should I try a marathon game?

[Theseus]

I'm not there yet... I've only been playing Epic for the last month or so, and am still just getting used to it.

I'm not so sure I buy into the whole "out-of-date units" thing, either in terms of being too slow or too fast.

[Solver]

Re: Re: Re: should I try a marathon game?

Originally posted by Willem
Except Solver.

There's one in every crowd.

Don't get the impression that I like quicker games; I do not. I am just now playing with my own custom pace instead of Marathon.

And I reserve the right to reconsider about Marathon in the future .

[Willem]

Originally posted by Solver
I am just now playing with my own custom pace instead of Marathon.

Personally, I'd like to slow down Marathon even more. I find the period between Gunpowder and Assembly Line goes by way too fast. Most of the time I don't even bother building any Musketmen since Grenadiers/Rifleman are available so soon after that. Then in no time I have Machinegunners/Infantry. But after playing around with the timelines in Civ 3 I know what a nightmare it can be to get everything balanced.

[Solver]

If so, I'd suggest you tweak the tech costs themselves. Game paces are multipliers to everything. On Marathon, all research costs 300% of normal, but it doesn't change by eras.

The Renaissance era is indeed the one that gets by the fastest, like the Musketmen/Grenadier gap being maybe the shortest one. If so, you can just increase the cost of every Renaissance tech by, say, 25%. It might get you closer to what you want.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Solver
If so, I'd suggest you tweak the tech costs themselves. Game paces are multipliers to everything. On Marathon, all research costs 300% of normal, but it doesn't change by eras.

The Renaissance era is indeed the one that gets by the fastest, like the Musketmen/Grenadier gap being maybe the shortest one. If so, you can just increase the cost of every Renaissance tech by, say, 25%. It might get you closer to what you want.

I tried that, but then the Modern Era ends too late. By default the game ends when it should, with me usually researching my first Future Tech by 2050. So if I increase the costs of those pre-industrial techs, it throws the end game out of whack. The only way around it that I can see is to increase the number of turns during that period, but that seems like too much trouble.

[Willem]

I just had a look at the GameSpeedInfo file and the 1 year turns start 660 turns before the end in Marathon. Which puts that at 1390 AD, well before the Gunpowder era. So I can't adjust the time rate during that time period anyway, at least not without messing up the Modern Era.

[Destroyer]

Originally posted by Solver
I rather like a custom pace of Epic with 200% research instead of 150%. It plays like Epic, but slower - more time in each era.

What's my problem with Marathon? Units are built out of proportion quickly, which makes war too easy and too good a choice. Of course, if you want less consequences to war, Marathon's a good setting.

What the point in having them all in proportion though?

All things being equal, all a marathon game would give you is faster units.

Personally I set research to 300% and unit build times to 75%.

I prefer playing the game this way, as it makes Barbarians slightly less of a threat, altthough lack of funds imits the size of your army.

[Solver]

Originally posted by Destroyer


What the point in having them all in proportion though?

All things being equal, all a marathon game would give you is faster units.

Personally I set research to 300% and unit build times to 75%.

Well, a pace such as that results in a game experience more similar to MP, or even RTS games - where training units is by far the quickest action. It certainly doesn't match my personal preferences. If I need, say, 20 turns to raise a good invasion army but 65 turns to considerably improve my infrastructure, it's really the better choice to invade. Which is the part I don't like.

[Yosho]

(shrug) I switch back and fourth. If I play as Montezuma on pangea and want to play a millitary game I play Marathon. If I play Ghandi on arpalegio and want to play a builder game, I play normal or quick.

I actually find it much easier to survive with an inadequate defense on the faster speeds. Once he declares war on you, you have 4 or 5 turns before his forces get to your first city; then 3 or 4 turns until his catapults pound your defense down, and then a turn or two to actually take the first city. During those 9-10 free turns, on normal or quick if I have a good infastructure I can often turn out an army big enough to at least stalemate him in that time; on quick I can actually sometimes develop a new technology and then build an army and still have it in time to survive. On marathon, though, if he's got a lot more units then you do when the war starts, it's much harder to hold out long enough to build an army.