Ancient Times

[TechWins]

I wanted to reply to Diablo's thread but since Diablo and KrazyHorse have to act like dumba**es I couldn't. Don't take offense to my comments Diablo and KrazyHorse, I'm just joking. So I just started it all over. I would like to have more turns in the early stages of the game but many things in the game would be distorted. Such as the techs, you would be discovering all of the techs ahead of their usual time. The size of your cities would be too big too fast. Discovery of the world also would occur too fast. Global warming could possibly occur as early as the 1800's. My point is more turns in the early ages would be nice but too much of the game would have to be changed. Any comments?

[KrazyHorse]

I know it's true that the early stages pass through very fast in Civ, but I think it was the easiest way for the designers to replicate what is an unavoidable conclusion in studying the past: the rate of change experienced by mankind in all areas of life is miniscule during the early historical era as compared to later periods. The life of a man in 1000 B.C. was very similar to the life of a man in 500 B.C. No one from 1500 A.D. would be able to adjust easily to today's lifestyle; the consequences of technological and social advances are staggering. We have to face the fact that everything went slower previously. If you're a "fun, not realism" sort of player, then bear in mind that Civ is an exponential game. The more you have, the more you can build. Early turns have to go by so fast because there is so little to do until you've built up sufficient infrastructure to get the industrial machine really rolling. The only thing I can suggest to put more emphasis on early stages is playing scenarios which are more limited in scope than 6000+ years.

[Grim Leaper]

I agree that there should be more going on in ancient times as it is that part of the game i most enjoy: you start with a city and must explore and expand gradually trying to grab useful land. You begin to meet new civilisations and there are early border disputes etc. This age would pass very quickly, but i think this might be on the change in civ3. With the introduction of resources there will be more diplomacy involved, and with a possibility of more civilisations per game.

I would be very interested if any other things have been introduced to make the start of the game more interesting (hint, hint FIRAXIS)

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by Grim Leaper
I agree that there should be more going on in ancient times as it is that part of the game i most enjoy: you start with a city and must explore and expand gradually trying to grab useful land

i agree. i often find the latter part of the game (when im done expanding and building infastructure) rather boring.

the cultivation of the land, and building an empre out of a few indivudal cities is what made it fun.

but in civ3, i suppose this will be different.

expansion will be hindered because of the whole "need to be on a road for lux" deal. so you cant just go and grab land. and if you dont have seafaring (or whatever the heck you need, firaxis never answered that) you cant build ports and hop on a new continent.

i'm actually a fan of micromanagement.

[Theben]

Somebody had a suggestion a while back (forgot who) about giving players a unit at start to explore with, in addition to their starting settlers. That could relieve some tedium, as at least the 1st several turns would allow for something being done.

I still support Grumbold's(?) idea of having the 1st 2 settlers create larger than size 1 cities at start, + having some structures built in (i.e., temple, marketplace, maybe granary). Hey, the capital starts with a palace, right? And you don't always have Masonry at start. But it would affect the later game dramatically, allowing earlier expansion.

Also civ1 had civ tech discovery rates halved after 1AD. Perhaps civ3 could do something like that, but in reverse...slower research in the beginning but accelerated after 1500 or 1750 or certain discoveries, like industrialization or university...dunno how I feel about this idea, but I thot I'd toss it out there...

i'm actually a fan of micromanagement.

Die, heretic!!!