Early game playbalance

[myemail21479]

I noticed that I seem to see new games at around 1800 bc, with 50-90 people in the game already. When I log in, all the great people have been priced up to 3k+ as it is becoming more common knowledge to snag them before they get expensive.

In my last game, I had a player on my team with 14 great builders, early in the game. Lets just say we attacked nonstop, won culture, military and science victories at will. Getting that GP jump before anyone else is key.

I would like 2 things to help adjust this, everyone starts with 10 hour lead notice once game gets full, similar to how battles give a 10 hour warning. Second is to not sell great people like the other items in the market. You can get culture to get them (putting a larger emphasis on culture and wonders in general) or you can auction them off.

My second tweak is I would make military victory give 1 wonder at random, not all. Cultural and military victories seem to go hand in hand, and in the last 2 games it is obvious the team who gets the military jump early, can just maul everyone the entire game and rack both of these up.

I would lastly like way more strategy to battles, but I posted that before. Would be great to fortify or somehow lose the battle, but do more damage to the opposing side. Some way to counter balance a military civ that starts to steamroll everyone.

[Grzechu]

I agree, and was thinking about that many times.
Game SHOULD start only when 200 players already joined, so that all (except for time zones...) are equal...
Now i try to join a game at earliest stage possible to quick get GP.
Yes, i, for example, in game 203, had 14, then 18 GP in the early game. Thats something. Now i joined too late and all cheap GP were already taken
IMHO thats really annoying and unnecessary imbalance...
Its like: not the smartest win but the fastest one, and with some luck with seeing game and being able to stay online for some time since game started

[NickV]

Part of the problem is the market is under-priced at the beginning of the game. I mean everything on the market, units, resources, and GPs. The starting costs of market goods should be at least the average price they get to in the first 2000 years of an average game or something.

[dkk]

Higher GP prices coupled with more frequent puzzle swaps would help the GP rush strategy.

Though it's still possible to get massive quantities of GPs over the course of a game without having to get in first.

[Sarcerok]

I completely agree with the OP. Starting early, and knowing what to do with that edge, really is the most important non-exploit factor in winning a game. It really favors those people that have time to stare at the game page for hours, and then stay up for many hours after that. Those with no life. I'm forced into that category if I want to win, and it makes for negative faction points with my mate. All players in a game really should have enough warning that they could all start at the same time. Or start the game once the 200th person joins. Please fix involuntary joining too so that we know there are actually 200 active players.

Since this is a game of economic warfare, any early economic advantage continues to compound so that even a small advantage early on can make for a huge advantage later on.

[Glinda]

I'd agree with your comments, but then you had to go to the mean, ad hominem "no life" place. I have a very busy life, but it involves a lot of sitting at a desk with a computer, and Civ World is a perfect 5 minute break from the very important work I am doing.

[Sarcerok]

I apologize, I did not mean to demean your very important and rewarding desk work. I meant all the other people that are not getting paid to play CivWorld.