What Do You Find Most Irritating?

[- Groucho -]

People who post to moan rather than post to discuss how to play the game. Hey Smash, maybe if you explored a little faster you too could get some cities into the wide open spaces. Start pressing your luck by sending escorted settlers through territory of a civ you're at peace with to get to unsettled territory on the far side. Most of the time you get a couple of chances to apologize and keep moving before the AI runs out of patience and demands you immediately leave. By then you may actually be through and you won't have violated your treaty.

One of the best things about this version of Civ is how the AI finally makes intelligent land grabbing decisions. If you sit on your butt it will cut you off and take all the available land. It will violate your borders to get settlers to places that are in your area of influence but still outside your culture boundaries (apologizing all the way of course). Trading your map with the AI in SMAC was a good trade because it would rarely take advantage of the info, now it actually starts picking off your unsettled areas if you give it the info - a huge improvement.

[Willem]

Re: What Do You Find Most Irritating?

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Maybe it's been asked.
If so, I didn't see it and maybe it's time to ask again.

What about the game are you struggling with the most?
For me, it's Major Wonder building.
In the game I'm playing now, I was 2 turns from completing Hanging Gardens and got beat to it.
No other Wonders available so there goes the production that was spent right out the window.


Is there something I'm not looking at, and should be?

No, you were just beaten to the punch. Unless you have a Great Leader handy there's not much you can do about it but groan.

[HalfLotus]

The fact that the game gets old sooner than a TBS should.

[Willem]

Originally posted by ****gyRA
I find Republicans and Libertarians most iritating.

Don't start him up, please I beg you! He's been so nice lately!

[Whoha]

perhaps you should reread smash's post, he is refering to the explorer unit...

[- Groucho -]

Originally posted by Whoha
perhaps you should reread smash's post, he is refering to the explorer unit...

He complains about the futility of sending out exploration parties because the AI got there first and THEN says the explorer unit comes too late. Well, the AI doesn't have explorers either, so there has to be some reason they got there first - it seems most likely that the AI is simply doing a better job of expanding than Smash. What am I missing?

As for whether explorers come too late, I think they do, but they did in Civ2 as well, so I don't really feel all that upset. I just do most of my exploring the same way I always have, with riders and galleys.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Echinda
One of the best things about this version of Civ is how the AI finally makes intelligent land grabbing decisions.

Intelligent?!!? It just plops down a settler wherever there's an empty space! I boosted my food consumption to 3 in order to slow it down a bit, and to be able to use the terrain somewhat strategically, and it STILL builds a city in the middle of the desert. A turn or two later, the city has starved itself to extinction. And it will probably send a Settler to that exact same spot over and over again, until the game is over. Insistent yes, intelligent no.

BTW, that is what I find most irritating. (No time to think now: build a Settler>plop, build a Settler>plop) It's much better now that I'm able to starve it out of a few locations though.

[Willem]

Re: Most Irritating (but okay (I suppose))

Originally posted by Jaybe
Having to have numerical superiority (or at least parity) in units to destroy an enemy stack.

I recall reading some WWII general, I don't remember who it was, saying that in order to be fairly certain of an offensive victory, the attacker should have a 2:1 advantage.

[- Groucho -]

Did you ever play Civ2? If you had units around you could watch the AI pump out settlers and then moronically shuffle them around for centuries without ever doing anything with them besides build roads to nowhere. Hell, a city in the desert is a huge improvement over watching the settler shuffle.

[FNBrown]

The "switch to palace" option to save your production for a wonder that you were building and got beaten to doesn't work if you're building said wonder in your capitol.

So, yeah, that's a pretty lousy "feature," if you ask me. I'd like to get some equivalent "Wealth" credits at least for all the lost time.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Echinda
Did you ever play Civ2? If you had units around you could watch the AI pump out settlers and then moronically shuffle them around for centuries without ever doing anything with them besides build roads to nowhere. Hell, a city in the desert is a huge improvement over watching the settler shuffle.

Yes I did play Civ 2 (ToT), and Civ 1, and Alpha Centauri. And I don't see any real difference except for the fact that it has become much, much more persistant about it. Frankly, a little to persistant. IMHO.

Almost forgot, Colonization as well. Same thing.

[Jaybe]

Re: Most Irritating (but okay (I suppose))

Originally posted by Willem
I recall reading some WWII general, I don't remember who it was, saying that in order to be fairly certain of an offensive victory, the attacker should have a 2:1 advantage.

No, the attacker should have at least a 3:1 advantage! But that includes strength in power.

My point was that 1 tank or mech infantry (or anything shy of a 3-MP blitz unit) cannot in one turn even take out 2 Warriors (already bombarded to 1-HP each) that are stacked.

[Archaetus]

The most irritating thing is the other Civ sticking its annoying little cities in the worst possible places. I know I hate to overlap my cities, does the AI think that sticking a city 2 tiles away from mine is a good idea. It always causes me to go to war and that just ticks me off. I've started solidifying any way into the spaces my culture hasn't covered yet just to keep the AI out. Do you know how much that can cost when you're running a republic or democracy?

Oh, I hate those little workers too. I'm not sure why yet, but I think they're evil in a way we will never know.

[TheDarkside]

Shuffling many units is very annoying yes...

AI diplomacy also gets irritating for me... just that if you're equal or ahead in any way they all team up on you and demand everything but the shirt on your back when negotiating any sort of trades. This is usually a good way to keep players challenged, but it seems it's just taken to the extreme...

[darthx86]

Originally posted by Willem
Intelligent?!!? It just plops down a settler wherever there's an empty space! I boosted my food consumption to 3 in order to slow it down a bit, and to be able to use the terrain somewhat strategically, and it STILL builds a city in the middle of the desert.

The more area you cover, the better chance you have of picking up strategic resources later in the game, and like it or not, those resources often appear in desert, mountains, and arctic areas.