A list of problems I see

[stealth_nsk]

I decided to put a list of problems I see with the game after 400+ hours. Not the solutions - those may require playtesting. Also, I try to not touch immersion problems as they are subjective.

UI Problems, some examples which bother me more than others

• Hard to find particular unit, especially the one you gave order to
• No way to go through all the units, i.e. for upgrading specific ones
• Aerodromes require manual selection
• Hard to find particular building, the common case is to position your explorers on research spot before taking Hegemony
• Hard to plan buildings, especially unique quarters
• Wonders don't show their effect once built, so until you remember all of them by heart, you usually forgot what you just built

Most of those problems already have solutions in mods or previous games

Unhinged yield growth

Currently the yields grow-reset cycle is built in a way where yields overall growth is faster than in previous civ games, totally negating attempts to limit snowballing.

Different impact for civilization of different ages

Currently your civilization choice affects further ages significantly, while, of course, it doesn't work backwards, so antiquity age civilizations affect the game the most, while modern age civilizations have very little effect. Later civilization need more gameplay effect to compensate this.

Short modern age

The thing that you need only one legacy path and small project on top to finish the game, shortens the modern age a lot and creates focused gameplay. To preserve the logic of each age being playable as final or intermediate, this victory project should take much longer and be less focused.

Exploration too dependent on map

The success of exploration age on many map scripts is too dependent on map generation and resource distribution and you won't know it until you actually enter exploration.

Settlement connection mess

That's partially a UI thing, but the game has at least 2 definitions of connections - one for resource sharing and one for specialized towns to share their food and neither is communicated well. The roads are different from those two as well. In addition, bridges being in pretty late techs aren't helping.

Not possible to overbuild ageless buildings

That's partly yields problem, but antiquity age warehouse buildings become quite useless in later eras (2 exploration ones at least could be built on navigable rivers, not taking space from many useful buildings).

 

[kotpeter]

Regarding wonders, if you hover over them, the effect is displayed in full. I agree with other points.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Regarding wonders, if you hover over them, the effect is displayed in full. I agree with other points.

You mean by hovering over the map? It's useful, but requires some additional effort. We already have wonder built screen with its name and some fluff text displayed, why not have it display the effects as well?

 

[Siptah]

I‘d add „general balance between ways to generate and increase yields“. This isn‘t about specific cards, buildings, or civs but that some options just give few yields while others are incredibly strong. It‘s probably part of the yield inflation you mention, but I just wanted to state it more explicitly. It‘s surely difficult to balance local and global yield generation, and I don‘t have a solution at hand. Yet, a solution should probably overhaul all global yields in one go (attributes, traditions, civics, policies, city states, endeavors, governments), as they are often connected or compete.

Of course, the first step would be to fix the bugs with some unique improvements and modern buildings, so that you actually get the correct yields from your actions.

 

[McSpank01]

I would also mention a harder to define concept of momentum. It was referenced in another thread, but the last 3rd of any age (mainly antiquity being thats the one that gets most played) feels quite frustrating and pointless, knowing you will lose so much of what you build. I think a bigger think needs to be had as to how ages work and what you lose between them.

Also, make the map more relevant. Better yield differentiation between landscape types. I want to get excited about seeing a city spot that has a ton of production and food together. Right now it's just a general meh wherever I put my cities. Less balanced landscapes is better.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Very good list, with two additions:

1. It was commented on some time ago, not so much lately, but the imbalance among the military units that makes Cavalry the preferred choice for almost everything: faster, more powerful, able to do everything infantry can do including dig trenches and climb city walls. As a result the AI builds virtually nothing else in Exploration or Modern Ages except Cavalry/Armor or Unique units, and not that many of the latter. People have apparently learned to live with this, but it remains a problem, and one that could be solved by relatively simple factor fudging and restrictions on some capabilities by unit class.

2. The biggest problem in the game as designed, IMHO, is the disconnect between in-game play, the crisis periods, and the transitions. This is connected to the comment on how banal the last 1/3 of the Age seems, in that you spend it preparing for the transition and next Age rather than pursuing immediate goals. More importantly, no matter how the game is going, virtually the same set of Crises will hit at the end of each Age regardless. Some more connection would be nice, some more feeling that how well (or poorly) you and the rest of the world are doing would have some effect on the end of the Age. IF every AI Civ on the planet has spent turns 75 to 100 at war with each other, I should think that would effect which Crisis and how extreme the planet will get hit. As it is it appears too much like Random Game Effect than anything connected to the actual play of the game.

 

[uppi]

Unhinged yield growth

Currently the yields grow-reset cycle is built in a way where yields overall growth is faster than in previous civ games, totally negating attempts to limit snowballing.

I don't think this is that much of a problem. I consider it one advantage of the age system that yields can explode a bit in an age and then be brought to a reasonable level on the age transition. And in the end, yields on their own mean nothing, it is always the comparison to prices which matters, so this is just a balancing problem. The only real link between ages are traditions, so they are the only cross-age things which need to be balanced. Otherwise, the balance is internal to an age.

Different impact for civilization of different ages

Currently your civilization choice affects further ages significantly, while, of course, it doesn't work backwards, so antiquity age civilizations affect the game the most, while modern age civilizations have very little effect. Later civilization need more gameplay effect to compensate this.

I fully agree. All modern age civs are severely undertuned, which is why they feel quite bland. Only a few civs have something which really helps you win, and even those don't really change your game plan. Some unique civics are so underpowered that they are not worth getting even under the most ideal conditions. For example: Code Civil de Francais, fives you 2 culture per turn per tradition. That is like 20 culture per turn for a civic that costs multiple thousands culture. That will never begin to pay itself back. Why would you even research that? I research it only, because I like unique things and the generic civic tree is even more crap (like 6 influence per turn? That is not going to help me either) Modern age civs need to give significant bonuses that directly help you to archive victory.

Short modern age

The thing that you need only one legacy path and small project on top to finish the game, shortens the modern age a lot and creates focused gameplay. To preserve the logic of each age being playable as final or intermediate, this victory project should take much longer and be less focused.

Not that I disagree, and victory projects should involve more than starting them in your most productive city and then hitting end-turn. But if the age went on longer, we also need more to do in the modern age. If you are having a good game, the modern age is over by turn 40-50 anyway. Not just because the victory project has been completed, but also because there is nothing left to do.

One missed opportunity is the factory system: Rejigging your economy to build factories and acquire resources that give you empire-wide bonuses which help you to achieve some victory condition could be something that is really different from the earlier ages. But as it is part of the economic victory, it does not really come into play for the other victory conditions. Factories have to be expensive, you don't immediately get all the economic points, but that means they come too late for other victory conditions. So the effects don't really matter that much, because when you are finally able to slot them in, they are just points for the economic victory.

Exploration too dependent on map

The success of exploration age on many map scripts is too dependent on map generation and resource distribution and you won't know it until you actually enter exploration.

In my opinion, exploration is just too slow, especially on larger maps. For most maps, the rewarding spots actually exist, but if you are unlucky, the age is mostly over until you discover them and are able to get a settler (and/or troops) there.