What settings to be played on

[tommynt]

I m a MP by heart but due to very few players there and looking for a new challenge i d try play some SP games - I m just not sure which settings to try -

I tried once hub map with god difficulty - what ended up in a buiuldfest where i just could not keep up with ais production abilities.

I m not a fan of diplomacy - imo it s too bugged to be useful and i m too lazy to check what ai might have to offer every turn.

So I think i prefer nontechtrading - but not sure on that aswell

So as said I m looking for a real challenge on a interesting map - any ideas?

maybe some fun settings which u could just not win?

I also dont want to be forced to abuse ai, use it s big dumbness in fighing ability like attacking units in wood all time without

[LordShiva]

Disable space race, diplo, time and cultural victories.

[Solver]

Only conquest & domination enabled. Pangaea or Highland map. Difficulty level of your choice.

[Dominae]

Re: What settings to be played on

Originally posted by tommynt
I m a MP by heart but due to very few players there and looking for a new challenge i d try play some SP games - I m just not sure which settings to try -

It sounds to me like you're trying to reproduce the "MP experience", but substituting the AI for real players. That's fine, but I think it's important to understand that the AI is the AI, with all its shortcomings and potential for exploitation (and unexpected strengths too!). You're not going to avoid this by tweaking the map settings or difficulty level.

I m not a fan of diplomacy - imo it s too bugged to be useful and i m too lazy to check what ai might have to offer every turn.

Like I said, trying to reproduce the MP experience: no tech trading is your solution here. However, I'm curious as to what bugs you are referring to with respect to diplomacy.

So as said I m looking for a real challenge on a interesting map - any ideas?

Not sure what you mean by a "real" challenge (remember, the AI is the AI!).

Personally, I find the standard maps the most interesting: Continents, Pangea, Inland Sea. They also happen to be the maps that the AI is best at. As far as I know the AI does not have any special code for, say, Hub maps, so you're at a definite advantage with any of the special maps.

I also dont want to be forced to abuse ai, use it s big dumbness in fighing ability like attacking units in wood all time without

Try Emperor or Immortal. You may find that the early-game is slightly "easy" if you engage in some successful warfare, but it gets a lot harder when you realise you have to compete with the other, more distant civs that have not been wasting their time with military units. Balancing war and peace is a "real" challenge for me in SP, not sure if it's what you have in mind though.

Enjoy!

[fed1943]

It depends on what you want:

War - pangea (from begining:more civs;some build,first:less civs.)
Peace - islands,archipelagos (until you attack someone or someone attacks).

And don't disable victory conditions: the ones you don't want, some AI wants and you must prevent. (Classic:fight agressives and space race'peaceniks).

Best regards,

[Dominae]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Disable space race, diplo, time and cultural victories.

This actually makes the game a lot easier.

The AI has only three realistic means of defeating the human player:

1. Early-ish warfare, possibly involving an AI vs. human dogpile.
2. Spaceship victory.
3. Diplomatic victory.

On the higher difficulties, avoiding 1 is largely a matter of luck, but it is certainly possible to take precautions to reduce the risk of disaster. The AI is actually quite good at 2, especially if the human player has spending a lot of resources on Conquest/Domination instead of focusing on research. And 3 probably happens more often than players would like to admit, since many are not overly worried about diplomatic relations (until it's too late).

If you disable all victories but Conquest/Domination, all you need to do is focus on early defense to make sure the AI does not rush you, then you're home free: the AI cannot hope to compete with a dedicated player's superior military tactics (assuming you can remain competitive in tech, which is tricky but not overly difficult).

Put another way, the AI does not take into account victory condition settings, so it will go merrily along building SS components when only Conquest/Domination is possible. I would say that gives the human player a pretty unfair advantage.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Domino's
Put another way, the AI does not take into account victory condition settings, so it will go merrily along building SS components when only Conquest/Domination is possible.

Clearly I haven't played games with domination/conquest-only this far. That is incredibly stupid of the AI.

[tommynt]

thx for suggestions guys - what difficulty level do u think is hard to beat but somewhat beatable??

- as said i dont wana overrun AI but i want outbuild it - but on god it cheats that much that there s no way to win in "normal way" imo

by bugged diplomacy i m talking about that 1 ai is pissed all game just cause i didnt want to go to it s relgion in turn 15 or that it s happy about 10 gold

[Dominae]

Originally posted by tommynt
thx for suggestions guys - what difficulty level do u think is hard to beat but somewhat beatable??

Immortal.

by bugged diplomacy i m talking about that 1 ai is pissed all game just cause i didnt want to go to it s relgion in turn 15 or that it s happy about 10 gold

Although you may get negative diplomacy modifiers from refusing the AI's requests/demands, there are ways to get positive modifiers, too. It's not "bugged" because you are unwilling to give it what it wants (like switch Religions/Civics, stop trading with an enemy, etc.). Gifts will only get you so far; it's certainly not going ally with you or give you a tech for 10 Gold.

Diplomacy is a big part of SP.

[Nacht]

Originally posted by Dominae
Put another way, the AI does not take into account victory condition settings, so it will go merrily along building SS components when only Conquest/Domination is possible. I would say that gives the human player a pretty unfair advantage.

With the Apollo Project not available I think that's kind of hard to believe.

[Tattila the Hun]

Aye, I can't build spaceship stuff, so how could they?

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Nacht
With the Apollo Project not available I think that's kind of hard to believe.

Oops, my bad.

[LordShiva]

[Nugog]

Pangea or new world.
Huge Map
Marathon Speed
Conquest only

Whatever difficulty setting that floats your boat.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by eggnog
Pangea or new world.
Huge Map
Marathon Speed
Conquest only