Biggest waste of time ever

[marvinkosh]

Why play multiplayer when someone can just randomly declare war and send a stack of doom at you?

It's no different from SP.

[trev]

Choose who you play against, in our Aussie games that is rare although not unknown, usually we will play well into the game before wars of any sort start, with many games experiencing no war.

[OzzyKP]

Or play a diplogame.

[Robert]

Or be well prepared, be sure to have allies, and defend your cities.

[marvinkosh]

I think part of the problem was that on the fastest possible turns, you barely have enough time to give orders let alone initiate any kind of dialogue with anyone.

Won't be doing that again

[OzzyKP]

That's why diplogames are good. Slower paced, more friendly environment. Not cut-throat and bloodthirsty like most online play.

[Deity Dude]

Originally posted by marvinkosh
I think part of the problem was that on the fastest possible turns, you barely have enough time to give orders let alone initiate any kind of dialogue with anyone.

Won't be doing that again

Another reason why blazing sucks.

[marvinkosh]

See I can see why people want to play blazing, because they actually want to accomplish something in a short space of time, but the truth is you can't make the right decisions when the timer is against you that much. Plus, nobody should be forced to sit at their computer for hours on end at a game that is increasingly becoming a twitch-faster exercise.

Far better to either play less turns, or play over more than one session. But how can you then even begin to figure when you'll see all said players again?

[OzzyKP]

That's why you organize **** in the forums, and set regular times to play.

[Deity Dude]

If you want to get a bit of a start before having to worry about being attackd play Custom Continents 1 per team. Then everyone starts one their own continent. You pretty much have to get Astronomy before you launch an attack.

[CarnalCanaan]

Or just play as a creative leader, swarm the over-aggressive whelps with your civilized prowess then slaughter them with your many archers and chariots. Y'know, like IRL.

[Possibility]

Why dont you just attack him with your own stack-of-doom first?

Or just maybe, actually make a military to defend yourself with if you want to play sim city all game. Otherwise your just asking yourself to be attacked.

Possibility

[CanuckSoldier]

Yes the "SoD" is very easily dealt with, with a interesting piece of technology called the Catapult :P


CS

[marvinkosh]

The point I was trying to make is that, with the pacing of a Blazing game being what it is, you don't see that SoD until it's too late. Just keeping your empire running against the clock is a challenge :P

I don't have a problem mustering a decent army, but I do have a problem with being forced to speed up my strategising and dumb down my diplomacy for some twitchy players who want to frag one more empire before they go to bed.

Why aren't there any games at all (in the infamous lobby) that cater for those who are more used to sub-light speed?

[MasterDave]

I have played quite a bit on Blazing, and I can get everything done each turn, even while at war, about 90-95% of the time. A few tips to help speed up play that I use are:


Automate workers once a war starts (with no chop and no tearing down improvements)


Use stacked movement for armies whenever possible. Also use pathed movement on your way to the front

Use production Queues in your cities whenever possible. Set those queues on less active turns when you are waiting for others to finish. This lets you concentrate more on a war on less on random buildings going up around your empire.

Obviously blazing is not for everyone, and I have a group of friends who refuse to use any timer at all, which can get painful at times. However, it is possible to play at that speed with some practice, and you can get a complete game done in one sitting this way.