The end-game is still tedious

[MxM]

I have played quite a few games on different levels of difficulty and I am still not very happy with the end game dynamics. Do not get me wrong, I think it is much better than in any previous civ game, due to the fact that it feels "accelerated", but it is still not as good as it could be.

There are generally 2 ways of end game:
1) peaceful. This is the most of my games. At the end of game it often does not make sense to start war. You either focus on diplomatic victory or on space race. In any case it is quite often counter-productive to start the war, especially keeping in mind how many units AI has in its cities at the end of the game (on prince level and higher). So what happens is that you just go through your turns without much to do. And guessing who will the first to lunch the space ship. No fun.
2) war time. War time at the end of the game is not that interesting due to large amount of units you have to produce and control. And MM is what I do not like in the game. So again, not fun for me.

At this point I do not want to give suggestions of how to improve the end-game, I just want to hear your opinions.

[Sirian]

Re: The end-game is still tedious

Originally posted by MxM
I think it is much better than in any previous civ game

Thanks.

I, too, wish it could be even better, but it's easier said than done. At least we managed to make real improvement.


- Sirian

[MxM]

No, actually thank you, the game designers.

However, somehow, I do not remember similar problem in SMAC. There was always something to do, even near the end of the game.

[LordShiva]

Re: The end-game is still tedious

Originally posted by MxM
In any case it is quite often counter-productive to start the war, especially keeping in mind how many units AI has in its cities

Yeah, I hate this - like, 5 million units with +6 million % defensive bonus

[My PitBull Tank]

i'm actually debating retiring in my current game (noble, conquest only) as for me to conquer the remaining civ besides the one i'm now 90% done with, it will just take another 100 turns, but what's the point?

I would like to see the ability to manage units a bit better once you've got 100 modern armor and 100 mech infantry, it gets tedious having to individually move the units you want to heal, fortify, or continue the siege with.

At least in Civ 3, you could simply select the option to move all unfortified units, but it doesn't seem like that option is available here. You can move all units, or all similar units, but not all similar units that are not fortified. Or am I wrong? If a unit is fortified and you select move all, will it move?

[Dis]

No it isn't!!!!!!!!!

If anything, it isn't tedious enough. . The modern age goes so fast. You hardly hardly have time to build everything. Actually you don't. I don't even bother with the internet. What a waste. I never bother with laboratories either.

no pollution to deal with. It's oh so much better than civ3.

[Dis]

in any case. I was happy with my end game. Yes it was a peaceful run to cultural victory. But I was racing against a civ who was close to completing a space ship. Had my spies informed me he would have beaten me, I had loaded up some transports ready to attack. I'm not sure if I would have succeeded, but it was worth the try. turns out I beat him by about 10 turns.

[QuantumPion]

end game wars are my favorite. stack attack is your friend

[Dis]

and end game wars have the most combined arms approach.

[Kidinnu]

My PitBull Tank , you can shift-click on the unit icons down at the bottom of the screen to designate several units (but not necessarily everything on the plot) as a stack that moves together.

[marvinkosh]

Here's a useful thing. You can rename units, so to avoid accidentally running off with designated city defenders, rename them to..... I don't know, 'Bob' or something

[Sirian]

Bob is a good name. "It's all about Bob."

You could also trying naming some of them "Robert".


- Sirian

[Fidel]

how do you rename a unit? i missed that particular feature...

end game wars are really really fun...and there is no tedium at the end. out of four games, i had only one where it was peaceful, and even then i lost by one turn. actually, i lost twice by one turn. sirian, is that something coded in for extra fun?

[khumak]

My biggest complaint with the late stages of the game is that the techs don't cost enough. Almost as soon as I get Artillery I get planes which make them obsolete. By the time I build enough tanks to attack with I've got Modern Armor. By the time I use my bombers once or twice it's time to upgrade them to stealth bombers. By the time I can START building the Internet there's almost nothing left to research anyway and by the time it's actually BUILT I'm working on Future Techs.

This is playing on Epic. I can't imagine how war is even possible on quick. By the time your axemen reach your enemy he's building infantry (*warning, sarcasm*). Overall though I'd say the tedium of the late game from Civ 3 is practically gone.

Earlier in the game you have time to actually use most of the units you build before they're obsolete, but even then I feel like I have to rush to really get a chance to use anything before it's obsolete. IMO the pace of the game on Epic is pretty good at the beginning. In the middle of the game tech research needs to be slowed down some and at the end it needs to be slowed WAY down.

[greggbert]

I don't think planes make artillery obsolete, once the enemy gets SAM infantry in their stack the bombers are useless, and the artillery are SO CHEAP! I always keep a pocket full of artillery until the very last turn!

In fact, if Lincoln is listening, that's what I was using those aluminum tubes for. I wasn't building the manhattan project! (heh heh heh)