Very good review - and pretty much about where I'd place it... 60% feels about right - I might quibble with a few plus, a few minuses here and there.
But - coming from someone who's mods I've played religiously and whose opinion I highly value as a sanity check against my own emotions... I guess I feel better about my - disappointment, thus far - being not crazy.
My quibbles, thoughts, and ideas...
On war/1UpT-
I had an idea last night that maybe it's time to bring back the Civ3 armies in some form. I think 1UpT/hex is one of the biggest pluses in 5 - but it needs to work better. On the player side, while I hated stacks, too -- the one thing stacks did make for is a much easier troop movement. Moving an "army" via hex/1upt is a real pain. In addition, the AI never seems to position properly -- grouping appropriately, etc.
Sooo... add in the "army" concept and kill two birds! Keep 1UpT -- but allow Great Generals to also create an army -- the user could construct the "army" however they saw fit (i.e., whatever formation and composition... say with a limit of 4 units). Nerf the army a bit by limiting it to the sum of its units 1UpT -- i.e., an army of:
X
XXX
couldn't move through a single tile mountain pass because it's got a 3 hex width. The general could overlay whichever unit (presumably, the middle X, which I would envision as siege unit). If it lands amphibiously, it either can only partially disembark or has to fight its way ashore in certain tiles. To completely disembark, it needs the full tile spaces available. Limit it to one tile per turn moves.
Maybe you also give it some "citadel" like powers -- let it be flanked, but if you end a turn directly touching an army, ranged units get free shots. This would then force players to truly flank with fast units. You could also have rules "general killed = army dies", so there would be value in "getting behind" an army and attacking from the rear.
I have to think this would also allow the AI to better position units -- you could give it templates... say... 1 archer + 1 siege + 2 melee and appropriate formations. This would "build in" some AI intelligence with properly aligning forces (i.e., you'd force it to "lead" with melee, with ranged units stacked behind it).
1UpT and reduced movement makes it not very maneuverable, but you'd have to work your way around it to beat it. Direct combat, I could see, happening a variety of ways...
Peace:
Diplomacy is definitely more interesting.
Agree entirely. Better to hide things -- though, there should be an easy way to list "what you've done" to the AI... I.e., I'm not saying provide points values or anything -- but if I broke a pact of secrecy, there should be a way for me to see that I've done that... be it via advisers or whatever. It's not a "secret" value - and it doesn't give much away, but I should be able to easily see a list of actions I've done to either please or tick them off.
Cities, Gold, and Happiness, oh my!
Here's where I find most of my disagreement -- on a few points.
First - agree completely and wholeheartedly on city defense... I absolutely love it.
Agree on golden ages.
Disagree on Great People... My biggest beef with great people is that it's basically an immediate "spend him!" -- there's no decision making process. In Civ IV - you quite often wanted to "keep" a GP... maybe to pop a religion at the right time, maybe to keep for corporation/guild usage, etc. There were sometimes painstaking decisions -- keep the GP or spend him on gold/research/settle/etc? Now - beyond maybe keeping an engineer around for wonder rushing, you can't settle or spend them fast enough. I don't like auto-decisions.
I likewise disagree on global happiness... I think the fact that city's are no longer something to manage, and the boring multi-turn "Next" with nothing to do are inherently tied to the globalness of things like unhappiness. Maybe going all the way back to Civ4 isn't the answer, but I think if you want to make cities meaningful, you NEED some sort of city-specific modifiers that are worth dealing with. Health and Happiness weren't gamebreakers in IV -- sure, you could have a smoldering city with a green unhealthy face - and not be concerned, figuring "I'll change civics eventually, just wait another 30 turns", but you had to be SOMEWHAT involved in individual city management to work them optimally. I love and agree with the idea of including revolutions -- definitely, a really fun part of RoM/AND -- but to implement that in a logical way, there's simply no getting around the fact that you HAVE TO model individual city happiness in some way. I'm fine with a "global modifier is king" system -- but there ought to be micro-modifiers at the city level.
City States, Social Policies, and how I learned to love the new victory conditions.
Social policies - I very much like.... I just don't think they should have REPLACED Civics or some manner of "government". They should have been add-ons or modifiers... Perhaps nerfing civics, perhaps as factors that make tried and true civic combinations less cut and dry. Perhaps COSTING you culture towards an SP every time you switch, rather than anarchy (in fact, I rather like that... say... add Civics back, but make switching a 20% culture accumulation cost).
City States, I think, are a badly flawed implementation of the baby civ/barbarian civ idea... I like that they work differently than "other civs" -- but they simply play too large a role in diplomacy, and what's worse -- right now, they're an exploit. I'm basically feeding my whole empire, building my whole army, AND getting a nifty culture boost towards SPs solely via City states... that's too much. They need nerfing, badly. I also think they should spawn occasionally, rather than just being there from day 1. It feels wrong that you have these "Civs but not really Civs" that just sit there until allied or conquered. I'm not quite sure exactly where it is -- but I think there's a sweet spot in between Jdogg's "revolutions" mod and City States.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Wonders are supposed to be the pinnacle of gameplay, providing something to work and strive for.
Amen! As someone that loves building the wonders - I'm really ticked at what's been done to them. Most of them are near worthless. They're anti-climatic -- and I'd say they're too expensive for what they provide, except... buildings are pricey, too. What's worse -- most of them provide a "one time" benefit. A GP or 2. A tech or two. To make Wonders valuable - there need to be more of them that add global, lasting effects.
I completely disagree on Steam, but I don't want to turn this into a Steam thread... so no more on that here.
All in all, though -- I have to say... I'm extremely happy to read this review knock a lot of the same things we've been knocking. Given how awesome AND is -- it makes me that much more excited to see what you come up with for V.
What's more -- I think it's a testament to AND (and RoM, and all the mods that went into it) that I really find myself saying "compare against vanilla IV or BTS, not AND".
Well worth the wait.
