Re: My copy came in the mail!
 

Those are some nicely laid out maps. Too bad they're 1500 province. ;)

Re: My copy came in the mail!
 

I love 1500 province maps, so thanks Gandalf.

I have never finished a game on one, but still love them. Why????

Re: My copy came in the mail!
 

Because it's big. Real big. Texas big.

Yep.

Re: My copy came in the mail!
 

I like them because of what they add to the game. Its a very different feel if you arent pressed right up against each other. You have time to explore, expand, develop, etc. Plus the nations that I like to play benefit greatly from having some wilderness between the nations. Many of the specialized nations with stealth, assassins, seducers, fliers, etc dont play as well on head-to-head blitz type games.

You dont have to finish the map in order to finish a game. But I am looking into some changes that will allow such maps to play better on limited machines. Apparently some of my maps get carried away and crash smaller computers.

Re: My copy came in the mail!
 

The reason I don't finish the game is that my turn times take tooooooooo long. Whenever I set aside an entire evening to play and only get 2 turns in, I hear the "Start New Game" music in my head.

It doesn't bother me. I am happy and keep going back to massive maps so it is no issue. Just a statment of fact.

Although when I stop short I do deprive myself of experiencing the spectacular graphic display you get when the computer acknowledges an extremely skillfully and well played game.

I think I like the fact that I can start 10, 20 or even 30 games and each time the location is so remote from the previous starts that every game is a new experience.

Re: My copy came in the mail!
 

I'm just not sure what the point is of playing on a map so big you don't ever even see half the nations on it before you give up because turns take so long. Or hit the victory conditions you set up.

If you like lots of elbow room before wars start, you can play on a smaller map with less nations. 500 provinces with 10 nations rather than 1000 with 20.

Re: My copy came in the mail!
 

The great thing is that the game supports so many different types of players. I have no problem that most people dont play the way I do.

But for me it works great. I work from home. I do jobs on the net, mostly watchdogging systems, moderating forums, email support, etc. I also take care of my handicapped son. So for me its an advantage to have a game that I cannot get lost in for hours and hours. Having to break from the game often makes it easy to switch to my other computer screens, and check on Gandy, and do some chores, etc which helps to make me a good worker and parent.

I dont think there is a need for many maps that are 1500 provinces packed with specials. But apparently (from the download logs on my server) there seems to be a reason to have a few. :)

Re: My copy came in the mail!
 

It's not the time it takes to run the turns that bothers me, but the time it takes to play them.

Maneuver dozens of armies, rescript as necessary, try to figure out which battles were critical and what happened, what can I afford to summon, what gear do I need to forge for it, etc, etc.
You get so bogged down in the minutia, it's hard to remember what the larger plans were. You have to, and I like to, plan at least 4-5 turns ahead, but if it's going to be several days before I see how the plans going and how it needs to change, I've got little to hold my interest. I get to the point of, it's going to take another 10 turns or so to actually finish off the current enemy and I don't want to start another war till then, and lose interest.

MP is different, even when it takes as long, or longer. Since you can negotiate, useful planning can be done even longer term and there is far more reaction to what you do, so you can rarely just go through the motions with one strategy even against a weaker opponent.

Re: My copy came in the mail!
 

I have fun playing that way. What else matters?

Re: My copy came in the mail!
 

I understand. But for me thats part of the game. Im coming more from the RPG games than from other strategy games. The idea of being "the one god" doesnt role play well if you do it by taking a few provinces. If you cant gain enough area to make administrating it hard then it doesnt feel right to me.

Like I said, the game supports everyone. Some people consider solo play to be just a quick tutorial for mp play. But personally I never found MP play to be much fun. I dont mind really big games with alliances but I dont enjoy cutthroat games. Map and mod work that I do tend to be more toward solo play than mp games.

Gandalf Parker