I'm a chronic restarter

[Jaybe]

I have rarely quit a game, and the main reason is that I don't know what the future holds. To me, it's like a book: it is rewritten every time I play. I enjoy reading a mystery, and playing Civ is like reading an interactive.

[Qwertqwert]

I have maybe a similar problem, I only go past 1400 or so on maybe 1/3 of the games I play.

[wardhali]

lets pile on, i have only played the game out 3 times (ad mitedly they came in the last week) i think I have trouble picking games up where i left off, if i look i can probably findlike 8 games in the industrial era that i never fineshed

but i am happywhere i am at, and have just won a marathon pangea huge domination victory as japan

AGG/ORG w00t
samuai w00t

[Solver]

Space Race is the absence of any other victory type, as it always seems to be the endgame fallback if nothing else is working.

Interesting you should say that. I am a builder mostly, and rarely play my games aggressively. Space race is my main victory condition - I usually win/lose by Space, unless something else happens.

[Azuarc]

Well, think of it this way, Solver:

If you intend on winning by militarism, you build units, take over places, and ultimately ideally win by show of arms. If you don't, you aren't going to win by diplomacy or culture, so what's your only other option? Space Race.

If you intend on winning peacefully, you work up to Mass Media for the UN or for the Broadcast Towers, you try to get all your ducks in a row with your neighbors or by mass-spamming artist specialists on 100% culture for a while, and if you can see that it's not going to happen because somebody big and popular really hates you, or one of your cities is at 10k at 1950, what's your only other option? Space Race.

Let's say you're just building without any purpose in mind, as I claim to often do. You spam tech improvements to get further down the tree - but for what purpose, you're not sure. You aren't building military except enough advanced units to stave off your opponents. You weren't quite fixated enough on culture, and you haven't been hamming it up with anyone -- or worse yet, your best ally is the lead AI civ. What's the only victory type you have left to work with -- the one that maybe you were intending on all along, but really the only one that can just sort of fall into place with a little late-game effort? Space race.


And of course, it swings both ways. You can lose to an opponent who saw things the same way and decided to make a run at the stars. But whether you started with it in mind, since it is effectively the primary "builder" victory type, it is most certainly the fallback option for anyone else.

[Solver]

Well, if I intend to win peacefully, I set myself for space victory. Diplomacy is a back-up option. I'll usually even ignore Mass Media and just go for the space techs. The culture victory is special, to get that, you pretty much have to go for it from the beginning.

Sure enough, the game often comes down to space, but it's something I actually like.

[johnmcd]

I always have space race on simply because it's the only way the AI can win before it's time up.

[Autotropx Sox]

you pretty much have to go for it from the beginning.

You pretty much have to have the right civ, the right starting location, and the right neighbors to win a culture victory in anything above Prince.

If you know you will lose (which you will know by the early Industrial age if not sooner), then, you really should play the game out to its fullest if only to spite the AI. This way, you set yourself up to play as competitively as you can while gaining the mentality that even in defeat there is still the victory waiting for you at the end of the long, dark tunnel. This type of sentimentality is really what improves you skill at Civ IV, not reading the gloating victories posted on here or the finite strategies which we assume work for every game.

In defeat, we learn the most from our mistakes, while in victory, we learn only the joy from the their mistakes.

[Badtz Maru]

The way score is calculated, if you're in the lead in the first 50 turns you are probably doing something wrong, like over-expanding or devoting too many resources to building wonders, at least on Noble. I usually am behind until I start approaching medieval times, sometimes later, but I almost always win.

[Will9]

Autotropx Sox, I had a game which I still wasn't sure I would win tell the late Industrail age.

[DrSpike]

I always play games out as I have a need to see how good my early decisions were.

[polarnomad]

Originally posted by yin26

For me, here was the key sentence:

How do you want it to go? I guess you mean you want to be winning, which leads to my next question: Are you a chronic score watcher? I would say nothing is potentially more off-putting or deceptive if you're not careful than watching the score in the bottom right. I suggest turning it off and just play your corner of the world. Focus on your neighbor, an immediate goal. Let the game develop naturally...and before you know it, win or lose, you might find the mid to late game quite exciting.

Thanks yin. This piece of advice single-handedly increased my enjoyment of the game immensely.

[Palpster]

@Original poster

The way I see it, the only reason people play games is because they enjoy doing so. What other reason is there? I know I think of my gaming time as too precious to spend on a game I don't enjoy.

So the next logical question is: do you enjoy playing Civ4? If the answer is yes then there really is no problem and the only thing you might look for on these forums is how to get *more* enjoyment out of the game. (this is the case for me).

If the answer is no there's one of two things to do: either quit playing the game and go play something you actually get more fun out of OR use these forums to your advantage and try out some of the goals, strats, targets, challenges, hints, tips and whatever else you can find here to actually start enjoying your game.

just some thoughts at this late hour...