Nightmare Eternity - is it really unplayable?

[Somebody613]

Now, Nightmare Ultrafast... is a bit of a different question. Probably. I tried that one as well, but it almost inevitably ends with crazy turn lag, so I get bored and simply drop it. Yuck.
But Nightmare Eternity has the benefit of not having as many units on the map, so it doesn't cause the lag slog, so I kinda manage to enjoy it. Kinda.
Anyways, here's a sample of why AI still sucks even when it gets ALL the possible advantages this mod can provide.
Well... Okay, I "cheated" a bit: I deliberately chose (wrote into the scenario) the starting location (unedited, mind you) that gave me instant Stone and Obsidian.
But that's the ONLY thing I did "not randomly", and this COULD happen with enough random start attempts as well, so I don't consider this to be "cheating" altogether.
So, here's the situation around Turn 800.
See attachments, lol.

(On a very side note: I really like the new forum engine. The previous version sucked at attaching multiple files, lol.)

 

[raxo2222]

Crazy lag will happen later, and won't be as sudden. It is like going in slow motion.

 

[Somebody613]

Crazy lag will happen later, and won't be as sudden. It is like going in slow motion.

My point is that I simply won't LET it go there... by conquering everyone much earlier, lol.
In the previous game (Ultrafast), AI built tons of units simply because it could BUILD them so much faster (so could I, but I couldn't teleport my attacking army all over the map).
Here, though, it's the resource limitations that simply don't let AI to build dozens of units due to how much more comparatively expensive those units are under this SPEED.
So, by the time AI might grow big enough to build multiple units per turn (the cause of the problem on higher speeds) - it will simply DIE to my superior armies, lol.
Also, I'm now using Obsidian Neanderthal units - that's the best you can get in Prehistory (besides cultural units, and I see some *I* could use as well).
So AI simply won't have strong enough (and smart enough) defenders to survive my avalanche, even though it will take me a while to build that avalanche as well.
But once built, it will be mostly unstoppable.

Another point why I'm playing this, though, is the "Revolution problem" that includes money shortage and rebellions.
Now, that is the main reason why I stopped at 4 cities and didn't go on a conquest spree further on (I still have my units, mostly) - it'd kill my empire, lol.
So I have to "rebuild" it back to 100% Research, and only then attempt to expand it again.
THIS is why this is such an awesome mod, too.
In Vanilla, once you have a superior army, you can simply go, and go, and go... until there's nothing left but YOU.
Here, under Revolutions and Nightmare difficulty, though?
Hah, "not so much"... is an UNDERSTATEMENT of the year.
It still gets boring quickly enough, but at least not because of the turn time lag, so I probably will continue playing this game for a while more.
See you at 10 cities, loool.
Joking.
Maybe.

 

[Somebody613]

LOOOL!!!
Coyote Runners are Super OPed.
They (well, Merged x3 and Poisoned, of course) can take over Prehistoric cities SINGLE-HANDEDLY.
(They can also DIE to 95% chances of success versus a Slinger, though, which is outright WTF, but never mind.)

Note:
Just realized the best winning strategy in C2C now.
Play as a North American civ.
Start in a spot that gives you access to the Toltec culture (has Stone).
Beeline straight to Coyote Runner.
WIN.

 

[tmv]

Coyote Runners have always been extremely powerful. In fact, the "upgrade" to this unit (Swordsman) is vastly inferior - you should wait for Heavy Swordsman at least to upgrade (and they might still be viable in Early Renaissance, mostly due to ignoring terrain movement costs).

 

[Somebody613]

Coyote Runners have always been extremely powerful. In fact, the "upgrade" to this unit (Swordsman) is vastly inferior - you should wait for Heavy Swordsman at least to upgrade (and they might still be viable in Early Renaissance, mostly due to ignoring terrain movement costs).

Worse (or so it seems) - they also act Amphibious: aka they treat crossing a river ALSO as "ignore terrain", loool.
Or at least I didn't see any difference in chances of attacking a city over a river compared to by land - the number stays exactly the same.

 

[Somebody613]

Update:
I'm on Turn 1080.
I control exactly 10 cities.
Aaand... rebellion EVERY SINGLE TURN pisses me off... not because of what it does to my civ, but because I have to SCROLL and CLICK "refuse" each and damn every TURN!!!
Can I, PLEASE, ask for the "rebellion window" to AT LEAST be maximized to full size by default, so I don't need to SCROLL it every time, in order to click "refuse"?!
It's BEYOND ANNOYING and has absolutely nothing to do with my GAME decisions (I always "refuse" ANYWAYS).
PLEASE?!

 

[Somebody613]

Update:
Turn 1300.
Yeah...
Retrospectively, that was a VERY STUPID IDEA.
Had to eventually (maybe around Turn 1100-1120, see the part about "ANNOYING CLICKING IS ANNOYING") to get rid of the stupid CITIES.
Basically, gifted them to the closest neighbors (though did a mistake, should've spread it out, not give 3+ cities to literally the closest civ, border gore shouldn't be MY problem, after all).
Then pacified Jerusalem, then built back 3 merged Coyotes... and you can guess what happened next.
Yup, recaptured a couple of nearby cities and one more that spawned too close for its own good, lol.
Heck, the recaptured cities even managed to build a few Neanderthals (those cities had the Local culture already built in them), not that it helped them any, lol.
And... I stopped at that, because my "income" started to pluuuuuuuuuunge.
Now, some 100 turns later, STILL fighting the awful money sink that refuses to get plugged, dammit.
But I kinda realized that I was utterly underusing Workers (well, Gatherers, lol) - because I'm super used to EASY gameplay, where you DON'T fight for every gold coin, loool.
Well, that's the POINT of this run through to begin with - to play NOT an easy-by-default game, ya know.
So far, I really enjoy it, precisely BECAUSE it's so challenging.
And what's more appealing, is that the challenge is *NOT* to fight off the stupid endless Barbarian hordes.
Nah, my faithful Coyotes can deal with THAT like a piece of cake.
But ECONOMY... ugh, THAT is the enemy I'm yet learning how to beat, HARD WAY.
Heck, I'm currently easily Top-3 even so, but I could become Top-1 simply by capturing those cities and "redistributing" them to civs with less cities.
Because it's obvious that these Top-1 and Top-2 guys have it due to the city count mostly, but if I took them apart, they'd drop to maybe Top-10 at best.
Maaaybe I'll even actually do that soonish.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Too lazy, to waste time and effort on it, lol.
Anyways.
Once again:
GREAT MOD!!!

 

[Somebody613]

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lagging behind in overall tech, but strong enough to capture a city (Coyotes are PERFECT for this)?
CAPTURE it... and keep DONATING it (empty of any units and under a long period of disorder, loool!) to all those Smart Guys, one Smart Dumbass Idiot at a time.
And EACH TIME you capture the city... you get a nice and hefty RESEARCH BONUS for FREE!!!
Rinse, repeat, LAUGH!!!
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wanna know the secret?
They ALWAYS accept Cease Fire on the next turn, loool!
Sure, you'll quickly end up with an entire ANGRY map of LOSERS... but who CARES?
They were ANGRY at you anyways already (Nightmare, ahem), and you are (MUST BE) strong enough to laugh BACK AT THEM at all their empty "threats".
PFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I.
LOVE.
THIS.
MOD!
!!!
!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Somebody613]

New idea: How to control the entire map without having to deal with a zillion of rebelling cities (no Barbarians, because I hate the unit lag they currently produce).

Step 1:
Build an army capable of easily and quickly capturing a city.

Step 2:
Capture a city. It gets 20+ turns of disorder under an Eternity Nightmare game.

Step 3:
GIFT it to the weakest civ on the map. It still gets 20+ turns of disorder. In fact, you can wait most of that time out, I think it doesn't affect your empire much while in disorder. Probably.

Step 4:
Keep a sufficiently quick and strong unit near the city, preferably on Sentry (if you're using auto-turn, otherwise Fortify works as well), in order to prevent defenses from accumulating.

Step 5:
When the city has 1-2 turns of disorder left, RECAPTURE it. Then GIFT it either back to the same civ next turn (remember what I said about Cease Fire, lol), or to a second "helper" civ.

Step 6:
Rinse-repeat for ALL existing cities on the map, until you have a "survivor" civ (or two) with dozens of cities... ALL OF THEM IN PERPETUAL 20+ TURNS REBELLION, loool!

Step 7:
Hunt down all the strong units that could help defend a city (the weak units are of less consequence, but you should also hunt them down to prevent "defense via numbers").

Step 9999:
Once achieved, you will have tons of cities that will sit in perpetual disorder, NOT belong to you, and NOT produce any potential armies to stop you from "assimilating" them one by one.
Which is exactly what you will do, one city at a time, slowly, building your empire at an adequate speed to "assimilate" the ENTIRE MAP.
WIN!
MWAHAHAHA!!!

 

[Somebody613]

Update:
Finally KILLED the other ex-Big ex-Neighbor.
The annoying XP gain is sooo slooow...
I'm way too used to EASY+QUICK games, where you get to insanely OPed promotions in no time.
Here... it takes forever to build even a somewhat decent unit, dammit.

Current strategy (in order of future actions):
1. KILL all existing civs but ONE.
2. FEED them to the one ex-BOTTOM civ that I'll let to live precisely for the role of being a "dumpster for cities", lol.
3. NIBBLE on that civ city-after-city, carefully paying attention to my ongoing income and rebellions.
4. WIN THE GAME BY EATING EVERYONE.
0. See you in the year 2100, I guess.

Observation:
I'm firmly TOP1 now, with literally no contender with any slivers of hope to ever beat me to the TOP, unless I fail to control revolts (which I'm already smart enough to NOT fail).
Conclusion:
Very much playable, very much winnable, very much A MAJOR PAIN IN THE ASS, loool!

 

[Trantor]

s February 29, AD-1998

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nightmare......winning

 

[Somebody613]

s February 29, AD-1998

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

nightmare......winning

Why the HECK would you play a RANDOM map of such a size?
OK, it's your choice, but *I* only play two types of maps:
1. Pit's Earth for BIG. It's also both very big and not exactly land-heavy, so it gives you a lot of space (and Space, lol) where to play, but doesn't allow too much (ehem) over-crowding with cities.
2. Duel Space (with or without the actual Space, can be manually removed very easily) for SMALL. And crowded. And Duke-It-Out-At-Max-Density, lol. Why waste turns on walking, lol?
And, like with all the other options - nothing IN-BETWEEN, lol.
Also, you ignore some of the funkiest features this mod provides, as in combat sub-mods and leadership sub-mods.
Those are a very cool addition, really.