Best settings for new player

[laagamer]

Howdy! Just bought all DLC and expansions with the heavy discount right now.

Bit overwhelmed.

Should I play scenarios or custom games? What's the best way to get going for a new player?

No civ experience before.

Thanks!

[lar unuruur]

go prince difficulty level, standart speed, continents or pangea map, standart or large map, natural disaster level 0.
turn on heroes and legends, monopolies and corporations and secret societies mods on.

as for gameplay, id say do not overthink anything. AI will advance very slowly, just by playing rationally you should never lose. while science victory could be easiest, it is also most boring by the end.

try trajan as rome leader, for it gives free roads and monuments.

ps. while game has many layers and some depth down there, it matters only on top difficulty really. just do what is rationally.

[Kitsunerune]

adding to the question of a new player, does the dlc matter or are they combined like 5 was in the end? it gives three modes but i wonder if it means no, some, or all or each is a different style.

[Oaks]

Originally posted by lar unuruur:

go prince difficulty level, standart speed, continents or pangea map, standart or large map, natural disaster level 0.
turn on heroes and legends, monopolies and corporations and secret societies mods on.

Why should a first time player start at price difficulty and play with multiple specialized game modes?

I'd saw just start up a game on the lowest difficulty level and go from there, no extra modes.

[Evrach]

Yeah extra modes like heroes and corporations are a very very bad idea. For a first game just play with regular settings ^^;

[SlasH]

Originally posted by Evrach:

Yeah extra modes like heroes and corporations are a very very bad idea. For a first game just play with regular settings ^^;

[Lemurian1972]

Originally posted by Oaks:

Originally posted by lar unuruur:

go prince difficulty level, standart speed, continents or pangea map, standart or large map, natural disaster level 0.
turn on heroes and legends, monopolies and corporations and secret societies mods on.

Why should a first time player start at price difficulty and play with multiple specialized game modes?

I'd saw just start up a game on the lowest difficulty level and go from there, no extra modes.

Agreed. Monopolies in particular is a very different type of gameplay. Heroes or Secret Societies are a pretty transparent layer, but Monopolies changes a ton and can give a really skewed notion of how the Culture game plays.

I also say don't monkey with the natural disaster settings. Play with the Gathering Storm ruleset, don't bother starting on Vanilla and working your way up. All that does is force you to unlearn rules and habits which won't matter for most of your time with the game, since the expansions make the game so much better and complete.

[lar unuruur]

first. he will learn nothing on settler. by the end of the game, many civs will still have one or maybe two cities and even those nearly completely unimproved. he may aswell not play civ then at all.
first meaningful difficulty level is prince. everything below is meaningless for learning purpose.
second. all three mods i mentioned are fine for starting as new player. there simply is zero reason not to let them flow. there is no need to go into deeper strategies with these mods, but for learning purposes, it is best they are in game.

[Evrach]

These modes are crap. They're highly unbalanced, almost nobody play them in the community so you won't find opponents to play with them and if it's for solo purpose, AI has never really been (re)programmed to play with so it handle them even more badly than the core game (yes, it's possible). I just can't imagine how bad bots can play with all three modes enabled. It must be a real joke. ^^; It's a reason sufficient not to play them. At least pirate mode can be fun sometimes... I guess ? XD

[Lemurian1972]

Originally posted by lar unuruur:

second. all three mods i mentioned are fine for starting as new player. there simply is zero reason not to let them flow. there is no need to go into deeper strategies with these mods, but for learning purposes, it is best they are in game.

As I said, Monopolies mode significantly changes the way the game flows. There's a steeper learning curve that requires you to play very differently than without it. You can't just have it on and ignore it, or you'll lose to a surprise Culture Victory when an AI Civ snowballs. Even with the AI as hapless as it tends to be, it will start collecting passive bonuses to Tourism pretty quickly and someone playing the 'normal' way won't be able to keep up.

If you ever expect to play with other people it's a bad idea to learn the game expecting Monopolies to be on, because no one likes using it in MP and it can seriously skew your expectations.

It's a fun mode, but you have to know what to expect, and know what you're doing to thrive and prosper with it on. I say this as someone who's played with it a couple dozen times, it is not for learning the game with.

[omnius]

After the tutorial I did the Alexander scenario to learn combat better. I went slow with Julius Ceasar in a campaign on settler difficulty on a small map with standard rules, then went to chieftain difficulty on a medium map with Rise and Fall before going to warlord difficulty on a large map with Gathering Storm rules but no modes. Now at prince difficulty on a huge map where I'm trying heroes and monopolies modes. I like Ceasar with his advantage over barbarians where he earns 300-700 gold per barbarian camp or city he takes. Plus instant trade posts and roads between cities.

[Sstavix]

Originally posted by lar unuruur:

first. he will learn nothing on settler. by the end of the game, many civs will still have one or maybe two cities and even those nearly completely unimproved. he may aswell not play civ then at all.
first meaningful difficulty level is prince. everything below is meaningless for learning purpose.

I disagree. I have more than 400 hours in the game. I tend to play on warlord (one step up from settler) and I still lose occasionally.

For someone who is just starting out and learning how to play, they should start on the lower difficulty settings - especially given how crazy nuts the barbarians spawn in this version of Civilization. Once they get the basics down and have a good idea what they are doing, then they can bump up the difficulty to the point where they are comfortable.

Also, the other modes can be fun, but hardly are essential. I'd recommend avoiding them until a new player gets the basics down as well.

[grognardgary]

Originally posted by lar unuruur:

first. he will learn nothing on settler. by the end of the game, many civs will still have one or maybe two cities and even those nearly completely unimproved. he may aswell not play civ then at all.
first meaningful difficulty level is prince. everything below is meaningless for learning purpose.
second. all three mods i mentioned are fine for starting as new player. there simply is zero reason not to let them flow. there is no need to go into deeper strategies with these mods, but for learning purposes, it is best they are in game.

Well except for the fact that they completely suck, screw up game balance and add little more than needless complication to a game that already has more than enough for a newb to deal with.

[Schaffner]

I would suggest to create a custom game and at least turn some win conditions off.

Diplomatic and culture victory for example can be easily achieved by the computer if you dont know what you are doing or what they are about.

I usually only play with science and domination victory as those are the "original" Civ goals.

Point victory after a certain amount of rounds is also a default ending of the game if you do not turn it off. In that case it feels more like a board game where everything is counted and either you win or lose. (considering no other win condition is achieved before the set end year)

For the map setup I dont know what you prefer. Some people like continents/islands because you usually dont face too many enemies early on then. Other people dont like water maps at all and use pangea or other types with mostly land.

[AbSlayer]

Originally posted by SlasH:

Originally posted by Evrach:

Yeah extra modes like heroes and corporations are a very very bad idea. For a first game just play with regular settings ^^;

Best idea when new to game

[lar unuruur]

Originally posted by Sstavix:

Originally posted by lar unuruur:

first. he will learn nothing on settler. by the end of the game, many civs will still have one or maybe two cities and even those nearly completely unimproved. he may aswell not play civ then at all.
first meaningful difficulty level is prince. everything below is meaningless for learning purpose.

I disagree. I have more than 400 hours in the game. I tend to play on warlord (one step up from settler) and I still lose occasionally.

For someone who is just starting out and learning how to play, they should start on the lower difficulty settings - especially given how crazy nuts the barbarians spawn in this version of Civilization. Once they get the basics down and have a good idea what they are doing, then they can bump up the difficulty to the point where they are comfortable.

Also, the other modes can be fun, but hardly are essential. I'd recommend avoiding them until a new player gets the basics down as well.

this is precise reason you are stuck! your strategies are just very bad and you learn nothing from mistakes on warlord. you are simply stuck. that is reason why no one should play on anything below prince and on prince only to get familiar with UI and nothing much more.
player should go up to the difficulty ladder right away, instead of using failing strategies.

and you have 400 hours, i have 30 years behind me playing civilization and other games of this genre. you do yourself disservice by delaying your skills to progress and strategies to improve.