tantoniou
Warlord
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2010
- Messages
- 111
Hi guys, I thought I should post my experience here from playing the game for a month now, having reached nanotech era.
I started a continents map, standard speed, with revolution on, and the more costly buildings on also, victory condition mastery, starting difficulty noble, set to deity progressively, reached there around classical age I think, and kept it on deity.
Regarding the map
I know copper is supposed to be rare in the game, but I think there should be some more. From the 3 games I''ve played so far, I need a huge early expansion to ensure I get it, and I prevent AI from getting it, making it too hard for them.
Also, with so many resources, there should be at least 2 of each on the map, some of them where not even found, anywhere! Only when I built a miracle I solely could access them. I can't see why strategic resources (except for sea oil which was also missing entirely) are not rare, and others are so scarce.
When I got to the industrial era, I found out I couldn't build hospitals cause I was missing drugs. Good thing I found spices and something else I can't remember from other civs for trade, and had my Great Farmer build two of those that could enable me to make drugs. The civilopedia was not that clear though about it, that the two of them had to be planted in the same city vicinity so that I could make drugs, and it took me extra 15 turns to replant a seed.
Regarding the economy
I found my economy running efficiently from the start, at 100% research rate all the time, not a single turn turning the slider down. Always gaining surplus income, and reached at nanothech era gaining half a billion a turn, with the slider 100% on research. That's hillarious! I couldn't even spend that much money! And yes I was ahead in game (1 era ahead to be exact), but still, it felt like pointless.
Regarding the happiness
Happiness was deemed unnecessary from early on, even expanding too fast. I was about 5-10 cities above my civic limit, and only then I would reach the happiness limit in cities just being built. So that felt pointless also.
Regarding the unhealthiness
It was also pretty much useless. Not a single unhealthy city in the industrial era. I only saw a couple of those across the other continent, on the AI, but they where in dire conditions due to war issues.
Regarding the food
The wasted food! Oh man, a lot of waste! 500 food/turn on a city and growing in 10 turns...
Also, I felt there was no real difference in farming a grassland tile vs farming a desert tile, it was like +1 extra wasted food. So cities in desert vs cities in fertile lands would grow pretty much the same, with no big differences.
Same thing with cities on polar regions. My neighbor Gandhi had cities there with 50-100 pop in modern era, eating just fish.
I think the entire food/unhealthiness model has to be revised/rebuild.
Regarding the AI
I found the AI weak in guarding cities, and obsessed with stacking tenths or even hundreds of dogs or entertainers in them, instead of better defenders like archers and infantry.
Regarding the buildings
As the game progressed, I found the properties to concern me more than anything else, it became a game of stats cause I wasn't warring around, only Gandhi left on the top polar region of continent after Isabella willingly joined my state. But I found the properties gained by buildings to be nicely balanced up to nanothech era. Just as soon as a property would fall empire wide, I had a tech in front of me helping me build stuff to further advance that property.
Regarding the units
The guerrilla forces that come after the partisans are too strong for their era. 60 strength compared to 40 I think of the infantry or marines of that era is too much. I used 10-12 of each, with a couple of commanders to starve neighbor cities, or easily raze them from the map because they would mess my city planning.
I couldn't build agents anymore when the special agents (5 national units only) could be built, they got obsolete.
Some upgrades were not logical, some units which by built favored city defense, could then be upgraded to units that favor attack, I remember some robots in particular. Some other upgrades would downgrade the strength of the unit, like the frigates, just to counter subs. Never built one of them.
I found that making a ship unit invisible with a couple of different invisibilities (+2 each, don't remeber which ones exactly), allowed me to blockade sea cities to starve, even when the AI had much stronger ships it couldn't detect them. They had like 10-15 ships around my blockading unit and not do anything about it cause they couldn't see them I guess.That felt silly.
The interceptors felt very strong, so much that when attacking them, 1 enemy interceptor lying in an airport being attacked by 5 planes of 1 era above would only lose 10-20% of its health. So I'd need 20 attacking planes to take down one defending plane, not even on intercept mode. Maybe that has to do with the mechanics more though.
Regarding the revolutions
No revolutions appeared until I started starving cities of my opponents, and that happened in late eras. The interesting fact about it was that when the revolutionaries appeared on my opponents, they often razed the cities!!! Only in late eras I saw revolutionaries keeping the cities they attacked, and forming states with cities. It was fun but also a bit silly, not logical I guess.
Regarding the interface
I played on a 2k resolution (1440p), but the builds available below where obscured by the horizontal scroll bar, which only dissapeared when the available builds could fill less than one line. That deemed the 2nd line practically useless, so when I was searching for builds it was irritating harder.
Regarding the fauna
I found the fauna addition very nice, helping the cities grow with hunters. But in late game the ocean would be filled with it, practically making each turn to take more.
Finally my game would crash occasionally, but a restart would usually work. Only once I couldn't advance a turn no matter what i tried, but some people here helped me and gave me the next turn save game. In late eras when the turns started taking above 10', I razed some cities from the map, including two of my own, all awkwardly placed or too close to others and the turns time dropped a lot, the crashes also. I wish there was a minimum 3 tile distance option for cities, the AI does place a lot of cities 2 tiles next to each other, making the map too dense and the game veeery busy.
Overall I liked the mod, but because of the "more is more" philosophy, I think it has turned too unbalanced for my taste, and I thought I would write about my experience so that the modders may be helped in a way. I saw that in a recent build something was done about the economy, don't know the influence that has on a new game though. Maybe some of these above had to do with my rapid and successful expanding, but I felt that most of it does not.
I started a continents map, standard speed, with revolution on, and the more costly buildings on also, victory condition mastery, starting difficulty noble, set to deity progressively, reached there around classical age I think, and kept it on deity.
Regarding the map
I know copper is supposed to be rare in the game, but I think there should be some more. From the 3 games I''ve played so far, I need a huge early expansion to ensure I get it, and I prevent AI from getting it, making it too hard for them.
Also, with so many resources, there should be at least 2 of each on the map, some of them where not even found, anywhere! Only when I built a miracle I solely could access them. I can't see why strategic resources (except for sea oil which was also missing entirely) are not rare, and others are so scarce.
When I got to the industrial era, I found out I couldn't build hospitals cause I was missing drugs. Good thing I found spices and something else I can't remember from other civs for trade, and had my Great Farmer build two of those that could enable me to make drugs. The civilopedia was not that clear though about it, that the two of them had to be planted in the same city vicinity so that I could make drugs, and it took me extra 15 turns to replant a seed.
Regarding the economy
I found my economy running efficiently from the start, at 100% research rate all the time, not a single turn turning the slider down. Always gaining surplus income, and reached at nanothech era gaining half a billion a turn, with the slider 100% on research. That's hillarious! I couldn't even spend that much money! And yes I was ahead in game (1 era ahead to be exact), but still, it felt like pointless.
Regarding the happiness
Happiness was deemed unnecessary from early on, even expanding too fast. I was about 5-10 cities above my civic limit, and only then I would reach the happiness limit in cities just being built. So that felt pointless also.
Regarding the unhealthiness
It was also pretty much useless. Not a single unhealthy city in the industrial era. I only saw a couple of those across the other continent, on the AI, but they where in dire conditions due to war issues.
Regarding the food
The wasted food! Oh man, a lot of waste! 500 food/turn on a city and growing in 10 turns...
Also, I felt there was no real difference in farming a grassland tile vs farming a desert tile, it was like +1 extra wasted food. So cities in desert vs cities in fertile lands would grow pretty much the same, with no big differences.
Same thing with cities on polar regions. My neighbor Gandhi had cities there with 50-100 pop in modern era, eating just fish.
I think the entire food/unhealthiness model has to be revised/rebuild.
Regarding the AI
I found the AI weak in guarding cities, and obsessed with stacking tenths or even hundreds of dogs or entertainers in them, instead of better defenders like archers and infantry.
Regarding the buildings
As the game progressed, I found the properties to concern me more than anything else, it became a game of stats cause I wasn't warring around, only Gandhi left on the top polar region of continent after Isabella willingly joined my state. But I found the properties gained by buildings to be nicely balanced up to nanothech era. Just as soon as a property would fall empire wide, I had a tech in front of me helping me build stuff to further advance that property.
Regarding the units
The guerrilla forces that come after the partisans are too strong for their era. 60 strength compared to 40 I think of the infantry or marines of that era is too much. I used 10-12 of each, with a couple of commanders to starve neighbor cities, or easily raze them from the map because they would mess my city planning.
I couldn't build agents anymore when the special agents (5 national units only) could be built, they got obsolete.
Some upgrades were not logical, some units which by built favored city defense, could then be upgraded to units that favor attack, I remember some robots in particular. Some other upgrades would downgrade the strength of the unit, like the frigates, just to counter subs. Never built one of them.
I found that making a ship unit invisible with a couple of different invisibilities (+2 each, don't remeber which ones exactly), allowed me to blockade sea cities to starve, even when the AI had much stronger ships it couldn't detect them. They had like 10-15 ships around my blockading unit and not do anything about it cause they couldn't see them I guess.That felt silly.
The interceptors felt very strong, so much that when attacking them, 1 enemy interceptor lying in an airport being attacked by 5 planes of 1 era above would only lose 10-20% of its health. So I'd need 20 attacking planes to take down one defending plane, not even on intercept mode. Maybe that has to do with the mechanics more though.
Regarding the revolutions
No revolutions appeared until I started starving cities of my opponents, and that happened in late eras. The interesting fact about it was that when the revolutionaries appeared on my opponents, they often razed the cities!!! Only in late eras I saw revolutionaries keeping the cities they attacked, and forming states with cities. It was fun but also a bit silly, not logical I guess.
Regarding the interface
I played on a 2k resolution (1440p), but the builds available below where obscured by the horizontal scroll bar, which only dissapeared when the available builds could fill less than one line. That deemed the 2nd line practically useless, so when I was searching for builds it was irritating harder.
Regarding the fauna
I found the fauna addition very nice, helping the cities grow with hunters. But in late game the ocean would be filled with it, practically making each turn to take more.
Finally my game would crash occasionally, but a restart would usually work. Only once I couldn't advance a turn no matter what i tried, but some people here helped me and gave me the next turn save game. In late eras when the turns started taking above 10', I razed some cities from the map, including two of my own, all awkwardly placed or too close to others and the turns time dropped a lot, the crashes also. I wish there was a minimum 3 tile distance option for cities, the AI does place a lot of cities 2 tiles next to each other, making the map too dense and the game veeery busy.
Overall I liked the mod, but because of the "more is more" philosophy, I think it has turned too unbalanced for my taste, and I thought I would write about my experience so that the modders may be helped in a way. I saw that in a recent build something was done about the economy, don't know the influence that has on a new game though. Maybe some of these above had to do with my rapid and successful expanding, but I felt that most of it does not.
