Normal or Epic (or quick?)

[Gazaridis]

I'd say epic. If you want shorter games, you could go for a later start period. I'm in the middle of a fun little Industrial start pangaea game at the moment.

 

[Celebithil]

I'm the one who said I'll only play if its on normal speed. It's not that I think there should not be any epic games, but I think that will take too much of my time.

For Civ 3 it took me an hour each day for the entire month if I wanted to finish the game on time. Of course I could spent those 30 or so hours by sacrificing two weekends, or by playing each night, but I still can't hardly ever find the time. I was glad that my civ4 games (on normal) so far costed only about 10 hours each, but I think this will go up as I learn more of the game and hence will be able to think about more things.

 

[ainwood]

In line with the suggestions of two games a month, maybe one normal and one epic?

BTW - two games / month is not a fait-accomplait.

 

[DaveMcW]

Maybe offer the same game in all three speeds?

 

[HeadBlend]

I would prefer normal to be normal. The game has changed and conquest / dominaton has new complications. We can learn to adapt and overcome them.

As for time played, I don't want to have GOTM be the only games I play. I am happy if they are shorter.

That said, I don't mind faster and slower games from time to time.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I guess I need to play some epic games and see what's what.

 

[MikeH]

I voted 'normal' as that is my preferred speed, but it's not really a hard and fast thing. Mixing it up wouldn't put me off.

 

[Mike Lemmer]

Variety is the spice of life. And GotMs.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

I use epic almost exclusively in my personal games. The tech pace to unit move ratio in normals is way off. And im not even a conquerer. I didnt take one city in this gotm. I just hate the fact that im going to get 3 techs before i move this unit 12 squares. Doesnt make any sense. Bad balance imo. Not sure why people like it.

I guess im in the flamebait camp of "normal? gah why do you want to get techs before you can move between two cities without roads. It doesnt make any sense!"

 

[Conroe]

Well, I voted for mix it up. I think the map designer should have the flexibility to come up with a good game without arbitrary restrictions being in place.

Having said that, my personal preference would be normal. I say that because I have not finished playing the first GOTM, yet. I guess maybe I'm just slow ...

 

[Birdjaguar]

Does epic add to the number of turns in a game or just lengthen the turns required to research and increase the hammer cost of construction?

 

[MeteorPunch]

Does epic add to the number of turns in a game or just lengthen the turns required to research and increase the hammer cost of construction?

Both. The results are pretty similar to a normal game, but with more unit movement because of more turns.

 

[ainwood]

Can I ask - how many of you have actually played both epic and normal? Reason I ask is that most of my games have been on normal.

 

[Warden USA]

As I said before I voted for epic even though I have only played on normal

 

[DaveMcW]

Epic is generally agreed to be the best speed for high scores, because of the extra unit movement. There is also a bug that makes epic rush buying cheaper than other speeds.

If all the "serious" players want to play on epic, why not make the other speeds available for those with less time on their hands (and willing to take a small performance hit)?

 

[Shillen]

Epic is the best for an enjoyable game, regardless of scores. Compared to civ3, civ4 slowed down unit movement while drastically increasing the speed of late game techs. That combination makes the game less fun, IMO. But yeah I don't mind if people want to play the same game under normal, but they'd be handicapping themselves and I don't know that people would do that willingly, even if they have time constraints. One issue with that, though, is that the game date doesn't really match up properly between speeds. So fastest victory would have to be calculated using turn number divided by max turns instead of game date, or something like that.

 

[bhsup]

Epic please.

I'm new to the GOTM and now find myself having to wait until January because I ran through this game in a couple of days. Let's get that stretched out!

 

[tecknogyk]

Can I ask - how many of you have actually played both epic and normal? Reason I ask is that most of my games have been on normal.

I've played both, but only one on Epic. However, I voted for Epic because I already know I'm going to prefer the longer games. I've only been playing on Normal to have quicker games in order to get more of a chance to try out different things. I'm also, so far, not liking the endgame on the Normal speed. The pace just seems way too fast for my tastes so that is another reason I'll probably end up prefering the Epic speed. It's really too early to tell though. I'm another one that thinks that maybe having a GOTM for all three speed settings would be a good idea. That is, if there is enough support for all three. I'm pretty sure there would be enough support for both normal and epic speeds...not sure about quick though.

-teck

 

[Quantum7]

I've played most of my games on Normal. One game on Epic which seemed too slow in the ancient ages. Therefore I voted for Normal.

However, I'd prefer the dual-approach suggested before. One game for Normal, one for Epic. Best of both worlds. Obviously preferably with different maps as comparisons are hard and people can't play both games then =(.

 

[jesusin]

The shorter the better. One monthly game starting the 1st and other monthly game of a different speed the 15th would be perfect.

Having said that, I don´t think I will participate in any Epic game. I have never been able to complete a CivIII GOTM in a month, even in small maps. In fact, I took pains to be able to submit QSC in time.