AU Ideas just for fun.

[badams52]

Looking over the last AU game I was intrigued by a new concept which I will split into 3 possibilties that might turn out interesting, but more importantly, I think at least one of them would be extremely fun. These are all based on continents with 3 variations which I will explain in turn.

Isolation
2 continents standard sized map place the human one continent and all of the other AIs on the second. Of course knowing you're alone on a continent would surely change your game plan from the getgo, but I think it would prove difficult and quite interesting to see if you could keep pace with the tech whor...uh...trading going on in the other continent. One large empire vs. many smaller ones.

AI in Isolation
Similar to Isolation, but in the reverse. Leave one AI alone on the large continent (he'll probably be behind in techs) and put the human with the other AIs on the other one. My hope is that this would end up immulating the colonization period of world history.

Empty Continent
Human and AI on one contient, no one else on the other continent. A race as it were to colonize the new land.

For the last 2, I would support making it the case that galleys and maybe caravels cannot cross into oceans squares at all to take away the human suicide advantage, and to make restrictions on war so that the easy warmongering victory can't happen.

Hope this post isn't too long for you all, what do you think? Any one else have any intriguing ideas for an AU game?

[mikezone13]

the idea of the empty continent soudns good..

btw ... I haven't posted here before but have tried the AU207 and AU302 just to test myself, only on regent though

[Dominae]

Re: AU Ideas just for fun.

Originally posted by badams52
Empty Continent
Human and AI on one contient, no one else on the other continent. A race as it were to colonize the new land.

This is the best idea, I think. I wonder if the human player's knowledge of the game setup would create an unfair advantage?

As for the first two ideas, I believe they're present in a few of the AU games we've done so far. Still, it should be possible to create maps that focus on those ideas specifically, instead of incidentally.


Dominae

[nbarclay]

"Isolation" would be a more extreme version of the game we played as Persia with us isolated from the rest of the world and the AIs lumped in small groups isolated from each other. The AIs would have a lot more trading power than in the earlier game, but the human player would have a lot more land to expand into peacefully. Considering that top human players out-researched the small AI clusters easily in the earlier game, there is significant reason to think Isolation might also be winnable, especially with a good starting position. (A commercial/industrious civ would be a natural for that type of game.)

I'm not sure about Empty Continent on a conventional map because the extra land would be worth so little. But if all the resources past the ancient era would be on that continent, that could make the extracontinental land grab a lot more important. But there's still the problem that a human with a significant tech lead could do the lion's share of the grabbing; "the rich get richer." The idea of a game focused on colonization is interesting, but in practice, it's hard for me to see it working all that well.

Nathan

[BigDork]

Originally posted by mikezone13
btw ... I haven't posted here before but have tried the AU207 and AU302 just to test myself, only on regent though

Mikezone...

Not a problem. Several of us(I believe) are also on regent. Actually when I first started I was on warlord. AU is about improving your game and learning from the others. As long as you are learning something and more importantly, having fun, that's all that matters.

BigD

[Konquest02]

The empty continent seems really fun but I'm not sure the AI could do it though... It does not have any palace relocation or FP placement strategy...

--Kon--

[badams52]

At first, my favorite idea was the Empty Continent idea, and I do agree with Nathan that there are some pitfalls that would need to be ironed out, like how to keep the human from dominating and taking the most landgrab, but I'm sure we can put restrictions on the human to make it more of a challenge.

I like Nathan's suggestion of the later strategic resources on the second continent, and I think if we make a no war rule (till colonies) for the human, it would help out, and we could always give AIs advantages with the map...well, you get the idea.

Also, I was hoping for a game like this to bring out the FUN of civ 3, and to have a worthwhile scenario for the sake of enjoyment. Kind of like Sir Ralphs interesting world game he had before.

[mikezone13]

Originally posted by BigDork


Mikezone...

Not a problem. Several of us(I believe) are also on regent. Actually when I first started I was on warlord. AU is about improving your game and learning from the others. As long as you are learning something and more importantly, having fun, that's all that matters.

BigD

what is this 'fun' thing you speak of?

civ just annoys the living cr*p out of me

[CerberusIV]

Distribution of resources is often what makes a game challenging. A game where some of the strategic resources (particularly the later ones) are scarce or absent might be interesting. Perhaps put one or two only on isolated islands/continents where ocean trading would be needed to connect the resource to the rest of the map. Imagine not getting horses until the end of the medieval - after all that is what happened to the native american tribes in reality.

The AI's will colonise remote islands. Their cities may never develop much but they will (eventually) exploit resources so it should be possible to set things up that the AI's can stay competitive.

[nbarclay]

One possibility with an Empty Continent game would be something along the lines of having the human player start on the northeast corner of the map and having a sea crossing to the other continent (maybe with an island or two along the way) in the southwest corner. That would make the other continent fairly easily reachable by AIs using Astronomy, while the human player would need either Navigation or Magnetism to cross in a reasonable amount of time.