Reloading or Not.

[anton_z1]

I wonder if you people prefer to reload or not.

I use reloading to know my performance when i play on very hard level (immortal). I basically ply, then once i made an erro i continue to play until i see how bad is the error. If after 20-30 turns i am screwed, i consider the game as lost and reload. If not i continue the game with the handicap.

Also i do not reload more then 10 times in a whole game.

Do you think reloading is a valid strategy, or should i simply learn not to make error ? Because there is no purpose to play in lover difficulty when you know you will win 95% of the time.

 

[FenrysWulf]

I think it's a personal preference. Some people treat it as a point of honor, but my view is that it's just a game so I do whatever makes it fun for me. I don't reload much, partially because it takes too long. Mostly when I do it is before I attack a city and am wondering if I have enough units or if I need more, I'll save it, and if I start attacking and it's a complete failure, I'll load it and wait a few more turns until I have more forces in place. But you can't load every time you lose a battle, especially with the fixed nature of the random number generator which means a battle will always have the same outcome (there are ways around this, but I won't get into that now).

 

[Gufnork]

I occasionally reload a game from 4000BC and try a different strategy to compare the effectiveness of them both. I also occasionally reload if I miss something crucial because I'm spamming end turns and the reports can't keep up.

 

[Darkness]

I think it's a personal preference. Some people treat it as a point of honor

To me it's really simple. I do not reload at all.

2 reasons:
- In competitive civ (playing against other humans, in either PBEM, or in GOTM or RBCiv) reloading is cheating.
- When I just play a random SP game I do not reload because I learn from my mistakes faster than I would learn from reloading.

 

[baboon]

I don't reload, but I do start new games all the time. I think I have about 20 times more unfinished games than finished.

So far I have kicked ass at Prince level (Domination victory, Augustus Ceasar rank), but I have abandoned so many games that I can hardly say I mastered Prince level. I'm notorious at leaving starting areas that I think are not good enough. I'm currently trying just to accept a starting location and get playing, but pretty often I'm so pissed by endless rainforests that I quit the game suddenly and start a new one.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

well if your not reloading simply cause your attack went wrong your prolly learning something. if your reloading after 20 turns your prolly just trying ideas and not trying the "dice" there is a difference. One seems instructional. The other is just rolling the dice again and again.

I dont have the tolerance to play the same game twice. I hate it when i have to do the same two turns in a row let along 20 turns lol. I could never play like that. I have to not reload or the game is very boring to me. For instructional purposes i just give up and try again~

 

[zafyro]

if i have to reloaad the game i have a bad feeling from ther as if i´m playing a game that´s been lost and it stops to be fun...

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Reloading is not very productive if you want to measure your skill.
If you play games for the challenge of the game you should imo not reload. Of course if you play with other players like gotm of pbem or anything, reloading is illegal. If not, it is your own choise but i would not recommend it.

However when learning the game, i think reloading is very valid. Not reloading to get other random results, but reloading to test different strategies on the same map. I also play many games only for the first 50 or 100 turns or so, but restarting the same game provides better comparison of strategies as the other factors are then the same.

 

[MaskedFrog]

I reloaded once when I first started playing to go back one turn because I accidentally hit the wrong command in game. If I make a mistake, I usually just accept it and continue. If I think I am going to lose the game, I just abandon the game and start a new one. I kind of feel like reloading is cheating but that is just a personal preference.

My first three games I did not build enough defense forces. I would be doing well for a while and then one of the AI would attack me with an overwhelming force. I have finally learned my lesson and my latest game on Noble I have the largest military force. I also make sure at least one city is constantly pumping out military units to protect all my cities especially the coastal ones.

 

[tempuraki]

I reload from time to time, as i like to beat every game I started, and I like to figure out how the AI got to a seemly insurrmontable lead, and how to beat it. I don't see how anyone can do constant reloading to play the odds tho, it simply take too long to reload.

it's a preference, some people play competitively, and i agree that in a competitive setting reloading should not be allowed, and to prepare for that kind of setting one should play without any reloading. but for single player games, I am playing it for fun, for winning at the end. I see each instance of a civ game as a maze or a puzzle, if I took a wrong turn somewhere and found out that this is a dead end, i won't go back to the beginning or just abandon this maze and start a new one. i will go back to where i think i took the wrong turn, and start from there, until I beat this maze/puzzle.

 

[Mon Mauler]

My standard way of playing is pretty simple.

I generally play Noble or Prince on Standard maps, although I will occasionally wander into the realm of Large or Huge maps. Other than that, I randomize everything such as the Civ and terrain options. I wish there was a way to randomize the map type as well, but as it is I try to cycle through them fairly regularly. I've found that I like the Terra maps the best so far.

I've never really been too interested in becoming a great Civ player. I'm more interested in being presented with different scenarios every time I play. I've never really tried to formulate strategies for the different Civs, either.

I consider my Civ games to be like civilization itself. Random events have landed me in a particular place as my people are ready to found their first settlement. So I only reload under one condition: if I draw the same Civ as I had in the previous game.

In keeping with this tradition, I started late in my Civ3 career to really cut down on unfinished games. No matter how well or poorly my current effort is going, I try to finish the game. Admittedly, I had a ton of unfinished games in Civ2 and 3, but so far I've only left one Civ4 game unfinished. I decided that when the patch was released, for whatever reason, I should start a new game.

With that said, I certainly understand why some people would reload games.

 

[e_a_olson]

Personally, I view reloading as cheating. It certainly would not be tolerated in MP, so why do it against the AI.

 

[Yellowcactus]

I reload all the time. Sometimes I'll answer the phone and carry on a conversation, causing my settler to wander here and there as my focus is lost. -Reload- Sometimes I'll make a fine play at taking over the world only to find out that I can't chop jungles right whne I need to. -Reload- Sometimes I'll challenge the strongest AI in the middle ages only to find that....he's not in the middle ages anymore! -Reload- In fact, I'll go out on a line and say that I'll reload the same map from the start at any given turn in the game for almost any reason.
I've also never won a game. I'm not sure if I've ever lost a game either, besides losing a brave settler at the beginning now and then. I've beaten Emperor level several times (Reloading all the way), but I don't play them out to the end.

One off topic point I'll make here about strategy is that unlike other versions of Civ, this game allows you to wander more with your starting settler. Expecially on epic setting, you wnt to make sure your capitol is central, well watered, and with a ripe forest nearby. I'll march 5 turns through jungles to get the starting place right.

-Reloading Rocks!- Tactics in Multiplayer are so different from single player, I wouldn't bother practicing methods in one for match-ups in the other. To each his/her own!
-yc

 

[lances]

Reloading is a form of cheating. However, I've talked to the AIs about it, and they don't seem to mind too much, since they don't really mind losing (except for the Mongolians).

If you claim a win on a particular level, though, and don't mention you reloaded twenty thousand times, that's pretty lame imo.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

what if you dont notice two swordsmen of an enemy have set down on your shore. You could have easily handled them if you saw them however since you were rallying troops the city they were by was undefended and you finally notice them when they sack a town. tempted to reload?

I just turned the game off at that point. Time to go to bed i said! Ill prolly play through. Its less about tactics though and more about attentiveness.

 

[Yellowcactus]

Reload whenever you like! Its perfectly harmless. Competitions and Leagues won't allow it, and that's fine, but if it's your own little world, you can do whatever you like. Make your own Code of Law.
-Yc

 

[sydhe]

I reload when I do something stupid like move a settler instead of an archer, make a typo in a city name (I always name my cities), or accidentally send the only defensive unit in a city exploring the continent.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

I dont know i come from a club chess background and im pretty sure in chess that taking back moves cause you didnt see something is a recipe to learn to not see stuff. Play on.

However going back to a point in the game where you dont like the direction you set out on is a recipe to learn about alternatives.

 

[ccubed]

I reload when I do something stupid like move a settler instead of an archer, make a typo in a city name (I always name my cities), or accidentally send the only defensive unit in a city exploring the continent.

Sort of off-topic, but you can go into your cities and rename them whenever you want. Just click on their name in the top middle of the city screen and change it.

 

[alexti2]

I generally classify games as competitive and as practice. In competitive game I'm playing for win, so no reloads. In practice I don't have intention to finish game, but I want to try different ides, see how they work and try to opimize their usage. In these games I will reload to go back and try different things.