sTAPler27
Prince
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2018
- Messages
- 429
I was rewatching the Exploration age live stream and it reminded me just how despite there being a whole transitionary phase between ages that the actual change happens instantaneously. Like wars just abruptly end which feels odd and while I get that with a regieme change current wars might end but since EVERY regieme ends on the exact same turn in this game it feels like naratively the game is trying to have the civ switch mechanic represent the gradual evolution of culture and not a sudden takeover which the abruptness of the change the gameplay more closely represents. I hope that in thismini essay I can point out some of the ages in the system and provide tweaks to make them feel a lot more seemless while fitting into the narrative of evolution the game seems to want to tell.
----- Differentiating the Crises Between Continents -----
It feels quite odd that both continents face the same crisis at the same time despite the game trying to portray them as being completley isolated up to this point. Why separate these two continents if they're going to be treated as more or less carbon copies of one another with exception of shape, resources and civs when their. It feels less like a representation of the differences in evolution between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas in our workd and more like you played two games of tick tack toe and then just combined them after a couple of terms. The crises must occur in both continents to utilize the civ switch mechanic but ultimately they should also reflect the differences in circumstances in the continent. In our own world for instance Rome collapsed due to its expansion and militarism coming back to haunt them while for the Mayans it happened 400 years later, likely due to enviornmental decay due to unsustainable living methods.
This will make the "crisis into a switch" mechanic feel less like a mechanic and more like a proper narrative elements. Along with that the potential for differences in crises to add yet another layer of uniqueness between the two worlds. Maybe once you discover the other continent you can take advantage of the instability caused by their crises while your continent faired well against theres. Maybe your continent was more militarized so it put up nicely with a barbarian invasion while the arid landscape of the other made it difficult for them to remain healthy during a plague.
----- A Transition WIndow Instead of an Abrupt End ------
If the game must have a mandatory switch point it should still have it so the palyers that are ready to move on early can do so within a window while others can stay in it until the very end of the crises. Make it so those that overstay their time in the age, when forced into the next one, recieve some kind of temporary penalty with a mini crises ontop of the one they came from. It would represent how while others transitioned over time to evolve with the challenges they faced this nation by comparison tried to cling to a dying way of life and had to be thrust into the new age by something like a Revolt or Coup. Potential downsides would be a settlement or two breaks away, angry citizens pop up as military units to be put down, or you temporarily lose access to certain traditions as the new regieme tries to distance itself from the old one.
Meanwhile those that embrace the change earlier will be met with a more smoothe transition while still having to deal with the crises like everyone else, with their civ swap representing a less abrupt evolution of their culture.
----- Soften the Caps for what is and Isn't Allowed in an Age -----
While I comend the devs in using the age system to prevent snowballing I do think that there are too many hard caps on what a player can and can't do, as well as what abruptly stops as the age switches completely.
Tech and Civics should not be capped by age. This is an issue I had with Humankind's system where you couldn't research techs from the next era unless you were a scientific civ. If Civs simply represent a culture there should be no reason why the Mayans couldn't research Astronomy, I mean they did it in our real world. I think the mastery system was a good way to work around feeling capped but ultimately it should still be possible, even if at a penalty to research techs beyond your age. I mean whats the point of gatekeeping these later techs if you're just going to give away all the last era techs and civics in a single turn when the age transitions anyways?
Another hard cap comes in the way of navigation. One of the ways I keep my naval units busy in the early ages of Civ 6 is by looking for a hidden costal route to the other side of the world. I'm less mad about this change because the ability isn't granted to you it requires a tech, and with the addition of seafaring vessels taking damage in rough waters there is still a need to find costal tiles when traversing the world. I feel like if they unlocked the techs from their ages and made it so each naval tech lessened the damage taken they could account for the unique explorers in our own universe that made the contiental voyages prior to the 15th century such as the Polynesians and Norsemen.
And when it comes to the battles I opened this with I feel like they should end for those that sluggishly remain in an era but for all other cases they should continue. While underperforming nations' militaries collapse as their regiemes do ones that are more gracefully transitioning could maybe take combat strength penalties to represent the fact they're restructuring but otherwise remain in the conflicts they're in.
----- Conclusion / TLDR -----
Overall the civ switch mechanic might be one of the greatest additions to the series so far but i'm worried that it might be smothered in its infancy if not executed right. Without alterations to how universal the crises feel, how abruptly the ages end, and how disjointed the ages of the game feel from one another I worry this game will feel too heavily scripted and like a series of disconnected games similar to Paradox's rather than a gradual transition of changes.
----- Differentiating the Crises Between Continents -----
It feels quite odd that both continents face the same crisis at the same time despite the game trying to portray them as being completley isolated up to this point. Why separate these two continents if they're going to be treated as more or less carbon copies of one another with exception of shape, resources and civs when their. It feels less like a representation of the differences in evolution between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas in our workd and more like you played two games of tick tack toe and then just combined them after a couple of terms. The crises must occur in both continents to utilize the civ switch mechanic but ultimately they should also reflect the differences in circumstances in the continent. In our own world for instance Rome collapsed due to its expansion and militarism coming back to haunt them while for the Mayans it happened 400 years later, likely due to enviornmental decay due to unsustainable living methods.
This will make the "crisis into a switch" mechanic feel less like a mechanic and more like a proper narrative elements. Along with that the potential for differences in crises to add yet another layer of uniqueness between the two worlds. Maybe once you discover the other continent you can take advantage of the instability caused by their crises while your continent faired well against theres. Maybe your continent was more militarized so it put up nicely with a barbarian invasion while the arid landscape of the other made it difficult for them to remain healthy during a plague.
----- A Transition WIndow Instead of an Abrupt End ------
If the game must have a mandatory switch point it should still have it so the palyers that are ready to move on early can do so within a window while others can stay in it until the very end of the crises. Make it so those that overstay their time in the age, when forced into the next one, recieve some kind of temporary penalty with a mini crises ontop of the one they came from. It would represent how while others transitioned over time to evolve with the challenges they faced this nation by comparison tried to cling to a dying way of life and had to be thrust into the new age by something like a Revolt or Coup. Potential downsides would be a settlement or two breaks away, angry citizens pop up as military units to be put down, or you temporarily lose access to certain traditions as the new regieme tries to distance itself from the old one.
Meanwhile those that embrace the change earlier will be met with a more smoothe transition while still having to deal with the crises like everyone else, with their civ swap representing a less abrupt evolution of their culture.
----- Soften the Caps for what is and Isn't Allowed in an Age -----
While I comend the devs in using the age system to prevent snowballing I do think that there are too many hard caps on what a player can and can't do, as well as what abruptly stops as the age switches completely.
Tech and Civics should not be capped by age. This is an issue I had with Humankind's system where you couldn't research techs from the next era unless you were a scientific civ. If Civs simply represent a culture there should be no reason why the Mayans couldn't research Astronomy, I mean they did it in our real world. I think the mastery system was a good way to work around feeling capped but ultimately it should still be possible, even if at a penalty to research techs beyond your age. I mean whats the point of gatekeeping these later techs if you're just going to give away all the last era techs and civics in a single turn when the age transitions anyways?
Another hard cap comes in the way of navigation. One of the ways I keep my naval units busy in the early ages of Civ 6 is by looking for a hidden costal route to the other side of the world. I'm less mad about this change because the ability isn't granted to you it requires a tech, and with the addition of seafaring vessels taking damage in rough waters there is still a need to find costal tiles when traversing the world. I feel like if they unlocked the techs from their ages and made it so each naval tech lessened the damage taken they could account for the unique explorers in our own universe that made the contiental voyages prior to the 15th century such as the Polynesians and Norsemen.
And when it comes to the battles I opened this with I feel like they should end for those that sluggishly remain in an era but for all other cases they should continue. While underperforming nations' militaries collapse as their regiemes do ones that are more gracefully transitioning could maybe take combat strength penalties to represent the fact they're restructuring but otherwise remain in the conflicts they're in.
----- Conclusion / TLDR -----
Overall the civ switch mechanic might be one of the greatest additions to the series so far but i'm worried that it might be smothered in its infancy if not executed right. Without alterations to how universal the crises feel, how abruptly the ages end, and how disjointed the ages of the game feel from one another I worry this game will feel too heavily scripted and like a series of disconnected games similar to Paradox's rather than a gradual transition of changes.