snakeboy
Chieftain
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2019
- Messages
- 46
The game is impressive, but it is not a good game yet. Entertaining yes, but the balancing is so off there's no real challenge and a lack of both strategical & tactical gameplay.
In my first playthrough on their standard difficulty (metropolis) I was ahead so much before turn 100, swimming in gold and influence, but behind in the tech tree so there was a lot of insta-buying and catching up while nothing meaningful happened.
Here's the main problems:
- era progress is too fast; starting medieval era my unique units were way up in the tech tree
- money and influence are really tight in the beginning, leading to a slow start; but then suddenly you start snowballing ridiculously, leading to insta-buying everything and not having ways to meaningfully spend influence
- there seem to be way too many district-upgrades (infrastructure). Take science for instance, there's the district itself (research quarter) and then: house of scribes, library, manuscript atelier, alchemist's workshop, cabinet of curiosities, university, printing house, academy, symposium - and that's not even counting the final, contemporary era.
So for instance, when my gold snowballed I was simply insta-buying not just the research quarter itself, but a lot of its upgrades too in one turn. And I could do this with every city as long as the gold is there. I kept spamming districts (having more than 3 research quarters per territory seems a bit silly) but I I was still somewhat behind in relation to my own culture. Near turn 150 I finally caught up.
- This goes for all the yields: food, production, gold too. Around turn 100 my building menu was very cluttered and at a certain time it doesn't really matter anymore what you build. There's too much too fast, and it is not very differentiated. It's just numbers, either +3 or + 10 or a percentage (+10%)
- I don't like this possibility of wielding gold to instantly create massive infrastructure upgrades in one turn. At the same time you rely on it because production seems too slow.
- All in all, this leads to less interesting gameplay. There is not much strategy to placing your districts, or picking the infrastructure.
- instead of insta-buying I would prefer a production mechanic, but the forest clearing gives you a very minor 10 production (with starting buildings around 200).
Being behind in regards to my own culture, did not make me behind the ai though. I had no trouble with their units and as soon as I had my Khmer elephants (medieval) I was invincible.
BATTLE
- I like the battle 'mini-game', where it opens up the map and you can use the terrain for tactical gameplay. If the tech tree flows better I think it could lead to really interesting battles but I have experienced too little of them because of weak ai, and (us both) being behind in the tech tree.
- upgrades are unclear. For instance, you cannot upgrade a scout and then suddenly it upgrades into a knight? That does not make sense to me.
- There seems to be too much to chose from.
- There was zero reason to build up a navy. Also, with so many different techs and units it is hard to keep up.
- the ability to insta-heal all your units with gold after the battle is really detrimental to tactical gameplay.
There is much more to talk about but I leave it for here now. I like how they implemented religion, with an internal pressure system, but its tenets seems a it unbalanced too. I like the civic choices as well. The wonders I found a bit underwhelming: all give faith and stability, and one extra bonus, but not very interesting.
Anyway, this game is impressive, I love the art and cultures and the amount of detail, but if they won't nail the gameplay it will still be a miss for me. As it is now, it seems an immersive ride that quickly shows its inherent flaws. It's hard to nail a 4x game gameplay-wise. The snowballing is a common problem, and even though I like the negative stabilty modifier for every district placed, I had no trouble spamming districts later on. Also, more techs and upgrades do not make for more interesting gameplay. If you have too much, each separate unit and upgrade becomes less valuable. More choice means less meaningful choice. So I really hope they will rebalance the gold & influence, and get rid of the ability to insta-buy everything (and heal your units with it).
Edit, my picks:
Babylonians (science) - Celts (food) - Khmer (elephants ) - Dutch (gold)
In my first playthrough on their standard difficulty (metropolis) I was ahead so much before turn 100, swimming in gold and influence, but behind in the tech tree so there was a lot of insta-buying and catching up while nothing meaningful happened.
Here's the main problems:
- era progress is too fast; starting medieval era my unique units were way up in the tech tree
- money and influence are really tight in the beginning, leading to a slow start; but then suddenly you start snowballing ridiculously, leading to insta-buying everything and not having ways to meaningfully spend influence
- there seem to be way too many district-upgrades (infrastructure). Take science for instance, there's the district itself (research quarter) and then: house of scribes, library, manuscript atelier, alchemist's workshop, cabinet of curiosities, university, printing house, academy, symposium - and that's not even counting the final, contemporary era.
So for instance, when my gold snowballed I was simply insta-buying not just the research quarter itself, but a lot of its upgrades too in one turn. And I could do this with every city as long as the gold is there. I kept spamming districts (having more than 3 research quarters per territory seems a bit silly) but I I was still somewhat behind in relation to my own culture. Near turn 150 I finally caught up.
- This goes for all the yields: food, production, gold too. Around turn 100 my building menu was very cluttered and at a certain time it doesn't really matter anymore what you build. There's too much too fast, and it is not very differentiated. It's just numbers, either +3 or + 10 or a percentage (+10%)
- I don't like this possibility of wielding gold to instantly create massive infrastructure upgrades in one turn. At the same time you rely on it because production seems too slow.
- All in all, this leads to less interesting gameplay. There is not much strategy to placing your districts, or picking the infrastructure.
- instead of insta-buying I would prefer a production mechanic, but the forest clearing gives you a very minor 10 production (with starting buildings around 200).
Being behind in regards to my own culture, did not make me behind the ai though. I had no trouble with their units and as soon as I had my Khmer elephants (medieval) I was invincible.
BATTLE
- I like the battle 'mini-game', where it opens up the map and you can use the terrain for tactical gameplay. If the tech tree flows better I think it could lead to really interesting battles but I have experienced too little of them because of weak ai, and (us both) being behind in the tech tree.
- upgrades are unclear. For instance, you cannot upgrade a scout and then suddenly it upgrades into a knight? That does not make sense to me.
- There seems to be too much to chose from.
- There was zero reason to build up a navy. Also, with so many different techs and units it is hard to keep up.
- the ability to insta-heal all your units with gold after the battle is really detrimental to tactical gameplay.
There is much more to talk about but I leave it for here now. I like how they implemented religion, with an internal pressure system, but its tenets seems a it unbalanced too. I like the civic choices as well. The wonders I found a bit underwhelming: all give faith and stability, and one extra bonus, but not very interesting.
Anyway, this game is impressive, I love the art and cultures and the amount of detail, but if they won't nail the gameplay it will still be a miss for me. As it is now, it seems an immersive ride that quickly shows its inherent flaws. It's hard to nail a 4x game gameplay-wise. The snowballing is a common problem, and even though I like the negative stabilty modifier for every district placed, I had no trouble spamming districts later on. Also, more techs and upgrades do not make for more interesting gameplay. If you have too much, each separate unit and upgrade becomes less valuable. More choice means less meaningful choice. So I really hope they will rebalance the gold & influence, and get rid of the ability to insta-buy everything (and heal your units with it).
Edit, my picks:
Babylonians (science) - Celts (food) - Khmer (elephants ) - Dutch (gold)
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