Problems finishing MP games

[wtiberon]

I just started playing MP games but notice that finishing a game is impossible...I have won all my games, not because I am the greatest civ player there is but people either are knocked off or quit. Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me?

 

[xBRIANx]

I love Civ but the problem with it is that no one wants to dedicate themselves to a 27 hour game. I'm not the "greatest" civ player either but it seems like everyone quits also and/or never wants to resume play on a later date.

I feel ya...
-Brian.

 

[Ani]

Get yourself a dedicated group to play with. No more than 4 players (as its harder more players you have). Be sure to pick players that can play for a fixed amount of time, and pick the date time for the next session already before you start the game. Get their emails and msn or similar. Makes it mutch easier to cordinate.

In my games we normaly play for 4hours each time, but several days in the week.

 

[Oddible]

Here here. I was just going to post this exact message. Problem is not that no one wants to play a 27 hour game, none of my games have gone over 3, and seldom over 2 hours! Frankly, last night after a harrowing battle I took one city - get this - ONE city from an opponent after he started the war. I would've been happy to stop there since we were falling behind the other civs, but he up and quits the game!!! Jeesh! Just ask me for peace - I'd a taken it.

I never get out of the 1st age. By the time I research Feudalism every game is done. I would be happy to stop a game and schedule to pick it up another time. Anything - especially if it improves diplomacy. In a 2 hour game you often only meet one other opponent - no diplomacy at all! I might as well be playing a RTS rather than Civ - that's what turnless feels like anyway - especially since there's nothing but simple skirmishes.

Ack.

 

[Sir Yelof]

The whole point of all these extra rules and options in PTW is so that you don't have to play a 27 hour game online...!

Try this -- get a couple friends together, and play on a Tiny map, in Turnless or Simultaneous mode, with the fast production option, and regicide.

You run into each other pretty damn quick. I even had one game end in 5 minutes because someone's king was out scouting and got nabbed by a few warriors.

But realistically this game plays in about an hour, depending on how long before war starts and the like. Trading is fast and furious. Though I haven't made it to the third era. (Which is fine -- that's when the game bogs down if you ask me.)

We've also tried it with simultaneous mode but no turn timer, and everyone on their best behavior to keep the turns moving relatively fast. Easier to request and take breaks as necessary.

--Yelof

 

[Oddible]

Yeah, so there are new rules to make the games fast and to make sure that there is no complex diplomacy. We can have super fast skirmishes and no one gets to the industrial age. Again, why not just play a RTS? The point of Civ is long games and DIPLOMACY. Not just trading tech. Diplomacy involves pressuring war mongering civs to stay within their borders by forming coalitions, trading to gain advantage - not just to make everyone advance fast, establishing trust - some role playing. I want a long game - how does one go about finding such a thing?

I play chess every Wednesday night with a bunch of friends. Would love to establish a Civ night - everyone gets together every Thurs or something and we pick up where we left off - play a few hours and stop. Guess I need to make a new post for that...

 

[purvisxiii]

Not to sound jaded, but lotsa luck.

 

[Eloquence]

I would suggest that you all join the PTW ladder:

http://www.myleague.com/civ3ptw/

You will meet players who take it a little more seriously and won't quit after losing one city because it will affect their ranking on the ladder.

You probably have a much higher chance of finding players who will continue a game with you there.

 

[Coffee]

I have noticed when playing pickup PTW games that all my rivals tend to
build thier cities 5 tiles apart. I don't understand. These games only last
a few hours. There is no way you can discover Sanitation in that amount
of time. As a result your cities will never get past size 12. So to me this
seems like an awful waste of space.

For these short pickup games go to a dense build-out. Maintain a 2 or 3
tile space between your cities. This will provide each city with enough
tiles to reach size 12. Worker movement will be reduced, hence worker
efficency will increase and your cities will become productive sooner.
Your core civ becomes more defensible. Just what is needed in a short
game format.

I recently played a dense build-out on a small pangea map with 70%
water. This size map could have easily accomodated 12 civs. Why
is this important? Six players could easily fit onto a tiny map. A
tiny map has a lot less data that needs to be transmitted to each
player. This will help reduce lag. I am not 100% sure on this topic, so
please let me know if you have noticed reduced lag on a tiny map.


Rules for a pickup game or a game I would like to play.

The 70 minute rule:

-no warring for the first 70 minutes
-no tresspassing for 70 minutes
-dense build-out only.
The obvious exceptions are mountain ranges or settlers popping from
goodie huts
This does mean you need to build sequentialy, it just means that after
70 minutes your core civ should have a dense build-out.

This rule voided after 70 minutes.


The Game Rule

-thou shall maintain a minimum 3 tile space between your city and a rivals city

This rule voided during war.

 

[Unregister]

I think the best MP game in PTW is definitely hotseat. You know the other people are playing and can play whenever you both have the time, and it is a lot more than one turn a day. Or even three turns a day.

I have played 7-9 hotseat games and finished around 4. The other ones were without the patch so they locked up and quit everytime a certain thing happened, and the two others were in the DYP mod, and they bombed out after a wonder and landmines.

However i have one good pbem going, called Deathmatch. But thats the exception.

 

[WildFire]

Hard to finish online? Sure.

I played a two hour game a couple days ago and than my computer bombed and the game quit. And I was WINNING TOO!

Just stick to hotseat and PBEM for now (or just BF1942)