Best BNW Addition

[ahawk]

What is your favorite BNW addition?

(apologies if this thread was already started; I looked, and didn't see it if it was).

 

[Bagi]

World congress and the diplomacy around it for sure.

Also trade routes and the focus on ideologies are excellent additions.

 

[I_qua_I]

I chose the "something not listed here" option. My favorite thing so far has been the removal of gold from the base yield of land and water tiles.

(The runner up is how barbarians have changed. It really helped Honor become relevant.)

 

[StrideColossus]

Culture victory.

Beforehand it was a tedious click-the-next-button slog to pump out the last few SPs and then Utopia.

Although I've yet to get a cultural victory win on BNW it seems to be a much more interesting victory condition to aim for:

- you're not so limited in the number of cities you can build since it's less about SPs now.

- it's somewhat more aligned with the other conditions so if you realise you need to switch it's much more viable, previously it was pretty much all or nothing once you'd committed to culture.

- the new great people and artifacts also adds more interest to the later eras.

All in all I think BNW is a great expansion, the game feels better balanced and there's much more to do in later eras.

 

[Princeofnigeria]

I clicked competative wonders, as it adds a racing element/ internal strategic debate (how many cities could I divert without falling behind?), both of wich I enjoy. However in retrospext I wish I had hit other for "Sound track". Is there any way I could change that?

 

[oddtail]

I went with Trade Routes. I don't think it's the most exciting and innovative change, but it's by far the best-implemented. This little tweak changes the way the game is played completely. It works, it's an organic part of the game now. I didn't think I'd like it so much (I thought it'd be pretty cool, but nothing special, mostly gimmicky), but now I LOVE it.

It involves meaningful choices and makes the game much less "amass as much of... stuff as you need". When religion was added, I felt the same way. The choice when to generate Faith, what beliefs to choose and why, whether to spread or gather up Faith was really involved and very complex. I've played vastly different religious games. I feel Trade Routes are similar now. You can do so much with them, especially thanks to the internal Trade Routes.

All in all, a very good, new game mechanism.

Other changes, while having a lot of potential, are not as seamlessly and elegantly added. The best example would be Tourism not doing much until Industrial Era.

 

[killmeplease]

i like archaeology

 

[kingofsealand]

I agree the trade routes feel most natural to this and are one of the best features. I also think the ideologies branch is cool except a few useless policies. Especially since a dominant ideology in a happy empire can cause other empires with different ideologies to abandon theirs and switch, that's actually pretty realistic.

 

[ahawk]

I'm not surprised there are few votes for new wonders... most of the new wonders were added to make a cultural victory overhaul.

 

[tedoll78]

I love toying with the other civilizations through World Congress measures. So much fun to wheel and deal, to convince others to vote for unpopular proposals, etc.

 

[Buccaneer]

Of the mechanics, I think I like WC the least. Three times I had to make proposals that were safe because I wasn't in position to dictate otherwise. I am liking trade a lot, good risk/reward. Great works are fun to play with. The changes to the policy trees are awesome and that's what I would vote for. They always do a good job with new civs, that's a given. Now if they could substantially reduce the amount of DoF between everyone...

 

[atahop]

I have voted for the culture victory changes, because I think that the great works/archaeology system is the best thing since sliced bread! It is flavorful, strategic, fun, and plays well into current mechanics, with a few changes(different icons for archaeology and art, better hidden sites, and greater diversity between artist) would make this the perfect system

 

[JustinianIV]

Ideologies! Why isn't this on the list?

Having a cold-war progression in the late game puts hairs on my chest.

 

[ahawk]

Ideologies! Why isn't this on the list?

Having a cold-war progression in the late game puts hairs on my chest.

I debated putting ideologies on the list.

On the one hand, they were overhauled from G&K (G&K technically had diplo hits already based on Order, Freedom, and Autocracy) in a noticeable enough way to warrant possible inclusion on the list. They now also produce unhappiness and can cause city flipping, which are interesting changes.

On the other hand, the changes to ideology are really just three tweaks, two of which are somewhat minor:
1) a couple of policies were added per ideology
2) unhappiness was added
while the third is more major
3) city-flipping depending on pressure and extreme unhappiness

Compared to the other additions, I thought ideologies were fairly minor. The SP trees are also fairly minor changes, given that most of the changes were just moving around existing policies and dividing them up better according to purpose.

That said, I could have made the list longer I guess, but these just seemed like the most major additions to the game. But I understand the point you make.

 

[IkM]

Trade-Routes.

 

[DeutschDachs]

The civs. Idk always the most exciting part of an expansion to me is trying all of the new unique abilities and such out. Close second is cultural victory. Way more engaging than it used to be

 

[leadtothehead]

I like the trade routes and revamped economic game, it both limits the huge sprawling early empires and also adds both some difficulty for warmongering and reward by the pillaging trade route mechanic.

 

[Timothy001]

I voted for The new culture. It vastly improves the game. It makes switching victory paths easy, and can really play with other Civs. In my last game, rammed thru Order as the World Ideology, Theodora changed right away, while Attilia suffered from major unhappiness.

 

[neev]

All of them, really. Now I wish they also added some balance in...

edit : and a decent AI.

 

[Buccaneer]

I was disappointed to finally seeing the poll, some major changes not listed including the Policies changes (which are not limited or could have little to do with cultural victories).