Your favorite game start parameters?

[Marko_Polo]

I'm curious to know how you set up the game parameters when starting a new one. Does everyone start with 7 civs like I do? How about map size? The shape and amount of land masses? Climate? Barbarians? And of course, difficulty?

Especially I want to know how you deity players set up the game!

I seem to prefer regular map, large land masses as continents. I don't like to move my troops with boats so much, it's so tedious.. I always choose raging hordes and have nowadays started playing deity.

So please share your preferences with me!
[This message has been edited by Marko_Polo (edited January 13, 2001).]

[Ken Hinds]

Game Version: MGE
Map Size - 75 x 133
Map Config - Computer Generated Random
Civs - 7 restarting
Rules - Normal
Ruler Gender - either
Ruler Names - Default normally
Civ Preference - None
City style - Default
Mod Packs - None normally or the High res. Occasionally a special to match a special map.
Level - Deity, Prince on occasion when I want a peaceful space landing.
Barbarians - Raging.
Cheats used - All my cargo capasity ships come equiped with Boson Chairs and all passengers and cargo handlers are experienced experts at mid-ocean ship to ship transfers. If the AI is blowing me away too badly I will dump the whole game and start a new one from scratch.

Ken

[Chainsaw]

I vary the map size quite often but I prefer large maps with large continents (small islands are a variety I play rather seldom, but it can be great fun!). I use to set the climate to wet-temperate, the age to 3 billion. Hordes and seven enemies. Seldom play scenarios. V2.42. Standart rules.

[Basileus of the Romans]

Game Version: MGE
Map Size - Large
Map Config - Computer Generated Random or Earth
Civs - 7 restarting
Rules - Select Enemy Civs
Ruler Gender - Normally Male
Ruler Names - Normally Default
Civ Preference - Romans, Carthaginians, Byzantines (Custom)
City style - Default
Mod Packs - None normally. Special ones for Scenarios, though.
Level - Emperor normally, Prince on occasion when I just want a "relaxing game"
Barbarians - Raging Hordes.
Cheats used - None, unless making a scenario.

[Bereta_Eder]

Game Version: 242 - Multiplayer
Map Size - Large
Map Config - Small Land mass, Varied, 3 Bil. years, Arid, Cool
Civs - 7 restarting
Rules - Normal
Ruler Gender - Male
Ruler Names - Default normally
Civ Preference - Greeks, French, Egyptians, Celts
City style - Medieval
Mod Packs - None
Level - Emperor, Very few times venturing into Deity
Barbarians - Restless Tribes (hmm, never tried any different...)
Cheats used - None
[This message has been edited by paiktis22 (edited January 13, 2001).]

[CornMaster]

Game Version: MGE
Map Config - Normal. Try to get Small islands, but it never seems to work right, unless I build them myself. But then I get the advantage. 5 Billion years, Arid, Cool
Civs - 5-7 no restarting
Rules - No spaceship
Ruler Gender - Male
Ruler Names - CornMaster, DaMan
Civ Preference - Germans, Canadians, Spanish, Indians
City style - whatever the mouse falls on
Mod Packs - None
Level - Prince, mostly
Barbarians - Restless Tribes usually
Cheats used - None

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"I'm too out of shape for a long fight so I'll have to kill you fast"
"If LESS is MORE, just think of how much MORE, MORE would be!"
I AM CANADIAN!
Civfanatics.com Civ 2 Multiplayer Ladder!
My Civ 2 Scenario Page.

[East Street Trader]

Game version : 2.42
Map config : small, medium or large (not tried gigamap yet)
Civs : 7 with restart
Rules : standard
Gender : currently trying female for a change (not really liking it)
Ruler names : standard
Civ preference : none, well, slight for Sioux as I quite like the default city names
City style : standard (I noticed one which produces a cool icon when you build on a mountain but I've forgotten which one it was)
Mod packs : none
Level : deity
Barbs : raging hordes
Cheats : ship chaining

I have much more experience on large maps than small or medium but I played always on small maps for about three months a while back to try to hone my fighting skills. A good strategy for large map play may not work well for small maps and vice versa.

I used to leave the age and humity settings at the default (middle for everything IIR) but then switched to 3 billion and wet (in search of rivers and rivered specials). I've been playing with those settings for several months now.

I am coming round to the view, sometimes expressed, that raging hordes is an advantage to the human player. After achieving Monarchy I pretty well always now go Writing then Map Making. Once you have a diplo built and a hundred gold to your name you find yourselg hoping for the barbs to show up. Meanwhile the AI definately loses cities to the barbs because we all bump into, and profit, from the results from time to time. How this happens so often is a bit of a mystery to me tho' as whenever I see a barb attack upon the AI in the visible part of the screen the barbs get creamed while the AI unit hardly takes damage (I conclude that the barbs don't get their deity attack bonus against the AI) The one time I witnessed an AI city fall to barbs it had a solitary warrior defender which couldn't hold out against multiple crusader attackers.

Similarly, restart civs may be a benefit to the human player. The restarted civ cannot really hope to get back into contention and finding some very weak AI civs is always a plus.

I find effective ship chaining quite a challenging and enjoyable part of the game. And granted that units are merely representational and that each turn lasts a full year or, earlier on, many years I don't consider it artificial. But I must declare an interest. I enjoy trading more than I enjoy fighting (I am hoping that Civ 3 has a more complex trading system) so I suppose I am picking a "cheat" which feeds my preference.

Oh, and I start mining then build a city on top. I'm not sure I've seen that described as a cheat but it does seem rather artificial. Might give that up some day.

Played, and enjoyed, the small and large world maps quite a bit as all civs and with fixed or random resources. Haven't done so for years now tho'. Not much experience with scenarios. Silly, really, but I still enjoy the basic game so much - and constantly find new things to explore in it - that I just can't be bothered to do anything more than press "New Game". Don't you just love those few moments waiting to see what your starting tech is and then what the starting position looks like?

Incidentally, difficult terrain seems to me another concealed benefit to the human player. IMHO small maps are, for this reason, fundamentally easier because there will be more mountains and jumbled up terrain about. The human player will manage this well but the AI's idiotic city location and random land improvement will hamper it badly. On a large world an expansionist AI may have the luck to start on broad plains where the most incompetent city planning department and the lousiest farmers just can't go wrong.

Last point. Islands and isthmuses also, IMO, favour the human player. The AI is slow to move off its home continent and wouldn't know a choke point if it jumped up and choked him/her to death.

[Cannes]

Game version: Don't know actually
Map: Large, continents, wet, warm, 4 billion.
Civs: 7, restart
Rules: Bloodlust.
Gender: Male
Name: Default
civs: Vikings, americans, romans.
cities: Default.
mods: None.
Level: Emperor. (King for relaxation, deity for a challenge)
Barbs: Restless tribes.
Cheats: none.

[Smokey tha nuke man]

difficulty:deity or cheiftain(i like a cheiftain game once in a while)
land:world.mp premade map, or one of my own personalized maps.
barbs:max
civs:7, restart
tribe:americans or romans
Cheats:might give everyone a giant robot at the start of an ToT extended game.
sex:male
Rules: pick ai civs

[This message has been edited by Smokey tha nuke man (edited January 15, 2001).]

[SandMonkey]

Game Version: 2.42 or ToT
Map Size - usually large, or a giga
Map Config - Comp. Generated Random
Civs - 7 non-restarting
Rules - no restarting
Ruler Gender - male
Ruler Names - Default normally, or Frederick William
Civ Preference - Germans, or I custom the Prussians
City style - Default
Mod Packs - None
Level - King-emperor
Barbarians - Raging
Cheats used - somtimes i use the end-turn cheat in ToT. I also use the save - look at map - reload cheat to get an idea of how things are coming along.

[popcornvendor]

i like to use large map with small islands, 7 civs (not restarting) i turn barbarians to "villages only" and usually i have bloodlust on

[kcbob]

Game version: MGE
Map: I vary the size of the map, anywhere from small to gigamap and play random on all other settings. I hate knowing ahead of time what I'll find. Isn't that the whole point? To be surprised?
Civs: 7, restart
Rules: Bloodlust.
Gender: Male
Name: kcbob, of course
civs: vary
cities: Default.
mods: None.
Level: Deity
Barbs: Raging
Cheats: none



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Frodo lives!

[Bereta_Eder]

I too hate knowing everything beforehand. That's why I rarely play in pre-made maps.
The terrain though is a different matter. By minimizing the resources on the planet I think that you increase the challenge. Even a single... hill can make the difference!

[DaveV]

Lately, I've only been playing specialty games, but my usual preference is for small random maps, with all other settings at the default values. Like others, I like the thrill of exploration, but the endgame takes forever on larger maps. I always select 7 civs, but there often isn't room for all of them on the map. Always deity/raging. I use the following dubious practices: incremental rushbuilding, ship chaining, continually demanding tribute from the AIs.