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I've completed my experiment. There's a certain diminished excitement, since I knew how things are going to turn out, but what wouldn't I do for science?
Summary: The GP-focused game launched in 1798, the cash-focused game launched in 1792. The chief differences between the two were: a) civics - Representation/Mercantilism vs. Universal Sufferage/Free Market, b) tech priority - Biology vs. Communism, and c) citizens' tile placement - farms vs. cottages. Past the industrial era, game play was virtually identical. I'll omit the logs, unless requested.
The cash game lagged a bit behind the GP game until Computers, when the ability to rush a continent's worth of Laboratories instantly turned the tide. The GP game got a fourth golden age at the very end, which accelerated things back into a near-tie. I think I played a little smarter in the cash game as well, since these three were only my third-fifth times going for a spaceship victory and the learning curve is moderately steep.
The key lesson I learned, which should have been painfully obvious, is that taking the time to plan a unified strategy from some appropriate post-Columbian reference point all the way through till the end of the game is well worth it. Basically, WHICH particular unified strategy I'm using affects the game far less than WHETHER I'm using one or not.
There's one other thing I've been thinking about when reading y'alls logs: I wonder, what is the effect of being in a tight tech race vs. being way ahead? In my game (and I think a few of y'alls), the last tech the AI had that I didn't was Economics, and every tech after I had to research myself for the first time. It seems that others had games where greater AI prominence might have allowed tech trading and tech "drafting" (discounted tech costs because it's been completed by other civs) to speed things up. Now, I wouldn't trade the surety of having totally secured the biggest landmass for anything, even in an ostensibly peaceful world. But I find myself thinking that, perhaps, allowing the AI to give you a competitive tech race could actually accelerate the launch date, as long as you had an ace up your sleeve to actually hit the button first. It also sounds like a more exciting approach, too.
Summary: The GP-focused game launched in 1798, the cash-focused game launched in 1792. The chief differences between the two were: a) civics - Representation/Mercantilism vs. Universal Sufferage/Free Market, b) tech priority - Biology vs. Communism, and c) citizens' tile placement - farms vs. cottages. Past the industrial era, game play was virtually identical. I'll omit the logs, unless requested.
The cash game lagged a bit behind the GP game until Computers, when the ability to rush a continent's worth of Laboratories instantly turned the tide. The GP game got a fourth golden age at the very end, which accelerated things back into a near-tie. I think I played a little smarter in the cash game as well, since these three were only my third-fifth times going for a spaceship victory and the learning curve is moderately steep.
The key lesson I learned, which should have been painfully obvious, is that taking the time to plan a unified strategy from some appropriate post-Columbian reference point all the way through till the end of the game is well worth it. Basically, WHICH particular unified strategy I'm using affects the game far less than WHETHER I'm using one or not.
There's one other thing I've been thinking about when reading y'alls logs: I wonder, what is the effect of being in a tight tech race vs. being way ahead? In my game (and I think a few of y'alls), the last tech the AI had that I didn't was Economics, and every tech after I had to research myself for the first time. It seems that others had games where greater AI prominence might have allowed tech trading and tech "drafting" (discounted tech costs because it's been completed by other civs) to speed things up. Now, I wouldn't trade the surety of having totally secured the biggest landmass for anything, even in an ostensibly peaceful world. But I find myself thinking that, perhaps, allowing the AI to give you a competitive tech race could actually accelerate the launch date, as long as you had an ace up your sleeve to actually hit the button first. It also sounds like a more exciting approach, too.
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