Do any of you use the time machine?

[The Mighty Asterix]

By that I mean do you go back to a previously saved game when something bad happens. I do that all the time because I hate it when the computer cheats by defeating my cavalry with a warrior or something stupid like that. Is this cheating?

[airdrik]

Oh, I'm not the only one . I do that all the time. I just can't take a hit, though I guess I should learn to.

[Scouse Gits]

I think at one time or other perhaps on some earlier game - we have all done this -- but seriously these days it only serves to hone the finer points of your game when you find yourself extricating yourself from some diabolic position that a moments lack of concentration has shoved you into ...

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Scouse Git[1] -- git1@scousers.net

"Staring at your screen in horror and disbelief when you open a saved game is one of the fun things of a succession game " - Hueij
"The Great Library must be built!"
"A short cut has to be challenging,
were it not so it would be 'the way'." - Paul Craven

[Waaaaaayne]

I do this only when irritated really ridiculous things happen, normally. I have on occasion been known to get particularly annoyed with stubborn cities and reload untill one of my spies succesfully nocks them down but only when I haven't been getting enough sleep

I know of some people who use this trick to see the map, enemy units and things like that, intending to re-load all along, which I never do.

[Mixam]

I used to reload my game alot when I first started playing. Basically every time I didn't get an advanced city or non settler outta a hut. I still do on the rare occasion reload when it is like 5 am and I am tired and forgot to do something that turn that I promised myself I would. As for reloading if a spy is not successful. If you don't have enough spies that you don't even worry about that you don't have enough. I find I am beginning to produce only a few things now in my cities. With the exception of my SSC I only build a temple and a marketplace and later on maybe a bank and stock exchange. The only other things I produce are a few defenders then the city produces only diplos spies and caravans. I never worry whether a spy will succeed or not because there are 100 or so more behind him on their way there. Sometimes I have so many I will just put them all to sleep in a city near the front lines and use them as I need them ( but I usually forget they are there cause there are so damn many. Once i get ahead in the tech race and can build armors or Calvary or some other good offensive unit I switch all production to them. Usually by this time I am fundie and raking in the cash from tributes and from taking over cities. I find it funny later in the game when I think i don't have any more spies and then I look through all the cities displays and usually find 1-200 of them in a few cities and by now they are usually all vets from use. I wonder if this was on topic.

Well anyways don't reload you learn more when you screw up or the computer "cheats" then you do when you are kicking their ass.

[Ecthy]

I reload the game whenever I'm unhappy with some barbs or AI stuff.... no honor

[Ming]

It's not the best way to prepare for MP... since there are no resets in MP

If you need to reset to win, maybe you should be playing a lower level

But seriously, we play games for fun. Play however you enjoy the game.
However, if you are playing a challange or any type of game where you are going to brag about your results on these forums, please note the fact that you are a resetter in the same post you brag about your "wonderful" results

[War4ever]

Scouse Gits i agree with the resetting thing at one time or another.... now i actually find it amusing when my wars don't go as planned i curse then execute my military advisor (for flirting with april cantor) and appoint a more efficient fellow whom will concentrate on the task at hand

[Chris1111]

I reset when I lose my tank to a chariot,phalanx, or something equally as absurd. How the heck does a muskateer beat a battleship *curses* (must of been some gunshot).

[solo]

I guess the question to ask, would be, "Would I do this (whatever questionable thing you were tempted to do) if someone else were looking over my shoulder?"

quote: Originally posted by Chris1111 on 04-27-2001 08:52 PM How the heck does a muskateer beat a battleship *curses* (must of been some gunshot).

A lucky shot hit the captain through the windsheild, and the first mate was on a coffee break, and the ship was heading for a large rock...

No, the worst is when an AI caravel was the last thing in one of their cities, and two barb artillery attacked it. The caravel won, without a scratch.

[rah]

OK, I will admit it, when I used to play sp I would sometimes reset. But I can actually say that since I have been playing MP (which is quite a long time now), I haven't reset. It actually makes things more fun. Even when the poor phalanx beats the battleship. Responding to adversity is what makes this game so damn good. I really didn't appreciate that till playing MP.

RAH
MP is the only reason I still play this game.

[Gastrifitis]

When I saw this topic, I thought you meant turning on the Cheat menu and changing the game turn. I just saw that option the other day, since I don't use the Cheat menu much except for game experiments. Change the game turn back to 1, and suddenly it's 4000BC all over again, except that the actual game situation doesn't change. I wonder what that would do to the Powergraph?
[This message has been edited by Gastrifitis (edited April 29, 2001).]

[Father Beast]

I will sometimes go back several hundred years and play from a certain point, playing differently to see what would happen. i.e. going back to 100 A.D. and deciding to plop cities in a different pattern and push toward a different research goal. but because something irritating happens? Never. the outrageous dilemmas I find myself in are part of the spice.

well, almost never. I did play one game where I saved every turn (sometimes before every action) to reload and get the right goody hut results, battle results, etc. wasn't much fun, and I quit after about 1 A.D.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I rarely reset anymore, but will in two circumstances:
1) I didn't move where I intended to (curse of playing on a laptop with no numeric keypad)
2) The computer just plain cheats me. Recent example: I switch into democracy; one city is unhappy, because it has a trireme at sea. I make an elvis, the red citizen goes away, and my attitude advisor says everything is fine. Next turn, the city revolts again and my government collapses. Uh-uh; quit, reload, disband the damned boat, and appoint the attitude advisor to a diplimatic post in an ebola-ravaged backwater.

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Dig trenches, with our men being killed off like flies? There isn't time to dig trenches. We'll have to buy them ready made. Here, run out and get some trenches.
-- Rufus T. Firefly, the original rush-builder
[This message has been edited by Rufus T. Firefly (edited April 30, 2001).]

[Scouse Gits]

quote: Originally posted by Gastrifitis on 04-29-2001 11:05 AM When I saw this topic, I thought you meant turning on the Cheat menu and changing the game turn. I just saw that option the other day, since I don't use the Cheat menu much except for game experiments. Change the game turn back to 1, and suddenly it's 4000BC all over again, except that the actual game situation doesn't change. I wonder what that would do to the Powergraph? [This message has been edited by Gastrifitis (edited April 29, 2001).]

There was an example posted by ?Smash? about a month or two ago and the effect (on the Powergraph) is very obvious - unfortunately I have just spent five minutes searching and could not lay my hands on the link


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Scouse Git[1] -- git1@scousers.net

"Staring at your screen in horror and disbelief when you open a saved game is one of the fun things of a succession game " - Hueij
"The Great Library has been built!"
"A short cut has to be challenging,
were it not so it would be 'the way'." - Paul Craven

[Blaupanzer]

I did "reset" recently when I sold a bunch of improvements in order to rush-buy a Wonder, then forgot to actually rush-buy it. For virtually all other games, I only save to prevent a system crash from stealing hours of development. Thus, I wouldn't be going back to any key point. I save about once every two hours or when I build a Wonder. Other than the example above, can't remember going to an earlier start in an on-going game.

[Marquis de Sodaq]

I used to reset before tipping huts - because the AI is more or less immune to barbarians, and a barbarian horseman can easily wipe out my musketeer on forest, I figured it evened the tables some. Since learning that the AI needs these cheats to compete, I've rarely used it.

However, I do save at the end of every turn once my empire gets moderately large. If I forget to go thru my mental checklist (run down a barbarian leader, rush build this or that, demand tribute, etc), I'll reload if it was a crucial oversight. Such as forgetting to rush build the city walls in a town that is about to get sacked.

...Altho' letting it go might more accurately reflect a bureaucracy at work: "We told the administration the Mongols would be here in two turns! They didn't free up the gold needed to hire more workers to have the walls built in time! Something about a form not being filled out properly..."

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"There is no fortress impregnable to an ass laden with gold."
-Philip of Macedon