Completing SP Games

[hnchrist3]

When you play single-player games, do take them to the end and watch your pretender rise to godhood, or do you get to a point and say, "Heck, I've won this," and abandon the game as won?

I always play to the end. I want to be sure there isn't some out-of-left-field thing that happens that changes the game against me, and I like pumping up my pretender and trying out spells to see what they really do. And, of course, there is always the thrill of "A true God has ascended..."

[Twan]

I never play to the end on big maps, usually I stop when I reach 60-80 provinces and I've far more of all things than AIs (may be long anyway with the boosted AIs I use).

To have the occasion to test more spells I played a lot with the High Guild mod in the beginning, and more recently made the Forbidden Knowledge one (never had the patience of playing dozens of turn with an already strong position to empower from scratch some mages in all paths, so I prefer to emulate Dom2 magical diversity for my SP games).

[NTJedi]

I play my SP games to the end... just make sure to setup the game with VP winning condition.

[Morkilus]

I've only done this once on a big game, but several times against 3-4 opponents.

[AdmiralZhao]

In 2 years of playing, I have finished exactly one SP game. I should probably switch to the victory point winning condition.

[Edratman]

It has been months since I finished a game. I stopped playing large maps because of that, and still don't finish games on 175-200 province maps. I started using VP's and only finished one of them. I now accept the fact that I will not finish games and consider that a component in my definition of the game itself.

For me the problem is turn length. When I find myself spending 30 to 60 minutes doing a turn, and only completing 2 or 3 turns through two nightly sessions, I quit the game. I save it, let it sit under saved games for a couple of months, never go back to any of the accumulated saved games, and then one night I erase all saved games and start the process anew.

In my opinion, the turn length at 40+ provinces is the only shortcoming of the game. Solutions to that are complex and probably not achievable within the framework of the game.

[Sombre]

I play on small maps and I never finished games. 'Finishing' in Dom3 SP is basically arbitrary anyway. I just stop playing when it isn't fun/interesting any more. It might be because I've obviously won, it might be because I'm obviously going to win or it might just be because I get sick of that particular game. Sometimes the AI just puts up a really boring fight - like they're much bigger than you but keep ramming into one checkpoint every turn and forcing a stalemate. I can't be bothered to grind anything out - I just want to have fun. It's a game after all.

[SlipperyJim]

I try to finish every SP game, but I only play on small/medium maps. Personally, I cannot imagine grinding a single-player game out to its (foregone, by then) conclusion on a large map.

Maybe that explains why I don't play as many games as some other people here. If I simply quit once the outcome was assured, I'd be able to play a lot more....

Food for thought.

[Mozkito]

I tried doing Glory of the Gods in singleplayer with LA Ermor... I took over a fourth of the map before I started getting bored. I never did finish it, but by golly, before I die, I'll have that map beat!

[Ewierl]

SlipperyJim said:
I try to finish every SP game, but I only play on small/medium maps. Personally, I cannot imagine grinding a single-player game out to its (foregone, by then) conclusion on a large map.

I finish almost all my SP games, but that's largely because I've figured out how to properly calibrate my victory conditions. I tend to go with "1 VP per capital", and set the needed VP to half the number of players +/- 1. I found that this tends to make the game end just about when my dominance starts to become complete and boring, the ideal time to call it a wrap.