Uncle_Joe
Prince
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2005
- Messages
- 491
So I think the 5000 on buildings, 5000 on units is a gross misrepresentation of a middle age empire in version 2.08 of this game. Maybe you are far more militaristic than me, but you must have build some buildings in your cities in version 2.08 of this game.
Whatever the exact ratio is is completely irrelevant. The revelant fact is that the expense needed for military is now far in excess of its 2.08 equivalent yet the costs for improvements have remained the same. This means that the decision making is being very skewed.
Add to that the fact that a number of other mechanics do not scale with the added units in the game and its easy to see that the new builds are pushing the game off the baseline of the intended design.
I also still see cities being captured by the various AI nations, so the defences are not impregnable. Some nations are conquering others.
I see it too from time to time, but almost always in the Ancient or Classical Eras (rarely in Medieval on and almost unheard of past that). From what I've seen, this is a direct product of the massed military stacks that the AIs are building and the difficulty in overcoming that mass with added production. Newer units dont add as much 'punch' to the Military Rating when there are hordes of obsolete units figured in as well. That makes it much tougher for the AIs to engage in a successful war later in the game.
And again, more units does not necessarily translate into better defended against a human player. But it can be crippling against other AI players. As I said above, now that I'm used to it, I can easily build enough military to KO most AIs with little trouble...the same as I could do in 2.08. The main difference seems to be that I am no longer falling behind OTHER AIs elsewhere in the world to do so.
A side effect is that the game is far more tedious to have to fight with stacks of 20+ against AI stacks of 30-40+. The game's mechanics are just not meant to handle that and it shows.
Dont get me wrong, I feel that the newer builds DO make it harder for the player to win via conquest, but I dont believe that it really makes it harder to win the overall game. The AIs as a whole do not play as well when they have to be putting out and properly using insane hordes of units.
I just dont see what makes people that the AI is suddenly 'better' simply because the number of military units in the world as a whole are doubled or tripled. Yes, there are more units to have to slog through, but you have more units to do it. Your relative techs have stayed the same (since everyone is spamming units).
To use the Dilbert-ish mantra....I'd like to see the AIs work SMARTER, not HARDER. And it was doing that a few builds ago. Now its just forcing a unit spamming that doesnt play to the AIs' strengths. IMO.