I am amazed

Deornwulf · April 15, 2002, 16:15

After perusing the strategies forum , I am amazed at the amount of effort some people put into their games. I wish I could be as disciplined. When I sit down at the computer, I just play the game. Whatever happens, happens.

Encomium · April 15, 2002, 19:22

Considering how much time it takes to play a game, some people may not have a life!

PerpetualNewbie · April 16, 2002, 02:29

I was thinking the same thing the other day, Deornwulf. I can't stand to sit and micromanage everything perfectly. (But then again, I come from an RTS background, where the winner is not the one who makes the perfect decisions, but the largest number of good decisions.) So for instance, I just finished a game at Monarch in a tad under 4 hours. Yeah, I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but what the heck. It doesn't bother me enough to mess with save/restore.

notyoueither · April 16, 2002, 02:38

4 Hours!!????!

I can't plan my next war in 4 hours! OK, maybe just.

I must admit. I am cursed by the twin bugs of "bigger map is better" and "MUST control everything, yes even that little detail" and "Peace and Building are for Wimps, must have War and Building".

Did I say 2 bugs? I lied. Heh. Sue me.

Giovanni August · April 16, 2002, 03:10

Uhmm..
Well.... generally 1 game take me at least 2 weeks. minimum.
Playing it like 2-3 hours a night (why waste nighttime sleeping if you can use it playing Civ3

).
So i must say that I'm really really slow....
and as Notyoueither would say.... I'm slow, sue me

Saluti

Nym · April 16, 2002, 05:37

4 hours seem me very, very short. Maybe on a tiny map...
As I play on rather big maps (minimum standard) and like micromanaging (I'm really a builder

) I need almost four hours to get out of Ancient Era.

punkbass2000 · April 16, 2002, 06:39

ditto

DrFell · April 16, 2002, 09:12

4 hours? You must have a very quick PC.

CRAZY · April 16, 2002, 09:49

I don't think it is a matter of having a fast PC. I have just recently started using standard maps cause I have played 1 game on a huge map and it takes forever between turns. I couldn't stand all the waiting. I have a good PC too, no worries of it being slow.

PerpetualNewbie · April 16, 2002, 13:09

It doesn't take a fast PC. I usually play on my work machine (self-employment has its benefits -- when there is nothing to do, you don't feel guilty about playing games.) which is a P2-300 with 64 megs ram. I play on only default maps, whatever that comes up as, (standard size, obviously) and avoid all-out war. My Ancient and Middle Ages "wars" are really just sending a stack of 3-4 guys to each AI Civ I find to pillage, then fortify on the city's best tile. I grow to around 20-25 cities or so, and go for win by space race, score or culture. It usually turns out to be space race. I only control around 10 workers, the rest are automated to leave improvements. I almost never have to fight a late war, simply by maintaining a decent army and ok relations, and with rails, I can fairly quickly mobilize to fight a defensive holding position. And it is pretty easy to buy an alliance late in the game, so a civ declaring war tends to be kept pretty busy fighting my mercenaries...

Fitz · April 16, 2002, 13:32

Quote:

Originally posted by PerpetualNewbie
I only control around 10 workers, the rest are automated to leave improvements.

Here's the reason for a four hour game.

civman2000 · April 17, 2002, 19:06

I can't stand to NOT do all the micromanagement...MUST HAVE TOTAL CONTROL!!

Playa del Carmen · April 18, 2002, 00:03

Quote:

Originally posted by civman2000
I can't stand to NOT do all the micromanagement...MUST HAVE TOTAL CONTROL!!

Me too. Just as soon as you automate them to do something, they're going to do it wrong, so why not do it wrong yourself?

I find time for games whenever I can. Sometimes that's at 10 in the morning, sometimes that's 10 at night. I play until I get tired of it, then I save and play the next time I get a chance. If the game's going south, I scrap it and start anew. If I do keep it going for a while, then I may stop playing that game when I feel my empire's going into decline.

DrFell · April 18, 2002, 05:13

Quote:

Originally posted by Fitz

Here's the reason for a four hour game.

Lol, no kidding, I move all my workers round manually and it takes me about 8 hours to finish a tiny map 4 civs game. I only micro at the start too so that doesn't slow me down much but it's horrendous the amount of time I waste with worker moving (usually all slaves too).

Herr David · April 18, 2002, 08:01

Urgh, workers.
Late in the game, I just sell away the foreign slaves because it's so annoying to move twice the amount of workers around when your own units could do it with half the number, and thus half the micromanagement.

Cort Haus · April 21, 2002, 08:23

Quote:

Originally posted by Herr David
Urgh, workers.
Late in the game, I just sell away the foreign slaves because it's so annoying to move twice the amount of workers around when your own units could do it with half the number, and thus half the micromanagement.

With an industrial Civ, under a late-game democracy even the slaves are quick - and they're free. OK, if you're raking in the gold unit upkeep is not so essential but can still make a difference.

For speed-play I tend to manually develop the mines that I need for production then CTRL-SHIFT-I to let it do the rest, without altering existing. The AI workers prefer irrigating, and this command stops them trying to march through rival territory to get to an outpost.

Trevman · April 26, 2002, 22:52

Personally, I like micromanagement.
It is the thrill of completing a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle or solving a rubix cube. It is writing the perfect story or programming a game on primitive calculator assembly. It is the joy of seeing so many little struggles and challenges come together into a grand vision of perfection.

Skanky Burns · April 27, 2002, 10:47

Micromanagment prevents the stress from watching the computer mis-manage your workers.

Auwi · April 29, 2002, 14:24

Blech, I hate micromanagement. Its like work.

dunk · April 29, 2002, 14:37

I wish I could program my workers. For example... Ok, Workers, this is what you do with a grassland tile, this is what you do with a forest / grassland tile, this is what you do with a jungle tile, this is what you do with a desert tile, etc. And of course, this would only be within city limits. And you program them to work in stacks or spread out one per tile (whichever you prefer). And of course, the order in which these improvements will be built. Road, mine, rail.

And I wish you could set workers to specifically "Wait and Clean Up Pollution Otherwise Pass Your Turn". There could be a worker advisor screen to activate some if you'd like.

Sprint_ST_NYC · April 29, 2002, 15:18

Quote:

Originally posted by dunk999

And I wish you could set workers to specifically "Wait and Clean Up Pollution Otherwise Pass Your Turn". There could be a worker advisor screen to activate some if you'd like.

In my last game, I had a huge number of workers (kept captured ones) and left almost everyone on "automate, don't change existing improvements." After a while, my empire was totally terraformed. Whenever one of my cities polluted a square, they'd wake up, clean it up, and then go to a nearby city and bunker down again. Pretty cool, but took a few seconds to "think" about it, even on turns with no pollution.

Jaybe · April 29, 2002, 15:22

dunk,
And I want an option, when you assign workers to Improve City, to tell them you want 'X' number of food surplus, so they will mine the remainder.

JB

exeter0 · April 30, 2002, 00:52

Quote:

Originally posted by dunk999
I wish I could program my workers. For example... Ok, Workers, this is what you do with a grassland tile, this is what you do with a forest / grassland tile, this is what you do with a jungle tile, this is what you do with a desert tile, etc. And of course, this would only be within city limits. And you program them to work in stacks or spread out one per tile (whichever you prefer). And of course, the order in which these improvements will be built. Road, mine, rail.

And I wish you could set workers to specifically "Wait and Clean Up Pollution Otherwise Pass Your Turn". There could be a worker advisor screen to activate some if you'd like.

Right on... some sort of macro/waypoint/task queue would be the way to go.

Primus40 · April 30, 2002, 04:41

Currently I am playing with 12 Civs on a large map ('course we're down to only 9 Civs now) and just past the industrial age... I have timed each turn as taking a minimum of 30 minutes - this includes the AI movements then my response (or vice-versa). Can we say days???

Quote:

Personally, I like micromanagement. It is the thrill of completing a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle or solving a rubix cube. It is writing the perfect story or programming a game on primitive calculator assembly. It is the joy of seeing so many little struggles and challenges come together into a grand vision of perfection.

Right on Trevman! There's nothing like starting a game (or beginning a program) on Friday night and looking up after countless pots of coffee to see the sun coming up on Sunday morning. Feeling that fine psychosis of sleep depravation setting in. Maybe I should just Nuke 'em all and for god sake get some rest! But then the voices start again... "but if we do this, then that and fortify here..."

Currently I am playing with 12 Civs on a large map ('course we're down to only 9 Civs now) and just past the industrial age... I have timed each turn as taking a minimum of 30 minutes - this includes the AI movements then my response (or vice-versa). Can we say days???

Quote:

Personally, I like micromanagement. It is the thrill of completing a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle or solving a rubix cube. It is writing the perfect story or programming a game on primitive calculator assembly. It is the joy of seeing so many little struggles and challenges come together into a grand vision of perfection.

Right on Trevman! There's nothing like starting a game (or beginning a program) on Friday night and looking up after countless pots of coffee to see the sun coming up on Sunday morning. Feeling that fine psychosis of sleep depravation setting in. Maybe I should just Nuke 'em all and for god sake get some rest! But then the voices start again... "but if we do this, then that and fortify here..."

Primus40 · April 30, 2002, 04:45

Sorry 'bout that... but the whole script thing freaked out on me after I previewed and it appears I double pasted my edit! Honest... I've been sleeping lately!

MrWhereItsAt · April 30, 2002, 06:51

Four hours?!?! Two weeks?!?!

Wow, I finished one game of Civ3 to date, and it took me 7 weeks. Yep, seven weeks of playing an average of about 10 hours per week. This was a medium sized world, on whatever the second level difficulty up is. It was my first game.

And that was December.

Auwi · April 30, 2002, 14:25

I liked CTP's "public works". That was a kind of micromanagement, but at least you could do it quickly.

Caber · May 3, 2002, 12:40

Quote:

Originally posted by dunk999
And I wish you could set workers to specifically "Wait and Clean Up Pollution Otherwise Pass Your Turn". There could be a worker advisor screen to activate some if you'd like.

You can do this with Ctrl-Shift-P (or maybe Ctrl-P, I can't remember exactly).