A Gameplay Example

[Hotimenhumeis]

Hello Xyth, I would like to give you my feedback through the (hi)story of my last game. I don't know about technicalities, but I think I know about playing and having fun and I'm writing exactly from this point of view. So.

I played on a small map, continents, 10 civs, no diplo victory, no tech brokering, marathon speed. I chose to play at prince level because I had in mind to write sooner or later this feedback. Actually I wanted the game to be easy so I could concentrate on all the things that in previous games I found a bit out of tune. Also I chose an easy leader, probably one of the most powerful in History Rewritten, Willem van Oranje.


ANCIENT ERA

If I remember well, I started in a very good spot, in the middle of one of the two continents. Some forests, four good sources of food, clay and a couple of bold hills. Actually, when I saw the land around my settler I knew my game was going to be a cakewalk.

I explored the continent and met my neighbours (3), one of them the nice lady from Polinesia. The people from the huts were very generous: they gave me archery and 303 gold.

I started to produce a worker and I researched agriculture and carving.

*** I guess the financial trait has something to do with interests. Well that is a really powerful power. Too powerful, I think. First I received a lot of gold from a hut, then I started to make money without moving a finger, which is weird considering I'm barely civilized at this point.

I discovered another continent above and the Arabs. My worker started to mould the land around Amsterdam. Actually, at prince level the AI is not really aggressive so I decided to produce a granary.

In the meanwhile I researched mining, pottery, pastoralism and masonry, then property.

*** I don't remember the exact year but it was kind of early when I discovered property. Also I don't know what exactly the AI was up to with technologies but property (which is a game changer) didn't seem to be its priority.

With monarchy and a city of size 3 or 4 I could start to produce archers very fast. I researched cerimonial burial, ritual and that one tech that reveals the copper. Then I went for writing. I produced archers like crazy and, sometimes, buildings to keep the city growing. I switched to tradition and agrarianism and started to conquer one of my neighbours (the Mongols). Actually I realized that more civs on the map didn't spice up my game but made it easier. When I reached writing (this time, I remember, was the 800 B.C., Homer times) I already had wiped out one of the neighbours and I was going to do the same with the second (keeping the lady for last).

*** I think I could expand too fast. The interests from my war chest kept my losses low. Also, I don't know exactly what tech allowed me to produce gold with the cities but, thanks to that, I could keep the research at 100%, expand and mantain my huge army. It was way too easy, even for prince level.

I built a library in Amsterdam and The Great Library (which comes too soon probably). I built a settler for a city in the south pole with access to the copper (not that i really needed it to conquer the underdeveloped Polinesia) and I researched the sea branch of the tech tree until astronomy and then philosophy.

*** Well, despite the prince level (or probably because of it) I think the tech tree is pretty close to the real history in ancient times. There are delays because some techs are supposed to be almost contemporary but I guess it's the nature of the game.

I don't remember when I founded a religion, late anyway (before writing though). Fact is that in History Rewritten religion seems to be very unimportant. What is really important are instead priests and great people. Actually a great people economy based on only one city, the capital, seems the easiest way to win. In fact I added the priest to the capital and started to produce a ton of GP.

*** I think religion is too weak. With all the resources in the game is really useless to build temples or even to convert cities before they grow very big. Also the money coming from religion is almost non influential and the limitation of a "cathedral" to build the holy building of each religion is a deal breaker. Why build a "cathedral" when in the same time you can build an army? I have problems also with GP. Actually I don't know exactly what changed in the philosophical trait, but I produced too many GP and too fast. This made my capital a crazy money-maker, in particular when i used it to produce money in "difficult" times.

I conquered also Polinesia and had the southern continent of the western world all for myself. I don't remember exactly all the techs from here but I know I hit middle age around 600 AD. My army was already powerful (lot of promotions) and I could make a lot of money (I mean producing money with the cities) to promote my soldiers for the next campaign.

*** I have to say, I like very much the tons of promotions, that's real fun. What I find really unbalanced is that I relatively need to build buildings because the resources (and some early buildings) cover much of my happiness and health.

Problem with arabs is that I have to build a huge fleet. Fortunately I'm very close to Mecca and I can limit myself to build cogs. I started also to build a lot of heavy horsmen because I want to promote them. They will be very useful later when I will promote them into helicopters. Arabs are easy to defeat because they are a couple of military techs behind and they have almost only coastal city on a very small continent.

*** When I finished with the arabs, I had the impression that middle age is kind of... not exciting. Okay, I was already very powerful but the point is that techs come without a very feeling of change. They don't give you any boost (I had already huge cities and a lot of gold) and I don't understand exactly how schools and monasteries work, but after I built them everywhere I simply could keep the same research pace as the one in late ancient era (7 turns for advanced techs).

I explored the seas and discovered another continent with 5 civs (they became 4 after a while because Indians were destroyed by Ho Chi Min and Vercingetorix). Anyway, I reached the industrial era and the game started to be entertaining again because I could start to plan the invasion of the other continent. Actually I had to rush an invasion of Egypt (the other survived civilization) because the Khmer asked me to join their crusade, a very good opportunity to set foot on the other continent.

Egypt was still in the middle age but the war (1800 more or less) was nice cause egypt became vassal of Vercingetorix and I had to stop a flood of troops from the huge celtic reign. I won in the end and, when I could promote my musketmen in riflemen, well, that was the end of the game. But I had to write a feedback, so I conquered only two other cities and waited for modern units.

*** The strange feeling between industrial and modern era is that techs come in a random order. There's something that doesn't make sense. Even if I was very advanced, I could discover some techs (like film or photography) just in historical time, then suddenly other techs way before historical time. Actually I'm less precise in talking about techs at this point because in modern times the tree is less interesting than in ancient times.

By the way, I discovered aviation etc. until the helicopters and paratroopers. End of the game: helicopters, bombers, paratroopers, with this formula you can conquer anything.

*** In an early game I played with this mod, I was just learning and I found that the promotion infantry-marine is problematic. I like very much the marine in your mod because it becomes finally useful, and I like of course to promote a strong infantry to a marine unit but, in the same time, there's something that doesn't work in this dynamics. The specificity of both units is kind of lost. Aside of this, I would really like to eliminate any possibility of amphibious attacks by mechanized units.

*** Okay. I had a lot of fun. It was way too easy (even in comparison with prince level on normal BTS) and I have the impression the AI doesn't understand properly the new tech tree. Also the AI had huuuuuge useless fleets and few soldiers, in particular in the ancient era.

*** I can't talk about the great wonders because I didn't see so much the impact on my civilization. What I can say is that in ancient times I built only the Great Library and I had no problems (I probably conquered the Pyramids).

*** Great People come up somehow too frequently and, combined with the early possibility to produce gold, soon you can find yourself with one city which can mantain even a huge empire.

*** Anyway, this mod is a great fun. I think middle age, industrial age and modern times miss some thrill while ancient times needs a bit of tuning (sometimes you have the impression techs are too slow, sometimes too fast). By the way, I can't say I'm not satisfied. I could make 3 wars in 3 different eras, having the time to enjoy the units from each of these eras. There are probably many other things I had in mind while I was playing and, probably, I'm also mixing some impressions I had in the few other games I played with this mod. I hope my feedback could be useful to you, Xyth. And thanks for this great mod.

 

[Xyth]

*** I guess the financial trait has something to do with interests. Well that is a really powerful power. Too powerful, I think. First I received a lot of gold from a hut, then I started to make money without moving a finger, which is weird considering I'm barely civilized at this point.

It is quite powerful, and one I've been meaning to keep a close eye on. The amount of wealth you can earn in interest is capped (at 10*number of eras) but, as you describe, early boosts in gold from huts can give you quite the free ride. I wonder if there should be a minimum threshold before interest payments kick in (500? 1000?).

*** I don't remember the exact year but it was kind of early when I discovered property. Also I don't know what exactly the AI was up to with technologies but property (which is a game changer) didn't seem to be its priority.

Prior to 0.9.5 Property only required Agriculture and Pastoralism, and didn't require Masonry. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I added the Masonry requirement (I suspect I meant to add it to the Royal Cemetery but added it to its tech instead) but it will be gone again for the next version. That will help the AI (and the player) immensely.

Actually I realized that more civs on the map didn't spice up my game but made it easier.

Yeah, depending on the map you get that's very often the case. I think The AI gets tied up with war and diplomacy too early and neglects research. The player can make smarter defense decisions and thus gets ahead in the

*** I think I could expand too fast. The interests from my war chest kept my losses low. Also, I don't know exactly what tech allowed me to produce gold with the cities but, thanks to that, I could keep the research at 100%, expand and mantain my huge army. It was way too easy, even for prince level.

You can currently build wealth after discovering Pottery. I'm thinking I may shift that back a few eras, there's no real reason for it to be so early.



*** Well, despite the prince level (or probably because of it) I think the tech tree is pretty close to the real history in ancient times. There are delays because some techs are supposed to be almost contemporary but I guess it's the nature of the game.

I don't remember when I founded a religion, late anyway (before writing though). Fact is that in History Rewritten religion seems to be very unimportant. What is really important are instead priests and great people. Actually a great people economy based on only one city, the capital, seems the easiest way to win. In fact I added the priest to the capital and started to produce a ton of GP.

*** I think religion is too weak. With all the resources in the game is really useless to build temples or even to convert cities before they grow very big. Also the money coming from religion is almost non influential and the limitation of a "cathedral" to build the holy building of each religion is a deal breaker. Why build a "cathedral" when in the same time you can build an army?

I agree. A lot of the benefits that religions bring in BTS are available in other forms in HR. They're still valuable for cultural (and religious!) victories of course but I think this is definitely something worth reviewing.

I have problems also with GP. Actually I don't know exactly what changed in the philosophical trait, but I produced too many GP and too fast. This made my capital a crazy money-maker, in particular when i used it to produce money in "difficult" times.

The GP part of the Philosophical trait hasn't changed (its still 100%) but there are several new GPP related buildings in HR, GPP from some civics, plus a number of free or easier to obtain specialists. Overall GPP generation is higher than BTS (personally I don't feel it too high) but this gets amplified too much by the Philosophical trait. I should probably cut its bonus to +50% GPP and if that makes the trait too weak, compensate it in other ways.

*** I have to say, I like very much the tons of promotions, that's real fun.

I've actually reverted that change for the next version as it was never meant to be released, I was just experimenting and forgot to remove the relevant code. I'm not against revisiting the concept though, so feedback (from everyone) on what works well with it and what doesn't is very welcome.

What I find really unbalanced is that I relatively need to build buildings because the resources (and some early buildings) cover much of my happiness and health.

Yeah that's still a work in progress. It's a lot better than it was a few versions back but its not quite there yet.

*** When I finished with the arabs, I had the impression that middle age is kind of... not exciting. Okay, I was already very powerful but the point is that techs come without a very feeling of change. They don't give you any boost (I had already huge cities and a lot of gold) and I don't understand exactly how schools and monasteries work, but after I built them everywhere I simply could keep the same research pace as the one in late ancient era (7 turns for advanced techs).

The Medieval era is largely focused on increasing economic and religious activity, one of which you had already covered quite well and the other you weren't really pursuing. Also espionage but I realize that that's not a fulfilling aspect of the game for many and I've not really made any significant changes to help with that (yet?). All that said, it's definitely one of the weaker eras and needs some work.

*** The strange feeling between industrial and modern era is that techs come in a random order. There's something that doesn't make sense. Even if I was very advanced, I could discover some techs (like film or photography) just in historical time, then suddenly other techs way before historical time. Actually I'm less precise in talking about techs at this point because in modern times the tree is less interesting than in ancient times.

That end of the tree is much newer addition than the pre-Industrial eras and still needs a fair bit of development. Please let me know which particular techs seem out of order to you and I'll see what I can do.

*** In an early game I played with this mod, I was just learning and I found that the promotion infantry-marine is problematic. I like very much the marine in your mod because it becomes finally useful, and I like of course to promote a strong infantry to a marine unit but, in the same time, there's something that doesn't work in this dynamics. The specificity of both units is kind of lost.

I definitely wanted the Marine to be a bit more useful and I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying it. Do you feel there's still a role for Infantry by the time the Marine is available? If so, that upgrade path doesn't really need to be there. I added it as I thought that Infantry would/should become redundant but I could well be wrong in that assumption.

Aside of this, I would really like to eliminate any possibility of amphibious attacks by mechanized units.

Yes, that would be a good thing. I'm not sure if there's much I can do about it directly but I'll do some investigating.

*** Okay. I had a lot of fun. It was way too easy (even in comparison with prince level on normal BTS) and I have the impression the AI doesn't understand properly the new tech tree.

The techtree is a little too tightly interwoven in 0.9.5. I need to remove and otherwise loosen a few links and that will certainly help the AI a fair bit.

Also the AI had huuuuuge useless fleets and few soldiers, in particular in the ancient era.

That's curious. I'm not sure what could have led to that.

*** Anyway, this mod is a great fun. I think middle age, industrial age and modern times miss some thrill while ancient times needs a bit of tuning (sometimes you have the impression techs are too slow, sometimes too fast). By the way, I can't say I'm not satisfied. I could make 3 wars in 3 different eras, having the time to enjoy the units from each of these eras.

Really pleased to hear you're enjoying it. Having time to enjoy each era of units is exactly what I want to achieve, now to get everything else tuned to work with that.

There are probably many other things I had in mind while I was playing and, probably, I'm also mixing some impressions I had in the few other games I played with this mod. I hope my feedback could be useful to you, Xyth. And thanks for this great mod.

This feedback is definitely useful, thank you very much for taking the time to write it!

 

[Hotimenhumeis]

1) I think "interest" should come with banks in the middle age. If you want to have something similar in the ancient era, you can give some kind of financial power to temples (which would make very interesting again to have a religion and religious buildings). Actually, priests were also money lenders so it makes sense that temples could give you some financial advantage.

But the most important thing is that you create a radical change in the economy after the invention of banks: that is the moment, I think, we should be able to convert the cities' hammers in gold, not before (because as soon as they were invented, as Machiavelli said, banks started to become "a State in the State", and the notion of public debt started to acquire the modern meaning).

2) The boost from monarchy is great, as I also said before, but surely the AI has to understand it properly to keep the pace. Though I didn't play previous versions of your mod, I understand why you added masonry as a prerequisite for property: I don't know if I'm right or if I'm only projecting my feelings, but maybe you thought that choosing the way straight to property/monarchy should be balanced by some disadvantage. And if this is the case, I agree. Maybe the path through masonry is not the right disadvantage.

Also, I think you can't have monarchy without cerimonial burial and ritual and, if I remember well, you don't need them to get to property, or do you?

3) Yeah, GP's for one reason or another are too powerful.

4) You know, I think you shouldn't revert the promotion stuff. Actually your mod is the first one I play where promotions make sense. Normally, in particular at higher levels, I don't mind about promotions, your units get promoted and so the AI's, but in the end the war is a question of quantity not quality. Having some powerful units (real veterans!), instead, gave me a possibility to manage the military production in a new and different way: I could really choose what units I wanted to produce and why. Despite one of the "tips" in the loading window of BTS, I really find useless to analyze the units of my opponents and I always build the stronger offensive units and, sometimes, the stronger defensive units. But with your easy promotions, becomes very important to choose wisely the units to build.

Also having very strong units makes their update more palatable. In fact, in particular at medium-high levels, I prefer to build new units and keep the money in my pockets (which I can spend, for example, to rush a building, something that gives you more advantage than a unit update).

And talking about units, I think infantry should be way less expensive than the marine (this is the advantage) but the marine should come with some more bonuses (what would make a real difference is that promotion that gives you the power to walk into enemy territory). Infantry and marines become redundant when armies become professional. But still today there is in many countries a difference between normal infantry and special troops (like marines). If you transform the marines in kind of "early helicopters", they become very important units, very powerful for raids, blitzkrieg etc... (and, of course for amphibious attacks - if only that silly thing of amphibious attack of tanks would stop! - actually I always missed the logic in this choice of developers, it takes away all the thrill of a "Normandy Landing")... and, in the same time, infantry remains the main unit for defense (cheap but strong) and/or for modern wars (with conscription armies).

 

[Xyth]

1) I think "interest" should come with banks in the middle age. If you want to have something similar in the ancient era, you can give some kind of financial power to temples (which would make very interesting again to have a religion and religious buildings). Actually, priests were also money lenders so it makes sense that temples could give you some financial advantage.

Given it's from a trait and not available to every civ it would be a awkward to have it attached to a building. Perhaps to a tech though.

But the most important thing is that you create a radical change in the economy after the invention of banks: that is the moment, I think, we should be able to convert the cities' hammers in gold, not before (because as soon as they were invented, as Machiavelli said, banks started to become "a State in the State", and the notion of public debt started to acquire the modern meaning).

Yep, Finance in the Medieval era does seem to be the ideal technology to unlock wealth building. The drawback is that it would mean wealth building and culture building (at Patronage) are unlocked quite close together which I don't think is ideal. I'll have to think about what to do there.

2) The boost from monarchy is great, as I also said before, but surely the AI has to understand it properly to keep the pace. Though I didn't play previous versions of your mod, I understand why you added masonry as a prerequisite for property: I don't know if I'm right or if I'm only projecting my feelings, but maybe you thought that choosing the way straight to property/monarchy should be balanced by some disadvantage. And if this is the case, I agree. Maybe the path through masonry is not the right disadvantage.

It was actually for a much more foolish reason. I shifted the Royal Cemetery to Property and figured that you should at least have Masonry to be able to build the Cemetery and it's related UWs. Unfortunately it seems I attached the Masonry prerequisite to Property instead of the national wonder it now unlocked.

I used to have a similarly convoluted path to Monarchy in much earlier versions of the mod. But because things like Cottages are available much later in HR, Monarchy became a crucial civic for the early game. I decided to make it easy to obtain so that neither players or the AI would get left behind without it.

Also, I think you can't have monarchy without cerimonial burial and ritual and, if I remember well, you don't need them to get to property, or do you?

They are not needed for Property and that was intentional. That way a civ that heads straight for Monarchy doesn't get an early religion enroute, and vice versa. Basically at the start of the game I want players to have a choice whether they go first for the economic benefits of Monarchy, early religion, Slavery + Pyramids, or an early rush of Axemen/etc. Whichever suits their strategy and situation.

I'm going to start a new thread on the promotions as I think its a worthwhile discussion with some strong views for and against. I'll also shift the Infantry ---> Marine talk to the units thread.

 

[Hotimenhumeis]

Hello again, Xyth.

Another gameplay example (I can just play during the weekends):

This time I played at monarch, continents, random civ, no diplo victory, no tech brokering, 6 civs, marathon, small world.

I ended up with the sumerian civ and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is Traditional (a trait, so it seemed to me, that didn't make a great difference during the game; and progressive which is a very strong trait, mainly because of the +100% growth bonus for cottages which, I guess, compensates the malus of redistribution; by the way, also the -50% unit upgrade cost and 1 scientist per city are not bad).

The strongest trait of Gilgamesh, though, is the UU, the Vulture, a powerful axeman who can survive very long in the game.

Random thouhgts:

1) First of all I found the monarch level just a bit more difficult than prince. There are great improvements in the behavior of the AI, thanks to the small bonuses, but all in all monarch is very similar to prince.

If you remember, last time I played with a financial leader. I was very happy this time to play with a leader without this trait because, at least for a while, I had to worry about gold. We already discussed it, but I would like to repeat that the financial trait is definitely too powerful, it makes the game much more easy allowing you basically to ignore money (in particular if you are lucky with huts or if you go early to war).

2) I had some gold from the huts (it seems very easy to win gold in the huts lottery and very difficult to receive scouts or warriors), no techs and 1 promotion. I didn't say the last time, but the beginnings are a lot of fun. You certainly have to go for property sooner or later but you have to choose wisely the early techs if you want to maximize the efficiency of your first worker and the potentialities of your capital. Of course, everything depends on the land around you first city, but this is the core spirit of the game, isn't it? And you definitely improved it.

3) I found myself on a continent with only 1 neighbor, the indians (Chandragupta). I didn't mind about the traits of Chandragupta because I was pretty sure I could manage the indians before the middle age with my vultures (so I can't say anything about how the AI managed the traits of Chandragupta). Because of the vultures, I renounced to try an early-early rush, but I have to say I was very relieved to see that at monarch the AI seems to protect its cities with a real army. The closest indian city had a garrison of 3 archers and 2 chariots very early, so I suspect anyway my early-early rush could or would have been a disaster.

I searched the basic techs, property, then I went for bronze working instead of writing. Again, from the first turns I had the impression I could take my time and didn't need to worry about the Great Library. I founded a couple of cities and then I started to build my army. While I was building the GL (again too early, around 700 BC) I was also conquering the last indian city.

4) I can't say my economy was flourishing. The indian empire was already very big when I started the war and I didn't raze any city (indians settled pretty well and their land was better than mine). During the war I had to slow down my research for more or less one century (60%) and someone on the other continent built a couple of wonders I would have liked to build myself but, no matter what, it was clear that the technologic tie was only temporary. As soon as I could use my cities to produce gold (first mine, then the indians') the game was over.

5) The tech progression (as I noted in my other game) works very well in the ancient times and needs some tuning in the middle and renaissance ages. From industrial times on is a bit problematic. Playing at prince I was so ahead of times that I barely noted that in modern and industrial times you have so many techs to build that inevitably you miss some pieces of the historical feeling. In this game I won for domination around 1910, after I wiped out the american empire on the other continent and a piece of the korean empire, but while I had discovered most of the techs of the times, I still was missing some of the important ones (I made a kind of WWI without planes, for example). I can't say it was my fault because I was very advanced in comparison to the other civs (all of them still in the middle age or in the renaissance age).

6) This time I played with a bit more attention and specialized some of my cities. I made a couple of production cities and a couple of financial cities (one my capital, empowered by bureaucracy). The rest were mixed. I didn't mind to make a GP city because GP popped up maybe not fast like in my other game (van Oranje is also philosophical) but still fast enough. What I said for the prince level is true also for the monarch level: it's easier than vanilla BTS, the more easy the more you try to play a competitive game.

7) I'm an intuitive-trial-by-error player, so I don't know exactly why, but switching to more "advanced" forms of government didn't really improve my finances neither my research pace, actually it worsened them. So I kept my bureaucratic-jurisdictive-confederation until the end (I switched to democracy, equal rights and free market but it didn't work so well). I know the civics are not meant to be in an absolute scale but it seems to me that some of them are simply too powerful in comparison to the others. Or, anyway, it's not clear what techs/building/shape of your empire you need to mantain some of the civics and which exactly are the pros and cons.

8) Promotions of the units are actually a bit too powerful. I changed my mind after this game because I managed my army more efficiently and, well, I was 'really' powerful in the end. But surely i agree with who says that the very first promotions are too hard to achieve.

9) The game was fun and I think it would have been a bit more challenging (just that bit of vanilla BTS) without the advantage of the money production. Still, monarch is an easy level but that kind of easy that could become very entertaining in particular conditions and/or if you decide to role-play a peaceful leader (go to war only when attacked, for example). I won before I could really play the modern era but I have to say I hadn't any desire to go in the mess (sorry for the word) of the last branch of the tech tree.

10) Again, the AI built a lot of ships and didn't use them wisely (it could destroy my fleet of privateers with its endless fleets of dromons and cogs but it only used them - during wartimes - to patrol the sea in groups of two).

11) The coherence of the historical timeline was a problem too. I entered in the middle age just in time but then in the renaissance age very late (I was half way in the 15th century), then I reached the industrial age in perfect time. And, again, I was late for the modern age. it's okay, it can happen in a game but the impression, while I was playing, was that it was because there something out of tune in the tech tree, not because of 'historical contingencies'. And one more thing: from the medieval age, the tech progression 'inside' every single age is like an elastic band, sometimes you find yourself very ahead of times, sometimes you are late.

12) There is surely something I forgot to say but here is very late and the bed is calling me since a while now. I hope again the description of my game will be useful to your work and I hope you will continue to develop this wonderful mod.

 

[Xyth]

If you remember, last time I played with a financial leader. I was very happy this time to play with a leader without this trait because, at least for a while, I had to worry about gold. We already discussed it, but I would like to repeat that the financial trait is definitely too powerful, it makes the game much more easy allowing you basically to ignore money (in particular if you are lucky with huts or if you go early to war).

I'm still working on a solution for the Financial trait. I've lowered the chance you get gold from huts a little.

I searched the basic techs, property, then I went for bronze working instead of writing. Again, from the first turns I had the impression I could take my time and didn't need to worry about the Great Library. I founded a couple of cities and then I started to build my army. While I was building the GL (again too early, around 700 BC) I was also conquering the last indian city.

The Great Library is shifting to Philosophy in the next version.

This time I played with a bit more attention and specialized some of my cities. I made a couple of production cities and a couple of financial cities (one my capital, empowered by bureaucracy). The rest were mixed. I didn't mind to make a GP city because GP popped up maybe not fast like in my other game (van Oranje is also philosophical) but still fast enough. What I said for the prince level is true also for the monarch level: it's easier than vanilla BTS, the more easy the more you try to play a competitive game.

For the next version I'm experimenting with specialists giving +2 GPP instead of +3 GPP. Still testing it, but so far I think it's working really well. Brings Great People back to more sensible levels.

Promotions of the units are actually a bit too powerful. I changed my mind after this game because I managed my army more efficiently and, well, I was 'really' powerful in the end. But surely i agree with who says that the very first promotions are too hard to achieve.

Yeah, the feedback has been overwhelmingly similar. It was never meant to go live, and it'll be reverted.

The game was fun and I think it would have been a bit more challenging (just that bit of vanilla BTS) without the advantage of the money production.

Wealth production will shift to Finance in the Medieval era in the next version.

I won before I could really play the modern era but I have to say I hadn't any desire to go in the mess (sorry for the word) of the last branch of the tech tree.

Please let me know some specifics that you dislike about about this section of the tree, techs that feel out of order, connections that don't make sense, things that are unlocked in the wrong place, etc. The Modern era is the most recently added part of the tree so it's a lot less refined than the rest. I need specific feedback to help improve it though.

The coherence of the historical timeline was a problem too. I entered in the middle age just in time but then in the renaissance age very late (I was half way in the 15th century), then I reached the industrial age in perfect time. And, again, I was late for the modern age. it's okay, it can happen in a game but the impression, while I was playing, was that it was because there something out of tune in the tech tree, not because of 'historical contingencies'. And one more thing: from the medieval age, the tech progression 'inside' every single age is like an elastic band, sometimes you find yourself very ahead of times, sometimes you are late.

The next version is going to have some significant changes to the calendar. The current calendar is just the BTS one unchanged and doesn't match all of HR's new content particularly well. I don't expect the new calendar system to match progression perfectly to begin with but it will be a better foundation to make adjustments from til we get it right.

There is surely something I forgot to say but here is very late and the bed is calling me since a while now. I hope again the description of my game will be useful to your work and I hope you will continue to develop this wonderful mod.

Very useful, thank you! Don't worry, I have no plans to cease development of HR any time soon. I hope to have the next version out quite soon.