At first I grumbled at what a terrible effect it has. Gotta get that perk or you're way behind. Then I realized it's all about how truly random things can get.



Do I really want to start every game the same? Just save a Turn-0 start with ideal conditions.



Suddenly it becomes clear that no, I don't want everything to be the same. I just want everything to be "FAIR." HAHAHAHhahahahhohohohehehe. Fair. hehe. heheh. ahHAHAHAhaha. *sniffle* heh.



Fair. heh. aHAHAHAha.



No, I don't want fair.



But it does seem like there should be some sort of tournament map option for competetive PvP.

AngleWyrm wrote:
But it does seem like there should be some sort of tournament map option for competetive PvP.

One thing at a time. Lets just get MULTIPLAYER working. I do agree though, there should definitely be a setting for competitive play. I also think that people who play multiplayer should have the option of having the same uneven, unbalanced starting positions that we have now. It was one of the fun things about Civ hotseat; you got to moan about your location if you got a bad one or brag about it to whoever you're playing with.

I never played online in a 4X game before but the randomness is what makes the game interesting imo.

@WindinCloud: Whats interesting about knowing from the start that you will most likely win or won't win at all? Played enough 4X multiplayer and nearly every single one suffered from that problem.

But you have diplomaty in 4x games and being the best at the beginning doesn't mean you can't be wiped out by a coalition of other players...

I think a symetric galaxy is the only option for this.

The galaxy with the two disks that collide could be the same disks with an random

area in the middle of it where they colliede. Or the arms of a Spiral where the oposite

arms are equal and the middle is random.

Or a new shape? a String or an disk with an hole in the middle?

I really do like the randomness feature but you are right. You need some sort of level set for competetive play. Maybe there is a way to addd the advantage and disadvantages that a player starts and score them? Like quality of planets in starting system, size of planets, number of planets, hero's available, starting fleet, etc and make sure the scores are the same by setting a point value (scaled so 1-10 vs whatever the actual score is) to set intial difficulty for players but still allow some level of randomness? 1 would be the minimum resource start and 10 would be the maximum. This would also alowl handicapping for players of lower skill or casual players who have never played before. So host set's up the game with the handicaps, and if there is a differential (say 1 player is 5 while the rest are 10's) then the player with the 5 still gets a score boost of some sort to reflect the disadvantaged start. Probably too complex to implement right now but perhaps a future update for Enhanced or Tournament Multiplayer?



I realize hero's are powerful but if the opponent has the ability to knock out the other player before the hero grows there may be some balance there. Just trying to get the thought juices flowing.