What do you do when you realize you're not playing optimally?

[Takagi Hiro]

That might not have made much sense, so let me be more clear. We all make mistakes. And at least for me, it also extends to CiV. I'll get so far in a game, and then realize my city's been working a tile that's outclassed by another. It may even be a meager difference... but then I realize I've been working this tile for turns upon turns. As a bit of a perfectionist, this drives me mad. I find myself reloading quite a bit and sometimes even throwing away games because I feel like I "could have done better," but don't want to backtrack some 20 turns or so to fix the issue.

So, how about you guys? Do you just shrug it off and change then and there? Reload? Quit the game, even? I'm just curious to see if there's anyone similar to me here.

 

[Gamewizard]

I use to reload if it was only a couple of turns I had to go back, but now I just shrug it off. I wouldn't want the AI to label me a cheater.

 

[Atlas627]

If I make some mistake like that that makes me go "I can't believe I did that" and its literally on that turn, I might reload. Otherwise I just play on. Fixing your mistakes is the challenging part of the game!

 

[callmewoof]

Depends on what and how long. If it's been a bunch of turns, I usually just live with it. Then again, if it turns out that I've just researched 15 turns of the completely wrong thing, I'll usually go back to an earlier starting point. To me, sinking a ton of time into the wrong research (misclick, forgetfullness, accidental, etc) is as bad as a game where you pass a bunch of times with zero research selected. No thanks!

 

[Splink]

I've developed a nasty habit of forgetting to add production towards World Congress projects (eg. Treasure Fleet, Crystal Palace, etc.) - sometimes even after I propose the resolution to enable them!

I sometimes reload depending on how far I am behind the AI and what the project it is. Gotta stop getting side tracked with so many of the other great CPP features!

 

[PandorasActor]

I've developed a nasty habit of forgetting to add production towards World Congress projects (eg. Treasure Fleet, Crystal Palace, etc.) - sometimes even after I propose the resolution to enable them!

I do this too. I facepalm so hard, but keep on playing. Can't reload because it takes way too long and my game is kind of unstable lol.

 

[Aristos]

meh... Ironman. It's part of the fun, recovering from blunders.

 

[Wodhann]

I'll never reload. I might restart an entire game but reloading just feels cheaty.

 

[Takagi Hiro]

Interesting. I've never considered reloading as "cheaty." I've learned something, I guess!

 

[Strigvir]

Reloading the way you do in the OP is definitely a cheating.

 

[Atlas627]

Yeah I only reload for a single misclick. That misclick may be "end turn" which is irritating.

 

[Strec]

Masochism is great in something that is a game

 

[Takagi Hiro]

Can you explain how it's cheating? If it's something you intended to do in the first place, and not simply because something went wrong in the game like a unit dying, how is this an issue?

 

[Andrewspriggs]

psssh I play suboptimally all the time. That's why I play on the easiest or second-to-easiest difficulty.

/teardrop

 

[Der_Zorn_gottes]

The thing about it is, even if it is cheating, it is not a bad thing to cheat in single player mode.
No need to care about you computers feelings.

 

[callmewoof]

I don't really think it should count as cheating. Besides being single player, the game lets you make multiple save files (other games don't). Honestly, if you played, say, Final Fantasy VII, should you delete your file if you die on disc 3? Or do you just load the save and try again?

 

[Funak]

I don't really think it should count as cheating. Besides being single player, the game lets you make multiple save files (other games don't). Honestly, if you played, say, Final Fantasy VII, should you delete your file if you die on disc 3? Or do you just load the save and try again?

Completely dependent on the rules you set for your play-through. If I go into FF7 with the idea that if I die the game is over, then I'll quit the game if I die.
Same thing with civ, if I go into the game with the idea that the only time I'm going to reload is if the game crashes(or if I need to save and go do something else, naturally), then that's how I'm going to play.
Similar it is totally your choice if you want to do lame reloads whenever something doesn't go your way, but you can't stop people from looking down on you for doing it. Civ is easy enough that you should be able to prepare for everything and recover from most situations anyways.

On the topic I have one situation where I reload the game, and that's if I lose the last possible religion by moving my great prophet back to my capital. If I do, I'm going to reload the game and use the great prophet in that crappy city it spawned in.

 

[Strigvir]

Can you explain how it's cheating? If it's something you intended to do in the first place, and not simply because something went wrong in the game like a unit dying, how is this an issue?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheating

Cheating is the getting of a reward for ability by dishonest means or finding an easy way out of an unpleasant situation. It is generally used for the breaking of rules to gain unfair advantage in a competitive situation.

The thing about it is, even if it is cheating, it is not a bad thing to cheat in single player mode.
No need to care about you computers feelings.

The question wasn't about how bad is cheating, but is the savescumming considered a cheating at all. Which it is.
As for feelings, you were the first going dismissive over it, so that's quite ironic.

I don't really think it should count as cheating. Besides being single player, the game lets you make multiple save files (other games don't). Honestly, if you played, say, Final Fantasy VII, should you delete your file if you die on disc 3? Or do you just load the save and try again?

Savescumming in civ5 is totally awwwright, because you can savescum in an unrelated game too. Flawless logic.
You could've brought up civ4 at least, which is the savescum galore.

 

[Cerest]

When I think of save scumming, I think of reloading a game until you get a specific reward from a goodie hut. That's save scumming. So is reloading a prior save so spies don't sabotage your wonder production. Anything that involves you benefiting from RNG is a bit of an exploit.

Reloading a game because i forgot to move units in a turn or swap production in a city is not of the same magnitude as the above.

 

[Strec]

When I think of save scumming, I think of reloading a game until you get a specific reward from a goodie hut. That's save scumming.

No, it's misunderstanding of existing mods

Some here are funny. Who give the right to judge is someone is a cheater? What will be the punishment?

Is there an ethical comity to determine if a mod is a cheat or not?

If you quit and restart a game when loosing, you are a cheater! Enormeous!!!