Well begun is half done: types of starts!

What kind of start do you prefer to have?

  • A suitable start, so that I may have more options available to me in the beginning.

    Votes: 20 54.1%
  • A challenging start, so that the game is more satisfying to win in the end.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • An unorthodox start, so I may learn more about the game from another perspective.

    Votes: 9 24.3%
  • A varied start, so that I may always be kept on my guard and have to think more about my decisions.

    Votes: 8 21.6%

  • Total voters
    37

Ximixanga

Enlightened Despot
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
69
I don't think it must be mentioned more than once that the kind of start that you have is something to be taken with careful consideration. If you get started on the wrong foot, you may end up getting sidetracked onto the losing end of the race. Likewise, having a start that is viable and productive is the first of many steps towards success.

Not getting into more specifics like build and tech orders or other game goals, what types of starts do you prefer to have? I've set up a poll with some options which would describe four kinds of typical starts that you may end up rolling upon starting a new game. I am sure some players have a preference for starts other than those where you're well to do for the beginning of the game, but I'd like to see how it scales.

  • Suitable start - A starting location that provides you a considerable benefit towards your next goals. It may have favorable terrain, advantageous resources, and finds itself in land that you find feasible for future expansion. These kinds of starts may be preferred by players that would like to have several options towards their opening turns.
  • Challenging start - A start that involves being in an unfavorable part of the map due to limited availability of resources, land, or neighbors that are known to cause you trouble without fail. These kinds of starts may be preferred by players that like to impose a challenge on themselves by giving themselves a tough beginning to work with.
  • Unorthodox start - A starting position that is mostly unfamiliar to you or that you are not accustomed to working with. It may be on a small island or at the edges of the world where it is unlikely you'll be running into other civs. It may lack anything favorable for some time unless you play creatively. Isolated, bias-disabled, or map-influenced starts fit this description. These types of starts could be preferred by players that would like to learn how to play the map according to what they have gotten or to try different strategies that do not rely heavily on a civ's unique strengths.
  • Varied start - Similar to an unorthodox start, where-in you are unsure if you are in a favorable or unfavorable position to begin, but where careful planning or specific actions will put you in a more viable position. Large expanses of practically useless land, annoying neighbors, ice-blocked oceans, unusual land-mass formations, and big clusters of city-states are typical of these starts. These kinds of starts would be preferred by players that want to think outside of the box and have some challenge or likewise break away from their typical patterns when approaching conditions within the game.

I'm sure there are probably more kinds of starts but I'd consider these four to be the most typical kinds of starts that someone would have. Assuming they don't re-roll the map first.

I personally prefer varied starts, since it forces you to think much more about every decision you make with mind paid to everything that is around you. And even if you do make those calls, it's not a sure shot you'll be in a position to win once you get into a more comfortable position. It keeps you on your toes. On the other end of the shoe, it sometimes forces you to play a certain way if you don't want to lose, and that is hardly ever fun for anyone. :confused:
 
It depends on what difficulty I'm playing on. Since I'm still trying to get my first immortal win, I have been re-rolling until I get what I think is a great starting position. This isn't just looking at the starting screen, I'll actually do the 10-15 turns of exploring around my capital to see what else I'll have to work with as I expand. A capital location can still be kinda crappy if there is an awesome spot for a 2nd city.

That said, I'm much more comfortable playing any start given to me when I'm playing on King/Emp. Except coastal jungles with no fish and 1 banana. God, what a disaster!
 
so I may learn more about the game from another perspective.

Why "learn" ? :confused:

I was told that video games were for fun.

Beside that, I don't see what usefull kind of things you can learn toying with game mechanics. Oh, you can learn usefull things like city/nation names and actually a ton of other stuff (civilopedia), but never things tied to mechanics.

Definitely, the most important thing is to have fun. And I will say you what kind of fun you can stir from different starting positions : recreating different kind of history or stories.

By the way from a gameplay perspective what is the fun to start on an island in a game designed to play on pangaea ?
 
I actually think that the game isn't designed to play on Pangaea. You get weird things that way - like players thinking that England is terrible.

I actually play out what look like deserted island starts on mostly desert, going straight for Astronomy to break out. On a low enough level (prince, king), it actually works out pretty well. Still win. The fun there is that it's a profoundly different experience.
 
By the way from a gameplay perspective what is the fun to start on an island in a game designed to play on pangaea ?

I never knew that the game was meant to be played on Pangaea scripts. Regardless, there's plenty you can do from a start that isn't traditional or otherwise something that the game hasn't accounted for in some way in regards to your circumstance. Hence, why it's an unorthodox start and why it can be something for you, the player, to learn from. Learning can be fun.

The learning experience here is "how can I make this work?" Is it a fun experience? That's really up to what you make of it and of that start. Indonesia's UA is near useless in a Pangaea script, but you might find yourself in such a case if you choose to pick a random leader and that script. You will probably have to get plenty creative with how you're going to approach the rest of the game in the few circumstances that you can't make the greatest use of your unique abilities.

That doesn't mean it won't be fun though. That could depend itself on other factors and personal taste. What one player values in a start could be different from what another one does or on the conditions they place themselves into. Maybe not everyone will want a weird or confusing start, but it does happen sometimes. Whether or not you keep playing on is up to that player.

I get a pretty good idea of things by 40-100 turns (standard speed) as to where the game is headed. Even if I started and continued on between the rear end of nowhere and somewhere unpleasant, with the Huns breathing down my neck as Poc' nabs up all the nearby land with his Great Expanse, and some civ halfway around the world runs away with the game and I don't meet them until the Renaissance. How to make that work and what you can learn from it is where the fun comes in. Usually.
 
I never knew that the game was meant to be played on Pangaea scripts. Regardless, there's plenty you can do from a start that isn't traditional or otherwise something that the game hasn't accounted for in some way in regards to your circumstance. Hence, why it's an unorthodox start and why it can be something for you, the player, to learn from. Learning can be fun.

The learning experience here is "how can I make this work?" Is it a fun experience? That's really up to what you make of it and of that start. Indonesia's UA is near useless in a Pangaea script, but you might find yourself in such a case if you choose to pick a random leader and that script. You will probably have to get plenty creative with how you're going to approach the rest of the game in the few circumstances that you can't make the greatest use of your unique abilities.

That doesn't mean it won't be fun though. That could depend itself on other factors and personal taste. What one player values in a start could be different from what another one does or on the conditions they place themselves into. Maybe not everyone will want a weird or confusing start, but it does happen sometimes. Whether or not you keep playing on is up to that player.

I get a pretty good idea of things by 40-100 turns (standard speed) as to where the game is headed. Even if I started and continued on between the rear end of nowhere and somewhere unpleasant, with the Huns breathing down my neck as Poc' nabs up all the nearby land with his Great Expanse, and some civ halfway around the world runs away with the game and I don't meet them until the Renaissance. How to make that work and what you can learn from it is where the fun comes in. Usually.

I don't know if "fun" is really the best side of learning. I would say "ok" or even "cool", but for the repercutions it can have in the real life. Learning Civ mechanics just doesn't bring you anything, it doesn't enrich yourself or make you better, more, it's not interesting by itself.

You can still see it as a challenge, but the difficulty levels are here to do so, and I must say that the principle under having a challenge and beating some record has immature biginnings. When sport can be a way of life, and effort, I don't think the end of a video game to be such valuing.
 
I like varied, unpredictable starts. That`s why I have almost every option on Random. I had a landlocked map, one Huge game, not knowing how many CIvs there were. I got wiped out cos I was sandwich by two mean Civs. Next game had a fractured Islands map. The islands one is going very well for me, by the way, since I`ve had plenty of time to build up without anyone attacking me.

The varied, randomness adds fun for me- What am I going to get?

Also, I never quit at the start, no matter how bad, I just suck on it and see if I can pull it through.

p.s. By the way, if you`re having fun and learning then you`re in a Win\Win situation. never disregard learning while you can get it, especially if it`s while having fun.
 
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