The Realms Beyond - Succession Game Discussions

[Atlas]

Alway Global War sounds interesting, but I have feeling that would lower the difficulty a bit, I wonder if the AI could even handle that.... would it attack (primarily) one civ at a time or would it willy nilly attack all the other civs (assuming all civs are equally accessable)? Well, I like Always War, but boy is it a looooong game.

I play vanilla games as my personal games frequently, trying to improve etc. I would play a vanilla SG or other game if it was Challenging, basically if you want a challenging game you just up the difficulty level right, but if you want to be challenged in a different way (no alphabet, honorable rule set, wacky scoring, etc) then you need a variant game and the RB community a great place for that b/c others here like to be challenged (I assume ) in more interesting ways than just upping the difficulty level. Is that understandable, if feels some of like a stream of consciousness rant )

-Atlas

 

[chriseay]

I play vanilla games as my personal games frequently, trying to improve etc. I would play a vanilla SG or other game if it was Challenging, basically if you want a challenging game you just up the difficulty level right, but if you want to be challenged in a different way (no alphabet, honorable rule set, wacky scoring, etc) then you need a variant game and the RB community a great place for that b/c others here like to be challenged (I assume ) in more interesting ways than just upping the difficulty level. Is that understandable, if feels some of like a stream of consciousness rant )

-Atlas

I try to play vanilla games personally, and normally I do well in them. My problem is I end up getting bored about halfway through usually unless there is some kind of restriction/variant/craziness going on. The other day, for instance, in the space of two hours I started 3 new games. I played to around 1 ad in each, and then got bored. Last night, I decided to try a 3 city culture win. I played the whole game in one sitting and it was more difficult than you might imagine. (I did end up winning, though it was only on noble.)

The point is, things like variants, etc., make me actually finish games. That's why, in addition to the extra fun and challenge, I like them so much.

 

[oldbustedjorn]

But always war as it is now seems much harder than the level played - as in, its difficult at prince (or so they say). That means, as long as it doesn't blow up (the AI civ just randomly attacks in different directions causing utter chaos that results in an easy pass for the human) - it would still be harder than normal, and you might see a few emporer AW games that are just plain crazy but not impossible.

 

[Atlas]

I try to play vanilla games personally, and normally I do well in them. My problem is I end up getting bored about halfway through usually unless there is some kind of restriction/variant/craziness going on.

I know what you mean, for me my default strat is that of a builder with a space-diplo win, so what I will do to avoid repetition is try for a cultural victory, or shoot for a military victory (within the vanilla game). Or you could do as I suggest and play at a level you have not beaten yet. There are also a number of great maps! with lots of possiblities, try the wheel you & 2 Ai v. 3AI s, see if you can win when partnered with the AI (maybe this is a variant). But I too have played games til about 1 AD a grown bored, but I normally find that to be the case when I am just using my default play style as opposed to trying for other victory types. Anyway gotta run.

-Atlas

 

[S.ilver]

Hey Drasca. If you don't plan to start this Toku insane game until after RB10 is over, count me in (although the likelihood of RB10 lasting through the next two turnsets is low).

I would also have to agree with Liq on the always war thing. Always War is real painful in Civ IV, because there's no government form that completely nulls War Weariness. Police State (which comes painfully late, unless you get pyramids) only reduces by half, with another 25% reduced by Mount Rushmore, which you ABSOLUTELY need Facism. Jails aren't too easy to get to either. Basically, one's civ will basically stop working.

Besides, I much prefer opportunistic warmongering, rather than just attacking everyone in sight.

There's actually a setting to make maze like snaky islands? Didn't know you could do that. Is there a way to keep the width variable though? So we're not stuck with only 1 tile or 2 tile (1 tile would make land travel impossible, and 2 tile would make ocean travel impossible. Great.)

 

[Drasca]

I'm not starting for a good while yet. So, you're in.

No, there's no way to have variable maze plot widths.

For this variant, we're really limited to 1 or 2 plot widths. Liq, Silver, any preferences on either? I've played 1 plots before, and its quite possible to travel there. Much easier for us than the AI at least. Also, Tech trading on or off?

 

[Liquidated]

I love maze map period.. the 1 and 2 tile setups are sooooooo very dramatically different that I'd vote YES on both. how to choose though, I say leave that to the kipper!

Decide on the tile width first then add in the flavor like no tech.

A few random thoughts... unless the map is small, gonna need to turn off space and time for a one tile map. It's going to be insane trying to get from one place to another haha.

I do want to turn off tech trading though regardless.

Oh and gris, Liq really doesn;t hate much of anything in CIV4... ok ok well I LOATHE monty but that's it!~!!!!

My issue with always war is that it's a headline setting that adds a grave amount of gravity to any game that features it.

For the kipper2 sg, I'd like to explore "Toku for mazes". Always war would turn it into an ALWAYS WAR on a weird map with a grumpy guy without agressive trait. Rather not drag down an sg with that option quite so soon after rb-11.

Cheers!
-Liq

 

[S.ilver]

It depends what kind of game we're looking for. A 1 tile maze would be a maze for the AI, but not really for us, as we'd just use canals. 2 tile maze would make ocean travel horribly slow, to the point that it would probably be better to have ships permanently stationed on the two sides of the "continent".

I'm kind of weak at using navies, as I find it difficult to anticipate what the AI is going to do, especially since ships have superior movement to ground troops. 1 tile would allow us to control the AI movements easier.

 

[Majromax]

Why not try an Archipelago map, rather than maze?

 

[Drasca]

Two reasons:
1) We just played an archipelago map
2) Under this ruleset, we're only allowed to amphibious attacks from galleys (coastal tiles). We cannot attack from land.
3) We want to win with domination or conquest.

So if the AI settles inland, which arcipelago maps allow, we cannot conquer them. For the same reason, we don't have greater than 2 plot mazes.

Looks like it'll be a one plot maze, standard size, probably emperor.

 

[S.ilver]

Cool. Any estimated time on the start date? I need to haul myself up to monarch at least so I won't be a complete liability for you guys.

 

[Drasca]

The great part about SG's, you get hauled up to higher difficulty levels just by participating in the game discussion.

I'll start this in a few days, since Rb10 just ended. Unsure about a detail or two, but Toku will have his revenge

 

[friskymike]

A 1 tile maze would be a maze for the AI, but not really for us, as we'd just use canals.

Well I think the AI will definitely use canals for his Navy. On a one tile maze all AI cities will function as a canal, and when planning routes the goto subroutine definitely includes any canal cities (you can see this yourself in a game with a canal city how it works out the best path for a long goto).

Question is whether the AI will think of using ships as ferries between two points that are theoritically on the same landmass, even if the path between them is very long. I think the AI will try to walk units around the land until their path is blocked by cultural boundaries, when this happens in normal games they start sending units around on galleys. Will be an interesting one to watch

 

[Scowler]

@ Drasca: any chance I could join in this one? (assuming that Liq and silver are willing to risk yet another SG of passive smoking from my )

I'm always a sucker for an interesting variant, and the challenge looks certain to improve my game.

 

[Speaker]

I have decided to return to the SG realm, at least for one game, for now.

Who will join me, as Peter of Russia, in:

RB16 - The Renny Teamer
Map: Inland Sea
Size: Small
Speed: Quick
Sea Level: Low

Now for the fun part. We will team with our good AI pals Victoria and Napoleon against the "Axis of Evil:" Tokugawa, Montezuma, and Genghis Khan. We will show these psychos who is the boss! And we won't stop until each of them are dead.

Scenario: Team with 2 AI (Victoria and Napoleon) vs a team of 3 AI
Starting Age: Renaissance
Difficulty Level: I am thinking Monarch or Emperor for this one, but am open to suggestions

Short roster for this one. It will be a quick game, at most 100 turns I think. Standard 24/48 rules apply.

1. Speaker
2. Bede
3. Yosh-RB
4. Methos

 

[Bede]

SOunds like a kick Speaker. I'll come along for the ride. Monarch is good, Emperor a lot tougher, for me at least.

 

[Drasca]

Scowler, I'll put you down on the roster. I'm not going to start for a few days though, friday at the latest. Like RB10, I am not completely sure of the difficulty yet. RB10 ended up rolling a map that was almost completely in the player's favor. Our immediate threat was nerfed with bold raids, our medium range enemies were missing Copper and Iron critical to their war production, and our long term threat was isolated in backwater techs, and stayed there in spite of being financial.

Lucky for us, we reached enough critical mass to steamroll them before Lizzy could grab gunpowder or Redcoats.

This maze variant could play much differently. Mazes fubar the AI but... I'm not sure how much resistence they'll put up in Emperor.

 

[Sullla]

Speaker, you should easily be able to handle Emperor with a late-game start (Renaissance). The AI really doesn't handle the later starts very well at all, certainly not as well as you'll be able to do.

Not a signup, by the way.

 

[Speaker]

Speaker, you should easily be able to handle Emperor with a late-game start (Renaissance). The AI really doesn't handle the later starts very well at all, certainly not as well as you'll be able to do.

That's what I figured Sullla. Then again, I haven't played much SP lately, besides a few test games, so I don't know what the AI can handle!

Welcome aboard Bede. Roster edited accordingly. Any other brave souls? I'd like to start by Monday...

 

[Munterpipe]

Great idea. There are to few SG's with late game starts, I think. I might be brave, but not good enough for emperor so I think I'll lurk this one.