The scoring makes no sense

[hanoi]

One of my few complaints with Civ2, as a player who likes to shoot for his high score every time out, was that you couldn't come close to it with a spaceship win as opposed to a conquest win, esp. on a large map. I always thought the spaceship bonus should have been a lot higher.

Well, in Civ3 it's even less balanced. There is no bonus at all for the different types of victories. Which means your score is all about citizens and territory, and there's only an indirect connection between the score and whether you win or lose.

You could, for instance, lose a diplomatic vote in the late game, and if your civ is big enough still get your high score. Maybe Firaxis was thinking, give an underdog civ a chance to win... but I still think this makes no sense. "Xerxes the Wise" couldn't have been THAT wise if he actually lost the game, y'know?

Seems to me there should be more factors in the score -- e.g. culture points, # of wonders controlled -- AND a sizeable bonus for "winning." (They do include future tech, but in my last game I got up to FT 12, and it contributed a whopping 5 points to my grand total of 3200.)

P.S. I'd change these specs myself, but couldn't see how when I browsed through the editor.

 

[Eliezar]

There are definitely bonuses for winning. It is possible that the smaller the map is the bigger the bonus is for a spaceship victory and the bigger the map is the bigger the bonus is for a military victory.

On deity tiny map I got 4000 points for a domination victory.
On emporer normal map I got 5000 points for a domination victory. (possible I actually got 4000 points for this, but I thought it was 5k, ended up with 7400 points)
On monarchy huge map I got 200 points for a space race victory.

Clearly those are not enough variables to have a solid understanding of the scoring system.

I wonder what the difference in score is between domination and conquest victories though. The only thing I like about domination victories is that they cut a nice chunk of mop up work out of the game.

Eliezar

 

[ACM]

The winning date is also taken into account. The earlier you win the greater your score gets.