'Sid' Difficulty Level

[Frozen444]

OMG is this tough!

Not to be immodest, but I'm probably one of the best civ players in the world. I repeatedly beat vanilla Civ3 & PTW on deity, with raging barbarians, and after modding in the editor that each AI civ gets all 6 traits instead of just 2, and diplomatic victory disabled. I've even done it from the awful starting position of no river, no bonus food in my first city.

That said...Damn 'Sid' level is tough!!! It's probably beatable, but man, that would be quite a struggle. Correct me if I'm wrong, but on Sid level, I beleive that goody huts NEVER have settlers/new city/techs. Even worse, the AI civs NEVER fight each other! (At least in ancient times.) Each AI civ gets like 5 or 6 settlers to start too.

Anybody else have something to say about 'Sid' difficulty level?

 

[Sarevok]

havent gotten ym copy yet, but from that description, ive got noyl one thing to say concerning the Sid level:

BRING IT ON!

 

[aeldrik]

I think they have improved the AI quite a lot, making the game harder by itself, also increasing the difficulty level and all hell breaks lose... I used to play at Emperor level, and I am now having problems at Monarch level... on my first game I went broke after switchning to republic...

 

[Sun]

Didn't they increase the difficulty level with PTW as well? I remember when I switched from Civ3 to PTW that playing at monarch level was suddenly a lot harder. Anyone else noticed this too?

 

[thestonesfan]

Bamspeedy could beat it, I'm sure.

 

[sgrig]

I don't think the switch to PTW made the game intrinsically harder, it's just the changes which were made required new strategies to be implemented, while old strategies did not work.

I guess same must be true for the switch to Conquests - some old strategies might not work due to rule changes - for example Republic can be very expensive now, as aeldrik found out!

 

[aeldrik]

very expensive... talk about understatements... I was on Despotism, 50% taxes, about +5 GPT, switched to Republic and got -200 GPT//// had to got to 90 % taxes only had about 10 cities and 70 units

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by thestonesfan
Bamspeedy could beat it, I'm sure.

So am I! He recently said something about a game with an AI cost factor of 1, and he was winning it...
There's probably quite a few people who can beat sid, but maybe not on the first try...

 

[vbraun]

Originally posted by thestonesfan
Bamspeedy could beat it, I'm sure.

Right now he is playing a PTW game that is called "Beyond Sid" And he's winning

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Originally posted by vbraun


Right now he is playing a PTW game that is called "Beyond Sid" And he's winning

To be fair though, he isn't playing on a pangea map...though, he'd still probably win

 

[Flern]

I have been playing on Regent. In my two games, it seems the AI is producing more military units. I am at the point in the game where I have an entire continent with a huge military. The Incas have been keeping the pace with me since I met them as far as military size goes. Their culture and science suck pretty bad though.

Also, the Americans, who were on the other continent were eliminated by their fellow AI rivals before 10AD. Unusual for a standard map regent game.

I will try a Sid game tonight just to see if I last twenty turns.

 

[cgannon64]

I've heard the only people to win Sid were a handful of testers, and they were given VERY favorable starts.

I read Sulla's attempt at it, but then he probably took it down by now because it was a violation of the agreement...or something.

 

[Al Zan]

Originally posted by thestonesfan
Bamspeedy could beat it, I'm sure.

give him 48hour nonstop he can beat it!

 

[cgannon64]

Nah, fatigue would get him by then.

Well, he could probably stay up that long, but I wouldn't reccomend playing Civ3 on cocaine.

 

[vbraun]

Originally posted by cgannon64
Nah, fatigue would get him by then.

Well, he could probably stay up that long, but I wouldn't reccomend playing Civ3 on cocaine.

Is that how I stay up all night playing civ and all this time i thought it was the coffe

 

[Bamspeedy]

Originally posted by cgannon64
I've heard the only people to win Sid were a handful of testers, and they were given VERY favorable starts.

Any island map where the AI is somewhat isolated is all you need. Don't need bonus resources or anything like that, just room to expand unharassed and the AI can't contact each other too quickly to trade techs.

Pangea is possible, but would require alot more luck and tedious micromanaging.

Some of us did beat it, and some beat it with the help of bugs. And there were those that didn't beat it and want to de-value the accomplishments of others by crying about map conditions/starts, etc. Any huge map with fewer than 8 AI opponents gives the human way too much room to expand. 8 AI should be the bare minimum, but you can't tell other people what to do, I guess.

There's probably quite a few people who can beat sid, but maybe not on the first try...

I haven't heard of anyone beating deity the first time they tried it either (some have claimed this, but I don't believe many of them). Their first 'serious' attempt, yes people have won, but everyone loads it up one time just to see how bad they get whomped before they make a 'serious' effort at it. And if you get a 'crap' map (terrible start), and reload to get a different map, does that count as an 'attempt'? I've seen people whining about others reloading to get a better start, but then they go and do the exact same thing. Go figure.

No, I didn't win my first attempt at Sid (unless you count using the 'elimination' victory condition-which is too easy).

 

[robcheng]

And of course, the unit limit doesn't hurt when trying to win at Sid level...

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Won the "WW2 in the Pacific" and "Age of Discovery" were relatively easy to win on Sid during the beta-test. I played and won on Sid with "WW2 in the Pacific" with all the playable Civs and as for "Age of Discovery" I won on Sid with the Aztecs, Incas and England (though bugs aided all European Civs).

I also got Sid wins on the Napoleonic Scenario as England for certain...can't remember if I did it with France on Sid.

None of those wins abused "exploits" due to bugs etc, a point of pride


I have yet to win on Sid in a normal game, but I have only tried the once and that wasn't a serious attempt, just seeing what the A.I was like and certainly, I was feeling over-awed.

 

[aeldrik]

@ Bam and Kitten(ofchaos) and all others: this sounds to me like we need a standard starting position on a map for everyone here to give it a try with the same chances, that way we could really all give it a fair try

 

[cgannon64]

@ aeldrik: That would happen if they made a Sid level GOTM, but I doubt they would do that, only a couple players would survive very long in that GOTM, which would make all the others angry.