AU 102 Discussion

[joncnunn]

This thread is a discussion thread about what the next AU course should be like.

I'm thinking that perhaps the next one should be blood thristy and on either epic or marathon for the following two reasons.

1: So far, I've only played Civ IV on Normal & Quick modes.
2: Other than the Rome scenario, I've yet to play Civ IV as a blood thristy war mongler.

[DrSpike]

How about Spaceship victory with aggressive AI and raging barbs?

[MadDjinn]

war monglers are quite the danger

but yeah, we should have a combat intensive game on a bigger map/epic/marathon...

Conquest vs. Domination.

[Blake]

If you want bloodthirsty it's better to go with a smaller and more cramped map.

What I'd suggest is a standard map with low sea levels and 3 extra civs, possibly Terra to ENSURE the player needs to fight for space, or use a very focused beeline to Astronomy for peaceful expansion. Terra also makes it very fun for Conquest.

For leader I'd suggest an Aggressive one. Alexander would be a fine choice, aggressive, early UU, philo trait to keep things in balance.

[ZargonX]

Hmm... I think a combat-focused map would be a good idea. Smaller is probably better if we want it to be very instense. A Marathon game/Huge map would also be interesting, but not necessarily for pure combat.

A small map, angry AI, and raging barbs would very much be an investigation of ancient-era combat. What sort of civs shall we look at?

[DrSpike]

I find conquest and domination games dull. Better to force the early fights and then require the player to build a technologically advanced empire from the wreckage of the carnage.

[ZargonX]

I find conquest and domination games dull. Better to force the early fights and then require the player to build a technologically advanced empire from the wreckage of the carnage.

That could be an interesting angle: guide your people through the terrifying early days of constant conflict to finally hammer out a stable empire strong enough to reach the stars.

[DrSpike]

Now you're talking.

[Metaliturtle]

Standard Terra
Alexander
8 AI Civs

Several Objectives (Completed in Order):
1. Conquer 5 Civs
2. Achieve Tech Supremacy
3. Control every City in the New World
4. No peaceful Civs can be left alive

[Blake]

Thinking about this it'd be nice to further rig the settings to have a bunch of warmonger AI. The "aggressively competent" ones like Genghis and Peter might be better than the brainlessly aggressive ones like Monty or Isabella.

Leaders like Gandhi are extremely trivial to conquer. So is Tokugawa actually, he has an anti-social personality but his play reeks.

Mansa Musa and Caesar would be fun opponents too for their unpleasent UU's and ability to build as well as fight.

Having a range of dangerous foes would further increase the strategy. There's not really much strategy in killing one lame peacenik after another.

For me, the ideal "More fun than a barrel of rabid monkeys" lineup would be:
Genghis, Caesar, Peter, Mansa Musa, Saladin, Wildcard, Wildcard
One of the Wildcards could be french because both those guys are good fun, altough just having them as random would be good for the discovery factor (and making it less certain how many civs have mysticism and such).

[Addled Platypus]

4 civs with always war

and still reach space

[Snotty]

I would be tempted to say multiplayer is the place to learn how to survive attack, although I would be sure to play a 4 ai always war space race

One facet of the game I have been trying to balance is my gold economy. Ive tried using a variety of improvements, religion, merchent specialists, and great specialists (merchant, artist, prophet). multiple religions with their holy city wonder has proved my most surefire way of having a thriving gold economy, but I cant always get multiple religion

The gold economy rules how many cities you can have, and cities = population and population = hammers and commerce, so its a very important aspect

[ZargonX]

Hmm... I started putting together a scenario with "Always War" turned on... but does that count for the AI? As far as I can tell, they are ignoring each other, more or less.

[Smellycowsquid]

I think that "Always war" means all the AIs are at war with the human player, but not each other.

[DrSpike]

Aggressive AI affects all though IIRC.