Ara: History Untold

[Revolutionist_8]

Isn't it EXCESSIVELY drastic to eliminate a nation because it is behind in this ranking (I imagine also that of the player, who at this point I assume is "Game-over")?

As far as I know (from dev diaries and other videos), one of the reasons to remove a lot of players during the game, is to "spice up" and shake the game a little bit. For example, the remains of a nation that is being removed will be a juicy target for resources for other nations, making exploration possibly more rewarding and interesting (compared to other approaches in many other 4X). One of the youtubers mentioned that "bandits" will spawn on the ruins, which can make things interesting and maybe surprising even. I'm mildly cautious personally, but interested - we will see how it will play out.

It seems to be that there will be an option to turn off that human player can be removed this way:

Spoiler pic :

The second question is: Who chose the leaders? because I see that for Italy Cesare Beccaria was chosen who was a jurist and a writer etc..., but not a politician, head of state etc... and the same for Poland the chosen one was Nicolas Copernicus who he was a scientist who is like choosing Marlon Brando for the United States, I understand that it is not a fundamental thing but a bit of research on the heads of state of the two nations would have been better

It was mentioned in one of the dev diaries, that they intentionally wanted to add "alternative leaders" - people who had a great impact on culture, science, etc., but weren't political leaders per se. I personally find it kinda weird and don't really agree with it, but I can see the reasoning - some people may feel more connected to people who had a great impact on history, but are not the "famous" conquerors, politicans, and so on. Also, at the end, I don't necessarily mind ... as long as there are "real" options. For example, as long as there is Bismarck for Germany, I don't mind Hildegard of Bingen. Add in modding and extra expansions, I think we'll be fine.

 

[CivLuvah]

Isn't it EXCESSIVELY drastic to eliminate a nation because it is behind in this ranking (I imagine also that of the player, who at this point I assume is "Game-over")?

I think it’s a good way of solving the problem of snowballing, in which once a player reaches mid game, they’ve become so overpowered that the late game becomes boring. The problem with snowballing is that they often occur during the medieval or renaissance eras, so adding that risk there presents a challenge for the player.

That’s all my opinion, as a technical alpha tester I was never able to reach the second act. And even then I usually don’t get OP mid game in Civ. I’m hoping for a future DLC, they’ll be able to turn nations eliminated into newer or smaller ones.

 

[KayAU]

Raptor just did a Civ VII vs Ara: History Untold comparison video, which might be worth checking out:

He starts talking about Ara at around the 09:30 mark.

 

[Sephi]

 

[Lohit]

I'm excited for this game. I know mod support will happen post release too and hopefully our talented folks will be able to generate a Giant Earth TSL kind of map for Ara as well.

A few questions I'm still unable to wrap up in my mind. Would appreciate if anybody could answer and clarify. (Apologies for grammar)

1. Is there any limit to settlers / cities that we can create? I don't know I watched a video where somebody told we can only do 3. (can't find that video)
2. What is the max number of tiles 1 city can take. Example, Civilization 6 was 3 tiles further than the city center.
3. Due to prestige system, at the end of the game (modern era), will we have only 2 - 3 AI Civs left to play with?

- L

 

[Amtoj]

Anyone here know if the devs ever discussed anything like team games or TSL maps?

 

[KayAU]

I'm excited for this game. I know mod support will happen post release too and hopefully our talented folks will be able to generate a Giant Earth TSL kind of map for Ara as well.

A few questions I'm still unable to wrap up in my mind. Would appreciate if anybody could answer and clarify. (Apologies for grammar)

1. Is there any limit to settlers / cities that we can create? I don't know I watched a video where somebody told we can only do 3. (can't find that video)
2. What is the max number of tiles 1 city can take. Example, Civilization 6 was 3 tiles further than the city center.
3. Due to prestige system, at the end of the game (modern era), will we have only 2 - 3 AI Civs left to play with?

- L

1. You can certainly do a lot more than three. There is a city cap, and you can see it for example in the screenshot I included in post 383, in the lower left corner, 4th number from the left. However, this number goes up as you get more advanced types of government. It can also be increased by leader abilities, and maybe other things. It is also very common that you can go above the limit in these types of games, at the cost of some penalties, i.e. a soft cap. I didn't try it when I played Ara, so I can't say for sure if this is the case here. A city cap is a pacing mechanic, and sometimes a balancing mechanic too.

2. I don't remember. 3 regions sound about right. Does anybody else remember?

3. It depends on how many you started with. There are two cullings, and I don't know exactly how many are removed each time, but if we look at this screenshot from the Gamescom demo:

...we see that 2 out of the total of 8 players are set to be removed at the end of Act 1. If it's the same at the end of Act 2, it appears about half of the players will make it to the last act. So for a 36 player game, you would still have about 17-20 to play against. But for a 4 player game, you would only have 1.

 

[KayAU]

I just watched the Encarta episode for Egypt, and it confirms that the city cap is soft, as I expected. Look at the screenshot below, and notice how Nefertiti currently has 6 cities, with the cap being 5. You can also see that there will be some kind of penalty, although I don't know what it is. It is usually very feasible to go above the limit in these types of games. You will be penalized, but it is often worth it due to various reasons, such as securing a strategic position, gaining some resources, and so on.

 

[KayAU]

Okay, I haven't been paying attention to these Encarta videos, but I will from now on, because this was pretty great to watch. Those riverside farms look absolutely beautiful to me, and the discussion of abilities and strategy gives an indication of how strategically rich this game is.

 

[KayAU]

A question for moderators: at what point does Ara: History Untold get its own subforum? I feel like there is growing interest in the game, and there are many different topics to discuss. Right now, all the information is spread throughout this thread. I feel like it might be more useful to have separate threads for things like the Encarta series, gameplay previews, screenshots, discussions about specific features, and so on.

 

[ggmoyang]

I hope ARA's prestige system to be reasonable, as I hated Humankind's fame. Victory points system itself isn't bad, as it worked well in Old World. It's all about balance.

 

[Panzeri]

The game looks really good. But one thing that worries me is the crafting system. Someone counted almost 100 items that can be crafted, and inventory management from halfway through the game can become tiresome. I'm afraid that this excessive focus on crafting could lead to too much micromanagement and distract from the game itself.

 

[KayAU]

I hope ARA's prestige system to be reasonable, as I hated Humankind's fame. Victory points system itself isn't bad, as it worked well in Old World. It's all about balance.

It seemed good to me, but my experience is limited to the first act and a few playthroughs.

The oldest 4X I recall which had a scoring system to determine the winner, was Conquest of the New World. There you got to configure which activities would earn you the most points on game setup. Some of Ara's leader abilities remind me a bit of this.

 

[KayAU]

The game looks really good. But one thing that worries me is the crafting system. Someone counted almost 100 items that can be crafted, and inventory management from halfway through the game can become tiresome. I'm afraid that this excessive focus on crafting could lead to too much micromanagement and distract from the game itself.

This is probably my main concern with the game as well. It's certainly not a deal-breaker for me, but I think it can be improved with some streamlining and UI improvements. I am confident that I'm not the only tester who has provided feedback on this, so hopefully the devs have it in mind.

 

[ggalindo001]

The game looks really good. But one thing that worries me is the crafting system. Someone counted almost 100 items that can be crafted, and inventory management from halfway through the game can become tiresome. I'm afraid that this excessive focus on crafting could lead to too much micromanagement and distract from the game itself.

This may be the one thing that causes me to not get this game, or certainly is preventing me from getting it immediately.

Right now, in the "ARA v CIV 7" discussion, ARA seems to be going extremely deep, with what could be significant micromanagement and choice, and Civ 7 is looking to minimize that micromanagement to a great extent -- which from a QOL perspective, is very welcome for me.

There is a fine line for me between too much detail/choice and too little.

What I am afraid of in this crafting system is that there is just SO MUCH choice, SO MANY paths to choose from, that you become vaporlocked -- it is not a strategic choice anymore, it is just picking the "first" thing that makes sense.

I'm looking VERY forward to ARA, and I am hoping that it can be a viable Civ competitor (not necessarily a "Civkiller" -- but a game that provides a different experience) -- but this depth may just be too much to manage and causes me to want to quit at mid game.

 

[Panzeri]

I completely agree with you.
See, I'm getting old. And although I like sophisticated strategy games, I'm not a hardcore gamer anymore, and I don't have the time to sink into spreadsheets. In fact, I think that's why I've never been able to play Paradox games like Victoria or Hearts of Iron.
I want a challenge, but I also want to have fun, not do a PhD.

 

[Filo90]

look at this answer on steam forum by (maybe?) Oxide developer about micromanaging

 

[KayAU]

Yeah, I don't think it's all that bad, and they have already done a bit of streamlining. For many things, what I end up doing is just setting a crafting building, let's say a bakery, to produce a certain item indefinitely. For example, I can have several bakeries which are just producing bread, which then supply all my cities with that as an amenity. At that point, they don't really require any attention.

I feel like I should be careful both understating and overstating the issue. I suggest looking at more gameplay as it becomes available, and try to make a decision for yourself as to whether you think the crafting would become too much to manage. I personally feel like it mostly falls somewhere between enjoyable and tolerable, but I am still hoping for some improvements to the UI (which may already be there at launch, since they have received the feedback a while ago), and maybe some further streamlining.

I do like the idea of crafting in general. If we take food as an example, say you don't have the most fertile terrain, but you have a bit of coastline, and some fish resources. You can then produce refined products like salted fish, and "import" it as an amenity in your inland cities in order to support them. I love stuff you like that.

 

[KayAU]

Right now, in the "ARA v CIV 7" discussion, ARA seems to be going extremely deep, with what could be significant micromanagement and choice, and Civ 7 is looking to minimize that micromanagement to a great extent -- which from a QOL perspective, is very welcome for me.

There is a fine line for me between too much detail/choice and too little.

This is a bit off-topic, but I really do hope Civ 7 manages to cut down on the micromanagement, as this is what eventually ruined Civ 6 for me. Someone on another thread used the term "low quality decisions", and I felt that was apt. Civ 6, especially towards the middle and late game, became so overburdened with chores and things you had to respond to, but which really had very little impact. It made it very tedious to play for me. I really hope they manage to improve it for Civ 7, although I am a little bit worried.

More important perhaps than the amount of management, is the quality of it. If it is meaningful, has real impact, and the UI is good, I usually don't mind.

 

[KayAU]

look at this answer on steam forum by (maybe?) Oxide developer about micromanaging

View attachment 701339

I did not know you could jump right from a resource to the production buildings like that. Either I missed it, or that's an UI improvement that was done after the build we got to play. That would indeed save a lot of time. I take this as a good sign.