fountain of youth - SUPER IMBALANCED!

[Smote]

So, I just learned that the fountain of youth does:

Upon discovery, +1 happiness (like any natural wonder).
When walking next to it, your unit permanently receives a "heals at double rate" upgrade. (Like a Persian Immortal).

AND

If in your borders, +10 happiness.

Yes, you heard me correctly. This is tested and verified. I was playing multiplayer and found this wonder 8 squares from my capital. I was playing france, fast expanding (pop-2 settler pump). I promptly put my 2nd city next to it. Now, I was at 2 cities, and 12 happiness.

I promptly built 3 more settlers for 5 cities total. Yes, 5 cities on turn ~25 (quick) without unhappiness. Then, the game crashed because of lag.

Now is this fair at all? With 5 cities I can pick any strategy (econ, rush, more expansion) and dominate it. I would estimate that 10 free happiness early game is equivalent to about 15 extra turns headstart.

My proposed change: ONLY the heal part should be kept. That is only arguably overpowered. The +10 happiness should be removed.

 

[SHaW1986]

agreed, hence the reason i left it and el dorado out, that and because theyre fictitious crap.

 

[PAnz3r]

lol, when i can understand why they added these two garbage probably i will play Civ XXXIII

 

[Bob_]

So, I just learned that the fountain of youth does:

Upon discovery, +1 happiness (like any natural wonder).
When walking next to it, your unit permanently receives a "heals at double rate" upgrade. (Like a Persian Immortal).

AND

If in your borders, +10 happiness.

Yes, you heard me correctly. This is tested and verified. I was playing multiplayer and found this wonder 8 squares from my capital. I was playing france, fast expanding (pop-2 settler pump). I promptly put my 2nd city next to it. Now, I was at 2 cities, and 12 happiness.

I promptly built 3 more settlers for 5 cities total. Yes, 5 cities on turn ~25 (quick) without unhappiness. Then, the game crashed because of lag.

Now is this fair at all? With 5 cities I can pick any strategy (econ, rush, more expansion) and dominate it. I would estimate that 10 free happiness early game is equivalent to about 15 extra turns headstart.

My proposed change: ONLY the heal part should be kept. That is only arguably overpowered. The +10 happiness should be removed.

Imagine the same situation with spain then. For discovering it first u get +1 Happiness and 500 gold bonus. When in ur borders the fountain gives u 20 extra happiness due to the ability of doubling all bonusses from natural wonders.

yes the fountain is overpowered, but so is great barrier reef with spain: 1000 gold when discovered (always two tiles) and doubling ressources yields 4 food, 2 hammers, 2 gold and 4 science PER TILE when worked.

Dont know if i want to have spain in multiplayer

 

[Yrkoslaw]

So Fountain is sensless.
Disable it! They give us tools to do so!

I do that and I am happy for now Also, change the El Dorado bonus from "+ Free Settler" to "+ 250 gold". Now it is nice, but not so OP.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

So Fountain is sensless.
Disable it! They give us tools to do so!

I do that and I am happy for now Also, change the El Dorado bonus from "+ Free Settler" to "+ 250 gold". Now it is nice, but not so OP.

They also have the tools to avoid flagrant luck-based outcomes from overpowering features in the first place.

But you offer good advice.

 

[CornPlanter]

I honestly appreciate modding tools, but if I needed to create the game before playing it, I'd take Microsofts XNA over Civ5. Civ5 was advertised and sold as a game, not a make-yourself framework.

 

[biohazard72]

Fountain of Youth would be pretty cool if it only had a small bonus in addition to its healing properties (or if the healing property only applied to the units belonging to the civ with FoY in its borders). It has awesome synergy with Mongolian Khans.

 

[blind biker]

Civ V should definitely have also a Fountain of Life - bring any dead unit near it, and it springs back to life and starts to riverdance. With appropriate animation and DX11 goodness, this would add tremendously to Civ V.

Firaxis, if you're reading this - I ask nothing for my idea, you are free to implement it without even attributing credit where it's due.

 

[generalwar]

I have never seen it in my games so far, it's extremely rare.

 

[PAnz3r]

Civ V should definitely have also a Fountain of Life - bring any dead unit near it, and it springs back to life and starts to riverdance. With appropriate animation and DX11 goodness, this would add tremendously to Civ V.

Firaxis, if you're reading this - I ask nothing for my idea, you are free to implement it without even attributing credit where it's due.

lol a godlike feature!

 

[blind biker]

lol a godlike feature!

A fan of riverdance, I presume?

 

[bobbyboy29]

I'd say that atm it's definately OP but I wouldn't go so far as to say super-imbalanced. I mean 10 happiness early on is equivalent to settling next to 2 new luxury resources, which can occur early game which is when this is supposed to be most game breaking. Of course there's pros and cons like how it doesn't need to be improved and thus gives insta happiness upon settling, yet on the other hand you can't sell the happiness like with luxuries. I'd say that if it was lowered to say 5-8 happiness and the healing rate only affects uunits trained in the nearest city then it'd be pretty well balanced. So it's not far off, but does need some work though...

 

[Horizons]

lol, the fountain of youth

Maybe in future patches they should add in 'The Garden of Eden' or 'cure for cancer' or 'the land of Narnia, accessible from a wardrobe'

 

[swordspider]

I have no idea who dreamed up the Fountain and El Dorado, but I hope they find a new job.

 

[neilkaz]

I have no idea who dreamed up the Fountain and El Dorado, but I hope they find a new job.

Well, they are trying to make the game fun, and appeal more to casual gamers, but by halving the effects of both (perhaps even more for FoY) you still have fun of finding it while it is less OP.

It is silly to have something this OP, noting that many players, like myself, simply want to play the game off the shelf and without modding it.

.. neilkaz ..

 

[lschnarch]

Well, they are trying to make the game fun, and appeal more to casual gamers,

Do you really think so?
Do you really think anybody would be more attracted towards the game by learning: "Whooahhh! Now even with a Fountain of Youth!"?

To me, this just shows the mindset of the developer team. It's less the consumer, who is casual - they are. Casual "developers".

 

[bryanw1995]

lol, the fountain of youth

Maybe in future patches they should add in 'The Garden of Eden' or 'cure for cancer' or 'the land of Narnia, accessible from a wardrobe'

um, you mean like the cure for cancer wonder from older civ versions?

FOY is definitely way OP, but this is the first time I've seen someone actually even see it in his game. and to have it this close to the capitol is, um, unlikely to happen to him again unlesss he only plays duel maps.

I think that the other wonders are out of whack when you play as spain though. problem is that the "normal" wonders are not really that great if you're NOT spain, but if you are spain then all wonders are ridiculously OP'd. I popped 2 "normal" natural wonders in my only spain game, I plopped my 3rd city in the 1g5c wonder and just watched it go crazy...

 

[bovinespy]

So Fountain is sensless.
Disable it! They give us tools to do so!

I do that and I am happy for now Also, change the El Dorado bonus from "+ Free Settler" to "+ 250 gold". Now it is nice, but not so OP.

I'm at work right now and can't check, but I've never seen any of the wonders give a free settler. Can someone else confirm this please??

 

[MrWashington]

Perhaps the happiness bonus is accurate. We're very happy here in Florida.