What Video Games Have You Been Playing #16: Retirement Party For The Active Mind

[H4run]

What difficulty level?

pssst
*In his profile he wrote Monarch

 

[Lexicus]

last game of Civ 3 I played was on Monarch, it turned out to be too easy. Made it to early industrial age after mostly conquering the Persians and Aztecs and the military advisor says only the Americans have a military the same size as ours - everyone else is "compared to these guys, we have a strong military!" meaning there's little if any challenge left.

The problem is I think Emperor is likely to be a bit too tough for me in the early game...

 

[Zardnaar]

pssst
*In his profile he wrote Monarch

Ah on monarch you should be able to win time depending. Just burn the cities down. Be brutal.

 

[Takhisis]

Eh… my start was incredibly awful hemmed in up there in Snowland and I spent the game playing catchup. The Japanese invaded me twice; I had sent some Archers to scout around and one of them unexpectedly captured a city when I sent him homewards to attack them in the rearguard, and I got to take Tokyo in the second war when I had gathered a huge deathstack of archers to try and steal the Dutch iron mines, but the Japanese invasions cost me a lot of time which might have seen me expanding later.

At some point I realised that it was everyone against the Byzantines or else but it was too late to try anything because the Japanese were still there with my domains split into two. For some reason the Japanese then attacked the Byzantines on their own and got squashed - at least I got half a dozen cities off it, but it removed one potential ally for the world coalition.

It's a weakness of pangaea maps, mostly, that once there's railroads and one AI gets an advantage over its neighbours it just starts rolling over and over. My game with the Babylonians would have ended up the same way but having a few off-pangaea continents with their own civs and the pangaea itself split into halves because of a one-tile isthmus meant that such a steamrolling was impossible.

You win some, you lose some.

btw apologies to @Arakhor and @Lemon Merchant for posting about civ in Civfanatics

 

[H4run]

last game of Civ 3 I played was on Monarch, it turned out to be too easy. Made it to early industrial age after mostly conquering the Persians and Aztecs and the military advisor says only the Americans have a military the same size as ours - everyone else is "compared to these guys, we have a strong military!" meaning there's little if any challenge left.

The problem is I think Emperor is likely to be a bit too tough for me in the early game...

civ 1, 2 and 4 I pretty much cannot play higher than Monarch, never beat Monarch, but I beat Prince level difficulty most of my game (edit: I think in civ 4 I never lose in Prince difficulty already for more than 10 years). A different level in civilization is like the different between a desert and a pole, it's just too extreme. Pretty much using the same tactic since civ 1, making a 3 city nation with a super-city, excel technologically, then when the bully will pay-back later when the army of few geek destroying hordes of barbarian. In civ 2 I was still little and don't really have a good grasp about civilization game, when my country became huge due to liberating cities, that expansion just caused stagnation, slowed the research, clogged my production. My favorite wonder was Lenoardo Da Vinci, I remember it's like a midas touch, every horseman, infantries and catapult that I have in a second gunpowderized. It is really a neat wonder.

In civ 4 I start to get more complicated and have a decent planning, one cities mostly acts like a diva, a super city, all the wonder are there, while the other two are mostly focus on military unit production or for resources. My difficulty was that dealing with my neighbor, it's complicated, the technology barter also so broken, they share everything to each other, while to me it's hard to get something from them, when they ask something if you don't give it you get penalty, if you give it you lost your bargaining, when it's time up, game is over and I lose. And because I play civilization since the first series I just cannot imagine looking other mean of victory beside the final score or domination, the other victory condition seems to me not a argument to win a nation-state competition.

 

[Zardnaar]

civ 1, 2 and 4 I pretty much cannot play higher than Monarch, never beat Monarch, but I beat Prince level difficulty most of my game (edit: I think in civ 4 I never lose in Prince difficulty already for more than 10 years). A different level in civilization is like the different between a desert and a pole, it's just too extreme. Pretty much using the same tactic since civ 1, making a 3 city nation with a super-city, excel technologically, then when the bully will pay-back later when the army of few geek destroying hordes of barbarian. In civ 2 I was still little and don't really have a good grasp about civilization game, when my country became huge due to liberating cities, that expansion just caused stagnation, slowed the research, clogged my production. My favorite wonder was Lenoardo Da Vinci, I remember it's like a midas touch, every horseman, infantries and catapult that I have in a second gunpowderized. It is really a neat wonder.

In civ 4 I start to get more complicated and have a decent planning, one cities mostly acts like a diva, a super city, all the wonder are there, while the other two are mostly focus on military unit production or for resources. My difficulty was that dealing with my neighbor, it's complicated, the technology barter also so broken, they share everything to each other, while to me it's hard to get something from them, when they ask something if you don't give it you get penalty, if you give it you lost your bargaining, when it's time up, game is over and I lose. And because I play civilization since the first series I just cannot imagine looking other mean of victory beside the final score or domination, the other victory condition seems to me not a argument to win a nation-state competition.

Managed to beat Civ 3 once on Sid , and 5cc on deity.

I play emperor now because I suck or monarch with a crap civ.

Large rap random everything is probably emperor.

Can't remember how high I played on the older civs. Wasn't deity the one under it or below that.

Didn't care about civ 4. Beat revolutions a few times one city challenge on the highest setting and got all achievements.

 

[H4run]

Managed to beat Civ 3 on emperor once, and 5cc on deity.

I play emperor now because I suck or monarch with a crap civ.

Large rap random everything is probably emperor.

Can't remember how high I played on the older civs. Wasn't deity the one under it or below that.

A player that play in high level difficulty really playing certain tactic and strategy that can profit from the game mechanic, mostly like you they play aggressive with early rush and exploiting slavery, it's more like pure calculation and get only little room for role-playing.

 

[Lexicus]

I've won some Civ 3 games on Emperor. I play Civ 4 on Emperor regularly though and can usually win, although I play with some strange settings (aggressive AI and epic game speed). I've taken to disabling tech brokering (not tech trading) so that the trading beaker advantage is a bit more low-key.

It's a weakness of pangaea maps, mostly, that once there's railroads and one AI gets an advantage over its neighbours it just starts rolling over and over. My game with the Babylonians would have ended up the same way but having a few off-pangaea continents with their own civs and the pangaea itself split into halves because of a one-tile isthmus meant that such a steamrolling was impossible.

Idk, as soon as the human player can produce a decent amount of artillery the AI is pretty much doomed, there is nothing they can do against that in my experience. The trick is getting to the point of being able to mass-produce artillery without dying. I've beaten Civ 3 on Emperor more than a few times but I haven't played it much in a few years. I'll need a little time to get back into the groove before I go to Emperor again. And hell I'll probably play Civ 4 next.

 

[Zardnaar]

I meant Sid not emperor.

Emperor is about as high as you can go without using exploits, fudging the map, or map dependent. Maybe one after but deity you have to be aggressive or map dependent. Did you more or less have to do island naps and micro your ass off. It's not fun.

 

[H4run]

I meant Sid not emperor.

Sid? I don't get what you mean here.

Emperor is about as high as you can go without using exploits, fudging the map, or map dependent. Maybe one after but deity you have to be aggressive or map dependent. Did you more or less have to do island naps and micro your ass off. It's not fun.

I don't know about Emperor, however I see the deity player are mostly keep generating map until it suits their liking. Yes it's feel more gamey and less immersive I agree with you. However it's surely takes a lot to be up there.

 

[Zardnaar]

Sid? I don't get what you mean here.



I don't know about Emperor, however I see the deity player are mostly keep generating map until it suits their liking. Yes it's feel more gamey and less immersive I agree with you. However it's surely takes a lot to be up there.

Deity can be beaten with certain civs triggering an early GA espicially with a good UU, others can culture victory.

 

[Zardnaar]

Sid? I don't get what you mean here.



I don't know about Emperor, however I see the deity player are mostly keep generating map until it suits their liking. Yes it's feel more gamey and less immersive I agree with you. However it's surely takes a lot to be up there.

Sid's the difficulty level above Deity.

I had to fudge the map to get islands and a good start to beat it.

 

[H4run]

Sid's the difficulty level above Deity.

Yeah this is must be a civ 3 thingy, I never remember that on civ 4

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah this is must be a civ 3 thingy, I never remember that on civ 4

Might be right.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Sid level is a Civ 3 thing.

 

[Zardnaar]

I need a new/old game to play.

Things I own never played.

Civ V
Last Guardian
Stardew Valley

Barely played.

Imperator
Civ IV

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I need a new/old game to play.

Things I own never played.

Civ V
Last Guardian
Stardew Valley

Barely played.

Imperator
Civ IV

I recommend Civ IV. It is an annoying transition because it is enough like Civ 3 that it seems like you should be able to just play it, but enough of the UI is different that you do have to adapt. I had every intention of going back and playing a few Civ 3 scenarios that I never played, but I never have. I always played random maps and never really discovered the joy of scenarios until I already had Civ IV on the shelf.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Next in 'games I haven't played in a while': Far Cry Primal.

I've upgraded my PC's graphics capabilities since I last played the game, and it looks pretty good. I think I actually like Far Cry more without vehicles, it makes the game-world bigger and puts more emphasis on exploration. They've dropped the danged tower-climbing, and I get a kick out of the evolving village that grows as you rescue people. I like the stealth-centered combat. I started on 'Normal' difficulty, but I'm finding it a little too easy - I can clear a whole encampment at night with just my jaguar. The only time I get into trouble is when I get surprised by one of the big predators. I may step it up and see what happens.

In previous Far Cry games, the crafting system was immersion-breaking and weird. "I have to kill 2 tapirs to get a bigger knapsack? The [fork]?" Primal's setting makes that system seem somewhat rational, at least enough to stop triggering my incredulity alarm. There were moments in previous games where I actually put off upgrading my gear because I just didn't want to think about how dumb it was. Looking for crafting materials in this game feels like something you'd actually do and isn't just a distraction.

The voice-acting is impressive. I read that the script is actually in Proto-Indo-European, and the writers hired a team of linguists from U. of Kentucky and UCLA to help. The writers wrote the script so that the Wenja, the Udam and the Izila all speak a little differently, and the actors do a good job of making it sound natural.

Player One, 20 Feb 2016: "Far Cry Primal interview: How Ubisoft brought ancient languages back to life"

 

[PPQ_Purple]

I need a new/old game to play.

Things I own never played.

Civ V
Last Guardian
Stardew Valley

Barely played.

Imperator
Civ IV

My advice is to pick up CIV4 BTS and dive strait into the Fall From Heaven series. Preferably one of the modmods like RIFE. It's fantastic fun (as it's a civ game) but in a fantasy setting with cool lore and everything to break you out of the regular CIV formula.

 

[dusters]

I have been trying to beat Conquests Japan on Emperor, and now it seems the best idea is to literally take a sheet of paper and draw where the key resources are - iron, horses, jade.

I remember playing Civ 3 on Demigod with many restarts and or abusing saved games, but this time I want to do a hardcore run on Emperor.