game speed: epic vs normal

[Cookie Monster]

Let me see if I understand properly.

It's obvious that epic games = longer wait time measured in game turns before next tech or building or unit is finished.

Normal games = less wait time before next tech/building/unit is completed.

No matter what style you're playing i.e. epic, normal, or quick total game turns is constant i.e. 400 some odd game turns. Is this correct?

In closing I'm still playing my very first game of Civ4 at Normal difficulty, epic game speed, and standard map. I'm finding that I'm researching stuff way too fast but it is taking a very long time to pop out units or buildings. Assume I'm talking about size 5 cities or less. What think you?

[Akaoz]

Originally posted by Cookie Monster
No matter what style you're playing i.e. epic, normal, or quick total game turns is constant i.e. 400 some odd game turns. Is this correct?

Seriously? Then Epic is the oposite of what I thought it was... That means you get even less units, less buildings and have a harder time getting the techs on time (relative to real world history).

[TheArsenal]

Originally posted by Bosh
That's something that you can edit fairly easily. I'd like to play a game in which tech growth and settler building is sloooooooooooooow, constructing building is slower than normal, but building units is normal.

I may find this to be the way to go, although I am torn. I need more games at Normal to decide. So far, on Normal I am finding once it gets going the game picks up speed, particularly after tech trading is allowed, and things are moving at such a pace that I never get to fiddle around with the units of early eras. On the other hand, the smaller empire size that I am finding I (and the AI) have, combined with the speed of the game, means far less units overall, and far less burden in moving them all around as the game goes on.

[Akaoz]

If they just slowed down how many tunrs it takes to get tech and build stuff but didn't increase the number of tunrs in the game, why do they call that "Epic"?

That's not "Epic", that's just more time spent on the early game and less on the late.

Epic should be more of EVERYTHING! More wars with pointy sticks and more time to drive your tanks aroud.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Akaoz


Seriously? Then Epic is the oposite of what I thought it was... That means you get even less units, less buildings and have a harder time getting the techs on time (relative to real world history).

I asked in chat

there are more turns in Epic

JM

[dearmad]

Ick... that sucks if that's what it is... might have to begin working on my mod already!?!?

[Dominae]

The "definition" of Epic is laid out very clearly in the posts above (sorry dearmad). What you all seem to be asking is what effect it will have on gameplay. That's sort of been answered too. But the only way of really knowing is to try it out yourself.

If by "Epic" you want "the game lasts longer", then in effect that's more or less true.

If by "Epic" you want "more units to play with", then you'll be disappointed. But I thought players wanted less micromanagement! Certainly you have the opportunity to build just as many units on Epic as Normal. The difference is that your units are more important. Battles and wars are more important too, because it's going to take that much longer for units to become obsolete. Modern era campaigns in Epic are much more interesting than in Normal, they feel more like a scenario than the standard game.

Here's my advice regarding Epic difficulty: if you like thinking about your strategy, mulling over the best course of action, Epic is for you. If you just want to "get somewhere" (wherever that is) in three hours and feel like you're the master of the universe, it's not.

[Akaoz]

Okay I checked the files

There are 650 tunrs in an Epic game.

There are 430 turns in a Normal game.

And there are 295 turns in a Quick game.

Production of everything takes 150% of normal speed in the Epic game wihile it takes 67% in the quick game.

Epic may well give you the same amount of units as you would in a quick game, but you have more turns to move them around...

[Mike4879]

I have been playing an epic game on a huge map, and I must say, this is seriously the most engaging game of Civ I have ever played. I have had to scale down all of the graphics options after about 1600AD since it seems like it is taking a bit of a toll on my system, but it is absolutely fantastic. The view of the world all the way zoomed out is seriously an amazing site. I have to say, this is much better than Civ3...

[Stuie]

[SIZE=1]The view of the world all the way zoomed out is seriously an amazing site.

Screenshot!

[linkhan]

I'm sold!

From reading the replies,
here is what I gather about epic:

1. More turns in the overall game, but units and techs also take longer to make.

2. Once you have units, you have more turns to use them.

3. The key is that the units still have the same movement rates. If the movement rates slowed down, there'd be no point to epic aside from hitting enter more often, as Dominae replied.

4. Your decisions matter more. If you can fight wars wisely, you may end up with more units left. More units to conquer more cities throughout the eras.

5. You spend more time in each era. I enjoy being in each era for more turns as opposed to getting rushed to industrial/postmodern.

6. According to the last reply from Mike, it' more engrossing (as I was hoping for).

Anyone want to add more to the list?

Definitely don't mind being immersed in a great game.
I'm starting an epic tonight!

[Roeg]

How is the speed of making worker improvements affected? That is.. will I make mines and such slower too? How about the rate that cottages grow into villages and towns?

Regards,

Roeg

[dearmad]

Worker improvements are slowed, AFAIK.

For me the flavor of an era is in its units- so a few more units with more time is what I want, which means slowing tech by 25% or so and adding in 25% more turns about...

[Aeson]

If you want certain things to scale, and others to not, just edit Program Files\Civ4\Assets\XML\GameInfo\Civ4GameSpeedInfo.x ml in an XML editor (or text editor).

Find the gamespeed you want to edit and change the values as desired. For example, if you want Epic to scale everything but unit production, put 100 in for the emphasized values: (At least I think these are the proper value, haven't actually tried it... XML tends to read pretty easy though.)

GAMESPEED_EPIC
TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_EPIC
TXT_KEY_GAMESPEED_EPIC_HELP
150
150
...
150
150
...
150

[curtsibling]

Let the modding begin!!!