IncendiaryDevice
Self-Ejected
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2014
- Messages
- 7,407
I've played a lot of building games over the years, not all of them and not specializing in them, just a lot over many years, and one of my favourites is still Civilisation 3.
Civilisation 3 can also be played as a war game as per 4x empire building tradition, but I never really use the game for that purpose. I find the combat awkward and boring generally and in most of it's facets. However, I don't mind, and even quite like, some minor action to help spice things up.
In order to most effectively convert the game away from combat and into building, I grew to favour the Archipelago maps. Here is my usual preferred world map design, and the one used for this game:
The seed you see isn't the correct seed for the game that follows. I had no idea I was going to make a LP out of this game so never saved my starting parameters and was just bouncing through many starting locations before deciding which to go with. I believe the above seed is for a Greek game. But this does otherwise accurately show the exact starting conditions.
World Size: Huge - this gives me the most likely chance to start on an island relatively well protected by sea and ocean water.
Archipelago (80% water) - helps compound the chance to start on an island well protected by sea and ocean water.
These above two are the unchangeables in my relaxation building games. The changeables are:
Normal climate, temperate temperature and an age of 4 Billion years - the middle settings here are simply to try and maximise the chance of starting next to a river on grassland with either a Wheat or Cow nearby. If I was going for a different victory condition then I might choose rockier terrain or more hostile cold/hot terrain, but for building a spaceship then all-middle is ideal.
No Barbarians - I used to always have Barbarians set to Raging, because that's the most entertaining, however, this is counter-intuitive to a relaxing building game, plus I got bored of always having it on.
I have no record of the next screen, where you pick your nation and other specifics, but I went for:
England - they are just my favourite civ for Archipelago maps. They have the Seafaring trait, which provides half-price Harbours and a +1 bonus to boat movement & they also have the Commercial trait, which reduces Corruption, gives half-price Marketplaces and provides some minor additional gold. There might be more efficient min/max nations to play, but this is the most relaxed and intuitive combination for going for a building game space race on an Archielago map.
11 Rivals, all random - helps compound the chance to start on you're own island. 16 is the usual max for a huge map, but I've found that you have to undergo an awful lot of reloads to start on your own island and this doesn't really reduce until you get down to 11. Going too far below 16 and the game loses that unique sense of competition and variety.
Regency difficulty - because this is normal difficulty. No-one gets any cheat bonuses. As it's a building game it doesn't really matter about AI competitiveness, they are only there to prevent you being too complacent, they are not there to defeat you, to provide a sense of realism and land-grab competition and the like. A building-game is about competing with yourself for personal efficiency within personal rules.
All other settings are on normal or default as well.
550BC
We join our civ at the point at which I decided to make a proper go of the map, the map having proven to be one that suits the required objectives:
I started next to a river with one cow for food bonuses, the island is my own, the neighbours are remote but accessible. The drawback is that the island's decent grassland is not very numerous and, essentially, it's a very small island. But that will be fine, it just means I will have slower technology progress than I would like.
Nearby is another island which is both uninhabited and covered in luxuries, which is nice. Had I gone for 16 players then this island would probably have had a civ on it, instead, it's me versus the Persians to try and fill it asap:
Those green dudes above me are the Persians. Above them are the red Romans and to the left there (the far-right of the map) are the brown Russians, who will also make a grab for this island if I wait too long.
As you can see, everyone's pretty grumpy at this stage as no-one's made any trade deals yet and shooting your boat through someone's borders tends to piss them off generally. I also haven't bothered with any embassies yet and likely wont build any all game, as reputation is unimportant for this particular game.
Likewise I'm not worried about securing any of the early Wonders either and am quite happy to let the AIs spend some of their early years on them:
Most Wonders are continent-specific and so have less of a use on small islands than on larger landed maps, but I'm mainly ignoring them out of priority. I simply have more important long-term infrastructure to build atm which takes precedence over an expensive unique building, most which will expire at some point anyway.
The only really important buildings so far at my capital are the Library and the Granary. The only thing I'm interested in for this game is those science Beakers there, which means I need citizens working squares and buildings which multiply beakers. At this precise moment in time I'm, unusually, building soldiers. Mostly because I haven't built any yet:
You'll notice it uses the term "allowed units" & I am over that limit. All this means is that after the "allowed" limit then I have to start paying for my troops. Allowed just means free. As you can see, the annoying thing is that this game counts workers and settlers as counting towards your total military units, essentially leaving you zero free military units. So if I'm maximising gold, to maximise beakers, then I really don't want to be spending all my money on soldiers.
And it's working well so far, as I've already left the Ancient Age and have just Started the Medieval Age at 550BC:
The problem is that 11 turns per tech is incredibly slow and must be rectified as quickly as possible. I need more expansion, more growth and to get to Education, all as soon as possible. 126 science was good for the AA, but it's peanuts for the MA & my sliders are already maxed out while also still requiring citizens be converted to non-workers to prevent riots. Not good at all, something must be done:
It's all good though and a quick look at the running-charts shows me where I'm lagging:
Which is nowhere except for Land Area & Approval Rating. Military Service can be ignored, its the stat on there everyone laughs at as being the stupidest.
What is the point of doing all this without some kind of personal gain? Am I President for no personal benefit? It would seem so at this point in time as my personal palace is somewhat embarrassing for global no.1:
And there goes the first 100 turns of a Civ 3 building game. "100 turns and aaaaaaaaall's weeeeeeeeell."
Civilisation 3 can also be played as a war game as per 4x empire building tradition, but I never really use the game for that purpose. I find the combat awkward and boring generally and in most of it's facets. However, I don't mind, and even quite like, some minor action to help spice things up.
In order to most effectively convert the game away from combat and into building, I grew to favour the Archipelago maps. Here is my usual preferred world map design, and the one used for this game:
The seed you see isn't the correct seed for the game that follows. I had no idea I was going to make a LP out of this game so never saved my starting parameters and was just bouncing through many starting locations before deciding which to go with. I believe the above seed is for a Greek game. But this does otherwise accurately show the exact starting conditions.
World Size: Huge - this gives me the most likely chance to start on an island relatively well protected by sea and ocean water.
Archipelago (80% water) - helps compound the chance to start on an island well protected by sea and ocean water.
These above two are the unchangeables in my relaxation building games. The changeables are:
Normal climate, temperate temperature and an age of 4 Billion years - the middle settings here are simply to try and maximise the chance of starting next to a river on grassland with either a Wheat or Cow nearby. If I was going for a different victory condition then I might choose rockier terrain or more hostile cold/hot terrain, but for building a spaceship then all-middle is ideal.
No Barbarians - I used to always have Barbarians set to Raging, because that's the most entertaining, however, this is counter-intuitive to a relaxing building game, plus I got bored of always having it on.
I have no record of the next screen, where you pick your nation and other specifics, but I went for:
England - they are just my favourite civ for Archipelago maps. They have the Seafaring trait, which provides half-price Harbours and a +1 bonus to boat movement & they also have the Commercial trait, which reduces Corruption, gives half-price Marketplaces and provides some minor additional gold. There might be more efficient min/max nations to play, but this is the most relaxed and intuitive combination for going for a building game space race on an Archielago map.
11 Rivals, all random - helps compound the chance to start on you're own island. 16 is the usual max for a huge map, but I've found that you have to undergo an awful lot of reloads to start on your own island and this doesn't really reduce until you get down to 11. Going too far below 16 and the game loses that unique sense of competition and variety.
Regency difficulty - because this is normal difficulty. No-one gets any cheat bonuses. As it's a building game it doesn't really matter about AI competitiveness, they are only there to prevent you being too complacent, they are not there to defeat you, to provide a sense of realism and land-grab competition and the like. A building-game is about competing with yourself for personal efficiency within personal rules.
All other settings are on normal or default as well.
550BC
We join our civ at the point at which I decided to make a proper go of the map, the map having proven to be one that suits the required objectives:
I started next to a river with one cow for food bonuses, the island is my own, the neighbours are remote but accessible. The drawback is that the island's decent grassland is not very numerous and, essentially, it's a very small island. But that will be fine, it just means I will have slower technology progress than I would like.
Nearby is another island which is both uninhabited and covered in luxuries, which is nice. Had I gone for 16 players then this island would probably have had a civ on it, instead, it's me versus the Persians to try and fill it asap:
Those green dudes above me are the Persians. Above them are the red Romans and to the left there (the far-right of the map) are the brown Russians, who will also make a grab for this island if I wait too long.
As you can see, everyone's pretty grumpy at this stage as no-one's made any trade deals yet and shooting your boat through someone's borders tends to piss them off generally. I also haven't bothered with any embassies yet and likely wont build any all game, as reputation is unimportant for this particular game.
Likewise I'm not worried about securing any of the early Wonders either and am quite happy to let the AIs spend some of their early years on them:
Most Wonders are continent-specific and so have less of a use on small islands than on larger landed maps, but I'm mainly ignoring them out of priority. I simply have more important long-term infrastructure to build atm which takes precedence over an expensive unique building, most which will expire at some point anyway.
The only really important buildings so far at my capital are the Library and the Granary. The only thing I'm interested in for this game is those science Beakers there, which means I need citizens working squares and buildings which multiply beakers. At this precise moment in time I'm, unusually, building soldiers. Mostly because I haven't built any yet:
You'll notice it uses the term "allowed units" & I am over that limit. All this means is that after the "allowed" limit then I have to start paying for my troops. Allowed just means free. As you can see, the annoying thing is that this game counts workers and settlers as counting towards your total military units, essentially leaving you zero free military units. So if I'm maximising gold, to maximise beakers, then I really don't want to be spending all my money on soldiers.
And it's working well so far, as I've already left the Ancient Age and have just Started the Medieval Age at 550BC:
The problem is that 11 turns per tech is incredibly slow and must be rectified as quickly as possible. I need more expansion, more growth and to get to Education, all as soon as possible. 126 science was good for the AA, but it's peanuts for the MA & my sliders are already maxed out while also still requiring citizens be converted to non-workers to prevent riots. Not good at all, something must be done:
It's all good though and a quick look at the running-charts shows me where I'm lagging:
Which is nowhere except for Land Area & Approval Rating. Military Service can be ignored, its the stat on there everyone laughs at as being the stupidest.
What is the point of doing all this without some kind of personal gain? Am I President for no personal benefit? It would seem so at this point in time as my personal palace is somewhat embarrassing for global no.1:
And there goes the first 100 turns of a Civ 3 building game. "100 turns and aaaaaaaaall's weeeeeeeeell."
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