OCC challenge

[stii]

Ok so yes it is possible however I'm not sure it is always possible. A lot of things can go wrong and you don't have a great deal of control over lots of it. the AI seem better at conquering on epic and snowballs even harder. The bonuses from conquering scale up so they had absurd amounts of gold and science from it.

If everyone is peaceful other than bashing you then you can sit back and tech up fairly safely. but at the other end if one player takes over the whole world you can't win before they do something to win. That said you only really need one players to buy techs off, and you can still steal from hostile players.

I won on t501 and was almost killed by nukes because I thought I passed nuclear non proliferation but didn't. I think with it you can hold off the AI pretty much forever. I don't see how you win anything other than a science victory but the AI isn't great at winning at all so you have a reasonable amount of time as long as you don't die.

 

[CppMaster]

I'm not sure it is always possible.

You can never know that, but what you could do is, when you think that a game is not possible then share a t0 save here, so others can also try it. It'd be very interesting, just like those challenges we had before with photojournals (Why was it stopped? ). Maybe noone would win the game, which could be basis for a balance change or some would win and you'll learn something. You get something from it anyway

 

[stii]

You can never know that, but what you could do is, when you think that a game is not possible then share a t0 save here, so others can also try it. It'd be very interesting, just like those challenges we had before with photojournals (Why was it stopped? ). Maybe noone would win the game, which could be basis for a balance change or some would win and you'll learn something. You get something from it anyway

I did like those so maybe we could do more. The main issue is pitching at a level enough people will want to try. This one is very very hard. It is probably about as hard as always war and similarly takes forever.

 

[Zhao Yun]

Hello,

I wanted to discuss with you about the OCC challenge on latest VP patch, deity difficulty, epic speed. Do you consider it to be possible to win a cultural or science victory (I guess domination is always possible, and diplomatic is not at all), and if so what civs do you consider to be the strongest. I'm hoping for some in depth analysis.

As a creator of this topic I'll go first.

I've tried several games, first with science civs like Babylon and Korea, and then with some early game cultural civs like India. My main problem is early game. Firstly I have to mention that you will not have any chance if you are in the middle of the map. Not because you will die, but because you will be constantly forward settled and in a perpetual war with almost all neighbours because they see you as weak. People will keep DoW-ing you, and you will have to keep razing their cities, which they will perma spam in basically the same places as the razed ones. One game was particularly unlucky where I got America next to me. Needless to say they kept buying my land. Lets get back to the point. When I said early game is a problem I meant getting the crucial wonders which require 4 policies. It's extremely hard to get 4 policies by the time you get to Terracota army for example or The great library if you do not have some mechanic (like India archers), and even then AI's usually get it before you do. Supply cap is extremely big issue, and Terracota helps massively, and also it gives some decent early game culture. One quick suggestion, maybe in next patch supply cap can be increased for the OCC option. As for my policies, I always take honor opener, because I play with raging barbarians on, either as 1st, 2nd, or 3rd policy depending on the situation. I mostly manage to survive quite long, but after some time it becomes too tedious to fight technologically superior enemies and I try again.

What are your experiences. Looking forward to hear them.
Best regards to the forum, and especially the mods for keeping the game alive.

OCC have been almost impossible for the longest time. There are several issues apart from the obvious staying alive: Culture and science costs don't scale well even if you have optimal runs. It's also reasonably easy for AI to diplo cripple you. I tried an outrageous Assyria OCC where I kept capturing cities for large science boosts but even that didn't work out. Supply cap being one of the problems.

 

[Susanooo]

Alright, after 40 or so attempts I've reached a conclusion that it can be done (science victory) but it's not fun at all.

Firstly I have to say that It is not always possible, nor does it always depend on you because sometimes a civ just explodes. Deity warmonger civs with early game bonus or a lucky map setting just erradicate everyone. In one game Atilla conquered 6 civs and left me for last by the turn 260, I have to say I was impressed.

I played with Babylon on standard map (8 civs), I'm guessing on small map with 6 civs it might be easier to win. Main issue is having enough culture for policies so you can make wonders, most of them get taken before I reach the requirements evwn though I've had the tech for a while. Uppon reaching atomic era I've been only 3-4 techs behind the leader, and I havent used a single GS or GW for science or culture yet. My guess is later in the game, I would keep cathing up with increasing number of high ranak spies. Anyhow, It just gets tedious, because you can't trade with anyone which really crumbles your economy, everyone hates you (for no reason), and you have to keep fighting limitless carpet of units. One more extremely funny situation was that they kept calling me a warmonger even though I started no wars, nor have I taken a single city since the start of the game.

Anyhow my conclusion is even though I enjoy super hard challenges, this was just isn't fun at all. There isnt a single moment in the game when you feel you are ahead, or that you feel satisfied for your smart decisions. My suggestion for improvements are, reducing policy requirements for OCC, and increasing supply cap.

As always, I would like to hear your experiences. Suggestion above is a good one, sharing saved games seems like a good way. If anyone is interested I can share mine.

 

[stii]

I think the issue is any challenge at this level probably won't be fun, for you at least.

I think this was roughly as hard as always war but that is also a huge grind

 

[CppMaster]

It's almost like the game wasn't balanced around OCC.

If there were special rules applied specifically for One City Challenge then instead it would be One Super City Challenge, so not the original challenge. Out of all custom settings, this probably is the most custom one, so can't really be expected to be balanced.

 

[rkkn]

yeah I tried it for half a game and then decided it was going to be super boring. since most decisions are out of your hands. Since you only have one city and you don't really get to choose where to settle it. And with small supply you don't really get to choose what to do with your units (defend your city that's constantly under attack). Can't go out and influence whatever else is going on either.

 

[looorg]

I also tried some OCC this weekend just to see. I might have tweaked it a bit in my favor by picking the large islands map. But beyond that just ran what I always do -- deity, marathon and as many things as possible on random. I became the Iroq. It went ok. Have I won the game? Not yet. Will I win the game? Most likely. I would be surprised if it wasn't space race in the end. It's just so slow. Most of us are within a tech or two from each other, a couple of policies between the top and the bottom. Most of the turns are just clicking next turn. It's the end of the industrial era. I have 24 units. Sitting on my island. Being at war with the world but they can't do much. They are war a bit with each other. Monty and the Aztecs are picking off city-states left and right. Almost of all of the AI went authority-fealty, don't know why. I lost a bunch of wonders on less then five turns to completion, a couple only being 1 turn away to completion. But as noted. It's not really fun to play. It's tedious. Next turn. Next turn ... A cycle of building the buildings when you get a tech then either running food process or building units to gift away for the various city-state proxy wars I'm running. The most fun I had was a larger island that the Americans and the Celts later settled and I helped the city-state on the island to conquer those cities. It now is a five city large citystate. It's larger and have more units then me.

 

[azum4roll]

If there were special rules applied specifically for One City Challenge

You need less population to build National Wonders if you have OCC on.

 

[rkkn]

ohh that explains why they were so trivial