[NFP] August Update Video Thread

[UWHabs]

I will be a Sad Panda if Ancestral Hall production bonus for Settler starts applying to all Cities, not just the City where you build the AH.

I will be a happy Panda if the Gov Plaza gets aligned with the Diplo Quarter more.

I was hoping we might get a few new disasters this patch, particularly Earthquakes. Guess not.




That will be awesome. Or maybe terrible. I can’t work out which.

Maybe awesome. If you want Political Philosophy, you’ll work to trigger its Eureka, then make your way to that Civic if you can (might be far away, might not have revealed all the techs in between so you’re flying blind). But man, I get a lot of those Eurekas most games, so I may end up seeing most of the tech tree pretty early. But then, maybe that’s still cool, because you now don’t know what order to get those Eurekas in, so some of the less important Eurekas might become more important?

You could spend a lot of the game in Chiefdom. That’s weird. And some techs / civics are balanced around being early or leaf techs, eg Monarchy is a bit weaker because it comes early. So, tech and civics trees could be kinda wacky. Although, maybe that’s the point?

Yup. It’s totally going to be awesome. Or maybe terrible. No idea. Cool idea either way.

My guess is the goal will be to better balance them, to I can see additional bonuses on Audience Chamber and Foreign Ministry as the ones people probably avoid most.

Eurekas triggering the location is amazing, since that will give a big bonus to getting them early. Although man, not knowing where Polit Philosphy is early might just kill some games if you waste a ton of time down random trees. But overall, it's a neat innovation for sure, and will add some extra randomness. Even just small differences like maybe getting those 4 sewers to see where Democracy unlocks is a nice little bonus to want to get those eurekas early, especially for techs further down the road.

 

[Kupe Navigator]

I do hope they will fix bugs and stuff... ESPECIALLY FOR SWTICH ( AND YES I KNOW THAT BUTTON STUCK WILL BE FIXED BUT I MEAN OTHERS LIKE ROCKET LAUNCHING BUG AND NOBEL PRIZE BUG!)

Moderator Action: Please don't shout!! --NZ

 

[Leucarum]

I really like the updated tech trees. I can see that being my default mode of play. Likely to really shuffle up the early game, could make certain techs like celestial navigation more viable to nab earlyish if they end up in a more central position, opening up a lot of variability in the early game. And the eurekas revealing techs is a neat touch that lets experienced player still maintain control over which techs they idetify first.

I've been playing a lot of MP team games. Curious how it will work there... researching a tech reveals an eureka for all players on a team but eurekas won't usually be shared unless they're ones depending on shared vision. Dividing and conquering the tech/civivs trees might be more relevant.

The game he mentioned could also be Master of Orion 2 - one of the race options was to have a random tech instead of a tech you chose when you researched a branch of the tech tree.

 

[hhhhhh]

One thing about the Gov. Plaza is the useless +8 loyalty bonus. Maybe this is what make AI building it in a remote late game 2 population settlement. If that's removed and AI give Gov. Plaza and its buildings a higher priority then they may appear smarter.

 

[Equilin]

I guess the Shuffled Tech Tree mode is basically what they did to the Future Era Tech/Civic, but apply to the entire tree? So tiers will likely stay close to the original tree.

 

[Kaan Boztepe]

I love every option they give at the start screen , the more the merrier , city states and civs to be included excluded , keep them coming.
The discussion if AI can handle the new research tree is mood , since lets be honest why would the devs do that ? the AI has no fog of war or tech requirement to see strategic resources etc either so why should AI have one for techs?
I am curious if the wonder selector usage by players will give them an insight which wonders are crap and which wonders need to be reworked or is that too much wichful thinking that they would keep rebalancing that much?

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Alpha Centauri has Blind Research option. Don't know if that's the game he's referring to.

I almost guarantee it is.

SMAC even calls it "Blind Research" like he called i in the video. I always played SMAC with it because it felt more natural--though I wonder if it will feel weird with real life technology instead of with futuristic technobabble ones.

 

[darkace77450]

Hmm, tweaks to Government Plaza effects. Wonder what those will be?

They need to give T2 buildings a hard look. As is, the Intelligence Agency is amazing and the Foreign Ministry is, barring a few niche cases like Hungary, pretty lackluster.

 

[Myomoto]

Random techs/civics with the eureka/inspiration revealing them on the tree might very well become my default mode of play.

 

[Zaarin]

I can't see myself using the shuffled tech tree--I want a more historical tech tree, not a random one--but I certainly appreciate the wonder picker. Well, thanks for everything, Bermuda Triangle. It's been a real slice. (Also, for those requesting Civ/City-State ban lists, YnAEMP has that. Just FYI.)

 

[Inhalaattori]

I assume I will play most of my games with random Tech and Civic trees. Very nice to see this added.

 

[darkace77450]

Me thinks the Natural Wonders was a test for it, and we will see it implemented for Civs and City States eventually.

It would be nice to have it for city-states. Not that I want to overload the map with scientific city-states or anything, I just want to ensure there are at least one of every type of CS when I play.

One thing about the Gov. Plaza is the useless +8 loyalty bonus. Maybe this is what make AI building it in a remote late game 2 population settlement. If that's removed and AI give Gov. Plaza and its buildings a higher priority then they may appear smarter.

That loyalty would be very useful if the Government Plaza was a colonial district (a district intended to be built in colonies far from your empire). But mechanically and thematically, it isn't a colonial district. It's something you want to build as early as possible in one of your empires core cities so you can take advantage of the T1 buildings and governor titles.

 

[bengalryan9]

Shuffle mode sounds neat, but it's going to cripple the impact of certain UUs. On the other hand, it may give some others a chance to shine.

One thing about the Gov. Plaza is the useless +8 loyalty bonus. Maybe this is what make AI building it in a remote late game 2 population settlement. If that's removed and AI give Gov. Plaza and its buildings a higher priority then they may appear smarter.

I've gotten use out of that loyalty bonus before when aggressively forward settling. Quite a few times, actually.

 

[topsecret]

I've gotten use out of that loyalty bonus before when aggressively forward settling. Quite a few times, actually.

I do the same thing.

One time I even used the AI's propensity to use it in border cities. You can siphon off their adjacency bonus. They made the mistake of building it in an exposed tile, so I quickly bought as many tiles around it as possible and got adjacency bonus on their government plaza.

 

[Nikolai II]

Anyone know what old 4x game had a 'blind research' mode that Anton was playing?

Only the best Civ game ever; SMAC/X.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Only the best Civ game ever; SMAC/X.

Though thinking about it more, SMAC worked in a slightly different way (if I recall correctly, it's been a while). You basically didn't know what science would get next until you got a "breakthrough." You could pick what avenue of tech you wanted to find out about but you could not specify what tech exactly. Which added to the mystery of the game and is also kind of how real life science works. There's no real life beelining a tech "tree" but rather you learn what you learn.

 

[Nikolai II]

Though thinking about it more, SMAC worked in a slightly different way (if I recall correctly, it's been a while). You basically didn't know what science would get next until you got a "breakthrough." You could pick what avenue of tech you wanted to find out about but you could not specify what tech exactly. Which added to the mystery of the game and is also kind of how real life science works. There's no real life beelining a tech "tree" but rather you learn what you learn.

That is indeed correct. I'd rather have that than this, but I guess it was too hard within the frame of the engine?

 

[ehecatzin]

for those of you who cried fowl at recent wounders... there you go!
I for one actually like new natural wonders and am glad that I won't have to reset 1000 times just to get Païtit to appear.
still it means goodbye to trashy Cliffs of Dover

Yeah I really don't like the wonders that have fantasy elements when there's so much to choose from real life..I'm taking out Fountain on youth and Bermuda triangle.

Tho it would be a nice oportunity to rework some of the less interesting wonders *cofCliffsOfDovercof*

 

[Xandinho]

I really liked the shuffled tech/civc tree, at least the game progression over the ages will be less monotonous. The wonder picker is cool as well, apparently they heard people's complaints about those fantasy wonders.

 

[ehecatzin]

One thing about the Gov. Plaza is the useless +8 loyalty bonus. Maybe this is what make AI building it in a remote late game 2 population settlement. If that's removed and AI give Gov. Plaza and its buildings a higher priority then they may appear smarter.

Yeah seeing the AI build the gov. plaza as a frontier outpost is so dumb...happens everytime, it further shows that the game could really use a Castle/Citadel improvement for this purpose exactly.