What is more difficult?

[rah]

Maybe I foster wars more often. As I said above, part of the task here is to make sure your potential enemies don't have turns and turns without conflict during which to amass huge numbers of troops as a result of the aggessive AI setting. Since getting them to fight each other on aggessive AI is often much easier than on normal AI, it's funny how that works.

Last time I did that, it just meant that the winner had better promoted troops when he attacked me. On aggressive AI the more wars, the more settled great generals and the tougher troops you have to deal with. Just an observation.

[Blaupanzer]

Although even here the AI screws up scattering his GGs across the empire instead of putting 3 or 4 in the same city for the promotions.

[slnz]

That was one of the mods I actually wanted to try out.
What's the easiest way of keeping two copies seperate so you don't get the cheat message in mp? I've never known.

I'm not sure what you mean by two copies or cheat messages in mp - you can have the mod installed within the basic game, the same way as the default scenarios (RfC, Broken Star etc) are. I'm pretty sure the BUG installer automatically does this. You pick the mod from the Advanced section of the main menu (or use a specific shortcut to start the game) and play as usual. The saves you make while playing are "mod-branded", so you have to play a certain game with the mod it was started with - the game even prompts for the mod-change and automatically loads and unloads mods if you try to load games that use a different mod than what you have loaded.

You can't play multiplayer with a mod unless every player has the exact same mod loaded - again you'll just be prompted to automatically unload the mod if you accidentally try to join an unmodded game with the mod loaded.

Sorry if I misunderstood your post and ranted on about stuff you know already

[rah]

No, I know none of that, and why I asked.
So it's not a hassle to keep reloaded an unloading a mod since I play MP a couple times a week.

[rah]

Although even here the AI screws up scattering his GGs across the empire instead of putting 3 or 4 in the same city for the promotions.

I don't know about that, I frequently take AI cities with 3 or more GGs.

And another reason why I love checking into cities before razing option.
If the city has 4 GGs, I'm keeping it.

[slnz]

No, I know none of that, and why I asked.
So it's not a hassle to keep reloaded an unloading a mod since I play MP a couple times a week.

No, it's done (I think in all situations) automatically and takes about 30 seconds a pop. Maybe 35 when done manually through the main menu

[rah]

I'll have to check that out, thanks. But if you're wrong, I'm coming back here and giving you some grieve

[Blaupanzer]

And grieve is way worse than grief. Just so you know.

[Theben]

I had some issues in previous versions of BtS with switching back and forth between mods and the regular game. Someone said to keep a copy of the civcore.dll files handy in case you need to paste them over the modded ones when switching back.

[Hauptman]

What is "the average gamer" you guys keep mentioning? Like yer all the cream de la cream of super gamers . Hey just because I've played more Civ than I've slept in my lifetime I dont think myself special. Holier than thou I am not. I can beat the snot outta this game but stick me in a FPS and it's GnuB city.

Anywayz... Your all wrong. Agg AI makes the game EASIER not because of tech rates... but because of predictability. You know war is coming. thus you prepare for it, and win it. Playing non agg AI having that 100 strong SOD show up at your border when you were NOT expecting it is what makes things harder. Give us a "Random" choice on AGG AI!!! NOW!!! Just so you never know.

[Ming]

Actually... if random was an option, I think most of us would figure out REALLY quick which setting had been selected randomly

[wodan11]

What is "the average gamer" you guys keep mentioning? Like yer all the cream de la cream of super gamers . Hey just because I've played more Civ than I've slept in my lifetime I dont think myself special. Holier than thou I am not.

I'm not either. However, I did work for a game company for 10 years, so I know the mindset of designers.

When you're designing a game, one of your primary concerns is how the game plays to someone who opens the box the first time. New players are the lifeblood of a profitable game product. A newbie who enjoys it tells his buddies, and they buy it too, etc. A newbie also plays longer and grows the community. A player who joined the community will definitely buy the next one in the series.

The game designer also has to be concerned with many other issues, the above is just one of them.

So, if we're trying to interpret a game designers comments, we have to at least be aware of those issues, and also be aware of the fact that the designer has multiple, often competing, goals and issues he has to address.

Saying "average player" is shorthand for all that. Not that an "average" player even exists, let alone that any of us are a perfect match for that hypothetical person. All of us are different and have different things in mind when we try to figure out what we think is best for the game.

And, saying "average player" does not mean that the designers somehow "averaged" all the goals/issues and thus came to the perfect set of "average goals/issues" to design towards. I wish it was that simple.

[Blaupanzer]

We seem to have been using "average gamer" as a label for the semi-newbies/casual gamers who play occasionally and regard levels above noble as nonsense/not fun. We seem to think of ourselves as not so much the "elite" as the fanatic/dedicated fringe. Hauptman's claim of humility is rather cute, considering he also says : "I've played more Civ than I've slept in my lifetime., " indicating he is in fact young and highly dedicated. These are both good things but make his "you think you are elite" claim just a bit disingeneous.

[self biased]

i think i fall into that 'average' catgory. i have a tough time on noble and enjoy it.

[wodan11]

We seem to have been using "average gamer" as a label for the semi-newbies/casual gamers who play occasionally and regard levels above noble as nonsense/not fun. We seem to think of ourselves as not so much the "elite" as the fanatic/dedicated fringe. Hauptman's claim of humility is rather cute, considering he also says : "I've played more Civ than I've slept in my lifetime., " indicating he is in fact young and highly dedicated. These are both good things but make his "you think you are elite" claim just a bit disingeneous.

Touche.