SP late game boredom?
 

So, what do most folks do around late game - you have the game won, its just a matter of time. I generally have magic superiority, troops quality superiority (maybe not #'s), and a well carved area. Then its just a matter of finishing off the remaining opponents.

I've found myself abandoning the game frequently, which is a bit sad after all the effort put forth. I just get too bored with the micro, its great fun to get to that stage but after its just advancing troops.

I wish when you turned it over to the computer you had the option for it to actually play out - maybe just show a colored map overview to see if your nation advances and when it wins. Keep track of how many turns maybe. Can that be done via MP? start a game, turn your nation to computer and keep hosting?

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Try playing the maps with victory points (not cumulative) and winning VPs at 35% of the total on the map... then you'll find it more feasible for you to finish the SP games. Huge SP maps without VictoryPoint provinces can become tiresome once you've conquered 55% of the map.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Sounds like you've won but with no fanfare. I often tend to declare myself victorious, and/or keep the save games as fun/interesting references that I go back and look at from time to time, and sometimes play another turn (or a few).

If you want the official program-endorsed victory before world domination, you can set victory conditions.

One can also decide that one's empire has become too large to micro-manage, and finish the game by being sloppy with most of it, retiring the elite veterans to home guard, partying, feasting, and glorious opportunities, and doing the mopping up with clumsy mass armies. If one can resist the compulsion to micro-manage, and roleplay the mopping up, it can either lead to a fairly quick official win, or let the enemy build up a more interesting challenge by giving them some breathing room.

PvK

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Yeah, I hate that feeling when I become sloppy though, it really puts me off. This is actually one of the main reasons I prefer MP, I can't help becoming sloppy in SP, and then I get annoyed with the inefficiency of my empire.

Setting VPs sounds like a good idea though.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

I find myself setting up elaborated wishing wells in every game... it's kind of funny seeing an army of Jarls under human banner. Or an army of nothing but hero wannabees. Eh, it's something to do while you clean up...

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

I sometimes use the dominion victory condition and then take a pretender with a dominion of one.

Sometimes though, I'll miss set the victory condition and the game ends in six months. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Agreed, I'll try out VPs I guess. Plus increase the difficulty of the AI. I usually find its a bit tough early going as I play defensive to dominate magic, then break out. I'm hoping that if its VPs I won't be able to sit back as long, although does the AI know about VPs and will prevent other AIs from winning that way?

Agree on the sloppy - I've done it but its kind of annoying. Have an SC or two conquer everything, then have sloppy armys and 30+ PD hold it.

I've got a faerun game where I had a perfect corner start position, Dom 10, so i killed the first guy by dominion and then everyone tried to gang on me. Took the neighbors out, then just had micromanagement hell and abandoned it.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

I have yet to see a true 4X turn-based strategy game that doesn't suffer from this end-game micromanagement slowdown. Smaller maps will definately help and lower resources and gold settings should help too.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Smaller games has been my solution.

I usually only use 3-4 opponents.

Sine the AI doesn't handle the late game all that well, this tends to keep the focus where the AI is more competent.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

I use victory by vps, no random vp provinces, 1 vp per capital. On a 12 faction map, I might set victory for owning 7 or 8 capital provinces, for example

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Space Empires IV. There's enough good automation that you can focus on what's fun and leave the AI to do the rest.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

SE IV did get tedious if you were an extreme long-term maximizer (like building atmosphere converters on all domed worlds, converting to Monolith IIIs, ensuring per-planet and per-system computer facilities...) but yah, you could set it up so that the end game didn't have as much micro, like using finite resources (Anacreon-style... well, in Anacreon, it's even worse because you run out of trillum and that's used to both build and FUEL your ships) or tweak the tech tree.

Ex: mod away System Gravitational Shields and let the Stellar Manipulation technologies do their work.


As for late-game D3, if it's essentially won, I might merely hit 'enter' for a few turns (if it looks like dominion kill is going to happen), or I might ignore micromanagement and start running strange experiments (GoR'd mindless summons, insanely-equipped assassins, collecting all the elemental royalty, cloning enemy pretender types with Wish, basically playing around with items/magic I normally deem too risky, silly or expensive).

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

I think SEIV automation routines are the equivalent of playing sloppy in Dom3. They'll both get you the win if your blowing everyone away, but don't get you optimal results. I personally find SEIV more tedious at end game than dom3, mainly because the SEIV AI rolls over after the game hits a tipping point.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Yeah playing with VP is the answer. If you set the AI to a difficult setting and aggressive, play on a small/medium map and make each province worth one VP, game ends when someone has 50% of the provinces or so,... well then you have an actual goal to chase. The AI doesn't seem to take VP into account (as far as I can tell) but it certainly likes taking over provinces, so it does much the same thing as you. I'd also suggest roleplaying a bit,.. for example you might decide you're going to get full use out of every unit type available to you (even if they're a bit crappy) or try to use low level summons a bit more. It's not playing badly on purpose, it's just a matter of being varied rather than uber-efficient.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Thanks folks. Been playing either vp or dom win, and with higher lvl opponents. Its been a lot more interesting, unless I get an actual corner I'm usually in combat pretty quickly.

Is there anywhere in the manual where it goes over what the varying difficulty levels give to the AI? Will generally play a few hours on a faerun map, 10 players, 3 difficult, 1 mighty - seems like a big difference even with just 4 buffed AI. Been playing this game for quite awhile, MA Van for the first time - fun. Met 6/9 so far, 5 of which are at war with me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

So, tougher opponents = more interesting, dom/vp conditions = attainable goals.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Yep. I've always preferred fighting something of a losing battle. You have to make the most of everything once that's the case.

Of course I never want the AI to be so stacked against me that I have to use exploits. That also sucks the fun out of the game because you lose all variety.