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Well, I played my first multiplayer game today and I must say..I'm hooked. I hadn't played any multiplayer in Civ3 but usually it's all I ever play in online games. Having played the likes of Smudd, Pop and Sirjohnathan I fear that the AI will just never compare.
Synopsis:
Started a game with 4 players, Smudd (Napolean) Pop (Indian-Ghandi), myself Gotham (Indian-Asoka) and some other guy who quit early as Bismarck.
We were playing on the default map settings which I believe were standard size map, medium oceans, noble level blah blah.
At first I thought it was rather neat the way that I could see their score and guage accordingly and frankly I was surprised to see myself so far ahead of everyone (like 100points) and the German owner quit about 30 turns into the game. He was replaced by Sirjohnathan.
I guess that brings up my first concern regarding multiplayer. I hadn't bothered to password protect my game since I just made it in the lobby and wanted whoever to join however once in the game and one or two guys left (the French were destroyed I think?) then the game would keep getting interrupted by people joining..and leaving..and joining etc. I wish there was a method that I could have locked the game down so that those of us that remained could duke it out. Or maybe if they had just password protected their nation?
Anyone, finally got into the groove with 3 of us going at it. I didn't see anyone until 1100AD when I realized that I had the whole continent I was on to myself. Had about 11 cities going after managing to steal two from barbarians. Meanwhile on another continent about 3 water spaces away, everyone else was clustered.
When Sirjohnathan took over the Germans he lamented on how he only had 2 cities, and one of them refused to grow. However he stuck through until the end and ended up with a decent score.
There was very little diplomacy in the game and from what I gather Pop and the Indians were expanding like crazy on the other continent. Left to my own devices and no one to fight I spent my time and resources on Wonders. Pop spent his on tech and expansion. I think Sirjohnathan managed to get a 3rd city going around 900AD. About 5 hours in I finally decided that it was time to go for conquest. Now in my books, 5 hours is a long ass game. Next time I think I'll put it on Quick..or maybe start the game in a more advanced age. But I digress. I filled up 5 or 6 galleys with a bunch of macemen and catapults and whatnot and launched a sneak attack on the other Indian player whom was the largest civ. After destroying and razing two cities he quit the game saying that he had spent too much on expansion and not enough on military. Then we wasted another 15 minutes as people would come and go out of the game. Meanwhile the CPU took over for the missing player whenever there wasn't a human to play. Sirjohnathan and the Germans said as how he was dead and all but by the time I finished losing all of my units to the fortified archers that I was fighting in India I was in no shape to go after anyone. I suppose I could have just built up forces again but I think I was looking at another 2 hours of gametime. After 6 hours I had to concede due to sheer exhaustion (I had worked 12hours, played for 6 and had to work again in 5hrs)..so thanks for sticking in there Sirjohnathan..you're the winner!
What I liked:
~ Scoring
~ Chat interface
~ Passwords for your civilization
~ Waiting for YOU to finish..the * beside the players that were done their turn.
What I didn't like:
~ Losing
~ Time..the game definately was too long. I remember at about the 4 hour mark someone had to take a break and part of me was mad that they were taking too long and the other part of me realized hey..I haven't moved my legs in about 90 minutes. Definately would adjust this for the next game.
~ Diplomacy. I could pick what to give but had no way of really indicating what I wanted.."No, I don't want Alphabet for Gunpowder, I want Horseback Riding!"
~ No host mode. There was no way for me to remove a player, lock down a civ, password protect the server to stop people from joining. I think maybe I could've saved the game and started a new loaded one from the main menu though.
Thanks again to Smudd, Pop, Sirjohnathan and the horde of other people who yearned to be France until they were destroyed for making my first CIV multiplayer game a fantastic one.
Synopsis:
Started a game with 4 players, Smudd (Napolean) Pop (Indian-Ghandi), myself Gotham (Indian-Asoka) and some other guy who quit early as Bismarck.
We were playing on the default map settings which I believe were standard size map, medium oceans, noble level blah blah.
At first I thought it was rather neat the way that I could see their score and guage accordingly and frankly I was surprised to see myself so far ahead of everyone (like 100points) and the German owner quit about 30 turns into the game. He was replaced by Sirjohnathan.
I guess that brings up my first concern regarding multiplayer. I hadn't bothered to password protect my game since I just made it in the lobby and wanted whoever to join however once in the game and one or two guys left (the French were destroyed I think?) then the game would keep getting interrupted by people joining..and leaving..and joining etc. I wish there was a method that I could have locked the game down so that those of us that remained could duke it out. Or maybe if they had just password protected their nation?
Anyone, finally got into the groove with 3 of us going at it. I didn't see anyone until 1100AD when I realized that I had the whole continent I was on to myself. Had about 11 cities going after managing to steal two from barbarians. Meanwhile on another continent about 3 water spaces away, everyone else was clustered.
When Sirjohnathan took over the Germans he lamented on how he only had 2 cities, and one of them refused to grow. However he stuck through until the end and ended up with a decent score.
There was very little diplomacy in the game and from what I gather Pop and the Indians were expanding like crazy on the other continent. Left to my own devices and no one to fight I spent my time and resources on Wonders. Pop spent his on tech and expansion. I think Sirjohnathan managed to get a 3rd city going around 900AD. About 5 hours in I finally decided that it was time to go for conquest. Now in my books, 5 hours is a long ass game. Next time I think I'll put it on Quick..or maybe start the game in a more advanced age. But I digress. I filled up 5 or 6 galleys with a bunch of macemen and catapults and whatnot and launched a sneak attack on the other Indian player whom was the largest civ. After destroying and razing two cities he quit the game saying that he had spent too much on expansion and not enough on military. Then we wasted another 15 minutes as people would come and go out of the game. Meanwhile the CPU took over for the missing player whenever there wasn't a human to play. Sirjohnathan and the Germans said as how he was dead and all but by the time I finished losing all of my units to the fortified archers that I was fighting in India I was in no shape to go after anyone. I suppose I could have just built up forces again but I think I was looking at another 2 hours of gametime. After 6 hours I had to concede due to sheer exhaustion (I had worked 12hours, played for 6 and had to work again in 5hrs)..so thanks for sticking in there Sirjohnathan..you're the winner!
What I liked:
~ Scoring
~ Chat interface
~ Passwords for your civilization
~ Waiting for YOU to finish..the * beside the players that were done their turn.
What I didn't like:
~ Losing
~ Time..the game definately was too long. I remember at about the 4 hour mark someone had to take a break and part of me was mad that they were taking too long and the other part of me realized hey..I haven't moved my legs in about 90 minutes. Definately would adjust this for the next game.
~ Diplomacy. I could pick what to give but had no way of really indicating what I wanted.."No, I don't want Alphabet for Gunpowder, I want Horseback Riding!"
~ No host mode. There was no way for me to remove a player, lock down a civ, password protect the server to stop people from joining. I think maybe I could've saved the game and started a new loaded one from the main menu though.
Thanks again to Smudd, Pop, Sirjohnathan and the horde of other people who yearned to be France until they were destroyed for making my first CIV multiplayer game a fantastic one.
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