keep civ V a turn based strategy game

[dacole]

With the addition of the turn timer Civ IV has been turned into warcraft or starcraft. If you are turning on automation or if you HAVE to turn on automation to have enough time to move all your units in one turn..if you can't build mixed stacks because you have to use the move all or move all units of the same type buttons every time, if you can't attack from three directions at once because you don't have time in a turn to move three stacks of units than you are no longer playing civ. A civ turn consists of moving units, checking all your cities and moving workers around (many times I work a tile a few turns then change to another tile) looking at production and THINKING about if it is good to rush it in some way or not, looking at changing your government settings. This is EVERY TURN. Now though no one wants to play any other game of civ than a fast or blazing turn timer one all in one setting. Pitboss..yeah no not going to happen...play by email..yeah no way in hell. The best map types, continents, terra, hemispheres never get used because no one is willing to put the time in to play them.

The most fun I had in a civ game was in play be email games of Alpha Centauri. It was like chess, and very fulfilling. If I wanted to play warcraft I would move to korea. I don't. Brian Reynolds tried to make a real time civ..it didn't work and is hardly any fun to play. Complicated games that require thought REQUIRE THOUGHT. There is only so fast that anyone can think.

Ok rant over nothing to see here move along. (please bring back at least the OPTION for play by email games in civ IV..I doubt anyone will ever use it but at least it will be there)

[Ming]

The turn timer is really meant for MP, and THANK GOD THERE IS ONE!

Every once in a while I do run out of time, but most of the time, I have no problem completing my turn. I can attack multiple cities or civs in the same turn with no problem. Granted, our MP group doesn't play blazing.
Without the timer, some people would take forever to take their turn, and that totally takes the fun out of an MP game. With some people, we can whip through 200 turns in a couple of hours, and not feel like we were rushed. Other games, it can take forever to get 200 turns in.

There is nothing worse than constantly waiting for a turn to be finished in MP. It's bad enough watching somebody take the ENTIRE TIME almost every turn. I can't imagin playing without a turn timer.

[rah]

Yes, the turn timer is a must. If for nothing else, for that turn where I forget to hit enter. There's nothing funnier than whining about a turn taking long and looking down and figuring out you're then one that hasn't hit enter.
The best feature they added for IV was the * that indicates who has hit enter so you know who to abuse for being slow. Granted everyone is going to have a slow turn every now and then, (especially the first few turns after a DOW) but if it happens every turn.........

[Quintillus]

There is nothing worse than constantly waiting for a turn to be finished in MP.

Agreed. That, along with the fact that games never get finished when playing with random people on Civ's GameSpy server, is why I don't play multiplayer anymore. But the timer definitely is essential.

[Azuarc]

OP, have you considered playing single player? =p

I play almost exclusively SP, so I don't really notice turn timer issues, but I get the feeling that some people also micromanage to a much greater detail than others. I most definitely do not scrutinize the status of every city on a turn-by-turn basis. I want to actually play the game, and not just be a building inspector. While I do get frustrated when something doesn't happen the way I wanted because I wanted to do X in 3 turns, and then 4 turns go by and I had forgotten....at the same time, I would go absolutely bat**** crazy if I had to take 5+ minutes on every turn even before 1 AD.

[astrologix]

There are pitboss games too. With the simultaneous turns option they offer a style of play very appreciated.

Pitboss games are great and I hope that Civ5 will allow this kind of games too.

[Ming]

Agreed. That, along with the fact that games never get finished when playing with random people on Civ's GameSpy server, is why I don't play multiplayer anymore. But the timer definitely is essential.

I only play MP with people I know. And I rarely use GameSpy... most of the time we use the direct IP MP feature. In random games at GameSpy, if a person gets off to a bad start, they simply walk away and look for another game. So people try risky early strategies. If they fail, they simply quit. I've seen people quit because they lost the race to a wonder... So I don't even bother with unkown people anymore.

[giblets]

I can't imagine them getting rid of turns any more than I can imagine them getting rid of tiles or cities or units. Take away any of those things and it's not really Civilization any more.

[Hauldren Collider]

I only play MP with people I know.

Same. Civ is really not the kind of game you can play with random strangers.

[wodan11]

Same. Civ is really not the kind of game you can play with random strangers.

And honestly? That's a shame.

I'd be ecstatic if they fixed that with Civ 5. As long as they avoid the problem with people dropping as soon as they see a bad start, or see a rush coming. That really annoyed me with Starcraft and is the reason I stopped doing MP for it.

[Hauldren Collider]

There's absolutely no way to prevent it. How do prevent people from ctrl-alt-deleting civ? And as for punishing anyone who quits, how do you distinguish people with horrible internet from people who are jerks?

[wodan11]

There's absolutely no way to prevent it. How do prevent people from ctrl-alt-deleting civ? And as for punishing anyone who quits, how do you distinguish people with horrible internet from people who are jerks?

First thing that comes to mind is a simple rating system. I'm sure there are other options we could come up with some thought but regardless this one is perfectly viable.

The MP hosting environment could either simply let players see each other's rating before joining, or perhaps game setup options could restrict people from joining the game if they are under a rating determined by the person who initialized the game.

And, if someone has "horrible internet" (by that I take it you mean a bad connection, maybe dial up), I personally would rank them exactly the same as some jerk who drops the game at the first sign of trouble. Either way, they are a complete negative to MY play experience, and they should get a poor rating.

[Hauldren Collider]

Fair enough.

[Provost Martin]

I wish I had the patience to play MP. Would be really fun to go against real opponents.