Classical start era ... what themes are related to classical? I'm not into classic cars. I enjoy classical music but am by no means a music aficionado. Classical mechanics though, that is a starting point that I can work with to spin off a theme. Physics is fun! Classical mechanics is interesting, but since it was solved a couple hundred years ago, let's go Quantum! Clearly the capital must be Aether.

And I'll start you off with this video ... yes it's 6 years old, yes it's 40 minutes long, yes it's worth watching if you are at all interested in physics, electricity, magnetism, optics:

I finally have a good game-appropriate theme! Theme will be things that come in 3s. I have so many ideas.

An example of a map we'll not be using:

   

After the first was poorly shaped and so couldn't accomodate well-spaced players, the second pangaea I rolled with the settings Cornflakes suggested somehow included the above ... lovely? ... astro island. If you check the minimap, you can also see the mainland that looks something like a dinosaur standing hungrily over this ... delicious? ... land. I somehow felt this wasn't what the players were looking for....

The third map looked lovely, but had two major problems, one of which was again that water would be too important. The fourth looks promising though if the players are sold on these settings and remain with only four. (Or for that matter if they back-pedal and want fewer land tiles per player but get a fifth to join.) I'll post it if it looks like that's what we're going with after all.

Hello everyone!

What are the current best strategies to play against lunatic, with CoM II?

I've been trying a sorcery + nature run (focus magic, flying sprites; aura of majesty; etc). 

I'd like to try a new one with death, or perhaps with fire.

Suggestions are welcome!

What to do when I feel like after so many years I'm finally getting the grasp on Civ4 MP?

That's right, start fumbling my moves in a different game

Come laugh at my fumbles

Was trying to figure out where to post this, but ya random question.

Playing team game with a friend vs AIs and I could have SWORN that tiles inside both players city crosses basically were cultural battles. We've played a descent amount of games together and that is the way I remember it working. However, this time for some reason my culture is winning???? %s noted are his culture and both my cities are fairly new. I am creative for what its worth, but still the best % I have is 10%. Settled another filler and it also started taking tiles I didn't think it should take. 

It would be great if we can add higher resolution portraits for heroes and wizards or even ability icons and map tiles.

 Would implementing such a change be difficult ? Tried testing with some higher resolution map tiles but the game doesn't scale them correctly.

I have flirted with joining a game recently, but have thus far always decided against it. Which has made me think about why, and I think the reason is this. Compared to when I started (2020), it feels as though the barrier to entry has risen significantly to play MP civ. I mean this in terms of both new players, but also the amount of time/care that all players have to put into their civ to remain competitive. Theoretically I could play a game where my turns are <20 mins until the late game, but my chances of winning are practically zero. Whereas if I take a long time for my turns, I can usually contend with strong players. So to me, this time/energy input is the main predictor of relevance in a game.

Questions for the forum:

1. Does your experience align with this? Or is it a 'me' problem?

2. Is this an issue? I think it is, because it makes attracting new players very difficult, and retaining experienced ones somewhat difficult (I'd use myself as an example of someone who lost interest because the constraints of playing competitively were too high). But perhaps others disagree.

3. If it is an issue, how is it solved? Greens games are, in my opinion, not a great solution because the greens will just get eaten up once they move out of that space. But perhaps there are other solutions.
3a. How could a game be set up to restrict the amount of time players can spend on it? Is that possible, or a red herring?

4. Has this always been an issue? I feel as though it has worsened since 2020, but perhaps it is just that my life is busier.

5. For people who are typically not competing for wins, why do you join games? I mean that as a serious question: what is the part of Civ4 that you enjoy and keep coming back for? For me, winning is too much of the fun to sign up for games where I am extremely unlikely to contend, but clearly that is not the case for some people.

6. In contrast to Q4, for the people who are typically competitive but take a lot of time on their turns, how do you balance this with your real life?

Well, not really.