This game is too addictive. I need to make it shorter

[tjs282]

The Sengoku conquest/scenario, based on mass regicide, plays pretty well by the AI (as far as this can be said for a civ game).

Pssst... In the Sengoku Conquest, each clan has only a single Shogun unit. The AI plays it OK, though it would be better if only it knew what it was supposed to do with its Ninjas (kill the Shogun? No, I'll just kidnap his Workers)...

It's the Medieval Europe Conquest where each nation has 3 King-units

 

[Civinator]

Pssst... In the Sengoku Conquest, each clan has only a single Shogun unit. The AI plays it OK, though it would be better if only it knew what it was supposed to do with its Ninjas (kill the Shogun? No, I'll just kidnap his Workers)...

It's the Medieval Europe Conquest where each nation has 3 King-units

Yes, but both conquests play well with their different shortgame options.

 

[Fergei]

In that case, I think I will try the regicide options on condition I cannot move my kings either. I like the idea of a civ disappearing overnight and others then colonising the territory.

 

[MarcusR123]

Thank you all guys. Well equipped now to try and tame this addictive beast.

 

[kaskavel]

You can also create your own variation as well.
"Only my 3 first cities can build buildings and wonders. The rest can only build aqueducts/hospitals/barracks and units"
"I can only build the warrior chain. Warriors/swordsmen/med infandries/guerilla/TOW"
Whatever may make the game go faster. Perhaps drop down your level by 1 and enjoy!

 

[Fergei]

1) Make governors manage your cities, emphasising production.
2) increase number of Civs per map size by around 35-40%
3) enable accelerated production
4) reduce domination victory condition settings to around 30% of both land and population

I have not tested this but you should rattle through a 9 or 10 Civ small map in a few hours whilst experiencing 90% of what the game has to offer.

I played these settings a bit today and I'd estimate it'd be nearer to 7 or 8hrs unfortunately for someone who plays at a more normal pace (I play like speed chess, likely making many sub-optimum decisions)). Regicide might reduce it a bit, but for 2-4hrs I think you might be looking at a tiny map, which might be a bit rubbish.

Perhaps small map with two sessions, the first session ending at the start of the industrial era?

It was a lot more enjoyable than I expected, so sadly I see more Civ3 in my future!

Oh, and another suggestion to speed things up, only ever manage happiness via the luxury slider (and have governors manage happiness).

 

[Lanzelot]

What I mean is that with one city, you make no war and try to reach a cultural 20K victory. In 5CC you may go full wartime for conquest victory or fight for a space race victory.

Not necessarily. There are successful OCC games for all victory conditions, except for 100K and Domination (which obviously cannot be achieved with 1 city and standard rules).
For example, in a succession game, we once reached the Conquest victory on Deity level and a tiny map:

OCCC1- One city Conquest

 

[Gori the Grey]

In my experience, the best strategy for containing Civ addiction, is the one you employed for the previous 20 years.

 

[kaskavel]

Not necessarily. There are successful OCC games for all victory conditions, except for 100K and Domination (which obviously cannot be achieved with 1 city and standard rules).
For example, in a succession game, we once reached the Conquest victory on Deity level and a tiny map:

OCCC1- One city Conquest

Yes, yes, indeed. I have seen many of those achievements searching the forums. Well done. Deity OCC conquest is impressive.
I had tried something similar 20 years ago (chieftain, pangae, huge it was I think). I had somehow restricted myself to a few cities (not OCC or 5CC specificaly, I was not aware of those concepts until recently that I restarted the game and found these forums). All I remember is that I was angry with the AI sneaking through the railroad network and refounding the cities I was destroying, lol.
In fact I saw one space race victory (monarch, large) two days before writting this post.
But those epic tales are not bread and butter for the casual player, here we are just offering some reasonable advice to the OP who asks for a casual game that does not last long.

 

[Fergei]

First tiny map game, 6 Civs, 30% domination rules, 4 landmasses. Massively exceeded expectations and do-able in under 4hrs. This may be my new default setting as in such a short game I am happier to tolerate a disaster (like losing a luxury city to Carthage with zero chance of taking it back).

 

[Theov]

First tiny map game, 6 Civs, 30% domination rules, 4 landmasses. Massively exceeded expectations and do-able in under 4hrs. This may be my new default setting as in such a short game I am happier to tolerate a disaster (like losing a luxury city to Carthage with zero chance of taking it back).

Interesting. I have though about this recently.
What did you change?

 

[Fergei]

Interesting. I have though about this recently.
What did you change?

See post 26 above.
Plus remove AI starting units but increase difficulty level by 1.
Plus regicide.
Plus respawn AI.

Although I am playing with other custom settings, I think the above should also provide a good game on standard settings. 6 or 7 Civs on bad land on small 70% water and standard 80% water should also work for those wanting a bit more exploration or to buff seafaring civs. You would need to make the tech rate setting in World Sizes match the Tiny tech rate though (160?).

I personally will have to use mass regicide. My barbs are so insanely strong they can occassionally overpower a capital city and kill a Civ!

 

[kaskavel]

Plus remove AI starting units but increase difficulty level by 1.

I find this one very interesting. My major problem is the inbalance of the various stages of the game. AI begins very strong and if one survives to the ind era, then he is going to win.
What do you play? Sid without starting units if I remember correctly? How does the expansion phase go in this case? Who grabs more land?

 

[Fergei]

I find this one very interesting. My major problem is the inbalance of the various stages of the game. AI begins very strong and if one survives to the ind era, then he is going to win.
What do you play? Sid without starting units if I remember correctly? How does the expansion phase go in this case? Who grabs more land?

I play on Emperor with Deity cost factor and no AI starting units. It works out roughly the same difficulty as default emperor. I can't comment on the expansion phase as I have auto popped settlers every 20 or so turns (via the palace) until mapmaking. But with normal settlers it should be a reasonably even expansion between AI and human. The cost factor increasing difficulty can be a rude awakening. I always feel in control of the game but lose 90% of the time.

 

[kaskavel]

I have not explored this one, how does it work? Each tribe only gets one settler per 20 turns?

 

[tjs282]

I have not explored this one, how does it work? Each tribe only gets one settler per 20 turns?

Yes. This requires modding the game to make Settlers unbuildable during the Ancient Age, but instead autoproduced, e.g. by the Palace (or by a Palace-dependent improvement).

If you want, you can disable Settler-building forever -- or you can enable them with a much later tech (e.g. Magnetism, to represent the Colonial Era).

 

[Fergei]

Yeah, I have no settlers after invention until navigation. I would not worry about that overly unless it really appeals to you kaskavel. My main motivation for auto settlers was to make the early game AI less obsessed with making settlers (and buildings for the resulting cities) and more concerned with making military units and starting very early wars.

The expansion phase is relevant for this thread as if you play a short game on a tiny, overcrowded map (to make the gsme quicker) with default AI bonus starting units the human could end up with only 2 or 3 cities by the time all land has been taken.

 

[Fergei]

I was curious to see how vanilla C3C with only the following modifications turned out (using the default 'Quick Civ' biq file.

- turns increased back to 540
- no AI starting units
- AI Cost Factor is the from the next highest difficulty
- modifications to world tech rate for small & standard and modifications
- 30% of land and population for domination victory
- settings optimised for tiny 60% water, small and standard on 80% water

I picked 6 Civ, small, 80% water, continents with random land.

I was Celts and did rubbish (crap starting land with only fresh water on the other side of a vast swamp, locked in by New York immediately and America gets Great Wall and Statue of Zeus, so early war didn't look a great option - then turns out I am furthest away from any islands, so just played to experiment).

This is a one off game, so I would not draw firm conclusions but what I found in this one game was:

i) Fairly even expansion phase (expected)
ii) No snowballing by the AI despite no intervention from me - so the AI didn't get near the 30% domination win condition (not expected, but far away continent had 3x less aggressive Civs)
iii) Less AI aggression against each other (perhaps due to the even expansion phase, so no major differencies in military sizes)
iv) AI could have got a OCC culture victory if I had kept playing - having got to 15k in Istanbul (not expected - so perhaps this AI OCC push is tied somehow to removing the starting AI units? Zero culture tweaks by me with these settings)
v) got to 1970 AD in 1hr 40 mins. So this really does produce quick games (although the 'Quick Civ' biq lets you tech in 1 turn and speeds up worker moves).

Conclusions
1) I much prefer this type of expansion phase to the vanilla settings.
2) the 'Quick Civ' settings do permit a genuine under 4hr gaming experience (it is a shame people don't seem to do this as a full game multiplayer).

Note: I forgot to make domination 30% in the game I played, but that is corrected in the attached biq.

 

[justanick]

iv) AI could have got a OCC culture victory if I had kept playing - having got to 15k in Istanbul (not expected - so perhaps this AI OCC push is tied somehow to removing the starting AI units? Zero culture tweaks by me with these settings)

This is not OCC, only 20 k. The low cost factor may increase the chance of 20 k culture.

 

[Fergei]

Sorry, I keep saying OCC thinking One City Culture. I should add, Ottomans didn't even have Great Library. Cost factor may be facor. Smaller empires also maybe a factor?