Recommended Game Settings?

[civplay]

Haven't played for about a year or so. There's so many game modes/settings now. I just want some feedback on your favorite way to play the game.

Edit: Just to clarify I'm mainly asking about the different game modes. There's 6 additional game modes and they can be played simultaneously. So the number of game options is fairly substantial.

 

[jasper]

Smallest map, most land, most civs, no religion victory, no water wonders, 3 cses, hi resource start.

But why?

 

[CaptainUnknown]

Great Question. For me, I tend to really enjoy games where I have minimal control on the settings. I tend to play random civ, on shuffle, or fractal map scripts. Right now I am picking random Civ but just going through each map script one by one. I play on standard size map on standard speed.

On a rare occasion I do like manipulating the map script and choosing a civ to give me an advantage, but that is mostly for a quick session play through. Things like naval civ on a water heavy map with high sea levels, for example.

 

[iammaxhailme]

I used to generally play huge maps, sea level low, city states turned up to 24 (so it's double the # of civs), legendary start, everything else default. I'm a bit tired of games that take that long, though, so recently I've been folloinwg the same general template (sea level low, city states = double default number of civs, legendary start) but on small or standard maps. I usually have heroes mode on, I sometimes have secret societies and monopolies mode on, the others are almost always off. I usually play with all natural wonders, city states, and civs enabled, and I choose my civ. My map choice varies a lot but I most frequently choose continents + islands or seven seas.

 

[civplay]

To clarify I'm really focusing on the different game modes.

 

[CaptainUnknown]

To clarify I'm really focusing on the different game modes.

In that case I typically go Heroic mode and Secret societies. I like the heroes for various reasons, the heroic relic helps those few relic civs (Kongo, Khmer, and Poland I believe) make use of their abilities without having to rely as much on luck. Also, heroes can let you approach early game wars/defense in a different way.

Secret societies are just fun and sometimes help you use certain civ advantages more. Like void slingers can help the faith hungry civs/religious game.

 

[Haig]

I like standard and small size maps that keep the game more easier to follow, alliances and relations etc.

I love Monopolies game mode and Secret socities the most, and the upcoming barbarians mode looks super cool.

 

[tedhebert]

Heroic, Shuffle and Secret societies are staples. I don't like dramatic and apocalypse. Corporation will become a staple, but too bugged atm to really enjoy it.

 

[Alexis Layton]

My fave is large fractal, low sea level. It gives a little more room between Civs. I wish there was a more direct Civ density slider.

 

[Basajaun]

Lately Ive been going with a little variation of my standard setup. Large Continents, king diff & epic speed. I usually go standard size but Ive been having lots of crowded starts and really thin continents which dont pair well with my plans to spam preserves in big cities.

Regarding game modes, I play with all of them, except: If I activate dramatic ages, I dont use tech shuffle, and viceversa. With both of them enabled, you are very susceptible to rng, but more than that, the AI gets completely hammered and their empires crumble throughout the ages easily without external influence. Many times you can get to a golden age into classical era, but cant use any of those policies yet because your tier1 government is way too late in the civics tree.

 

[PiR]

• Dramatic ages: I always activate it because I don't like to waste extra points beyond the threshold required for a golden age and I am confident to keep a high era score. If you're not sure with the era score, don't use it because you will loose cities in dark age.
• Heroes & Legends: fun, but not historic anymore and gives OP versus AI once mastered - no risk activating it, AI can't handle it
  
• Monopolies and Corporations: still discovering it, doesn't seem to make it more difficult (but new notions & district)
• Secret Societies: can be also anti-historic but very powerful tools towards different specializations (eco/war/...), I like it
• Apocalypse: fun a few times but I stopped using it, I don't like the way CO2 goes so high so fast with the diplo penalties that the Soothsayers bring
• Tech and Civic shuffle mode: I don't like it, because you cannot easily plan your Eurekas/Inspiration (would require to know them by heart or read the Civilopedia all the time)

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Monopolies and Corporations, and most likely the new Barbarian Clans mode, will always be on for me.

I will turn on Secret Societies and Heroes and Legends on every now and then, especially if I want to have a particular society or hero with a civilization.

Might try out the others eventually but I don't see myself using them as often as the ones above.

 

[AsH2]

Game Modes: must-use

 

[Dedrytus]

Just disable cultural victory or corporations - not compatible with each other at this moment. Apocalypse mode is a pain in... is problematic, at least for me. Dark ages mechanics is also annoying at the beginning of the game - constant cities flipping. You are planning attack or defend - nope, half of yours or opponent's empire is suddenly neutral or in other hands. Apocalypse and dark ages I always disable - no fun for me.

 

[GinandTonic]

SS, Heroes and Corps. Wish corps didn't op culture.

 

[enKage]

If you focus on different game modes, select none. While most of them give huge boost to a player, AI cannot use any of them, in effect lowering difficulty by 2 levels. Only exception is Secret Society. AI still doesn't know how to use it, but at least following different societies make diplo harder, so it is only 1 level of difficulty below.

The only playable mode for me is Apocalypse, as it at least changes the rules and make game harder by constantly killing your population

 

[aieeegrunt]

Dramatic Ages is the only one, because it at least sort of punishes dumb city placement and/or excessive city sprawl

it also puts a bit of a break on runaway snowball warfare