how could anyone play on a map smaller than large?

... while I don't get how people can play on anything larger than 'medium' ... and even medium felt drawn-out and boring to me.

People enjoy different things... and GalCiv lets us both play what we enjoy

Long live GalCiv! Thanks to CariElf and Frogboy and the rest of the team for such a great game!

/unic

Query: Does anyone play on gigantic maps with scattered clusters and rare terran planets?

As a lark, I'm playing a game on tiny. It's not quite my cup of tea, but it is a completely different game, and still kinda fun. Basically, I went into it knowing that I wasn't going to have the chance to do my normal peaceful empire thing, so I decided to be the b*****d warmonger of the universe I've been attacking everyone on sight, and after a while getting peace treaties with "all your tech, all your money, all your influence" as tribute. Haven't managed to get any colonies as tribute, but that's not surprising since only the Drengin have more than one colony so far (need to double check that when I get home).

There's quite a few things that feel radically different. For one, I'm not the tech leader. This comes as a shock to me, I've always been at least neck and neck with the tech leader on large or larger maps. Second, the war effort is going far easier, probably because on a tiny map, Hero plays a bigger role, and in fact, has been blowing up starbases, colony ships, and constructors left and right, and is currently level 10. This never worked well for me on the larger maps, because by the time I found the other races, they were already well established and a token harassment force stirred up more trouble than the harassment was worth.

So while the civ-building isn't going as well, early warfare certainly seems to be easier on the small maps.

I've played that on huge, but not gigantic, Zorlond. I find that rare terran planets mucks with the AI too much.

Yeah, I've noticed the AI adheres to the "colonize nothing below PQ 15" rule a bit too strictly...

I tend to play on Gigantic maps, so I can have fun torturing the alien's civilizations before I assimilate them into my own.

i alway finish in under 6 hours on the larges its not that long

Zorlond and others, I have not seen the AI colonize sub-15 planets on small or tiny (the sizes where they are most important). It an AI has +7% PQ + SE + HI, why not?

I usually play on tiny/small/medium maps with colonizable star systems at the leaner end of the spectrum. On a tiny map with rare planets there is often only one other free colonisable planet to find, so you can be dominant with just two star systems if quick enough to find and grab the extra planet. I find medium a bit time consuming. I am a builder - not a conqueror. (If I told you how I play a typical game of MOO2 it would probably bring tears to your eyes!) I am still getting to grips with this game, but even in real life my natural tendency is to circle an objective in ever decreasing circles rather than rush in and go for the jugular. I might get onto bigger maps and AI above sub-normal some day.

For me I find tiny map with scares planets the hardest game to play becuse everyone is fight for solarsystems right off the bat!

Very little time for R&D

Tiny planets are highly under rated!Diffently the tuffest.

I find that the small maps are great if you want to blow through a game in less than 2 hours (possibly faster if you are good). I find these game are fun to play if you dont have alot of time to work with.

SeanB

The largest map I've played is medium, and I had a great time doing that (the ownage was incredible). It took a little longer than the smaller maps did, though. I'm a big fan of small and tiny maps, personally.

I don't see how anyone plays on a map bigger than Small. I tried the Medium once, and it was just too big.

It's very tough to win against Incredible opponents on a Small map.

To each his own. I don't see how anyone can play on a map larger than medium. I have limited time to play and it already takes me days of playing to complete a medium map.

~SDC~

I like large because it's the first map size that ship range is actually a factor, but don't like playing on larger sizes because I don't see where anything is gained except game length and micromanagement. I finished several games on Huge and have no intention of trying a Gigantic unless I get really bored.

Smaller maps are tougher but also eliminate a lot of the AI's tricks because the smaller you go the more it does just become a quick slug fest. Medium is the smallest map I find enjoyable but the lack of ship ranges as a factor loses something for me.

If you like more precise games, where every single ship/turn counts, you will most often play on smaller maps.

Also, different map sizes make for different rules, sort of: On small maps, early techs/ships are decisive, large maps: late techs/ships rule. If you like variation, you should try all sizes.

"If you like variation, you should try all size".

And everything else that you can set. That's the fun part of the game, trying YOUR strategy out in different settings.

One of the other things about small maps. Universalist's luck doesn't help as much. You know how if you have that luck, you're more likely to get yellow stars in your sector and the sectors around you, right? Well, the only problem is, there's normally someone in the sector around you in a small map, so they get your yellow stars. Grrr. That's really got me steamed. The Drengins took all my pretty Luck Stars!

Just think of it this way: they're saving those planets till you are ready to use them (*cough*war*cough*).

~SDC~

I've been playing large/huge with loose/uncommon the last several games (Arcean-genius, all others intelligent) in hopes of getting exactly the kind of game I'm now in the middle of: everyone now has dreadnoughts, all the AI's except Arcean have "average/average" econ/militaries, with the Arceans "strongest/strongest." I'm fighting tooth and nail, the galaxy has just been fully explored, the foreign relations are complex, and the higher level techs really mean something in this game... I'll let you know how it turns out in a few days.

I really recommend players try out the maps at all the sizes. There is an immense amount of AI code and game play code to make different sized maps actually play quite differently. The strategies are quite a bit different.

I personally prefer Medium sized maps but I find tiny very fun too. We took a poll and gigantic tends to be the most popular but I don't personally play that size too much.

~SDC~

I started up a Gigantic game today just to see how big it was - no freaking way will I ever bother with that size. The micromanagement of an empire on that size galaxy would make my head explode; clearly other people must have more patience than me.

I've noticed while trying the different sizes that it is a huge diffence with each type. It is very cool, I like the variety!

Mr. Frogboy.. just out of curiosity, on a medium map, do you play with all the other races active? On a tiny, small and medium, what # of other races do you play against at once? Just curious! On small, it is a colonize-fest with all the races active.. not easy at all!

fleabitfox

I love tiny maps. It reminds me of chess. Particularly when each race has only one star system. I wish there was an option to have no yellow stars, not even rare, except for those owned by races. Each turn means you have to take important decisions. The ai doesn't seem to handle it as well as on bigger maps, though, except the Drengins who like the quick go to the jugular.
It seems 1.03 ruined my strategy to win on tiny/maso btw. The ai won't give me lots of money for aphrodisiacs now, only lots of techs .
I play about all sizes of maps, except gigantic which I find too boring, but I should give it one more try.

What is fun with tiny maps is you know all the map early on, there is usually one or at most two resources of any kind, so if you want to grab one, you will want to fight for it. And early fights mean long time enmity. That makes for a lot of important choices requiring adaptation to the situation early on, whereas on big maps you can just start as you wish and don't need to react as much.
But a small map doesn't provide an empire-building sense. It does provide the feeling the game rocks as far as strategy is concerned.

I usually plau Huge/Gigantic (to give me some time to build up peacefully) Habitable Rare (to reduce micro management)

~SDC~