SP and MP custom options

[brandonjm8]

hey guys, just wondering if any of you play with similiar or the same custom settings as me, if not thats ok im just wondering, feel free to add to this, many different ways to customize this game.
my options:

no barbarians (usually)
no tech trading or brokering (always, learn your own techs!, harder this way)
require complete kills
allow permanent alliances
city flipping after capture
no random events
no espionage

as always just my opinion,

[self biased]

no vassal states. nothing's worse than getting into the swing of things only to have peace break out.

[brandonjm8]

no vassal states. nothing's worse than getting into the swing of things only to have peace break out.

lol, if your constantly at war, dont you suffer alot of war weariness? do you get alot of unhappy citizens? i goto war, especially if they try to expand on my island, i dont care who they are, they are going down, lol. as you can see i play continents, i only goto war once i have my army built and in place or to clear the "infidels" from my land muah hahahahahahaha, lol. but yes i goto war only when i can conquer fast enough to avoid the unhappiness that comes with a long war ya know, my cities tend to get big, better production and money/science output. i can see the no vassal cities option, but it has its advantages at times.

[Theben]

Raging Barbs
Sometimes Agg AI
Sometimes choose religion
Sometimes diplo victory off

That's it, really. Although next MP game I might talk people into a more balanced game with things like barbs, events off.

[rah]

aggressive AI, always
no tech trading. 99% of the time
no vassals
no dip

[Boracks]

raging barbs
no tech brokering
random map, civ, leader

[Thoth]

Aggressive AI
No tech brokering
No Vassals. The AI surrenders way too easily for my taste.

Map and leader depend on my mood and what sort of game I feel like playing. Lately, I've been playing on Tectonics Randomized actual Earth maps. This map script often produces interesting geography and lots of land per player.

[Blaupanzer]

Raging barbarians (usually)
No tech brokering
No vassal states
No diplo (usually)
Choose religions
Aggressive AI usually
Balanced resources

Tried "require complete kills" and ended up chasing a galley all over the place in one case and wondering where the unit was in another (hidden fishing boat). Decided that's just a waste. Game's not the same without random events and espionage. In fact, if espionage is turned off one would be wise to also turn off cultural victory.

[Sarco]

Aggressive AI
No tech brokering
Random civ

[brandonjm8]

Tried "require complete kills" and ended up chasing a galley all over the place in one case and wondering where the unit was in another (hidden fishing boat). Decided that's just a waste. Game's not the same without random events and espionage. In fact, if espionage is turned off one would be wise to also turn off cultural victory.

lol, dont you hate that, ive had something like that happen to me, i played the actual earth custom scenario map and was the egyptians and i conquered the greeks right away (pretty easy since the egy start next to ivory right away) but those damn greeks had two warriors hiding in rivals that i was not ready to kill yet lands, lol. i killed their cities before 1 ad, but didnt kill the greeks til after 1000 ad lol. needless to say i won, expanded all over north and south america alongside my only ally frederick(germans) i was the powerhouse, he was the science producer, we kicked cyrus's, ceasar's, khans, and the chinese's butts lol. didnt get too the japs, no need too, they were weak. as for turning off culture win, ive noticed after the 3.19 patch that the limits go way up, doubled in fact, now you need 300,000 culture points in marathon mode, holy f*ing crap, right now im at 1500 ad and my cap cranks over 300/turn just switched to free speech and am only at 70,000 lol, my cap has 8 wonders in it already, the having no espionage setting barely increases your culture really, w/o artists anyways its very hard and long to get to 300,000 let alone three of them, artists only give 12,000!

[Blaupanzer]

Until very late in the game plant your artists as residents instead of popping them for the great works points. This was the consensus of the Apolyton crew on another thread earlier this year. Just a thought.

[brandonjm8]

Until very late in the game plant your artists as residents instead of popping them for the great works points. This was the consensus of the Apolyton crew on another thread earlier this year. Just a thought.

yep i put them in my "holy" cities for the extra money revenue coupled with their holy shrine and banks etc...

[Theben]

I generally save artists for GAs.

[Blaupanzer]

I generally save artists for GAs.

Okay, you got me. Artists are GAs, so what does the quote mean? Do you save them for Great Works later in the game, or am I missing something? If saving for Great works, we had a long discussion here in which the consensus was along the lines of what brandonjm proposed above until about the last 80 - 100 turns.

[Thoth]

GA = Golden Age.

[Felch]

No tech brokering
No Diplo Victory
No Cultural Victory (I won it once, and hated how it just ruined an awesome game)
Whatever the option is to separate civs from their leaders, I sometimes do that

Personally I love vassals. They eliminate the tedium of mopping up a defeated enemy. The only time they suck is when the AI capitulates to someone else

[brandonjm8]

GA = Golden Age.

me too, my preferred method is using artists and prophets for GA, scientists build there academy's, engineers for building wonders extremely fast, and who doesnt like a good merchant in foreign lands getting you around 6,000 gold and helping modernize your army . if you ask me the best to settle within a city are prophets, the +5 gold and +2 hammers really is the best combo, especially with rep the +3 science makes them very nice especially if you plant three or more in your city thats gonna or does have WALL STREET, then if you want to settle scientists (i wouldnt) in your city with OXFORD in it, as always just my opinion. any others?

[Ming]

For both MP and SP games...

Normal speed
Normal barbs
Villages on
No tech trading/brokering
No Diplo/vassals
Agressive AI
Usually random civ unless i want to test something


World shape and size varies... but usually single land mass for MP.

As far as great people:
Great Scientists: Academy's until there are no more cities that would gain more than placing them in my Capital/science city.
Great Prophets: Use for Shrines or place as needed in money city
Great spies: might use them if a neighbor is far ahead of me in techs and worth stealing from, but otherwise, those I use for GA's.
Great Engineers: Mostly use for wonders. If I don't see any good wonders in the near future (that's rare) I might burn one for a GA or settle it in a city for production reasons.
Great Merchants: Early in the game, I will probably place it in a city to a games worth of extra cash. Later in the game, I will look for a trade route if a big chunk of money will REALLY help. I'm also tempted to use it for a "KEY" golden age, but that's rare.
Great artists: Mostly use for GA's. But I might either place it or culture bomb a city if I'm having a serious culture issue somewhere.
Great Generals: A few healers, but mostly place in cities


However, early in the game, I might use one to lightbulb a key science... but rarely later in the game where my science rate makes it only a few turn savings.

[rah]

Reasonably close to ming except I'll probably light bulb a touch more.

[Garth Vader]

Aggressive AI
No tech brokering
No Vassals. The AI surrenders way too easily for my taste.

Map and leader depend on my mood and what sort of game I feel like playing. Lately, I've been playing on Tectonics Randomized actual Earth maps. This map script often produces interesting geography and lots of land per player.

Ditto.