Community Games

Hello all galciv newbies and veterans!

First, I've only gotten active on the forums and the metaverse a couple of days ago, but I've had GC 1 and GC 2 since the beginning. I consider myself an average (at best) player, partially because I'm of the too-lazy-to-think-much-and-just-wait-what-happens kind of people. Basically, I hit the turn button until something happens and then react to the situation, instead of planning ahead. But enough about me, here's what this is all about:

I've also been playing quite a bit of Civilization 4 and have always enjoyed (and found very helpful) the community games like for example the ALC (all leaders challenge) series on the civfanatics.com forums. Basically, these are games-in-progress where every few turns (or everytime something interesting happens that requires a decision to be made) the state of the game, including screenshots of the map overview, diplo relations, etc. is posted and anyone who's interested can give advice on what to do next, what overall strategy should be followed, or just basic gameplay advice. It's a little like the gameplay examples we have here, only that the community is involved in the decision making, which makes for very interesting discussions for new players to read through and get an idea of what kind of 'thinking' one has to do to beat the game on the higher difficulty levels.

So, since I haven't seen anything like this for Galciv2, I'm thinking about starting such a game, if only to see if there's any interest or if it works at all.

To get a better idea of it all, here's a list of all the 'sample games' that were played on the civfanatics forums (the ALC games are right at the top): http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=258697

Keep in mind that such a game will take a few weeks minimum, since there will be about one or two days wait between each post so that people have time to discuss their ideas. Also, it only makes sense if there's actually people discussing and involved in it, otherwise it would just be me playing it my way and _not_ giving a good example of how it should be played.

Please tell me what you think of this and what settings you find useful for the first game. I suggest the terrans (since I guess most new players start with them) on a small map, fast or very fast tech speed (so the game doesn't take ages), common everything (for a balanced start and a not too long colony rush) and about 5 opponents. Things I'm not sure about yet are difficulty (suicidal all the way?), victory conditions (all enabled or one game for each?) and a few minor things like tech trading or not, blind exploration or not, etc.

I'm very intested to hear your opinions and hope that we can make this a very fun and helpful experience for players of all sorts. ;)
47,419 views 7 replies
Reply #1 Top
A small map with fast tech won't last more than three years at most, which wouldn't be much of a succession game. I'd also deactivate tech trading.

Also, if you start it as a Metaverse game, it will be submitted under the game creators Metaverse character - so you should probably use the 'normal' game instead.
Reply #2 Top
no no I'm not talking about a succession game. and no metaverse. there will be no savegame sending around or anything like that, just me playing the game and posting screenshots and updates. that's why it won't be a metaverse game, I wouldn't want to get the points for a game that I didn't really play with my own abilities (or lack thereof).
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Reply #3 Top
I'd say take the difficulty down to at least masochistic so that people who are less experienced with the game will have more of a chance to contribute something. Like pndrev, I suggest slowing down the tech bit, maybe to "fast". Also, thrown in a few minor races for extra planets and diplomatic skullduggery.

What about super-abilities...do you like to play with or without them? This option can radically change how the game plays.

Looking forward to seeing how this goes! :)

Kzinti empire2.JPG Sentient species taste better...


Reply #4 Top
Superabilities or not is a good question, but since this is also for new players I'd say we leave them ON. If I'm new to a game I always want every option turned ON to get the most out of it. Regarding tech speed, I still think 'very fast' would be best for the first game. I'd like to finish the first game rather quickly to see how it works and what settings might have to be altered. I think even on very fast, the game will take a few weeks because of the rather long wait between turns. And we don't wanna still be playing when GC3 is released ;p

So these are the settings I propose for the first game:



I'm not really sure about mega events yet... I think for the first game we'll leave them off. what you think?

Edit: forgot about the minor races... I'd say 2-3 should be enough (ya it's wrong in the screeny). btw, I've been playing a few games on small recently with minor races set to 'random', but in all games there were none at all with 5 opponents. is the map size too small for them to show up on 'random'?
Reply #5 Top
If noone has any objections to the proposed settings, I'd like to start the game soon. ;)

Another question: should I open the game thread in the AAR or strategy subforums?
Reply #6 Top
Ok, since I'm quite an impatient little *****, I started the game in the strategies subforum. Please go to this thread for future discussions about this game: WWW Link

And please contribute!
Reply #7 Top
btw, I've been playing a few games on small recently with minor races set to 'random', but in all games there were none at all with 5 opponents. is the map size too small for them to show up on 'random'?

Yes I think that is the case. In a lot of the MVL games, even though minors were set to random, they almost never showed up.

Kzinti empire2.JPG Sentient species taste better...