One thing I've seen over and over from p/reviews and forum posters is how great it is tha the end-game tedium that has long plagued the Civ franchise is gone. And I admit that the new World Congress is fun and promising, and that trade routes, ideology, and tourism/new culture give you more things to do. But, I'm finding (in my sample size of one game) that the late game still seems tedious. Game was Archipelago (random, actually) on Emperor, epic speed and standard rules. I kicked it down from my usual Immortal for the expansion and since I had 't played in months.
At least in my game, very few World Congress resolutions really felt momentous. Once the few early ones were done, like group projects and arts vs. science funding, it felt like selecting from a list of things I knew would never pass (World Religion) or things that I didn't care about at all. Maybe my game was unusual that way since it was relatively peaceful, which in turn may have been because I was on random and got archipelago. But WC just left me feeling a little empty. Especially when, for all the talk of improved diplo wins, I won by buying every CS on the map and winning while everyone else voted for him/herself. I tried brining Babylon to vote for me but to no avail, despite having over. 40,000 gold and 630 income to bribe with.
Tourism, once I got the hang of it, also didn't feel like it was adding much meat to the gamemore like empty calories. I got Archaeology and Exploration early, and quickly found myself with more useless beads than I knew what to do with. Pretty soon I was settling useless landmarks everywhere just to avoid running out of slots for works of art. The works trading system is really lackluster, and once I filled the Louvre and my Hermitage for their theming bonuses, I felt like new culture wins were a lot like the old ones. Just waiting for circles to fill up. Except the old way, as non-interactive as it was, at least gave me rewards. I'm talking from a strictly behaviorist perspective here. Getting a new policy and hearing the pen-scratch sound is a good reinforcement. The new way, AFAIK, doesn't really give me an incremental reward in the same way as I get closer to victory. It's just a binary "I've won or I haven't yet" system. Also the fact that another civ pursuing culture makes it so tedious hurts it a lot, although having interactivity in culture wins (past nuking then) is really good.
The one thing I really did like, though, was the ideological blocs. While just basing ideologies off culture, effectively making them slightly more customizable trees, is a big disappointment, I loved how they influenced politics. I was first, getting Freedom, and then when my two closest allies Ethiopia and Carthage took Order and Autocracy respectively, we started drifting apart, becoming rivals. Ethiopia even sent a fleet after me I think, but rush-buying a fleet of WWI bombers and upgrading my Frigates to Battleships made him think better of it.
Then later when my old rival Babylon took Freedom, we started patching up old rifts and ended the game with a DoF. That dynamic diplo experience was really rewarding.
Trade routes, while a great addition, also didn't feel like they were adding anything to the late game slide. Just another button to click again every 30 turns.
Anyways, I'vs seen nothing but praise for the endgame in BNW, so I wanted to put this out there for people to way in on. Is my experience unusual? Was there possibly something I missed, or maybe the map script tamped down on the game's ability to provide at the very end? What's your own experience been? Overall it was a great experience and I love the expansion, but I just didn't see where the late game love was coming from.
At least in my game, very few World Congress resolutions really felt momentous. Once the few early ones were done, like group projects and arts vs. science funding, it felt like selecting from a list of things I knew would never pass (World Religion) or things that I didn't care about at all. Maybe my game was unusual that way since it was relatively peaceful, which in turn may have been because I was on random and got archipelago. But WC just left me feeling a little empty. Especially when, for all the talk of improved diplo wins, I won by buying every CS on the map and winning while everyone else voted for him/herself. I tried brining Babylon to vote for me but to no avail, despite having over. 40,000 gold and 630 income to bribe with.
Tourism, once I got the hang of it, also didn't feel like it was adding much meat to the gamemore like empty calories. I got Archaeology and Exploration early, and quickly found myself with more useless beads than I knew what to do with. Pretty soon I was settling useless landmarks everywhere just to avoid running out of slots for works of art. The works trading system is really lackluster, and once I filled the Louvre and my Hermitage for their theming bonuses, I felt like new culture wins were a lot like the old ones. Just waiting for circles to fill up. Except the old way, as non-interactive as it was, at least gave me rewards. I'm talking from a strictly behaviorist perspective here. Getting a new policy and hearing the pen-scratch sound is a good reinforcement. The new way, AFAIK, doesn't really give me an incremental reward in the same way as I get closer to victory. It's just a binary "I've won or I haven't yet" system. Also the fact that another civ pursuing culture makes it so tedious hurts it a lot, although having interactivity in culture wins (past nuking then) is really good.
The one thing I really did like, though, was the ideological blocs. While just basing ideologies off culture, effectively making them slightly more customizable trees, is a big disappointment, I loved how they influenced politics. I was first, getting Freedom, and then when my two closest allies Ethiopia and Carthage took Order and Autocracy respectively, we started drifting apart, becoming rivals. Ethiopia even sent a fleet after me I think, but rush-buying a fleet of WWI bombers and upgrading my Frigates to Battleships made him think better of it.
Then later when my old rival Babylon took Freedom, we started patching up old rifts and ended the game with a DoF. That dynamic diplo experience was really rewarding.
Trade routes, while a great addition, also didn't feel like they were adding anything to the late game slide. Just another button to click again every 30 turns.
Anyways, I'vs seen nothing but praise for the endgame in BNW, so I wanted to put this out there for people to way in on. Is my experience unusual? Was there possibly something I missed, or maybe the map script tamped down on the game's ability to provide at the very end? What's your own experience been? Overall it was a great experience and I love the expansion, but I just didn't see where the late game love was coming from.
