Age of plagues is not fun.

[MEGACHAD]

Games are supposed to be fun. When you add an element to a game ask yourself... does this add fun to the game? If not... don't add it to your game.

[The Doctor]

If they are unavoidable, well, yes, they wouldn't be much fun. You need to provide sanitation for your cities to avoid an age of plagues. I received a notification that I had 3 out of 10 (or 20, I can't remember) and I thought, "hell, no thanks" and built an aquaduct and some other improvements in a coup[le of cities and the notification disappeared.

Ther is supposed to be some sort of strategy and challenge to game. That's the fun for a lot of folks.

[Oaks]

Originally posted by The Doctor:

If they are unavoidable, well, yes, they wouldn't be much fun. You need to provide sanitation for your cities to avoid an age of plagues. I received a notification that I had 3 out of 10 (or 20, I can't remember) and I thought, "hell, no thanks" and built an aquaduct and some other improvements in a coup[le of cities and the notification disappeared.

Ther is supposed to be some sort of strategy and challenge to game. That's the fun for a lot of folks.

Agreed.

For future reference, once a city hits 10 citizens, it will start asking for sanitation. I found its actually good to start building the aquaduct at population 9 just to be ready for those unwashed masses.

[Saeko]

The only problem it's when A.I. force you into age of plague, you almost forced to play good in research to go in a new age before they put you there !

[Glorp's Biggest Fan]

You could also go into the Age of Blood to skip the Age of Plagues but yeah, it's either tech faster or pick the previous crisis age. I hope they change the ages system to be player/AI specific.

[MEGACHAD]

Originally posted by Saeko:

The only problem it's when A.I. force you into age of plague, you almost forced to play good in research to go in a new age before they put you there !

Yeah that's the annoying part. Whether you take care of sanitation or not ai can drag you into it anyway.

[IKerensky]

Originally posted by MEGACHAD:

Originally posted by Saeko:

The only problem it's when A.I. force you into age of plague, you almost forced to play good in research to go in a new age before they put you there !

Yeah that's the annoying part. Whether you take care of sanitation or not ai can drag you into it anyway.

And the harder the difficulty (because you need to provide AI all the bonus he could have to be challenging) the less you got control on Ages, especially crisis Ages...

That's was a very expected flaw of the system...

[The Doctor]

I suspect the problem is not so much the difficulty setting as it is our complete inexperience with the new systems. It's not Civ and has some unique, new systems and most of us are still trying to learn how they work together. Learning on the lowest difficulty setting so that you have some time and space to learn how the game works is fine. There's no shame and once you've played through once, you can slap the difficulty up for the next game.

Another problem seems to be that some players like to be in control and don't like it when the AI or emerging circumstances get in the way of their plans. Again, lowering the difficulty will 'fix' the issue.

I'm not sure I'm going to win my first run on the easiest setting just now. I probably will but I just lost two cities to rebels and am sending my legions to recapture them. I'm sure I could have avoided that from happening and next time, I will expand more slowly and build more City Guards and Watches instead of the 'cool' stuff.

I'm also learning which techs do what. My army is a bit underpowered in the Age of Kings but all the techs look so good that I want them all. I NEED them all. Is this bad? Hell, no. I'm having a blast.

[The Former]

I actually just had a ton of fun with this age. It's really rewarding when you come out of it, too.

Originally posted by The Doctor:

I'm also learning which techs do what. My army is a bit underpowered in the Age of Kings but all the techs look so good that I want them all. I NEED them all. Is this bad? Hell, no. I'm having a blast.

Yeah, I'm finding that the point is... Rush the techs that define your culture, and then double back for other useful ones in the next age when they're much cheaper.

[MEGACHAD]

Originally posted by The Doctor:

I suspect the problem is not so much the difficulty setting as it is our complete inexperience with the new systems. It's not Civ and has some unique, new systems and most of us are still trying to learn how they work together. Learning on the lowest difficulty setting so that you have some time and space to learn how the game works is fine. There's no shame and once you've played through once, you can slap the difficulty up for the next game.

Another problem seems to be that some players like to be in control and don't like it when the AI or emerging circumstances get in the way of their plans. Again, lowering the difficulty will 'fix' the issue.

I'm not sure I'm going to win my first run on the easiest setting just now. I probably will but I just lost two cities to rebels and am sending my legions to recapture them. I'm sure I could have avoided that from happening and next time, I will expand more slowly and build more City Guards and Watches instead of the 'cool' stuff.

I'm also learning which techs do what. My army is a bit underpowered in the Age of Kings but all the techs look so good that I want them all. I NEED them all. Is this bad? Hell, no. I'm having a blast.

Hate the player not the game. It's your fault for playing the game wrong. Not like a game should actually adapt to your playstyle or anything.

[xyzapip]

In average I had the impression, that it hurts the ai more than you. So I few this age as a boost.

[The Former]

Originally posted by MEGACHAD:

Hate the player not the game. It's your fault for playing the game wrong. Not like a game should actually adapt to your playstyle or anything.

Isn't this kind of impossible? How's the game supposed to know how you play? It's like saying a car should adapt to the driver, or workout equipment should adjust its weight to what you can lift. It's up to the user to adjust to a new game's mechanics.

Though I get where you may be coming from RE: playstyle. Interestingly, I think this game allows us to be flexible about it more than any other 4X I've played. In Civ I have to go for a culture victory as Australia or I'm wasting my bonuses. In Millennia I tell the game what my people are like and the bonuses fit my approach. (Mostly.)

[Aluminum Elite Master]

Originally posted by Saeko:

The only problem it's when A.I. force you into age of plague, you almost forced to play good in research to go in a new age before they put you there !

This is one of several things making me still wary of Millennia.

If the AI drags you into an age, and your only game-able way to stop it is to out-tech them, that's close to a deal breaker. Civ 6 had a mechanic with dark ages and golden ages, but it was almost entirely centered on the player's own actions. For Millennia though, if the age is caused by an AI picking it because it beat you to it, that's not at all fun.

Basically, is it true you have to race the AI to an age to prevent the chance of something like Age of Plague? If so, that's getting a bit like HK where you had to race the AI to the next age to avoid getting stuck with no good cultural picks.

Again, the quote is something I am genuinely curious about... how much ability does a player actually have to prevent the AI picking a terrible age, especially on higher diff. levels?

[bri]

Originally posted by Aluminum Elite Master:

Originally posted by Saeko:

The only problem it's when A.I. force you into age of plague, you almost forced to play good in research to go in a new age before they put you there !

This is one of several things making me still wary of Millennia.

If the AI drags you into an age, and your only game-able way to stop it is to out-tech them, that's close to a deal breaker. Civ 6 had a mechanic with dark ages and golden ages, but it was almost entirely centered on the player's own actions. For Millennia though, if the age is caused by an AI picking it because it beat you to it, that's not at all fun.

Basically, is it true you have to race the AI to an age to prevent the chance of something like Age of Plague? If so, that's getting a bit like HK where you had to race the AI to the next age to avoid getting stuck with no good cultural picks.

Again, the quote is something I am genuinely curious about... how much ability does a player actually have to prevent the AI picking a terrible age, especially on higher diff. levels?

It's just a simple risk/reward choice you, the player, need to make. In my experience it's not that difficult to get and maintain a tech lead so as to be the one to determine what age comes. If you choose to instead back-fill techs and allow the ai to force you into a crisis plague that's pretty much on you making sub-optimal decisions.

[Ogre Beautiful]

Any strategies for handling when you are actually in the age of plague, rather than how to prevent it?

[Ogre Beautiful]

I really dont know what to do except cruise around with the good doctor and burn all my exploration points.