The Disappointment of Domination

[SewerStarFish]

I almost never am happy when I win by Domination. My most recent game (as Portugal) got into the late stages and it seemed I was going to win by Points or Space Race with a risk of losing by Culture (to Mali). So I decided to end my peaceful ways and enlarged my empire by picking off the little guys (Large map btw) just so I ended with a better score.

And see, here I was about 5 turns from launch, having fun just playing the game, and finishing yet another AI thinking that Musa and I might have to have a nuclear confrontation to prevent his victory before I got to Alpha Centauri when the capture of some tiny Mongol city won me the game. No drama, no fun, crappy after game video {See next thread}

Wish I could turn off certain victory conditions.

 

[rah]

Hmm, check out the custom games options on the menu. You can select the victory conditions you want to play.

 

[SewerStarFish]

Hmm, check out the custom games options on the menu. You can select the victory conditions you want to play.

Well soab! Color me embarrassed.

 

[rah]

Don't worry, I won't bother to mention all the little things I've missed at first. Even after playing for years, I can still learn things here.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Don't worry, I won't bother to mention all the little things I've missed at first. Even after playing for years, I can still learn things here.

Heck, I wouldn't have time to list all the things I've found out l-o-n-g after the fact.

But as an example up until a few days ago I would have said one thing I missed about Civ III was being able to rename my units. Got some good laughs from a thread about 'strange things I do when playing' right up until someone confessed their unit renaming habits...and I said 'renaming units?!?'

 

[Olson]

Heck, I wouldn't have time to list all the things I've found out l-o-n-g after the fact.

But as an example up until a few days ago I would have said one thing I missed about Civ III was being able to rename my units. Got some good laughs from a thread about 'strange things I do when playing' right up until someone confessed their unit renaming habits...and I said 'renaming units?!?'

Last night I downloaded the Keyboard Mouse Shortcuts chart looking for how Sullla did the Flying Camera Mode [Ctrl + F] in his Willem YouTube walkthrough and came across [Pause]. Pause? There's a pause key? Holy Shtick there's a pause key! When did they start putting a pause key on keyboards? LOL.

 

[SewerStarFish]

This site need a thumbs up feature. Because these response made me laugh.

 

[nfw]

I too think it's crap that you can win without directly confronting your top rival(s). A lot of times when I win by domination I'll keep going just to beat up everybody.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I too think it's crap that you can win without directly confronting your top rival(s). A lot of times when I win by domination I'll keep going just to beat up everybody.

I think you can adjust the values required for a domination win. If you raise them high enough you can be sure that no significant rival is out there, but still avoid the extended mopping up.

 

[6K Man]

Yeah, it’s anticlimactic. Conquest = building armies and slowly eradicating everyone. Space = carefully timing production and science to allow for an earlier launch, plus great graphics. Domination? In my games, it’s usually pressing enter several times until borders pop. :yawn:

 

[s.bernbaum]

If you have high espionage inclined neighbors, Space Race really requires careful timing. In my last Space race game, the neighbors kept destroying the parts of which there was only one. Launch would be approaching as I was finishing rebuilding the last destroyed one and another one of them would get destroyed. In the end, I had three of them to rebuild. I had to micro manage the queues in order to have all three done on the same turn, so I could launch before one of them was destroyed again. It certainly keeps one busy.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

If you have high espionage inclined neighbors, Space Race really requires careful timing. In my last Space race game, the neighbors kept destroying the parts of which there was only one. Launch would be approaching as I was finishing rebuilding the last destroyed one and another one of them would get destroyed. In the end, I had three of them to rebuild. I had to micro manage the queues in order to have all three done on the same turn, so I could launch before one of them was destroyed again. It certainly keeps one busy.

If you already have all the required techs couldn't you crank your espionage slider and deter them? Maybe build spies in the non-part building cities and put them on counter-espionage duties?

 

[s.bernbaum]

I already had done that. My espionage total was tens of thousands higher than theirs. I sent spies on counter espionage missions successfully. I built all the espionage buildings in all my cities to boost my espionage points. However, the two AIs were espionage crazy. Every turn two or three AI spies would be caught in my territory but they kept sending them. Every now and then one of them would succeed and there went a spaceship part. I've never seen it happen this way before. After I launched, they still kept sending all the spies, so every now and then an improvement or a building would be destroyed. Since I had already launched, I did not care.

All my cities were building wealth at that point, which I was using to upgrade my tanks to modern armor, infantry to mechs, and bombers to stealth bombers - just to give me something to do while the spaceship made the voyage. My military had been the most powerful for a long time already but I was no longer using it to attack anyone, since I wanted that space race victory. I also purposely nerfed culture production in my top three cities because I would otherwise have a culture victory before my spaceship finished its voyage.

 

[Drakarska]

just out of curiosity s.bern, which two AI's? I've noticed from time to time that certain AI's other than SB are remarkably adept at spy ops, and I'm kind of collecting data.

 

[s.bernbaum]

just out of curiosity s.bern, which two AI's? I've noticed from time to time that certain AI's other than SB are remarkably adept at spy ops, and I'm kind of collecting data.

Hammurabi and Darius. Hammy was sending most of the spies but Darius was responsible for two of the space ship sabotages.

 

[Drakarska]

Ok, that makes sense then. Last two of my games, those 2 AI's as well as SB we're responsible for most of the ops. Interesting, I'll need to compile some more data as this may explain a few issues I've had in the mod I'm currently playing. My thx kind Sir.

 

[Antilogic]

The only suspense in domination/conquest wins is whether or not the last AI capitulates before or after I pass the domination threshold. Towards the end, I start intentionally picking bad builds that will take a long time to complete and put workers on auto just because I get tired of the micromanagement. My play gets really sloppy and impatient.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The only suspense in domination/conquest wins is whether or not the last AI capitulates before or after I pass the domination threshold. Towards the end, I start intentionally picking bad builds that will take a long time to complete and put workers on auto just because I get tired of the micromanagement. My play gets really sloppy and impatient.

Been there, done that. Two words; build queue. When I get to that point I stuff all the queues...which is of course equally sloppy and impatient.

 

[rah]

Yeah, you know when you're getting bored when each worker pops up for new orders and you're just hitting the auto or network button just because you're sick of telling them what to do.

 

[Antilogic]

I feel the most dirty when I start accepting the game's advice on what to build without a second thought. If you all will excuse me, I'll go cry in the shower now.