters the game and I like the COTM/GOTM to be as unmodded as possible to resemble an ordinary epic game.