What do you do with a totally isolated start?

[zxcvbob]

Your continent just has you, a few decent city locations, and lots of tundra. There's one natural wonder but it's in the tundra. No AI's or city-states to trade with, just barbarians. (and you're not Peter, who can do pretty well in the tundra)

I've started like this several times. Reroll?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Focus on internal trade routes, using the early policy that gives +2 gold to trade routes, and prioritize naval technologies so you can get out and explore as soon as possible. In the meanwhile settle all those city sites.

 

[Victoria]

That sounds like a nice map. I'll happily play it... One must contemplate ones naval.

Of course starting as Gorgo on an isolated island is just torture initially but you can make up for it later with plenty of hate
Its the grassland/desert starts that do my head in.

 

[Kyro]

You adapt to bad luck by overpowering it through a reroll~ My personal opinion of course.

 

[stormerne]

I'm with @Victoria - I'd happily play it. If everyone else is squashed together elsewhere, that could be a lot of fun down the line.

It may be too late now, but why not post a game save? We could all have a go at it - a kind of mini-GOTM, though I guess I'm biased as I have a loooong history of that sort of thing! :lol

 

[zxcvbob]

I'll have to check if there's a turn 0 autosave like in Civ5. I'm still playing the game. Gandhi is pretty far ahead in science, I'm way ahead in military and just about everything else.

I'm about to get Spain to join me in declaring war on India. (Gandhi captured Madrid before I ever met Philip) I'd love to capture his spaceport. Spain is too weak to be much help, but they should at least serve as a distraction.

BTW, I got to try out an embarked siege tower with a frigate armada and several privateers. They ripped a well-fortified coastal city to shreds (then I captured it with a caravel.)

 

[c4c6]

@zxcvbob, I would appreciate it a lot, if you could show a screenshot of that starting location, too (if available).

You adapt to bad luck by overpowering it through a reroll~ My personal opinion of course.

Methinks in general, if I take away the "bad luck" by not accepting it, I finally deprive me of the "good luck" also. If there are no lows, ultimately there are also no highs - simple, but my personal opinion, of course.

How to regenerate a given game @ the beginning of turn 0

It is actually very easy to extract the game/map seeds.
1) go to the folder where your game is saved. Documents\My Games\Sid Meier'sCivilization IV\Saves\single
2) copy the saved game you need and paste it into the Saves_Multi folder.
3) create a multi player game using the saved file, and it will show all the information.

PS: in order for the game/map seed to work, you need to adjust all the settings according to the original setup. map size, world age, number of players/citystates, resources etc....however, you can change the diffculty level freely without interrupting the map.

Playing a "horrible" map could be perhaps sweetened by playing on a one step lower difficulty level ... because the AI Players also have a worse start.

 

[Kyro]

@zxcvbob, I would appreciate it a lot, if you could show a screenshot of that starting location, too (if available).
Methinks in general, if I take away the "bad luck" by not accepting it, I finally deprive me of the "good luck" also. If there are no lows, ultimately there are also no highs - simple, but my personal opinion, of course.

That said it is important to note that the liberty to play the game and explore options is directly proportionate to luck in the game. You don't need exceptional luck to play the game, but bad luck is crippling and severely limits your choices. Having a bad start usually means forgoing many things players normally enjoy in the game.

Thus to help OP decide, a couple of things to really consider is what type of player you are and what you hope to get out of the game.

1) Do you enjoy the challenge of adapting to circumstances beyond your control?

2) Or are you the complete opposite and seek to control the game with your skill so as to have the freedom in the game to do what you like?

Type 1 players are risk takers/adventurers and generally don't have a specific way they like to play, that's not how they derive fun. Type 2 players derive fun from playing the way they like and prefer certainty and control.

If you're a type 1 interested in uncertainty and adrenaline rushes go ahead with your current roll and it will add some struggle to your game.

If you're type 2 please re-roll because you won't be having much fun dealing with things beyond your control and having a restriction of choices.


However I would argue against Bad Luck as a legit challenge because you do not cripple a player as a type of challenge for the same reason you don't cripple athletes so they can prove their ability.

I do say also, that type 2 players can usually handle type 1 challenges equally well because you do need to know the game well in order to bend it to your will.

 

[zxcvbob]

How to regenerate a given game @ the beginning of turn 0Playing a "horrible" map could be perhaps sweetened by playing on a one step lower difficulty level ... because the AI Players also have a worse start.

I'll see if I can follow that to get the seed numbers. Too bad they are not recorded in a .log or debug file somewhere.

Strategic resources were challenging too. Playing at King level.

(game is not over yet) It was interesting that Carl Sagan never showed up. I was all set to buy him w/ gold as soon as he was available (mainly to keep Gandhi from getting him) and the great people screen said no more scientists were available. And I looked at the history and he wasn't there.

 

[Victoria]

The seed number is in firetuner... I thought it was in a log somewhere... I'll do a scan later when I get a chance

 

[zxcvbob]

I used the "Civ 6 Seed Pitter", and it said the game seed was -1605568058 and the map seed 14. I tried that and it didn't work. So then I tried -1605568058 and -1605568057 with all defaults for the advanced settings (small map, standard speed, continents, etc) and I'm pretty sure it's the same. And it the difficulty doesn't seem to make a difference. Enjoy