Hi,

I know of this: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/why-always-american-civs.685361/, but not anything else.

So turn of culturally linked starts anyway, maybe try the C3X mod (same game with qol and better AI), I have just installed that recently, so I cannot tell if it solves this specific issue.


https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/c3x.28759/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxQ5dVABJcQ

Both links for C3X. Suede's channel might be interesting anyway, if you have just started.

Right at the start you are offered the choice to play the nations you prefer. (vanilla game - no mods). The selections are made to the right of the portrait of your chosen leader. Once you have chosen your selection should remain unchanged for future games unless you choose to play a different number of cultures. My experience has been if you increase the number then the added cultures will be random. If you decrease it then you will get the same opponents in the same sequence as your saved selection, but only up to the number chosen. I invariably have America, Russia, Germany and England as the first three players with my chosen culture the fourth element. I then frequently leave the rest as random to keep things interesting.

Culturally linked starts means that the positions of the civilisation's first settler would be relative to those of other civilisations who in the real world are closest to them. In other words, with Culturally linked starting positions enabled, China and Japan would start close together, Germany and France, England and Celts and so on. Turning this on or off will NOT alter the selection of cultures you play against.

Note:- Using mods may change how this works.

Also scenario maps (CIV Content) may rarely be set up with specific races in predetermined positions. If this is the case then you will not get the option to change the cultures which have been blocked by the scenario though there may be the option for some user defined cultures. This is never the case if you choose random maps.

Originally posted by Wai:

Once you have chosen your selection should remain unchanged for future games unless you choose to play a different number of cultures.

So those will always be your competetors. Why would you do that ?

You select your own nation to the left of the portrait.

Originally posted by Wai:

Culturally linked starts means that the positions of the civilisation's first settler would be relative to those of other civilisations who in the real world are closest to them. In other words, with Culturally linked starting positions enabled, China and Japan would start close together, Germany and France, England and Celts and so on. Turning this on or off will NOT alter the selection of cultures you play against.

Really ? I thought that if you have e.g. Germany on the map, the likelyhood of France or Italy appearing is more likely if the game decides another nation would appear nearby. So this would alter the selection of countries (if not chosen manually).
Any hard evidence ?

"This is the Cultural Linkage bug.

If you play with all-Random Civs, you need to turn off "Culturally linked starts" in the 'Choose Your Civ' setup screen, or you will always get the American Civs as opponents. And since there are 5 of them, on a Small or Tiny map, they will take up all the available slots." (from that 1st Civfanatics link, 2023)

Originally posted by Wai:

My experience has been if you increase the number then the added cultures will be random.

No, you choose: either random or pick a specific nation or none. You can make that decision for each single slot.

Oh, there was a discussion here already, the last post is interesting. I have to try that :)

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/3910/discussions/0/3768987223313616751/

Then again, I always choose "All Random" and play with the maximum number of Civs( cultural links off) and I don't really notice the problem. Probably just a curse for others ;)

Sry for multi-posting, 3:14 a.m. here, a little tired.

The safest way to make sure everything is random is probably doing a little lottery in RL (draw papers or use a cube for land types) and insert the results manually into the game). The disadvantage is that you know what to exspect. Except if someone else does it and starts the game for you without letting you know what will be in it ... haha :)

Originally posted by Nuada:

Originally posted by Wai:

Once you have chosen your selection should remain unchanged for future games unless you choose to play a different number of cultures.

So those will always be your competetors. Why would you do that ?

You select your own nation to the left of the portrait.

No, sorry if I did not make it clear. You can change your selection of competitors on the right at any time and as often as you wish. But, whatever you select will always remain as default for subsequent games until you choose to change the selection. When you make a change the new selection becomes the default. So, change every time if you wish. Very simple and very logical.

In answer to your question:- Those will always be your competitors unless you decide differently. at the start of your new game.

Certainly, if you choose America (for example) as a selected nation and have culturally linked starts "on" then you are likely to get some of your random slots filled with nations linked to America. If you play as America (for example) and choose all random competitors then some or all will be linked to America depending on how many competitors you have. Ditto if you choose England then English cultural links are more likely to fill Random slots, etc.

Originally posted by Nuada:

Originally posted by Wai:

My experience has been if you increase the number then the added cultures will be random.

No, you choose: either random or pick a specific nation or none. You can make that decision for each single slot.

Yes. The defaults given you will always be "Random" if more, until you change them. I thought that was obvious. Ie:- until you replace each "Random" with your specific choice. Say I have England, America, Japan, Russia and China as my choices for my last game. The next game will have these nations in slots one to five with the other slots random. If I want to add Greece then I must physically change a random slot to Greece. If I no longer want Japan then I must change the slot to Random, or None, or select a different nation for that slot. It is all very easy and very flexible.

I just don't have any prefixed nations. I always choose all random (actively click on it) and they are all random. I don't experience what you describe. So it is not traceable for me.

You think the OP just left his choices standing there and that is the problem?

I thought that was too obvious, of course they will be your competitors if they stand to the right. And he wrote "often" and not "always".

So, jfreitascdl, can you tell us ? Have you been able to solve the problem ?

Thanks for the replies everyone. I had not noticed that those same Civs were already selected in the drop down menu. I've set it to random and disabled the culturally linked starting points. I assumed that the default setting would be random.

:)

Have fun with the game.