Arioch's Analyst Thread

[Mercade]

Happiness required for a golden age! that makes sense - and I'm happy (no pun intended) to learn of it!

Remind me, you can only adopt ONE policy at a time? Or you can have multiple, but some are mutually exclusive?

There are 10 trees. You have to unlock the trees one at a time, but once open they are open. As stated by Stealth NSK, some are mutually exclusive in that you cannot unlock e.g. rationalism if you've already opened piety in the past. But once you've opened piety it stays open during the remainder of the game. If you then open freedom, then you'll have piety and freedom open at the same time.

 

[Semmel]

P.S. I wonder whats happened to 2k Greg, he hasnt been on in a VERY long time.

He maybe went to the games com? I would do if I were him.. as a community advisor he should be there and give guys like me a pet on the bag for not going crazy due to anticipation *g*

 

[Sonereal]

2. Theocracy: -20% unhappiness from population in non-captured cities
--> requires: Organized Religion

That comes off as a bit strange.

The Free Religion policy is ultra-awesome. Adopting it gives you 2 free cultural policies.

 

[stealth_nsk]

That comes off as a bit strange.

The Free Religion policy is ultra-awesome. Adopting it gives you 2 free cultural policies.

Actually that means 1 free - you need to open the Free religion itself, which grants no other bonuses

 

[Sonereal]

Actually that means 1 free - you need to open the Free religion itself, which grants no other bonuses

If it only granted one, I would've be the one player not to notice the problem.

Still, it's a nice touch.

 

[Semmel]

Actually that means 1 free - you need to open the Free religion itself, which grants no other bonuses

If you are running for the cultural victory (and thats the only reason for you to go this policy tree anyway), you get 2 extra policies towards the utopia wonder.

 

[D712]

Very likely. But he hadnt putanything up prior to Cologne either.

 

[stealth_nsk]

If you are running for the cultural victory (and thats the only reason for you to go this policy tree anyway), you get 2 extra policies towards the utopia wonder.

Reasonable.

 

[Senethro]

There are 10 trees. You have to unlock the trees one at a time, but once open they are open. As stated by Stealth NSK, some are mutually exclusive in that you cannot unlock e.g. rationalism if you've already opened piety in the past. But once you've opened piety it stays open during the remainder of the game. If you then open freedom, then you'll have piety and freedom open at the same time.

Is this actually true? I thought the mutually exclusive trees simply deactivated when you switched between them, not that you were permanently hardlocked out of one.

 

[Mercade]

Is this actually true? I thought the mutually exclusive trees simply deactivated when you switched between them, not that you were permanently hardlocked out of one.

Interesting point. I hadn't given this aspect much thought. In the screenshot on Liberty I read "This branch cannot be active at the same time as Autocracy".

That could indeed suggest you can unlock them, but you'd have to choose between activating them. Hmm. Have we seen any "activate" buttons in the screenshots we've got available so far?

 

[Polobo]

Is this actually true? I thought the mutually exclusive trees simply deactivated when you switched between them, not that you were permanently hardlocked out of one.

Not confirmed by Firaxis but nothing indicates you can switch and not being allowed to switch does seem a reasonable default.


@Arioch (TYPO): Your landmark improvement shows (+4 Science?) but I am positive I've seen a couple of mentions that the "+4" is correct but it should be "Culture" instead of science.

 

[bjbrains]

Interesting point. I hadn't given this aspect much thought. In the screenshot on Liberty I read "This branch cannot be active at the same time as Autocracy".

That would indeed suggest you can unlock them, but you'd have to choose between activating them. Hmm.

This appears to be the case based on the videos we've seen- exclusive policies are still selectable if you have their "opposite", and the exact wording is "Cannot be active at the same time as X", which implies that you can switch.

 

[Polobo]

Interesting point. I hadn't given this aspect much thought. In the screenshot on Liberty I read "This branch cannot be active at the same time as Autocracy".

That would indeed suggest you can unlock them, but you'd have to choose between activating them. Hmm. Have we seen any "activate" buttons in the screenshots we've got available so far?

I got that impression too; but maybe it was originally going to be allowed but later decided restrict it but didn't change the wording (which is still technically correct).

I haven't seen anything in the interface where you could de-selected a policy. I guess you could be prompted to confirm upon selecting a conflicting policy. Also really haven't seen late game policy choosing where it such a scenario would be visible.

 

[AriochIV]

So the Discipline policy is responsible for the +15% adjacent unit bonus. That explains why sometimes you'd see it, and sometimes not.

@Arioch (TYPO): Your landmark improvement shows (+4 Science?) but I am positive I've seen a couple of mentions that the "+4" is correct but it should be "Culture" instead of science.

There is a yield screenshot that shows +4 Science from the Landmark. This seems counterintuitive, hence the question mark and the explanation in the text below it. I've never seen a Culture symbol on a tile yield graphic; I don't know whether this is a bug or intended, or if there's something else going on in that screenshot we don't know about.

 

[stealth_nsk]

As we know, in Gamescon demo users didn't found the SP switch. And, since many policies give one-time bonus, I don't see how the switch could be implemented logically.

Moreover, I'm pretty ok with it once I consider the SP as further specialization.

 

[AriochIV]

You wouldn't need a "Switch" button; there's already an "Adopt" button on every tree. If switching were allowed, it could be done by just clicking the "Adopt" button on the tree you wanted to switch to.

The anecdotal evidence seems to be that you can't switch, but we'll see.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I'm leaning towards saying we can't switch based on the universal complaining on this issue by reviewers that have chosen to comment. Only one source said that you can switch (with anarchy), but it's possible he didn't actually try this and just assumed based on older games.

Personally, a sizable amount of anarchy time (~10 turns) and requiring you to pay the continued escalated culture price should be sufficient to discourage switching without eliminating it (even with one time bonuses on different branches being taken advantage of).

 

[Jmyrm]

And, since many policies give one-time bonus, I don't see how the switch could be implemented logically.

interesting point....

 

[DeepQantas]

Paratroopers!

They can apparently paradrop for one movement point, once per turn, and up to 5 squares.

Note that there was only one paradrop per unit, both starting from friendly territory. That might be a requirement... or there could be some other restrictions to constant paradropping every turn.

Also, looking at the blue selection range line, it seems like the target drop zone needs to be visible (not in fog of war).

 

[12agnar0k]

If they have anarchy for changing to the opposite social policy, it must not include "no maintanence" which was dumb, lol.

But they dont really need it, you will be loosing bonuses by switching to an unstarted opposite tree anyway so I don't think it matters too much, Besides its going to be harder to fully upgrade a tree and then fully upgrade a second tree, so all this is very costly mean while you get no bonuses from the enitre tree you unlocked, I can't see how anyone will be wanting to switch reguarily, its not like Civ4 where switching would only ever lose you one bonus, and replacing it for another.