Anyone else misses Golden Age? What would you like it to be in VI?

[Huaojozumakurwa]

It was such an integral part of many of my CiV games that having no GAs in VI seems weird. I liked them from a thematic point of view, as well as for the gameplay options they opened. Going for semi-permanent GAs with some of the CiV civs was a lot of fun and they added some reason to have your happiness be as high as possible.

In VI, having extra amenities boosts the yields immediately for that city, but doesn't go into any sort of a pool. I would like to have a global amenity pool to house this excess "happiness" and trigger a GA after a certain point.

This and Economic (Diplomacy) victory seems like the two biggest mechanical omissions when looking back at the previous titles and I can only assume they will be the focus of the first expansion.

 

[Inhalaattori]

I personally think they were too common in CIV V. IMO it might be fine if some artists or wonders would give you golden ages, but I didnt like the way they were in CIV V.

 

[steveg700]

I'm kind of torn on it myself. It was basically a reward for generating high levels of happiness, which many "optimal" players generally stressed should be as close to zero as possible at all times.

I liked it as a change of pace in the flow of the game. I liked that you could make plans for a surge of productivity that was coming your way. I liked that it was another factor that could be influenced social policies, civ abilities, wonders, and so on. Of course, it was weird that once you were in a golden age, your happiness generation for that entire period of time went into a dumpster.

But here we have local happiness, which creates a small, marginal, but consistent effect. Certainly not as thrilling. But I think it works for the most part, and that golden ages can be rolled into great persons (which I don't actually think they are).

 

[Lord Shadow]

Golden ages were pretty common in Civ5, yes, to the point they didn't feel like such. They were also a by-product of the global happiness system. I like the return of localized happiness, but high happiness should be more rewarding and evident (a la "We Love the King Day").

As for golden ages themselves, they'd have to be redesigned. Personally, I'd allow each civ to have a single Golden Age, truer to history, once the requirements are met. Could be through "golden age points" accrued by sustained happiness over time and possibly Great People and culture. Something to work towards, and controllable enough it'd become a strategic choice to decide when to trigger your Golden Age.

 

[dexters]

Some of the great people buffs are a lot like golden ages.

Golden ages originally was a once per game event I'm not sure I liked that , nor was the multiple golden ages in civ 4 and 5 realistic.

I think golden ages can be brought back with significantly reduced buffs and ties to certain game conditions like being first to a tech, 1st to circumnavigate , and reaching certain milestones like X science , culture, gPT, faith. In essence scientific, commercial, cultural golden ages.

 

[Skybird]

Personally, the idea of "golden ages" are a societal shift in arts, science etc, normally as the result of some catalyst-- a discovery, or an ideology which inspires many. I think if this is brought back, and I think it should be, it needs to be the result of several different actions being completed or aligned. So a wonder, science rate at a certain value, a civic completed, population growth and reduction in fog of war-- once these align, a golden age results with a length proportional to the degree of achievement conditions. Make us work for it!

 

[CaiusDrewart]

I liked Golden Ages in Civ IV, when you could plan around them. Golden Ages in Civ V, which just sort of happened every once and a while, were not that interesting.

 

[UWHabs]

I think I'd switch the golden ages to be more based on specific industries. So you could get an "industrial revolution", a "golden age of enlightenment", etc... where for a certain number of turns all buildings of that district are half price, and all buildings in the district produce double results. You could fairly easily have that as a "second" function for all great people, so that if you end up with a great scientist whose primary bonus doesn't help you, maybe you use them to spawn the golden age instead.